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Month: October 2020

Marian shrine draws faithful following

Posted by | Oct 9, 2020 | , |

Every Saturday a group of people gather at the Marian Shrine of Gratitude in northwest Toronto to pray the rosary.

Tucked away along a secluded path on 57 acres of land behind the Carmine Stefano Community Centre lies the striking shrine which feature…

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US Supreme Court sends abortion pill case back to district court

Posted by | Oct 9, 2020 | , |

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- The US Supreme Court on Thursday refused to reverse a lower court’s order preventing the FDA from requiring in-person dispensation of the abortion pill during the coronavirus pandemic.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote a dissent, in which he was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, which focused on “the inconsistency in the Court’s rulings on COVID–19-related public safety measures,” especially regarding First Amendment rights.

The court voted 6-2 Oct. 8 to postpone considering the Trump administration’s appeal that seeks a stay of an injunction that prevents the FDA from enforcing its regulation of mifepristone, the first of the two drugs taken in a medical abortion.

In July, Judge Theodore Chuang of the US District Court for the District of Maryland ruled that the FDA listing of the abortion pill regimen alongside higher-risk procedures and drugs posed an undue burden on women seeking abortions during the pandemic, because it required them to travel to a medical facility to obtain mifepristone. Chuang, and a federal circuit court which upheld his ruling in August, said that women should be able to take mifepristone without a visit to a doctor’s office.

The Supreme Court noted that the FDA “argues that, at a minimum, the injunction is overly broad in scope, given that it applies nationwide and for an indefinite duration regardless of the improving conditions in any individual State. Without indicating this Court’s views on the merits of the District Court’s order or injunction, a more comprehensive record would aid this Court’s review.”

Because of this, the court said the district court should “promptly consider a motion by the Government to dissolve, modify, or stay the injunction, including on the ground that relevant circumstances have changed,” giving it 40 days to rule after having received the government motion.

Alito wrote in his dissent that “there is no legally sound reason” for the court’s refusal to rule on the injunction.

“For all practical purposes, there is little difference between what the Court has done and an express denial of the Government’s application. In both situations, the FDA rule may not be enforced, and in both situations, the Government is able to move the District Court to modify the injunction based on changed circumstances.”

“There is, however, one difference (but not a legally significant one) between what the Court has done and the express denial of the Government’s application. Expressly denying a stay would highlight the inconsistency in the Court’s rulings on COVID–19-related public safety measures,” he noted.

“In response to the pandemic, state and local officials have imposed unprecedented rest rictions on personal liberty, including severe limitations on First Amendment rights. Officials have drastically limited speech, banning or restricting public speeches, lectures, meetings, and rallies. The free exercise of religion also has suffered previously unimaginable restraints, and this Court has stood by while that has occurred.”

He pointed to the court’s decisions in May and July upholding coronavirus limitations on religious services in California and Nevada, noting that “the Court deferred to the judgment of the Governor of Nevada that attendance at worship services presented a greater threat to public health than engaging in the diversions offered by the State’s casinos. The possibility that this dubious conclusion might have been based less on science than on the influence of the State’s powerful gaming industry and its employees was not enough to move the Court. Near-total deference was the rule of the day.”

“In the present case, however, the District Court took a strikingly different approach. While COVID–19 has provided the ground for restrictions on First Amendment rights, the District Court saw the pandemic as a ground for expanding the abortion right recognized in Roe v. Wade.”

Alito noted that the FDA adopted the regulation at issue in 2000, it has been enforced over the course of four administrations, and the agency “evidently decided that the mifepristone requirement should remain in force” during the pandemic.

“Nevertheless, a District Court Judge in Maryland took it upon himself to overrule the FDA on a question of drug safety. Disregarding THE CHIEF JUSTICE’s admonition against judicial second-guessing of officials with public health responsibilities, the judge concluded that requiring women seeking a medication abortion to pick up mifepristone in person during the COVID–19 pandemic constitutes an ‘undue burden’ on the abortion right, and he therefore issued a nationwide injunction against enforcement of the FDA’s requirement. The judge apparently was not troubled by the fact that those responsible for public health in Maryland thought it safe for women (and men) to leave the house and engage in numerous activities that present at least as much risk as visiting a clinic—such as indoor restaurant dining, visiting hair salons and barber shops, all sorts of retail establishments, gyms and other indoor exercise facilities, nail salons, youth sports events, and, of course, the State’s casinos.”

Alito wrote that “Under the approach recently taken by the Court in cases involving restrictions on First Amendment rights, the proper disposition of the Government’s stay application should be clear: grant. But the Court is not willing to do that. Nor is it willing to deny the application. I see no reason for refusing to rule.”

He concluded that the case “presents important issues that richly merit review. The District Court’s decision, if reviewed, is likely to be reversed. And if the FDA is right in its assessment of mifepristone, non-enforcement of the requirement risks irreparable harm. A stay is amply warranted.”

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New Orleans priest defiles altar with pornographic filmmaking, arrested for obscenity

Posted by | Oct 9, 2020 | , |

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2020 / 11:10 am (CNA).- A priest in the Archdiocese of New Orleans has been arrested along with two women and charged with obscenity after he was discovered filming a pornographic video on a parish church altar.

Fr. Travis Clark, 37, the pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul in Pearl River, Louisiana, was arrested together with Mindy Dixon, 41, and Melissa Cheng, 23, on September 30. 

A local resident told police they noticed the lights were on in the parish church, and upon looking in the windows, saw the three engaged in sexual activity on the  altar. According to reports, the altar of the church had been outfitted with stage lighting.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans announced the following day, Oct. 1, that Clark had been arrested and removed from ministry. Initially, no details were given for the cause of his removal, other than to confirm that he was not accused of any offences related to abuse of minors. 

Details were not revealed until Oct. 8, when public records were released.

Dixon is a pornagraphic performer and “dominatrix.” According to Nola.com, she had posted on her social media the day before her arrest that she was headed to New Orleans to “defile a house of God” alongside another “dominatrix,” presumably Cheng. 

Police believe the sexual encounter to have been consensual, and have not filed charges related to sexual assault. The obscenity charge stemmed from the fact that the sex act was visible from a window.

Clark is expected to face canonical sanctions for violations of clerical continence, and for the profanation of an altar, which is constituted a crime in canon 1376 of the Code of Canon Law, which provides that “a person who profanes a movable or immovable sacred object is to be punished with a just penalty.”

Clark was ordained a priest in 2013, and became the pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul in 2019. He had recently been named the chaplain of Pope John Paul II High School in Slidell, Louisiana, replacing another priest who resigned this summer. That priest, Fr. Paul Wattingly, was also suspended from public ministry Oct 1, after he admitted to abusing a minor in 2013.

“Both of these situations are very troubling to me. When a priest does not live out his vocation faithfully he suffers consequences and I must notify the parishioners, school families, and public in general,” said Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans in an Oct. 1 statement announcing the suspensions. 

“Please pray for all those affected, especially the parishioners of the parishes and school communities where they have served,” he added. 

Aymond has since performed a penitential liturgy of atonement and re-consecration of the altar at Sts. Peter and Paul church following the act of profanation.

As news of the story spread Friday, one priest on Twitter urged Catholics to pray prayers of reparation, “consoling the heart of Jesus.”

 

I just heard about a priest who did something truly diabolical recently. I won’t share the details because it’s very upsetting. But please, PLEASE, spend some time in prayer today consoling the heart of Jesus in reparation for this sin, and all sins. You can pray this chaplet. pic.twitter.com/G6KhX9xmXw

— Fr. Tom Bombadil, Ring Wraith? (@calix517) October 9, 2020

 

Clark, Dixon, and Cheng have all been released on bail.

 

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New Orleans priest removed for abuse sent messages to high school student

Posted by | Oct 9, 2020 | , |

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2020 / 10:20 am (CNA).- The Archdiocese of New Orleans reportedly knew for months but did not inform school officials that a priest chaplain at a Catholic high school had sent texts to a student, in violation of archdiocesan policies. The priest was removed from ministry last week after admitting to have sexually abused a minor in an unrelated case.

The principal of John Paul II High School in Slidell, Louisiana, wrote a letter to parents on Tuesday saying that he had not known of inappropriate texts sent to a student by school chaplain Fr. Pat Wattigny until Oct. 2, when he was informed about them by New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond. 

Wattingy was chaplain of the high school until the conclusion of the 2019-2020 school year, and even after he resigned from the high school faculty over the summer, neither school nor archdiocesan education officials were informed of his texting.

In fact, the school’s principal said he was not told about the texts for months — even though lawyers for the archdiocese had been informed by the student’s mother about the texts in February, several months before he was asked to resign from the school.

The priest reportedly stopped texting the student after he was initially confronted by archdiocesan officials, but later resumed doing so, at which point he was asked to resign from the school faculty.

In his letter to parents, the school’s principal said that he had heard rumors about a significant texting policy violation, but when he asked archdiocesan officials about it, he was told they had no report of such a violation.

According to a letter written by Aymond to parents of the school, reported by the Advocate, the texts did not contain “sexual references or innuendo” but still violated the archdiocesan policies about communication with youth.

Sexual abuse and youth protection experts say that texting a minor can often be used as a grooming strategy, and caution vigilance about violations of texting policies. Diocesan policies in the U.S. generally forbid priests, teachers, youth ministers and other adults from texting with teens.

On Oct. 1, the archdiocese announced Fr. Wattigny’s removal from active ministry because he had disclosed sexual abusing a minor in 2013. That announcement did not mention Wattigny’s texts. It was not until the next day, Oct. 2, that Archbishop Aymond reportedly told the principal of John Paul II, Douglas Triche, about the texts — the same day that local news outlets reported them.

The archdiocesan announcement said that Fr. Wattigny’s 2013 abuse was reported on Oct. 1, and that he was removed from ministry on the same day.

Wattigny was removed from ministry along with Fr. Travis Clark, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul parish in the archdiocese, who was charged with obscenity with women. 

Fr. Clark’s removal stemmed from an incident where he was reportedly seen having sex on the altar of his parish with two women. Archbishop Aymond has since performed a penitential rite required for continued use of the altar for sacramental purposes, the Advocate reported.

Archbishop Aymond said in his Oct. 1 announcement he would offer Masses at the two parishes on Oct. 3 and Oct. 9.

“Both of these situations are very troubling to me. When a priest does not live out his vocation faithfully he suffers consequences and I must notify the parishioners, school families, and public in general,” he stated.

CNA reported in August of 2019 a case in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati where the auxiliary bishop—and a member of the U.S. bishops’ committee on child protection—failed to inform Archbishop Dennis Schnurr about a series of allegations made against a diocesan priest of inappropriate behavior with teenage boys, including non-sexual texting.

The bishop, Joseph Binzer, knew of allegations against the priest in 2013 and reported them to law enforcement, which made no charges; he did so again when new allegations against the priest surfaced in 2015.

When the priest was transferred in 2018 to an archdiocesan school, the 2015 complaint was brought to the chancery and Archbishop Schnurr was informed of that complaint. However, the chancery later claimed that it believed the allegations to be an isolated incident, as the archbishop had not known about the previous allegations.

The priest was then ordered to limit contact with students and see a “monitor,” but school officials were not informed of that order. He was subsequently removed from ministry after he inappropriately texted a minor at the school.

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