Abortion drugs ruling puts ‘health of women at risk’, say American bishops

(Catholic Herald).

A decision by the United States Supreme Court relaxing chemical abortion drug regulations will put the “health of women and girls at risk,” according to the U.S. bishops. The 9-0 decision was made in the FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine case, which had aimed to roll back access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medication abortions. In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new drug application for mifepristone tablets marketed under the brand name Mifeprex for use in performing abortions for up to seven weeks. To help ensure that Mifeprex would be used safely and effectively, FDA placed additional restrictions on the drug’s use and distribution, for example requiring doctors to prescribe or to supervise prescription of Mifeprex, and requiring patients to have three in-person visits with the doctor to receive the drug. In 2021, FDA announced that it would no longer enforce the initial in-person visit requirement.

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In reimagining the papacy, don’t underestimate its star power

(Crux. John L. Allen Jr.).

Friday was among the most remarkable single days in the entire Pope Francis era, and given the way this papacy has generated non-stop thrills, chills and spills for more than 11 years now, that’s truly saying something. It was a long day’s journey into night, beginning at 8:30 a.m. with a still-unexplained, but nonetheless deeply amusing, encounter with more than 100 comedians from around the world – virtually every one of whom, for the record, told reporters they had no idea what they were doing in the Vatican – and ended fourteen hours later when Francis’s helicopter landed back in Rome, after the pontiff spent several hours at a G7 summit in the southern Italian region of Puglia. Any day that begins with the likes of Whoppi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon and Conan O’Brien, and then ends in the company of Joe Biden, Giorgia Meloni and Emanuel Macron, has to go down as memorable. (I leave it to the reader to mull which cast of characters, in the end, is the more laughable.) In addition to cajoling the G7 on the ethical dimension of artificial intelligence while in Puglia, Pope Francis also conducted bilateral meetings with nine heads of state, including not only Biden but President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, as well as the Director General of the International Monetary Fund.

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César García Magán: «La minoría cristiana en Europa tendrá que apuntar a la calidad»

(Franco Otero. Ecclesia).

Madrid acoge del 16 al 19 de junio la reunión de secretarios generales de los episcopados que integran el Consejo de Conferencias Episcopales de Europa (CCEE). Hablamos con el anfitrión, el secretario general de la CEE

La reunión anual de secretarios generales de los episcopados integrados en el Consejo de Conferencias Episcopales de Europa (CCEE) vuelve a España. Lo hace 16 años después de la última ocasión, cuando estuvieron reunidos en Covadonga, de la mano del entonces secretario general de la Conferencia Episcopal Española (CEE), Juan Antonio Martínez Camino. Ahora será en Madrid, del 16 al 19 de junio, después de la propuesta del actual secretario general, Francisco César García Magán, en la reunión del año pasado en Tirana.

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Rome LGBTQ+ Pride parade celebrates 30th anniversary, makes fun of Pope Francis comments

(Associated Press).

The Rome LGBTQ+ Pride parade celebrated its 30th anniversary Saturday as tens of thousands of people in brightly colored outfits marched through the Italian capital waving banners, dancing and singing as they marked gay rights and poked fun at Pope Francis. Many of the signs and banners at the parade made fun over a recent comment made by the pontiff. The Pope had to issue an apology last month after Italian media quoted unnamed bishops saying that Francis jokingly used the term “faggotness” while speaking in Italian during a meeting. He had used the term in reaffirming the Vatican’s ban on allowing gay men to enter seminaries and be ordained priests.Francis reportedly repeated the word a second time in a meeting with Rome priests this week.

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Catholic Church in Africa Urged to Tap into Diaspora Communities to Grow Continent

(Agnes Aineah. ACI Africa).

Catholic Bishops and religious communities in Africa have been urged to harness the potential of the diasporic communities in growing the continent.

Speaking during an online conversation that was organized by African theologians who seek to deepen the understanding of the Synthesis Report of the ongoing Synod on Synodality, Fr. Paulinus Odozor who teaches moral theology at the University of Notre Dame said Africa can benefit immensely from diaspora communities that he said already seem to be well organized.

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RDC : 30 ans d’évangélisation dans la guerre

(Rédaction. Zenit).

” Depuis 30 ans, nous sommes dans un cycle de violence et dans un éternel recommencement. On sait quand la guerre commence, mais on ne sait pas quand elle va se terminer », déclare l’abbé Floribert Bashimbe, vicaire général de l’archidiocèse de Bukavu en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC) lors de sa visite au siège international de l’AED « Cela fait 30 ans que nous évangélisons dans la guerre, que nous essayons de donner ce message d’espérance aux gens : ‘Dieu a créé l’homme pour la vie, non pour la mort !’ Il ne faut pas baisser les bras.”

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Magisterium AI: A Revolutionary Tool for Catholic Non-Profits and Apostolates

(Catholic Frundaiser).

For Catholic non-profits and apostolates, it can be a daunting task to stay up-to-date with the teachings of the Catholic Church while also fulfilling their mission to serve those in need. However, with the advent of Magisterium AI, this task has become much more manageable. This revolutionary tool makes accessible the teachings of the Catholic Church like never before, allowing non-profits and apostolates to write fundraising letters and emails that link their mission with the teachings of the Catholic Church. One of the biggest challenges for Catholic non-profits and apostolates is communicating to their donors and supporters how their mission aligns with the teachings of the Catholic Church. This can be especially tough when the teachings are complex and nuanced. Magisterium AI addresses this challenge by providing a simple and easy-to-use platform that allows non-profits and apostolates to access the Catholic Church’s teachings in a comprehensive and easy-to-understand way.

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Is ‘Dignitas Infinita’ the Document the Church Needs?

(Commonweal. Gilbert Meilaender).

In the process of preparing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1948, UNESCO convened a committee of philosophers to examine the theoretical basis for universal claims about human dignity and rights. Although able to agree on many particular claims, the philosophers could not agree on “why” those claims were true. That is, they could not develop any shared vision of human nature or the human person on which such claims could be based. Jacques Maritain, one of the participating philosophers, later recounted that “at one of the meetings of a UNESCO National Commission where human rights were being discussed, someone expressed astonishment that certain champions of violently opposed ideologies had agreed on a list of those rights. ‘Yes,’ they said, ‘we agree about the rights but on condition that no one asks us why.’” Though clearly humorous, that acknowledgment seems in some ways more straightforward and believable (to me) than Dignitas Infinita’s claim that a belief in the infinite dignity of every person “is fully recognizable even by reason alone,” though the Church “reiterates and confirms” this belief (1). Perhaps in principle the dignity of every person could be realized by reason alone, but not in the world we actually inhabit. It should be no surprise, then, if other parts of the document leave us wanting more.

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Across Canada, LGBTQ+ Advocates Challenge Catholic Schools to Celebrate Pride

(New ways ministry. Robert Shine).

The debate over LGBTQ+ issues and Canada’s Catholic schools, particularly how to mark Pride Month, has roiled those publicly-funded Catholic school systems for years. A hallmark of this debate has been votes on whether to fly rainbow flags in June. With the school year concluding, today’s post features four news stories where communities have resisted anti-LGBTQ+ efforts to quell celebrations, and have instead endorsed Pride.

Catholic Elementary School Offers Pride Day Celebrations

For the third year, St. Denis Catholic School, Toronto, hosted a daylong celebration of Pride that included an assembly with pro-LGBTQ+ presentations, a hoisting of the rainbow flag, a dance party, and “a visit to the school from an ice cream truck [where] rainbow sprinkles are on the menu,” reported Beach Metro Community News. Parents and older students were invited to a film screening of With Wonder, an award-winning documentary about whether someone can be Christian and queer. A conversation with the director, Sharon Lewis, was held after the film.

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10 years after Mosul’s destruction, will Christians come back?

(The Catholic World Report. Georgena Habbaba).

The fall of Mosul, Iraq, to ISIS in 2014 wasn’t the beginning of the struggle for the city’s Christians. Killings, abductions, and threats from armed groups had plagued the community since the 2003 invasion by U.S. military. Clergy and laypeople alike bore the brunt of the violence, with bombings targeting churches as well. The situation reached a peak when security forces crumbled, failing to protect Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the heart of Nineveh province. ISIS seized control on June 10, 2014, plunging Mosul’s Christians into the darkest period of their recent history. Today, they grapple with rebuilding their lives while demanding accountability and a future built on equity and justice. In the wake of clashes and bombings between security forces and ISIS, Mosul’s residents were left to fend for themselves. Witness Nahed Abdul Ahad, interviewed by ACI Mena, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, described the complete absence of security forces. “Many families fled the city, particularly Christians,” Abdul Ahad said. “They feared the worst, especially after widespread reports of killings and torture by terrorists. Others clung to the hope that this was just a temporary security lapse.”

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World needs urgent political action to guide AI, pope tells G7

(The US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Carol Glatz).

Political leaders have a responsibility to create the conditions necessary for artificial intelligence to be at the service of humanity and to help mitigate its risks, Pope Francis told world leaders. “We cannot allow a tool as powerful and indispensable as artificial intelligence to reinforce such a (technocratic) paradigm, but rather, we must make artificial intelligence a bulwark” against the threat, he said in his address June 14 at the Group of Seven summit being held in southern Italy. “This is precisely where political action is urgently needed,” he said. Many people believe politics is “a distasteful word, often due to the mistakes, corruption and inefficiency of some politicians — not all of them, some. There are also attempts to discredit politics, to replace it with economics or to twist it to one ideology or another,” he said. But the world cannot function without healthy politics, the pope said, and effective progress toward “universal fraternity and social peace” requires a sound political life. 

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Joe Biden meets with Pope Francis at G7 Summit to discuss foreign policy, climate change

(CNA. Tyler Arnold).

President Joe Biden privately met with Pope Francis early Friday evening in Apulia, Italy, at the Group of Seven (G7) Summit to discuss foreign policy and climate change. Francis is the first pope to address the G7 summit, which is an annual meeting of government leaders from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and Italy. The European Union also participates but is not an official member. In a statement following the meeting, the White House said both leaders “emphasized the urgent need for an immediate cease-fire and a hostage deal” in Gaza and the need to “address the critical humanitarian crisis.”

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In the midst of confusion: Rethinking the “synodal way”

(Catholic Culture. Dr. Jeff Mirus).

It is one of the odd—but in the long run potentially fruitful—features of the current pontificate that a great emphasis on synodality in theory has emerged under a Pope who tends to act unilaterally. This is not particularly surprising since we humans so often tend towards failure when it comes to living out in practice the principles we hold in theory. This characteristic is expressed most clearly in Proverbs 24:16, which notes that “the just man falls seven times a day” (though of course he “rises up again”). But it is seen not just in our simple weaknesses, but in our very human inconsistency, for we often simply do not practice what we preach. Moreover, it is almost axiomatic that what annoys us most in another is precisely the kind of bad behavior we do not recognize in ourselves. Nonetheless, Pope Francis has consistently advocated a more synodal Church, even if “synodality” has not been clearly defined, and even if synodality will, in the West at least, almost always be first interpreted as something very like democracy, making the concept fair game for those who want to change the perennial teachings of the Church Christ founded. Nonetheless, the concept of synodality can bear very good fruit if it is properly understood not as democracy but as each Catholic actively fulfilling the obligations of his or her state in life in a harmonious participation in the full life of the Church. This concept bears upon a great many things. The root meaning of the word “synodality” is “a way together”. As manifested in Church history, the concept has expressed itself in “synods”, that is, in meetings of the bishops of particular regions to address the spiritual problems of those regions. This has offered the opportunity for a joint exercise of the episcopal office of teaching, ruling and sanctifying, in addressing the particular spiritual deficiencies in a region, especially problems arising from specific errors which were leading people astray and creating unrest among the faithful. By exercising their episcopal authority in this “synodal” way, the bishops of a region could add weight to their decisions, especially if it became necessary to combat errors of one or more particularly wayward bishops.

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Doctors Protecting Children Declaration

(Doctors Protecting Children).

Therefore, given the recent research and the revelations of the harmful approach advocated by WPATH and its followers in the United States, we, the undersigned, call upon the medical professional organizations of the United States, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the  Endocrine Society, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to follow the science and their European professional colleagues and immediately stop the promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over their biological sex.  Instead, these organizations should recommend comprehensive evaluations and therapies aimed at identifying and addressing underlying psychological co-morbidities and neurodiversity that often predispose to and accompany gender dysphoria. We also encourage the physicians who are members of these professional organizations to contact their leadership and urge them to adhere to the evidence-based research now available.”

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El Papa muestra su «esperanza» en que los Juegos Olímpicos sean «un canal diplomático» que pare la guerra

(Luis Rivas. Ecclesia).

El papa Francisco firma el prólogo al libro Juegos de paz. El alma de las Olimpíadas y de las Paralimpíadas, a cargo de Vincenzo Parrinello, antiguo deportista y miembro del Comité Olímpico Italiano. En su reflexión, el Pontífice destaca que «en el momento histórico especialmente oscuro que vivimos», esta celebración deportiva a nivel mundial es «una oportunidad para la paz», cuyo lenguaje popular y común es «comprensible para todos» y «en todas las latitudes». Y recuerda que «la Carta Olímpica enuncia el principio de la centralidad de la persona en su dignidad y se compromete a contribuir a la construcción de un mundo mejor».

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Claudia Sheinbaum y la Iglesia católica.

(Mons. Francisco Javier Acero Pérez, o.a.r. Obispo auxilar de la arquidiócesis primada de México. Religión Digital).

Inicio esta reflexión haciendo alusión al estado laico de nuestro país como lo marca el artículo cuarenta y recordando las palabras del papa Francisco a un semanario belga sobre la laicidad:

«Una cosa es laicidad y otra cosa es laicismo, que cierra las puertas a la trascendencia: a la doble trascendencia, tanto la trascendencia hacia los demás como, sobre todo, la trascendencia hacia Dios. Por ese motivo, una cultura o un sistema político que no respete la apertura a la trascendencia de la persona, poda, corta a la persona humana. O sea, no respeta a la persona humana. Quienes provocan tensiones religiosas por puro afán de ganancia política hacen un flaco servicio al país, lo mismo que hacen un flaco servicio a la religión quienes la deforman e instrumentalizan para promover el fundamentalismo. No se puede hacer la guerra en nombre de Dios  o en nombre de una postura religiosa. En ninguna religión. Y, por lo tanto, el terrorismo, la guerra, no están relacionados con la religión. Se usan deformaciones religiosas para justificarla. Todas la religiones tienen grupos fundamentalistas. Todas. Nosotros también. Y desde ahí, destruyen desde su fundamentalismo. Pero esos son los grupos fundamentalistas que tenemos todas las religiones. Siempre hay un grupito».

Una de las muestras de madurez por parte de los católicos es la de ser puentes en este tiempo de cambio época en donde el laicismo se quiere hacer presente de muchas maneras. Durante  este tiempo electoral en México han estado taladrando nuestros ánimos para optar por una candidata y candidato a la Presidencia de Gobierno por medio de las encuestas, las entrevistas, los tiempos de radio y televisión.

El papel de la Iglesia católica desde el inicio de esta campaña electoral ha sido el promover la participación ciudadana. “Vayamos a votar por un México unido y en paz” era el lema que invitaba a los católicos a ejercer el derecho al voto como ciudadanos. La Conferencia Episcopal después de las elecciones ha hecho un llamado al pueblo de Dios para que se respeten los resultados, se ha felicitado a la Dra. Claudia Sheinbaum y también a todos los ciudadanos ya que fue una jornada marcada por la paz, recordando que, desde octubre de 2023, al menos 4 mujeres y 26 hombres que aspiraban a una candidatura, participaron en un contienda interna por una candidatura o eran candidatos a un puesto de elección popular fueron asesinados.

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