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CNA Staff, Sep 6, 2024 / 10:30 am (CNA).

West Virginia Delegate Pat McGeehan, a supporter of the state's ballot measure to make assisted suicide illegal, said in an interview with "EWTN Pro-Life Weekly" this week that he hopes the potential ban will be a "gold standard for other states to follow."

West Virginia's House Joint Resolution 28 received majority support in both chambers earlier this year. The measure would explicitly prohibit physicians and health care providers from participating in medically assisted suicide and euthanasia. 

Assisted suicide is legal in 10 U.S. states including Oregon, Washington, and Colorado as well as Washington, D.C.

Assisted suicide is implicitly illegal in West Virginia already as it's considered homicide, McGeehan said on "EWTN Pro-Life Weekly" on Thursday. But the ballot measure would move to enshrine this ban in the state constitution.

"The measure is not only to protect our own state in the future," McGeehan said. "We're trying to use it to serve as a beacon for other states who value the preservation of life, to do so and follow in our wake."

"If we enshrine this prohibition in the state constitution, we can establish some sort of gold standard for other states to follow, especially the red states in the Midwest, so that we can ensure that the sanctity of life is upheld across the nation," he added. 

Physician-assisted suicide — where a doctor prescribes life-ending drugs to a patient — was first allowed in the U.S. in Oregon in 1997.

"People might not fully grasp the long-term ramifications of legalizing and institutionalizing medically assisted suicide," McGeehan said this week. "The liberal progressive order likes to reduce morality to just consent."

But McGeehan said that it's hard to ensure that assisted suicide is fully voluntary. 

"Doctors hold significant authority in our society, and their suggestion of assisted suicide can heavily influence vulnerable patients and makes it hard to ensure that such a decision is ever truly voluntary to begin with," he said. 

McGeehan noted that insurance companies and Medicaid and Medicare may cover the assisted suicide, but not the cancer treatment, to save money. 

"Once states start down this path, there's going to be pressure from government bureaucrats placed on doctors to suggest that this is a way for patients to end their lives who might be in vulnerable situations, just like Canada's doing," McGeehan said. 

Legalized in 2016 in Canada, assisted suicide accounted for 4.1% of all deaths in that country in 2022. A 2024 study found that the assisted suicide program was the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada, tied with cerebrovascular diseases. 

Some states like Oregon and Vermont also offer assisted suicide to out-of-state residents in what McGeehan calls "euthanasia tourism." 

"They have an entire market in Portland now, dedicated to these out-of-state residents coming in to kill themselves," he said. "They have so-called death hotels and death Airbnbs, where vulnerable individuals traveling to their states to end their lives essentially die by themselves."

McGeehan recalled a West Virginian who turned to assisted suicide, travelling to Oregon for the death prescription. 

"I had a constituent who was very depressed. He got a bad diagnosis, he could have stuck with it, and the doctors told him his cancer would go into remission, potentially in a couple of years," McGeehan recalled. 

"But he, against my advice, traveled to Oregon, waited two weeks and got a script from the doctor who signed off on it, went down to a local pharmacy, they gave him a cocktail of poisons, just like they were giving him some sort of medicine," he continued. "He went back to a hotel, swallowed them, and it destroyed his organs."

McGeehan calls assisted suicide "a nihilistic trend that is sweeping the country and the Western world."

"We cannot place decisions between who should die and who should not in the hands of politicians today," he said. "[That] places an enormous power in the hands of government officials, and it leads to arbitrary decisions that can have devastating consequences for our society."

"I want to get the word out there because it's a fight worth fighting," McGeehan added.

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CNA Staff, Sep 5, 2024 / 15:56 pm (CNA).

Father Roger Landry was announced Thursday as the new national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA (TPMS-USA), the pope's ministry that supports Catholic missionary activity through moral support, prayer, and financial contributions. 

Landry, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, who currently serves as chaplain at Columbia University in New York, is well known as a Catholic preacher, writer, retreat leader, and pilgrimage guide. He also served a seven-year stint working with the Holy See at the United Nations and was appointed by Pope Francis in 2016 as a permanent Missionary of Mercy. 

"From the time I was a little child, I have loved the mission of the Church. I would go to bed reading about the great missionaries who gave their lives to spread the faith, so today I am overjoyed at the possibility of helping all those on the front lines through The Pontifical Mission Societies USA," Landry said in a statement accompanying the announcement. 

"As Pope Francis has regularly reminded us, the Church doesn't just have a mission; the Church is a mission, and each of us, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we too don't just have a mission; we are a mission on this Earth."

The Pontifical Mission Societies USA, which is funded in large part by a special collection at Catholic parishes each October, include the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, the Missionary Childhood Association (MCA), and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious. 

The societies support missionary activity by building churches, helping to form present and future priests and religious, sustaining fledgling missionary dioceses, and erecting schools and catechetical centers. 

Landry's appointment as director will be effective in January 2025, TPMS-USA says. 

In a Thursday op-ed for the National Catholic Register, Landry said he was approached to serve as the new national director while helping to lead the recent National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, an unprecedented effort to process Christ in the Eucharist thousands of miles as a witness to the Catholic faith. Landry was the only priest who walked the entirety of one of the four cross-country pilgrimage routes, traversing the roughly 1,500-mile eastern Seton Route with the Eucharistic Lord and a cadre of young pilgrims. 

Landry said Thursday that Cardinal Luis Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, verbally confirmed his new appointment at the beginning of the National Eucharistic Congress, which took place in July in Indianapolis. Landry said it was fitting that Tagle preached at the final Mass of the Congress on the connection between the Eucharist and mission.

"To live a Catholic life, he emphasized, is to live a Eucharistic life, and a Eucharistic life is a missionary life. We're called to imitate Jesus' Eucharistic self-giving and make our life, in communion with his, a gift for others," Landry wrote. 

"There's a connection between the 'Amen' we give to Jesus when we receive him in holy Communion and the 'Amen' we say to God's blessing at the end of Mass, as we are sent out to announce the Gospel of the Lord."

Landry noted that he is taking the helm of the TPMS-USA at a time in which, 2,000 years after Christ's ascension, only three out of 10 people in the world are Christian and just three out of 20 are Catholic.

"The whole world has become again what it was in the first days of the Church: a vast missionary territory. There's a need for diligent laborers to take in that harvest — for everyone to take seriously and act on Jesus' command, 'Go, make disciples,'" Landry wrote. 

"I'm honored to have been called to do that work full time. I hope to count on you as a willing collaborator, as, following the example and with the intercession of St. Teresa of Calcutta, we seek from our encounter with Jesus' infinite love in the holy Eucharist to become, like her and her sisters, his love in the world."

Landry succeeds Monsignor Kieran Harrington, who resigned as national director in February amid allegations of inappropriate behavior with an adult, to which he later admitted. Father Anthony Andreassi, CO, has been serving as interim director. 

"The Board of Directors is thrilled to welcome Father Roger J. Landry as the new national director of The Pontifical Mission Societies," said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the TPMS-USA Board of Directors.

"His commitment to the mission of the Church and his extensive experience make him the ideal leader to guide TPMS-USA in its efforts to support the global mission of evangelization, particularly where the message of the Gospel has only recently been introduced, where the Church is materially poor and cannot sustain itself, and also where our brothers in the faith are persecuted."

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 5, 2024 / 16:26 pm (CNA).

Nicaraguan authorities released 135 political and religious prisoners following international pressure, but many critics of the government still remain behind bars amid the ongoing crackdown against political dissidents and religious organizations.

"No one should be put in jail for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights of free expression, association, and practicing their religion," U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a Thursday statement. 

The U.S. Department of State (DOS), which has been working to secure the release of political prisoners in Nicaragua, announced that the freed people included Catholic laypeople, 13 individuals associated with the Texas-based evangelical group Mountain Gateway, and human rights activists.

According to the DOS, many of the former prisoners temporarily resettled "safely and voluntarily" in Guatemala. The Guatemalan government worked with the United States government to help secure the prisoners' release. 

"These freed Nicaraguan citizens will now have the opportunity to apply for lawful pathways to resettle to the United States or elsewhere and begin the process of rebuilding their lives," a DOS statement read.

President Daniel Ortega's administration has jailed hundreds of political opponents over the past six years after the 2018 protests against his leadership. The socialist president has also expelled religious sisters and shut down Catholic schools and media outlets. He has imprisoned dozens of Catholic clergy, including Bishop Rolando Álvarez — who was released and sent to the Vatican along with priests and seminarians in January of this year.

Just last week, the regime shut down 169 additional nonprofit organizations, which included Catholic organizations and evangelical churches. Last week, the government also confiscated a retirement fund for Catholic priests. Last month, the dictatorship eliminated tax exemptions for Catholic and evangelical churches. 

"Daniel Ortega, [Vice President] Rosario Murillo, and their associates continue to violate human rights, stifle legitimate dissent, jail opponents, seize their property, and prevent citizens from reentering their home country," the DOS statement read. "We urge the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua."

Kristina Hjelkrem, who serves as legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF) in Latin America, told CNA that "many families will be reunited" because of the most recent prisoner release in Nicaragua. ADF advocated on behalf of the individuals affiliated with Mountain Gateway.

Hjelkrem said the regime frequently fabricates charges against its opponents by prosecuting them for financial crimes, such as money laundering, or for recently created crimes such as the "propagation of false news" or the "undermining of national integrity." Effectively, she said this is a way to arrest people for "talking against the human rights violations [of] of the government." 

"One of their biggest strategies is to initiate criminal proceedings against churches and church-related institutions on sham charges," Hjelkrem said. 

Hjelkrem said the regime targets anyone "who is calling out the government's wrongdoing or even just preaching the Gospel … [because] the Gospel stands for human dignity and justice."

According to Hjelkrem, international pressure from human rights groups and sovereign states "has proven to be effective" in securing the release of Nicaraguan political and religious prisoners. She encouraged people to continue to "speak up against the censorship that religious leaders in Nicaragua are experiencing."

Sullivan, in his statement, called for the Nicaraguan government "to immediately cease the arbitrary arrest and detention of its citizens for merely exercising their fundamental freedoms."

In April, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released a report on religious persecution around the world. According to its findings, Nicaragua was one of the worst offenders of religious persecution.

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Houston, Texas, Sep 5, 2024 / 18:04 pm (CNA).

The Catholic bishops of Arizona have come out against a ballot initiative that would criminalize illegal immigration at the state level and strengthen state border enforcement. 

Arizona citizens will be voting on the measure, which is titled the Arizona Immigration and Border Law Enforcement Measure, or simply Proposition 314, as part of this November's election.

Though they expressed "frustration about the current situation at the U.S.-Mexico border," the state's four Catholic bishops said in a statement that the proposition would have "harmful consequences."

The bishops asserted that border enforcement is a federal not state issue and that if passed the result of the measure would be that "dangerous criminals will not be apprehended, and public safety will be threatened."

What would the proposition do?

If passed, the proposition would make it a state crime for migrants to enter Arizona from any location other than an official port of entry. The measure would also authorize state and local police to arrest illegal migrants and allow state judges to order deportations.

Additionally, the measure would require officials to determine the immigration status of individuals before being enrolled in financial aid or public welfare programs. Individuals who violate the measure by submitting false information to evade detection of employment eligibility or to apply for public benefits would face Class 6 felony charges.

Lastly, the measure would make it a Class 2 felony for a person to knowingly sell fentanyl that results in the death of another person.

What are the bishops saying?

The Arizona bishops said that "the reality is that its passage will create real fear within Arizona communities that will have harmful consequences."

The bishops claimed that by "having state and local law enforcement responsible for enforcing what should be the role of federal immigration authorities, many crime victims and witnesses will be afraid to go to law enforcement and report crimes."

"Immigration by its nature is a national issue and the regulation of immigration extends beyond the purview of individual states," the bishops said. "Rather than holding the federal government accountable, Proposition 314 will only create further disorder and confusion, placing unworkable and unrealistic expectations on state judicial officers and law enforcement personnel."

Despite their opposition to the state measure, the Arizona bishops hold that "comprehensive immigration reform" is sorely needed from the federal government.

Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Tucson said in a video released by the bishops that "the federal government needs to do a much better job at managing our border and providing comprehensive immigration reform."

"The lack of a federal solution to challenges faced by both vulnerable asylum seekers and American communities is sorely needed and long overdue," Weisenburger said.

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ACI Africa, Sep 5, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Two Catholic priests serving in the West African nation of Burkina Faso have spoken about the threats that terrorist groups pose to Christians in the country, saying the people of God there live in constant fear.

In a Sept. 2 press conference organized by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, Father Bertin Namboho, diocesan financial administrator of the Diocese of Nouna, and Father Jean-Pierre Koné, a parish priest in Tansila, shared their personal experiences in the country that has been grappling with Islamist terrorism since 2015.

"Since the onset of these attacks, we have witnessed our community being torn apart. The terrorists have blocked our city, destroying essential services. There is no electricity, no water, and the health system is reduced to a minimum. The situation is critical," Namboho lamented.

"We now have about 5,000 people in our city who have fled from the villages. They have lost everything. Their husbands and fathers have been killed or disappeared, and we are struggling to provide for their basic needs," he said.

The economic toll on the western town of Nouna is equally devastating, he said, adding that the destruction of infrastructure has disrupted local commerce, leaving residents without access to banks and essential services.

"The entire city has been under siege, with no access to food or medical supplies. The situation is extremely difficult for everyone," the priest said. 

He recounted his personal experiences with the terrorists, saying that various encounters have instilled in him "profound fear."

"During my travels for the church's work, I have faced armed groups who question and threaten us. I was with nuns, and we were stopped and searched. It is terrifying to face such hostility and know that priests have been kidnapped and killed," he recounted, adding: "We are constantly living in fear, unsure if we will survive each day."

For his part, Koné, who has been serving in Tansila parish since October 2022, spoke about the escalation of violence across Burkina Faso over the years. 

Upon arriving in the town of Tansila, also in the western part of the country, Koné found the region already facing severe security challenges, he said. "The situation was tense from the beginning, but it has worsened progressively. The terrorists have targeted and destroyed all communication networks, cutting us off from the rest of the country."

Koné recalled the devastating impact of the terrorists' attacks on April 15, 2023, when more than 200 militants stormed Tansila. 

"They arrived in the evening and attacked the town with such force that residents had no time to gather their belongings. They looted everything — food, money, and even transportation means," Koné recounted. 

He continued: "The destruction was immense. Our church, presbytery, and all our religious artifacts were vandalized. We returned to find everything in ruins."

The psychological and spiritual impact of these attacks, he said, have been "profound."

"The destruction of our church feels like the loss of our religious identity. It is as though we have been stripped of our dignity and our faith. The pain is not just physical but deeply spiritual. It raises questions about where God is in the midst of such suffering."

Koné also spoke about the impact of the terrorist attacks on the local population, who he said is grappling with the loss of loved ones and the destruction of homes and livelihoods. 

"We celebrated a dark Christmas last year," he said during the ACN press conference. "The attacks had left us in a state of panic and despair. Our communities are deeply scarred, and the suffering is unimaginable." 

This article was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

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Caracas, Venezuela, Sep 5, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

"This year, in homage and gratitude to you, I am going to decree that the Christmas season [begins] on Oct. 1," declared Nicolás Maduro, leader of the ruling socialist regime in Venezuela, Sept. 2 on national television.

"For everyone, Christmas has arrived with peace, happiness, and security," Maduro added. According to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, this is not the first time the socialist regime has done this, as in 2019, 2020, and 2021 it also decreed the "advance" of the Christmas season.

Maduro's announcement came just hours after the Venezuelan justice system issued an arrest warrant for Edmundo González Urrutia, who won the July 28 presidential elections by a wide margin, according to vote tallies published by the opposition. However, the National Electoral Council, controlled by the governing socialist party, declared Maduro the winner.

Through a statement posted on Instagram Sept. 3, the Venezuelan Bishops' Conference (CEV, by its Spanish acronym) reacted to Maduro's decree to move up the start of the Christmas season, stating that this Christian holy day "should not be used for propaganda or particular political purposes."

"Christmas is a celebration of a universal nature that commemorates the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The manner and time of its celebration are the responsibility of the ecclesiastical authority, which ensures that the true spirit and meaning of this event of spiritual and historical richness is maintained, as it marks the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ," the CEV emphasized.

The bishops also reaffirmed that Christmas is a time "of reflection, peace, and love, and must be respected as such."

The Venezuelan bishops recalled that Christmas begins Dec. 25 and ends on Jan. 6 with the Epiphany of the Lord.

"To prepare for Christmas, the liturgy offers us the time of Advent, which this year begins on Dec. 1. These celebrations are accompanied by traditional Christmas parties and Masses 'de aguinaldo' [the local custom of singing joyful hymns even though it is still the penitential season of Advent]," the bishops concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Jakarta, Indonesia, Sep 5, 2024 / 00:13 am (CNA).

Pope Francis visited the grounds of Southeast Asia's largest mosque on Wednesday for an interfaith meeting in Indonesia, where he signed a joint declaration condemning religious-based violence with Muslim leader Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar.

The Istiqlal Joint Declaration 2024 is titled "Fostering Religious Harmony for the Sake of Humanity." 

Named for Indonesia's national Istiqlal Mosque, the document calls for religious leaders to work together to promote human dignity, interreligious dialogue, and environmental protection.

"The values shared by our religious traditions should be effectively promoted in order to defeat  the culture of violence," the declaration says. 

"Our religious beliefs and rituals have a particular capacity to speak to the human heart and thus foster a deeper respect for human dignity."

Pope Francis became the first pope to visit the grounds of Jakarta's Istiqlal Mosque on Sept. 5. The massive mosque is among the largest in the world, accommodating up to 250,000 people at a time. John Paul II, who visited Indonesia in 1989, was the first pope to ever visit a mosque during his visit to Damascus in 2001. 

According to the mosque's grand imam, Istiqlal is second only in size to Mecca and Medina, and its influence extends to Indonesia's roughly 242 million Muslims.

The interfaith meeting sought to promote religious tolerance and moderation in Indonesia, which faces challenges with the rise of hardline Islamist groups and instances of violence against Christians.

Speaking to representatives of Indonesia's six officially recognized religions —  Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Catholicism, and Protestantism — Pope Francis articulated his vision for interreligious dialogue.

"Sometimes we think that a meeting between religions is a matter of seeking common ground between different religious doctrines and beliefs no matter the cost. Such an approach, however, may end up dividing us, because the doctrines and dogmas of each religious experience are different," the pope said.

"What really brings us closer is creating a connection in the midst of diversity, cultivating bonds of friendship, care and reciprocity."

Pope Francis added that when religious leaders cultivate bonds, it enables them "to move forward together in pursuit of the same goals: defense of human dignity, the fight against poverty and the promotion of peace."

Pope Francis arrived at the mosque through the Alfattah Gate, where Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar warmly greeted him. The two leaders then proceeded to the newly constructed "Tunnel of Friendship," an underground passage connecting the mosque to Jakarta's Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, built by the Indonesian government to foster dialogue and unity.

Before entering the "Tunnel of Friendship," Pope Francis expressed his hope that it would become "a place of dialogue and encounter."

Pope Francis told the grand imam, "I hope that our communities may increasingly be open to interreligious dialogue and be symbols of the peaceful coexistence that characterizes Indonesia."

´The interfaith event took place in a red and white tent on the mosque grounds. It unfolded with a traditional Muslim welcome dance known as Marawis, followed by a brief chanting of a passage from the Quran by an Indonesian woman and a reading from the Gospel of Luke.

Representatives of the other four recognized religions stood in solidarity as the declaration was read aloud to participants in the tent.

The Istiqlal document identifies dehumanization and climate change as two serious crises facing the world today, emphasizing the shared responsibility of religious communities in tackling global challenges. It also affirms the need for interreligious dialogue to resolve "local, regional and international conflicts, especially those incited by the abuse of religion."

The joint declaration at the Indonesian mosque was reminiscent of the Abu Dhabi declaration on "Human Fraternity" that Pope Francis signed with Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of al-Azhar in the United Arab Emirates, when he became the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula in 2019.

On Thursday, the Indonesian grand imam underlined the significance of the meeting, pointing to Istiqlal Mosque's influence across Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country.

As Indonesia's only state mosque, the Istiqlal Mosque is "expected to provide guidance to more than one million mosques and prayer rooms scattered throughout the islands of the Republic of Indonesia," he explained.

"This mosque also seeks to promote religious tolerance and moderation in Indonesia," the Muslim leader underlined.

In a moving gesture of solidarity and friendship at the closing of the event, the imam kissed Pope Francis on the head, while the pope kissed the grand imam's hand and then touched it to his cheek.

Pope Francis will conclude the third day of his apostolic journey to Southeast Asia and Oceania by celebrating Holy Mass in Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta. On Friday he is expected to depart Indonesia for Papua New Guinea.Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

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Lima Newsroom, Sep 4, 2024 / 17:16 pm (CNA).

Lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina has reported that the dictatorship in Nicaragua of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, has deported a group of foreign priests and nuns who were working in the Central American country.

"There were two meetings. It seems they were summoned [to appear] from different congregations or from different parts of the country. All the priests and religious who attended were foreigners. During the time they were in that 'trap' they were shown an indoctrination video of the dictatorial couple," Molina explained in an interview with the Spanish-language edition of EWTN News.

The lawyer is the author of the report "Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?", which in its fifth installment released Aug. 15 cites 870 attacks by the Nicaraguan dictatorship against the Catholic Church since 2018, the year there were widespread demonstrations against the authoritarian regime and its unpopular proposed reforms. 

Molina also explained that the religious men and women were threatened with imprisonment or deportation if they said or did anything that the dictatorship might consider hostile.

"I had information that some of the religious were deported from the country and were also prohibited from speaking out because there are some religious, from those same congregations who remain in the country and [can't say anything either]: They are under constant threat from the dictatorship," she reported.

Retirement fund for Catholic priests confiscated

Molina also referred to the regime's move to cancel 1,500 nonprofit organizations or nongovernmental organizations, including hundreds of Catholic and evangelical organizations, and even the priests' retirement fund that had existed for 24 years and that had been frozen by the dictatorship last year.

"This seriously harms sick and retired priests and also robs us laypeople and the Catholic Church, who had constantly contributed to this fund to later on [be able to] maintain their health and also give some assistance — which they well deserve — to retired priests," the researcher in exile explained to EWTN News.

"It's just the way the Sandinistas do things: They steal everything, they make everything disappear and use it for the party's own benefit, and also to continue using it for repression. This is something that the Church is not going to get back," she said.

In addition to the taxes on assets and charitable donations passed by the legislature on Aug. 22, and with the cancellation of the priests' retirement fund, "what the dictatorship is doing is suffocating, more and more, the Catholic Church, since, with all the attacks it has committed, it has not been able to make the Catholic faith and religion completely disappear from Nicaragua, which is what they want," Molina said.

Catholic schools affected

In this wave of closures of nonprofit organizations, "countless religious schools belonging to different orders were also affected … These schools, since 2020, have had their savings accounts confiscated, frozen by the dictatorship," Molina denounced.

An egregious example, the Central American University (UCA) of the Jesuits, was confiscated in 2023 and hasn't been operational again to this day as the Nicaraguan dictatorship doesn't know "what it's going to do with all these schools, which are close to being confiscated, because they won't be able to administer them."

"For the moment," Molina pointed out, "they have the nuns, the brothers in charge of the schools, but they have threatened them, telling them that all the money they get from paying tuition will go to the coffers of the Sandinista Front and also that they will have permanent surveillance regarding education."

"To date they have not taken the schools from them, but it is in fact in the law that all those assets will go to the state," she warned.

The decision to cancel the 1,500 organizations was announced through ministerial agreement 38-2024-OSFL, published on Aug. 19 in the official government newspaper La Gaceta and signed by the head of the Ministry of the Interior of Nicaragua, María Amelia Coronel Kinloch.

The text states that the attorney general's office must transfer the liquid and fixed assets of all these organizations "to the title of the State of Nicaragua."

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 4, 2024 / 18:27 pm (CNA).

Former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign on Sept. 4 launched the Catholics for Trump coalition, which emphasizes the defense of religious liberty, traditional values, and the sanctity of human life as priorities of the Republican nominee's agenda.

The coalition, which intends to rally Catholic support behind the former president, seeks to show a contrast between Trump and his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, on key issues that are important to Catholics.

According to the coalition's mission statement, Catholics for Trump commits "to safeguarding the vital principles of religious liberty and the sanctity of life that President Donald J. Trump has ardently championed."

"Under President Trump's leadership, our nation witnessed unprecedented support for religious freedoms, with significant victories both domestically and globally," the mission statement read. "President Trump restored protections for faith-based organizations and bolstered the rights of religious institutions against governmental overreach."

The mission statement added that Trump "has stood unwaveringly in defense of traditional values and the sanctity of human life" and that the coalition "stands with President Trump to continue building a nation where the rights of every individual to practice their faith freely is protected."

Matt Schlapp, the president of The American Conservative Union, and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, who served in the Trump administration, said in a joint statement that Trump "will continue to defend our religious freedoms and our values enshrined in faith and family."

"We have watched Kamala Harris attack President Trump's Catholic judicial nominees who had to face her hostile and unfair questions when she was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee," the statement read. "She was especially bigoted to anyone associated with the Knights of Columbus. Harris also was complicit in the FBI's fascist infiltration of Catholic parishes that say Latin Mass."

Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, who are both Catholic, were also involved in the 2020 Catholics for Trump coalition.

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump has been trying to appeal to Catholic and other Christian voters. In July, the former president accused Harris and the Democratic Party of being "after Catholics," adding "somebody doesn't like Catholics in that administration."

Trump nominated three of the six Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, which had prevented states from imposing restrictions on abortion for nearly 50 years. Following the Supreme Court's decision, about two dozen states imposed restrictions on abortion.

Since then, Trump has moderated his stance on abortion, announcing that he opposes federal restrictions and supports states adopting their own rules. In contrast, Harris has campaigned on codifying the abortion standards previously held in Roe v. Wade, which would override pro-life laws in more than 20 states.

Last week, Trump announced he would vote against a proposed constitutional amendment in Florida that would enshrine a right to abortion in the state's constitution. The former president had previously signaled support for the amendment.

Harris has also launched a Catholics for Harris-Walz coalition to rally Catholic support behind her campaign. The campaign scheduled a virtual event for the coalition three weeks ago, but it was abruptly canceled.

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CNA Staff, Sep 4, 2024 / 13:32 pm (CNA).

The Supreme Court this week declined to stop the Biden administration from stripping the state of Oklahoma of millions of dollars in federal funding in a dispute over an abortion directive from the federal government. 

The state had filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in November 2023 claiming the Biden administration suspended millions of dollars in federal Title X funding over the state's refusal to provide referrals for abortion as part of its family planning services. 

The Title X Family Planning Program, enacted in 1970, distributes federal grants to community clinics and health departments to provide contraception services and other family planning and health services. Federal law forbids Title X funding from being used to directly procure abortions. 

Oklahoma said the federal government had unlawfully stripped the state of about $4.5 million in funds after state officials would "not commit to providing referrals for abortion" in Oklahoma's Title X programming.

A U.S. district court rejected the state's request for an injunction against HHS. In a July decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit upheld the lower court's decision, agreeing that the government's requirements did not violate the spending power of Congress.

On Tuesday the Supreme Court likewise declined Oklahoma's request for an injunction. The unsigned order from the high court gave no reason for the rejection, though it noted that Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch would have granted the application. 

Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office, told CNA that the decision was "obviously disappointing" but that state Attorney General Gentner Drummond was "pleased that three Supreme Court justices were willing to step in and stop the Biden administration's lawless overreach at this preliminary juncture." 

"We will be exploring our options moving forward," Bacharach said.

Drummond said last year that the Biden administration was "intent on punishing Oklahoma because we do not share its liberal philosophy."

"It is patently discriminatory to deny Oklahoma these critical funds, particularly when federal law makes it clear that Title X cannot be used for abortion," he said at the time.

"I will continue to fight against federal overreach in all forms," the prosecutor added.

Oklahoma's lawsuit had argued that the state "administered the Title X family planning program in Oklahoma for more than 40 years," using the grants to "disperse funds through 68 county health departments, who provide critical public health services to rural and urban Oklahoma communities."

Tennessee launched a similar lawsuit against the federal government last year; the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals similarly ruled against the state last month in that dispute.

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