Catholic News 2
CHANHASSEN, Minn. (AP) -- A Minnesota doctor saw Prince twice in the month before his death - including the day before he died - and prescribed him medication, according to contents of a search warrant that were revealed Tuesday as authorities returned to the musician's suburban Minneapolis estate as part of their investigation into what killed him....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Key Senate Republicans voiced optimism Tuesday about Donald Trump's presidential prospects in November, the clearest signal yet to the GOP rank and file to unite behind him and turn their energy against Democrat Hillary Clinton. But it was uncertain whether the doubters could be quieted....
TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) -- Two people were killed and four others wounded in stabbing attacks at a home and a shopping mall in Massachusetts before an off-duty law enforcement officer shot and killed the suspect, authorities said....
New York City, N.Y., May 10, 2016 / 04:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The American Civil Liberties Union's claims that Catholic hospitals are denying emergency care to pregnant women in the U.S. is not about healthcare – it's about forcing religious groups to perform abortions, critics say.A recent ACLU report finds that one out of every six beds in the country's acute care hospitals is in a hospital with Catholic affiliations and that Catholic hospitals make up 15 percent, or 548, of the country's hospitals. The report claims that because these hospitals follow Church teaching in regards to reproductive care, they put women at risk.All Catholic hospitals operate under the U.S. Bishops' Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which ban abortion, sterilization, and emergency contraception or tubal ligations.Marie Hilliard, the director of public policy for the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told the Guardian that if the directives a...
New York City, N.Y., May 10, 2016 / 04:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The American Civil Liberties Union's claims that Catholic hospitals are denying emergency care to pregnant women in the U.S. is not about healthcare – it's about forcing religious groups to perform abortions, critics say.
A recent ACLU report finds that one out of every six beds in the country's acute care hospitals is in a hospital with Catholic affiliations and that Catholic hospitals make up 15 percent, or 548, of the country's hospitals. The report claims that because these hospitals follow Church teaching in regards to reproductive care, they put women at risk.
All Catholic hospitals operate under the U.S. Bishops' Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which ban abortion, sterilization, and emergency contraception or tubal ligations.
Marie Hilliard, the director of public policy for the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told the Guardian that if the directives are properly followed, a woman’s life should not be at risk.
“If the directives are properly applied, there should be no compromise of the wellbeing of human beings,” Hilliard said.
The ACLU has long opposed Catholic hospitals operating according to Catholic teaching. The ACLU and the group the MergerWatch Project co-authored a 2013 report that claimed the growth of Catholic hospitals was a “miscarriage of medicine.” In 2015, the ACLU sued Trinity Health Corporations, one of the largest Catholic health care operations in America, located in the Detroit area, for their refusal to perform abortions and tubal ligations. The lawsuit was dismissed.
Dr. Thomas Hilgers is the founder and director of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction and a clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Creighton University School of Medicine. He said that the latest report from the ACLU is another attempt by the group to impose their views on Catholic hospitals, especially in regards to abortion.
“They're constantly imposing their value system on the rest of us, and to me that's just unconscionable,” he told CNA/EWTN News.
“What they’re trying to do in a lot of ways is get rid of the Catholic Church, the Catholic Church has been their target for a long time, even though the Catholic Church has been a leader in healthcare over the years. There’s lots of Catholic hospitals around taking care of people who can't pay their bills and really providing good medical care, but that doesn’t make any difference to (the ACLU).”
The pro-abortion mentality has also skewed the way reproductive medicine and obstetrics have developed, Dr. Hilgers added. Once abortion and contraception became legal, many doctors started using them as solutions to treat symptoms, rather than looking into the the underlying problems women were experiencing, and diagnosing and treating those diseases.
“We practice Catholic medicine where, if a woman is bleeding at 18 weeks of pregnancy, the first and foremost cause of bleeding like that is someone who has a subclinical infection inside the uterus,” he said.
“I take patients at 18 weeks pregnant who are bleeding and I give them the right antibiotic, and within 24 hours the bleeding stops. You give them the antibiotic for 10 days, and they go full term. And yet if I were to say that to a group of say specialists in obstetrics, they would deny that, because all of these years, as a result of the pro-abortion mentality, they haven’t really look at the underlying causes except on a limited scale.”
Instead, he said, they will opt to induce a woman or perform an abortion without first diagnosing the underlying cause of the bleeding.
Ashley McGuire, a Senior Fellow with The Catholic Association, said that the ACLU must not be too concerned with women’s health if it is trying to attack a significant portion of healthcare services available in the United States.
“If the ACLU is so concerned about women's health, then why are they constantly suing and harassing one of the largest providers of healthcare to women in America?” she told CNA/EWTN News in e-mail comments.
“The ACLU has been trying to force Catholic healthcare professionals to perform abortions for a long time, which suggests that their endgame is really about forcing everyone into complicity with abortion, as opposed to actually providing women with lifesaving care, something the nation's largest non-governmental hospital system knows a thing or two about.”
Ultimately, Dr. Hilgers said, this report and others from the ACLU attacking the Catholic Church are an attack on religious freedom.
“The bottom line to me it seems is that if you look at the Constitution of the United States, the First Amendment of the Constitution has as its first priority, above free speech, above regressive grievances, above freedom of the press, is making no law respecting either establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” he said.
“Catholics and other religions have lived that out over the years because that’s what this country was founded on, and it was established that you could freely practice your faith and your religion. And if somebody wants that kind of care (that goes against Catholic teaching) then you can always go someplace else.”
IMAGE: CNS photo/Jamal Nasrallah, EPABy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican is funding a job-creationprogram for Iraqi refugees in Jordan, a country that is hosting close to 1.5million refugees, but is struggling to provide work for them.With $150,000 donated to the Vatican by visitors to itspavilion at the World's Fair in Milan in 2015, the Vatican will provide thefunding that Caritas Jordan needs to launch the project.Fifteen Iraqi refugees will have full-time work cultivating,producing and selling vegetables and oil, said a communique May 10 from thePontifical Council Cor Unum, the Vatican office which promotes and distributesCatholic charity. The jobs will allow them to provide for their families andbecome self-supporting, the office said.Another 200 Iraqi refugees will be given training incarpentry, agriculture and the food industry, Cor Unum said, and an additional500 will be given seasonal employment.Jordan currently is hosting about 130,000 Iraqi refugees, CorUnum...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Jamal Nasrallah, EPA
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican is funding a job-creation program for Iraqi refugees in Jordan, a country that is hosting close to 1.5 million refugees, but is struggling to provide work for them.
With $150,000 donated to the Vatican by visitors to its pavilion at the World's Fair in Milan in 2015, the Vatican will provide the funding that Caritas Jordan needs to launch the project.
Fifteen Iraqi refugees will have full-time work cultivating, producing and selling vegetables and oil, said a communique May 10 from the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Vatican office which promotes and distributes Catholic charity. The jobs will allow them to provide for their families and become self-supporting, the office said.
Another 200 Iraqi refugees will be given training in carpentry, agriculture and the food industry, Cor Unum said, and an additional 500 will be given seasonal employment.
Jordan currently is hosting about 130,000 Iraqi refugees, Cor Unum said; many of the refugees fled their homes in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of their country and the capture of Saddam Hussein. Jordan also is hosting more than 1.3 million Syrian refugees, making it even more difficult for any refugee to find work.
Many refugees look for work and often accept jobs without contracts, said Wael Suleiman, director of Caritas Jordan. "But the market does not offer many opportunities."
The project, which will be based at Caritas' Our Lady of Peace Center in Amman, was to be inaugurated May 12. After the initial funding by the Vatican, it was hoped the products produced would earn enough for both the workers' salaries and future project costs.
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Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
IMAGE: CNS photo/Sean Gallagher, The CriterionBy Sean GallagherGREENFIELD, Ind. (CNS) -- As Easterseason ends, one reminder of it that will remain in churches throughout therest of the liturgical year is the Easter candle, also known as the paschalcandle.Throughoutthe liturgical year, Easter candles are used at baptisms and at funerals.Theyare a special symbol of Christ in the liturgical worship of the church, servingas a dramatic reminder of the risen Jesus bringing light into a dark and fallenworld.Priests,too, are signs of Jesus, being sacramentally conformed to the image of Christin their ordination, and showing him forth to the church and the world throughtheir life and ministry.Twopriests of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis have brought these symbols togetherto increase the beauty, goodness and truth of God in the world through theirartistic talents.Father Aaron Jenkins and Father Jerry Byrd make alabor of love out of adding beauty to the paschal candles for the parishes thatth...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Sean Gallagher, The Criterion
By Sean Gallagher
GREENFIELD, Ind. (CNS) -- As Easter season ends, one reminder of it that will remain in churches throughout the rest of the liturgical year is the Easter candle, also known as the paschal candle.
Throughout the liturgical year, Easter candles are used at baptisms and at funerals.
They are a special symbol of Christ in the liturgical worship of the church, serving as a dramatic reminder of the risen Jesus bringing light into a dark and fallen world.
Priests, too, are signs of Jesus, being sacramentally conformed to the image of Christ in their ordination, and showing him forth to the church and the world through their life and ministry.
Two priests of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis have brought these symbols together to increase the beauty, goodness and truth of God in the world through their artistic talents.
Father Aaron Jenkins and Father Jerry Byrd make a labor of love out of adding beauty to the paschal candles for the parishes that they lead.
There are various ways to decorate a paschal candle, which ordinarily is the largest candle in a church, standing several feet tall. They can be painted with acrylic paints or melted crayons or have colored wax added to them.
"Doing candles and things like that allows me to give that part of myself to a parish," said Father Jenkins, pastor of St. Michael Parish in Greenfield. "It continues to be more and more relational."
His love of art does not just connect him to the parish community, but to others whom he has helped to draw out their own artistic talents.
Father Jenkins helped Father Byrd learn new artistic skills when both were in priestly formation at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad.
Father Byrd recently decorated three paschal candles for the three faith communities he leads: St. Mary Parish in North Vernon, and St. Ann and St. Joseph parishes in Jennings County.
Like Father Jenkins, he sees his work in art as a "generativity to be shared."
"It's a creative outlet for me to put what is in my mind and my heart to use in something that's for all the people," Father Byrd told The Criterion, the archdiocesan newspaper. "It's not just for me to hide away in a closet.
"When I create a piece of liturgical or sacred art or compose a piece of music, I do it because it's one of the ways that I can glorify God. And it's another way that people can relate to me."
Both priests also design and sew many of the vestments they use in liturgical celebrations. As with the decoration of paschal candles, Father Jenkins taught Father Byrd the sewing skill.
Both have made vestments for other priests in and beyond the archdiocese.
"We're drawn out of ourselves and put in the presence of God. The vestments are a reminder of that. It's a sacred object, something set apart," Father Byrd explained.
Father Jenkins appreciates the simple beauty in the fact that he himself makes many of the vestments he uses.
"In some ways, I feel a little better wearing (my) vestments, because I know that I made them," he said. "And they didn't cost nearly as much as if I would have spent money someplace else. There's a strange simplicity but also respect for the beauty and honor that is due to Christ at the Mass in that aspect."
The basic design of the vestments that Father Byrd and Father Jenkins make dates to the Middle Ages.
"We have 2,000 years to pull from," Father Jenkins said. "We don't just pull from one little area or one little decade of time. It's all of it."
In addition to creating beautiful things for liturgical worship, Father Jenkins' work in art has given him a helpful perspective in ministering to people.
"That creative spark inside of me from creating art has definitely helped me be more creative in working through problems in a parish and helping people work through problems in their lives," he told The Criterion.
Art also is humbling for Father Jenkins. He recognizes that the beautiful things he creates come from materials that he did not make, helping get a better grasp on ministry.
"Seeing that on a more spiritual level in the world is that I'm working with folks that I didn't make," he said. "They're working with a world that they didn't make. We're just trying to make the best of what we have."
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Gallagher is a reporter at The Criterion, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
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Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- From the jaw-dropping half-court heaves that somehow sink through the net to the dazzling drives and zippy passes from every which way, Stephen Curry's desire to keep getting better while always trying to entertain at every stop has the Golden State superstar being mentioned right along with the best ever, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson....
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- The majority of Canada's oil sands industry has stopped production and will only start back up when it is "absolutely safe" but that should happen soon, Alberta's premier said Tuesday after meeting with company officials to discuss the impact of the massive wildfire that destroyed more than 10 percent of the homes and buildings in Canada's main oil sands city....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Donald Trump, GOP nomination virtually in hand, is planning a general election campaign that banks heavily on his personal appeal and trademark rallies while spurning the kind of sophisticated data operation that was a centerpiece of Barack Obama's winning White House runs....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Key Senate Republicans voiced optimism Tuesday about Donald Trump's presidential prospects in November, signaling clearly to the GOP rank and file to unite behind the bombastic billionaire and turn their energy toward battling Democrat Hillary Clinton. But it was uncertain whether they could quiet the doubters....
