Orange, Calif., Oct 6, 2017 / 10:25 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Father Thanh Thai Nguyen, a priest of the Diocese of St. Augustine and a native of Vietnam, was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Orange on Friday. “I thank God for giving me the gift of life, protecting me in my faith journey especially from Vietnam to the Philippines to the United States, gracing me with the gift of priesthood and leading me to you, your new auxiliary bishop,” Nguyen said Oct. 6 in Orange, Calif. Nguyen was born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 1953, the second eldest of a family of 11 children. At the age of 13, he entered the St. Joseph Congregation in Nha Trang, and took his first vows in 1974. He studied at St. Joseph Seminary and Da Lat University. When the communist North Vietnamese consolidated control of South Vietnam in 1975, they abolished the St. Joseph Congregation. Nguyen and his family fled Vietnam by boat in 1979. “It was a small boat – six feet wide and 28 feet long for 26 people,” Nguyen explained. It took them 18 days to reach the Philippines. “We experienced hunger and thirst, With God's grace, it rained three times, and each time we had enough water for one cup each. In the midst of this life struggle, we were faithful to morning and evening prayer – saying the rosary most of the time.” Nguyen and his family lived in a refugee camp for 18 months before moving to the US. He studied at Hartford State Technical College in Hartford, Conn., and taught for three years as a math and science teacher in public schools. In 1984 he joined the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, and studied at Merrimack College and the Weston School of Theology. He gave solemn vows in 1990, and was ordained a priest of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette the following year. He served as vicar at parishes in Georgia and Florida. In 1999 Nguyen was incardinated into the Diocese of St. Augustine. He served as a parochial vicar, and was named pastor of Christ the King parish in Jacksonville in 2001. “Through Father Nguyen's leadership and initiative, he brought harmony to the Vietnamese community by celebrating a Sunday Mass in Vietnamese and building a Vietnamese Center where cultural traditions among the youth and the elderly are preserved,” according to the St. Augustine diocese. Nguyen, 64, has been pastor of St. Joseph parish in Jacksonville since 2014. With 4,000 families, the parish is the largest in the diocese. “Father Thanh has not only promoted unity in the parish, but he has fostered more vocations to the priesthood and religious life than any other parish in the diocese,” said Bishop Felipe de Jesus Estévez of St. Augustine. Fr. Nguyen said, “I thank God for the gift of the priesthood. I love parish life and ministry. I've found it both challenging and rewarding,” adding that it is “an awesome responsibility to be Christ-like to the people entrusted to me as their spiritual leader.” “I find joy in the celebration of Mass. Joy in sharing the Word of Life and the Bread of Life. There is joy in my heart when I witness the love united in marriage, and in pouring saving waters on the heads of little ones. My joy is in conveying to sinners God's forgiveness and in praying with the dying as they prepare to meet their Lord and Savior.” After thanking God, Nguyen said, “I thank my parents who gave me life and passed the Catholic Faith on to me. When I was young, they were sure that I had a vocation to the priesthood. They were so happy to attend my ordination. May they rest in peace.” As auxiliary bishop in Orange, Nguyen will assist Bishop Kevin Vann alongside Bishop Timothy Freyer. He will lead the diocese's large Vietnamese community. Bishop Dominic Mai Luong, another auxiliary bishop of Orange and a fellow native of Vietnam, retired in 2015 when he reached the age of 75. Read more

Irondale, Ala., Oct 6, 2017 / 09:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The chairman of EWTN Global Catholic Network voiced optimism over an announcement by the Trump administration Friday broadening religious and moral exemptions to the HHS mandate. “For more than five years, the HHS contraception mandate has forced Americans to violate their deeply held moral and ethical principles, without regard for the Constitution's guarantee of religious liberty,” said Michael P. Warsaw, Chairman of the Board and CEO of EWTN, in an Oct. 6 statement.   “Together with our legal team, we are carefully considering the exemptions announced today and the impact this may have on our legal challenge to the mandate, but we are optimistic that this news will prove to be a step toward victory for the fundamental freedoms of many Americans.”   The federal contraception mandate, an Obama-era HHS rule, requires employers’ health plans to include coverage of sterilization and contraception, including some drugs that can cause abortion. The initial rule’s religious exemption was so narrow it only exempted houses of worship, drawing widespread objections and lawsuits from more than 300 plaintiffs. EWTN Global Catholic Network filed a lawsuit challenging the mandate in February 2012. Subsequent revisions allowed some changes to the mandate for some religious entities. However, groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor objected that the rule still required their complicity in providing such coverage, which violates their religious and moral standards. Refusal to comply with the rule would result in heavy – potentially crippling – fines. The HHS interim final rule announced on Friday adds broad religious and moral exemptions to the mandate. The original rule is still in place, but now non-profits and for-profit employers that are closely-held – and even some publicly-traded for-profits – will be exempt from the mandate, if they can demonstrate a religiously-based objection to the mandate’s demands. Non-profit groups and for-profit businesses that are not publicly-traded can also apply for an exemption to the mandate based on moral, but not religious, objections to it. However, publicly-traded for-profit businesses cannot receive a moral exemption from the mandate. An example of or a moral objection could be the secular crisis pregnancy center Real Alternatives, Inc., which has no religious affiliation, but which objected to the mandate. Real Alternatives lost a suit against the mandate at the Third Circuit Court in August, which ruled that their pro-life mission did not merit a religious exemption from the mandate. Regarding the “accommodation” offered to non-profits by the Obama administration, that process is now voluntary. Non-profits can still have their insurer or third party administrator offer the coverage for sterilizations, contraceptives, and drugs that can cause abortions, but they do not have to do so under law. As EWTN’s legal team examines the impact of today’s announcement on its pending lawsuit, Warsaw called for prayers for religious freedom to be respected across the country and around the globe. “I invite Catholics, and all people of faith, to join me in continued prayer for our nation, for its leaders, and for the protection of liberty in the United States, and around the world,” he said. EWTN was founded launched in 1981 by Mother Angelica of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. The largest religious media network in the world, it reaches more than 268 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories. In addition to 11 television channels in multiple languages, EWTN platforms include radio services through shortwave and satellite radio, SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 500 AM and FM affiliates. EWTN publishes the National Catholic Register, operates a religious goods catalogue, and in 2015 formed EWTN Publishing in a joint venture with Sophia Institute Press. Catholic News Agency is also part of the EWTN family.   Read more

Washington D.C., Oct 6, 2017 / 09:46 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a set of memos issued Friday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions outlined principles of religious freedom that federal agencies and departments are to incorporate into their work. “Our freedom as citizens has always been inextricably linked with our religious freedom as a people,” Sessions said in an Oct. 6 statement. “Every American has a right to believe, worship, and exercise their faith. The protections for this right, enshrined in our Constitution and laws, serve to declare and protect this important part of our heritage.” The memos were issued in response to an executive order signed by President Trump in May, declaring, “It shall be the policy of the executive branch to vigorously enforce Federal law's robust protections for religious freedom” and instructing the attorney general to “issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections in Federal law.” Friday’s memos do not resolve specific cases currently in the court system. However, they were issued on the same day that the administration announced changes to the federal contraception mandate, allowing broad religious and moral exemptions to the regulation. The first memo lists 20 principles of religious liberty that should govern all administrative agencies and executive departments in their work as employers, contract- and grant-makers, program administrators, rule-makers, and adjudicators. These principles recognize religious freedom as “an important, fundamental right,” expressly protected by the Constitution and by federal law. This freedom extends to both individuals and organizations, and it is not surrendered when Americans engage in the marketplace or interact with the government. Furthermore, the guidance says, religious freedom is more than the right to worship or believe privately. It includes “the right to perform or abstain from performing certain physical acts in accordance with one’s beliefs.” The document notes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which says that the federal government may not substantially burden the exercise of religious freedom, unless there is a compelling state interest in doing so, and it is carried out in the least-restrictive manner possible. This law “does not permit the federal government to second-guess the reasonableness of a sincerely held religious belief,” the guidance says, and it places a demanding standard on government interference with religious belief or practice, including when the religious party is seeking “an exemption from a legal obligation…to confer benefits on third parties.” The guidance also reiterates that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employers covered by the regulation from discriminating based on an individual’s religious belief, observance or practice, “unless the employer cannot reasonably accommodate such observance or practice without undue hardship.” Furthermore, the memo clarifies, religious employers are entitled to limit employment to people whose beliefs and conduct adhere to their religious precepts. “Generally, the federal government may not condition federal grants or contracts on the religious organization altering its religious character, beliefs, or activities,” the document says. A second memo by the attorney general directs implementation of the guidance within the Department of Justice. It instructs the department to vigorously defend religious liberty protections in federal law.   Read more

Washington D.C., Oct 6, 2017 / 09:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Trump administration announced broad new exemptions to the HHS contraceptive mandate on Friday, giving relief to religious non-profits and others with deeply held religious or moral convicti... Read more

Washington D.C., Oct 6, 2017 / 06:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- To recognize Mental Illness Awareness Week, the National Catholic Partnership on Disability held a teleconference prayer service offering those with mental illness, and their friends and family,... Read more

Washington D.C., Oct 5, 2017 / 05:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- When Monsignor Robert Weiss gathered with parents in Connecticut, after 11 children were killed in a nearby shooting, the room went silent and one person called for prayer. “And so everyone just fell on their knees or joined hands with each other, or formed a circle,” Monsignor Weiss said. “I think they realized at that point anything else was beyond their control.” Monsignor Weiss is the pastor of St. Rose of Lima parish in Newtown, Conn. The site of the shooting was Sandy Hook Elementary School, where in December of 2012, 26 people were killed. Since then, other mass shootings have scarred the American psyche, occurring in places like San Bernardino, Calif., Orlando, Fla., and now Las Vegas, Nev., where on October 1, 58 people were killed. It has been called the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. On Wednesday, almost five years after the Sandy Hook shooting, Monsignor Weiss spoke with CNA about the importance of prayer after such a tragedy. Prayer is a necessary resort for all those affected by such tragedies, he said, when they can’t comprehend the evil and when human consolation can only do so much. Prayer as a response to tragedies has been denigrated by some as meaningless or secondary, when compared to advocating for policy aimed at preventing gun violence or improving access to mental health care. The day after a shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. killed 14 on Dec. 2, 2015, the cover of the New York Daily News said “God isn’t fixing this,” in response to politicians and public figures offering their “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of the tragedy, but allegedly taking insufficient action to prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future. Yet, without discounting the role of human action in response to these tragedies, humans can only do so much, Monsignor Weiss told CNA. “To whom do you go? Do you rely on yourself? Because there’s no way you can individually handle these kinds of experiences. Times like this is when you’re called to be a community,” he said. He recalled professionals telling him in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting that “we can only do so much for these people” to help them heal from the tragedy. “There is only one place to turn, and it’s to turn to the Lord and find some sort of understanding of this,” he said. On Sunday evening, 64 year-old Stephen Paddock shot and killed at least 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas, Nev. and wounded almost 500. He shot with high-powered rifles outfitted with “bump stocks” from his 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort, across the street from the Route 91 Harvest Festival outdoor venue. Paddock was retired and divorced, and had a girlfriend. He owned rental properties and was a frequent gambler at local casinos. After he shot down at the concert venue, a SWAT team broke into Paddock’s room and found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Medical and mental health professionals went into action helping victims with physical and psychological wounds. Dr. Stephen Sharp is a Las Vegas local and a faculty member of Divine Mercy University, a Catholic graduate school of psychology and counseling. Sharp commended the Las Vegas community for its proactive response to the tragedy. The first responders in Las Vegas had trained for such a tragedy “for a long time,” he said, as authorities had predicted that the city could be a target for such an event. First responders and hospitals were prepared for the rapid influx of trauma patients, he said. And, he noted, mental health and trauma professionals were able to provide a quick response. In light of previous shootings, where the perpetrator was later judged to have serious mental health issues, the question of Stephen Paddock’s mental health has been asked in the wake of Sunday’s shooting. There are reports, like ABC News’ citation of a person briefed on the investigation, that Paddock’s mental faculties had possibly deteriorated in the months leading up to the shooting, with his “increasingly slovenly” appearance and loss of weight, as well as an obsession with his girlfriend’s ex-husband. Yet no official determination has been made about Paddock’s mental health, and Sharp cautioned against speculation “To establish a mental health or mental illness issue or a diagnosis requires quite a bit of psychological input and assessment and testing,” he said. “It’s too early to jump to that conclusion, and by making that leap, I truly believe that we would be damaging the mental health community more than we would be helping.” Rather, Sharp said, focus should be drawn to the provision of long-term mental health care to victims of the shooting and their families. “The effects of this kind of trauma go on for months, if not years, so people need to be in place to help folks for a long time,” he said. Monsignor Weiss sees a need for professional care in the Newtown community years after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. “We had issues in our schools starting Monday, with the whole thing coming back again,” he said of the Las Vegas shooting. High school students were crying after “they suppressed so much of the fear they experienced [in 2012],” he said. “It’s deadly to suppress the emotion, the grief.” “You’ve got to get help, you’ve got to find someone you can trust, and you’ve got to talk about this. You just can’t suppress it and say it’s going to go away, because it’s not going away,” he said. A mass shooting also has a ripple effect, Sharp said, because in addition to the 58 dead in Las Vegas and the hundreds injured, there were thousands of concert-goers who witnessed the atrocity and experienced the trauma of being in the line of fire. And the many family and friends of the dead and injured are themselves affected by the tragedy, he said: “It’s like a pebble in the pond that creates a tsunami on the other side of the pond, because this will go on for a long time.” “These lives will never be the same,” he reflected. “The 22,000 people who were at the concert will never be the same. It’s changed their life forever, on some level, that we can’t even predict or know how that’s going to turn out for them.” Americans should explore the cultural or societal factors behind the number of mass shootings, he said. “I think it’s more of a societal concern than it is of an individual’s mental health concern,” he stated. “My question is why are we seeing wave after wave of these kinds of events?” Another issue usually debated in the wake of a mass shooting is access to guns, and gun laws. Paddock reportedly had 23 guns with him in his hotel suite, and CNN reported he had 50 pounds of explosives and 1,600 rounds of ammunition in his car parked in the hotel lot. He passed gun background checks and did not possess a criminal record. The U.S. bishops have stated their support for certain gun laws, like in April of 2013, four months after the Sandy Hook shooting, when then-chair of the domestic justice and human development committee Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton wrote members of Congress. Among the policies Bishop Blaire cited for support were “universal background checks for all gun purchases,” restrictions on civilian purchases of “high-capacity ammunition magazines,” and an “assault weapons” ban. He cited Pope Francis’ call “to ‘change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace’.” In their 2000 statement “Responsibility, Rehabilitation and Restoration,” on crime and criminal justice, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops supported certain gun laws in the name of safety. “As bishops, we support measures that control the sale and use of firearms and make them safer (especially efforts that prevent their unsupervised use by children or anyone other than the owner), and we reiterate our call for sensible regulation of handguns,” the bishops stated. The bishops have been “clear that gun control policies are part and parcel of the common good,” Professor David Cloutier, a theology professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., told CNA. In fact, the U.S. bishops have called for gun control measures since at least 1975, when they called for “a coherent national firearms policy responsive to the overall public interest and respectful of the rights and privileges of all Americans.” Yet how should calls for gun control be interpreted in light of the Church’s recognition of a legitimate right to self-defense? Paragraph 2264 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow." Just war theory presumes against violence, Cloutier said, but does not prohibit it absolutely, and using guns as a means of self-defense is seen in the same light. “In terms of using weapons to defend yourself, there’s a presumption of civility,” he said, “that is, there’s a presumption that in a society, you have civil relationships with other people that won’t require violence.” And this fundamental approach Catholics must have toward society is one of “civil friendship,” he said, which is taught in the Compendium on Social Doctrine of the Church. Furthermore, he said, access to certain high-capacity or semi-automatic weapons, like those “that were used in Las Vegas,” he said, could be questioned outright. “It’s hard for me to see what prudential judgement is possible in favor of the broad ownership of such weapons,” Cloutier said. The Compendium of Social Doctrine also states that the proliferation of these types of weapons around the world “exacerbates conflicts” and “encourages terrorism,” he said. Ultimately, Cloutier said, “a presumption doesn’t indicate that there should be a ban on guns, it doesn’t indicate that there isn’t some sort of right to own certain kinds of guns.” “It simply suggests that there is a certain vision of society that challenges certain presumptions about why we should own guns.” Read more