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Taiwan’s ambassador to Vatican highlights partnership in charity and peace
Posted on 10/10/2024 16:50 PM (CNA Daily News)
Vatican City, Oct 10, 2024 / 12:50 pm (CNA).
Taiwan’s ambassador to the Holy See, Matthew Lee, emphasized the importance of the Vatican-Taiwan partnership, particularly in promoting peace and religious freedom, in a recent interview with CNA.
“Taiwan has enjoyed diplomatic relations with the Holy See for 82 years. That’s very important because it means the Holy See recognizes Taiwan as a country that values religious freedom and its communion with the universal Church,” Lee told CNA at a reception ahead of Taiwan’s National Day, which is celebrated each year on Oct. 10.
The Oct. 2 event held near St. Peter’s Basilica drew cardinals, bishops, and diplomats accredited to the Holy See, underscoring the democratic island’s ties with the Vatican, one of only 12 remaining nations in the world that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
“In Taiwan, the Catholic people [number] about 3%, but it’s very powerful,” the ambassador said. Taiwan’s National Eucharistic Congress on Oct. 5 drew more than 10,000 people, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was the fifth Eucharistic congress held in Taiwan since 2011.
In his remarks at the event, Lee highlighted how Taiwan and the Vatican have worked “hand in hand” to provide humanitarian aid and contribute to the international community.
“In the future, Taiwan will continue to cooperate with the Holy See and like-minded democracies to jointly safeguard regional peace and stability, protect religious freedom, and create a society of greater justice and peace for humanity,” Lee said.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, Cardinal Silvano Tomasi, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, and other Vatican officials attended the celebration. Re offered a blessing for the food at the event held on the feast of the Guardian Angels, praying that angels may always protect Taiwan so that it may “always live in peace.”
Amid Taiwan’s National Day celebrations, the Chinese military put pressure on the democratic island by sending 15 planes across the median line of the Taiwan Strait, according to the Associated Press.
The ambassador emphasized Taiwan’s commitment to Pope Francis’ call to promote peace in the world, especially in the Taiwan Strait.
After taking office on May 20, Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te, echoed that call for peace, urging China to “stop intimidating Taiwan politically and militarily,” Lee said.
“President Lai also constantly called for dialogue over confrontation, exchange over containment, and peaceful engagement with the legal government chosen by Taiwanese people,” he added.
Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China, has maintained formal diplomatic relations with the Holy See since 1942. The Vatican does not have diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
The ambassador noted that the embassy organized a “novena for peace” in response to Pope Francis’ call for peace.
Bishop Norbert Pu of Taiwan spoke to CNA at the event about the significance of the Vatican’s recognition for Taiwanese Catholics.
“We hope we can always maintain this formal and good relationship with the Vatican. Because for Taiwan, this is very important. We hope that the world will see this because Taiwan is a democratic and free country, respected by other nations,” Pu said.
Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, the archbishop of Bangui in the Central African Republic, also spoke at the event, giving thanks for Taiwan’s donation of a computer classroom at the Major Seminary of St. Mark.
Lee highlighted how Taiwan has “provided humanitarian assistance and carried out concrete projects to help many countries.”
“The Taiwan Embassy has joined forces with several religious congregations this year to deliver humanitarian assistance to those in need,” he said.
Pope Francis’ Brazilian pick for cardinal urges openness to ordaining married priests in region
Posted on 10/10/2024 16:20 PM (CNA Daily News)
Vatican City, Oct 10, 2024 / 12:20 pm (CNA).
Brazilian Archbishop Jaime Spengler, OFM, one of the 21 men chosen by Pope Francis to become a cardinal in the next consistory on Dec. 8, confirmed plans for a trial run of an Amazonian rite of the Mass and urged “openness” to the idea of married priests to serve certain communities facing a shortage of priests.
The 64-year-old is a prominent figure in the Church in his home country and throughout South America, heading both the Catholic bishops’ conference of Brazil and the Latin American bishops’ conference (CELAM).
A descendant of German immigrants, Spengler has been a member of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor for more than 40 years and a priest for almost 34 years.
After serving as auxiliary bishop of Porto Alegre for two and a half years, Pope Francis tapped him in 2013 to lead the archdiocese, making him the youngest archbishop in Brazil at the time, having just turned 53.
The Archdiocese of Porto Alegre, which covers the capital city of the southernmost state of Brazil, serves over 2 million Catholics spread across more than 13,000 square kilometers (more than 5,000 square miles), according to 2021 Vatican statistics.
With just 300-some priests, the archdiocese has had to explore ways of overcoming the challenges posed by a priest shortage — a problem faced by much of the Catholic Church in Latin America.
Spengler once again indicated he is open to ordaining married men, so-called “viri probati,” to serve as priests — a subject much debated during the Vatican’s Amazon synod in 2019.
The archbishop and future cardinal said at a briefing for the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican Oct. 8 that his archdiocese is “investing in permanent deacons: Maybe in the future these married men could also be ordained as priests for a specific community.”
The issue of the priestly ordination of married men — currently not allowed by Church discipline in the Latin rite — is “delicate,” Spengler noted. “I don’t know if it could be the best solution to the shortage of priests, but we need frankness and openness to deal with it. It’s a journey.”
“I don’t have prepackaged answers,” he continued. “We can and must face the issue with courage, keeping in mind theology but also grasping the signs of the times.”
Spengler, who has a doctorate in philosophy from the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome, was born in Gaspar in the state of Santa Caterina, just north of where he now lives in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Santa Caterina is the source of a lot of Brazil’s priestly vocations and also the birthplace of two of the most influential figures in liberation theology: the late archbishop of São Paulo, Paulo Evaristo Arns, OFM, and theologian Leonardo Boff, a former Catholic priest and one of the founders of the movement, which gained popularity in the 1970s and emphasized freedom from poverty and oppression as the key to salvation.
Spengler has also supported an Amazonian rite of the Mass, something that has been under study since the 2019 Amazon Synod. A three-year experimental phase of an Amazonian rite will begin before the end of this year, according to Father Agenor Brighenti, a priest leading the Amazonian bishops’ (CEAMA) study of an Amazonian rite.
Brighenti, one of the Synod on Synodality’s theology experts, is also the new head of the theological-pastoral team of CELAM.
Responding to a question, Spengler confirmed at the Oct. 8 Vatican briefing that there is a group in the Amazon bishops’ conference working on creating an Amazonian rite of the Mass but added that he thinks it could also be easier to explore ways of inculturating the Latin rite of the Mass instead.
The Brazilian cardinal-designate tied the need to have a Mass that reflects Amazonian culture in some way to a lack of access to the Eucharist in some remote areas of the Amazon.
“Today in the Latin Church we have the Roman rite, and the Roman rite must be inculturated in the different realities,” he said. “Personally I think we can explore this possibility in a more in-depth manner ... Of course, this requires a special sensitivity and attention on the part of the involved parties, and also a readiness to find a way, a journey.”
The future cardinal also said a challenge for the Church in traditionally Christian countries such as Brazil is how to present the faith to the next generation.
The remarks echoed comments Spengler made during a different synod, the 2018 synod on young people, faith, and vocational discernment. As a delegate to the youth synod, Spengler told journalists he thought the question of transmitting religious values to young people was at the foundation of all the bishops’ debates.
In the context of the current synod, Spengler is among those who see deep connections between the Second Vatican Council and the push for a more synodal Church.
The Synod of Synodality is “an opportunity to rescue the main lines of the Second Vatican Council,” the archbishop said in a letter to the Brazilian bishops’ conference this week.
“In truth, it is about developing the intuitions of the council fathers and finding viable ways to implement them,” he wrote to the bishops, noting that they should not fear controversies, which are only “part of the process.”
Report: Nearly 150 Catholic hospitals provided transgender drugs or surgeries to children
Posted on 10/10/2024 15:50 PM (CNA Daily News)
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 10, 2024 / 11:50 am (CNA).
Nearly 150 Catholic hospitals across the United States provided children with transgender drugs or performed gender-transition surgeries on them between 2019 and 2023, contradicting Church teaching and the U.S. bishops’ prohibition on Catholic health care providers offering such interventions, according to data published this week by a medical watchdog group.
In all, more than 520 minors received treatments in Catholic hospitals in about 40 states over the five-year period, an analysis of the data by EWTN News shows.
Of those patients, more than 150 had surgeries to alter their appearances to resemble the opposite sex, while more than 380 children were given puberty blockers or hormone therapies.
Puberty blockers stop a child’s natural developments during puberty and hormone therapies provide testosterone to girls who want to resemble boys and estrogen to boys who want to resemble girls. Based on the records in the database, EWTN News found that doctors at Catholic hospitals wrote more than 1,850 prescriptions for minors to facilitate a gender transition.
Catholic health care providers contacted by EWTN News criticized the watchdog group’s methodology and motives without contradicting any of its specific data.
In 2023, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) published guidelines stating that any attempt to alter one’s physical sex characteristics to facilitate a gender transition is “not morally justified” because it does not “respect the fundamental order of the human person as an intrinsic unity of body and soul, with a body that is sexually differentiated.”
“Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures,” adds the document prepared by the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine, titled “Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body.”
The document quotes Pope Francis several times, including his 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia: “Beyond the understandable difficulties which individuals may experience, the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created.”
Yet despite the bishops’ directive, the watchdog group Do No Harm found gender transition interventions to be widespread among U.S. hospitals affiliated with the Catholic Church.
The group’s “Stop the Harm Database” is based on publicly available insurance claims generated by U.S. hospitals and health care facilities. These numbers do not include children who were born with intersex disorders.
Based in Glen Allen, Virginia, Do No Harm states on its website that it “seeks to highlight and counteract divisive trends in medicine, such as “‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ and youth-focused gender ideology.”
Most of the nearly 150 Catholic hospitals listed in the database — including six children’s hospitals — offered only minimal services, such as filling a single prescription, the records show. But 33 Catholic hospitals performed at least one gender transition surgery on a minor for a total of 152 surgeries.
Half of the children who received such surgeries — 76 in all — were patients at five facilities operated by Providence, a nonprofit Catholic health care system encompassing 51 hospitals in five states: Washington, Montana, Oregon, California, and Alaska. Two of the system’s hospitals provided the lion’s share of these surgeries: Providence Milwaukie Hospital in Oregon operated on 46 children, according to the database, while Providence St. Joseph Hospital Orange in California provided surgeries to 18 children.
Six other Catholic hospitals performed gender transition surgeries on at least five minors. This includes eight children who received surgery at St. Anne Hospital in Burien, Washington. St. Anne Hospital is operated by Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, which runs 10 hospitals in Washington state.
Other hospitals that performed several gender transition surgeries, according to the database, include Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital-St. Joseph Campus in Milwaukee and Ascension NE Wisconsin-St. Elizabeth Campus in Appleton, Wisconsin, both of which performed surgeries on six minors.
Across Catholic, secular, and other hospitals, the database found nearly 14,000 minors undergoing gender transitions in the United States across the time span. This includes more than 5,700 surgeries and more than 8,500 minors receiving puberty blockers or hormone therapies. Doctors wrote more than 62,600 gender transition prescriptions.
Catholic Health Association pushes back
When EWTN News reached out to several Catholic health networks and hospitals that are listed in the report, most referred to a statement issued by the Catholic Health Association (CHA), which criticized Do No Harm.
Comprising more than 600 hospitals and 1,600 long-term care and other health facilities in all 50 states, CHA is the largest group of nonprofit health care providers in the United States, according to its website. The organization has clashed with the U.S. bishops in the past on health care issues, such as the Affordable Care Act.
“A preliminary review of the data gathered by Do No Harm indicates they are irresponsibly presenting claims data without necessary clinical context,” CHA said in its statement. “This harmful report makes dangerous assumptions that seek to disparage health care providers and the patients they treat.”
CHA added that Catholic hospitals provide “ethical, evidence-based medical care that recognizes and upholds the human dignity of each person” and accused Do No Harm of stigmatizing “LGBTQ communities.” It also stated “there are certain procedures we do not perform based on our values and faith.”
CHA did not respond to EWTN News’ request for clarification about which procedures are not in line with its values and whether Catholic hospitals provide transgender surgeries or drugs to minors or adults.
Beth Serio, the external relations manager at Do No Harm, told EWTN News the group stands by its findings, adding that the group has published the methodology so that “anyone could look at our paper and exactly replicate our study and get the same results.”
She said the records in the group’s database represent “the minimum [number of gender transitions] we know occurred in these hospitals.” Because the database could not account for cash payments or insurance claims that are not accessible to the public, she said, “we’re quite confident it’s an undercount.”
Serio expressed disappointment in CHA’s response, telling EWTN: “It is very sad that the Catholic Health Association is choosing to attack [Do No Harm’s] character as an organization rather than focusing on the real issue, [which is that] … thousands of children are being harmed across the country.”
She said the report could be an “opportunity [for CHA] to be an advocate for change” and urged the association to “truly read our methodology and study it and point to exactly where [they think] the methodology is flawed.”
Serio told EWTN News that Do No Harm’s “primary motivation and interest in releasing this database is the protection of children.”
A spokesperson for Providence — the network responsible for half of the transgender surgeries by Catholic hospitals listed in the report — said the health network has “concerns about the motivation for this report and the risk it poses to the privacy of a vulnerable patient population” but could not “speak to the validity of its report content, data, or methodology.”
“Transgender patients come to us for many health care needs,” the statement read. “We are committed to providing them with quality, compassionate health care, and helping them to feel welcome, safe, and included. … [We] provide all patients with the full range of care available at our facilities.”
When asked for clarification about its policies regarding transgender surgeries, a spokesperson referred EWTN News back to Providence’s original statement.
What can the bishops do?
It remains to be seen what, if any, action the USCCB or individual U.S. bishops will take in response to Do No Harm’s report.
In a statement to EWTN News, Chieko Noguchi, a spokesperson for the USCCB, said that Church teaching “is clear … about the inherent dignity of each person as created in the image and likeness of God.”
Noguchi added that “we are always called to accompany those who are struggling, and this certainly includes people who struggle with his or her God-given identity as male or female,” but emphasized that both the bishops and the Holy See “have been clear as to what is morally acceptable.”
“Let us pray that we may all find the compassion and wisdom to better help our brothers and sisters accept who God created them to be,” she added.
EWTN News followed up on the statement to ask what action bishops could take if hospitals violate the USCCB guidelines but did not receive a response by the time of publication. EWTN News also asked CHA whether Catholic hospitals listed in the report intend to follow USCCB guidelines but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at The National Catholic Bioethics Center, told EWTN News: “Catholic hospitals clearly must hold to a higher standard than that of their secular counterparts” and they “may not condone or participate in these unethical practices.”
“Reports indicating that Catholic hospitals, including some Catholic children’s hospitals, may be involved in sex reassignment procedures remind us of the need for continued vigilance on the part of diocesan bishops and Catholic health care leaders,” Pacholczyk said.
“There may also be a need for more thoroughgoing ethical formation for employees and administrators to help them counter the pro-transgender ideological messaging that has become commonplace in recent years,” he added.
“To treat our human maleness or femaleness as malleable or re-assignable is to invite serious harm into the lives of those who may be facing genuine and deep-seated psychological struggles over their own ‘gender identity,’” Pacholczyk said. “Catholic health care entities best serve their patients by directing them towards supportive psychotherapy that works to address any underlying psychiatric issues that may be prompting the desire to gender transition.”
The issue of transgender drugs and surgeries for minors has become a heated political topic in the United States and worldwide in recent years.
Most Republican-led states have restricted or banned doctors from providing those medical interventions to minors. Many Democrat-led states have done the opposite — changing state law to ensure doctors can continue with those interventions.
Film composer Hans Zimmer to conduct Vatican concert for poor and homeless
Posted on 10/10/2024 13:15 PM (CNA Daily News)
Vatican City, Oct 10, 2024 / 09:15 am (CNA).
The Vatican announced Thursday that Oscar-winning film composer Hans Zimmer will conduct a special concert for the poor and homeless at a Vatican City venue.
Zimmer, known for his scores of films like “Gladiator,” “The Lion King,” “Interstellar,” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” will conduct some of his most memorable movie melodies at the event.
The legendary composer will take center stage at the Vatican’s “Concert with the Poor” on Dec. 7 in the Paul VI Hall.
Three thousand people in need, cared for by volunteer organizations around Rome, will be invited to enjoy the live performance. At the end of the concert, they will receive a takeaway dinner and other necessities.
The Vatican event seeks to elevate those often left on the margins of society, offering them not just a world-class performance but an experience that acknowledges their dignity and worth.
Zimmer has won Academy Awards for composing original scores for “Dune” and “The Lion King” as well as 22 Grammy nominations for films including “Inception,” “The Prince of Egypt,” and “The Dark Knight.”
Joining him will be Grammy-nominated cellist Tina Guo and Italian priest and composer Monsignor Marco Frisina, who has composed both sacred music and scores for numerous religious films in Italy.
The Nova Opera Orchestra, featuring 70 musicians from across Europe, and the 250-member Choir of the Diocese of Rome will also participate, marking the choir’s 40th anniversary.
Pope Francis will meet privately with Zimmer and the other artists ahead of the concert.
First held in 2015, the “Concert with the Poor” has become a Vatican tradition. Past editions of the event have featured luminaries such as the late composer Ennio Morricone, a legend in Italian cinema history, and Nicola Piovani, who won the Academy Award for best original score for Roberto Benigni’s film “Life Is Beautiful.”
The concert is under the patronage of the Vatican Dicastery for the Service of Charity, the Dicastery for Culture and Education, and the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music.
The concert capacity is 8,000 attendees, including 3,000 special guests from Rome’s poorest communities. These guests are invited through various charitable organizations such as Caritas, the Order of Malta, and the Community of Sant’Egidio.
Tickets for the general public will be available starting Nov. 18 through the event’s official website.
Experts ask: What impact will Hispanic Catholics have on the 2024 election?
Posted on 10/10/2024 10:00 AM (CNA Daily News)
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 10, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
As a record number of Hispanic Americans will be eligible to vote this November, many are asking what impact Latinos — and Latino Catholics in particular — will have on the 2024 election.
Several Hispanic Catholic experts explored this question Monday night at a panel discussion hosted by Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life in Washington, D.C.
Though acknowledging the great diversity in culture and thought among American Hispanic communities, the panelists posited that the overarching values of family, faith, and care for the poor will factor largely into Latinos’ decisions at the ballot box this November.
“We are big on family, family values … We want to be welcoming and be very attentive to the needs of others,” said Lia Garcia, one of the panelists and the director of Hispanic ministry at the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
“We throw big parties, we eat a lot of food,” she added, laughing. “Everybody is invited to our gatherings, so our faith teaches us that we are built to be in communion in relationship with God and in relationship with one another.”
Hispanics don’t fit into a box
Speaking with CNA after the panel, Garcia said that in her work with Hispanic Catholics, she has heard “a lot of anxiety about what is going to happen” and “about who is going to win” the presidency.
She said that many Hispanic voters “feel pinned” between conflicting priorities held by Trump and Harris.
“They feel that they have to choose between the issue of abortion and defending immigrants,” she said. “Latino Catholics are very much for life. You can see that in our big families. But they also have a concern about the immigration issues. Even if immigration doesn’t directly affect them because now they’re documented, but they know someone, they know a family member, they know a colleague … it’s really scary to people how Latinos are portrayed to the rest of the world as criminals.”
Hispanic voters have historically favored Democrats in national and local elections. The panelists noted, however, that Republicans have been faring better with Latinos in recent elections and polls, giving credence to predictions that the Hispanic vote is no longer a monolith.
Recent polling on Hispanics backs up this theory. Newsweek reported this week that while Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is still leading among Hispanics by a wide margin, 56% to 38%, her lead has shrunk from the 59% Joe Biden held in 2020 and even further from the 66% held by Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Instead of loyalty to a party, panelists said Hispanics appear motivated mostly by their family values and concern for the poor and downtrodden.
Father Agustino Torres, a priest with the New York-based Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said that in his ministry to young Latinos he has witnessed that Hispanic youth “have this fire” for caring for the downtrodden, especially for poor migrants.
“Sometimes we’re American Catholics rather than Catholic Americans. We allow our politics to inform our faith rather than our faith informing our politics,” Torres said. “But this is the reality: I’m responsible for you and you’re responsible for me. If I see someone falling down on the sidewalk, like, I am obligated because of my baptism, and this is a good thing … This is the Gospel.”
“When we teach this, they are just like, ‘yes,’ and it unites their worlds, family, faith, outreach,” he said.
To be clear, like most Americans, U.S. Hispanics are most concerned with the economy. EWTN published a poll of U.S. Catholics in September that found that most of the country’s Hispanic Catholics — 56.8% — said the economy (including jobs, inflation, and interest rates) is the most important issue deciding their vote this election cycle.
The next-highest priorities were border security/immigration at 10.5%, abortion at 9.7%, health care at 5.3%, and climate change at 5%.
Yet, according to panelist Santiago Ramos, a Catholic philosopher at the Aspen Institute, even when it comes to their approach to economic issues, Hispanics do not easily fit into the political right or left.
Ramos said Hispanics challenge the “nationalist, right-wing” as well as progressivist categorizations.
“There is a community aspect to our existence, family-oriented, dare I call it socially conservative aspect to our existence that doesn’t always mesh with mainstream liberal institutions,” he explained. “So, there are all sorts of ways that we pop up in American politics and force people to see things they don’t want to see.”
Among new voters, Hispanics loom large
Aleja Hertzler-McCain, a reporter on Latino faith and American Catholicism for Religion News Service, pointed out that half of the new voters who have become eligible to vote since 2020 are Hispanic.
According to the Pew Research Center, there will be 36.2 million eligible Hispanic voters this year, up almost 4 million from 2020. While noting that U.S. Hispanics historically have low voter turnout, Hertzler said the sheer volume of new Hispanic voters could have a “big impact” on the election.
Whatever the outcome of the election, Garcia said she is “really excited” to see the Hispanic community have its voice heard in the democratic process.
“I can’t wait to see that. I’m really excited about the election for that particular reason,” she said.
“The beauty of our culture,” Garcia went on, “is we can draw from our own experiences growing up with big families, big celebrations, and also with our faith that draws us to relationship with one another. And I think that is where we can sense how [concern for] the common good is not only something that comes from God but comes from our culture as well.”
Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Posted on 10/10/2024 08:30 AM ()
Reading 1 GAL 3:1-5
Who has bewitched you,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?
I want to learn only this from you:
did you receive the Spirit from works of the law,
or from faith in what you heard?
Are you so stupid?
After beginning with the Spirit,
are you now ending with the flesh?
Did you experience so many things in vain?–
if indeed it was in vain.
Does, then, the one who supplies the Spirit to you
and works mighty deeds among you
do so from works of the law
or from faith in what you heard?
Responsorial Psalm LK 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
Through his holy prophets he promised of old
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight
all the days of our life.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; He has come to his people.
Alleluia ACTS 16:14B
Open our hearts, O Lord,
to listen to the words of your Son.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 11:5-13
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,’
and he says in reply from within,
‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.’
I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.
“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him?”
Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
United Nations human rights watchdog speaks out against men competing in women’s sports
Posted on 10/9/2024 20:10 PM (CNA Daily News)
CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 16:10 pm (CNA).
A United Nations report on violence against women and girls in sports defended spaces for women on Tuesday by calling for separate sports for biological males who identify as “transgender persons.”
The United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women and girls in a presentation of the report on Oct. 8 demanded that member countries preserve female spaces, noting that testosterone suppression for biologically male athletes “will not eliminate the set of comparative performance advantages they have already acquired.”
The U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem from Jordan, appointed by the United States Commission on Human Rights in 2021, presented the 24-page report presented to the General Assembly’s Third Committee in New York. The report cited cases of severe injuries to women and girls forced to compete against biological males participating in female divisions as well as violations of privacy in the locker room and public consequences against women who speak out.
“Male athletes have specific attributes considered advantageous in certain sports, such as strength and testosterone levels that are higher than those of the average range for females, even before puberty, thereby resulting in the loss of fair opportunity,” the report read.
The report highlighted “an increased encroachment on female-only spaces in sports,” noting that female-only divisions in sports ensure “equal, fair, and safe opportunities in sports” for female athletes.
May Mailman, director of the Independent Women’s Law Center, a group that advocates for women’s rights and spaces, said the statement was heartening, though she noted it was from just one branch of the “unwieldy organization.”
“We are heartened that it recognized the obvious: that women deserve sports. This should embarrass the many organizations in the United States that fail to do the same,” Mailman told CNA. “But, it does not make the U.N. at large a reasonable organization. There are too many failures to name, including that UN Women seems to care little about the rapes, murders, and kidnapping of Israeli women.”
The special rapporteur’s office, since it was established in 1994, has addressed domestic violence, trafficking and migration, armed conflict, HIV/AIDS, violence against women, and has also advocated for abortion under the guise of “reproductive rights.” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, recently called out the U.N. for promoting abortion and gender ideology.
Women’s physical safety and privacy
The report highlighted that female safety and privacy are threatened when biological men are invited into female spaces such as sports practices, games, and locker rooms.
Female athletes are “more vulnerable to sustaining serious physical injuries when female-only sports spaces are opened to males, as documented in disciplines such as in volleyball, basketball, and soccer,” the report noted, citing cases of severe injuries ranging from knocked-out teeth and broken legs to skull fractures and neurological impairment from concussions.
For instance, the IWF statement noted that Payton McNabb was 17 when she became partially paralyzed after a biologically male “transgender” athlete spiked a volleyball into her face.
McNabb has brain damage and paralysis on her right side and has difficulty walking without falling.
“If leaders in the United States care at all about the treatment of women like the special rapporteur on violence against women and girls cares, then this should give them cover to finally do right by women,” Mailman told CNA, referencing the U.N. report.
The U.N. report highlighted the danger of sexual assault when opening up female locker rooms to males, noting that it could “increase the risk of sexual harassment, assault, voyeurism, and physical and sexual attacks in unisex locker rooms and toilets.”
“Female athletes also reportedly experience forced dissemination of nonconsensual sexual images offline and online and exhibitionism, including as a result of a failure to maintain single-sex changing rooms,” the report said.
Violating female-only spaces can not only negatively affect “the mental health and sense of personal safety” of women in sports, the report noted, but it can also “damage their public image and have long-term career repercussions.”
The loss of women’s spaces also has psychological consequences for female athletes. Knowing she has to compete against a male “causes extreme psychological distress due to the physical disadvantage, the loss of opportunity for fair competition and of educational and economic opportunities, and the violation of their privacy in locker rooms and other intimate spaces,” the report said.
The U.N. noted that “sex screenings” can be “necessary, legitimate, and proportional in order to ensure fairness and safety in sports.” The report cited the 2024 Paris Olympics, where female boxers competed against two boxers “whose sex as females was seriously contested, but the International Olympic Committee refused to carry out a sex screening.”
Freedom of expression
The inclusion of men in women’s sports has resulted in the persecution of women who stand up for themselves, the U.N. report said.
Women who speak out against the dangers of men in women’s spaces are often unjustly treated, “accused of bigotry, suspended from sports teams and subjected to restraining orders, expulsion, defamation, and unfair disciplinary proceedings,” the report said.
“Female athletes and coaches who object to the inclusion of men in their spaces due to concerns about safety, privacy, and fairness are silenced or forced to self-censor; otherwise, they risk losing sporting opportunities, scholarships, and sponsorships,” the report noted.
Mailman said many leaders have let name-calling “overcome their duty to promote fairness, safety, and equality.”
“U.S. leaders have shown tremendous cowardice in standing up for women because they don’t want to be called anti-trans,” Mailman said.
“The more people who show how to do the right thing should give followers cover to finally do the same,” she added.
The U.N. report noted that “transgender” people should still be able to participate in sports, noting that through open categories, “fairness in sports can be maintained while ensuring the ability of all to participate.”
Protecting women’s spaces “does not automatically result in the exclusion of transgender persons from sports,” the report added.
Mailman highlighted that “the solution is not to dissolve women’s sports but to create an open category or to make the men’s category an open category.”
“The U.N. report addressed safety and fairness, including that testosterone suppression does not equalize the playing field and is arbitrary in any case. It addressed privacy in the locker room. It addressed the harassment women face for standing up for themselves,” Mailman told CNA. “These are all important. The only thing regrettable is that this comes from a specialized body and hasn’t percolated higher yet.”
Supreme Court hears oral arguments in consequential Oklahoma death penalty case
Posted on 10/9/2024 19:05 PM (CNA Daily News)
CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA).
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in the case of an Oklahoma man on death row who may have been wrongfully convicted — a case the Oklahoma City archbishop has said could help further respect for “the dignity of life.”
This is the second time Richard Glossip’s contentious death sentence has come before the Supreme Court. According to news reports, Glossip has lived through nine execution dates and at least three “last meals.”
Glossip was convicted in 1998 for allegedly ordering a handyman at a motel Glossip managed to murder the motel owner, who was found bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. Justin Sneed, the handyman, confessed to killing the man while on meth and is currently serving a life sentence.
Glossip, who has maintained that he had no involvement in the murder, was convicted for the murder for hire chiefly on Sneed’s testimony, which Sneed had agreed to give in order to avoid the death penalty himself.
Since his initial conviction, two independent investigations uncovered serious problems with his trial, including allegations of police misconduct and what were reportedly incorrect instructions given to the jury in the case.
The state of Oklahoma, via Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, has admitted that it had erred in sentencing Glossip to death.
The state asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) to overturn Glossip’s conviction and grant him a new trial. That court in April 2023 refused to do so, however, and ordered Glossip’s execution to proceed. Drummond called that decision “remarkable and remarkably flawed.”
Writing to the Supreme Court justices in May 2023, Drummond said that “based on careful review of new information that has come to light, including a report by an independent counsel appointed by the state, Glossip’s capital sentence cannot be sustained.”
The Supreme Court subsequently granted a stay of Glossip’s execution that same month, overruling the OCCA.
In an order announced in January, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the state of Oklahoma violated Glossip’s constitutional rights when prosecutors suppressed evidence that their key witness, Sneed, was under a psychiatrist’s care, and also that prosecutors failed to correct Sneed’s false testimony, SCOTUSBlog reported. The Supreme Court will also consider the question of whether it has the power to review the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision at all, or whether it is a state matter.
A decision in the case isn’t expected until June 2025. Justice Neil Gorsuch has recused himself from the case because he sat on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals when that court decided one of Glossip’s earlier appeals, NPR reported.
In January, when the Supreme Court agreed to take up the case, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, who often speaks out against the death penalty, said in a statement to CNA that the Supreme Court’s agreement to review Glossip’s case “offers hope in furthering the cause toward one day abolishing the death penalty.”
“With new evidence and the state of Oklahoma’s admission of errors in the case prompting the Supreme Court review — issues that seem to be more and more prevalent — we can clearly see reason to reconsider institutionalized violence against the incarcerated as we hopefully move to respect the dignity of life for all human persons,” Coakley told CNA.
Since 1976, Oklahoma has carried out the highest number of executions per capita of any state, according to Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), a national advocacy organization that demonstrates against the death penalty.
Glossip was party to a previous lawsuit that made it to the Supreme Court in 2015, wherein the court ultimately ruled in favor of the continued use of the sedative midazolam, a drug that critics contended had caused excruciating pain in several controversial state executions in Ohio, Arizona, and Oklahoma. Glossip had argued along with two other inmates that midazolam was not certain to work properly and could result in a painful execution that violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, reflecting an update promulgated by Pope Francis in 2018, describes the death penalty as “inadmissible” and an “attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” (No. 2267). The change reflects a development in Catholic doctrine in recent years.
St. John Paul II, calling the death penalty “cruel and unnecessary,” encouraged Christians to be “unconditionally pro-life” and said that “the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil.” The bishops of the United States have spoken frequently in favor of life sentences for convicted murderers, even those who have committed heinous crimes.
PHOTOS: Vatican to unveil restored baldacchino in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 27
Posted on 10/9/2024 18:35 PM (CNA Daily News)
Vatican City, Oct 9, 2024 / 14:35 pm (CNA).
The Vatican has announced that the completed restorations on the soaring baldacchino over the central altar of St. Peter’s Basilica designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini will be unveiled on Oct. 27.
Journalists donned hard hats on Tuesday to get a sneak peek of the nearly finished restorations, climbing the scaffolding all the way to the top of the 94-foot-tall canopy.
The lofty vantage point revealed how the baldacchino’s intricately decorated Baroque angels, cherubs, bees, and golden laurel branches — formerly darkened by centuries of dust and grime — have now been restored to their bright gilded glory.
While the cherubs holding the St. Peter’s keys and the papal tiara at the top of the structure may appear as small details from the ground 94 feet below, up close the chubby cherubs are actually colossal in size, standing nearly as tall as a full-grown adult.
Pope Urban VIII commissioned Bernini in 1624 to design and build the enormous canopy over the Papal Altar of the Confession, located directly over the tomb of St. Peter the Apostle. The construction took Bernini nine years with considerable help from his architectural rival, Francesco Borromini.
The public will be able to see the 400-year-old twisting bronze columns of the large canopy for the first time since the restoration when Pope Francis presides over the closing Mass for the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 27.
At that time, the scaffolding that has surrounded the central altar for the past eight months will finally be removed.
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said the restorations manifest “the beauty and glory that the Church should reflect.” He added that revealing the restorations at the Mass is an opportunity to “announce hope as we walk toward a Jubilee of hope.”
An art restorer’s perspective
Giorgio Capriotti is one of the Vatican Museums’ art restorers who meticulously worked on these details on the massive canopy.
Capriotti said that despite more than a century since the last restoration, the restorers found that the baldacchino is in overall good shape. He explained that his task was largely removing the materials, like oil, waxes, and resins, that art restorers had used that unintentionally altered the hue of the historic gold leaf on the baldacchino.
In some places the baldacchino’s gold leaf became “dark and then almost black” because of oxidation due to the humidity, pollution, and dust in the air.
“So we had to remove these substances using solvents … area by area,” Capriotti said.
“Now we will see it as it was when it was built between 1624 and 1635,” he added.
While working atop the canopy, Capriotti and the other restorationists found objects left by the artists and workers who preceded them from past centuries, including old coins, small drawings, and even a 17th-century shopping list, a collection of items he described as almost “a small museum of cultural anthropology.”
“Everything will be archived and studied and set aside as a testimony of the life, the real life of generations of restorers who have followed one another,” Capriotti said.
Restorers also found places where previous workers had signed their names, including signatures from 1685 and 1725.
After visiting St. Peter’s Basilica in 1873, novelist Henry James described his encounter with the baldacchino: “You have only to stroll and stroll and gaze and gaze; to watch the glorious altar-canopy lift its bronze architecture, its colossal embroidered contortions, like a temple within a temple, and feel yourself, at the bottom of the abysmal shaft of the dome dwindle to a crawling dot.”
The Knights of Columbus funded the baldacchino restoration, which was originally estimated to cost 700,000 euro (about $768,000).
“It’s Bernini’s baldacchino … It’s a singular masterpiece of sacred art — one which is instantly recognizable and impressive,” Patrick Kelly, the head of the Knights of Columbus, said at a press conference when the restoration was first announced.
“But, if that weren’t enough, this project also fits very well with our mission and with our history of service to the Church, and, especially, the successors of St. Peter.”
Restoration of the ‘Cathedra of St. Peter’
Restoration work is also being carried out on Bernini’s massive bronze monument at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, called the “Cathedra of St. Peter.”
The massive sculpture depicts four doctors of the Church holding up the throne of St. Peter with gilded angels high above the petrine throne surrounding the oval stained-glass window of the “Dove of the Holy Spirit.”
Art restorers have also been cleaning the massive statues of St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Athanasius, and St. John Chrysostom, which are currently covered by scaffolding.
Bernini built the monument over the course of 10 years in the mid-17th century to protect a historic relic — a wooden throne symbolizing Petrine primacy with ivory plaques dating back to the Carolingian age in the ninth century.
The restorations are also providing the chance for the public to see the historic relic of St. Peter’s chair up close. The relic will be on display for visitors to St. Peter’s Basilica from Oct. 27 to Dec. 8.
North Carolina bishop visits communities hit by hurricane: ‘People are stunned’
Posted on 10/9/2024 18:05 PM (CNA Daily News)
CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 14:05 pm (CNA).
Charlotte Bishop Michael Martin recently toured several locations in his diocese ravaged by last month’s Hurricane Helene, offering spiritual and material aid to the “stunned” population working to rebuild after the devastating storm.
Western North Carolina over the last few weeks has been dealing with the aftermath of devastating flooding caused by the remnants of the hurricane, which dumped torrential rain on mountain communities there, leaving serious damage and dozens dead.
Catholic agencies have been mobilizing to help with relief efforts as many major roads remain impassable and residents remain stranded in mountain homes and rural areas.
Immaculata Catholic School in Hendersonville — about half an hour south of Asheville — has become a “distribution center” for aid supplies, with volunteers working around the clock to route critical supplies to those without power and drinking water.
The state government on Tuesday reported that there have been 89 confirmed storm-related deaths in the state, with the number expected to rise in the coming days.
‘The sheer power of the storm’
Martin told CNA that he and diocesan staff recently took a trip to several of the harder-hit areas in the Charlotte Diocese to survey the destruction and offer aid to stricken residents, including in Hendersonville and Swannanoa.
The bishop said he was struck by “the sheer power of the storm.”
“One particular thing we saw spoke volumes,” he said. “We saw large rolls from a warehouse, rolls of carpet, up on a hill. It was just so out of place — how did they get where they are?”
“We turned a corner, drove up a little further, and there was a carpet warehouse. It still had its roof and I-beams and still had the concrete slab, but all the walls were totally ripped away. The concrete slab was completely clear. It had taken every roll of carpet out of the building along with the walls.”
“Imagine how heavy those rolls are, even more so when they’re waterlogged — that’s how powerful the water was,” he said.
The bishop said that “people are stunned” in the wake of the tragedy.
“They’re just stunned,” he said, noting “the stunning nature of, one day everything’s fine, and the next day, your town is gone, and your home is gone.”
Yet Martin noted that the population responded by reaching out and helping each other. He said that many people were fortunate enough not to lose their homes and that “those folks are working at the distribution center,” helping others who had lost more.
It was wonderful “just seeing that community connection,” the bishop said. Also affecting, he said, was how so many people flocked to their churches amid the crisis.
“One of the beautiful things is realizing how people come to their parish as a locus for healing and meaning and to be empowered to go out,” he said.
The bishop said the diocese itself has been “remarkably blessed in that, for the most part, our properties suffered relatively minor damages.”
“Obviously, there have been downed trees, roof issues,” he said. “But all of them are still standing.”
“We feel tremendously blessed in that, OK, this we can repair,” he said. “The cost to do that, obviously, is going to be considerable. But we’re more focused on rebuilding the lives of the folks in these communities.”
The bishop encouraged the faithful to donate to Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte. He said there is a great need for resources, particularly for local undocumented immigrants who may be fearful of approaching official government sources for help.
The bishop noted that others are still suffering from the effects of extreme weather, including Florida, which as of Wednesday was on the verge of being hit by the extremely dangerous Hurricane Milton. “No one has cornered the market on misery,” Martin said.
Yet “just as God transformed Jesus’ death on the cross into the Resurrection, he transforms our misery into something greater, if we allow his grace to be at work,” the bishop said.