Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

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. 

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. 

null / JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock

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.

Aerial view of tornado damage in Elkhorn, Nebraska, taken on April 29, 2024. Tornadoes ripped through the Midwest over the weekend of April 26–28, 2024. / Credit: mpi34/MediaPunch/IPX/AP Photo

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

After a blockbuster night of severe weather that saw tornadoes touch down in at least six states on Friday, one Catholic parish in Nebraska is stepping up in a particular way to help their neighbors after a massive twister leveled parts of their community April 26.

St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Elkhorn, Nebraska, a suburb northwest of Omaha, mobilized volunteers in recent days to coordinate monetary donations and gift cards for more than 30 local families whose homes have suffered various degrees of damage. The church also opened its doors to local law enforcement, which used the church’s gym as a reunification point after the storm.

“We reached out and extended help pretty instantly,” Eric Crawford, the parish’s advancement director, told CNA.

The parish itself, which is in the process of building a new sanctuary about half a mile from its current site, was relatively untouched, but homes “half a mile to a mile” away were flattened, Crawford said. The Friday tornadoes — two notably large ones hit the Omaha area — ultimately destroyed or damaged at least 150 homes, the AP reported. Miraculously, there have not been any reported fatalities thus far. The larger of the two tornadoes tore through Elkhorn. 

“We were narrowly missed … but some of our parishioners live in that area, and so they’ve been directly affected by it,” he said. 

One of those parishioners was a bedridden man who was unable to get to his basement when the tornado ripped through his home. Miraculously, the man survived with non-life-threatening injuries, and two crucifixes and an image of the Virgin Mary remained on the ruined walls untouched, according to a local news report.

Crawford encouraged people of goodwill to donate to the parish’s Human Needs Committee, which is working with the Omaha Rapid Response Team, a local nonprofit disaster-response team founded by Omaha churches.

“Keep our parish in your prayers, and then if [you] feel called to make some sort of contribution to our cause and our relief efforts, that would be much appreciated,” he said.

The Omaha chapter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is also accepting monetary donations, as is Catholic Charities Omaha (CCO). Dave Vankat, CCO’s chief community engagement officer, told CNA that the agency is prepared to offer long-term help for the tornado victims, such as food assistance and mental health resources, including mental health assistance for school children who may have been traumatized by the experience of the storm.

A contemplative community of religious sisters, the Poor Clare Nuns of Omaha, is located in Elkhorn just a few miles from the path the tornado and just a seven-minute drive from St. Patrick’s Parish. Mother Kathleen Hawkins, OSC, the abbess of the community, told CNA that the monastery lost power and had to rely on a backup generator during the storm. She said none of the sisters were injured and there does not appear to be any damage to the property but also that the monastery has been flooded with calls from people wanting to make sure the nuns are safe.

An extremely active day of tornadoes in the Midwest came to a head on April 26, with dozens of tornadoes reported across the broad swath of the central U.S. The next day, Saturday, saw large numbers of tornadoes develop in Oklahoma, where semitrucks were overturned on I-35 and at least four people died.

This story has been updated.

Elevation of the chalice at a Traditional Latin Mass. / Credit: Wikimedia JoeJ10/CC BY-SA 4.0

CNA Newsroom, Apr 30, 2024 / 11:45 am (CNA).

At the pinnacle of his professional sports career, one French athlete announced his intention to quit volleyball to embrace monastic life at a famous French abbey. 

Ludovic Duée, captain of the Saint-Nazaire volleyball team and recently crowned French champion, shared a deeply personal decision with local media: He has chosen to retire from the sport that brought him fame and success and embark on a new path at the Abbey of Sainte-Marie de Lagrasse.

Duée, 32, confirmed his life-changing move to Ouest-France following his team’s championship victory on April 28.

“This is a decision that stems from the depths of my soul,” Duée said. 

Coming from a practicing Catholic family, he described — according to Catholic newspaper LaCroix — his religious practice as minimal until his encounter with the canons regular of Lagrasse during the COVID-19 pandemic: The monks “were very welcoming and answered all my questions.”

The profound impact of meeting and communicating with the Canons Regular of the Mother of God led Duée to a personal revelation.

“I discovered that God loved me and that he only wanted one thing, for me to love him back,” he said, according to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner. The transformative experience has set him on a new path to reciprocating that love. 

The Abbey of Sainte-Marie de Lagrasse in the south of France has its origins in the seventh century. Today the monastery, which lies about 400 miles from Paris, is renowned for its adherence to the Traditional Latin Mass.

What is more, this monastery melds liturgical richness with a deep engagement with the local community: The canons are actively engaged in their diocese, contributing to social outreach programs, participating in sports, and providing spiritual and practical support to migrants at the village asylum center.

For now, Duée will live and learn among the canons without yet taking vows: “During the next few months, I will live and breathe the canon regular life. I will experience everything from the inside out to gain a deeper understanding of the community and determine if this is the long-term fit for me, and for them.”

Following the Rule of St. Augustine, the devout Frenchman has embarked on a spiritual journey that may ultimately lead to taking the vows of a novice: After years of personal and theological development, the end goal is to make a permanent commitment as a priest and canon regular.

Father David Waller will become the first bishop Ordinary of the Ordinariate. / Credit: Courtesy photo / Bishop's Conference of England and Wales

National Catholic Register, Apr 29, 2024 / 18:45 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has announced a new leader of the ordinariate in Great Britain.

Father David Waller, 62, a parish priest and vicar general of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, will replace Monsignor Keith Newton, 72, who is retiring after serving over 13 years as the ordinary of the ecclesiastical structure for former Anglicans.

In a statement, Newton called the Vatican’s April 29 announcement “momentous” given that Waller, who is a celibate, will become the first bishop ordinary of the ordinariate. 

As someone who was already married as an Anglican clergyman before entering the Church through the ordinariate, Newton was not allowed episcopal consecration.

Established by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 through his 2009 apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, the ordinariate is an ecclesiastical structure for Anglicans wishing to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining their distinctive Anglican patrimony.  

With today’s announcement, the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham becomes the first of three in the world — the others being in the U.S./Canada and Australia — to have had an influence in choosing its leader. 

In keeping with the Anglican emphasis on consultation and in accordance with the Anglicanorum Coetibus, members of the ordinariate’s governing council, made up of ordinariate priests, were able to choose Waller as one of three names they recommended to the Holy See. 

Newton said he believed allowing this faculty, one that is usually left to the apostolic nuncio, “showed the Holy See’s confidence in the ordinariate in the U.K.” 

A former Anglican vicar who served as a pastor, part-time hospital chaplain, and a member of the governing body of the Church of England, Waller was among the first Anglican clergy to be received into the Church following the establishment of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in 2011. 

He was then ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood, has served in two parishes, and was elected chairman of the ordinariate’s governing council. For the past four years he has worked with Newton as vicar general. 

In a statement, Waller said it was “both humbling and a great honor” to have been appointed ordinary. “The past 13 years have been a time of grace and blessing as small and vulnerable communities have grown in confidence, rejoicing to be a full yet distinct part of the Catholic Church,” he added. 

Already well known to members of the ordinariate, he said he was looking forward to serving them in his new role, adding that experience over these past years has taught him “there is nothing to be feared in responding to the Lord and that Jesus does great things with us despite our inadequacies.”

Newton said in a statement that he was “delighted” with Waller’s appointment, adding that he has been “unwaveringly loyal” to the ordinariate and a “great support” to him as vicar general. 

Waller has been “totally been involved in life of the ordinariate and understands it all, and is a good administrator,” Newton told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner. 

No coercion to step down

Newton stressed that he had chosen to retire while he is still active. 

“I’ve not been forced out in any way, and nobody has told me to retire; it’s totally my own decision,” he said. “It’s a time to pass it on to new hands,” he continued, adding that he and his wife, Gill, “want to enjoy a bit of retirement together.” 

Other prominent priests of the ordinariate also welcomed the news of Waller’s appointment. Father Ed Tomlinson, priest in charge of St. Anselm’s Ordinariate Parish Church in Pembury, Tunbridge Wells, told the Register he was “delighted the ordinariate will have a bishop” and that he wished “Father David the best.” 

Father Benedict Kiely, an ordinariate priest of the same parish who also runs the charity Nasarean.org for persecuted Christians, said: “I will always remain grateful to Msgr. Keith for making the defense of persecuted Christians an important part of the ordinariate, and I’m sure Bishop David will continue that support.”

Newton said the date and place of Waller’s episcopal ordination have yet to be confirmed but that he expected it to take place “towards the end of June.” 

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and is reprinted here on CNA with permission.

French authorities determined that "there does not appear that there is any infraction sufficiently characterized to justify any criminal procedure" against Father Matthieu Raffray. / Credit: Father Matthieu Raffray YouTube Channel / Screenshot

ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 29, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

French priest Matthieu Raffray disclosed that the Paris prosecutor’s office has dismissed a case initiated against him for stating that homosexual relations are a sin and for calling homosexuality a “weakness.”

In a legal document addressed to the priest and shared by him April 26, it stated that “on March 19, the interministerial delegation for the fight against racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-LGBT hatred went to the Paris prosecutor’s office” regarding “two posts made on your X (Twitter) and Instagram accounts” in January and March.

The priest of the Institute of the Good Shepherd — created in 2006 in Rome for “the defense and dissemination of Catholic tradition in all its forms,” according to the website of this society of apostolic life — had posted in late January a comment on X about “conversion therapies.”

“The LGBT Corner” had asked in a Jan. 28 mocking post on X whether “a person can get conversion therapy for 10 euros in France. That’s what Father LeCoq implies whom I contacted to help my son suffering from ‘homophile tendencies.’ He directed me to the retreat ‘Be a Man’ to be held again in Annecy.”

In response Raffray wrote: “Every spiritual retreat is conversion therapy. Since the beginnings of Catholicism, Christians have withdrawn from the world to find themselves before the Lord in order to become better” and criticized the “gross ignorance” and modus operandi of the LGBT lobby.

On March 15, the priest posted a video on Instagram in which he encouraged the faithful to fight against their weaknesses.

In a March Instagram video, Raffray encouraged the faithful to fight against their weaknesses, among others homosexuality, and commented that each person has his or her own weapons with which to fight, but the devil convinces people that the fight “is too hard” and therefore it’s useless to resist.

The legal notice stated that “after a careful examination of the comments” of the priest “it does not appear that there is any infraction sufficiently characterized to justify any criminal procedure against him.”

“Therefore,” the document concluded, “this process is being dismissed.”

Raffray pointed out that “the comments I made do not fall within the scope of the law.”

“I pray for my enemies and I thank everyone who has supported me,” he added.

Who is Father Matthieu Raffray?

Raffray is a well-known French priest who has a growing apostolate on the internet and social media aimed especially at young French-speaking people.

He has more than 60,000 followers on Instagram, more than 22,000 on YouTube, and more than 21,000 on X.

He is a pro-life and pro-family advocate and has published French-language books such as “Myths and Lies of Progressivism” (2020) and more recently “The Greatest of Combats,” with which he seeks to answer the fundamental and existential questions of life.

Raffray, 45, was born in 1979 and is one of nine children. He studied mathematics before being ordained a priest in 2009.

He holds a doctorate in philosophy and teaches at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome.

According to the publication European Conservative, he rose to fame in 2020 after an interview with French YouTuber Baptiste Marchais in which he defended the return to a “virile Catholicism” and patriotic sentiment among the Catholic faithful. 

What does the Catholic Church teach about homosexuality?

Catholic teaching on homosexuality is summarized in Nos. 2357, 2358, and 2359 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Church teaches that men and women with same-sex attraction “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

The catechism notes that homosexual inclination is “objectively disordered” and constitutes for those who experience it “a trial.”

Based on sacred Scripture, the catechism states that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and “they do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity.” Consequently, “under no circumstances can they be approved.”

“Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection,” the catechism explains.

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

President Joe Biden speaks during the White House Correspondents dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., on April 27, 2024. / Credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 29, 2024 / 16:52 pm (CNA).

U.S. president Joe Biden has come under fire for making the sign of the cross during a rally criticizing measures that restrict abortion.

Among his critics are José Ignacio Munilla, the bishop of Orihuela-Alicante in Spain, who called Biden’s gesture a “sacrilege.”

Biden went to Tampa, Florida, on April 23 for a campaign stop one week before a law restricting abortion in the state from 15 to six weeks of gestation was due to go into effect.

While a Biden supporter on stage criticized Florida governor and former Republican candidate for president Ron DeSantis for signing the bill, Biden made the sign of the cross.

On his weekday radio program on Radio María España, Munilla said that making the sign of the cross in support of abortion constitutes a “sacrilegious” gesture and “the desecration of the sign of the cross.”

“Invoking Jesus Christ in support of abortion” has drawn strong criticism “in many pro-life and Catholic circles,” the bishop pointed out.

Crossing oneself, Munilla said, is meant to be used as a sign “in which we remember that Jesus gave his life for us, he gave his life for all the innocents, he gave his life to restore innocence and to make us saints.” 

To use the sign of the cross as Biden did, however, is to “invoke the cross in a sacrilegious manner.”

Referring to the incident, the Spanish prelate warned of the risk that a Catholic might publicly show his faith by crossing himself while at the same time twisting its meaning “in a sacrilegious manner.”

Munilla questions moral stature of Biden, Trump

In addition to commenting on the incident, the prelate also offered a critical analysis of the two contenders for president of the United States, Biden and former president Donald Trump.

“In a nation like the United States, shouldn’t there be [candidates] from both the Democratic Party as well as the Republican Party with enough moral stature to properly represent their parties to the electorate?” he asked. In his opinion, both Biden and Trump lack that moral stature.

“Consider what Biden represents with his deteriorating condition, even psychologically, to run for president again with this absolute desecration of his own (purportedly Catholic) values, having made the cause of abortion, the spread of abortion throughout the world, almost his highest value,” Munilla said, commenting on the incumbent president.

Regarding Trump, Munilla noted that “although he has defended the pro-life cause — not totally, but in fact in a forceful way — he is involved in many [court] cases in which his moral stature has undoubtedly been seriously affected.”

Munilla prayed that the Lord “would raise up vocations to public life so that there are truly young people who, with a life of integrity consistent with their values, have as their only watchword, as the only driving force of their entering into political life, the desire to serve the common good.”

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

null / Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 29, 2024 / 16:10 pm (CNA).

A federal court has ordered the governments of North Carolina and West Virginia to provide coverage for sex-change operations in state health care plans offered to state employees and through Medicaid.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals — which has jurisdiction over North Carolina, West Virginia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland — ruled in an 8-6 decision that refusing to provide coverage for transgender operations in state health care plans is discrimination “on the basis of gender identity and sex” in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

The ruling claims policies in both states violate the Constitution and federal law. The North Carolina policy that the court found to be in violation excludes sex-change surgeries in its coverage for state employees. The West Virginia policy found to be in violation excludes sex-change surgeries in its Medicaid coverage.

According to the majority opinion, written by Chief Judge Roger Gregory, the policies in both states are based on “a gender stereotype.” He used mastectomies (operations to remove breasts) as an example, suggesting that the stereotype is “the assumption that people who have been assigned female at birth are supposed to have breasts, and that people assigned male at birth are not.”

“No doubt, the majority of those assigned female at birth have breasts, and the majority of those assigned male at birth do not,” Gregory, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, said in his opinion. “But we cannot mistake what is for what must be.”

Several judges wrote strong dissenting opinions, including Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who questioned why there is a “rush to constitutionalize” and to create a “right to transgender surgery and treatment” in the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

“The recurrent creation of rights so unmoored from constitutional text or history will deplete the store of public respect on which a branch devoid of sword or purse must ultimately rely,” he said.

The legal battle, however, will not end at the appellate court. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who is representing his state’s policies in court, said in a statement that this decision “cannot stand” and that he intends to appeal the ruling to the United States Supreme Court. 

“We are confident in the merits of our case: that this is a flawed decision and states have wide discretion to determine what procedures their programs can cover based on cost and other concerns,” Morrisey said. “Just one single sex-transition surgery can cost tens of thousands of dollars — taxpayers should not be required to pay for these surgeries under Medicaid. Our state should have the ability to determine how to spend our resources to care for the vital medical needs of our citizens.”

Just two weeks ago, the same appellate court handed West Virginia an unfavorable ruling over its law that restricts women’s and girls’ sports to only biological women and girls. Similarly, the court claimed that the law was discriminatory on the basis of gender identity. This ruling is also being appealed to the Supreme Court.

Landscape view of Sacrofano, Italy, north of Rome. / Credit: Dmitry Taranets/Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, Apr 29, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

The World Meeting of Parish Priests for the Synod opened on Monday to discuss “how to be a synodal local Church in mission,” allowing priests from around the world to discuss questions raised during the ongoing synod and share their personal pastoral experiences. 

The four-day meeting, which is taking place from April 29 to May 2 at the Fraterna Domus retreat house in Sacrofano, Italy, just north of Rome, is attended by about 300 priests from around the globe and is divided into several sessions, taking cues from different themes and questions raised in the synod’s synthesis report. 

“The parish priest is a man of the people and for the people. Like Jesus, he is open to the crowd, constantly open to the crowd, to help each and every one understand that they are a letter from Christ,” said Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the General Secretariat of the Synod, in opening the event on Monday morning. 

Monday’s discussion was based on the theme “The Face of the Synodal Church,” while Tuesday’s discussion will focus on “All Disciples, All Missionaries.” On Wednesday participants will come together to study “Teaching Ties, Building Communities.”

In reflecting on the overall scope of the Synod on Synodality, which will reconvene in October for its second and final assembly, Grech told participants on Monday that at the center of this process is an understanding, and sharing, of personal narratives. 

“Our stories are human stories, but human stories in which God, Jesus, is present,” the cardinal remarked. 

“Sometimes we need others to help us see God’s presence in our stories. This is our mission, this is the mission entrusted to us, to you, my dear brothers,” he said. 

Grech told the clergy gathered that “being synodal does not simply mean walking together, but rather walking with God, or better to say, God walking with us.” 

“Synodality is about God, before being about the Church,” he continued.  

The World Meeting of Parish Priests for the Synod was first announced in February and is jointly organized by the Dicastery for the Clergy and by the General Secretariat of the Synod in response to the first synod assembly’s synthesis report, which identified a need to “develop ways for a more active involvement of deacons, priests, and bishops in the synodal process during the coming year.”

“There is no synod without a bishop, but allow me to say today there is no synod without a parish priest,” Grech said to participants on Monday. “That is the reason why we felt the need to make this meeting, and so that we can enrich our preparation in view of the next session for the synod of bishops.”

This week’s meeting will culminate with an audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday, followed by Mass, celebrated by Grech, in St. Peter’s Basilica. 

According to Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod, another purpose of the meeting is to “provide materials that will be used in the drafting of the Instrumentum Laboris [working document] for the synod’s second session, together with the summaries of the consultation coordinated by the bishops’ conferences and the results of the theological-canonical study carried out by five working groups formed by the General Secretariat of the Synod.”