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Month: March 2020

This Lent, Accept No Substitutes

Posted by | Mar 24, 2020 | |

By Anna Abbott | On a recent March episode of Food Network’s Chopped, four chef contestants got canned vegan pork for a mandatory appetizer ingredient. The gray, cubed foodstuff couldn’t be confused with real pork. In the…

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#9508 Open Forum – Tim Staples

Posted by | Mar 24, 2020 | |

Callers choose the topics during Open Forum, peppering our guests with questions on every aspect of Catholic life and faith, the moral life, and even philosophical topics that touch on general religious belief. 
Questions Covered:

07:35 – How do…

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With medical supplies limited, Ohio abortion clinics face cease and desist orders

Posted by | Mar 24, 2020 | , |

Columbus, Ohio, Mar 24, 2020 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- Amid efforts to conserve medical supplies for the response to the new coronavirus, Ohio’s health department has asked the state attorney general to issue a cease and desist order to Preterm, a Cleveland-based abortion clinic that continues to perform elective abortions despite statewide orders against elective surgeries.

Melanie Amato, press secretary of the Ohio Department of Health, told the Daily Caller News Foundation March 23 that the health department “has been made aware of allegations that some health care providers appear to have violated the order on performing non-elective procedures.”

When the state health department learns of allegations of non-compliance, it is asking the Ohio Attorney General’s Office to issue cease and desist orders, she said.

“These orders have started going out,” said Amato. “This is now an enforcement issue.”

The Ohio Department of Health’s March 17 order canceled “all non-essential or elective surgeries” that use personal protective equipment by 5 p.m. March 18. The move is intended to conserve resources for health care workers as victims of new coronavirus are expected to fill hospital beds.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office previously sent out letters to non-compliant facilities that have been subjects of complaints to the health department. Ohio authorities have said abortion clinics were only some of the surgical clinics that received letters.

Abortion clinics that received letters included Planned Parenthood Ohio Southwest Region, Women’s Med Center in Dayton and the Preterm facility in Cleveland.

Despite the statements from Ohio authorities, Preterm plans to continue to provide “the full range of abortion care services because it is essential healthcare,” Preterm executive director Chrisse France told the Daily Caller News Foundation Monday morning.

“In compliance with the order from the Ohio Department of Health, our physicians will be making individualized determinations to ensure each person gets the healthcare they need and that all healthcare providers across the state have access to the supplies needed during this pandemic,” France said.

Iris Harvey and Kersha Deibel, the respective presidents and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region, have claimed that Planned Parenthood can still continue to provide “essential services, including abortion.”

Ohio Deputy Attorney General Jonathan Fulkerson sent a March 20 letter to Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio’s Cincinnati surgery center saying that the health department order was driven by the need to preserve personal protective equipment “for health care providers who are battling the COVID-19 pandemic that is spreading in our state” and to “preserve critical hospital capacity and resources.”

“This is an unprecedented time in the state’s history and everyone must do their part to help stop the spread of this disease,” Fulkerson said.

“If you or your facility do not immediately stop performing non-essential or elective surgical elective abortions in compliance with the attached order, the Department of Health will take all appropriate measures,” he continued.

Bethany McCorkle, a spokeswoman for the office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, told CNN that abortion providers are among one of many to receive such a letter.

“This is not an abortion issue,” McCorkle said. “A letter was also sent to a urology group that was allegedly performing elective surgeries.”

A March 18 joint statement from eight medical groups including the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, which tends to take pro-abortion rights stands, asserted that abortion is “an essential component of comprehensive health care.”

The groups argued that abortion is “a time-sensitive service for which a delay of several weeks, or in some cases days, may increase the risks or potentially make it completely inaccessible.” Not being able to obtain an abortion has consequences that “profoundly impact a person’s life, health, and well-being.”

Ohio Right to Life had previously written Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio to complain about what it said was a violation of the order.

“As countless other clinics across the state comply with this health order and prioritize the lives of their fellow Ohioans, Planned Parenthood continues to put profit and abortion above the safety of our society’s most vulnerable members–children and the elderly,” Ohio Right to Life president Michael Gonidakis said March 21.

In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton said Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide order barring non-essential surgeries, issued on Sunday, applied to abortion clinics.
“We must work together as Texans to stop the spread of COVID-19 and ensure that our health care professionals and facilities have all the resources they need to fight the virus at this time,” said Paxton. “No one is exempt from the governor’s executive order on medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures, including abortion providers.”

Failure to comply with the Texas executive order could mean fines of up to $1,000 or 180 days in jail.

Jonathan Saenz, president and attorney for the group Texas Values, welcomed the decision.

“Abortion is not essential healthcare,” he said March 23. “At a time when so many lives are at risk, we should all be able to agree that efforts to protect people from the coronavirus should be more important than the taking of a human life through abortion.”

Tara Pohlmeyer, communications manager with the pro-abortion rights group Progress Texas, criticized the action.

“Instead of trying to distract with ideology, state lawmakers should focus on prioritizing public health and safety measures,” she said, according to the New York Times.

On March 24, the Catholic Medical Association, along with several other medical groups, issued  statement explaining that abortion “generates more patients to be seen in already overburdened emergency rooms. Most abortion providers instruct women to go to an emergency room if they have any concerning symptoms after the abortion. Approximately 5% of women who undergo medication abortions will require evaluation in an emergency room, most commonly for hemorrhage. Surgical abortions can also result in hemorrhage. Emergency room personnel – who are already struggling to meet the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic – will be further strained to provide care to these women”.

In Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington state, where pro-abortion rights support is strong, officials have said that orders halting elective surgeries do not apply to abortions.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has suspended non-essential business and elective medical procedures but did not clarify whether this included an elective abortions. The state of Louisiana has ordered a delay in non-essential medical procedures but it is also unclear whether elective abortions are included.

 

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As coronavirus challenges mount, Catholics respond  

Posted by | Mar 24, 2020 | , , , , , , , , |

“I have encountered a wide variety of pastoral situations in more than 31 years of priestly ministry,” said Father John Ubel, rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. “However, this is an experience of the Lenten journey that is unlike any I have felt.”  

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Horizons

Posted by | Mar 24, 2020 | |

Crucial decisions required at every step along the way towards ending the coronavirus pandemic

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Houthi court in Yemen upholds death sentence of Baha’i man

Posted by | Mar 24, 2020 | , |

Sanaa, Yemen, Mar 24, 2020 / 04:40 pm (CNA).- A Yemeni appeals court run by Houthi rebels on Sunday upheld the death sentence of a member of the Baha’i religion. The court also ordered the dissolution of Baha’i institutions.

Hamed bin Haydara was detained by Houthi rebels in 2013, and was denied access to a March 22 appeal hearing in Sanaa which upheld an earlier death sentence.

“This alarming decision is an egregious violation of religious freedom and the fundamental rights of Yemeni Baha’is,” Gayle Manchin, vice chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, said March 23. “USCIRF has been long concerned with the welfare of Mr. bin Haydara and the Yemeni Baha’i community. We call on Houthi authorities to immediately reverse this verdict and cease their baseless persecution of this peaceful religious minority.”

According to USCIRF, bin Haydara was charged with “with spying for Israel, teaching literacy classes deemed incompatible with Islam, and attempting to convert Muslims.”

The Baha’i International Community said it was “utterly dismayed at this outrageous verdict” and demanded the court reverse the decision, AFP reported.

“At a time when the international community is battling a global health crisis, it is incomprehensible that the authorities in Sanaa have upheld a death sentence against an innocent individual solely because of his beliefs instead of focusing on safeguarding the population, including Baha’is,” said Diane Ala’i, a Baha’i representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

According to AFP, the Houthis have sought to ban the Baha’i religion.. The Houthi movement’s courts have started proceedings against 20 members of the religion, six of whom have been detained. The movement controls Sanaa and much of the westernmost part of the country.

In January, Pope Francis told Holy See diplomats that the crisis in Yemen is “one of the most serious humanitarian crises of recent history.”

The civil war between Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and a Saudi Arabian-led coalition has killed over 100,000 people since 2015. According to a Center of Strategic and International Studies report, the war has also caused nearly 24 million people to be in need of humanitarian assistance. 

Restraint on humanitarian organizations and aerial attacks has left 80% of Yemen’s population in need of food, fuel, and medicine, the CSIS Task Force on Humanitarian Access reported.

The Associated Press reported in February that half of the United Nations’ aid delivery programs had been blocked by the Houthi rebels. The rebels had requested that 2% of the humanitarian budget be given directly to them, heightening concerns that the group has been diverting charitable funds to finance the war.

In recent years, the pope has often asked for prayers for the Yemeni people in his public audiences.

“Pray hard, because there are children who are hungry, who are thirsty, who have no medicine, and are in danger of death,” Pope Francis said during an Angelus address in February 2019.

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Memento mori in a time of pandemic

Posted by | Mar 24, 2020 | , |

Washington D.C., Dec 22, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- As the coronavirus continues to spread, many people find themselves confronted with their mortality for the first time. One religious sister, who has created a ministry helping Catholics find hope in their faith when faced with the reality of death, says they need help.

Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble, FSP, is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul, an order dedicated to spreading the faith through modern media. She is also the author of several publications on the theme memento mori, remembering your own death, all of which aim to help the reader develop spiritual practices and disciplines which acknowledge the reality of death. 

She told CNA this spring that in the “relatively unprecedented” situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have been forced to consider their own deaths “in a different way altogether, almost communally.” 

Catholics have a special role to play in this time, she said.

“As Catholics, we have a special responsibility to live this [time] close to our tradition,” Noble told CNA. 

“I think that it will be beneficial to us spiritually if we live this reality close to our tradition, which gives us a lot of guidance on how to live with fear of death and how to cope with it in a faith-filled way, but also a reasonable way.” 

Personal faith and responsibility are both important, especially now, Noble said, with the “fearful reality” of the coronavirus leaving her concerned for the health and safety of her own loved ones. 

Faced with the unique situation of entire societies experiencing some form of memento mori, Noble said that Catholics should bring their fears and anxieties to Jesus, as well find hope in their faith. 

Noble explained that from a religious perspective, “meditation on death helps us to see those fears, but then bring them to Jesus and help him to fill those fears with this hope.”

A faith-filled approach to death is not about rejecting fear, she said, “it’s natural and real to respond to death with a feeling of fear,” but becoming open to grace at the same time. 

“Because we have the gift of faith from our baptism, we can respond to that fear differently,” said Noble. “We can also have hope in the midst of that fear.” 

Witnessing to this hope, she said, is something Catholics can do to help those who do not have faith and have been left isolated through anxiety and fear during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Personally, I think that’s how Catholics can help their secular friends right now. They might not have the faith that we have, but we can keep turning to Jesus in this and finding that hope that our faith really does provide for us, and being that light of hope to others right now.” 

Finding hope in this time is a “special gift that all Christians can be to the world,” she said. 

While many Catholics are still struggling with closed churches and the suspension of public Masses, Noble said that it was important to remember that “in extraordinary circumstances” God provides.

“God provides us with the graces that we need in the time that we need them,” she said, and encouraged people to make acts of spiritual communion, “asking Jesus to give us the graces that He would have us at Mass, and to give us even more to deal with the situation, because He’s going to give us all that we need.” 

Noble emphasized that while memento mori is a beneficial spiritual practice, it does not mean that someone should become “totally fearless of death,” especially not to the point of carelessness.

A Christian approach to mortality is “the balance of extreme caution and value for the preciousness of our lives, with the recognition that the end of our lives is really out of our hands, and it’s in the good and holy will of God,” said Noble. 

“God wants us to use our minds and our intellect to be cautious and careful, and to only take risks when God calls us to and not when the risks outweigh the benefits,” she said.

This article was originally published on CNA March 24, 2020.

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TERRENCE McNALLY DIES AT 81

Posted by | Mar 24, 2020 | , |

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the passing of Terrence McNally: Playwright Terrence McNally has died as a result of complications from coronavirus; he was 81. The four-time Tony award winner came to the attention of the Catholic Lea…

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