Catholic News 2

Full Article

Acts 5:12-16; Rev: 1:9-11, 12-13, 17-19; John 20:19-31

A TIME magazine issue in 1984 presented a startling cover. It pictured a prison cell where two men sat on metal folding chairs. The young man wore a black turtleneck sweater, blue jeans and white running shoes. The older man was dressed in a white robe and had a white skullcap on his head. They sat facing one another, up close and personal. They spoke quietly so as to keep others from hearing the conversation. The young man was Mehmet Ali Agca, the pope’s attempted assassin (who shot the pope on May 13t, 1981) ; the other man was Pope John Paul II, the intended victim. The pope held the hand that had held the gun whose bullet tore into the pope’s body. This was a living icon of mercy. John Paul’s forgiveness was deeply Christian. His deed with Ali Agca spoke a thousand words. He embraced his enemy and pardoned him. At the end of their 20-minute meeting, Ali Agca raised the pope’s hand to his forehead as a sign of respect. John Paul shook Ali Agca’s hand tenderly. When the pope left the cell he said, “What we talked about must remain a secret between us. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust.” This is an example of God’s divine mercy, the same divine mercy whose message St. Faustina witnessed.

Introduction: The readings for this Sunday are about mercy, trust and the forgiveness of sins.  The opening prayer addresses the Father as "God of everlasting Mercy." In the Psalm, we repeat several times, "His mercy endures forever" (Ps 118).  Besides mentioning the word, our readings illustrate mercy in action.  How does God reveal His mercy?  He does so, first and foremost, by sending His only-begotten Son to become our Savior and Lord by his suffering, death and resurrection. Divine mercy is given to us in the celebration of the sacraments.  The first reading explains how the Risen Lord continued to show His Divine Mercy to the sick through the healing and preaching ministry of His Apostles in the early Church.  The Apostles’ faith enabled them to minister to the people, giving them the Lord’s healing love through “signs and wonders.”  The Book of Revelation was written to comfort and bolster the faith of the persecuted Christians by reassuring them of the presence of the merciful Lord in their lives.  The second reading, taken from this book, encourages Christians to fight fear with faith, and trepidation about the future with trust and hope.  In today’s gospel, as we recall Jesus’ appearance to the disciples on that first Easter evening, we are vividly reminded of the Sacrament of Reconciliation – the power to forgive sins which Our Lord gave to his apostles -- "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained" (Jn 20-23).  Today’s gospel also emphasizes the importance of faith in the all-pervading presence of the Risen Lord of Mercy.  To believe without having seen is every later Christian’s experience.  We are invited to receive liberation from doubts and hesitation by surrendering our lives to the risen Lord of mercy.  Let us ask God our Father to open our hearts so that we may receive his Mercy in the form of His Holy Spirit.

The first reading (Acts 5:12-16): Luke, the author of Acts, describes the life-style and activities of our earliest ancestors in the Christian faith, holding up for us, as it were, a model of what the Church is called to become.  The passage explains how the Risen Lord continued to show His divine Mercy to the sick through the healing and preaching ministry of His Apostles in the early Church.  The Apostles’ faith enabled them to minister to the people, giving them the Lord’s healing love through the “signs and wonders” that Jesus had promised would accompany their work.  Following the model of service set forth by Jesus, they healed the sick by wielding God’s power over disease and unclean spirits. "People even came crowding in from the towns round about Jerusalem, bringing with them their sick and those tormented by unclean spirits - and all of them were cured."  These cures illustrate how the power of the Resurrection can work miracles, even through ordinary people.  We know that this power of the Resurrection still operates today because we have seen how a friendly smile, a gentle touch or a willingness to forgive can heal a broken spirit, and how the challenging words of a parent, a teacher or a friend can quicken the mind and heart.

The second reading (Revelation 1:9-11, 12-13, 17-19) is taken from the Book of Revelation.  In this book, John describes an extraordinary experience he had while living in banishment in the penal colony on the island of Patmos.  He wrote this book to comfort and bolster the faith of the persecuted Christians by reassuring them of the presence of the merciful Lord in their lives.  Here we read about the vision of the resurrected Christ in glory, revealing to John messages for the Christian communities.  The usefulness of the Book of Revelation to us Christians is not so much in its symbolic language as in the comfort and strength we receive from solidarity with other Christians in distress.  We, who are privileged to anticipate the victory of Christ through the sacraments and especially in the Eucharist, are also encouraged to fight fear with faith, and trepidation about the future with trust and hope.  "He touched me with his right hand and said, 'Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, the One Who lives.  Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever.'" The book coveys the message that we are called to live out in our lives in such a way that, through us, others may be able to exclaim, “We have seen the Lord!”

Exegesis: Today’s gospel: The first part of today’s gospel (verses 19-23), describes how Jesus entrusted to His Apostles His mission of preaching the “good news” of God’s love, mercy, forgiveness and salvation.  This portion of the reading teaches us that Jesus uses the Church as the earthly means of continuing His mission.  It also teaches us that the Church needs Jesus as its source of power and authority, and that it becomes Christ’s true messenger only when it perfectly loves and obeys Him.  The risen Lord gives the Apostles the authority to remit sins in his name.  He gives the Apostles the power of God’s mercy for the sinner, the gift of forgiving sins from God’s treasury of mercy.  For centuries in the liturgy, the Church has proclaimed the mercy of God through the Word of God and the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.  The text also reminds us that the clearest way of expressing our belief in the presence of the risen Jesus among us is through our own forgiveness of others.  We can’t form a lasting Christian community without such forgiveness.  Unless we forgive others, our celebration of the Eucharist is just an exercise of liturgical rubrics.

The second part of the gospel (verses 24-29) presents the fearless apostle St. Thomas, in his uncompromising honesty, demanding a personal vision of, and physical contact with, the risen Jesus as a condition for his belief.  Thomas had not been with the disciples when Jesus first appeared to them.  As a result, he refused to believe.  This should serve as a warning to us.  It is difficult for us to believe when we do not strengthen ourselves with the fellowship of other believers.  When the Lord appeared to Thomas later, He said: “Blessed are those who have not seen but have believed.”  Thomas was able to overcome his doubts by seeing the risen Jesus.  Modern Christians, who are no longer able to "see" Jesus with their eyes, must believe what they hear.  That is why Paul reminds us that "faith comes from hearing" (Rom 10:17). 

The unique profession of faith: Thomas, the “doubting Apostle” makes the great profession of faith, “My Lord and my God.”  Here the most outrageous doubter of the resurrection of Jesus utters the greatest confession of belief in the Lord who rose from the dead.  This declaration by the “doubting Apostle” in today’s gospel is very significant for two reasons.  1) It is the foundation of our Christian faith.  Our faith is based on the divinity of Jesus as proved by His miracles, especially by the supreme miracle of His resurrection from the dead.  Thomas’ profession of faith is the strongest evidence we have of the resurrection of Jesus.  2) Thomas’ faith culminated in his self-surrender to Jesus, his heroic missionary expedition to India in A.D. 52, his fearless preaching, and the powerful testimony given by his martyrdom in A.D. 72.  

Life messages: 1) Let us accept God's invitation to celebrate and practice mercy: One way the Church celebrates God’s mercy throughout the year is through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Finding time for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is another good way to receive Divine Mercy.  The Gospel command, "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful," demands that we show mercy to our fellow human beings always and everywhere.  We radiate God's mercy to others by our actions, our words, and our prayers.  It is mainly through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy that we practice mercy in our daily lives and become eligible for God’s merciful judgment.

2)  Let us ask God for the Faith that culminates in self-surrender to God and leads us to serve those we encounter with love.   Living faith enables us to see the risen Lord in everyone and gives us the willingness to render to each one our loving service (“Faith without good works is dead” James 2:17).  It was this faith in the Lord and obedience to His missionary command that prompted St. Thomas to travel to India to preach the gospel among the Hindus, establish seven Christian communities (known later as “St. Thomas Christians”), and eventually suffer martyrdom.  The Fathers of the Church prescribe the following traditional means to grow in the living and dynamic faith of St. Thomas the Apostle.  a) We must come to know Jesus personally and intimately by our daily and meditative reading of the Bible.  b) We must strengthen our faith by the power of the Holy Spirit through our personal and community prayer.  c) We must share in the divine life of Jesus by frequenting the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist.  Blessed Mother Teresa presents it this way: “If we pray, we will believe; if we believe, we will love; if we love, we will serve. Only then we put our love of God into action.”  

3) We need to meet the challenge for a transparent Christian life -- "I will not believe unless I see."   This "seeing" is what others demand of us.  They ask that we reflect Jesus, the Risen Lord in our lives by our selfless love, unconditional forgiveness and humble service.  The integrity of our lives bears a fundamental witness to others, who want to see the Risen Lord alive and active, working in our lives.  Christ’s mercy shines forth from us whenever we reach out to the poor, the needy and the marginalized, as Blessed Mother Teresa did.  His mercy shines forth as we remain open to those who struggle in faith, as did the Apostle Thomas in today’s Gospel.  We should be able to appreciate the presence of Jesus, crucified and raised, in our own suffering and in our suffering brothers and sisters, thus recognizing the glorified wounds of the Risen Lord in the suffering of others.  

4) Like St. Thomas, let us use our skepticism to help us grow in faith.  It is our genuine doubts about the doctrines of our religion that encourage us to study these doctrines more closely and thus to grow in our faith.  This will naturally lead us to a personal encounter with Jesus through our prayer, study of the Word of God, and frequenting of the sacraments.  However, we must never forget the fact that our faith is not our own doing, but is a gift from God.  Hence, we need to augment our faith every day by prayer so that we may join St. Thomas in his proclamation: “My Lord and my God." 

5) Let us have the courage of our Christian convictions to share our faith as St. Thomas did.  We are not to keep the gift of faith locked in our hearts, but to share it with our children, our families and our neighbors, always remembering the words of Pope John XXIII: “Every believer in this world must become a spark of Christ’s light.”

Emperor Napoleon was moved by a mother's plea for pardon for her soldier son.  However, the emperor said that since it was the man’s second major offense, justice demanded death.  "I do not ask for justice," implored the mother, "I plead for mercy."  "But," said the emperor, "he does not deserve mercy."  "Sir," cried the mother, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for."  The compassion and clarity of the mother's logic prompted Napoleon to respond, "Well, then, I will have mercy."  The Second Sunday of the Easter season invites us to reflect on God’s infinite love and mercy for His people, as detailed in the Bible and as lived and taught by Jesus, and to practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

St. Faustina of Poland is the well known apostle of Divine Mercy.  On the 30th of April, 2000, the Second Sunday of Easter, at 10:00 a.m., His Holiness Pope John Paul II celebrated the Eucharist in Saint Peter’s Square and proceeded to the canonization of Blessed Sister Faustina.  The new Saint invites us by the witness of her life to keep our faith and hope fixed on God the Father, rich in mercy, who saved us by the precious Blood of His Son.  During her short life, the Lord Jesus assigned to St. Faustina three basic tasks: 1. to pray for souls, entrusting them to God's incomprehensible Mercy; 2. to tell the world about God's Generous Mercy; 3. to start a new movement in the Church focusing on God's Mercy.  At the canonization of St. Faustina, Pope John Paul II said: “The cross, even after the Resurrection of the Son of God, speaks, and never ceases to speak, of God the Father, Who is absolutely faithful to His eternal love for man. ... Believing in this love means believing in mercy."  “The Lord of Divine Mercy,” a drawing of Jesus based on the vision given to St. Faustina, shows Jesus raising his right hand in a gesture of blessing, with  his left hand on his heart from which gush forth two rays, one red and one white.  The picture contains the message, "Jesus, I trust in You!" (Jezu ufam Tobie).  The rays streaming out have symbolic meaning: red for the blood of Jesus, which is the life of souls and white for the Baptismal water which justifies souls.  The whole image is symbolic of the mercy, forgiveness and love of God.

(Source: Homilies of Fr. Tony Kadavil) 

Full Article

Baltimore, Md., Mar 31, 2016 / 11:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- St. Padre Pio’s spiritual life inspired many veterans of the Second World War – and now, his example has helped inspire support for homeless veterans in Maryland.

“Wherever there is suffering in the healing process, Padre Pio has been known to bring relief,” Luciano Lamonarca, president and CEO of the Saint Pio Foundation, told CNA March 30.

“Because we know that veterans suffer as much as other people, we decided to establish a kind of annual grant that would help the veterans in having some relief,” he said.

The effort also recognizes their service to their country.

The New York-based Saint Pio Foundation promotes the charism of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, colloquially known as “Padre Pio.” The Franciscan Capuchin priest was a stigmatist, a mystic and a miracle-worker. He ministered in the Italian city of San Giovanni Rotondo from 1916 until his death in 1968.

The foundation has made its first donation of $20,000 to the homeless veterans program of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Maryland Health Care System. Another $10,000 grant is planned for this year.

The donation aims to provide homeless veterans with transportation assistance, meals, clothing, and household supplies when they get apartments. The donation will also support the clothing room, the kitchen and the laundry facility at the VA Maryland Health Care System’s Community Resource & Referral Center, which supports homeless veterans.

Lamonarca said some of the homeless veterans are very poor and sometimes cannot afford to travel to the facility to eat or to spend the night. The foundation acts in Padre Pio’s name “to bring any relief to suffering” and to give food and shelter to those who live on the street.

“We like to bring Padre Pio out to the people,” he said.

The foundation cited Padre Pio’s service in the Italian army’s medical corps during World War I. He befriended many military personnel during World War II, including American servicemen.

Lamonarca said Padre Pio had a “very strong” relationship with many American servicemen.

“Many people do not know that Padre Pio got to be known in the United States after the Second World War because all the G.I.s returning to this country were speaking about him. Many of them actually returned to San Giovanni Rotondo to live close to Padre Pio while he was alive. Some of them even became priests.”

VA officials welcomed the support.

“We’re grateful that the Saint Pio Foundation has recognized our efforts to serve homeless veterans,” Dr. Adam M. Robinson, director of the VA Maryland Health Care System said March 24.

The foundation’s other supported projects include the Home for the Relief of Suffering and Padre Pio’s Shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy; the Archdiocese for Military Services; and the Path to Peace Foundation, which complements the work of the Holy See’s mission to the United Nations.

Lamonarca has a special devotion to Padre Pio, a devotion which strengthened when he immigrated to America.

“He has touched so many lives and converted many people,” he said. “He touched my life through his motto ‘pray, hope and don’t worry’.”

He said he hopes that the foundation’s support will help veterans learn more about Padre Pio’s life and encourage them “to pray to Padre Pio daily, to ask Padre Pio to help them carry on through their pain and their suffering and to hope in Jesus, with the intercession of Padre Pio.”

“Padre Pio has been known internationally. I like to say he’s not just a saint that belongs to the Catholic Church. He belongs to any kind of people of faith.”

The foundation will hold its second annual award ceremony on May 27 at the Naval Heritage Center in Washington, D.C. Honorees include veterans’ advocates like actor Gary Sinise and Jim Nicholson, former U.S. Secretary for Veterans Affairs and past U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.

Guests at the dinner include Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington and Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the apostolic nuncio of the Holy See heading the permanent observer mission to the United Nations and to the Organization of American States.

The foundation’s website is www.SaintPioFoundation.org.

Full Article

Washington D.C., Mar 31, 2016 / 12:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday expanded its recommended use of the abortion drug mifepristone, drawing criticism from pro-life advocates who say it is harmful for women and their unborn babies, who may now be chemically aborted up to 10 weeks into pregnancy.

Mifepristone is combined with the drug misoprostol to induce an abortion. The FDA’s March 30 policy change will allow the drug to be used up to 10 weeks into pregnancy instead of seven.

“The FDA has bowed to pressure from drug companies and abortion advocates, but the ones who will feel the deplorable effects of this change will be the women sent home to endure a painful and shocking process by themselves and of course their babies,” Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie, a physician and advisory board member with The Catholic Association, said March 31.

Maureen Ferguson, senior policy advisor at The Catholic Association, also criticized the determination.

"Anyone who approves of the FDA's decision to extend at-home medical abortions up to 10 weeks of pregnancy should consult WebMD’s description of the 10 week old baby a woman will encounter as the abortion proceeds,” she said.

That description reads: “Your baby is still small but looks and acts like a baby. Arms and legs are longer and can bend at the elbows and knees.”

Abortion providers and pro-abortion rights advocates welcomed the FDA decision.

Opponents of the drug cited the FDA’s summary of its reported adverse effects. Between September 2000 and April 2011, 14 women died from the drug, more than 600 were hospitalized, and 58 women had ectopic pregnancies because of it.

The Guttmacher Institute, a research center with historical connections to abortion provider Planned Parenthood, has estimated that medication-induced abortions made up as much as 25 percent of all abortions in 2011.

The new instructions also allow lower dosages (200mg rather than 600mg) and fewer doctor visits (two rather than three) for women who use the drug, the New York Times reports. It has been suggested that the lower dose may have fewer side effects.

In recent years, doctors who prescribed the abortion drug often did not follow the FDA's instructions for it, saying new evidence justified “off-label” use. Some states have passed laws requiring doctors to prescribe the drug according to the FDA label instructions.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) strongly criticized the decision.

“Not only is mifepristone used to kill babies, it is a poison that has harmed and even killed women,” he said. He charged that the decision would put the health and lives of women and children at risk.

“At the behest of the abortion industry, the Obama Administration has extended the use of the drug to 10 weeks of pregnancy,” he said March 30.

“Abortion advocates today are celebrating FDA’s expansion of ‘medication abortion,’ but women who have suffered the trauma of a mifepristone abortion know that it is not ‘medication’– this chemical poison is not designed to heal, or cure, or mitigate pain.”

Smith said mifepristone has controversial origins. President Bill Clinton, in his first years in office, ordered the FDA to re-evaluate the drug’s status. When drug manufacturers refused to bring the drug to the United States, the influential NGO the Population Council licensed the drug.

According to Smith, abortion proponents created the company Danco for the sole purpose of distributing the drug in the U.S. He charged that the drug’s approval was pushed through in 2000 at the close of the Clinton administration under strong political pressure.

 

Full Article

Vatican City, Mar 31, 2016 / 01:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As a sign of affection and closeness, Pope Francis has decided to send vestments used in the liturgy and a financial donation to Christian refugees in Erbil through the Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need.

“Mercy invites us to bend over these brothers of ours in order to dry their tears, to heal their moral and physical wounds, and to console their afflicted and perhaps lost hearts,” the Pope said in a letter addressed to Bishop Francesco Cavina of Carpi.

To do this, the Pope said, is not just “an act of proper charity, but a relief to your own body, because all Christians, by virtue of their shared baptism, are 'one' in Christ.”

Bishop Cavina will be part of a delegation traveling to Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, April 1-4 with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Other members of the delegation will include Bishop Antonio Suetta of Ventimiglia-San Remo, Fr. Massimo Fabbri in representation of the Archdiocese of Bologna, and Alessandro Monteduro, director of ACN in Italy, who will serve as the group’s guide.

In a March 23 article published on ACN’s website, Bishop Cavina said that as soon as Pope Francis heard about the delegation’s visit, he called expressing his desire “to send a gift to our brothers in the faith in Iraq.”

This gift includes vestments and a personal financial donation, which the Pope will entrust to Bishop Cavina, who will then give it to the local Church when the delegation arrives.

In his letter to the bishop, Francis said the trip is “an initiative which expresses friendship, ecclesial communion and closeness to many brothers and sisters, whose situation of affliction and tribulation pains me deeply and invites us to defend the inalienable right of every person to freely profess their faith.”

The Pope invited delegation members not to forget “the drama of the persecution,” and added that the “courageous and patient witness” of Christians in Iraq “represents for the entire Church a call to rediscover the fruitful source of the Paschal Mystery from which energy, strength and light for a new humanism are drawn.”

As part of their visit, the group will meet with Archbishop Youhanna Boutros Moshe of the Syriac Archeparchy of Mosul, who left the city when it was overrun by the Islamic State in June, 2014.

They will also meet with the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda, who will take them to refugee centers in a mainly Christian suburb of Erbil called Ankawa.

Additionally, the group will stop by the village of Fr. Werenfried, named after the founder of ACN, where 175 Christian families are currently living. The trip will also include visits to ACN schools, which allow nearly 7,000 Iraqi refugee children to continue their education.

Since 2014 ACN has donated more than 15.1 million euros ($17.2 million) to support Christian refugees and displaced persons in Iraq.

The organization stepped up their efforts to offer support during Lent, when the Italian branch promoted six projects aimed at offering aid to the 250,000 Christians still in Iraq. The dioceses of Carpi and Ventimiglia-San Remo have also joined the effort, offering their own donations.

Full Article

By Dennis Sadowski

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pro-life advocates expressed dismay with new Food and Drug Administration guidelines that effectively expand how pregnant women can use RU-486, a drug that induces abortion.

The new rules, announced March 30, allow a woman to use RU-486 -- known generically as mifepristone and by its brand name Mifeprex -- later into pregnancy and with fewer visits to a doctor.

"People need to know this is a very, very serious expansion of the use of RU-486," Deirdre McQuade, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for Pro Life Activities, told Catholic News Service March 31.

"Clearly the loosening of the FDA guidelines puts more women, girls and unborn children at risk," McQuade said, while expressing concern that women and girls will be faced with the possibility of delivering a "recognizably human child" at home with no one in attendance.

"Women panic. They don't know what to do. Who's there for them to care for them?" she said.

McQuade also expressed concern that the new guidelines allow non-physicians to dispense or prescribe the drug. "This raises a huge question. Do we want nurses, physician's assistants, non-MDs overseeing the prescription of a drug that has very serious consequences for women?"

Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie, an advisory board member with the Catholic Association, in a March 31 statement called the extension of time that RU-486 can be used "substantial." She said women "will feel the deplorable effects of this change" when they will return home "to endure a painful and shocking process by themselves and of course their babies."

Christie, a radiologist who said she performs fetal ultrasound daily, explained that a 10-week-old fetus is "a well-developed and recognizably human creature. Head, hands, feet and vigorous movement are evident even to the untrained eye."

"Also at issue is the psychological and physical impact on a woman, sent home to experience the very painful cramps of a chemical abortion of a fetus that size," she added. "Besides the considerable blood loss and pain, there is every chance of a woman recognizing a fully formed fetus amongst the expelled 'products of conception.'"

Randall K. O'Bannon, director of education and research at National Right to Life, said in a statement March 30 that the new guidelines do not make chemical abortion safer.

"In the end, it is obvious that the FDA's new protocol serves only the interest of the abortion industry by expanding their base of potential customers, increasing their profit margin and reducing the level of staff and amount of resources they have to devote to the patient," O'Bannon said.

He added that while the announcement was welcomed by some, documents detailing the impact on women's safety has been released.

"Certainly, none of the modifications is of any benefit to the unborn child," O'Bannon said.

The new FDA guidelines for RU-486 brings the regimen for taking the drug in line with what has become standard medical practice:

-- Extending the period when a woman can take the drug to 70 days of pregnancy from 49 days.

-- Lowering the dosage to 200 milligrams from 600 milligrams.

-- Reducing the number of visits to a doctor by a woman to two from three.

RU-486 is used with another drug called misoprostol, a prostaglandin, to induce a chemical abortion by blocking the hormone progesterone needed to sustain a pregnancy. The FDA said it changed the guidelines governing RU-486 "based on data and information submitted by the drug manufacturer."

Some abortion opponents said the announcement was politically motivated in the midst of presidential and congressional elections as Republican and Democrat candidates seek support from women.

The FDA said in the announcement that its decision was based on medical science.

"After reviewing the supplemental application, the agency determined that Mifeprex is safe and effective when used to terminate a pregnancy in accordance with the revised labeling," the agency said.

Dr. Mark S. DeFranceso, president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, welcomed the new regimen in a statement, saying it "reflects the current available scientific evidence and best practices and includes many of the recommendations that ACOG had presented to the agency. Extending approved use of mifepristone through 70 days of gestation is proven to be safe and effective, and will give women more time to make the decision that is right for them."

The new guidelines run contrary to laws in some states that require doctors to follow more stringent FDA regulations regarding RU-486 use that were adopted in 2000. Supporters of legal abortion in North Dakota, Ohio, Texas and elsewhere have challenged the laws in court.

In response to a court order putting a law similar to those in Texas and Ohio on hold, Arizona legislators recently sent a bill to Gov. Doug Ducey requiring abortion-inducing medications to be administered according to FDA protocol that was in effect as of Dec. 31.

- - -

Follow Sadowski on Twitter: @DennisSadowski.

- - -

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.

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article