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 WASHINGTON-Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York called on everyone "concerned about the tragedy of abortion" to recommit to a "vision of life and love, a vision that excludes no one" on January 14. His statement marks the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Cardinal Dolan chairs the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"Most Americans oppose a policy allowing legal abortion for virtually any reason - though many still do not realize that this is what the Supreme Court gave us," wrote Cardinal Dolan. "Most want to protect unborn children at later stages of pregnancy, to regulate or limit the practice of abortion, and to stop the use of taxpayer dollars for the destruction of unborn children. Yet many who support important goals of the pro-life movement do not identify as 'pro-life,' a fact which should lead us to examine how we present our pro-life vision to others."

"Even as Americans remain troubled by abortion," wrote Cardinal Dolan, a powerful and well-funded lobby holds "that abortion must be celebrated as a positive good for women and society, and those who cannot in conscience provide it are to be condemned for practicing substandard medicine and waging a 'war on women'." He said this trend was seen recently when President Obama and other Democratic leaders prevented passage of the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act, "a modest measure to provide for effective enforcement" of conscience laws.

"While this is disturbing," said Cardinal Dolan, "it is also an opportunity." Pro-life Americans should reach out to "the great majority of Americans" who are "open to hearing a message of reverence for life." He added that "we who present the pro-life message must always strive to be better messengers. A cause that teaches the inexpressibly great value of each and every human being cannot show disdain or disrespect for any fellow human being." He encouraged Catholics to take part, through prayer and action, in the upcoming "9 Days for Life" campaign, January 16-24. More information on the campaign is available online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJwfcefUiU

He also cited the Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis as a time for women and men to find healing through the Church's Project Rachel post-abortion ministry.

The full text of Cardinal Dolan's message is available online.
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Keywords: Roe v. Wade, anniversary, Pro-Life, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, 9 Days for Life, USCCB, U.S. bishops, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Year of Mercy, Project Rachel, Pope Francis
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Washington D.C., Feb 23, 2016 / 05:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday his intent to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, a proposal that Catholic bishops have long supported in principle. 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops would not comment on the specific details of President Obama’s plan, but the bishops have supported – and still support – the closing of the prison, a spokesman for the bishops’ conference told CNA. 

“For many years, it’s been clear that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay does not advance our national security – it undermines it,” Obama stated on Tuesday morning at the White House. 

“Moreover, keeping this facility open is contrary to our values,” he added. “As Americans, we pride ourselves on being a beacon to other nations, a model of the rule of law.  But 15 years after 9/11 – 15 years after the worst terrorist attack in American history – we’re still having to defend the existence of a facility and a process where not a single verdict has been reached in those attacks.”

Obama delivered his plan for the closure of the facility to Congress, whose members will now discuss how to proceed. 

The detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was opened in 2002 as a supposedly secure way to detain terror suspects who were captured from the War in Afghanistan, and later in Iraq, and who were deemed too much of a national security threat to keep on American soil. 

Detainees were treated as “enemy combatants,” and since they belonged to a terrorist group rather than a country, the U.S. considered as complying with the Geneva Convention to hold them on non-U.S. soil and try them in a military court. Almost 800 detainees reportedly passed through Guantanamo from 2001-2008.

Human rights experts commissioned by the United Nations expressed their concern about the “interrogation techniques” at the prison in a 2006 United Nations report based on information from the U.S., former detainees and their lawyers. The techniques “amount to degrading treatment,” the experts said. 

In recent years, the U.N.’s human rights head repeatedly asked the United States to close the prison, speaking out against the prolonged detention of prisoners without trial. 

Bishops in the U.S. and at the Vatican have in the past disapproved of the indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantanamo and the conditions at the prison. 

“Detainees have the right to a just and fair trial held in a timely manner,” Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, wrote then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in 2013 over the situation at the prison. 

Bishop Pates cited Catholic social teaching to protest against indefinite detention in his November, 2013 letter to the U.S. Senate: 

“At the same time, our moral teaching says that the human rights of detainees must be respected and that ‘the identification of the guilty party must be duly proven.’ The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church calls for ‘trials (to be) conducted swiftly: their excessive length is becoming intolerable for citizens and results in a real injustice (No. 404).’”

After visiting the prison in 2006, Cardinal Renato Martino, the then-president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, told the Italian wire news service ANSA that “it seems clear that human dignity is not being fully respected in that prison.” 

“Everyone has a right to a fair trial,” he added. “Wherever in the world inmates are being held in such conditions, without even knowing the charges they face, we will not fail to defend them.”

In December of 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry met with the Vatican and sought their help in re-settling remaining detainees. 

It is unclear where the administration intends to move the detainees – 91 in number, according to President Obama. He said Tuesday that 35 prisoners have been cleared for removal “to other countries,” and said that the administration would “work with Congress” to find a secure place in the U.S. to house the remaining prisoners. 

“Keep in mind, this process involves extensive and careful coordination across our federal government to ensure that our national security interests are met when an individual is transferred to another country,” the president said. 

The president will now have to wait for Congress to act on his proposal. Republican congressional leaders expressed their disapproval of the plan on Tuesday. 

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) criticized the plan’s lack of a specific place to re-settle the prisoners. 

“President Obama has yet to convince the American people that moving Guantanamo terrorists to our homeland is smart or safe,” he said in a statement.

The House Speaker said any proposal to place the prisoners in the U.S. was “dead on arrival.”



Photo credit: Benjamin Haas via www.shutterstock.com

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Simon Caldwell

By Simon Caldwell

BURNLEY, England (CNS) -- A diocese in England is using a double-decker bus as a venue for priests to hear the confessions of people who have stopped going to church.

The Mercy Bus is touring the Diocese of Salford during Lent in an attempt to reach out to lapsed Catholics.

Each Saturday, the bus parks in a busy area of Manchester or one of the outlying towns, and volunteers try to engage shoppers by offering miraculous medals blessed by Pope Francis as gifts.

If they receive a positive response, they are invited on the bus, where they can talk with a priest or receive a blessing -- and also go to confession. Two priests offering the sacrament of reconciliation are stationed at the front and rear of the upper deck and one at the rear of the lower deck.

Visitors can also depart with information about the Catholic faith and about times of Masses in their local area.

Father Frankie Mulgrew, a Salford priest who helped to devise the project for the Year of Mercy, said interest from the public had "out-passed expectations."

In the first two weeks, when the bus visited Salford, then Bolton, more than 400 people visited, he told CNS in a Feb. 20 interview in Burnley, on the morning of the bus' third stop.

Priests later reported hearing the confessions of "significant numbers" of lapsed Catholics, some of whom had not been to church "for decades," he said.

"We are meeting people where they are, we are parking up beside their lives," said Father Mulgrew, 38, a former stand-up comedian who turned his back on a career in children's television to become a priest after he said he personally experienced the mercy of God in confession.

"We are saying: 'If you have got any burdens, come on the bus and be free from them. If you are going through any struggles right now -- a family feud, financial problems, a broken relationship -- come on board the bus and experience God's mercy,'" he said.

"We are trying to reconnect people to faith and provide a place of welcome for them, and acceptance, and a place where they are going to encounter God's mercy in a tangible way in their lives," Father Mulgrew said.

"It is going out joyfully," he added. "It's trying to show the church in all its beauty and all its joy."

Father Mulgrew said the initiative was inspired by the public ministry of Jesus "on the hilltops, in marketplaces and at the dinner tables" and also by the open-air Masses celebrated in the slums of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio before he became Pope Francis.

The initiative was conceived by a Salford diocesan Year of Mercy "outreach group" of which Father Mulgrew, a curate in Blackburn, is a member.

The bus was hired from an Accrington-based company called Moving People at the cost of $330 a day.

Initially, the plan was to use the bus on each Saturday in Lent, but the initiative is proving to be such a success that diocesan officials said they plan to retain the vehicle until the end of the holy year in November.

The front of the bus is emblazoned with the diocesan Year of Mercy logo with its destination entry designated as "#nextstopmercy."

The sides of bus show images of Pope Francis and priests hearing confessions on either side of "Mercy Bus" in huge letters.

Pope Francis has given his personal blessing to the initiative and, according to Father Mulgrew, "laughed spontaneously" when he presented the pontiff with pictures of the Mercy Bus.

"He gave me this great beaming smile which I took as a great encouragement and affirmation of what I was working toward," Father Mulgrew said.

Ahead of the launch, Bishop John Arnold of Salford announced in a press release that "the Mercy Bus is a way of reaching out to people who might not otherwise have contact with the church."

"We are going out to them, rather than expecting them to come to us," the bishop said.

The bus is accompanied by up to 40 volunteers and a band of musicians who play live music to draw the attention of the passing crowds.

Among the volunteers is Hannah Beckford who, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each Saturday, approaches shoppers with the offer of a miraculous medal.

"We say 'Would you like a free gift from the Holy Father?' and they often come back and ask a bit more about it," said Beckford, 25, who also serves as a chaplain in St. Joseph's Catholic High School, Horwich.

"It has caused a lot of interest, especially from people who haven't been to church for a long time," she said.

"The amazing thing about it is that it has thrown open the doors of the church," she said. "People are coming off the bus smiling and expressing sincere thanks.

"It is what the church should be doing. For a long time I have wanted it to go out, and it's wonderful that in Salford that's what the church is doing," she continued. "It is a joy to be a part of it. I love it."

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