Catholic News 2
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's president said Tuesday she will allow parliament to choose her prime minister, a major political concession to growing anger as she scrambles to defuse an escalating influence-peddling scandal....
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Closing out a wildly unpredictable White House race, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump blitzed through battleground states Monday in a final bid to energize supporters. Clinton, backed by an emotional appeal from Barack Obama, urged voters to embrace a "hopeful, inclusive, bighearted America," while Trump vowed to "beat the corrupt system."...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Latest on the U.S. presidential campaign (all times EDT):...
Vatican City, Nov 7, 2016 / 03:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis met in Rome with a unique group involved in the fight against human trafficking, where he noted the particular contributions of women religious, which often go unnoticed.“Your activity in this area reminds us,” the Pope said Nov. 7, of ‘the enormous and often silent efforts which have been made for many years by religious congregations, especially women's congregations, to care for those wounded in their dignity and scarred by their experiences.”“I think especially of the distinctive contribution made by women in accompanying other women and children on a deeply personal journey of healing and reintegration,” he said.The Pope met with RENATE, a European network of religious who are committed to work together in the fight against human trafficking and exploitation. Members consist of women religious, priests and laypersons who all have professional training in fields such as ps...
Vatican City, Nov 7, 2016 / 03:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis met in Rome with a unique group involved in the fight against human trafficking, where he noted the particular contributions of women religious, which often go unnoticed.
“Your activity in this area reminds us,” the Pope said Nov. 7, of ‘the enormous and often silent efforts which have been made for many years by religious congregations, especially women's congregations, to care for those wounded in their dignity and scarred by their experiences.”
“I think especially of the distinctive contribution made by women in accompanying other women and children on a deeply personal journey of healing and reintegration,” he said.
The Pope met with RENATE, a European network of religious who are committed to work together in the fight against human trafficking and exploitation. Members consist of women religious, priests and laypersons who all have professional training in fields such as psychology, counseling, law and law enforcement.
During his audience with the group, Pope Francis acknowledged both what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done in combating the problem.
“Much more needs to be done on the level of raising public consciousness and effecting a better coordination of efforts by governments, the judiciary, law enforcement officials and social workers,” he said.
The group’s second assembly, titled “The End of Trafficking Begins with Us,” takes place in Rome Nov. 6-12. Taking place at the Roman hotel Tra Noi, the conference focuses on the mission that they are “Called to give voice to the voiceless.” In addition to the audience with Pope Francis, participants will also hear several talks and visit shelters.
Noting how it was fitting for the conference to take place during the Jubilee of Mercy, the Pope said how “in this season of grace, all of us are invited to enter more deeply into the mystery of God’s mercy.”
And like the Good Samaritan, we are all called to bring “the balm of that mercy” to the many “open wounds” in our society.
“One of the most troubling of those open wounds,” he stated, “is the trade in human beings, a modern form of slavery, which violates the God-given dignity of so many of our brothers and sisters and constitutes a true crime against humanity.”
Stressing how women and children are usually the most affected by the “scourge” of human trafficking, Francis expressed his appreciation for the efforts of those present to raise public awareness.
The Pope thanked them for their “faithful witness to the Gospel of mercy, as demonstrated in your commitment to the recovery and rehabilitation of victims.”
“As you well know, one of the challenges to this work of advocacy, education and coordination is a certain indifference and even complicity, a tendency on the part of many to look the other way where powerful economic interests and networks of crime are at play,” he said.
“I trust that your sharing of experiences, knowledge and expertise in these days will contribute to a more effective witness to the Gospel in one of the great peripheries of contemporary society.”
New York City, N.Y., Nov 7, 2016 / 04:44 pm (CNA).- Fr. Frank Pavone, head of the controversial pro-life group Priest for Life, came under fire Monday for a video of him standing behind an altar with an aborted baby in an effort to support Donald Trump.Ed Mechmann, director of public policy for the Archdiocese of New York, said the use of an aborted baby “as a prop” is “absolutely appalling, and deserves to be repudiated by all of us who consider ourselves to be pro-life in the fullest meaning of that word.”On Nov. 7, Fr. Pavone posted a video on Facebook supporting Donald Trump for president. The video includes a naked, dead baby lying on an altar, as Fr. Pavone stands behind the altar, talking about abortion.“A human being has been sacrificed and the altar of God has been desecrated, all for politics,” Mechmann said in a blog post on the Archdiocese of New York website. “Everyone who respects the dignity of every human person should reject...
New York City, N.Y., Nov 7, 2016 / 04:44 pm (CNA).- Fr. Frank Pavone, head of the controversial pro-life group Priest for Life, came under fire Monday for a video of him standing behind an altar with an aborted baby in an effort to support Donald Trump.
Ed Mechmann, director of public policy for the Archdiocese of New York, said the use of an aborted baby “as a prop” is “absolutely appalling, and deserves to be repudiated by all of us who consider ourselves to be pro-life in the fullest meaning of that word.”
On Nov. 7, Fr. Pavone posted a video on Facebook supporting Donald Trump for president. The video includes a naked, dead baby lying on an altar, as Fr. Pavone stands behind the altar, talking about abortion.
“A human being has been sacrificed and the altar of God has been desecrated, all for politics,” Mechmann said in a blog post on the Archdiocese of New York website. “Everyone who respects the dignity of every human person should reject and disavow this atrocity.”
“A priest of the Catholic Church publicly displayed on a sacred altar a dead baby who was the victim of a terrible crime as part of a propaganda video in favor of a political candidate,” he said. “It is hard for me to express in calm, measured terms, the revulsion I feel about this.”
While there has long been debate within the pro-life movement about whether to show images of aborted babies in order to reveal the graphic reality of abortion, that discussion is “beside the point,” Mechmann said.
“The real question is, what about that baby as a human being? That baby is an individual human person, someone’s son or daughter, made in the image and likeness of God, unique and unrepeatable, and deserving of our love and mercy,” he said. “To use her body in this way is to treat that poor lost girl or boy as an object to be used – which is the antithesis of love – and not as a brother or sister to be mourned.”
Fr. Thomas Petri, vice president and academic dean of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., echoed Mechmann.
“The issue here is the dignity of the child that was used, and violating the dignity of his or her body on an altar of God – which is supposed to be used for divine worship. It really is a profane violation,” he told CNA.
“The Catholic Church is very strict that human bodies are to be treated reverently after a person dies.”
The video also drew fire in the Catholic blogosphere. In a Nov. 7 blog post, Mary Pezzulo, a blogger on Patheos, noted that the baby’s body had not even been cleaned or dressed before being placed on the altar.
“It is wrong to use dead people as political props. Most people know that,” she said, pointing to the teaching of the Catechism that “The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity.”
“Human bodies are not objects for us to exploit. As we do to them, we do to Christ,” Pezzulo said.
Blogger Mark Shea also rejected the treatment of the baby.
“(T)he Church does indeed insist on the right to life of the unborn baby,” he said in a post on Patheos. However, he continued, “That does not mean that in the name of fighting abortion, you get to use the unborn’s naked body as a prop for attacking your culture war enemies on the eve of an election. It does not make the unborn’s body a thing for you to manipulate as political imagery.”
Scott Eric Alt, a third Patheos blogger, called for Fr. Pavone to have his faculty to celebrate Mass suspended. He pointed to Canon law, which stipulates: “An altar, whether fixed or movable, is to be reserved for divine worship alone, to the exclusion of any secular usage.”
“The altar is intended for a sacramental purpose, as the place where the priest celebrates Mass,” Alt said.
“There is no other way to put it than that this is a sacrilege and a scandal. The human person is not a prop for a political stunt. This is an offense to the purpose for which priests are ordained to use the altar.”
Furthermore, Alt charged, “what Fr. Pavone did is the opposite of pro-life.”
“Being pro-life is about respecting the dignity of the human person. It is the antithesis of respect for the dignity of the human person to use a dead child as a political prop to lobby for your presidential candidate the day before an election. This does no honor to the dead.”
Although Priests for Life claims to be in good standing with the Vatican, Fr. Pavone has previously sparked controversy over his contentious relationship with Bishop Patrick J. Zurek of Amarillo – whose jurisdiction he is under – given charges that he had disobeyed the bishop and had failed to allow the Priests for Life to undergo auditing.
Fr. Pavone also had a severe run-in with Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York - where Priests for Life is headquartered - in 2014. That November, Cardinal Dolan wrote in a letter to fellow bishops that he wanted “nothing further to do” with Fr. Pavone given the priests refusal to cooperate in “several necessary reforms” of the organization after requests made by the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- Thousands of earthquakes have rattled Oklahoma and neighboring states in recent years, with the most significant portion traced to the underground injection of wastewater left over from oil and gas production. The latest strong temblor - a magnitude 5.0 - damaged dozens of buildings in Cushing, Oklahoma, but spared a major oil terminal and caused no major injuries....
WOODRUFF, S.C. (AP) -- The Latest on a South Carolina man who confessed to killing four people in 2003 after authorities found a woman chained in a storage container on his property (all times local):...
CUSHING, Okla. (AP) -- Dozens of buildings sustained "substantial damage" after a 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck an Oklahoma town that's home to one of the world's key oil hubs, but officials said Monday that no damage has been reported at the oil terminal....
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- In a story Nov. 4 about hydroponic farming in Alaska, The Associated Press reported erroneously the first name of a founder of Vertical Harvest Hydroponics in Anchorage. His name is Dan Perpich, not Ron Perpich....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI's handling of its Hillary Clinton email probe has undercut the bureau's carefully crafted image as unquestionably outside the political fray....
