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CNA Staff, Aug 8, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Two recently launched advertising campaigns illustrate part of the epic clash between the culture of life and the culture of death taking place in this year's U.S. elections.

Students for Life of America (SFLA), a group that trains and supports pro-life advocates on college and high school campuses, kicked off this summer the launch if its "Almost Aborted" campaign, highlighting the stories of people who survived abortions, were conceived in rape, or had genetic abnormalities in utero as well as women who were pressured to abort.

SFLA organizers indicated the campaign is in "direct response" to a $200 million pro-abortion American Bridge advertisement campaign on abortion targeting swing voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin for the upcoming 2024 election.

SFLA's videos and billboards share the stories of people such as Josiah, an abortion survivor who has a deformed left arm because of an attempted abortion, and Rebecca, who was conceived in rape. Launched in Times Square in New York in June, the campaign features digital and billboard advertising focused on battleground states of Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota, Missouri, and Arizona.

The SFLA Almost Aborted campaign is the organization's "largest to date," so far reaching a digital audience of 8.1 million, with more than 5.1 million views since its launch. In addition, to date the organization's billboard campaign is estimated to have reached 18.5 million Americans.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also announced it is in the midst of a seven-figure advertising campaign for "abortion rights" in Wisconsin.

The ACLU, along with ACLU of Wisconsin, announced on Aug. 5 a $1.75 million campaign to "inform voters about the candidates' positions on abortion rights in the upcoming 2024 U.S. Senate race and state legislative races across the state."

"The ACLU is engaging in these races because there's too much at stake in this election — most notably the right to essential, lifesaving health care," said Esete Assefa, chief political adviser at the ACLU, in an Aug. 5 press release.

The Wisconsin campaign is just a part of the ACLU's $25 million effort "to safeguard and advance fundamental rights during the 2024 election, with a laser focus on protecting and expanding abortion and voting rights up and down the ballot."

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ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 8, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

On Aug. 7, Pope Francis resumed general audiences at the Vatican after a brief and normal pause during the month of July. The following is an explanation of the nature and purpose of these encounters with the Holy Father.

An important weekly event, the general audience takes place every Wednesday. Together with the Sunday Angelus and the principal celebrations of the liturgical year, they represent the spiritual heart of Pope Francis' Petrine teaching.

The audiences draw people from all over the world, including non-Catholics, and give the pope the opportunity to share an often simple but profound catechesis on the Christian faith. They typically take place in St. Peter's Square or in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall.

Since 2013, the first year of his pontificate, Pope Francis has given more than 300 of these short catechetical talks in which he proposes in a simple way the fundamental teachings of the Catholic Church.

The themes of the catechesis have included the sacraments, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Church, the family, mercy, Christian hope, Mass, baptism, confirmation, the commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Acts of the Apostles, the Beatitudes, and prayer, among others.

At the end of the catechesis, the pope usually dedicates a few minutes to making appeals to humanity. In these appeals, he often calls for peace in places ravaged by war; asks for prayers for Christians in the world, in particular for those suffering persecution; and for peoples struck by natural disasters, epidemics, or incidents as well as for migrants.

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, Aug 7, 2024 / 18:08 pm (CNA).

An IHOP restaurant in North Carolina will pay $40,000 to a former employee who was forced in 2021 to work on Sundays in violation of his religious beliefs. 

The settlement was announced Aug. 6 by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency tasked with enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, which had filed a lawsuit on the employee's behalf in 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.

According to the lawsuit, the defendant was hired as a cook at an IHOP location in Charlotte in January 2021. 

"At the time of hire, the employee requested and was granted a religious accommodation of not working on Sundays to honor his religious observances," the Aug. 6 announcement says. 

"After a change in management in April 2021, the new general manager expressed hostility toward the accommodation and required the employee to work on Sunday, April 25, and Sunday, May 9. After the employee told the general manager that due to his religious beliefs, he would no longer work on Sundays, the general manager fired him."

The general manager was also alleged to have made comments to other employees such as "religion should not take precedence over [the employee's] job" and that the employee supposedly "thinks it is more important to go to church than to pay his bills."

Such conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which provides for religious accommodations in the workplace and protects individuals from religious discrimination and retaliation, the EEOC noted.

Under the two-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit, Suncakes — the franchise owner of several dozen IHOP restaurants in the region — will pay $40,000 in monetary damages to the employee, provide annual training to managers on the provisions of Title VII, post a notice to employees about the settlement, and revise its current policies to expressly include protection for religious accommodations. 

The revised policy will be posted in all 17 IHOP locations operated by Suncakes in North Carolina, the announcement says. 

The ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina follows a unanimous June 2023 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of a Christian postal worker who says he was targeted and disciplined by his employer for refusing to work on Sundays because of his religious beliefs. In that ruling, the high court rejected an interpretation of federal law that has been used to deny employees' religious accommodation requests if they present more than a "trivial cost" to the employer. 

Legal observers hailed that ruling as a "landmark decision" and "a win for the little guy," while the U.S. Catholic bishops said the ruling "breathed life back into a major civil rights law meant to prevent discrimination by employers against people of faith in the workplace."

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ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 7, 2024 / 15:38 pm (CNA).

At least nine Catholic priests have been "violently" abducted by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, in Nicaragua since July 26, lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina reported. These priests "remain under total surveillance" by the National Police, she added.

Molina, author of the report "Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?", shared on X Aug. 5 a list of priests "abducted by the Sandinista dictatorship."

There are at least nine: Monsignor Ulises Vega Matamoros, Monsignor Edgar Sacasa Sierra, Father Víctor Godoy, Father Jairo Pravia Flores, Father Marlon Velásquez, Father Jarvin Torrez, and Father Raúl Villegas, all of them from the clergy of the Diocese of Matagalpa; Friar Silvio Romero from the Diocese of Juigalpa; and Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón from the Diocese of Estelí.

In an Aug. 6 statement to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, the Nicaraguan researcher reported that Father Salvador López of the Diocese of Matagalpa is missing, although it is not known precisely if he was also abducted by the authorities or if he tried to escape the country.

Nicaraguan media, such as Despacho505, reported on the arrest of three other priests — Father Antonio López, Father Francisco Tercero, and Fray Ramón Morras — as well as Deacon Ervin Aguirre.

Molina said the arrests began on July 26 when Valle, administrator "ad omnia" of the Diocese of Estelí, was "abducted, interrogated," and placed under surveillance in a Catholic Church formation house.

The lawyer stated the other priests were arrested days later without any formal accusation by the authorities, since "they have not committed any crime."

She further noted that the priests "were violently abducted and taken from their rectories in the middle of the night" and that in some cases "the property was raided and technological items were stolen."

The lawyers said the motive for these arrests could be because Murillo and Ortega "hate everything that has to do with religion, with the Catholic faith, and mainly with the Diocese of Matagalpa, where almost the majority of these priests who were abducted belong."

Matagalpa is the diocese of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, a human rights defender and critic of the dictatorship who was kept under house arrest for months and eventually sentenced to 26 years in prison in a controversial judicial process. He was deported in January to Rome, where he now lives in exile.

The researcher also suggested that the arrests could be "revenge" against Álvarez, "who, despite having remained silent since leaving prison, is considered by the dictatorship to be its main enemy."

Molina pointed out that all the priests are under de facto arrest, since "there is no order from a judge stating that they are under house arrest. They are all unable to leave and unable to carry out their daily activities, as they had been doing in their respective parishes."

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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ACI MENA, Aug 7, 2024 / 11:21 am (CNA).

Ten years have passed since the night that changed everything for the residents of Karamlesh, a small town in northern Iraq. For Father Martin Banni, pastor of St. Korkis Chaldean Church, the memories of that traumatic day remain vivid.

Banni revisited the events of Aug. 6, 2014, in a recent interview with ACI Mena, CNA's Arabic-language news partner. Residents of Karamlesh, a town in the Nineveh Valley, on that day woke to the sound of bombardment and tragic news: a woman and two children had been killed in Qaraqosh. Panic spread as people fled, seeking safety from an unknown threat.

"Amid growing fear and the sound of exchanges between security forces and ISIS fighters, we took refuge in the church," Banni recounted. "We held prayers for the feast of the Transfiguration and celebrated Mass, even as ISIS was just 20 minutes away."

"At that time, I was with Bishop Boulos Thabet, then pastor of the Karamlesh church," Banni continued. "I was still a seminarian, preparing for the priesthood. As we moved through town trying to reassure people, we received alarming news at 10 p.m.: ISIS had captured Tel Keppe, the first Christian village to fall. Tel Keppe, about eight miles northeast of Mosul in the Nineveh Governorate, marked a significant advance for the militants. Caught between uncertainty and caution, Church authorities ordered an evacuation to Erbil. Fear gripped the community as ISIS drew nearer and security forces withdrew, leaving us exposed to the terrorist threat," he added.

"We rang the church bells as a warning," Banni continued. "We sent people to alert the sick and elderly that church vehicles would transport them. Under gunfire, we gathered important church documents and sacred vessels, preparing to leave."

For Banni, the night holds deep significance. "The Body of Christ became my companion in two of life's most crucial moments," he said. 

"God blessed me with the gift of taking the Eucharist from our church that night. It remained with us throughout our exodus, safe from desecration by ISIS."

Then, upon Karamlesh's liberation, Banni was the first to return with the Eucharist. 

"I also thank God for being the first one to bring the Most Holy Body to my town. This sacrament accompanied me through exodus and return," he said. "I walked through town, blessing its churches, homes, and people with the Most Holy Body."

The priest sees divine providence in these events. 

"The Eucharist amplified my hope of return," he stated. "God's hand sustained us through our trials, just as it protected the Israelites following Moses across the Red Sea. This blessing fortified our resolve to rebuild, knowing God's protection surrounds us."

Banni called for prayers for Iraq's Christians. He asserted that persecution has only strengthened the Church's resolve and the faith of its members. Echoing Pope Francis' words from a recent visit, he affirmed: "The Church of Iraq is truly alive, and Christ lives among his people, working miracles through them."

This article was first published by ACI Mena, CNA's Arabic-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Vatican City, Aug 7, 2024 / 11:51 am (CNA).

Pope Francis held his first general audience after a monthlong summer break Wednesday, reminding pilgrims gathered in Paul VI Hall that, as the Gospel of Luke emphasizes, "with God all things are possible" when we invite Jesus into our lives as the Virgin Mary did.

The Holy Father's reflections marked his fifth catechesis on the theme "The Spirit and the Bride: The Holy Spirit Guides the People of God toward Jesus Our Hope."

The Holy Father encouraged his listeners to imitate the faith of Mary, who listened to God and invited the Holy Spirit into her life.

"How is it possible to proclaim Jesus Christ and his salvation to a world that seems to only seek well-being in this world?" the Holy Father asked.

"'With God nothing will be impossible,'" he repeated. "If we believe this, we will perform miracles. With God nothing will be impossible."

At one point, activists from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), donned in shirts and waving banners that read "stop blessing corridas" and "la corrida e peccato" ("bullfighting is a sin"), temporarily interrupted the catechesis.

During his address, the Holy Father said the incarnation of Jesus Christ is a historical fact central to the Catholic faith.

"The Church took up this revealed fact and very soon positioned it at the heart of her symbol of faith," the pope said.

Pope Francis added that the Nicene Creed, which is recited during Mass, is also an "ecumenical fact of faith" as all Christians share the same belief on the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ.

"In the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, in 381 — which defined the divinity of the Holy Spirit — this article enters into the formula of the creed, which is indeed referred to as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. It affirms that the Son of God was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man," the pope explained.

Throughout the meeting, several pilgrims waved country flags as well as fans as they tried to keep cool during the hourlong midsummer indoor papal audience.

After his catechesis on the incarnation of Jesus the Holy Father urged those present to meditate upon the Gospel accounts of the feast days of the Transfiguration (Aug. 6) and the Assumption (Aug. 15).

The pope also asked for prayers for peace on behalf of those suffering conflict and violence in the Middle East, Ukraine, Myanmar, and Pakistan.

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ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 6, 2024 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

The president of the Vatican Court, Giuseppe Pignatone, is under investigation by the Italian judiciary for allegedly collaborating with the Mafia in the early 1990s.

Pignatone, 75, is known for his extensive career in the justice system. He was also deputy prosecutor for Palermo (Sicily) and Rome's prosecutor. Since October 2019 he has been president of the Vatican Court.

On July 31, Pignatone was summoned to testify in court in Caltanissetta, Sicily, for alleged complicity and cover-up of the Italian Mafia organization La Cosa Nostra ("Our Thing").

The events date back to 1992, when the Sicilian Mafia killed judges Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone.

On May 23 of that year, both anti-Mafia judges, along with their wives and several members of their escort, were killed when a bomb placed in their cars by the criminal organization's hitmen exploded.

These judges were leading the fight against La Cosa Nostra, responsible for attacks, extortion, drug trafficking, and money laundering during the 1990s in Italy.

At the time, Pignatone was deputy prosecutor in Palermo and allegedly intervened to force the end of an investigation against the organization.

According to the Italian press, in his July 31 statement he claimed to be innocent of all charges and promised to cooperate with the justice system.

Blessed Giuseppe 'Don Pino' Puglisi

On Sept. 15, 1993, the Sicilian mob also took the life of Blessed Giuseppe "Don Pino" Puglisi, a Sicilian priest who, despite threats, had carried out a quiet fight against organized crime by educating young people in the impoverished area of ??Palermo, where he carried out his pastoral work.

Puglisi also preached against the Mafia, prohibited them from leading religious processions, and even gave hidden clues to the authorities about their latest activities in his homilies. After his death it was revealed that his life had been threatened on numerous occasions.

On Sept. 15, 1993, he was stopped on the street and shot in the neck at point-blank range by hitmen sent by local Mafia bosses Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano. He died from his wounds. Puglisi was declared a martyr by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and beatified in 2013.

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

Vice President Kamala Harris has picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in the 2024 election, the Democratic nominee for president announced on X Tuesday morning.

The vice president is scheduled to introduce Walz at a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening before heading out on the campaign trail for a five-state tour of crucial swing states.

Walz has served as Minnesota's 41st governor since 2019. He previously represented Minnesota's 1st Congressional District in the U.S. Congress from 2007 until his election as governor. 

A staunch supporter of abortion, he has received 100% ratings from both NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

In 2023 he signed a Minnesota bill that banned therapists in the state from attempting to cure people of gender dysphoria. At the same time he signed a law strengthening protections for parents who allow extremist "transgender" procedures to be performed on their children. 

A Lutheran and former schoolteacher, Walz has been married to his wife, Gwen, for 30 years. They share two children.

This article was updated on Aug. 6, 2024.

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Rome Newsroom, Aug 6, 2024 / 11:18 am (CNA).

In his homily during second vespers on the solemnity of Our Lady of the Snows at the Basilica of St. Mary Major on Monday evening, Pope Francis meditated upon the significance of grace in the life of the Mother of God and in the life of every Catholic.

"I suggest, then, that we allow ourselves to be guided by a verse from the book of Sirach, which says the following about the snow that God causes to fall from the sky: 'The eye marvels at the beauty of its whiteness, and the mind is amazed at its falling' (Sir 43:18)," the Holy Father said in his vespers homily for the solemnity.

"Just like a midsummer snowfall in Rome. Indeed, grace arouses marvel and amazement. Let us not forget these two words. We cannot lose the ability to marvel and the ability to be amazed, as they are part of our experience of faith," he added.

Every year, Romans celebrate the solemnity dedicated to the Virgin Mary with a shower of white rose petals that fall from the ceiling of the Basilica of St. Mary Major to represent the miraculous midsummer snowfall that occurred almost 1,700 years ago. 

In his contemplation of the gem of the basilica — the ancient icon of Salus Populi Romani (Our Lady Savior of the People) — the pope said the miracle of the snow is symbolic of Mary, who is the only woman created who is full of grace, conceived without original sin, and immaculate.    

"Here, grace fully acquires its Christian form in the image of the Virgin Mother with Child, the holy Mother of God. Grace appears in its concreteness, stripped of every mythological, magical, and spiritualistic vesture always lurking in religion," he said at vespers. 

The pope said grace is essential in the faith journey of every believer and a gift that cannot be bought but only received, and conveyed his hope that Christians not lose a sense of wonder to the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

"Indeed, grace arouses marvel and amazement. Let us not forget these two words. We cannot lose the ability to marvel and the ability to be amazed, as they are part of our experience of faith," the Holy Father reflected.

Before concluding his homily with praises and prayers of invocation to the Mother of God, Pope Francis asked the Catholic faithful — especially those planning to visit St. Mary Major in the 2025 Jubilee Year — to ask for blessings, forgiveness, and the peace of Jesus Christ for the whole world.   

"That peace which is true and lasting only when it flows from repentant and forgiven hearts," he said. "Forgiveness brings about peace because to forgive is the noble approach of the Lord; that peace which comes from the cross of Christ, and from his blood that he took from Mary and shed for the remission of sins."

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 6, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

There was a significant increase in unsupervised abortion attempts from 2021 to 2023, according to a new study published by the American Medical Association.

The percentage of American women who have undergone an unsupervised, self-managed abortion (SMA) rose from 2.4% in 2021 to 3.4% in 2023, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on July 30.

JAMA said that 3.4% represents a conservative estimate, given that abortion numbers are typically underreported. When adjusted to account for this underreporting, the percentage of American women who underwent a self-managed abortion in 2023 was 7.1%.

The researchers, some of whom have ties to Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, attributed the rise to the increase in the number of states with pro-life laws and of people who "fear criminalization for seeking pregnancy-related care."

The upsurge also appears to be spurred on by an increase in women taking chemical abortion pills, which can now be legally obtained without a doctor's visit.

A chemical abortion is a two-pill regimen in which the first — a drug called mifepristone — is ingested to cut off nutrient flow to the unborn baby, essentially starving the child to death.

In 2021, chemical abortions accounted for 18% of all unsupervised abortions. As of 2023, chemical abortions now account for 24.1%, a 6.1% increase. This comes after another study by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute found that chemical abortions account for 63% of all U.S. abortions.

The Biden administration significantly loosened restrictions on chemical abortion pills following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Revisions to FDA regulations made in 2021 and 2023 made it so that abortion pills can now be obtained at retail pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens as well as through the mail without an in-person doctor's visit.

Despite abortion pills being heavily restricted in 14 states, those laws have not impeded pills from being mailed in from other states where they are legal.

The study reported that women used a wide range of other methods to attempt a self-managed abortion including taking emergency contraception (29.7%) and herbs (25.9%). Meanwhile, 21.6% of women participating in the study tried to abort their baby by hitting themselves in the stomach, while 18.6% reported using alcohol or other controlled substances.

Consistent with overall abortion statistics, the largest proportion of women attempting self-managed abortions were African Americans at 5.1% versus all other ethnic groups at 3.1%.

The study noted that several of the methods employed by women in the study have the "potential for harm" and that many "offer low to no effectiveness in ending a pregnancy."

Because of this, researchers said that "interaction with the health care system following SMA is not uncommon, whether to seek emergency care related to adverse effects or complications or to seek subsequent prenatal or abortion care."

Dr. Ingrid Skop, an OB-GYN based in Texas, responded to the study by saying: "We must skeptically evaluate this blatant propaganda by abortion advocates promoted by increasingly biased medical journals."

"For years, abortion advocates have been seeking to de-medicalize induced abortion. Whereas, once they insisted abortion should be 'between a woman and her doctor,' increasingly there is no doctor involved in abortion provision, and women are left to suffer alone … Thus, 'self-managed' abortion is being promoted to women, regardless of the increased risks, in pursuit of ideological goals," Skop told CNA. "Now, abortion advocates attempt to have it both ways, by implying the methods they have encouraged will cause harm to women in states protecting unborn life."

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser commented to CNA that "pro-abortion fearmongering has hit new lows as the Democrats go all in on abortion to save them in the coming elections" and that "rebranding DIY mail-order abortions as 'self-managed abortion' exposes the lie of the Democrats' old 'safe, legal, and rare' stance."

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