Justices seem willing to allow Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban

By
Catholic News Service
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Pro-life advocates are seen near the U.S. Supreme Court Dec. 1, 2021, the day justices heard oral arguments in a case about a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of gestation. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)

By Carol Zimmermann, Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — In the Supreme Court’s first major abortion case in decades — which looked at Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy — the majority of justices Dec. 1 seemed willing to let that ban stay in place.

But it was unclear if they would take this further and overturn Roe.

While the justices considered the state law and the possible ramifications of supporting it or not, people on both sides of the issue were on the steps of the Supreme Court revealing the divide on this issue by what they were shouting or with their placard messages calling abortion murder or an essential right.

At several points during the argument, Chief Justice John Roberts continued to bring the focus back to the question at hand: the 15-week ban on abortions in Mississippi, which was struck down by a federal District Court in Mississippi in 2018 and upheld a year later by the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

A 15-week ban is not a “dramatic departure from viability,” Roberts said.

The point of viability — when a fetus is said to be able to survive on its own — was key to the discussion because the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that states cannot restrict abortion before 24 weeks or when a fetus is said to be able to survive on its own.

Roberts seemed hesitant to take this further, asking if the court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, if it also would be asked to reconsider several other cases that people could say have been wrongly decided.

And that discussion of previous court decisions, the use of “stare decisis” came up frequently. The term, which literally means to stand by things decided, was used in reference to previous abortion cases but also several other cases with some justices pointing out that precedence should not always be a deciding factor and that some cases did need to be overturned.

Justice Stephen Breyer indicated the court was treading on contested ground and was concerned that its decision could be seen as merely being political.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor took this a step further, saying the court would be seen as highly politicized if it were to overturn Roe and other related rulings. “Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?” she asked. “I don’t see how it is possible.”

But as the arguments continued, more reflection seemed to be on the issue of abortion itself and the possibility of bringing the issue “back to the people,” as Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart suggested.

Stewart stressed that Roe and Casey court decisions “haunt our country” and “have no home in our history or traditions.”

Roe v. Wade is the 1973 decision that legalized abortion. Casey v. Planned Parenthood is the 1992 decision that affirmed Roe and also stressed that a state regulation on abortion could not impose an “undue burden” on a woman “seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh emphasized the court was being forced to “pick sides” on a contentious issue and questioned why the court had to be the arbiter here.

“The Constitution is neither pro-life nor pro-choice,” he said, noting that it “leaves the issue to the people to resolve in the democratic process.”

Justice Clarence Thomas asked what those opposed to the state ban thought was the constitutional right to an abortion, and Justice Samuel Alito spoke of the fetus having “an interest in having a life.”

Julie Rikelman, of the Center for Reproductive Rights, who represented the Jackson Women’s Health Organization in its challenge of Mississippi’s abortion law, said keeping the law in place would cause “profound damage to women’s liberty, equality and the rule of law.”

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar went on to argue that overturning the court’s previous abortion rulings would have “severe and swift” effects causing abortion restrictions in other states.

If the court sides with Mississippi, it would be the first time the court would allow an abortion ban before the point of viability and could lay the groundwork for other abortion restrictions that other states could follow.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a court brief supporting Mississippi, stressed that abortion is not a right created by the Constitution and called it “inherently different from other types of personal decisions to which this court has accorded constitutional protection.”

Referring to the court’s major abortion decisions, the brief warned that if the Supreme Court “continues to treat abortion as a constitutional issue,” it will face more questions in the future about “what sorts of abortion regulations are permissible.”

Just as the arguments started, the USCCB issued a statement from Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, which said: “We pray that the court will do the right thing and allow states to once again limit or prohibit abortion and in doing so protect millions of unborn children and their mothers from this painful, life-destroying act.”

A ruling in the case is expected in July.

 

Area’s Catholic medical professionals gather for prayer, worship at annual White Mass

By
Jeff Grant
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Diocese of Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted listens to Cardinal George Pell address the Catholic Physicians Guild of Phoenix dinner at the Diocese of Phoenix Pastoral Center Saturday, Nov. 21. Jeff Grant/THE CATHOLIC SUN

By Jeff Grant, THE CATHOLIC SUN

PHOENIX — Catholic medical professionals from throughout the Diocese gathered for prayer, worship, and a message from someone who should know a thing or two about perseverance under the most trying conditions.

Cardinal George Pell, the former Vatican official who spent 405 days in prison for a sex-abuse conviction that was later overturned, celebrated the annual White Mass in the Virginia G. Piper Chapel at the Diocese of Phoenix Pastoral Center Saturday, Nov. 20, for the Solemnity of Christ the King.

Cardinal Pell was joined by concelebrant Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted.

Named for the white coats worn by doctors and white uniforms by nurses, the Mass was not celebrated last year due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

The congregation included about 300, mostly health care workers, students and their guests.

Afterward, Cardinal Pell addressed a dinner hosted by the Catholic Medical Association of Phoenix, an organization that fosters the practice of Catholic moral and ethical principles in medicine while supporting and encouraging medical professionals in the faith.

“COVID has been very, very difficult,” Cardinal Pell told the dinner guests. “Many medical people have been exhausted. A percentage of people have resigned.”

But, he assured them, “the public recognizes this devotion. They also understand.”

Such commitment by doctors is nothing new, Pell said.

Recalling the Antonine Plague, which erupted in 165 A.D. at the height of Roman power, Pell noted that during the outbreak Galen, a Greek and the most prominent physician in that part of the world, left his patients in Rome to return to his home in Asia Minor.

“The Christians stayed and nursed their sick,” he explained. “Mercy was regarded as a weakness at that time. Christian attitudes were different and are different today. We fight suffering as well as anybody. We confront it; we help people at every stage. The secularist instinct is to eliminate the suffering — as in abortion or euthanasia,” he added.

Centuries later, a modern plague is testing the medical community’s mettle, including Catholic doctors, nurses, physicians assistants, technicians and others.

“I think there is a lot of distress in medical practitioners in general. The entire field has come under a lot of stress in the last two years; not just doctors, but nurses and ancillary support workers. That’s why we’re facing such a tremendous work-force shortage,” explained Dr. Thomas D. Shellenberger, a surgical oncologist and president of the Catholic Medical Association of Phoenix.

“The ones who have stayed are facing problems with burnout and, quite frankly, in finding humanity in the practice of medicine. That’s distressing because that goes against the reason most of us went to practice medicine in the first place,” he added.

Dr. Maricela Moffit, the Catholic Medical Association treasurer, is a hospitalist. Her task is to care for patients in a hospital. She said she has been around colleagues who have seen a good deal of death.

“During the height of the pandemic, an intern declared six people dead within a 24-hour period. I looked at him, and there was nothing there. He was going through the motions,” she recalled.

Even those preparing to enter the field are acutely aware of the stakes.

David Gettinato, who attends St. Joan of Arc Church in Phoenix, said that he has occasionally examined his decision to go to medical school and asks himself, “‘Are you able to do this? Will I make an impact? Am I following God’s will? I pray that I am always following God’s will.”

Which is exactly where the strength to persevere is derived from, according to the doctors and students.

“Our faith has been our rock,” Gettinato said, standing beside his wife, Sadie. Others echoed the thought.

“My faith; our belief in the Lord, is what has carried me through this and allows me to carry on,” said Dr. Moffitt.

“I think, for those within our faith community who are physicians, they have dug deeper into their faith, and that’s been a sustaining thing for a lot of us,” Shellenberger said.

The test was particularly acute at the height of the pandemic, when face-to-face interaction was rare.

“Our group has missed the camaraderie and bonding that is so important in any group,” Shellenberger explained. “The idea of doing things by Zoom is impersonal at the bare-bones level of function, but not nearly the high functional level so important in fellowship. That is why our organization exists — to meet together and celebrate Mass together and have human interaction.”

The Mass opened with a short introduction from Bishop Olmsted of Cardinal Pell, who the bishop said had been described by a colleague as “a man of towering faith.”

Later, in his homily, the Cardinal discussed the day’s Gospel reading from St. John (18:33-37) in which Jesus tells Pilate during questioning by the Roman governor prior to the Crucifixion that, while Jesus’ Kingdom is “not of this world,” He came to earth to “testify to the truth.”

“Every human life and every period of human history is marked by the struggle between good and evil, truth and lies, light and darkness. Everyone has to choose his side in this struggle. We strive. Sometimes, we succeed, Sometimes, we fail. And because of the victory of our Redeemer King on the Cross, our sins can and will be forgiven if we repent. We can say the kingdom of God is within us, within our individual houses, to the extent we live out in faith and goodness a share of Christ’s kingly role we received in baptism,” the cardinal told the congregation.

The former prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat of the Economy, Pell left the position in 2017 to defend himself against allegations he molested two choirboys in 1996 while Archbishop of Melbourne, Australia. Convicted by a jury, Pell was sentenced to a maximum of 6 years in prison with a possibility of parole after 3 years and 8 months. He served 405 days behind bars, including 5 months in solitary confinement, until Australia’s highest court overturned his conviction April 7, 2020, citing a reasonable doubt in the testimony of his lone accuser.

Pell has addressed the case and his release in several interviews since.

The medical association presented him with its Evangelium Vitae Award. In English, the title means “The Gospel of Life.” It is named for a 1995 encyclical by St. John Paul II. The honor is given by the medical association following the White Mass, “to recognize a member of the Church… who offers the world new signs of hope and works to ensure justice and solidarity will be increased and that a culture of life will be affirmed.”

Cardinal Pell is “a man who could not be broken,” the presentation stated.

The organization then bestowed upon Bishop Olmsted its St. Luke Award, citing the bishop’s “firm dedication” to the association. “Your tenure has tirelessly supported the right practice of medicine in Arizona, underscored by an unwavering support for the human dignity of all persons, a constant drive to serve the most vulnerable among us, and boundless respect for life at all stages.”

The group also announced it would sponsor a table at the annual dinner in the bishop’s name, calling his presence to the Diocese’s medical community “a wellspring of inspiration.”

The group also paid tribute to its late vice president. Dr. Jim Asher, the 2019 St. Luke recipient, succumbed to pancreatic cancer on Oct. 30 but “leaves us all with a legacy of great hope,” Shellenberger said.

Clergy comfort students, community after tragic high school shooting

By
Catholic News Service
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Oxford High School students and staff listen as Deacon John Manera proclaims the Gospel during Mass Nov. 30, 2021, at St. Joseph Church in Lake Orion, Mich., hours after a mass shooting at the school left three students dead and eight other people wounded. Authorities said a 15-year-old Oxford sophomore was in custody after the shooting. (CNS photo/Michael Stechschulte, Detroit Catholic)

By Michael Stechschulte, Catholic News Service

LAKE ORION, Mich. (CNS) — Many were not Catholic, but they arrived at St. Joseph Catholic Church the night of Nov. 30 nonetheless — first a trickle, then a steady stream.

Soon, a sea of varsity jackets and sweatshirts emblazoned with Oxford High School’s mascot, the Wildcats, overwhelmed the vestibule of the Lake Orion church.

Hugs were exchanged and cathartic tears were shed. Friends separated in fear hours earlier reunited, and parents consoled one another in their grief.

Earlier in the day, a gunman — alleged by authorities to be a 15-year-old Oxford High sophomore — took the lives of three Oxford students and wounded eight other people in the worst school shooting in Michigan history.

As the community came together at St. Joseph, the closest Catholic parish to Oxford, just 4.4 miles away in neighboring Lake Orion, the parish’s regularly scheduled Tuesday evening liturgy became an impromptu occasion of healing for a community that will need plenty of it in the coming weeks and months.

“This is truly what a strong community does. We come forth. We bond together. We hug one another,” Father Jim Kean, pastor of St. Joseph, told the nearly 1,000 parents, students, parishioners and community members who gathered for the Mass. “We turn to those words that on a day like today aren’t particularly easy to say: ‘I love you.’ ‘How are you?’ ‘Are you OK?'”

Even as the Mass was celebrated, lights and sirens could be seen and heard outside as the investigation into the shooting continued to unfold.

Late into the evening, news reports indicated authorities were raiding the downtown Oxford home of the alleged suspect, who was taken into custody shortly after the shooting.

Authorities responded to multiple 911 calls around 12:50 p.m. at the public high school, located about 45 miles north of Detroit in northern Oakland County, as reports of an active shooter began to leak out into the community.

According to police, the suspect — who has not yet been identified publicly — fired 15 to 20 rounds from a semiautomatic handgun in approximately five minutes before surrendering to authorities.

Authorities later identified the three students killed as 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin and 16-year-old Tate Myre. The eight others wounded — including seven students and a teacher — were transported to nearby hospitals. Three remained in critical condition early Dec. 1.

As panicked parents frantically tried reaching their children at the school, many turned to social media for information.

John Wurges, who attended the Mass at St. Joseph, said his daughter, an Oxford High student, was home from school Nov. 30 after breaking up with her boyfriend.

“Her and I were in the living room talking when she looked at her phone and saw what was going on,” a visibly shaken Wurges, who isn’t Catholic but attended the Mass out of a sense of solidarity with the community, told Detroit Catholic, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Wurges said a fellow parent was having difficulty reaching his own daughter, one of Wurges’ daughter’s friends, and asked for help. After a few text messages, the girl was discovered to be safe, having hidden in a closet at the school.

“It’s crazy what’s going on. For this to hit our community is just devastating,” Wurges said. “We’re gonna have to stick together. We’ve got to find a way to keep our kids safe.”

In the aftermath of the shooting, students were evacuated to a nearby Meijer supermarket, which subsequently closed to customers and served as a hub for parents to pick up their children.

After hearing of the shooting, Father John Carlin, associate pastor at St. Joseph — which locked down its own grade school as a precaution — went to the supermarket to offer whatever spiritual and emotional support he could.

“Something told me as a priest, as a father to the community, that I was supposed to be there,” said Father Carlin, who celebrated the Nov. 30 Mass.

During his homily, Father Carlin consoled students and families, assuring them that God hears their prayers and cries and that nothing is stronger than Jesus’ victory over death.

“Every time we experience a loss of friends or loved ones or something we don’t understand, the Lord wants not only to walk with us in that darkness, but to let us know that He is there,” Father Carlin said. “He’s not going anywhere, and He never will.”

After the liturgy, several remained inside the parish for eucharistic adoration, while Father Kean, Father Carlin and clergy from St. Joseph counseled students, parents and parishioners and offered confessions to those who wanted it.

At the end of the Mass, Father Kean acknowledged the difficulty of facing friends and loved ones in the aftermath of a tragedy, even mustering the courage to say, “I love you.”

“We recognize that these words are hard because of the love we feel surrounding us,” Father Kean said as students in the congregation broke down in tears. “Even simple gestures, when people extend their thanks and appreciation to you or let you know that they’re thinking of you, those waves of emotion can hit you again.”

“We recognize that these words are hard because of the love we feel surrounding us,” Father Kean said.

Father Kean said he received a call from Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, who was audibly concerned for the community’s well-being and sent his prayers for the victims and their families. statement

“As Archbishop Vigneron spoke to me, you could hear the emotion catching up with him a bit,” Father Kean said. “But it brings us together to have that emotion. It gives us a fuller sense of comfort to know that so many are praying for us, and though they are far away in distance, they’re near to our hearts.”

Shortly after news of the shooting, Archbishop Vigneron said in a statement: “I am heartbroken to hear of the horrific tragedy at Oxford High School. On behalf of the clergy, religious, and faithful of the Archdiocese of Detroit, I offer heartfelt prayers for the victims, their families, and all those affected in our community.

“May Our Blessed Mother wrap all those wounded — physically, emotionally or spiritually– in her loving mantle and offer them consolation in the difficult days ahead.”

Among those praying was Gage Harris, an alumnus of St. Joseph School who has friends in the Oxford community. Harris, now a sophomore in college, said his brother knew one of the victims, Myre, a member of the football team.

“My heart goes out to the families that are suffering right now,” Harris said. “And I hope that they can get through this because this is a really tough time for our community.”

“We’re strong. We’re bonding. We’re here for one another,” Harris added. “When you see people here praying for you, it gives you that hope back. Even when you feel like everything is gone, you know that you have something to turn to and that God is always there, even when it’s super dark. You always have that light that God gives you.”

 

God can act in unexpected ways, calling for brave acceptance, pope says

By
Catholic News Service
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Pope Francis greets a group of nuns after his general audience in Paul VI hall at the Vatican Dec. 1, 2021. (CNS photo/Yara Nardi, Reuters)

By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — St. Joseph teaches people to learn to take life as it comes and to accept what God has in mind, Pope Francis said.

Speaking about how Joseph reacted to Mary being pregnant while they were still engaged, the pope explained why St. Joseph “gives us an important lesson: He chooses Mary with ‘his eyes open,'” and “with all the risks” that came with it.

“They had probably cultivated dreams and expectations regarding their life and their future,” he said during his weekly general audience Dec. 1. But then, “out of the blue, God seems to have inserted himself into their lives and, even if at first it was difficult for them, both of them opened their hearts wide to the reality that was placed before them.”

During his audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall, Pope Francis continued a series of talks on St. Joseph, reflecting on his role as a just man and husband of Mary, and what he can teach all engaged couples and newlyweds.

St. Joseph was pious and subject to observing the religious laws of the time, which called for stoning a woman accused of adultery or — with later interpretations — a formal repudiation that had civil and criminal consequences for the woman, the pope said. But Joseph’s “love for Mary and his trust in her suggested a way he could remain in observance of the law and save the honor of his bride. He decided to repudiate her in secret, without making noise, without subjecting her to public humiliation.”

“How holy Joseph was,” Pope Francis said. In contrast, “we, as soon as we have a bit of gossip, something scandalous about someone else, we go around talking about it right away!”

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, telling him not to fear taking Mary as his wife and explaining the divine origin of and plan for her son.

God reveals “a greater meaning than his own justice. How important it is for each one of us to cultivate a just life and, at the same time, to always feel the need for God’s help to broaden our horizons and to consider the circumstances of life from an always different, larger perspective,” the pope said.

Many times, he said, people feel “imprisoned” by what happens to them and are tempted to “close in on that pain, in that thought that good things never happen to us. And this is not good for us. This leads you to sadness and bitterness. A bitter heart is so ugly.”

Often, “a providence is hidden that takes shape over time and illuminates the meaning even of the pain that has touched us,” he said.

By taking this risk, Joseph “gives us this lesson: to take life as it comes. Has God intervened there? I accept it” and seek to follow God’s guidance, the pope said.

During their engagement, Christian couples are called to witness to this kind of love that “has the courage to move from the logic of falling in love to that of mature love,” the pope said. Mature love moves from infatuation and imagination to taking “responsibility for one’s life as it comes.”

It is demanding, but it will strengthen their love “so that it endures when faced with the trials of time,” he added.

“Dear brothers and dear sisters, our lives are very often not what we imagine them to be. Especially in loving and affectionate relationships,” Pope Francis said.

He repeated his advice to married couples, urging them to always make peace before the end of the day and never let arguments or bad feelings fester “because the cold war the next day is very dangerous. Don’t let war begin the next day.”

At the end of the audience, the pope recalled that Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day.

“It is an important occasion to remember the many people who are affected by this virus. For many of them, in some areas of the world, access to the necessary treatment is not available. My hope is that there might be a renewed commitment in solidarity to guarantee fair and effective health care,” he said.

He also asked for prayers for his trip Dec. 2-6 to Cyprus and Greece to visit the people whose countries are “rich in history, spirituality and civilization.”

“It will be a journey to the sources of apostolic faith and of fraternity among Christians of various confessions. I will also have the opportunity to draw near to a humanity wounded in the persons of so many migrants in search of hope: I will visit Lesbos. I ask all of you, please, to accompany me with your prayer,” he said.

 

Racial reconciliation ‘is a matter of the heart,’ Texas bishop says

By
Catholic News Service
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Pictured from left are Bishop Brendan J. Cahill of Victoria, Texas, Father Reginald Samuels, Galveston-Houston archdiocesan vicar for the Catholics of African descent, and retired Bishop Curtis J. Guillory of Beaumont, Texas. They moderated an Oct. 19, 2021, panel discussion on race relations in the U.S. hosted by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. (CNS photo/Rebecca Torrellas, Texas Catholic Herald)

By Rebecca Torrellas, Catholic News Service

HOUSTON (CNS)– “Racial reconciliation — reconciliation in general — is a matter of the heart,” retired Bishop Curtis J. Guillory of Beaumont, Texas, said during a recent night of prayer and discussion about race relations in the U.S.

The discussion was moderated by Father Reginald Samuels, vicar for the Catholics of African descent and pastor of St. Hyacinth Catholic Church in Deer Park, Texas.

Speaking about the U.S. bishops’ 2018 pastoral letter on racism, “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love,” Father Samuels said, “We are here to explore what it means to have God’s love in our society.”

The event, hosted by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, brought together church leaders and members of the legal profession. It followed the Oct. 19 Red Mass celebrated at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in downtown Houston.

The heart of the pastoral “is conversion,” said Bishop Guillory, one of 10 African-American Catholic bishops and the first African-American bishop to head a diocese in Texas. He was appointed to Beaumont in 2000 and retired in 2020.

Joining Bishop Guillory as a speaker was Bishop Brendan J. Cahill of Victoria, Texas, who holds a master of theology degree with a specialization in African American Catholic studies from Xavier University in New Orleans. Xavier is the nation’s only Catholic historically Black university.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, who was president of the USCCB when the pastoral was written, said that when it was being drafted, there was a lot of anger between staff and the experts that helped develop the letter.

“The first draft of the letter was so angry — really angry — that we practically had to call a truce,” he said. “We had to go back. And one of the things they decided to add — intensely — is confronting one another with the truth and occasionally with some uncomfortable things.”

At the same time, Cardinal DiNardo said, the letter expanded on Scriptures and the importance of Jesus Christ in all of the issues.

“As that happened, the second draft of the letter fell into place pretty well,” he said. “These are tough issues.”

Bishop Guillory said that, while it may seem to some that continuing to talk about racial reconciliation may be divisive, there is anger over cases of police brutality such as what led to the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of white officer.

He added these incidents cause mistrust between police and some minority communities.

“Police have a tough job,” he said. “And some of them do not make the force proud.”

These issues affect the wider community, he added. “They are part of us.”

Bishop Guillory said the goal of the pastoral letter is in line with the church’s mission to teach.

“Unfortunately today, for too many Christians, their conscience is informed and transformed not by the Christian teaching, but rather by political affiliation,” he said. “So this letter … is an attempt on the part of the bishops to give us some guidance by which we might deal with these issues and hopefully help bring about, first, a change within ourselves, and then bring about a change in society.”

Bishop Guillory said the letter defines racism as a conscious or unconscious belief in racial superiority.

“Acts that violate justice and ignorance of the fundamental truth that we are all created equal in the image of God,” he quoted from the document.

He noted the letter addresses different races, including African American, Native American, Asian, Hispanic and “talks about what we can do.”

Addressing the lawyers, judges and people of the law in attendance, he said laws can help toward the conversion needed, but they “may not take us there.”

He said that while a lot of progress has been made on race relations, there has to be a continuous renewal and humbling.

“We have to examine ourselves,” he said. “How do I look upon someone from a different culture or at someone who is not as educated as I am.”

He said it is essential to “know each other’s history.” He added people need to talk to each other, even though it is painful to bring about conversion, not blaming each other, but with an open heart.

“Go deeper. Our humanity is deeper than culture or customs,” Bishop Guillory said.

Bishop Cahill said bishops could help bring about change by having events such as the Red Mass, which traditionally marks the opening of the judicial year, to prompt discussion of the topic.

“Whatever the events are can bring people together (to listen),” he said.

In Victoria, Bishop Cahill said, diocesan officials brought in a play about the first African American priest, Father Augustus Tolton, who is a candidate for sainthood.

The play “Tolton: From Slave to Priest” was performed in several Catholic schools around the diocese. Following the play, students discussed the racism the priest encountered in his studies and his vocation as a priest.

“We had a discussion about the racism of that time, which led to a discussion of what is going on today,” Bishop Cahill said. “You have people talk about the reality of racism historically. … In a sense, it helps acknowledge the present by acknowledging the history.”

Bishop Cahill said dioceses also should have groups that are open to having “uncomfortable conversations.”

“It’s hard to talk about race,” he said. “It takes a long time to build that kind of relationship.”

Bishop Guillory said Catholics are blessed to be part of a faith that is representative of different cultures and racial groups.

“Every culture has an opportunity to make a contribution,” he said. “(We need to promote) unity and diversity of the one faith as brothers and sisters.”

Bishop Guillory said it is a duty of every Catholic to speak out when there is injustice and to educate others to “help people be informed and form their consciences from a Christian perspective.”

“What we really need to do today — in a group such as this and in our own parishes — is to work with and get our people involved,” he said. “We have to get over this fear of one another. And some of it is understandable.”

Bishop Guillory said we have to be “honest with ourselves and our own history.”

“In the same way, we have to be honest about the history of our own country; the history of the church,” he said. “Even the church was not always in a good place. Be honest with the history. Don’t cover it up.”

 

Cardinal Pell says prison helped him understand Christ’s suffering

By
Catholic News Service
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Australian Cardinal George Pell celebrates the White Mass for medical professionals and health care workers at the Diocese of Phoenixís Virginia G. Piper Chapel in Phoenix Nov. 20, 2021. Also pictured is Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, right. (CNS photo/Jeff Grant)

By Jeff Grant, Catholic News Service

PHOENIX (CNS) — Australian Cardinal George Pell, jailed for more than a year for sex abuse crimes he ultimately was cleared of, said the experience enabled him to understand suffering as a redemptive process that allows one to identify closely with Christ.

“Suffering accepted in faith can be good and useful. Like gold, it can be used for good purposes,” Cardinal Pell told a gathering of Catholic medical professionals and their guests in Phoenix Nov. 20.

Reminding his audience Jesus told his followers, “whoever does not accept his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple,” the cardinal said “that makes it difficult for Christians.”

But, he added, “It is through his suffering and death while a powerless victim that the Lord redeemed us.”

“All this only makes sense if we accept in faith that suffering can be redemptive — turned to a good purpose when united with Jesus’ suffering and death,” the cardinal continued. “It is through his suffering and death while a powerless victim that the Lord redeemed us; released the grace so that our sins and the worst crimes could be forgiven.”

The former prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat of the Economy, Cardinal Pell left the position in 2017 to defend himself. The office oversees Vatican finances, and the cardinal was eyeing several reforms at the time.

He was convicted by an Australian jury in late 2018 of molesting two choirboys in 1996 while archbishop of Melbourne. He served 405 days behind bars, including five months in solitary confinement to protect him from jailhouse attack.

Cardinal Pell had maintained his innocence, but after the verdict was made public in February 2019, he was sentenced to a maximum of six years in prison — with a possibility of parole after three years and eight months. It wasn’t until April 7, 2020, when Australia’s High Court, acting on the cardinal’s appeal, found the trial jury had failed to give proper weight to witness testimony.

The high court overturned the conviction. It cited a reasonable doubt in the testimony of Cardinal Pell’s lone accuser, stating there was “a significant possibility an innocent person (was) convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof.”

In a statement the day of his release, Cardinal Pell said that he holds “no ill will” toward his accuser.

During Cardinal Pell’s Phoenix visit, he was hailed by local church leaders and laity.

“For more than 13 months, he was a prisoner for a crime he did not commit. His witness to the religious freedom and rights of conscience — remaining steadfast to the truth — certainly is something we are all grateful for,” Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix told Catholic News Service.

“I was so impressed by his calm demeanor. He’s been through an experience none of us can comprehend,” added Dr. Thomas D. Shellenberger, president of the Catholic Physicians Guild of Phoenix. The guild is part of the national Catholic Medical Association, which fosters Catholic moral and ethical principles in medicine.

Cardinal Pell’s Nov. 20 address highlighted a dinner following the annual White Mass for health care professionals at the diocese’s Virginia G. Piper Chapel in downtown Phoenix.

The cardinal read excerpts from Volume 1 of his “Prison Journal,” published in December 2020. Volume 2 was released in May.

Sometimes interjecting thoughts on his case, the cardinal’s journal offered impressions of his daily readings from the Book of Job, the Old Testament account of a righteous, respected Jew’s struggle with God to understand an avalanche of personal suffering. In the end, God tells Job face-to-face that while He allowed the suffering, it was not the result of Job’s sins.

During one excerpt, Cardinal Pell read from Job, “If God weighs me on honest scales, being God, he cannot fail to see my innocence,” before adding his reflection: “Which (was) exactly my prayer in this bizarre cathedral case.”

“The Book of Job was written to contest the iron rule the Jewish people believed prevailed in history: Actions are rewarded and punished in this life,” said the cardinal. “Job’s friends believed it was his sins that explained his misfortunes. However, Job returned to prosperity, and God rebuked his friends.”

Cardinal Pell recalled a fellow priest who often brought up Job in conversation. “I always replied I hoped to be like Job, because his fortunes were restored in this life.'”

“Job’s message was, and is still, that we should still believe even when we cannot understand.”

 

New monastery completed and blessed for Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration

By
The Catholic Sun
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TONOPAH, AZ – On August 11, 2021, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted solemnly blessed the new Our Lady of Solitude Monastery in Tonopah, AZ. Since their arrival in the Diocese of Phoenix in 2005, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration have longed for this day and have moved steadily toward this goal.

True to its name, Our Lady of Solitude Monastery is deep in the Sonoran desert and affords the nuns much solitude and silence. This is the first cloistered, contemplative monastery in the Diocese of Phoenix, providing local Catholics with a place of pilgrimage, prayer, and Eucharistic Adoration. It truly is an oasis in the desert!

True to their charism of Eucharistic Adoration in a spirit of reparative thanksgiving, the nuns are hosting a Forty Hours Devotion in thanksgiving for their new Monastery and for all those who supported them along this journey.

“In reality Clare’s whole life was a eucharist because, like Francis, from her cloister she raised up a continual ‘thanksgiving’ to God in her prayer, praise, supplication, intercession, weeping, offering and sacrifice. She accepted everything and offered it to the Father in union with the infinite ‘thanks’ of the only-begotten Son, the Child, the Crucified, the risen One, who lives at the right hand of the Father.”
– from Letter of Pope St. John Paul II for the 8th Centenary of the Birth of St. Clare of Assisi

Get details about the Forty Hours Devotion event here.

All eyes are on Supreme Court for its biggest abortion case in decades

By
Catholic News Service
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The Supreme Court building is seen in Washington Nov. 29, 2021. On Dec. 1 the court was scheduled to hear oral arguments in when the court hears oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which is an appeal by Mississippi to remove a lower court's injunction on its law banning most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. (CNS photo/Leah Millis, Reuters)

By Carol Zimmermann, Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — When the Supreme Court hears oral arguments Dec. 1 for the biggest abortion case in decades, all eyes — and ears — will be on the court.

Diocesan websites across the country have posted links to the arguments as well as churches where prayers will be taking place at this time. Several dioceses also encouraged Catholics to take part in an online national prayer event in mid-November to pray for the outcome of this decision.

Reaction on social media, multiple briefs in support and opposition to the case and the likely presence of protesters and supporters on the court’s steps Dec. 1 are just a small indication of how divided the nation is on abortion and on the court’s potential to significantly restrict it or perhaps even overturn Roe v. Wade.

The case before the nation’s high court, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, is an appeal from Mississippi to keep its ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This ban was struck down by a federal District Court in Mississippi in 2018 and upheld a year later by the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

The Mississippi law is being challenged by the state’s only abortion facility, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

When the court announced this spring that it would take this case, after considering it more than a dozen times since 2020, the justices said they would only review one of the three questions presented to them: “Whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.”

That point of viability — when a fetus is said to be able to survive on its own — is key because the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that states cannot restrict abortion before 24 weeks, or when a fetus could survive on its own. Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks is more restrictive than current law.

If the court sides with Mississippi, it would be the first time the court would allow an abortion ban before the point of viability and could lay the groundwork for other abortion restrictions that other states could follow.

When the court agreed to take this case, Kat Talalas, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the justices could potentially establish criteria other than viability, such as fetal pain, for restricting abortions.

A friend-of-the-court brief submitted by Mississippi’s Catholic dioceses of Jackson and Biloxi focused on fetal pain and said the court should “find that the state’s interest in protecting unborn children who have the capacity to feel pain is sufficiently compelling to support a limited prohibition on abortion.”

The brief also urged that a “sense of morality, and indeed, logic, must prevail in the courts on this issue. How is it that Mississippi law recognizes that an unborn baby can be a victim of a crime, and can have property rights, and yet the label of personhood at 15-weeks gestation is denied them?”

The USCCB, in its brief, stressed that abortion is not a right created by the Constitution and called it “inherently different from other types of personal decisions to which this court has accorded constitutional protection.”

Referring to the court’s major abortion decisions, the brief warned that if the Supreme Court “continues to treat abortion as a constitutional issue,” it will face more questions in the future about “what sorts of abortion regulations are permissible.”

The court’s two big decisions on abortion were Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court case which legalized abortion, and Casey v. Planned Parenthood in 1992, which affirmed Roe and also stressed that a state regulation on abortion could not impose an “undue burden” on a woman “seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability.”

In a Nov. 28 op-ed in The Washington Post, Lynn Fitch, Mississippi’s attorney general, who is defending the state’s abortion law, said the case before the court was about “overturning Roe v. Wade and returning decision-making about abortion policy to the people.”

She acknowledged the contentiousness of the case saying: “There is no question that the issues involved in abortion policy are tough, complex and emotionally charged. But it is precisely because of such challenges that the Constitution gives the people the difficult task of balancing competing interests, devising compromises and developing policy.

“It is the core principle of democratic self-governance that U.S. citizens act on hard issues through the men and women they elect and can hold accountable at the ballot box.”

When the Supreme Court decided Roe, she said, “it took abortion policymaking out of the hands of the people. It set it apart from all sorts of other difficult policy issues and created a special set of rules that have acted to keep abortion policy behind the bench, where unelected judges decide the fate of the people’s laws.”

O. Carter Snead, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, similarly noted in a Nov. 29 statement the strong feelings in this Mississippi case and said that “despite the intense emotions” surrounding it, the fundamental issue for the court is: Does it have the constitutional authority to create a rule regarding viability? He said it does not.

As he put it: “The court’s abortion jurisprudence has for decades imposed on the nation, without constitutional justification, an extreme, incoherent and deeply unjust regime pursuant to specious reasoning and constantly changing rules, standards and rationales.”

Snead also filed an amicus brief in favor of the Mississippi law, as did other Catholics and Catholic organizations.

But while several Catholic leaders have spoken in favor of dismantling Roe v. Wade, Catholics across the board have not. Last year, a survey by the Pew Research Center showed 68% of U.S. Catholics said Roe should not be overturned and 56% said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

During the oral arguments of this case many people will be protesting while others will be praying and some listening in.

But when the arguments — which are likely to go beyond the allotted 70-minutes — are over, those on both sides will be united in one thing: waiting for the court to announce a decision, which will likely be in early July 2022.

 

Speaker: Science explains laws of nature; faith tells us of their author

By
Catholic News Service
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Youths pray the rosary in the Village at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis Nov. 19, 2021, during the National Catholic Youth Conference Nov. 18-20. (CNS photo/Natalie Hoefer, The Criterion)

By Natalie Hoefer, Catholic News Service

INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) — Bradley Gregory, associate professor of biblical studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, said today “most scientists see that science can inform faith and faith can inform science.”

But many in the secular world have lagged in that understanding, he said.

He made the remarks in a talk titled “Faith, Science and the Gift of Wonder” during the Nov. 18-20 National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis.

He addressed the fallacy that faith and science are incompatible. Gregory examined the history of the relationship between faith and science in the church, and how Catholics going forward can recover the traditional church view of the compatibility of the two topics.

Gregory began his Nov. 19 address with a reading about the creation of the world in chapter 1 of the Book of Genesis.

Of course, he said, “Scripture is not a science text book. It’s an ancient text trying to communicate things about God, not chemistry or physics.”

When Genesis was written, “many people thought that the earth was an unpredictable and unsettling place,” he said. “Genesis, chapter 1, said no to that view of the world. … For our biblical writers and early Christians, the world was a theater that unveils the goodness, the truth, the beauty of God, not in spite of its natural laws, but precisely through those natural laws.”

The growing church continued studying the world. By the medieval era, Catholic universities included math and the sciences.

“The church was open to science and discovering things about the natural world,” said Gregory. “They believed that the natural world in its regularity and its order told them something about the goodness of God.”

So what happened? How did we get to the place we are today that so many believe that faith and science are opposites of one another?

“A couple hundred years ago, some people started thinking of God as one more character in the theater of a play of the created world,” Gregory explained. “People would look around and would find something else that made something happen, and ruled God out.”

The problem with such thinking, he said, is that “it means every time humanity advances in knowledge, God gets smaller and smaller and smaller, until eventually people think there’s no need for God. We can explain everything or will one day be able to explain everything.

“This left many people with the impression that God is unnecessary if we have science.”

Fortunately, he said, many theologians in the last 150 years have emphasized that science and faith are compatible.

“St. John Henry Newman said there is nothing in science that is incompatible with God,” said Gregory. “He said science tells us about the laws and how they work, and faith tells us about the author and maintainer of those laws.

“Pope Pius XII said the scientific advances of the past 200 years have shown us a lot about the bodies we have. He said what science can’t answer for us is the meaning of life and the nature of the soul.”

St. John Paul II, he added, “gave full support to the exploration of evolutionary science and the other sciences as things that would shed light on the world we live in.”

To “bring our hearts and imaginations back into alignment or strengthen their alignment with the traditional view of the Catholic Church,” Gregory suggested turning to Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’.”

“The major theme of his encyclical is that for us to be right in relation with the created world, we need to recover a sense of wonder,” he said. “We need to stop seeing the world just as something we can exploit or abuse and find amazement that it’s the way God created it.”

Gregory closed with impressing upon the youths that “faith is critical to all intellectual work. All truth is God’s truth, and when you pursue it, it’s your wonder that will lead you to find God’s handiwork.”

Margaux Fellona, 18, who loves church history. She is from Abilene, Texas, where she belongs to the U.S. Archdiocese of the Military Services.

“I think it was really interesting,” she said. “I think it’s really important that we recognize the church’s history and continue the traditions.”

Andrea Cox, 15, of the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, said she walked away from the talk with a sense of awe for “how God made nature and how he made us, even.”

“I really appreciated the talk,” she told The Criterion, Indianapolis’ archdiocesan newspaper. “It made me think about the beauty of the earth God made for us, and it shows how much he loves us.”

In his Nov. 19 talk on “Trusting in God,” by Catholic singer, songwriter and speaker Steve Angrisano began by posing a question from God to those present: “‘Do you know me?’ That’s the question God has for every one of us.”

He quoted from saints who commented on trust in God.

“I have a holy card from my first youth rally,” he said. “It says, ‘There is a God-shaped vacuum in your heart that only God can fill.’ It’s a paraphrase of the words of St. Augustine, which are, ‘Our hearts will be restless until they rest in you.’

“What it means is, you were created by God and for God. … No music, no sport, no boyfriend, no girlfriend, no good thing, no bad thing — nothing fills us except for God.”

Angrisano also quoted St. John Chrysostom’s words on the trust of the early Christians: “What does it mean that the Apostles were so bold, that these men who abandoned him when he was alive would stand for him at the risk of death after he died?”

Those same men saw Christ resurrected, and their trust in God was sealed, he explained.

Angrisano noted that the church “began with a small community of people who were given a choice: ‘Say it’s not true, or you will be burned alive.’ That’s the truth. Those are the origins of our faith,” an origin founded on faith in Christ and in what the Apostles professed.

Attendees of the biennial NCYC always find many ways to partake in the sacraments.

For the nearly 11,000 participants at this year’s Nov. 18-20 conference, such opportunities included a eucharistic procession through the halls and outside of the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, the opening and closing Masses and other Masses celebrated at various times each day, the sacrament of reconciliation and group adoration.

The Village is always the primary source of interaction among the teens. This year it had as its theme “Holy Spirit Mall,” and it was made up of several areas, each with their own name.

For instance, Service Merchandise was the area where youths could participate in service projects. At the Camelot Cafe, kids could enjoy karaoke. One of the hot spots in the Village was the Arcade, where participants could take part in games — like dodge ball, Human Hungry Hippo and large-sized chess.

The Village also included exhibitors from numerous Catholic universities, religious orders and organizations, plus vendors selling anything from books to rosaries to Catholic-themed T-shirts and socks.

Abigail Woodley, 15, of the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau, Alaska, told The Criterion, Indianapolis archdiocesan newspaper, the Village was one of her favorite aspects of NCYC “because it’s so amazing to see all the places around the world that I can connect with.”

 

Catholic, Orthodox must make their communion visible, pope says

By
Catholic News Service
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Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople embrace during a prayer service in the patriarchal Church of St. George in Istanbul in this Nov. 29, 2014, file photo. The pope sent a message to Patriarch Bartholomew on the feast of St. Andrew, patron saint of the church of Constantinople and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholics and Orthodox Christians must increasingly work together where they can, Pope Francis told Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

“The full unity for which we yearn is, of course, a gift from God, through the grace of the Holy Spirit. May our Lord help us to be ready to embrace this gift through prayer, interior conversion and openness to seeking and offering pardon,” he said in the written message to the Orthodox patriarch.

“Beloved brother in Christ, along the path toward full communion between our churches, we are sustained by the intercession of the holy brothers Peter and Andrew, our patron saints,” he wrote in the message released by the Vatican Nov. 30.

Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, delivered the message to the patriarch in Istanbul Nov. 30 during services to mark the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, the patriarchate’s patron saint. The cardinal led a Vatican delegation to Istanbul to take part in the Divine Liturgy presided over by the patriarch.

Pope Francis told the patriarch, “It was a source of joy for me that during your recent visit to Rome we were able not only to share our concerns regarding the present and future of our world but also to express our shared commitment to addressing issues of crucial significance for our whole human family, including the care of creation, the education of future generations, dialogue among the different religious traditions and the pursuit of peace.”

This way, as pastors with their churches, they strengthen a “profound bond that already unites us, since our common responsibility in the face of current challenges flows from our shared faith” in God the father, his son and the Holy Spirit, “who harmonizes differences without abolishing them,” the pope wrote.

“United in this faith, let us seek with determination to make visible our communion,” he wrote.

Even though there are still “theological and ecclesiological questions at the heart of the work of our ongoing theological dialogue, it is my hope that Catholics and Orthodox may increasingly work together in those areas in which it is not only possible, but indeed imperative that we do so,” the pope wrote.

The pope and the patriarch send delegations to each other’s churches each year for the celebrations of their patron saints’ feast days: the Vatican’s June 29 celebration of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul and the Orthodox patriarchate’s Nov. 30 celebration of the feast of St. Andrew.

 

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