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Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

Posted on by Vermont Catholic 
(CNS photo/Lucas Jackson, Reuters) Cardinal Timothy Dolan, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, has urged the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, urged the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. It is expected to come to the House floor the first week of October. The bill, introduced by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), proposes a ban on abortions starting at 20 weeks after fertilization.

In a Sept. 29 letter to the House, Cardinal Dolan wrote, “All decent and humane people are repulsed by the callous and barbarous treatment of women and children in clinics…that abort children after 20 weeks.”

“Planned Parenthood’s callous and disturbing practices of harvesting fetal body parts from late-term abortions, partial-birth abortions, and the deplorable actions of late-term abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell…, have shocked our nation and led many Americans to realize that our permissive laws and attitudes have allowed the abortion industry to undertake these procedures,” Cardinal Dolan said, calling the 20-week ban a “common-sense reform.”

The Cardinal offered reasons why “the proposed ban on abortion at 20 weeks after fertilization is a place to begin uniting Americans who see themselves as ‘pro-life’ and as ‘pro-choice’.” The first centers on the expanding range of fetal ‘viability’. “The Supreme Court’s past insistence that unborn children must be ‘viable’ to deserve even nominal protection is not meaningful or workable…[M]edical technology is moving the point of viability earlier in the pregnancy putting Roe on a collision course with itself.” Second, there are life-threatening dangers to women undergoing abortions beyond 20 weeks. Finally, addressing the proposal to perform late-term abortions in “mainstream” clinics, he notes that those clinics generally refuse to perform the risky procedures. “What does it say about us as a nation, if we will not act against abortions that even full-time abortionists find abhorrent?” Cardinal Dolan asked.

Cardinal Dolan reaffirmed the right to life of humans at every stage of development, and clarified that the Church remains committed to advocating for the full legal protection of all unborn children: “[E]very child, from conception onward, deserves love and the protection of the law…. [T]he real problems that lead women to consider abortion should be addressed with solutions that support both mother and child.”

For the full text of Cardinal Dolan’s letter to the House of Representatives, visit: usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/abortion/upload/CdlDolan-HR36-House-Ltr-09-29-2017.pdf.

Support for Federal Disaster Assistance Nonprofit Fairness Act

Posted on by Vermont Catholic 
(CNS photo/Bob Roller) Franciscan Father John Tran Nguyen, pastor of St. Peter Church in Rockport, Texas, looks at his cellphone inside his destroyed church Sept. 8 in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. The parish is home to mainly Vietnamese-American Catholics.

Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, bishop of Springfield, Mass., and chairman of the USCCB Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, urged Members of Congress to support passage of the Federal Disaster Assistance Nonprofit Fairness Act of 2017. An almost identical bill passed the House in 2013 with overwhelming bipartisan support.

In Sept. 27 letters to the House and Senate, in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, Archbishop Lori and Bishop Rozanski asked representatives and senators to support the legislation, which would ensure the fair and equal treatment for houses of worship damaged in natural disasters by enabling them to seek aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The letters noted that the “legislation is consistent with Supreme Court jurisprudence, which recognizes the right of religious institutions to receive public financial aid in the context of a broad program administered on the basis of religion-neutral criteria.” The letters pointed to the 2017 Trinity Lutheran Church case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which provides a firm legal foundation for such assistance.

Archbishop Lori and Bishop Rozanski explained that “houses of worship often play an irreplaceable role in the recovery of a community” after a natural disaster.

“Discrimination that treats houses of worship as ineligible for federal assistance in the wake of a natural disaster, beyond being a legal violation, hurts the very communities most affected by the indiscriminate force of nature,” said Archbishop Lori and Bishop Rozanski.

Links to each of the letters can be found here:

usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/upload/Letter-of-Support-to-House-for-Federal-Disaster-Assistance-Nonprofit-Fairness-Act-of-2017.pdf

usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/upload/Letter-of-Support-to-Senate-for-Federal-Disaster-Assistance-Nonprofit-Fairness-Act-of-2017.pdf

More is available at: usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/upload/Federal-Disaster-Assistance-Nonprofit-Fairness-Act-2017-Fact-Sheet.pdf

Share the Journey

Posted on by Vermont Catholic 
(CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis makes a gesture of an embrace in support of immigrants during his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sept. 27.
A prayer here, a share on social media there, a voice of support in a letter to the editor, even a get-to-know-others potluck.

Supporting refugees and migrants can take many forms, and Pope Francis is hoping Catholics around the world will act over the next two years to encounter people on the move.

In the U.S., the Church’s leading organizations have developed a series of activities, including prayers, that families, parishes, schools and individuals can undertake during the Share the Journey campaign the pope is set to open Sept. 27 at the Vatican.

Share the Journey is an initiative of Caritas Internationalis, the global network of Catholic charitable agencies. It is meant to urge Catholics to understand and get to know refugees and migrants who have fled poverty, hunger, violence, persecution and the effects of climate change in their homeland.

In addition to Pope Francis’ formal announcement at his weekly general audience, key church representatives, including Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines, president of Caritas Internationalis, were to conduct a media conference the same day.

U.S. partners in the effort are the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and its Migration and Refugee Services, Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities USA.

The effort will give Catholics the opportunity to learn and explore Catholic social teaching on refugees and migrants, said Joan Rosenhauer, executive vice president of U.S. operations for CRS.

“Catholic social teaching has clear messages of caring for strangers, the importance of hearing their stories and understanding their needs,” she said.

Much of the effort will be focused on sharing stories about migrants and refugees, the struggles they face and why they chose to seek a better life elsewhere, said Kristin Witte, coordinator of domestic Catholic educational engagement at CRS, which is the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency.

“The hope is that through the stories that are presented, the images presented, that people will be moved from their place of comfort to a place of encounter. That’s what the church is calling us to. That’s what the pope is calling us to,” she said.

The coalition of Catholic organizations has developed a toolkit in English and Spanish that includes prayers, suggestions for activities for families, prayer groups, classrooms and clergy, and utilizing social media with references to #sharejourney.

“We’re giving people clear direct ideas, not just in their neighborhood but to mobilize communities. To create an environment or an opportunity for action is critical especially at this time,” Witte said.

Mark Priceman, communications for the bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services, said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that about 22 million people are on the move around the world, making the Christian community’s awareness and response to their situation critical.

The number of refugees to be admitted to the U.S. was capped at 50,000 by President Donald Trump for fiscal year 2017, which was to end Sept. 30. It is less than half of the ceiling of 110,000 set by President Barack Obama. A presidential determination on the number of refugees to be accepted for fiscal year 2018 was due by Sept. 30.

Since 1996, the number of refugees admitted has fluctuated between 70,000 and 90,000 annually. The number of refugees to be accepted each year is determined by the president under the Refugee Act, which was signed into law in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter. The act amended earlier law, created a permanent and systematic procedure to admit refugees, and established a process for reviewing and adjusting the refugee ceiling to meet emergencies.

Share the Journey looks to mobilize people quickly. Soon after the opening, the campaign is calling for a week of prayer and action for migrants and refugees Oct. 7-13.

Special prayers at Masses, prayer vigils, simulation exercises, school announcements, lesson plans and speaking events are among the activities suggested as ways to learn about people on the move.

Similar activities will be taking place worldwide throughout the campaign, Rosenhauer said.

“It is a reflection of the Holy Father’s leadership, but it’s also a reflection of the commitment of leaders around the church around the world,” she explained.
Nearly three dozen cardinals, archbishops and bishops as of Sept. 25 have pledged to participate in the campaign, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami addressed the concepts of the Share the Journey campaign in an op-ed column Aug. 28 in the Sun Sentinel in Broward County, Fla.

“‘Share the Journey’ invites us to see through the eyes of others rather than turning a blind eye,” he wrote. “As Pope Francis says, ‘Not just to see but to look. Not just to hear but to listen. Not just to meet and pass by but to stop. And don’t just say, ‘What a shame, poor people,’ but to allow ourselves to be moved by pity.'”

The campaign will take advantage of specially designated days throughout the year to raise awareness, including the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Dec. 12; Lent; the church’s observance of National Migration Week in January; World Refugee Day June 20 and the September 2018 United Nations meeting to consider two global compacts on refugees and migration.

There also is an advocacy component to Share the Journey, Rosenhauer said, giving U.S. Catholics the opportunity to take what they learn about migrants and refugees and approach federal policymakers to better allocate international assistance to address the factors that cause people to flee.

Together with Catholics worldwide, the U.S. organizers said they hope the campaign will begin to ease the burdens under which migrants and refugees live.

“We’re mobilizing the worldwide Catholic Church to serve,” Witte said. “There are so many networks that the Catholic Church already has that we can infuse an opportunity allow them to live their baptismal call and to stand up for the most vulnerable.”

Blessed Stanley Rother

Posted on by Vermont Catholic 
(CNS photo/Steve Sisney, Archdiocese of Oklahoma City)Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, center, celebrates the beatification Mass for Blessed Stanley Rother Sept. 23 at Oklahoma City's Cox Convention Center. Blessed Rother, a priest of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese, was murdered in 1981 in the Guatemalan village where he ministered.

Wearing a red and black traditional Guatemalan shirt that had belonged to martyred U.S. priest Father Stanley Rother, Ronald Arteaga traveled from his village of Santiago Atitlan to witness the Sept. 23 beatification of the pastor he knew as “Padre Aplas.”

Even though Arteaga was only 10 when now-Blessed Rother was martyred in 1981, he remembers “he was always with the people of Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, and more than that, he identified with our indigenous population.”

The sleeves on Arteaga’s shirt had to be rolled up because, as he recalled, Blessed Rother was a tall man. “He learned to speak Tz’utujil, the language of my people, and he always served the people most in need,” Arteaga said.

When Blessed Rother was killed, Arteaga recalled, it “broke the hearts of the entire village,” but “we had hope that he would receive this honor and thanks be to God that this day has arrived!”

An estimated 20,000 packed the Cox Convention Center from across the country and throughout the world to witness the beatification of the native Oklahoman who would become the first U.S.-born martyr. Ordained for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City in 1963, Blessed Rother went to the archdiocesan mission in Santiago Atitlan. He was gunned down in his rectory by three masked men in 1981.

Pope Francis recognized the priest’s martyrdom last December, making him the first martyr born in the United States and clearing the way for his beatification.

“We’re amazed at the size of the crowd and delighted so many people are interested in celebrating his life,” said Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City during a media availability. “He’s a local hero whose reputation goes far beyond Oklahoma.”

Father Don Wolf, a cousin of Blessed Rother, made an appeal for continued support of the missions the martyr served in Santiago Atitlan and Cerro de Oro.

“For the people of his parish in Santiago Atitlan and Cerro de Oro and all of us here in Oklahoma, he has led our eyes unwaveringly to the kingdom of God,” Father Wolf said.

It was for Father Wolf’s ordination in May 1981 that Blessed Rother made his last visit to the United States, which Father Wolf said is a distinction that links his priesthood to his cousin’s.

“At ordination they invoke the saints … at my ordination we had one,” Father Wolf said. “It’s an enormous inspiration and an enormous challenge — the kind of service his priesthood embodied is the kind of service that I strive to.”

Francisco “Chico” Chavajay, program coordinator for Unbound Project in Guatemala, was only 1 when Blessed Rother was killed, but grew up in San Pedro, which is near Santiago Atitlan, knowing who “Padre Alpas” was and the impact he had on the community.

“My family benefited from the hospital he founded because one of my sisters went to the hospital when I was eight years old, and we didn’t have access to a closer hospital,” Chavajay recalled. “If it wasn’t for his work, it would probably have been a different story for my sister.”

Chavajay now works for Unbound, an U.S.-based organization founded in 1981 by five lay Catholics, including one who had worked with Blessed Rother in Guatemala. Unbound works with children and the elderly in poor and marginalized communities throughout the world. In Guatemala, Chavajay is responsible for serving more than 60,000 families.

“For us, he’s like an angel we have in heaven to support this cause,” Chavajay said. “We feel that Padre Aplas’ hand and prayers in heaven are helping guide us in this life to continue bringing the Gospel and salvation to our brothers and sisters in need.”

Father Guillermo Trevino traveled from the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, for the beatification. Serving in an area that relies heavily on agriculture, Father Trevino was impressed at Blessed Rother’s “ordinariness.” The future martyr was raised on his family’s farm about three miles from Okarche.

“The thing is he was so ordinary, but he had great gifts. In Guatemala he’d be working the farm,” said Father Trevino, finding inspiration in his example. In particular, he pointed to a line the late priest uttered that illustrates the devotion he had to his flock: “The shepherd cannot run.” “Can I do this?” Father Trevino has asked himself.

Dolores Mendoza Cervantes knew Padre Aplas in Santiago Atitlan. Her father, Juan Mendoza Lacan, helped him to translate the Bible into Tz’utujil, and was himself killed less than a year later on June 22, 1982. Dolores came to the U.S. at 16 because she had threats on her own life, but pointed out as a result of their efforts, “all the newer generations can read the language.”

She now lives in Danube, Calif., with her husband, Robert Cervantes. They said the government at the time considered teaching the Tz’utujil to read a threat.

“Father Stanley and my father-in-law were brave enough to stand up to them,” Robert said. “They knew they were going to be killed someday, but that didn’t stop them from translating the Bible into Tz’utujil.”

Collection Requested for Hurricane Irma Relief

Posted on by Vermont Catholic 
(CNS photo/James Ramos, Texas Catholic Herald) Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston gives a homily during a Sept. 2 Mass at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Spring, Texas, for victims of Tropical Storm Harvey. Cardinal DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has asked the nation's bishops to take up an emergency collection in their Dioceses for those impacted by Hurricane Irma.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington has asked his fellow bishops throughout the country to take an emergency collection in their Dioceses during weekend Masses Sept. 23-24 to help those recovering from devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean and the southeastern region of the United States.

“While emergency outreach was immediate, we know that the road to recovery and the rebuilding of communities will be long and additional support will be needed,” said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston in a statement issued Sept. 14.

The funds collected “will be used in the affected areas to support humanitarian aid, assistance with long-term efforts to restore communities after widespread destruction and for the pastoral and reconstruction needs of the Church in U.S. and the Caribbean,” he said.

Cardinal DiNardo acknowledged that his call “comes on the heels” of the emergency collection for victims of Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas and Louisiana and held on for days before moving inland.

Harvey, too, “caused catastrophic damage and compelled us to respond,” he said.

“Likewise, Hurricane Irma has been devastating and our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean, especially the Diocese of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and the southern U.S. need our help.”

The earlier call for a collection came in an Aug. 28 letter from Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, as USCCB vice president, suggesting funds be collected during Masses the weekend of Sept. 2-3 or Sept. 9-10.

Hardly any place in the path of Hurricane Irma was left untouched. Its strength and size, with 120-plus-mph winds stretching 70 miles from its core, leveled entire islands in the eastern Caribbean, brought unprecedented flooding on Cuba’s north coast, devastated the Florida Keys, snapped construction cranes in downtown Miami and targeted cities along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

In the Keys alone, at least 25 percent of the homes were destroyed and 65 percent suffered significant damage, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Brock Long. “Basically, every house in the Keys was impacted,” he told the news media.

In a Sept. 12 statement, the U.S. bishops’ Executive Committee prayed for “the safety and care of human life” after two catastrophic hurricanes — Irma and Harvey — and they urged Catholics around the country to offer their prayers as well as financial support and volunteer help as they can.

Irma dwindled to a tropical storm as it neared the Florida-Georgia line early Sept. 11 and had died out over southern states by week’s end.

“The Church is a channel for grace and solidarity in the wake of natural disasters as it offers solace and support in their aftermath,” Cardinal DiNardo said Sept. 14. “However, as is so often the case, the Church itself in these regions is both a long-standing provider of aid and now is in need of tremendous assistance itself.”

Many church structures “have been damaged and their resources depleted, which makes it even more challenging to provide assistance and pastoral outreach to those in need,” he added.

The “Grave Evil” of Assisted Suicide

Posted on by Vermont Catholic 
CNS photo/Art Babych) A woman holds up a sign during a rally against assisted suicide in 2016 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario. Later, in a Toronto speech, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, urged Canadians to work to reverse euthanasia rulings.

By Caitlin Thomas

In the Church’s efforts to teach about the grave evil of assisted suicide and the threats it poses, we must use clear and vigorous language. And it is always, always important that we do so with love.

Assisted suicide is suicide. In the few states where it is legal, physicians willing to do so prescribe lethal drugs at the request of patients seeking the drugs to end their own lives. Proponents of assisted suicide use terms like “death with dignity” and “aid in dying.” But these are misleading. They are the sickly-sweet phrases of a poisonous ideology that attacks our full dignity and worth as human beings.

These phrases go beyond word games and become flat-out contradictions carefully etched into law. In fact, every state law (and proposed bill) legalizing assisted suicide in this country follows Oregon’s law, proclaiming, “the actions taken in accordance with [the law] shall not, for any purposes, constitute suicide [or] assisted suicide.” So, according to the law itself, assisted suicide isn’t assisted suicide? The only sensible response to this legal blustering must be something like this sentiment from a wise character in C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce: “Every disease that submits to a cure shall be cured: but we will not call blue yellow to please those who insist on having jaundice.”

We should not be seduced by slippery language into ignoring hard truths. The dying process can be painful, messy, full of uncertainty and difficult questions—just like life. But there is death with authentic dignity: dying at peace with God and our loved ones. Dying or terminally ill persons deserve the best care we have to offer, including appropriate treatment of symptoms and pain relief. There is a way to face this process with peace, not by hastening death, but by experiencing the support and loving care that our society should offer to those preparing for death. Assisted suicide, on the other hand, hurts the individual and the entire human family, sending a message that some lives are “completed” or not as valuable as others. We should kill the pain, not the patient.

Truth always walks hand-in-hand with love. It is not enough to say, “suicide is bad.” We must also say, “life is good”—especially when life is old, fragile, differently abled, so young and so small our eyes cannot see it, or of a different skin color or place of origin.

We should learn how to best love those who are close to death. We should pray for holy deaths for them and for ourselves, recognizing that Jesus brings us to new life with Him through His death and resurrection. We should pray for the grace to build a true culture of life. And we should affirm the goodness of life in all that we do and say.

Caitlin Thomas is a staff assistant for the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. To read the U.S. bishops’ 2011 policy statement on assisted suicide and related resources, visit www.usccb.org/toliveeachday.