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MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Ferdinand Marcos is set to be buried at a heroes' cemetery Friday in a secrecy-shrouded ceremony despite growing opposition after the Supreme Court ruled last week that one of Asia's most infamous tyrants can be entombed in the cemetery, police officials said....
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the man Donald Trump has asked to be his national security adviser, built a reputation in the Army as an astute intelligence professional and a straight talker....
Washington D.C., Nov 17, 2016 / 03:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pro-abortion rights groups sought massive change in the Barack Obama administration eight years ago. Now, some pro-life advocates see the incoming Trump administration as a major opportunity to advance their cause.“Donald Trump ran as a pro-life candidate and we absolutely have a blueprint for the pro-life priorities of the Trump Administration,” Mallory Quigley, communications director of the Susan B. Anthony List, told CNA Nov. 16.In September the Republican presidential nominee sent a letter to pro-life leaders. His stated priorities were defunding Planned Parenthood, appointing pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, making permanent the Hyde Amendment restrictions on taxpayer funding for abortion, and ending what Trump called “painful late-term abortions after five months.”“He has surrounded himself with leading pro-life advocates, especially for key roles advising him on domestic policy,&r...
Washington D.C., Nov 17, 2016 / 03:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pro-abortion rights groups sought massive change in the Barack Obama administration eight years ago. Now, some pro-life advocates see the incoming Trump administration as a major opportunity to advance their cause.
“Donald Trump ran as a pro-life candidate and we absolutely have a blueprint for the pro-life priorities of the Trump Administration,” Mallory Quigley, communications director of the Susan B. Anthony List, told CNA Nov. 16.
In September the Republican presidential nominee sent a letter to pro-life leaders. His stated priorities were defunding Planned Parenthood, appointing pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, making permanent the Hyde Amendment restrictions on taxpayer funding for abortion, and ending what Trump called “painful late-term abortions after five months.”
“He has surrounded himself with leading pro-life advocates, especially for key roles advising him on domestic policy,” said Quigley. “We are working with the transition team and have already been inundated with resumes from longtime pro-life advocates, including women legislators at the state level, seeking to be part of the team and help make President-elect Trump’s pro-life commitments a reality.”
The Susan B. Anthony List aims to elect pro-life candidates to office. It endorsed President-elect Donald Trump’s candidacy. In September, Trump asked the group’s executive director Marjorie Dannenfelser to serve as national chair of his campaign’s pro-life coalition and on his Catholic advisory board.
The White House transition was much different in 2008 when the president-elect was Barack Obama. A coalition of over 50 pro-abortion rights advocacy groups submitted a lengthy plan to the Obama-Biden White House Transition Project.
The 50-page plan noted vacancies in federal court and “positions of interest” in the federal government where the pro-abortion rights advocates wanted allies to be placed. It named administrative, directorial, and assistant posts within the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, and the Department of State, as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Equal Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission.
The plan listed legislative and policy priorities, some of which were never enacted, on abortion law, conscientious objection, emergency contraception, and other subjects.
One priority was preferred budget language that would end restrictions on abortion funding like the Hyde Amendment. Another priority was an end to the so-called Mexico City Policy that barred U.S. Agency for International Development funds from groups that provide advice, counseling or information about abortion or lobby foreign governments to legalize abortion or make it available.
Other priorities included funding abortions for federal employees and their dependents, for residents of the District of Columbia, Peace Corps volunteers, Native American women, and women in federal prisons.
The plan sought a 133 percent increase in funding for Title X Family Planning Program and $1 billion for international “family planning” programs. It sought total defunding of “abstinence only” sex education in preference to “comprehensive” sex education. It sought restored funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which lost funding under the George W. Bush administration after private and governmental investigations found collaboration with coercive population control programs in China.
Supporters of the plan included NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the American Civil Liberties Union. One of the groups in the coalition was Catholics for Choice, whose claimed Catholic identity has been long rejected by the U.S. bishops.
In December 2008, in the wake of a massive global financial crisis, the Susan B. Anthony List characterized the plan as an “abortion industry bailout.”
The group voiced concern that abortion advocates had been appointed to influential positions in the incoming Obama administration. Ellen Moran, the executive director of the pro-abortion rights campaign fundraiser EMILY’s List, was named White House Communications Director. NARAL legal director Dawn Johnsen was named to the presidential transition’s Justice Department Review Team, though her eventual nomination to head the Office of Legal Counsel was withdrawn after years of opposition by some U.S. Senators.
Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards served as an informal advisor to the Obama White House transition team.
For the Susan B. Anthony List, the wake of the 2016 election has been much different.
“We’re very impressed by the experience and talent on the transition team and feel confident our pro-life priorities are reflected in the agenda,” Quigley commented.
During the presidential campaign, some pro-life leaders voiced strong criticism of Trump as a prospective candidate and president.
Dozens of prominent Catholic leaders released a March letter calling Trump “manifestly unfit to be president of the United States,” citing his vulgarity, his “appeals to racial and ethnic fears,” and his position on torture. They questioned the authenticity of his commitment to the right to life.
For Quigley, however, the Trump transition was “off to a great start.”
“Now is the time for the pro-life movement to unify and join the effort,” she said.
She cited the presence of Vice President-elect Mike Pence on the transition team, describing him as a pro-life ally. She said President-elect Trump “understands the importance of choosing the right personnel.”
She pointed to the role of Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus as the president-elect’s chief of staff and the role of Rep. Marsha Blackburn(R-Tenn.) as a member of the transition team’s executive committee. For Quigley, the unanimous re-election of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as Speaker of the House is “a clear sign that House Republicans are united and ready to enact laws that save lives.”
“The Susan B. Anthony List’s entire mission is about electing pro-life leaders and then working with them and holding them accountable to the promises they make to their constituents on the campaign trail,” she added. “We can’t wait to work with our allies in Congress and in the administration to enact lifesaving protections for the unborn.”
IMAGE: CNS photo/Sam Lucero, The CompassBy Sam LuceroREDGRANITE, Wis. (CNS) -- Behinda makeshift altar standing in the shadows of a basketball hoop, Bishop David L.Ricken celebrated Mass in a gymnasium that could have been mistaken for anyCatholic school gym in the Diocese of Green Bay.But the uniformed securityofficers stationed at the gym's entrance, as well as the two securitycheckpoints situated in areas outside of the athletic facility, made it clearthat this was not an ordinary gymnasium.Nor was it an ordinary Mass.As part of the Jubilee Year ofMercy, Bishop Ricken celebrated Mass Nov. 2 for inmates at RedgraniteCorrectional Institution, a medium security adult male correctional institutionlocated in the village of Redgranite, about 80 miles southwest of Green Bay.The prison is operated by theWisconsin Department of Corrections with a staff of 293 and an inmatepopulation of approximately 1,000, according to the facility's 2016 annualreport.About 75 inmates, both Catholicand no...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Sam Lucero, The Compass
By Sam Lucero
REDGRANITE, Wis. (CNS) -- Behind a makeshift altar standing in the shadows of a basketball hoop, Bishop David L. Ricken celebrated Mass in a gymnasium that could have been mistaken for any Catholic school gym in the Diocese of Green Bay.
But the uniformed security officers stationed at the gym's entrance, as well as the two security checkpoints situated in areas outside of the athletic facility, made it clear that this was not an ordinary gymnasium.
Nor was it an ordinary Mass.
As part of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Bishop Ricken celebrated Mass Nov. 2 for inmates at Redgranite Correctional Institution, a medium security adult male correctional institution located in the village of Redgranite, about 80 miles southwest of Green Bay.
The prison is operated by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections with a staff of 293 and an inmate population of approximately 1,000, according to the facility's 2016 annual report.
About 75 inmates, both Catholic and non-Catholic, attended the liturgy and afterward received a special blessing from Bishop Ricken on behalf of Pope Francis.
In addition to Bishop Ricken, several diocesan staff members, clergy from the Green Bay and Madison dioceses and prison ministry volunteers from local parishes attended the Mass. Mary Armbrust, pastoral care and ministry coordinator for the Green Bay Diocese, organized the visit. She said it was the last of three Year of Mercy activities she has helped organize. The other two included care ministry coordinators, parish nurses and volunteers serving adults with disabilities.
Before Mass, Bishop Ricken spoke to the inmates. He told them he was there to fulfill a wish of Pope Francis, during the Year of Mercy, to extend God's mercy on all people.
"I come to you with a special mandate, a special directive that was given by Pope Francis," Bishop Ricken told the inmates. "He asked every bishop in the world to reach out especially to people in prison and to bring to them the gift of the grace of a Year of Mercy."
Bishop Ricken explained that Pope Francis wants everyone, "especially those in prison ' to be able to receive the graces of the Year of Mercy," ending Nov. 20. God's mercy flows to anyone open to it, he said.
"You know, (God) knows each one of you, brothers, better than you know yourself. The Scriptures tell us he can count every hair on our head. God knows everything about you, the good and the bad, and it's true about me as well. He knows about me inside and out."
At the same time, said Bishop Ricken, "God is not interested in keeping score."
"God is in the business of love and he wants to communicate to people desperately his tremendous love and mercy," Bishop Ricken told the men, all dressed in green prison uniforms. "Nobody has done anything so bad that God will not forgive. But it's a matter of having the humility to approach Jesus and ask for forgiveness, to ask him for mercy for you and to place your sins -- and me too, I have to do this all of the time -- before the Lord and ask for his mercy and forgiveness."
While God is like "an ocean of mercy," said Bishop Ricken, mercy can only be given if people accept it.
"So Jesus is asking us to receive that mercy and enter into a relationship with our Lord. He wants you to be his friend and I'm here to ask you to let him into your heart and into your mind," said Bishop Ricken. "Jesus will never let you down. He's always dependable. He's always right here for you."
According to Bishop Ricken, all bishops were asked to use a prayer and blessing written by Pope Francis and share it with inmates. The bishop read the prayer at the end of Mass.
He also urged them to study the word of God in the Bible and be open to its message. "As you start to grow in your relationship with our Lord, something happens inside," he said. Hardened hearts are softened and a desire to share God's love with others begins.
Four inmates assisted in the liturgy. Kenneth Crass played the keyboard, Michael Daniel and Thomas Kopp served as readers and Greg Shookman served as a greeter.
Before reciting a final prayer and blessing, Bishop Ricken blessed rosaries that some inmates brought with them.
As the men exited the gymnasium at the end of Mass, they shook hands and shared a few words with Bishop Ricken and the other ministers and volunteers.
Bishop Ricken, who visits inmates at the prisons in Green Bay and Oshkosh each year at Lent and Advent, told The Compass, Green Bay's diocesan newspaper that spending time with the Redgranite inmates was moving.
"They really appreciate that the priests and the deacons and lay ministers come to care for them, give them pastoral care," he said. "They are just so grateful and they really pay attention during Mass."
Armbrust said the men also were moved. "Some shed tears. One man was still crying going through the reception line after Mass," she said.
Bishop Ricken said he was thankful to Pope Francis for offering an opportunity for the church to share God's mercy with all people, including those on the fringes of society.
"This Year of Mercy has been so beautiful and especially to offer that love of God, through Pope Francis," he said. "To be able to do that in his name has been a great privilege for me."
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Lucero is news and information manager at The Compass, newspaper of the Diocese of Green Bay.
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