null / Credit: ADragan/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 10, 2024 / 11:50 am (CNA).

Nearly 150 Catholic hospitals across the United States provided children with transgender drugs or performed gender-transition surgeries on them between 2019 and 2023, contradicting Church teaching and the U.S. bishops’ prohibition on Catholic health care providers offering such interventions, according to data published this week by a medical watchdog group.

In all, more than 520 minors received treatments in Catholic hospitals in about 40 states over the five-year period, an analysis of the data by EWTN News shows.

Of those patients, more than 150 had surgeries to alter their appearances to resemble the opposite sex, while more than 380 children were given puberty blockers or hormone therapies.

Puberty blockers stop a child’s natural developments during puberty and hormone therapies provide testosterone to girls who want to resemble boys and estrogen to boys who want to resemble girls. Based on the records in the database, EWTN News found that doctors at Catholic hospitals wrote more than 1,850 prescriptions for minors to facilitate a gender transition.

Catholic health care providers contacted by EWTN News criticized the watchdog group’s methodology and motives without contradicting any of its specific data.

In 2023, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) published guidelines stating that any attempt to alter one’s physical sex characteristics to facilitate a gender transition is “not morally justified” because it does not “respect the fundamental order of the human person as an intrinsic unity of body and soul, with a body that is sexually differentiated.”

“Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures,” adds the document prepared by the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine, titled “Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body.”

The document quotes Pope Francis several times, including his 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia: “Beyond the understandable difficulties which individuals may experience, the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created.”

Yet despite the bishops’ directive, the watchdog group Do No Harm found gender transition interventions to be widespread among U.S. hospitals affiliated with the Catholic Church.

The group’s “Stop the Harm Database” is based on publicly available insurance claims generated by U.S. hospitals and health care facilities. These numbers do not include children who were born with intersex disorders.

Based in Glen Allen, Virginia, Do No Harm states on its website that it “seeks to highlight and counteract divisive trends in medicine, such as “‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ and youth-focused gender ideology.”

Most of the nearly 150 Catholic hospitals listed in the database — including six children’s hospitals — offered only minimal services, such as filling a single prescription, the records show. But 33 Catholic hospitals performed at least one gender transition surgery on a minor for a total of 152 surgeries.

Half of the children who received such surgeries — 76 in all — were patients at five facilities operated by Providence, a nonprofit Catholic health care system encompassing 51 hospitals in five states: Washington, Montana, Oregon, California, and Alaska. Two of the system’s hospitals provided the lion’s share of these surgeries: Providence Milwaukie Hospital in Oregon operated on 46 children, according to the database, while Providence St. Joseph Hospital Orange in California provided surgeries to 18 children.

Six other Catholic hospitals performed gender transition surgeries on at least five minors. This includes eight children who received surgery at St. Anne Hospital in Burien, Washington. St. Anne Hospital is operated by Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, which runs 10 hospitals in Washington state.

Other hospitals that performed several gender transition surgeries, according to the database, include Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital-St. Joseph Campus in Milwaukee and Ascension NE Wisconsin-St. Elizabeth Campus in Appleton, Wisconsin, both of which performed surgeries on six minors.

Across Catholic, secular, and other hospitals, the database found nearly 14,000 minors undergoing gender transitions in the United States across the time span. This includes more than 5,700 surgeries and more than 8,500 minors receiving puberty blockers or hormone therapies. Doctors wrote more than 62,600 gender transition prescriptions.

Catholic Health Association pushes back

When EWTN News reached out to several Catholic health networks and hospitals that are listed in the report, most referred to a statement issued by the Catholic Health Association (CHA), which criticized Do No Harm.

Comprising more than 600 hospitals and 1,600 long-term care and other health facilities in all 50 states, CHA is the largest group of nonprofit health care providers in the United States, according to its website. The organization has clashed with the U.S. bishops in the past on health care issues, such as the Affordable Care Act.

“A preliminary review of the data gathered by Do No Harm indicates they are irresponsibly presenting claims data without necessary clinical context,” CHA said in its statement. “This harmful report makes dangerous assumptions that seek to disparage health care providers and the patients they treat.”

CHA added that Catholic hospitals provide “ethical, evidence-based medical care that recognizes and upholds the human dignity of each person” and accused Do No Harm of stigmatizing “LGBTQ communities.” It also stated “there are certain procedures we do not perform based on our values and faith.”

CHA did not respond to EWTN News’ request for clarification about which procedures are not in line with its values and whether Catholic hospitals provide transgender surgeries or drugs to minors or adults.

Beth Serio, the external relations manager at Do No Harm, told EWTN News the group stands by its findings, adding that the group has published the methodology so that “anyone could look at our paper and exactly replicate our study and get the same results.”

She said the records in the group’s database represent “the minimum [number of gender transitions] we know occurred in these hospitals.” Because the database could not account for cash payments or insurance claims that are not accessible to the public, she said, “we’re quite confident it’s an undercount.”

Serio expressed disappointment in CHA’s response, telling EWTN: “It is very sad that the Catholic Health Association is choosing to attack [Do No Harm’s] character as an organization rather than focusing on the real issue, [which is that] … thousands of children are being harmed across the country.”

She said the report could be an “opportunity [for CHA] to be an advocate for change” and urged the association to “truly read our methodology and study it and point to exactly where [they think] the methodology is flawed.”

Serio told EWTN News that Do No Harm’s “primary motivation and interest in releasing this database is the protection of children.”

A spokesperson for Providence — the network responsible for half of the transgender surgeries by Catholic hospitals listed in the report — said the health network has “concerns about the motivation for this report and the risk it poses to the privacy of a vulnerable patient population” but could not “speak to the validity of its report content, data, or methodology.”

“Transgender patients come to us for many health care needs,” the statement read. “We are committed to providing them with quality, compassionate health care, and helping them to feel welcome, safe, and included. … [We] provide all patients with the full range of care available at our facilities.”

When asked for clarification about its policies regarding transgender surgeries, a spokesperson referred EWTN News back to Providence’s original statement.

What can the bishops do?

It remains to be seen what, if any, action the USCCB or individual U.S. bishops will take in response to Do No Harm’s report.

In a statement to EWTN News, Chieko Noguchi, a spokesperson for the USCCB, said that Church teaching “is clear … about the inherent dignity of each person as created in the image and likeness of God.”

Noguchi added that “we are always called to accompany those who are struggling, and this certainly includes people who struggle with his or her God-given identity as male or female,” but emphasized that both the bishops and the Holy See “have been clear as to what is morally acceptable.”

“Let us pray that we may all find the compassion and wisdom to better help our brothers and sisters accept who God created them to be,” she added.

EWTN News followed up on the statement to ask what action bishops could take if hospitals violate the USCCB guidelines but did not receive a response by the time of publication. EWTN News also asked CHA whether Catholic hospitals listed in the report intend to follow USCCB guidelines but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at The National Catholic Bioethics Center, told EWTN News: “Catholic hospitals clearly must hold to a higher standard than that of their secular counterparts” and they “may not condone or participate in these unethical practices.”

“Reports indicating that Catholic hospitals, including some Catholic children’s hospitals, may be involved in sex reassignment procedures remind us of the need for continued vigilance on the part of diocesan bishops and Catholic health care leaders,” Pacholczyk said.

“There may also be a need for more thoroughgoing ethical formation for employees and administrators to help them counter the pro-transgender ideological messaging that has become commonplace in recent years,” he added.

“To treat our human maleness or femaleness as malleable or re-assignable is to invite serious harm into the lives of those who may be facing genuine and deep-seated psychological struggles over their own ‘gender identity,’” Pacholczyk said. “Catholic health care entities best serve their patients by directing them towards supportive psychotherapy that works to address any underlying psychiatric issues that may be prompting the desire to gender transition.”

The issue of transgender drugs and surgeries for minors has become a heated political topic in the United States and worldwide in recent years.

Most Republican-led states have restricted or banned doctors from providing those medical interventions to minors. Many Democrat-led states have done the opposite — changing state law to ensure doctors can continue with those interventions.

null / Credit: ADragan/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 10, 2024 / 11:50 am (CNA).

Nearly 150 Catholic hospitals across the United States provided children with transgender drugs or performed gender-transition surgeries on them between 2019 and 2023, contradicting Church teaching and the U.S. bishops’ prohibition on Catholic health care providers offering such interventions, according to data published this week by a medical watchdog group.

In all, more than 520 minors received treatments in Catholic hospitals in about 40 states over the five-year period, an analysis of the data by EWTN News shows.

Of those patients, more than 150 had surgeries to alter their appearances to resemble the opposite sex, while more than 380 children were given puberty blockers or hormone therapies.

Puberty blockers stop a child’s natural developments during puberty and hormone therapies provide testosterone to girls who want to resemble boys and estrogen to boys who want to resemble girls. Based on the records in the database, EWTN News found that doctors at Catholic hospitals wrote more than 1,850 prescriptions for minors to facilitate a gender transition.

Catholic health care providers contacted by EWTN News criticized the watchdog group’s methodology and motives without contradicting any of its specific data.

In 2023, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) published guidelines stating that any attempt to alter one’s physical sex characteristics to facilitate a gender transition is “not morally justified” because it does not “respect the fundamental order of the human person as an intrinsic unity of body and soul, with a body that is sexually differentiated.”

“Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures,” adds the document prepared by the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine, titled “Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body.”

The document quotes Pope Francis several times, including his 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia: “Beyond the understandable difficulties which individuals may experience, the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created.”

Yet despite the bishops’ directive, the watchdog group Do No Harm found gender transition interventions to be widespread among U.S. hospitals affiliated with the Catholic Church.

The group’s “Stop the Harm Database” is based on publicly available insurance claims generated by U.S. hospitals and health care facilities. These numbers do not include children who were born with intersex disorders.

Based in Glen Allen, Virginia, Do No Harm states on its website that it “seeks to highlight and counteract divisive trends in medicine, such as “‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ and youth-focused gender ideology.”

Most of the nearly 150 Catholic hospitals listed in the database — including six children’s hospitals — offered only minimal services, such as filling a single prescription, the records show. But 33 Catholic hospitals performed at least one gender transition surgery on a minor for a total of 152 surgeries.

Half of the children who received such surgeries — 76 in all — were patients at five facilities operated by Providence, a nonprofit Catholic health care system encompassing 51 hospitals in five states: Washington, Montana, Oregon, California, and Alaska. Two of the system’s hospitals provided the lion’s share of these surgeries: Providence Milwaukie Hospital in Oregon operated on 46 children, according to the database, while Providence St. Joseph Hospital Orange in California provided surgeries to 18 children.

Six other Catholic hospitals performed gender transition surgeries on at least five minors. This includes eight children who received surgery at St. Anne Hospital in Burien, Washington. St. Anne Hospital is operated by Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, which runs 10 hospitals in Washington state.

Other hospitals that performed several gender transition surgeries, according to the database, include Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital-St. Joseph Campus in Milwaukee and Ascension NE Wisconsin-St. Elizabeth Campus in Appleton, Wisconsin, both of which performed surgeries on six minors.

Across Catholic, secular, and other hospitals, the database found nearly 14,000 minors undergoing gender transitions in the United States across the time span. This includes more than 5,700 surgeries and more than 8,500 minors receiving puberty blockers or hormone therapies. Doctors wrote more than 62,600 gender transition prescriptions.

Catholic Health Association pushes back

When EWTN News reached out to several Catholic health networks and hospitals that are listed in the report, most referred to a statement issued by the Catholic Health Association (CHA), which criticized Do No Harm.

Comprising more than 600 hospitals and 1,600 long-term care and other health facilities in all 50 states, CHA is the largest group of nonprofit health care providers in the United States, according to its website. The organization has clashed with the U.S. bishops in the past on health care issues, such as the Affordable Care Act.

“A preliminary review of the data gathered by Do No Harm indicates they are irresponsibly presenting claims data without necessary clinical context,” CHA said in its statement. “This harmful report makes dangerous assumptions that seek to disparage health care providers and the patients they treat.”

CHA added that Catholic hospitals provide “ethical, evidence-based medical care that recognizes and upholds the human dignity of each person” and accused Do No Harm of stigmatizing “LGBTQ communities.” It also stated “there are certain procedures we do not perform based on our values and faith.”

CHA did not respond to EWTN News’ request for clarification about which procedures are not in line with its values and whether Catholic hospitals provide transgender surgeries or drugs to minors or adults.

Beth Serio, the external relations manager at Do No Harm, told EWTN News the group stands by its findings, adding that the group has published the methodology so that “anyone could look at our paper and exactly replicate our study and get the same results.”

She said the records in the group’s database represent “the minimum [number of gender transitions] we know occurred in these hospitals.” Because the database could not account for cash payments or insurance claims that are not accessible to the public, she said, “we’re quite confident it’s an undercount.”

Serio expressed disappointment in CHA’s response, telling EWTN: “It is very sad that the Catholic Health Association is choosing to attack [Do No Harm’s] character as an organization rather than focusing on the real issue, [which is that] … thousands of children are being harmed across the country.”

She said the report could be an “opportunity [for CHA] to be an advocate for change” and urged the association to “truly read our methodology and study it and point to exactly where [they think] the methodology is flawed.”

Serio told EWTN News that Do No Harm’s “primary motivation and interest in releasing this database is the protection of children.”

A spokesperson for Providence — the network responsible for half of the transgender surgeries by Catholic hospitals listed in the report — said the health network has “concerns about the motivation for this report and the risk it poses to the privacy of a vulnerable patient population” but could not “speak to the validity of its report content, data, or methodology.”

“Transgender patients come to us for many health care needs,” the statement read. “We are committed to providing them with quality, compassionate health care, and helping them to feel welcome, safe, and included. … [We] provide all patients with the full range of care available at our facilities.”

When asked for clarification about its policies regarding transgender surgeries, a spokesperson referred EWTN News back to Providence’s original statement.

What can the bishops do?

It remains to be seen what, if any, action the USCCB or individual U.S. bishops will take in response to Do No Harm’s report.

In a statement to EWTN News, Chieko Noguchi, a spokesperson for the USCCB, said that Church teaching “is clear … about the inherent dignity of each person as created in the image and likeness of God.”

Noguchi added that “we are always called to accompany those who are struggling, and this certainly includes people who struggle with his or her God-given identity as male or female,” but emphasized that both the bishops and the Holy See “have been clear as to what is morally acceptable.”

“Let us pray that we may all find the compassion and wisdom to better help our brothers and sisters accept who God created them to be,” she added.

EWTN News followed up on the statement to ask what action bishops could take if hospitals violate the USCCB guidelines but did not receive a response by the time of publication. EWTN News also asked CHA whether Catholic hospitals listed in the report intend to follow USCCB guidelines but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at The National Catholic Bioethics Center, told EWTN News: “Catholic hospitals clearly must hold to a higher standard than that of their secular counterparts” and they “may not condone or participate in these unethical practices.”

“Reports indicating that Catholic hospitals, including some Catholic children’s hospitals, may be involved in sex reassignment procedures remind us of the need for continued vigilance on the part of diocesan bishops and Catholic health care leaders,” Pacholczyk said.

“There may also be a need for more thoroughgoing ethical formation for employees and administrators to help them counter the pro-transgender ideological messaging that has become commonplace in recent years,” he added.

“To treat our human maleness or femaleness as malleable or re-assignable is to invite serious harm into the lives of those who may be facing genuine and deep-seated psychological struggles over their own ‘gender identity,’” Pacholczyk said. “Catholic health care entities best serve their patients by directing them towards supportive psychotherapy that works to address any underlying psychiatric issues that may be prompting the desire to gender transition.”

The issue of transgender drugs and surgeries for minors has become a heated political topic in the United States and worldwide in recent years.

Most Republican-led states have restricted or banned doctors from providing those medical interventions to minors. Many Democrat-led states have done the opposite — changing state law to ensure doctors can continue with those interventions.

German film score composer and record producer Hans Zimmer performs during the “Hans Zimmer Live North American Tour 2024” at Scotiabank Arena on Sept. 19, 2024, in Toronto. / Credit: Mathew Tsang/Getty Images

Vatican City, Oct 10, 2024 / 09:15 am (CNA).

The Vatican announced Thursday that Oscar-winning film composer Hans Zimmer will conduct a special concert for the poor and homeless at a Vatican City venue.

Zimmer, known for his scores of films like “Gladiator,” “The Lion King,” “Interstellar,” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” will conduct some of his most memorable movie melodies at the event.

The legendary composer will take center stage at the Vatican’s “Concert with the Poor” on Dec. 7 in the Paul VI Hall.

Three thousand people in need, cared for by volunteer organizations around Rome, will be invited to enjoy the live performance. At the end of the concert, they will receive a takeaway dinner and other necessities.

The Vatican event seeks to elevate those often left on the margins of society, offering them not just a world-class performance but an experience that acknowledges their dignity and worth.

Zimmer has won Academy Awards for composing original scores for “Dune” and “The Lion King” as well as 22 Grammy nominations for films including “Inception,” “The Prince of Egypt,” and “The Dark Knight.”

Joining him will be Grammy-nominated cellist Tina Guo and Italian priest and composer Monsignor Marco Frisina, who has composed both sacred music and scores for numerous religious films in Italy.

The Nova Opera Orchestra, featuring 70 musicians from across Europe, and the 250-member Choir of the Diocese of Rome will also participate, marking the choir’s 40th anniversary.

Pope Francis will meet privately with Zimmer and the other artists ahead of the concert. 

First held in 2015, the “Concert with the Poor” has become a Vatican tradition. Past editions of the event have featured luminaries such as the late composer Ennio Morricone, a legend in Italian cinema history, and Nicola Piovani, who won the Academy Award for best original score for Roberto Benigni’s film “Life Is Beautiful.”

The concert is under the patronage of the Vatican Dicastery for the Service of Charity, the Dicastery for Culture and Education, and the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music. 

The concert capacity is 8,000 attendees, including 3,000 special guests from Rome’s poorest communities. These guests are invited through various charitable organizations such as Caritas, the Order of Malta, and the Community of Sant’Egidio.

Tickets for the general public will be available starting Nov. 18 through the event’s official website.

Lia Garcia, director of Hispanic Ministry at the Archdiocese of Baltimore, speaks at a panel discussion exploring the impact of U.S. Latinos on the 2024 election hosted by Georgetown University's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. / Credit: Georgetown University/Art Pittman

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 10, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

As a record number of Hispanic Americans will be eligible to vote this November, many are asking what impact Latinos — and Latino Catholics in particular — will have on the 2024 election.

Several Hispanic Catholic experts explored this question Monday night at a panel discussion hosted by Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life in Washington, D.C.

Though acknowledging the great diversity in culture and thought among American Hispanic communities, the panelists posited that the overarching values of family, faith, and care for the poor will factor largely into Latinos’ decisions at the ballot box this November.

“We are big on family, family values … We want to be welcoming and be very attentive to the needs of others,” said Lia Garcia, one of the panelists and the director of Hispanic ministry at the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

“We throw big parties, we eat a lot of food,” she added, laughing. “Everybody is invited to our gatherings, so our faith teaches us that we are built to be in communion in relationship with God and in relationship with one another.”

Hispanics don’t fit into a box

Speaking with CNA after the panel, Garcia said that in her work with Hispanic Catholics, she has heard “a lot of anxiety about what is going to happen” and “about who is going to win” the presidency.

She said that many Hispanic voters “feel pinned” between conflicting priorities held by Trump and Harris.

“They feel that they have to choose between the issue of abortion and defending immigrants,” she said. “Latino Catholics are very much for life. You can see that in our big families. But they also have a concern about the immigration issues. Even if immigration doesn’t directly affect them because now they’re documented, but they know someone, they know a family member, they know a colleague … it’s really scary to people how Latinos are portrayed to the rest of the world as criminals.”

Hispanic voters have historically favored Democrats in national and local elections. The panelists noted, however, that Republicans have been faring better with Latinos in recent elections and polls, giving credence to predictions that the Hispanic vote is no longer a monolith.

Recent polling on Hispanics backs up this theory. Newsweek reported this week that while Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is still leading among Hispanics by a wide margin, 56% to 38%, her lead has shrunk from the 59% Joe Biden held in 2020 and even further from the 66% held by Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Instead of loyalty to a party, panelists said Hispanics appear motivated mostly by their family values and concern for the poor and downtrodden.

Father Agustino Torres, a priest with the New York-based Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said that in his ministry to young Latinos he has witnessed that Hispanic youth “have this fire” for caring for the downtrodden, especially for poor migrants.

“Sometimes we’re American Catholics rather than Catholic Americans. We allow our politics to inform our faith rather than our faith informing our politics,” Torres said. “But this is the reality: I’m responsible for you and you’re responsible for me. If I see someone falling down on the sidewalk, like, I am obligated because of my baptism, and this is a good thing … This is the Gospel.”

 “When we teach this, they are just like, ‘yes,’ and it unites their worlds, family, faith, outreach,” he said.

To be clear, like most Americans, U.S. Hispanics are most concerned with the economy. EWTN published a poll of U.S. Catholics in September that found that most of the country’s Hispanic Catholics — 56.8% — said the economy (including jobs, inflation, and interest rates) is the most important issue deciding their vote this election cycle.

The next-highest priorities were border security/immigration at 10.5%, abortion at 9.7%, health care at 5.3%, and climate change at 5%.

Yet, according to panelist Santiago Ramos, a Catholic philosopher at the Aspen Institute, even when it comes to their approach to economic issues, Hispanics do not easily fit into the political right or left.

Ramos said Hispanics challenge the “nationalist, right-wing” as well as progressivist categorizations.

“There is a community aspect to our existence, family-oriented, dare I call it socially conservative aspect to our existence that doesn’t always mesh with mainstream liberal institutions,” he explained. “So, there are all sorts of ways that we pop up in American politics and force people to see things they don’t want to see.”

Among new voters, Hispanics loom large

Aleja Hertzler-McCain, a reporter on Latino faith and American Catholicism for Religion News Service, pointed out that half of the new voters who have become eligible to vote since 2020 are Hispanic.

According to the Pew Research Center, there will be 36.2 million eligible Hispanic voters this year, up almost 4 million from 2020. While noting that U.S. Hispanics historically have low voter turnout, Hertzler said the sheer volume of new Hispanic voters could have a “big impact” on the election.

Whatever the outcome of the election, Garcia said she is “really excited” to see the Hispanic community have its voice heard in the democratic process.

“I can’t wait to see that. I’m really excited about the election for that particular reason,” she said.

“The beauty of our culture,” Garcia went on, “is we can draw from our own experiences growing up with big families, big celebrations, and also with our faith that draws us to relationship with one another. And I think that is where we can sense how [concern for] the common good is not only something that comes from God but comes from our culture as well.”

Lia Garcia, director of Hispanic Ministry at the Archdiocese of Baltimore, speaks at a panel discussion exploring the impact of U.S. Latinos on the 2024 election hosted by Georgetown University's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. / Credit: Georgetown University/Art Pittman

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 10, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

As a record number of Hispanic Americans will be eligible to vote this November, many are asking what impact Latinos — and Latino Catholics in particular — will have on the 2024 election.

Several Hispanic Catholic experts explored this question Monday night at a panel discussion hosted by Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life in Washington, D.C.

Though acknowledging the great diversity in culture and thought among American Hispanic communities, the panelists posited that the overarching values of family, faith, and care for the poor will factor largely into Latinos’ decisions at the ballot box this November.

“We are big on family, family values … We want to be welcoming and be very attentive to the needs of others,” said Lia Garcia, one of the panelists and the director of Hispanic ministry at the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

“We throw big parties, we eat a lot of food,” she added, laughing. “Everybody is invited to our gatherings, so our faith teaches us that we are built to be in communion in relationship with God and in relationship with one another.”

Hispanics don’t fit into a box

Speaking with CNA after the panel, Garcia said that in her work with Hispanic Catholics, she has heard “a lot of anxiety about what is going to happen” and “about who is going to win” the presidency.

She said that many Hispanic voters “feel pinned” between conflicting priorities held by Trump and Harris.

“They feel that they have to choose between the issue of abortion and defending immigrants,” she said. “Latino Catholics are very much for life. You can see that in our big families. But they also have a concern about the immigration issues. Even if immigration doesn’t directly affect them because now they’re documented, but they know someone, they know a family member, they know a colleague … it’s really scary to people how Latinos are portrayed to the rest of the world as criminals.”

Hispanic voters have historically favored Democrats in national and local elections. The panelists noted, however, that Republicans have been faring better with Latinos in recent elections and polls, giving credence to predictions that the Hispanic vote is no longer a monolith.

Recent polling on Hispanics backs up this theory. Newsweek reported this week that while Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is still leading among Hispanics by a wide margin, 56% to 38%, her lead has shrunk from the 59% Joe Biden held in 2020 and even further from the 66% held by Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Instead of loyalty to a party, panelists said Hispanics appear motivated mostly by their family values and concern for the poor and downtrodden.

Father Agustino Torres, a priest with the New York-based Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said that in his ministry to young Latinos he has witnessed that Hispanic youth “have this fire” for caring for the downtrodden, especially for poor migrants.

“Sometimes we’re American Catholics rather than Catholic Americans. We allow our politics to inform our faith rather than our faith informing our politics,” Torres said. “But this is the reality: I’m responsible for you and you’re responsible for me. If I see someone falling down on the sidewalk, like, I am obligated because of my baptism, and this is a good thing … This is the Gospel.”

 “When we teach this, they are just like, ‘yes,’ and it unites their worlds, family, faith, outreach,” he said.

To be clear, like most Americans, U.S. Hispanics are most concerned with the economy. EWTN published a poll of U.S. Catholics in September that found that most of the country’s Hispanic Catholics — 56.8% — said the economy (including jobs, inflation, and interest rates) is the most important issue deciding their vote this election cycle.

The next-highest priorities were border security/immigration at 10.5%, abortion at 9.7%, health care at 5.3%, and climate change at 5%.

Yet, according to panelist Santiago Ramos, a Catholic philosopher at the Aspen Institute, even when it comes to their approach to economic issues, Hispanics do not easily fit into the political right or left.

Ramos said Hispanics challenge the “nationalist, right-wing” as well as progressivist categorizations.

“There is a community aspect to our existence, family-oriented, dare I call it socially conservative aspect to our existence that doesn’t always mesh with mainstream liberal institutions,” he explained. “So, there are all sorts of ways that we pop up in American politics and force people to see things they don’t want to see.”

Among new voters, Hispanics loom large

Aleja Hertzler-McCain, a reporter on Latino faith and American Catholicism for Religion News Service, pointed out that half of the new voters who have become eligible to vote since 2020 are Hispanic.

According to the Pew Research Center, there will be 36.2 million eligible Hispanic voters this year, up almost 4 million from 2020. While noting that U.S. Hispanics historically have low voter turnout, Hertzler said the sheer volume of new Hispanic voters could have a “big impact” on the election.

Whatever the outcome of the election, Garcia said she is “really excited” to see the Hispanic community have its voice heard in the democratic process.

“I can’t wait to see that. I’m really excited about the election for that particular reason,” she said.

“The beauty of our culture,” Garcia went on, “is we can draw from our own experiences growing up with big families, big celebrations, and also with our faith that draws us to relationship with one another. And I think that is where we can sense how [concern for] the common good is not only something that comes from God but comes from our culture as well.”

null / Credit: Pavel1964/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 16:10 pm (CNA).

A United Nations report on violence against women and girls in sports defended spaces for women on Tuesday by calling for separate sports for biological males who identify as “transgender persons.”

The United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women and girls in a presentation of the report on Oct. 8 demanded that member countries preserve female spaces, noting that testosterone suppression for biologically male athletes “will not eliminate the set of comparative performance advantages they have already acquired.”

The U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem from Jordan, appointed by the United States Commission on Human Rights in 2021, presented the 24-page report presented to the General Assembly’s Third Committee in New York. The report cited cases of severe injuries to women and girls forced to compete against biological males participating in female divisions as well as violations of privacy in the locker room and public consequences against women who speak out.

“Male athletes have specific attributes considered advantageous in certain sports, such as strength and testosterone levels that are higher than those of the average range for females, even before puberty, thereby resulting in the loss of fair opportunity,” the report read.

The report highlighted “an increased encroachment on female-only spaces in sports,” noting that female-only divisions in sports ensure “equal, fair, and safe opportunities in sports” for female athletes.

May Mailman, director of the Independent Women’s Law Center, a group that advocates for women’s rights and spaces, said the statement was heartening, though she noted it was from just one branch of the “unwieldy organization.”

“We are heartened that it recognized the obvious: that women deserve sports. This should embarrass the many organizations in the United States that fail to do the same,” Mailman told CNA. “But, it does not make the U.N. at large a reasonable organization. There are too many failures to name, including that UN Women seems to care little about the rapes, murders, and kidnapping of Israeli women.”

The special rapporteur’s office, since it was established in 1994, has addressed domestic violence, trafficking and migration, armed conflict, HIV/AIDS, violence against women, and has also advocated for abortion under the guise of “reproductive rights.” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, recently called out the U.N. for promoting abortion and gender ideology.

Women’s physical safety and privacy

The report highlighted that female safety and privacy are threatened when biological men are invited into female spaces such as sports practices, games, and locker rooms.

Female athletes are “more vulnerable to sustaining serious physical injuries when female-only sports spaces are opened to males, as documented in disciplines such as in volleyball, basketball, and soccer,” the report noted, citing cases of severe injuries ranging from knocked-out teeth and broken legs to skull fractures and neurological impairment from concussions.

For instance, the IWF statement noted that Payton McNabb was 17 when she became partially paralyzed after a biologically male “transgender” athlete spiked a volleyball into her face. 

McNabb has brain damage and paralysis on her right side and has difficulty walking without falling.

“If leaders in the United States care at all about the treatment of women like the special rapporteur on violence against women and girls cares, then this should give them cover to finally do right by women,” Mailman told CNA, referencing the U.N. report. 

The U.N. report highlighted the danger of sexual assault when opening up female locker rooms to males, noting that it could “increase the risk of sexual harassment, assault, voyeurism, and physical and sexual attacks in unisex locker rooms and toilets.”

“Female athletes also reportedly experience forced dissemination of nonconsensual sexual images offline and online and exhibitionism, including as a result of a failure to maintain single-sex changing rooms,” the report said.

Violating female-only spaces can not only negatively affect “the mental health and sense of personal safety” of women in sports, the report noted, but it can also “damage their public image and have long-term career repercussions.”

The loss of women’s spaces also has psychological consequences for female athletes. Knowing she has to compete against a male “causes extreme psychological distress due to the physical disadvantage, the loss of opportunity for fair competition and of educational and economic opportunities, and the violation of their privacy in locker rooms and other intimate spaces,” the report said.

The U.N. noted that “sex screenings” can be “necessary, legitimate, and proportional in order to ensure fairness and safety in sports.” The report cited the 2024 Paris Olympics, where female boxers competed against two boxers “whose sex as females was seriously contested, but the International Olympic Committee refused to carry out a sex screening.” 

Freedom of expression 

The inclusion of men in women’s sports has resulted in the persecution of women who stand up for themselves, the U.N. report said. 

Women who speak out against the dangers of men in women’s spaces are often unjustly treated, “accused of bigotry, suspended from sports teams and subjected to restraining orders, expulsion, defamation, and unfair disciplinary proceedings,” the report said. 

“Female athletes and coaches who object to the inclusion of men in their spaces due to concerns about safety, privacy, and fairness are silenced or forced to self-censor; otherwise, they risk losing sporting opportunities, scholarships, and sponsorships,” the report noted. 

Mailman said many leaders have let name-calling “overcome their duty to promote fairness, safety, and equality.” 

“U.S. leaders have shown tremendous cowardice in standing up for women because they don’t want to be called anti-trans,” Mailman said. 

“The more people who show how to do the right thing should give followers cover to finally do the same,” she added.

The U.N. report noted that “transgender” people should still be able to participate in sports, noting that through open categories, “fairness in sports can be maintained while ensuring the ability of all to participate.” 

Protecting women’s spaces “does not automatically result in the exclusion of transgender persons from sports,” the report added. 

Mailman highlighted that “the solution is not to dissolve women’s sports but to create an open category or to make the men’s category an open category.” 

“The U.N. report addressed safety and fairness, including that testosterone suppression does not equalize the playing field and is arbitrary in any case. It addressed privacy in the locker room. It addressed the harassment women face for standing up for themselves,” Mailman told CNA. “These are all important. The only thing regrettable is that this comes from a specialized body and hasn’t percolated higher yet.”

null / Credit: Pavel1964/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 16:10 pm (CNA).

A United Nations report on violence against women and girls in sports defended spaces for women on Tuesday by calling for separate sports for biological males who identify as “transgender persons.”

The United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women and girls in a presentation of the report on Oct. 8 demanded that member countries preserve female spaces, noting that testosterone suppression for biologically male athletes “will not eliminate the set of comparative performance advantages they have already acquired.”

The U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem from Jordan, appointed by the United States Commission on Human Rights in 2021, presented the 24-page report presented to the General Assembly’s Third Committee in New York. The report cited cases of severe injuries to women and girls forced to compete against biological males participating in female divisions as well as violations of privacy in the locker room and public consequences against women who speak out.

“Male athletes have specific attributes considered advantageous in certain sports, such as strength and testosterone levels that are higher than those of the average range for females, even before puberty, thereby resulting in the loss of fair opportunity,” the report read.

The report highlighted “an increased encroachment on female-only spaces in sports,” noting that female-only divisions in sports ensure “equal, fair, and safe opportunities in sports” for female athletes.

May Mailman, director of the Independent Women’s Law Center, a group that advocates for women’s rights and spaces, said the statement was heartening, though she noted it was from just one branch of the “unwieldy organization.”

“We are heartened that it recognized the obvious: that women deserve sports. This should embarrass the many organizations in the United States that fail to do the same,” Mailman told CNA. “But, it does not make the U.N. at large a reasonable organization. There are too many failures to name, including that UN Women seems to care little about the rapes, murders, and kidnapping of Israeli women.”

The special rapporteur’s office, since it was established in 1994, has addressed domestic violence, trafficking and migration, armed conflict, HIV/AIDS, violence against women, and has also advocated for abortion under the guise of “reproductive rights.” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, recently called out the U.N. for promoting abortion and gender ideology.

Women’s physical safety and privacy

The report highlighted that female safety and privacy are threatened when biological men are invited into female spaces such as sports practices, games, and locker rooms.

Female athletes are “more vulnerable to sustaining serious physical injuries when female-only sports spaces are opened to males, as documented in disciplines such as in volleyball, basketball, and soccer,” the report noted, citing cases of severe injuries ranging from knocked-out teeth and broken legs to skull fractures and neurological impairment from concussions.

For instance, the IWF statement noted that Payton McNabb was 17 when she became partially paralyzed after a biologically male “transgender” athlete spiked a volleyball into her face. 

McNabb has brain damage and paralysis on her right side and has difficulty walking without falling.

“If leaders in the United States care at all about the treatment of women like the special rapporteur on violence against women and girls cares, then this should give them cover to finally do right by women,” Mailman told CNA, referencing the U.N. report. 

The U.N. report highlighted the danger of sexual assault when opening up female locker rooms to males, noting that it could “increase the risk of sexual harassment, assault, voyeurism, and physical and sexual attacks in unisex locker rooms and toilets.”

“Female athletes also reportedly experience forced dissemination of nonconsensual sexual images offline and online and exhibitionism, including as a result of a failure to maintain single-sex changing rooms,” the report said.

Violating female-only spaces can not only negatively affect “the mental health and sense of personal safety” of women in sports, the report noted, but it can also “damage their public image and have long-term career repercussions.”

The loss of women’s spaces also has psychological consequences for female athletes. Knowing she has to compete against a male “causes extreme psychological distress due to the physical disadvantage, the loss of opportunity for fair competition and of educational and economic opportunities, and the violation of their privacy in locker rooms and other intimate spaces,” the report said.

The U.N. noted that “sex screenings” can be “necessary, legitimate, and proportional in order to ensure fairness and safety in sports.” The report cited the 2024 Paris Olympics, where female boxers competed against two boxers “whose sex as females was seriously contested, but the International Olympic Committee refused to carry out a sex screening.” 

Freedom of expression 

The inclusion of men in women’s sports has resulted in the persecution of women who stand up for themselves, the U.N. report said. 

Women who speak out against the dangers of men in women’s spaces are often unjustly treated, “accused of bigotry, suspended from sports teams and subjected to restraining orders, expulsion, defamation, and unfair disciplinary proceedings,” the report said. 

“Female athletes and coaches who object to the inclusion of men in their spaces due to concerns about safety, privacy, and fairness are silenced or forced to self-censor; otherwise, they risk losing sporting opportunities, scholarships, and sponsorships,” the report noted. 

Mailman said many leaders have let name-calling “overcome their duty to promote fairness, safety, and equality.” 

“U.S. leaders have shown tremendous cowardice in standing up for women because they don’t want to be called anti-trans,” Mailman said. 

“The more people who show how to do the right thing should give followers cover to finally do the same,” she added.

The U.N. report noted that “transgender” people should still be able to participate in sports, noting that through open categories, “fairness in sports can be maintained while ensuring the ability of all to participate.” 

Protecting women’s spaces “does not automatically result in the exclusion of transgender persons from sports,” the report added. 

Mailman highlighted that “the solution is not to dissolve women’s sports but to create an open category or to make the men’s category an open category.” 

“The U.N. report addressed safety and fairness, including that testosterone suppression does not equalize the playing field and is arbitrary in any case. It addressed privacy in the locker room. It addressed the harassment women face for standing up for themselves,” Mailman told CNA. “These are all important. The only thing regrettable is that this comes from a specialized body and hasn’t percolated higher yet.”

Anti-death penalty activists, including members of MoveOn.org and other advocacy groups, rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent the execution of Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip on Sept. 29, 2015, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Larry French/Getty Images for MoveOn.org

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in the case of an Oklahoma man on death row who may have been wrongfully convicted — a case the Oklahoma City archbishop has said could help further respect for “the dignity of life.”

This is the second time Richard Glossip’s contentious death sentence has come before the Supreme Court. According to news reports, Glossip has lived through nine execution dates and at least three “last meals.”

Glossip was convicted in 1998 for allegedly ordering a handyman at a motel Glossip managed to murder the motel owner, who was found bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. Justin Sneed, the handyman, confessed to killing the man while on meth and is currently serving a life sentence. 

Glossip, who has maintained that he had no involvement in the murder, was convicted for the murder for hire chiefly on Sneed’s testimony, which Sneed had agreed to give in order to avoid the death penalty himself. 

Since his initial conviction, two independent investigations uncovered serious problems with his trial, including allegations of police misconduct and what were reportedly incorrect instructions given to the jury in the case.

The state of Oklahoma, via Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, has admitted that it had erred in sentencing Glossip to death. 

The state asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) to overturn Glossip’s conviction and grant him a new trial. That court in April 2023 refused to do so, however, and ordered Glossip’s execution to proceed. Drummond called that decision “remarkable and remarkably flawed.”

Writing to the Supreme Court justices in May 2023, Drummond said that “based on careful review of new information that has come to light, including a report by an independent counsel appointed by the state, Glossip’s capital sentence cannot be sustained.”

The Supreme Court subsequently granted a stay of Glossip’s execution that same month, overruling the OCCA.

In an order announced in January, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the state of Oklahoma violated Glossip’s constitutional rights when prosecutors suppressed evidence that their key witness, Sneed, was under a psychiatrist’s care, and also that prosecutors failed to correct Sneed’s false testimony, SCOTUSBlog reported. The Supreme Court will also consider the question of whether it has the power to review the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision at all, or whether it is a state matter.

A decision in the case isn’t expected until June 2025. Justice Neil Gorsuch has recused himself from the case because he sat on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals when that court decided one of Glossip’s earlier appeals, NPR reported. 

In January, when the Supreme Court agreed to take up the case, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, who often speaks out against the death penalty, said in a statement to CNA that the Supreme Court’s agreement to review Glossip’s case “offers hope in furthering the cause toward one day abolishing the death penalty.”

“With new evidence and the state of Oklahoma’s admission of errors in the case prompting the Supreme Court review — issues that seem to be more and more prevalent — we can clearly see reason to reconsider institutionalized violence against the incarcerated as we hopefully move to respect the dignity of life for all human persons,” Coakley told CNA. 

Since 1976, Oklahoma has carried out the highest number of executions per capita of any state, according to Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), a national advocacy organization that demonstrates against the death penalty.

Glossip was party to a previous lawsuit that made it to the Supreme Court in 2015, wherein the court ultimately ruled in favor of the continued use of the sedative midazolam, a drug that critics contended had caused excruciating pain in several controversial state executions in Ohio, Arizona, and Oklahoma. Glossip had argued along with two other inmates that midazolam was not certain to work properly and could result in a painful execution that violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, reflecting an update promulgated by Pope Francis in 2018, describes the death penalty as “inadmissible” and an “attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” (No. 2267). The change reflects a development in Catholic doctrine in recent years. 

St. John Paul II, calling the death penalty “cruel and unnecessary,” encouraged Christians to be “unconditionally pro-life” and said that “the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil.” The bishops of the United States have spoken frequently in favor of life sentences for convicted murderers, even those who have committed heinous crimes.

Anti-death penalty activists, including members of MoveOn.org and other advocacy groups, rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent the execution of Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip on Sept. 29, 2015, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Larry French/Getty Images for MoveOn.org

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in the case of an Oklahoma man on death row who may have been wrongfully convicted — a case the Oklahoma City archbishop has said could help further respect for “the dignity of life.”

This is the second time Richard Glossip’s contentious death sentence has come before the Supreme Court. According to news reports, Glossip has lived through nine execution dates and at least three “last meals.”

Glossip was convicted in 1998 for allegedly ordering a handyman at a motel Glossip managed to murder the motel owner, who was found bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. Justin Sneed, the handyman, confessed to killing the man while on meth and is currently serving a life sentence. 

Glossip, who has maintained that he had no involvement in the murder, was convicted for the murder for hire chiefly on Sneed’s testimony, which Sneed had agreed to give in order to avoid the death penalty himself. 

Since his initial conviction, two independent investigations uncovered serious problems with his trial, including allegations of police misconduct and what were reportedly incorrect instructions given to the jury in the case.

The state of Oklahoma, via Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, has admitted that it had erred in sentencing Glossip to death. 

The state asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) to overturn Glossip’s conviction and grant him a new trial. That court in April 2023 refused to do so, however, and ordered Glossip’s execution to proceed. Drummond called that decision “remarkable and remarkably flawed.”

Writing to the Supreme Court justices in May 2023, Drummond said that “based on careful review of new information that has come to light, including a report by an independent counsel appointed by the state, Glossip’s capital sentence cannot be sustained.”

The Supreme Court subsequently granted a stay of Glossip’s execution that same month, overruling the OCCA.

In an order announced in January, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the state of Oklahoma violated Glossip’s constitutional rights when prosecutors suppressed evidence that their key witness, Sneed, was under a psychiatrist’s care, and also that prosecutors failed to correct Sneed’s false testimony, SCOTUSBlog reported. The Supreme Court will also consider the question of whether it has the power to review the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision at all, or whether it is a state matter.

A decision in the case isn’t expected until June 2025. Justice Neil Gorsuch has recused himself from the case because he sat on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals when that court decided one of Glossip’s earlier appeals, NPR reported. 

In January, when the Supreme Court agreed to take up the case, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, who often speaks out against the death penalty, said in a statement to CNA that the Supreme Court’s agreement to review Glossip’s case “offers hope in furthering the cause toward one day abolishing the death penalty.”

“With new evidence and the state of Oklahoma’s admission of errors in the case prompting the Supreme Court review — issues that seem to be more and more prevalent — we can clearly see reason to reconsider institutionalized violence against the incarcerated as we hopefully move to respect the dignity of life for all human persons,” Coakley told CNA. 

Since 1976, Oklahoma has carried out the highest number of executions per capita of any state, according to Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), a national advocacy organization that demonstrates against the death penalty.

Glossip was party to a previous lawsuit that made it to the Supreme Court in 2015, wherein the court ultimately ruled in favor of the continued use of the sedative midazolam, a drug that critics contended had caused excruciating pain in several controversial state executions in Ohio, Arizona, and Oklahoma. Glossip had argued along with two other inmates that midazolam was not certain to work properly and could result in a painful execution that violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, reflecting an update promulgated by Pope Francis in 2018, describes the death penalty as “inadmissible” and an “attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” (No. 2267). The change reflects a development in Catholic doctrine in recent years. 

St. John Paul II, calling the death penalty “cruel and unnecessary,” encouraged Christians to be “unconditionally pro-life” and said that “the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil.” The bishops of the United States have spoken frequently in favor of life sentences for convicted murderers, even those who have committed heinous crimes.

The Vatican has announced that the completed restorations on the soaring baldacchino over the central altar of St. Peter’s Basilica designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini will be unveiled on Oct. 27, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 9, 2024 / 14:35 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has announced that the completed restorations on the soaring baldacchino over the central altar of St. Peter’s Basilica designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini will be unveiled on Oct. 27.

Journalists donned hard hats on Tuesday to get a sneak peek of the nearly finished restorations, climbing the scaffolding all the way to the top of the 94-foot-tall canopy.

The lofty vantage point revealed how the baldacchino’s intricately decorated Baroque angels, cherubs, bees, and golden laurel branches — formerly darkened by centuries of dust and grime — have now been restored to their bright gilded glory.

While the cherubs holding the St. Peter’s keys and the papal tiara at the top of the structure may appear as small details from the ground 94 feet below, up close the chubby cherubs are actually colossal in size, standing nearly as tall as a full-grown adult.

Pope Urban VIII commissioned Bernini in 1624 to design and build the enormous canopy over the Papal Altar of the Confession, located directly over the tomb of St. Peter the Apostle. The  construction took Bernini nine years with considerable help from his architectural rival, Francesco Borromini.

The public will be able to see the 400-year-old twisting bronze columns of the large canopy for the first time since the restoration when Pope Francis presides over the closing Mass for the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 27.

At that time, the scaffolding that has surrounded the central altar for the past eight months will finally be removed.

Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said the restorations manifest “the beauty and glory that the Church should reflect.” He added that revealing the restorations at the Mass is an opportunity to “announce hope as we walk toward a Jubilee of hope.”

An art restorer’s perspective

Giorgio Capriotti is one of the Vatican Museums’ art restorers who meticulously worked on these details on the massive canopy.

Capriotti said that despite more than a century since the last restoration, the restorers found that the baldacchino is in overall good shape. He explained that his task was largely removing the materials, like oil, waxes, and resins, that art restorers had used that unintentionally altered the hue of the historic gold leaf on the baldacchino.

In some places the baldacchino’s gold leaf became “dark and then almost black” because of oxidation due to the humidity, pollution, and dust in the air.

“So we had to remove these substances using solvents … area by area,” Capriotti said.

“Now we will see it as it was when it was built between 1624 and 1635,” he added.

While working atop the canopy, Capriotti and the other restorationists found objects left by the artists and workers who preceded them from past centuries, including old coins, small drawings, and even a 17th-century shopping list, a collection of items he described as almost “a small museum of cultural anthropology.”

“Everything will be archived and studied and set aside as a testimony of the life, the real life of generations of restorers who have followed one another,” Capriotti said.

Restorers also found places where previous workers had signed their names, including signatures from 1685 and 1725.

After visiting St. Peter’s Basilica in 1873, novelist Henry James described his encounter with the baldacchino: “You have only to stroll and stroll and gaze and gaze; to watch the glorious altar-canopy lift its bronze architecture, its colossal embroidered contortions, like a temple within a temple, and feel yourself, at the bottom of the abysmal shaft of the dome dwindle to a crawling dot.”

The Knights of Columbus funded the baldacchino restoration, which was originally estimated to cost 700,000 euro (about $768,000).

“It’s Bernini’s baldacchino … It’s a singular masterpiece of sacred art — one which is instantly recognizable and impressive,” Patrick Kelly, the head of the Knights of Columbus, said at a press conference when the restoration was first announced.

“But, if that weren’t enough, this project also fits very well with our mission and with our history of service to the Church, and, especially, the successors of St. Peter.”

Restoration of the ‘Cathedra of St. Peter’

Restoration work is also being carried out on Bernini’s massive bronze monument at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, called the “Cathedra of St. Peter.”

The massive sculpture depicts four doctors of the Church holding up the throne of St. Peter with gilded angels high above the petrine throne surrounding the oval stained-glass window of the “Dove of the Holy Spirit.”

Art restorers have also been cleaning the massive statues of St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Athanasius, and St. John Chrysostom, which are currently covered by scaffolding. 

Bernini built the monument over the course of 10 years in the mid-17th century to protect a historic relic — a wooden throne symbolizing Petrine primacy with ivory plaques dating back to the Carolingian age in the ninth century. 

The restorations are also providing the chance for the public to see the historic relic of St. Peter’s chair up close. The relic will be on display for visitors to St. Peter’s Basilica from Oct. 27 to Dec. 8.