VOLUME 1, ISSUE 30  •  JULY 25, 2015

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

The Vatican’s helicopter: Transporting popes, saving kids’ lives

Corruption, threats, torture – we need justice in the mining industry, Pope says

Budget-keeping at the Vatican: In transition toward a new era

Yerba mate, Jesuits, and Francis – the story of the Pope’s favorite drink

Pope entrusts South America trip to Mary

Ebola deaths are still happening – and the Vatican is aiming to stop them

Here’s Pope Francis’ schedule for the Jubilee of Mercy

Is the Pope a socialist?

What Pope Francis might be planning to tell the U.N. in New York

WORLD NEWS

The slow demise of Catholic magazines in Italy

Behold the newly-discovered painting in Rome’s Catacomb of Callixtus

French bishops: Don’t euthanize paralyzed man

Less ‘Euro-centric,’ please – what African bishops want from the synod

Hope for Gaza? Despite a tough year, Catholic aid group says yes

Aleppo archbishop aims to help Christians stay in Syria

U.S. NEWS

Bible publisher wins permanent victory over HHS mandate

Mercy, Justice, and the Gospel of Life: U.S. bishops on ending the death penalty

U.S. and Cuba re-open embassies – Will lifting the embargo be next?

L.A. gets three new auxiliary bishops, including Fr. Robert Barron

In new video, Planned Parenthood exec appears to joke about pricing baby parts

Why the Catholic behind the Planned Parenthood videos went undercover

The story behind the new L.A. bishops’ pectoral crosses

Archbishop after death of California woman: Immigrants are not all ‘guilty by association’

Last hope: Little Sisters of the Poor appeal to Supreme Court

Want to walk with Pope Francis? Then take this pledge

In Wisconsin, fetal pain concerns drive new abortion regulations

Why this Catholic health care development is a game-changer for women

After theater shooting, Lafayette bishop offers sympathy and prayer

Court: Family-run pharmacy must carry Plan B despite religious objections

Is the Pope’s challenge to America having an anti-Francis effect?

FEATURES

The Apostle to the Apostles

The Church needs better ministry to priests in prison

What do we need to be truly happy?

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • July 26, 2015

Monday • July 27, 2015

Tuesday • July 28, 2015

Wednesday • July 29, 2015

Thursday • July 30, 2015

Friday • July 31, 2015

Saturday • August 1, 2015

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Volume 1, Issue 30 • July 25, 2015

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VATICAN NEWS

The Vatican’s helicopter: Transporting popes, saving kids’ lives

by CNA/EWTN News • July 18, 2015

A helicopter carries Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as he officially retires in Vatican City on February 28, 2013. (Getty News Images/Getty Images)

Vatican City — One of Europe’s best pediatric hospitals, Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital in Rome, can now use the Vatican’s helicopter to transport patients, personnel and medical equipment in emergencies.

The agreement was announced July 17th by the hospital and the Governatorate of the Vatican City State, and is part of a bigger initiative to use the helicopter within a regional network for emergency management.

“We are grateful to the Holy See, the Secretary of State and the Governatorate in particular, in the person of the SCV’s Secretary General, Bishop Fernando Vergez Alzaga, for this opportunity, which is given to the Bambino Gesù hospital, and especially to the many young patients from all over Italy, who unfortunately need urgently to reach our hospital,” Bambino Gesu President Mariella Enoc said Friday, according to Vatican Radio.

“It is an important gesture of charity that responds to a basic health need: the physical proximity between the Vatican City State and our seat on the Janiculum Hill, in fact, will significantly shorten transport times, contributing in many cases to saving the lives of children,” she added.

The helicopter, also known as the Vatican City Heliport, is kept on a small, rectangular landing pad in the Vatican Gardens and is sometimes used to transport the Pope and other heads of state on short trips away from the Vatican, and to Castle Gandolfo, the pope’s summer residence. It was first used in 1976 by Pope Paul VI.

Bambino Gesu (which translates to the child Jesus) is the largest pediatric hospital and research center in Europe. It has a child-centered, welcoming approach and operates on the moral and ethical principles of the Catholic faith.

The hospital was built in 1869 and is the oldest pediatric hospital in Italy. Owned by the Holy See and known as the Pope’s hospital, Bambino Gesu also serves children from all over the world. The Holy Father is a popular figure at the hospital, where children write him letters and know many details of his life, including words from his homilies and facts about his home country and favorite soccer team.

In December 2013, Pope Francis visited the hospital for Christmas, after receiving drawings from the children at the hospital asking for a visit. Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI were all known to visit the hospital. During his first visit in September 2005, during the first three months of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI said he came in order “to bear witness to the love of Jesus for children.”

In 2010, Bambino Gesu doctors performed the world’s first transplant of a permanent artificial heart into a 15-year old boy, and since 2013 has been conducting research on a rare heart condition known as Long QT syndrome.

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VATICAN NEWS

Corruption, threats, torture – we need justice in the mining industry, Pope says

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 18, 2015

Pope Francis prays with journalists on the papal flight en route to South Korea on Aug. 14, 2014. (Alan Holdren/CNA)

Vatican City — Continuing his theme on protecting both the environment and human rights, Pope Francis pointed to various injustices in the mining industry and called for collaboration in fostering change.

All involved in the field of mining “are called upon to adopt behavior inspired by the fact that we constitute a single human family, everything is interconnected,” Francis said July 18.

He stressed that genuine care for our own lives and our relationship with nature is “inseparable from fraternity, justice and faithfulness to others.”

The Pope made his comments in a message sent to participants in a July 17-19 conference titled “United to God, We Hear a Cry,” organized by the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace and the Latin American “Churches and Mining” network.

Held at Rome’s Salesianum Congress Centre, the meeting gathers community leaders, laborers and families involved in and affected by the mining industry. The event featured testimonies from those who have suffered first hand from corruption and torture.

Mining was a subject Francis also touched on in his recent encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si,” released June 18.

In his message, Pope Francis noted that there are many communities, families and individuals who frequently suffer both directly and indirectly due to the “too often negative” consequences of mining activities.

The conference, he said, represents “a cry for lost land; a cry for the extraction of wealth from land that paradoxically does not produce wealth for the local populations who remain poor; a cry of pain in reaction to violence, threats and corruption.”

He said it also gives voice to the “cry of indignation and for help for the violations of human rights, blatantly or discreetly trampled with regard to the health of populations, working conditions, and at times the slavery and human trafficking that feeds the tragic phenomenon of prostitution.”

Francis also pointed to the frequent contamination of the water, air and land, and the cry of “incomprehension for the absence for inclusive processes or support from the civil, local and national authorities, which have the fundamental duty to promote the common good.”

The Pope made an “urgent appeal” for collaboration in fighting environmental degradation and fostering an “integral, inclusive” sustainable development.

He called on governments in countries where mining takes place, suppliers, business leaders and investors to hold multinational mining companies to a socially responsible behavior.

“The entire mining sector is undoubtedly required to effect a radical paradigm change to improve the situation in many countries.”

Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, spoke with journalists July 17 about the closed-door meeting, saying that we cannot remain indifferent to both “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” highlighted by Pope Francis in his encyclical “Laudato Si.”

In 2013 the council organized a similar conference titled “Mining for the common good,” which was followed up by a report handed out to the various episcopal conferences involved. This week’s meeting serves as a preparation for a second conference titled “Creating a new future, Reimaging the future of mining,” scheduled to take place in September.

“Many of us are aware of this harrowing cry from those areas where mineral extraction is carried out,” the cardinal said, and pointed to various reports informing on the status of the rights of indigenous populations and legislation on mineral traceability currently being developed by the European Parliament.

He also pointed to the portrayal of these injustices seen in films such as “Blood Diamond” and “Avatar.”

“Faced with these situations, we cannot allow indifference, cynicism and impunity to continue to prevail. A radical paradigm change is needed in the interests of the common good, justice, sustainability and human dignity,” he said.

Cardinal Turkson pointed to various stories the council has received of “threats, violence and murder; of retaliation, of compensation never received, and of un-kept promises.”

Among them is the story of Héritier Wembo Nyama from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who was present alongside the cardinal and four other members of the mining sector.

Wembo recalled how he was set on fire by local police during a protest against a mining company. After then being arrested, tied up and tortured, it took him a two-week stay in the hospital to recover.

He said he was tracked down and threatened while in Kigali waiting to come to Rome. “They said they’d kill me if I came,” he said.

Other instances recounted by participants from Chile, Brazil and India revealed stories of activists in popular movements that had been killed for opposing mining activities in their communities, as well as those of water pollution, environmental degradation and various other negative effects of mining.

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VATICAN NEWS

Budget-keeping at the Vatican: In transition toward a new era

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • July 18, 2015

St. Peter’s Basilica and the flag of Vatican City from the roof of a nearby building on June 5, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — The Holy See and Vatican City State administration released their 2014 financial statements Thursday amid an ongoing process to reform Vatican finances and accounting standards.

The Holy See’s 2014 deficit was about $27.8 million, slightly more than the 2013 deficit of $26.6 million.

In total, the Holy See’s net assets increased by over $1 billion. This is an outcome of adjustments “made to include all assets and liabilities in the closing balances for 2014,” the Holy See Press Office said July 16.

The Holy See’s finances are distinct from the administration of the Vatican City State. The Vatican City governorate oversees the Vatican museums, the Vatican gardens, and the gendarmerie.

The Vatican City governorate ran a surplus amounting to more than $68.9 million. This is almost triple the surplus of 2013. The Holy See press office said this was due to “to continued strong revenue from the cultural activities (especially the Museums) and favorable movements in investments.”

The Council for the Economy provides guidelines to the Secretariat for the Economy, which in turn oversees all Vatican departments and the Vatican City State administration. Cardinal George Pell heads the secretariat.

Previously the Prefecture for Economic Affairs was in sole charge of financial oversight of the Vatican City State and the Holy See. The prefecture is expected to be absorbed into the secretariat under a reorganization which is in process.

The Prefecture for Economic Affairs prepared the latest financial statements. The Secretariat for the Economy, the Council for the Economy’s audit committee and an external auditor reviewed the balance sheet.

New assets and liabilities are part of the properties and funds of the Pontifical Councils and Congregations that were off of the final balance sheet. They were managed directly by the Vatican dicasteries and were part of the sole balance sheet of those bodies, a source in Vatican finances explained to CNA July 16.

According to the Holy See Press Office Bulletin, Holy See assets “previously off the balance sheet amounted to $1.2 billion, while liabilities amounted to almost $242 million.”

According to CNA’s source, these assets will remain available at the dicasteries. They will not be used to ‘refill’ the Holy See finances and help them break even.

“The assets are within the balance sheet as the Secretariat for Economy has to control overall Vatican finances, and because this is what is required by financial transparency international standards, but this does not mean that the assets become property of the Holy See,” the source maintained.

The 2013 and 2014 accounting standards for the Holy See’s spending differ somewhat due to several factors, including consolidations and other adjustments. Had the 2014 standards been applied to year 2013, that years’ Holy See deficit should have amounted to something more than $43 million.

The main Holy See sources of income in 2014 have been the Institute for Works of Religion contribution ($54.4 million) and the $22.8 million dollars coming from local Churches, which are called to contribute to the universal Church under canon law.

According to the Holy See Press Office, the improvement in 2014 was “largely due to favorable movements in investments held by the Holy See.”

It is not yet disclosed which investments these are. A Vatican Asset Management office intended to gather all investment policies of Vatican financial entities has not yet been established.

The Holy See’s most significant costs were the expenses for its approximately 2,880 staff across 64 Vatican entities under consolidation. These expenses totaled over $137 million in 2014.

Under the Vatican financial reorganization, the Prefecture for Economic Affairs will be absorbed by the Secretariat for the Economy. Among prefecture’s main tasks is the transition to the International Public Sector Accounting Standards. The transition will likely take several years.

The Secretariat is already working on 2015 financial statements, which will be the first statements prepared under the new financial management policies. The new policies also require an estimated budget, which the Vatican’s financial entities have already submitted.

According to the Vatican press office, the Council for the Economy has received a detailed budget submission from the secretariat.

“The submission highlighted proposed activities as well as anticipated revenue and expenditure for the coming year and included specific recommendation for each of the 136 entities of the list.”

Despite the fiscal improvements shown in the latest financial statements, the budgets indicate that recent years’ deficits “are likely to continue in 2015.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Yerba mate, Jesuits, and Francis – the story of the Pope’s favorite drink

by CNA/EWTN News • July 19, 2015

Pope Francis drinking mate while in Paraguay, July 2015. (Mariana Moreno)

Caacupé, Paraguay — On more than one occasion Pope Francis has been seen sharing a drink offered him by a pilgrim from Argentina: it’s mate, a traditional infused drink popular in his native country and its neighbors.

Mate is the national infusion of Argentina, and is also associated with Our Lady of Caacupé, whose shrine Pope Francis visited in Paraguay on July 11.

The highly caffeinated beverage is served hot, traditionally in a hollowed gourd with a metal straw. Dried leaves of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis), a member of the holly family, are steeped in the hot water.

Yerba mate was first cultivated and used by the Guarani, an indigenous people of Paraguay and its neighbors. It was domesticated at the Jesuit Reductions in the 17th century, and the Society of Jesus was largely responsible for the spread of its consumption, through export – so much so that it became known as “the Jesuits’ tea.”

Yerba mate’s association with Our Lady of Caacupé stems from a Guarani sculptor named José, who had converted to Christianity through the Jesuits.

He was once being pursued by a group of the Mbaya people, who had not abandoned their native religion. He vowed that if Mary would keep him from being caught by the Mbaya, he would carve and venerate an image of her.

Mary then appeared to José, telling him “ka’aguy cupe-pe”, Guarani for “behind the yerba mate shrubs.” He ran over and found a thick tree trunk, hiding himself behind it, and his pursuers ran on past him. José fulfilled his promise and carved the statue, and now Our Lady of Caacupé is the patroness of Paraguay.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope entrusts South America trip to Mary

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • July 19, 2015

Pope Francis touches the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe during Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 12, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis entrusted his recent tri-nation voyage to South America to Our Lady of Guadalupe – praising the deeply-rooted Christianity in these countries, but also noting the social and economic challenges.

“To the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, whom the whole of Latin America venerates as Patron by the title Our Lady of Guadalupe, I entrust the fruits of this unforgettable Apostolic journey,” the pontiff said.

He made his remarks on Sunday to the large crowds who had gathered in Saint Peter’s Square for the weekly Angelus, despite the heat wave currently sweeping through Rome.

It’s the Pope’s first Angelus address since returning from his July 5-13 trip to Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay.

Drawing from the Gospel reading, the Argentine-born pontiff said he had asked the Good Shepherd to accompany him on his recent trip to the continent of his birth.

“I thank God with all my heart for this gift. I thank the people of the three countries for their affectionate and loving welcome and enthusiasm.”

Pope Francis extended his gratitude for all those who took part in his visit, including Bishops, priests, and consecrated persons.

He said that, alongside those who participated, he praised God “for the wondrous things he has worked” among them, as well as for the natural beauty of these countries.

The Holy Father then acknowledged the social and economic challenges which exist in these countries, and stressed the Church’s role in bringing about their resolutions.

“The Latin-American continent has great human and spiritual potential. It protects deeply-rooted Christian values, but also lives with serious social and economic problems.”

The Church has worked to offer spiritual and moral strength throughout the communities, working with all members of society, Pope Francis said.

In the face of these challenges, the Pope said he prayed for “the grace which saves and which gives strength to the commitment of Christian witness, to develop the spread of God’s Word, in order that the strong religiosity of those populations may always be faithful witnesses of the Gospel.

The July 19 Angelus address centered on the day’s Gospel reading, in which the Apostles return – “happy but also tired” – from the mission on which Jesus had sent them. He in turn takes them to a secluded place on a boat where they can rest. However, the crowds find Jesus, and run ahead to meet him where the boat lands.

Saint Mark in his Gospel then gives a sort of “photographic” image of Jesus, the Pope said, when He feels compassion upon seeing the crowds “because they were like sheep without a shepherd,” and taught them

Pope Francis honed on three key words: “to see, to have compassion, to teach.” These first two words, he said, “are always associated in Jesus’ approach: In fact, his gaze is not the gaze of a sociologist or a photojournalist, because he always looks with ‘the eyes of the heart.’”

He added that seeing and having compassion “amount to Jesus as the Good Shepherd.”

“Even his compassion: it is not merely a human emotion, but it is the sentiment of the Messiah in whom is made flesh the tenderness of God.”

This compassion, he continued, leads Jesus to “nourish the crowds with the bread of his Word.”

“Jesus sees, Jesus has compassion, Jesus teaches us. This is beautiful!”

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VATICAN NEWS

Ebola deaths are still happening – and the Vatican is aiming to stop them

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 21, 2015

The operators in charge of burying the dead from Ebola in the cemetery set up in Kenema, Sierra Leone. (Luigi Baldelli via Medici con l’Africa Cuamm/Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Vatican City — Although two of the three countries hardest hit by last year’s Ebola outbreak have been declared free of the virus, they aren’t out of the woods yet.

Deaths related to the massive Ebola outbreak that swept across western Africa last year continue to take place, even in Liberia, which was declared “Ebola free” by the World Health Organization (WHO) May 9.

“Sadly, we recently witnessed the urgent need for such efforts when a new death due to the Ebola Virus Disease was identified in Liberia, some forty-five days after the country had been declared ‘Ebola Free,’” Archbishop Bernardito Auza said in a July 9 statement.

Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the U.N., Archbishop Auza issued the statement on the occasion of an International Ebola Recovery Conference in New York, hosted by the United Nations.

The July 9 conference was followed the next day by another, aimed at ensuring that recovery efforts go beyond a mere redress of direct development losses, but also extend to rebuilding and ensuring greater resilience.

According to the WHO, the total number of reported Ebola cases to date exceeds 27,300.

The Ebola outbreak first reported in March 2014 has claimed at least 11,193 lives since the first confirmed case, the death of a two-year-old boy in Guinea.

Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone were the countries hardest hit by the outbreak, although deaths were also reported in Nigeria, the U.S., and Mali.

Although the number of deaths in both Guinea and Sierra Leone had dwindled to the single digits earlier this summer, numbers again rose to the double digits at the end of June, quelling hopes the countries would also soon be dubbed “Ebola free.”

In his statement for the U.N. conference, Archbishop Auza stressed that the review and planning taking place in the meeting “must result in action-oriented commitments to overcome all risk of complacency and to make tangible progress in the strengthening and preparedness of health systems to avoid future outbreaks.”

Monsignor Robert J. Vitillo, a special adviser on health for Caritas International, last fall voiced his concern for the fate of the three West African countries at the height of the outbreak.

Despite the fact that Sierra Leone experienced tremendous economic growth in 2013, the situation has now reversed due to Ebola, he said. The infrastructure of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, “is at the point of collapsing.”

Already weak from recurring wars and abject poverty, Msgr. Vitillo said the countries are headed for catastrophe if the economic impact is as high as predicted, adding that the situation is worsened by the numerous school closures.

Children who are not in school are at greater risk of falling into petty crime or being manipulated or abused, Msgr. Vitillo went on. Health infrastructure in these countries was already “quite weak and now is unable to respond to the crushing demands of Ebola care, routine health care and other health emergency situations.”

However, he noted that despite the immense challenges, the Church has been at the forefront of the Ebola fight, and has provided an essential role in maintaining continuous care.

Archbishop Auza recognized the efforts made on the part of the local Catholic communities in the affected countries, who have been on the frontlines in fighting the epidemic and providing support to the families of the victims.

He reiterated the Holy See’s commitment “to continue to work, through Catholic institutions in the countries and areas affected by Ebola and its international humanitarian network, towards the achievement of getting to zero and staying at zero.”

The archbishop also pointed to Pope Francis’ 2015 speech to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, in which the Pope renewed his plea on behalf of the sick, “who are so often cast aside and marginalized,” giving specific mention to victims of the Ebola outbreak.

He observed how those who recovered from the virus, those thought to have it, as well as children orphaned by it, have at times faced discrimination and ostracization from their families and communities due to a lack of knowledge about Ebola.

Local Catholic communities, he said, have “strongly opposed discrimination against those who recovered from the illness and children who have been orphaned by the Ebola-related deaths of their parents, while actively working for their reintegration into their families and communities.”

Archbishop Auza also announced that the Holy See would be giving a donation $20,000 to support both national and regional efforts to recover from the devastating consequences of the Ebola outbreak.

The donation, he said, is an expression of “the remarkable efforts of all to defeat Ebola” and is a sign of solidarity with those affected by the virus.

The sum is added to the millions of dollars in funding and supplies gathered by various international Catholic organizations to assist the Church in the affected countries.

Pope Francis himself has granted 500,000 euros ($542,000) to advance what the archbishop referred to as “a special initiative.”

He said the Holy See continues to provide “significant resources” to Church-related institutions in the three affected countries in order to enhance and expand their programs.

The archbishop closed with an appeal for the international community to “exert all necessary effort to defeat Ebola,” and to work to alleviate the hardships and sufferings of all those affected by it.

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VATICAN NEWS

Here’s Pope Francis’ schedule for the Jubilee of Mercy

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • July 22, 2015

Pope Francis before the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica during the convocation of the Jubilee of Mercy, April 11, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — Twelve prominent events, each with the participation of Pope Francis, have been scheduled in Rome for the upcoming Jubilee of Mercy, and CNA was able to glance at details of their programs.

The twelve big events of the Jubilee of Mercy will be: 24 hours for the Lord, a day-long period of Eucharistic adoration; To Dry the Tears, a prayer vigil; and jubilees centered on pilgrimage workers; the sick and disabled; catechists; deacons; teenagers; priests; volunteers of mercy; the Curia; Mary; and Divine Mercy spirituality.

In addition to these events, a “Jubilee for Padre Pio’s prayer group” will take place Feb. 13, 2016, as the body of the Capuchin saint who bore stigmata for much of his life will be exposed in Saint Peter’s Basilica Feb. 8-14, at Pope Francis’ request.

“The Holy Father expressed the wish that Padre Pio’s corpse be exposed in St. Peter’s Basilica on Ash Wednesday of the upcoming Extraordinary Holy Year, that is, the day when the Pope will send the missionaries of Mercy, giving them a special mandate to preach and hear confessions, so that they be a lively sign of how the Father welcomes those who seeks his pardon,” Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, wrote to Archbishop Michele Castoro of the Archdiocese of Manfredonia-Vieste-San Giovanni Rotondo.

Here is a description of the full schedule of the meetings.

The jubilee for pilgrimage workers will take place Jan. 19-21, 2016. It will start with an international gathering of pilgrimage workers together with priests, rectors, and staff of shrines. A Mass will be said Jan. 19 at the Basilica of St. John Lateran. The group will have a conference and catechesis the following day, with Eucharistic adoration and Confession, and a pilgrimage to the Holy Door. They will meet with Pope Francis Jan. 21 in Paul VI Hall.

On the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Feb. 22, the Pope will also celebrate a special jubilee for the Roman Curia, the Vatican Governatorate, and the institutions linked to the Holy See.

On Apr. 1-3 2016, during the Easter Octave, the jubilee of Divine Mercy spirituality will be celebrated. On April 1, some Roman parishes will celebrate a penitential rite, and the following day Pope Francis will lead a prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Square. He will say Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday on April 3.

The teenagers’ jubilee will begin with an April 23 evening festival at Rome’s Olympic Stadium, followed by a Mass said by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square the following day.

The jubilee of deacons will take placy May 27-29, with conferences on their role as icons of mercy for the new evangelization in their families, parishes, and jobs. They will gather in Rome’s seven parishes named for St. Lawrence, and on May 28 will have Adoration, Confession, and pilgrimage to the Holy Door, then attend a Mass said by Pope Francis May 29.

Priests will celebrate their jubilee June 1-3. The first day will be dedicated to Eucharistic Adoration, lectio divina, and confessions. The Holy Father will preach their spiritual retreat June 2, and June 3 will say Mass with them.

The jubilee of the sick and disabled will occur June 10-12. The participants will gather in the jubilee churches, and from there they will go to the Holy Door. A celebration will be held in the gardens of Castel Sant’Angelo June 11, and a Mass in St. Peter’s Square with the Holy Father June 12.

From Sept. 2-4 the volunteers of mercy will gather in Rome for catechesis and a Mass with Pope Francis.

Catechists’ jubilee is scheduled Sept. 23-25. The first day, they will have the option of either visiting San Luigi dei Francesi to contemplate Caravaggio’s paintings of St. Matthew’s calling, inspiration, and martyrdom; or the Sistine Chapel to view salvation history through the ceiling painted by Michelangelo. The following day will see a catechesis on mercy in the jubilee churches and a prayer vigil at St. John Lateran, and Pope Francis will say Mass Sept. 25 in St. Peter’s Square.

A Marian jubilee will be celebrated Oct. 7-9, which will gather delegates from Marian shrines across the world. Pope Francis will be present at the Oct. 8 prayer vigil, and say Mass Oct. 9.

Added to these particular jubilees are two additional events: the 24 hours for the Lord, culminating March 4 with a penitential rite, and the “Vigil to Dry Tears,” scheduled May 5 and described as a vigil for all those who need consolation. Pope Francis will preside over both the vigils.

The jubilee was announced by Pope Francis during a March 13 penitential service, the second anniversary of his election as Bishop of Rome. It will open Dec. 8 – the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception – and will close Nov. 20, 2016, the Solemnity of Christ the King.

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VATICAN NEWS

Is the Pope a socialist?

by CNA News Analysis (CNA/EWTN News) • July 22, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on April 16, 2014. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis’ recent trip to Latin America has rekindled questions about whether he endorses socialism, or even communism.

The gift of a “communist crucifix” from Bolivia’s president Evo Morales and uncertainty over the Pope’s response fueled controversy for several days, while Morales told the Associated Press after the visit that he thought that the Pope’s emphasis on a world without exclusion amounts to socialism.

“I don’t know whether it’s communism, but it is socialism. He’s talking about community, about living in harmony,” Morales said July 10. He added: “I feel like now I have a Pope.”

But is it true? What does Pope Francis really believe?

A closer look at the Pope’s speeches and writings reveals an answer that is both complex and nuanced.

On one hand, the Pope has criticized greed and the idolatry of capital on numerous occasions, most recently in a lengthy, colorful July 10 address to the Second World Meeting of the Popular Movements in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The congress discussed challenges facing the poor and the marginalized.

“An unfettered pursuit of money rules. The service of the common good is left behind,” the Pope lamented. He alluded to a remark of St. Basil of Caesarea, which described the unfettered pursuit of wealth as “the dung of the devil.”

“Once capital becomes an idol and guides people’s decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home,” the Pope’s speech continued.

Francis also raised eyebrows in his 2013 apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium,” in which he criticized theories which assume that economic benefits for businesses and investors will “trickle down” the economic ladder to the poor and middle classes.

Such views, the Pope said, express “a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”

Do these criticisms of unregulated capitalism and the idolatry of money amount to an endorsement of socialism? Not really, says Gregory Weeks, a Latin America specialist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Pope Francis is “not advocating for the government to take over everything,” Weeks told the Associated Press. He cautioned against conflating warnings on the harms of capitalism with a push for socialism.

In fact, the Pope has directly rejected Marxism. He says that some of its tenets regarding the poor may sound similar to those of Christianity, but he firmly rejects attempts to equate the two.

“The Marxist ideology is wrong,” he told Italian Vatican analyst Andrea Tornielli in a late 2013 interview when questioned about his economic views.

Francis has said that he finds it “strange” that people make these accusations against him.

“If I repeated some passages from the homilies of the Church Fathers in the second or third century, about how we must treat the poor, some would accuse me of giving a Marxist homily,” he said in an October 2014 interview.

In an interview earlier that year with the Roman daily Il Messagero, he said that while concern for the poor is a mark of the Gospel and Church tradition, rather than an invention of communism.

“I must say that communists have stolen our flag. The flag of the poor is Christian,” he said, recalling the Beatitudes and the story of the Final Judgment in Matthew 25. “Poverty is the center of the Gospel. The poor are at the center of the Gospel.”

So if Francis has been open in criticizing aspects of both capitalism and socialism, what system does he espouse? The answer to that question is less clear. So far, he has not laid out a concrete or thorough vision of a detailed system that he supports.

But one clue may be hiding in the Pope’s own experience of growing up in a lower middle class family in Argentina, a family that could afford very little luxury or extra spending, but where basic needs – such as housing, food and clothing – were met with dignity, and one parent – his mother – could stay at home and be “the heart” of the family.

Viewing the Pope’s words through the lens of his personal history would suggest that he may be thinking not so much about a global economy, but a family economy. In this view, a just society is one that allows for the majority of people to enjoy the situation in which he grew up: In other words, a national economy that is focused on providing for basic needs, centered around the family.

References to the family are common in Pope Francis’ addresses, and are often linked to his comments on the economy.

“The family constitutes the best ‘social capital’,” the Pope said in Ecuador during his most recent trip. “It cannot be replaced by other institutions. It needs to be helped and strengthened, lest we lose our proper sense of the services which society as a whole provides.”

“Those services which society offers to its citizens are not a type of alms, but rather a genuine ‘social debt’ with respect to the institution of the family, which is foundational and which contributes to the common good.”

Whether this is the correct lens through which to understand the Pope remains to be seen. But the Pope may have a chance to directly address the matter when he visits the United States in September.

The topic came up during the papal flight from Latin America back to Rome July 12. Journalist Anna Matranga, of the U.S.-based CBS News, asked the Pope about his message that the global economic system often imposes a profit mentality at any cost in a way that works to the detriment of the poor.

“This is perceived by Americans as a direct criticism of their system and their way of life,” Matranga said.

The Pope responded that his words criticizing the global economy are not new.

“I heard that there were some criticisms from the United States,” he said. “I heard about it but I haven’t read about it, I haven’t had the time to study this well, because every criticism must be received, studied, and then dialogue must ensue. You ask me what I think. If I have not had a dialogue with those who criticize, I don’t have the right to state an opinion, isolated from dialogue, no?”

“Yes, I must begin studying these criticisms, no? And then dialogue a bit with this,” he said.

It is possible that the Pope could use his visit to the United States as an opportunity to clarify the various perceptions of him that still persist in the public narrative. But with a Pope as unpredictable as Francis, it’s anyone’s guess what he will say.

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VATICAN NEWS

What Pope Francis might be planning to tell the U.N. in New York

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 23, 2015

Pope Francis speaks at the climate change and modern slavery meeting in Rome, Italy on June 21, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — At a meeting with U.S. mayors at the Vatican this week, Pope Francis hinted at themes he could discuss with the United Nations during his September visit to the states.

Among the most important was the issue of human trafficking, which he said can be a “rebound effect” of environmental degradation.

“I have high hopes, and believe that the United Nations must take a greater interest in this phenomenon, especially human trafficking caused by environmental issues, and the exploitation of people.”

Francis’ remarks followed a July 21 workshop in the Vatican entitled “Modern Slavery and Climate Change: the Commitment of the Cities,” during which dozens of mayors from around the world were invited to present on the theme of climate change and trafficking.

Many of the mayors present have a history of environmental awareness, including several from the United States.

The daylong workshop was part of a two-day symposium sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, titled “Prosperity, People and Planet: Achieving Sustainable Development in Our Cities.”

The meeting comes ahead of several international events focused on the environment, including the U.N. General Assembly’s Sept. 25 summit on the adoption of sustainable development goals – which the Pope will address – followed by the climate summit in Paris.

In his address, Pope Francis spoke specifically of the Paris encounter in November, expressing his hope that the meeting “will lead to a basic agreement” on how to reduce the impact of climate change.

The gathering with mayors fell just over a month after the June 18 release of Pope Francis’ long-awaited encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si, meaning “Praise be to You.”

While the 184-page encyclical wades into controversial topics such as climate change, the document also argues it is not possible to effectively care for the environment without first working to defend human life.

In his remarks to the mayors, Pope Francis spoke of his recent encyclical, explaining that one of his intentions in writing it was to emphasize that “caring for the environment means an attitude of human ecology.”

“In other words, we cannot say: the person and Creation, the environment, are two separate entities. Ecology is total, it is human … you cannot separate humanity from the rest; there is a relationship of mutual impact, and also the rebound effect when the environment is abused.”

For this reason the Pope said his encyclical shouldn’t be classified as a “green” document limited solely to environmental issues, but is rather “a social encyclical, because we cannot separate care for the environment from the social context. Care for the environment is a social attitude.”

One of the most evident signs of lack of care for the environment is the “unfettered growth” of cities, the Pope observed.

When cities become larger they often grow alongside increasing bands of poverty, he said, explaining that this increases migration, since people to move to the slums and shantytowns of large cities due to a lack of opportunity in the rural world.

Francis then pointed to the growing problem of “the idolatry of technocracy,” which he also touched on in Laudato Si.

An overemphasis on the use of technology “leads to the loss of work, it creates unemployment, which leads to migration and the need to seek new horizons,” he noted.

“The great number of unemployed is a warning – What prospects can the future offer to today’s unemployed youth? Addiction, boredom, not knowing what to do with life – a life without meaning, which is very tough – or indeed suicide.”

Statistics on youth suicide rates are not published in their entirety, he noted, and pointed to another temptation for youth, which is to seek new horizons in projects that present an ideal of life, even if it is a guerilla project.

Pope Francis then highlighted health risks linked to environmental issues, such as rare diseases that often turn up as a result of different elements used to fertilize fields.

He also indicated other problems linked to the environment, such as oxygen, water and the desertification of large areas of land due to deforestation.

“What happens when all these phenomena of excessive technification, of environmental neglect, as well as natural phenomena, affect migration?” he asked. “It leads to unemployment and human trafficking.”

“Illegal work, without contracts, is increasingly common … and means that people do not earn enough to live. This can give rise to criminal behavior and other problems,” the Pope observed, pointing specifically to the phenomena of human trafficking in the mining sector, which he has recently spoken out against.

“Slavery in mining remains a major issue … Everything has a rebound effect … This can include human trafficking for the purposes of slave labor or prostitution,” he said, and called on the United Nations to step up their efforts in eliminating such phenomena.

Touching on two forms of ignorance identified by philosopher and theologian Romano Guardini, the Pope noted that the first, which is the ignorance God gives us to be transformed into culture, to nurture and dominate the earth, is good.

However, the second, when man does not respect this relationship with the earth, can lead man to abuse creation.

Francis pointed to atomic energy as an example, saying that it “can be helpful, but up to a certain point.” Using the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as an example, Pope Francis said that “disaster and destruction can be caused. It is the second form of ignorance that destroys humanity.”

At the conclusion of his address the Pope explained that the PAS chose to hold a meeting with the world’s mayors because “they are aware of the reality of humanity.”

“The Holy See may make a good speech before the United Nations, but if the work does not come from the periphery to the center, it will have no effect; hence the responsibility of mayors and city governors.”

He thanked them for their work and prayed they would have the grace to be aware of “the problem of the destruction that we ourselves have wrought by failing to care for human ecology, so we might transform ignorance into culture, and not the contrary.”

Following his speech Pope Francis signed a joint-declaration of the mayors, which was then signed by all of the participants.

“We join together from many cultures and walks of life, reflecting humanity’s shared yearning for peace, happiness, prosperity, justice and environmental sustainability,” the joint agreement reads.

It continues: “As mayors we commit ourselves to building, in our cities and urban settlements, the resilience of the poor and those vulnerable situations and reducing their exposure to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters, which foster human trafficking.”

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WORLD NEWS

The slow demise of Catholic magazines in Italy

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • July 18, 2015

(Dave Crosby via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

Rome, Italy — A Catholic-inspired magazine that was once a leader in publishing opinions in Church discussions will quit publication by the end of the year, evidence of a crisis that have been plaguing Catholic magazines during the last decade.

“Il Regno,” a bi-monthly magazine which began publications in 1956, before the Second Vatican Council, will cease publication following a decision by the Northern Italian Province of Dehonian Fathers, who are the publishers of the magazine.

In a statement, the Dehonian Fathers underscored that the decision to end publication was “painful,” as it “weakens our presence in the Italian Church and in the civil discussion,” but was an unavoidable choice due to economic problems.

With ‘Il Regno’ disappearing from the Italian media scene, it is noteworthy that most other Catholic-inspired magazines in the country are living in financial crisis as well. Some have had to renovate, while others have quit publication altogether.

In 2012, “Trenta Giorni,” a Communion and Liberation monthly which was launched in 1983, quit publishing. Mostly focused on Church life, diplomacy and in-depth analysis, the monthly was also delivered for free to Catholic missions in four different languages.

In 2014, the magazine “Ad Gentes,” the only one in Italy completely dedicated to missions, ended publishing because it did not attract enough subscriptions.

Father Piero Gheddo, a long-serving missionary, commented on the shutdown of the magazine saying that in earlier decades, “there was a clear assertion of our identity: going to the encounter of non-Christian people, wherever the Holy See would sent us, to announce and witness Christ and His Gospel, which everyone needs. Yes, we also spoke about works of charity, education, health, progress, rights, and justice for the poor and for those under exploitation. But above all was the enthusiasm for being called by Jesus to bring Him to people living unaware of the God of Love and Forgiveness.”

A lack of missionary identity today could be one reason why Catholic magazines are now facing difficulty.

In Italy, there are some 194 Catholic magazines and newspapers, but Fr. Giorgio Zucchelli, who had served for years as president of the Italian Federation of Catholic Weeklys, underscored that the publishers of the magazines – often bishops – tend to push for clerical newspapers, while “they should understand that this way, magazines can’t attract people.”

Based on his experience, he added that “Catholic inspired magazines should address more general issues, even the hottest topics, with no fear of expressing their point of view.”

In general, Catholic-inspired magazines in Italy have been beacons of freedom.

Records indicate that 58 Catholic magazines were founded in Italy from 1867 to 1922. During the Fascist Regime (1923-1943) there were just 10 new Catholic magazines, while the period from 1943 to the end of the Second Vatican Council saw the birth of 33 new magazines. From the council up until 2010, the most recent data available, 86 Catholic-inspired magazines were born.

Founded in 1956, “Il Regno” has always followed the vision suggested by Fr. Zucchelli: from the very beginning, the magazine published a wide variety of articles on news, with a special focus on Italian politics, and also emphasized ecumenism, Third World issues, and social issues.

In 1964, “Il Regno” also started publishing “Documents,” a paper book attached with the magazine which re-published all the Pontifical documents.

Together with “Il Regno,” the Dehonian Fathers also decided to discontinue another publication, “Settimana.” A monthly magazine filled with high level theological reflections, it was a must read among priests, especially in the Vatican Curia.

Moving forward, the shutdown of “Il Regno” raises many questions: is there still space for Catholic inspired information in the saturated media world? And to what degree is a strong Catholic identity necessary for the survival of Catholic media?

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WORLD NEWS

Behold the newly-discovered painting in Rome’s Catacomb of Callixtus

by CNA/EWTN News • July 21, 2015

The image of Orpheus in the Catacomb of Saint Callixtus, Rome. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Rome, Italy — A recent discovery in the Catacomb of Saint Callixtus, an early Christian series of tombs beneath Rome which once held the bodies of 16 Popes, has been christened the “Orpheus cubicle” after the figure from Greek mythology.

The small room, located in front of the Crypt of the Popes, was poorly conserved until a recent excavation by the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology. The “Orpheus cubicle” is named for its painting of Orpheus with a lyre, surrounded by birds, sea monsters, and flowers, representing the whole of creation.

Orpheus was a mythological figure known for his musical prowess, able to bring peace through his songs and to enchant nature. He was appropriated by early Christian artists as an image of the Good Shepherd, gathering and protecting the sheep softly with his song.

The image of Orpheus in the Catacomb of St. Callixtus dates from 230-240, and is contemporary with similar images from other Roman catacombs.

Orpheus was also appropriated as a prefigurement of Christ, because after the death of his wife Eurydice he descended into the underworld to try and return her to the land of the living.

The image of Orpheus in St. Callixtus’ catacomb has been restored, and in this process the Vatican’s archeology commission has also discovered several tombs, more than 300 coins, and fragments of lamps and marble associated with the tombs.

The Catacomb of St. Callixtus was first created during the pontificate of St. Zephyrinus (c. 199-217), by St. Callixtus, a deacon who then succeeded him as Bishop of Rome. The catacomb contains some 500 tombs, and is located on the Appian Way, one of the major roads leading out of Rome.

It once held the bodies of more than 50 martyrs, including St. Cecilia, and Popes from the second to the fourth centuries.

After Christianity became a mainstream religion, the relics within the catacomb were moved to churches for veneration, with the process completed by the ninth century.

The catacomb is now visited by pilgrims and tourists, and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology has opened the Torreta Museum to house its recent findings associated with the “Orpheus cubicle.”

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WORLD NEWS

French bishops: Don’t euthanize paralyzed man

by María Ximena Rondón (CNA/EWTN News) • July 21, 2015

Vincent Lambert. (Facebook Soutien Pour Vincent Lambert Et Sa Famille)

Paris, France — Bishop Thierry Scherrer of Laval, France, and the Bioethics Committee of his diocese are pleading with doctors at a hospital in Reims not to end the life of a young quadriplegic man.

“Human life is a gift from God, and doctors are at its service. The omnipotence that technology gives us has to respect this limit,” Bishop Scherrer and the Bioethics Committee affirmed in their July 16 statement.

They urged the medics to respect the life of Vincent Lambert, who became quadriplegic as the result of an accident in 2008.

Euthanasia is not legal in France. However, in 2013, Lambert’s wife and six of his eight siblings asked the courts to disconnect his hydration and nutrition. In response, his parents, who are practicing Catholics, initiated a legal fight to protect their son’s life.

The case went all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, which approved the removal of life support.

“Life is a precious gift and the attitude that society adopts towards life is everyone’s concern,” said the bishop and bioethics committee, asking that Lambert not become a “the hostage of a cause or an ideology” that disrespects life.

They also warned that if the European court’s ruling is carried out, many other patients in the same situation as Lambert could be at risk of becoming victims of euthanasia.

The statement from the Diocese of Laval supports the complaint filed on June 24 by Lambert’s mother, Viviane. In a statement to CNA, Viviane warned that “the French government was using Vincent’s case to legalize euthanasia.”

A medical team at the hospital is still evaluating Lambert’s case. Doctor Danielle Simon, head of the medical team, made an appointment on July 15 to discuss the case with family members separately.

According to local news reports, Lambert’s parents have filed a lawsuit against the European Court of Human Rights and several of the doctors in the case. They are also reportedly considering a lawsuit against Lambert’s wife for “false testimony, forgery, and contrived lies.”

A final decision from the doctors is expected July 23.

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WORLD NEWS

Less ‘Euro-centric,’ please – what African bishops want from the synod

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 22, 2015

Opening Session of the Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican on Oct. 6, 2014. (Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Nairobi, Kenya — October’s synod of bishops on the family should take on a global perspective, rather than sticking to isolated issues found primarily in western society, African Church leaders have said.

The chance that voices of the European Church could dominate synod discussion is “a danger of a Eurocentric Synod without strong input from Africa,” Fr. Joseph Healey of the Maryknoll Society told the Catholic News Agency for Africa (CANAA) in an article published July 16.

African bishops and Church leaders recently gathered in Nairobi, Kenya for the final phase of three-year evaluation of the Catholic Church on the continent, during which discussion largely fell to topics surrounding the Oct. 4-25 gathering in Rome.

The meeting, titled “The vocation and mission of the family in the church and the modern world,” is a follow-up of last year’s extraordinary synod on the family, which focused on the various challenges facing family life today.

An unnamed participant in the colloquium sympathized with Fr. Healey’s concerns, pointing to what they saw as several gaps in last year’s synod discussion, particularly when it comes to issues surrounding the African Church.

In the concluding document of last year’s gathering no mention was made of “HIV and AIDs, not one reference. No mention to female genital mutilation. No mention of children-headed households,” the participant noted.

However, the participant observed that a reason Africa’s voice is seemingly missing from the discussion is that the continent’s bishops haven’t yet developed a strategy to clearly present these issues in Rome.

“Unlike other continents, which plan together and then come with clear priorities, our African interventions are often scattered and not planned together.”

The German bishops’ conference is known for its unified push to change Church doctrine when it comes to access to the sacraments for Catholic persons who have been divorced and civilly remarried.

In late May the German bishops conference paid for the plane tickets and hotels of German journalists traveling from abroad to Rome to cover a closed-door “shadow council” set to coincide with the ordinary meeting of the Synod of Bishops,’ a source in a Vatican congregation revealed.

While the Synod of Bishops met with Pope Francis, participants in the “shadow council” gathered to speak on the most contentious issues of the Synod on the Family, which include approval of gay unions and Communion for the divorced and remarried.

According to the German bishops’ conference, the largest part of comments dealt with the issues of the divorced and civilly remarried, cohabiting couples and same-sex unions.

Last month Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, brought the topic of Africa’s disorganization up in a June 9 address to African Church leaders gathered in Accra, Ghana, for a consultative meeting ahead of the October synod.

He encouraged Church leaders in Africa to speak “with one credible voice” on the family.

Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa, gave a presentation at the Kenya gathering, explaining that rather than focusing on mainly western issues, synod discussion should instead center on “hurting and struggling parents and families.”

He said discussion ought to address “all the systemic issues which threaten relationships between people in societies and make it so hard for parents today to nourish their relationship with their own children and so bring them up in wholesome and life-giving ways.”

“Instead of individualism, anthropocentricism, and the capitalist concept of a development that cannot be sustained, Africa and other indigenous communities offer the world a more wholesome and holistic value,” he said.

The bishop identified the disconnect between religion and culture as a challenge the secularized western world is currently facing.

Although the challenges to the Church in Africa are generally of a different nature, Bishop Dowling said Church leaders can’t pretend that the secularized world still won’t affect or have an impact on youth, families and African society as a whole.

“In some places, it is already having an impact,” the bishop remarked, and encouraged further reflection going into the future.

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WORLD NEWS

Hope for Gaza? Despite a tough year, Catholic aid group says yes

by Kevin J. Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • July 23, 2015

Children amid devastated buildings in Gaza. (Shareef Sarhan/CRS)

Gaza City, Palestine — One year after an outbreak of violence between the Israeli military and Hamas militants in Gaza, Catholic Relief Services is helping conflict victims to find new homes.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been a particularly productive or positive year,” Catholic Relief Services country representative Matt McGarry told CNA July 22.

About 117,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were displaced or left homeless in the destructive conflict between Hamas militants and the Israeli military in July and August 2014.

Many Palestinians’ destroyed homes represented all of their wealth.

“They lost just about everything,” said McGarry, who represents the Catholic agency in Jerusalem and Palestine. The agency is helping to supply 200 transitional single-family shelters, at a cost of $5,500 each.

The shelters are typically built on the family’s land. The transitional homes provide a “safe, dignified and adequate place to live,” McGarry said.

“It’s just one of the small things we’re able to do to try to help people regain a bit of dignity and peace of mind in difficult circumstances.”

One CRS beneficiary is Abu Hussein, a Palestinian who fled his Gaza home with his family in July 2014. He returned to find his home reduced to rubble.

“I was so shocked,” he told CRS. “I had to ask my son, ‘What did we just see? What was that? What happened?’”

He had been sleeping under blankets outside the remains of his home when he first met CRS team members.

“At the time, we were totally marginalized,” he said. “Nobody was helping us.”

Hussein, his sons, and hired workers helped build his family’s transitional shelter with CRS help.

“If we didn’t have this shelter, we wouldn’t even have a shadow to sleep under,” Hussein said.

In June 2014 the murders of three Israeli teenagers and the subsequent murder of a Palestinian youth increased tensions between Palestinians and Israelis.

These tensions turned violent in early July. For more than a month Hamas militants fired rockets on Israel from the Gaza Strip, while the Israeli military responded with hundreds of airstrikes and a ground force invasion to destroy Hamas weaponry.

Almost 2,200 Palestinians were killed in the conflict, including more than 500 children. In Israel, 66 soldiers and five civilians were killed. Thousands more Palestinians were injured, and many were permanently disabled.

CRS is supporting about 18,000 displaced families in Gaza with emergency kits of basic household items, cooking supplies, water storage, and hygiene.

The 2014 conflict also destroyed farms, schools, workplaces, and infrastructure. Gaza still suffers electricity and water shortages. There is continued contamination of the aquifer.

Many conflict victims are suffering from psychological trauma as well as loss of livelihood.

With support from partners including the U.S. Agency for International Development, CRS is assisting a counseling center that helps traumatized children.

The agency is also working to restore agricultural land on more than 700 farms and to provide sustainable economic recovery.

Reconstruction efforts are complicated by the Israeli blockade.

McGarry said that restricted movement into and out of Gaza has a “terrible impact” on the ability of families to rebuild their homes and their lives. Economic activity is almost halted and the unemployment rate is among the worst in the world – about 44 percent, according to World Bank figures.

“It’s been a pretty difficult, depressing and frustrating year,” McGarry explained. “Palestinians by nature and by necessity are pretty resilient and hopeful people in my experience.”

The majority of CRS beneficiaries in Gaza are Muslim. Some beneficiaries are Christians, as are many CRS employees.

“There’s an indigenous Christian community that goes back 2,000 years in the Holy Land. Palestinian Christians are really woven into the fabric of the larger society,” McGarry explained. Joint Christian-Muslim relief efforts are not particularly risky in Gaza.

“But it is, I think, a nice example of how things ought to be, and how things could be with more effort,” he said. He added that CRS work in Gaza is an example of “how we can work together across faith lines.”

“We have donors who are Christians, Muslims, and Jewish,” he said, noting that the agency’s implementing partners and employees come from different religious traditions. McGarry added that CRS is “first and foremost a humanitarian relief and development organization.”

He said it is important for Americans to understand that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is controversial “because it’s complicated.”

“It’s not a black-and-white issue, it’s not a question of right and wrong. There are at least two diametrically opposed narratives here,” McGarry said. “There’s a lot of history, a lot of emotion. It’s extremely important to people. This is a place that evokes religious beliefs. Obviously, it’s the Holy Land: issues of identity, history, ethnicity, faith and everything else.”

He said the conflict merits study, thought, and research “because people have suffered a great deal over the past hundred years,” both Palestinians and Israelis.

McGarry encouraged Catholics to educate themselves on the situation in Palestine and to be “impartial advocates for a peace that is just and secure and sustainable.”

“The conflict won’t ultimately resolve itself without strong support from the U.S. … we have a unique opportunity and a responsibility to be part of pushing that involvement forward.”

He said CRS’ Catholic affiliation provides an advantage over many other relief agencies.

“It grounds us in the local community here. We have a very strong network of Church partners and peer organizations that we’re able to share information with, work with, support, and be supported by.”

CRS is able to work with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Pontifical Mission for Palestine and similar highly regarded organizations with community connections.

The agency also can draw on the Catholic community and others in the U.S. to help with its work. In turn, CRS can “educate and engage them on issues of justice and peace in the Holy Land,” according to McGarry.

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WORLD NEWS

Aleppo archbishop aims to help Christians stay in Syria

by CNA/EWTN News • July 24, 2015

A young adult choir prepares to perform at a celebration for Archbishop Jeanbart in Aleppo, Syria. (Aid to the Church in Need/CNA)

Aleppo, Syria — With half of Syria’s population displaced due to its ongoing civil war, Church leaders in the country are seeking to send a message of hope and support for the persecuted Christian minority who have chosen to stay.

“At the time of this writing, Aleppo is undergoing a massive assault by jihadists, and bombs have been falling for hours. It is as if everything is being done to scare people and push them to leave,” Melkite Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart of Aleppo wrote in a July 17 letter.

“We want to convey a message of optimism, one that encourages perseverance,” he said.

For Archbishop Jeanbart, the most concrete assistance that can be offered to Syrians right now is to help them stay in their homes.

He explained that his diocese is seeking to establish a development program offering concrete aid to benefit small businesses, help rebuild small workshops, and repair homes damaged in the civil war.

Called “Build to Stay,” the movement aims to gather the large number of faithful who are convinced of the relevance of Christians’ continued presence in Syria.

“We do all that we can to allow the faithful to live on in this time of great trial in which humanitarian aid has become a priority,” he said.

Now in its fifth year, the Syrian conflict has claimed the lives of an estimated 230,000 persons.

The conflict began March 15, 2011, when demonstrations protesting the rule of Bashar al-Assad and his Ba’ath Party sprang up nationwide. In April of that year, the Syrian army began to deploy to put down the uprisings, firing on protesters.

Half of Syria’s population have fled their homes because of the civil war. There are more than 4 million Syrian refugees in nearby countries, most of them in Turkey and Lebanon, and an additional 8 million Syrians are believed to have been internally displaced by the war.

Archbishop Jeanbart said he remains close to the people who have chosen to stay, in order “to give them courage. We try to give them reasons to believe in a brighter future in this country.”

“For us bishops, successors of the Apostles and shepherds of the faithful in Syria, acting to further the continuation of the Christian presence in the country is a huge responsibility and a sacred task,” he said.

He noted that the Church in Syria has been fighting against the Christian exodus for years, because it weakens and “compromises the presence of the Church of the Apostles in the land that saw the very beginnings of Christianity”.

“Must we forget that Saul was converted on the road to Damascus? Wasn’t he baptized, confirmed and ordained a priest and sent on his great mission in the world by the Church of Syria that had its beginnings in Damascus?” the archbishop asked.

The Church in Syria, he observed, has given up millions of martyrs who have “irrigated with their innocent blood the soil of our country.”

“Doesn’t this Church deserve to be helped and supported so that it can continue its two-thousand year journey on the path of the Christian faith?”

In an appeal, Archbishop Jeanbart closed his letter explaining that if the world wants to help, “pray with us for an end to this war. If you want to help us, fight to bring peace to our land.”

“If you want to help us, help us support those Christians who have decided to stay to ensure the perennial Christians presence in the country. If you want to help us, help us accompany these faithful in their battle against defeat and in their efforts to ‘Build to Stay.’”

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Bible publisher wins permanent victory over HHS mandate

by CNA/EWTN News • July 19, 2015

(YM via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Chicago, IL — A Bible publisher based in Illinois has won its lawsuit against the federal contraception mandate, with a final ruling delivered July 15 by a federal district court.

The ruling means that Tyndale House Publishers cannot be subject to the mandate, which was issued four years ago by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

“In America, citizens have always had the freedom to believe, the freedom to express those beliefs, and the freedom to operate their businesses accordingly,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which was representing Tyndale House in court.

“The Supreme Court upheld that principle in its Conestoga/Hobby Lobby decision last year, and the district court has rightly done the same,” Bowman said.

Tyndale House is the world’s largest privately-held Christian publisher of books, Bibles, and digital media. It gives more than 95 percent of its profits each year to religious non-profit causes across the globe.

The company is among several hundred plaintiffs that have filed lawsuits against the federal contraception mandate, a provision under the Affordable Care Act which requires employers to offer health insurance plans covering contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can cause early abortions. Employers who fail to comply with the mandate face crippling penalties.

Many of the lawsuits filed against the mandate are still working their way through the courts. The majority of plaintiffs have received a temporary injunction protecting them from the demands of the mandate while their case continues through the court system.

In the case of Tyndale House, however, the court has issued a final ruling, granting a permanent injunction that prevents the federal government from enforcing the mandate against the Bible publisher.

“Americans should be free to live and work according to their faith without fear of punishment by the government,” said Bowman in a statement released after the ruling. “That includes Bible publishers, who should be free to do business according to the book that they publish.”

Based in Carol Stream, Illinois, the Christian-owned publisher objects specifically to providing coverage for the drugs that can cause early abortions. In May 2013, the Obama administration withdrew its appeal of a preliminary injunction that had offered temporary protection to Tyndale House.

Other lawsuits against the contraception mandate remain in courts across the country.

In June 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in, striking down the mandate as it applied to arts-and-crafts retailer Hobby Lobby and other closely-held for-profit companies.

The federal government responded by issuing new rule saying that Hobby Lobby and similar companies would be subject to a modified version of the mandate which governs religious non-profit groups.

Many of these groups, however, say the modified rules still force them to violate their religious beliefs by signing an objection form that is then sent to the government, which then instructs their insurance companies to provide the objectionable coverage directly.

The government says that contraception coverage is cost-neutral to insurance companies because birth control reduces overall costs through fewer births and “tremendous health benefits” to women. However, some contest these claims, arguing that contraception will not be free to insurers, and the costs will ultimately be passed on to the employers who originally objected to them.

Among these objecting religious employers is the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of religious women that has spent 175 years caring for the elderly and dying.

On July 14, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against the Little Sisters, saying that they must follow the demands of the contraceptive mandate or else face fines of up to $2.5 million a year, or about 40 percent of the $6 million the Sisters beg for annually to run their ministry.

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Mercy, Justice, and the Gospel of Life: U.S. bishops on ending the death penalty

by CNA/EWTN News • July 20, 2015

The lethal injection room at New Mexico State Penitentiary. (Ken Piorkowsk via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Two leading U.S. bishops have renewed the call to choose life over the death penalty because, they say, heinous criminals deserve both justice and mercy – their lives too are from God.

“As Christians, we are called to oppose the culture of death by witnessing to something greater and more perfect: a gospel of life, hope, and mercy. To help build a culture of life, capital punishment should be abolished,” Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston and Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami said in a message on behalf of two major U.S. bishops’ committees.

They cited one of Christ’s Beatitudes: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

Cardinal O’Malley signed the July 16 message in his role as chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, while Archbishop Wenski signed as chair of the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

“We are all sinners, but through the Father’s loving mercy and Jesus’ redeeming sacrifice upon the Cross, we have been offered the gift of life everlasting,” the bishops said. “The Lord never ceases his loving pursuit of us in our sin and brokenness, offering us the choice of life over death.”

“The use of the death penalty cuts short any prospect for transforming the condemned person’s soul in this life. Catholic opposition to the death penalty, then, is rooted in mercy. It is also eminently pro-life, as it affords every opportunity for conversion, even of the hardened sinner,” they continued.

The two bishops’ message comes 10 years after the U.S. bishops began a campaign against the death penalty. In 2005, the U.S. bishops issued the anti-death penalty statement, “A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death.”

Since 2005, at least seven states have ended the use of the death penalty, Archbishop Wenski and Cardinal O’Malley noted. Other states have placed moratoria on executions. The number of death sentences is at an all-time low since 1976.

The two bishops invoked Pope Francis’ March 20 words to a delegation from the International Commission against the Death Penalty, which declared capital punishment “inadmissible, no matter how serious the crime committed.”

“It is an offense against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person, one which contradicts God’s plan for man and society and his merciful justice, and impedes the penalty from fulfilling any just objective,” the Pope said. “It does not render justice to the victims, but rather fosters vengeance.”

Cardinal O’Malley and Archbishop Wenski called on everyone of goodwill to “advocate for better public policies to protect society and end the use of the death penalty.”

The bishops urged prayers for crime victims, for those facing execution and for those working in the criminal justice system. They encouraged outreach and “bringing Christ’s love and compassion” to the families of those affected by violent crime.

In addition, they encouraged people to learn about the Catholic Church’s teaching on the death penalty and to educate others.

They said that Church teaching on the death penalty is not indifference to “the sinfulness of crime and attacks on human life.” Rather, it is “an affirmation of the sacredness of all life even for those who have committed the most heinous of crimes.”

They noted that violent crime has affected bishops like Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas. The archbishop’s own father was murdered. However, Archbishop Naumann has said that the refusal of the death penalty is not because we reject “the horror of the crime,” but because “we refuse to imitate violent criminals.”

Cardinal O’Malley and Archbishop Wenski urged solidarity and support for crime victims and their families and to help them in their deep pain and loss. They also asked everyone to remember criminals.

“We also acknowledge the inherent human dignity of those who have committed grave harm, affirming that, even as they repay a debt to society, they too should receive compassion and mercy,” the bishops added. “As we seek to tend to the eternal needs of those who commit serious crimes we must build up a culture of life in matters of justice and punishment.”

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U.S. and Cuba re-open embassies – Will lifting the embargo be next?

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • July 20, 2015

(Steward Cutler via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — The U.S. and Cuba formally re-established diplomatic ties for the first time since 1961 on Monday, a groundbreaking development advocated by Catholic bishops from both countries and set in motion by Pope Francis.

“It’s an historic day, a day for removing barriers,” Secretary of State John Kerry said at a joint press conference with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on the re-establishment of relations.

“Both countries are better served by engagement than by estrangement,” he continued.

The chair of the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace had lauded progress toward re-opening the embassies as a “positive development” in a June 22 letter to members of Congress.

“We hold that the way to encourage religious freedom and human rights in Cuba is through dialogue and reconciliation between the United States and Cuba, and within Cuban society,” stated Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces in the letter.

U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations were officially restored as of midnight on Monday. Later in the day, in a symbolic move, the Cuban flag was raised outside the Cuban Interest Section – now the Cuban Embassy – in Northwest D.C., and was also displayed at the U.S. State Department.

Official relations between the two countries were severed back in 1961, a diplomatic gulf widened by an embargo on travel and trade.

However, the Obama administration had made small changes to existing policy starting in 2009, including Cuban-Americans having a limited freedom to travel between the countries and send money to Cuba.

In 2013, secret talks between diplomats began to open up relations, aided by the support of the Vatican.

This culminated in December of 2014, when the White House announced a prisoner swap and a groundbreaking shift in policy that talks would begin to re-establish diplomatic relations and re-open the embassies in the two countries. The Holy See had hosted the final diplomatic meeting where the agreement became official, and Pope Francis had personally appealed to both U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro to come to a deal.

“The Holy See will continue to assure its support for initiatives which both nations will undertake to strengthen their bilateral relations and promote the wellbeing of their respective citizens,” the Vatican Secretariat of State said in a communiqué on the day the prisoner exchange was announced.

On July 1, President Obama announced that the embassies would re-open on July 20.

“Beginning today, our diplomats in Havana will have the ability to engage more broadly across the island of Cuba, with the Cuban government, civil society and ordinary Cubans,” the White House stated on Monday.

“We look forward to collaborating with the Cuban government on issues of common interest, including counterterrorism and disaster response. And we are confident that the best way to advance universal values like freedom of speech and assembly is through more engagement with the Cuban people.”

Both supporters and critics of the new relationship have expressed deep concerns over the Cuban government’s human rights record and repression of religious freedom. The White House has pledged to continue to push for greater respect for human rights in Cuba, and Secretary Kerry acknowledged at Monday’s press conference that he discussed the problems of human rights and trafficking with Rodriguez.

According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Cuban government still has a strong grip upon the practice of religion in the country, requiring all churches to officially register with the state’s Ministry of Justice and regulating the travel of foreign religious guests. Human rights activists are banned from active participation in religion.

The opening of the embassies is but one step in the process of strengthening the relationship between the two countries, the White House has maintained. The U.S. removed Cuba from the State Department’s state sponsors of terror list in May, and President Obama personally met with Raul Castro at the Summit of the Americas, which was the first in-person meeting of American and Cuban leaders since the diplomatic ties were severed.

Bishop Cantú has supported the measures taken so far to improve relations and has urged Congress to lift the travel and trade embargoes to Cuba.

“Certainly, Pope Francis’ historic visit to both Cuba and the United States in September will further inspire reconciliation and dialogue. We share in the view of the Catholic bishops of Cuba that engagement is the path to greater democracy and respect for human rights,” he said in his June 22 letter.

The trade embargo is still in place and Congress has not yet acted to end it, despite pressure from the White House to do so.

Pope Francis will be visiting both countries in September in a highly-anticipated tour this fall. He will meet with Cuban political leaders, pray with religious, priests, and seminarians, and celebrate Mass in Holguin from Sept. 19-22, before heading to the United States.

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L.A. gets three new auxiliary bishops, including Fr. Robert Barron

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • July 21, 2015

Father Robert Barron, Msgr. Joseph V. Brennan, and Msgr. David G. O’Connell on July 21, 2015. (J.D. Long-Garcia and John Rueda, The Tidings)

Los Angeles, CA — Known for his online videos which tackle everything from the saints, to the “new atheism,” to the latest blockbuster film, Fr. Robert Barron will have a new responsibility: auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, one of the cultural capitals of the world.

“It was with enormous surprise that I heard the word of my appointment last week, but it is with a humble and joyful heart that I have accepted it,” said the Chicago-native in a July 21 statement.

“I am grateful to Pope Francis for his confidence in me and to Archbishop Gomez for his willingness to allow me to minister in this beautiful, richly diverse, and spiritually vibrant Church.”

A priest for the diocese of Chicago, the bishop-elect said he has visited California on various occasions for different speaking engagements.

“So although I cannot say that I know this Archdiocese well, I have indeed been able to taste and see some of its goodness.”

Most of bishop-elect Barron’s priesthood has been served under the leadership of Cardinal Francis George, who passed away earlier this year after having been archbishop of Chicago from 1997 until 2014.

Ordained to the priesthood in 1986 for the archdiocese of Chicago, Fr. Barron said it was his “mentor,” the late Cardinal George, who taught him “the central importance of evangelizing the culture, bringing the power of Christ to the arenas of politics, law, the arts, higher education, the media, and entertainment.”

“This has been my preoccupation over the years, informing my work as teacher, writer, and evangelist,” he said, adding: “I cannot imagine a more exciting field for this sort of endeavor than Los Angeles, one of the great cultural capitals of the world.”

Since 2012, Fr. Barron has served as the rector and president of the Chicago Archdiocese’s Mundelein seminary, the University of St. Mary of the Lake.

However, he is perhaps best known as the founder of the online initiative Word On Fire Catholic Ministries, as well as the producer of the documentary series Catholicism. His latest series, Pivotal Players, is currently in production.

The late Cardinal George’s successor, Archbishop Blaise Cupich, extended his congratulations Fr. Barron, saying the appointment as bishop in L.A. “brings honor to the Archdiocese of Chicago” as well as to Mundelein seminary.

“He has been a singular blessing to our local Church and is recognized nationally for his great abilities and talents. We know that he will continue to make us proud as he begins his new ministry on the West Coast,” he said.

The July 21 announcement named Fr. Barron as auxiliary bishop for the California archdiocese alongside two others, Msgr. David O’Connell and Msgr. Joseph Brennan, both already based in Los Angeles. The news coincided with the resignation of L.A. auxiliary bishop Gerald Wilkerson, who had reached the retirement age of 75.

Native of County Cork, Ireland, bishop-elect O’Connell, ordained 1979, has worked to end inner-city violence in L.A., and is a member of the archdiocese’s pastoral committee on immigration.

“The greatest joy of my life is being a pastor,” said the Irish-born bishop. “I think our parishes and schools are powerful instruments of transformation of people’s lives and of neighborhoods. I hope that as an auxiliary bishop I can continue to be a good pastor for the people.”

Bishop-elect Brennan, ordained in 1980, has been serving as Moderator of the Curia for the L.A. archdiocese.

“I am blessed to be able to continue to serve in such a beautiful community of faith deeply rooted in our Church’s mission of mercy and service,” he said, citing the “wonderful good works” helping those in need throughout the archdiocese.

L.A. Archbishop Jose Gomez also praised the new appointments, who will help to oversee the the ministry of some 5 million members spread over 287 parishes in the archdiocese.

“I think it is clear that in appointing these new auxiliary bishops, Pope Francis really understands what the Church needs – not just here in Los Angeles, but also in the United States and Across the Americas,” said Archbishop Gomez in a statement responding to the appointments.

“I believe each of these new auxiliary bishops will help us in our mission here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles – the beautiful mission we have of sharing the love of God and the message of Jesus Christ and promoting human dignity and mercy and justice in our society.”

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In new video, Planned Parenthood exec appears to joke about pricing baby parts

by Adelaide Mena and Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • July 21, 2015

(Morgan via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Another undercover video released today allegedly shows a senior official at Planned Parenthood flippantly discussing monetary compensation for aborted baby organs, and the alteration of abortion procedures to ensure that the organs are intact.

“It’s been years since I talked about compensation, so let me just figure out what others [Planned Parenthood affiliates] are getting. If this [price] is in the ballpark, it’s fine, if it’s still low then we can bump it up,” Dr. Mary Gatter appears to tell actors posing as representatives of a fetal tissue procurement company, before joking, “I want a Lamborghini.”

Dr. Gatter is president of the Planned Parenthood medical directors’ council and oversees a Planned Parenthood facility in Pasadena, Calif.

The eight-minute video was released by the citizen journalist group Center for Medical Progress, which reports on medical ethics. It is the second video released as part of their report, “Human Capital,” the result of a three-year investigative study of Planned Parenthood and its transfer of body parts of aborted babies for money.

The first undercover video was made public last week, showing the organization’s senior director of medical services discussing the “donation” of body parts of aborted babies for “reasonable” compensation. The Planned Parenthood official estimated the price for the body parts from $30 to $100 per “specimen.”

Planned Parenthood has defended the practice, saying that it is not making significant or illegal profits from the process, and that it receives appropriate consent from mothers.

The new video purports to show Gatter saying that “we’re not in it for the money, and we don’t want to be in a position of being accused of selling tissue, and stuff like that. On the other hand, there are costs associated with the use of our space, and that kind of stuff … it has to be big enough that it is worthwhile.”

Gatter appears to suggest “$75 a specimen,” as a price that would “work” for fetal tissue of aborted babies.

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.”

The video also includes a discussion of possibly adjusting the abortion procedure of certain babies to better deliver an “intact specimen” to the organ harvesters.

“(I)f our usual technique is suction, at 10 to 12 weeks, and we switch to using an IPAS or something with less suction, and increase the odds that it will come out as an intact specimen, then we’re kind of violating the protocol that says to the patient, ‘We’re not doing anything different in our care of you’,” Gatter appears to say.

“Now to me, that’s kind of a specious little argument,” she appears to continue, saying that she “wouldn’t object” to asking the abortion doctor “to use an IPAS at that gestational age, in order to increase the odds that he’s going to get an intact specimen, but I do need to throw it out there as a concern. Because the patient is signing something and we’re signing something saying that we’re not changing anything with the way we’re managing you, just because we agree to give tissue.”

“I think they’re both totally appropriate techniques. There’s no difference in pain involved. I don’t think the patients would care one iota. So yeah, I’m not making a fuss about that.”

At the end of the video, she appears to instruct one of the “buyers” to send her a business proposal. “And then, if we want to pursue this, mutually, I’ll mention this to Ian [the surgeon] and see how he feels in terms of how he feels about using a ‘less crunchy’ technique to get more whole specimens.”

More undercover videos could be released in coming weeks. A lawyer from Planned Parenthood sent a letter to Rep. Fred Upton, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is launching an investigation into the organization after the release of the first video.

“We don’t know what the Center will release next, but we know enough to be deeply concerned about the infiltration of Planned Parenthood and its affiliates,” the letter states. It said that Planned Parenthood had at least 65 meetings with the Center for Medical Progress, and suggested that future videos could include racial questions and footage of an area used to process the tissue of aborted babies.

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Why the Catholic behind the Planned Parenthood videos went undercover

by Patti Armstrong (National Catholic Register) • July 22, 2015

(Kalle Gustafsson via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Bismarck, N.D. — With the façade of a fictitious biotechnology company, David Daleiden and his fellow investigators from the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) infiltrated the bowels of the abortion industry at its ugliest.

For 30 months, as part of their “Human Capital” investigation, they followed the trail that led to aborted babies whose parts are earmarked for sale, even while their little hearts are still beating.

“It is a paradox that we can’t have laws that recognize unborn babies as human, and yet, it is their very humanness that makes them valuable for experimentation,” Daleiden said in an interview last week with the Register.

“It is as if they [the biotech companies] are going on a treasure hunt for the heads or hearts of babies, but how much more valuable would those heads and hearts be if they were allowed to grow up and be a part of society?”

As leader of the project, Daleiden schmoozed and lunched with people at the top of Planned Parenthood — abortionists, administrators and directors. Acting as if he wanted to procure the valuable parts of aborted babies, Daleiden secretly videotaped the perpetrators so they would be admitting their own guilt in front of what certainly would be a shocked public.

It was mission accomplished on July 14, when Daleiden released the first of a dozen videos. In just a few days, more than 2 million people had viewed the video, and five investigations were opened: three congressional and two state. And this week, his organization released a second video that has further intensified the public questioning of Planned Parenthood’s fetal-tissue policies and calls for defunding and more investigations.

But Planned Parenthoods’ callous disregard for the bodies of innocent babies should have surprised no one, according to Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia.

“No one should be shocked by this video,” Archbishop Chaput said in a statement for the Register. “This is who Planned Parenthood is and what it does. It’s been part of the organization’s gene code from the start. The logic of its disdain for new life is just working itself out. And it won’t stop until the money and the media adulation are cut off.”

Caught Off Guard

Perhaps no one was caught off guard last week more than Planned Parenthood’s leaders, who thought Daleiden was one of their supporters.

“Off hand, I don’t even know how many people we talked with,” he said. “It was dozens. But no one ever suspected anything. I’m sure they got the surprise of their careers the morning they woke up and saw the video.”

The day after the first video was released, Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards, released a statement apologizing for Dr. Deborah Nucatola’s “tone” in discussing fetal-tissue procurement during abortions, but denied that they profit from tissue donation.

By the following Monday, Planned Parenthood’s lawyer issued a five-page letter to the investigating House Energy and Commerce Committee accusing Daleiden of many things, including harassing Planned Parenthood and likely deceptively editing the videos. The letter complains that Daleiden passed as a representative of the fake company Biomax Procurement Services; and that as part of the ruse, he had even set up displays at Planned Parenthood conferences.

But not everything was an act. Daleiden said he truly considered Nucatola a friend. She is the senior director of medical services, who, in the first video, is seen sipping wine and munching on salad in between chatting about harvesting babies’ organs — even casually mentioning she “did a 17-weeker just this morning.”

“Everyone on the investigative team who worked with Dr. Nucatola really liked her; she was always very personable,” Daleiden said, and then paused a moment. “I hope she decides to get out and stop doing abortions.”

Daleiden, who is Catholic, said he prays for the abortion providers he met during the project.

But Daleiden was clearly not there to make friends. “We need to hold Planned Parenthood responsible for their atrocities against humanity,” he said. “These videos are to inform and activate the public about what is going on right under our noses — with taxpayer dollars.”

And CMP has only just begun. There will be around a dozen more shocking videos in all, including the latest, where a Planned Parenthood executive jokes about pricing baby parts and says, “I want a Lamborghini.”

“We didn’t want this to be a flash in the pan and then forgotten,” Daleiden said.

The tentative schedule is to release one a week. Despite accusations that the first video was heavily edited, the full two-hour unedited version was released at the same time as the summary video. It will be the same with each one to follow.

‘Harvesting’ Process

It was while majoring in government at Claremont McKenna College in California that Daleiden received his first hint that the abortion industry was selling parts from aborted babies.

“I was working as a research assistant and attended a stem-cell conference as part of my job,” he said. “The presenter mentioned using cells from an aborted baby for research. That got my attention. I thought, ‘Wait a minute — what?’”

Although he had been active in the pro-life movement since high school, before that moment, he had not thought about aborted babies being used in research.

That thought stayed with him. He continued his pro-life work, which included working as a citizen journalist investigating the abortion industry, and became the director of research for Live Action in 2008.

In 2013, at the age of 24, he founded the Center for Medical Progress to investigate in-depth bioethical issues. “Human Capital” is its first project.

Part of the preparation for the project included studying Life Dynamics’ research from 15 years ago. That organization had paid an employee of a fetal tissue-collection organization to provide evidence of illegal practices at a Planned Parenthood facility in Overland Park, Kan.

The story got the attention of ABC’s 20/20. A congressional investigation was opened but became politicized and poorly managed, so the issue was soon dropped. Daleiden said it became a learning tool for the “Human Capital” investigation. “There was plenty of evidence, but because they [Life Dynamics] went after the middleman and the investigation fell apart, Planned Parenthood got away.”

Daleiden said he knew that his team had to go directly to the supplier of baby parts: Planned Parenthood. The harvesting companies send technicians to the large abortion facilities every morning with a list of baby parts they are looking for, Daleiden explained.

He said the top companies in the industry are StemExpress, Novogenix and Advanced Bioscience Resource. In the first video, Nucatola referred to the biotech’s morning round, saying she likes a morning “huddle” with staff to go over the list of parts to be “harvested” for the day.

According to Daleiden, although the biotech company incurs all the work and expenses involved in procuring the body parts, Planned Parenthood still charges a “specimen fee” for each one.

“Our investigators spent almost three years deeply imbedded with Planned Parenthood and their affiliates,” Daleiden said. “And we heard from their own mouths, over and over, again and again, that they make money off of selling the parts of aborted babies and have a profit motive in doing so.”

“Turning aborted babies into a revenue stream is an inhuman exploitation of the not fully dead,” Daleiden said.

“They are saying that some unborn babies are more valuable dead than alive. It’s a terrible, barbaric place for a democratic society to go.”

An Insider’s Perspective

Theresa Deisher helped to prepare Daleiden for his role as a biomedical representative, teaching him the ins and outs of the field.

She holds a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular physiology from Stanford University and worked for more than 20 years in the commercial biomedical industry. As her respect for the unborn grew, so did her intolerance for working in a field where experimenting on material from aborted babies is rampant. She is now the president of Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute and CEO of AVM Biotechnology; both companies have a mission to end the use of aborted babies in biomedical research.

“It is legal for Planned Parenthood to charge ‘processing fees’ for harvesting the parts of aborted babies, but it is not legal to sell to them, and she [Nucatola] did say sell in the video,” Deisher noted.

Whether the babies are born alive is a crucial question, according to Deisher. “In order to get good heart tissue, it has to be processed within five minutes of death. I bet the gruesome fact is that many of those babies are alive when they are harvested.”

She also noted that Nucatola talks about going for the calvarian — the top of the head. “They can’t get that with the head inside, so is the baby alive when they collect it?”

At the core of the problem, according to Deisher, is the belief that using fetal material is necessary for research. “Once we turn a blind eye to the baby being a person or say we are only going to do it once,” she said, “the flood gates are opened.”

Deisher described the use of the first tissue from an aborted baby as the opening of a Pandora’s box that won’t close now.

“People don’t want to walk the hard walk or to look like they are not progressive,” she said. “But what is progressive about taking a baby and chopping it up to make vaccines or do research?”

This story originally ran in the National Catholic Register.

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The story behind the new L.A. bishops’ pectoral crosses

by J.D. Long-Garcia (CNA/EWTN News) • July 22, 2015

Pectoral cross. (Angelus News)

Los Angeles, CA — A sharp eye would have noticed that L.A.’s three auxiliary bishops-elect were wearing identical pectoral crosses.

The pectoral crosses are identical to another bishop’s — the Bishop of Rome.

“They are Pope Francis bishops,” Archbishop José H. Gomez said in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels after the July 21 press conference. “They were a gift,” he added, explaining with a gesture that he’d given the pectoral crosses to the bishops-elect himself.

In many ways, the new shepherds reflect the Holy Father’s papacy.

Pope Francis has named Father Robert Barron, Msgr. Joseph V. Brennan and Msgr. David O’Connell as auxiliary bishops for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The new auxiliary bishops will join Archbishop Gomez, other auxiliary bishops, priests and deacons in serving the faithful of the largest archdiocese in the United States.

“I believe each of these new auxiliary bishops will help us in our mission here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles — the beautiful mission we have of sharing the love of God and the message of Jesus Christ and promoting human dignity and mercy and justice in our society,” Archbishop Gomez said during the press conference.

“I know all three of our new bishops and I could not be happier,” the archbishop said.

Msgr. Brennan has served as vicar general and moderator of the curia of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles since 2013. “He is my vicar general and moderator of the curia, which means he is kind of like a ‘CEO’ and ‘COO,’” the archbishop said. “It’s a big job and Msgr. Brennan handles it with grace and true concern for people’s needs. He is a good man and a thoughtful leader.”

He also never aspired to be anything but a pastor. In an interview with The Tidings, Msgr. Brennan said that he’d hoped one day he could return to being a pastor at parish, but with this appointment, it seems unlikely.

“In this position I’ve felt from the beginning that what I have — in fact all I have — to bring is the pastoral sense,” he said. “I don’t have the degrees, I don’t have the training. It’s pastoral experience that’s been the highlight of my life so far.”

So too with Pope Francis — a pontiff who never aspired to be such and who’s message had renewed the call for priests “to be shepherds living with the smell of their sheep.”

“Msgr. O’Connell is a native of Ireland and has served the inner city and South Central L.A.,” the archbishop explained. “He is also a dedicated pastor with a great concern for the spiritual life of the faithful.”

Msgr. O’Connell is a leader on issues like immigration reform, education, unemployment, housing, violence and finding alternatives to gangs for young people, the archbishop said.

Bishop-elect O’Connell’s emphasis on the poor is akin to Pope Francis’ — both as a priest and bishop in Argentina, but also now at the Vatican. Like Bishop-elect Brennan, O’Connell was perplexed by his appointment as auxiliary bishop.

“Maybe Pope Francis was looking for a certain profile, and I guess I do have some of the characteristics of what he’s looking for,” he admitted. “From what he’s writing and what he’s doing and what he’s teaching us, I suppose I do have some of those characteristics, yeah.”

As a member of the the Together in Mission Board as well as the Archdiocesan Finance Council, he insists on financial responsibility. And as a pastor, he made sure his parish held events like the Stations of the Cross and Las Posadas in the community, not on church grounds.

Father Barron has served as rector of Mundelein Seminary and president of University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois, since 2012. His “Catholicism” TV series and his Word on Fire media ministry are hallmarks of the New Evangelization.

“He is also the author of many books and has an important online media ministry. He has even had a television series on PBS about the beauty of the Catholic faith and God’s plan for creation,” the archbishop said. “So I think God has sent him to the right place — the media capital of the world.”

Father Barron is second only to Pope Francis as the most-followed Catholic leader on social media.

“‘I very much identify with Pope Francis’ call for the New Evangelization, which is very much a continuation of the call that began with St. John Paul II and continued through Benedict,” Father Barron said.

“For a long time, what I’ve tried to do in my own work is lead with the positive, lead with the joyful, lead with the articulation of the life,” he said.

It is clear, the archbishop said, that Pope Francis understands the needs of the Church, both in Los Angeles and across the United States.

“In the Catholic Church, we believe that every bishop is ordained to carry on the mission that Jesus gave to his apostles,” the archbishop said.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles comprises 8,762 square miles in Southern California. It has a total population of 11,518,233 people, of whom 4,362,469, or 38 percent, are Catholic. It is the largest diocese by Catholic population in the United States. The archdiocese has four other active auxiliary bishops and two other retired ones.

This story originally ran on L.A.’s Angelus News.

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Archbishop after death of California woman: Immigrants are not all ‘guilty by association’

by CNA/EWTN News • July 23, 2015

An impromptu memorial honoring Kate Steinle at Pier 14 in San Francisco, California. (Shelly Prevost via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — The random killing of a 32 year-old California woman has reignited an intense debate about immigration reform, after the suspect was identified as an illegal immigrant with a felony record.

In a statement made this week to the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco offered his prayers and condolences to the victim’s family. He also cautioned lawmakers against using the case for political gain, and against seeing all immigrants as violent criminals.

“While it is important that we learn from this incident and work to prevent it from happening again, it is also important that we recognize that the vast majority of immigrants – both those with and without papers – are not a violent threat to society and so should not be subject to guilt by association,” he said.

“In fact, statistics show that immigrant communities are by and large safe and that a cooperative relationship between law enforcement and those communities enhances public safety and reduces crime,” the archbishop continued. “In this regard, I ask our local, state, and federal elected officials to work together in a bipartisan manner to ensure that all persons – U.S citizens and newcomers alike – are protected from individuals who pose a threat to national security or public safety.”

The victim in the case, Kathryn (Kate) Steinle, was strolling along Pier 14 in San Francisco with her father and a family friend in the early evening on July 1 when she was randomly shot and killed.

“There was a pop, and Kate went down,” 68-year-old Jim Steinle, the victim’s father, recalled the day after the incident according to the San Francisco Gate.

Kate’s last words to her father were: “Help me, Dad.”

The suspect, 45 year-old Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, is an illegal immigrant with seven felonies on his record who has been deported back to Mexico five times, and whose last known address was in Texas.

Steinle’s parents are among those calling for reform of the “disjointed” immigration system and enforcement during meetings with the Senate and House Judiciary Committees this week.

“Legislation should be discussed, enacted or changed to take these undocumented immigrant felons off our streets for good,” Steinle told the Senate Judiciary Committee July 21, according to the Los Angeles Times, calling for the closing of legal loopholes.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said during Tuesday’s meeting that Sanchez’s criminal record shows “the failure of the system” and that Steinle’s death was a tragedy that “could have been avoided.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldaña defended the current administration’s strategy on immigration reform. She noted that they were working with local authorities on bettering the communication about and apprehending of inmates, and on finding solutions tailored to the needs of specific locations.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee also testified, saying he preferred sanctuary policies that ease the relationship between immigrants and law enforcement. In cases like this, Lee noted, immigrants can be key witnesses and informants if they do not fear deportation.

At the end of his statement, Archbishop Cordinleone said he acknowledged the need for immigration reform, but asked that it be done in a way that still respected families and human dignity.

“Such reform, long overdue, should preserve family unity, ensure the due process of law, protect those fleeing persecution, and ensure the integrity of our nation’s borders.”

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Last hope: Little Sisters of the Poor appeal to Supreme Court

by CNA/EWTN News • July 23, 2015

Mother Loraine Maguire of the Little Sisters of the Poor. (Mary Rezac/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — After a federal appeals court ruled that the Little Sisters of the Poor must obey the federal contraception mandate, the sisters have announced that they are appealing to the Supreme Court.

Sr. Loraine Marie Maguire, mother provincial of the Little Sisters of the Poor, emphasized that the religious women “dedicate our lives to serving the neediest in society, with love and dignity.” For 175 years, the order has cared for the elderly poor and dying throughout the world.

“We perform this loving ministry because of our faith and simply cannot choose between our care for the elderly poor and our faith, and we shouldn’t have to,” she said in a July 23 statement. “We hope the Supreme Court will hear our case and ensure that people from diverse faiths can freely follow God’s calling in their lives.”

The sisters are among several hundred plaintiffs that have challenged the federal contraception mandate, which requires employers to offer health insurance plans covering contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can cause early abortions.

Employers who fail to comply with the mandate face crippling penalties. In the case of the Little Sisters, the fines could amount to around $2.5 million a year, or about 40 percent of the $6 million the Sisters beg for annually to run their ministry.

Met with a wave of protest, the contraception mandate has undergone a number of revisions. However, the sisters say that it still requires them to violate their beliefs.

Because the Little Sisters of the Poor are not affiliated with a particular house of worship, they do not qualify for the religious exemption to the mandate. The federal government has argued that it has sufficiently provided for the religious freedom of the Little Sisters and other religious organizations through an “accommodation” under which the faith-based employers can pass the burden of providing the objectionable coverage to insurers, who must then offer it directly to employees without cost.

The government says that providing contraception coverage is ultimately free for insurance companies, because birth control results in better health for women and lower pregnancy rates, resulting in lower overall costs for insurers.

Critics, however, reject this claim, arguing that the costs of the coverage will ultimately be handed on to the employer in some way. Several religious organizations have also said that they still object to signing a form that passes the burden of providing the objectionable content to another party.

“In America, judges and government bureaucrats have no authority to tell the Little Sisters what is moral or immoral,” said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and lead attorney for the Little Sisters.

“And the government can distribute its drugs without nuns – it has its own healthcare exchanges that can provide whatever it wants.”

On July 14, the Tenth Circuit Court ruled that because the Little Sisters had the option of signing the form, they failed to show that the mandate required a substantial burden on their free exercise of religion.

Last year, the Little Sisters had received temporary protection from the mandate under two orders from the U.S. Supreme Court – one order from the full court and the other from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who oversees the section of the country where the sisters’ case originated. The orders had protected the Little Sisters from mandate penalties while their case was working its way through the court system.

The Supreme Court has also ruled directly on the mandate. In June 2014, it struck down the mandate as it applied to Hobby Lobby and other closely-held for-profit companies.

In its July 14 decision, the Tenth Circuit said that the Hobby Lobby reasoning did not apply in the Little Sisters’ case because they were a non-profit and therefore fell under the terms of the “accommodation,” which were not offered to Hobby Lobby as a for-profit company.

The Tenth Circuit’s order also applies to Christian Brothers Services and Christian Brothers Employee Benefit Trust, the Catholic organizations through which the Little Sisters obtain their health coverage.

Now, the Little Sisters are asking the Supreme Court for protection. The Becket Fund and Supreme Court advocate Paul Clement – the same legal team that won the Hobby Lobby case – filed the petition on behalf of the Little Sisters as well as a handful of other groups.

“The government has lost every single time they have made these arguments before the Supreme Court – including last year’s landmark Hobby Lobby case,” noted Rienzi. “One would think they would get the message and stop pressuring the Sisters.”

This is the fifth petition on the contraception mandate that the Supreme Court has received. The court is expected to consider the petitions later this year. If it takes up the case, a final decision would be expected next summer.

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Want to walk with Pope Francis? Then take this pledge

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • July 23, 2015

Pope Francis walking up to St. Peter’s Basilica on June 3, 2015 before the Wednesday general audience. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — Catholics in Washington, D.C. are hoping a new charity pledge will go viral like last year’s “Ice Bucket Challenge,” but there’s a new twist – this pledge is for Pope Francis.

“The ‘Walk with Francis’ Pledge offers people the opportunity to demonstrate solidarity with the Holy Father and answer his call to bring Christ’s love, mercy and hope to others, especially those on the margins of society,” Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. said on Wednesday.

“The goal is to allow everyone in this community to enter into a physical, tangible way of helping others so that we can offer that as our gift to the Pope,” he said at the opening press conference for the campaign.

The pledge is open to anyone who wants to express solidarity with Pope Francis through acts of charity before he comes to visit Washington, D.C. in late September.

Participants can pledge to give money to charity, pray more, perform acts of service, or promote Church teaching in the public square on a number of issues like respect for human life or immigration. They announce their pledge on social media using the hashtag #WalkwithFrancis and challenge someone else to take the pledge.

Pledges can vary from person to person – it’s “simple,” “flexible,” and “measurable,” Monsignor John Enzler, head of Catholic Charities, D.C. who organized the pledge, told CNA. The organization is partnering with the Archdiocese of Washington for the campaign.

And the campaign is already taking off in D.C. Pledge-takers include 2012 Olympic gold medalist swimmer Katie Ledecky, who promised to assist various charitable groups; George Washington University men’s basketball coach Mike Lonergan, who pledged to attend daily Mass more often; and Washington Nationals pitcher Craig Stammen, who promised to memorize Matthew chapter 5.

Msgr. Enzler hopes to get businesses involved to help the needy. Perhaps law firms could pledge to offer free legal advice to the poor who need it, or food chains could donate food or gift certificates to the homeless, he said. Even the city’s public transit system WMATA could donate day passes to the needy.

He acknowledged that the campaign resembles the ALS Association’s 2014 “Ice Bucket Challenge,” where participants doused themselves in ice water and challenged others to follow suit or give money to the association for research.

That viral challenge ultimately raised $115 million. Now, Msgr. Enzler hopes that the power of social media will make “Walk with Francis” go viral and that other dioceses will participate.

While the results may be more donations to charity, the pledge is about more than philanthropy, he explained. The idea is for people to make concrete expressions of solidarity with Pope Francis so that when he arrives in September, he will see that Americans have been carrying out his message of prayer and service.

“I can’t think of a better gift for his Holiness,” Msgr. Enzler said. The monsignor himself has pledged to spend a night with the homeless.

Tim Brant, a long-time national sportscaster, took the pledge alongside Cardinal Wuerl outside of Catholic Charities, D.C. He pledged to pray for Francis and read the Bible every day with others, especially his family.

“First and foremost, I’m going to get my family as involved as we possibly can,” he told CNA. “I’m going to make sure that their spiritual lives are in order.”

“I’m going to try to challenge the rest of my extended family and friends as well to get back into Church and that’ll be a challenge,” he continued.

“You keep hearing these reports on television about the waning of Christianity and the churchgoers on Sunday are way down in this country,” he admitted. “This is a tough world right now. And when you read the paper or see the news every night, it’s really depressing what’s taking place in our country, in the world.”

“I think a lot of people are depressed, and if they can just have something to reach to or look to that’s a little bit bigger than them – I think that’s why I want to walk with Francis, because he’s bigger than us. Like Pope Paul was, he had his arms open. And I think that’s going to be a great motivation for so many of us in this country throughout the world.”

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In Wisconsin, fetal pain concerns drive new abortion regulations

by CNA/EWTN News • July 24, 2015

(Tatiana Vdb via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Madison, WI — The state of Wisconsin has now banned abortions 20 weeks into pregnancy, on the grounds that unborn children feel pain, joining more than a dozen states with similar laws.

“Today is a great day for unborn babies in the state of Wisconsin,” Heather Weininger, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life, said July 20.

She said the bill authors and other supporters recognized the state’s compelling interest in protecting unborn babies “at the point when they can feel excruciating pain from abortion.”

The bill passed the state Senate by a vote of 19-14, and the Assembly by a vote of 61-34, in an extraordinary session of the legislature.

Gov. Scott Walker, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, spoke with reporters after he signed the bill on Monday.

“For people, regardless of where they might stand – when an unborn child can feel pain, I think most people feel it’s appropriate to protect that child,” he said.

During his 2014 re-election campaign the governor would not say whether he supported the ban. He voiced his support for the bill in March.

The bill bars abortion 20 weeks or more after fertilization except in case of a medical emergency.

“Under the bill, no person can perform or induce an abortion when the unborn child is considered to be capable of experiencing pain,” the governor’s office said.

Those who perform an illegal abortion can face a felony charge punishable by up to three and a half years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Doctors can also be sued for damages.

Fourteen other U.S. states have similar restrictions on abortion, though several laws are facing legal challenges, the Associated Press reports.

The Wisconsin bill was opposed by abortion providers and pro-abortion advocacy groups, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which contends that the unborn child cannot feel pain until 27 weeks into pregnancy.

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Why this Catholic health care development is a game-changer for women

by Gabrielle Cubera (CNA/EWTN News) • July 24, 2015

(Unsplash CC0 1.0)

Omaha, NE — With the hope of providing authentic and ethical health care for women, Dr. Thomas Hilgers, creator of Natural Procreative Technology, has worked for decades to establish a medical network that studies, understands, and treats the female fertility cycle.

Assisted by his wife, Sue, and two nurses, K. Diane Daly and Ann Prebil, this group has been working together since 1976.

“What we’ve developed, in effect, is a professional delivery system for Catholic reproductive health services, which not only involves family planning services, but also the whole variety of women’s health issues. This has all come out of our research in the last 39 years,” Hilgers told CNA.

A medical student when Bl. Paul VI published Humanae vitae, his 1968 encyclical on the regulation of birth, Hilgers “felt really called to” the issues he read about in the document.

He then went on to complete his first research project in natural methods of parental planning, after which he received training in obstetrics and gynecology.

Together with his colleagues he developed NaPro (Natural Procreative) Technology. In Omaha in 1985 they founded the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction, and in 1999 formally created the Creighton Model FertilityCare System.

NaPro Technology has successfully been used to help women better understand their bodies’ natural fertility, to achieve or avoid pregnancy, and to find solutions to a variety of health problems.

Hilgers and his colleagues considered it important to differentiate themselves from natural family planning, feeling that term was “too … limiting,” Sue Hilgers said.

With the help of a marketing specialist, they developed the term “fertility care,” emphasizing that their model is intended not only to space births, but to truly and broadly manage a woman’s gynecological health long-term.

“For millennia, women had not understood their menstrual and fertility cycle,” Hilgers said. “For the first time ever, the mystery of the menstrual cycle has been removed. Through the research of Dr Hilgers in the menstrual and fertility cycles, we now have answers to questions that had plagued women for centuries; but beyond that, we have treatments to give hope and healing to women no matter their age, their reproductive category, nor their gynecological or obstetrical problem.”

Women using the model chart their cycles daily to indicate fertile and infertile days and to monitor their health. Physicians can examine the charts to find unusual patterns, and thus conduct appropriate tests for a diagnosis.

‘Fertility care’ invites all women, whether married or celibate, to know how their bodies function and thereby receive adequate health care based on their personalized observations and assessments.

Hilgers saw the preponderance of artificial birth control as a band-aid solution to such health problems as severe menstrual pain and abnormal bleeding – “they’ve changed away from looking at the underlying problems.”

“In a way, it’s set us back in women’s health care,” Hilgers says. “Politicians … talk about this war on women, and it’s a way of deflecting away from what actually has been going on. The real war on women is all this contraception, abortion, sterilization … and it’s not to say that there weren’t some real problems there when all this started but we haven’t solved any of them. They’re all symptomatic, and they’re all band-aid approaches.”

Many physicians have “antagonism” and “close-mindedness” toward anything that is not artificial, Sue Hilgers said.

Through the work of the Pope Paul VI Institute, several women’s health issues now have more safe, reliable, and effective resolutions. According to Dr. Hilgers, the team has discovered ways to prevent pelvic adhesions during surgery; they have identified various ovulation abnormalities through ultrasounds; and they have correlated the type of mucous cycles women have to particular fertility problems.

According to Dr. Hilgers, about 9.5 million women in the U.S. have fertility issues, and of those women, fewer than 0.5% become pregnant. Many couples are turned off by IVF because “it’s a very expensive methodology” and “it’s highly abortive,” Dr. Hilgers stated.

In vitro fertilization requires multiple eggs to be fertilized; many women who only want one or two children must make a choice to either freeze the leftover embryos, or have them destroyed.

There are “maybe 80,000 women who get served by the IVF industry” he said. “Well, 80,000 out of 9.5 million is pretty small.”

“When we see the publicity image of it … it’s like [IVF] is the only treatment there is for infertility. But at NaPro Technology we take an approach which looks at the underlying causes, or the root causes, of the infertility problem.”

While artificial fertilization or contraception glosses over underlying problems, the Pope Paul VI Institute aims to find the causes of infertility or abnormal menstrual occurrences.

While not every couple suffering with infertility will become pregnant, women leave with healthier bodies and more knowledge of their complex nature.

Patients come and are “so happy, because they learn about how their bodies work,” Daly told CNA.

“The men are in awe of how their wives’ bodies really function,” she continued. “And then they’re empowered – once they really know how things are normal, how things regularly are, then it can empower them to be a partner in health and they can take that to their physician and say, my chart is showing this and this, and I would like you to help diagnose that and treat what you can.”

Prebil said that “one of the things very early on we realized, was that it was very important to develop good communication between the couple, that they would learn to communicate about things that maybe they weren’t communicating about before.”

The goal was not simply to teach women and couples how to chart and to recognize infertile or fertile days, but to be a “witness to them on how to communicate,” and how to “share all levels of sexuality,” Prebil continued.

Sue Hilgers said that “we’ve really field tested these teachings now for almost 40 years, and we’re here to say that the teachings are on target, they work and they bring so much hope and healing and reflect the Church’s true love and compassion for women, couples and families.”

Daly added, “We’re just going to keep on working as long as we can to serve God and his kingdom and bring this message … to all people because everybody has a right to this information – everybody deserves this.”

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After theater shooting, Lafayette bishop offers sympathy and prayer

by CNA/EWTN News • July 24, 2015

Lafayette, Louisiana police stand outside of the Grand Theater on July 23, 2015 after a gunman opened fire inside the theater. (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

Lafayette, LA — Catholics in Louisiana are stunned by Thursday’s deadly mass shooting at a Lafayette movie theater and are praying for those affected, the local bishop has said.

“We are all shocked and saddened by this tragedy,” Bishop Michael Jarrell of Lafayette said July 23. “We pray that everyone affected by this horror may feel the comforting presence of our Lord Jesus surrounding them during this difficult time.”

“Lafayette is a place of great faith,” Bishop Jarrell continued. “We ask all the Catholic faithful and, indeed, all people of good will throughout Acadiana to stop, and offer sincere and thoughtful prayer for those who have died, the wounded, their families as well as the perpetrator of this evil act.”

A gunman shot at least 11 people, killing two, before he killed himself at The Grand Theatre in Lafayette Thursday night.

Police identified the shooter as John Russel Houser, 59. Officials said he was a “drifter” from Alabama who was staying at a nearby motel. Police said his motives were unclear. He appeared to have acted alone and he apparently did not know the victims, the BBC reports.

He may have intended to flee instead of killing himself, but the police response forced him back into the theater.

Bishop Jarrell voiced thanks for the efforts of law enforcement, paramedics, and first responders.

“Our priests and deacons stand ready to pray with any of the wounded and family members impacted by this senseless tragedy,” he said. The bishop voiced Catholics’ commitment to “promoting a society that respects the dignity of every human life.”

Fellow U.S. bishops have chimed in on Twitter with messages of solidarity for the people of Lafayette.

Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth tweeted, “Praying tonight for the victims and families of the theater shooting in Lafayette, LA. Violence cheapens appreciation for life as a gift.”

And Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis posted an image of the Fleur-de-lis, a historic Louisiana symbol, under the hashtag “#PrayForLafayette”.

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Court: Family-run pharmacy must carry Plan B despite religious objections

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • July 24, 2015

(Mike Mozart via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Owners of a pharmacy in Washington state must provide the morning-after contraceptive pill against their religious beliefs after a federal appeals court upheld a state mandate that they do so.

“Today’s decision is unfortunate,” stated Luke Goodrich, deputy general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, on Thursday. “The government has no business punishing citizens solely because of their religious beliefs.”

At issue is a 2005 state law that mandates pharmacies provide the morning-after and week-after contraceptive pills to customers even if they religiously object to doing so. Individual employees may recuse themselves from filling such prescriptions if they have a religious objection, but another employee must be present to fill the prescription.

Pharmacies cannot simply refuse to fill the prescriptions while referring customers to other pharmacies that can do so, as the plaintiffs, owners of Ralph’s Thriftway store, had reportedly done in the past.

The Storman family owns the pharmacy and religiously objects to providing the morning-after and week-after pills, believing that they can induce early abortions.

Goodrich argued that the state regulations are unmatched in the burden they lay upon businesses. No state other than Washington makes such a requirement of pharmacies, he said.

The Stormans initially won at the federal district court level in 2012 after a 12-day trial featuring around 800 exhibits and testimonies from persons responsible for drafting and enforcing the law.

The district court found that the law violated the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion and discriminated against religiously-owned and operated businesses by carving out certain other protections for pharmacies that were not explicitly religious.

For instance, pharmacies did not have to obey the mandate if a patient could not pay for the prescription or if they filled out a fraudulent prescription note. Yet a similar mandate did not apply for those who expressed religious opposition.

The state, along with Planned Parenthood, appealed the case to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In its decision, the appeals court ruled that the law did not violate the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion.

The law is “neutral” and “generally applicable” – it doesn’t specifically target the practice of religion – so citizens must obey it regardless of their religious beliefs, the court said, adding that it fulfilled a compelling government interest of ensuring that everyone has access to contraception.

In a similar case last year, the family-run craft chain Hobby Lobby won its argument against the federal contraception mandate at the Supreme Court.

In that decision, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., the Court ruled that a closely-held for-profit business like Hobby Lobby did not have to obey the federal mandate that it pay for coverage of abortion-inducing drugs in its employee health plans, because the government had failed to prove the mandate was the “least restrictive means” of fulfilling the “compelling government interest” of contraception coverage for women.

Hobby Lobby invoked the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal law that says the government cannot “substantially burden” someone’s free exercise of religion unless its meets certain criteria for doing so. The government must show that its action is in the “compelling government interest” and is the “least restrictive means” of fulfilling that interest.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, however, does not apply to state laws and regulations. And Washington has no state law that offers such protections for businesses, so the pharmacy owners had to argue their case on the merits of the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion and their constitutional right to due process

“Because the rules do not infringe a fundamental right, they need only be ‘rationally related to legitimate government interests,’” the court concluded, adding that “the rules meet that test.”

The plaintiffs did not establish their belief that the morning- and week-after contraceptives can induce abortions, and that their religious liberty interest in the case is a “fundamental right,” the court said.

“On balance, however, we are unconvinced that the right to own, operate, or work at a licensed professional business free from regulations requiring the business to engage in activities that one sincerely believes leads to the taking of human life is ‘so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental,’” the court said citing the Supreme Court case Snyder v. Massachusetts.

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Is the Pope’s challenge to America having an anti-Francis effect?

by Kevin J. Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • July 24, 2015

Pope Francis at the General Audience address in St. Peter’s Square, June 24, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

South Bend, IN — Most Americans have a favorable view of Pope Francis, but an apparent decline in their numbers may be due to his implicit challenge to American culture, one observer has said.

“Americans never react well when an international leader criticizes their culture,” Dr. Kathleen Cummings, a University of Notre Dame professor of American Studies, told CNA July 24. “Given that Pope Francis has done so implicitly in his recent remarks and writings, it is not surprising to see that his approval ratings have declined in the United States.”

A Gallup survey of U.S. adults in early July found that 59 percent had a favorable view of Pope Francis. This is a 17 percent decline from February 2014, when 76 percent of Gallup respondents said they had a favorable view of the Pope.

The latest figure resembles poll results in April 2013, a month after the Pope’s election, when 58 percent of Gallup respondents said they had a favorable opinion of Francis.

The favorability of Catholics in the U.S. toward the Pope has also declined. In February 2014, about 89 percent of self-identified Catholics told Gallup they had a favorable view of Pope Francis. In July 2015, this figure dropped to 71 percent, a drop of 18 percent. About half of non-Catholic Christians now say they have a favorable view of Francis, compared to 73 percent in 2014.

The percentage of self-identified conservatives who reported favorable views of Pope Francis dropped from 72 percent in 2014 to 45 percent in 2015. The percentage of liberals reporting favorable views dropped from 82 percent to 68 percent, while moderates dropped from 79 to 71 percent.

The Pope’s overall unfavorable rating is only about 16 percent, a slight rise from nine percent in 2014, and 10 percent in 2013. About 25 percent of all July 2015 respondents said they had never heard of Pope Francis or had no opinion of him, compared to 16 percent in 2014.

The July Gallup poll came soon after the release of Pope Francis’ encyclical on care for our common home, Laudato Si. The lengthy work spoke of the need to care for God’s creation. It also backed several remedies for what the Pope characterized as an environmental crisis.

He said there was a “very solid” consensus on climactic warming.

“Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it,” the Pope wrote.

Cummings, who directs the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, said Pope Francis is like previous Popes in “calling upon U.S. Catholics … to live their faith in ways that run counter to the national culture.”

“The difference is that he has highlighted issues that tend to challenge those who identify as conservatives, which explains the steeper decline among their approval ratings,” she said.

The Gallup telephone survey of 1,009 U.S. adults took place July 8-12. It claims a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

Benedict XVI’s favorability peaked in 2008 at 63 percent, but had dropped to 40 percent in 2010, according to Gallup’s surveys. Pope John Paul II’s favorability peaked at 86 percent in 1998, and never dropped lower than 61 percent.

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The Apostle to the Apostles

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • July 22, 2015

She followed him as a disciple. She stood with his mother at the foot of the cross. The burial too. She announced the resurrection to the disciples. Nowhere in Scripture is she identified as a prostitute. Not even as a sinful woman. In Protestant faith-traditions, the Bahá’i, the Roman Catholic, and the Christen East, her feast is celebrated today. This is St. Mary Magdalene, “the apostle to the apostles.”

The Name Mary in the New Testament

For Jews, the name Miryam or Miriam was and continues to be a popular female name. Several other female names are variants of Miryam or Miriam: Mary, Maria, Marina, Maryka, Mara, Maura, Moira, and Maureen. The New Testament gives several women named Mary:

Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus Christ;

Mary the mother of James and Joses (Mt 1,2,12,13,27,28; Mk 6,15,16; Lk 2,24; Jn 19);

Mary Salome, the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee (Mt 20, 27);

Mary, wife of Clopas (Mt 27, 28; Mk 15, 16; Lk 24, Jn 19);

Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. She sat at the Lord’s feet while Martha prepared the meal for him. When Lazarus died, she rebuked Jesus for delaying his visit to him. She anointed Jesus’ feet a week before his death (Mt 27,28; Mk 15,16; Lk 10; Jn 11, 19, 20);

Mary Magdalene was present during and after the Lord’s crucifixion and after his resurrection. Luke narrates that she was delivered of seven demons. As a physician, he could have been describing a physical or nervous disorder and not a sinful life (Mt 23, 27, 28; Mk 15, 16; Lk 8, 23, 24; Jn 19, 20). The error that Magdalene was a sinful woman rests with Pope Gregory I, “the Great,” (6th c) who, in a homily, mistakenly referred to her as a scandalous woman. Her title, “Apostle to the Apostles” is ascribed to St. Augustine of Hippo (4th-5thc).

A Composite Woman

Some stories about the women disciples named Mary were conflated and blended into one composite woman — Mary Magdalene. This occurred in the Roman Church. It was never accepted in the Churches of the Christian East, Orthodox or Catholic. They have always seen Magdalene as a disciple, and in fact, “the equal of the apostles.”

Mary Magdalene in the Christian East

Through the ages, the Christian East has taught that Mary Magdalene was a virtuous woman all her life, even before she began to follow the Lord. The label of ‘penitent’ was never applied to her. It is only the Christian East that has kept Mary Magdalene free from the confusion that still exists in western traditions. She followed Jesus to the very end, brought myrrh and other spices to anoint his body, and was the first to witness and announce his resurrection. Thus, her title, “the equal of the apostles.”

In the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom for this feast, the Kontakion, summarizes her role in salvation-history: “Let us all sing a hymn of praise and a special canticle to the disciple of Christ, Mary Magdalene, the first myrrh-bearing woman: for she was a messenger of joy to the disciples. Let us praise the God of All who lavished upon us and upon the world such a fountain of wonders and miracles.”

The Icon of the Myrrh-bearing Women

In 1931, an icon dating back to the third century was found by archeologists near the eastern border of Syria. It depicts the women, led by Mary Magdalene, carrying torches and containers of costly myrrh and other precious ointments. The Myrrh-bearing Women are listed as: Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Joses, Mary, the wife of Clopas, Mary and Martha of Bethany, sisters of Lazarus, Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the steward of Herod Antipas, Mary Salome, the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and Susanna. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are also included in the icon for the important role they played at the time of Jesus’ death and burial. In the Christian East, the Third Sunday of Pascha (that is, the second Sunday after Easter) is called the “Sunday of the Myrrh-bearers.”

Sadly, the art of the western world cannot undo the countless depictions of Magdalene suggesting her troubled past rather vividly … and erroneously.

The Woman Who Loved Much

In the Johannine Gospel (20:11f), Mary returns from the empty tomb, but her emotions render a different verdict: ‘The Lord’s body has been stolen.’ She finds herself in the garden where she encounters the gardener who is Jesus in disguise. He addresses her as “Woman,” but she doesn’t recognize him, perhaps because she is blinded by anxiety. ‘He has been taken out of my life,’ she fears. She cannot bear to think of a future without his presence in her life.

Preoccupied, she bypasses his questions: “Why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”

“Tell me where you have put him, and I will take him away,” she blurts out without tact. Mary is nothing if not a lover. And love can be tactless. Reason suggests that this undertaking might be impossible, but no, “the heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.”

“Mary!” That voice! She recognizes it, deep, penetrating, and most of all, it is the voice that consoles. The darkness of her facial expression is lifted, and it is transformed to radiance and joy. Her eyes sparkle, her bearing, calm, serene.

‘The Master is calling out to me!’ He’s depending on me to tell the others that he is risen.’

She goes to announce the good news, the wonderful news. All is well in Mary’s life.

She loved him so much; for this reason, she is a beautiful woman. This contemplation, “Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene in the Garden,” surely belongs to one of the most poignant in all of Scripture!

The reflection below describes Magdalene and all other men and women whose lives are single-mindedly decided by love:

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is,

than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way.

What seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide everything.

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,

what you do with your evenings,

how you spend your weekends, what you read,

whom you know, what breaks your heart,

and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.”

Pedro Arrupe, S.J., the 28th General of the Society of Jesus

Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, Brentwood, NY, holds degrees in philosophy (Ph.L), musicology (Ph.D.), theology (M.A.), and liturgical studies (Ph.D). She has taught at all levels of Catholic education and writes with a particular focus on a theology of beauty and the sacred arts. Her e-mail address is jroccasalvo@optonline.net.

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FEATURES

The Church needs better ministry to priests in prison

by Msgr. M. Francis Mannion • July 23, 2015

A recent article in the National Catholic Reporter by Thomas C. Fox, entitled “Vincentian visits imprisoned priests,” drew my attention to the plight of priests in prison, especially those convicted of the sexual abuse of minors.

The article took the form of an interview with Fr. Paul Sauerbier, a Vincentian priest, who has established the Prodigal Father Foundation — so-called because of the lavish generosity of the father toward the repentant son in the Gospel story of the Prodigal Son.

Fr. Sauerbier’s ministry is to reach out to priests imprisoned for the sexual abuse of minors — whom Sauerbier calls “the modern-day lepers in our society.” When priests are convicted for the abuse of minors, he says, “Most people in the church and society back away in horror. When he ends up in prison, he is usually abandoned by his church, his family and his friends.” “No one,” Fr. Sauerbier says, “is more outcast than an outcast priest.”

Fr. Sauerbier states: “Most of the guys I visited haven’t been visited in years. Sometimes I am the first visitor they have ever had. I find many of the men suffering from extreme isolation. … I spend a lot of time with [priests] who have had almost no human contact. I’ve found these priests depleted, often with having had no one to share their pain or shame.”

When word gets out in jail that they are child abusers, Fr. Sauerbier says, they get singled out for abuse by fellow inmates, and if they are known to be priest child abusers, they are subject to even greater violence, psychological and even physical.

I am not for a moment suggesting that priests jailed for sexual abuse deserve more pastoral attention that do lay people in a similar situation. But the point Fr. Sauerbier makes is that jailed priests have far less support from the Church and family, and are much more isolated.

What can the ordinary Catholic do for such priests in jail? They can include them (even if they don’t know their names) in their prayers. They can write letters and send Mass cards, if their names are known. They can support financially organizations like the Prodigal Father Foundation (address available on the internet). The money goes to provide basic necessities like a bar of soap, a razor, underwear, personal toilet paper, and the like.

What can a parish do? On occasion it could mention priests jailed for abuse in the General Intercessions. This may be shocking to some parishioners, but, if properly explained, I believe people will support the gesture.

What can a diocese do? Perhaps provide a list of all jailed abusive priests within the boundaries of the diocese to a priest (possibly a retired one), who can, like Fr. Sauerbier, make contact with them. (Fr. Sauerbier says that generally incarcerated priests only get a visit from someone in the diocese when a chancery official goes to tell them that they have been laicized. What a great gesture it would be if the local bishop were to visit a jailed priest!)

What are the theological bases for the outreach I am suggesting? It is the Gospel stories of the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, and the healing of lepers. Jesus (following Isaiah) saw his ministry as bringing freedom to captives. Freedom in the situation I am describing here obviously does not mean physical freedom, but spiritual and psychological freedom.

This ministry is one that Catholics could undertake during the upcoming Year of Mercy announced by Pope Francis.

Msgr. Mannion is pastor emeritus of St. Vincent de Paul parish in Salt Lake City. He holds a Ph.D. in sacramental theology from The Catholic University of America. He was founding president of The Society for Catholic Liturgy in 1995 and the founding editor of the Society’s journal, Antiphon. At the invitation of Cardinal Francis George of Chicago he founded the Mundelein Liturgical Institute in 2000.

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FEATURES

What do we need to be truly happy?

by Chris Gilbert • July 24, 2015

Who among us does not long for lasting happiness? This universal desire is ever present, yet so many today are not happy. Fr. Robert Spitzer’s brilliant exploration of true happiness is an incredible gift for anyone looking for something more satisfying than the next short-lived physical stimulation. With his book, “Finding True Happiness: Satisfying Our Restless Hearts”, Fr. Spitzer takes a refreshingly comprehensive approach to the human person as a physical and spiritual being with a mind, will, and emotions. He does not limit his focus where one might expect a priest to do so: merely seeking spiritual solutions to the problem of unhappiness. Spitzer’s dual approach to faith and reason as both a scientist and a faithful priest produces a robust analysis of the human person.

The author draws on the expertise of psychologists, philosophers, and scientists to illuminate the natural world and the human experience. These all point to something outside and beyond ourselves. But is such a conclusion - finding fulfillment in the divine - just wishful thinking, as Freud understood it? Spitzer appeals to the most brilliant astrophysicists, mathematicians and logicians of our age, who insist we are transphysical, or spiritual beings. Only God can account for the life’s greatest question, say the greatest minds to ever live.

As it turns out, obtaining happiness takes some serious reflection about our lives and the choices we make. Even our unconscious attitudes play an influential role in our level of happiness, yet we often remain unaware of their existence, let alone impact. The author reveals four levels of happiness, each with its proper place and role. Most basically, we seek external, material pleasure. Our brains and sensory faculties detect biological opportunities and dangers and so, thankfully, we naturally seek breakfast and clothing. Secondly, we have a self-consciousness which leads us to seek status, intelligence, power, and social opportunities. Third, we have a capacity for self-consciousness and empathy which fills us with the desire to contribute to our communities and the world. Finally, we were created with a transcendental awareness and desire for the sacred and the spiritual. The person who lives solely for the first or second kind of happiness, to the neglect of the third or fourth, will only experience brief moments of happiness, but not the lasting kind we were made for.

Spitzer then invites the reader to examine what it means to be human while unveiling the fruits of full capacity living and the struggles of a sub-par life. The strength of his approach rests on common human experiences - frustrations and failures that plague us, as well as achievements and celebrations we strive for. He keeps his feet on the ground with eminently practical examples while empowering his readers to extend their current situation. He guides the reader through the process of changing one’s fundamental attitudes by examining purpose in life, views of others and one-self, and views of freedom. Thus, he makes “escaping your personal hell” a concrete reality.

After laying a practical and accessible foundation, the book proceeds to an exploration of the deepest level of happiness. Spitzer crowns his social, psychological, and philosophical analysis with beauty, the Church, and a relationship with God focused on Jesus Christ. With faith, we discover worship, learning, and service as vehicles of grace buoyed up by prayer and ongoing conversion. These realities are richly explored as the ultimate means to true happiness.

Those who engage this volume will be happy to learn it is only the first of four. Fr. Spitzer’s brilliance shines through his insights, relatable anecdotes, and profound conclusion. Readers will discover that the build-up of the initial pages creates the tension of a sling-shot: a little effort results in a spectacular and unforeseen flight.

Chris Gilbert received his M.A. from Franciscan University of Steubenville in Theology with a specialization in catechetics. He worked in youth and young adult ministry for seven years. Now, he and his wife own their own business from home and are blessed by their three children. Chris also loves books because, for most of his life, he refused to read.

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SUNDAY • JULY 26, 2015

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading (2 Kgs 4:42-44; NRSVCE)

A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.

Second Reading (Eph 4:1-6; NRSVCE)

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Gospel Reading (Jn 6:1-15; NRSVCE)

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

MONDAY • JULY 27, 2015

Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 32:15-24, 30-34; NRSVCE)

Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, written on the front and on the back. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” But he said,

“It is not the sound made by victors,

or the sound made by losers;

it is the sound of revelers that I hear.”

As soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.

Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn hot; you know the people, that they are bent on evil. They said to me, ‘Make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off’; so they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will only forgive their sin — but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written.” But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; see, my angel shall go in front of you. Nevertheless, when the day comes for punishment, I will punish them for their sin.”

Gospel Reading (Mt 13:31-35; NRSVCE)

Jesus put before the crowds another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:

“I will open my mouth to speak in parables;

I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.”

TUESDAY • JULY 28, 2015

Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28; NRSVCE)

Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp; he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each of them, at the entrance of their tents and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and bow down, all of them, at the entrance of their tent. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then he would return to the camp; but his young assistant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the tent.

The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name, “The Lord.” The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed,

“The Lord, the Lord,

a God merciful and gracious,

slow to anger,

and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,

forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,

yet by no means clearing the guilty,

but visiting the iniquity of the parents

upon the children

and the children’s children,

to the third and the fourth generation.”

And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. He said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Gospel Reading (Mt 13:36-43; NRSVCE)

Then Jesus left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!”

WEDNESDAY • JULY 29, 2015

Memorial of Saint Martha

First Reading (Ex 34:29-35; NRSVCE)

Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

Gospel Reading (Jn 11:19-27; NRSVCE)

Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother Lazarus, who had died. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

THURSDAY • JULY 30, 2015

Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 40:16-21, 34-38; NRSVCE)

Moses did everything just as the Lord had commanded him. In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was set up. Moses set up the tabernacle; he laid its bases, and set up its frames, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars; and he spread the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent over it; as the Lord had commanded Moses. He took the covenant and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark, and set the mercy seat above the ark; and he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the curtain for screening, and screened the ark of the covenant; as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the Israelites would set out on each stage of their journey; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, before the eyes of all the house of Israel at each stage of their journey.

Gospel Reading (Mt 13:47-53; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.

FRIDAY • JULY 31, 2015

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola

First Reading (Lv 23:1-2, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37; NRSVCE)

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: These are the appointed festivals of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed festivals.

“These are the appointed festivals of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall celebrate at the time appointed for them. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, there shall be a Passover offering to the Lord, and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the festival of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. For seven days you shall present the Lord’s offerings by fire; on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation: you shall not work at your occupations.”

The Lord spoke to Moses: “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall raise the sheaf before the Lord, that you may find acceptance; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall raise it.

“And from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the elevation offering, you shall count off seven weeks; they shall be complete. You shall count until the day after the seventh sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord.

“Now, the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you: you shall deny yourselves and present the Lord’s offering by fire.

“On the fifteenth day of this seventh month, and lasting seven days, there shall be the festival of Booths to the Lord. The first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. Seven days you shall present the Lord’s offerings by fire; on the eighth day you shall observe a holy convocation and present the Lord’s offerings by fire; it is a solemn assembly; you shall not work at your occupations.

These are the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you shall celebrate as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord offerings by fire — burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day.”

Gospel Reading (Mt 13:54-58; NRSVCE)

Jesus came to his hometown and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor except in their own country and in their own house.” And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.

SATURDAY • AUGUST 1, 2015

Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori

First Reading (Lv 25:1, 8-17; NRSVCE)

The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: “You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month — on the day of atonement — you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.

“In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another. When you buy from your neighbor, you shall pay only for the number of years since the jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop years. If the years are more, you shall increase the price, and if the years are fewer, you shall diminish the price; for it is a certain number of harvests that are being sold to you. You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.”

Gospel Reading (Mt 14:1-12; NRSVCE)

At that time Herod the ruler heard reports about Jesus; and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him.” For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had been telling him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Though Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded him as a prophet. But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and she pleased Herod so much that he promised on oath to grant her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” The king was grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he commanded it to be given; he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. The head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who brought it to her mother. His disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went and told Jesus.