Sacred Heart Catholic Church

Eucharistic Adoration at Lucas Oil Stadium during the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, Indiana. July 17-21,2024. / Credit: Jonah McKeown/CNA

CNA Newsroom, Jul 27, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The National Eucharistic Congress which gathered more than 50,000 Catholics together last week in Indianapolis was “powerful,” “moving,” and filled with “extraordinary reverence,” according to religious sisters, a priest, a seminarian, and a bishop who attended the culminating event in the U.S. bishops three year Eucharistic Revival.

Religious and clergy were well-represented at the congress, with more than 1,170 priests, 1,200 religious brothers and sisters, 610 seminarians, and 200 bishops. CNA spoke to some of them about what moments and reflections were most life-changing and memorable.  

Reverence permeated the Congress 

“The most powerful moments were the moments of adoration in Lucas Oil Stadium, when everybody was on their knees, adoring the Lord in praise and in silence, too,” recalled Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska. 

Bishop Conley remembered seeing everyone, including his brother bishops “caught up in the mystery of the beauty of God” during adoration.  

“The common denominator that ran through all of the liturgical encounter was reverence; that we were recognizing God as our Lord, in silence and in song,” he said. “St. Augustine is famously quoted as saying, ‘Only the lover sings,’ and the only proper response to the love of God is to sing with our hearts.”

Aidan Aguero, a 19-year-old seminarian with the Archdiocese of Seattle, recalled being moved during the silence of adoration by “seeing that everyone was having some encounter with Christ.”

“[With] all 60,000 people there adoring our Lord in the Eucharist, people encountering our Lord in the Eucharist,  there was something moving there,” he said. “Nobody can deny that something was moving in that stadium, and as Catholics, we believe that's the Holy Spirit. We believe that it's Christ in the Eucharist.”

Sister Mary Aloysius of Jesus Kim, the General Sister Servant for the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT), also recalled the “prayerfulness” of adoration, calling it “stunning. ”

“Just imagine this football stadium filled with people, and when our Lord comes out, the lights are out, it's dark, and there's just light shining on the monstrance, and the place is quiet. These 50,000 people are adoring our Lord silently,” she said. 

“That was so moving, so beautiful, so stunning, that it just moves us to tears,” she recalled. “And even now, when I look back on it, I am still moved to tears.”

The whole body of Christ 

Unlike many retreats or conventions which focus on one age group, the Congress brought together Catholics of every age and vocation. 

“The whole body of Christ, from pregnant moms with children in tow to grandparents and great-grandparents in wheelchairs, and everything in between,” was there, Bishop Conley observed. 

“It was the experience of the whole body of Christ coming together,” he said. “Every vocation and every dimension of the Church, the Body of Christ.”

More than 100 sisters of the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist attended the congress.  Sister Mary Michael Carlton, their Vicaress General, recalled that there was a natural friendliness of attendees toward whoever they encountered — workers, locals, homeless people.

“We had one sister singing on the street with one of the homeless people, and he ended up coming to the Congress — somebody registered him for the Congress, and he was later in the procession with his congress badge on,” she said. “They weren't in the periphery. They were part of this movement, too.”

“There was a lot of ministry to the poor and homeless during those days,” Conley added. 

Christ in the City, a Catholic organization that uses a relational approach to ministry to the homeless, organized street walks for ministering to the poor and homeless, he recalled. 

“It wasn’t just an internal ad intra experience, but it was going out of ourselves and out into the streets to proclaim that Christ is risen, he's alive, he loves you, and to present him to everyone who will listen,” he continued. 

A web of processions

The Body of Christ then took to the streets in a eucharistic procession through Indianapolis, Conley recalled.

“I saw that [procession] as taking Christ to the streets and claiming the city for God,” Conley reflected. “Taking Jesus to the streets and proclaiming that Jesus Christ is King and that he is the king of the world. He's the center of everything, and he's not just in our churches — he's out on the streets with the poor.”

“People that were in their office buildings and people who were in their shops and their restaurants; they saw this happening,” he noted.

Anyone who attended the Congress will tell you about the great procession through the streets of Indianapolis of more than 60,000 people. But there was also a “spontaneous web of processions” back at the convention center, that one priest said was “deeply moving.”

The liturgical team needed to move the Blessed Sacrament throughout the convention center for different periods of adoration, but there weren’t enough back ways, and the halls were thick with crowds of people moving between break-out sessions, explained Father Patrick Briscoe, a Dominican priest and liturgical organizer for the event. 

So, the priests took Jesus through the crowd in the monstrance. In the rush of switching sessions, the people paused, and knelt quietly as Jesus passed by. 

“People in these jam-packed hallways, trying to scramble from one session to the next, dropped to their knees,” he recalled. “They shouted out, ‘Jesus is coming,’ and dropped to their knees and waited and prayed until the Blessed Sacrament had walked past them.”

“Our people's devotion was extraordinary,” Briscoe continued. “And part of that was a new posture that they had been taught as a result of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which had taught and modeled the reverence one should show the Blessed Sacrament, but also the spirit of the event made it a very natural thing.” 

“It was deeply moving because in another context, it could have been inconvenient or unexpected,” he added. “And so to see our people respond with patient and extraordinary reverence really touched my heart as a priest.”

A defining moment for the decades 

“It showcased the strength of our tradition, and it demonstrated to people that the Church is alive,” said Briscoe. “It allowed people to express their love for the Church. To show up for a celebration that wasn't political, that wasn't charged with the fraught and polarizing climate that so many other activities and events are charged with today, was supremely liberating.” 

World Youth Day 1993 in Denver with St. John Paul II was a defining moment for a generation. The call to a “New Evangelization” reverberates through the decades. 

The movement was both the fruit of WYD93, and a new form of it, Sister Aloysius observed. 

“I do think it's like a World Youth Day in Denver, and it will be one of those moments where we go back and remember, and people will find their vocations or hear God speaking to them in these talks, and then say, ‘When I was in Indianapolis in 2024, that's when my life changed,’” Sister Mary Michael reflected.  

“I do think powerful conversions were happening at the Congress itself,” she added. “And these people who attended will go back to their parishes and start their own revivals. They'll start drawing people back to the faith in their families or in their local communities that haven't been to Mass in a long time.”

“The Lord planted so many beautiful seeds in his garden of his church,” Aguero reflected. “And the Lord, in our faith and hope in him, will, through the Holy Spirit, nurture and grow those seeds for the flourishing of his church.” 

The event was so effective because it was “led by liturgy,” Bishop Conley observed. 

“I'm convinced that the New Evangelization will never take place, never really be truly fruitful without an experience of the liturgy and the transcendence,” he said. “You can have all the apologetics in the world. You can have all of the instruction and Bible studies and all of that, but unless you have this experience of beauty — the beauty of God in a transcendent prayerful worship experience, which really takes you out of yourself into the mystery of the love of God through prayer and through the sacrament — then that's where we truly encounter the living Lord.”

“We meet him, and we have this heart-to-heart encounter that really goes beyond reason to worship. When we were caught up into the beauty and love and mercy of God through prayer and sacrament. And that's what we had. That's what we experienced.”

Go forth: Taking the message home 

“I think the most important thing is, yes, it was amazing, but at the end of the day, we have to experience our own personal revival, and I think that's what really made a difference,” Sister Aloysius said.

“For me, I can say it really did touch my heart, and it deepened my love for our eucharistic Lord. So there definitely was a personal revival within me,” she said. “From there, the message, especially on the last day, was to go out and share what we have tasted, heard, and seen with our own eyes to others. And that is going to be the impact. We have to go through our own personal revival through repentance.” 

“The message [of the conference] was to now take this experience that you've had of unity, of encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist — this really intimate, powerful experience of Christ's love and mercy in the Eucharist. Take that now, and take that back with you to your homes,” Conley said. 

“Reach out to those who have either fallen away or who no longer go to church or who are still questioning and looking for answers: this is what I hope will be the fruit, and this is what the message was,” he continued. 

“But for me, I think seeing how on fire Catholics were for the eucharistic Lord and going out to the streets to tell people about Jesus, it really increased my zeal for souls,” Sister Mary Michael Carlton said.

“It facilitated [revival] for us there, but then what I hoped that it did, at least did in me, was that it showed that you don't need to get 60,000 people together and all these bishops, all these sisters — you don't need to get all these people together to have that encounter in the Eucharist,” Aguero said. 

“The Eucharist that was there is the same Eucharist that comes down every single Sunday during Mass, every single day at daily Mass,” he concluded. “It's the same Eucharist that awaits us in our chapels for when we are going home.” 

First row (L-R) Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina. Bottom row (L-R) Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain/Official Photo

National Catholic Register, Jul 26, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

Kamala Harris is the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for president, bringing with her a long track record of promoting abortion and curtailing religious liberties.

But where do her potential vice presidential picks stand on these critical issues?

The dearth of national-level Democrats open to even modest restrictions of abortion and robust protections for religious liberties — a byproduct of the party’s strong shift to the left over the past decade — means that Harris will likely end up with a running mate who shares her views on the issues.

Here is a breakdown of the abortion and religious liberty views of eight VP contenders, along with what they could bring to the Democratic ticket.

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, Arizona 

Kelly, 60, offers Harris a chance to have a veteran on the ticket from a battleground state Biden narrowly won in 2020, after Trump won it in 2016. 

The former U.S. Navy pilot and astronaut could be portrayed as a centrist pick since he has criticized the Biden administration for not welcoming more oil and natural gas production and for not securing the country’s border with Mexico.

On abortion, though, Kelly is in lock step with his party’s positions. 

Kelly, who says he grew up Catholic, supports codifying Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide for more than 49 years, until it was overturned by the court’s 2022 Dobbs decision.

On religious freedom, the Arizona senator made a point of highlighting the inclusion of protections for religious groups and individuals in his statement celebrating the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022. Kelly’s statement also noted that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had backed the bill, which enshrined the right to same-sex marriage into federal law.

The U.S. bishops, however, had opposed the legislation, calling the religious liberty guarantees “insufficient.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania 

Shapiro, 51, is a popular governor in a pivotal swing state, making him an attractive possibility on Harris’ ticket. He beat out a Trump-backed candidate in 2022 by nearly 15 points to become Pennsylvania’s top executive after serving six years as the Keystone State’s attorney general. 

Shapiro has also cited his Jewish faith as an inspiration for his political involvement, which some believe could help the Harris campaign appeal to religious voters.

But religious voters, especially Catholics, might be less excited about his position on abortion. As governor, Shapiro has taken steps not only to expand access to abortion but also to limit alternatives. He ended a 30-year Pennsylvania program that funded pregnancy resource centers and instead launched a website to connect residents with abortion services. 

Earlier this month, Shapiro said his administration wouldn’t defend a state law that prohibits Medicaid fundings from being used on abortion after the law was challenged in court. 

As Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Shapiro sued the Trump administration for giving broad religious exemptions from a contraception mandate, a move that religious liberty experts feared could affect groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor.

In 2018, he also released a grand jury report of more than 1,000 cases of alleged clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania since 1940, which was described by a former New York Times columnist as “grossly misleading, irresponsible, inaccurate, and unjust.”

Gov. Roy Cooper, North Carolina

Cooper is the second-term Democratic governor of a swing state that leans Republican and went for Trump in 2016 and 2020. 

Cooper, 67, is a member of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., and has previously taught religious education and served as a deacon. In 2023, he received the Faith Active in Public Life Award from a North Carolina council of Protestant denominations and congregations.

In 2019, Cooper vetoed a bill called the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act, which sought to require doctors to save the life of a baby born alive after an attempted abortion. Cooper called the bill “an unnecessary interference between doctors and their patients” and said it “would criminalize doctors and other health care providers for a practice that simply does not exist.”

In May 2023, Cooper vetoed a bill banning most abortions after 12 weeks, which the Republican-controlled state Legislature subsequently enacted by overriding his veto. 

In May 2020, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, Cooper limited church services to 10 people, a measure ultimately barred by a federal judge who said the move “appears to trust citizens to perform nonreligious activities indoors (such as shopping or working or selling merchandize) but does not trust them to do the same when they worship together indoors.” 

Earlier in his tenure, the governor was accused by social conservatives of infringing upon the religious liberties of North Carolinans after he signed a 2017 executive order expanding nondiscrimination protections to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression.”

Gov. Andy Beshear, Kentucky 

Beshear, a second-term Democratic governor in a solidly Republican state, would offer Harris a seasoned politician who is used to making his messaging sound moderate. 

At 46, the former corporate lawyer and son of a former governor of Kentucky is considered a rising star in the party.

While he is a pro-abortion governor in a pro-life state, Beshear aims for a moderate tone on the issue, offering a different approach from that of the national Democratic Party. 

“I’ve been very clear that I support Roe v. Wade, but I also support reasonable restrictions, especially on late-term procedures,” Beshear told a local television station in 2019.

In April 2020, during the coronavirus shutdowns, Beshear ordered Kentucky state police to take down license plate numbers outside Maryville Baptist Church in Louisville, which held a service despite the governor’s order banning it. 

However, three years later the practicing member of the Disciples of Christ signed a religious liberty bill into law. The new legislation prohibits the government from restricting religious organizations more severely than “essential” businesses and organizations and provides a legal route for religious groups “to sue the government if discriminated against.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan 

Like Shapiro, Whitmer is a popular governor from a key battleground state. She won a second term as Michigan’s governor in 2022 by nearly 11 points.

The 52-year-old’s proven record of sparring with Trump and his allies could be an asset on the campaign trail, though most analysts think Harris is more likely to opt for a male running mate to balance the ticket.

But Harris could pick Whitmer if she wants to make the election all about abortion. 

The mother of two has shared her story of being raped as a college student to make the case for abortion exceptions for pregnancies resulting from abuse. After the fall of Roe, she helped repeal a law on the books that banned abortions in Michigan and followed that by signing legislation in 2023 that undid a slew of abortion regulations, including a ban on partial-birth abortions. 

On religious liberty, Whitmer supported an amendment that added sexual orientation to Michigan’s nondiscrimination laws. The bill did not include religious liberty protections called for by Catholics and other religious groups. 

The governor also signed off on a 2024 ban of “any intervention that attempts to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” which some Catholic counselors said would prevent them from counseling children struggling with their gender identity in a way consistent with their faith.

Secretary Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Department of Transportation

As a 2020 contender for the Democrats’ presidential nomination, the 42-year-old Buttigieg already has some national recognition. 

The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, would bring a dose of Midwest likability to Harris’ ticket and has already demonstrated the kind of talking points he’d employ against GOP vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. 

As Biden’s secretary of transportation, abortion hasn’t exactly been a top issue for the Democrat over the past four years. 

But during his 2020 run, Buttigieg made it clear that he supports legal abortion, and he also called for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which limits federal funding for abortion. And as “Mayor Pete,” the then-local politician vetoed a city council decision to allow a crisis pregnancy center to open next door to an abortion facility.

The Episcopalian may have been given a fellowship at Notre Dame, but his conception of religious liberty is “minimalistic,” according to The Washington Post’s Michael Gerson. Buttigieg makes “no provision for religious institutions such as colleges to admit or hire according to their traditional religious standards,” Gerson wrote.

Buttigieg, who is in a civil marriage with a man and has twin children via adoption, has criticized those who appeal to religious liberty protections, claiming that their approach makes “it lawful to harm people so long as you remember to use your religion as an excuse.” 

Gov. Tim Walz, Minnesota 

Walz as Harris’ running mate wouldn’t likely make a difference in more-blue-than-purple Minnesota, but the 60-year-old, two-term governor would bring executive experience to the Democrats’ ticket. 

Additionally, Walz spent over a decade as the U.S. representative of a more conservative district in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, showing some capacity to appeal to moderates. 

As governor of Minnesota, Walz has aimed to turn the state into a “refuge” for abortion. In 2023 he signed legislation that would make it easier for out-of-staters to get abortions in Minnesota and codified a right to abortion in the state earlier in the year. 

Walz has already said that abortion will play a “major role” in this November’s presidential election and said voters will have the choice “to continue on making sure that women have bodily autonomy, or to turn that clock back.” 

A Lutheran, Walz approved a bill this year adding religious exemptions to Minnesota’s nondiscrimination statutes, which the Minnesota Catholic Conference and other religious groups said was needed to ensure that faith-based organizations, churches, and schools could act on their beliefs when addressing gender-identity issues. 

However, in 2023 Walz signed legislation that prevented high school students from attending classes at religious colleges for high school credit because these colleges require a statement of faith from all students. Parents and religious colleges have sued the state, and the case is still pending. 

Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Illinois

Pritzker, 59, is a second-term governor of a solidly Democratic state who would bring serious money to a presidential ticket. A member of the family that founded the Hyatt Corporation, he has a net worth of $3.5 billion and spent $171.5 million of his own money in his successful 2018 campaign to become Illinois’ top executive.

In a party that values access to abortion, Pritzker might boast of having the best credentials of anyone on most VP short lists.

He has approved new legislation repealing both the state’s requirement of parental notification for minors seeking abortion and its ban on partial birth abortions. In the latter case, the new statute allows abortion until viability, and then after that if a “health care professional” determines “the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the patient.” 

In 2023, Prtitzker signed a bill banning “deceptive practices” by pro-life crisis pregnancy centers but it was blocked by a federal court after the Thomas More Society sued claiming the law is illegal because it sought to unconstitutionally restrict free speech.

Beyond Illinois, Pritzker founded a political fundraising organization primarily to stump for access to abortion nationwide called Think Big America. He referred to opponents of abortion as “far right” and “extremists” in a YouTube video promoting the organization.

The Illinois governor, who was raised a Reform Jew, caught fire from religious liberty groups in 2020 after limiting religious services to no more than 10 participants as a COVID-19 related measure. The Thomas More Society called it a “stomp on the religious liberty of the people of Illinois.” Following a slew of lawsuits, Pritzker changed the mandates to “guidelines.”

This article was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA's sister news partner, on July 25, 2024, and has been adapted by CNA.

null / Credit: Brian A Jackson / Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 26, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday ruled in favor of the legality of a law that restricts abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy and prohibits doctors from performing sex change surgeries on minors, which allows both rules to remain in effect in the state.

Nebraska lawmakers passed the law in 2023, which covers both issues: abortion and sex change procedures for minors. The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit which argued that the legislation violated Nebraska’s single subject rule, which states that “no bill shall contain more than one subject.”

The state supreme court rejected that argument, noting in the majority opinion that “single subject challenges are rare, and single subject violations even rarer.” According to the ruling, the law addresses the subject of “public health and welfare,” which encompasses both abortion and sex change procedures. 

“Prior cases have also emphasized that a bill may enact multiple policies, so long as those policies are united under a common purpose or object,” the judges wrote in the ruling.

“We disagree with Planned Parenthood’s contention that it is not possible to identify a single purpose of [the bill] that withstands single subject scrutiny,” the opinion continued. “[The law] does regulate both abortion and gender-altering care, but both abortion and gender-altering care are medical procedures, and [it] prescribes rules that define if and when such procedures can be performed.”

In response to the ruling, Republican Gov. Jim Pillen said he is “grateful for the court’s thorough and well-reasoned opinion upholding these important protections for life and children in Nebraska.”

“There was a dark moment last year when many feared that a victory for unborn babies was impossible and that the pro-life coalition might break apart,” the governor continued. “I was honored to partner with faithful allies and leaders across the state to combine the abortion ban with protections for kids against irreversible sex change surgeries. We worked overtime to bring that bill to my desk and I give thanks to God that I had the privilege to sign it into law.”

Ruth Richardson, president of Planned Parenthood North Central States, called the decision “heart-wrenching and infuriating” in a statement.

“This ban has already devastated Nebraskans’ lives and will undoubtedly widen dangerous health inequities for people in rural areas, people of color, people with low incomes, and young people,” Richardson said.

Nebraska law prohibits elective abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy but still allows for abortions in cases of rape, incest, and medical emergencies. Lawmakers failed to pass a law that would prohibit most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy after one Republican abstained from the vote.

The law also prohibits sex change surgeries for patients younger than 19. However, it still allows doctors to provide sex change drugs to minors in certain circumstances, such as when the “individual has a long-lasting and intense pattern of gender nonconformity or gender dysphoria.”

Although the law remains in effect, Nebraskans will vote on a referendum on Nov. 5, which would establish a constitutional right to abortion in the state constitution. Pro-life activists are trying to get a separate referendum on the ballot, which would restrict abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy, similar to current law.

Omaha Archbishop George Lucas in a 2011 photo. / null

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 26, 2024 / 15:40 pm (CNA).

Omaha Archbishop George Lucas has categorically denied accusations that he sexually abused two minors several decades ago while he was dean of education at St. Louis Preparatory Seminary in Missouri.

Lucas is one of several dozen priests, nuns, and lay men and women accused of sexual abuse of minors in a series of five separate lawsuits filed by 27 anonymous plaintiffs on Wednesday.

The abuse is alleged to have occurred over the span of several decades, with some of the purported crimes allegedly having occurred as recently as 2015.

The lawsuit naming Lucas was filed in the St. Louis County District Court. It alleges that as a priest Lucas coerced a 16-year-old boy identified as “D.S.” and another student into performing sexual acts with him at the St. Louis school. 

The suit alleges that Lucas first met D.S. at the school in 1988 and that the now-archbishop of Omaha began regularly sexually abusing the victim when he was a junior in high school, including manipulating him into performing a sexual act for better grades on at least one occasion.

Lucas strongly denied the accusations in a statement to CNA on Friday.

"I categorically deny the accusation made by an anonymous person. I have never had sexual contact with another person,” the prelate said.

The archbishop said he has “referred the matter” to the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio to the U.S., Cardinal Christophe Pierre, “for his guidance."

The five lawsuits were filed within 24 hours of each other in five different Missouri counties within the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. 

The suits are seeking compensation for damages by the alleged abusers from the Archdiocese of St. Louis and its head, Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski.

Rozanski, who has been head of the diocese since 2020, is not being accused of sexual abuse, though the suit accuses Rozanski of knowingly covering up “multiple decades” worth of sexual abuse of minors.

According to David Clohessy, a spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), ten of the accused persons named in the lawsuits are still living.

Clohessy said that the testimony in the suits would encourage others to also come forward and would help heal victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

“Among the most devastating consequences of childhood sexual abuse is a feeling of utter helplessness. So, when victims are able to speak and take action and expose wrongdoers it helps victims feel like they're making progress and turning their pain into something that can be helpful to others,” he said.

The anonymous plaintiffs in the suits are being represented by attorneys from the law firms Bailey & Glasser, Levy Konigsberg, and Randles Mata.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis did not immediately respond to a query from CNA.  

Vandalism at a Heartbeat of Miami pregnancy center in Hialeah, Florida, July 3, 2022. / Heartbeat of Miami.

CNA Staff, Jul 26, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

Four Florida activists from the abortion rights extremist group “Jane’s Revenge” agreed on July 25 to pay restitution and keep away from crisis pregnancy centers following vandalism and threats of violence on three pro-life clinics.

“We will not allow radicals to threaten and intimidate women seeking help from crisis pregnancy centers or the counselors and health care professionals serving these women and their babies,” Attorney General Ashley Mood said in a statement. “In Florida, illegal actions have consequences, and I am proud of the work our attorneys did in this case to make sure these extremists were held accountable.”

Moody and First Liberty Institute, a legal nonprofit, filed civil lawsuits authorized under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act on behalf of several life-affirming pregnancy clinics in Florida. 

Three of the four activists pleaded guilty last month to criminal charges. The four of them are enjoined from going within 100 feet of the life-affirming clinics they targeted: the South Broward Pregnancy Help Center and the Life Choice Pregnancy Center as well as any of the five facilities owned by Heartbeat of Miami. 

Caleb Freestone, Amber Marie Smith-Stewart, and Annarella Rivera, will issue apologies for the 2022 acts of vandalism and together will pay $6,750 for the vandalism. Charges against the fourth defendant are pending.

The activists were associated with “Jane’s Revenge,” a militant pro-abortion group that targets pregnancy help centers and takes responsibility for arson, firebombing, and vandalism against the organizations. The group emerged after the leak of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in May 2022. 

At Heartbeat of Miami, the vandalism resulted in thousands of dollars in damages, with graffitied messages such as “Jane’s Revenge” and “If abortions aren’t safe, then neither are you” sprayed on the walls. 

Heartbeat provides free pregnancy tests; sonograms; pregnancy consultation and education, support, and referrals; and parenting preparation, according to its website. The center has a baby boutique that provides material supplies for women and has an abortion pill reversal contact center and post-abortion counseling. 

“The entry of these felony plea agreements serves as a reminder that no one should suffer violence for simply providing faith-based counseling and baby supplies to women and their babies,” said First Liberty Senior Counsel, Jeremy Dys. “Attorney General Moody’s leadership, together with our lawsuit, sends a clear message: those who target life-affirming reproductive health facilities with violence will face the legal penalties Congress established for their crimes.”

The FACE Act has frequently been used in defense of abortion. Numerous pro-life activists have recently been convicted under the statute, including a young mother who was recently sentenced to more than three years in prison for blocking the entrance to a New York facility. Other pro-life activists are facing up to 10 years in prison for blocking the entrance to an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C., in 2020, including several elderly activists who are facing prison time. 

A vandalized statue of Mary, the Mother of God, at St. Leo Parish in Hartford, Arkansas, July 2024. / Fr. Joseph Chan

CNA Newsroom, Jul 26, 2024 / 14:20 pm (CNA).

Police are investigating after a parish in Arkansas was struck by three vandalism incidents in recent months, including the destruction of a statue of Mary on the parish grounds. 

Father Joseph Chan, the pastor at St. Leo Church in Hartford, Arkansas, told CNA that the incidents of vandalism began early last year. The parish is part of the Diocese of Little Rock. 

“The first was on February 26, 2023,” he said. “Our St. Leo sign and notification board had words/letters removed/jumbled to reflect body parts; for example, the letter ‘M’ was removed from the word ‘Mass’.”

“The second was on March 10, 2024, which involved graffiti to our sacristy door,” the pastor said. “Sprayed was a racial slur commonly directed towards African Americans.”

The most recent incident occurred on July 13. “Toppled to the ground were an angel and Mary statues,” Chan said. “Mary's neck was broken.  The statue of Jesus was seemingly untouched.”

“All three incidents happened within 18 months,” the priest noted. 

Law enforcement is investigating the crimes. 

“Police were notified but no suspects were identified tied to the vandalism to our knowledge,” Chan said. 

The pastor said parishioners have suffered "sadness” over the incidents. 

Mary Radley, a parishioner of the church, told the Arkansas Catholic this week that the parish has “filed with our insurance company to see how much money we will have to repair the damage.”

Chan, meanwhile, told the local outlet that “all parishes should have some sort of safeguards against vandalism,” but ”because it is the work of evil, prayer is the best antidote.”

Multiple Catholic parishes and holy sites have suffered vandalism in the U.S. in recent months and years. 

A statue of the Blessed Mother in a prayer garden on the grounds of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception was damaged by an assailant earlier this year.

Catholic churches, schools, and cemeteries throughout the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, meanwhile, were targeted by pro-abortion vandalism ahead of a major statewide vote on abortion laws. 

Catholic facilities in Texas and Colorado were also targeted last year with vandalism. 

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told EWTN News in March that the numerous attacks against Catholic churches are “not a focus or [has] the attention of [the Biden administration] or this Justice Department.”

“They can’t find a single person or any of these people that were responsible for these, what is a pretty concerted effort to attack Catholic churches in America,” Rubio said.

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, left, and Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield with Andrew Hansen, director of communications for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. / Credit: Diocese of Springfield

CNA Newsroom, Jul 26, 2024 / 11:30 am (CNA).

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester and Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield — both Chicagoans who have known each other since the early days of their priesthood — recently sat down to discuss the most important aspects of living the Catholic faith today, including the importance of inviting Catholics who have stopped practicing the faith back to Mass. 

The two bishops, both of whom have garnered followings in the media — Barron via his Word on Fire media ministry and Paprocki for his expertise as a canon lawyer — appeared together with Andrew Hansen on the Diocese of Springfield’s Dive Deep podcast, recorded during the National Eucharistic Congress last week in Indianapolis. 

In light of the National Eucharistic Revival — of which the July 17-21 congress was the pinnacle — both men agreed that attending Sunday Mass and receiving Christ in the Eucharist is an “underappreciated” and crucial aspect not only of being Catholic, but of earthly happiness as well. 

“The majority of Catholics at least in our country don't go to Mass every Sunday…but actually, going to Mass on Sunday for us Catholics is fulfillment of the third commandment to keep holy the Sabbath, and the Sabbath is Sunday, and that doesn't happen twice a month or twice a year — it happens every week,” Paprocki said. 

“[If] you want to be not only a good Catholic but to be happy, you should go to church every Sunday…In terms of closeness, [Jesus is] coming right into our hearts when we receive him at Holy Communion and it's a way to get close to our Lord in terms of the body of Christ, the Church.”

Barron spoke about how as bishop, he visits parishes in his diocese and always ends his homilies with a call to “bring someone back in the course of this year.”

“And that’s low-hanging fruit. You all know someone in your family, someone at work, some of your kids, whoever…bring that one person back, we’ll double the size of this parish,” Barron said. 

“Catholic people themselves have to realize what Bishop Paprocki said, that they're in many ways the prime evangelizers…bring them to Mass.” 

Paprocki also noted that if children are brought up with the expectation that attending Sunday Mass is a “given” and not optional, they will be more likely to practice their faith as adults. 

“I sometimes talk to young children and we talk try to talk to them about the importance of going to Mass on Sunday, and they'll say, ‘Well, I want to go to Mass on Sunday but my mom and dad don't go, and they don't want to take me’...and I think that's really sad because the children know that they should be going to Mass on Sunday, and they want to go and their parents won't take them,” Paprocki said. 

“Growing up, [going to Mass] was just a given…it wasn't even a question. It's Sunday, and we go to Mass on Sunday, it's just what we do. So I think if you can develop that habit and [your] children go to Mass on Sunday, that will be something that they'll carry with them for the rest of their lives.”

In their half-hour discussion, Barron and Paprocki also addressed the importance of open dialogue about faith within families, as well as the need to counter the misconception that science and faith are incompatible. 

“The Catholic Church is the great religion of ‘yes.’ It affirms life. God wants us fully alive and that includes every aspect of life,” Barron said. 

The full video podcast can be accessed here. 

Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill / U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

CNA Staff, Jul 26, 2024 / 11:10 am (CNA).

A priest is suing the gay dating and “hookup” app Grindr after the company reportedly failed to protect his data, leading to his resignation from a top position at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). 

In July 2021, Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill resigned from his post as the general secretary of the USCCB ahead of a report by The Pillar alleging that he had engaged in inappropriate behavior and frequent use of Grindr. 

The app advertises itself as “the largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people.” Its geolocation feature is popularly known to facilitate sex hookups between gay men. 

The Pillar said its report on Burrill was based on “commercially available records” correlated to the priest’s mobile device. But a lawsuit filed this week claims that Grindr hadn’t taken steps to protect the data from third-party acquisition. 

The suit, filed in the Superior Court of California, claims the ​​group Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal (CLCR) purchased the priest’s data from the app and sent it to The Pillar. 

The gay hookup app “assures customers” that it “takes steps” to protect data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure, the suit says. But Grindr allegedly “knew they were failing to protect sensitive personal data of its customers” yet failed to take steps to protect it, the filing says. 

Public reports “reveal a stunning pattern of [Grindr’s] intentional and reckless failure to protect private data of its customers,” the priest argues in the suit. 

The company allegedly “fraudulently conceals and fails to disclose that it provides and/or sells its users’ personal data to ad networks, data vendors, and/or or other third parties that sell the data or otherwise make it commercially available to others.”

The suit requests damages, lawyer’s fees, and “injunctive relief.” It also asks the court to forbid Grindr “from committing such unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent business practices.”

In 2022 Burrill returned to active ministry as a priest in his home diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, with then-Bishop William Callahan stating that the priest had “engaged in a sincere and prayerful effort to strengthen his priestly vows” and had “favorably responded to every request” made by the bishop and the diocese.

The priest was appointed to St. Teresa of Kolkata Parish in West Salem, where he serves as pastor. 

In his lawsuit, Burrill said his reputation had been “destroyed” by the data leak. 

In addition to losing his position at the USCCB, he was “subjected to significant financial damages and emotional and psychological devastation,” the suit says. 

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Vice President's ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on July 25, 2024, Washington, D.C. / Credit: Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 26, 2024 / 10:05 am (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of pro-life-related developments in the U.S. this week. 

Harris pledges to codify Roe in federal law

Since replacing President Joe Biden as the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic party, Vice President Kamala Harris has already made abortion a major focus of her campaign, pledging in several speeches to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law.

In a Wednesday night speech in Indianapolis, Harris bashed former President Donald Trump for nominating three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe.

“When I am president of the United States and when Congress passes a law to restore those freedoms, I will sign it into law,” she said.

“We who believe in reproductive freedom will fight for a woman’s right to choose,” said Harris, “because one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not be telling her what to do.”

Harris has used this line repeatedly during her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms Tour” in which she slammed states with pro-life laws as “immoral” and advocated for a national pro-abortion law. 

Iowa heartbeat law to take effect July 29

Iowa District Judge Jeffrey Farrell lifted a block on the state’s six-week pro-life law, clearing the path for the measure to finally take effect on July 29.

The Iowa “heartbeat” law was passed by the legislature in 2023. It protects unborn life from abortion once a baby’s heartbeat is detectable, which is typically around six weeks.

Planned Parenthood and several other abortion groups launched a lawsuit over the law and it was blocked by a district court shortly after passage. Polk County District Judge Joseph Seidlin ruled in 2023 that the law was likely invalid because it imposed an "undue burden" on abortion.

The Iowa Supreme Court, however, ruled on June 28 that the law is likely not unconstitutional because abortion is “not a fundamental right under the Iowa Constitution.” The high court returned the case to lower courts for further deliberation.

Commending the state supreme court’s ruling, Iowa’s Catholic bishops said: “For us, this is a question of the common good and human dignity. Human life is precious and should be protected in our laws to the greatest extent possible.”

Arkansas Supreme Court rules on abortion petition  

The Arkansas Supreme Court ordered that signatures as part of an abortion ballot initiative be counted after Secretary of State John Thurston said the documentation was improperly submitted.

This comes after Thurston denied abortion advocates their petition to add a broad pro-abortion amendment to the November ballot. The prosecutor said the activists failed to identify their paid canvassers or to indicate that the canvassers had followed state law regarding gathering signatures.

The state high court’s decision issued on Tuesday ordered Thurston to resume counting petition signatures gathered by volunteers by July 29.

The group claimed to have gathered over 100,000 signatures — well over the 90,700 required to add an amendment proposal to the ballot. Thurston, however, said that after subtracting the signatures allegedly invalidly obtained by paid canvassers, the group only had 87,382 signatures, more than 3,000 short of the minimum required.

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the petition’s signatures could be counted but only those not gathered by paid canvassers, meaning the petition may fail to reach the necessary threshold for the November ballot.

Currently, Arkansas protects unborn life beginning at conception, only allowing abortion in cases in which the mother’s life is in danger.

If successfully passed, the abortion amendment would mandate that the state not “prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict” abortion before 18 weeks of pregnancy. The amendment would further prohibit the state from restricting abortion at all stages in cases of rape, incest, fetal anomaly, or health of the mother.

Federal court denies effort to restrict abortion pill

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied an appeal by seven Republican-led states to challenge the federal government’s recent loosening of restrictions on mifepristone, the pill that accounts for over 60% of all U.S. abortions.

The seven Republican states — Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah — argued that the federal government’s loosening of mifepristone restrictions, such as allowing mail-order abortions and prescriptions via telemedicine, undermines their pro-life laws and harms women in their jurisdictions.

The states claimed they had standing to sue because the increase in women needing medical care after unsupervised chemical abortions would result in increased Medicaid expenses.

The 3-0 decision issued by a panel from the Ninth Circuit Court on Wednesday, however, denied the states had standing and dismissed their challenge.

The circuit court’s ruling cited the June 13 AHM v. FDA Supreme Court decision that unanimously rejected an attempt to impose stricter regulations on mifepristone because the doctors bringing the challenge lacked standing.

This comes as a coalition of seventeen Democrat-led states and the District of Columbia are suing to block any further efforts to restrict mifepristone.

Lawsuit by Texas woman wrongly imprisoned for abortion proceeds

U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton this week denied several requests to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a Texas woman who was wrongly imprisoned over her abortion.

The woman, Lizelle Gonzalez, was improperly jailed for murder by the county sheriff for three days in 2022. She was dismissed after the county found the charges were unfounded.

Texas law protects unborn life from conception. However, the law explicitly states that pregnant mothers cannot be prosecuted for their abortions.

Gonzalez is now seeking $1 million in damages from Starr County, which is in south Texas on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, who spearheaded the U.S. bishops’ initiative of Eucharistic Revival, adores Christ in the Eucharist with tens of thousands of people in Lucas Oil Stadium. / Credit: Casey Johnson in partnership with the National Eucharistic Congress

CNA Staff, Jul 26, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

More than 50,000 Catholics filled the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium July 17–21 for the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. Clergy, religious sisters and brothers, young people, the elderly, and families came together for an incredible opportunity to grow closer to Jesus in the Eucharist.

The week was filled with heartfelt moments, laughter, joy, and inspiration as the faithful in attendance experienced the fruits of years of preparation for the congress, which was a major event in the United States Bishops’ Eucharistic Revival.

Here are some of the best photos from the National Eucharistic Congress: