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Charles Kinsey held his hands in the air and shouted to police that the autistic man sitting on the street next to him wasn't dangerous. A few seconds later, he felt a bullet rip into his leg....
CLEVELAND (AP) -- The Latest on the Republican National Convention (all times EDT):...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite promising "the truth, and nothing else" in his convention speech, Donald Trump presented the nation with a series of previously debunked claims and some new ones Thursday night - about the U.S. tax burden, the perils facing police, Hillary Clinton's record and more....
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Donald Trump's daughter promised Thursday that her father will fight for equal pay for women and affordable childcare for parents, issues the Republican nominee has rarely if ever addressed on the campaign trail....
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Declaring America in crisis, Donald Trump pledged to cheering Republicans and still-skeptical voters Thursday night that as president he will restore the safety they fear they're losing, strictly curb immigration and save the nation from Hillary Clinton's record of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness."...
St. Paul, Minn., Jul 21, 2016 / 02:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis as its present and past archbishops apologized for failures to protect children from a sexually abusive priest.“We failed to give priority to the safety and wellbeing of the children he hurt over his interests and those of the archdiocese. In particular, we failed to prevent him from sexually abusing children,” Archbishop Bernard Hebda of Saint Paul and Minneapolis said on Wednesday. “Those children, their parents, their family, their parish and others were harmed. We are sorry. I am sorry.”“I know that words alone are not enough. We must do better,” Archbishop Hebda said in a July 20 letter to the faithful of the archdiocese. He added that “far-reaching changes are already underway.”Prosecutors had charged the archdiocese with six criminal counts of failing to protect minors concern...
St. Paul, Minn., Jul 21, 2016 / 02:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis as its present and past archbishops apologized for failures to protect children from a sexually abusive priest.
“We failed to give priority to the safety and wellbeing of the children he hurt over his interests and those of the archdiocese. In particular, we failed to prevent him from sexually abusing children,” Archbishop Bernard Hebda of Saint Paul and Minneapolis said on Wednesday. “Those children, their parents, their family, their parish and others were harmed. We are sorry. I am sorry.”
“I know that words alone are not enough. We must do better,” Archbishop Hebda said in a July 20 letter to the faithful of the archdiocese. He added that “far-reaching changes are already underway.”
Prosecutors had charged the archdiocese with six criminal counts of failing to protect minors concerning the actions of the former priest Curtis Wehmeyer. Wehmeyer, who has been laicized, is now serving a five-year prison sentence for the sexual abuse of two minors and the possession of child pornography.
Before he faced legal charges, archdiocesan officials knew of his misconduct, but the priest was still promoted to pastor of a parish.
Archbishop Hebda arrived in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis to serve as its apostolic administrator in June 2015.
He succeeded Archbishop John Nienstedt, who resigned after the archdiocese was criminally charged, in March 2016. Archbishop Emeritus Nienstedt, 69, said he resigned with “a clear conscience” and voiced support for his staff and for the archdiocese’s child protection protocols.
The archdiocese had filed for bankruptcy in January 2015. Its reorganization plan, announced in May 2016, includes legal settlements, a victim counseling fund, and the creation of an independent trust to pay claimants.
Archbishop Hebda’s statement promised progress.
“I pledge to all victims and survivors, to the community, and to you, my brothers and sisters of this local Church, to move forward openly, collaboratively and humbly, and always mindful of our past,” he said. “We will never forget.”
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi on July 20 said there is no basis to bring a criminal charges against any of the archdiocese’s leaders or the archdiocese. The investigation had lasted three years.
Choi agreed to dismiss the charges on condition that the Saint Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese admit it “failed to keep the safety and well-being of these three children ahead of protecting the interests of Curtis Wehmeyer and the Archdiocese.”
On July 20, Joe Dixon, counsel for the archdiocese, said that the dismissal of the charges is “unconditional and speaks for itself.”
Archbishop Hebda said that after he arrived the archdiocese decided to cooperate with the county attorney “to try to make amends to those harmed and achieve justice for all in the broadest possible way.”
“Cooperation seems to have been the right avenue for achieving a just resolution,” he said.
Archbishop Hebda said the civil settlement with Choi’s office commits to a course of action “that will keep kids as safe as possible.”
“I am grateful that his office will hold us accountable,” he said. “Today, we humbly acknowledge our past failures and look forward to continuing down that path to achieve those vital, common goals that together we all share.”
The archbishop asked for prayers for sex abuse victims and their families, and for himself, and promised that he would pray for the faithful of the archdiocese.
Archbishop Emeritus Nienstedt also apologized for his response to sexual abuse allegations against priests in his archdiocese.
“Words cannot express the sorrow I feel for the victims and survivors of clergy sexual abuse, their families, their friends and our Catholic community,” he said. “In particular, I am sorry for the way the archdiocese, under my leadership, addressed the allegations against Curtis Wehmeyer.”
“As the archbishop, I should have asked more questions, I should have demanded more answers, and I should have insisted those within the archdiocesan administration at the time share more information with each other,” he added. “I am sorry.”
The legal agreement also made public a July 2014 memo from Father Dan Griffith, an archdiocesan priest who was a liaison to the lawyers conducting an independent investigation into Archbishop Nienstedt.
The memo concerned charges of criminal and sexual misconduct against the archbishop, and indicated that former apostolic nuncio to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, had prematurely ordered the end of the investigation and ordered destruction of evidence when he told two auxiliary bishops to destroy their objecting letter to him.
Archbishop Emeritus Nienstedt, who had approved the independent investigation, rejected all the sexual misconduct claims, and contended that the claims came from those who opposed his management decisions and his defense of Catholic teaching, especially on homosexuality.
Father Griffith said in a statement that he stood by his memo and he has confidence in Archbishop Hebda, the New York Times reports.
Cleveland, Ohio, Jul 21, 2016 / 04:58 pm (CNA).- As the 2016 Republican National Convention draws to a close, some Catholics are concerned about a perceived lack of priority given to pro-life, marriage, and religious freedom issues in the GOP.“For a party that portrays itself as the party of religious values, the approach they are outlining this week has little connection to the most important moral issues facing this country," said Robert Christian, editor of Millennial magazine and a graduate fellow at the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America.He identified these critical moral issues as: "addressing poverty, defending life, finding policies to strengthen the family, welcoming those fleeing violence, overcoming racial divisions, protecting God’s creation, and supporting human rights and human dignity.” The 2016 Republican National Convention began on Monday and runs through Thursday, culminating...
Cleveland, Ohio, Jul 21, 2016 / 04:58 pm (CNA).- As the 2016 Republican National Convention draws to a close, some Catholics are concerned about a perceived lack of priority given to pro-life, marriage, and religious freedom issues in the GOP.
“For a party that portrays itself as the party of religious values, the approach they are outlining this week has little connection to the most important moral issues facing this country," said Robert Christian, editor of Millennial magazine and a graduate fellow at the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America.
He identified these critical moral issues as: "addressing poverty, defending life, finding policies to strengthen the family, welcoming those fleeing violence, overcoming racial divisions, protecting God’s creation, and supporting human rights and human dignity.”
The 2016 Republican National Convention began on Monday and runs through Thursday, culminating in the address by the party’s nominee for president, Donald Trump, on Thursday evening.
Monday and Tuesday saw the official nomination of Trump by party delegates from the 50 states, despite a last-minute effort by Trump’s opponents within the party to change the rules to deny him the nomination.
Indiana Governor Mike Pence, the party’s nominee for vice president, addressed the convention on Wednesday evening following a controversial speech by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Trump’s biggest primary opponent, who implored the crowd to “vote your conscience” and did not endorse Trump for president.
However, Cruz’s brief mention of the importance of religious freedom – “Freedom means religious freedom, whether you are Christian, Jew, Muslim, or atheist,” he said – gave more treatment to the issue than other major convention speeches by figures like Pence, Dr. Ben Carson, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
“Whether you are gay, or straight, the Bill of Rights protects the rights of all of us to live according to our conscience,” Cruz continued.
Other social issues including pro-life and pro-family policies were upheld in the party’s platform adopted on Monday, but were largely absent from the major convention speeches.
Some prominent Catholics have leveled strong criticisms of Trump’s candidacy, pointing to his past remarks about women which they say are misogynistic, and also questioning his pro-life credentials.
A statement signed by over 30 prominent Catholics in March stated that “there is nothing in his campaign or his previous record that gives us grounds for confidence that he genuinely shares our commitments to the right to life, to religious freedom and the rights of conscience, to rebuilding the marriage culture, or to subsidiarity and the principle of limited constitutional government.”
Trump also said he was “pro-choice in every respect” in a 1999 NBC Meet the Press interview. He now maintains that he is pro-life.
“Pro-lifers have long had reservations about Donald Trump,” Joshua Mercer, co-founder of CatholicVote.org, acknowledged to CNA on Thursday.
Yet, he added, the GOP platform adopted on Monday was “probably the most pro-life that we’ve ever seen.”
Mercer added that Trump’s selection of Governor Pence, who has “long been a stalwart supporter of the unborn,” as his vice president was assuredly a positive sign for pro-lifers.
He pointed to Pence’s acceptance speech where the governor insisted that “for the sake of the sanctity of life...we must ensure that the next president appointing justices to the Supreme Court is Donald Trump.”
Other pro-lifers acknowledged concerns about Trump’s history on pro-life issues and controversial remarks he has made about women.
However, they added, his promise to nominate conservative judges to the Supreme Court combined with his selection of Pence as a running mate sets Trump apart from the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, as the choice for pro-lifers.
Ultimately, “to me it’s about the Supreme Court,” Kansas Governor Sam Brownback told CNA on Wednesday.
“My confidence [in Trump] has been growing,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, told CNA. “And it started at a very small place.”
“You couldn’t find a man of better integrity, authenticity,” she said of Mike Pence, adding that Trump has picked some solid pro-life staff members like policy director Josh Mashburn and pollster Kellyanne Conway.
Christian also praised the vice-presidential candidate, saying that many Republicans’ criticisms of Pence have been “a bit unfair.”
Despite Trump’s choice of Pence as a running mate, however, Christian is not sold on Trump’s commitment to the pro-life cause.
“As someone who is both Catholic and a pro-life activist, I’m seeing little to no enthusiasm for Donald Trump,” Christian stated to CNA, noting Trump’s “past positions on abortion,” and the a campaign that has largely steered clear of the life issue.
“His past positions on abortion and clear lack of interest in the subject, which seems to be reflected in how little the issue has come up at the Convention, is making it difficult for even single issue voters to trust that he is the real deal,” Christian said.
While he criticized the Republican Party for taking “pro-life voters for granted” and failing to advance the pro-life cause beyond speeches, this year’s campaign has said little about the pro-life stance at all. “[The] reality is that very little has even been said to encourage those strongly motivated by their pro-life convictions,” he continued.
“Given this and the Democratic platform’s extreme position on abortion, I’ve never seen so many pro-lifers distraught over their choices for the presidency,” Christian lamented.
He added that, as a Catholic, he is also concerned by other issues highlighted – or largely ignored– by the Trump campaign and the speeches at the RNC Convention.
In addition, he criticized the party’s failure to address what he called “a marriage crisis” among working- class families, including the economic hurdles that face many couples.
“It is a serious, grave threat to the common good,” Christian told CNA. “Vague platitudes about the importance of the family are not enough. It has not been an encouraging week for serious pro-family voters.”
Religious freedom is another issue where Christian was concerned both about Trump’s proposed policies and the convention’s rhetoric. He called out Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigrants as “a stunning attack on religious freedom,” and explained that the move was particularly concerning when the Catholic Church and other organizations “may be facing showdowns over people and organizations having to abort children or stop their work - life and death issues.”
This week’s speeches also ran in the face of the message and policy supported by the U.S. bishops on immigration, Christian warned. “Tied in with this is the disturbing portrayal of Muslims. Syrian refugees were booed - people fleeing the barrel bombs of a murderous dictator and the totalitarian terror of ISIS,” he said. “How can a Christian boo people who are desperately seeking refuge?”
“Both parties are deeply flawed and problematic for Catholics who reject excessive individualism and the libertarianism it inspires,” Christian said, but he was particularly concerned about Trump’s rhetoric and positions.
He offered his hope that moving forward from the convention, the Republican Party would “embrace a more ‘whole life’ approach to defending life, support measures to concretely strengthen families, defend free democracy at home and abroad, and move toward a more communitarian approach to economics that is rooted in human dignity rather than market morality.” That approach, he commented, “would allow the party to be competitive while also aligning with the core values of Catholic moral and social teaching.”
“I hope that Catholic Republicans will work to push their party away from extremism and toward a greater commitment to human life and dignity,” he added. “This entire convention should serve as a call to action and motivate them to build a better Republican Party.”
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- Ten Brazilians who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group were arrested Thursday, authorities announced, describing them as "amateurs" who discussed on social media the possibility of staging attacks during next month's Olympics....
PARIS (AP) -- The truck driver who killed 84 people on a Nice beachfront had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, the Paris prosecutor said Thursday, citing text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of five people facing terror charges....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Here are the key events leading up to Roger Ailes' resignation from Fox News Channel, the cable-news juggernaut he built from scratch two decades ago:...
