Catholic News 2
NEW YORK (AP) -- The windows of Eric Trump's office in the Trump Tower offer breathtaking views of some of Manhattan's most expensive real estate. It's there the youngest of Donald Trump's adult sons is reflecting on eye-opening moments from a world far away....
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Russell Westbrook had 36 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Golden State Warriors 118-94 on Tuesday night to take a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference Finals and put the defending NBA champions on the brink of elimination....
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Protests outside a Donald Trump rally in New Mexico turned violent Tuesday night as demonstrators threw burning T-shirts, plastic bottles and other items at police officers, overturned trash cans and knocked down barricades....
TOKYO (AP) -- Leaders of the Group of Seven rich nations will undoubtedly voice unity over fighting terrorism, pandemics and tax evasion at their summit in Japan this week. Finding a consensus on how to breathe life into their sluggish economies is proving more elusive....
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) -- President Barack Obama is completing a three-day trip to Vietnam with a town hall Wednesday involving about 800 young adults participating in efforts to strengthen ties between the United States and Southeast Asia....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump each won primaries in Washington state Tuesday....
Washington D.C., May 23, 2016 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Evangelical and socially conservative leaders are planning a meeting with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to discuss their concerns and decide on future action.Organizers of the meeting plan to bring together about 400 leaders to meet with the candidate, Time Magazine reports. The organizers include former presidential candidate Ben Carson and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins.“The main thing here is to have a conversation,” Perkins said, adding that the goal of the meeting is to have “an honest conversation so that these leaders know what they need to do.”Carson is the only meeting organizer who endorsed Trump in the Republican primary. He is organizing the meeting in his capacity as the chairman of MyFaithVotes, an organization founded by California lawyer Sealy Yates to mobilize Christian voters.Many of the likely attendees did not support Trump in the Republic...
Washington D.C., May 23, 2016 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Evangelical and socially conservative leaders are planning a meeting with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to discuss their concerns and decide on future action.
Organizers of the meeting plan to bring together about 400 leaders to meet with the candidate, Time Magazine reports. The organizers include former presidential candidate Ben Carson and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins.
“The main thing here is to have a conversation,” Perkins said, adding that the goal of the meeting is to have “an honest conversation so that these leaders know what they need to do.”
Carson is the only meeting organizer who endorsed Trump in the Republican primary. He is organizing the meeting in his capacity as the chairman of MyFaithVotes, an organization founded by California lawyer Sealy Yates to mobilize Christian voters.
Many of the likely attendees did not support Trump in the Republican primaries.
Another meeting organizer is Bill Dallas, who heads the group United in Purpose, which aims to unify conservative organizations to bring about “a culture change in America based on Judeo-Christian principles.” Its partners include Americans United for Life, Concerned Women for America, Catholic Vote, and the Faith and Freedom Coalition.
On May 4 Catholic Vote said it would not yet endorse Trump. The group said he remains “problematic in too many ways” for them to endorse, given his record, his lack of “clear guiding principles,” and his “history of unpredictability.”
A related steering committee for the planned meeting, which the Trump campaign has not confirmed, includes Gary Bauer of American Values, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, and Family Leader president Bob Vander Plaats.
Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said Perkins had invited him to the planned meeting. He told Time Magazine he wanted to understand the candidate’s positions on Supreme Court nominations, abortion, racial justice, and religious liberty. Unlike candidates Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, neither Trump nor his campaign has reached out to him.
Tom McClusky, vice president of March for Life Action, told Time there is “a lot of concern” in the pro-life movement with Trump as the prospective Republican nominee. He said the March for Life theme for 2016 had emphasized that the pro-life cause is a pro-woman cause. Some Trump statements have been “misogynist,” he said.
Pro-life advocates have also questioned Trump’s April statements that he would change the Republican platform to allow abortion in cases of rape, incest, and threats to the life of the mother.
Ralph Reed, who heads the Faith & Freedom Coalition, has said he will support Trump in a personal capacity.
Latino Christian leaders are also weighing their decision.
Both Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton sent a video message to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference’s Latin Leader Fest held last weekend in Anaheim, Calif.
Samuel Rodriguez, an Evangelical pastor who heads the Evangelical Christian leadership conference, opposes the Democratic Party’s position on abortion and same-sex marriage. He has led a prayer at the 2012 Republican national convention and praised several Republican presidential candidates.
He told the Washington Post, however, that Trump’s calls for mass deportations “have offended me and my community.”
“Those are our parishioners,” he said.
Eddie Rodriguez, a pastor who leads an Assemblies of God congregation in South Florida, backed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) in the Republican primary. He said he thinks Trump has damaged race relations; he also cited Trump’s past support for abortion, his tone towards women, and his statement that he has never asked God for forgiveness.
“In good consciousness, I just can't vote for him,” said the pastor, who has said he will vote for Clinton.
Trump campaign supporters are organizing a more official faith advisory committee. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is a possible national chairman for this group. Trump supporter and televangelist Paula White, senior pastor of the New Destiny Christian Center in Florida, has been organizing the group with Tim Clinton of the American Association of Christian counselors, Time reports.
Istanbul, Turkey, May 24, 2016 / 04:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Addressing a global summit on humanitarian aid, Pope Francis offered encouragement and a reminder – don’t ever forget that each suffering person you encounter has a name.“(T)here must be no family without a home, no refugee without a welcome, no person without dignity, no young man or woman without a future, no elderly person without a dignified old age,” the Pope said.“‘Leaving no one behind’ and ‘doing one’s very best’ demands that we do not give up and that we take responsibility for our decisions and actions regarding the victims themselves,” he said to the World Humanitarian Summit meeting May 23 in Istanbul.“No one loves a concept, no one loves an idea. We love persons. Self-sacrifice, true self-giving, flows from love towards men and women, the children and elderly, peoples and communities… faces, those faces and names which fill our heart...
Istanbul, Turkey, May 24, 2016 / 04:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Addressing a global summit on humanitarian aid, Pope Francis offered encouragement and a reminder – don’t ever forget that each suffering person you encounter has a name.
“(T)here must be no family without a home, no refugee without a welcome, no person without dignity, no young man or woman without a future, no elderly person without a dignified old age,” the Pope said.
“‘Leaving no one behind’ and ‘doing one’s very best’ demands that we do not give up and that we take responsibility for our decisions and actions regarding the victims themselves,” he said to the World Humanitarian Summit meeting May 23 in Istanbul.
“No one loves a concept, no one loves an idea. We love persons. Self-sacrifice, true self-giving, flows from love towards men and women, the children and elderly, peoples and communities… faces, those faces and names which fill our hearts,” he said.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, read the Pope’s message to U.N. Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon and summit attendees. The first-of-its-kind summit gathered together leaders or delegates from 175 countries to craft non-binding commitments on humanitarian aid.
At least 130 million people are in need of humanitarian aid around the world, while about 60 million people are displaced by conflict each year, the U.N. estimates. There is also a $15 billion shortfall between aid pledged and aid that is actually delivered.
Representatives of various humanitarian groups spoke during the summit. Sean Callahan, chief operating officer of Catholic Relief Services, emphasized the importance of disaster risk reduction.
“Our collective unwillingness to prevent or prepare adequately for disasters is a systemic moral failure,” he said. “It is the time to reform the global humanitarian system.”
Callahan said CRS, the U.S. branch of Caritas Internationalis, is working to cooperate with local partners and promote peace, while cultivating the ability to “transition quickly between disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and development.”
“Our comprehensive approach provides urgent lifesaving assistance with a focus on full recovery – respecting people’s inherent dignity, helping them get back on their feet, and strengthening their long-term resilience,” he said.
“We call on all stakeholders to contribute to systemic reforms that both ends need and improves global humanitarian action.”
Cardinal Parolin addressed the summit in several sessions. His remarks in the leader’s session said heavy reliance on military intervention and “selfish” economic policies is “shortsighted, counterproductive and never the right solution for these challenges.”
He urged better education to encourage respect for the human person and to help prevent genocide.
“The Holy See is doing its part to build a real and concrete fraternity, among peoples and nations,” he said.
During a leadership roundtable to prevent and end conflicts, Cardinal Parolin said the Holy See is “firmly convinced of the fundamentally inhumane nature of war and of the urgent necessity to prevent and to end armed conflicts and violence among peoples and States.”
At a summit roundtable focused on helping displaced persons, the cardinal noted Catholic institutions’ efforts to help relieve displaced persons’ physical sufferings and address their material and physical needs.
“The Holy See is committed to advocating for the protection and proper assistance to forced migrants, internally displaced peoples and victims of trafficking, and to working to find durable solutions and reconcile communities,” he said.
In his message to the summit, Pope Francis voiced hope that the gathering would make real contributions to lessen the sufferings of millions of people. He called for “a true and profound respect” for those who suffer due to violence, persecution, natural disasters and other calamities.
He especially noted the victims who are most vulnerable and live “in conditions of misery and exploitation.”
He asked the summit: “Let us hear the cry of the victims and those suffering. Let us allow them to teach us a lesson in humanity. Let us change our ways of life, politics, economic choices, behaviors and attitudes of cultural superiority.”
“Learning from victims and those who suffer, we will be able to build a more humane world,” he continued.
The Pope also noted the obstacles to peace.
“We cannot deny that many interests today prevent solutions to conflicts, and that military, economic and geopolitical strategies displace persons and peoples and impose the god of money, the god of power,” he said. “At the same time, humanitarian efforts are frequently conditioned by commercial and ideological constraints.”
He called for a renewed commitment to “protect each person in their daily life and to protect their dignity and human rights, their security and their comprehensive needs.”
The Pope also recognized relief workers who “serve their neighbor and contribute to consoling the sufferings of the victims of war and calamity, of the displaced and refugees, and who care for society, particularly through courageous choices in favor of peace, respect, healing and forgiveness.”
“This is the way in which human lives are saved,” he said.
Washington D.C., May 24, 2016 / 05:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After sending the Little Sisters’ HHS mandate case back to the circuit courts on May 16, the Supreme Court voided two more mandate cases with Catholic plaintiffs on Monday.The court was expected to rule this summer on the constitutionality of the “opt-out” process for non-profits with the HHS contraception mandate.The Little Sisters of the Poor, who care for the poor elderly in homes across the country, have argued that the process – where they would notify the government of their religious objection to providing the coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs for employees – still forced them to be complicit with evil.Since the sisters knew that voicing their objection would ultimately trigger the coverage being provided within the structure of their health plan, they would still be “facilitating access to contraceptives and abortifacients,” they said.Th...
Washington D.C., May 24, 2016 / 05:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After sending the Little Sisters’ HHS mandate case back to the circuit courts on May 16, the Supreme Court voided two more mandate cases with Catholic plaintiffs on Monday.
The court was expected to rule this summer on the constitutionality of the “opt-out” process for non-profits with the HHS contraception mandate.
The Little Sisters of the Poor, who care for the poor elderly in homes across the country, have argued that the process – where they would notify the government of their religious objection to providing the coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs for employees – still forced them to be complicit with evil.
Since the sisters knew that voicing their objection would ultimately trigger the coverage being provided within the structure of their health plan, they would still be “facilitating access to contraceptives and abortifacients,” they said.
This amounted to coercion by the government, they added, since they would have to pay massive fines – up to 40 percent of yearly donation revenue – for refusing to obey the mandate.
In Zubik v. Burwell, the Supreme Court sent back to the federal circuit courts all the cases of all the plaintiffs, including the Little Sisters, the Archdiocese of Washington, the pro-life group Priests for Life, and several Christian colleges. The circuit court decisions, which all went against the non-profits, were voided.
The decision came after the Supreme Court, in a rare move in the middle of a case, had ordered both parties to come up with alternative solutions, if possible, of guaranteeing both contraceptive coverage for employees and religious freedom protections for the non-profits.
“Both petitioners and the Government now confirm that such an option is feasible,” the court said in its statement.
The Little Sisters and other plaintiffs, in their brief, outlined an acceptable alternative: when setting up their health plan with their insurer, they would express their wish for a health plan without coverage for the contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-causing drugs. The insurer would take note and offer employees “cost-free contraception coverage” on the side and outside the health plan.
For their part, “the Government has confirmed that the challenged procedures ‘for employers with insured plans could be modified to operate in the manner posited in the Court’s order while still ensuring that the affected women receive contraceptive coverage seamlessly, together with the rest of their health coverage,” the statement read.
Because of the new developments in the case, the court then sent the group cases back to their respective federal courts.
Then on Monday, the Supreme Court sent back two more mandate cases to the circuit courts and voided those decisions after the plaintiffs had asked the court to review the case documents. The plaintiffs included the Michigan Catholic Conference and the Diocese of Nashville in one case decided by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Archdiocese of New York in another case decided by the Second Circuit Court.
The Supreme Court repeated its statement from the Zubik ruling that “nothing” in its decision would prevent the government from ensuring that employees have access to cost-free contraception coverage; also, they could not force the plaintiffs to pay the fines for not complying with the contraception mandate, until the case was ultimately decided.
“Given the gravity of the dispute and the substantial clarification and refinement in the positions of the parties, the parties on remand should be afforded an opportunity to arrive at an approach going forward that accommodates petitioners’ religious exercise while at the same time ensuring that women covered by petitioners’ health plans receive full and equal health coverage, including contraceptive coverage,” the court stated in the Zubik v. Burwell opinion.
“We anticipate that the Courts of Appeals will allow the parties sufficient time to resolve any outstanding issues between them,” it said.
By Junno Arocho EstevesVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A former consultant to a pontifical commission who denied to aVatican court that she leaked documents about the Vatican's financial reform to an Italianjournalist had admitted to sending the documents when she was firstinterrogated, a Vatican policeman said. Stefano DeSantis, an officer investigating the leakingof the documents, testified May 24 that Francesca Chaouqui told Vatican policeofficials that she sent documents regarding the Vatican Asset Management (VAM) toGianluigi Nuzzi, author of "Merchants in the Temple.""We never assumed that she gave the documents, sheadmitted to it," DeSantis told the court. Chaouqui is on trial, alongwith Msgr. Vallejo Balda, secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairsof the Holy See, and Nicola Maio, the monsignor's former assistant, for"committing several illegal acts of divulging news and documentsconcerning fundamental interests of the Holy See and (Vatican City)State." Nuzzi and Emiliano ...
By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A former consultant to a pontifical commission who denied to a Vatican court that she leaked documents about the Vatican's financial reform to an Italian journalist had admitted to sending the documents when she was first interrogated, a Vatican policeman said.
Stefano DeSantis, an officer investigating the leaking of the documents, testified May 24 that Francesca Chaouqui told Vatican police officials that she sent documents regarding the Vatican Asset Management (VAM) to Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of "Merchants in the Temple."
"We never assumed that she gave the documents, she admitted to it," DeSantis told the court.
Chaouqui is on trial, along with Msgr. Vallejo Balda, secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, and Nicola Maio, the monsignor's former assistant, for "committing several illegal acts of divulging news and documents concerning fundamental interests of the Holy See and (Vatican City) State."
Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi, author of "Avarice," are accused of "soliciting and exercising pressure, especially on (Msgr.) Vallejo Balda," to obtain the documents.
The trial session May 24 began with the cross-examination of Gianluca Gauzzi, deputy commissioner of the Vatican police, by the defendants' lawyers regarding his testimony May 16.
Gauzzi revealed the contents found on two iPhones and a Macbook Pro belonging to Msgr. Vallejo Balda. In some of the messages found on the monsignor's devices, Gauzzi said, "Chaouqui asked Msgr. Vallejo to use WhatsApp because she believed it was a secure and tap-proof messaging system."
When asked by Laura Sgro, Chaouqui's lawyer, about the examination of the chats between Chaouqui and Msgr. Vallejo Balda, Gauzzi stated that the police saw the message exchange on the Spanish monsignor's phone.
Chaouqui, he added, deleted the messaging application from her phone before handing it over to the Vatican's IT experts as part of the investigation.
However, because WhatsApp is connected to a person's phone number, the police are certain the messages were between Msgr. Vallejo Balda and Chaouqui even though she deleted the app from her phone, Gauzzi said.
Regarding Chaouqui's initial confession of sending Nuzzi the documents, DeSantis told the court that she exhibited "exemplary behavior" when she gave the Vatican police her formal statement and even made clarifications or specifications in her formal declaration.
MORE TO COME
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