Catholic News 2

Washington D.C., Jan 24, 2017 / 03:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. House of Representatives passed its first major pro-life bill of the new year on Tuesday, one which would solidify in law the current policy of no federal funding of abortions.

The bill would “protect Americans’ conscience rights by ensuring that their hard-earned tax dollars are not used to fund the destruction of innocent life,” Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) said on the House Floor before the vote.

Federal funding for abortion is largely prohibited under the 40-year-old Hyde Amendment, named after its original sponsor Rep. Henry Hyde. However, that amendment has to be passed by Congress every year as a “rider” to appropriations bills, clarifying that the taxpayer dollars cannot abortions.

The amendment enjoyed decades of bipartisan support. The most recent Democratic National Committee platform, however, called for its repeal.

The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, passed Tuesday by a 238-183 vote and sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), would solidify this policy in law, so that it does not need to be annually reapproved by Congress.

It would expand on current protections against taxpayer funding of abortion to other areas, such as federal employee health plans. It would also extend to the Affordable Care Act, ensuring that no federal subsidies fund abortion coverage in plans offered on the exchanges.

A 2014 report by the Government Accountability Office found loopholes where insurers were not following the protocol to make sure abortions were billed and itemized separately from other health coverage paid for by federal subsidies, leaving open the possibility that federal dollars were funding abortions.

“More than 20 peer-reviewed studies show that more than two million people are alive today because of Hyde,” Rep. Smith stated on Tuesday.

He said there is a “megatrend” showing “that the American public not only does not support taxpayer funding for abortion but the public increasingly supports actions to protect unborn children and women from the violence of abortion.”

According to a Marist poll released earlier this week and commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, 61 percent of respondents opposed the use of tax dollars to pay for abortions. That included 53 percent of Millennials and even 41 percent of Democrats.

President Trump has signaled that he would sign the bill if it was passed by Congress. The Senate will have to pass it first.

Rep. Black stressed that pro-life women would be represented by the bill.

She recalled that “it was just a week ago that the groups of women marched in the streets of D.C. and other cities across the country,” referring to the Jan. 21 Women’s March on Washington where pro-life groups were explicitly denied official partnership in the march by its organizers.

“There were millions of pro-life women who were explicitly told that they were unwelcome at this event,” Black said. “So today, the people’s House is giving them and the more than 60 percent of Americans from all political persuasions who oppose taxpayer funding of abortion, a voice.”

As a registered nurse who worked for decades in health care, Rep. Black said she opposed abortion and any funding of the practice with tax money.

“During my years in the health care industry, I saw the joy in young parents’ eyes when they met their newborn for the very first time,” she said. “And sadly, I witnessed a young woman lose her life due to the effects of a botched abortion. These experiences inform my view that all life is a previous gift from God. I pray that in time, this truth will be reflected in our nation’s laws. But until then, can’t we at least do this much?”

Abortion is not women’s health care, Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) insisted. “What we are vehemently opposed to is the killing of innocent lives,” she said, adding that “there is no place in the federal budget for abortion funding.”

“Madame Speaker, someday future generations of Americans will look back and wonder how and why such a seemingly smart and enlightened society could have permitted over 60 million children to be exterminated by abortion often with government enabling and subsidy,” Rep. Smith stated.

 

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Vatican City, Jan 24, 2017 / 04:13 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The new head of Opus Dei has been confirmed by Pope Francis, and his plan for the prelature is simple.
 
“I have the desire that the prelature of Opus Dei continues to do the good it has done and is increasingly doing in service of the world, which is really the only thing that interests us: the good of the person. The good of the person which, in the final moment, is the encounter with Jesus Christ,” Monsignor Fernando Ocariz Braña told reporters Tuesday.

Msgr. Ocariz voiced gratitude to Pope Francis, who formally accepted the nomination Jan. 23.

The Pope acted “with great affection…the affection he has for us, the hope for the work the prelature does in the world,” the monsignor told journalists Jan. 24.

Msgr. Ocariz said the Pope also sent a gift: “a beautiful medal of the Madonna.”

The monsignor served as vicar general of Opus Dei from 1994 to 2014, when he became auxiliary vicar. The prelature’s elective congress began on Jan. 23 and quickly chose him as their nominee.

The new prelate did not visit Pope Francis for the nomination. Rather, Msgr. Mario Fazio, the prelature’s vicar general, was received by the pontiff, who approved the nomination right away.

Msgr. Fazio recounted: “He told me many beautiful things, but in particular that Opus Dei today finds itself in a very important, very historic moment, because we have the first prelate who didn’t work directly with the founder, so we have to be very faithful to the spirit of the founder and at the same time have a great apostolic rush toward the future, and give thanks for the work the prelature is doing throughout the world.”

The fact that the date of Msgr. Ocariz’s nomination fell during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity prompted the new prelate to reflect on Pope Francis’ comments about “the need to build bridges” and “to never be people of conflict.”

“Conflicts usually are occasions to lack charity,” he said. “To build bridges doesn’t mean being on good terms is the supreme good, each one can have different ideas but can be friends treat each other well even with different ideas.”

He told reporters he felt inadequate to succeed his predecessors as Prelate of Opus Dei, St. Josemaria Escriva and Blessed Alvaro del Portillo. He also felt inadequate to succeed his immediate predecessor Bishop Javier Echevarria, who passed away Dec. 12 at the age of 84.

He questioned how he could be the successor of St. Josemaria and Bl. Don Alvaro, who were “two great personalities with a very high spiritual and human stature.” He asked how he could succeed Bishop Echevarria, who also had a notable humanity and spirituality.

“But at the same time, before God’s providence, I am calm, because if God wanted this he will give me the help needed,” he said. He said he felt “everything together, gratitude and inadequacy, and inside of this, a serenity. Thank God I am so serene, even if I shouldn’t be!”

He credited the many prayers of people who prayed for the prelature.

Msgr. Ocariz briefly outlined his goals for the programs of Opus Dei. He said there needed to be many programs directed to the great challenges facing Christians and civil society. In many places young people feel “crushed, without ideals” and many times lack hope. Families too need pastoral care, as so many recent Popes have said.

“Thanks to God the prelature is working a lot to help families in different ways,” he commented.

He recognized the feeling that sometimes it seems like one’s work isn’t accomplishing anything:  

“When things are done out of love for God, to serve others, which are inseparable, nothing is lost, even if at times it seems like something is lost. Nothing is lost. We have faith that the love of God is behind every moment, every event in our lives.”

He also recounted the challenges facing those in poverty or sickness.

He recounted the first time he met Pope Francis, when he was Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, and four years later after he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

“On both of these occasions he seemed like a very serious person, not like now, always smiling. He seemed serious, very caring, simple, educated, you could clearly see a positive interest for the people, a pastoral interest,” he recounted. The Pope seemed like “a serious person who at the same time showed a big heart for the people. You could see this in just 10 minutes of being with him.”

The Prelature of Opus Dei was founded in 1928 by St. Josemaria Escriva. Its spirituality emphasizes that holiness can be achieved by anyone.

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Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 24, 2017 / 05:47 pm (CNA).- Snapchat users tired of frequently seeing scantily-clad members of the Kardashian family in Discover stories will be happy to hear that the popular social platform has heard their complaints.

In response to criticism and a lawsuit, Snapchat announced yesterday that it was updating its policies on its Discover section, which features syndicated snap stories from select publishers that are viewed by more than 100 million users every month.

The new guidelines more explicitly restrict news and photos that lack editorial value, and clarify ambiguous language regarding policies on stories containing nudity, profanity and violence.

Snapchat also created a tool that allowed publishers to prevent users under 18 from seeing certain content. The company has also reserved the right to block inappropriate content from users under 18.  

Social media experts told the New York Times that the changes could have a positive effect on potential advertisers, who now may be more willing to place stories in the cleaned-up section.

The changes came in response to a class action lawsuit that was brought against the company in July which alleged that the Discover section intentionally exposed minors “to harmful, offensive, prurient and sexually offensive content without warning minors or their parents that they would be exposed to such explicit content,” according to a report from the New York Times.

The lawsuit cited examples of offensive content, including a Buzzfeed story that featured sexualized Disney characters, and a story from Cosmopolitan about an artist who let others touch her inappropriately.

The lawsuit was dismissed in November, as both sides agreed to settle.

Also at this time, a separate petition was started against Snapchat by Malissa Richardson, a Millennial Snapchat user who said she was tired of seeing the “sexually explicit headlines and pictures” that “bombarded” the Discover section of her feed.

“I do not care to see articles about how to improve my sex life, how to lose my virginity, or what I should know about what guys like in bed. To me, that is offensive and disgusting. What frustrates even me more is that I am not the only person exposed to this pornographic material. I hate to think that my younger siblings, friends, and millions of other young people as young as 13 years old are exposed to this content multiple times a day without the option of blocking it,” Richardson wrote in the description of her petition on change.org.   

The campaign, entitled #NoThanksSnapchat, rapidly caught on, and easily surpassed its goal of 10,000 signatures overnight. The petition currently has more than 26,000 signatures.

Fight the New Drug, an organization that fights pornography addiction among young people, applauded Richardson’s efforts and Snapchat’s new guidelines in a recent blog post: “Moral of the story? Never be afraid to speak out and fight for real love, no matter what. You never know what kind of change it can create.”

 

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