Catholic News 2
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The messaging battle is over on repealing and replacing President Barack Obama's health care law, and the balance of power in Washington may be at stake....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senior U.S. intelligence officials face questions at a Senate hearing that will be dominated by the intelligence community's assessment that Russia meddled in the presidential election to help Donald Trump win....
Washington D.C., Jan 4, 2017 / 07:38 pm (CNA).- While the number of Americans who describe themselves as Christians has declined in recent years, more than 9 in 10 members of Congress profess to be adherents of the faith.A strong 91 percent of incoming Members of Congress describe themselves as Christian, an analysis of the 115th Congress has said.About 67 percent of Republicans in Congress are Protestant, while 27 percent are Catholic. Among Democrats, 42 percent are Protestant and 37 percent are Catholic.The Pew Research Center analyzed religious self-identification in Congress using data from CQ Roll Call and compared it to its own studies of American religious self-identification.Only about 21 percent of Americans as a whole identify as Catholic, while 71 percent of Americans identify as Christian, according to the Pew Research Center.Among Protestant Members of Congress, Baptists had the largest denominational representation, numbering 72. They were followed by Methodist, Angli...
Washington D.C., Jan 4, 2017 / 07:38 pm (CNA).- While the number of Americans who describe themselves as Christians has declined in recent years, more than 9 in 10 members of Congress profess to be adherents of the faith.
A strong 91 percent of incoming Members of Congress describe themselves as Christian, an analysis of the 115th Congress has said.
About 67 percent of Republicans in Congress are Protestant, while 27 percent are Catholic. Among Democrats, 42 percent are Protestant and 37 percent are Catholic.
The Pew Research Center analyzed religious self-identification in Congress using data from CQ Roll Call and compared it to its own studies of American religious self-identification.
Only about 21 percent of Americans as a whole identify as Catholic, while 71 percent of Americans identify as Christian, according to the Pew Research Center.
Among Protestant Members of Congress, Baptists had the largest denominational representation, numbering 72. They were followed by Methodist, Anglican/Episcopal, Presbyterian and Lutheran.
Only two of the 293 Republicans in the new Congress are non-Christian, both of them being Jewish. Of the 242 Democrats, 28 are Jewish, three Buddhist, three Hindu, two Muslim, and one Unitarian Universalist. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is the only Member of Congress to self-describe as religiously unaffiliated, while 10 Democrats declined to state any religious affiliation.
The religiously unaffiliated are the most underrepresented in Congress. While the Pew Research Center says about 23 percent of Americans are religiously unaffiliated, they make up only 0.2 percent of Congress.
In the 87th Congress, which met from 1961 to 1962, 95 percent of members identified as Christian. That body was 75 percent Protestant and only 19 percent Catholic. In the new Congress, 56 percent of members are Protestant and 31 percent Catholic.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rex Tillerson will get a $180 million retirement package from Exxon Mobil Corp. if he is confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of state....
CHICAGO (AP) -- Jurors who heard the biggest gang trial in recent Chicago history on Wednesday convicted the core leadership of the Hobos, a group described by prosecutors as an "all-star team" of criminals whose ruthlessness reflected the kind of violence that led to the city's alarming spike in homicides....
Rome, Italy, Jan 4, 2017 / 04:11 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- An Italian priest from northern Italy has been accused of pimping out some 15 women, as well as organizing and filming orgies in his rectory.The priest, 48 year-old Father Andrea Contin, was the parish priest at the church of San Lazzaro in Padua. He is under police investigation for psychological violence, aiding prostitution, and living off immoral earnings after three female parishioners filed complaints against him with Church and civil authorities.According to local reports, police uncovered various sex toys and homemade pornography tapes, disguised with labels of the names of different Popes, during a raid of the rectory.The priest has also been accused of offering the women’s services on various sites such as wife-swapping websites. He also was allegedly planning a getaway to a French swingers resort.As many as 15 women were reportedly pimped out by the priest. Several of them reportedly became involved with Fr. Cont...
Rome, Italy, Jan 4, 2017 / 04:11 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- An Italian priest from northern Italy has been accused of pimping out some 15 women, as well as organizing and filming orgies in his rectory.
The priest, 48 year-old Father Andrea Contin, was the parish priest at the church of San Lazzaro in Padua. He is under police investigation for psychological violence, aiding prostitution, and living off immoral earnings after three female parishioners filed complaints against him with Church and civil authorities.
According to local reports, police uncovered various sex toys and homemade pornography tapes, disguised with labels of the names of different Popes, during a raid of the rectory.
The priest has also been accused of offering the women’s services on various sites such as wife-swapping websites. He also was allegedly planning a getaway to a French swingers resort.
As many as 15 women were reportedly pimped out by the priest. Several of them reportedly became involved with Fr. Contin after they sought his spiritual advice after the dissolution of their marriages.
Rather than offering spiritual direction, Fr. Contin reportedly seduced the women and made them perform extreme sex acts.
Several reports say that the women filed complaints with Church authorities as early as last summer to a local bishop, who failed to contact police.
Fr. Contin has been suspended from his parish in Padua, but he has not yet been arrested.
Washington D.C., Jan 4, 2017 / 04:59 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Abuses and possibly criminal violations are occurring in the fetal tissue trade between abortion clinics and tissue harvesters, concluded the special House panel investigating the matter on Wednesday.“It is my hope that our recommendations will result in some necessary changes within both the abortion and fetal tissue procurement industries,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), chair of the House Select Investigative Panel, said upon release of the panel's final report.“Our hope is that these changes will both protect women and their unborn children, as well as the integrity of scientific research,” she said.The investigative panel released its 471-page final report Wednesday. This came weeks after Democrats on the panel released their 112-page report claiming that Planned Parenthood was not guilty of any wrongdoing and that the panel's investigations into the fetal tissue trade were hindering pos...
Washington D.C., Jan 4, 2017 / 04:59 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Abuses and possibly criminal violations are occurring in the fetal tissue trade between abortion clinics and tissue harvesters, concluded the special House panel investigating the matter on Wednesday.
“It is my hope that our recommendations will result in some necessary changes within both the abortion and fetal tissue procurement industries,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), chair of the House Select Investigative Panel, said upon release of the panel's final report.
“Our hope is that these changes will both protect women and their unborn children, as well as the integrity of scientific research,” she said.
The investigative panel released its 471-page final report Wednesday. This came weeks after Democrats on the panel released their 112-page report claiming that Planned Parenthood was not guilty of any wrongdoing and that the panel's investigations into the fetal tissue trade were hindering positive benefits from research conducted on fetal tissue.
In the summer of 2015, the investigative group Center for Medical Progress released a series of undercover interviews conducted with high-ranking Planned Parenthood officials and current and former members of tissue procurement companies.
The videos showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing clinics' roles in the transfer of fetal tissue of aborted babies to tissue companies for reimbursement.
Fetal tissue may be used for purposes like medical research but in abortions it must be obtained with the consent of the mother and may not be transferred for “valuable consideration,” but only for “reasonable” compensation for costs like operating and transfer.
The House launched investigations into the situation to see if laws had been broken by tissue companies or abortion clinics. In October, the House voted to bring about the Select Investigative Panel to look into the matter further. Rep. Blackburn was picked to chair the panel.
Wednesday's report summarized various findings of the panel over the last year, from investigations and testimony in the fetal tissue trade, that resulted in the panel making over a dozen criminal and regulatory referrals.
Consent forms to use the remains of the aborted child for research were allegedly not obtained from mothers by abortion clinics.
One of the panel's hearings “revealed substantial concern about the consent process for the donation of human fetal tissue used by abortion clinics and tissue procurement businesses (TPBs),” the report stated. “Evidence revealed that self-interested staff, whose pay depends on the numbers of specimens donated, were assigned to obtain consent from patients.”
Violations of privacy were also found by the panel to have allegedly occurred in transactions between abortion clinics and tissue procurement companies.
The possibly illegal exchanges of a patient’s health information between abortion clinics and the tissue procurement company StemExpress violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the report said, and the panel referred the matter to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Also, the University of New Mexico established a relationship with a nearby abortion clinic that could have violated federal and state laws, the panel alleged.
The clinic, Southwestern Women's Options, was said to provide fetal tissue to the university for research as students and fellows performed abortions at the clinic. Clinic abortionists were reportedly given “volunteer faculty” status at the university where they benefited from things like insurance coverage and access to school facilities yet did not have to teach classes.
This was “giving their relationship the components of an exchange of fetal tissue for valuable consideration,” the report stated.
Also, “the close relationship” enabled various alleged abuses to occur, like “allegations of shoddy clinical practices, including failure to utilize a consent form for fetal tissue donation and improperly combining consent for tissue donation with consent for the underlying abortion procedure,” the report noted.
Other abuses the panel alleged had to do with clinics and tissue harvesters illegally profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. In one case, a Planned Parenthood clinic and the tissue procurement company claimed the same expenses in tissue transactions, although only one party seemingly would be able to claim the operating costs so as not to illegally profit from the transaction.
Planned Parenthood for America officials also admitted to not following the organization's own internal procedures on fetal tissue transactions, and on abortionists affirming they had not illegally altered the abortion procedure for harvesters to more easily obtain intact tissue.
Also on Wednesday, the pro-life research group Charlotte Lozier Institute and the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom released a report of their own relying on dozens of audits of Planned Parenthood clinics and state family planning programs.
The report alleged “waste, fraud, and abuse” in Planned Parenthood's participation in Medicaid billing, resulting in clinics over-billing over $130 million in Medicaid and other public health funding.
Rep. Blackburn concluded her time as the panel's chair by thanking her fellow pro-life members. “It was an honor to Chair the Select Investigative Panel. I want to thank my colleagues who are strong pro-life leaders and have worked tirelessly over the past year,” she said Wednesday.
Other panel members insisted that the report’s recommendations – like ensuring that informed consent is obtained before tissue procurement and that privacy of medical information is respected – should be followed. Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) stated that “we must protect the unborn, and every citizen’s God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- High technology is taking to the high seas....
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The seven grisly murders carried out by Charles Manson's disciples during the summer of 1969 did more than turn the hippie cult leader into the leering face of evil on front pages across America....
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Dylann Roof spoke Wednesday for the first time to the jurors who will decide whether he should be executed for fatally shooting nine black parishioners during a Bible study, insisting that he is not mentally ill and forgoing a chance to plead for his life....
