Catholic bishops urged to boldly share church teachings — even unpopular ones

Catholic bishops urged to boldly share church teachings — even unpopular ones
US Catholic bishops gather for their annual fall meeting at the Marriott Waterfront hotel in Baltimore on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
Updated 14 November 2024
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Catholic bishops urged to boldly share church teachings — even unpopular ones

Catholic bishops urged to boldly share church teachings — even unpopular ones
  • Bishop Robert Barron: ‘And we shouldn’t be cowed by the celebrities and so on in the culture who are preaching something that’s deeply problematic.’

BALTIMORE: Several US Catholic bishops on Wednesday encouraged the church to boldly share Vatican teachings on a range of hot-button issues, including the condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, surrogacy and gender-affirming surgery.
The prelates acknowledged theirs is often a countercultural view.
“We have been too apologetic for too long,” said Bishop Robert Barron, a media-savvy cleric who leads the Winona-Rochester diocese in Minnesota. “And we shouldn’t be cowed by the celebrities and so on in the culture who are preaching something that’s deeply problematic.”
The remarks came during the bishops’ annual fall meeting and a presentation on a Vatican declaration released in April. “Dignitas Infinita,” or “Infinite Dignity,” clarifies church teaching that promotes the dignity of all people and the protection of life from its earliest stages through death.
“The goal is to apply the lessons of ‘Dignitas Infinita’ to our American society,” said Barron, who praised the declaration for its “distinctively Catholic voice” – one that is not Democratic or Republican, liberal or conservative.
The 20 pages of “Infinite Dignity” were five years in the making and single out a range of harms, including forced migration and sexual abuse. In it, the Vatican labels gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as violations of human dignity, comparing them to abortion and euthanasia.
Pope Francis has reached out to LGBTQ+ people throughout his papacy, and the document was a disappointing setback, if not unexpected, for transgender people and supporters of their rights. It comes during an election year in the United States where there has been a conservative backlash to transgender rights.
Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane, Washington, spoke to the meeting about how Catholic schools can be a vehicle for educating young people about Catholic sexual ethics.
“We want our students to see the church’s teaching on sexuality as an expression of this deeper understanding of the human person, and not simply just a set of rules that stand in opposition to our popular culture,” Daly said.
Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, who is finishing a term as chair of the USCCB committee on pro-life activities, expressed gratitude to the Vatican and called the declaration “incredibly timely.”
“Sadly, many states continue to enshrine abortion in their state constitutions,” he told the gathering, referencing recent state ballot initiatives. “We know we still have so much work to do.”
“Our work is not only to change laws, but to change hearts, to change minds,” Burbidge added.
Throughout their meeting, the US bishops have reaffirmed their anti-abortion commitments, even in the face of losses at the ballot box.
Voters supported 7 out of 10 abortion rights state ballot measures this election. Even in Florida, where the abortion rights amendment failed, 57 percent of voters supported the measure, just shy of the 60 percent it needed to pass.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City earlier told the gathering during an evangelization discussion that the success of abortion rights ballot initiatives should be “a wake-up call for us.” He said more pointed language is needed to help people accept church teaching on life issues.
In his opening address, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, laid out a vision of proclaiming church teaching, even when it’s not popular or convenient.
“We never back-pedal or renounce the clear teaching of the Gospel. We proclaim it in and out of season,” said Broglio. “We must insist on the dignity of the human person from womb to tomb, be unstinting in our commitment.”


Eyeing Trump, Los Angeles adopts ‘sanctuary city’ rules

Eyeing Trump, Los Angeles adopts ‘sanctuary city’ rules
Updated 6 sec ago
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Eyeing Trump, Los Angeles adopts ‘sanctuary city’ rules

Eyeing Trump, Los Angeles adopts ‘sanctuary city’ rules

LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted to adopt “sanctuary city” status for America’s second biggest metropolis, as liberal jurisdictions gird for Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The ordinance, passed by a unanimous vote, will prohibit city resources or personnel from being used to implement federal immigration laws.
The move comes as Trump appears ready to push ahead with campaign promises to carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants, with the appointment of hard-liners to his administration.
It also comes as liberal administrations across the United States, led by California, are trying to establish bulwarks against what they see as the expected excesses of a new Trump presidency.
Wednesday’s vote was passed with an urgency clause that would allow it to come into effect in as little as 10 days after Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signs off on it.
There was no debate at the council meeting as the vote was a procedural repetition of an earlier agreement.
“We have been a pro-immigrant city for a number of years, we know that there is a target on our back from this president-elect, and what we are doing here is we are hardening our defenses,” Councilmember Bob Blumenfield said last month.
“We are codifying our good policies on protecting immigrants.”
Trump made a promise to crack down on migration the centerpiece of his election campaign, and rallygoers were frequently photographed carrying placards that said “Mass Deportation Now.”
The president-elect insisted that illegal migrants were disproportionately responsible for crime, even as figures show US citizens commit more offenses per capita.
The Los Angeles County Republican Party lashed out at Wednesday’s move.
“So-called ‘sanctuary’ cities and states sound warm and fuzzy, but the protections they offer aren’t for (grandmothers) getting ice cream, they’re for people who’ve entered the country illegally and committed additional crimes,” a statement said.
“Whether drunk driving, robbery, sexual violence, assault or murder, none of those should go unpunished. Perpetrators should definitely not be protected by the largesse taken from hard-working taxpayers.”
Los Angeles is home to a variety of cultures, with a large number of its residents first or second generation immigrants.


85 migrants rescued in Channel: French authorities

85 migrants rescued in Channel: French authorities
Updated 6 min 25 sec ago
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85 migrants rescued in Channel: French authorities

85 migrants rescued in Channel: French authorities

LILLE, France: The French navy rescued 85 migrants trying to cross the Channel from France to England on Wednesday, maritime authorities said, the latest in a deadly series of dangerous crossings.
One of “numerous” migrant boats that set out to sea called for help after hitting a sandbank off the Pas-de-Calais region, France’s Channel and North Sea maritime prefecture said in a statement.
A navy tugboat saved 80 passengers from that boat and five more from a second migrant vessel at another location, it said.
The migrants were brought back to land at Boulogne-sur-Mer and attended to by emergency services and border police.
More than 70 migrants have died trying to cross the Channel to Britain this year, according to the Pas-de-Calais authorities.
Tens of thousands more have reached Britain, whose government has vowed to crack down on people-smuggling gangs.
In Germany on Wednesday, police carried out pre-dawn raids targeting an alleged Syrian and Iraqi-Kurdish criminal network accused of smuggling migrants by boat from France to Britain.
 


Biden aide says US would run out of munition in China war

Biden aide says US would run out of munition in China war
Updated 7 min 24 sec ago
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Biden aide says US would run out of munition in China war

Biden aide says US would run out of munition in China war
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s national security adviser warned Wednesday that the United States could quickly run out of munitions in a war with China as he called for more sustained defense production.
Jake Sullivan appealed to the incoming administration of Donald Trump to sustain the ramp-up of the domestic defense industry spurred by the war in Ukraine.
“God forbid we end up in a full-scale war with the PRC,” Sullivan said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
“But any war with a country like the PRC, a military like the PRC, is going to involve the exhaustion of munition stockpiles very rapidly,” he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“A big part of the answer to a healthy defense industrial base over time is the ability to regenerate, to surge, to build during a conflict — not just to build before, or to prepare for a conflict,” he said.
Sullivan called for Congress and the Trump administration to keep working on a Biden proposal to create a revolving fund of munitions.
The fund, which was proposed at $500 million a year, would let the Pentagon procure critical munitions even as they run out due to wars such as Ukraine.
Sullivan acknowledged there would be debate in the next administration on the size of the defense budget but said it was critical to keep up efforts to boost a military-industrial base which atrophied after the end of the Cold War when then United States saw no close competitor.
“First and most fundamentally, we’ve got to keep ramping up and accelerating production and procurement of the things that we need most,” he said.
He pointed to efforts to build 155-millimeter artillery rounds for Ukraine.
He said that the United States will produce 55,000 such rounds per month by the time the Biden administration leaves office next month, a 400 percent increase from before, with a goal of reaching 100,000 per month by early 2026.
Sullivan also pointed to the need to counter cooperation among US adversaries — China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.
Trump’s team has made clear it is unenthusiastic about the billions of dollars in US weapons for Ukraine and has spoken of forcing a quick settlement with Russia.
Trump’s advisers, notably Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, have said that US resources would be better spent countering China.

Trump asks court to toss Georgia election case

Trump asks court to toss Georgia election case
Updated 11 min 43 sec ago
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Trump asks court to toss Georgia election case

Trump asks court to toss Georgia election case

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump asked a Georgia appeals court on Wednesday to toss out the only remaining criminal prosecution facing him as he prepares to return to the White House.
Trump’s attorney Steven Sadow, in a filing with the court, said the indictment accusing Trump of seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia should be dismissed now that he is the president-elect.
A sitting president is “completely immune from indictment or any criminal process, state or federal,” Sadow said, and the continued prosecution of Trump in Georgia would be unconstitutional.
“President Trump respectfully submits that upon reaching that decision, this Court should dismiss his appeal for lack of jurisdiction with directions to the trial court to immediately dismiss the indictment against President Trump,” he said.
Sadow noted that Special Counsel Jack Smith has dropped the two federal cases brought against Trump.
Trump, 78, was accused of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden and of removing large quantities of top secret documents after leaving the White House, but neither case came to trial.
Smith cited a long-standing Justice Department policy of not indicting or prosecuting a sitting president in his motions to have the cases dismissed.
In Georgia, Trump was charged with racketeering over his alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election results in the southern state.
The case has been bogged down in accusations of impropriety by the Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, who acknowledged having had an intimate relationship with the man she hired to be a special prosecutor.
Trump was convicted in New York in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to stop her from revealing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.
However, the judge in that case has postponed sentencing while he considers a request from Trump’s lawyers that the conviction be thrown out in light of his election victory, and a Supreme Court ruling in July that an ex-president has broad immunity from prosecution.


Trump’s Pentagon nominee Hegseth pushes ahead amid doubts

Trump’s Pentagon nominee Hegseth pushes ahead amid doubts
Updated 31 min 57 sec ago
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Trump’s Pentagon nominee Hegseth pushes ahead amid doubts

Trump’s Pentagon nominee Hegseth pushes ahead amid doubts
  • Hegseth has faced a wave of allegations since Trump tapped him
  • Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has emerged as an option

WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, pushed ahead on Wednesday with his bid for the job amid doubts in the Senate over allegations about his personal and professional life.
Even as Hegseth made his case to Republican lawmakers whose support he’d need to be confirmed as defense secretary, Trump was considering alternates, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis emerging as an option, according to two sources familiar with internal deliberations.
Republican Representative Mike Waltz, whom Trump had previously tapped to be White House national security adviser, was another potential pick, a third source told Reuters. Another source said Republican Senator Joni Ernst could also be in the running for the job.
A former Fox News personality and former National Guard officer, Hegseth has faced a wave of allegations since Trump tapped him, including one of sexual assault, which he denied; media reports of public inebriation while working; and claims of financial mismanagement at prior jobs.
“I have some very real concerns about some things that have come out recently and I want to ask him about that,” Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said on Wednesday. Republicans will have a 53-47 Senate majority, meaning that Hegseth could afford to lose the support of just three fellow Republicans and still be confirmed.
During a break between meetings with lawmakers, Hegseth told the Megyn Kelly radio show, “I’ve never had a drinking problem” but would nonetheless not drink alcohol if confirmed as defense secretary. He said he spoke on Wednesday morning with Trump, who urged him to keep fighting.
Hegseth is not the first Trump Cabinet pick to run into difficulties. Former Representative Matt Gaetz dropped his bid for attorney general last month in the face of questions among Senate Republicans about alleged sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old girl and drug use. Gaetz has denied wrongdoing.
Trump’s pick to head the Drug Enforcement Administration, Chad Chronister, dropped his bid on Tuesday after pushback from some Republicans for the Florida sheriff’s actions during the early days of the COVID pandemic.
Trump said on Wednesday on social media of Chronister, “He didn’t pull out. I pulled him out.”
Senator John Thune, who will lead Senate Republicans next year, told reporters he would meet with Hegseth on Wednesday, as would other Senate Republicans.
“He’s going to have an opportunity to address all the questions that have been raised, and there are some hard questions being raised. So he’ll have to answer those,” Thune said.
Hegseth was also set to meet with Ernst, a military veteran and sexual assault survivor, on Wednesday. That talk is seen as key to his prospects, according to a person familiar with the process.
Hegseth also met with Republican Senator Roger Wicker, who is in line to chair the Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Defense Department, next year.
“I don’t see any obstacles that can’t be overcome,” Wicker told reporters afterward.
A wave of media reports has raised questions about Hegseth.
Hegseth has denied allegations made in a police report that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017 at a conference in California. The woman said that while drinking with colleagues, she may have been drugged and was then sexually assaulted by a man she later identified as Hegseth, according to the report.
No charges were filed, and he entered into a private settlement with the alleged victim.
NBC News cited 10 current and former Fox employees in a report on Tuesday that Hegseth’s drinking of alcohol concerned co-workers at the television network, including showing up at work smelling of alcohol and talking about being hung over.
The New York Times last month reported on an email Hegseth’s mother wrote him in 2018 in which she accused him of mistreating women, including lying, cheating, sleeping around and using women for “his own power and ego.”
Hegseth’s mother told the Times in an interview that she had sent Hegseth an immediate follow-up email at the time apologizing for what she had written and that she “disavows the sentiments she had expressed in the initial email about his character and treatment of women.”
On Sunday the New Yorker, citing documents and accounts of former colleagues, reported that Hegseth was forced to step down by the two nonprofit advocacy groups he ran after “serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct.”
The article said Hegseth’s lawyer declined to comment on the claims, which he described as “outlandish.”
Hegseth did not respond to a request for comment sent through the Trump transition office. Trump’s transition team did not respond to a request for comment. A DeSantis representative also did not respond to a request for comment.
A source confirmed that Trump and DeSantis had spoken about the Pentagon job and that DeSantis was considering it.