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Rome, Italy, Jan 17, 2017 / 02:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As the Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominicans, celebrate the 800th anniversary of their founding, they gather in Rome from around the world to reflect on their history, their charism of preaching, and how they can continue to put this charism at the service of the Church today.

The International Congress for the Mission of the Order, taking place Jan. 17-21, comes at the close of the order’s celebration of a Jubilee Year, which marks the 800th anniversary of their founding by St. Dominic.

One purpose of the congress, Dominican Brother Vivian Boland told CNA, is as a chance for the order “to thank God for the graces of the past year, but also to try to re-own the mission of the order in the Church and to give it a fresh energy, a fresh impulse…”

The charism of the Dominicans, Br. Boland said, can sometimes be difficult to pick out, because it’s a charism “that’s at the very heart of the Church and Christianity, preaching the Gospel.”

“We’re not the only ones that preach the Gospel,” he noted. “But I think the year of celebration has been a chance for us to think about what it means to be the Order of Preachers in the Church and on behalf of the Church, and that our first task should be to help the Church in its preaching of the Gospel.”

This mission can sound simplistic, he acknowledged, but there are many challenges to that mission today, and the Dominicans should be a leader “in helping the Church to think about these challenges,” which can be found in everything from philosophy, to science, to culture, and changes in society.

One thing they can be working on is “what are the difficulties, what are the possibilities, for preaching the Gospel of Jesus today. To be helping the Church with that task,” he said.

Being part of such an old and established order, Br. Boland said, is a bit like the well-known phrase, “all of human life is there.”

“You know, by the time an organization is 800 years old, that in itself is remarkable, there are very few things which remain for 800 years,” he said.

Referencing a video the order made for the Jubilee which says “we have 130 saints, and a multitude of sinners,” Br. Boland said “we have to acknowledge the humanity of the order, its mistakes, at times.”

“But also, there’s a certain pride, I hope in a good sense, in remembering who our brothers and sisters are” – St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena and the like. “Remarkable people, who we can call our brothers and sisters.”

The international congress takes place over five days and includes prayer, talks, and workshops. It includes both lay members and men and women religious. It will close with a Mass presided by Pope Francis at the Basilica of St. John Lateran on Saturday.

The congresses, which the order holds about every 12 or 13 years, provide a chance to put people in contact, he said. For example, “people who might be working with indigenous people in Taiwan with people who are working with indigenous people in Guatemala, who might otherwise not know about each other.”

Overall, the congress is a way, he said, “to bring together Dominicans from all parts of the world, who are working in particular ministries or perhaps have special projects that they’ve developed, just to be together and to hear what the order is doing in different parts of the world.”

 

 

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Washington D.C., Jan 17, 2017 / 04:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pro-life feminist organization New Wave Feminists has been removed from the official list of sponsors of the Women’s March on Washington 2017. Support of abortion as a fundamental principle of the upcoming January march has been cited as grounds.

 “I can only assume it’s because there was a lot of pressure not to affiliate with pro-lifers, which is unfortunate,” Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, president of New Wave Feminists, said about the decision.

In a Jan. 16 video statement on Facebook, Herndon-De La Rosa explained that they had been removed, speculating it was because of negative media backlash after an article on their participation appeared in The Atlantic. The feminist protest had previously listed New Wave Feminists as a partner, but by Monday afternoon had removed links to the Texan pro-life group from the event’s website.

Earlier that day, The Atlantic featured a piece on pro-life participants in the Women’s March on Washington, highlighting New Wave Feminists as well as several other pro-life groups’ decision to participate in the march. The pro-life organization's decision attracted attention after the Women’s March released a list of guiding principles in early January – which included “open access to safe, legal, affordable abortion and birth control for all people.”

According to The Atlantic, organizers do not see the march specifically as an anti-Trump protest. But the date of the protest – the day after Donald Trump's presidential inauguration – is meant to “send a bold message” Women’s March co-chair Bob Bland told the Atlantic. Bland continued, saying the march is meant to support a wide variety of people, but particularly those criticized during the 2016 election cycle. “We’re marching to say that we support them, and all women,” Bland told The Atlantic.

The march is expected to draw between several thousand to as many as several hundred thousand participants from around the country.

More than 100 organizations, including including pro-abortion organizations such as Planned Parenthood, have applied for “partnership” in supporting the March

Bland told The Atlantic that including Planned Parenthood “was a no-brainer for us” because of their support of the Affordable Care Act. Furthermore, Bland stated, “one of the challenges facing women in this incoming administration is access to reproductive care.”

Before rescinding New Wave Feminists’ partnership, Bland told The Atlantic that women of all beliefs and backgrounds were welcome, particularly “voices that have previously been either marginalized or silenced.” She told the publication that the intersectional nature of the event and inclusion of different perspectives on feminism was valuable and the “future” of the feminist movement “We must not just talk about feminism as one issue, like access to reproductive care.”

After revoking New Wave Feminists’ partnership, the Women’s March issued a statement saying that the event it pro-abortion and that the organizers “look forward to marching on behalf of individuals who share the view that women have the right to make their own reproductive choices.”

“The anti-choice organization in question is not a partner of the Women's March on Washington. We apologize for this error,” the statement added.

The removal of New Wave Feminist’s partnership status, while disappointing, Herndon-De La Rosa said, will not her or the organization’s decision to join the March. The Women’s March’s decision does not change either their pro-life beliefs nor their identification as feminists. “We will be there whether we are official partners or not.”

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Washington D.C., Jan 17, 2017 / 04:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On the eve of this year’s March for Life in Washington, D.C., EWTN Global Catholic Network will launch a new half-hour weekly program focusing on promoting the culture of life.

“EWTN Pro-Life Weekly,” a joint project of EWTN and the Susan B. Anthony List, will feature  Catherine Szeltner, formerly a correspondent of EWTN News Nightly, as it host.

“We want to help viewers become actively involved in the pro-life movement,” Szeltner said in a press release announcing the new show. “What are the expectations here? What’s realistic? What’s not? What is Congress debating now? How do we hold our lawmakers accountable for their pro-life promises?”

In addition to being “the authoritative resource for the latest pro-life news,” she said, the show will seek to provide answers to tough questions, segments on groups that are working to promote a culture of life, and call-to-action segments offering clear steps for how viewers can participate in the pro-life movement.

The show will emphasize abortion and assisted suicide as major concerns, according to an EWTN press release. But Szeltner added that there will be a “holistic, Catholic approach,” tackling pro-life issues in all stages of life.

EWTN chairman and CEO Michael Warsaw said that while there are signs of hope in the world today, the culture “continues to chip away at the right to life from conception to natural death.”

He explained that the new show will work to “inform, but also to show viewers how to engage everyone from their friends and neighbors to their elected representatives on the life issues.”

“Our goal is that viewers will be motivated, inspired, and equipped to make a difference.”

“EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” is being produced in partnership with the Susan B. Anthony List, a network dedicated to promoting pro-life policies and elected officials, as well as to education and research on life issues.

“SBA List will bring our political insight, legislative analysis, as well as relationships with legislators and members of the media to help create a dynamic, must-watch program,” said the group’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser.

Beyond simply delivering news, she said, “(t)he show will collapse the distance between the White House, Congress, the press, and those at home who care deeply about saving unborn boys and girls, who want to know what more (they) can do.”

Citing the pro-life stances of the incoming White House and Congress, Dannenfelser stressed the need for viewers to be motivated into action.

“EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” will debut Thursday, Jan. 26, at 5 p.m. ET with an encore on a Friday, Jan. 27, at 5:30 p.m. ET. The show will begin airing each week at 11 p.m. ET Fridays, 10 a.m. ET Sundays, and 3 a.m. ET Mondays starting March 3, 2017.

The debut special will cover expectations for the incoming Trump administration, an interview with an abortion survivor, and ideas on how to be more involved in the pro-life movement.
 

 

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Charlotte, N.C., Jan 17, 2017 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A lawsuit against a Catholic high school claims that it was illegal discrimination to fire a teacher for contracting a same-sex civil marriage, but a law professor suggests the case will not make any progress.

“What they're trying to do is they're trying to make new law in this case,” Prof. Robert Destro told CNA. “I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't get their case dismissed.”

Destro, a law professor of the Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law, served 16 years on the U.S. Commission for Civil Rights.

Charlotte Catholic High School in North Carolina and the Diocese of Charlotte faces a lawsuit from a substitute teacher who says he was fired after he posted about his same-sex wedding on Facebook.

The Charlotte, N.C. high school is part of the diocesan school system.

Lonnie Billard had begun working at the school in 2001 as a full time faculty member. He taught English and drama. He said he brought his partner to school events and their relationship was known to students, teachers, parents and administrators. He retired in 2012 and became a long-term substitute teacher.

In October 2014 he posted a wedding announcement on Facebook. An assistant principal at the school then told him he would no longer be hired as a substitute teacher. The suit claimed that the diocese ordered his termination because of his announcement.

In January 2015 diocesan communications director David Hains said that continued employment of Billard would be “legitimating that relationship” and wrongly indicate Church approval, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit was filed on Billard’s behalf by the North Carolina office of the American Civil Liberties Union and the law firm Tin Fulton Walker & Owen.

The lawsuit claims it is a cause for legal action to fire someone on the basis of sex, because of his intention to enter a same-sex civil marriage and “because he does not conform to sex-based stereotypes associated with men in our society.”

Chris Brook, the ACLU state legal director, said that religious organizations are not exempt from the federal ban on sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. He claimed that other teachers violated Catholic teaching on divorce and other matters, but Billard was the only teacher fired.

Destro, however, said he did not think the lawsuit had a basis in precedent. He questioned the lawsuit’s claim that marriages fall under sex discrimination.

“The question whether or not certain marriages are legitimate, whether certain relationships are consistent with the moral teachings of the Church, has nothing to do with the definition of ‘sex’,” he said.

The law allows religion to be a standard of employment in religious schools, he explained. This allows the school “to control the learning environment and who teaches in it.”

“It’s pretty clear from the law that the schools have the right and the obligation to stay in control of their curriculum,” he said.

According to Destro, the question is not a matter of the teacher’s sexual orientation.

“The question is about whether you’re bearing sufficient witness to the faith in the course of your teaching, another question entirely.”

Even if a teacher is not Catholic, Destro said, school contracts usually specify standards of behavior concerning teachers’ roles.

CNA sought comment from the diocese but did not receive a response by deadline.

“The Diocese of Charlotte has not received any paperwork. Typically we don’t discuss ongoing litigation,” Hains, the diocese’s communications director, told the Charlotte Observer. He said diocesan officials had not seen the lawsuit as of Jan. 11.

In January 2015 Hains noted the Church’s belief that marriage is a union only of a man and a woman and rejected claims of discrimination.

“He’s not being picked on because he’s gay. He lost his job as a substitute teacher because he broke a promise because he chose to oppose church teaching, something he promised he would not do.”

Billard said that his adherence to Catholic teaching was never part of the employment process.

The lawsuit seeks back pay and benefits, punitive damage, compensatory damages for emotional distress, and a court order blocking the school and Catholic leaders from taking similar actions in the future, “restraining Defendants from engaging in further discriminatory conduct.”

The legal action comes after several years of advocacy against religious freedom protections. The American Civil Liberties Union is receiving funding from groups like the Arcus Foundation for projects to “beat back” religious exemptions, grant listings show.

The foundation, founded by billionaire heir Jon Stryker, is also funding some Catholic dissenting groups. Stryker was a major funder of the effort to redefine civil marriage in the United States.

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IMAGE: CNS/EPA

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When a group of German Christians was asked in 2014 to prepare materials for the 2017 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, their choice of a "wall" as a symbol of sin, evil and division explicitly referred to the Berlin Wall.

The German reflections on the power of prayer to bring down walls and the Gospel call to reconciliation were adopted by the World Council of Church's Faith and Order Commission and the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and proposed to Christians worldwide for the Jan. 18-25 octave of prayer.

"The image of the wall is very current today -- now more than when they wrote the reflection," said Father Anthony Currer, who coordinates the Vatican contribution to the week of prayer.

The U.S. political discussion of extending the wall along the border with Mexico, Pope Francis' frequent admonitions about building bridges rather than walls, the global refugee crisis -- all of that makes the powerful symbol of a wall even more potent, said Father Currer, an official at the Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

The expanding symbolism of the wall also shows the kind of dynamic that the World Council of Churches and the Vatican are looking for when they ask one very small group of Christians to try to design prayers and reflections for the global Christian community.

The Faith and Order Commission and the pontifical council alternate identifying communities to choose the Week of Prayer theme, draft a worship service, come up with sub-themes and Bible readings for each day of the octave and describe the ecumenical situation in their local community.

With input from international representatives and then approval from the World Council of Churches and the Vatican, the material is sent around the world.

"We deliberately produce the booklet in a boring format because we do not expect anyone to pray from it directly," Father Currer said. "It is not a prescribed text because adaptation signifies engagement -- it is creative and spiritual."

The local reflections are meant to be universally accessible and eminently adaptable, he said. "When you do a Google search for the Week of Prayer you should get material prepared locally," not just links to the text sent out.

The theme for 2017 is: "Reconciliation -- The love of Christ compels us."

Even before the celebrations began, work was underway to finalize materials for the 2018 Week of Prayer with input from an ecumenical group from the Caribbean, and Churches Together in Indonesia already has been asked to prepare materials for the octave of prayer in 2019.

The long lead time gives Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants around the world time to translate and adapt the materials to their own local situations, cultures and styles of worship.

The German group was chosen to write the reflections for 2017 because this year marks the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, an event that tore apart the Christian community in the West.

But, Father Currer said, "this commemoration of the Reformation acknowledges very much that our history is not just a history of conflict; from the Second Vatican Council and the last 50 years of ecumenical dialogue, it is also a story of coming back together in communion."

As Pope Francis showed when he traveled to Sweden in October for ecumenical events kicking off a yearlong commemoration of the anniversary, ecumenical prayer and dialogue "is focused on Christ, which is where we unite," he said.

The pope participated in other major ecumenical events of prayer and witness in 2016: He met in February with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow; traveled to Greece in April to visit refugees with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople; and, along with Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, in early October, he commissioned pairs of Catholic and Anglican bishops to work and pray together in their home regions.

"The things Catholics see the pope doing encourage them to participate," Father Currer said.

The papal events also support the kind of prayer and hope that Germans displayed on both sides of the Berlin Wall throughout the Cold War.

"The wall separating Christians seems to be equally immovable and entrenched," Father Currer said. But the continued prayer of Christians is "a way to show our hope and faith that God will bring his church to unity."

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Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.

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