Church of the Madalene

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 1, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Both Roman Catholic dioceses in Virginia are urging Gov. Glenn Youngkin to veto bills that would establish a “right to contraception” and require health insurance companies to provide coverage for contraception — but do not contain any religious exemptions or parental rights protections.

“Taken together, these bills would end lives and undercut parental rights,” Jeff Caruso, the executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference, which represents the Diocese of Richmond and the Diocese of Arlington, told CNA.

“They also completely disregard the fundamental rights of entities with sincerely and deeply held religious or moral objections to covering or providing abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives,” Caruso said. “We urge Gov. Youngkin to protect life, liberty, and parental rights by vetoing these extremely harmful bills.”

One of the bills, supported by most Democratic lawmakers and opposed by most Republicans, would require that all health insurance plans in the commonwealth include coverage for every contraceptive that has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

These contraceptives include condoms, birth control pills, and some drugs that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has warned can induce abortions in early stages of pregnancy. It does not include mifepristone, which the FDA has approved for use to abort a child in utero up to 10 weeks into pregnancy.

Per the proposed legislation, no insurer, corporation, or health maintenance organization would be allowed to impose “burdensome restrictions or delays” on contraception. The language fails to include exemptions for religious employers who object to contraception and abortion, such as the Catholic Church.

The other piece of legislation would establish a blanket “right” for every person to “obtain” and “use” contraception. The language does not limit this right to just adults but rather extends this right to every “person.” It does not include any protections for parental rights in these decisions.

This new “right” would include both FDA-approved drugs and surgical sterilization, such as castration.

According to the proposal, the right could “not be infringed upon by any law, regulation, or policy.” 

The legislation also establishes a right to file civil lawsuits against “any person” who violates the “right to contraception.” Such lawsuits could be filed by the person who sought contraception, health care providers, or the attorney general.

The sponsors of the bill claimed during committee hearings on the legislation that the “right” does not impose any mandates on health care providers or doctors to provide contraception, but Republican opponents of the bill argued that the broad language could permit lawsuits against health care providers and doctors who do not provide contraception to someone who seeks it.

Youngkin had proposed amendments to both bills, which would have addressed many of the concerns brought up by the Catholic dioceses. However, Democratic lawmakers rejected his amendments and returned the bills back to him for reconsideration.

The governor’s proposed amendment to the health insurance mandate would have added an exemption for “sincerely held religious or ethical beliefs.” His proposed amendment to the bill that would establish a “right to contraception” would have limited its scope to the contraception rights established by the United States Supreme Court in Griswold v. Connecticut.

Youngkin has until May 17 to act on the bills but has not yet said what he will do. When reached by CNA, Youngkin’s press secretary, Christian Martinez, highlighted the governor’s support for contraception access and religious freedom.

“Gov. Youngkin has been consistently clear that he supports access to contraception but desires to protect Virginians’ constitutional rights and religious liberties,” Martinez said.

Democratic lawmakers and lobbyist groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have voiced objections to the governor’s efforts to add religious freedom protections and limit the proposed “right” to contraception. 

Sen. Ghazala Hashmi and Rep. Marcia Price, who sponsored their respective chamber’s version of the legislation to establish a right to contraception, accused Youngkin of trying to “play both sides of this issue because he doesn’t want to anger the loud extremists in his party” in a joint statement. 

“Contraception cannot be played with: This bill is a matter of reproductive justice,” the statement read. “It is time for Gov. Youngkin to stop playing games and just sign the bill.”

Breanna Diaz, the legislative and policy counsel at the Virginia ACLU, accused Youngkin of trying to “water down” the bills with his recommendations. 

“After the fall of Roe v. Wade, it’s become clear that extremists won’t stop at abortion but are after all reproductive health care — including contraception,” Diaz said in a statement.

Alternatively, the Virginia Catholic Conference is urging Catholics to write to Youngkin to encourage him to veto the bills.

Pope Francis waves to pilgrims in St. Peter's Square gathered for his weekly general audience on April 3, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, May 1, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of May is for the formation of men and women religious and for seminarians.

“Every vocation is a ‘diamond in the rough’ that needs to be polished, worked, shaped on every side,” the pope said in a video released April 30.

“A good priest, sister, or nun must above all else be a man, a woman who is formed, shaped by the Lord’s grace, people who are aware of their own limitations and willing to lead a life of prayer, of dedicated witness to the Gospel,” he said, adding: “Beginning in the seminary and the novitiate, their preparation must be developed integrally, in direct contact with the lives of other people. This is essential.”

The Holy Father pointed out that “formation does not end at a certain moment but continues throughout life, integrating the person intellectually, humanly, affectively, spiritually.”

“There’s also preparation to live in community — life in community is so enriching, even though it can be difficult at times. Living together is not the same as living in community.”

He concluded with a prayer: “Let us pray that men and women religious, and seminarians, grow in their own vocational journey through human, pastoral, spiritual, and community formation that leads them to be credible witnesses of the Gospel.”

Pope Francis’ prayer video is promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.

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CNA Staff, May 1, 2024 / 05:30 am (CNA).

Kansas state legislators enacted four pro-life bills over the abortion-supporting governor’s vetoes but didn’t enact a bill that would have banned gender transitioning for children. 

The abortion measures provide $2 million in state funding for pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, provide tax credits designed to encourage more donations to such centers, require abortion facilities to ask women why they are having an abortion, and create a new crime of coercing a woman to have an abortion. 

Supporters put together the necessary two-thirds majorities to override the vetoes of Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat who supports legal abortion. 

Crafters of the pro-life bills acknowledge that abortion is legally considered a fundamental right in Kansas, since the state’s supreme court declared that in April 2019 and the state’s voters in August 2022 rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have flipped the court’s decision. 

Therefore, the bills enacted Monday do not attempt to restrict abortion but instead try to encourage women to choose life, said Chuck Weber, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference, which represents bishops in the state’s four dioceses on political and public policy matters. 

“The abortion industry seems to want women to abort every baby that’s an unplanned pregnancy. Can we not at least give women in an unplanned pregnancy an authentic choice besides abortion?” Weber said in a telephone interview with CNA. 

Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, a political action committee that advocates for abortion in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, opposed the measures. The give-a-reason and abortion coercion bills “directly interfere with the bodily autonomy of Kansans and their fundamental right to make their own decision about health care,” the organization said in a written statement after Kelly vetoed the bills April 12. 

“These stigmatizing bills were not crafted to improve the health and well-being of Kansans; they were merely meant to shame reproductive care,” said Emily Wales, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes. 

The give-a-reason bill would result in “invasive and unnecessary questions,” she said. 

But Weber told CNA the point of the bill is to help figure out how to help pregnant women choose to give birth if they wish. 

“The more data we have about why a woman chooses abortion will allow policymakers and social service agencies to help women to make an authentic choice for life if that’s what she chooses to do,” Weber said. 

The abortion coercion bill “could further hurt or retraumatize survivors,” Wales said. 

But Weber said the bill is meant to determine if women seeking an abortion are victims of sex trafficking or other kinds of coercion.

One of the abortion bills allows donors to crisis pregnancy centers a tax credit of 70% of what they give, with a total statewide cap of $10 million. It also gives a sales tax exemption for crisis pregnancy centers.

“They’re the front line,” Lucrecia Nold, policy specialist of the Kansas Catholic Conference, said of crisis pregnancy centers. “So let’s give them all of the resources that are available so that we can help these women.”

The bill also encourages adoption by offering a state adoption tax credit that matches the already-existing federal adoption tax credit and by allowing would-be adoptive parents to create an adoption savings account.

An effort to override the governor’s veto of a bill that would have banned gender transitioning for minors failed by two votes when two Republican state legislators flipped at the last minute. 

Opponents of the bill argue that parents and children should decide whether a child who identifies with a gender other than the one that corresponds to the child’s sex should seek to transition.

But supporters say children should be protected from such transitioning, which they argue is harmful and may have permanent consequences.

Weber said supporters of the gender-transitioning ban will try again next legislative session.

“We’re going to continue to try to protect the children of Kansas from these life-changing, life-destructive practices that are both surgical and chemical,” Weber said.

In 2021, the Knights of Columbus announced the selection of this icon of St. Joseph holding the Child Jesus as the centerpiece of the current K of C pilgrim icon prayer program. The original icon was created (or "written") by Élizabeth Bergeron, an iconographer in Montréal, based on a drawing by Alexandre Sobolev. / Credit: Courtesy of Knights of Columbus

CNA Staff, May 1, 2024 / 04:50 am (CNA).

St. Joseph, the beloved spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and earthly father of Jesus, is celebrated twice by the Catholic Church every year — first on March 19 for the feast of St. Joseph, Husband of Mary, and again on May 1 for the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.

While the saint’s March feast dates back to the 10th century, his May feast wasn’t instituted until 1955. What was behind it?

Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1, 1955, so that it would coincide with International Workers Day, also known as May Day — a secular celebration of labor and workers’ rights. During this time, the Soviet Union proclaimed themselves as the defender of workers and utilized May Day as an opportunity to exalt communism and parade its military prowess. Pope Pius XII chose the date specifically to ensure that workers did not lose the Christian understanding of work.

In his address to the Catholic Association of Italian Workers on that day in 1955, Pius XII said: “There could not be a better protector to help you penetrate the spirit of the Gospel into your life … From the heart of the Man-God, Savior of the world, this spirit flows into you and into all men; but it is certain that no worker has ever been as perfectly and deeply penetrated by it as the putative father of Jesus, who lived with him in the closest intimacy and commonality of family and work.”

He added: “So, if you want to be close to Christ, we also today repeat to you ‘Ite ad Ioseph’: Go to Joseph!”

The Catholic Church has long placed an importance on the dignity of human work. By working, we fulfill the commands found in the Book of Genesis to care for the earth and be productive in our labors.

In his encyclical Laborem Exercens, Pope John Paul II wrote that “the Church considers it her task always to call attention to the dignity and rights of those who work, to condemn situations in which that dignity and those rights are violated, and to help to guide [social] changes so as to ensure authentic progress by man and society.”

St. Joseph is considered a role model of this as he worked tirelessly to protect and provide for his family as he strove to listen to and obey God.

Even before the institution of this feast, many popes were beginning to spread a devotion to St. Joseph the Worker. One of these was Pope Leo XIII, who wrote on the subject in his encyclical Quamquam Pluries in 1889.

He wrote: “Joseph became the guardian, the administrator, and the legal defender of the divine house whose chief he was. And during the whole course of his life he fulfilled those charges and those duties. He set himself to protect with a mighty love and a daily solicitude his spouse and the Divine Infant; regularly by his work he earned what was necessary for the one and the other for nourishment and clothing; he guarded from death the Child threatened by a monarch’s jealousy, and found for him a refuge; in the miseries of the journey and in the bitternesses of exile he was ever the companion, the assistance, and the upholder of the Virgin and of Jesus.”

In addition to being the patron of the universal Church and workers in general, St. Joseph is also the patron saint of several professions including craftsmen, carpenters, accountants, attorneys, bursars, cabinetmakers, cemetery workers, civil engineers, confectioners, educators, furniture makers, wheelwrights, and lawyers.

Jimmy Lai at a Hong Kong protest. / Credit: Courtesy of the Acton Institute

CNA Staff, Apr 30, 2024 / 18:10 pm (CNA).

An unnamed Hong Kong government spokesperson criticized a bill proposed by two U.S. congressmen that would rename the address of the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office in Washington, D.C., “Jimmy Lai Way,” honoring the 75-year-old democracy advocate who has been incarcerated in Hong Kong since 2020.

The spokesperson called on the U.S. to “stop maliciously interfering” in Hong Kong affairs, according to a Tuesday report by the Hong Kong Free Press.

Representatives Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, and Tom Suozzi, D-New York, proposed the bill last week.

Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy businessman and convert to Catholicism, was arrested on several charges under the controversial national security law, which was passed by China’s communist-controlled government in 2020. His newspaper, Apple Daily, published pro-democracy content and was often critical of the Chinese Communist Party.

Although the Chinese government charged Lai with colluding with foreign forces, critics of the prosecution claim that he — and hundreds of other political and religious dissidents — were arrested for their human rights activism. 

“Jimmy Lai — a courageous man of deep faith who stands for democracy, human rights, and respect for the rule of law — exemplifies moral principle and defiance in the face of tyranny,” Smith said in a statement to CNA. 

“The United States must make it absolutely clear that we stand with him and all other political prisoners in Hong Kong,” he continued. “Until we close it for good, the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office should have a new address that rightfully recognizes this champion of freedom.”

The spokesperson for the Hong Kong government quoted in the Hong Kong Free Press requested that the U.S. “respect the basic norms governing international relations and stop maliciously interfering in the affairs of the HKSAR [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region].”

“The HKSAR government must emphasize that all cases are handled strictly on the basis of evidence and in accordance with the law,” the spokesman said. “All defendants will receive fair trial strictly in accordance with laws applicable to Hong Kong (including the Hong Kong National Security Law and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance) and as protected by the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights.”

After Lai’s arrest, the Hong Kong government closed the Apple Daily in June 2021, arresting top staff members and encouraging others to resign. Authorities forcibly removed Lai’s Next Media company from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Lai, who could face life in prison, pleaded not guilty in January to conspiring to collude with a foreign power.

Authorities throughout the world have called for Lai’s freedom. The Congressional Executive Commission on China urged the U.S. government last year to sanction Hong Kong prosecutors and judges if they fail to release Lai.

“The free world must continue calling attention to the Chinese Communist Party’s crimes in Xinjiang, erosion of democracy in Hong Kong, and saber-rattling against Taiwan,” Suozzi said in the April 25 statement.

Smith has advocated for Lai since his arrest, nominating him for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. As chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Smith chaired a congressional hearing last year with testimony by Lai’s son, Sebastien Lai. 

“Jimmy Lai is a man of faith and conviction, someone who fervently believed that Hong Kong’s prosperity and vitality were built on the rights promised to its citizens,” Smith said. “For peacefully acting on this belief, he is arbitrarily detained.”

“[Jimmy Lai Way] will signal to the entire world that the United States stands in solidarity with those who oppose the tyranny and repression of the Chinese government,” Suozzi added.

“For as long as the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office continues to operate in Washington, D.C., their new address will symbolize that this champion of freedom stands against their growing authoritarianism and human rights abuses,” Smith continued in the statement.

“We will continue to press for Jimmy Lai’s unconditional release and seek ways to raise the diplomatic and reputational costs globally for the Hong Kong government and their Chinese Communist Party masters for their rough dismantling of democratic freedoms and the rule of law in Hong Kong,” Smith said.

Smith has also authored legislation (HR 1103) that would require the U.S. secretary of state to determine if the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices in the United States merit the privileges and immunities granted to them by the International Organizations Immunities Act. 

Both HR 1103 and its companion bill in the Senate (S 490) have been passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and are awaiting final consideration by both chambers.

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CNA Staff, Apr 30, 2024 / 17:45 pm (CNA).

Florida’s bishops are welcoming a new law that allows public schools in the state to have volunteer chaplains.

The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, which represents bishops in the state’s seven dioceses on public policy matters, did not take a position on the bill while legislators debated it earlier this year.

“However, we recognize the good that chaplains can do in schools by helping students to address their spiritual and emotional needs. We are pleased that parents will determine the services their children will receive in districts that choose to establish chaplaincy programs,” said Michelle Taylor, associate director of communications for the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, in an email message to CNA on Tuesday.

The measure, which takes effect July 1, requires public schools and charter schools that establish such a program to publish on their websites a list of volunteer school chaplains and their religious affiliation. It also requires that parents provide written consent before their child receives services from a chaplain or participates in programs provided by a chaplain.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed the bill two weeks ago, said some school districts in Florida are already hosting chaplains, while school officials elsewhere were unsure whether it’s legal to do so.

The new statute clarifies the legal situation and explicitly enables school districts to provide a valuable aid to students, he said.

“Faith leaders and civic organizations are important additional resources for students who may be facing challenges or need to build community and camaraderie,” DeSantis said in a statement. “I’m pleased to be able to expand the variety of options that students have at their disposal in school, and we have no doubt that these options will enhance the experiences of our students.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida opposed the bill, saying it violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“Allowing chaplains to provide counseling and other support services in public schools would violate students’ and families’ religious-freedom rights by exposing all public school students to the risk of chaplains evangelizing them or imposing religion on them throughout their school day,” said Kara Gross, legislative director and senior policy counsel of the ACLU of Florida, in a statement in March after the Florida House passed the bill.

The Florida House of Representatives passed the bill in February in a 89-25 vote. All the no votes were Democrats. All Republicans voted for it, as did four Democrats.

The Florida Senate passed the bill in March in a straight party-line 28-12 vote, with Republicans for it and Democrats against it.

Texas enacted a comparable bill in June 2023. It took effect at the beginning of the current school year. The ACLU of Florida says 13 other states have had similar bills introduced in the state legislature.

DeSantis signed the Florida chaplain bill April 18 during an appearance at a school in Kissimmee. He said having a chaplain available could help kids who are struggling.

“You’ve got a lot of these problems that kids go through — you know, there’s some students, you know, they need some soul-craft. And that can make all the difference in the world,” DeSantis said.

Capt. (Father) Daniel Mode — who remains a priest in good standing — has been reassigned to an “administrative position” in the U.S. Navy Chief of Chaplains Office, according to the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA. / Credit: Public Domain

CNA Staff, Apr 30, 2024 / 17:10 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Coast Guard removed a Catholic priest Wednesday as its head chaplain over his failure to “take appropriate action” after being made aware of “pre-service sexual misconduct by another chaplain.”

Capt. (Father) Daniel Mode — who remains a priest in good standing — has been reassigned to an “administrative position” in the U.S. Navy Chief of Chaplains Office, according to the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA.

The Coast Guard did not provide the identity of the unnamed chaplain involved in the sexual misconduct case. But the military branch said the individual “has already been removed from the Coast Guard and Navy,” according to Stripes.com.

In that statement, the Coast Guard said that an “administrative investigation found that Capt. Mode did not take appropriate action when made aware of pre-service sexual misconduct by another chaplain.”

Mode did not violate any laws or policies requiring punitive action, the Coast Guard said, but instead demonstrated a “failure in judgment below what is expected from his key leadership position.”

The priest has served as the branch’s head chaplain since 2022 and has been ministering and serving in the military since 1988.

Mode was the chaplain for the “Lone Survivor” SEAL team in Afghanistan and authored a book about the famed “Grunt Padre,” Father Vincent Capodanno.

In a statement Friday, the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, said that Archbishop Timothy Broglio “is confident that within hours of receiving documentation of the 2011 incident of sexual misconduct, Father Mode ensured and directed that key Coast Guard personnel and chaplains responsible for advising and briefing their commanders were emailed all of the detailed and pertinent documents.”

The priest told Broglio that “he believed that his initial report in 2022 would be more broadly communicated,” the statement said. 

“However, having reviewed the Coast Guard’s investigation findings, Father Mode now realizes that his presumption that all field commanders involved in the case were informed following the initial report was incorrect,” the statement said. 

Mode told Broglio that he “fully embraces” the core values of the Coast Guard, the statement said. The priest “has earnestly worked to ensure his priorities were aligned with the commandant’s expectations,” the archdiocese said.

“[Mode] stressed the importance of recognizing ‘biases and barriers’ to intervention regarding allegations of sexual assault and apologized profoundly for the circumstances that led to his removal as chaplain of the Coast Guard, which he views as his own leadership failure,” the statement said.

Mode fully supports the Coast Guard’s efforts to address sexual assault “with full accountability and transparency,” the statement said.

“Archbishop Broglio expressed his continued confidence in Father Mode’s giftedness as a Catholic priest and chaplain and his dedication to building and maintaining a safe environment in the Church,” the statement concluded. 

Lara Al-Sayegh, a Catholic from Gaza, collapsed and died of heatstroke as she and her mother tried to leave Gaza and find safe haven in Egypt on April 24, 2024. The 19-year-old lived in northern Gaza and the family had already lost their father and husband after he died at Gaza’s Latin Holy Family Church due to a lack of adequate medical care. / Credit: Fady Al-Sayegh

ACI MENA, Apr 30, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

Among the heartbreaking stories to emerge from the war in Gaza is the death of a young Catholic woman named Lara Al-Sayegh. The 19-year-old Gazan perished while fleeing with her mother from the northern Gaza Strip to the south in a desperate attempt to reach Egypt and find safe haven. 

Midway through their arduous journey, Al-Sayegh succumbed to severe fatigue, lack of water, and fatal heatstroke. Tragically, her father had already been lost during the war when he died at Gaza’s Latin Holy Family Church due to a lack of adequate medical care.

A brother’s anguished testimony

In an exclusive interview with ACI Mena, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, Al-Sayegh’s brother, Fady Al-Sayegh, who has resided in Egypt since earlier this year, shared his pain at receiving the devastating news about his sister.

“It was an unexpected moment when I got the heartbreaking update through Father Iusuf Assad, the pastor of the Holy Family Latin Church in Gaza,” Fady recounted. “He sent me a condolence message. I asked, ‘Condolences for whom?’ His answer was, ‘It’s Lara, your sister.’”

“I couldn’t believe it ... How could I believe it?” Fady said, his voice thick with grief. “I asked my brother Khalil, hoping against hope that the news was false. But the painful truth was inescapable. Just yesterday, it seems, Lara was here with us. We were talking, planning for a promising future together. I was waiting for her on the Egyptian side of the border. Everything we dreamed of was within our grasp, and suddenly ... we lost all that we had, as if it had never been.” 

Fady’s sorrow is compounded by the plans they had made. “We had hopes of attending university together, as Lara aspired to study journalism and media in order to give voice to the untold stories,” he said.

A journey cut tragically short

According to the testimony of Lara’s mother, Fady explained that on Tuesday, April 23, both Lara and her mother’s names were included on a list of those permitted to cross into Egypt from Gaza. They decided to leave the following day, heading to the Netzarim Corridor, which separates northern Gaza from the south and remains under Israeli control.

“They were in a car driving them to a specific point in the south,” Fady explained. “From there, they had to walk on foot until reaching the Rafah Crossing into Egypt. Lara was walking briskly and quickly, but she suddenly stumbled and collapsed to the ground. Some people tried to revive her, thinking she had merely fainted due to the extreme heat. But the painful reality was that Lara had died.”

Their mother also fainted from the trauma and is now recovering. Fady noted with great sorrow that Lara was buried in southern Gaza, far from her church home, and her funeral has not yet been held. 

Fady blamed some Arabic media outlets for ignoring the plight of Gaza’s small Christian minority amid their harsh living conditions, including killings, loss of property, displacement, and forced migration. The ancient Christian community there has endured continuous suffering and is on the brink of extinction due to migration, displacement, and now the war. 

Fady also expressed hope that the world would work toward achieving justice and peace in the region. He called on churches around the globe to pray for Gaza, to be a voice for the oppressed, and to help raise awareness about the struggle of minority communities in the area.

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

Pope Francis receives a baby for a blessing as pilgrims gather in St. Peter’s Square for the pope’s general audience on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Apr 30, 2024 / 16:03 pm (CNA).

A man arrested earlier this month in St. Peter’s Square while carrying three 8-inch knives is a former convict and fugitive from the law in New York state.

Moises Tejada, 54, is on the Most Wanted Fugitives list of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision because, authorities there say, he violated the terms of parole from state prison on kidnapping and robbery convictions. 

Tejada twice immobilized real estate agents and stole from them while posing as a home buyer, according to New York state authorities.

More recently, he was arrested on Wednesday, April 10, the same day Pope Francis gave a general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. The man attracted the attention of authorities, who found the knives, Reuters reported.

Tejada’s arrest was first reported earlier this month by La Repubblica, a daily newspaper in Italy, with the lead sentence (in Italian): “What was an American armed like a butcher doing in Rome?” 

Tejada, “posing as a potential customer of a realtor who was showing him the inside of a home, pointed a gun at the realtor, handcuffed him to a pole, and robbed him of personal property including his car” in Suffolk County, Long Island, according to a judge who summed up the case against him in a 2004 appeal of a 1999 conviction. 

Tejada also committed “a nearly-identical crime … against another realtor” in Brooklyn, according to the appeals court decision upholding the Suffolk County conviction. 

He was sentenced to 20 years to life. 

Tejada began serving his time in state prison on the kidnapping and robbery convictions in March 2000, state corrections officials told CNA on Tuesday. He was released on parole in May 2018 but was returned to prison in January 2022 for violating the terms of release. 

Tejada was subsequently released on parole from Sullivan Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Fallsburg, New York, in March 2022. But seven months later, in October 2022, state corrections officials issued a warrant for his arrest for failing to report to his parole officer. 

Tejada recently arrived in Rome after spending time in Moldova, Italian authorities told La Repubblica. Tejada told Italian authorities that he had been fighting in Ukraine for that country against the Russians since 2022, which is also around the time he failed to report to his parole officer in New York state. 

The Office of Special Investigations of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision is working with the U.S. Marshals Service to extradite Tejada from Italy to the United States. A spokesman for the U.S. Marshals said the agency does not usually comment on extradition cases until after they occur. 

In April 2022, one month after his second release on parole and six months before he went missing, Tejada sued the city of New York’s Department of Corrections, saying he sustained “severe and permanent injuries when he slipped and fell due to water which had accumulated and remained on the floor of the bathroom” at Rikers Island, a city jail, while he was detained there in January 2021 for reasons not stated in the complaint. 

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 30, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

The U.S. bishops issued a statement criticizing a new Biden administration change to the Affordable Care Act that requires health providers to perform or cover sex-change surgeries and therapies. 

“Health care that truly heals must be grounded in truth,” wrote Bishop Kevin Rhoades, head of the U.S. bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty. “These regulations, however, advance an ideological view of sex that, as the Holy See has noted, denies the most beautiful and most powerful difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference.”

The administration’s new rule amends the nondiscrimination clause in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (also known as ACA or Obamacare), by removing the word “sex” and replacing it with the phrase “sex (including discrimination on the basis of sex characteristics, including intersex traits; pregnancy or related conditions; sexual orientation; gender identity; and sex stereotypes).”

This change means that any insurer or physician receiving federal financial assistance must cover or provide sex-reassignment surgeries and therapies on the grounds that refusal to do so would constitute discrimination based on sex.

This reverses changes to ACA made under the Trump administration that excluded such procedures from mandated coverage.

The U.S. bishops argued against the rule change when it was being considered in 2022 on the grounds that sex-reassignment surgeries “stunt human sexual development, mutilate the body, and cause sterilization.”

The bishops also flagged the rule as a “major threat” to religious freedom in their 2024 “State of Religious Liberty in the United States” report.

Rhoades voiced the bishops’ disapproval of the rule, saying in a Tuesday statement that “the human right to health care flows from the sanctity of human life and the dignity that belongs to all human persons, who are made in the image of God.”  

“The same core beliefs about human dignity and the wisdom of God’s design that motivate Catholics to care for the sick also shape our convictions about care for preborn children and the immutable nature of the human person. These commitments are inseparable,” Rhoades wrote, adding: “I pray that health care workers will embrace the truth about the human person, a truth reflected in Catholic teaching, and that HHS will not substitute its judgment for their own.”

In responding to fears that the rule will violate religious and conscience rights, the Biden Health and Human Services Department (HHS) claims that it has included a provision within the rule that “respects federal protections for religious freedom and conscience.” 

In the final rule, which is set to be filed in the Federal Register on May 6, HHS states that any part of the new guidance that violates “applicable” federal religious freedom and conscience protections “shall not be required.”

Meanwhile, Chris Faddis, president of the Arizona-based Catholic group Solidarity HealthShare, said that the rule means that “physicians and medical staff can no longer opt out of performing morally objectionable procedures, like transgender surgeries, without the risk of losing critical federal funding.”

Faddis told CNA that the rule’s wording is dangerously vague and would force hospitals and providers to “beg” for religious freedom exemptions that should be automatically afforded under the First Amendment.

“We should not have to request something that the Bill of Rights says is a God-given right … we should not have to request our religious freedom,” he said. “Even the fact that putting the burden on an individual doctor or health system to come beg for clemency is a problem. This is not who this country is.” 

Given the Biden administration’s track record for prioritizing progressive gender ideology over religious freedom, Faddis believes that it is “very uncertain” that religious providers’ requests would be granted. 

“How can we possibly trust that they’re going to be favorable and friendly and not target or avoid answering these waiver requests?” he asked. 

To be clear, Solidarity HealthShare, which says on its website that it has served 55,000 patients since its founding in 2016, will not be impacted by the Biden administration’s change. This is because the rule specifically targets health insurers and providers. However, Faddis believes the new rule presents a broader danger to not just providers but also patients and the overall health care system. 

One such problem Faddis foresees is the possibility that a Catholic or religious provider may not be eligible to receive Medicaid or Medicare funding while their exemption requests are being considered.

“If suddenly Catholic health care systems have to stop taking Medicare or Medicaid,” Faddis said, “not only would that drastically impact them and maybe even take them out of business, but it would also drastically impact the availability of care across the country, particularly in certain states that have a large percentage of their care is provided by Catholic systems.” 

HHS did not immediately respond to CNA’s request for comment.

In a Friday statement HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said that the new rule is a “giant step forward for this country toward a more equitable and inclusive health care system.”

According to Becerra, the rule “means that Americans across the country now have a clear way to act on their rights against discrimination when they go to the doctor, talk with their health plan, or engage with health programs run by HHS.”

HHS also clarifies in the rule that “nothing in section 1557 shall be construed to have any effect on federal laws regarding conscience protection; willingness or refusal to provide abortion; and discrimination on the basis of the willingness or refusal to provide, pay for, cover, or refer for abortion or to provide or participate in training to provide abortion.”

The rule will go into effect on July 5, 60 days after being filed in the Federal Register.

This article has been updated.