Sacramento, Calif., Aug 26, 2014 / 03:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid backlash from religious liberty and education advocates, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown's administration has ordered abortion coverage in health insurance plans for two Catholic universities. “California Catholics are no longer safe to practice their faith within their own institutions. Gov. Brown's decision demonstrates that, in California, tolerance does not extend to people of faith and moral conscience,” David Luke, co-founder of Renew LMU, told CNA Aug. 26. Luke's group aims for the renewal of Catholic identity at the Los Angeles-based Loyola Marymount University, from which he graduated in 1993. He said that Gov. Brown and his administration has given the university leadership “a unique opportunity to prove that being a Catholic institution still means something.” Brown, he noted, “has given them an opportunity to stand in defense of innocent human life and religious freedom. I hope they take advantage of that opportunity.” Luke's comments follow California government officials' scrutiny of health care plans designed to remove some abortion coverage from health plans that Loyola Marymount University and Santa Clara University provide to their employees. On Friday, Michelle Rouillard, director of California's Department of Managed Health Care announced that health plans that restricted abortion coverage were illegal under state law. Her Aug. 22 letter to health care companies active in the state instructed them to cover abortion on the grounds that it is “a basic health care service.” She said that some contracts “limiting or excluding coverage for termination of pregnancies” may illegally discriminate against women. Under California's Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975 and judicial rulings applying the California state Constitution, Rouillard's letter said, “all health plans must treat maternity services and legal abortion neutrally.” The letter instructed health care companies to remove “discriminatory coverage exclusions and limitations,” including those that limit coverage to “therapeutic” or “medically necessary” abortions. The department's action, however, could face legal challenges. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal religious liberty advocacy group, co-authored with the Life Legal Defense Foundation a letter to the California department objecting to the action. The two groups said that the action is a “clear violation” of the federal Weldon Amendment, which bars states that accept federal funds from discriminating against institutions and health care entities that do not provide coverage of abortion or refer for abortions. The California government department “cannot deny approval to or otherwise penalize a health insurance plan for failing to provide coverage of some or all abortions,” said the letter, which was written on behalf of the Cardinal Newman Society. “When Congress enacted the Weldon Amendment, it sought to ensure that the government could never strong-arm pro-life employers into paying for abortion coverage; therefore, California’s decision is illegal,” Matthew Bowman, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, said Aug. 22. “No state can ignore federal law in a pursuit to conform everyone to the state’s own ideology on abortion,” Bowman added. “Faith-based organizations should be free to operate according to the faith they espouse and live out on a daily basis.” The letter threatened to file complaints with the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Peter Warren, an assistant director of communications at Loyola Marymount University, told CNA Aug. 25 that the university is waiting to hear from its insurance companies on how the decision affects the university. Deepa Arora, communications director at Santa Clara University, said Aug. 25 that the university has reached out to its insurers. “We will confer with them to ensure that our health plans continue to be fully compliant with state and federal law,” Arora said.A fight for Catholic identity Christopher Kaczor, a philosophy professor at Loyola Marymount, told CNA/EWTN News Aug. 19 that California government officials’ scrutiny of abortion coverage in health plans are hindering Catholic colleges’ ability to be consistently Catholic. “A Catholic university, if it is to retain its identity, must be distinctive in its fidelity to fundamental truths.” Kaczor cited the Society of Jesus’ 2003 document “Standing for the Unborn,” saying that “the defense of human life prior to birth is a justice issue.” He said Loyola Marymount, a Jesuit university, “should not, in any way, facilitate abortion.” In fall 2013 both Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara announced that they planned to stop paying for employees’ elective abortions, the Associated Press reports. They said their insurers, Anthem Blue Cross and Kaiser Permanente, had secured approval from state officials. In an October 2013 letter, Santa Clara University president Father Michael E. Engh, S.J., said that the Catholic university’s “core commitments” are incompatible with abortion coverage. State officials revisited their decision following agitation from pro-abortion rights faculty and staff at the universities, as well as activism from pro-abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union. Santa Clara University faculty voiced their rejection of the changes to the health care plan by a vote of 215 to 89 in December, the California Lawyer magazine reports. Before the policy was revised, Santa Clara’s abortion coverage also applied to dependents of faculty and staff.   The universities' revised health plans still offer supplemental coverage for abortion through a third party. Kaczor said that Loyola Marymount’s health coverage change is a “significant, meaningful improvement” over the previous policy that covered elective abortion. He said university president David Burcham’s initial proposed policy was “a wonderful affirmation of our Jesuit character.”   However, he said the change actually implemented by the university’s board of trustees was not as strong because it still cooperated in the provision of abortion. Luke, of Renew LMU, agreed that the university’s current policy still makes it “morally complicit” in the procurement of abortion. He said it was “not clear” that Loyola Marymount’s leadership “has the commitment to Catholic mission required to oppose an assault on religious freedom.” He noted that the president of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles was invited to speak on campus despite the protests of concerned students, faculty, alumni and others. Luke said that Loyola Marymount's Catholic mission and identity “have been in decline for years.” He charged that the university’s leadership “would rather bow to a loud, secular faculty majority than do the right thing.” “The faculty who lobbied Governor Brown were not satisfied with the affordable abortion coverage provided by their Catholic employer,” Luke said. ”They will only be satisfied when their Catholic employer actively participates in the killing of the unborn.” He encouraged prayer for the restoration of the university's Catholic character. Read more

Toledo, Ohio, Aug 26, 2014 / 11:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Tuesday named Auxiliary Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Philadelphia to be the next bishop of Ohio’s Diocese of Toledo. “I express my profound gratitude to Pope Francis for his confidence and trust in appointing me the shepherd of the Lord’s flock here in northwest Ohio,” Bishop Thomas said at an Aug. 26 press conference in Toledo. “Aware that I am not worthy of the office, I trust in God’s Holy Will as expressed through the Successor of Peter and in the grace and mercy of Jesus the Good Shepherd.” “What is important is not so much my name, but who I am for you, a father, brother, and friend in the faith,” the bishop said. He added: “it is my fervent hope and prayer that the weak and the vulnerable, the poor and the needy, indeed all of us, might experience more deeply the love and mercy of Christ.” Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia praised the appointment, saying that the Toledo Diocese “has been given a true gift in Bishop Thomas.” “The appointment being announced today demonstrates the confidence our Holy Father has in Bishop Thomas' pastoral and administrative skills,” Archbishop Chaput said in a statement. “I have worked with him closely since my arrival in Philadelphia nearly three years ago and have witnessed his wisdom, intelligence, personal warmth and keen affection for the people of God.” “I know he will serve them joyfully as a faithful shepherd and spiritual father.” Bishop Thomas was born June 11, 1959 in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia. He was ordained to the priesthood for the Philadelphia archdiocese in 1985 by Cardinal John Krol. He was named an auxiliary bishop in 2006. He served as a parochial vicar and a pastor at several Pennsylvania parishes, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reports. The bishop holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Philadelphia’s St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and a licentiate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He served in the Congregation for Bishops at the Vatican and was adjunct spiritual director at the Pontifical North American College Seminary in Rome. During the press conference, Bishop Thomas said that he looked forward to participating in the life of the diocese. “Most of all, I look forward, as your bishop, to preaching the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to celebrate the sacraments, especially the Most Holy Eucharist, to teach and defend our Catholic faith, to lead and strengthen you so that together we might be more vibrant and courageous disciples of the Lord.” Bishop Thomas will be the eighth Bishop of Toledo. He succeeds Leonard P. Blair, who was named Archbishop of Hartford, Conn. in October 2013. Archbishop Blair said he was “very pleased” to hear of Bishop Thomas’ appointment. “He is a man of wide pastoral experience, deeply committed to Christ and the Church. The clergy and people of Toledo will be well served by the many gifts Bishop Thomas brings as their new shepherd,” the archbishop said in a statement. Bishop Thomas voiced his prayers for the people of the diocese and said he prayed that he will be “a faithful, humble, holy and ardent bishop for Toledo.” The Diocese of Toledo has about 320,000 Catholics in a population of over 1.4 million.   Read more

Napa Valley, Calif., Aug 26, 2014 / 04:07 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Church in northern California is helping respond to a major earthquake, which shook Napa Valley early Sunday morning, the largest earthquake to hit the area in 25 years. Jennielynn Holmes, director of shelter and housing for Catholic Charities in the area, said they are partnering with local emergency response programs to provide assistance. “There's a lot of cleanup going on right now,” she told CNA Aug. 25. “The water situation is really bad, they're not sure if they'll have it turned on for another week in some locations...but (everyone is) working hard, they've already fixed up a lot of places where the pavement became uneven.” The 6.0 magnitude earthquake was the biggest to hit the region since the 6.9 Loma Prieta quake in 1989, which killed 63 people, injured thousands and caused several billion dollars in damage according to the U.S. Geological Survey. While there are no known fatalities from the Aug. 24 earthquake, more than 100 people were injured and many homes and businesses damaged or destroyed. Nearly everyone who had been brought to the hospital for earthquake related injuries was released by Sunday night, CNN reports. One patient remained in critical condition and a child injured when a fireplace collapsed was life-flighted to UC Davis Medical Center. Holmes said while the Catholic Charities shelter had its own cleanup to do, other buildings sustained much more damage, and the downtown area seemed to be hit especially hard. “There's actually a house next to one of our shelters that...the foundation just sunk into the ground,” she said. “Luckily we just did work on our program foundation a couple years ago, so we were fortunate.” Catholic Charities of California has also been working to round up food, furniture and clothing for those who lost their homes or belongings in the quake. Besides household items and houses themselves, the biggest need in the aftermath might be cars, Holmes said. “There's been a couple of car ports that have collapsed and fell on cars and they've been destroyed, so I would say probably financial assistance in that way (will be the biggest need),” she said. “Hopefully by the end of today we'll have more information.” She added that Bishop Robert Vasa has been in the area, helping out with local parishes. “He's checking in to see how everybody's doing.” As recovery efforts solidify, there will be a need for volunteers who can give of their time to cleanup efforts or who can donate household items, Holmes said. The next few days and even weeks of recovery will be precarious, especially because of possible aftershocks expected from the quake, she explained. But so far the response in the community has been positive. “I know a lot of people have kind of rallied together to help out.” Donations to Catholic Charities of California can be made on their website: http://catholiccharitiesca.org/wp/join-us/ Read more

New York City, N.Y., Aug 26, 2014 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The leader of the World Jewish Congress slammed global apathy to persecution of Christians in the Middle East and other parts of the world, saying more countries should be moved to action. “The general indifference to ISIS, with its mass executions of Christians and its deadly preoccupation with Israel, isn't just wrong; it's obscene,” wrote Ronald S. Lauder in an Aug. 19 New York Times editorial. “The Jewish people understand all too well what can happen when the world is silent,” he said. “This campaign of death must be stopped.” Lauder stated that while the international community has rallied to defend the persecution of other minorities in other conflicts, as well as to protest Israel's attacks against Hamas when the organization is known to be using civilians as human shields, “the barbarous slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Christians is met with relative indifference.” Noting a range of offenses against “Christian communities that have lived in peace for centuries” in the Middle East and parts of Africa, he decried a lack of action. Lauder also noted that recently, militant groups in Nigeria have “kidnapped and killed hundreds of Christians” in Nigeria, and that half a million “Christian Arabs have been driven out of Syria during the three-plus years of civil war there,” and have faced persecution and murder in Lebanon, Sudan and elsewhere. “Historians may look back at this period and wonder if people had lost their bearings,” Lauder warned.  He noted that international organization have mostly remained quiet  on “the Nazi-like wave of terror that is rolling across” Iraq. Additionally, he said, celebrities of public figures have not spoken on the persecution, and he wondered “why doesn’t the slaughter of Christians seem to activate their social antennas?” In his letter, Lauder commended President Obama for “ordering airstrikes to save tens of thousands of Yazidis,” but said that the airstrikes were not enough to counter the the economic resources and military force of the Islamic State. Saying the organization was “perhaps the wealthiest Islamist terrorist group in the world,” he noted that “where it truly excels is in its carnage,” where it “has ruthlessly targeted Shiites, Kurds and Christians.” “They actually beheaded children and put their heads on a stick,” he said, quoting a CNN report on violence in Mosul, Iraq with a Chaldean-American businessman, Mark Arabo. “More children are getting beheaded, mothers are getting raped and killed, and fathers are being hung.” Lauder reiterated an earlier promise he made in June, that as he “will not be silent in the face of the growing threat of anti-Semitism in Europe and in the Middle East, I will not be indifferent to Christian suffering.” Good people of all faiths, but particularly Christians and Jews, he continued, “must join together and stop this revolting wave of violence.” Lauder stressed that the two faiths share “ much more than most religions,” including a Bible and “moral and ethical core.” “Now, sadly, we share a kind of suffering,” he added. “Christians are dying because of their beliefs, because they are defenseless and because the world is indifferent to their suffering.” Lauder pressed people around the world to act. “It's not as if we are powerless,” he said, pointing out that he was writing “as a citizen of the strongest military power on earth,” as well as “as a Jewish leader who cares about my Christian brothers and sisters.” Read more