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Catholic organizations host seminars on disability and inclusion in the Catholic Church 

Pope Francis meets on April 29, 2023, with children and adults who are visually impaired and have other disabilities at a Catholic institute in Budapest, Hungary, dedicated to Blessed László Batthyány-Strattmann. / Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Mar 13, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life and the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD) are together hosting six online seminars in March and April to help develop pastoral guidance regarding the experiences and needs of persons with disabilities.

The online series, “In Communion: Advancing the Full Participation of Persons with Disabilities in the Church,” launched on March 7. Each seminar highlights a different angle on communion and participation and features three to four speakers.

The seminars were launched in light of an upcoming pastoral statement on disability and inclusion in the Church that was announced in June of last year. The USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, headed by Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, will lead the drafting process.

Charleen Katra, executive director of NCPD, said that one of the central needs of the Church right now is “removal of barriers to access: from properties, liturgies, faith formation, and schools.”

“The gifts of persons living with disabilities are vast. When fully included in faith communities the entire community flourishes in the most surprising ways — much like in families,” she told CNA in an email. 

“Another need is for the Church to extend to persons with disabilities and their families our best efforts to support their spiritual journey and affirm their Catholic identity,” she said. 

“We are called to accompany all the faithful in sharing their challenges and blessings experienced in the body of Christ,” she continued. “We need persons with disabilities to slow us down and to see the world in another way. Calling each of us to be a better person: more patient, empathetic, and loving.”

“Through these seminars, we hope to help Church leadership understand that when persons with disabilities are welcomed — and invited to participate in all aspects of Church life — the body of Christ is more complete,” Katra said in a March 6 press release.

The University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life and the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD) have partnered to offer six online seminars in March and April to help develop pastoral guidance regarding the experiences and needs of persons with disabilities. Credit: Courtesy of McGrath Institute for Church Life
The University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life and the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD) have partnered to offer six online seminars in March and April to help develop pastoral guidance regarding the experiences and needs of persons with disabilities. Credit: Courtesy of McGrath Institute for Church Life

Each webinar is hosted by “a cross-disciplinary group of experts, including people with disabilities, theologians, clergy, laypeople, and professionals in the field,” the press release noted. 

“The content of these educational seminars is designed to communicate foundational and aspirational ideas that will be of special benefit to the committee members drafting the new statement, who we expect will want to attend the seminars or watch the archived footage,” Katra told CNA. 

“The needs and realities of the disability community vary from person to person,” she noted. “Hence, we intend to raise awareness and discuss as many lenses as possible via instructional content, panel discussions, case studies, and more.” 

Katra said the first seminar had “impressively high” attendance.

Clare Kilbane, the director of research and development for McGrath’s Digital Education Program, said in a press release that one important goal is to help leaders understand how “to welcome Church members who experience disability more fully into the life of the Church.” 

“We will look at how … the Church can welcome all members into greater communion and sharing of divine love, and each individual into a deeper relationship with God,” Kilbane said.

“We also plan to explore how methods of inclusion and intentional efforts to promote belonging can transform opportunities for relationship and faith development for all,” she added. 

Kilbane noted that the seminar is geared toward helping the authors of the pastoral letter engage with the experiences of people with disabilities as well as an appreciation for the gifts they have to offer.

The U.S. bishops have offered guidance in the past on inviting persons with disabilities into the Church, building off a foundational pastoral statement published in 1978.

The webinar will conclude with a presentation from Bishop Barron on April 25. 

When asked how individual parishes and communities can be more supportive of persons with disabilities, Katra emphasized the importance of “increased awareness of the needs of persons with disabilities and an appreciation for their gifts.” 

“Seek out training, which is now more readily available than ever, to become better equipped to respond proactively to all persons who desire growth in their faith and to be in communion with the Church,” she suggested. “Take an assessment of parish properties for accessibility. Raise awareness of issues and needs regarding autism and mental health, etc., via prayers of the faithful, in homilies, registration forms, and so on. Consider inviting a person with a disability to serve on a parish committee — faith formation, school, finance, or pastoral council to see your community through new eyes!”

The free online seminars began on March 7 and will continue on March 14 and 21, and April 11, 18, and 25, and are available to the public. To view the schedule or register, visit here

For more background on the USCCB’s 1978 pastoral statement, view the March 7 seminar here.

More human embryos destroyed through IVF than abortion every year

null / Credit: Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 13, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

An Alabama Supreme Court ruling that recognized the personhood of embryonic life sparked a nationwide debate about in vitro fertilization (IVF) over the last three weeks — but some people might be unaware that the industry’s death toll for preborn life is likely higher than that of abortion.

IVF is a fertility treatment in which doctors extract eggs from the woman and fertilize the eggs with sperm to create human embryos in a laboratory without a sexual act. IVF can cost the couple between $20,000 and $30,000 for a single treatment.

Because IVF treatments have a low success rate — about 50% for women under the age of 35 but significantly lower as women get older — clinics create far more human embryos than they intend to bring to term. Although this is meant to maximize the chance of the woman bearing one healthy child, it has also resulted in killing or indefinitely freezing millions of excess embryos.

IVF clinics do not report the exact number of embryos that are killed in their care, but clinics normally extract between 10 and 15 eggs for one treatment. According to the IVF clinic chain Illume Fertility, if the clinic extracts 12 eggs, about 80% — nine or 10 eggs — will be viable and about 80% of viable eggs will successfully fertilize to create embryos — making about seven or eight embryos per patient.

The CDC estimates that more than 238,000 patients attempted IVF in 2021. If clinics created between seven and eight embryos for every patient, that would yield about 1.6 million to 1.9 million over a year. Despite these high numbers, fewer than 100,000 embryos were brought to term, which suggests that somewhere between 1.5 million and 1.8 million embryos created through IVF were never born.

Alternatively, the abortion industry claimed about 985,000 lives from July 2022 through June 2023 — suggesting that the IVF industry could be ending nearly twice as many human lives every year.

Patients can freeze excess embryos for future use or adoption by other couples — but freezing the embryos can cost the couple thousands of additional dollars. Even when they are frozen, most end up abandoned. From 2004 to 2019, there were fewer than 8,500 live births from donated embryos. The United States has permitted IVF treatments since the early 1980s and estimates suggest there are between several hundred thousand and 1.5 million embryos currently frozen.

The substantial majority of embryos were either intentionally killed or died at some point in the IVF process.

Intentional and unintentional embryo deaths

When clinics determine which embryos get to live and which are assigned to death, the clinics perform tests to “screen out genetic diseases that the couple wants to ensure the embryo doesn’t have,” Melissa Moschella, a professor of medical ethics at The Catholic University of America, told CNA.

After those tests, the embryos are “graded in accordance with their quality,” she said. “Those that are deemed healthiest are the ones that are chosen for initial implantation.”

Joseph Meaney, the president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told CNA that when clinics detect “genetic anomalies or other health conditions,” those embryos are “immediately taken aside and killed.”

“Essentially what they’re trying to do is sell a product … [and] anything other than [a healthy baby] — they are eliminated [through] a quality control process,” Meaney said. 

But embryonic testing and grading is not the only step in which embryos die, according to Meaney: “Some of them die in the thawing process” and “some of them fail to implant.” 

Even after implantation, Meaney noted that women have a “higher miscarriage rate than average with IVF babies.” In the case of successful implantation — if there are more preborn children than the mother wants to give birth to, the least healthy ones in the womb are aborted through a process called “selective reduction,” he noted. 

“At every stage in the process, there’s a mortality rate,” Meaney said.

Embryos that survive the testing, grading, and thawing process but are not chosen for implantation are normally discarded, which ends a human life. Some are donated for scientific research and suffer the same fate. Even if they are frozen, Meaney said they “are basically orphans there” and “they’re essentially abandoned in cold storage.”

Politicians treat IVF differently than abortion

Despite the exorbitant destruction of human life integral to the IVF process, the public and its elected officials treat the subject very differently than they do the deaths caused by abortion.

After the Alabama Supreme Court ruling, which forced some IVF clinics to suspend services, the court received backlash from Democrats and Republicans. In Alabama, the Republican-led legislature adopted a law to shield IVF clinics from civil or criminal liability, which self-identified pro-life Gov. Kay Ivey immediately signed. Ivey and other Republicans who supported the bill claimed that protecting IVF is pro-life.

Michael New, a professor of social research at The Catholic University of America and pro-life activist, told CNA that IVF is “a thorny issue for us politically.” He said that no one could get elected on banning IVF, but “if you can’t ban something … [at least] stop promoting it.”

“It’s wrong to create embryos without the intent of seeing to it they’re carried to term,” New said. 

Moschella also recognized the uphill political battle. “It can be difficult to see the harms of IVF because the harms are inflicted on very tiny human beings,” she said, adding that anyone who respects the right to life should at least “prevent the creation of spare embryos beyond the number that is safe to implant.” 

“Embryos created through IVF should receive the same protections as any human beings — mainly protection from assault [and] protection from intentional killing or destruction,” Moschella said. 

Meaney echoed the same sentiment, saying a preborn life created through IVF is just as valuable as one conceived naturally: “No matter how it’s done … that individual is a member of our species [and] is a new human being.” 

“Our human nature comes to us from our DNA,” and “the beginning of that process happens at conception — at fertilization,” he said.

The Catholic Church opposes IVF because it separates the marriage act from procreation and destroys embryonic human life. Acknowledging the advances in science available today to those seeking help having children, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops warns Catholics on its website of the ethical issues involved.

“The many techniques now used to overcome infertility also have profound moral implications, and couples should be aware of these before making decisions about their use,” the guidance reads.

Saints are not 'exceptions,' but examples of humanity's virtue, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The saints are not unreachable "exceptions of humanity" but ordinary people who worked diligently to grow in virtue, Pope Francis said.

It is wrong to think of the saints as "a kind of small circle of champions who live beyond the limits of our species," the pope wrote in the catechesis for his general audience March 13 in St. Peter's Square. Instead, they are "those who fully become themselves, who realize the vocation of every person."

Pope Francis rides the popemobile in St. Peter's Square.
Pope Francis rides in the popemobile after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican March 13, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

"How happy would be a world in which justice, respect, mutual respect, the breadth of the spirit (and) hope were the shared norm and not a rare anomaly," he wrote.

Just like at his general audience March 6, Pope Francis told visitors in the square that due to a mild cold an aide, Msgr. Pierluigi Giroli, would read his speech. However the pope had seemed recovered when he read the entirety of his homily -- adding plenty of off-the-cuff remarks and soliciting engagement from the crowd-- during a Lenten penance service in a Rome parish March 8.

Continuing his series of catechesis on virtues and vices, the pope wrote that a virtuous person is not one who allows him- or herself to become distorted but "is faithful to his or her own vocation and fully realizes his or herself."

Pope Francis speaks during his general audience.
Pope Francis speaks to visitors in St. Peter’s Square during his weekly general audience at the Vatican March 13, 2024. An aide read his main speech due to the pope's persisting cold symptoms. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

Reflecting on the nature of virtue, which has been discussed and analyzed since ancient times, the pope said that virtue is not an "improvised" and "casual" good exercised from time to time. Even criminals, he noted, have performed good acts in certain moments. Virtue is rather a "good that is born from a person's slow maturation until it becomes his or her inner characteristic," he wrote.

"Virtue is a 'habitus' (expression) of freedom," the pope wrote. "If we are free in every act, and each time we are called to choose between good and evil, virtue is that which allows us to have a habit toward the right choice."

He encouraged people not to forget the lesson taught by ancient thinkers, "that virtue grows and can be cultivated," and wrote that for Christians developing virtue depends primarily on the grace of God.

Pope Francis greets a child.
Pope Francis greets a child while riding in the popemobile before his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican March 13, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

By developing open-mindedness, good will and the wisdom to learn from mistakes, he wrote, people can be guided toward a virtuous life in the face of the "chaotic forces" of passion, emotion and instinct to which humanity is susceptible.

Taking the microphone to greet pilgrims at the end of his audience, Pope Francis shared that he had been given a rosary and a Bible that belonged to a young soldier killed in combat, though he did not specify in which conflict.

"So many young people, so many young people go to die," he said. "Let us pray to the Lord so that he may give us the grace to overcome this madness of war which is always a defeat."

Pope: Pray for an end to madness of war

Pope: Pray for an end to madness of war

Pope Francis reflects on the concept and nature of virtue during his general audience.

With ascent of conservatives in Portugal, prominent Catholic calls for dialogue

Chega leader Andre Ventura addresses supporters at Marriot Hotel, where the party holds the election night event, in Lisbon, Portugal, on March 10, 2024. / Credit: ANDRE DIAS NOBRE/AFP via Getty Images

ACI Digital, Mar 12, 2024 / 19:00 pm (CNA).

The conservative party Chega (“Enough”), which ran on a traditional values platform, made huge gains, increasing its seats from 12 to 48.

England’s National Health Service ends puberty blockers for kids

null / Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 12, 2024 / 18:25 pm (CNA).

“There is not enough evidence of safety and clinical effectiveness,” reads the NHS England website’s section on “treatment” for gender dysphoria.

State attorneys general threaten lawsuit over Maine abortion, transgender bill

The Maine State House in Augusta. / Credit: Wangkun Jia/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Mar 12, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

Over a dozen state attorneys general are threatening a possible lawsuit over a bill in the Maine Legislature that extends legal protections to out-of-state residents seeking transgender-related medical procedures.

The March 11 letter, signed by 16 attorneys general, argues that Maine’s LD 227 would “contravene the lawful policy choices of our states’ citizens” by “imposing on the rest of the country Maine’s views on hotly debated issues such as gender transition surgeries for children.”

The proposed measure, if passed, would offer legal protection to out-of-state individuals who seek transgender procedures in Maine. The measure would also extend legal protections to ”reproductive health care services.” 

State legislatures around the country have in recent months moved to limit or prohibit both abortion and transgender-related medical services.

In their letter, the prosecutors wrote that the bill “purports to shield from liability those offering or aiding the provision of unlawful services to citizens located in our states.”

They also argued that the bill “purports to block valid orders and judgments from our state courts enforcing laws upheld by federal appellate courts.”

State Rep. Anne Perry, who first put forth the bill in the Maine House of Representatives, clarified to CNA on Tuesday that under the proposal, “a provider cannot travel to another state to provide services that are legal in Maine but not in another state.”

“A provider working in another state must follow that state’s laws,” she said. “This bill only covers services that occur in Maine when both the provider and patient are physically in Maine and subject to Maine law.”

The bill would further allow state residents to “bring a civil action in [Maine]” against out-of-state individuals who seek “civil, criminal, or administrative” actions against Maine residents over “protected health care activity.”  

The attorneys general in their letter argued that the measure “creates a private right of action for damages against law enforcement, prosecutors, and other officials in our states who are enforcing our own valid state laws.” 

The proposal’s “ill-considered attempt to influence and intimidate officials in other states could also trigger a rapid tit-for-tat escalation that tears apart our republic,” the attorneys general wrote, arguing that under the Maine law officials in other states “would be dragged into legal battles in far-flung jurisdictions, thwarting their ability to focus on protecting their own citizens consistent with their own duly-enacted laws.”

“Maine has every right to decide what Maine’s laws are and how those laws should be enforced. But that same right applies to every state,” the letter states. 

The prosecutors said they would “vigorously avail ourselves of every recourse our Constitution provides” if the measure ultimately becomes law.

Meet the young Catholic pilgrims who will walk thousands of miles with the Eucharist this summer

From left to right, Matthew Heidenreich, Amayrani Higueldo Sanchez, and Charlie McCullough. / National Eucharistic Pilgrimage

CNA Staff, Mar 12, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

A group of two dozen young Catholic pilgrims will walk thousands of miles across the United States this summer, carrying Jesus Christ in the Eucharist through city streets and the countryside, converging at the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress. 

Collectively, the pilgrims will walk over 6,500 miles and will traverse four different routes, beginning on opposite sides of the country and meeting in Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress July 17–21. Catholics throughout the U.S. are encouraged to register to join the pilgrims in walking short sections of the pilgrimages and joining in numerous other special events put on by their local diocese.

All between the ages of 19 and 29, the 24 “Perpetual Pilgrims” — six per route — have committed to giving up their summer and braving sun and rain to help the U.S. bishops rededicate the country to Christ in the Eucharist. Accompanied throughout the entire route by priest chaplains, the pilgrims will travel 10-15 miles each day, mostly on foot, while taking part in a minor Eucharistic procession. 

The pilgrim application process was opened last October and the names of the pilgrims were announced on Monday.

Meet some of the young pilgrims who will be bringing Christ through your neighborhood this summer, beginning Pentecost weekend, May 17-19. 

The Seton Route

Amayrani Higueldo Sanchez. Credit: National Eucharistic Pilgrimage
Amayrani Higueldo Sanchez. Credit: National Eucharistic Pilgrimage

The Seton Route, which begins in Connecticut and is named for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, will pass through a number of the country’s largest cities as well as the nation’s oldest diocese, Baltimore. 

Amayrani Higueldo Sanchez, a recent nursing school graduate from Philadelphia, found herself with a few unstructured months after her graduation, and at the same time, during her busy nursing school experience, she says she continually felt a tug to spend more time with Jesus in adoration. 

So when the opportunity arose to drop everything and spend months traveling with the Eucharistic Jesus across the country, she said it felt like a providential way to spend more time with Jesus and encourage others to do the same. 

Higueldo, a native of Acapulco, Mexico, who has lived in the Philadelphia area since age 7, said she is especially looking forward to bringing the Eucharist through the major cities in the East. She described a powerful encounter she had with the Eucharist while on a retreat as a teenager and expressed a hope to bring a similar experience to those participating along the route. 

“I remember just the piercing gaze of Our Lord. It just pierced everything in my body and my soul. And I remember just being, feeling like, seen, loved, and just redeemed for the first time in my life,” she recalled. 

“And really, it just changed the whole trajectory of my life, just that gaze of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. And really, I was restored in that moment, and I sought the sacrament of reconciliation right after. And I haven’t been the same since. I used to be so shy, so I didn’t talk to anyone. I was deep in sin. And now I’m like, you’re talking to people and going on this Eucharistic pilgrimage, talking to many, many people. And really, it just really changed my life.”

Higueldo, who has worked in youth ministry at her home parish for the past seven years, said she is looking forward to witnessing to her faith in the Eucharist in small ways, especially when she gets the opportunity to speak with her fellow Spanish speakers along the route and in her hometown.

“I know the Lord wants to pour out a lot of graces on this pilgrimage to so many. So being able to bring that … here at home in Philly to a lot of the parishes that I know, it’s going to be amazing to witness and be able to witness — a front-row seat to the graces that the Lord wants to pour out,” Higueldo said. 

The Marian Route

Matthew Heidenreich. Credit: National Eucharistic Pilgrimage
Matthew Heidenreich. Credit: National Eucharistic Pilgrimage

Matthew Heidenreich, a native Ohioan attending college in Alabama, will be walking the northern Marian Route, which begins at the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. 

Heidenreich told CNA that his personal relationship with Christ began at a Eucharistic pilgrimage while attending adoration at a Catholic summer camp. It was there during an adoration hour out in nature that he first came to a “place of surrender” to Christ. 

He said he is looking forward to helping give “someone else permission to let the Lord do the same thing in their heart, opening up their heart to receive what the Lord wants to give so freely.”

He also said he is excited to allow his words and actions to bear witness to his love for the Eucharist, with the opportunity to show thousands of people along the way what importance the Eucharist has. 

“I think just seeing a group of six to eight young people who have given everything for a summer to follow Christ speaks deeply,” Heidenreich said.

“If someone is willing to follow something, to leave the things behind that you could have done, leave behind the security and to follow someone or something, that says something powerful.”

Kai Weiss. Credit: National Eucharistic Pilgrimage
Kai Weiss. Credit: National Eucharistic Pilgrimage

Kai Weiss, a 27-year-old native of Germany now doing graduate studies in Washington, D.C., said the idea of becoming a perpetual pilgrim “seemed ideal from the beginning.” He told CNA that the experience would combine his love for the Eucharist with his love of hiking and travel. 

“I’m really looking forward to what kind of surprises Jesus himself has in store,” the Marian Route pilgrim said. 

Coming from a region in Germany known for its Eucharistic processions, Weiss said it brings him joy to see the concept take more of a hold in the U.S., “where I think it is much more needed.” 

He said he also loves the idea of people across the nation coming together — during a contentious election year marked by division — to profess a shared love for Jesus, present in the Eucharist, as a “unifying moment that can bring healing to the country.”

“Jesus in the sacrament — he awaits all of us, regardless of which party we vote for, where we come from,” he noted. 

The Junipero Serra Route

Jaella Mac Au. Credit: National Eucharistic Pilgrimage
Jaella Mac Au. Credit: National Eucharistic Pilgrimage

The longest of the four routes, the route named for St. Junipero Serra, will begin with a dramatic procession across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and will see the pilgrims traverse the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains. (Specially designed vans will transport the Eucharist and the pilgrims over certain portions of all four routes.)

Jaella Mac Au, a Georgia native and undergraduate student, will be walking this route. Mac Au said she had planned to look for Catholic missionary work following her graduation, but when the opportunity arose to go on this pilgrimage and God seemed to be calling her there, she accelerated her plans. Ultimately, she said, embarking on this two-month journey meant delaying an important internship. 

Despite the sacrifice involved, Mac Au said that throughout the discernment process of becoming a pilgrim, she has come to find “security in the insecurity” — not knowing exactly what her future holds but trusting that God has it in control. 

Mac Au requested prayers for herself and her fellow pilgrims that they would rely on God’s love and grace throughout the challenging pilgrimage experience and not merely on their own abilities. She said she views the pilgrimage as a transformative experience that aligns with her desire to serve in a missionary capacity. 

“It’s about the journey, not the destination, which sounds so silly, but I think if we just condense it, that’s really what it’s all about,” she said. 

“Through Jesus in the Eucharist, it’s such just a tangible reminder that the Lord desires to love us in a very humane, humanlike way … he actually desires to continue to seek out humanity and meet them exactly where they’re at,” she said. 

The Juan Diego Route:

Charlie McCullough. Credit: National Eucharistic Pilgrimage
Charlie McCullough. Credit: National Eucharistic Pilgrimage

Charlie McCullough, 22, will be walking the southern Juan Diego Route, beginning in Brownsville, Texas, just a few minutes from the U.S.-Mexico border. 

A college senior about to finish his final semester at Texas A&M University, McCullough told CNA that he had a personal encounter with Christ after receiving the Eucharist at a Wednesday evening Mass his freshman year. 

“I very vividly remember the spot in the church where I kneeled and prayed, and something was entirely different from that moment forward,” he explained. “I realized in that moment that there was a place inside of me that the Lord rested and was his home. That was deeper than anything else that I’ve ever experienced in the world.”

“From that moment, I kept coming back to daily Mass, and I kept coming back to the adoration chapel. And just from there, it began, this relationship of deep love with Jesus Christ, all because I realized that he was already living in me, and I was just starting to get to know him because of the gift of the Eucharist.”

McCullough said he is open to God radically altering the course of his life during the pilgrimage. Although he is getting ready to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime, cross-country journey, he said that he is most looking forward to being able to help people encounter those small, “seemingly insignificant” interactions with Christ in the Eucharist that “radically change everything.”

“My hope for the pilgrimage is that every person that we encounter has something stir inside of them that makes them question: ‘Why do I feel differently when I was encountered by this procession? … What if that is truly the body and blood of Jesus Christ?’” he said.  

“I have full confidence that Jesus Christ is truly present, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist and if the pilgrimage simply stirs questions in the hearts of those that we encounter, I know that those questions will be answered with the truth.”

Shayla Elm. Credit: National Eucharistic Pilgrimage
Shayla Elm. Credit: National Eucharistic Pilgrimage

Joining McCollough on the Juan Diego Route is Shayla Elm, a North Dakotan who works for Christ in the City, a Catholic ministry to the homeless in Denver. 

Elm said despite being a lifelong Catholic, she has benefited greatly already in recent months from the Catholic formation that the pilgrims have been provided to prepare them for the pilgrimage. The pilgrims have been given weekly Zoom formation sessions and went on retreat together in February. 

“We’re all coming from different places, all have different gifts, and I just think it’s really exciting to get to walk with other young adults who are on fire for the Lord,” she said. 

Elm emphasized the central role of the Eucharist in her faith journey, highlighting how it has always been a core aspect of her life and how she believes her vocation is deeply tied to the Eucharist.

“I’ve just known for a while that wherever my life will go, whatever my path is, vocationally, wherever I’m going, the Eucharist will be at the center, period,” she explained.

Mary Rice Hasson named visiting fellow for Franciscan University’s Veritas Center

Mary Rice Hasson has been a three-time keynote speaker for the Vatican at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She currently serves as the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and is a graduate of Notre Dame Law School. / Credit: Rui Barros Photography

CNA Staff, Mar 12, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

Franciscan University of Steubenville has announced that Catholic writer and speaker Mary Rice Hasson will be a visiting fellow for the school’s Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life. 

Hasson, a graduate of Notre Dame Law School, has been a three-time keynote speaker for the Vatican at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She has also testified on parents’ rights and transgender issues before the U.S. Senate. She currently serves as the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. 

The Veritas Center’s mission is “to bring faithful Catholic scholarly reflection to bear on the most pressing ethical questions in contemporary culture — questions of marriage and sexuality, war and peace, life and death, as well as economic and social justice,” the school’s March 5 press release read.

“We are happy to have Mary Hasson join us as our Visiting Veritas Fellow,” said Anne Hendershott, sociology professor at Franciscan University and director of the Veritas Center, in a statement

“Our students really enjoyed meeting her and hearing her presentation on the challenges families face from the transgender movement when she participated in our Transgender Moment Conference a few years ago,” Hendershott said of Hasson. 

“She truly is a leading Catholic voice on the ways in which our Church needs to help families and individuals respond to this issue.”

Hasson said that she is “look[ing] forward with great enthusiasm to working with the center’s scholars in the year ahead.”

“It’s a wonderful opportunity not only to engage with faithful, intellectually curious students but also to contribute to the center’s serious exploration — in light of faith and the natural law — of compelling cultural issues,” she said.

“It’s no secret that our culture has lost sight of what it means to be a human person, to be a man or a woman. The consequences are immense,” Hasson said. “How should Catholics respond, politically and spiritually? These are the conversations the Veritas Center seeks to engage.”

Hasson co-founded and directs the Person and Identity Project, an organization that offers resources to help parents, churches, and teachers navigate gender ideology issues. She also heads the Catholic Women’s Forum, an international network of Catholic women.

She has co-authored several books on education and has written for the Wall Street Journal, the National Catholic Register, National Review, and First Things.

“Mary is a profoundly gifted leader and a truly visionary thinker — as well as a wife and a mother of seven beautiful children,” said Deborah Savage, a professor of theology at Franciscan who worked with Hasson as a member of the Catholic Women’s Forum. 

“She has established an international network of faithful professional women — many of them established experts in their own disciplines — who are all engaged at various levels in the battle to recover a culture of life,” she noted. 

“It is wonderful that Mary will join us as a fellow at the Veritas Center as Franciscan University seeks to realize its mission to rebuild the Church — something that cannot be accomplished without the moral authority of women,” Savage said.

Pope Francis laicizes North Dakota priest after sexual assault guilty plea

null / Credit: Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Mar 12, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis has ordered the laicization of a North Dakota priest who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman in that state. 

Diocese of Fargo Bishop John Folda said in a statement this month that former priest Neil Pfeifer “received a dispensation from the clerical state (laicization) from Pope Francis” effective March 8.

Pfeifer himself “sought the dispensation after adult women came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct,” Folda said in his statement. 

“Mr. Pfeifer pleaded guilty on July 13, 2023, to a misdemeanor charge of sexual assault in Stutsman County,” the bishop said.

Laicization is the term for when a priest has been dismissed from the clerical state. An individual who is confirmed as a priest will always remain one, but laicization takes away his ability to licitly execute the functions of the priesthood, except in the extreme situation of encountering someone who is in immediate danger of death.

Someone who has lost the clerical state also no longer has the canonical right to be financially supported by the Church.

Often, a man who is laicized is also dispensed from the obligation of celibacy and permitted to marry, though this is not always the case, especially when someone has been involuntarily removed from the clerical state.

Folda in his statement noted that the decision to laicize a priest “is not made by the local diocese or bishop but is determined by the Holy See.” 

“Laicization means that Mr. Pfeifer has been returned to the lay state and may no longer exercise priestly ministry,” the bishop said. “As a result, in accord with canon law, he may no longer celebrate Mass, hear confessions, or administer other sacraments.” 

“Laicization does not invalidate sacraments that he previously administered,” the prelate added. 

“When members of the clergy or others representing the Church abuse someone, they violate a sacred trust,” Folda said in his statement. 

The diocese announced in 2021 that Pfiefer had been appointed the pastor of St. James Basilica in Jamestown, St. Margaret Mary in Buchanan, and St. Mathias in Windsor.

Pfeifer’s term at those parishes was to last for six years, until 2027.

Judge blocks Texas efforts to close Catholic nonprofit accused of ‘human smuggling’

El Paso, Texas. / Credit: cht725/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 12, 2024 / 11:12 am (CNA).

A Texas judge has temporarily blocked the state attorney general’s efforts to close an El Paso-based Catholic nonprofit accused of facilitating human smuggling.

El Paso County District Court Judge Francisco Dominguez ruled on Monday that Attorney General Ken Paxton could not revoke Annunciation House’s license to operate for now or force it to immediately turn over documents. This allows the nonprofit to continue operations as normal for the time being.

In his ruling, obtained by CNA on Monday, Dominguez accused Paxton of running “roughshod” over Annunciation House “without regard to due process or fair play.”

“There is a real and credible concern that the attempt to prevent Annunciation House from conducting business in Texas was predetermined,” Dominguez wrote in his ruling.

“The attorney general’s efforts to run roughshod over Annunciation House, without regard to due process or fair play, call into question the true motivation for the attorney general’s attempt to prevent Annunciation House from providing the humanitarian and social services that it provides.”

Located just a few minutes from the U.S.-Mexico border, the El Paso-based Annunciation House offers migrants temporary shelter, food and clothing, and advocates on their behalf. 

The attorney general’s office first approached Annunciation House on Feb. 7 with concerns that it may be facilitating illegal immigration. Paxton’s office ordered the nonprofit to immediately turn over various documents and records to examine whether it is engaged in illegal activities. 

Annunciation House’s lawyers requested 30 days to respond, but the attorney general’s office refused. Rather, Paxton’s office informed the organization that if it did not provide the requested documents by Feb. 8, which was the following day, that it would “be in noncompliance.”

On Feb. 20 Paxton filed a lawsuit against Annunciation House, accusing the nonprofit of being “engaged in the operation of an illegal stash house by potentially allowing others to use its real estate to engage in human smuggling.” 

The lawsuit asked the District Court of El Paso County to revoke the organization’s nonprofit registration, which would prohibit it from continuing to operate in Texas.

In response to the lawsuit, Annunciation House issued a statement that called Paxton’s actions “illegal, immoral, and anti-faith” and his allegations “unfounded.” 

Jerome Wesevich, an attorney representing Annunciation House, celebrated the ruling in a statement released Monday.  

“We’re very pleased with the court’s ruling regarding Annunciation House. The court demands that standard civil procedures be followed, which will mean a fair and orderly process for determining what documents the law allows the attorney general to see,” Wesevich said.

“Annunciation House needs to collect sensitive information, including health information, concerning its guests, and it is imperative for the safety and well-being of the community that the releasing of this sensitive information be handled with care and the law in mind,” Wesevich said.

The Texas attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to CNA’s request for comment.