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ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 23, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Senate of the Dominican Republic has approved the first reading of a draft penal code, which maintains the total prohibition of abortion in the country and establishes new criminal charges with penalties ranging between 30 and 40 years in prison.

The bill has been sent to a special committee for in-depth study and possible modifications before possible passage in a second reading by the Chamber of Deputies (lower house).

In an interview with EWTN News, Father Manuel Ruiz, national executive secretary of the Life Commission of the Dominican Bishops' Conference, commented that "a step forward" has been achieved.

"Although it has not been fully approved, because the deputies who already approved it in a first reading and the committee are absent, we went to public hearings, they listened to us, and it was approved without the three grounds that [typically] decriminalize abortion, because our constitution does not allow that," he explained.

Among the most notable new provisions in the bill are punishments for genocide, feminicide, contract killings, and harm caused by chemical substances. However, the point that has generated the greatest debate and public attention is retention of the total prohibition of abortion in line with Article 37 of the Caribbean country's constitution, which protects the right to life from conception to natural death.

Ruiz stressed the importance of "fighting scientifically and medically to save both lives," that of the mother and that of the unborn child, and emphasized that in cases where an attempt is made to save both lives but one of the two dies, there is no sin nor crime. 

"What [abortion advocates] want is to establish abortion as a right, a human right of women. And we have clearly said that there is only one Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the same for men, women, children, for everyone. And they want to expand rights, which is an attack on dignity. But our constitution doesn't allow it," the priest said.

The bill on the penal code was approved in the first reading by a 20-3 vote, reflecting broad support in the country's Senate. However, there is still a way to go before this bill can become law. "We are hoping it will be passed before August," Ruiz said.

The priest said that for pro-life advocates, the position is clear: The fight against abortion will continue without letting up. "We're not going to get weary. These people don't sleep, and neither do we. What we cannot do is stand idly by believing that evil is unconcerned, that the devil is on vacation."

Ruiz concluded the interview by pointing out that people of goodwill will continue encouraging "everyone, where abortion has not been approved and where it has been approved, to continue fighting."

"Because there is faith, there is hope."

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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CNA Staff, Jul 22, 2024 / 12:37 pm (CNA).

Pakistan's National Assembly unanimously approved the raising of the minimum legal age for marriage to 18 earlier this month, amending a 19th-century law allowing the marriage of Christian children. 

The Christian Marriage Act of 2024 amended an 1872 British rule allowing marriage at 13 for girls and 16 for boys, raising the age to 18 for both genders. The law was approved amid incidents of child marriage, kidnapping, and forced conversion in Pakistan, where about 19 million Pakistani women are victims of child marriage, according to 2018 data. 

The act was first introduced to the Senate last year by Sen. Kamran Michael as an update to the 1872 law and was approved on July 9 of this year after Naveed Aamir Jeeva, a Christian from Punjab province, introduced it to Pakistan's sovereign legislative body, the National Assembly. 

The act applies to Christians in the Islamabad Capital Territory, a territory in the northwestern area of the Punjab region surrounding Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

Local Catholic leaders including the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Pakistan, Bishop Samson Shukardin, and the National Commission for Justice and Peace have since hailed the act for protecting girls from forced conversions and child marriages, which is very common in Pakistan. 

"We extend our sincere appreciation to the entire Parliament for passing this bill unanimously," read a statement from the organizations, according to Vatican News. 

"This legislation will play a crucial role in protecting our young and minor girls from forced conversions and child marriages," it continued. "We hope the government will take further steps to criminalize forced religious conversions." 

According to a study from United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), 1 in 6 young women in Pakistan were married in childhood. Pakistan is home to nearly 19 million women married before the age of 18, 4.6 million of whom were married before 15. 

This act is not the first legislation against child marriage in Pakistan in response to rampant child marriages. A Pakistani law, the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, was approved in 2013 in Sindh, the second-largest province in terms of population.

But courts do not always enforce these laws, and Sharia law (Islamic law) permits marriage of girls when they reach "maturity," often considered to be after their first menstruation. Islam is the state religion of Pakistan, according to the nation's constitution.

The new amendment may help prevent the practice of abducting young girls from the minority population of Christians and the forcing of them to convert to Islam and marry an older man. Fewer than 2% of Pakistanis are Christian and Hindu, respectively. Sunni Islam is the majority religion, at about 83% of the population, while Shia Islam is about 12% of the population.

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CNA Staff, Jul 22, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

A federal judge sided with a Colorado church Friday in its dispute with a Denver-area town, granting the church the right to offer temporary housing for the homeless on its property.

Beginning in 2019, The Rock Church, a nondenominational church in Castle Rock, a town south of Denver, provided a recreational vehicle (RV) and a camper on the edge of its parking lot to temporarily shelter people experiencing homelessness. The church also provides temporary shelter during emergencies through a partnership with the Red Cross. 

On several occasions, town officials blocked the ministry, saying that housing people on church grounds violated zoning laws.

The Town of Castle Rock first notified the church of a zoning violation in 2021 and charged the church in 2023. 

In the lawsuit, which was filed in May, the church alleged that Castle Rock was "apparently operating on the cynical thesis that they do not want the homeless in their area."

The lawsuit cited Scripture highlighting that helping the poor is essential to Christianity, arguing that the restriction infringes on the church's religious freedom. The lawsuit also noted that there had been no safety complaints and that the shelters are barely visible from local residential housing, which is about 300 feet away from the parking lot.

The court ruled against the Town of Castle Rock on July 19, preventing the town from enforcing its land-use laws against the church to block the shelter. Additionally, the judge denied the church's second and third claims that alleged interference by the town in the church's Red Cross partnership. 

"We are pleased with the decision of the court that allows the church to carry out its religious freedom on its property," Jeremy Dys, senior counsel with First Liberty Institute, a Christian legal nonprofit that argued the case, said in a statement shared with CNA.

"The court reopened the door of a caring church whose mission has always been to offer a warm environment for the homeless living on the cold, hard streets," he added. 

U.S District Judge Daniel Domenico ruled that under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a 2000 law designed to protect religious organizations from discrimination in zoning laws, the church could practice its homeless shelter ministry on its nonresidential property. 

"The church contends that it carries out these ministries because of its faith and its religious mission to provide for the needy, emphasizing the fact that 'the Holy Bible specifically and repeatedly directs faithful Christians like the church's members to care for the poor and needy out of compassion and mercy for those who are experiencing significant misfortune and hardship,'" the judge wrote in the 18-page order.  

When launching the ministry, The Rock Church planned to provide short-term housing for families and individuals in need as well as food, clothing, and other material necessities. The church has since housed several individuals and families, including a single mother and her 3-year-old son, as well as two people recovering from addiction. 

In its suit against the town, the church said the restrictions violated First Amendment rights and religious freedom as well as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. 

The Rock Church argued that it "has suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm, including the loss of its constitutional rights," and noted in its initial May 13 complaint that the town has no other temporary-shelter alternatives. 

The judge noted that "the church takes a number of precautions to ensure that its temporary shelter is safe," including background checks by a third party and rules for conduct for RV tenants. 

Domenico found that the town's restriction was irreparably harmful for the church's practice of its sincerely-held religious beliefs. 

"The fact that the church has already had to turn away homeless families in need, in violation of its sincerely held beliefs that it must serve and house them on its property, makes this harm all too clear," he noted. 

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 22, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

A coalition of 18 state attorneys general is throwing its support behind a lawsuit from a former Indiana high school teacher who lost his job because he would not use pronouns for students that were inconsistent with their sex. 

The Republican coalition, co-led by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, filed an amicus brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit on Wednesday that asks the judges to rule that the teacher's religious liberty was violated. 

An amicus brief, also known as a "friend of the court" brief, is a document filed by parties that have an interest in the outcome of the litigation but are not parties in the lawsuit.

Former music teacher John Kluge, who taught orchestra at the Brownsburg Community School Corporation just northwest of Indianapolis, was given the option of resigning or being fired from his job over the pronoun dispute, according to his lawsuit.

In 2017, the school district adopted a policy that forces teachers to use pronouns and names that reflect a student's self-asserted gender identity, even if they are inconsistent with the student's sex.

Kluge requested a religious accommodation that would allow him to avoid using any pronouns in reference to students, simply calling them by their last names, so he could avoid using pronouns that are inconsistent with a student's biological sex.

The school district initially granted Kluge — a Christian — his requested accommodation and he taught for another year, according to the lawsuit. After receiving complaints from a few students and teachers, the school district revoked his accommodation, according to the lawsuit, and then "forced Mr. Kluge to resign or be fired."

In the amicus brief, the attorneys general wrote that the school district "squandered an opportunity to showcase to students respect for people with different religious beliefs and practices" by forcing Kluge's resignation. 

"Discriminating against teachers with religious convictions raises serious concerns as to the values taught to students and whether students are truly free to discover, learn, and grow in their own thought processes and beliefs," the attorneys general added. "Schools should strive to teach respect for all religions instead of uniformity of thought."

In a statement, Rokita said that Kluge's compromise to avoid pronoun use altogether would allow him "to treat everyone equally and respectfully while also staying faithful to his own religious convictions." 

"Kicking this teacher to the curb sends students the wrong messages about America's heritage of respecting religion," Rokita added. "And, at a time when teachers are in short supply, this kind of intolerance of faith among faculty members is sure to push additional good teachers out of the classroom."

Rory Gray, who serves as senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom — the legal group representing Kluge — told CNA that "public schools can't force teachers to abandon their religious beliefs." 

"Mr. Kluge went out of his way to treat all his students with respect and care," Gray said. "Yet the Brownsburg school district violated Title VII by censoring and punishing him for his religious beliefs. The 7th Circuit should … protect the religious convictions of employees, especially for teachers in our public schools."

A spokesperson for the school district did not respond to a request for comment from CNA.

The school district has argued that the requested accommodation provides the district with an "undue burden" that jeopardizes the enforcement of its policies. 

The district has also argued that refusing to use a student's preferred pronoun and name could violate Title IX's prohibition on sex discrimination — a question that is currently before several courts.

In 2021, a Virginia teacher was fired after he criticized a proposed Loudoun County Public School Board policy that would require teachers to use a student's preferred pronoun and name. The school board ultimately adopted the policy but reached a settlement with physical education teacher Byron "Tanner" Cross that gave him his job back.

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Indianapolis, Ind., Jul 21, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

The National Eucharistic Congress concluded Sunday with a Mass with tens of thousands of people in an NFL football stadium, where the crowd prayed for "a new Pentecost" in the U.S. Church.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle presided over the closing Mass in Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium on July 21 as Pope Francis' special envoy for the event. He shared that the pope told him that he desires the congress to lead to "conversion to the Eucharist." 

"The presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is a gift and the fulfillment of his mission," said the cardinal pro-prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Evangelization.

"Those who choose to stay with Jesus will be sent by Jesus," Tagle added. "Let us go to proclaim Jesus zealously and joyfully for the life of the world."

The nearly 60,000 Eucharistic congress attendees were sent out with "a great commissioning" on Sunday morning in which keynote speakers urged participants to proclaim the Gospel in every corner of the country. 

"What the Church needs is a new Pentecost," Mother Adela Galindo, the foundress of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, told the crowd.

"The Church must be faithful to the Gospel … not watering down the message of the Gospel," the Nicaraguan sister said. "We were born for these times. It is a time to go out in haste to a world that urgently needs to hear God's word and God's truth." 

"Here is what we need to proclaim," the diminutive Nicaraguan sister said. "That no darkness is greater than the light of the Eucharist. That no sin is greater than the merciful heart of the Eucharist."

"Basically, brothers and sisters, that love is greater than death!" exclaimed the nun, who received an enthusiastic standing ovation from the crowd.

More than 1,600 priests, seminarians, bishops, and cardinals processed into Mass in the Indianapolis Colts' stadium in a dramatic opening procession lasting 25 minutes. An additional 1,236 religious sisters and brothers were praying in the stands, according to the event organizers. 

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra played the classical hymns "Panis Angelicus" and "Ave Verum Corpus" as Communion was brought to tens of thousands of people in the stadium.

Many people commented on the incredible energy, positivity, and hope among the congress participants who traveled from all 50 states to take part in the five-day event July 17–21.

"I don't want to sound dramatic, but the National Eucharistic Congress has been something of a triumph — a crowded, crazy, and occasionally chaotic triumph. Peace and joy reign," Stephen White, the executive director of the Catholic Project, commented on X.

"His presence is palpable and pervasive. The Lord is here," White added.

Father Aquinas Guilbeau, OP, predicted that the legacy of the National Eucharistic Congress will be like that of the 1993 World Youth Day held in Denver for the Church in the U.S.

"Its grace will shape the Church for the next 50 years," Guilbeau said.

Nearly 60,000 tickets were sold for the National Eucharistic Congress, according to organizers, including the day passes that were sold after the start of the event. 

Tagle began his homily by greeting the crowd in more than five languages, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, French, and Italian.

"The Holy Father prays, as we all do, that the congress may bear fruit, much fruit, for the renewal of the Church and of society in the United States of America," Tagle said.

In his homily, the cardinal noted that "where there is a lack or a weakening of missionary zeal, maybe it is partly due to a weakening in the appreciation of gifts and giftedness."

"If our horizon is only that of achievement, success, and profit, there is no room to see and receive gratuitous gifts. There is no place for gratitude and self-giving," he added. "There will only be a relentless search for self-affirmation that eventually becomes oppressive and tiring, leading to more self-absorption or individualism.

Tagle underlined that the Eucharist is "a privileged moment to experience Jesus' mission as a gift of himself."

At the end of Mass, Bishop Andrew Cozzens announced to roaring applause that the U.S. bishops are planning to hold another National Eucharistic Congress in 2033, the Year of Redemption marking 2,000 years since Jesus' crucifixion. 

The bishop of Crookston, Minnesota, who spearheaded the Eucharistic revival, also announced that another Eucharistic pilgrimage from Indianapolis to Los Angeles will take place in 2025.

"What do you say as you come to the end of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress?" Cozzens said. "It has been my experience and I hope yours that we've lived an experience of heaven. Of course, the Eucharist is a foretaste of heaven."

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CNA Staff, Jul 21, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

President Joe Biden on Sunday said he would not seek reelection, conceding to growing calls in his party to bow out of the race after a highly criticized debate against GOP nominee Donald Trump in June.

"It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president," Biden, the second Catholic president of the United States, said in a July 21 statement posted on X. "And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term."

Biden added that he would speak to the nation later in the week about the details of his decision.

In an X post sent about a half hour after his first announcement, Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, for president in the 2024 election.

"My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my vice president," he said. "And it's been the best decision I've made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year."

The Democratic president has since last month been facing growing calls from his party and from supporters to bow out of the 2024 race amid concerns that he will be unable to serve another four years as president.

Democratic officials and major party boosters began sounding the alarm after the first 2024 presidential debate last month when Biden repeatedly lost his train of thought and struggled to articulate his vision for the country.

Multiple Democratic U.S. senators have called for Biden to pull out of the race, as have Democratic members of the U.S. House including California Rep. Adam Schiff. Flurries of media reports have indicated that former Speaker of the House California Rep. Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama have also been pushing Biden to bow out.

High-ranking donors and boosters have also been backing away from the Democratic Party amid fears that Biden remaining in the race could have devastating down-ballot effects for lower candidates. Actor George Clooney, a longtime Democratic fundraiser, said in the New York Times earlier this month that Democrats are "not going to win in November with this president."

Clooney urged the top Democrats to "ask this president to voluntarily step aside" so the party can mount a last-minute nomination effort for another candidate.

Big donors also pulled their money from Democratic campaigns in the hopes of forcing Biden out. Filmmaker Abigail Disney this month said she would halt all Democratic donations "unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket."

The New York Times, meanwhile, reported this month that big-ticket donors were holding upwards of $90 million from a Biden super PAC until the president resigned from the race.

This story was updated July 21, 2024, at 2:22 p.m. ET.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 21, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

As part of its ongoing effort to help form the next generation of faithful Catholic journalists, EWTN News last month held its third annual Summer Academy in Rome.

Some 40 journalists from more than 20 countries participated in the training, which is designed "to deepen their skills and knowledge in religious media, journalism, cinematography, and storytelling" while also strengthening their "faith and understanding of the Church's mission in the world."

"It's been such a blessing meeting Catholics from all over the world who also love the faith, love the Lord, and are passionate about journalism," U.S. participant Thomas Phippen said during a segment about the experience on the award-winning EWTN News program "Vaticano."

Addressing Vatican journalists earlier this year, Pope Francis encouraged members of this profession to continue reporting in a manner that "knows how to combine information with reflection, speaking with listening, discernment with love."

The Holy Father also stressed the importance of "not sugarcoating tensions, but at the same time not creating unnecessary noise."

According to EWTN News Vatican Bureau Chief Andreas Thonhauser, this summer's program focused heavily on digital forms of communication, recognizing the "growing importance of fast-moving images" as well as "decreasing attention spans."

"The academy not only provided practical courses on filming, video editing, and social media distribution but also on theological knowledge and apologetics," Thonhauser added. 

The impact of the EWTN Summer Academy does not end with the training, as alumni are invited to remain connected through regular meetings and continuing education.

The next edition of the Summer Academy is scheduled for July 2025.

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National Catholic Register, Jul 21, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance is one of the most overtly religious major politicians in America.

Vance has written extensively about his life in faith, both in a mega-selling memoir and in a long essay that describes how a drug-using teenager with anger problems, family problems, school problems, and doubts about God became an accomplished, successful family man excited about being a Catholic.

But nowadays, he's also the most questioned of religious politicians, as pro-lifers ask if he's still one of them.

Where did he come from in faith? And how did he get where he is now?

Vance, who comes from a long line of culturally Protestant Scots-Irish Americans from Appalachia, was baptized Catholic in August 2019.

Below are 13 items about his meandering journey to Rome and the aftermath, drawn largely from his 3-million-copy-selling 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" and a 6,777-word essay he wrote about his conversion for the Easter 2020 issue of The Lamp, a Catholic magazine. 

Vance also talked about his conversion in an August 2019 interview with Rod Dreher published in The American Conservative.

1. J.D. Vance rarely went to church as a child.

Vance was largely raised by his grandmother, whom he called "Mamaw," who believed in Jesus and liked Billy Graham but didn't like what she called "organized religion."

Vance wasn't baptized as a child. The family members he spent the most time around generally didn't go to church unless they were visiting their Appalachian ancestral home in Jackson, Kentucky.

Even so, he says in his memoir, his grandmother had "a deeply personal (albeit quirky) faith."

2. Vance had a crisis of faith as a child.

When he was about 10, Vance had a moment of doubt.

"Mamaw, does God love us?" he asked his grandmother after a major disappointment, mindful of the fractured family life he and his half-sister were growing up in.

The question caused his grandmother to cry.

Vance doesn't say how his grandmother answered the question. But he describes another instance when Mamaw accidentally went the wrong way on a three-lane interstate before making a U-turn, causing him to scream in terror.

"Don't you know Jesus rides in the car with me?" his grandmother replied.

3. As a teenager, Vance was a Pentecostal.

As an adolescent, Vance reconnected with his biological father, whom he hadn't seen much of after his parents split up. For a while, he stayed with his dad every other weekend.

"With little religious training, I was desperate for some exposure to a real church," Vance wrote in "Hillbilly Elegy."

His father had given up drinking and became a serious Pentecostal, and he would take Vance to a large Pentecostal church in southeastern Ohio with his new wife and their children.

Vance drank it in. Among other things, he rejected evolution and embraced millennialism, including a belief that the world would end in 2007.

"I'm not sure if I liked the structure or if I just wanted to share in something that was important to him — both, I suppose — but I became a devoted convert," Vance writes in his memoir.

4. Vance didn't like the Catholic Church when he was a kid.

Even before he started going to a Pentecostal church, Vance thought he knew certain things about Catholicism — which he didn't like.

"I knew that Catholics worshipped Mary. I knew they rejected the legitimacy of Scripture. And I knew that the Antichrist — or at least, the Antichrist's spiritual adviser — would be a Catholic," Vance wrote in his April 2020 article in The Lamp of his once-misguided impressions.

5. Vance's image of Jesus when he was growing up differed from his image of the Catholic Church's image of Jesus.

One of Vance's aunts married a Catholic, whom Vance liked and respected.

"I admired my uncle Dan above all other men …," Vance wrote in "Hillbilly Elegy."

His grandmother liked Dan, too.

But Catholicism seemed too formal and impersonal to her.

"The Catholic Jesus was a majestic deity, and we had little interest in majestic deities because we weren't a majestic people," Vance wrote in his conversion essay.

6. "Hillbilly Elegy" isn't a conversion story.

Vance mentions the word "Catholic" or "Catholics" only five times in the 264-page book, and he never engages with Catholic teachings in it. He wrote it between 2013 and 2015, several years before he became a Catholic, and gives no hint that he had ever considered Catholicism.

He also doesn't dwell in his book on his atheism as a young man, a period he describes at length in his conversion essay in The Lamp.

7. An Anglican philosopher provided the first crack in Vance's atheism.

While he was still a nonbeliever, Vance encountered the work of English philosopher Basil Mitchell (1917–2011) in an undergraduate philosophy course at Ohio State.

As Vance describes it, Mitchell, who was a member of the Church of England, presented difficult experiences in life as a trial of faith that requires trust in God without fully understanding what God has in mind.

Vance was surprised by Mitchell's presentation because as a young Christian he had always thought that "[d]oubt was unacceptable" and "that the proper response to a trial of faith was to suppress it and pretend it never happened."

"But here was Mitchell," Vance wrote in his conversion essay, "conceding that the brokenness of the world and our individual tribulations did, in fact, count against the existence of God. But not definitively."

8. A homosexual billionaire influenced Vance's outlook on life.

While a student at Yale Law School, Vance went to a talk by venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who was Facebook's first outside investor and co-founded PayPal.

According to Vance, Thiel argued that elite professionals got themselves trapped into climbing rungs on the socioeconomic ladder at the expense of happiness.

Vance realized that he was "obsessed with achievement" for itself — "not as an end to something meaningful, but to win a social competition." He also concluded that he "had prioritized striving over character."

Thiel introduced Vance to the thought of René Girard (1923-2015), a French historian and philosopher whose writings, among other things, attracted Vance through the way he described Christianity as transcending the scapegoat myth of various cultures because Christ "has not wronged the civilization; the civilization has wronged him."

Thiel, now 56, who identifies as a Christian and a conservative, is civilly married to a man. Vance worked for Thiel in venture capital, and Thiel was Vance's major contributor in Vance's successful run for U.S. Senate in Ohio in 2022.

9. Vance's family ties kept him from becoming a Catholic for a long time.

Vance connected with Catholic doctrine several years after his grandmother died in 2005. It made sense to him.

"Yet I couldn't shake the feeling that if I converted I would no longer be my grandmother's grandson," Vance wrote in The Lamp.

That left him in a sort of limbo.

"So for many years I occupied the uncomfortable territory between curiosity about Catholicism and mistrust," he wrote.

10. Vance credits his Hindu wife with helping him convert to Catholicism.

Vance acknowledges having problems with anger stemming from his chaotic childhood and the destructive behavior of people in his family, especially his mother, who abused prescription drugs and went through a string of boyfriends and husbands.

That anger affected his relationship with Usha, his girlfriend in law school, but she helped him work through it to try to become the kind of husband and father he wanted to be. They married in 2014.

"The sad fact is that I couldn't do it without Usha. Even at my best, I'm a delayed explosion — I can be defused, but only with skill and precision," Vance wrote in "Hillbilly Elegy."

Usha is the daughter of immigrants from India and a Hindu. Vance felt hesitant about joining the Catholic Church because he wasn't a Catholic when they got married.

"But from the beginning, she supported my decision, so I can't blame the delay on her," Vance wrote in his conversion essay.

Vance has said the Church's clergy sex-abuse scandal delayed his conversion by a few months.

11. Dominican priests helped draw Vance to Catholicism.

What Vance calls "a few informal conversations with a couple of Dominican friars" led to a period of serious study of Catholicism.

The process was gradual, with no a-ha moments.

But it included what he calls "some weird coincidences."

During a late-night conversation at a hotel bar with an unnamed conservative Catholic writer, Vance says, he challenged the man for criticizing Pope Francis.

"While he admitted that some Catholics went too far, he defended his more measured approach," Vance wrote in his conversion essay, "when suddenly a wine glass seemed to leap from a stable place behind the bar and crashed on the floor in front of us."

That ended the conversation.

Another: While on a train from New York to Washington, D.C., Vance listened to a recording of an Orthodox choir singing a Psalm during Pope Francis' visit to the country of Georgia in 2016.

When he got to Washington, he asked a Dominican friar to coffee.

"He invited me to visit his community, where I heard the friars chanting, apparently, the same psalm," Vance wrote.

Vance was baptized in August 2019 by a Dominican priest, Father Henry Stephan, at St. Gertrude Priory, which is attached to a Dominican parish in Cincinnati, where Vance now lives.

Despite his Dominican connections, his confirmation saint is Augustine.

"I was pretty moved by the 'Confessions,'" he told Rod Dreher. "I've probably read it in bits and pieces twice over the past 15 or so years. There's a chapter from 'The City of God' that's incredibly relevant now that I'm thinking about policy. There's just a way that Augustine is an incredibly powerful advocate for the things that the Church believes. And one of the subtexts about my return to Christianity is that I had come from a world that wasn't super-intellectual about the Christian faith. I spend a lot of my time these days among a lot of intellectual people who aren't Christian. Augustine gave me a way to understand Christian faith in a strongly intellectual way. I also went through an angry atheist phase. As someone who spent a lot of his life buying into the lie that you had to be stupid to be a Christian, Augustine really demonstrated in a moving way that that's not true."

12. Vance credits practicing Catholicism with making him a better person.

Vance says practicing his Catholic faith has helped him increase his patience, curb his temper, forgive more easily, and choose his family over his career.

After he became a Catholic, Vance wrote in his conversion essay: "I realized that there was a part of me — the best part — that took its cues from Catholicism."

13. Vance hasn't yet explained how his current position on abortion squares with his Catholic faith.

Vance began public life as thoroughly pro-life.

In September 2021, several months after he began running for U.S. Senate in Ohio, Vance said he supported Texas' law banning abortion.

"I think in Texas they're trying to make it easier for unborn babies to be born," Vance said during an interview with Spectrum News 1.

Asked about abortion in the cases of rape and incest, Vance said the question is "whether a child should be allowed to live."

"Look, I think two wrongs don't make a right. At the end of the day, we're talking about an unborn baby," Vance said (at 11:11 of the interview). "What kind of society do we want to have? A society that looks at unborn babies as inconveniences to be discarded?"

His tone shifted during a debate in October 2022 when he said he supported "reasonable exceptions," including allowing a pregnant 10-year-old girl to have an abortion.

During a second debate that month, he said he supported a proposal in Congress at the time that would have banned abortion nationwide after 15 weeks.

More recently, Vance has aligned his public positions on abortion with those of his running mate, former president Donald Trump, who has said he wouldn't sign a federal limitation on abortion and that he wouldn't ban abortion pills.

On abortion pills, Vance told an interviewer on NBC on July 7 that he supports a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that, according to him, said that "the American people should have access to that medication." Pressed about mifepristone, one of the two abortion chemicals, he said he supports access to it.

Vance has not at this writing publicly explained how he integrates his Catholic faith with his current position on abortion.

But he seemed to contemplate this sort of situation in an interview with Dreher in August 2019, shortly after his conversion and three years before he was elected to public office.

He noted that politics "is in part a popularity contest," and he pointed out a tension between getting votes and living a life of faith.

"When you're trying to do things that make you liked by as many people as possible, you're not likely to do things that are consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church," Vance said then. "I'm a Christian, and a conservative, and a Republican, so I have definite views about what that means. But you have to be humble and realize that politics are essentially a temporal game."

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA's sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

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Vatican City, Jul 21, 2024 / 07:30 am (CNA).

Do not be consumed by "the anxiety of doing," but spend time in rest and silent prayer to receive God's grace, Pope Francis said on Sunday.

The pontiff told Catholics, especially those in ministry, to beware "the dictatorship of doing" during his weekly reflection and Angelus on July 21.

The Angelus is a Marian prayer traditionally recited at three different hours throughout the day: at 6 a.m., 12 p.m., and 6 p.m.

"It is only possible to have a compassionate gaze, which knows how to respond to the needs of others, if our heart is not consumed by the anxiety of doing, if we know how to stop and how to receive the grace of God, in the silence of adoration," Pope Francis said on a hot and humid day during the peak of summer in Rome.

Addressing the large crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square, Francis said we are often "held prisoner by haste." He called it an important warning, especially for those in engaged in ministry and pastoral service in the Church.

"Am I able to stop during my days? Am I capable of taking a moment to be with myself and with the Lord, or am I always in a hurry for things to do?" he said from a window of the Apostolic Palace.

He added that sometimes families are forced to live a frenetic pace; for example, when a father has to work from dawn until dusk to put food on the table. But this is a social injustice, he said, and we should help families in this situation.

The pope's brief remarks focused on the day's Gospel passage, which demonstrates how Jesus is able to combine both rest and compassion for others.

In the Gospel, Jesus invites his apostles to "Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while," but when they get out of the boat, they find the crowd already waiting for them.

Jesus' "heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things," the Gospel of Mark, chapter six says.

"These may seem like two incompatible things — resting and being compassionate — but they actually go together," Pope Francis underlined.

Jesus is concerned for his disciples' tiredness, the pontiff said, because he is aware of the danger of our ministries and lives falling victim to an over concern with "things to do and with results."

"We become agitated and lose sight of what is essential," he emphasized.

Francis also explained that the rest proposed by Jesus is not "an escape from the world, a retreat into a merely personal well-being," but a rest that helps us to have more compassion for others.

"Only if we learn how to rest can we have compassion," he said.

After leading the Angelus, the pope spoke about the Summer Olympic Games, set to start in Paris on July 26, and the Paralympics, which will follow in August.

Sports, he said, have "a great social force, capable of peacefully uniting people of different cultures."

"I hope that this event can be a sign of the inclusive world we want to build and that the athletes, with their sporting testimony, will be messengers of peace and good role models for young people," he added.

Francis also recalled the tradition from Ancient Greece of the "Olympic Truce," noting that such an initiative would be an opportunity to "demonstrate a sincere desire for peace."

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Indianapolis, Ind., Jul 20, 2024 / 23:45 pm (CNA).

Thousands of people lined the streets of Indianapolis July 20 for a one-mile Eucharistic procession from the Indiana Convention Center to the Indiana War Memorial, taking the National Eucharistic Revival to the streets in the most public display of devotion and unity of the five-day conference. 

Catholics young and old lined the streets to watch Jesus pass by and join in the procession as it passed. Priests, bishops, seminarians, religious brothers and sisters, and many families with children made the walk, as well as a large group of children who recently made their First Communion. 

The Eucharist, housed in a papally-blessed golden monstrance, traveled in a special trailer accompanied by Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, and Archbishop Charles Thompson of Indianapolis. 

Those lining the streets kneeled as the Eucharist passed by. Spontaneous hymns broke out as the marchers processed. 

Day four of the National Eucharistic Congress was the last full day of this historic event, the first of its kind to take placein the U.S. since World War II. An estimated 50,000 people descended on Indianapolis beginning on Wednesday for liturgies, talks, Eucharistic adoration, and fellowship with other Catholics. The fruit of the U.S. Catholic bishops' multiyear project of Eucharistic Revival, the Congress aims to galvanize Catholics in their faith and love for the Eucharist as preparation for a special nationwide year of mission. 

When the monstrance reached the Indiana War Memorial, Bishop Cozzens, who has spearheaded the Eucharistic Revival, prayed before Christ. Attendees who had walked with the procession flooded the large grassy mall in front of the monument, dropping to their knees. 

"We thank you for the many graces you have poured out upon us. Jesus, pour them out across our whole land, across our whole world. Jesus, we know the procession we made today, it's a symbol, a sign of our earthly pilgrimage, and it is not over. And this procession, perhaps the largest in our country in decades, and it was still too small. Millions of people in our own cities, in our own dioceses who don't yet know you," Cozzens prayed. 

"So many do not know you. So many have not heard of your love. We know that you want all people, all nations, to join in this procession. We know you want all people to follow you. And Jesus, we will walk with them. Jesus, bring them to us. We want to walk them towards you, Jesus."

The Congress will come to a close tomorrow, Sunday, with a Mass in the morning celebrated by Cardinal Luis Tagle, the pro-prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Evangelization who was appointed by Pope Francis to serve as the papal envoy for the event. 

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