WASHINGTON-The Office of General Counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, February 1, on behalf of USCCB, the Texas Catholic Conference and several Christian partners in support of a Texas law mandating health and safety standards protecting women who undergo abortions. Other groups joining the brief include the National Association of Evangelicals, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. The case is Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.
"There is ample evidence in this case that hospital admitting privileges and ambulatory surgical center requirements protect women's lives and health," said the brief. "When such requirements are not enforced, abuses detrimental to women's lives and health arise."
The brief noted that some abortion clinics have declared the standards too strict, although the standards are similar to those issued by the abortion industry. It added that abortion providers "should not be allowed to rely upon their own failure to comply with health and safety laws" as a reason to strike such laws down. The brief said the providers' resistance to such regulations is not in the best interests of women's health and safety. It also noted that over 40 years of precedent, including the Court's 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, reaffirms that states may regulate abortion to protect maternal life and health.
Full text of the brief is available online: www.usccb.org/about/general-counsel/amicus-briefs/upload/Whole-Woman-s-Health-v-Hellerstedt.pdf
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Keywords: General Counsel, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Texas law abortion, amicus curia, National Association of Evangelicals, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, U.S. Supreme Court
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Catholic News 2
WASHINGTON-The Office of General Counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, February 1, on behalf of USCCB, the Texas Catholic Conference and several Christian partners in support of a Texas law mandating health and safety standards protecting women who undergo abortions. Other groups joining the brief include the National Association of Evangelicals, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. The case is Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, currently before the U.S. Supreme Court."There is ample evidence in this case that hospital admitting privileges and ambulatory surgical center requirements protect women's lives and health," said the brief. "When such requirements are not enforced, abuses detrimental to women's lives and health arise."The brief noted that some abortion clinics have decla...
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for March 5th, 2016 features a report on the weekly general audience of Pope Francis with pilgrims from across the world and an interview with Archbishop Leo Cushley of Saint Andrew's and Edinburgh in Scotland. Also in this programme we present a timely musical meditation, a reflection by the title of 'St Mark's Gospel', part of an archive item relating to an interview with Pope Saint John XXIII and another in our series 'The Latin Lover'.A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for March 5th, 2016 features a report on the weekly general audience of Pope Francis with pilgrims from across the world and an interview with Archbishop Leo Cushley of Saint Andrew's and Edinburgh in Scotland. Also in this programme we present a timely musical meditation, a reflection by the title of 'St Mark's Gospel', part of an archive item relating to an interview with Pope Saint John XXIII and another in our series 'The Latin Lover'.
A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for March 6th, 2016 features a series of readings and reflections focusing on the Sunday Gospel by the title of 'There's More in the Sunday Gospel than Meets the Eye' followed by a bird's eye view of the past week in the Vatican presented by Joan Lewis, EWTN's bureau chief here in Rome.A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for March 6th, 2016 features a series of readings and reflections focusing on the Sunday Gospel by the title of 'There's More in the Sunday Gospel than Meets the Eye' followed by a bird's eye view of the past week in the Vatican presented by Joan Lewis, EWTN's bureau chief here in Rome.
A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
(Vatican Radio) The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, says a meeting of bishops with Pope Francis this week will be a sign of their “full and visible communion with the successor of Peter”.Members of the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church are gathered in Rome from February 29th to March 6th and are scheduled to meet with the Pope on Saturday. The Archbishop’s words came at an encounter earlier in the week with members of the Holy See’s diplomatic corps, during which he and other Church leaders highlighted the strength of faith but also warned of the huge challenges facing the people of Ukraine today.Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s report: Archbishop Shevchuk told diplomats that the meeting of Church leaders in Rome was planned some time ago to mark the 70th anniversary of the “pseudo-Synod” of Lviv which led to the liquidation of the Ukrainian Catholic Church thr...
(Vatican Radio) The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, says a meeting of bishops with Pope Francis this week will be a sign of their “full and visible communion with the successor of Peter”.
Members of the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church are gathered in Rome from February 29th to March 6th and are scheduled to meet with the Pope on Saturday. The Archbishop’s words came at an encounter earlier in the week with members of the Holy See’s diplomatic corps, during which he and other Church leaders highlighted the strength of faith but also warned of the huge challenges facing the people of Ukraine today.
Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s report:
Archbishop Shevchuk told diplomats that the meeting of Church leaders in Rome was planned some time ago to mark the 70th anniversary of the “pseudo-Synod” of Lviv which led to the liquidation of the Ukrainian Catholic Church throughout the former Soviet Union. For the next four decades, the Church was persecuted and survived as an underground organisation until the fall of the Communist regime in the early 1990s.
Byzantine-rite or Greek Catholics in Ukraine today number about 10 percent of the population, alongside a small Latin-rite Church, while the majority Orthodox Christians belong to three different patriarchates.
The recent encounter of Pope Francis with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Cuba and the signing of a joint declaration raised great concern among some Ukrainian Catholic faithful. But Archbishop Shevchuk said such concerns do not undermine his Church’s full and visible unity with the Pope and the Church of Rome.
Speaking to the diplomats, other bishops stressed the way the Church is flourishing in Ukraine today almost 30 years on from its liberation from Soviet oppression. But Bishop Boris Gudziak, head of the Church of the diaspora in France, Benelux and Switzerland, also warned of the increasingly difficult conditions facing Ukrainians in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Crimea and the conflict in the east of the country
At least 2 million people have been internally displaced by the war and another 2 and a half million have fled the country. The Ukrainian Church leaders are appealing to Pope Francis and to the whole of the Catholic community to do everything possible to end the conflict and to provide urgently needed humanitarian aid to the suffering population.
A delegation of the U.S. government agency charged with monitoring international religious freedom has been denied visas by the Indian government, the agency said on Thursday. A three-member delegation from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) had planned make a weeklong visit starting Friday to meet with government officials, religious leaders and activists in the cities of New Delhi and Mumbai. "We are deeply disappointed by the Indian government's denial, in effect, of these visas," USCIRF chairman Robert George said in a statement. "As a pluralistic, non-sectarian, and democratic state, and a close partner of the United States, India should have the confidence to allow our visit," he said.George said USCIRF had been able to travel to many countries, including those among the worst offenders of religious freedom, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, China, and Myanmar. &q...
A delegation of the U.S. government agency charged with monitoring international religious freedom has been denied visas by the Indian government, the agency said on Thursday. A three-member delegation from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) had planned make a weeklong visit starting Friday to meet with government officials, religious leaders and activists in the cities of New Delhi and Mumbai.
"We are deeply disappointed by the Indian government's denial, in effect, of these visas," USCIRF chairman Robert George said in a statement. "As a pluralistic, non-sectarian, and democratic state, and a close partner of the United States, India should have the confidence to allow our visit," he said.
George said USCIRF had been able to travel to many countries, including those among the worst offenders of religious freedom, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, China, and Myanmar. "One would expect that the Indian government would allow for more transparency than have these nations, and would welcome the opportunity to convey its views directly to USCIRF." The commission provides policy recommendations to the U.S. administration and Congress. It says it has been prevented from visiting India two other times.
A powerful Pakistani religious body that advises the government on the compatibility of laws with Islam on Thursday declared a new law that criminalizes violence against women to be "un-Islamic." The Women's Protection Act, passed by Pakistan's largest province of Punjab last week, gives unprecedented legal protection to women from domestic, psychological and sexual violence. It also calls for the creation of a toll-free abuse reporting hot line and the establishment of women's shelters. But since its passage in the Punjab assembly, many conservative clerics and religious leaders have denounced the new law as being in conflict with the Muslim holy book, the Koran, as well as Pakistan's constitution."The whole law is wrong," Muhammad Khan Sherani, the head of the Council of Islamic Ideology said at a news conference, citing verses from the Koran to point out that the law was "un-Islamic." The 54-year-old council is known for...
A powerful Pakistani religious body that advises the government on the compatibility of laws with Islam on Thursday declared a new law that criminalizes violence against women to be "un-Islamic." The Women's Protection Act, passed by Pakistan's largest province of Punjab last week, gives unprecedented legal protection to women from domestic, psychological and sexual violence. It also calls for the creation of a toll-free abuse reporting hot line and the establishment of women's shelters. But since its passage in the Punjab assembly, many conservative clerics and religious leaders have denounced the new law as being in conflict with the Muslim holy book, the Koran, as well as Pakistan's constitution.
"The whole law is wrong," Muhammad Khan Sherani, the head of the Council of Islamic Ideology said at a news conference, citing verses from the Koran to point out that the law was "un-Islamic." The 54-year-old council is known for its controversial decisions. In the past it has ruled that DNA cannot be used as primary evidence in rape cases, and it supported a law that requires women alleging rape to get four male witnesses to testify in court before a case is heard.
The council's decision this January to block a bill to impose harsher penalties for marrying off girls as young as eight or nine has angered human rights activists. The new law establishes district-level panels to investigate reports of abuse, and mandates the use of GPS bracelets to keep track of offenders. It also sets punishments of up to a year in jail for violators of court orders related to domestic violence, with that period rising to two years for repeat offenders.
In 2013, more than 5,800 cases of violence against women were reported in Punjab alone, the province where Wednesday's law was passed, according to the Aurat Foundation, a women's rights advocacy group. Those cases represented 74 percent of the national total that year, the latest for which data is available. (Source: Reuters)
(Vatican Radio) On the afternoon of 3 March 2016, the Holy Father received in audience the Prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B. In the course of the Audience, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation to promulgate degrees regarding: the miracle, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Manuel González García, Bishop of Palencia, Founder of the Children of Reparation and of the Eucharistic Missionaries of Nazareth; born 25 February 1877 and died 4 January 1940; the miracle, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity (born Élizabeth Catez), professed religious of the Discalced Carmelites; born 18 July 1880 and died 9 November 1906; the miracle, attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus (born: Henri Grialou), professed Priest of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, Founder of the Secular Institute of Notre-Dame de Vie; born 2 December 1894 and...
(Vatican Radio) On the afternoon of 3 March 2016, the Holy Father received in audience the Prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B. In the course of the Audience, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation to promulgate degrees regarding:
- the miracle, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Manuel González García, Bishop of Palencia, Founder of the Children of Reparation and of the Eucharistic Missionaries of Nazareth; born 25 February 1877 and died 4 January 1940;
- the miracle, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity (born Élizabeth Catez), professed religious of the Discalced Carmelites; born 18 July 1880 and died 9 November 1906;
- the miracle, attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus (born: Henri Grialou), professed Priest of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, Founder of the Secular Institute of Notre-Dame de Vie; born 2 December 1894 and died 27 March 1967;
- the miracle, attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God María Antonia of Saint Joseph (born: María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa), Founder of the Beaterio of the Spiritual Exercises of Buenos Aires in Argentina; born 1730 and died 7 marzo 1799;
- the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Stefano Ferrando, of the Salesian Society of St John Bosco, Titular Archbishop of Toyna, later Bishop of Shillong, Founder of Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians; born 28 September 1895 and died 20 June 1978;
- the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Henri Stanislaus Verjus, of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Titular Bishop of Limyra, Coadjutor of the Apostolic Vicariate of New Guinea; born 26 May 1860 and died 13 November 1892;
- the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Giovanni Battista Quilici, Diocesan Priest, Pastor, Founder of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Crucified, born 26 April 1791 and died 10 June 1844;
- the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Bernardo Mattio, Diocesan Priest, Pastor; born 2 January 1845 and died 11 April 1914;
- the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Quirico Pignalberi, professed Priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual; born 11 July 1891 and died 18 July 1982;
- the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Teodora Campostrini, Foundress of the Congregation of the Minim Sisters of the Charity of the Sorrowful Mary; born 26 October 1788 and died 22 May 1860;
- the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Bianca Piccolomini Clementini, Foundress of the Society of Saint Angela Merici; born 7 April 1875 and died 14 August 1959;
- the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Maria Nieves Sánchez y Fernández (in religion: Maria Nieves of the Holy Family), professed religious of the Daughters of Mary of the Pious Schools; born 2 May 1900 and died 1 May 1978.
Four gunmen attacked an old people's home in the Yemeni port of Aden on Friday, killing at least 15 people, including four Missionaries of Charity nuns of Mother Teresa, the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia told the Vatican’s Fides news agency. The Vicariate said two of the slain nuns were from Rwanda and one each from India and Kenya. One nun who survived and was rescued by locals said that she hid inside a fridge in a store room. The gunmen, who first told the guard they were on a visit to their mother, stormed into the home with rifles and opened fire, one local official said. As well as the nuns, the dead included two Yemeni women working at the facility, eight elderly residents and a guard. The motive of the gunmen was not immediately known. They fled after the attack, the official said. The bodies of those killed have been transferred to a clinic supported by medical group Medecins Sans Frontieres, medical sources said.There are around 80 res...
Four gunmen attacked an old people's home in the Yemeni port of Aden on Friday, killing at least 15 people, including four Missionaries of Charity nuns of Mother Teresa, the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia told the Vatican’s Fides news agency. The Vicariate said two of the slain nuns were from Rwanda and one each from India and Kenya. One nun who survived and was rescued by locals said that she hid inside a fridge in a store room.
The gunmen, who first told the guard they were on a visit to their mother, stormed into the home with rifles and opened fire, one local official said. As well as the nuns, the dead included two Yemeni women working at the facility, eight elderly residents and a guard. The motive of the gunmen was not immediately known. They fled after the attack, the official said. The bodies of those killed have been transferred to a clinic supported by medical group Medecins Sans Frontieres, medical sources said.
There are around 80 residents living at the home run by Missionaries of Charity. The nuns also came under attack in Yemen in 1998 when gunmen killed three of them in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida.
Yemen's embattled government is based in Aden but has struggled to impose its authority there since its forces, backed by Gulf Arab troops, expelled Iran-allied Houthi fighters who still control the country's capital, Sanaa. Once a cosmopolitan city home to thriving Hindu and Christian communities, Aden has gone from one of the world's busiest ports as a key hub of the British empire to a largely lawless backwater. Aden's small Christian population left long ago. Unknown assailants have previously vandalised a Christian cemetery, torched a church and last year blew up an abandoned Catholic church.
(Vatican Radio) As part of ongoing celebrations for the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis on Friday evening delivered the homily at a special "Penitential Celebration" in St Peter's Basilica. Below, please find the full text of Pope Francis' prepared homily for the Celebration************************************************************* Homily of His Holiness Pope FrancisPenitential CelebrationSaint Peter’s BasilicaFriday, 4 March 2016“I want to see again” (Mk 10:51). This is what we ask of the Lord today. To see again, because our sins have made us lose sight of all that is good, and have robbed us of the beauty of our calling, leading us instead far away from our journey's end.This Gospel passage has great symbolic value for our lives, because we all find ourselves in the same situation as Bartimaeus. His blindness led him to poverty and to living on the outskirts of the city, dependent on others for everything he needed. Sin a...
(Vatican Radio) As part of ongoing celebrations for the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis on Friday evening delivered the homily at a special "Penitential Celebration" in St Peter's Basilica.
Below, please find the full text of Pope Francis' prepared homily for the Celebration
*************************************************************
Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis
Penitential Celebration
Saint Peter’s Basilica
Friday, 4 March 2016
“I want to see again” (Mk 10:51). This is what we ask of the Lord today. To see again, because our sins have made us lose sight of all that is good, and have robbed us of the beauty of our calling, leading us instead far away from our journey's end.
This Gospel passage has great symbolic value for our lives, because we all find ourselves in the same situation as Bartimaeus. His blindness led him to poverty and to living on the outskirts of the city, dependent on others for everything he needed. Sin also has this effect: it impoverishes and isolates us. It is a blindness of the spirit, which prevents us from seeing what is most important, from fixing our gaze on the love that gives us life. This blindness leads us little by little to dwell on what is superficial, until we are indifferent to others and to what is good. How many temptations have the power to cloud the heart’s vision and to make it myopic! How easy and misguided it is to believe that life depends on what we have, on our successes and on the approval we receive; to believe that the economy is only for profit and consumption; that personal desires are more important than social responsibility! When we only look to ourselves, we become blind, lifeless and self-centred, devoid of joy and true freedom.
But Jesus is passing by; he is passing by, and he halts: the Gospel tells us that “he stopped” (v. 49). Our hearts race, because we realize that the Light is gazing upon us, that kindly Light which invites us to come out of our dark blindness. Jesus’ closeness to us makes us see that when we are far from him there is something important missing from our lives. His presence makes us feel in need of salvation, and this begins the healing of our heart. Then, when our desire to be healed becomes more courageous, it leads to prayer, to crying out fervently and persistently for help, as did Bartimaeus: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (v. 47).
Unfortunately, like the “many” in the Gospel, there is always someone who does not want to stop, who does not want to be bothered by someone else crying out in pain, preferring instead to silence and rebuke the person in need who is only a nuisance (cf. v. 48). There is the temptation to move on as if it were nothing, but then we would remain far from the Lord and we would also keep others away from Jesus. May we realize that we are all begging for God’s love, and not allow ourselves to miss the Lord as he passes by. “Timeo transeuntem Dominum” (Saint Augustine). Let us voice our truest desire: “[Jesus], let me receive my sight!” (v. 51). This Jubilee of Mercy is the favourable time to welcome God’s presence, to experience his love and to return to him with all our heart. Like Bartimaeus, let us cast off our cloak and rise to our feet (cf. v. 50): that is, let us cast aside all that prevents us from racing towards him, unafraid of leaving behind those things which make us feel safe and to which we are attached. Let us not remain sedentary, but let us get up and find our spiritual worth again, our dignity as loved sons and daughters who stand before the Lord so that we can be seen by him, forgiven and recreated.
Today more than ever, we Pastors are especially called to hear the cry, perhaps hidden, of all those who wish to encounter the Lord. We need to re-examine those behaviours of ours which at times do not help others to draw close to Jesus; the schedules and programmes which do not meet the real needs of those who may approach the confessional; human regulations, if they are more important than the desire for forgiveness; our own inflexibility which may keep others away from God’s tenderness. We must certainly not water down the demands of the Gospel, but we cannot risk frustrating the desire of the sinner to be reconciled with the Father. For what the Father awaits more than anything is for his sons and daughters to return home (cf. Lk 15:20-32).
May our words be those of the disciples who, echoing Jesus, said to Bartimaeus: “Take heart; rise, he is calling you” (Mk 10:49). We have been sent to inspire courage, to support and to lead others to Jesus. Our ministry is one of accompaniment, so that the encounter with the Lord may be personal and intimate, and the heart may open itself to the Saviour in honesty and without fear. May we not forget: it is God alone who is at work in every person. In the Gospel it is he who stops and speaks to the blind man; it is he who orders the man to be brought to him, and who listens to him and heals him. We have been chosen to awaken the desire for conversion, to be instruments that facilitate this encounter, to stretch out our hand and to absolve, thus making his mercy visible and effective.
The conclusion of the Gospel story is significant: Bartimaeus “immediately received his sight and followed him on the way” (v. 52). When we draw near to Jesus, we too see once more the light which enables us to look to the future with confidence. We find anew the strength and the courage to set out on the way. “Those who believe, see” (Lumen Fidei, 1) and they go forth in hope, because they know that the Lord is present, that he is sustaining and guiding them. Let us follow him, as faithful disciples, so that we can lead all those we encounter to experience the joy of his merciful love.
(Vatican Radio) Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, has concluded a visit to the UK where he discussed issues ranging from migration and modern slavery to climate change and international cooperation with British government ministers.During the March 1st to 4th visit the Liverpool-born archbishop met with the Minister for Europe, David Lidington, and Baroness Anelay, Foreign Office Minister in the House of Lords. He discussed with them common concerns including the situation facing Christian communities in the Middle East, Ukraine, Kosovo and Cyprus. Mr Lidington also shared the British government’s position on remaining in the European Union, ahead of the national referendum on June 23rd. In a meeting with Britain’s Home Secretary, Theresa May, the archbishop talked about the current migration crisis and efforts to combat slavery and trafficking. He also met with the Secretary of State for International...
(Vatican Radio) Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, has concluded a visit to the UK where he discussed issues ranging from migration and modern slavery to climate change and international cooperation with British government ministers.
During the March 1st to 4th visit the Liverpool-born archbishop met with the Minister for Europe, David Lidington, and Baroness Anelay, Foreign Office Minister in the House of Lords. He discussed with them common concerns including the situation facing Christian communities in the Middle East, Ukraine, Kosovo and Cyprus. Mr Lidington also shared the British government’s position on remaining in the European Union, ahead of the national referendum on June 23rd.
In a meeting with Britain’s Home Secretary, Theresa May, the archbishop talked about the current migration crisis and efforts to combat slavery and trafficking. He also met with the Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers and with Lord Borne of Aberystwyth, the Climate Change Minister.
The Vatican foreign minister was welcomed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, at Lambeth Palace and had the opportunity to discuss potential cooperation with the Commonwealth in talks with its Secretary-General elect, Baroness Scotland of Asthal.
