St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church

Bishop Michael Martin prays with victims of Hurricane Helene while surveying storm damage at Swannanoa, North Carolina, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. / Credit: Diocese of Charlotte

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 14:05 pm (CNA).

Charlotte Bishop Michael Martin recently toured several locations in his diocese ravaged by last month’s Hurricane Helene, offering spiritual and material aid to the “stunned” population working to rebuild after the devastating storm.

Western North Carolina over the last few weeks has been dealing with the aftermath of devastating flooding caused by the remnants of the hurricane, which dumped torrential rain on mountain communities there, leaving serious damage and dozens dead.

Catholic agencies have been mobilizing to help with relief efforts as many major roads remain impassable and residents remain stranded in mountain homes and rural areas.

Immaculata Catholic School in Hendersonville — about half an hour south of Asheville — has become a “distribution center” for aid supplies, with volunteers working around the clock to route critical supplies to those without power and drinking water.

The state government on Tuesday reported that there have been 89 confirmed storm-related deaths in the state, with the number expected to rise in the coming days.

‘The sheer power of the storm’

Martin told CNA that he and diocesan staff recently took a trip to several of the harder-hit areas in the Charlotte Diocese to survey the destruction and offer aid to stricken residents, including in Hendersonville and Swannanoa.

The bishop said he was struck by “the sheer power of the storm.”

“One particular thing we saw spoke volumes,” he said. “We saw large rolls from a warehouse, rolls of carpet, up on a hill. It was just so out of place — how did they get where they are?”

“We turned a corner, drove up a little further, and there was a carpet warehouse. It still had its roof and I-beams and still had the concrete slab, but all the walls were totally ripped away. The concrete slab was completely clear. It had taken every roll of carpet out of the building along with the walls.”

“Imagine how heavy those rolls are, even more so when they’re waterlogged — that’s how powerful the water was,” he said.

The bishop said that “people are stunned” in the wake of the tragedy.

“They’re just stunned,” he said, noting “the stunning nature of, one day everything’s fine, and the next day, your town is gone, and your home is gone.”

Yet Martin noted that the population responded by reaching out and helping each other. He said that many people were fortunate enough not to lose their homes and that “those folks are working at the distribution center,” helping others who had lost more.

It was wonderful “just seeing that community connection,” the bishop said. Also affecting, he said, was how so many people flocked to their churches amid the crisis.

“One of the beautiful things is realizing how people come to their parish as a locus for healing and meaning and to be empowered to go out,” he said.

The bishop said the diocese itself has been “remarkably blessed in that, for the most part, our properties suffered relatively minor damages.” 

“Obviously, there have been downed trees, roof issues,” he said. “But all of them are still standing.” 

“We feel tremendously blessed in that, OK, this we can repair,” he said. “The cost to do that, obviously, is going to be considerable. But we’re more focused on rebuilding the lives of the folks in these communities.” 

The bishop encouraged the faithful to donate to Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte. He said there is a great need for resources, particularly for local undocumented immigrants who may be fearful of approaching official government sources for help.

The bishop noted that others are still suffering from the effects of extreme weather, including Florida, which as of Wednesday was on the verge of being hit by the extremely dangerous Hurricane Milton. “No one has cornered the market on misery,” Martin said. 

Yet “just as God transformed Jesus’ death on the cross into the Resurrection, he transforms our misery into something greater, if we allow his grace to be at work,” the bishop said. 

null / Credit: Billy Hathorn, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 13:35 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has authorized the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to remove a priest from the clerical state after an investigation found he sexually assaulted two children years ago.

Martin Boylan “has been dismissed from the clerical state at the conclusion of a disciplinary process authorized by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) at the Holy See,” the Diocese of Scranton said in a press statement on Tuesday.

Boylan, 76, was removed from priestly ministry in 2016 after he was accused of sexual assault of a minor. The diocese would subsequently receive four more allegations against the priest, all of which were investigated and submitted to the DDF.

The Holy See authorized the Scranton Diocese to adjudicate the matter. The priest was ultimately found guilty of two instances of sexual abuse of a minor. The DDF “reviewed the findings and authorized the Diocese of Scranton to impose the permanent penalty of dismissal from the clerical state on Boylan,” the diocese said.

The priest appealed twice to the Vatican, which in both cases upheld the diocese’s findings.

Scranton Bishop Joseph Bambera said in the release that there is “no place in our Church for such heinous acts.”

“We must ensure that our Church is a safe haven for all, and it is our collective duty to protect, to listen, and to stand against any form of abuse,” the prelate said.

“I ask all people to join me in praying for the victims and their families,” the bishop said. “No one should ever have to endure such trauma, and it is our responsibility to ensure that all survivors are heard, supported, and empowered to heal.”

Boylan, who was ordained in 1980 and served at numerous parishes and schools, was among the priests identified as sexual abusers in the bombshell 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report on sexual abuse in most of the state’s Catholic dioceses. No criminal charges have been filed against him regarding the allegations.

Dismissal from the clerical state is “the most severe penalty that the Catholic Church can impose on a cleric,” the Scranton Diocese noted.

As a laicized priest, Boylan “will never again exercise priestly ministry in any capacity,” the diocese said.

“He may no longer celebrate Mass, hear confessions, or administer any of the Church’s sacraments,” it said. “His relationship with the Diocese of Scranton in any official capacity is now permanently ended.”

Maureen McKinley helps her children through some study exercises in her family's dining room in Phoenix. McKinley and her husband, Matt, home-school their five children and offer the older children a curriculum that includes Latin. / Credit: Jake Kelly

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 12:35 pm (CNA).

Home schooling continues to grow even as the pandemic is no longer a contributing factor, according to a September study that found multiple states reaching all-time-high numbers of home-schooled students.  

The Johns Hopkins School of Education’s Homeschool Research Lab in its 2023-2024 report on home school growth found that 90% of states that shared numbers with the institute reported that home schooling had increased since the previous school year. 

The report, published in September, found that while the total number of students is declining nationwide in part due to declining birth rates, the number of home-schooling students is increasing.

The increase can no longer be attributed to the pandemic, according to researcher Angela Watson. 

“While home schooling grew rapidly during the pandemic, most people thought that students would return to more traditional schools when the pandemic disruptions abated,” Watson wrote. 

“Some states did show a decline, but few have returned to normal, even four years after the onset of the pandemic,” she said. “What we see with the most recent increases in state-reported home school participation is something new — these numbers are not driven by the pandemic.”

Several states reported record-high numbers of home-schoolers in the 2023-2024 school year. North Dakota had a 24% increase in home-schooled students from the prior year, while Rhode Island reported a 67% increase and Wyoming had an 8% increase.

Louisiana, South Carolina, and South Dakota have had continued growth since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Home schooling has grown without interruption in these three states with no “post-pandemic decline.”

Sixteen states had a “rebounding trend,” according to the report. This means that after the pandemic was over, the number of home-schoolers decreased before experiencing a renewed surge in home schooling numbers.

Only two states in the study — New Hampshire and Vermont — reported a decline in the number of home-schooled students in 2023-2024, which in New Hampshire could be attributed to changing methods of categorizing home-schooled students. 

New Hampshire’s state Education Freedom Account (EFA) allows home-schooled students to receive public funding, but students receiving this public funding are not considered part of the total home schooling number, the report noted. 

The program launched in 2021, with the state subsequently reporting a lower number of home-school students than its pre-pandemic count. 

Home schooling models may include microschools, hybrid schools, and home schooling cooperatives, according to the report. Twenty-one states responded to the study and the group is set to publish more data in the coming months, though only 30 states record home schooling participation.

Last October, the Washington Post called home schooling the “fastest-growing form of education” in the United States, with double-digit increases in home school enrollment seen in a majority of U.S. states over roughly the past five years.

“While there is a clear growth trend in home schooling, the reason for that growth is unknown,” Watson noted.

“What is clear is that this time, the growth is not driven by a global pandemic or sudden disruptions to traditional schooling. Something else is driving this growth.”

Adele Brise. / Credit: National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion

CNA Newsroom, Oct 9, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

In early June, the U.S. Catholic bishops voted unanimously to begin the process of officially declaring Adele Brise a saint. Brise, an immigrant from Belgium living in northern Wisconsin, witnessed the first and only approved Marian apparition in the United States in 1859. Today, Oct. 9, is the solemnity of that apparition known as Our Lady of Champion.

In 2022, the Vatican gave its formal stamp of approval to the apparitions Brise witnessed, recognizing the newly named National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wisconsin, as an approved apparition site. 

Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay, who initiated the formal investigation into the apparitions, told CNA at the June bishops’ meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, that the number of pilgrims traveling to the shrine has increased from 10,000 a year to more than 200,000 a year today since the apparitions were approved.

“The Blessed Mother is calling people to come to the shrine to experience the peace there, the simplicity; the basics of the Gospel, the catechism are exposed there,” Ricken said.

Our Lady of Champion was the patroness of the Northern Marian Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which stopped a the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion on June 16 on its way to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

A saint for our times

On Oct. 9, 1859, the Belgian-born Brise reported seeing the first of three apparitions while walking in the woods in Champion, Wisconsin. Brise, who was 28 at the time, said a woman who was dressed in white and wearing a crown of gold stars on her head asked her to pray for the conversion of sinners and teach children about the faith.

Brise immediately set out to visit families within a 50-mile radius of her home to share the Gospel with them and teach them the catechism. They were Belgian immigrants like herself, but unlike Brise, they had lost their faith since coming to America.

“She’s really current for now because we’re facing the same problems — people not knowing the faith, people having fallen away from the Church. She’s a model for us of what it means to be an evangelizing catechist. She’s very pertinent for today as well,” Ricken told CNA in June.

“From the moment of the apparitions, Adele furiously traveled the wild country of northeast Wisconsin teaching children. She would go so far as to do the household chores for the families in exchange for simply having some time to instruct the children,” Ricken said.

Brise went on to gather other women to help her with her mission and establish a schoolhouse and convent. Brise’s father built a chapel at the site of the apparitions, which eventually became a shrine to Our Lady of Good Help. The name was taken from the words the Blessed Mother said to Brise: “I will help you.”

What did the Blessed Mother say to Brise?

After Brise reported seeing the first apparition, her parish priest advised that if she were to appear again she should ask: “In God’s name, who are you and what do you want of me?”

“I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same. You received holy Communion this morning and that is well. But you must do more. Make a general confession and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not convert and do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them,” the apparition said.

According to the shrine’s website, the apparition “gazed kindly” upon Brise and her companions (who could not see her) and said: “Blessed are they that believe without seeing.” Then, looking toward Brise, the Queen of Heaven asked: “What are you doing here in idleness while your companions are working in the vineyard of my Son?”

“What more can I do, dear Lady?” Brise asked, weeping.

“Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.”

“But how shall I teach them who know so little myself?” Brise said.

“Teach them their catechism,” the woman in white replied, “how to sign themselves with the sign of the cross, and how to approach the sacraments; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing; I will help you.”

Possible miracles

In his address to his fellow bishops at the meeting in June, Ricken shared the testimonies of people who said they had received healing thanks to the intercession of Brise.

Candidates for beatification and canonization normally require two miracles attributed to their intercession as well as evidence that they were holy and virtuous.

“As we examine Adele’s life more closely and gather testimonies of people who attest to the life of the growing virtue and possession of Adele, two stories of healing speak out to the most,” Ricken said.

He recounted the story of a woman named Sharon, who while hospitalized for depression saw a vision of a woman she believed to be Brise who gave her the will to live a joyful life of faith.

The second person to testify, a man named John, was diagnosed in 2018 with colorectal cancer, which had metastasized to his lungs. He received what he believes to be a miraculous cure after he prayed for Brise’s intercession.

“‘As of January 2022, I was declared with no evidence of disease, and I have been without cancer detected through my last scans all the way through April 2024,’” Ricken quoted the man’s testimony.

“‘I pray every day, and I’m convinced that my visit to the Champion shrine, my deepening relationship with Mary through Adele, has really blessed me,’” the bishop quoted John as saying.

Following a couple of days of prayer events and festivities, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion is celebrating the solemnity of Our Lady today, Oct. 9, with a Mass, rosary procession, adoration, and other prayer opportunities for those gathered to celebrate the solemnity.

This article was originally published on June 14, 2024, and has been updated.

Our Lady of Champion statue at the national shrine in Champion, Wisconsin. / Credit: EWTN

National Catholic Register, Oct 9, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

A new film called “Return to Our Lady of Champion” will premiere on EWTN on the day the national shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Champion celebrates the second annual solemnity of Our Lady of Champion — Oct. 9. The documentary focuses on three bishops most responsible for bringing the shrine to national attention.

The film follows Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin; Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh; and Bishop John Doerfler of Marquette, Michigan, as they return to the shrine to discuss their part in the events leading up to Our Lady of Champion being declared the only approved Marian apparition in the United States and this shrine being raised to national status.

In the film, the bishops also share their own Marian stories, highlighting how their devotion to Our Lady began in their youth and how that devotion eventually tied into their roles as these events progressed. In the film, viewers hear firsthand the bishops’ vivid memories.

“I have to say there’s no question in my mind that this is an act of divine providence,” Zubik said, recounting his own introduction to this holy ground in Champion and learning about the three apparitions of Our Lady to Adele Brise in 1859.

Neither Zubik (who shepherded the Diocese of Green Bay from 2003 to 2007) nor Ricken had ever heard about the apparitions in Champion before they were appointed to head the Green Bay Diocese.

“I say to people, even today, the Queen of Heaven touched down right here — not quite fully — but she touched down right here. She loved us so much,” Ricken said.

When he arrived in the diocese in 2008, he immediately wanted to learn all about the shrine. In the film, he recalls those early days, learning about Brise, the “seer” of Our Lady of Champion, and the area, and seeing the providential connections, such as the name of this Dairy State town being the same name as Brise’s hometown of Champion, Belgium. “So there’s a lot to study here, a lot to get to know,” he said.

“It’s just a beautiful tapestry, a Mary tapestry, to see what she does,” Ricken emphasized. This includes how the lives and devotions of the bishops played into the whole process of bringing the devotion and the shrine to prominence. Their personal stories of how they came to love Mary were part of their personal preparation, not realized at the time, for when they arrived here. Ricken shares a heartwarming example: how, as a young child, he learned of Mary and the rosary from his mother — and how that all became part of overcoming asthma attacks.

As close-up listeners to the conversation of the three bishops, viewers hear their thoughts about Brise’s simplicity and call to teach the faith. Highlights of these segments include shots of the apparition chapel and the shrine grounds. 

The bishops also speak clearly and conversationally about the theology of Marian apparitions. 

“It was the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the nudging of Our Lady that moved me in the direction to say we should take a look at this a little further,” Zubik noted. He then recalled giving then-Father Doerfler, who was his chancellor and vicar general at the time, the task of researching the apparitions. Later, Doerfler also became rector at the shrine for two years when it was first known as the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.

When Ricken arrived, the approval process ramped up. 

“What a wonderful gift this is as a bishop to be able to walk into a place where Our Lady appeared,” he said joyfully. He also recounts some of the stories of answered prayers and healings from people he encountered during visits to the shrine. “I like to listen to people,” he said.

Following are his recollections about the steps to declaring these authentic apparitions and establishing the national shrine.

Viewers learn from the bishops’ conversations fascinating personal connections between them and these Marian appearances.

For example, Ricken shared that he attended seminary at the American College in Louvain, Belgium. He discovered it “was only 11 kilometers [7 miles] from Champion, Adele’s hometown, where she was going to join the convent. I thought, ‘Well, that’s a strange coincidence.’ And so I understood something of the Belgian culture by my three years there and studying the faith of the people there and understanding what their approach was. Then I could start to see maybe I was chosen because of that background,” he recalled.

In Wisconsin “this town is named after Champion [Belgium], which is where Adele made her promises,” Ricken added. “And she felt she lived out her promises here in this place in Champion, Wisconsin.”

The bishops also discuss the “heavenly peace,” as pilgrims describe it, found at the shrine. Some beautiful insights on Jesus and Mary healing divided hearts are also presented.

Doerfler observed that the “answer to so many divisions we’re experiencing is a return to the Lord, and … this is what Mary wants. She wants to bring people to her Son, to heal the divided human heart.”

Ricken shared how he goes to the apparition room, which contains a chapel, and tells “the Blessed Mother this, this, this, this. … I’m kneeling there before the statue, and she just looks at you — I’ve had experiences where those eyes seem alive, and a lot of people do. … She always centers you back on, ‘Follow me. Follow me as I lead you to peace. Follow me.’ That’s what Jesus said, ‘Follow me. I’m the giver of peace. Come to the Giver.’ We work here. We’re at her service. So when she tells us she wants this, we’ll do it. The future is in her hands. We don’t know how to do it [but] we’ll take a step of faith and do it.”

The other bishops also discuss the poignant moments of prayer while walking the perimeter of the property praying the rosary, as Brise and other local faithful did during the Peshtigo fire in 1871.

The engrossing and enlightening conversation of this trio of bishops closest to the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion draws viewers ever closer to the shrine and to our Blessed Mother, who reminded the faithful in rural Wisconsin: “Go and fear nothing; I will help you.”

WATCH

“Return to Our Lady of Champion” will premiere on EWTN on Oct. 9 at 10 p.m. ET.

VISIT

Here is the schedule of events for the solemnity at Our Lady of Champion Shrine, Oct. 7–9.

This article was first published by the National Catholic Register on Oct. 8, 2024, and has been adapted by CNA.

U.S. Supreme Court. / Credit: PT Hamilton/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Oct 8, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

A charter school in Oklahoma is aiming to be the first publicly-funded religious charter school in the United States after it appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday after lower courts ruled against it this summer.

St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School and Oklahoma’s charter school board filed separate petitions Oct. 7 with the Supreme Court after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled last summer that the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board could not authorize a charter with a Catholic school.

The court in its ruling said that extending public funding to a religious school would be a “slippery slope” that could lead to “the destruction of Oklahomans’ freedom to practice religion without fear of governmental intervention.”

The court subsequently ordered the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to rescind the school’s contract.

St. Isidore petitioned the Supreme Court to review the Oklahoma decision on the basis of Supreme Court precedent and the free exercise clause of the First Amendment on Monday. The school was represented by the Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic of Notre Dame Law School, a teaching law practice that trains Notre Dame law students.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a legal nonprofit that defends First Amendment rights, filed a petition the same day on behalf of the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board.

In the Oct. 7 petition, ADF argued that the Oklahoma Supreme Court had ruled contrary to the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court, which “has repeatedly struck down states’ attempts to exclude religious schools, parents, and students from publicly available benefits based solely on their religion.”

For instance, a 2022 Supreme Court ruling found that Maine couldn’t exclude religious schools from a tuition aid program because it violates the free exercise clause.

Michael Scaperlanda, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and chairman of the board of St. Isidore, said that a mission of Catholic education “is to serve the whole community by building new learning opportunities so that every child can thrive in a school that suits her own needs.”

“Too many children in our state don’t have that chance,” Scaperlanda said in an Oct. 7 statement. “We want to help solve that problem by opening a school for children who find the available options unable to meet their needs and who lack the resources to consider other choices.”

Oklahoma ranked 49th in education in the U.S. in 2024, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, with 84% of its eighth graders testing “not proficient” in math and 76% of its fourth graders “not proficient” in reading.

“Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more choices, not fewer. There’s great irony in state officials who claim to be in favor of religious liberty discriminating against St. Isidore because of its Catholic beliefs,” ADF senior counsel Phil Sechler said in an Oct. 7 statement. “The U.S. Constitution protects St. Isidore’s freedom to operate according to its faith and supports the board’s decision to approve such learning options for Oklahoma families.”

Sechler said the case is about “bolster[ing] religious freedom across Oklahoma.”

null / Credit: ivanko80/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 8, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

A group of 10 scientists is suing the publisher that retracted their studies showing the health risks associated with abortion drugs.

The suit against Sage Publications, filed on Oct. 3 in the Superior Court for Ventura County, California, alleges that the researchers’ studies were retracted simply because of the scientists’ pro-life views.

At the center of the lawsuit are three studies that Sage published in the scientific journal Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology (HSRME) in 2019, 2021, and 2022.

One of the articles was cited heavily in the recent Supreme Court case AHM v. FDA in which a coalition of doctors from the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and several other groups sought to compel the FDA to revoke its approval of the abortion drug mifepristone because of its associated dangers to women’s health and well-being.

The scientists argue that while their studies were peer-reviewed and had previously been praised for their academic rigor, the publisher retracted them in bad faith for political reasons.

The scientists are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom and Consovoy McCarthy PLLC.

What did the chemical abortion study say?

The 2021 study cited in AHM v. FDA said that emergency room visits “are at greater risk to occur following a chemical rather than a surgical abortion.”

It showed that in a study cohort of 423,000 women undergoing chemical abortions between 1999 and 2015, there were 121,283 subsequent emergency room visits occurring within 30 days of the procedure.

The study concluded that “the incidence and per-abortion rate of ER visits following any induced [chemical] abortion are growing, but chemical abortion is consistently and progressively associated with more postabortion ER visit morbidity than surgical abortion.”

The study also said that there is a “distinct trend of a growing number of women miscoded as receiving treatment for spontaneous abortion in the ER following a chemical abortion.”

Why were the studies retracted?

As AHM v. FDA was working its way through the courts in 2023, Chris Adkins, a professor at the South University School of Pharmacy in Savannah, Georgia, submitted a concern to Sage in which he accused the scientists associated with the three studies of exaggerating their findings and misrepresenting the data in ways that were “grossly misleading.”

States Newsroom, which first reported on Adkins’ accusations, reported him saying of the researchers: “I can’t prove that there was intent to deceive, but I struggled to find an alternative reason to present your data in such a way that exaggerates the magnitude.”

States Newsroom also reported that Adkins was worried about the legal status of abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

“I now have a daughter that is born in a world where there is no Roe v. Wade, no federal recognition that women have the right of bodily autonomy,” Adkins said, adding: “I’m going to support her in whatever way I can.” 

After learning of Adkins’ concerns Sage discovered that all but one of the article’s authors had an affiliation with one or more of the pro-life organizations the Charlotte Lozier Institute, Elliot Institute, and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Sage claimed that this presented a conflict of interest regarding the studies concerning abortion.

Sage also conducted a post-publication peer review in which they claimed to have identified “fundamental problems with the study design and methodology, unjustified or incorrect factual assumptions, material errors in the authors’ analysis of the data, and misleading presentations of the data.”

Sage concluded that the studies demonstrated a “lack of scientific rigor” that “invalidate[s] the authors’ conclusions in whole or in part.”

Scientists respond

In their lawsuit, the studies’ authors claim that they “complied with all submission guidelines and all requirements in Sage’s publishing agreements.”

The suit said that “following each submission, HSRME conducted a double-blind peer review of each article, which Sage claims is thorough and rigorous” and that “after peer review, HSRME accepted all three articles for publication.”

According to the suit, the authors’ attempts to respond to the accusations and to prove the scientific validity of their studies were rebuffed and ignored by Sage.

In addition to retracting the studies, the lead researcher associated with the articles, Dr. James Studnicki, was removed from the board of the HSRME without any prior notice and with no explanation other than his association with the retracted articles.

The researchers allege that Sage intentionally sought to discredit them and ruin their reputations because of their pro-life views.

“Sage’s wrongdoing,” the suit states, “has been causing enormous and incalculable harm to the authors’ professional reputations, as Sage intended.”

Phil Sechler, a senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement announcing the suit that “politics should never sway science, especially when that science is vital for saving and protecting lives.”

“Sage punished these highly respected and credentialed scientists simply because they believe in preserving life from conception to natural death,” he continued. “These actions have caused irreparable harm to the authors of these articles, and we are urging Sage to come to the arbitration table — as it is legally bound to do — rescind the retractions, and remedy the reputational damage the researchers have suffered at the hands of abortion lobbyists.”

The statue of the patron saint of St. Francis de Sales Parish in Sherman Oaks has been vandalized three times total in September and August. The vandalism in the photograph is being investigated as a “hate crime” by local police, according to the church's pastor. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Michael Wakefield

CNA Staff, Oct 8, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

A Los Angeles Catholic church has been vandalized four times in the past two months.  

St. Francis de Sales in Sherman Oaks was damaged from graffiti and arson attacks on four occasions, beginning in August and continuing through September, said Father Michael Wakefield, the parish’s pastor. 

On Aug. 7, the parish’s beloved statue of St. Francis de Sales — the patron saint of the parish — was vandalized with yellow paint. The statue stands in front of the main doors of the church in the San Fernando Valley. 

Just over a week later, on Aug. 16, a window at the rectory where Wakefield lives was set on fire. The bottom-right corner of the window was set on fire, and the fire burned through the inside, scorching the interior venetian blinds, Wakefield recounted. 

“Fortunately, the fire burned out before any additional damage was caused,” he told CNA. 

Just over a month later, on Sept. 20, the St. Francis de Sales statue was vandalized a second time. “The ... letters ‘chomo’ are slang for ‘child molester,’” Wakefield explained. This vandalism is being treated as a “hate crime” by local police, he said.

A week later, on Sept. 8, the statue was vandalized a third time with black spray paint, though nothing was written on it. 

“Our maintenance person has cleaned the statue twice and is in the process of cleaning it a third time,” Wakefield said.

Wakefield notified the LAPD Van Nuys Division each time and said the parish plans to install additional security cameras this week. 

“Officers arrived and took my statement and completed a report leaving us the incident number,” he said. “The fire of the rectory window triggered a visit from the police officers as well as arson investigators.”  

“It is dispiriting and unnerving,” Wakefield said when asked for his reaction to the events. “Our churches are places of peace where God’s love is proclaimed.”

“I feel sad for the person or persons who are in such torment to do such acts,” he continued. “Our religious images, whether in marble or plaster or wood, point to the holy person each represents. Therefore an attack on a religious image is an act of desecration.” 

“But, we go forward confident of the intercession of the all-holy Mother of God and of St. Francis de Sales,” he noted. “God’s love is always more powerful than anything the human can produce.”  

A local report noted that there have been many cases of vandalism in the area in recent months, including arson, window-smashing, and break-ins at local businesses, according to KTLA 5.

The City of Los Angeles Public Record Reports did not respond to a request for police reports by the time of publication. 

Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, speaks at the “Responding to Changing Realities at the U.S. Border and Beyond” conference, hosted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and The Catholic University of America. / Credit: Photo courtesy of The Catholic University of America

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 8, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The U.S. bishops issued a statement praising the Biden administration’s decision last week to expand the U.S. refugee resettlement program and commended the role of Catholic organizations in partnering with the government to resettle refugees.

President Joe Biden signed the Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2025 on Sept. 30, setting the refugee admissions target at 125,000. This comes after the administration has made several changes and expansions to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and resettled over 100,000 refugees into the U.S. in 2023, the highest number since 1994.

A “refugee” is defined under U.S. law as a person who is “unable or unwilling” to return to his or her country because of “persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is one of 10 “national resettlement agencies” that partner with USRAP to take in and assist these refugees.

The bishops said that dioceses and local Catholic Charities agencies “play an essential role in helping refugees to integrate successfully into their new communities.”

Bishop Mark Seitz, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Migration Committee, applauded Catholic organizations’ contributions to the refugee resettlement program, saying that “from lifesaving protection for refugee families to the economic renewal they offer receiving communities, this is part of what it means to ‘love thy neighbor.’”

“My brother bishops and I could not be more grateful for the witness of faithful Catholics across our country who have, for many decades now, committed themselves to accompanying refugees as a visible sign of Christ’s love in the world.”

Seitz thanked the Biden administration for its efforts to “reassert and grow our nation’s proud tradition of welcoming refugees” as well as the “bipartisan support of Congress,” which he said “has played a vital role in the success of the resettlement program since its inception.”

“Resettling 100,000 refugees is a significant achievement, given the all-time low number seen in 2021 and some of the challenges facing American communities at this time, including a nationwide shortage of affordable housing,” Seitz said. “Guided by the Gospel and faithful to our national values, the U.S. Catholic community will continue doing its part to carry this endeavor forward.”

After being established through the bipartisan Refugee Act of 1980, USRAP has generally enjoyed wide support across the political spectrum.

While he has been sharply critical of many of the Biden administration’s immigration policies, Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and policy expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, told CNA that “of all the things that the Biden-Harris administration is doing to facilitate the entry of people who don’t have visas to come to the United States, this is far and away the least objectionable.”

He said that though 125,000 is “high compared to prior years” it is still “well within” the limits set by the law.

Arthur emphasized that the refugee resettlement program differs greatly from the U.S. asylum system.

“We know from past experience that individuals who make asylum claims generally never follow through on them,” he said. “But when you’re talking about refugees, those are individuals who have already been adjudicated. They’ve already been determined to be refugees before they’re brought here. They’ve already been vetted abroad before they come here. So, the danger that they pose to national security is lower; it’s not zero, but it is lower.”

The Supreme Court of the state of Georgia is housed at the Nathan Deal Judicial Center in Atlanta. / Credit: Harrison Keely, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 19:15 pm (CNA).

The Georgia Supreme Court reinstated on Monday the state’s heartbeat law, a six-week limit on abortion known as the “LIFE Act,” after a trial court judge overturned it last week. 

The state Supreme Court in a 6 to 1 majority reinstated the heartbeat law pending ongoing litigation surrounding the law. Last week, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr requested a stay of the rule blocking the heartbeat law, pending appeal.

A six-week abortion limit is often called a heartbeat law, named because it protects unborn babies after fetal cardiac activity is detectable. The order went into effect at 5 p.m. on Oct. 7 in Georgia, protecting unborn babies if they have a detectable heartbeat. 

Claire Bartlett, executive director of the pro-life advocacy group Georgia Life Alliance, told CNA that she expects the Georgia Supreme Court “to fully uphold the LIFE Act.”

“From the very beginning, the LIFE Act sought to strike a careful balance of recognizing the difficult circumstances women find themselves in with the basic right to life of a unique, living unborn child,” Bartlett said. 

A trial court ruling on Sept. 30 overturned the heartbeat law on the grounds of liberty and privacy in the Georgia Constitution. 

Carr promptly appealed the decision in a legal motion on Wednesday, saying in the motion that “there is nothing legally private about ending the life of an unborn child.” Carr filed the emergency petition for supersedeas in the ongoing case, The State of Georgia v. SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. The state Supreme Court is reinstating the law as the appeal is ongoing. 

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled last week that the state’s constitutional right to liberty included decisions about abortion. 

In a 26-page ruling, McBurney said the six-week law and any pre-viability abortion restrictions are arbitrary and unconstitutional. He said the state could only restrict abortion after viability — usually at about 23 or 24 weeks. Any restrictions before that violate a women’s right to liberty and privacy, McBurney said.

The definition of liberty, he wrote, includes “the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her health care choices.”

“When Judge McBurney issued his opinion and order last Friday, his ruling was not based in reality, much less law,” Bartlett said.

The Georgia Catholic bishops of Savannah and Atlanta called the heartbeat law’s overturn a “terrible step backwards” in a statement shared with CNA last week. 

“Yesterday’s ruling to overturn Georgia’s abortion ban represents a terrible step backwards in our never-ending efforts to recognize and respect the inherent dignity of every life,” the bishops said in a joint statement. “How many tiny lives will be extinguished while lawyers appeal and lawmakers debate?”

The Archdiocese of Atlanta declined to comment further but noted in a statement last week that it “remain[s] committed to helping mothers and fathers facing crisis pregnancies as well as their precious babies.”

“We will advocate for laws to protect those in the margins. We can foster a culture of life in our families and communities. We can demonstrate how sacred each life is in the eyes of God,” the bishops said. 

In the state Supreme Court dissenting opinion, Justice John Ellington argued that “the state should not be in the business of enforcing laws that have been determined to violate fundamental rights guaranteed to millions of individuals under the Georgia Constitution.”

The Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act was initially passed in 2019, but McBurney blocked it, citing Roe v. Wade. After Roe v. Wade’s overturn, the Georgia Supreme Court overruled the decision, allowing the law to take effect in 2022. 

False claims about Georgia abortion law

The Georgia abortion law recently came under fire from Democrat presidential candidate and current vice president Kamala Harris, who promulgated a false claim that the Georgia abortion law had caused the death of two women, Amber Thurman, 28, and Candi Miller, 41.

The left-leaning news outlet ProPublica published several stories blaming the LIFE Act for their deaths. The two women died from infections caused by complications after taking abortion pills. 

The deaths of Thurman and Miller were “tragic,” Bartlett noted, and Georgia law was not to blame.

“In the case of Amber Thurman, her twin babies had already died due to the abortion pills she obtained out of state. She did not have pre- or post-medical care until she became fatally infected,” she said. “Her sad and tragic death had everything to do with lack of proper medical attention, not Georgia’s law.” 

“In the case of Candi Miller, medical protections had been removed by the Biden-Harris administration in their effort to proliferate abortion pill access,” Bartlett continued, noting that Miller had ordered the pills “online from an overseas provider.” 

In response to the dangers surrounding chemical abortions, Bartlett said that “we have a responsibility to pass protective legislation such as the Women’s Health and Safety Act, which restores the protections the Biden-Harris administration removed.” 

These protections, she said, include “requiring a woman to see a medical provider in person for a complete medical history and a physical assessment to determine any risks” as well as requiring that abortions “only be performed by licensed physicians.” 

“We take a ‘Love Them Both’ approach” to these issues, Bartlett said. 

Bartlett noted that the LIFE Act “is a careful balance of protecting the basic human rights of an unborn child while meeting society where it is culturally.”

“The law protects the child once his or her heartbeat is detectable, which can be as early as four and a half weeks. The law protects the woman by offering exceptions for life of the mother’s medical emergency, rape, incest, or if the unborn child is deemed ‘incompatible with life,’” she said. “Under no circumstance under the law is treatment for a miscarriage, stillbirth, or ectopic pregnancy considered an abortion.”