South Bend, Ind., Jul 24, 2015 / 04:57 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Most Americans have a favorable view of Pope Francis, but an apparent decline in their numbers may be due to his implicit challenge to American culture, one observer has said. “Americans never react well when an international leader criticizes their culture,” Dr. Kathleen Cummings, a University of Notre Dame professor of American Studies, told CNA July 24. “Given that Pope Francis has done so implicitly in his recent remarks and writings, it is not surprising to see that his approval ratings have declined in the United States.” A Gallup survey of U.S. adults in early July found that 59 percent had a favorable view of Pope Francis. This is a 17 percent decline from February 2014, when 76 percent of Gallup respondents said they had a favorable view of the Pope. The latest figure resembles poll results in April 2013, a month after the Pope’s election, when 58 percent of Gallup respondents said they had a favorable opinion of Francis. The favorability of Catholics in the U.S. toward the Pope has also declined. In February 2014, about 89 percent of self-identified Catholics told Gallup they had a favorable view of Pope Francis. In July 2015, this figure dropped to 71 percent, a drop of 18 percent. About half of non-Catholic Christians now say they have a favorable view of Francis, compared to 73 percent in 2014. The percentage of self-identified conservatives who reported favorable views of Pope Francis dropped from 72 percent in 2014 to 45 percent in 2015. The percentage of liberals reporting favorable views dropped from 82 percent to 68 percent, while moderates dropped from 79 to 71 percent. The Pope’s overall unfavorable rating is only about 16 percent, a slight rise from nine percent in 2014, and 10 percent in 2013. About 25 percent of all July 2015 respondents said they had never heard of Pope Francis or had no opinion of him, compared to 16 percent in 2014. The July Gallup poll came soon after the release of Pope Francis’ encyclical on care for our common home, Laudato Si'. The lengthy work spoke of the need to care for God’s creation. It also backed several remedies for what the Pope characterized as an environmental crisis. He said there was a “very solid” consensus on climactic warming. “Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it,” the Pope wrote. Cummings, who directs the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, said Pope Francis is like previous Popes in “calling upon U.S. Catholics … to live their faith in ways that run counter to the national culture.” “The difference is that he has highlighted issues that tend to challenge those who identify as conservatives, which explains the steeper decline among their approval ratings,” she said. The Gallup telephone survey of 1,009 U.S. adults took place July 8-12. It claims a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points. Benedict XVI’s favorability peaked in 2008 at 63 percent, but had dropped to 40 percent in 2010, according to Gallup’s surveys. Pope John Paul II’s favorability peaked at 86 percent in 1998, and never dropped lower than 61 percent. Read more

Washington D.C., Jul 24, 2015 / 04:47 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Owners of a pharmacy in Washington state must provide the morning-after contraceptive pill against their religious beliefs after a federal appeals court upheld a state mandate that they do so. “Today’s decision is unfortunate,” stated Luke Goodrich, deputy general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, on Thursday. “The government has no business punishing citizens solely because of their religious beliefs.” At issue is a 2005 state law that mandates pharmacies provide the morning-after and week-after contraceptive pills to customers even if they religiously object to doing so. Individual employees may recuse themselves from filling such prescriptions if they have a religious objection, but another employee must be present to fill the prescription. Pharmacies cannot simply refuse to fill the prescriptions while referring customers to other pharmacies that can do so, as the plaintiffs, owners of Ralph’s Thriftway store, had reportedly done in the past. The Storman family owns the pharmacy and religiously objects to providing the morning-after and week-after pills, believing that they can induce early abortions. Goodrich argued that the state regulations are unmatched in the burden they lay upon businesses. No state other than Washington makes such a requirement of pharmacies, he said. The Stormans initially won at the federal district court level in 2012 after a 12-day trial featuring around 800 exhibits and testimonies from persons responsible for drafting and enforcing the law. The district court found that the law violated the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion and discriminated against religiously-owned and operated businesses by carving out certain other protections for pharmacies that were not explicitly religious. For instance, pharmacies did not have to obey the mandate if a patient could not pay for the prescription or if they filled out a fraudulent prescription note. Yet a similar mandate did not apply for those who expressed religious opposition. The state, along with Planned Parenthood, appealed the case to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In its decision, the appeals court ruled that the law did not violate the First Amendment's protection of the free exercise of religion. The law is “neutral” and “generally applicable” – it doesn’t specifically target the practice of religion – so citizens must obey it regardless of their religious beliefs, the court said, adding that it fulfilled a compelling government interest of ensuring that everyone has access to contraception. In a similar case last year, the family-run craft chain Hobby Lobby won its argument against the federal contraception mandate at the Supreme Court. In that decision, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., the Court ruled that a closely-held for-profit business like Hobby Lobby did not have to obey the federal mandate that it pay for coverage of abortion-inducing drugs in its employee health plans, because the government had failed to prove the mandate was the “least restrictive means” of fulfilling the “compelling government interest” of contraception coverage for women. Hobby Lobby invoked the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal law that says the government cannot “substantially burden” someone’s free exercise of religion unless its meets certain criteria for doing so. The government must show that its action is in the “compelling government interest” and is the “least restrictive means” of fulfilling that interest. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, however, does not apply to state laws and regulations. And Washington has no state law that offers such protections for businesses, so the pharmacy owners had to argue their case on the merits of the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion and their constitutional right to due process “Because the rules do not infringe a fundamental right, they need only be ‘rationally related to legitimate government interests,’” the court concluded, adding that “the rules meet that test.” The plaintiffs did not establish their belief that the morning- and week-after contraceptives can induce abortions, and that their religious liberty interest in the case is a “fundamental right,” the court said. “On balance, however, we are unconvinced that the right to own, operate, or work at a licensed professional business free from regulations requiring the business to engage in activities that one sincerely believes leads to the taking of human life is ‘so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental,’” the court said citing the Supreme Court case Snyder v. Massachusetts.   Read more

Lafayette, La., Jul 24, 2015 / 10:15 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics in Louisiana are stunned by Thursday's deadly mass shooting at a Lafayette movie theater and are praying for those affected, the local bishop has said. “We are all shocked and saddened by this tragedy,” Bishop Michael Jarrell of Lafayette said July 23. “We pray that everyone affected by this horror may feel the comforting presence of our Lord Jesus surrounding them during this difficult time.” “Lafayette is a place of great faith,” Bishop Jarrell continued. “We ask all the Catholic faithful and, indeed, all people of good will throughout Acadiana to stop, and offer sincere and thoughtful prayer for those who have died, the wounded, their families as well as the perpetrator of this evil act.” A gunman shot at least 11 people, killing two, before he killed himself at The Grand Theatre in Lafayette Thursday night. Police identified the shooter as John Russel Houser, 59. Officials said he was a “drifter” from Alabama who was staying at a nearby motel. Police said his motives were unclear. He appeared to have acted alone and he apparently did not know the victims, the BBC reports. He may have intended to flee instead of killing himself, but the police response forced him back into the theater. Bishop Jarrell voiced thanks for the efforts of law enforcement, paramedics, and first responders. “Our priests and deacons stand ready to pray with any of the wounded and family members impacted by this senseless tragedy,” he said. The bishop voiced Catholics’ commitment to “promoting a society that respects the dignity of every human life.” Fellow U.S. bishops have chimed in on Twitter with messages of solidarity for the people of Lafayette. Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth tweeted, “Praying tonight for the victims and families of the theater shooting in Lafayette, LA. Violence cheapens appreciation for life as a gift.” And Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis posted an image of the Fleur-de-lis, a historic Louisiana symbol, under the hashtag “#PrayForLafayette”. Read more

Omaha, Neb., Jul 24, 2015 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With the hope of providing authentic and ethical health care for women, Dr. Thomas Hilgers, creator of Natural Procreative Technology, has worked for decades to establish a medical network that studies, understands, and treats the female fertility cycle. Assisted by his wife, Sue, and two nurses, K. Diane Daly and Ann Prebil, this group has been working together since 1976.   “What we’ve developed, in effect, is a professional delivery system for Catholic reproductive health services, which not only involves family planning services, but also the whole variety of women’s health issues. This has all come out of our research in the last 39 years,” Hilgers told CNA. A medical student when Bl. Paul VI published Humanae vitae, his 1968 encyclical on the regulation of birth, Hilgers “felt really called to” the issues he read about in the document. He then went on to complete his first research project in natural methods of parental planning, after which he received training in obstetrics and gynecology. Together with his colleagues he developed NaPro (Natural Procreative) Technology. In Omaha in 1985 they founded the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction, and in 1999 formally created the Creighton Model FertilityCare System. NaPro Technology has successfully been used to help women better understand their bodies’ natural fertility, to achieve or avoid pregnancy, and to find solutions to a variety of health problems. Hilgers and his colleagues considered it important to differentiate themselves from natural family planning, feeling that term was “too … limiting,” Sue Hilgers said. With the help of a marketing specialist, they developed the term “fertility care,” emphasizing that their model is intended not only to space births, but to truly and broadly manage a woman’s gynecological health long-term. “For millennia, women had not understood their menstrual and fertility cycle,” Sue Hilgers said. “For the first time ever, the mystery of the menstrual cycle has been removed. Through the research of Dr Hilgers in the menstrual and fertility cycles, we now have answers to questions that had plagued women for centuries; but beyond that, we have treatments to give hope and healing to women no matter their age, their reproductive category, nor their gynecological or obstetrical problem.”   Women using the model chart their cycles daily to indicate fertile and infertile days and to monitor their health. Physicians can examine the charts to find unusual patterns, and thus conduct appropriate tests for a diagnosis.   'Fertility care' invites all women, whether married or celibate, to know how their bodies function and thereby receive adequate health care based on their personalized observations and assessments. Hilgers saw the preponderance of artificial birth control as a band-aid solution to such health problems as severe menstrual pain and abnormal bleeding – “ they've changed away from looking at the underlying problems.” “In a way, it’s set us back in women’s health care,” Hilgers says. “Politicians … talk about this war on women, and it’s a way of deflecting away from what actually has been going on. The real war on women is all this contraception, abortion, sterilization … and it’s not to say that there weren’t some real problems there when all this started but we haven’t solved any of them. They’re all symptomatic, and they’re all band-aid approaches.” Many physicians have “antagonism” and “close-mindedness” toward anything that is not artificial, Sue Hilgers said.   Through the work of the Pope Paul VI Institute, several women’s health issues now have more safe, reliable, and effective resolutions. According to Dr. Hilgers, the team has discovered ways to prevent pelvic adhesions during surgery; they have identified various ovulation abnormalities through ultrasounds; and they have correlated the type of mucous cycles women have to particular fertility problems. According to Dr. Hilgers, about 9.5 million women in the U.S. have fertility issues, and of those women, fewer than 0.5% become pregnant. Many couples are turned off by IVF because “it’s a very expensive methodology” and “it’s highly abortive,” Dr. Hilgers stated. In vitro fertilization requires multiple eggs to be fertilized; many women who only want one or two children must make a choice to either freeze the leftover embryos, or have them destroyed. There are “maybe 80,000 women who get served by the IVF industry” he said. “Well, 80,000 out of 9.5 million is pretty small.”    “When we see the publicity image of it … it’s like [IVF] is the only treatment there is for infertility. But at NaPro Technology we take an approach which looks at the underlying causes, or the root causes, of the infertility problem.”    While artificial fertilization or contraception glosses over underlying problems, the Pope Paul VI Institute aims to find the causes of infertility or abnormal menstrual occurrences. While not every couple suffering with infertility will become pregnant, women leave with healthier bodies and more knowledge of their complex nature. Patients come and are “so happy, because they learn about how their bodies work,” Daly told CNA. “The men are in awe of how their wives’ bodies really function,” she continued. “And then they’re empowered – once they really know how things are normal, how things regularly are, then it can empower them to be a partner in health and they can take that to their physician and say, my chart is showing this and this, and I would like you to help diagnose that and treat what you can.” Prebil said that “one of the things very early on we realized, was that it was very important to develop good communication between the couple, that they would learn to communicate about things that maybe they weren’t communicating about before.” The goal was not simply to teach women and couples how to chart and to recognize infertile or fertile days, but to be a “witness to them on how to communicate,” and how to “share all levels of sexuality,” Prebil continued. Sue Hilgers said that “we’ve really field tested these teachings now for almost 40 years, and we’re here to say that the teachings are on target, they work and they bring so much hope and healing and reflect the Church’s  true love and compassion for women, couples and families.”    Daly added, “We’re just going to keep on working as long as we can to serve God and his kingdom and bring this message … to all people because everybody has a right to this information – everybody deserves this.” Read more

Madison, Wis., Jul 24, 2015 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The state of Wisconsin has now banned abortions 20 weeks into pregnancy, on the grounds that unborn children feel pain, joining more than a dozen states with similar laws. “Today is a great day for unborn babies in the state of Wisconsin,” Heather Weininger, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life, said July 20. She said the bill authors and other supporters recognized the state’s compelling interest in protecting unborn babies “at the point when they can feel excruciating pain from abortion.” The bill passed the state Senate by a vote of 19-14, and the Assembly by a vote of 61-34, in an extraordinary session of the legislature. Gov. Scott Walker, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, spoke with reporters after he signed the bill on Monday. “For people, regardless of where they might stand – when an unborn child can feel pain, I think most people feel it's appropriate to protect that child,” he said. During his 2014 re-election campaign the governor would not say whether he supported the ban. He voiced his support for the bill in March. The bill bars abortion 20 weeks or more after fertilization except in case of a medical emergency. “Under the bill, no person can perform or induce an abortion when the unborn child is considered to be capable of experiencing pain,” the governor’s office said. Those who perform an illegal abortion can face a felony charge punishable by up to three and a half years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Doctors can also be sued for damages. Fourteen other U.S. states have similar restrictions on abortion, though several laws are facing legal challenges, the Associated Press reports. The Wisconsin bill was opposed by abortion providers and pro-abortion advocacy groups, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which contends that the unborn child cannot feel pain until 27 weeks into pregnancy. Read more

Washington D.C., Jul 23, 2015 / 05:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics in Washington, D.C. are hoping a new charity pledge will go viral like last year’s “Ice Bucket Challenge,” but there’s a new twist – this pledge is for Pope Francis. “The 'Walk with Francis' Pledge offers people the opportunity to demonstrate solidarity with the Holy Father and answer his call to bring Christ's love, mercy and hope to others, especially those on the margins of society,” Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. said on Wednesday. “The goal is to allow everyone in this community to enter into a physical, tangible way of helping others so that we can offer that as our gift to the Pope,” he said at the opening press conference for the campaign. The pledge is open to anyone who wants to express solidarity with Pope Francis through acts of charity before he comes to visit Washington, D.C. in late September. Participants can pledge to give money to charity, pray more, perform acts of service, or promote Church teaching in the public square on a number of issues like respect for human life or immigration. They announce their pledge on social media using the hashtag #WalkwithFrancis and challenge someone else to take the pledge. Pledges can vary from person to person – it’s “simple,” “flexible,” and “measurable,” Monsignor John Enzler, head of Catholic Charities, D.C. who organized the pledge, told CNA. The organization is partnering with the Archdiocese of Washington for the campaign. And the campaign is already taking off in D.C. Pledge-takers include 2012 Olympic gold medalist swimmer Katie Ledecky, who promised to assist various charitable groups; George Washington University men’s basketball coach Mike Lonergan, who pledged to attend daily Mass more often; and Washington Nationals pitcher Craig Stammen, who promised to memorize Matthew chapter 5. Msgr. Enzler hopes to get businesses involved to help the needy. Perhaps law firms could pledge to offer free legal advice to the poor who need it, or food chains could donate food or gift certificates to the homeless, he said. Even the city’s public transit system WMATA could donate day passes to the needy. He acknowledged that the campaign resembles the ALS Association’s 2014 “Ice Bucket Challenge,” where participants doused themselves in ice water and challenged others to follow suit or give money to the association for research. That viral challenge ultimately raised $115 million. Now, Msgr. Enzler hopes that the power of social media will make “Walk with Francis” go viral and that other dioceses will participate. While the results may be more donations to charity, the pledge is about more than philanthropy, he explained. The idea is for people to make concrete expressions of solidarity with Pope Francis so that when he arrives in September, he will see that Americans have been carrying out his message of prayer and service. “I can't think of a better gift for his Holiness,” Msgr. Enzler said. The monsignor himself has pledged to spend a night with the homeless. Tim Brant, a long-time national sportscaster, took the pledge alongside Cardinal Wuerl outside of Catholic Charities, D.C. He pledged to pray for Francis and read the Bible every day with others, especially his family. “First and foremost, I’m going to get my family as involved as we possibly can,” he told CNA. “I’m going to make sure that their spiritual lives are in order.” “I’m going to try to challenge the rest of my extended family and friends as well to get back into Church and that’ll be a challenge,” he continued. “You keep hearing these reports on television about the waning of Christianity and the churchgoers on Sunday are way down in this country,” he admitted. “This is a tough world right now. And when you read the paper or see the news every night, it’s really depressing what’s taking place in our country, in the world.” “I think a lot of people are depressed, and if they can just have something to reach to or look to that’s a little bit bigger than them – I think that’s why I want to walk with Francis, because he’s bigger than us. Like Pope Paul was, he had his arms open. And I think that’s going to be a great motivation for so many of us in this country throughout the world.”   Read more

Washington D.C., Jul 23, 2015 / 10:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After a federal appeals court ruled that the Little Sisters of the Poor must obey the federal contraception mandate, the sisters have announced that they are appealing to the Supreme Court. ... Read more

Washington D.C., Jul 23, 2015 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The random killing of a 32 year-old California woman has reignited an intense debate about immigration reform, after the suspect was identified as an illegal immigrant with a felony record. ... Read more