Catholic News 2
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) -- For Elizabeth Barajas it had been an hours-long nightmare waiting to learn the fate of the daughter she had dropped off at school a couple of hours before police reported that gunfire in a classroom had killed two adults and wounded two children....
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) -- A man walked into his estranged wife's elementary school classroom in San Bernardino and opened fire without saying a word, killing her and an 8-year-old student before shooting himself in a murder-suicide that spread panic across a city still recovering emotionally from a terror attack just 15 months ago....
San Bernardino, Calif., Apr 10, 2017 / 03:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After two people were killed in a shooting at a classroom in a San Bernardino elementary school on Monday, the city's bishop is praying for the victims and the school community.“I'm praying for the victims&entire school community after today's tragic shooting@NorthPark Elem.May God console us in this time of sorrow,” Bishop Gerald Barnes of San Bernardino tweeted April 10.A gunman opened fire this morning in a classroom of North Park Elementary School. Police have said the two victims are adults, a woman and the suspected shooter, and that two students are in critical condition.The police chief Jarrod Burguan said the incident is suspected to be a “murder-suicide” attempt, the BBC reports.There have been several shootings at schools in the United States in recent years.In December 2013 an individual opened fire at Arapahoe High School in the Denver suburb of Centennial, and in D...
San Bernardino, Calif., Apr 10, 2017 / 03:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After two people were killed in a shooting at a classroom in a San Bernardino elementary school on Monday, the city's bishop is praying for the victims and the school community.
“I'm praying for the victims&entire school community after today's tragic shooting@NorthPark Elem.May God console us in this time of sorrow,” Bishop Gerald Barnes of San Bernardino tweeted April 10.
A gunman opened fire this morning in a classroom of North Park Elementary School. Police have said the two victims are adults, a woman and the suspected shooter, and that two students are in critical condition.
The police chief Jarrod Burguan said the incident is suspected to be a “murder-suicide” attempt, the BBC reports.
There have been several shootings at schools in the United States in recent years.
In December 2013 an individual opened fire at Arapahoe High School in the Denver suburb of Centennial, and in December 2012 a gunman killed 20 children and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., as well as his mother and himself.
San Bernardino is also the site of a December 2015 mass shooting in which a couple killed 14 and wounded 21 others at a social services facility.
Austin, Texas, Apr 10, 2017 / 04:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Texas House passed a budget on Friday that strips Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers of funding through any state program.“Rather than chasing, kind of reactively, after Planned Parenthood, this is a comprehensive budget policy and ethic that pro-life Texans don’t want to subsidize abortion providers,” Emily Horne, legislative associate with Texas Right to Life, explained to CNA.The budget proposal, passed by the Texas House and Senate, now moves to a joint conference committee which will be made up of members of both chambers. They will then finalize the budget.Texas Right to Life has warned that although the budget has passed both chambers with pro-life provisions, those provisions could be removed by the committee, and so they will be fighting to ensure the provisions stay intact.Although past efforts were successful to block funding of abortion providers in certain state health programs, ...
Austin, Texas, Apr 10, 2017 / 04:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Texas House passed a budget on Friday that strips Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers of funding through any state program.
“Rather than chasing, kind of reactively, after Planned Parenthood, this is a comprehensive budget policy and ethic that pro-life Texans don’t want to subsidize abortion providers,” Emily Horne, legislative associate with Texas Right to Life, explained to CNA.
The budget proposal, passed by the Texas House and Senate, now moves to a joint conference committee which will be made up of members of both chambers. They will then finalize the budget.
Texas Right to Life has warned that although the budget has passed both chambers with pro-life provisions, those provisions could be removed by the committee, and so they will be fighting to ensure the provisions stay intact.
Although past efforts were successful to block funding of abortion providers in certain state health programs, there were still funds going to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers through community assistance and HIV screening programs, Horne said.
She compared the funding to a “whack-a-mole game” where if abortion providers were defunded in one state program, another source of funding would be intact. So the wording in the budget is broad, to “apply this logic and ethic to the whole budget,” she said.
The budget proposal also increases funding for the “Alternatives to Abortion” program by $20 million – a “huge increasing in funding” that was “very needed,” Horne said.
The program provides resources, hotlines, and referrals to pregnancy centers for expectant mothers, but also funds adoption agencies and maternal health providers – basically “funding all the alternatives” to abortion, Horne said.
There are also parenting classes offered under the program, and 10 hours of these classes would be required for mothers to receive certain assistance like diapers and formula, Horne said. The program also provides career development for working mothers, such as interview prep and resume-building classes.
It’s the “social side of trying to support women,” she said.
The U.S. Congress has also worked to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding – mostly from Medicaid reimbursements and Title X family planning grants.
The U.S. House has voted to defund Planned Parenthood, after undercover videos surfaced in 2015 showing doctors and officials discussing prices for fetal tissue from aborted babies with actors posing as prospective tissue harvesters. The House has also voted to let states choose not to fund Planned Parenthood through disbursement of Title X funds.
Defunding of Planned Parenthood was also included in the American Health Care Act, the recent health care bill that failed to make it to the House floor for a vote.
Austin, Texas, Apr 10, 2017 / 04:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Over 4,000 Catholics visited Texas’ capitol in Austin, including bishops from the state's 15 dioceses, to meet with legislators and discuss legislation under consideration.“It's important that we present a united voice,” Helen Osman, communications consultant for the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, told CNA April 10.“It took many hours of coordination, but the Texas legislators knew that the Church was present in the Capitol on April 4 – and we were there not in self-interest, but for the good of all citizens in the state of Texas,” she added.“Our motivation – to speak on behalf of the vulnerable and the poor, for human life and dignity – gives our voice a gravitas that many special interest groups lack.”For Catholic Advocacy Day, each of Texas' 181 legislators received a visit from a team of “Catholic advocates” who live in his or ...
Austin, Texas, Apr 10, 2017 / 04:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Over 4,000 Catholics visited Texas’ capitol in Austin, including bishops from the state's 15 dioceses, to meet with legislators and discuss legislation under consideration.
“It's important that we present a united voice,” Helen Osman, communications consultant for the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, told CNA April 10.
“It took many hours of coordination, but the Texas legislators knew that the Church was present in the Capitol on April 4 – and we were there not in self-interest, but for the good of all citizens in the state of Texas,” she added.
“Our motivation – to speak on behalf of the vulnerable and the poor, for human life and dignity – gives our voice a gravitas that many special interest groups lack.”
For Catholic Advocacy Day, each of Texas' 181 legislators received a visit from a team of “Catholic advocates” who live in his or her district.
They focused on issues grouped under the topics of protecting human life; children and families; health and human services; justice for immigrants; protecting the poor and vulnerable; and criminal justice.
“The team had a list of bills that were prioritized by the Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops since they were relevant to the bishops’ agenda, had been reviewed by the Catholic conference, and were active in the legislative process,” Osman said.
“We also held a rally outside the Capitol, where the bishops addressed all participants,” she added.
Osman said the group was among the more favorably received groups of capitol visitors.
“We bring a spirit of joy and generosity to our conversations, and the legislators appreciate that!” she said.
“These events can persuade a legislator to consider changing his or her position on important legislation. Catholics can effectively exercise their call to be faithful citizens by working with their bishops through their state Catholic conferences. “
Pro-life bills under consideration address partial-birth abortion, “wrongful birth” lawsuits, mandatory reporting for abortion complications, and efforts to increase penalties for abortions coerced by human traffickers. There is a bill concerning parental choice in education and several bills concerning foster care. The Texas bishops oppose a bill that targets sanctuary cities for immigrants, while they support a “targeted, proportional and humane” bill that would increase punishment for unlawful immigrants who commit violent crimes and also guarantee their deportation by authorities.
Some criminal justice bills concern accurate instructions to jurors in death penalty cases and the establishment of a special anti-human trafficking unit in the state’s Department of Public Safety. The Texas Catholic conference backs a bill that would provide better access to mental heath and substance abuse treatment, as well as a bill to establish a state grant to match donations to organizations that provide mental health programs.
On environmental issues, the conference opposes a bill that would limit a local community’s ability to control the export of its groundwater, on the grounds it violates subsidiarity. It also opposes a bill that would repeal the contested case process for environmental quality permits, on the grounds that it “limits the community's ability to protect health considering potential environmental hazards.”
Osman encouraged Catholics to look to their bishops for guidance.
“The bishops use their state Catholic conferences to research and monitor active legislation, and to convey the Church’s moral guidance.”
Ahead of the event, Bishop Edward Burns of the Diocese of Dallas said it was an exciting opportunity to visit legislators.
“We are able to stand in solidarity as people of faith to meet with our local legislative leaders in order to work together for the common good,” he said, according to the Dallas diocese’s website.
Jennifer Carr Allmon, executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, said the event was an “exciting opportunity” for Catholic constituents.
“They are able to stand in solidarity with their bishops, and meet their local legislators who are interested in hearing their point of view on these important issues,” she told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Before setting off a massive manhunt triggered by a gun shop break-in, authorities said Joseph Jakubowski first wanted to document the start of his self-proclaimed revolution against the government and law enforcement....
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof was given nine consecutive life sentences in prison after he pleaded guilty to state murder charges Monday, leaving him to await execution in a federal prison and sparing his victims and their families the burden of a second trial....
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Lawyers for seven Arkansas inmates scheduled to die this month because a key execution drug will soon expire went to federal court Monday to argue that the state's aggressive plan raises the risk that their deaths will be cruel and unusual....
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley resigned Monday rather than face impeachment and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor campaign violations that arose during an investigation of his alleged affair with a top aide....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad," his celebrated novel about an escaped slave that combined liberating imagination and brutal reality, has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction....
