National Catholic Register

Is LGBT Persons’ Mental Health Improving?

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(National Catholic Register. Jennifer Roback Morse).

The social acceptance of homosexual behavior has greatly increased over the past 30 years. In that time, the United States has changed the definition of marriage, the structures of the military, the curriculum of our public schools and the objectives of our foreign policy. Many people supported these changes because they thought this greater social acceptance would make self-identified gays and lesbians feel better. I propose that we stop and ask: Have these changes actually improved the mental health of the people who were supposed to be helped? No serious researcher in this arena denies that the rates of psychological distress are higher for self-described gay men and lesbian women than for everyone else. The measures that have been studied include substance abuse disorders, affective disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, self-harm, eating disorders and suicidal tendencies. Researchers across the board agree on these basic facts. The only question is why.

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‘Bishop of Rome’: A Theologically Fruitful Clarification of the Church as a Communion of Believers

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(National Catholic Register. Larry Chapp).

The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, headed by Cardinal Kurt Koch, recently published a lengthy new text on the question of the papacy and ecumenical relations. The document, “The Bishop of Rome: Primacy and Synodality in the Ecumenical Dialogues and in the Responses to the Encyclical Ut Unum Sint,” is not a magisterial text like an encyclical or apostolic exhortation, but is rather a “study document” intended to reopen ecumenical conversations that have been stalled. However, I think its true value will most likely end up being something that is only tangentially related to its legitimate ecumenical aims. Indeed, with its exhaustive listing of the various discussions that preceded it, the text shows us that the ecumenical movement remains mired in a series of impasses that are unlikely to be resolved any time soon. And the issues involved go far beyond the single question of papal authority. Therefore, the document’s initial impact will, in my view, be the reinvigoration of internal Catholic discussions about the proper exercise of the papal office. I think the text itself gives evidence of an awareness of this reality in its repeated emphasis on the need for a more “synodal” Church. The ongoing processes established by Pope Francis relating to the Synod on Synodality create a context for this document that makes its relevance for Catholic discussions of the topic even more pronounced, if not urgent. Indeed, the text itself implies that the best way for the Church to appear authentically committed to the ecumenical cause is by taking very real concrete steps in the direction of a less papally-centered Church.

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4 Questions the US Supreme Court’s Abortion Pills Decision Didn’t Decide

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(National Catholic Register. Matthew McDonald).

The limited abortion-pill decision of the U.S. Supreme Court June 13 leaves major questions about the future of the drug unanswered, pro-life advocates contend. The high court unanimously found in Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine that the four pro-life organizations and four pro-life doctors who brought a lawsuit challenging loosened federal regulations on abortion pills lacked standing — meaning they aren’t, in the court’s view, affected enough by the federal agency’s decisions to bring the lawsuit. But the court did not rule on the merits of their case. About 63% of all abortions in the United States in 2023 took place through abortion pills, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion and collects information about it. That percentage has been steadily growing in recent years and is expected to keep rising. This means that abortion policy is quickly becoming abortion-pill policy.

Here are four abortion pill issues that are still unresolved:

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In Unanimous Decision, SCOTUS Rejects Doctors’ Challenge to Abortion Pill

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(National Catholic Register. Daniel Payne).

The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously ruled against a physician-led challenge to the abortion pill, striking down an attempt by advocates to impose stricter regulations on the drug.  The Court said in its Thursday ruling that the plaintiffs, represented by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM), lacked standing to challenge U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulation of the abortion drug mifepristone. AHM, which represents pro-life medical groups, sued the FDA in November 2022 to challenge the agency’s longstanding approval of the drug.  The lawsuit further challenged the FDA’s subsequent deregulation of the drug, particularly its permission to prescribe the medicine without an in-person doctor’s visit and to dispense the drug through the mail. The high court heard oral arguments in the case in March of this year.

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Changing Face of Catholic Church in Japan Amid Nation’s Existential Crisis

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(National Catholic Register. Victor Gaetan).

At peak cherry blossom season in April, I spent 14 beautiful days exploring the Catholic Church in Japan by wing and foot, metro and bullet train. I began with Archbishop Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Tokyo on the eve of his ad limina visit with Pope Francis in Rome and ended with a prominent Shinto priest, Mitsui Shinsaku, who will attend a September peace conference organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio.  Statistics alone say little. Out of a population of approximately 125 million people, about 536,000 are Catholic. Another 500,000 Catholics work in Japan, sometimes for many years. Fifteen dioceses including three archdioceses (Nagasaki, Osaka, and Tokyo) embrace 850 parishes served by one seminary. Delicate and unbreakable … humble and proud … Japanese culture and society balance oppositions. Among so many impressions, I distilled four realities about the Catholic Church in the Land of the Rising Sun to share: New Catholics are part of an increasingly multi-cultural society; Catholic schools magnify Church influence; Jesuits brought the faith to Japan in 1549 and still have clout; and peace is a shared agenda fusing Vatican and Japanese worldviews. 

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Catholic Church in Africa is Booming, But Faces ‘Big Challenges,’ Says Continent’s Newest Cardinal

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(National Catholic Register. Jonathan Liedl).

One of Africa’s newest cardinals affirmed that the people of his continent will play a leading role in the future of Catholicism, but also acknowledged that the Church in Africa faces serious challenges amid its boom. Citing the incredible growth in the Church in Africa, which has 250 million more adherents today than 125 years ago and is projected to be home to one out of every three Catholics in the world by 2050, Cardinal Protase Rugambwa told the Register that it is “true” that “the future of the Church is in Africa.” “What is the Church, after all?” asked the leader of the Archdiocese of Tabora, Tanzania. “We are talking about the presence of the people; the believers, the adherents, the followers. In Africa, there is no question that if you count those who have been baptized, with each succeeding day the numbers are increasing.” At the same time, Cardinal Rugambwa said that the Church in Africa is confronted by “big challenges,” such as obstacles to forming quality priests to serve its people, the rise of Christian sectarianism, as well as ideological pressures from outside. “We have different theories, different ideas coming, different ideologies,” said the former secretary of the Vatican’s evangelization office, specifically referencing gender ideology. “So we have to get prepared.”

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Vatican Faces Backlash Over Use of Artwork by Accused Abuser Father Rupnik

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(National Catholic Register. Adriana Azarian).

The Vatican is once again drawing criticism for using the artwork of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik in a Vatican News article on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 7. Father Rupnik, a priest and artist, has been accused of spiritual, psychological, and sexual abuse of religious sisters. He was removed from the Jesuits last June, and the Vatican has announced that Rupnik will face a canonical process over the abuse allegations after Pope Francis decided to waive the statute of limitations on the claims.

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Zero Abortions in Arkansas for 2023: A Pro-Life Victory

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(National Catholic Register. Adriana Azarian).

The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) released its yearly report on induced abortions, recording no abortions in the state in 2023.  Following the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022, Arkansas law prohibited abortion in all cases except to save the life of the mother. Prior to the Dobbs decision, the ADH reported around 3,200 abortions on average each year. Arkansas is one of 14 states with a “total ban” on abortion. “It’s the constant teaching of the Church that abortion is always gravely immoral, and we know it’s never medically necessary, so we do welcome that report,” said Catherine Phillips, director of Respect Life in the Diocese of Little Rock. 

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Vatican Clears New Zealand Cardinal John Dew of Abuse Allegations

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(National catholic Register. Ac Wimmer).

A Vatican-led review of an abuse complaint against New Zealand Cardinal John Dew has concluded that no further Church inquiry is required, according to a statement by Archbishop Paul Martin of Wellington provided to CNA on Wednesday. The allegation of historical sexual abuse had been raised against Dew around the time he retired as archbishop of Wellington in May of last year. The archdiocese said on June 5 that New Zealand police had also conducted a lengthy inquiry that led to a decision not to file any charges. The accusations dated back to the 1970s and involved an alleged incident at St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Upper Hutt, roughly 20 miles northeast of Wellington, where Dew was serving as an assistant priest at the time.  “Cardinal Dew immediately stood aside from all public Church activities while the police investigated the allegations,” Archbishop Martin said.  “When the police advised in March that no charges would be laid, Cardinal Dew continued to stand aside while a separate Vatican review proceeded, using the Church’s international procedures for complaints against bishops.”

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Millions Celebrate ‘Roots’ of Africa’s Catholic Faith at Martyrs’ Day in Uganda

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(National Catholic Register. Jonathan Liedl).

In an extraordinary display of the vitality of the Catholic faith in Africa, a crowd of possibly more than 4 million people gathered for Mass today on the very same grounds where some of Africa’s earliest Catholics were put to death for their faith less than 140 years ago. The annual celebration of the feast day of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, 24 young converts who were martyred by King Mwanga in 1886, drew Catholics from across the continent and beyond to a vibrant, three-hour-long liturgical celebration at Basilica of the Uganda Martyrs in Namugongo, just outside of the nation’s capital of Kampala. The celebration marked 60 years since the Ugandan martyrs were canonized by Pope St. Paul VI in the midst of the Second Vatican Council, making them the Church’s first canonized martyrs from sub-Saharan Africa. 

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Melinda Gates Now Biggest Catholic Donor to Pro-Abortion Causes in the World

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(National Catholic Register. Matthew McDonald).

For years, Melinda French Gates, who identifies as a Catholic, said she struggled with abortion as a public-policy issue and wouldn’t give money to it from the foundation she helped run with her now-former husband, Bill. The struggle appears to be over. Gates, who has written fondly about her Catholic upbringing, said this week she is giving multimillion-dollar donations to abortion-supporting groups. The May 28 announcement saddened pro-lifers. “Melinda French Gates could do much to help women and their preborn children on the national — and even international level — yet she has decided instead to pour money into the abortion industry that already makes billions of dollars by taking the lives of innocent preborn children,” Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, told the Register. 

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New Mexico Priest Dies by Suicide Amid Child Sex Abuse Investigation

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(National Catholic Register. Daniel Payne).

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, said last week that a former priest charged in a child sex abuse case ended his own life ahead of a court hearing on the matter. The archdiocese said in a press release that Father Daniel Balizan had “taken his life” ahead of “a hearing in a child sexual abuse case.” Local media reported that Balizan’s body was found on Friday morning in Springer, New Mexico. Father Balizan’s “tragic decision to end his life underscores the far-reaching and devastating consequences of the crime of child abuse — affecting victims, their loved ones, and even perpetrators themselves,” the archdiocese said in its Friday statement. 

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Transgender Hermit Announcement Poses Questions About Church’s Teaching on Religious Life

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(National Catholic Register. Matthew McDonald).

A hermit in Kentucky who publicly identified as transgender this past weekend has prompted questions about how the Catholic Church should deal with such cases in religious life given the Church’s opposition to what Pope Francis has called “gender ideology.” The announcement has also raised questions about how the hermit, a female who identifies as a man, got religious training at a Benedictine monastery for men. Brother Christian Matson, the hermit’s religious name, went public about Matson’s gender identity in a Religion News Service story published May 19, which was based on interviews with Matson and with Bishop John Stowe, a Conventual Franciscan who leads the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, where the hermit lives.

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Jailed Pro-Lifer, Awaiting Appeal, Spends Time in Prayer and Reading Catholic Classics

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(National Catholic Register. Patty Knap).

On May 14, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced John Hinshaw, 68, of Long Island, New York, to 21 months in jail for violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health-care services or with churches.  The Washington, D.C., center at which Hinshaw and others protested was operated by Dr. Cesare Santangelo, who performed abortions through the ninth month. It’s the same center where five late-term aborted babies, who may have either been killed by illegal partial-birth abortion procedures or after being born alive, were discovered.

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‘St. John Paul II and Jérôme Lejeune: Two Lives at the Service of Life’

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(George Weigel. NC Register).

Many of the participants in this conference are experts in the life and thought of a great man of science and a great man of faith, the Venerable Jérôme Lejeune; I am not. But as the biographer of Pope St. John Paul II, I do know something about that exemplary disciple and powerful thinker, and I know that this great saint had the highest regard for Jérôme Lejeune.

As John Paul put it in a letter to Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, archbishop of Paris, on the day after Dr. Lejeune was called home to the Lord, Dr. Lejeune had a “charism”: a gift of God that empowered him to “employ his profound knowledge of life and its secrets for the true good of man and of humanity, and only for that purpose.”

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Pope Francis Appoints Cardinal Tagle as Special Envoy to National Eucharistic Congress

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(Zoe Romanowsky. CNA).

Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, as his special envoy to the National Eucharistic Congress in the United States, which will be celebrated in Indianapolis July 17-21, 2024. The announcement was made Saturday by the Vatican.

Cardinal Tagle will celebrate the closing Mass of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress.

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Synodal Way Isn’t Answer to Germany’s ‘Mission Country’ Status, Evangelization Leaders Say

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(National Catholic Register. Jonathan Liedl).

When a high-ranking German prelate recently described Germany as a “mission country” due to cratering rates of Christian affiliation and expressed the need for a “new evangelization,” many German Catholic leaders in evangelization nodded along in agreement. After all, the leaders of these “new evangelization” efforts have operated under the premise that the once-Christian country is in need of a spiritual renewal for years, giving rise to apostolates dedicated to everything from catechesis to young adult formation.

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Toronto Catholic Schools Allow Pride Flag, Reject Pro-Life Flag

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(National Catholic Register. Charles Lewis).

There are some ideas so fundamental to Catholic teaching that they must be accepted by Catholics without question. Opposition to abortion and opposition to euthanasia are two such core teachings that are not up for question. These pro-life convictions provide a key to a greater understanding of what the Church stands for. If the Church isn’t for life, it isn’t for much of anything.

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Cardinal Erdő: ‘A Man of Unity, a Bridge Between East and West’

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(National Catholic Register. Solène Tadié).

Cardinal Péter Erdő is today one of the few Catholic authorities to arouse the admiration of his peers and the interest of Catholic observers around the world. Yet he makes himself relatively scarce in the media and keeps away from the controversies and power plays that have often surrounded the Church in recent years. 

What are the aspects of his work and personality that continue to set him apart, making him a model of religious leadership for our time and one of the leading papabili in the event of a conclave?

This passage from an article published in the journal of the Italian Catholic movement Communion and Liberation in 2004 reflected the perception the Catholic establishment already had of the newly created cardinal: “When Cardinal Péter Erdő gave his address at the Catholic University in Milan, the older professors recalled a precedent. In 1978, a young cardinal passed through the same Aula Magna in Largo Gemelli, Karol Wojtyla. There was the same impression of polite power, the same fascination for students.”

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Demographic Trends, Financial Challenges Force Catholic College Closures

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(NCR. Stephen Beale).

Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts has become one of 21 Catholic colleges across the country to shut its doors, merge with another institution, or announce plans to do so since 2016. On May 11, more than a dozen graduates of the Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts will receive their diplomas, following in the tradition of others who have turned their tassels to the left, strolled out onto campus, and tossed their mortarboards into the crisp mountain air. They will be the last class of Magdalen graduates. Nearly 50 years after the school, heeding the call of Vatican II for laity to play a larger leadership role in the life of the Church, enrolled its first freshmen, Magdalen has become one of 21 Catholic colleges across the country to shut its doors, merge with another institution, or announce plans to do so since 2016, according to data from Higher Ed Dive analyzed by the Cardinal Newman Society.

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