BY CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) - No one can claim "to be a devout Catho- lic and condone the killing of innocent human life, let alone have the government pay for it," said Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco. "The right to life is a fundamental - the most fundamental - human right, and Catholics do not oppose fundamental human rights," the archbishop said in a July 22 statement. "To use the smokescreen of abortion as an issue of health and fairness to poor women is the epitome of hypocrisy: what about the health of the baby being killed? What about giving poor women real choice, so they are supported in choosing life?" he said. He issued the statement in response to remarks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made during her weekly news conference with Capitol Hill reporters in Washington earlier in the day. Pelosi told reporters she backed current efforts by her fellow Democrats to eliminate the Hyde Amendment language from spending bills, because as a "devout Catholic" blessed with five children, it's not up to her "to dictate" what other women should do. She said federal funding of abortion for underprivileged women is about "fairness" and "health care." Archbishop Cordileone said poor women must be given a "real choice" and be supported so they can "choose life." WASHINGTON (CNS) - Many would like to believe the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion settled the issue "once and for all," but instead "all it did was establish a special- rules regime for abortion jurisprudence," said Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch. This "has left these cases out of step with other court decisions and neutral principles of law applied by the court," she said in an amicus, or friend of the court, brief filed with the high court July 22 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case involving a 2018 Mississippi abortion law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The court should overturn Roe v. Wade, she said, adding that a state can prohibit abortion before "viability" be- cause "nothing in constitutional text, structure, history or tradition supports a right to abortion." As a result of Roe and subsequent court decisions, "state legislatures, and the people they represent, have lacked clarity in passing laws to protect le- gitimate public interests, and artificial guideposts have stunted important public debate on how we, as a society, care for the dignity of women and their children," Fitch said. The U.S. Supreme Court said in a May 17 order that it will hear oral arguments during its next term on the Mississippi law. The court's term opens in October and a decision is expected by June 2022. Just after then-Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed the law March 19, 2018, a federal judge blocked it temporarily from taking effect after the state's only abortion clinic filed suit, saying it is un- constitutional. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the block on the law. It will be the biggest abortion case to come before the court since 1992's Casey v. Planned Parenthood, which affirmed Roe and also stressed that a state regula- tion on abortion could not impose an "undue burden" on a woman "seeking an abortion before the fetus attains vi- ability." "Viability" is when a fetus is said to be able to survive on its own. The high court has consistently ruled states can- not restrict abortion before the 24-week mark.
Catholic school lawsuit against mask mandate
WASHINGTON (CNS) - A Catholic school in Lansing, Michigan, and two school parents are suing state of- ficials over the state's requirement that students wear face masks in school, saying this violated the school's religious practices. A lower court sided with state of- ficials in the suit filed last October when the mandate was in place for school students. On July 21, this case went before a federal appeals court even though most of the state's COVID-19 restrictions were rescinded in June. The complaint is from Resurrection School, which has a small student body of 150 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The school, part of the Church of the Resurrection, emphasizes a tradi- tional curriculum, according to the school's website. Its pastor, Father Steve Mattson, told WILX, an NBC affiliate in Lansing, that the case still went forward out of a concern that the mask mandate "can be reinstated at any time and we want to be able to get in front of it."
Unaccompanied minors at border setting record
WASHINGTON (CNS) - With a surge in the first few months of 2021 of minors entering the United States without a parent or guardian, figures from fiscal year 2020 already have surpassed the total of unac- companied minors who made border entries during the previous fiscal year. Statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show that more than 76,000 minors entered the U.S. during fiscal year 2019, which for the government runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 1. By July 6 of this year, the latest figures available from CBP show that entries for fiscal year 2020 already have surpassed that number, with the agency logging over 93,500 unaccompanied minors and with a little less than three months left to go in the fiscal year. In a July 23 opinion article for United Press International, Randi Mandelbaum, a distinguished clinical professor of law at Rutgers University, said that while the U.S. is legally obligated to care for the minors until they reach adult- hood, defined as age 18, "the government often strug- gles to do so, especially when the immigration system is overwhelmed by high numbers of children."
Mississippi AG's brief urges high court to overturn Roe
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People gather near the White House in Washington July 25 at a protest calling for freedom in Cuba and urging U.S. President Joe Biden to do more to pressure the Cuban regime.
JULY 30, 2021 THE CATHOLIC FREE PRESS
ACROSS THE NATION 3
BY MARK PATTISON
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON (CNS) - Although many Catholics' memories of the clergy sex abuse scandals that rocked the U.S. church in 2018 have dimmed, a majority of those who recalled the scandals said in a sur- vey they felt more positive about the church's progress in confronting the issue. Overall, 76% of respondents in the survey, conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, said sexual abuse of minors by cler- gy has hurt the church's reputation "at least somewhat." The report, commissioned by America Media, the Jesuit ministry, was released July 19. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they pay either "quite a bit" or "a great deal" of attention to clergy sex abuse reports in the media. Another 27% said they've paid "some" atten- tion to them. Only 47% said they can recall hear- ing about the 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report chronicling abuse allegations against more than 300 priests and other church workers over a 70-year period, starting in 1947, in six of the state's eight dio- ceses. However, majorities of men, millennials, more frequent Massgo- ers and non-Hispanic Catholics said they remember the report. A plurality of 46% who correctly re- membered the report said the abuse was more common prior to 2000. Of those who recalled the Pennsyl- vania report, 44% said it had changed their perceptions negatively on the progress the church has made in preventing abuse, but 59% said their perceptions were more positive - that the church was making more prog- ress than they had thought. Even fewer people, just 38%, re- called hearing about former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Then respon- dents were given details of his case, that after 2018 news reports spelled out his history of abuse as a priest and bishop over the previous de- cades, he resigned from the College of Cardinals, and a year later, Pope Francis laicized him after a canonical process found him guilty. In response to these details, 44% said they did remember these allega- tions. Of these, 50% said their percep- tions changed negatively about the church addressing abuse; a narrow majority, 52%, said their perceptions had grown more positive. Asked about nine different groups of highly visible representatives of the church, "religious sisters and nuns" were most thought to be "somewhat" or "highly" trustworthy on matters of faith and morals by re- spondents, at 75%. Others who were considered at least somewhat trustworthy by at least two-thirds of respondents were, in descending order, "priest(s) at your parish," "your local bishop" "laypeo- ple in ministry at your parish" and "the Vatican." The lowest combined percentage on trustworthiness was given to the USCCB, making it ninth on the list; however, 58% of respondents said they thought the U.S. bishops were "somewhat trustworthy." Even so, "bishops and cardinals" ranked second behind religious sis- ters and nuns, 44% to 41%, as a group needing to "have more influence" in the wake of clergy sex scandals. Bish- ops and cardinals, though, led the way among groups that respondents said should have less influence, at 26%. A plurality of 40% said clericalism has played a moderate role in the abuse crisis, compared to 28% who said it had a minor role and 21% who said it has had a major role. A stronger plurality of 45% said they believe the tendency of priests to abuse children in their case is "about the same" as men in other professions that work with children, such as teachers and social workers. Another plurality, 44%, said they believed abuse today happens "oc- casionally" by priests, while 33% said "rarely," 19% said "often" and 4% said "never." Fifteen percent said they know someone who has been abused by a priest. More than two-thirds said some priests have been falsely accused of abuse, and 24% said they have heard of a priest at their parish being ac- cused of abuse. Of those who heard of an accusation against a priest at their parish, a plurality of 47% said the accusation was handled appro- priately.
One month after Surfside collapse
MIAMI (CNS) - One month after the tragic Surfside condo collapse there is seemingly a heaviness at the ever-evolving "wall of remembrance" near the site where the building once stood. The array of flags, candles, photos, handwritten notes, stuffed animals and wilting flowers - even a new Texas-based artist's mural - at the makeshift memorial speaks to the var- ied lives of some 97 victims who have reportedly been identified through DNA analysis and other means. The final chunks of rubble from the 12-story oceanfront Champlain Towers South building were cleared away the week of July 19 and are reportedly being stored and examined off site for further evidence and hu- man remains. On July 21, two more victim names were taken off the missing list, bring the total of those con- firmed dead to 97.
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Policy keeping migrants out may stay in place
WASHINGTON (CNS) - News reports say the Biden administration may not roll back at the end of July a policy that keeps migrants out of the country, citing health measures given the rising number of coro- navirus cases in the U.S. Immigrant advocates were already pressuring the Biden administration to end what's known as Title 42 of the Public Health Safety Act, a policy the Trump administration began using in March 2020 as knowledge of rising infections of the coronavirus began to surge in the U.S. - and around the world. Advocates said they had heard reports that it would soon change, at least for some, and parents migrating with children would not be subject to the rule by the end of July, a first step in lifting the restric- tions altogether. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the policy was needed to keep people out on the Mexico and Canada borders "in the interest of public health."
Catholics weigh in on abuse scandal 3 years after McCarrick and Pa., report
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No 'devout Catholic' can condone killing child in the womb, says Archbishop Cordileone
CNS COMPOSITE EVELYN HOCKSTEIN, REUTERS, AND LISA JOHNSTON, ST. LOUIS REVIEW
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone.
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