null / Credit: Diocese of Lansing, Michigan

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2024 / 17:40 pm (CNA).

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel this week released the fourth report in a series of investigations the state is conducting into abuse by Catholic clergy there. 

The attorney general’s report, released on Monday, looks at reported abuse in the Diocese of Lansing. Previous reports, released in 2022 and 2024, examined alleged abuse in the dioceses of Kalamazoo, Gaylord, and Marquette.  

As with the earlier investigations, the Lansing report looks at allegations of abuse dating back decades. The report includes “allegations of sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct, including grooming and misuse of authority against minors and adults.”

The attorney general’s office lists a total of 56 clergy and religious in its report, including two bishops, with more than 150 abuse allegations identified in the investigation.  

The majority of the individuals on the list, 37, are “known or presumed to be dead.” Of the remaining 19, just one — a deacon — is in “active ministry” in the Lansing Diocese, while three retired priests have “no restrictions on their ministry.” 

The report says the “vast majority” of the alleged abuse occurred prior to 2002, the year the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops promulgated its “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.” 

Numerous allegations involve the alleged abuse of minors, while others involve inappropriate conduct or abuse of adults. One allegation involves a 5-year-old child.

The attorney general’s office said the materials in the report were gathered from “[a] tip line, victim interviews, police investigations, open-source media, paper documents seized from the Diocese of Lansing, and the electronic documents found on the diocesan computers,” as well as “reports of allegations disclosed by the diocese.”

Nessel on Monday said the state government “made a promise to the survivors years ago” to produce the abuse reports and that the investigations serve the purpose of “sharing their stories and validating their experiences.” 

The prosecutor’s office noted that prosecution of many of the allegations is barred by Michigan’s statute of limitations, though Nessel said that “criminal prosecutions are just one accountability metric.”

“Ensuring each victim is heard, regardless of how long ago the sexual abuse and misconduct may have been, is important in acknowledging their pain and fostering a culture that prioritizes these victims over their silence,” she said.

In a statement on Monday, the Diocese of Lansing noted that the attorney general’s report indicated that “the 1970s and ’80s were the peak decades for alleged instances of sexual misconduct” regarding clergy in the diocese.

“Over half” of the allegations, from 1950 until the present, occurred during those decades, the diocese said.

Lansing Bishop Earl Boyea said in the statement that his “heart breaks for all those who have suffered due to the evil of clerical sexual abuse.”

The bishop described the abuse as “a great betrayal of Jesus Christ, His Holy Church, the priesthood, and, most gravely, those victims — and their families — who were harmed physically, emotionally, but above all spiritually when they were so young.”

“To all those injured by such criminal and immoral actions I say clearly and without hesitation: these terrible things should never have happened to you; I am so deeply sorry that they ever did; please be assured of my prayers, penance, love, and support,” the prelate said. 

Diocese of Lansing general counsel Will Bloomfield, meanwhile, said on Monday that since the 2002 charter, the diocese has been referring abuse allegations to law enforcement and removing clerics “credibly accused” of abusing minors. 

The diocese mandates that “all allegations of grave clerical misconduct, including those involving adult victims, are professionally investigated and reviewed by a body of lay professionals called the Code of Conduct Advisory Council,” Bloomfield said. 

An Ontario judge has acquitted Linda Gibbons, a 76-year-old Christian grandmother and pro-life activist who was charged with protesting within an “buffer zone” outside an abortion clinic. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Campaign Life Coalition

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2024 / 16:40 pm (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related updates.  

Ontario judge acquits elderly pro-life activist

Linda Gibbons is not your average grandmother. This year, she was arrested four times — all for her pro-life activism outside abortion clinics.

The 76-year-old Canadian was brought in and out of an Ontario court in handcuffs before she was finally acquitted on Dec. 5. Ontario judge Maria Speyer ruled that Gibbons was not guilty of criminal mischief to property.

Gibbons was on trial for holding up a sign outside a Toronto abortion facility that performs abortions up to the middle of the second trimester of pregnancy. 

Gibbons stood in the 50-meter (164-foot) buffer zone, enacted in 2017 as part of the Safe Access to Abortion Services Act. She held her characteristic sign with an image of a young child that read: “Why Mom? When I have so much love to give.”

Gibbons “did not accost anyone or impede any patient as they made their way to the clinic other than having to step around her,” the judge found. The judge ruled that Gibbons “never stepped onto the walkway leading to the door,” making her not guilty of mischief. 

Gibbons, who remained silent during the hearing, has spent a combined nearly 11 years in prison for her pro-life work. She had been in jail since June.

“Justice was done for Linda,” Pete Baklinski, communications director for Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life organization, told CNA. 

“The judge clearly saw that Linda’s actions of peacefully witnessing to life in front of the abortion mill in no way amounted to the criminal activity of ‘mischief.’ My hope is that this ruling adds to the growing body of jurisprudence that pro-life advocates have a right to speech in front of abortion centers and that it will be used in future cases to defend their right,” Baklinski said.  

Proposed Oklahoma bill would protect unborn 

A Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill to increase protection for unborn children and classify abortion as a felony for providers. Oklahoma Rep. Jim Olsen’s House Bill 1008, if passed, would revive a previous Senate bill that was struck down by the Oklahoma Supreme Court after being signed into law in 2022. 

Olsen rewrote S.B. 612 to match the preferences of the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling. H.B. 1008 prohibits providers from performing abortions “unless necessary to preserve the life of a pregnant woman.” The bill provides more protections for unborn children by requiring the medical provider to preserve both the life of the mother and the baby wherever possible unless the birth of the child is a threat to the mother’s life. Abortion is currently only legal in Oklahoma to save the life of the pregnant woman.

The bill would also make it a felony to perform an abortion, with a fine of up to $100,000, jail time of up to 10 years, or both. The proposed bill specifies that this would not apply to a woman with any criminal offense in the death of her own unborn child. It would also not prohibit contraceptive drugs used before the time that pregnancy could be determined. The bill notes that a physician would not be liable if the medical treatment provided to a pregnant woman accidentally resulted in the unborn child’s injury or death.  

Missouri abortion clinics pause abortions ahead of court ruling

Missouri’s pro-abortion amendment legalizing abortion went into effect on Dec. 6, but local Planned Parenthood clinics are still waiting to begin abortions pending a court ruling on whether abortion restrictions still on the books are valid.

Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers along with ACLU of Missouri are awaiting a judge’s decision before beginning to perform abortions after suing to strike down regulations on abortion clinics.

Some of the regulations include a 72-hour waiting period between an initial appointment and an abortion and a requirement that the same abortionist who saw the patient is the one to perform the abortion. The law also requires that abortionists have hospital admitting privileges. Abortions fell from an annual average of 5,000 to 167 in 2020 amid these requirements. After Roe v. Wade, a trigger law went into effect, protecting unborn children except for when abortions were medically necessary. In November, Missouri passed Amendment 3, which added “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” to the state constitution.

Pope Francis laughs with some religious sisters at his general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Aug. 30, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Tuesday penned an essay for the New York Times on the importance of fostering a sense of humor, of quelling narcissism through “appropriate doses of self-irony,” and of avoiding “wallowing in melancholy at all costs.”

“The Gospel, which urges us to become like little children for our own salvation (Matthew 18:3), reminds us to regain their ability to smile,” Pope Francis wrote in an essay adapted from his new book, “Hope: The Autobiography,” set to be published in January. 

The pontiff called the many children he meets, as well as the elderly, “examples of spontaneity, of humanity.” 

“[T]hey remind us that those who give up their own humanity give up everything, and that when it becomes hard to cry seriously or to laugh passionately, then we really are on the downhill slope. We become anesthetized, and anesthetized adults do nothing good for themselves, nor for society, nor for the Church,” he wrote.

“Irony is a medicine, not only to lift and brighten others but also ourselves, because self-mockery is a powerful instrument in overcoming the temptation toward narcissism,” the pope continued. 

“Narcissists are continually looking into the mirror, painting themselves, gazing at themselves, but the best advice in front of a mirror is to laugh at ourselves. It is good for us. It will prove the truth of that old proverb that says that there are only two kinds of perfect people: the dead and those yet to be born.”

Pope Francis has spoken about humor several times throughout his papacy; in June of this year, he hosted and entertained a group of over 100 comics, stand-up comedians, and humorists in the largest — and possibly only — gathering of comedians in the Vatican since Pope Pius V eliminated the role of the papal jester in the 1500s.

During a recent visit with French President Emmanuel Macron in Corsica, Pope Francis recommended that Macron read his apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exultate, drawing attention to a passage referencing St. Thomas More’s prayer for a sense of humor.

“Lord, give me a sense of humor. Grant me the grace to understand a joke, to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others,” reads the prayer, which Pope Francis has previously described as “very beautiful” and recites daily.

The pope in his essay offered examples of good humor shown by his fellow popes St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II.

St. John XXIII, for example, was said to have showcased his self-deprecating wit when he joked that he often resolved to speak with the pope about serious problems before remembering “that the pope is me.”

Relaying an anecdote about St. John Paul II’s playful resistance to rigid expectations of clerical conduct, Francis wrote that the saint was once, while still a cardinal, rebuked for enjoying many outdoor sporting activities, whereby John Paul responded that “these are activities practiced by at least 50% of cardinals.” In Poland at the time, there were only two cardinals.

“[S]ometimes we [popes] unfortunately come across as bitter, sad priests who are more authoritarian than authoritative, more like old bachelors than wedded to the Church, more like officials than pastors, more supercilious than joyful, and this, too, is certainly not good,” the pope wrote.

“But generally, we priests tend to enjoy humor and even have a fair stock of jokes and amusing stories, which we are often quite good at telling, as well as being the object of them.”

The pope in his essay also told a joke involving himself, printed here in its entirety:

As soon as he arrives at the airport in New York for his apostolic journey in the United States, Pope Francis finds an enormous limousine waiting for him. He is rather embarrassed by that magnificent splendor, but then thinks that it has been ages since he last drove, and never a vehicle of that kind, and he thinks to himself: OK, when will I get another chance? He looks at the limousine and says to the driver, “You couldn’t let me try it out, could you?” “Look, I’m really sorry, Your Holiness,” replies the driver, “but I really can’t, you know, there are rules and regulations.”

But you know what they say, how the pope is when he gets something into his head … in short, he insists and insists, until the driver gives in. So Pope Francis gets behind the steering wheel, on one of those enormous highways, and he begins to enjoy it, presses down on the accelerator, going 50 miles per hour, 80, 120 … until he hears a siren, and a police car pulls up beside him and stops him. A young policeman comes up to the darkened window. The pope rather nervously lowers it and the policeman turns white. “Excuse me a moment,” he says, and goes back to his vehicle to call headquarters. “Boss, I think I have a problem.”

“What problem?” asks the chief.

“Well, I’ve stopped a car for speeding, but there’s a guy in there who’s really important.” “How important? Is he the mayor?”

“No, no, boss … more than the mayor.”

“And more than the mayor, who is there? The governor?”

“No, no, more. …”

“But he can’t be the president?”

“More, I reckon. …”

“And who can be more important than the president?”

“Look, boss, I don’t know exactly who he is, all I can tell you is that it’s the pope who is driving him!”

Participants are led through a prayer for those wanting to receive healing during a healing service led by Father Mathias Thelen of Encounter Ministries at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Brighton, Michigan, on Dec. 6, 2024. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Jessica Morehead

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Dec 17, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A recent healing service at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Brighton, Michigan, offered a glimpse into part of a Catholic charismatic ministry that also takes place in many other parts of the world, according to a priest and a prominent theologian.

On the evening of Dec. 6, pastor Father Mathias Thelen, co-founder and president of Encounter Ministries, spoke to a near-capacity congregation. His talk was preceded by congregational singing and praise music played with a piano, guitars, and drums. There was also a video presentation of a healing service he conducted earlier this year in Brazil.

Before Thelen spoke, Encounter Ministries Director of Operations Rachel Grech put her hand on his shoulder and prayed audibly for him, as members of the congregation also held up their hands in blessing. Thelen started by saying: “This is all about God’s love, so turn to your neighbor and say, ‘You are loved.’ Why am I doing this? Because this makes no sense without that truth.” 

Thelen said the purpose of the evening service was to bring God’s love to bear on “our bodies, our lives.” Paraphrasing Mark 16:15, he said: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature… In my name they will drive out demons … They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.” 

Thelen holds a licentiate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He authored “Biblical Foundations for the Role of Healing in Evangelization” and has appeared in the documentaries “Fearless” and “Revive.” He also wrote “The Explosive Growth of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity in the Global South and Its Implications for Catholic Evangelization” in Homiletic and Pastoral Review. 

At the service, Thelen said that evil came into the world when humanity rejected God. “One of these evils is sickness, and it was never part of God’s plan. It makes perfect sense that when God sends his son, Jesus, to reign and heal us of sin that he heals us of sickness.”

He called for prayers in the name of Jesus while naming various parts of the body. When congregation members stood up, their companions placed hands on them and prayed for healing. Thelen asked to “pray resurrection life” into those with brain injuries, for example, and for those with terminal illness.

Father Brian Gross of North Dakota told CNA: “I would have told you that you’re crazy if you had told me six years ago that I would be doing this.” An encounter with Thelen encouraged his priesthood and to offer healing services. Now teaching at St. Paul Seminary in Minnesota as director of pastoral formation, he shares his experience of Encounter Ministries with seminarians.

Informal healings not held on church grounds are also frequent in the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan, where St. Patrick Parish is located. At least one instance was at a dinner event organized by St. Thomas Parish in Ann Arbor last month. 

In an interview with CNA, Mary Healy, a professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit and counselor to Encounter Ministries, noted that anointing of the sick, once popularly known as “last rites,” is one of the two healing sacraments offered by the Church. “It is for healing, but over time the emphasis has been much much more on healing of the soul and the healing of sin and its effects.”

She said that other dimensions of healing by anointing were de-emphasized so that it was seen for centuries as “extreme unction” near death. “People saw a priest with his anointing oils would despair because it meant the hour of death was near,” Healy said, adding that there was a rectification of the practice by the Second Vatican Council. She said she knows priests who have witnessed miraculous healings following anointing.

“Prayer for the sick laity,” she said, “has always been present in the Church. It really initiated with the words of the Lord, who commanded the apostles first but then the wider group of disciples to go heal the sick and proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand.” 

Paraphrasing the Gospel of Mark, Healy noted that Jesus told believers to proclaim the Gospel to all creation and that signs will accompany them. Jesus said in the Gospel: “In my name ‘they will lay their hands on the sick and the sick will recover.’”

“The primary place, not the only place, for the healing through the laying of hands by lay Christians is meant to be evangelization. Healing is particularly for the context of evangelization,” Healy affirmed. “Healing is a sign for those who do not yet believe, those who only partially believe, those who are mixed up in their belief system, and those who do not have a rich and profound relationship with Jesus Christ. Healing is a sign that truly the kingdom is here because the King is here.”

Encounter Ministries came as a result of Thelen’s friendship with co-founder Patrick Reis. Thelen told Faith magazine earlier this year: “We wanted to begin demonstrating what the Holy Spirit can do in the Church but also teaching people how to walk in that power, walk in that goodness that God has for the whole Church.” 

Healy is also a theological adviser to Renewal Ministries, based in Ann Arbor and founded by fellow theologian Ralph Martin. It has spread to Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Martin founded  the charismatic Word of God and Sword of the Spirit Christian communities. The latter has been recommended by Bishop George Bacouni of the Melkite Catholic rite. 

Archbishop José H. Gomez held a press conference on Dec. 16, 2024, to present Father Juan Gutierrez, who experienced a miracle through the intercession of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. / Credit: Screenshot from Archdiocese of Los Angeles video

CNA Staff, Dec 16, 2024 / 17:50 pm (CNA).

When a seminarian was injured while playing basketball in 2017, he had no idea it would one day contribute to the cause for canonization of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.  

Father Juan Gutierrez, 38, then a seminarian at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California, got an MRI and soon learned he had torn his Achilles tendon. Concerned about the long and painful recovery and expenses, Gutierrez headed for the seminary chapel the following day “with a heavy heart.” 

As he prayed, Gutierrez felt inspired to make a novena to Frassati. A few days into the novena, Gutierrez went into the chapel to pray when nobody was there. As he prayed, he recalled feeling an unusual sensation around his injured foot.

“I was praying, and I started to feel a sensation of heat around the area of my injury. And I honestly thought that maybe something was catching on fire, underneath the pews,” Gutierrez recalled at a Monday press conference at St. John the Baptist Parish in Los Angeles County, where he now serves as an associate pastor.

Gutierrez checked for a fire, but saw none, even as he still felt the sensation of heat on his injury. The seminarian remembered from his experiences with the Charismatic Renewal movement that heat can be associated with healing from God. He found himself gazing at the tabernacle, weeping. 

“That event touched me deeply,” Gutierrez said.

He was not only touched spiritually, but he was also healed physically. Incredibly, he was able to walk normally again and no longer needed a brace. When Gutierrez visited the orthopedic surgeon, the surgeon confirmed that he didn’t need surgery. The tear that had once shown up on an MRI scan was gone, something unheard of with this type of injury, the surgeon told him. 

“His healing was a miracle. His doctors could not explain it,” Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez said at the press conference. “Of course, miracle is a word that gets overused in our culture; that is not well understood. But the Scriptures tell us that Jesus worked miracles on earth. … And we believe that Jesus continues to work miracles from heaven.”

“And we believe that Jesus hears not just our prayers but also the prayers that the saints make for us,” Gómez said. “Now we have a new saint who is watching over us from heaven.”

Gutierrez said his healing “reminds us that prayer works.” 

“The saints can help us to pray for our needs and that there is somebody listening to our prayers,” Gutierrez said. “God is always listening to our prayers.”

The surgeon’s confirmation was the beginning of a Vatican investigation into the miracle that ultimately led to Frassati’s canonization.

Monsignor Robert Sarno expressed his awe at “how this all came about,” noting that there were many odd connections that led to it all coming together. After retiring from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Sarno was teaching a class on causes of canonization at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, where he met none other than Gutierrez. The seminarian approached Sarno outside of class once and told him about the healing he had experienced.

“When I heard it, I immediately suspected that there might have been some substance to this case,” Sarno said at the press conference, tuning in remotely from New York.

With the approval of the Vatican and Gómez, Sarno began the canonical investigation into the healing. Only the final step remains — a “final consultation” of cardinals and bishops with the Holy Father to approve or disapprove the canonization. Sarno noted that “in a case like this, it’s really truly a formality.” 

Frassati is an example for young people, Sarno said. 

“What we are called to do is to imitate the holiness of Pier Giorgio and pray for his intercession, especially for young people who are so confused today and so looking for answers, to life and to faith,” Sarno said. 

A friend in heaven  

Gómez called Frassati “a saint for our times.” Frassati was born to a wealthy Italian family but had a heart for the poor and the Eucharist. He was known for his good humor and love of hiking. 

“He was a young man who loved life and enjoyed life to the full,” Gómez said. “He was a good friend to others, a good son, and a good brother. And he was a man of deep prayer who taught us to find Jesus in the holy Eucharist and the face of the poor.” 

Frassati will be canonized a saint next year, 100 years after his death from polio at the age of 24 in 1925. 

“Some of his last words were this: ‘I will wait for them all in heaven,’” Gómez said. “I am confident through these prayers, Our Lord will lead many to follow him there.”

Gutierrez shared that he doesn’t know why he was chosen for this. 

“I will be the first one to recognize that God could have chosen a more charismatic, easygoing, and less trouble-stirring person. Trust me, I know, and my colleagues will be able to tell you how true that is,” Gutierrez said. “But as the Scripture tells us, it wasn’t us who chose the Lord. It was him who chooses us. And he has chosen us to bear fruit.”

Gutierrez described the events following the healing as a “roller coaster” of “excitement, anticipation, trepidation, and even fear.”

“There have been moments that left me thinking, how did I end up here? And what was I thinking when I got on this ride?” he said. “But at the end of the day, I am left with a heart filled with gratitude and with awe at what God does in our lives.”

“And I’m also left humbled by the fact that in Pier Giorgio, God has given me not only an intercessor but also a friend.”

“There’s a lot of similarities between Pier Giorgio Frassati and Juan, whether he knows it or not,” Sarno added. “Both of them were very athletic, very young, and involved in sports. And for this reason, Pier Giorgio Frassati was declared as one of the patrons of World Youth Day.”

Wanda Gawronska, the niece of Frassati, shared at the conference her excitement that her uncle will “finally” be canonized next year. Gawronska recalled the challenges that her mother faced as she advocated for his canonization beginning in the early 1930s.

Gawronska read a line from a letter that Frassati wrote exactly 100 years ago on Dec. 16, 1924, just six months before his death. 

“I hope with the grace of God to continue along the path of Catholic ideas and to be able one day, in whatever state God wills, to defend and propagate these rare and true things,” Frassati wrote. 

When asked by a parish school student attending the conference how it felt to be a part of the canonization process, Gutierrez said: “It’s crazy. But it’s a wonderful blessing.”

“Giorgio wanted to spread the faith in God, and this will allow for more people to hear his message that invites us to take our Catholic Christian faith seriously and to be willing to take it outside of the doors of the Church to influence the life of society — because that’s where the love of God, Jesus, and what he brought us is so desperately needed,” Gutierrez concluded.

A police officer stands guard in front of Abundant Life Christian School on Dec. 16, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin. According to reports, a student and teacher were shot and killed at the school earlier today, and the suspected shooter was found dead at the scene. / Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Dec 16, 2024 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

At least two victims died Monday in a shooting at a private Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, while an alleged perpetrator who police say was a teenager also died.

At approximately 10:57 a.m. local time, police responded to an active shooter situation at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Police Chief Shon Barnes told the media at a press conference Monday.

When officers arrived, they found and began administering help to multiple victims with gunshot wounds, six of whom were transported to local hospitals. Barnes said numerous area officers responded to the attack, adding that his officers had most recently trained for a school shooting scenario “approximately two weeks ago.”

A “juvenile” suspect believed to have carried out the shooting with a handgun was found deceased in the building, Barnes said. No weapons were fired by police, he said.

Calling it a “sad day for Madison, and for our country,” Barnes later revealed that the alleged shooter was a “teenage student who attended the school,” while withholding the person’s exact age and gender and noting that the shooter’s motive remains unknown.

He also announced that of the two victims who have died, one was a teenager and one was a teacher. Two of the six injured victims who are currently being treated remain in critical condition with life-threatening wounds, he said.

Police are engaged in an ongoing “reunification” process making sure all students are present and accounted for and returned to their loved ones, he continued. A local SSM Health clinic — part of a Catholic health care system — is providing space for family reunification, he said. 

Abundant Life, a nondenominational K–12 school founded in 1978, offers its approximately 390 students “academic excellence in a Christ-centered environment,” according to the school’s website.

Bishop Donald Hying of the Diocese of Madison said in a statement to CNA that he is “deeply saddened by the shooting that occurred at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison and mourn[s] for the victims of this horrible act of violence.”

“We stand united with the Abundant Life family and pray for healing for those who are injured and comfort for the families who are facing the heartbreaking loss of a loved one. In these days leading up to Christmas, may the peace, love, and mercy of Our Lord Jesus Christ be an anchor for all those affected,” Hying said.

CNA also reached out to the Wisconsin Catholic Conference for comment.

This story was updated at 5:15 p.m. ET on Dec. 16, 2024, with additional information on the shooter and victims. 

null / Credit: Ivanko80/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 16, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against an abortionist in New York, alleging that she illegally provided abortion drugs to a woman in Texas, which killed the unborn child and caused serious health complications for the mother.

The lawsuit, filed on Dec. 12, alleges that Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter gave abortion drugs to a woman across state lines through telehealth services. It states she is not licensed to practice medicine in Texas and that state law prohibits the delivery of abortion drugs through the mail.

Most abortions are illegal in Texas, including both surgical and chemical abortions. In the state, abortion is only legal when continuing the pregnancy would put the mother’s life or physical health at serious risk. The lawsuit states that the recipient of the abortion drugs did not have any health risks from her pregnancy.

“In this case, an out-of-state doctor violated the law and caused serious harm to this patient,” Paxton said in a statement. 

“This doctor prescribed abortion-inducing drugs — unauthorized, over telemedicine — causing her patient to end up in the hospital with serious complications,” the attorney general added. “In Texas, we treasure the health and lives of mothers and babies, and this is why out-of-state doctors may not illegally and dangerously prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents.”

Carpenter is a co-medical director and founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine (ACT), which opened after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and states began passing pro-life laws to restrict abortion.

According to ACT’s website, the organization makes abortion “available to patients in all 50 states” and provides “telemedicine care for patients in abortion-hostile states.” The website further states it provides abortion drugs to women up to the 12th week of pregnancy. 

In a statement provided to CNA, a spokesperson for ACT accused Paxton of “prioritizing his anti-abortion agenda over the health and well-being of women by attempting to shut down telemedicine abortion nationwide,” adding that “by threatening access to safe and effective reproductive health care, he is putting women directly in harm’s way.”

 “We have seen attempts to further impede and erode a person’s right to make decisions about their own bodies,” the statement continued.

The lawsuit alleges that Carpenter “sees Texas patients via telehealth and prescribes them abortion-inducing medication” and that she knowingly continues to violate Texas law, which puts “women and unborn children in Texas at risk.” It asks the court to prohibit her from continuing to prescribe abortion drugs to women in Texas and seeks civil penalties of at least $100,000 for each violation of state law.

The lawsuit alleges that the mother went to the hospital on July 16 due to hemorrhaging or severe bleeding. It states she had been nine weeks pregnant before the unborn child died from the abortion drugs.

In June 2023, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law that prohibits state law enforcement from cooperating with out-of-state cases that seek to prosecute abortionists for providing abortions in pro-life states. The law also prohibits insurance companies from disciplining abortionists who break pro-life laws in other states by providing abortions.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a Dec. 13 statement that her state “is proud to be a safe haven for abortion access.”

“We will always protect our providers from unjust attempts to punish them for doing their job and we will never cower in the face of intimidation or threats,” James said. “I will continue to defend reproductive freedom and justice for New Yorkers, including from out-of-state anti-choice attacks.”

Earlier this year, James sued pro-life pregnancy centers, accusing them of making misleading statements about abortion pill reversal drugs. The pro-life pregnancy centers countersued, alleging that they were being targeted. In August, a judge temporarily halted James’ efforts to restrict the speech of pro-life pregnancy centers, ruling that their statements about the abortion pill reversal drug “are of interest to women who have begun a chemical abortion and seek ways to save their unborn child’s life.”

ACT did not directly respond to a question about whether the organization follows the laws of other states, but the statement asserted that “shield laws” like the ones in New York “are essential in safeguarding and enabling abortion care regardless of a patient’s zip code or ability to pay.”

Katie Daniel, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s director of legal affairs, thanked Paxton for “leading the charge to hold out-of-state abortion businesses accountable for preying on Texas’ unborn children and their mothers.”

“Thanks to extreme blue-state politicians who shield them, abortionists in states like New York openly violate the protective laws of pro-life states, killing unborn children and sending women to the emergency room in dire condition — all while sitting comfortably thousands of miles away,” she said in a statement. 

“We hope his example will embolden other pro-life leaders and begin the undoing of the mail-order abortion drug racket,” Daniel added.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved mifepristone for chemical abortion use in 2000. Abortion drugs account for about half of all abortions in the United States. Although pro-life groups have urged President-elect Donald Trump to use executive actions to restrict these drugs, the incoming president has committed to ensuring they remain available.

This article has been updated.

The cover image for the podcast “A Christmas Carol: An Audio Advent Calendar,” produced by The Merry Beggars. / Credit: The Merry Beggars

CNA Staff, Dec 16, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

An immersive Catholic-produced audio adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic Christmas novel is climbing the podcast charts this Advent. 

“A Christmas Carol: An Audio Advent Calendar” was produced by The Merry Beggars, a Catholic entertainment company founded in 2019 — and now part of Relevant Radio — that aims to create highly-produced, uplifting audio that families can listen to together. 

The 25-part series, which features short episodes released one day at a time throughout Advent, is available for free on The Merry Beggars’ website as well as on any podcast app. The website also includes resources for teachers and parents such as coloring pages and an activity book. 

Though not brand new — the audio drama debuted in 2021 and is being rereleased for a fourth year this Advent — the program has seen particular success this year, surpassing 1 million downloads and peaking for a time at No. 1 on Apple Podcasts’ Fiction charts. 

Peter Atkinson, founder and executive producer of The Merry Beggars, told CNA that the idea for the audio production came from a book he and his siblings read when he was a child that split the story of “A Christmas Carol” into 25 small sections for Advent. Atkinson said he found himself returning to the beloved story year after year as an adult. 

“I honestly find it really hard to listen to ‘A Christmas Carol’ without crying. Because to me, the story touches on the depths of the human heart,” Atkinson said.

Atkinson said the story of “A Christmas Carol” is one of “redemption and conversion” that showcases how a person can be brought out of selfishness and hatred into a generous and joyful existence. 

The story contrasts the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge, who is driven by fear and a need to grasp on to money, safety, and security, with the generous Fezziwig, who is a successful businessman and yet “has detachment from created things, from money,” because he lavishly spends what he has on his family, friends, employees, and the poor. 

“I think the beauty of spending on hospitality, on welcoming other people, on seeing Christ in others … whether it’s in your home, whether it’s at your company, wherever you are … I think it speaks to the depths of the human heart,” Atkinson said. 

The production, which features professional voice actors and an immersive soundscape, differs from most other adaptations of Dickens’ novel because it “preserves Charles Dickens’ voice in the story,” making him the narrator and thus “a character in the story,” Atkinson said. 

The production of the audio drama took only two weeks to complete in 2021, but the recording process was challenging, involving creative solutions like makeshift soundproofing and last-minute casting changes. Despite the whirlwind, the program saw success as soon as it debuted, reaching No. 3 on the Fiction charts in past years. 

Atkinson said the program’s particular success this year is likely due to word-of-mouth among Catholic families. He said he hopes other families will check out the episodes and enjoy the timeless story about “serving and loving our neighbor.”

“My hope is that the audiences listening to this production will be filled with the same joy and hope and beauty that I experience every time that I’ve listened to it. There’s something about the story of ‘A Christmas Carol’ that makes you want to listen to it every single year,” he said.

Advent wreath St. Catherine's Church in Bethlehem / Credit: Marinella Bandini

National Catholic Register, Dec 16, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

“O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel!”

This favored Christmas carol is no carol at all. It’s a hymn for the season of Advent — the liturgical season that is about so much more than simply preparing for Christmas. 

During these short four weeks, the Church has historically focused on Our Lord Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of all prophecy and human yearning as she anticipates not only the celebration of his incarnation at Christmas but also as she waits in hope for his glorious return at the end of time.

The verses of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” are taken from seven ancient antiphons that the Church has used in her evening prayer liturgy since well before the ninth century. Every year, from Dec. 17 to Dec. 23, the Church’s liturgy enters a more intense and proximate preparation for Christ’s coming at Christmas. This shift is noticeable in the readings at Mass during these days but also in the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours, specifically at evening prayer. Every evening during that week, the Church prays one of what have become known as the great “O Antiphons” before reciting Our Lady’s “Magnificat” canticle.

The O Antiphons invoke Our Lord using imagery taken from the Old Testament: “O Wisdom From on High”; “O Lord of the House of Israel”; “O Root of Jesse’s Stem”; “O Key of David”; “O Radiant Dawn”; “O King of the Nations”; and “O Emmanuel.” To these biblical images are added various pleas such as: “Come to teach us the path of knowledge!”; “Come to save us without delay!”; and “Come and free the prisoners of darkness!”

Each of these O Antiphons is a beautiful prayer in itself, but each also demonstrates exactly how the Church has come to understand Christ’s relationship to the promises and images of God so prevalent in the Old Testament.

“O Wisdom From on High!”

Isaiah prophesied that a shoot would sprout from the stump of Jesse. One of Jesse’s heirs would be a messianic figure and redeemer for Israel.

“The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding” (Is 11:1-2). Because Isaiah’s prophecies look forward so expectantly to the redemption of Israel and the whole world in the great promises of God, he is particularly the prophet of the season of Advent.

Christ, however, is more than the Anointed One. St. Paul told the Church in Corinth that “Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24). Christ is the Wisdom that the Book of Proverbs speaks of as God’s artisan and delight (Proverbs 8). The Eternally Begotten Son is always the delight of the Father and the Artisan through whom all things were made.

Perhaps a more poignant instance of a powerful Old Testament image of the divine is the Dec. 18 antiphon: “O Lord of the House of Israel, giver of the Law to Moses on Sinai.” The events recounted in the Book of Exodus are magnificently tremendous, from the burning bush to the parting of the Red Sea to the giving of the Law to Moses at a Mount Sinai covered in thunder and lightning.

The Church Fathers routinely noted Christ’s presence in God’s various manifestations to the Israelites. St. Justin Martyr recalled: “The same One, who is both angel and God, and Lord and man, and who appeared in human form to Abraham and Isaac, [also] appeared in a flame of fire from the bush and conversed with Moses.”

St. Gregory of Nyssa comments on the events of the desert — the clouds, the thunder, and the tabernacle of God’s presence — “Taking a hint from what has been said by Paul, who partially uncovered the mystery of these things, we say that Moses was earlier instructed by a type in the mystery of the tabernacle which encompasses the universe.” This tabernacle, Christ the Son of God, he continues, “is in a way both unfashioned and fashioned, uncreated in preexistence but created in having received this material composition.”

The preexisting Eternal Son of God who is the perfect image of God is also the presence of God in the flaming bush, on Mount Sinai and perfectly in his incarnation.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the Latin version of this antiphon begins with “O Adonai,” borrowing the Hebrew word God-fearing Jews speak when reading the Torah to avoid speaking the proper name of God himself — it is the name Lord, the name St. Paul tells the Philippians was bestowed on Christ because he did not deem equality with God something to be grasped, but rather emptied himself unto death (cf. Philippians 2:6-11). Jesus Christ is Adonai. He is Kyrios. He is the Lord.

Finally, other O Antiphons identify Christ as the fulfillment of Israel’s greatness and human longing. He is the Oriens, the dawn that Isaiah promised would rise upon God’s chosen people (Isaiah 60:1-2). He is also the Root of Jesse. So he is not only the fulfillment but the beginning of the Israelite lineage.

He is the Creator and the One through whom David’s lineage came to be. So Christ is both the beginning and end of the promise to David. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is the One the Old Testament predicts will rule as king of all the nations.

The O Antiphons are much more than simple refrains to be chanted before Our Lady’s Magnifcat or to serve as verses in an Advent hymn. They reveal the mysteries of Christ already being revealed in the power and glory of God in the Old Testament.

St. Thomas Aquinas was right to insist that many of the great prophets of Israel had real and explicit prophetic knowledge of Jesus and his mysteries even though they lived hundreds of years before the Incarnation. “Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day,” Jesus himself once preached. “He saw it, and he was glad” (Jn 8:56). Christ is active in Israel. He is in the Old Testament.

These great antiphons remind us that there is so much more to Advent than preparing for Christmas. They remind us that Christ is the focal point of salvation history, and, in fact, of all world history, because he is Emmanuel — “God with us.”

The wisdom of God is exactly such that the Lord creates us to be in relationship with him in order to bring light not only to our lives but to the world. Every year the Church gives us these four weeks so that we might remember in an intense way what we should be living every day: in preparation, anticipation, and joyful hope that the Lord will come to us and save us.

O Emmanuel, Our King and Giver of Law: Come to save us, Lord Our God!

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA's sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

St. Benedict Church in Baltimore, Maryland (left) and St. Benedict Church in Richmond, Virginia. / Credit: St. Benedict Church; Daniel Payne/CNA

Richmond, Va., Dec 15, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Catholics who have spent time in both Baltimore and Richmond, Virginia, may be unaware that two near-identical parishes exist in both cities, both built by the same architect-priest and both offering an ideal of what their designer called a “quiet, recollected, prayerful, somber, sanctified” atmosphere of peace and worship. 

St. Benedict Church in Baltimore and St. Benedict Church in Richmond were both constructed by Father Michael McInerney, OSB, a monk at Belmont Abbey in North Carolina who lived from 1877–1963. 

By the time of his death at age 85, McInerney had designed and built more than 200 churches as well as numerous hospitals, convents, and other works. Among his more notable creations was Sacred Heart College in Belmont, North Carolina, as well as works at his alma mater Belmont College. He is interred at Belmont Abbey. 

Though the priest’s works range in style and scope from Gothic to Art Deco, the two churches in Baltimore and Richmond are strikingly similar. Both were dedicated within just a few years of each other — the Richmond parish in 1929 and the Baltimore parish in 1933 — and both have remained active for nearly a century. 

Baltimore: ‘A spectacular house of worship’

In his history of the parish, local author John Potyraj describes the Baltimore St. Benedict’s as a “church built with nickels,” with the parish having “squirreled away a considerable amount” of money in the early 20th century prior to the building’s construction. 

A school, a rectory, a convent, and a “social center” rounded out what became a considerable Catholic campus in Baltimore’s Mill Hill neighborhood. 

Potyraj noted that McInerney regularly “scaled the scaffold” during construction of the parish “to inspect the masons’ work and provide instruction” and that the priest was “uncompromising” in ensuring that his architectural vision was carried out. 

The interior of the church offers “ample provision of natural light” within a “monastic atmosphere,” presenting modest ornamentation that does not “distract from the main purpose of the design” as a house of worship. 

Among the structure’s more striking features is a towering crucified Christ on the building’s face, one that overlooks the front portion of the property and which is embellished by a rose window. 

Also notable are the parish’s carved columns of polished pink granite, providing “the primary support of this spectacular house of worship” that symbolize the “pillars of the divine Church.”

The Baltimore St. Benedict’s was an active parish for nearly a century, though last year the Archdiocese of Baltimore discontinued all Masses and sacramental activity there after its pastor was removed following a scandal over sex abuse accusations and hush money.

On its website the parish says it continues to operate as St. Benedict Neighborhood Center. Its “Benedict’s Pantry” remains an active food pantry that regularly feeds hundreds of people. 

Ministry member Charlene Sola told CNA that the community has “started a new chapter” and is “excited about the future.” 

Though the parish is no longer an active Catholic church, the impressive, reverent building designed by McInerney still stands, giving testament to what parishioners at the building’s 50th anniversary described as a “home” where “the Father will hear us best of all and bless our prayers.” 

Richmond: ‘Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus’

About 150 miles to the south, St. Benedict Church in Richmond is still an active parish — and visitors from the Baltimore church could be forgiven for thinking they’d stepped into their own parish. 

The roots of the Richmond church date to 1911 when monks from Belmont Abbey opened up a boys high school — Benedictine College Preparatory — and an attached parish in what is now the city’s Museum District. 

An elementary school soon followed, while in 1922 a group of Benedictine nuns opened up the all-girls St. Gertrude High School just a few hundred feet away. 

The two prep schools have since moved out to Goochland County and are united under a single institution, the Benedictine Schools of Richmond. Yet the parish started by the monks over a century ago still remains, guided by the Benedictine motto “Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus,” or “that in all things God may be glorified.”

The church, dedicated in 1929 just several weeks before the catastrophic stock market crash that year, bears many of the hallmarks of McInerney’s style and shares many features with its Baltimore cousin. 

Among them is a large rose window on the front facade; though missing the towering figure of Christ crucified, the rose window itself is strikingly similar, including minor statuary flanking its bottom edge.

The carved pink granite columns are also nearly identical to their Baltimore counterparts, including their being topped with liturgical symbols as they run the length of the nave. 

Also of striking similarity are the two reredos — decorative backings — of the respective altars. Both are of unmistakable resemblance, though the Richmond reredos has been embellished with a marble bas-relief of the Twelve Apostles, while the Baltimore church retains a more simplified blind arcade of brick arches. 

The Baltimore parish, meanwhile, boasts a towering high altar, while the Richmond church displays a shorter and narrower arch stretching over the tabernacle. 

Father Gilbert Sunghera, who previously served as an associate professor in the school of architecture at the University of Detroit Mercy, told CNA that duplicate parishes are “not that common but [it] has happened.”

“I am about to work on a school chapel in Akron that has a twin in Toledo,” he said. “And Detroit had a number of fairly simple churches that were all similar and called Gumbelton Barns after [former Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton], done at a time when churches needed to open quickly.”

Writing on the construction of Catholic churches, McInerney said years ago that a Catholic building “should present an exterior, simple, strong, reserved, dignified, and bearing upon its front, some symbol of its sacredness as a temple of the Almighty.”

The interior, meanwhile, “should possess a religious atmosphere, breathing the Spirit of God: quiet, recollected, prayerful, somber, sanctified, filled with peace and benediction in the presence of the Lord in his holy tabernacle.”

“It should be reverently awe inspiring,” he wrote, ”another place of Calvary where Jesus is lifted up before the eyes of the multitude and, again and again, made a victim of sacrifice for the sins of the world.”