Charleston, S.C., Jan 11, 2017 / 04:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The death sentence announced this week for mass murderer Dylann Roof prompted the local Catholic bishop to call for prayer, for both the victims and Roof. The bishop also reiterated Catholic o... Read more
Vatican City, Jan 11, 2017 / 01:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday, the Vatican unveiled a “new and improved” weekly edition of its newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, which will begin with the Jan. 19 issue, and include updates to both ... Read more
Minneapolis, Minn., Jan 11, 2017 / 06:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On the night of Jan. 4, Nathan Leonhardt was locking up the Cathedral of St. Paul in Minneapolis when he found something extraordinary. Inside the church doors was a newborn baby boy. Short... Read more
Vatican City, Jan 11, 2017 / 03:38 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis issued strong words against worshipping idols, cautioning against the false hope that beauty, wealth and power can give, but which lead a person to trust in empty promises rather than in the Lord. “It’s terrible, it hurts the soul what I heard one time years ago in another diocese. A woman, a good woman, very, very beautiful and who bragged about her beauty, commented as if it were natural: ‘Yeah, I had to have an abortion because my figure is so important.’” Attitudes like this, he said “are the idols, and they take you on the wrong path and they don't bring you happiness.” Pope Francis spoke to pilgrims in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall during his weekly general audience, continuing his catechesis on Christian hope. While he has so far focused on the meaning and source of hope, in today’s audience he highlighted several types of false hope that can endanger one’s relationship with God. In his address, the Pope said hope is “a primary need for man: to hope in the future, to believe in life, the so-called ‘thinking positive.’” However, he cautioned that this hope must be rooted in “what can actually help in living and giving meaning to our existence,” rather than false illusions which in the end are both useless and meaningless. Faith essentially means entrusting oneself to God, he said, but noted that when life’s difficulties come along, “man experiences the fragility of that trust and feels the need of various certainties, tangible, concrete securities.” When faced with these difficulties, we are often tempted to seek consolation in the ephemeral, “which seems to fill the emptiness of solitude and alleviate the fatigue of believing,” he said, noting that first places we tend to look for security are in wealth, power, worldliness and false ideologies. “At times we look for (security) in a god that can bend to our requests and magically intervene to change reality and make like we want; an idol, indeed, that in itself can do nothing, impotent and deceitful,” he added. Francis then recounted in off-the-cuff comments how while still in Buenos Aires, he would frequently walk by a park where “seers” would sit at small tables and tell people their fortunes for a fee. The story, he said, “always the same: there's a woman in your life, a man will come,” or “everything will go well.” But the people paid anyway, and “this gives you security. A security of – excuse the word – stupidity.” “This is an idol, and we are so attached,” he said, observing that “the hope of gratuity” that Jesus Christ gives is sadly something “we don't trust as much.” Pope Francis pointed out that idols aren’t always made of metal or a statue, but also consist of “those built in our minds,” when we try to transform what is limited into something absolute or when we reduce God to our own plans and ideas of the divine. In these cases, “an, the image of God, creates a god in his own image, and is an unsuccessful image: it doesn’t feel, doesn’t act and above all doesn’t speak. But we are happier going to idols than to the Lord.” However, hope in the Lord who both created the world and guides our lives blatantly contradicts the trust we place “in mute idols.” Ideologies of wealth, power and success, “with their illusion of eternity and omnipotence,” and values such as physical beauty and health are not bad in themselves, but “when they become idols to which we sacrifice everything, they are all realities that confuse the mind and the heart.” “Instead of favoring life, they bring death,” Francis said, noting that if we place our hope in idols we eventually become like them: “empty images with hands that can’t touch, feet that can’t walk, mouths that can’t speak... incapable of helping, changing things, smiling, giving of yourself and loving.” This risk is also present in the men and women of the Church “when we make ourselves worldly,” he said, adding that we need to remain in the world, but must always guard against its illusions. Francis closed his address saying the “marvelous reality” of hope is that by trusting in the Lord, we become like him and “his blessing transforms us into his children, who share in his life.” “Hope in God makes us enter, so to say, into the range of his memory, his memory that blesses us and saves us,” he said. After the audience, Pope Francis greeted pilgrims from various countries around the world, and gave a word of caution against “tricksters” who try to sell tickets to the weekly gather, which is always free of cost. Whether it’s in St. Peter’s Square or Paul VI Hall, the audience is always free and an opportunity to “to talk to the Pope, to visit the Pope,” he said, cautioning attendees that if someone tells them they have to pay to get in, “they are ripping you off.” “Be aware! This is free. Here you come without paying, because this is everyone’s house and whoever tells you to pay – this person is a delinquent. You don’t do this,” he said, and gave his blessing. Read more
Paterson, N.J., Jan 11, 2017 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Catholic hospital faces an anti-discrimination lawsuit for cancelling a surgery to remove a uterus from a female who identifies as a man. The surgery was meant to treat gender dysphoria. “This case involves whether a Catholic hospital can be compelled to perform a procedure that violates its sincerely-held religious beliefs,” Matt Sharp, legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, told CNA. “Our nation has long provided broad exemptions for organizations like this – for example, protecting them against being compelled to perform abortions,” he added. “Those same protections should extend to organizations that decline to be part of the procedures like the one sought here – procedures that not only raise religious concerns, but that many doctors and psychiatrists also believe pose serious long-term risks to the patients.” Sharp spoke in response to the legal case of Jionni Conforti, who had scheduled a hysterectomy at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, N.J. in 2015. The hospital canceled the procedure on the grounds it would violate the ethical and religious directives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Conforti’s lawsuit said a surgeon at the medical center had initially approved the surgery, which removes a uterus, as had Medicaid. However, a hospital administrator later barred it. “I felt completely disrespected,” Conforti said, according to the Associated Press. The lawsuit said physicians claimed the hysterectomy was medically necessary to treat gender dysphoria and to reduce the risk of cancer related to Conforti’s hormone treatments. The lawsuit charges that the hospital violated state and federal anti-discrimination laws. It also cited guarantees in the hospital’s own patient bill of rights which guaranteed medical services without discrimination based on “gender identity or expression,” the New Jersey news site The Record reports. Sharp, however, said that subjecting Catholic hospitals and other organizations, “who merely seek to continue to peacefully operate consistent with their religious beliefs as they have done for decades, to costly lawsuits not only hurts the organizations themselves, but also the thousands and thousands of people in the community who benefit from their services every year,” he said. “Every hospital and physician should be free to make sound moral and ethical decisions as to the best treatments for their patients,” he added. “There are serious questions about the long term results of so-called sex reassignment surgery. Whether based on their sincerely held religious beliefs or ethical considerations, hospitals and physicians should not be compelled to perform these procedures by legions of state or federal bureaucrats.” Sharp said that state non-discrimination laws which include gender identity as a protected category “have been repeatedly used to target religious organizations and threaten them with costly fines, and even jail time, if they don’t forfeit their religious freedom and disavow their beliefs about the immutability of sex.” Read more
Washington D.C., Jan 11, 2017 / 12:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics should be working to create a “culture of encounter” that shows charity and empathy to immigrants, said leaders of the U.S. bishops in a message this week. “Our brothers and sisters who are forced to migrate suffer devastating family separation and most often face dire economic conditions to the point they cannot maintain a very basic level of living,” said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston and Archbishop José H Gomez of Los Angeles. “Refugees flee their countries due to war and persecution which inspires them to risk everything for an opportunity to live in peace.” Cardinal DiNardo is the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop Gomez is the vice-president. Their message was released for National Migration Week, a time set aside for reflection on the struggles, benefits, and shared realities of migrant families. In concordance with Pope Francis' recent intentions, the statement voiced hope for a “culture of encounter,” conducive to unity and shared aspirations. In recent years, families of refugees have been seeking asylum from countries in conflict, such as Sudan and Syria. Thousands of Iraqi Christians have been displaced under ISIS' persecution, mostly to refugee camps. The pain and suffering of migrating families are an opportunity for mercy, said the Catholic leaders. ABC News reported on one couple who helped more than 100 Christian refugees relocate to America from Iraq. Appealing to America's heritage as a melting pot, both Cardinal DiNardo and Archbishop Gomez called for reflection on the mercy shown to earlier generations of immigrants. “As Catholics in the United States, most of us can find stories in our own families of parents, grandparents or great-grandparents leaving the old country for the promise of America,” they said, encouraging Americans to sympathize with people who have similar stories as their own forefathers. Cardinal DiNardo and Archbishop Gomez also commented on overcoming the struggle of integration in the past. They said that “fear and intolerance” have tested the melting pot, but that we as a country have prevailed to be a society of inclusion. “Whether immigrating from Ireland, Italy or countless other countries, previous generations faced bigotry,” they said, urging that National Migration Week be used as an opportunity to work for both secure borders and an embrace of the most vulnerable. Read more
Dax, France, Jan 10, 2017 / 09:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Dominicans have posted on their social media a greeting for the 110th birthday of Sister Marie Bernadette, “the oldest Dominican sister in the world.” Sister Marie Bernadette, who lives in Dax, in France's Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, is not only the oldest sister in the order but she also set a historic record for her years of profession. In a Jan. 5 post on the Dominicains de Bordeaux Facebook page, the Dominicans quoted the sister's superior on the occasion of her birthday: “For me, what's most beautiful is that she will be professed for 90 years this coming April 18!!! That's a record.” The post also indicated that Sister Marie Bernadette is one of the oldest sisters in the community and that she prays for all the Dominicans. They also called on everyone to pray for an increase in monastic vocations. At the Dax monastery, the Dominican sisters lead a life of prayer, contemplation, and they also do sewing and make pastries for income. Read more
Washington D.C., Jan 10, 2017 / 05:22 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As a new Senate report alleges that the advertising site Backpage.com covered for child sex traffickers, Backpage defends its record of working with law enforcement against trafficking. “How could such a horrific, morally bankrupt business model find success in our America?” Nacole S., a parent of a child who was trafficked for sex on Backpage.com, testified before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Tuesday. “It is time to accept that child sex trafficking has entered the digital age,” she said, noting the internet has become a “hotbed for the ugliest human behaviors…at the forefront of which are websites like Backpage.com.” The Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations released its report on “Backpage.com's knowing facilitation of online sex trafficking” on Monday, after almost two years of investigations into the company and its practices. Backpage.com is a website for public ad postings, similar to other sites like CraigsList. It features an “adult” posting section, and it is here where, according to the subcommittee’s report, much of suspected child sex trafficking in the U.S. allegedly travels through Backpage ads. Online child sex trafficking has skyrocketed in the last few years, with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children saying reports of suspected incidents went up 846 percent between 2010 to 2015, cited in the senate report. The center says the spike is “directly correlated to the increased use of the Internet to sell children for sex.” “In 2013, it (Backpage) reportedly net more than 80 percent of all revenue from online commercial sex advertising in the United States,” the report noted, and again citing the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, “73 percent of the suspected child trafficking reports it receives from the public involve Backpage.” Backpage, for its part, announced it closed up its “adult” section on Monday after the report was released, claiming the action resulted from “an accumulation of acts of government censorship using extra-legal tactics” and defending its record of working with law enforcement to fight trafficking. “It undermines efforts by Backpage.com to cooperate with law enforcement and provide information to identify, arrest and prosecute those who engage in human trafficking,” the statement added. Backpage.com's CEO Carl Ferrer was arrested in October in Texas on a warrant issued by California for accusations of pimping and attempting to pimp a minor. He was exonerated in a Sacramento County Superior Court in December. Also on Monday, the Supreme Court denied to hear a case against Backpage of three women who claimed they were forced into sex trafficking through ads posted on the site, Reuters reported. The lower court decision, which stands, said that the company is protected under the Communications Decency Act and is not liable for content posted by third parties. In Monday's report, the Senate investigation found that for years, Backpage.com officials had “sanitized” ads for criminal offenses like sex trafficking of minors, by removing conspicuous words like “teenage” and “amber alert” and “lolita,” but keeping those ads on the site. Backpage officials did this manually, but also created an automated system to filter out those keywords, the report alleged, and the system operated that way for years. When someone would try to post an ad on Backpage with those words, the automated system would tell them not to use the word but they could still post an ad with different language. “By October 2010, Backpage executives formalized a process of both manual and automated deletion of incriminating words and phrases, primarily through a feature called the 'Strip Term From Ad Filter',” the report stated, adding that according to Backpage executives, they were editing 70 to 80 percent of the advertisements in the “adult” section of the website. The filter “changed nothing about the true nature of the advertised transaction or the real age of the person being sold for sex,” the report said, but “thanks to the filter, Backpage's adult ads looked 'cleaner than ever.'” The subcommittee had subpoenaed Backpage officials for a Nov. 2015 hearing but the officials dodged the request, resulting in the first civil contempt action by the Senate in over 20 years being leveled. In 2016, a federal court ordered Backpage to send the subpoenaed documents to the subcommittee. “They put profits ahead of vulnerable women and children,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), chair of the subcommittee, said of Backpage on Tuesday. “Advertisements were deliberately sanitized to conceal evidence of child prostitution, to conceal evidence of child trafficking. We know Backpage has hid its systematic editing practices from the public for years while convincing the courts and Congress it was just a host for third party content, entitled to an immunity under federal law for that reason,” he continued. “These are not the practices of an 'ally' in the fight against human trafficking. These are the practices of a corporation intent on profiting from human trafficking – and human misery – and profit they have, at the expense of countless innocent victims.” Backpage has touted its record of cooperating with law enforcement, providing a list of previous statements from the FBI and local police departments thanking them for their assistance in catching pimps responsible for trafficking postings on its site. Portman, however, said at the hearing “we know now” that Backpage's claims of cooperation with law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children were “misleading.” “It seems likely that Backpage has been breaking the law as it exists right now,” he said, and “based on the evidence we've collected” he and Sen. Claire McCaskill (R-Mo.) “will promptly consider” referring the matter to the Department of Justice. Parents of child sex trafficking victims testified of the violence and trauma their children endured, along with the emotional trauma of family members. Parent Nacole S. described how her daughter, during high school, suffered from stress and decided to leave home to make an attempt at “finding herself.” She traveled to Seattle and at a teen homeless shelter met a 22 year-old woman posing as a teen who brought her into a sex trafficking ring. Her daughter was “repeatedly raped, beatened, threatened, and treated like a sexual object every day,” Nacole testified through tears, “while being posted as an ad on Backpage.” “When we finally got Natalie back,” she said of her daughter, “the young girl we found wasn't the same Natalie that left our home months earlier.” “Our new dream is simple,” she said, “to live in an America that doesn’t stand aside while little girls…are sold online like a commodity, purchased with all the same convenience that you would expect as an order on Amazon.” Kubiiki P., mother of a child sex trafficking victim, revealed that her daughter was trafficked for months on the site. Even after she was recovered, sexually explicit pictures of her daughter were still surfacing in ads on the site. Kubiiki called Backpage “many times” and “explained that I was the mother of the child pictured in these sexually-explicit ads. I explained that my child had been horribly sexually, physically, and emotionally abused by being trafficked on Backpage through these ads,” she said in her written testimony before the subcommittee. She asked them to promptly remove the pictures, yet the company ignored her requests to take down the pictures of her daughter, only doing so after a period of time. A court later ordered that the trafficker of her daughter, who was “in and out of jail,” pay restitution to her daughter, but the trafficker never paid and Kubiiki had “no process” through which to collect the money. She wanted Backpage.com to pay restitution “for being involved and profiting from the escort ads” featuring her daughter, but said the court rejected her case. Thomas S., who also testified on Tuesday, lamented that “children have become a bargaining chip” today, “collateral damage in a huge industry of modern convenience that we enjoy online.” “I've been disgusted and shocked by the commitment and stance that Backpage.com has taken. That Backpage somehow thinks it has the right to sell my child, and that the First Amendment gives them that right to do so and there’s nothing anyone can do about it,” he said. “I can't believe the contempt and lack of humanity they’ve taken,” he added. “Backpage hides behind the Communications Decency Act (CDA), and they collect their money, all the while pretending to support the lofty, high-minded principals of the First Amendment. Even more amazing is that they usually win (in court).” “Children are not acceptable collateral damage,” he concluded. “They are our hope, our future, America’s conscience.” Read more
San Antonio, Texas, Jan 10, 2017 / 04:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop emeritus Patricio Fernandez Flores of San Antonio died Monday at the age of 87, prompting many to remember his role in supporting Mexican-American and Latino Catholics. One respo... Read more
Vatican City, Jan 10, 2017 / 03:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis warned against the destruction of clericalism in his Jan. 10 homily, stressing that humility was power behind Christ’s authority. “He was at the service of the people. He had an attitude of a servant,” the Pope said of Christ. In his Tuesday homily at the Casa Santa Marta, he linked the authority of Jesus with his service, closeness to the people, and sincerity. When Jesus emptied himself of his divinity, he committed the ultimate act of humility, the Pope said. It was through this humility that Christ's authority was so effective. The opposite view – that of pride and a desire to be served – is seen in the Pharisee’s mentality, Francis said. “We are the masters, the princes, and we teach you. Not service: we command, you obey.” Warning against clericalism, the Pope stressed against the danger of preferring authority over the concern of persons. The Pharisees prefer the approval of the crowd, looking to show off alms giving, fancy clothes, and fasting. Similarly, clericalism is a detachment from persons, he said. Looking at the characteristics of Christ’s authority, the Pope noted, “First, a servant, of service, of humility: the head is the one who serves, who turns everything upside down, like an iceberg. The summit of the iceberg is seen; Jesus, on the other hand, turns it upside down and the people are on top and he that commands is below, and gives commands from below.” Second, he continued, is “closeness.” Laying hands on the blind, eating with sinners, and touching lepers was how Christ became closer to the people. Pope Francis then referenced Blessed Paul VI's Evangelii nuntiandi, saying “one sees the heart of a pastor who is close [to his people.]” Christ did not shudder away from the sick and the sinner, Pope Francis said, mentioning the men who passed the assaulted man in Jesus's parable of the Good Samaritan. The hypocrites speak truth, but do not belong to the truth, he said, because their actions do not match their words. It is Christ who was sincere, and who lived what he preached, the Pope said. “Jesus counseled His disciples: ‘But, do what they tell you, but not what they do’: they said one thing and did another...And it is understood that one who considers himself a prince, who has a clericalist attitude, who is a hypocrite, doesn’t have authority.” Ultimately, clericalism has no authority because people cannot respond to it, Francis said. Jesus, who was the desire of the people, became a servant, sat with the impure, and lived what he preached. People saw His authority because He became a part of the people. “Jesus…who is humble, who is at the service of others, who is close, who does not despise the people, and who is coherent, has authority. And this is the authority that the people of God senses,” said Pope Francis. Read more
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