Catholic News

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8838&view=post&articleid=280653&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

CNA Staff, Nov 22, 2024 / 13:35 pm (CNA).

Police are searching for a thief who entered a Manhattan Catholic church this week and stole a gold rose that memorializes a priest who perished in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. 

Police said in a release that on Wednesday afternoon an individual entered the Church of St. Francis of Assisi on West 31st Street and "removed a gold-plated metal rose from the 9/11 memorial inside without permission or authority to do so."

The suspect on Friday was identified as 21-year-old Deikel Alcantara. The incident was being treated as an act of grand larceny. In New York State, grand larceny involves the theft of property worth at least $1,000. 

Father Brian Jordan, the church's pastor, told the New York Daily News on Thursday that Alcantara was "known to church staffers and had been asked to leave on several occasions," the newspaper said. 

For years, the memorial has stood in honor of Father Mychal Judge, a former pastor at St. Francis who served as a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department. Judge was struck and killed by debris during the collapse of the South Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. 

The priest had rushed to the scene of the crisis after the first plane struck. He was reportedly asked by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani to pray for the victims who had initially died in the attack; Judge did so, including at a command post inside the North Tower.

Though not the first to die in the crisis, Judge was designated as "Victim 0001" of the day's mass murder, becoming the first certified victim of the terror attack. He "refused to flee to safety" before the South Tower's collapse, Giuliani said in a memorial tribute last year. 

The memorial is also dedicated to Carole LaPlante, a secular Franciscan and former parishioner who died in the attack. 

The small monument inside the church incorporates a section of twisted steel beams pulled from the wreckage of the World Trade Center after its collapse, along with the gold rose. 

A plaque attached to the monument notes that the rose "transcends the senseless brutality" of the attacks "with an enduring promise of hope."

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8838&view=post&articleid=280652&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

CNA Staff, Nov 22, 2024 / 14:05 pm (CNA).

Abortions dropped sharply in Iowa immediately after a strict abortion ban went into effect there, according to data from a major pro-abortion group. 

Data from the Guttmacher Institute, released on Thursday, show an average of 400 clinician-provided abortions per month in Iowa over the first six months of 2024. 

After the state's six-week ban went into effect on July 29, "the number of abortions dropped to an estimated 250 in August, a decrease of 38% from the average over the first six months of the year," Guttmacher said. 

The abortions in the dataset "include procedural abortions as well as medication abortions obtained via telehealth" both in and out of Iowa, Guttmacher said. 

The Guttmacher Institute advocates in favor of abortion; the organization indicated that the data show some Iowa women "may have been forced to continue their [pregnancies]" under the new law. 

The Catholic Church in Iowa earlier this year celebrated the June decision by the Iowa Supreme Court that found abortion is "not a fundamental right under the Iowa Constitution." That ruling allowed the heartbeat law to take effect. 

"For us, this is a question of the common good and human dignity. Human life is precious and should be protected in our laws to the greatest extent possible," the state's bishops said. 

The Iowa figures reflect similar drops in abortion seen around the country in the wake of shifting abortion laws. 

Legal abortions in the United States decreased by more than 6% in the first six months that followed the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 repeal of Roe v. Wade. 

The average number of monthly abortions decreased from 82,270 in the two months before Roe v. Wade was overturned to 77,073 in the six months that followed the decision. 

Similarly, the fertility rate in Texas rose by a statistically significant amount in the wake of the state's pro-life laws, a University of Houston study revealed in January.

A 2023 study found that Texas' six-week abortion ban led to nearly 9,800 more births in the state over a nine-month period than otherwise expected.

Earlier this year, on the other hand, the American Medical Association said data indicated a significant increase in unsupervised abortion attempts from 2021 to 2023. 

The researchers in that study, some of whom had ties to Planned Parenthood and the pro-abortion ACLU, alleged that pro-life laws were driving the spike in unsupervised abortions. 

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8838&view=post&articleid=280651&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Vatican City, Nov 22, 2024 / 14:35 pm (CNA).

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin awarded the Ratzinger Prize to University of Notre Dame theologian Cyril O'Regan and Japanese sculptor Etsuro Sotoo at a ceremony at the Vatican on Friday evening.

The Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation chooses the annual recipients of the award, which is named in honor of the late Pope Benedict XVI.

Before the ceremony on Nov. 22, the prize recipients took part in a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Georg Gänswein in the Vatican crypts close to the tomb of Benedict XVI.

They also met with Pope Francis in his study in the apostolic palace.

O'Regan is a systematic theologian who specializes in the thought of 19th- and 20th-century Catholics like St. John Henry Newman, Henri de Lubac, and Hans Urs von Balthasar.

Born in Ireland in 1952, O'Regan is the first Irishman to win the coveted prize, which has been awarded since 2011 to distinguished scholars mostly working in theology and philosophy.

O'Regan, who earned doctorates in both theology and philosophy from Yale University, has taught at Notre Dame since 1999.

In his speech at the award ceremony on Friday, O'Regan described feeling inadequate to have received the honor, calling the prize "more gift than [just] desert."

The other 2024 Ratzinger Prize winner, Sotoo, is a Japanese sculptor whose work appears in places like the Sagrada Família Basilica in Barcelona, Spain.

Sotoo moved from Japan to Europe in 1978. After settling in Germany, he moved to Spain, remaining in Barcelona, where he went on to become the chief sculptor of Gaudí's Sagrada Familia, the basilica that has been under construction since 1882 and on which Sotoo is responsible for approximately 500 sculptures.

He also sculpted the ambo, from which the Gospel is read, in Florence, Italy's famous Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8838&view=post&articleid=280650&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

St. Louis, Mo., Nov 22, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

Missouri's bishops are urging the state to forgo executing a man next month who was convicted of the 2007 abduction, rape, torture, and murder of a 9-year-old girl.

Police said Christopher Collings confessed to killing Rowan Ford after raping her on Nov. 3, 2007. The murder took place in rural Stella, Missouri, in the far southwest corner of the state. 

Collings' confession, which became a key piece of evidence at his trial, allegedly took place during an unrecorded conversation with now-deceased Police Chief Clinton Clark. Collings' attorneys have argued that the prosecution suppressed information about Clark's alleged criminal history that would have been relevant to the trial. 

Ford's stepfather also admitted to playing a primary role in the crime, though he was ultimately only charged with lesser offenses and eventually released from prison. 

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in April announced that his office had requested that the Missouri Supreme Court set an execution date for Collings, claiming "no court has ever found any legal errors" with his conviction.

Barring an intervention from the Missouri Supreme Court or the governor, Collings will be executed on Tuesday, Dec. 3.

The Missouri Catholic Conference, which advocates policy on behalf of the state's bishops, is urging Catholics to contact the governor to express their opposition to Collings' execution.

"The death and other circumstances of Rowan's murder are tragic and abhorrent, and though her death was a great injustice, it still would also be an injustice if the state carries out a man's execution in lieu of confining him to life imprisonment," the bishops said in a statement.

"The Catholic Church is strongly opposed to the death penalty because it disregards the sanctity and dignity of human life," they said.

The bishops said that citizens can reach out to the governor's office to express opposition to the pending execution. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, reflecting an update promulgated by Pope Francis in 2018, describes the death penalty as "inadmissible" and an "attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person" (No. 2267).

The change reflects a development of Catholic doctrine in recent years. St. John Paul II, calling the death penalty "cruel and unnecessary," encouraged Christians to be "unconditionally pro-life" and said that "the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil."

Missouri is among the most prolific of all U.S. states when it comes to the death penalty; it was one of only five states to carry out executions in 2023, carrying out four that year. 

Outgoing Republican Gov. Mike Parson has never granted clemency to a death row inmate during his governorship. In April Parson denied death row inmate Brian Dorsey's clemency request despite protests from Catholics and others, clearing the way for the state's first execution of 2024. 

In September Missouri executed Marcellus "Khaliifah" Williams for the brutal murder of a St. Louis journalist in 1998 despite doubts about Williams' guilt. 

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8838&view=post&articleid=280640&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 22, 2024 / 09:10 am (CNA).

American Catholic bishops are asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to reject a proposed "gender identity" rule that could make faithful Catholic entities ineligible for contracts with the department.

The HHS has proposed a rule to prohibit "discrimination" against a person based on his or her "sexual orientation" and self-assigned "gender identity" in the administration of all HHS services and programs. The proposed language does not state what actions or policies would constitute discrimination.

According to the proposal, which is undergoing a public comment period, any entity that submits a bid for a contract must "comply with the requirements of this policy" if that contract is awarded. The proposed language does not include any religious exemptions for the nondiscrimination rules.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) electronically submitted a public comment to HHS requesting that the department reject the proposal. The prelates argued the language is ambiguous and could force entities in health-related contracts to provide transgender drugs and surgeries to adults and children with gender dysphoria, even if the entity has a religious or moral objection.

In their public comment, the bishops also expressed concern that the language could force entities in HHS contracts to provide counseling that affirms a person's homosexual attraction, even if that entity has a religious or moral objection.

"The preamble provides no explanation of how this nondiscrimination requirement will be construed, or will work in practice, as applied to the various programs and services that HHS administers and for which it enters into contracts," the USCCB comment stated.

Depending on how the proposed rule is enforced, it could force Catholic entities to either violate their religious beliefs or forgo contracts with HHS altogether. 

The rule would apply to Catholic hospitals that accept patients on Medicare and Medicaid, which are two programs overseen by HHS. It would also apply to Catholic entities that partner with HHS on social services, such as foster care, adoption, and assistance to migrants.

This would not be the first time that HHS under President Joe Biden's administration has sought to force Catholic entities to violate their religious beliefs.

In 2022, HHS promulgated a rule that sought to force all hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, to provide abortions if they constituted a "stabilizing treatment" under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit blocked the enforcement of this rule and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule on the administration's appeal.

An appellate court ruled in August 2022 that HHS could not force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions or provide transgender drugs and surgeries to adults and minors based on its interpretation of the Affordable Care Act's prohibition on "sex discrimination."

The public comment period for the proposed HHS rule ends on Dec. 2 of this year, after which the department will consider the public's suggestions. It will then decide whether to adopt the rule. 

Even if the rule is adopted, it would likely be quickly discarded after President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20 of next year. 

The president-elect has been critical of what he calls "transgender insanity," has backed a federal ban on transgender surgeries for minors, and has said he "will take historic action to defeat the toxic poison of gender ideology and reaffirm that God created two genders, male and female" and support religious freedom.

Trump intends to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead HHS. That appointment will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8838&view=post&articleid=280629&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2024 / 17:20 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis has published a letter addressed especially to priests in formation to promote the renewal of the study of Church history, emphasizing its importance in better interpreting reality.

At the beginning of the letter, presented Thursday at the Vatican Press Office, the Holy Father refers to the need to promote a "genuine sense of history" that takes into account the "historical dimension that is ours as human beings."

"No one can truly know their deepest identity, or what they wish to be in the future, without attending to the bonds that link them to preceding generations," the Holy Father says. The pontiff also points out that everyone, not only candidates for the priesthood, needs this renewal.

'To love the Church as she truly exists'

In this context, the Holy Father states that we must abandon an "angelic" conception of the Church and embrace its "stains and wrinkles" in order to love the Church as it is. 

In short, Pope Francis invites the faithful to see the real Church "in order to love the Church as she truly exists," a Church that has learned "and continues to learn from her mistakes and failures."

According to the Holy Father, this can "serve as a corrective to the misguided approach that would view reality only from a triumphalist defense of our function or role."

Dangers of an ideological reading of history

In the letter Pope Francis criticizes the manipulation of history by ideologies that "destroy (or deconstruct) all differences so that they can reign unopposed." These ideologies seek to lead young people to "spurn the spiritual and human riches inherited from past generations" and ignore everything that came before them, he says.

For the pope, this also leads to posing "false problems" and seeking "inadequate solutions," especially in an era marked by a tendency "to dismiss the memory of the past or to invent one suited to the requirements of dominant ideologies."

"Faced with the cancellation of past history or with clearly biased historical narratives, the work of historians, together with knowledge and dissemination of their work, can act as a curb on misrepresentations, partisan efforts at revisionism, and their use to justify" any number of evils, including wars and persecutions, the Holy Father indicated.

The pope thus points out that "we cannot come to grips with the past by hasty interpretations disconnected from their consequences" and that reality "is never a simple phenomenon reducible to naive and dangerous simplifications."

The Holy Father warns against the efforts of those who act like "gods" who want to "cancel part of history and humanity."

Human frailty and the spread of the Gospel

The Holy Father goes on to recognize "the human weakness of those to whom the Gospel has been entrusted" and exhorts the faithful to not ignore shortcomings and to "combat them assiduously" so that they do not hinder the spread of the Gospel.

The Holy Father reiterates that "forgiving does not mean forgetting," and he encourages the Church "to initiate — and help initiate in society — sincere and effective paths of reconciliation and social peace."

He also calls for avoiding the "merely chronological approach" to the history of the Church, which "would transform the history of the Church into a mere buttress for the history of theology or spirituality of past centuries." 

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

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8838&view=post&articleid=280628&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

CNA Staff, Nov 21, 2024 / 18:15 pm (CNA).

The longest-serving president in Georgetown University history, John DeGioia, is stepping down after 23 years to recover after suffering a stroke. 

DeGioia, who served as the 48th president of the Jesuit university in Washington, D.C., noted in a letter that stepping down was "the most difficult decision I have ever made." 

He explained in his letter that he is retiring "to devote my energies to my ongoing recovery" from his recent stroke in June. DeGioia will remain on staff as a member of the faculty, according to a Thursday announcement by the university.

"Serving as the president of Georgetown has been the privilege of my lifetime," DeGioia stated. "I look forward to continuing to advance and support Georgetown's mission and the university community that means so much to all of us. I remain deeply proud of the work we have done together to strengthen the Georgetown community, our nation, and our world."

DeGioia graduated from Georgetown with a bachelor's degree in English in 1979 and a doctorate in philosophy in 1995. When he became president in 2001, DeGioia became the first layperson to lead a Jesuit college or university in the U.S.

"With DeGioia's vision, Georgetown has grown new and existing academic programs, deepened opportunities for student learning and engagement, and advanced Georgetown's mission of education and service globally," the university press release stated.

DeGioia oversaw the establishment of a new campus in Qatar in 2005 as well as the formation of the McCourt School of Public Policy in 2013. He oversaw an increase in the financial aid budget to $284 million and endowment growth from $700 million in 2001 to $3.6 billion in 2024. 

Chair of the Georgetown board of directors Thomas Reynolds III said that under DeGioia's leadership, the university "has grown and flourished as a global leader in higher education."

"It is hard to put in words the depth of Jack's impact at Georgetown," Reynolds said. "Since first arriving on campus as an undergraduate student in 1975, Jack has spent his entire career at Georgetown and has helped shape every facet of the university."

DeGioia "guided many new efforts to engage Georgetown's Catholic and Jesuit identity," according to the university press release. 

In his letter, DeGioia noted the importance of the university's role in the world in light of "our mission as a Catholic and Jesuit institution." 

Early in his presidency, DeGioia established the role of vice president for Mission and Ministry, designed to deepen Ignatian spirituality at the university. DeGioia collaborated with the Vatican and visited Rome annually to engage with Catholic leaders. He helped establish the university's Initiative of Catholic Social Thought and Public Life in 2013 to build dialogue and encourage young Catholic leaders in their faith. 

"I am grateful to many who have guided us in this work and who have enlivened our tradition in new ways so that Ignatian spirituality and our Catholic and Jesuit identity are ever more present to our university community," he wrote.

Under DeGioia, Georgetown became the first Catholic university to open an LGBTQ resource center in 2008. 

Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest who served as a board member under DeGioia, noted in a post on X on Thursday that DeGioia was "one of the very earliest supporters of my LGBTQ ministry and OutreachCatholic," a controversial pro-LGBT group.

Under DeGioia's leadership, Georgetown renovated sacred spaces for Orthodox Christian and Catholic communities while expanding the Jewish gathering space on campus and opening a mosque on campus as well as "Dharmalaya," a Dharmic mediation center. 

In 2023, Georgetown became the first Catholic and Jesuit university to establish a Disability Cultural Center. 

DeGioia also oversaw Georgetown's "ongoing work on racial justice," the press release noted. DeGioa in 2015 publicly apologized for Georgetown staff, the Maryland Province of Jesuits, who owned and sold more than 250 slaves in the 1830s. 

"Georgetown is a place where we — continuously, rigorously, and collectively — pursue truth," DeGioia continued in his letter. "We commit to the formation of our students, to the inquiry of our faculty, and to the common good of our communities."

Robert Groves, Georgetown's current provost and executive vice president, will serve as interim president while the board of directors searches for a new president. The vice president and chief of staff to DeGioia, Joseph Ferrara, will serve as senior vice president and chief of staff.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8838&view=post&articleid=280623&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2024 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

In an address to participants of the first plenary assembly of the Dicastery for Culture and Education on Nov. 21, Pope Francis said desire, fearlessness, and Christian hope are remedies needed to overcome the "shadow of nihilism" prevalent in society.

Describing nihilism as "perhaps the most dangerous plague of today's culture" because of its attempt to "erase hope" in the world, the pope told dicastery members that their institution should work toward inspiring humanity.

"Schools, universities, cultural centers should teach us to desire, to remain thirsty, to have dreams, because, as the Second Letter of Peter reminds us, we 'await new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells,'" the pope said.

"Understand your mission in the educational and cultural field as a call to broaden horizons, to overflow with inner vitality, to make room for possibilities unseen, to bestow the ways of the gift that only becomes wider when it is shared," he continued.

Reminding his listeners of the Catholic Church's expansive cultural and educational heritage, the pope said there is "no reason to be overwhelmed by fear."

"In a word, we are heirs to the educational and cultural passion of so many saints," he said after citing the examples of Sts. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Edith Stein, and Catholic scientist Blaise Pascal.

"Surrounded by such a host of witnesses, let us get rid of any burden of pessimism; pessimism is not Christian," he added.

The pope also drew upon the cultural works of musical and literary greats, including Mozart and American poet Emily Dickinson, and insisted that they, too, can be a source of inspiration for the dicastery's various cultural and educational projects.

'Let us think about the future of humanity'

Identifying poverty, inequality, and exclusion as "pathologies of the present world," the Holy Father insisted it is a "moral imperative" of the Church to ensure people — especially children and youth — have access to a comprehensive education.

"Some 250 million children and adolescents do not attend school," he stated. "Brothers and sisters, it is cultural genocide when we steal the future from children, when we do not offer them conditions to become what they could be."

Sharing with dicastery members the experience of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with the hardships of refugee families, the pope said the French writer felt wounded after seeing the children.

"It torments me that in each of these men there is a little Mozart, murdered," writes de Saint-Exupéry in his autobiographical work "Land of Men."

Toward the conclusion of the private audience, Pope Francis referred to the dicastery's plenary assembly theme, "Let us pass on to the other shore" (cf. Mk 4:35), and encouraged his listeners to take courage and carry out their work with a sense of hope.

"I repeat: We must not let the feeling of fear win. Remember that complex cultural passages often prove to be the most fruitful and creative for the development of human thought," he said. 

"Contemplating the living Christ enables us to have the courage to launch into the future," the pope added.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8838&view=post&articleid=280622&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

CNA Staff, Nov 21, 2024 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

Numerous news reports in recent days reported that a new artificially intelligent "Jesus" has begun taking people's confessions at a Catholic church in Switzerland. 

Claim: A holographic "AI Jesus" has been created and deployed at a chapel in Switzerland specifically to hear confessions.

CNA finds: St. Peter's Chapel in Lucerne, a historic parish church, recently installed "an innovative project that explores the use of virtual characters based on generative artificial intelligence in a spiritual context" in collaboration with the Immersive Realities Research Lab at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

The AI program was reportedly trained with content from the New Testament, with the goal of allowing the "Jesus" avatar to verbally respond, in one of 100 languages, to questions about the Bible from people entering the confessional. 

(Numerous reports described the "Jesus" avatar as a "hologram," which is a 3D projection created with lasers; but a Deutsche Welle video of the installation in action showed that the artificial face of "Jesus" merely appeared on a curved computer monitor behind the confessional screen.) 

The installation is titled "Deus in Machina" (a Latin phrase meaning "God in the machine" and a play on the more commonly used literary phrase "Deus ex machina"). An announcement from the lab said the project, which is described as an "art exhibit," "encourages thinking about the limits of technology in the context of religion."

The breakdown: Despite being placed in the confessional booth, the parish notes on its website that the AI installation is intended for conversations, not confessions. Confession, also called penance or reconciliation, is one of the seven sacraments of the Church and can only be performed by a priest or bishop, and never in a virtual setting.

A theologian at the Swiss parish said the project is also intended to help to get religious people comfortable with AI and reportedly said he does see potential for AI to help with the pastoral work of priests, given that AI can be available any time, "24 hours a day, so it has abilities that pastors don't."

Peter Kirchschläger, an expert in theological ethics, opined to Deutsche Welle in response to the theologian's comments that "we should be careful when it comes to faith, pastoral care, and the search for meaning in religion. This is an area in which we humans are actually vastly superior to machines. So we should do it ourselves."

The Swiss art project is the latest in a series of attempts — including an embrace of the technology at the Vatican itself — to make AI work in service of the Catholic faith, which so far has yielded mixed results. 

CatéGPT, for example, an artificial intelligence chatbot designed by another Swiss, engineer Nicolas Torcheboeuf, aims to provide answers to questions about Catholic teaching by drawing on authoritative documents. Other similar AI-based services have gained popularity, such as the U.S.-based Magisterium AI. 

Less successful was an AI "priest" created and unveiled earlier this year by the California-based apologetics apostolate Catholic Answers, which was criticized by some users for its video game-like priestly avatar. Moreover, at least one user managed to goad the priestly character into hearing their confession, prompting a statement from the apostolate in which it promised to replace the priest character with a lay character named "Justin."

The verdict: The "AI Jesus" project exists, but it's not intended to hear people's confessions, or to replace a priest. Rather, it's an art exhibit created by researchers at a local technical university in concert with theologians who say they want to raise questions about the use of technology in religious settings and to demonstrate the ability of AI to answer questions about the Bible. 

We rate this claim misleading.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8838&view=post&articleid=280617&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

CNA Staff, Nov 21, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

After Catholic media mogul and human rights activist Jimmy Lai took the stand on Wednesday in a yearslong Hong Kong national security trial, Bill McGurn, Wall Street Journal columnist and godfather of Lai, told "EWTN News Nightly" that Lai is "a real champion of freedom."

Lai, 76, was first arrested in August 2020 under China's newly instituted Hong Kong national security law. Since his arrest, he has faced multiple trials and has been convicted on multiple charges of unlawful assembly and fraud. The allegations are widely condemned as politically motivated. 

McGurn, friend and godfather to Lai, told "EWTN News Nightly" anchor Tracy Sabol that Lai's charisma on the stand worries the Hong Kong authorities. Lai has been in solitary confinement since his arrest in 2020.

"Today is the first time we've heard from Jimmy. The trial began in January," McGurn told Sabol. "This is the first time we've heard his voice."

On Wednesday Lai denied allegations of seditious activism as well as allegations that he had colluded with the then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. 

"Today was a big day because the pressure on Jimmy — like all the people arrested in Hong Kong for these political crimes — is to plead guilty," McGurn explained. "But Jimmy doesn't believe he did anything wrong. He's correct in that. He wants to have his say in court, even if it's biased against him."

"The government hates that because Jimmy is obviously sincere. He's very charismatic," McGurn added. "He's a real champion of freedom, and ordinary Hong Kong people appreciate that."

Lai's long-running Apple Daily newspaper was a pro-democratic voice in Hong Kong media. Hong Kong authorities froze the company's assets, forcing the newspaper to close. 

McGurn said that "Jimmy Lai is being singled out because he owned a newspaper that tried to tell the truth about what's going on in Hong Kong."

"They treat him like he's this great threat, and he's a newspaper man. He does what ordinary publishers do. He talks to leaders all the time," McGurn said.

"The government exposed what a thin case they have," McGurn continued. "Now they're worried because he's so charismatic: What's he going to say on the stand? Even without a script, Jimmy is very eloquent and very persuasive when he talks about freedom."

When asked how the family is doing, McGurn cited the strength of Lai's wife, Teresa. Lai joined the Catholic Church in 1997 with the support of Teresa, whom he married in 1991.

"His whole family is suffering from this. His wife, Teresa, is a rock — just a rock of faith," McGurn said. "Jimmy draws strength from her because she has her husband in jail and her three kids scattered around the world, and she's keeping it all together."

McGurn calls it all "a real inspiration."

"We think of these stories of saints that have withstood all this persecution as belonging to the Middle Ages," he said. "It's going on right now, and we can see it." 

Cardinal Zen stands with him

McGurn noted that Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze–Kiun attended the trial, sitting with Lai's family. Zen also attended the sentencing of 45 other pro-democracy activists on Tuesday. 

"It must have really lifted [Lai's] spirits," McGurn said. "It's a tremendous thing."

In the United States, Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, among others, has been outspoken about support for Lai.

"How sad it is how they have mistreated this great man of principle," Smith said on Capitol Hill. "He could have left any time he wanted, given his wealth. He wanted to fight for his fellow friends and citizens in Hong Kong. For that — for speaking truth to power in a dictatorship — he is being very, very much maligned and unfortunately hurt by the judicial, corrupt system."

When asked what he thought about Smith's comment, McGurn said: "He's absolutely right." 

"As Congressman Smith pointed out, he could have run away. He has houses all over the world, but he stood and went to jail for his principles," McGurn said.

Full Article