2015-07-31T06:44:00+00:00

Last updated on: July 31, 2015 at 6:44 am   By

Bogotá, Colombia, Jul 31, 2015 / 12:44 am (CNA).- An order of religious sisters in Colombia is suing a national television network for producing a series that it says twists the facts about the life of the order’s founder, the first Colombian saint. Saint Laura Montoya Upegui is the subject of a new series on Caracol Television, entitled “Laura: an extraordinary life.” The first of 25 episodes was broadcast on July 29. In a statement released July 24, the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Immaculate and Saint Catherine of Sienna announced that they were suing Caracol over the series. The congregation was founded by St. Laura, who is the first Colombian to be canonized. “The trailer and promotional videos depict false scenes,” the press release states. It says that promotional materials describe Saint Laura as “renouncing the love of her life,” participating in romantic relationships, and being present for conversations in poor taste. In reality, the statement says, these things did not happen. “(T)he result is that the TV viewers, those following the above mentioned series, will think that the incidents described here are true and real.” Consuela Benjumea, the lawyer for the sisters, told the Colombian newspaper La Republica that Caracol Television did not have authorization from the congregation. “(W)e’re sure that it’s not going to be a program that conforms with reality…in order to get higher ratings, they’re going to distort aspects (of the saint’s life), and the congregation is worried about this.” The heads of the order said that the congregation had approached Caracol Television when they heard of the project, in order to see what was in the script, but Caracol’s programmers would not speak with them. They added that “the congregation has not authorized Caracol to use the expression Laura and/or the name Mother Laura or Mother Laura Montoya.” National newspaper El Tiempo contacted Caracol Television for a statement, but Caracol said it would not comment on matters currently under litigation.   Read more

2015-07-31T00:02:00+00:00

Last updated on: July 31, 2015 at 12:02 am   By

Washington D.C., Jul 30, 2015 / 06:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archbishop of Boston on Wednesday lamented the harvesting of fetal organs, which is at the center of a series of videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the practice, as a failure to respect human dignity. “The recent news stories concerning Planned Parenthood direct our attention to two larger issues involving many institutions in our society,” Cardinal Sean O'Malley said July 29. “The first is abortion itself: a direct attack on human life in its most vulnerable condition. The second is the now standard practice of obtaining fetal organs and tissues through abortion.” “Both actions fail to respect the humanity and dignity of human life. This fact should be the center of attention in the present public controversy.” His comments come as a new undercover video shows a senior Planned Parenthood physician talking about the harvesting of organs from babies delivered before an abortion was performed at the clinic. “Sometimes, if we get, if someone delivers before we get to see them for a procedure, then we are intact, but that’s not what we go for. We try for that to not happen,” Dr. Savita Ginde, vice president and medical director of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said in the new video, of providing tissue procurement companies with “intact” body parts of aborted babies. Cardinal O’Malley decried the practice described in the videos as part of the “throwaway culture” condemned by Pope Francis. He also referred anyone who suffered “revived trauma” from previous abortions in watching the videos to the Church’s Project Rachel, a healing ministry for mothers who have had abortions. The group releasing the videos, Center for Medical Progress, claims Planned Parenthood could be violating federal law if they performed abortions on second trimester babies born alive. They do not use drugs like dioxide to abort the child in those cases, the group maintained. Later in the video, Ginde appears in a clinic lab poking through body parts in a petri dish. “Another boy!” a Planned Parenthood medical assistant announces as the body parts are spread around the dish. The video is the latest in a series of reports on “Human Capital” by the citizen journalist group. It is the result of a three-year investigative study of Planned Parenthood and its transfer of body parts of aborted babies for money. Previous videos showed top Planned Parenthood officials casually discussing the donation of body parts of aborted babies at the clinic to tissue procurement companies for “reasonable” compensation. In one instance, a doctor also floated the idea of altering the abortion procedure to have a better chance at extracting the organs intact, which could be a violation of federal law. CMP has charged that Planned Parenthood has violated federal law banning the sale of body parts. Planned Parenthood has defended its practice, saying it is not making illegal profits and that it receives appropriate consent from mothers before offering the dead babies to procurement companies for research. Federal law generally prohibits the selling of human tissue but allows for the donation of tissue with “reasonable payments” for the “transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of human fetal tissue.” It explicitly prohibits the sale of tissue for “valuable consideration.” In the first two videos Planned Parenthood officials were careful to articulate that the organization is not looking to make a significant profit from the transfer of body parts to procurement companies. On the July 26 edition of ABC’s This Week, the organization’s president Cecile Richards insisted that Planned Parenthood has not broken the law. "We have the highest standards. The care and health care and safety of our patients is our most important priority,” she said. In the third video, Ginde appeared saying that financial compensation “per item” rather than per baby would be better so “we can see how much we can get out of it.” Ginde also talks at length in the latest video about ensuring the offering of body parts are offered for research and not as a business transaction. “The only other thing that I would sort of be concerned about is are the other Planned Parenthoods doing this through research or are they just doing it as a stand alone contract,” she told the actors posing as members of a human biologics company. “Because, even though we’re doing it through research, if it comes up that someone else is doing it, just doing it as a business sort of venture, it puts a different spin on it.” Listing the transfer for research also gives Planned Parenthood “an overhang over the whole thing,” she continued. The organization’s lawyers have been building layers of legal protection for Planned Parenthood, she added, and she has been working to ensure the different affiliates have a unified narrative in offering the body parts to companies. “We don’t want to get called on, you know, selling fetal parts across states,” she said. “How do we protect ourselves from that.” The video is the fourth in an ongoing series from the Center for Medical Progress. The first video was released July 14 and showed the organization’s senior director of medical services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, describing in gruesome detail the practice of extracting the fetal organs from aborted babies. The second video showed the president of Planned Parenthood’s medical directors council, Dr. Mary Gatter, flippantly discussing and joking about prices for body parts of aborted babies with actors posing as prospective buyers. “I want a Lamborghini,” she joked. The third video featured testimony by a former technician for StemExpress, a fetal tissue procurement company, on her dealings with Planned Parenthood to obtain fetal tissue. Congress has subsequently taken action against Planned Parenthood, with two House committees and a Senate panel investigating the organization for any violation of the law. The Senate has introduced a bill to prohibit any federal dollars from going to the organization and its affiliates, which will be voted on next week. Rallies to defund Planned Parenthood, titled “#WomenBetrayed,” were held in over 60 cities on Tuesday, coordinated by the pro-life college outreach group Students for Life. The organization’s 68 affiliates received over $500 million in federal funds in fiscal year 2013 according to its annual report, or 41 percent of the overall revenue of Planned Parenthood for America and its clinics.   Read more

2015-07-30T21:50:00+00:00

Last updated on: July 30, 2015 at 9:50 pm   By

Vatican City, Jul 30, 2015 / 03:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).-  Updated July 31 at 10:04 am MT: A spokesperson for the Walk Free Foundation has responded to this article, telling CNA: "We welcome any religious initiative dedicated to ending modern slavery. While Bishop Sanchez has stepped down from the Board, the Global Freedom Network (GFN) and its initiatives remain in place. At absolutely no point in time was this a business initiative and Walk Free Foundation provided the seed funding to the GFN, which in its first year was over 1million Euros."   Faithful to its commitment against human trafficking, the Holy See has left the board of an initiative it helped to found, as questions have been raised around both its effectiveness and its chairman's possible use of the Pope to raise funds. Together with Anglican and Muslim leaders, the Vatican launched the Global Freedom Network in March 2014, hoping to eradicate human trafficking by 2020. But it has been noticed in recent days that the Global Freedom Network's representative from the Holy See, Archbishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, had left the group's executive board. A July 27 program of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) drew attention to Archbishop Sánchez' resignation from the initiative. The program focused on Andrew Forrest, the Australian billionaire businessman and philanthropist who chairs the network. Archbishop Sánchez, who is chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, confirmed the news July 29 and said, “the Holy See does not want to be instrumentalized. A businessman has every right to make revenues, but not by exploiting the Pope.” The archbishop did not go into detail, but his decision to leave Forrest's organization was made some time ago, and without fanfare. Accessing Global Freedom Network's website through “Wayback Machine,” an internet archive, reveals that Archbishop Sánchez was listed on its board on Feb. 15, but had left by May 1. Forrest has dedicated much of his charitable work to combat human trafficking, and set up the Walk Free Foundation to this end in 2010. CNA has previously reported the Walk Free Foundation's goals as including securing government endorsements of the Global Fund to End Slavery and business' commitments to eliminate slavery from their supply chains. However, the approach of his Global Freedom Network and the Walk Free Foundation has been criticized by experts in the field. Anne Gallagher, a human trafficking expert at the United Nations, told ABC that “the trouble with the approach of Walk Free and of the Global Slavery Index is that it assumes this problem can be fixed by pushing governments, by getting a lot of young people to sign up to petitions that go to corporations.” Besides the criticism regarding how his charities fight human trafficking, Forrest may have fallen out of the Vatican's good favor for reasons linked to financial difficulties. As Archbishop Sánchez did not give details about why the Vatican has left the board of the Global Freedom Network, his mention of “exploitation” of the Pope can lead one to surmise a misuse of the Holy See's involvement to help fund raise for Forrest's charitable efforts. The ABC program also discussed the financial loss Forrest’s charities have had to face. According to ABC, “the Minderoo Foundation, the umbrella body for Andrew Forrest's charities, has watched its wealth fall by around $50 million — representing around 50 percent of its total investments — over the past 12 months.” The charity is linked to Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group (FMG): some 40 percent of the charity's investments are in the form of shares in the company. With the fall in iron ore's price, FMG's share price has fallen too, and the charity’s value has fallen in its turn, from about $103 million one year ago to $53 million today. According to ABC “about half the fall is a direct result of the declining value of Fortescue's shares.” A source who works in the Vatican told CNA July 30 that given the fall in the charity's value, “it is likely that Forrest had used the name of the Pope to convince donors to replace what was lost and to invest in his initiatives.” The Global Freedom Network's homepage currently features two prominent images of Pope Francis. Near the top of the page is a video of the Pope and other religious leaders signing its Declaration Against Slavery on Dec. 2, 2014. Below the video is found a series of tweets, the most prominent of which are one from Pope Francis, and one which includes a photo of him at the December event. The Global Freedom Network has been lauded by such prominent figures as the Clintons, Bill Gates, Bono, and Tony Blair, but while speaking with ABC, the UN expert Anne Gallagher added, “we have someone who’s got a lot of money, who’s got access to global power, who can actually do things, but while his understanding of the problem is so basic, so unsophisticated, that power, that money is not being used how it should be.” Janie Chuang, who teaches at Washington College of Law, commented during the ABC program that “it's frustrating to see the rise of this organization that seems not to know what it's doing, yet captures media headlines left and right with its grandiose claims.” CNA has reported the Global Freedom Network's work as including mobilizing faith communities, examining business supply chains to ensure ethical products, more care for victims and survivors of slavery, legal reforms and better enforcement, and more education about the crimes. The publicity surrounding the Vatican's decision to leave the Global Freedom Network comes as the World Day against Trafficking in Persons is celebrated. The event was observed at the Vatican last year with a conference co-hosted by the Global Freedom Network and the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences. While the Holy See has ended its relationship with Forrest's organization, it remains committed to ending human trafficking, which has been a priority for Jorge Bergoglio since he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, where he established an annual Mass for its victims. The International Labour Organization estimates that nearly 21 million persons are victims of forced labor worldwide. At his first address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, in December 2013, Pope Francis said it is a disgrace that persons “are treated as objects, deceived, assaulted, often sold many times for different purposes.” In November 2014 the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences held a workshop on ‘Trafficking in Human Beings: Modern Slavery,” which resulted in proposals for media, religious institutions, civil organizations, and the business sector to work together in order to combat human trafficking. This was followed by an April conference on the trafficking of children, co-hosted by the pontifical academy and by Sweden's embassy to the Holy See. And earlier this month, Archbishop Sánchez chaired a meeting of worldwide mayors to examine the link between human trafficking and climate change. Archbishop Sánchez told CNA last year that Pope Francis had personally emphasized that his pontifical academy should focus on the issue of human trafficking. Read more

2015-07-30T15:49:00+00:00

Last updated on: July 30, 2015 at 3:49 pm   By

Washington D.C., Jul 30, 2015 / 09:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The final plans are set for the public’s chance to watch Pope Francis’ Sept. 24 address to Congress live at the U.S. Capitol. Tickets will be extremely hard to come by, though. O... Read more

2015-07-30T12:01:00+00:00

Last updated on: July 30, 2015 at 12:01 pm   By

Charleston, S.C., Jul 30, 2015 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A leading bishop in Catholic scouting says Catholics should continue to be involved in the Boy Scouts and work to ensure good youth outreach and consistency with Church teaching in response to... Read more

2015-07-30T12:01:00+00:00

Last updated on: July 30, 2015 at 12:01 pm   By

Charleston, S.C., Jul 30, 2015 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A leading bishop in Catholic scouting says Catholics should continue to be involved in the Boy Scouts and work to ensure good youth outreach and consistency with Church teaching in response to... Read more

2015-07-30T09:02:00+00:00

Last updated on: July 30, 2015 at 9:02 am   By

London, England, Jul 30, 2015 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Some Catholics in Great Britain are concerned the government's push for “British values” in schools, meant to counter Islamist extremism, could instead harm sincere religious believers and burden Catholic schools. In a July 20 speech at Ninestiles school in Birmingham, the British prime minister, David Cameron, said, “We believe in respecting different faiths but also expecting those faiths to support the British way of life. These are British values … Our freedom comes from our Parliamentary democracy.”The speech was intended to lay down his administration's strategy for tackling Islamist extremism in the country, but could be construed so as to limit the ability of any religious believer to exercise their freedoms of speech and religion. “The government needs to avoid classing anyone who takes their religion or faith seriously, especially Christians, as potentially harmful extremists. Catholics must not be forced to act against their religious conscience either in schools or in the workplaces,” Caroline Farrow, a member of Catholic Voices UK and a columnist for the Catholic Universe newspaper, told CNA July 24. She said Cameron, who is leading the anti-extremism push, should remember to protect freedom of speech. “He needs to take care that the British way of life does not come to mean that those of a religious persuasion are silenced out of fear.” The British government has begun to require the promotion of “British values” in all schools. The actions follow reports that extremist Muslim groups were trying to infiltrate schools. In his July 20 speech the prime minister spoke about “the threat of extremism and the challenge of integration.” Cameron specifically addressed the “far right” and Islamist extremism, though he also acknowledged the “profound contributions” of non-extremist Muslims. He did not limit his speech to attacking violent extremism. He also criticized non-violent support for “certain intolerant ideas which create a climate in which extremists can flourish.” He listed ideas “which are hostile to basic liberal values such as democracy, freedom and sexual equality,” and ideas “which actively promote discrimination, sectarianism and segregation.” Farrow voiced concern that some definitions of British values can pose problems for Catholics. “While Catholics believe in the equality of the sexes, the term ‘sexual equality’ is also applied to matters of sexuality. This could be applied so broadly that it could include things that Catholics do not agree with, such as for example, the country's recent redefinition of marriage which allows for same-sex weddings.” She noted that the promotion of “British values” has already posed risks for Catholic schools. These schools face censure by the U.K. schools’ inspectorate Ofsted “if Catholic teaching, especially on sexuality and marriage, is deemed to be undermining British values and promoting so-called extremism,” Farrow said. The high-performing St Benedict's Catholic School in Suffolk was downgraded because its students allegedly were not aware of the dangers of extremism. The school was “blacklisted” for failing to promote British values, according to Farrow. The Catholic Education Service of the Bishops’ Conference in England and Wales demanded an apology for the move. The school said parents complained that the inspectors asked children as young as ten about homosexual acts and transsexualism, the Catholic Herald reports. The British Department for Education has implemented requirements for teaching “fundamental British values.” The department’s November 2014 guidance added stronger language that requires schools actively to promote what it sees as British values. The rules require all schools to promote equality and diversity, as defined by the education department’s guidance. This requirement includes “challenging opinions or behaviors in school.” Farrow voiced concern for the future of Catholic schools. “Catholic schools will be increasingly singled out for criticism and potential closure if they fail to uphold and promote British values in direct contravention of their faith,” she warned. “We have already seen the closure of the Catholic adoption agencies in the U.K. for failing to conform to government-imposed ideals and values; it is not inconceivable that schools could be subject to the same pressure.” Farrow noted that some religious denominations which do not agree with gay marriage or women clergy are already portrayed as extremists. “A failure to give approval to, or validate certain ideas is interpreted as 'harmful' or 'intolerance' and certain secular special interest lobby groups already campaign that certain religious beliefs ought therefore to be outlawed or suppressed.” She faulted the prime minister for expecting religions to uphold “the British way of life” without having explicitly defined it. “The British way of life could be interpreted as supporting a number of practices and beliefs which run wholly contrary to the Catholic faith, such as for example, the supposed right to abortion on demand. Faiths cannot reasonably be expected to alter their doctrine to fall into line with the view of the prevailing political party,” she said. Farrow suggested a definition of British values based on the “the intrinsic dignity and value of every human life.” She said this principle ought to be something that finds unanimous agreement, and it is also a “core principle” of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. At the same time, she saw some merit in the prime minister’s speech. “David Cameron is at least recognizing that our society has become incohesive due to a lack of shared faith and accompanying values,” she said. “The problem is that this is an inadequate response: people's moral values cannot simply be imposed by diktat from central government. By attempting to define what constitutes British values, David Cameron is effectively imposing a set of moral values on the British population regardless of whether or not they subscribe to them.” She said it is understandable that the government would work to curb violent religious extremism. “The uncomfortable truth is that it is a particular type of Islamic extremism which gives rise to violence and therefore the government is using rather a broad brush to tackle a problem which could have undesirable repercussions, not only for Catholics but for a pluralistic society as a whole,” she said. “Rather than focus on values such as sexuality or what is taught in schools, the government would do much better to engage with Muslim communities and scholars.” She said a better indication of radicalized, violent extremism come from measuring expressions of hatred towards Jewish and Christian communities and western civilization in general. Other Catholics have commented critically on the British government’s values advocacy. Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury in his Easter Sunday homily said the effort to regulate British values has left many people uneasy, and that “our values cannot be arbitrarily formulated by any passing generation of politicians even if they have the best intentions.” Citing the words of Pope Francis and Benedict XVI, Bishop Davies said secular rationality and religious belief are both necessary to secure “the good of our civilization.” Read more

2015-07-30T07:02:00+00:00

Last updated on: July 30, 2015 at 7:02 am   By

Vatican City, Jul 30, 2015 / 01:02 am (CNA).- A fixed term mandate for Vatican officials serving in the Roman Curia was among recent proposals for the Vatican's ongoing reform process, and will likely be discussed at the Sept. 14-16 meeting of the Council of Cardinals. It's still unclear whether the fixed term mandate refers to all Vatican officials – that is, those who hold an office of the Roman Curia – or if it would just apply to the clergy.   According to the prominent Italian journalist Marco Tosatti, “the idea is to give a term – a five year term, to be eventually renewed for another five year term – to the mandate of the Curia officials, which are the priests who make up the bulk of the jobs in the various Congregations and Pontifical Councils.”   So if a priest is called to serve in the Roman Curia, he would return to his home parish after five years. On the other hand, there are many lay Vatican officials: would the fixed term mandate apply to them as well?   According to data, out of the nearly 2,700 people working in the Holy See, there are 780 priests, 330 religious brothers and sisters and 1,600 lay people.   Lay people are close to double the number of priests serving in the Holy See. If the five year mandate is applied to them, what will be their fate? How would they provide for their families?   “These are some of the critical issues of the proposal. Another one is that people continually on the move would have no time to develop the special expertise which has characterized the Holy See personnel until now,” a source working within a Vatican congregation told CNA July 29.   However, the fixed term mandate would not apply to diplomatic ranks, which would continue with the current system.   The Holy See diplomatic Corp is nurtured in the Ecclesiastical Academy – the Vatican 'school for ambassadors' of sorts. After getting their diploma, the future nuncios are sent to serve with different ranks at Holy See nunciatures all over the world.   If the papal ambassadors-in-training go all the way, they usually receive the rank of a papal nuncio after some 16-17 years of diplomatic service. However, the Pope may appoint as papal nuncio whoever he wants.   Among the most known nuncios who did not attend the Ecclesiastic Academy is the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Maria Tomasi, who in 1996 was elevated to the rank of nuncio from his previous post of Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants. The current nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles J. Brown, is also among those who did not attend the academy. Before his selection as a Vatican ambassador, Brown had previously served as an official in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Read more

2015-07-30T03:06:00+00:00

Last updated on: July 30, 2015 at 3:06 am   By

New Delhi, India, Jul 29, 2015 / 09:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics in India have joined their confreres in paying tribute to and praying for APJ Abdul Kalam, who served as the nation's president from 2002 to 2007 and was beloved by Indians across religious and cultural divides. Kalam died July 27 of cardiac arrest, collapsing while addressing university students in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya state in India's northeast. “All the Catholic youth and the entire Catholic community is in solidarity with the nation in mourning the death of a great son of India who was a statesman, a scientist, a visionary and a great motivator,” Bishop Henry D’Souza of Bellary told CNA July 28. “There is a somber mood in the country due to the passing away of Bharat Ratna Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, who endeared himself to all sections of people.” The Catholic prelate recounted his having met Kalam on several occasions, and added that “he had a great appeal to children and youth – he aimed to 'ignite young minds'. He fired their imagination.” Bishop D’Souza also noted that Kalam completed his college education at a Catholic college, and often mentioned of the influence of Father T. N. Sequeira on his life. Kalam took great pride in recounting anecdotes of his alma mater, St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli,  and his gratitude to the principal priest for mentoring him with moral science education which pushed his “urge to strive to foster a value-based society and world.” “He made a deep impression on people, especially the youth of India,” Bishop D’Souza reflected. “His friendly ways and congenial life style will continue to be a legacy to be followed and imitated – may his soul rest in peace!” Kalam was born in 1931 into a poor Muslim family in Tamil Nadu, in India's extreme southeast. He started working at a young age to help support his family, and went on to study physics at a Catholic college, and then aerospace engineering at at Madras Institute of Technology. He had a lengthy career in rocket science, becoming head of India's civilian space and missile defense programs. In 2002 he won India's presidential election, with the backing of both the Bharatiya Janata Party and Indian National Congress, the opposition party. While the Indian president is head of state, it is largely a ceremonial role, and the prime minister is the acting head of government. Kalam, however, used his position to reach out to Indians, especially the youth, about the importance of new energy sources, and internet access for rural populations. “Dr. Kalam was such a great person, and I am glad I was able to see him at close quarters. May his soul rest in peace,” Bishop Thomas Dabre of Poona told CNA July 28. Bishop Dabre recounted that he had the privilege to encounter Kalam a few times, both in Delhi and Surat, and also discussed the keen interest of the scientist-president in the issues of peace and progress in society. “Some of us representing various religious communities in India founded an association of various religions for the promotion of peace, unity, and harmony,” the bishop said. “And Dr. Kalam was the patron. Dr. Kalam personally guided the proceedings at a meeting in Surat, when we of various religions signed the Surat Declaration for peace and development.” Bishop Dabre added that “on another occasion, we discussed the problem of communal riots and the responsibility of religious leaders for healing the situation. Dr. Kalam listened to us intently and offered his perceptive suggestions.” Bishop George Palliparambil of Miao told CNA that “Abdul Kalam will be remembered forever as a great scientist, the missile man of India, the 11th president, and so on … but as I see him, he will forever be an icon for the youth of India, a trend setter, as well as a model for every Indian – his demise is a great loss to the country.” “He was not a product of political patronage, but a true patriot,” Bishop Palliparambil added. “Despite the many billionaires and 'successful' men and women, there are hardly any role models we can present to the youth – Dr. Kalam stands out as a very modern role model, and his words are always inspiring.” The bishop said that “the first thing about him was that he was truly an Indian – he was not a Tamilian, not a Muslim, nor any of those restricted groups – he was an Indian through and through. He spoke of India, especially of a future where the youth of India will play a role.” “We hear a lot of political jargons and slogans these days,” Bishop Palliparambil said. “Dr. Kalam did not indulge in any of those and he used plain words that sprung from the heart of an Indian, who grew to the greatest heights in India through hard work and unstinted perseverance.” Read more

2015-07-29T22:11:00+00:00

Last updated on: July 29, 2015 at 10:11 pm   By

New York City, N.Y., Jul 29, 2015 / 04:11 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- For Cardinal Dolan, the “virulent strain” of American nativism is not a thing of the past – it's alive, well and seeded in presidential candidate Donald Trump's recent remarks on the topic of immigration. “Nativists believed the immigrant to be dangerous, and that America was better off without them,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York said in a July 29 guest column for New York Daily News. “All these poor degenerates did, according to the nativists, was to dilute the clean, virtuous, upright citizenry of God-fearing true Americans.” Cardinal Dolan's column is in response to several offensive comments made on multiple occasions by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about Mexican immigrants. The cardinal recalled how before becoming a bishop he taught American religious history to university students, dedicating a portion of the class to “the ugly phenomenon called nativism.” He offered a brief outline of nativism in America, noting its appearance in the 1840s and 1850s under the popular political party “the Know-Nothings.” It appeared again, he observed, in the 1870s as the American Protective Association and in the 1920s as the KKK. Finally he pointed to post-World War II America, naming the Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State group as nativists. Although his students might argue that the days of bigotry and belief that immigrants are nothing more than “dirty, drunken, irresponsible, dangerous threats to clean, white, Protestant, Anglo-Saxon America” are gone, the cardinal begs to differ. “I wish I were in the college classroom again, so I could roll out my 'Trump card' to show the students that I was right. Nativism is alive, well – and apparently popular!” Trump, in his speech launching his presidential campaign, had said that “the U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems. And these aren't the best and the finest.” “When Mexico sends its people they're not sending their best, they're sending people that have a lot of problems…they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some I assume are good people.” “I speak to border guards, and they tell us what we're getting. And it only makes common sense. They're sending us not the right people,” he said, adding that these immigrants don’t only come from Mexico, but also from South America and likely the Middle East. In a June 28 interview with CNN Trump spoke of making Mexico build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, saying that a wall is needed in certain areas. He said he would force Mexico to build the wall “because we give them a fortune. Mexico makes a fortune because of us. A wall is a tiny little peanut compared to that. I would do something very severe unless they contributed or gave us the money to build the wall.” In his column, Cardinal Dolan described nativism with the same words as scholar and author Ray Allen Billington, calling it “organized, white, Protestant antagonism toward the Catholic immigrant.” He said that he is not telling anyone who they should vote for, but stressed that as a Catholic “I take seriously the Bible’s teaching that we are to welcome the stranger, one of the most frequently mentioned moral imperatives in both the Old and New Testament.” The cardinal then pointed to two attitudes toward immigrants described by various American historians, the first being the nativists. These people “sadly… (view) the unwashed, ignorant, bothersome brood as criminals and misfits who threaten ‘pure America,’ and are toxic to everything decent in the United States.” However, the second, “more enlightened and patriotic” approach sees the immigrant as a gift to the nation, realizing that Native Americans are the only citizens whose ancestors were not immigrants. The second group still recognizes the need for border control, fair regulation and prudent policies, but “we are wise to consider the immigrant as good for our beloved nation,” the cardinal said. “To welcome them is virtuous, patriotic and beneficial for the economic and cultural future of our country.” As a Catholic, the cardinal admitted to being “a bit biased” toward immigrants, and expressed his eagerness to share the work Catholic Charities in New York is doing to assist immigrants with Pope Francis during his September visit to the United States. American patriotism and Catholicism have always been slightly at odds with each other in the United States, he said. Dolan referred to how poet Walt Whitman called his predecessor Archbishop John Hughes a “mitred hypocrite” for an American, due to his defense of his “poor Irish immigrant flock – the Mexicans of his day – from the nativists.” He then noted how Whitman himself referred to immigrants as “these dregs of foreign filth, refuse of convents, scullions from monasteries.” “Thank God Walt Whitman stuck to poetry, and did not run for President.” Read more

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