Procession of the relics of St. Francis Xavier in Old Goa outside Se Cathedral on his feast day, Dec. 3, 2014. / Credit: Archdiocese of Goa and Daman

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

Police in the Indian state of Goa are on the hunt for a Hindu man who allegedly publicly disrespected St. Francis Xavier and disputed the saint’s title as protector of the state, leading to complaints from the state’s Christians, who deeply venerate St. Francis.

Catholic news outlet UCA News reported that Subhash Velingkar, a former state-unit chief of the powerful Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, publicly questioned the authenticity of the relics of St. Francis Xavier housed in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa.

The relics are only exposed for veneration every 10 years. The next period of exposition and veneration is due to start on Nov. 21 and end on Jan. 5, 2025.

Velingkar reportedly said at a public meeting on Oct. 1 that a “DNA test” should be conducted on the relics to prove that the body is really that of the saint and not, as Velingkar claims, a Buddhist monk from neighboring Sri Lanka.

Describing Velingkar as a “right-wing Hindu leader,” UCA News reported that Christians in Goa filed more than a dozen complaints that Velingkar is “outraging the religious feelings and insulting religious beliefs” under provisions of the Indian penal code and have demanded Velingkar’s arrest. 

“The Catholic community of Goa condemns the derogatory statements against St. Francis Xavier … We appeal to the concerned authorities to take strict necessary action,” Father Savio Fernandes, secretary of the Council for Social Justice and Peace of the Goa Archdiocese, said in a statement to UCA News. 

Goa state, India’s smallest by area, is located on the country’s west coast. It was ruled by Portugal as a colony for over 400 years, until 1961. As a result of the state’s Portuguese influence, it remains one of the most Christian of all of India’s states, with a quarter of the population identifying as Christian, according to a 2011 national census. 

The people of Goa have a strong devotion to St. Francis Xavier, the famed Jesuit missionary who evangelized the area beginning in 1542. He is known there as “Goencho Saib,” which means “the protector of Goa.”

The last exposition of St. Francis’ relics lasted from Nov. 22, 2014, until Jan. 4, 2015, and drew millions of pilgrims. 

India has seen a surge in Hindu nationalism and violence against Christians in recent years, especially in places governed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The northeast Indian state of Manipur has seen mayhem and bloodshed amid an ethnic conflict that has killed hundreds of Christians since last year. In addition, reports have emerged of persecution of Sikhs, a religious minority in the northwestern state of Punjab in India.

A group of over 300 U.S. Christian leaders sent a letter to the U.S. State Department in August urging the agency to put India on a watchlist of countries that have “engaged in” or tolerated “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in 2023 that it was “alarmed by India’s increased transnational targeting of religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf.” As recently as May, a USCIRF report included India among the countries with the worst religious persecution in the world.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance arrives to speak at a Trump-Vance campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5, 2024. / Credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

Speaking to reporters after the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance signaled that a second Trump administration will seek to defund Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood, which is the largest abortion provider in the U.S., took in nearly $700 million in tax-funded government grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements in 2023, accounting for 34% of its total revenue, according to Planned Parenthood’s latest report.

Vance, who was responding to a question from RealClearPolitics, signaled that Planned Parenthood’s government funding may soon come to an end.

“On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood,” Vance said, “our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund-late term abortions. That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around. It will remain a consistent view.”

Pro-life leaders have been calling on former president Donald Trump to make defunding Planned Parenthood a priority if he is reelected to the White House.

In 2018, the first Trump administration attempted to remove $60 million in funding from Planned Parenthood by making changes to the federal family planning program called Title X. The change was held up in court and ultimately rolled back under the Biden administration.

At the time of publication, the Trump campaign had not responded to CNA’s request for specifics on how the administration would renew its efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.

Vance’s comment follows months of the Trump campaign largely avoiding the abortion issue. It offers some of the first insight into what actions a second Trump administration would take to protect unborn life.

Both Vance and Trump have repeatedly said that abortion is exclusively a state issue. They have also called Democrats “radical” for legalizing abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, accusing them of even allowing infanticide.

In response to Vance’s announcement, the Washington Post reported Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, claimed that defunding Planned Parenthood “would only deepen and expand the public health crisis we’re already in thanks to Donald Trump, causing more people to suffer and die for lack of basic reproductive care.”

Lawson pointed out that the Hyde Amendment already prohibits federal funds from being directly used for abortion.

Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for the Kamala Harris campaign, told NBC News that “a second Trump term is too big a risk for American women and their families” and that “the only way to stop an unchecked Trump and his MAGA allies from ripping away freedoms from American women is to elect Vice President Harris, who will defend women’s access to health care and reproductive freedom.”

Meanwhile, Kristi Hamrick, a representative for the national pro-life group Students for Life Action, compared tax-dollar funding for Planned Parenthood a “cancer” in the federal budget. She called Vance’s announcement “good news.” 

According to Hamrick, Students for Life has been in contact with the Trump campaign and has been urging the former president to commit to defunding Planned Parenthood. 

“Students for Life Action has taken President Trump at his word, that he wants to end federal engagement with abortion,” Hamrick told CNA. “That begins with ending federal funding, because as long as you are using federal tax dollars to pay for something, the issue is federal.”

She also said Students for Life has called for the Trump campaign to urge voters to vote “no” in all 10 of the state abortion initiatives on the ballot this November.

“The GOP said in their platform that they did not support late-term abortion — and that is empowered by those extreme measures,” she said.

Planned Parenthood performed 392,715 abortions in 2023, according to its 2023 report. According to a Pew Research Center study published this year, about 1% of U.S. abortions — 9,301 — were late-term abortions, taking place at 21 weeks or after.

Panelists discuss how the transgender movement is impacting young women in particular at the 2024 Pray Vote Stand Summit panel “Saving America’s Daughters: Title IX and the Fight for Fairness.” From left to right: moderator Joseph Backholm, Macy Petty, Doreen Denny, and William Bock. / Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

Panelists at the annual Pray Vote Stand Summit in Washington, D.C., this past weekend discussed how the transgender movement is impacting young women in particular.

In a panel discussion titled “Saving America’s Daughters: Title IX and the Fight for Fairness,” former NCAA volleyball player Macy Petty joined sports attorney William Bock and Doreen Denny, a senior adviser at Concerned Women for America, to discuss the predicament faced by female athletes who have been forced to compete against and share spaces with biological males.

Pray Vote Stand is an annual gathering of mostly evangelical, politically engaged conservatives.

“Never in a million years would I have thought we would one day actually discuss whether or not women deserve their own spaces,” Petty told those gathered at the summit while sharing her experience as a female athlete who had competed against a biological male.

As a high school volleyball player five years ago, Petty and her teammates were forced to play against a team that had a biological male. The trans-identifying athlete was “playing on a net seven inches shorter than he should have as a man,” according to Petty, who is also an activist with Concerned Women for America.

“So he embarrassed all of us, smashing the ball in our faces in front of the college scouts,” she recalled. Petty went on to point out the disappointment of female athletes who have lost out on opportunities because they were forced to compete against men. 

Bock testified to his extensive experience as a litigator in sports law — dealing with issues including doping and Title IX — noting that men have a clear biological and physical advantage over women in sports.

The Christian attorney called the issue “an effort to deny truth and the image of the Creator God” and encouraged believers to “take the burden off of the young ladies who are playing sports” by advocating for them within their communities and the wider public sphere.

Support for inclusion of biological males in women’s sports, despite the apparent risk, is only going to continue, Denny said, “because of what [the] Biden-Harris administration has done with Title IX” and because of how the NCAA has also continued to “double down” on those policies.

As CNA reported in April, the Biden-Harris administration issued a redefinition of Title IX to include protections against discrimination on the basis of gender identity — thereby granting individuals the right to participate in programs such as organized sports that are “consistent with their gender identity” rather than their biological sex.

Opponents of the proposed changes, which were scheduled to go into effect in August, succeeded in blocking in court the administration’s expanded regulations governing the 1972 law that was originally passed to protect women from discrimination in educational spaces. 

During a related summit panel titled “Attorneys General and the War to Stop the Runaway Left,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall also discussed how the promotion of gender ideology has affected young girls.

Yost spoke about his experience successfully defending an Ohio law passed earlier this year that bans minor sex-change surgeries and male participation in women’s sports. He referenced the participation in the process of Chloe Cole, a prominent detransitioner and activist who has testified before Congress on how her childhood was “ruined” because of the puberty blockers and double mastectomy she underwent as a minor.

While Yost acknowledged the existence of “tragic” cases where children suffer on account of gender dysphoria, he addressed those gathered at the summit: “How about a young girl who’s confused, the doctors change her body, and she grows up and gets her head on straight, and she says, I want to be a wife. I want to have babies. And she can’t because of what was done to her when she was a vulnerable kid.”

“That’s tragic, too,” he added.

The faithful stand at attention for the national anthem at the archdiocesan Red Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. / Credit: Archdiocese of Washington

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Washington on Sunday celebrated its annual Red Mass ahead of the opening of the Supreme Court’s October 2024 term, a liturgy that the archdiocese said invokes “God’s guidance and blessing on justices, judges, diplomats, attorneys, and government officials.”

Washington Archbishop Cardinal Wilton Gregory was the principal celebrant at the Mass while Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, concelebrated. Deacon Darryl Kelley offered the homily. The assembly sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” prior to the opening of the Mass.

Attendees at the liturgy included Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. as well as associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Elizabeth Barchas Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, was also in attendance.

Red Masses are offered for those who work in all legal professions. The practice dates back to the 13th century.

The Washington archdiocesan Red Mass, held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in downtown Washington, is sponsored by the John Carroll Society, an organization of Catholic professionals. The group has been sponsoring the Mass for over 70 years. 

Kelley in his homily said the Mass was not a “mere social event at the beginning of the judicial year.”

“Today, in this nation’s ongoing work to form a more perfect union in justice, genuine liberty, and the common good, we praise God for the blessings and guidance of the spirit of truth and gifts,” Kelley said.

It is “no coincidence,” Kelley said, that the Red Mass first began centuries ago “when the foundation of our law today was being developed.” 

“And the foundation of our law is the common law,” he said, “which is rightly grounded in fundamental principles and right reason.” 

The Red Mass serves as a “recognition that there is a higher, timeless, unwritten, transcendent law of justice, such that law, per se, is something that is discovered, or received — not arbitrarily created or decreed,” the deacon noted. 

Quoting the 13th-century English jurist Henry de Bracton, Kelley noted that God “is the author of justice.”

The Mass was preceded by remarks on the history of the John Carroll Society by board of governors member Liz Young. 

In addition to the annual Red Mass, the John Carroll Society also sponsors a yearly “Rose Mass,” meant to “invoke God’s blessings on the medical, dental, nursing, and allied workers and the many health care institutions in the Archdiocese of Washington.”

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh (left) and Neil Gorsuch (right) arrive for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 7, 2024. / Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Ahead of the United States Supreme Court’s newest term, Justice Brett Kavanaugh lauded recent court decisions that have protected religious liberty and halted discrimination against religious organizations. 

During an event hosted by the Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, Kavanaugh said religious liberty is “one area in the six years I’ve been on the court that I think we’ve made — in my view — correct and important strides.”

Kavanaugh, who was nominated to the court by former president Donald Trump in 2018, is one of the six Catholic justices on the Supreme Court. He made the comments during an hourlong interview on Sept. 26 by CIT Director J. Joel Alicea. 

During the talk, Kavanaugh referenced four cases specifically: the 2017 Trinity Lutheran decision, the 2020 Espinoza decision, the 2022 Shurtleff decision, and the 2022 Carson decision.

All four cases dealt with government discrimination against religious institutions and answered questions about the First Amendment. 

In Trinity Lutheran, Espinoza, and Carson, the Supreme Court ruled that governments cannot deny public benefits or public money to religious organizations simply because they have a religious affiliation. This means that school voucher programs and other government funding programs that are available to secular organizations must also be available to religious ones.

The government entities that initially denied funds to the religious organizations claimed they did so because of the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which states the government cannot make laws “respecting an establishment of religion.” The government argued that if it provided those funds to religious organizations, they would be in violation of the clause.

Kavanaugh said during the talk that this interpretation is “a misreading of our history and tradition” and said policies that outright exclude religious organizations are “unlawful” under both the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment.

The Supreme Court ruled in all three cases that providing those funds does not violate the establishment clause.

In reality, the court found that offering funding programs to secular organizations — and denying them to similar religious organizations — was discrimination that violated the First Amendment protection to freely practice one’s religion and the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

“I think one of the principles that’s been reinforced and elaborated on is that discrimination against religion, against religious people, against religious speech, [and] against religious organizations, is not required by the establishment clause — and indeed is prohibited by the free exercise clause and the equal protection clause,” Kavanaugh said.

Similarly, in the Shurtleff case, the Supreme Court ruled that the city of Boston discriminated against a Christian organization by refusing to let it fly an ecumenical Christian flag at City Hall, even though the city allowed secular groups to fly various flags.

“I think we’ve … reinforced a critical principle of religious equality and religious liberty in those cases and hopefully corrected some of the confusion from litigation-shy local attorneys,” Kavanaugh added. “... I feel very proud of that for recognizing the constitutional protection of religious equality and religious liberty.”

The Supreme Court did not take up any religious liberty cases in its last term but could choose to hear several religious liberty cases in its upcoming term that begins this week.

Kavanaugh discusses Catholic intellectual tradition

During the interview, Kavanaugh also discussed his faith and the Catholic intellectual tradition.

“The Catholic tradition … is reflected in several principles I try to think about daily,” Kavanaugh said.

Kavanaugh referenced Matthew 23:12, which states: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” He said he thinks about this verse “to remember the importance of humility — that you don’t know it all; that you’re trying to learn from others.”

Kavanaugh also referenced Matthew 25, saying it highlights “the importance of feeding the hungry and caring for the sick and housing the homeless.”

The justice said in the past when he volunteered at Catholic Charities, “we’d always say … we serve them, we feed them, not because they’re Catholic, but because we’re Catholic.”

In reference to Catholic intellectual tradition, Kavanaugh said: “I really think of the same kinds of principles,” such as “trying to listen to all sides to try to be open-minded, to try to listen and learn, and to have inquiry and dialogue.”

“I think the Catholic intellectual tradition reflects this, which is inquiry and dialogue and listening and hearing different perspectives and having respectful back-and-forth, to always try to learn more and to understand more,” Kavanaugh said.

“So for me, the Catholic intellectual tradition builds on the Catholic experience and tradition more generally about being part of a broader community where you listen to others, help others, serve others, learn from others, and that’s how I think about it,” Kavanaugh said.

Parish-based Trinity House Community groups are now active in 25 parishes in nine states, including 12 parishes within the Diocese of Arlington. Each parish pays an annual subscription cost to gain access to the turnkey program (videos, discussion questions, handouts, core team guides). Most of the gatherings take place on Saturday evenings in the parish hall, following the anticipatory Mass, and last 90 minutes. Many of the groups (also called "Heaven in Your Home Gatherings") are 50-70 attendees, but some are as large as 125 or more. / Credit: Courtesy of Soren and Ever Johnson/Trinity House Community Group

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Parental stress was cited as a public health challenge by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who noted in a Health and Human Services (HHS) advisory on the mental health and well-being of parents in late summer that parental stress is at an all-time high.  

Forty-one percent of parents say that most days they are too stressed to function, while 48% of parents say their stress is “completely overwhelming,” according to a 2023 study by the American Psychological Association 2023, which the HSS cited in its August advisory. 

In contrast, only 26% of other adults mark that they are this stressed.

“Something has to change,” Murthy wrote in the forward of the U.S. surgeon general’s advisory. Supporting parents “will require us to rethink cultural norms around parenting.”

Catholic leaders and those who minister to parents and families have also noticed this trend and are striving to address the lack of community and the stress that parents too often face. 

Catholic psychotherapist, author, and founding director of the Pastoral Solutions Institute Dr. Greg Popcak has noticed the crisis in his own work. 

“Parents in general are lonely and isolated,” he told CNA. “They’re cut off from the support that was traditionally offered by their families of origin and they’re completely overscheduled. The modern family is characterized by choosing activity over intimacy, which makes everyone — parents and kids — grumpy, lonely, and stressed and miserable.” 

Ever Johnson, who with her husband, Soren Johnson, directs Trinity House Community, a Catholic resource designed to help parents build faith and community for their families, agrees.

“Families are overwhelmed often with both parents working and the demands of kids’ schooling and extracurriculars,” she told CNA. “Social media and the atrophy of faith-filled community further contributes to a sense of FOMO [fear of missiing out], anxiety, and stress.”

Catholic middle school teacher Anne Marie Di Geronimo has observed a similar phenomenon among parents she encounters in her work.

“We’re seeing some of the ill effects that the internet has wrought,” Di Geronimo said. “All of these trains have crashed for parents, many of whom feel stressed and put a lot of pressure on themselves to prepare their kids for what they see as a more challenging future than what I faced. It’s harder to get a good-paying job. It’s harder to get into a college than it used to be.” 

Combating parental anxiety 

Di Geronimo, who teaches at St. Anne School in San Francisco, assigns a once-a-month homework activity designed to help students be more independent and parents to feel more comfortable taking a step back. 

The premise is simple: for homework, a student must try something new without the help of his or her parents (but with their permission). The result: parents can be less involved and kids can gain more independence and resilience. 

“When parents can step back, then they can allow their kids to take these small, measured risks while they’re still at home with supervision and support, then the parents can do less for the kids, while the kids can do more at home,” Di Geronimo said. “These kinds of experiences really grow their confidence.”

Di Geronimo noted that parents sometimes “feel that they have to do so much to enrich, to teach, to prepare” their kids.

“Sometimes it crosses over into enmeshment for parents, or doing too much,” she added. 

The independence homework assignment is part of a program called Let Grow, which offers free educational materials that are designed to help students become more independent and therefore less anxious. 

Lenore Skenazy, author of “Free Range Kids” and president of Let Grow, said that parents need to see their kids being independent just as much as the kids need to become independent. 

It’s a “national program to rewire parents so that they’re less anxious, even as it’s rewiring kids so that they’re less anxious,” Skenazy told CNA.

“If you want parents to feel less burdened, more hopeful, more trusting, more relaxed, happier, and more filled with faith, they have to let go,” Skenazy said.

Let Grow also has “play club” programs designed to let kids play independently before and after school, with “a lifeguard” rather than a strict chaperone. “Independence and free play have been going down for a long time,” Skenazy explained.

“Less anxious parents will mean less anxious kids, and less anxious kids will mean less anxious parents,” she said.

Skenazy sees parents grow by practicing giving their kids more independence. She compares her program to exposure therapy.

“Letting your kid go in a culture that has told you that your kid is in constant danger is an act of bravery,” she said. “You’re getting out of your comfort zone, even as the kid is getting out of theirs. And then seeing the kid come back again, it’s like you’ve been through the fire and you’ve come out hardened, you’re stronger, and that feels great.”

Building support among Catholic parents

Catholic parents need more support than they are currently given by the Church, according to Popcak, who has noticed an uptick in parental stress in his work.

“We need to give parents clear guidance for building loving, joyful, faithful family lives,” Popcak said. “We need to help them recapture their quality of life as families.”

“We need to give them real hope that it’s possible to raise faithful kids in today’s world and we need to give them the support that’s necessary to pull this off,” he added. 

Popcak recently founded a website and app designed to support Catholic parents through building community and offering resources designed to help parents keep their kids in the faith. 

The app, CatholicHOM (Households on Mission) is designed to build community, help parents raise kids who stay Catholic, and enable parishes to run monthly parent support groups. 

CatholicHOM’s main focus, Popcak said, is “building a community of support for Catholic parents and connecting them with our team of professional pastoral counselors and Catholic family life coaches so they can get daily support, encouragement, and resources they need to create joyful, loving, faithful Catholic family lives.”

“We’re giving parents a community where they share struggles and successes, get support, and grow together,” Popcak said.

Communion in the home 

Trinity House Community is another ministry designed to bolster the lives of parents and families. The organization offers family formation, fellowship, and materials to help parents pass their faith on to their children.

“We inspire Catholic parents with a vision for their domestic church or ‘Trinity House,’ a vision rooted in the Church’s teaching that the family is a communion of persons in the image of the Holy Trinity,” Soren Johnson told CNA. 

Trinity House also helps parishes create local groups that invite parents and kids to gather. 

“In addition to a vision and practical roadmap, today’s families need a community which can provide encouragement, fellowship, and accountability as they lead their children heavenwards,” Soren Johnson noted.

Each meeting follows the “Trinity House Model,” designed to build community as the group works through aspects of family life: faith life, relationships, household economy, family culture, and hospitality and service. 

“Too often, the only all-family event at the local parish is the annual picnic,” he continued. “In addition to strong women’s groups, men’s groups, young adult groups, and others, parishes need to open up the parish hall for frequent opportunities for entire families to build community.” 

In response to the stress crisis, Ever Johnson said that “we need to re-propose the Church’s beautiful vision for the family, rooted in the peace of the communion of the Holy Trinity, and lived out in practical ways such as the holy Sabbath, family meals, family prayer, and an immersive, beautiful, loving Catholic experience within the home.” 

Hospitality for families

The California bishops are also taking steps to celebrate and support marriage and families.

In their recently launched “Radiate Love” initiative, designed to celebrate and support marriage and families, the bishops are encouraging their flocks to take steps to support families on the diocesan, parish, and family levels.

Molly Sheahan, associate director for Healthy Families for the California Catholic Conference, said that Catholic communities can take many steps to better support families, beginning at Mass.

“Acknowledging them in the prayers of the faithful or with a special blessing shows families that they’re seen and valued by their parish community,” she told CNA.

Sheahan also recommended that parishes “create opportunities for connection.”

“Intentional hospitality at church as a place outside of work or school where families are welcome goes a long way,” she noted. “Inviting families to the church picnic, family adoration, time at the park after Mass, or moms’ and dads’ groups both promotes family closeness and helps build community.”

In response to the initiative, California parishes and dioceses are building marriage ministries and family retreats and connecting with young adults to address their questions about dating and marriage, Sheahan said. 

“Parishes are hosting skills-building workshops for married couples to help with things like communication, conflict resolution, active listening, and strengthening their relationship,” she added. “Others are hosting date nights with child care, or offering date night kits at home, to help couples reconnect and spend time together.” 

Catholics in California are already feeling the effect. 

“It’s renewing hope in our communities that marriage is good for people, for children, and for our Church,” Sheahan said.

From left to right: Deacon Omar F.A. Gutierrez, notary in the cause for canonization, Steve Wolf, vice postulator in the cause for canonization and a Boys Town alumnus, and Father Ryan Lewis, JCL, the archbishop’s delegate. / Credit: EWTN screenshot/Francesca Pollio Fenton/CNA

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A new film depicting the life and work of Father Edward J. Flanagan titled “Heart of a Servant: The Father Flanagan Story” will be released in theaters across the United States for one night only on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

The film portrays the Catholic priest’s unwavering commitment to caring for abandoned and orphaned youth starting from the Great Depression to after World War II, all while defying racist laws in order to serve the most vulnerable and give them hope for a future. The film covers a range of topics — from Flanagan’s health issues to his immigrating to the United States to his founding of Boys Town, Nebraska.

The film is narrated by popular Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie, known for his role as Jesus Christ in “The Chosen.”

The movie had its premiere on Sept. 13 in Boys Town, where CNA had the opportunity to sit down with the several of the individuals involved in Servant of God Edward Flanagan’s cause for canonization.

CNA spoke with Deacon Omar F.A. Gutierrez, notary in the cause for canonization, Father Ryan Lewis, JCL, the archbishop’s delegate, and Steve Wolf, vice postulator in the cause for canonization and a Boys Town alumnus.

Wolf explained that as with any cause for canonization, Flanagan’s began with a “groundswell of devotion among his former boys and girls, former youth.”

From there, the challenge became quantifying the growing devotion before meeting with the archbishop to present the case. This was done through demonstrating the thousands of prayer cards distributed, nationally and internationally, and presenting anecdotal information about Flanagan from people who had admired him over the years and during his lifetime.

Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha accepted the petition and formally opened Flanagan’s cause in 2012. The diocesan phase included creating a historical and theological commission to dig deeper into his life and teachings. The archdiocese closed the diocesan phase in 2015.

In 2019, Flanagan’s cause advanced with the presentation of the “positio,” which summarizes the records collected by the Archdiocese of Omaha and argues that Flanagan demonstrated heroic virtue. It was presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on July 22, 2019, along with a letter of support from Lucas.  

“It’s been very exciting. Everything that we did with regard to his life — it was very invasive in the sense of its thorough looking into his life — and the more we dug and the deeper we dug the more and more convinced we became of this man’s sanctity, of his holiness,” Lewis said. “We knew he was a good man and a good priest but he really excelled in the life of virtue.” 

Lewis added that those involved in Flanagan’s cause have come to believe that one of the reasons his foundation, Boys Town, has performed so well over the years is because “it was built on the foundation of such a holy man.”

Wolf added that he believes “his example is needed now more than ever.”

“He offers a guide for people that want to help families in crisis, children in crisis,” he said. “He’s as relevant in the things he said, the way he approached youth care, the evolution of his mission here in Boys Town — it’s just so fundamentally needed now as much as ever.”

Lewis also pointed out that highlighting the life of a priest who did such important work with the youth can serve as a “morale boost to the Catholic Church here in America.”

“Here in America where we have the abuse crisis, to lift up a priest like him, an American priest who worked with youth and did so in such a holy, magnificent way, positive way, impacting so many lives,” he said, “I think it would be a wonderful example and what a morale boost to the Catholic Church here in America, to the Catholic Church in Ireland, and even beyond, to be able to lift this American priest up and say look at this positive example and emblematic of all the many priests who serve so faithfully and so well but sometimes get a bad rap.”

Gutierrez, who has been a deacon for seven years, shared that the title of the film, “Heart of a Servant,” “speaks to my diaconate.”

“I think his life of service came from his identity as a priest. He knew he was called to the priesthood, and the film tells the story about how because of health he kept failing out and failing out but he maintained,” he said. “And I think part of the fruit of his life is the fruit of him being faithful to his identity, and as a deacon that’s what we’re called to do as well — to be faithful to our identities as servants and really serve God’s people and allow the Lord to have that bear fruit.”

The three men shared that they hope this movie will help advance his cause by having more people come to know his story and feel inspired to ask for his intercession.

“I think whoever views it, whether they knew Flanagan or not, is going to get not just a look at him but a really excellent view of his life, which should inspire them to pray to him and ask for his intercession,” Lewis expressed.

“We want to lift him up and hopefully count him among the saints in heaven.”

A woman prays the rosary at the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, on Sept. 28, 2024. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

October is designated by the Catholic Church as the Month of the Rosary and Oct. 7 is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Here are seven common myths and facts about this devotion to Our Lady.

1. Only Catholics can pray the rosary. 

False. While rosaries are typically associated with Catholics, non-Catholics can certainly pray the rosary — and in fact, many credit it to their conversion. Even some Protestants recognize the rosary as a valid form of prayer.

2. Praying the rosary is idolatry. 

False. Some have objections to the rosary, claiming it idolizes Mary and is overly repetitive. 

Just like any practice, the rosary can be abused — just as someone might idolize a particular pastor or priest, a form of worship, or fasting. But the rosary itself is not a form of idolatry. 

The rosary is not a prayer to Mary — it is a meditation on the life of Christ revealed in five mysteries “with the purposes of drawing the person praying deeper into reflecting on Christ’s joys, sacrifices, sufferings, and the glorious miracles of his life.” 

When we pray the Hail Mary, we are not adoring Mary, we are asking for her intercession — just as we might ask a friend or family member to pray for us. 

Second, any prayer can lose its meaning if we do not intentionally meditate on it. Focusing on the mysteries with purpose and intention is key to the rosary’s transforming power. As one author encourages: “The rosary itself stays the same, but we do not.”

3. You can wear a rosary as a necklace.

It depends. It is typically considered disrespectful and irreverent to wear a rosary around one’s neck as jewelry, even though the Church does not have an explicit declaration against doing so. 

However, Canon 1171 of the Code of Canon Law says that “sacred objects, set aside for divine worship by dedication or blessing, are to be treated with reverence. They are not to be made over to secular or inappropriate use, even though they may belong to private persons.”

It is important to treat the rosary with respect and intention. If you intend to wear the rosary as a piece of jewelry, this would not be respectful and should be avoided. It goes without saying that wearing the rosary as a mockery or gang symbol would be a sin.

But if it is your intention to use the rosary and be mindful of prayer, then it could be permissible. It is not uncommon in some cultures, like in Honduras and El Salvador, to see the rosary respectfully worn around the neck as a sign of devotion.

Rosary rings or bracelets might be a better option if you want to keep your rosary close at hand as a reminder to pray, as they are kept more out of sight and would not be as easily misconstrued to be a piece of jewelry. 

4. The rosary is an extremist symbol.

False. A widely-shared 2022 Atlantic article went viral for accusing the rosary of being an “extremist symbol.” 

“Just as the AR-15 rifle has become a sacred object for Christian nationalists in general, the rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or “rad trad”) Catholics,” the article read.

The author also cited the Church’s stance on traditional marriage and the sanctity of life as evidence of “extremism” and claimed that Catholics’ tendency to call the rosary a “weapon in the fight against evil” as dangerous.

As CNA reported in 2022, popes have urged Catholics to pray the rosary since 1571 — often referring to the rosary as a prayer “weapon” and most powerful spiritual tool.

5. The rosary is not biblical.

Untrue! Most of its words come directly from Scripture.

First, the Our Father is prayed. The words of the Our Father are those Christ taught his disciples to pray in Matthew 6:9–13.

The Hail Mary also comes straight from the Bible. The first part, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” comes from Luke 1:28, and the second, “Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,” is found in Luke 1:42.

Finally, each of the decades prayed on the rosary symbolizes an event in the lives of Jesus and Mary. The decades are divided into four sets of mysteries: joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious, the majority of which are found in Scripture. 

6. A rosary bead, or pea, can kill you.

Somewhat true. A rosary pea, or abrus seed, is a vine plant native to India and parts of Asia. The seeds of the vine, which are red with black spots, are often used to make beaded jewelry — including rosaries. Rosary pea seeds contain a toxic substance called “abrin,” which is a naturally-occurring poison that can be fatal if ingested. However, it’s unlikely for someone to get abrin poisoning just from holding a rosary made from abrus seeds, as one would have to swallow them.

Today, most rosaries are made from other nontoxic materials, such as olive wood or glass — eliminating this concern.

7. Carrying a rosary can protect you.

True. The rosary has proven to be a miraculous force for protecting those of faith and bestowing upon them extra graces, such as the victory of the Christian forces at the Battle of Lepanto after St. Pius V implored Western Christians to pray the rosary.

Many great saints across history, including Pope John Paul II, Padre Pio, and Lucia of Fatima, have also recognized the rosary as the most powerful weapon in fighting the real spiritual battles we face in the world. 

We know that spiritual warfare is a real and present danger: “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens” (Eph 6:11–12). 

“The rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin … If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors,” Pope Pius XI said. 

This article was first published on Oct. 1, 2022, and has been updated.

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CNA Staff, Oct 6, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The U.S. bishops announced the second annual novena for mental health as part of a national campaign to promote mental health.

Launched in 2023, the National Catholic Mental Health Campaign aimed to address mental illness around the message that “everyone who needs help should receive help.”

Beginning on World Mental Health Day, Oct. 10, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) “will begin nine days of focused prayer, teaching, and actionable steps to engage more intentionally on mental health issues,” according to the USCCB Sept. 23 press release. The novena will conclude on Oct. 18, the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, the patron saint of health care.

The novena will be a tradition for future years to come, said Paul Jarzembowski, the USCCB associate director for the laity for the Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth.

Jarzembowski told CNA that the Church is seeking “to follow the example of Jesus in responding to the needs of the people of God in real time.”

“Today mental health is impacting the lives of so many people, which was amplified and raised to our consciousness by the global pandemic,” he explained. “The U.S. bishops also took note of the growing epidemic of loneliness across the country, in particular among young people, the elderly, and marginalized populations.”

“People are hurting all around us at this very moment, even if we cannot visibly see it,” Jarzembowski said. “Through this nationwide campaign, the U.S. bishops are asking everyone to join them to respond with greater awareness and action as the mental health crisis unfolds before us every day.”

Each day of the novena has a different theme and focuses on a different saint. For instance, Day 1 of the novena begins with St. Dymphna, the patron saint of those suffering from mental illness and of mental health professionals, and focuses on praying for removing stigmas around mental health.

The goal of the novena is to build up “a lasting way for all Catholics to prayerfully remember those who are most impacted by this crisis and to answer the call of Jesus to respond to those who struggle with tender care and pastoral action,” Jarzembowski noted.

The hope is that the campaign and novena “will be integrated into our homes, our churches, and our work within society,” according to Jarzembowski.

When asked what steps Catholics can take to better support people who struggle with mental health, Jarzembowski suggested becoming “more aware of potential mental health issues” and recognizing “that they can be hidden in plain sight.” 

“Developing habits of being more compassionate and patient with one another, especially online, can go a long way to creating a culture of spiritual and mental wellness,” he continued. “Be mindful of the signs of depression, suicidal ideation, loneliness, and anxiety, and accompany those people who struggle to seek out the help and support they may need.” 

Each day of the novena includes actions that Catholics can take to help address the mental health crisis.

“In our Catholic parishes and dioceses, we can advocate for more mental health ministry,” Jarzembowski added. “From developing mental health support groups to researching health care options in our local community to infusing a spirit of mental wellness into our existing pastoral ministries, especially for young people, families, and the elderly, there are many things Catholics can do to create a culture of responsiveness.”

Resources for the mental health campaign, including the novena, can be found here.

Mark Houck and other pro-life activists share the severe suffering they have experienced due to the pro-abortion policies of the Biden-Harris administration at the Pray Vote Stand Summit in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. / Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 5, 2024 / 09:20 am (CNA).

Pennsylvania pro-life advocate Mark Houck joined panelists at the annual Pray Vote Stand Summit in Washington, D.C., on Friday to call attention to the Biden-Harris administration’s attacks against the pro-life movement.

The founder of The King’s Men, a Catholic men’s apostolate, was featured alongside Janet Durig and Catherine Herring as part of a panel titled “Kamala Harris’ Attacks on Life and the Family” during the annual gathering of mostly evangelical Christian conservatives.

Durig is the executive director of Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center, a Washington, D.C-based pro-life resource center that has recently faced repeated attacks of harassment and vandalism. 

The panel pointed out that Harris is known for making inflammatory statements against pro-life pregnancy centers, including offering words of encouragement to Democrat attorneys general nationwide for “taking on, rightly, the crisis pregnancy centers.”

“We don’t force anything on [pregnant women],” Durig said. “Of course, as a Christian pregnancy center, we would want them to choose life, but we don’t force anything on them.

Houck spoke about his own arrest in which over 25 heavily armed federal agents, including two SWAT team members, raided his home during the early morning hours of Sept. 23, 2022.

Houck described the arrest — which he said took place without a warrant and was witnessed by his wife and children — as “a tyrannical overreach of government” and symbolic of “dictatorship.” 

Looking ahead to the elections in November, Houck told those gathered at the summit that respect for the Constitution must be renewed among elected leaders in order for corrupt targeting of pro-life and pro-family advocates to cease.

“My Fourth Amendment rights [‘the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures’] were violated the day [the FBI] came to my home,” Houck said. “With any new administration, if there’s going to be a change, we need to get rid of the current FBI director, and we need to get rid of the attorney general.” 

Federal prosecutors charged Houck with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act after he was involved in an altercation with an abortion clinic escort who had been harassing his 12-year-old son. After just an hour of deliberation, a jury unanimously found him innocent of the alleged crime, for which he would have been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Following his arrest, Houck noted that he spent six hours handcuffed to a chair before anyone spoke to him. In total, he was detained for 10 hours before being released on his own recognizance, thereby signaling that he was never considered a true threat. 

“So why the heavy raid?” he asked. “Because they want to humiliate you, intimidate you, and instill fear in you, and make an example of you.”

For her part, Herring shared the story of how she was able to save her daughter’s life thanks to an abortion pill reversal after her husband poisoned her by dissolving chemical abortion pills in her drink.

Had the Biden-Harris administration kept in place previous distribution restrictions on chemical abortion drugs, she said, the incident would not have happened.