Immigrants at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley humanitarian respite center in McAllen, Texas. / Credit: Vic Hinterlang/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 14, 2024 / 18:15 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a statement that urges the American government to reform the immigration system with “fair and humane treatment” of immigrants.

“Together, we must speak out on behalf of the ‘huddled masses yearning to breathe free’ and ask our government to provide fair and humane treatment for our beloved immigrant brothers and sisters,” read the Nov. 15 statement, signed by USCCB President Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, and two other bishops. 

“It is our hope, and our prayer, that all of us can work together to support a meaningful reform of our current immigration system,” the bishops said. 

Broglio was joined by Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, who serves as the chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, and Bishop Jaime Soto of the Diocese of Sacramento, California, who serves as the chairman of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.

The bishops called for an immigration policy that welcomes refugees and creates a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who entered the United States illegally but have been here for many years. They also called for a safe and secure border and policies that deter dangerous criminal activity on the southern border.

“Our country deserves an immigration system that offers fair and generous pathways to full citizenship for immigrants living and working for many years within our borders,” the bishops wrote. 

“We need a system that provides permanent relief for childhood arrivals, helps families stay together, and welcomes refugees,” they added. We hope that our country can develop an effective asylum system for those fleeing persecution.” 

The letter also calls for “an immigration system that keeps our borders safe and secure, with enforcement policies that focus on those who present risks and dangers to society, particularly efforts to reduce gang activity, stem the flow of drugs, and end human trafficking.” 

“The United States should have an immigration system that protects vulnerable migrants and their families, many of whom have already been victimized by criminal actors,” they wrote.

“From the founding of our nation, immigrants have been essential to this society’s growth and prosperity,” the bishops added. “They come to our shores as strangers, drawn by the promises this land offers, and they become Americans. They continue to provide food security, health services, and many other essential skills that support our prosperous nation.”

President-elect Trump’s mass deportation plan

The statement comes less than two weeks after President-elect Donald Trump won the 2024 election on a platform that prioritized a stronger border and stricter immigration enforcement, including mass deportations of immigrants who entered the country illegally. Trump has said he will first prioritize deportations for people who have committed additional crimes after coming into the country illegally.

Trump appointed Tom Homan, a Catholic, as his border czar. He is the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On Tuesday, Homan told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that “we will prioritize public safety threats and national security threats first and that’s what the focus should be” when it comes to mass deportations.

“There’s over 1.5 million convicted criminal aliens in this country with final orders removal that we're going to be looking for,” Homan said. 

“There’s thousands of gang members, illegal alien gang members we’ll be looking for,” he continued. “Now, I’m going to say, if you’re in the country illegally, you shouldn’t feel comfortable. Absolutely not. I won’t feel comfortable if I’m in the country illegally. If I’m in some other country illegally, I’m not going to be comfortable. You should [not] be comfortable either, because when you enter this country illegally, you have committed a crime. You are criminal and you’re not off the table.” 

Although the statement from the bishops did not directly reference Trump, Seitz said on Tuesday during the USCCB fall assembly that the bishops will “raise our voice loudly” if the administration’s deportation policies transgress human dignity. He said he is “concerned” about Trump’s rhetoric but that “we know that very often the reality is different from the rhetoric.” 

Broglio said during the assembly that the bishops do not encourage illegal immigration but that people who come into the United States should be taken care of because they “represent the face of Christ.”

Seitz also encouraged the government to distinguish between those who have committed additional crimes after entering the country illegally and those who “for the benefit of our country, should be able to remain.”

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at the Republican National Convention on July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. / Credit: Maxim Elramsisy/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 14, 2024 / 16:10 pm (CNA).

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Catholic, is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for the key post of U.S. secretary of state.

“Marco is a highly respected leader and a powerful voice for freedom. He will be a strong advocate for our nation, a true friend to our allies, and a fearless warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump announced on Wednesday. 

“I am honored by the trust President Trump has placed in me,” Rubio said in a Nov. 13 post on X. “As secretary of state, I will work every day to carry out his foreign policy agenda,” he continued. “Under the leadership of President Trump we will deliver peace through strength and always put the interests of Americans and America above all else.”

In an interview with EWTN News last week prior to his nomination, the Republican senator said he wants to turn the electoral mandate Trump received “into action so that it becomes a governing coalition in this country that allows us to actually get good things done for America.”

In the senator’s biography, which was included in Trump’s announcement, it states that “Rubio was born in 1971 in Miami as the son of two Cuban immigrants pursuing the American dream. His father worked as a banquet bartender while his mother split time as a stay-at-home mom and a hotel maid. From an early age, Rubio learned the importance of faith, family, community, and dignified work to the good life.” 

Rubio made his first Communion in 1984. He received the sacrament of confirmation and was married in the Catholic Church to Jeanette Dousdebes, with whom he has four children.

Speaking at length about his faith during his 2016 run for president, Rubio said he is “fully, theologically, doctrinally aligned with the Roman Catholic Church.”

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

null / Credit: txking/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 14, 2024 / 15:40 pm (CNA).

A pair of Republican and Democratic U.S. senators recently questioned the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Colette Peters, about why several faith-based recidivism reduction programs have been turned down in recent years from working in federal prisons. 

Sens. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, and Gary Peters, D-Michigan, in a Nov. 12 letter reviewed by CNA expressed concern over what they see as a lack of transparency in the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) selection process for evidence-based recidivism reduction (EBRR) programs and productive activities (PA).

Lankford and Peters called on the bureau to provide information regarding its use of outside organizations for recidivism reduction programs, particularly faith-based organizations.

At issue is the First Step Act (FSA), signed into law by President Donald Trump during his first term in late 2018, which provides funding for rehabilitation programs such as education, drug treatment, and vocational training in federal prisons. The law was drafted to reduce rates of recidivism — former inmates reentering prisons for new crimes after they have served their term. The bipartisan act enjoyed support from many Catholics as a way to improve the country’s criminal justice system.

The FSA provides “a diverse range of community-based, private, and nonprofit program options” in federal prisons, including faith-based programs. 

Specifically, it states that policies should be developed for prisons to partner with “nonprofit and other private organizations, including faith-based, art, and community-based organizations that will deliver recidivism reduction programming on a paid or volunteer basis.”

But since the passage of the FSA, the bureau has approved few applications for new EBRR and PA programs, the senators note, observing that the “implementation of recidivism reduction partnerships appears stagnant.” 

“[W]e learned through communication with BOP that since the FSA became law, BOP has received eight external faith-based applications. Of the eight external faith-based applications, five were denied, two were approved, while another remains pending review. To the best of our knowledge, the two that have been approved are PAs, meaning there are currently zero external faith-based EBRRs operating within BOP,” the letter reads. 

“These numbers are concerning, particularly at a time when individuals across the BOP system are on waitlists to participate in EBRR programming.”

Lankford and Peters requested documentation detailing the bureau’s selection criteria, approval, and rejection data for external applicants categorized by entity type; Federal Bureau of Prisons policies regarding the FSA; and the results of a 2023 independent program review.

The senators did not identify which faith-based groups submitted applications that the bureau denied. They set a Dec. 13 deadline for the bureau to send them the information they seek. 

A Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson confirmed to a different publication that it received the senators’ letter but declined to comment further.

Marian Tompson, 94, a founder of La Leche League, resigned over the group’s decision to allow men who believe they are women to participate in the organization’s breastfeeding support groups. / Credit: Author I'm nonpartisan|Wikimedia|CC BY-SA 3.0

CNA Staff, Nov 14, 2024 / 15:10 pm (CNA).

Two leaders of a major global mother’s breastfeeding support group, including one of the organization’s founders, have resigned amid the group’s decision to allow males to participate in meetings that have historically been open only to mothers. 

The international board of La Leche League recently directed all British affiliates to begin accommodating men who believe they are women.

La Leche League was founded in Illinois in 1956 by Marian Tompson and six other women to offer mother-to-mother breastfeeding support, first in the U.S. and then beyond. At the time in the United States, the vast majority of babies were bottle-fed, with many medical experts urging mothers away from breastfeeding in favor of formulas.

Tompson, 94, announced this week that she was resigning from the group’s board of directors after accusing the organization of becoming “a travesty of my original intent.”

Tompson said the group was launched with the aim of “supporting biological women who want to give their babies the best start in life by breastfeeding them.” 

Yet the group’s aim has shifted, she said, “to include men who, for whatever reason, want to have the experience of breastfeeding.” 

LGBT advocates have argued that men who believe they are women are capable of breastfeeding babies by way of taking synthetic hormones and inducing lactation via nipple stimulation. Tompson in her resignation noted that there has been “no careful long-term research on male lactation and how that may affect the baby.”

“This shift from following the norms of nature, which is the core of mothering through breastfeeding, to indulging the fantasies of adults, is destroying our organization,” Tompson wrote. 

She said she had attempted to change the group’s focus as one of its board members but that “it has become clear that there is nothing I can do to change this trajectory by staying involved.”

“Still, I leave the door open to come back when La Leche League returns to its original mission and purpose,” she said. 

Also this week, Scottish breastfeeding advocate Miriam Main announced that she was leaving La Leche League after serving for several years as a lactation counselor and on the council of directors of the league’s Great Britain affiliate. 

Main said her concerns began when she noticed changes being made to official group literature, such as the term “mother” being replaced with “parent” and “breastfeed” being replaced with “chestfeed.”

A “group of zealots from within the organization” propelled further changes, she said, including orders that the group would have to begin accepting “men who wished to breastfeed” into support groups. 

Critics of the decision were “told we were transphobic, and we were compared to racists and Nazis” by organization leaders, Main said. A petition to the La Leche League International Board eventually led to an order for all affiliates in Great Britain to offer breastfeeding support “to all nursing parents, regardless of their gender identity or sex.”

The organization’s leaders have “shown that theoretical male lactation trumps the needs of real women living in the U.K.,” Main said. 

“The grief I feel at losing LLL from my life is huge,” Main said, urging remaining leaders at the organization to “listen to their hearts and decide what to do next.”

Neither Main nor Tompson responded to requests for comment on their respective departures. 

In her book “Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood,” author Sheila Kippley argues that breastfeeding is “an integral part of the vocation of Christian motherhood.”

“God’s breastfeeding plan is simple,” Kippley writes. “Yet this simple plan can have far-reaching effects upon the human race, offering numerous benefits for the baby, for the mother, and for society.” 

“God’s plan is indeed good, and it is therefore good for us to try to follow it,” she says. 

Pope Francis, meanwhile, has several times spoken out in favor of breastfeeding, for instance telling mothers in the Sistine Chapel in 2017: “You mothers, go ahead and breastfeed, without fear. Just like the Virgin Mary nursed Jesus.”

null / Credit: Kanok Sulaiman/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 14, 2024 / 14:40 pm (CNA).

The Ohio Legislature approved a bill on Wednesday that would require students in public K–12 schools to use bathrooms that correspond to their sex rather than their subjective “gender identity.” 

The 74-page S.B. 104 would “enact the Protect All Students Act regarding single-sex bathroom access in primary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education.” 

The Protect All Students Act would require K–12 schools to designate all bathrooms and locker rooms that are accessible by multiple students to be exclusively for use by either male or female students. 

The bill does not allow schools to “knowingly” permit students to use a bathroom designated for the opposite sex.

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has previously indicated that he will sign the bill. DeWine declined to comment further until he reviewed the bill in its final form, the governor’s spokesman, Dan Tierney, told CNA.

The Republican-backed bill defines “biological sex” as “the biological indication of male and female … without regard to an individual’s psychological, chosen, or subjective experience of gender.” The bill points administrators to the individual’s birth record to prove biological sex.

The bill also prohibits multi-gender or non-gender facilities but allows family and single-use bathrooms. The bill does not apply to people who need assistance to use the bathroom, school employees, or emergency situations.

The bill also prevents males from sharing overnight accommodations with females but does not prohibit single-occupancy accommodations at student request.

Jocelyn Rosnick, policy director for ACLU of Ohio, condemned the bill in a statement, saying that it would “create unsafe environments for trans and gender non-confirming individuals of all ages.” 

“We are incredibly disheartened by the Ohio General Assembly’s continuous attacks against transgender and gender non-conforming individuals across Ohio,” Rosnick stated. 

“Senate Bill 104 is a cruel invasion of students’ rights to privacy, which could result in unwarranted governmental disclosures of private, personal information,” she claimed.

David Mahan, the policy director for Ohio’s Center for Christian Virtue, in contrast called the bill’s approval “a huge victory for children and families in Ohio.” 

“Amended S.B. 104 is commonsense legislation that will guarantee the only people entering young ladies’ private spaces are female, not men claiming to be female,” Mahan stated. “We call on Gov. DeWine to sign S.B. 104 into law to protect the privacy of women and young girls.”

The Catholic Conference of Ohio added that it supports single-sex bathrooms. 

“As Catholic schools in Ohio are included in the bill and already uphold single-sex bathroom and locker room access in all facilities, we did not get involved in Senate Bill 104, formerly House Bill 183, through public testimony,” added Michelle Duffey, associate director for communications of Catholic Conference of Ohio.

“Yet, we support students in K–12 schools knowing that only those of the same biological sex can use a boys or girls bathroom or locker room,” she continued. “Additionally, the bill permits accommodations for students to use single-occupancy facilities in a school.”

State laws for public K–12 schools in more than a dozen states require bathroom use to align with sex. Utah and Florida, meanwhile, require all government facilities to have designated male and female bathrooms with bathroom use based on sex.

This story was updated at 4:50 p.m. ET on Nov. 14, 2024, to include the statement from Catholic Conference of Ohio.

Stephen Hildebrand, vice president for academic affairs at Franciscan University (left); Deborah Savage, professor of theology at Franciscan University (center); and Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, president of Franciscan University (right), at a panel discussion at the Oct. 24-26, 2024, “Man and Woman in the Order of Creation Conference.” / Credit: Franciscan University of Steubenville

CNA Staff, Nov 14, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Plans are underway at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio for the launch of an initiative that will address what it means to be human amid “ever-growing confusion in our world” about gender.

Franciscan University President Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, announced the launch of the Institute for the Study of Man and Woman during the Oct. 24–26 “Man and Woman in the Order of Creation Conference.”

The conference featured scholars from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) including Francis Maier and Dr. Aaron Kheriaty as well as Angela Franks, senior fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute, and other academics.

“Franciscan is excited to be a voice of reason and faith in a discussion that is often lacking in both,” Pivonka told CNA.

Men and women together

“‘What does it mean to be human?’ This question has been asked for millennia, but with the ever-growing confusion in our world, it has taken on greater importance today,” Pivonka said.

The priest said the initiative “isn’t an institute to study gender, or only women, or only men.” 

“To come to understand the human person more deeply, we believe we must take seriously the reality that God created both male and female — and we cannot fully understand man apart from woman nor woman apart from man,” he said.

Inspiration for the institute struck when Franciscan theology professor Deborah Savage saw another Catholic university adding a women’s studies program. 

Savage, a St. John Paul II scholar, told CNA that “the truth is you can’t understand woman apart from man or vice versa. They come as a pair.”

The program is still in its early stages and seeking funding. Savage, who proposed the idea, has been working on the project since last summer. 

Through the institute, Savage hopes to develop a Catholic anthropology of men and women, thereby creating an alternative to the perspectives that are at the root of several cultural issues of the day.

“I follow JPII’s advice that we not concentrate on fighting evil but concentrate on building something good,” Savage explained. “My project has been toward that end: to have an actual robust, fully grounded account of man and woman to offer.”

“Just as men’s identities need to be more fully understood and lifted up, so do women’s,” Savage said, noting that men and women are negatively impacted by “the disaster that’s taking place in our culture as a result of the widespread use of artificial contraception.”

Savage credits birth control as both cutting men out “of the most fundamental aspects of the relationship between men and women” and rejecting women’s “basic gift to humanity, which is her capacity to conceive and nurture life.” 

“You can’t find happiness by being willing to reduce yourself to an object of sexual desire,” she noted. “When you reduce the desire for relationship to sex, as we have done, what you’re seeing in front of us unfold is human beings reducing themselves to the level of animals.” 

The lack of meaning is self-destructive, according to Savage.

“We are hotbeds of meaning, and we work so hard to eliminate any significance or meaning to the sexual act, to free ourselves from any constraint, then we’re really destroying everything that makes us human,” Savage said.

Once established, the institute will have a research and teaching component, including a degree program for students. It will also have an outreach component, designed to share ideas through conferences, workshops, and in Catholic schools.

The institute is designed to be interdisciplinary, with faculty from neuroscience, biology, psychology, sociology, and marriage and family studies as well as philosophy and theology.

Cultural issues

Both through the institute and at the recent conference, Franciscan is responding to gender ideology from a Catholic perspective.

Kheriaty, a physician and director of the EPPC program in bioethics and American democracy, noted at the recent conference that differences between men and women run through all levels of human biology. “Aside from our reproductive organs, the most sexually differentiated organ in the human body is the brain," he pointed out.

In addition, he emphasized that "one mistake that contemporary gender theory or gender ideology makes is the notion that a man with some characteristically feminine traits or interests is really a woman trapped in a man’s body, and vice versa. That is not true.”

“He may be a boy who likes ballet, or she may be a girl who likes football. That’s all,” he argued.

“A failure to acknowledge the full extent of this variation and overlap in gender traits results in overly rigid cultural stereotypes in what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman,” Kheriaty continued.

The masculine and feminine genius 

The Catholic understanding of men and women points to both their unity and their distinct masculinity and femininity, Savage and other academics noted. 

A Catholic understanding of men and women can be found in Genesis, in the creation of Adam and Eve. When looking at the creation of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2, Savage observed that Eve is made from Adam’s rib, which “links them in a one-flesh union for all of eternity.”

“That doesn't mean just a sexual union,” she continued. “That means that they're meant to collaborate as stewards of creation.”

While men and women need to collaborate, they are also distinct. The creation of Adam and Eve in Genesis shows two different experiences, which Savage calls the masculine and feminine geniuses. 

For Adam, “his first encounter of a reality is of a horizon that only contains lower-ordered creatures,” Savage explained. “The goods of creation, he knows them; he knows them well.”

“A woman's contact with reality is very different,” she added. “Her first contact is with Adam's face. She has never lived in a horizon that did not already contain other persons.” 

Meanwhile, the masculine genius “is very much tied up in his capacity to put the goods of creation at the service of his wife and his family and the community,” Savage said, noting that “men seem to be more ordered toward objects than toward persons.” 

Franks, a theology professor at St. John’s Seminary and senior fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute, added that identity is received from God. 

“If we conceive of identity not as a project but as a received task, then what becomes most important is not discerning what I want or desire or feel…[but rather] what the source of my identity has in mind for me,” she said. 

null / Credit: DCStockPhotography/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 14, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A subcommittee in the House of Representatives launched an inquiry into the National Institutes of Health (NIH) after a grant recipient admitted that she concealed findings in a tax-funded study because it failed to show any mental health benefits for children who are prescribed transgender puberty-blocking drugs.

“In light of the NIH grantee’s unwillingness to release the research project’s findings, we ask that you provide documents and information to assist the committee’s oversight of this matter,” Rep. Lisa McClain, the chair of the Oversight and Accountability’s Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services, wrote in a letter to NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli.

Johanna Olson-Kennedy, the leading researcher on the study, told the New York Times three weeks ago that she withheld the study’s results because the findings could bolster criticism of puberty blockers being used on children. The drugs are designed to facilitate a gender transition of a minor by delaying his or her normal development during puberty.

Olson-Kennedy, who works as the medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, told the Times that she did “not want our work to be weaponized” by critics and lawmakers who want to prohibit doctors from prescribing these drugs to children.

The NIH allocated nearly $10 million of taxpayer money for several projects, which included the research led by Olson-Kennedy to give puberty blockers to 95 children who suffered from gender dysphoria and analyze whether the drugs improved their mental health. The average age for a child enrolled in the study was less than 11 and a half years old and the researchers could not find any mental health benefits.

“We are alarmed that the project’s principal investigator, Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, is withholding publication of the project’s research findings, which cast doubt on the efficacy of the ‘gender affirming’ model, because she believes the findings could be ‘weaponized’ by critics of transgender medical interventions for children,” McClain wrote in the letter.

McClain also accuses Olson-Kennedy of mischaracterizing the study to the Times by telling the reporter that the mental health of the children was “in really good shape” when the study began, even though the researchers previously reported high rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.

“Deliberately mischaracterizing and withholding the results of the … study has serious implications for the health and safety of children who are subjected to ‘gender affirming’ medical procedures, many of which are irreversible and hold lifelong implications despite lacking adequate scientific support for their efficacy or safety,” the letter adds.

“NIH is responsible for overseeing its extramural research projects to ensure supported researchers practice transparency, exemplify scientific integrity, and are proper stewards of taxpayer funds,” McClain wrote.

The subcommittee requested that the NIH provide all research grant applications and summary statements regarding the broader project about transgender youth, including progress reports, unpublished data, and certain communication documents.

Neither the NIH nor Olson-Kennedy responded to CNA’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told CNA that the House’s inquiry into the grants “seems eminently sensible, given NIH policy that specifies that the results and accomplishments of the activities that it funds should be made available to the research community and to the public at large.”

“This public duty constitutes a basic ethical obligation for researchers who are recipients of public funds (more than $9 million in this case) made available through traditional NIH grants,” Pacholczyk added.

Jane Anderson, the vice president of the American College of Pediatricians, which opposes the use of transgender drugs and surgeries on children, told CNA that “it is crucial that all scientific information be released so families and youth can make truly informed decisions, especially when the research is taxpayer funded.”

“The integrity of medicine, not to mention the safety of our patients, is at risk when we ignore scientific facts for political reasons,” Anderson said.

This is not the first time health care professionals have suppressed information related to the effectiveness of gender transitions of children. 

In 2021, the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) eliminated proposed age-based guidelines that encouraged doctors to wait until children reach a certain age before giving them hormone-altering medications or providing them with transgender surgical procedures. Rather, the organization forwent any age-based suggestions after facing external pressure from the Biden-Harris administration.

Some studies have raised major concerns about puberty blockers, such as a Mayo Clinic study published earlier this year, which found that boys might suffer irreversible harm from the drugs, such as fertility problems and atrophied testes.

Earlier this year, the United Kingdom halted the use of puberty blockers for children after an independent review failed to find comprehensive evidence to support the routine prescription of transgender drugs to minors with gender dysphoria.

President-elect Donald Trump has called the use of transgender drugs and surgeries on minors a form of “child abuse.” He has vowed to instruct the Department of Justice to investigate “Big Pharma and the big hospital networks” to look into whether they are covering up evidence about the harms of gender transitions.

A rendering at St. Raphael Catholic Church in Glendale, outside of Phoenix where Acanthus Development is set to build senior living. / Credit: Acanthus Development

CNA Staff, Nov 14, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A property development group is addressing the lack of reliable senior housing by building senior living communities on Catholic church properties.

Acanthus Development has closed several leases for its senior living project, which has been more than five years in the making. Acanthus collaborates with parishes by renting land on the church campus and taking responsibility for the development and management of the senior communities. So far, the group has confirmed five leases with local Catholic churches in the Phoenix area.

Chris Bayley, COO of Acanthus Development, told CNA that the organization was formed by Catholics who came together to build a better option for senior care.

“We’re not formally a Catholic organization. It’s a group full of Italian and Irish Catholics by heritage who have grown up in the Catholic community,” he explained. 

“Frankly, we’re all at an age and station in life where we all have had experiences with our parents going through end-of-life things and having assisted in independent living and memory-care-type issues,” Bayley continued. “We’ve not necessarily been enamored with what’s out there in the marketplace right now.”

Acanthus will be building and managing five communities, beginning at St. Benedict Catholic Church in Ahwatukee, an urban village in Phoenix. The following senior communities are set to be on the campuses of St. Clare of Assisi in Surprise, St. Raphael Catholic Church in Glendale, and St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Cave Creek — all just outside the state’s capital of Phoenix.

The communities will be open to people of all faiths, while the management will “abide by all the Catholic mission statements and hiring requirements,” Bayley said.

Acanthus is responsible for the management of the senior communities, which is a key factor for having care facilities on Catholic property.

“We at Acanthus have agreed as part of this program to build from the ground up our own management company,” he said. “That is going to essentially require the management company to abide by all of the Catholic mission statements and hiring requirements so that you won’t find things going on on the premises that are not acceptable to the Catholic Church as a whole.” 

Acanthus plans to make additional donations from the revenue of the communities to support the local parishes. 

“There are zero expenses that are attributed to the parish,” Bayley explained. “The only thing that happens when the parish signs the lease is that they’re entitled to receiving revenues, so it’s only a plus for them.” 

The location helps seniors remain involved in their parish and Catholic community. Based on the group’s experience with their own parents, being near their parish was a key issue for seniors. 

“They wanted to be back with their community, their parish communities, as they were going through these experiences,” Bayley said of his parents’ generation. 

Bayley added that this will help bring together a “multigenerational” Catholic community at parishes that often have a K–8 school on campus as well. 

“You literally are going to be having a situation now where you can have the mother and father with their children going to Mass, but they’ll be able to stop off right there, right next to the church and pick up the grandparents,” he said. “They can literally walk across the parking lot and you can go together as a family.” 

Father James Aboyi, pastor of St. Benedict Parish, called the project “a historic moment for us.” 

“I am excited to have a senior living facility in our parish community that will give us the opportunity to evangelize all generations from early childhood in our St. John Bosco school to the seniors who will be living in the facility,” Aboyi said in an Oct. 31 press release shared with CNA. 

Bishop John Dolan of Phoenix also voiced support for the project, noting that “those of all faiths who are in an assisted living situation can foster a sense of home so close to the heart of parish life.” 

“I commend and am deeply grateful for people of goodwill coming together to roll up their sleeves and find creative ways to uphold the dignity of our brothers and sisters, and live out the Gospel mission to bring Jesus Christ to every heart and home,” Dolan said in the press release.

House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks with EWTN News' Erik Rosales at the U.S. Capitol. / Credit: EWTN News

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 13, 2024 / 17:40 pm (CNA).

Republican lawmakers will maintain control of the House of Representatives, which completes a governing trifecta heading into January 2025.

The Republican Party will hold at least a small House majority in the 119th Congress after securing narrow wins in various competitive congressional districts. As of late Wednesday afternoon, Republicans had won at least 219 seats, while Democrats had won 211 seats, according to Decision Desk HQ.

There are still five races yet to be called. 

“It’s a new day in America,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a post on X. 

“The American people want secure borders, lower costs, safe communities, strength on the world stage, and an end to woke, radical policies,” Johnson said. “Under President Trump, House Republicans will deliver, helping usher in a new golden age in America.”

According to Decision Desk HQ, Republicans are expected to win two of the seats that have not yet been called and Democrats are also expected to win two. One of the races remains listed as a toss-up. 

If these races remain on that trajectory, Republicans will hold either a nine-seat majority or a seven-seat majority. Heading into the election, Republicans held an eight-seat majority in the chamber, with three vacancies.

However, some of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments could affect the final number as he continues to nominate a handful of lawmakers to serve in key roles. If they are confirmed, at least two members will resign their House seats to serve in the administration. 

If those members of Congress are confirmed to serve in the administration, they will need to be replaced in a special election.

In addition to winning the House of Representatives and the White House, Republicans also flipped control of the Senate. The GOP will head into the new year with a six-seat majority after flipping Senate seats in four states: West Virginia, Montana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. 

“Looking forward to joining the Senate freshman class of 2025 for orientation this week!” Republican Sen.-elect Dave McCormick wrote after winning a tightly contested race against incumbent Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr.

“I’m honored to represent the people of Pennsylvania, and will fight hard to make sure their voices are heard in Washington,” he wrote on X. “Let’s get to work!”

This is a reversal of the current two-seat Democratic majority in the chamber.

These numbers will also be affected by Sen. JD Vance serving as Trump’s vice president and could be affected if Sen. Marco Rubio is confirmed as secretary of state.

Thune will be Senate majority leader, Johnson to remain House speaker

Republican lawmakers selected Sen. John Thune from South Dakota to serve as the Senate majority leader and selected House Speaker Mike Johnson to continue serving in his role.

The selection of Thune to lead the Senate Republican Caucus comes after the previous leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell, announced he would step down from leadership earlier in the year. 

“Republicans have a mandate from the American people to clean up the mess left by the Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda and to deliver on President Trump’s priorities — our work starts today,” Thune said following his election.

Thune had previously been serving as the Senate minority whip for the Republicans. Thune, who is a pro-life evangelical Christian, spoke about his faith with EWTN earlier this year.

The selection of Johnson to keep serving as speaker comes after he received an endorsement from Trump. The Republican from Louisiana is an outspoken evangelical Christian and has been a vocal pro-life advocate.

“Our strong Republican majority is looking forward to advancing your agenda that puts the American people FIRST!” Johnson said in a post on X. “As you said, we will unify and get it done!”

However, the role of speaker requires a majority vote from the House of Representatives as a whole, which caused problems for former speaker Kevin McCarthy when he faced opposition from every Democrat and a small number of Republicans two years ago.

Although Johnson ran unopposed, if a small number of Republicans resist the party’s selection, it could make his path to speakership tougher. 

The last time Republicans had a governing trifecta was after the 2016 elections, which is when Trump won his first term in office. Republicans lost that trifecta in 2018 after losing the House of Representatives.

Archbishop Borys Gudziak on Nov. 13, 2024, during the U.S. bishops’ annual fall meeting called for a return to the obligation to abstain from meat on Fridays as a way of acknowledging the importance of caring for creation. / Credit: Screenshot from United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Baltimore, Md., Nov 13, 2024 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

A leading U.S. Catholic bishop on Wednesday called on his fellow bishops to help revive the tradition of abstinence from meat on Fridays as a way to commemorate the upcoming 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ 2015 environmental encyclical Laudato Si'.

Archbishop Borys Gudziak, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, the committee charged with advancing Catholic social teaching, made his remarks at the conference’s annual fall meeting in Baltimore on Nov. 13.

In 1966, the USCCB (then called the National Conference of Catholic Bishops) removed the obligation of the faithful to abstain from meat on Fridays except during Lent. The tradition of fasting on Fridays dates back to the early Church but was codified in canon law in 1917. 

“We could renew the tradition of Friday abstinence from meat,” said Gudziak, the metropolitan archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. “A return to Friday abstinence would be good for the soul and for the planet, maybe for something else, uniting our devotion to the Lord and reverence for the Lord’s creation.”

He noted that in 2011, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales introduced the pre-Vatican II practice, inspired by a pastoral visit to England by Pope Benedict XVI, who he said was known as the “Green Pope” for his emphasis on the importance of caring for creation.

Reintroducing fasting on Fridays would also bring the Roman Catholic Church closer to its Eastern brothers, he said. 

“Furthermore, fasting could be an opportunity for synodal engagement, exploring ancient practices in the Latin rite, such as Ember Days or Advent fasts, and other rich Eastern Christian practices among Catholics and others,” Gudziak said. 

In addition to fasting, Gudziak suggested Catholics honor the Sabbath and turn to the sacrament of the Eucharist.

“In a world of constant work and stimulation, with ever-present photos, screens, and gadgets, in essence, our world does not rest and struggles with leisure. Perhaps, providentially, 2025 memorializes not only Laudato Si’ but also the jubilee, a special year rooted in Sabbath rest,” he said.

“Our hyperactive world yearns for the Sabbath, which is expressed in the Sunday Eucharist when the Lord makes all things new,” he continued. “On this theme, I would suggest efforts centered on contemplation of creation, leisure, and celebration. This could lead to a pilgrimage to a significant local shrine, basilica, or ecological site in your diocese or eparchy that evokes the marvel of God’s creation.” 

He suggested bishops consider celebrating a special Mass for care for creation on the feast of St. Francis or “preaching on the union of creation and the divine in the Eucharist.”

“To be truly restful, such an initiative should be oriented to the sacraments and overflow with celebration and joy,” he said. ”The goal of this suggestion is not to do something but to experience something, the mystery of God’s presence in the sacraments and in creation.”