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 WASHINGTON- The United States has a moral obligation to protect unaccompanied children and families from persecution in Central America, said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, October 21. Bishop Seitz is an advisor to the USCCB Committee on Migration and a member of the board of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC).

The humanitarian outflow, driven by organized crime in the northern triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, continues, with nearly 40,000 unaccompanied children and an equal number of mothers with children having arrived in the United States in Fiscal Year 2015.

"If we do not respond justly and humanely to this challenge in our own backyard, then we will relinquish our moral leadership and moral influence globally," Bishop Seitz said.

Bishop Seitz pointed to the human consequences of U.S. policies which are designed to deter migration from the region, including U.S. support for Mexican interdiction efforts which are intercepting children and families in Mexico and sending them back to danger, in violation of international law.

Bishop Seitz recommended an end to these interdictions and the introduction of a regional system which would screen children and families for asylum in Mexico and other parts of the region. He also called for Congress to approve and increase a $1 billion aid package proposed by the Administration.

"If we export enforcement," Bishop Seitz said, "we also must export protection."

Bishop Seitz recalled the words of Pope Francis before Congress in September, when he invoked the golden rule in guiding our nation's actions toward those seeking safety in our land.

Quoting the Holy Father, Bishop Seitz repeated to the committee, "'The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us.'"

"Mr. Chairman, I pray that time, and history, will conclude that we honored this rule in meeting this humanitarian challenge," Bishop Seitz concluded.

Bishop Seitz' testimony can be found at http://www.usccb.org//about/migration-policy/congressional-testimony/upload/seitz-ongoing-migration.pdf

Keywords: Bishop Mark J. Seitz, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Congress, Senate, Committee on Migration, migration, unaccompanied children, violence, Pope Francis
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Washington D.C., Dec 15, 2015 / 03:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- If the pro-life movement is to achieve its biggest policy victories to date, it must have a supporter in the White House after the 2016 election, one pro-life advocacy group has insisted.

 “The stakes are very high,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, told CNA in an interview about the 2016 election.

Two landmark pieces of pro-life legislation have made recent gains in Congress, but the White House had announced its intent to veto them. Passage of this legislation is what is at stake in the 2016 election, Dannenfelser maintained.

If both the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act – a ban on most abortions after five months of pregnancy passed by the House – and the defunding of the nation’s largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood, approved by both houses of Congress, became law, it “would truly be groundbreaking,” she added.

In the wake of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that decided a woman’s legal right to have an abortion, it would be the pro-life movement’s biggest policy victory, Dannenfelser claimed.

And there is a consensus around the pain-capable bill, she added, with many Democrats and Independents joining Republicans in support of it. Multiple polls have showed a majority of Americans in favor of restrictions on legal abortion after 20 weeks.

The U.S. is one of only seven countries that permit abortion past 20 weeks of gestation, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the Susan B. Anthony List. The others are the People's Republic of China, North Korea, Canada, Vietnam, Singapore, and The Netherlands.

Susan B. Anthony List is also working to help pro-life candidates for office articulate a positive and effective pro-life message. In particular, candidates must be prepared to address investigative videos released over the summer showing Planned Parenthood’s role in offering body parts of aborted babies to tissue harvesting companies for compensation.

Planned Parenthood doctors were shown on the undercover videos to be casually discussing the graphic dismemberment of babies who were aborted at Planned Parenthood clinics.

Amid the ensuing outrage, two congressional committees launched an investigation into Planned Parenthood’s activities. Both the House and Senate eventually voted to strip the organization of federal funding, which largely consists of Medicaid payments and health grants.

After a Nov. 27 shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic that killed three, Planned Parenthood’s advocacy arm blamed rhetoric from pro-life groups for inciting violence, saying that “acts of domestic terrorism do not exist in a vacuum.” The suspect, Robert Lewis Dear, admitted his guilt at a hearing and declared, "I am a warrior for the babies."

Pro-life groups such as the Center for Medical Progress – which produced the investigative videos – Susan B. Anthony List, and Students for Life had all quickly condemned the shooting.

Dannenfelser maintained that there is no connection between the pro-life movement’s “very affirming and loving approach” and “a mentally-imbalanced person that decides to use the name of the pro-life movement.”

Ultimately, pro-life candidates cannot be defensive when talking about the Planned Parenthood videos, she said.

“There is a horror that’s occurring, that most human beings are responding to appropriately,” she said.

“I don’t accept this premise that our quote rhetoric is somehow motivating bad actors. We have a very affirming and loving approach – the pro-life movement does,”  she continued.

And the group is helping candidates advance a positive pro-life vision, she said.

“If there is a limit on abortion at five months,” she explained, “part of the vision in advancing that is explaining what the alternative is to aborting that child,” she said, which would include actions such as promoting crisis pregnancy centers.

“We always have to cast a positive vision of what we want,” she said. “There is clearly evil that we want to eliminate. There is a good that we want to advance.”

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Vatican City, Dec 15, 2015 / 03:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday Pope Francis clarified a few points in his streamlined marriage annulment process. He reiterated that not only do the new rules trump everything that came before them, they also restore power to the Vatican’s main marriage court in order to prevent unnecessary procedural delays.

First announced in September, the new process went into effect Dec. 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the launch of Francis’ Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.

With the streamlined process, more of a role is placed on the local bishop, who now acts as the judge in the process, automatic appeals have been dropped, and the process has been declared free of charge.

The changes were initially published in two motu proprio – or letters – issued by the Pope “on his own initiative.” The documents were entitled “Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus” (The Lord Jesus, a meek judge), which deals with modifications in the Latin Rite's Code of Canon Law, and “Mitis et misericors Iesus” (Jesus, meek and merciful), which outlines changes for Eastern Churches who, although in full communion with Rome, have historically had a different process.

On Dec. 7, the day before the new process went into effect, Pope Francis signed a “rescript,” that is, a written answer to a question in which the primary subject of the question is clarified.

The move is a step in bringing the procedures of the Vatican’s main court, called the Roman Rota, in line with the new marriage annulment process.

According to the rescript text, the entry into force of the new process, which aims “to bring justice and mercy on the truth of the bond to those who have experienced the failure of their marriage,” requires, among other things, “the need to harmonize the renewed procedures for marriage annulment with the regulations of the Roman Rota, awaiting their reform.”

The new laws, it said, are “intended precisely to show the Church's closeness to wounded families, desiring that the many who experience matrimonial failure are reached by Christ's healing work through ecclesiastical structures.”

Francis affirmed the Rota’s jurisdiction as the ordinary court of appeal of the Apostolic See, and assured that it remains the point of reference in “safeguarding the unity of the jurisprudence,” as was laid out by St. John Paul II in his 1988 apostolic constitution Pastor Bonus.

With these two points in mind, as well as the desire to contribute “to the continuing formation of pastoral workers in the Tribunals of the local Churches,” Francis decreed that the new laws on annulment cases “repeal or waive any contrary law or regulation currently in force.”

The rescript also states that Pope Pius XI’s Motu Proprio “Qua cura” on regional tribunals in Italy is canceled.

In the text, the Pope clarifies that cases which reach the Roman Rota will now be judged according an old Latin formula: “An constet de matrimonii nullitate, in casu,” roughly translating as “Is there proof of the nullity of marriage in the case of…”

Basically, the formula allows the Rota to grant an annulment even if the grounds for doing so weren’t the ones originally specified.

For example, a person might seek an annulment on the basis that one of the parties didn’t believe in marriage indissolubility, that is, the fact that marriage is a lifelong commitment.

The court could rule that while that point couldn’t be proven, the marriage was obviously null for another reason, such as coercion, and declare it so.

This formula was previously used by the Rota, allowing them to grant an annulment on those grounds, however during his pontificate John Paul II required the court to judge the case only on the grounds originally specified, meaning that the person or couple seeking an annulment had to start the process over if their original claim was unable to be proven.

Francis’ move, then, can be seen as a continued effort to reach out to the Church’s “most fragile sons and daughters, marked by wounded and lost love,” as he said in the rescript text in reference to the most recent Synod of Bishops on the Family, which placed special emphasis on reaching out to divorced and remarried Catholics.

Of particular importance in the process is the principle of “generic doubt,” under which an a marriage can be declared null when the case off nullity is obvious, even without any specific grounds declared.

In the rescript, Pope Francis also clarified that “there shall be no appeal” against the decisions made by the Rota in matters of the nullity of sentences or decrees.

Under the new procedures, a first judgment is always made by the diocesan tribunal. However, if one or both of the spouses seeking an annulment disagree with the ruling, they may appeal to the Rota for a second judgment.

In the rescript, Francis established that if a cause of nullity arrives to the third degree of judgment, it cannot be proposed again “after one of the parties has contracted a new canonical marriage, unless the decision can be demonstrated to be manifestly unjust.”

It was also declared that the Dean of the Rota, then, “has the authority to dispense with the Norms of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota in procedural matters for a serious cause.”

Another aspect of the rescript, expressing the explicit wish of Eastern Church leaders, is that their local tribunals will now have jurisdiction over the “iurium,” or “human rights” aspects of marriage annulment cases that come before the Rota for an appeal.

This is particularly relevant for churches in the Middle East, where numerous countries have no civil law on marriage cases, and often depend on religious courts. This means that when cases arrive to the Rota from these areas, the court will also judge on questions such as alimony and child custody.
 
In his final point in the rescript Francis says that the Rota must offer to all “the principal of evangelic gratuity,” meaning that those seeking the annulment won’t have to pay the lawyer for the cause, but that the costs will presumably be absorbed by the Rota itself.

However, the Pope did say that wealthier parties have a “moral obligation” to make “a just contribution towards the causes of the poor.”

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Vatican City, Dec 15, 2015 / 04:14 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis yesterday authorized the Heroic Virtue of Brother William Gagnon, giving him the title of Venerable and launching him on the first step on the potential path to sainthood.

 

Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presented Brother Gagnon’s name to the Holy Father along with a list of others at an audience Dec. 14. 

 

Born to French-Canadian parents in Dover, New Hampshire on May 16, 1905, Brother Gagnon joined the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God in Montreal, Quebec in 1932 at the age of 25. This order, which began under St. John of God in Grenada, Spain, is dedicated to practicing hospitality, especially in caring for the sick and needy.

 

Brother Gagnon spent his first few years with the order in Canada, but in 1952 he was allowed to go to serve in northern Vietnam at the Bui-Chu Mission. 

 

It was there that he poured out his life caring for sick and wounded refugees and worked to further establish the Hospitaller Order in Vietnam. After he died of a heart attack on Feb. 28, 1972, many people came to venerate him at his grave.

 

Being named “Venerable” is the second of four steps on the path to canonization. First one is declared “Servant of God” when their cause is accepted for consideration, followed by “Venerable”, next “Blessed” and finally, “Saint.”

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By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- European experts on preventing financial crimes praised the Vatican for significant steps in establishing laws and procedures in line with international protocols, but called for "real results" in cracking down on infractions and prosecuting offenses.

Moneyval -- the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism -- said the Vatican has addressed "most of the technical deficiencies in its legislation and regulations."

"However, there is a need now for the anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing system to deliver effective results in terms of prosecutions, convictions and confiscation" of criminal assets, the experts said in a press release Dec. 12.

The Moneyval committee approved the Holy See-Vatican progress report at a meeting Dec. 8 in Strasbourg, France, and published its assessment of the Vatican's report on its website Dec. 15.

The Moneyval report said the Vatican showed significant progress in implementing recommendations Moneyval made in July 2012. The Vatican had met nine out of 16 key and core recommendations, thereby passing a major test in an effort to become more financially transparent and compliant with international norms.

The recommendations included improving record keeping; developing procedures for reporting suspicious transactions; enacting procedures to report transactions suspected of financing terrorism; ensuring there were procedures for confiscating accounts; making certain secrecy rules do not impede the prevention of financial crimes; and designing procedures for freezing and confiscating terrorist assets.

The Moneyval report said the Vatican's stepped-up efforts in reviewing bank accounts meant that the number of "suspicious activity reports has risen sharply since the last report," numbering 329 reports between January and September.

Vatican prosecutors have received 30 reports for investigation, have frozen about 11 million euros and have launched 29 money-laundering investigations, the report said.

"However, no indictments or prosecutions have, as yet, been brought in money-laundering cases," it said.

For example, it said the three cases reported in the first progress report in 2012 are still open and should have no obstacles in coming to a conclusion since they do not involve any other countries or foreign jurisdictions. Another money-laundering investigation opened in 2013, which resulted in the seizure of almost 2 million euros, is also still open, although "it is understood" that the prosecutor is now deciding on the next steps to take.

Even though the systems for reporting suspicious and illegal accounts and transactions are in place and are actively flagging cases, "there still remains, however, a continued lack of indictments for money laundering or for related serious proceeds-generating offenses in the three years" since procedures went into effect. "This situation needs to be improved," the report said.

Experts recommended that the Vatican make sure the Vatican police and prosecutor's office "have the capacity to conduct proactive financial investigation in order to deliver real results in the money laundering investigations that are underway." And it called for "ad hoc agreements" with foreign countries in order to expedite prosecution for cases involving cross-border crimes.

The committee said the "intensive review process" of surveying and identifying account holders at the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican bank, "appears to have been a success."

Almost 4,800 accounts had been closed according to stricter guidelines for identifying and verifying customers entitled to hold accounts there, indicating that "these guidelines are now being followed strictly."

The report confirmed the Financial Intelligence Authority, the Vatican's oversight agency, carried out a full inspection of the Vatican bank in 2014 and gave the bank a follow-up action plan. The intelligence authority was set to conduct a full inspection of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, which handles Vatican investments and real estate holdings, in December 2015.

By December 2017 the Vatican is expected to present an update on what steps have been taken to implement recommendations.

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Follow Glatz on Twitter: @CarolGlatz.

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