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Cuernavaca, Mexico, Aug 16, 2016 / 10:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid allegations of interference in politics after receiving demonstrators critical of the governor of the state of Morelos, Bishop Ramón Castro Castro of Cuernavaca has said he is not afraid of facing prison.

“ If I go to prison, no problem; from there I'll do the work of evangelization,” Bishop Castro told local daily El Sol de Cautla.

“We're awaiting notification, and I want to thank the Cuernavaca Bar Association, which lent me their support by coming to my defense,” he added.

Bishop Castro hosted at the Cuernavaca cathedral July 28 more than 100 people from various civil organizations who expressed criticism of Graco Ramírez, governor of Morelos, because of the difficulties facing the state.

Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos, was among the 50 most violent cities in the world until 2014, according to the Mexican Citizens Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice.

And the city has the fourth highest murder rate in the nation.

The Party of the Democratic Revolution, to which Ramirez belongs, filed a complaint against Bishop Castro for allegedly interfering in politics, in violation of the country's laws.

The political party also accused him of homophobia for participating in a massive march in support of the family and against same-sex marriage.

The priests of Cuernavaca, in a statement released Aug. 13, expressed their “gratitude and … unwavering support” for Bishop Castro.

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Sacramento, Calif., Aug 16, 2016 / 04:49 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A bill that threatened to defund California religious colleges that do not accept same-sex marriage and gender ideology has been amended, but the danger could return.

“The schools dodged an enormous bullet,” Gregory S. Baylor, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, told CNA Aug. 16. “The provisions that were dropped would have made it very difficult for them. They would have been forced to choose between remaining faithful to their religious beliefs about a variety of issues and participating in the CalGrant program.”

Baylor’s religious freedom legal group helped defend some of the California schools targeted by California legislature bill S.B. 1146.

A previous version of the bill would have imposed strict anti-discrimination rules on state-backed student grants, called CalGrants, to schools that disagree with same-sex marriage and gender ideology. Schools would have had to decline to accept students with the grants, change their morality- and religion-based policies, or face the risk of lawsuits.

Critics of the original bill said that it would stigmatize and punish religious colleges and universities and deny their disadvantaged students’ needed funds for their education.

“The most dangerous provision of S.B. 1146 were dropped,” Baylor said. “Certainly the schools we have been working with are happy about that,” he said.

But he also had a warning.

“I think it would be a mistake for anyone who supports religious freedom to be lulled into a false sense of security about what’s coming in California,” he added. “The prior version of the bill passed the senate, and passed three committees in the assembly, and appeared to be destined for passage in the full assembly and signature by the governor. That is a frightening prospect.”

The bill’s prime sponsor has promised to continue considering the question and could introduce legislation in the next legislative session that will have the same goals as the original version of the bill, Baylor said.

“Supporters of religious liberty, schools, and parents need to be prepared for the conflict that almost certainly is coming, and the virtually existential threat that this poses to their religious liberty,” he said.

The bill still requires religious institutions of higher education to disclose their requested federal religious exemptions in a prominent location, as well as in written materials sent to prospective students, at student orientation programs, and to new hires.

The institutions must also disclose this exemption to the California Student Aid Commission, echoing a new U.S. Department of Education requirement. The state commission must publish a list of schools that disclose exemptions. The institutions must report a detailed explanation of the reasons for each student suspension or expulsion to the commission, and whether the action concerned a policy protected by the exemption.

Baylor said the schools have some concern about these disclosure and reporting requirements. For instance, they must also follow federal requirements to protect the privacy of educational records, which appears to be in tension with the proposal.

“In addition, there is a legitimate concern that these provisions single out religious schools and impose special obligations upon them,” he said.

According to Baylor, the schools question whether the provisions are necessary given that the institutions are willing to discuss their religious commitments and expectations of students and staff.

In an Aug. 9 statement written in response to the previous version of the bill, a group of Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders defended the importance of the freedom of religious higher education.

“The future of a free America requires the full participation of religion in public life. Religious higher education cultivates both the mind and the soul,” they said. They characterized the proposed restrictions as “stigmatizing and coercively punishing religious beliefs that disagree on contested matters related to human sexuality.”

Before its amendment, they said the bill would have severely restricted “the ability of religious education institutions to set expectations of belief and conduct that align with the institution’s religious tenets.”

Leaders from two Catholic colleges in California, St. Thomas Aquinas College and St. John Paul the Great University, signed the statement, as did Michael Wear, a former Obama campaign staffer who served in the White House’s Office of Faith-based Initiatives.

Some commentators warned that the bill’s earlier provisions would make it impossible for disadvantaged students to attend religious colleges and could endanger the institutions’ financial sustainability.

 

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Michael Alexander, Georgia Bulletin

By Andrew Nelson

ATLANTA (CNS) -- Black women desiring to serve a life devoted to the Catholic faith were not welcomed by religious communities with anti-black acceptance requirements from the early 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, said historian Shannen Dee Williams.

Those who could gain admittance faced discrimination from their fellow sisters, she added.

"Black sisters matter, but they constitute a dangerous memory for the church," said Williams, assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

She was joined by Sister Anita Baird, a Daughter of the Heart of Mary, and Sister Dawn Tomaszewski, general superior of the Sisters of Providence, on an Aug. 12 panel discussing racism in religious life at the assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in Atlanta.

Williams upcoming book is called "Subversive Habits: Black Nuns and the Long Struggle to Desegregate Catholic America." It was the subject of her doctoral dissertation at Rutgers University.

Later, scores of sisters walked from the LCWR assembly being held in the Hilton Atlanta to Centennial Olympic Park to pray on the plaza outside the Center for Civil and Human Rights, which is dedicated to the achievements of the U.S. civil rights and worldwide human rights movements.

Earlier, the participants wrote on slips of paper when they and their religious communities have not welcomed people of color. The slips became a "chain of bondage," which was later broken after prayers of lamentation and a blessing.

Williams' presentation was titled "Shattering the Silence: Black Women and the Challenge of History."

Raised in Atlanta and a graduate of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Williams said her research proved a challenge to her faith at first, but later she was inspired by the witness of women to remain a Catholic. She said her research can help serve racial reconciliation since the first step toward reconciliation is acknowledging the truth.

The first black woman recognized as the leader of a religious community dates to the first century. She was St. Iphigenia, a princess from east Africa who converted to Christianity through the witness of St. Matthew, Williams said.

She is not well known in the United States, but there are shrines to St. Iphigenia in Brazil and Central America, she said, noting that the devotion was carried with enslaved people from Africa to the Western Hemisphere as result of the slave trade.

Looking at early American history, religious congregations in the 19th century had a test for accepting black women: if they could "pass for white," she said. But even if they were admitted, they faced discrimination, such as being forced to take vows separately, she said.

These women in religious life were put in subservient roles, as domestics to the community, said Williams. They also could be cut off from their culture and family if the congregation forbade visitors out of concern that family members might look black, she said. Others pursued their vocation by traveling to Europe to join religious communities that were more welcoming, she said.

African-American women began to form their own religious communities. The first, started in 1829, was the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore. About nine predominantly black religious communities were formed by women who held fast to their faith, she said.

These orders faced bigotry when they taught black students in Catholic schools and faced attacks from white Catholics, in addition to the Ku Klux Klan, she said.

At the same time, they were highly regarded in the black community. W. E. B. Du Bois, the noted civil rights activist and author, used photos of black Catholic sisters' congregations to showcase the dignity of the black community at international conventions, she said. And with the lack of black clergy, it was black Catholic sisters who served as the spiritual leaders of the black Catholic community, she said.

Barriers did not begin to drop until the mid-20th century although archival records show black women would enter the congregations and later leave congregations, in part because of racist attitudes.

In the civil rights era, the National Black Sisters' Conference formed in 1968 out of the turmoil of the times and the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Some 150 black women religious gathered at the time, and the conference is still active with a similar number of members.

In response to Williams' remarks, which were met with a standing ovation, Sister Anita said resolving the past will take "more than singing 'Kumbaya' and celebrating Black History Month." The history is a "moment of painful truth" and requires women religious and congregations to listen to women of color and not just give lip service to the effort, she said.

Sister Tomaszewski said before reconciliation it is necessary to acknowledge the past and become aware of congregations' complicity with racism and discrimination. "Nothing matters more," she said.

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Nelson is a staff reporter at The Georgia Bulletin, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

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