Catholic News 2
COATZACOALCOS, Mexico (AP) -- The death toll from a petrochemical plant explosion in southeastern Mexico has risen to 24, state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos reported late Thursday....
A transcript of the 911 call at 9:43 a.m. Thursday from Prince's Paisley Park compound to the Carver County, Minnesota, Sheriff's Office:...
CHANHASSEN, Minn. (AP) -- The Latest on the death of pop superstar Prince (all times local):...
Washington D.C., Apr 21, 2016 / 04:54 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- No matter how deeply someone may be entrenched in the culture of death, they are never beyond the loving reach of Christ, said former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson to a group of Georgetown University students on Wednesday.“I’m standing in front of you today as a testament to the power of conversion,” Johnson, a former Texas Planned Parenthood clinic director who later converted to Catholicism, said in a talk scheduled the same day as Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards’ address to students on Georgetown’s campus.Reflecting later on Richards addressing students earlier in the afternoon, Johnson said, “I just kept thinking you know, I believe that one day – I have faith – that one day it won’t be me standing here speaking and defending the sanctity of human life.”“I believe that one day it will be Cecile Richards standing here.”J...
Washington D.C., Apr 21, 2016 / 04:54 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- No matter how deeply someone may be entrenched in the culture of death, they are never beyond the loving reach of Christ, said former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson to a group of Georgetown University students on Wednesday.
“I’m standing in front of you today as a testament to the power of conversion,” Johnson, a former Texas Planned Parenthood clinic director who later converted to Catholicism, said in a talk scheduled the same day as Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards’ address to students on Georgetown’s campus.
Reflecting later on Richards addressing students earlier in the afternoon, Johnson said, “I just kept thinking you know, I believe that one day – I have faith – that one day it won’t be me standing here speaking and defending the sanctity of human life.”
“I believe that one day it will be Cecile Richards standing here.”
Johnson’s speech was part of Life Week 2016 at Georgetown. A pro-life panel led by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), chair of the Select Investigative Panel on Planned Parenthood, spoke on campus Tuesday evening. The group Students for Life organized a protest of Cecile Richards’ speech on Wednesday, before Johnson’s pro-life talk that evening.
Cardinal Wuerl was scheduled to say a pro-life mass at Epiphany Catholic Church near Georgetown’s campus on Thursday evening.
Richards’ invite to speak on campus by the student group Lecture Fund – and the subsequent support that the university gave the group – drew biting criticism from the Archdiocese of Washington for its “unawareness of those pushing the violence of abortion.” Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider, performing well over 300,000 abortions per year.
“The Jesuit community on campus clearly has its work cut out for it and a long way to go as it tries to instill at Georgetown some of the values of Pope Francis,” the archdiocese stated.
In 2012, the university also ignited controversy by inviting then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to speak at its graduation ceremonies. Many Catholic organizations were being ordered by the HHS, under threat of heavy fines, to violate Church teaching by providing coverage for birth control to employees, and bishops were speaking out against the mandate.
Johnson focused her Wednesday speech on her conversion away from being a Planned Parenthood clinic director and ultimately to the Catholic faith. She emphasized the importance of prayer, perseverance, and trust in God in overcoming the evil of abortion.
“No one is beyond the power of conversion because no one is beyond the power of Christ,” she stated. “And we can make all the most beautiful arguments in the world for why we should be pro-life, but at the heart of life is Christ.”
She exhorted the students to be hopeful for the conversion of more clinic workers and pro-choice leaders. “And if we are people of faith, we better believe that,” she said. “We better believe in that type of goodness, that type of kindness, that type of faithfulness from our God.”
She pointed to her organization And Then There Were None, dedicated to helping abortion clinic workers and doctors leave the industry, as an example of success. She initially thought 10 workers a year leaving the industry would be a great total, but there have been 218 workers leaving the industry in three years, including 6 full-time abortionists.
“Being pro-life is not just about saving the baby. Because if it was, then we would just be pro-baby,” she said. “We are pro-life, and we believe in the dignity and the inherent worth of that woman who’s walking in to that abortion facility and we know that she deserves better than anything she can receive inside those abortion facility walls.”
“My goal is not just to make abortion illegal, my goal is to make abortion unthinkable so that a woman never even darkens the door of an abortion facility, that she never even thinks that taking the life of an innocent human being is acceptable,” she continued.
“We can grow weary. We can grow tired. We can become angry. We can become frustrated. But in those times, it is then that we have to remember the goodness of God,” she said.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The owners of nearly half a million polluting Volkswagens in the U.S. will have the option of selling them back to the company or getting them repaired at VW's expense, under a deal announced Thursday by a federal judge....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Growing up in Oklahoma, Becky Hobbs noticed some of her Cherokee elders wouldn't even touch a $20 bill because they so despised Andrew Jackson. To this day, the 66-year-old songwriter pokes him in the face whenever she gets one....
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- After nearly a century as the face of the $20 bill, President Andrew Jackson is being replaced by abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who helped free slaves from the Southern landowners he defended. What should Americans recall about his legacy?...
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) -- Donald Trump's chief lieutenants told skeptical Republican leaders Thursday the GOP front-runner has been "projecting an image" so far in the 2016 primary season and "the part that he's been playing is now evolving" in a way that will improve his standing among general election voters....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department has signaled that it won't try to block a lawsuit arising from the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques, leaving the door open for a court challenge over tactics that have since been discontinued and widely discredited....
CHANHASSEN, Minn. (AP) -- Prince could play guitar like Carlos Santana or Jimi Hendrix, sing like James Brown, turn out pop melodies worthy of Motown or lay down the deepest grooves this side of Sly and the Family Stone. But no one could mistake his sound for anyone but Prince....
