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Princeton, N.J., Oct 27, 2016 / 11:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As the contentious 2016 campaign season draws to a close, hundreds of university students are coming together to focus on strong marriages and sexual integrity as the bedrock of a health society.

In the coming days, nearly 300 college-age students and alumni from 54 universities around the country will gather on the Princeton University campus for a conference that hopes to “re-energize a grassroots movement to change campus culture.”

The goal of the gathering is to equip attendees with the knowledge and resources they need to effectively witness to an authentic understanding of love in their college communities, explained Caitlin La Ruffa, executive director of the Love and Fidelity Network, which is hosting the conference.

“It’s not news to say that our culture has lost sight of the true meaning and purpose of sexuality and marriage,” La Ruffa said, “but the upcoming presidential election presents that fact in stark relief.”

The ninth annual Sexuality, Integrity, and the University conference will take place Oct. 28-29 at Princeton University.

It will include talks on balancing marriage and career, equality between the sexes and sexual complementarity, campus hookup culture, the sexual assault crisis, and the realities of gender reassignment therapy.

Speakers will include Dr. Anthony Esolen of Providence College, author Erika Bachiochi, Dr. Donna Freitas, and Walt Heyer and Dr. Ana Samuel of the Witherspoon Institute.

Also speaking will be Dr. Robert P. George of Princeton University, Dr. Joseph Price of Brigham Young University, Dr. David Upham of the University of Dallas, and the Ecce! Films team, creators of the Humanum film series.

“The students who will join us see first-hand the destruction wrought by the sexual revolution on their campuses and in society at large,” La Ruffa said. “Their grassroots effort to change the hearts and minds of their peers is exactly what our ailing culture needs. The upcoming conference is designed to empower them in those efforts.”

Those who cannot attend in person can watch a livestream of events online.

The Love and Fidelity Network was established in 2007 in Princeton, New Jersey, in response to what founders saw as an insufficient treatment of marriage, family and sexuality in higher education.

The network’s goal is to offer college students the knowledge, resources and support they need to defend the dignity of marriage, the family, and human sexuality on their college campuses and in the public square. Participants receive leadership coaching and funding for campus initiatives.

“The conference always inspires these courageous young men and women to take action, reinvigorating them to bring the message of love and fidelity back to their campuses in a very real way,” La Ruffa said. “We can’t wait to see what they’ll do after they get back to campus.”
 

 

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Washington D.C., Oct 27, 2016 / 12:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A reputed “Catholic Spring” is in the news after hacked emails from John Podesta, now Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, indicated plans for an effort to sow revolution within the Church.

But grants to the think tank Podesta founded also suggest links to other efforts targeting religion. The Center for American Progress appears to be part of an influence network that advocates restrictions on religious freedom while promoting dissent within Christianity on sexual morality, especially LGBT issues.

Podesta co-founded the Center for American Progress in 2003 after serving as White House Chief of Staff in President Bill Clinton’s final term. He served as the center’s CEO until 2011. He became a special adviser to President Barack Obama in 2013, and joined the Hillary Clinton campaign in early 2015.

Two six-figure grants to the think tank from the Arcus Foundation seem to place it within a multi-million dollar campaign targeting religious freedom protections that conflict with LGBT political issues and the provision of abortion and contraception.

The Arcus Foundation in 2013 gave $400,000 to the Center for American Progress’ Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative in order to “articulate and disseminate a socially progressive framework of religious liberty.” A $250,000 Arcus grant in 2016 backed the center’s Reclaiming Religious Liberty as a Progressive Value Project “to promote religious liberty as a core progressive American value that includes LGBT equality and women's reproductive health and rights,” grant listings on the foundation website say.

On the Center for American Progress website, the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative described religious liberty as “a core American value.” But it added caveats.

“Unfortunately, many opponents of marriage equality and women’s reproductive health claim that religious liberty allows them to opt out of laws to which they object,” it said. “We work to raise the voices of faith-based leaders and advocates to promote an inclusive vision of religious liberty – one that supports human and civil rights and does not use religious liberty to discriminate or coerce others to abide by beliefs not their own.”

The initiative opposes “policies with overly broad religious exemptions that cause harm to others” and supports policies it said “promote religious liberty for all, rather than a favored few.”

The Arcus Foundation describes its strategy for “fair and non-discriminatory religious exemption policies” on its website in a section labeled social justice. It is among several wealthy funders backing various groups to oppose religious freedom exemptions. These groups include the ACLU, a project at Columbia Law School, Planned Parenthood, the Movement Advancement Project, and Podesta’s Center for American Progress.

The Arcus Foundation also pursues a strategy of cultivating allies among religious groups. It provided financial support for Center for American Progress senior fellow V. Gene Robinson, whose controversial election as the Episcopalian Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 helped split the Episcopal Church and the global Anglican Communion.

In 2011 and again in 2012, the Arcus Foundation provided $30,000 to Podesta’s think tank in order to “amplify on a national level the voice and impact of the progressive social justice advocacy of Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop,” the foundation’s tax forms show.

Robinson is currently listed as an expert in the Center for American Progress’ Religion and Values section.

Podesta is now listed as a member of the board of directors of the Center for American Progress, alongside names like Secretary of State Madeline Albright, former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, and billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer.

A February 2012 email exchange involving Podesta concerned the religious freedom controversy over a new federal rule that required employers to cover sterilizations and contraceptives, including abortifacient drugs, even if doing so would violate their religious beliefs.

Podesta’s interlocutor, progressive leader Sandy Newman, noted Catholic bishops’ outspokenness and discussed the possibilities of a “Catholic Spring,” similar to Arab protests, to lead Catholics to demand “the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic church.” Newman wondered how one would plant “the seeds of revolution.”

Podesta responded that he and his allies had created Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good for a moment like the one Newman saw. At the same time, Podesta suggested the groups lacked the leadership to do so. He suggested consulting with former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

The Center for American Progress and the Catholics United Education Fund are among the many partners the Arcus Foundation lists on its website. Among its other grantees are Catholics for Choice and Dignity USA, a group that rejects Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

The Arcus Foundation helped fund Dignity USA and its aligned Equally Blessed Coalition “to influence and counter the narrative of the Catholic Church and its ultra-conservative affiliates” ahead of the Synod on the Family.

The foundation also funded a project through the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups to counter the influence of African bishops at the synod by documenting and circulating the stories of people from their countries who identify as LGBT. That project was funded in collaboration with the Swiss bishops’ development charity Fastenopfer, known as the Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund.

The Arcus Foundation was founded by billionaire heir Jon Stryker, a major Clinton donor. Its executive director is Kevin Jennings, a former Obama administration Department of Education official. The foundation is a prominent partner of the U.S. State Department’s Global Equality Fund, which promotes LGBT advocacy worldwide.

CNA contacted the Arcus Foundation and the Center for American Progress for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.

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Vatican City, Oct 27, 2016 / 12:11 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Ahead of Pope Francis’ coming trip to Sweden to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Catholic and Lutheran leaders have said that while there is still a long way to go toward unity, seemingly impossible steps have already been made.

Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told journalists Oct. 26 that the coming joint commemoration of the Reformation marks “the first time in the history between Catholic and Lutherans that they do this type of common commemoration.”

“In the past we’ve had confessional centenaries with a tone that was a bit triumphalist and polemic on both sides,” he said, explaining that the goal now is to not only to join together for the anniversary, but also to recognize 50 years of Catholic-Lutheran dialogue.

The dialogue between Lutherans and Catholics “was the first bilateral dialogue that the Catholic Church launched right after the Council in 1967, and this is also a sign of gratitude that we could discover all there is in common between Lutherans and Catholics,” the cardinal said.

He said the joint commemoration of the Reformation is “a beautiful sign of this path to unity, from conflict to unity. In the past we had conflicts. We want to arrive at communion, and today we are on the path to unity.”

Echoing his sentiments was Martin Junge, Secretary General of the Lutheran World Foundation (LWF), who noted that despite the turbulent past of Lutherans and Catholics, “we have been able to remove some of the obstacles of doctrinal differences among us.”

The joint commemoration is a sign of the progress made, he said, adding that “this is for what we will be praying: for God to be with us, this is where we want to encourage our communities to live out that communion.”

According to the LWF website, the federation is a worldwide communion of 145 churches from the Lutheran tradition which represents more than 74 million Christians in 98 countries. The largest Lutheran communion, in the United States it does include the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but neither the Missouri nor the Wisconsin Synods.

Cardinal Koch and Junge spoke to journalists at a news briefing ahead of Pope Francis’ Oct. 31-Nov. 1 visit to Sweden.

It will be the first time a Pope has traveled to Scandinavia since St. John Paul II’s 1989 visit. Though only two days, the trip will include an ecumenical moment of prayer at Lund’s Lutheran cathedral, which will be followed by the larger, primary ecumenical event at the Malmö Arena in Malmö.

The two ecumenical events will be followed by an outdoor papal Mass the next day at the Swedbank Stadium in Malmö marking All Saints Day.

A lengthy document titled “From Conflict to Communion” was drawn up by the Lutheran-Catholic Commission for Unity and was published to coincide with the commemoration, serving as the ecumenical basis for the meeting.

The unprecedented event takes place fewer than 20 years after the LWF's and the Catholic Church's 1999 signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, which was historically one of the main points of division between Catholics and Lutherans.

Justification is God's cleansing human beings of sin and communicating to them his own righteousness through faith in Christ and through baptism. It is also the sanctification and renewal of the inner man through the voluntary reception of the grace and gifts by which man becomes just.

The understanding of justification – what it is and how it is granted and maintained – was a source of conflict during the Reformation.

In their 1999 joint declaration on justification, the Catholic Church and the LWF said that that a more shared understanding of justification signals “a consensus in the basic truths” and that “the differing explications in particular statements are compatible with it.”

Point three of the declaration stresses that in “faith we together hold the conviction that justification is the work of the triune God … the foundation and presupposition of justification is the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ.”

“Justification thus means that Christ himself is our righteousness, in which we share through the Holy Spirit in accord with the will of the Father,” they said, confessing together that “by grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.”

The declaration also expressed the shared conviction that “as sinners our new life is solely due to the forgiving and renewing mercy that God imparts as a gift and we receive in faith, and never can merit in any way.”

“Therefore the doctrine of justification, which takes up this message and explicates it, is more than just one part of Christian doctrine,” but stands “in an essential relation to all truths of faith. It is an indispensable criterion which constantly serves to orient all the teaching and practice of our churches to Christ.”

“When Lutherans emphasize the unique significance of this criterion, they do not deny the interrelation and significance of all truths of faith. When Catholics see themselves as bound by several criteria, they do not deny the special function of the message of justification,” the document continued.

Lutherans and Catholics, then, “share the goal of confessing Christ in all things, who alone is to be trusted above all things as the one Mediator through whom God in the Holy Spirit gives himself and pours out his renewing gifts.”

Critics of the upcoming joint commemoration have voiced concern that the event will gloss-over significant points of Catholic-Lutheran difference, and that it will be used to as an opportunity to push for intercommunion between the Catholic Church and the ecclesial community.

In his comments to journalists, Cardinal Koch, who will be part of Pope Francis’ delegation, recognized that the issue of mixed marriages are a “very big pastoral concern for Catholics and Lutherans” alike, but said we have yet to see what the Pope will say about it.

However, when asked about the issue directly, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke referred to Pope Francis’ Nov. 15, 2015, visit to Rome's Lutheran community.

During the encounter Francis was asked by Anke de Bernardinis, a Lutheran woman married to a Roman Catholic man, how she and her husband can be united in communion.

In his response, the Pope said that the answer is “not easy,” but that that going to each other’s services is a way to participate in the Lord’s Supper together.

He said he would “never dare to give permission” on anything regarding Communion because “it's not my competence,” but pointed to the common baptism shared between Catholic and Lutherans, explaining that praying together helps keep this common baptism alive.

Burke said that when it comes to Sweden, the Pope likely won’t get much more explicit on the issue than that, but added, “you never know in the moment.”

Other concerns about the joint commemoration surround points of division not only between Lutherans and Catholics, but also within the global Lutheran community on various social and ethical issues such as homosexuality and abortion.
 
However, despite the unresolved issues at stake, Junge stressed that in the history of Catholic-Lutheran dialogue “we have seen many things that we thought would be impossible.”

“I believe in the '80s nobody thought we would find agreement on the doctrine of justification and we did,” he said, adding that “only a few years ago if you would have said there would be a joint-commemoration of the Reformation and that would be done together, many would have said 'impossible'.”

Junge pointed to the context of the modern world, saying that while he doesn’t mean to sound negative or “apocalyptic,” we live in times “of fragmentation, in times of a world that is wounded by conflict.”

“For Catholics and Lutherans to come together around the world … is a powerful witness to faith and to Christ who we see walking among us together,” he said, voicing his belief that the event is “going to become a great contribution, not only to address the sufferings of the world, but also to draw closer together in mutual understanding and trust.”

He said the presence of Pope Francis at the commemorative event is significant and brings “high value” to what is taking place. However, he also noted that by attending, Francis “is giving continuity to an ecumenical path of his predecessors.”

“In 1999, when we signed the join-declaration on justification, the Pope was John Paul II. In 2003 when we signed the document on the conflict of communion, the Pope was Benedict XVI, and now Pope Francis the one who is doing this fruit of this ecumenical path, but undoubtedly giving it a new profile and potential that we hope to work toward in the future.”

Despite the significant steps already taken in Catholic-Lutheran dialogue, Cardinal Koch and Junge expressed that there are still many more to go.

After finally reaching an agreement on the doctrine of justification, the next issues to tackle are about “ministry, the Church and the Eucharist,” Junge said.

Similarly, Cardinal Koch noted how the 1999 common declaration on justification itself said that “the ecclesial consequences of this common declaration are not resolved,” so we have a duty to move forward.

 “I agree with Rev. Jungle, there are three items: Church, Eucharist and ministry,” he said, voicing his hope that Catholics and Lutherans can continue paving the way to a new joint declaration on those three issues.

“I think we are really on a good path to resolve all these problems,” the cardinal said, explaining that he is “very hopeful, grateful and happy that some original dialogues” are taking place on these points.

Speaking of the Pope’s Mass Nov. 1, which was not initially part of the Pope’s itinerary but was added later upon the request of Catholics in Sweden, Junge said the LWF is fully aware of the need for the Pope and the Catholic community to be together.

However, “while we have that understanding, of course it is also going to reveal that we are not yet united, it is going to reveal a wound that remains there, and in that way it is going to be a strong encouragement to continue working toward communion,” he said, explaining that a delegation from the LWF will be present at the Mass.

Junge voiced his hope that joint commemoration would provide “a strong encouragement to be faster, to be bolder, to be even more creative in order to address these three items and with a very strong focus on where people feel the lack of unity the heaviest, around the table.”

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- An unrelenting, coordinated commitment is needed to prevent people from falling prey to traffickers and to help victims caught in their snares, Pope Francis told representatives of law enforcement agencies and church leaders.

The growing number of people being trafficked and exploited are "the most vulnerable" people in society; they are stripped of their dignity, physical and mental integrity and sometimes even their life, the pope said Oct. 27 during an audience with the Santa Marta Group.

Thanking and encouraging the group members for their fight against this "social evil," Pope Francis reiterated that "what is needed is a coordinated, effective and constant commitment, both to eliminate the causes of this complex phenomenon and to reach, assist and accompany the people who fall into the snares of trafficking."

The Santa Marta Group is an international coalition of senior law enforcement chiefs and members of the Catholic Church -- including bishops' conferences and religious orders -- working together to end human trafficking. The group was founded in 2014 as part of an initiative begun by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. The name "Santa Marta" refers to the Vatican guest house, where Pope Francis lives, and where police chiefs and Catholic bishops held their first meeting.

The group, which now has members in more than 30 countries, met at the Vatican Oct. 26-27 to detail progress being made, share best practices and update the pope on their efforts. Nearly 21 million people, including minors, are believed to be victims of human trafficking, according to the International Labor Organization.

English Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, the group's president, told reporters that while human trafficking is still not a top priority in many parts of the world, much has been done to finally expose "this great evil."

"Voices that were once completely hidden are now being heard and misery that was once unacknowledged is now being acknowledged," he said at a Vatican news conference Oct. 27.

Two survivors of trafficking -- Al Bangura and Princess Inyang -- also spoke at the conference and detailed how they were tricked by traffickers with promises of legitimate job offers and opportunities.

Bangura, a talented soccer player in Sierra Leone, was lured to Paris then London as a teenager by a man claiming to be an agent signing him up to play for a European soccer team; instead he was trapped in a hotel "where older men began to turn up" and rape him.

Inyang worked as a cook in Nigeria and headed to Europe to pursue a job offer there. Instead she was forced into prostitution in Italy and coerced into paying the "madam" 45,000 euro (more than $49,000) in fees and even more in rent.

Both managed eventually to escape their captors, rebuild their lives, and now they help raise awareness to prevent others from being tricked.

Better prevention also entails giving young people real opportunities by setting up more educational scholarships and skills-building projects in countries of origin, Inyang told reporters.

Law enforcement also needs to do more to investigate, prosecute and arrest traffickers, not the victims, she said. "Reception" or protection shelters should be set up for suspected victims of trafficking instead of housing them in detention centers while their cases are investigated, she added.

It's not always easy for police responding to an incident to clearly identify whether a person breaking the law has been coerced into it by traffickers, said Kevin Hyland, the former detective inspector of Scotland Yard's trafficking and organized crime unit.

Traffickers often delegate riskier crimes, for example, petty theft or tending illegal cannabis farms, to their victims, he told Catholic News Service.

Very often victims are found in situations that make them "look the same as an offender" to an untrained officer or to one "unwilling to explore further," he said.

In an effort to improve law enforcement's response, the United Kingdom passed the Modern Slavery Act, giving officers new mandates meant to increase protection for victims and increase convictions and tougher sentencing on criminals.

Hyland said the 2015 act created his new role as Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, a role designed to better identify and support victims, improve the legal and justice systems' response to trafficking and build diverse and effective partnerships.

For example, the close collaboration between law enforcement and the church with the Santa Marta Group "is actually quite a natural fit because the church reaches out to the vulnerable, offers that extended arm and support, and the police are there then to actually remove the threat of those committing these crimes."

Police officers, too, have become more sensitive and cooperative with other agencies over the years, he said.

For example, three decades ago, an officer responding to domestic violence would not have understood the psychological coercion at play preventing a battered spouse from pressing charges or getting help, he said.

"Now the approach has changed" and "policing does know how to deal with vulnerability," which might include looking for other ways to deal with the situation and requesting "other interventions" from different kinds of agencies. "Also taking away the offender and putting in protection for the victim is essential," he added.

"So within law enforcement there is that ability to show compassion, to work in a way that deals with the victim's needs and also pursues the perpetrators," he said.

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