St. Mary's Church

The Supreme Court of the state of Georgia is housed at the Nathan Deal Judicial Center in Atlanta. / Credit: Harrison Keely, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 19:15 pm (CNA).

The Georgia Supreme Court reinstated on Monday the state’s heartbeat law, a six-week limit on abortion known as the “LIFE Act,” after a trial court judge overturned it last week. 

The state Supreme Court in a 6 to 1 majority reinstated the heartbeat law pending ongoing litigation surrounding the law. Last week, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr requested a stay of the rule blocking the heartbeat law, pending appeal.

A six-week abortion limit is often called a heartbeat law, named because it protects unborn babies after fetal cardiac activity is detectable. The order went into effect at 5 p.m. on Oct. 7 in Georgia, protecting unborn babies if they have a detectable heartbeat. 

Claire Bartlett, executive director of the pro-life advocacy group Georgia Life Alliance, told CNA that she expects the Georgia Supreme Court “to fully uphold the LIFE Act.”

“From the very beginning, the LIFE Act sought to strike a careful balance of recognizing the difficult circumstances women find themselves in with the basic right to life of a unique, living unborn child,” Bartlett said. 

A trial court ruling on Sept. 30 overturned the heartbeat law on the grounds of liberty and privacy in the Georgia Constitution. 

Carr promptly appealed the decision in a legal motion on Wednesday, saying in the motion that “there is nothing legally private about ending the life of an unborn child.” Carr filed the emergency petition for supersedeas in the ongoing case, The State of Georgia v. SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. The state Supreme Court is reinstating the law as the appeal is ongoing. 

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled last week that the state’s constitutional right to liberty included decisions about abortion. 

In a 26-page ruling, McBurney said the six-week law and any pre-viability abortion restrictions are arbitrary and unconstitutional. He said the state could only restrict abortion after viability — usually at about 23 or 24 weeks. Any restrictions before that violate a women’s right to liberty and privacy, McBurney said.

The definition of liberty, he wrote, includes “the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her health care choices.”

“When Judge McBurney issued his opinion and order last Friday, his ruling was not based in reality, much less law,” Bartlett said.

The Georgia Catholic bishops of Savannah and Atlanta called the heartbeat law’s overturn a “terrible step backwards” in a statement shared with CNA last week. 

“Yesterday’s ruling to overturn Georgia’s abortion ban represents a terrible step backwards in our never-ending efforts to recognize and respect the inherent dignity of every life,” the bishops said in a joint statement. “How many tiny lives will be extinguished while lawyers appeal and lawmakers debate?”

The Archdiocese of Atlanta declined to comment further but noted in a statement last week that it “remain[s] committed to helping mothers and fathers facing crisis pregnancies as well as their precious babies.”

“We will advocate for laws to protect those in the margins. We can foster a culture of life in our families and communities. We can demonstrate how sacred each life is in the eyes of God,” the bishops said. 

In the state Supreme Court dissenting opinion, Justice John Ellington argued that “the state should not be in the business of enforcing laws that have been determined to violate fundamental rights guaranteed to millions of individuals under the Georgia Constitution.”

The Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act was initially passed in 2019, but McBurney blocked it, citing Roe v. Wade. After Roe v. Wade’s overturn, the Georgia Supreme Court overruled the decision, allowing the law to take effect in 2022. 

False claims about Georgia abortion law

The Georgia abortion law recently came under fire from Democrat presidential candidate and current vice president Kamala Harris, who promulgated a false claim that the Georgia abortion law had caused the death of two women, Amber Thurman, 28, and Candi Miller, 41.

The left-leaning news outlet ProPublica published several stories blaming the LIFE Act for their deaths. The two women died from infections caused by complications after taking abortion pills. 

The deaths of Thurman and Miller were “tragic,” Bartlett noted, and Georgia law was not to blame.

“In the case of Amber Thurman, her twin babies had already died due to the abortion pills she obtained out of state. She did not have pre- or post-medical care until she became fatally infected,” she said. “Her sad and tragic death had everything to do with lack of proper medical attention, not Georgia’s law.” 

“In the case of Candi Miller, medical protections had been removed by the Biden-Harris administration in their effort to proliferate abortion pill access,” Bartlett continued, noting that Miller had ordered the pills “online from an overseas provider.” 

In response to the dangers surrounding chemical abortions, Bartlett said that “we have a responsibility to pass protective legislation such as the Women’s Health and Safety Act, which restores the protections the Biden-Harris administration removed.” 

These protections, she said, include “requiring a woman to see a medical provider in person for a complete medical history and a physical assessment to determine any risks” as well as requiring that abortions “only be performed by licensed physicians.” 

“We take a ‘Love Them Both’ approach” to these issues, Bartlett said. 

Bartlett noted that the LIFE Act “is a careful balance of protecting the basic human rights of an unborn child while meeting society where it is culturally.”

“The law protects the child once his or her heartbeat is detectable, which can be as early as four and a half weeks. The law protects the woman by offering exceptions for life of the mother’s medical emergency, rape, incest, or if the unborn child is deemed ‘incompatible with life,’” she said. “Under no circumstance under the law is treatment for a miscarriage, stillbirth, or ectopic pregnancy considered an abortion.”

Sherry Colvin (left) and her daughter Gabriela were among the attendees at the "Remembering October 7th" rally held in front of the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 7, 2024. / Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA

Washington D.C., Oct 7, 2024 / 18:45 pm (CNA).

Hundreds gathered at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in support of Israel and in remembrance of the victims and hostages on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel.

The event, “Remembering October 7th,” was sponsored by the Philos Project, a Christian nonprofit organization that advocates for pluralism and Israel’s peaceful existence in the Middle East, and included remarks from speakers across various faith backgrounds. 

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts addressed Christians and fellow Catholics in particular during his remarks, calling on them to “stand up and be vocal and courageous” against antisemitism. 

“As a serious Roman Catholic, I can tell you that in our institutions, we’ve not been vocal enough about this,” Roberts said, appealing to fellow Christians in an impassioned speech for the Oct. 7 memorial event sponsored by the Philos Project in remembrance of Israeli victims and hostages. 

Referencing Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered at the Washington Monument in 1963, Roberts told those gathered at the event: “We know that speech to be about bringing an end to segregation in this country. But I would argue in 2024 that also includes once and for all ending in this country and around the world the scourge of antisemitism.”

In an interview with CNA at the event, Roberts stressed that antisemitism “never ends with the Jews.” Even if that were the case, the public policy leader told CNA, Christians would still be called to stand in solidarity with them. 

However, he continued, “next on the list will be those of us who are faithful Catholics.” 

“It is really important for people of all faiths ... to express their solidarity not just with Israel and all people of Jewish faith around the world,” he told CNA, “but for all Americans and free people to say this hatred and this violence has to come to an end.”

On Oct. 7, Hamas militants killed over 1,400 Israelis, took 250 hostages — of which only 101 are still alive — and committed acts of sexual violence against Israeli women, according to reports. Israel has since faced international criticism due to the rising number of civilian casualties in Gaza, currently estimated to be nearly 42,000 by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, since launching its counteroffensive. 

Following news of the escalation between Israel and Iran’s proxies in Lebanon last week, as CNA reported, Pope Francis called on Christians all over the world to observe a “day of prayer and fasting” on Oct. 7. 

Addressing how Christians ought to approach the conflict, Roberts told CNA that they must remember, “first and foremost, that all life is precious.” Drawing on Catholic teaching on just war theory, Roberts told CNA he believed the Israeli response to be “very careful” and “very proportionate. Lastly, Roberts emphasized that for peace to exist, Hamas must “cease to exist.” 

“We have to understand as Americans and Roman Catholics living in the United States that all of these assaults on Israel are assaults on Western civilization, [that] they are assaults on our faith,” he stated, adding: “We, first and foremost, have to have the courage to stand up and say, ‘We have to bring this to an end.’”

On a practical level, Roberts explained to CNA that for American policymakers on both sides of the aisle to help facilitate the end of the war, it is “vital” to end funding mechanisms for Hamas and Hezbollah at home and abroad. Roberts drew on this point during his speech as well, telling the crowd they should be asking policymakers and all of those running for office in November where they stand regarding Israel. “Otherwise,” he said, “we’re not going to end antisemitism.”

In his interview with CNA, Roberts expanded on this point further with respect to his own Catholic beliefs, saying that to him, “the contrast between the two sides couldn’t be clearer.”

“I see this as a Roman Catholic guy,” he said. “There’s one side broadly defined as the conservative movement that understands that this cause isn’t just about the state of Israel. It isn’t even just about people of Jewish faith, although both of those are certainly worthy of being in solidarity with. This is about freedom, and it’s about Western civilization, about all of our faith.”

“The other side, the radical left on its best day, speaks out of both sides of its mouth, but is really beholden to the funding interests of Hamas and Hezbollah,” he added. “Hopefully, what people see is the contrast that exists, and they vote their conscience.” 

Ohio senator and vice presidential hopeful JD Vance also made an appearance at the event.

“I know that in this crowd, some of us are Christians, some of us are Jews, and some of us are people even of no faith,” he told the crowd. “But we are united in the basic commonsense principle that we want the good guys to win and we want the bad guys to lose.” 

“What happened on October the 7th was disgraceful, and we have to make sure it never happens again,” Vance added.

U.S. Supreme Court. / Credit: PT Hamilton/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

The Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal by the Biden administration to compel emergency room doctors in Texas to perform abortions.

The decision leaves in place a January ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Becerra v. State of Texas. The 5th Circuit Court ruled that the administration’s attempt to use the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) to mandate abortions as necessary, stabilizing treatment “goes beyond” the intent of the law.

In its ruling, the 5th Circuit said that EMTALA “does not mandate medical treatments, let alone abortion care, nor does it preempt Texas law.”

This is the latest development in the administration’s attempt to use EMTALA to mandate abortions as necessary treatment.

The administration has been arguing in court that EMTALA includes abortion as part of the mandated emergency care hospitals must provide. Under this reading of EMTALA, any hospital with an emergency department that refused to perform abortions would risk losing its federal funding.

Matt Bowman, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a law firm involved in the case, applauded the Supreme Court decision, saying that “federal bureaucrats have no business compelling doctors or hospitals to end unborn lives.”

“Every state allows doctors to do whatever is necessary to preserve the life of a mother. But elective abortion is not lifesaving care — it ends the life of the unborn child — and the government has no authority to force doctors to perform these dangerous procedures,” Bowman said. “We are pleased that the Supreme Court decided the 5th Circuit’s ruling should stand, allowing emergency rooms to fulfill their primary function — saving lives.”

Dr. Ingrid Skop, an OB-GYN who practices in Texas and serves as director of medical affairs at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, also praised the decision.

“As a board-certified OB-GYN practicing in Texas for over 30 years, I have been privileged to care for both pregnant mothers and their unborn babies. I have delivered over 5,000 babies over the course of my career, and after Texas passed its law protecting unborn life, my care remained unchanged,” Skop said.

She also noted that “the laws of every state allow physicians to intervene to protect a woman’s life in a pregnancy emergency.”

This follows another decision by the Supreme Court issued in June that upheld a ruling in a similar case, Moyle v. Idaho. That decision allowed the federal government to compel emergency room doctors in Idaho to perform abortions.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center on Oct. 1, 2024, in New York City. / Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

Since Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris picked him as her running mate, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has faced challenges from Republicans, pro-life advocates, and the media to defend his extreme positions on abortion. 

As governor of Minnesota, Walz has signed several far-reaching abortion laws that have significantly expanded abortion in that state, including legislation that enshrines abortion without restrictions up to the point of birth in the state constitution.

Nevertheless, Walz has skirted the issue and refused to say that he signed legislation that allows abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

What has Walz said?

In the vice presidential debate with Sen. JD Vance this month, the moderator asked Walz to answer “yes or no” whether he supports abortion through the ninth month of pregnancy.

“Former President Trump said in the last debate that you believe abortion ‘in the ninth month is absolutely fine.’ Yes or no? Is that what you support?” Walz was asked.

Walz dodged the question, saying: “That’s not what the bill says.” 

“In Minnesota, what we did was restore Roe v. Wade,” he said. 

Minnesota law goes further than Roe, however. Before it was overturned, Roe v. Wade legalized abortion throughout the entire United States, until roughly the end of the second trimester.

And in a recent Fox News interview Walz was pressed further on the matter by anchor Shannon Bream, who noted that there is “no ban or limit on abortion in Minnesota based on how far along in a pregnancy you are.” 

Walz again appeared to dodge the question. 

“Look, the vice president and I have been clear. The restoration of Roe v. Wade is what we’re asking for,” he said. When Bream pointed out that Minnesota law goes well beyond Roe v. Wade, Walz said: “The law is very clear. It does not change that. That has been debunked on every occasion.”

What does Minnesota law say? 

Though Walz appears eager to avoid discussing the details of the law he signed, Minnesota law does in fact allow for abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, with no restrictions whatsoever, and that legislation to guarantee this “right” was signed by Walz himself. 

The state’s Protect Reproductive Options Act, signed by Walz in January 2023, establishes that, in Minnesota, “every individual who becomes pregnant has a fundamental right to continue the pregnancy and give birth, or obtain an abortion, and to make autonomous decisions about how to exercise this fundamental right.” The measure imposes no restrictions on abortion at any stage and enshrines that “right” in the state constitution.

Both pro-life and pro-abortion advocates agree that there are no restrictions on abortion in Minnesota. The group Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) says on its website that the law signed by Walz imposes “no limitations [on abortion] at any stage in pregnancy,” 

The website AbortionFinder, meanwhile, states that abortion “is legal throughout pregnancy in Minnesota” and that there is “no ban or limit on abortion in Minnesota based on how far along in pregnancy you are.”

MCCL co-executive director Cathy Blaeser told CNA on Monday that Minnesota is in a state of “abortion free-for-all.”

“We have a law that allows for abortion through all nine months of pregnancy with no protections for women or children at any gestational age,” she said. 

Asked if Minnesota’s law goes beyond Roe v. Wade as the Fox News host claimed, Blaeser said: “Yes.” 

“Initially, Roe v. Wade provided for a ‘trimester’ structure, even though in practice it allowed for abortion throughout nine months of pregnancy,” she said. “But it allowed states to put in protections with gestational age.” 

“But Minnesota currently would not allow for that,” she said, pointing out that women can obtain abortions in the state “for any reason and for no reason.”

Blaeser further pointed out that Minnesota law offers “no parameters to protect minor girls under the age of 18, and no protections for parents to be notified if their minor daughters get an abortion.” 

On its website, AbortionFinder also states that “parental involvement is not required in Minnesota” and that underage girls “can consent to an abortion and do not have to notify a parent to get an abortion in Minnesota.”

Asked about Walz’s appearing to dodge questions related to Minnesota’s abortion laws, Blaeser told CNA: “He’s actively lying. He’s not telling the truth about what the law does in this state.”

“He is trying to avoid answering those questions simply because he knows the American people do not support abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy,” she said.

Procession of the relics of St. Francis Xavier in Old Goa outside Se Cathedral on his feast day, Dec. 3, 2014. / Credit: Archdiocese of Goa and Daman

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

Police in the Indian state of Goa are on the hunt for a Hindu man who allegedly publicly disrespected St. Francis Xavier and disputed the saint’s title as protector of the state, leading to complaints from the state’s Christians, who deeply venerate St. Francis.

Catholic news outlet UCA News reported that Subhash Velingkar, a former state-unit chief of the powerful Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, publicly questioned the authenticity of the relics of St. Francis Xavier housed in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa.

The relics are only exposed for veneration every 10 years. The next period of exposition and veneration is due to start on Nov. 21 and end on Jan. 5, 2025.

Velingkar reportedly said at a public meeting on Oct. 1 that a “DNA test” should be conducted on the relics to prove that the body is really that of the saint and not, as Velingkar claims, a Buddhist monk from neighboring Sri Lanka.

Describing Velingkar as a “right-wing Hindu leader,” UCA News reported that Christians in Goa filed more than a dozen complaints that Velingkar is “outraging the religious feelings and insulting religious beliefs” under provisions of the Indian penal code and have demanded Velingkar’s arrest. 

“The Catholic community of Goa condemns the derogatory statements against St. Francis Xavier … We appeal to the concerned authorities to take strict necessary action,” Father Savio Fernandes, secretary of the Council for Social Justice and Peace of the Goa Archdiocese, said in a statement to UCA News. 

Goa state, India’s smallest by area, is located on the country’s west coast. It was ruled by Portugal as a colony for over 400 years, until 1961. As a result of the state’s Portuguese influence, it remains one of the most Christian of all of India’s states, with a quarter of the population identifying as Christian, according to a 2011 national census. 

The people of Goa have a strong devotion to St. Francis Xavier, the famed Jesuit missionary who evangelized the area beginning in 1542. He is known there as “Goencho Saib,” which means “the protector of Goa.”

The last exposition of St. Francis’ relics lasted from Nov. 22, 2014, until Jan. 4, 2015, and drew millions of pilgrims. 

India has seen a surge in Hindu nationalism and violence against Christians in recent years, especially in places governed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The northeast Indian state of Manipur has seen mayhem and bloodshed amid an ethnic conflict that has killed hundreds of Christians since last year. In addition, reports have emerged of persecution of Sikhs, a religious minority in the northwestern state of Punjab in India.

A group of over 300 U.S. Christian leaders sent a letter to the U.S. State Department in August urging the agency to put India on a watchlist of countries that have “engaged in” or tolerated “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in 2023 that it was “alarmed by India’s increased transnational targeting of religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf.” As recently as May, a USCIRF report included India among the countries with the worst religious persecution in the world.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance arrives to speak at a Trump-Vance campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5, 2024. / Credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

Speaking to reporters after the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance signaled that a second Trump administration will seek to defund Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood, which is the largest abortion provider in the U.S., took in nearly $700 million in tax-funded government grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements in 2023, accounting for 34% of its total revenue, according to Planned Parenthood’s latest report.

Vance, who was responding to a question from RealClearPolitics, signaled that Planned Parenthood’s government funding may soon come to an end.

“On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood,” Vance said, “our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund-late term abortions. That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around. It will remain a consistent view.”

Pro-life leaders have been calling on former president Donald Trump to make defunding Planned Parenthood a priority if he is reelected to the White House.

In 2018, the first Trump administration attempted to remove $60 million in funding from Planned Parenthood by making changes to the federal family planning program called Title X. The change was held up in court and ultimately rolled back under the Biden administration.

At the time of publication, the Trump campaign had not responded to CNA’s request for specifics on how the administration would renew its efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.

Vance’s comment follows months of the Trump campaign largely avoiding the abortion issue. It offers some of the first insight into what actions a second Trump administration would take to protect unborn life.

Both Vance and Trump have repeatedly said that abortion is exclusively a state issue. They have also called Democrats “radical” for legalizing abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, accusing them of even allowing infanticide.

In response to Vance’s announcement, the Washington Post reported Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, claimed that defunding Planned Parenthood “would only deepen and expand the public health crisis we’re already in thanks to Donald Trump, causing more people to suffer and die for lack of basic reproductive care.”

Lawson pointed out that the Hyde Amendment already prohibits federal funds from being directly used for abortion.

Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for the Kamala Harris campaign, told NBC News that “a second Trump term is too big a risk for American women and their families” and that “the only way to stop an unchecked Trump and his MAGA allies from ripping away freedoms from American women is to elect Vice President Harris, who will defend women’s access to health care and reproductive freedom.”

Meanwhile, Kristi Hamrick, a representative for the national pro-life group Students for Life Action, compared tax-dollar funding for Planned Parenthood a “cancer” in the federal budget. She called Vance’s announcement “good news.” 

According to Hamrick, Students for Life has been in contact with the Trump campaign and has been urging the former president to commit to defunding Planned Parenthood. 

“Students for Life Action has taken President Trump at his word, that he wants to end federal engagement with abortion,” Hamrick told CNA. “That begins with ending federal funding, because as long as you are using federal tax dollars to pay for something, the issue is federal.”

She also said Students for Life has called for the Trump campaign to urge voters to vote “no” in all 10 of the state abortion initiatives on the ballot this November.

“The GOP said in their platform that they did not support late-term abortion — and that is empowered by those extreme measures,” she said.

Planned Parenthood performed 392,715 abortions in 2023, according to its 2023 report. According to a Pew Research Center study published this year, about 1% of U.S. abortions — 9,301 — were late-term abortions, taking place at 21 weeks or after.

Panelists discuss how the transgender movement is impacting young women in particular at the 2024 Pray Vote Stand Summit panel “Saving America’s Daughters: Title IX and the Fight for Fairness.” From left to right: moderator Joseph Backholm, Macy Petty, Doreen Denny, and William Bock. / Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

Panelists at the annual Pray Vote Stand Summit in Washington, D.C., this past weekend discussed how the transgender movement is impacting young women in particular.

In a panel discussion titled “Saving America’s Daughters: Title IX and the Fight for Fairness,” former NCAA volleyball player Macy Petty joined sports attorney William Bock and Doreen Denny, a senior adviser at Concerned Women for America, to discuss the predicament faced by female athletes who have been forced to compete against and share spaces with biological males.

Pray Vote Stand is an annual gathering of mostly evangelical, politically engaged conservatives.

“Never in a million years would I have thought we would one day actually discuss whether or not women deserve their own spaces,” Petty told those gathered at the summit while sharing her experience as a female athlete who had competed against a biological male.

As a high school volleyball player five years ago, Petty and her teammates were forced to play against a team that had a biological male. The trans-identifying athlete was “playing on a net seven inches shorter than he should have as a man,” according to Petty, who is also an activist with Concerned Women for America.

“So he embarrassed all of us, smashing the ball in our faces in front of the college scouts,” she recalled. Petty went on to point out the disappointment of female athletes who have lost out on opportunities because they were forced to compete against men. 

Bock testified to his extensive experience as a litigator in sports law — dealing with issues including doping and Title IX — noting that men have a clear biological and physical advantage over women in sports.

The Christian attorney called the issue “an effort to deny truth and the image of the Creator God” and encouraged believers to “take the burden off of the young ladies who are playing sports” by advocating for them within their communities and the wider public sphere.

Support for inclusion of biological males in women’s sports, despite the apparent risk, is only going to continue, Denny said, “because of what [the] Biden-Harris administration has done with Title IX” and because of how the NCAA has also continued to “double down” on those policies.

As CNA reported in April, the Biden-Harris administration issued a redefinition of Title IX to include protections against discrimination on the basis of gender identity — thereby granting individuals the right to participate in programs such as organized sports that are “consistent with their gender identity” rather than their biological sex.

Opponents of the proposed changes, which were scheduled to go into effect in August, succeeded in blocking in court the administration’s expanded regulations governing the 1972 law that was originally passed to protect women from discrimination in educational spaces. 

During a related summit panel titled “Attorneys General and the War to Stop the Runaway Left,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall also discussed how the promotion of gender ideology has affected young girls.

Yost spoke about his experience successfully defending an Ohio law passed earlier this year that bans minor sex-change surgeries and male participation in women’s sports. He referenced the participation in the process of Chloe Cole, a prominent detransitioner and activist who has testified before Congress on how her childhood was “ruined” because of the puberty blockers and double mastectomy she underwent as a minor.

While Yost acknowledged the existence of “tragic” cases where children suffer on account of gender dysphoria, he addressed those gathered at the summit: “How about a young girl who’s confused, the doctors change her body, and she grows up and gets her head on straight, and she says, I want to be a wife. I want to have babies. And she can’t because of what was done to her when she was a vulnerable kid.”

“That’s tragic, too,” he added.

The faithful stand at attention for the national anthem at the archdiocesan Red Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. / Credit: Archdiocese of Washington

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Washington on Sunday celebrated its annual Red Mass ahead of the opening of the Supreme Court’s October 2024 term, a liturgy that the archdiocese said invokes “God’s guidance and blessing on justices, judges, diplomats, attorneys, and government officials.”

Washington Archbishop Cardinal Wilton Gregory was the principal celebrant at the Mass while Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, concelebrated. Deacon Darryl Kelley offered the homily. The assembly sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” prior to the opening of the Mass.

Attendees at the liturgy included Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. as well as associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Elizabeth Barchas Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, was also in attendance.

Red Masses are offered for those who work in all legal professions. The practice dates back to the 13th century.

The Washington archdiocesan Red Mass, held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in downtown Washington, is sponsored by the John Carroll Society, an organization of Catholic professionals. The group has been sponsoring the Mass for over 70 years. 

Kelley in his homily said the Mass was not a “mere social event at the beginning of the judicial year.”

“Today, in this nation’s ongoing work to form a more perfect union in justice, genuine liberty, and the common good, we praise God for the blessings and guidance of the spirit of truth and gifts,” Kelley said.

It is “no coincidence,” Kelley said, that the Red Mass first began centuries ago “when the foundation of our law today was being developed.” 

“And the foundation of our law is the common law,” he said, “which is rightly grounded in fundamental principles and right reason.” 

The Red Mass serves as a “recognition that there is a higher, timeless, unwritten, transcendent law of justice, such that law, per se, is something that is discovered, or received — not arbitrarily created or decreed,” the deacon noted. 

Quoting the 13th-century English jurist Henry de Bracton, Kelley noted that God “is the author of justice.”

The Mass was preceded by remarks on the history of the John Carroll Society by board of governors member Liz Young. 

In addition to the annual Red Mass, the John Carroll Society also sponsors a yearly “Rose Mass,” meant to “invoke God’s blessings on the medical, dental, nursing, and allied workers and the many health care institutions in the Archdiocese of Washington.”

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh (left) and Neil Gorsuch (right) arrive for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 7, 2024. / Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Ahead of the United States Supreme Court’s newest term, Justice Brett Kavanaugh lauded recent court decisions that have protected religious liberty and halted discrimination against religious organizations. 

During an event hosted by the Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, Kavanaugh said religious liberty is “one area in the six years I’ve been on the court that I think we’ve made — in my view — correct and important strides.”

Kavanaugh, who was nominated to the court by former president Donald Trump in 2018, is one of the six Catholic justices on the Supreme Court. He made the comments during an hourlong interview on Sept. 26 by CIT Director J. Joel Alicea. 

During the talk, Kavanaugh referenced four cases specifically: the 2017 Trinity Lutheran decision, the 2020 Espinoza decision, the 2022 Shurtleff decision, and the 2022 Carson decision.

All four cases dealt with government discrimination against religious institutions and answered questions about the First Amendment. 

In Trinity Lutheran, Espinoza, and Carson, the Supreme Court ruled that governments cannot deny public benefits or public money to religious organizations simply because they have a religious affiliation. This means that school voucher programs and other government funding programs that are available to secular organizations must also be available to religious ones.

The government entities that initially denied funds to the religious organizations claimed they did so because of the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which states the government cannot make laws “respecting an establishment of religion.” The government argued that if it provided those funds to religious organizations, they would be in violation of the clause.

Kavanaugh said during the talk that this interpretation is “a misreading of our history and tradition” and said policies that outright exclude religious organizations are “unlawful” under both the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment.

The Supreme Court ruled in all three cases that providing those funds does not violate the establishment clause.

In reality, the court found that offering funding programs to secular organizations — and denying them to similar religious organizations — was discrimination that violated the First Amendment protection to freely practice one’s religion and the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

“I think one of the principles that’s been reinforced and elaborated on is that discrimination against religion, against religious people, against religious speech, [and] against religious organizations, is not required by the establishment clause — and indeed is prohibited by the free exercise clause and the equal protection clause,” Kavanaugh said.

Similarly, in the Shurtleff case, the Supreme Court ruled that the city of Boston discriminated against a Christian organization by refusing to let it fly an ecumenical Christian flag at City Hall, even though the city allowed secular groups to fly various flags.

“I think we’ve … reinforced a critical principle of religious equality and religious liberty in those cases and hopefully corrected some of the confusion from litigation-shy local attorneys,” Kavanaugh added. “... I feel very proud of that for recognizing the constitutional protection of religious equality and religious liberty.”

The Supreme Court did not take up any religious liberty cases in its last term but could choose to hear several religious liberty cases in its upcoming term that begins this week.

Kavanaugh discusses Catholic intellectual tradition

During the interview, Kavanaugh also discussed his faith and the Catholic intellectual tradition.

“The Catholic tradition … is reflected in several principles I try to think about daily,” Kavanaugh said.

Kavanaugh referenced Matthew 23:12, which states: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” He said he thinks about this verse “to remember the importance of humility — that you don’t know it all; that you’re trying to learn from others.”

Kavanaugh also referenced Matthew 25, saying it highlights “the importance of feeding the hungry and caring for the sick and housing the homeless.”

The justice said in the past when he volunteered at Catholic Charities, “we’d always say … we serve them, we feed them, not because they’re Catholic, but because we’re Catholic.”

In reference to Catholic intellectual tradition, Kavanaugh said: “I really think of the same kinds of principles,” such as “trying to listen to all sides to try to be open-minded, to try to listen and learn, and to have inquiry and dialogue.”

“I think the Catholic intellectual tradition reflects this, which is inquiry and dialogue and listening and hearing different perspectives and having respectful back-and-forth, to always try to learn more and to understand more,” Kavanaugh said.

“So for me, the Catholic intellectual tradition builds on the Catholic experience and tradition more generally about being part of a broader community where you listen to others, help others, serve others, learn from others, and that’s how I think about it,” Kavanaugh said.

Parish-based Trinity House Community groups are now active in 25 parishes in nine states, including 12 parishes within the Diocese of Arlington. Each parish pays an annual subscription cost to gain access to the turnkey program (videos, discussion questions, handouts, core team guides). Most of the gatherings take place on Saturday evenings in the parish hall, following the anticipatory Mass, and last 90 minutes. Many of the groups (also called "Heaven in Your Home Gatherings") are 50-70 attendees, but some are as large as 125 or more. / Credit: Courtesy of Soren and Ever Johnson/Trinity House Community Group

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Parental stress was cited as a public health challenge by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who noted in a Health and Human Services (HHS) advisory on the mental health and well-being of parents in late summer that parental stress is at an all-time high.  

Forty-one percent of parents say that most days they are too stressed to function, while 48% of parents say their stress is “completely overwhelming,” according to a 2023 study by the American Psychological Association 2023, which the HSS cited in its August advisory. 

In contrast, only 26% of other adults mark that they are this stressed.

“Something has to change,” Murthy wrote in the forward of the U.S. surgeon general’s advisory. Supporting parents “will require us to rethink cultural norms around parenting.”

Catholic leaders and those who minister to parents and families have also noticed this trend and are striving to address the lack of community and the stress that parents too often face. 

Catholic psychotherapist, author, and founding director of the Pastoral Solutions Institute Dr. Greg Popcak has noticed the crisis in his own work. 

“Parents in general are lonely and isolated,” he told CNA. “They’re cut off from the support that was traditionally offered by their families of origin and they’re completely overscheduled. The modern family is characterized by choosing activity over intimacy, which makes everyone — parents and kids — grumpy, lonely, and stressed and miserable.” 

Ever Johnson, who with her husband, Soren Johnson, directs Trinity House Community, a Catholic resource designed to help parents build faith and community for their families, agrees.

“Families are overwhelmed often with both parents working and the demands of kids’ schooling and extracurriculars,” she told CNA. “Social media and the atrophy of faith-filled community further contributes to a sense of FOMO [fear of missiing out], anxiety, and stress.”

Catholic middle school teacher Anne Marie Di Geronimo has observed a similar phenomenon among parents she encounters in her work.

“We’re seeing some of the ill effects that the internet has wrought,” Di Geronimo said. “All of these trains have crashed for parents, many of whom feel stressed and put a lot of pressure on themselves to prepare their kids for what they see as a more challenging future than what I faced. It’s harder to get a good-paying job. It’s harder to get into a college than it used to be.” 

Combating parental anxiety 

Di Geronimo, who teaches at St. Anne School in San Francisco, assigns a once-a-month homework activity designed to help students be more independent and parents to feel more comfortable taking a step back. 

The premise is simple: for homework, a student must try something new without the help of his or her parents (but with their permission). The result: parents can be less involved and kids can gain more independence and resilience. 

“When parents can step back, then they can allow their kids to take these small, measured risks while they’re still at home with supervision and support, then the parents can do less for the kids, while the kids can do more at home,” Di Geronimo said. “These kinds of experiences really grow their confidence.”

Di Geronimo noted that parents sometimes “feel that they have to do so much to enrich, to teach, to prepare” their kids.

“Sometimes it crosses over into enmeshment for parents, or doing too much,” she added. 

The independence homework assignment is part of a program called Let Grow, which offers free educational materials that are designed to help students become more independent and therefore less anxious. 

Lenore Skenazy, author of “Free Range Kids” and president of Let Grow, said that parents need to see their kids being independent just as much as the kids need to become independent. 

It’s a “national program to rewire parents so that they’re less anxious, even as it’s rewiring kids so that they’re less anxious,” Skenazy told CNA.

“If you want parents to feel less burdened, more hopeful, more trusting, more relaxed, happier, and more filled with faith, they have to let go,” Skenazy said.

Let Grow also has “play club” programs designed to let kids play independently before and after school, with “a lifeguard” rather than a strict chaperone. “Independence and free play have been going down for a long time,” Skenazy explained.

“Less anxious parents will mean less anxious kids, and less anxious kids will mean less anxious parents,” she said.

Skenazy sees parents grow by practicing giving their kids more independence. She compares her program to exposure therapy.

“Letting your kid go in a culture that has told you that your kid is in constant danger is an act of bravery,” she said. “You’re getting out of your comfort zone, even as the kid is getting out of theirs. And then seeing the kid come back again, it’s like you’ve been through the fire and you’ve come out hardened, you’re stronger, and that feels great.”

Building support among Catholic parents

Catholic parents need more support than they are currently given by the Church, according to Popcak, who has noticed an uptick in parental stress in his work.

“We need to give parents clear guidance for building loving, joyful, faithful family lives,” Popcak said. “We need to help them recapture their quality of life as families.”

“We need to give them real hope that it’s possible to raise faithful kids in today’s world and we need to give them the support that’s necessary to pull this off,” he added. 

Popcak recently founded a website and app designed to support Catholic parents through building community and offering resources designed to help parents keep their kids in the faith. 

The app, CatholicHOM (Households on Mission) is designed to build community, help parents raise kids who stay Catholic, and enable parishes to run monthly parent support groups. 

CatholicHOM’s main focus, Popcak said, is “building a community of support for Catholic parents and connecting them with our team of professional pastoral counselors and Catholic family life coaches so they can get daily support, encouragement, and resources they need to create joyful, loving, faithful Catholic family lives.”

“We’re giving parents a community where they share struggles and successes, get support, and grow together,” Popcak said.

Communion in the home 

Trinity House Community is another ministry designed to bolster the lives of parents and families. The organization offers family formation, fellowship, and materials to help parents pass their faith on to their children.

“We inspire Catholic parents with a vision for their domestic church or ‘Trinity House,’ a vision rooted in the Church’s teaching that the family is a communion of persons in the image of the Holy Trinity,” Soren Johnson told CNA. 

Trinity House also helps parishes create local groups that invite parents and kids to gather. 

“In addition to a vision and practical roadmap, today’s families need a community which can provide encouragement, fellowship, and accountability as they lead their children heavenwards,” Soren Johnson noted.

Each meeting follows the “Trinity House Model,” designed to build community as the group works through aspects of family life: faith life, relationships, household economy, family culture, and hospitality and service. 

“Too often, the only all-family event at the local parish is the annual picnic,” he continued. “In addition to strong women’s groups, men’s groups, young adult groups, and others, parishes need to open up the parish hall for frequent opportunities for entire families to build community.” 

In response to the stress crisis, Ever Johnson said that “we need to re-propose the Church’s beautiful vision for the family, rooted in the peace of the communion of the Holy Trinity, and lived out in practical ways such as the holy Sabbath, family meals, family prayer, and an immersive, beautiful, loving Catholic experience within the home.” 

Hospitality for families

The California bishops are also taking steps to celebrate and support marriage and families.

In their recently launched “Radiate Love” initiative, designed to celebrate and support marriage and families, the bishops are encouraging their flocks to take steps to support families on the diocesan, parish, and family levels.

Molly Sheahan, associate director for Healthy Families for the California Catholic Conference, said that Catholic communities can take many steps to better support families, beginning at Mass.

“Acknowledging them in the prayers of the faithful or with a special blessing shows families that they’re seen and valued by their parish community,” she told CNA.

Sheahan also recommended that parishes “create opportunities for connection.”

“Intentional hospitality at church as a place outside of work or school where families are welcome goes a long way,” she noted. “Inviting families to the church picnic, family adoration, time at the park after Mass, or moms’ and dads’ groups both promotes family closeness and helps build community.”

In response to the initiative, California parishes and dioceses are building marriage ministries and family retreats and connecting with young adults to address their questions about dating and marriage, Sheahan said. 

“Parishes are hosting skills-building workshops for married couples to help with things like communication, conflict resolution, active listening, and strengthening their relationship,” she added. “Others are hosting date nights with child care, or offering date night kits at home, to help couples reconnect and spend time together.” 

Catholics in California are already feeling the effect. 

“It’s renewing hope in our communities that marriage is good for people, for children, and for our Church,” Sheahan said.