Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 4, 2024 / 18:27 pm (CNA).

Former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign on Sept. 4 launched the Catholics for Trump coalition, which emphasizes the defense of religious liberty, traditional values, and the sanctity of human life as priorities of the Republican nominee’s agenda.

The coalition, which intends to rally Catholic support behind the former president, seeks to show a contrast between Trump and his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, on key issues that are important to Catholics.

According to the coalition’s mission statement, Catholics for Trump commits “to safeguarding the vital principles of religious liberty and the sanctity of life that President Donald J. Trump has ardently championed.”

“Under President Trump’s leadership, our nation witnessed unprecedented support for religious freedoms, with significant victories both domestically and globally,” the mission statement read. “President Trump restored protections for faith-based organizations and bolstered the rights of religious institutions against governmental overreach.”

The mission statement added that Trump “has stood unwaveringly in defense of traditional values and the sanctity of human life” and that the coalition “stands with President Trump to continue building a nation where the rights of every individual to practice their faith freely is protected.”

Matt Schlapp, the president of The American Conservative Union, and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, who served in the Trump administration, said in a joint statement that Trump “will continue to defend our religious freedoms and our values enshrined in faith and family.”

“We have watched Kamala Harris attack President Trump’s Catholic judicial nominees who had to face her hostile and unfair questions when she was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee,” the statement read. “She was especially bigoted to anyone associated with the Knights of Columbus. Harris also was complicit in the FBI’s fascist infiltration of Catholic parishes that say Latin Mass.”

Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, who are both Catholic, were also involved in the 2020 Catholics for Trump coalition.

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump has been trying to appeal to Catholic and other Christian voters. In July, the former president accused Harris and the Democratic Party of being “after Catholics,” adding “somebody doesn’t like Catholics in that administration.”

Trump nominated three of the six Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, which had prevented states from imposing restrictions on abortion for nearly 50 years. Following the Supreme Court’s decision, about two dozen states imposed restrictions on abortion.

Since then, Trump has moderated his stance on abortion, announcing that he opposes federal restrictions and supports states adopting their own rules. In contrast, Harris has campaigned on codifying the abortion standards previously held in Roe v. Wade, which would override pro-life laws in more than 20 states.

Last week, Trump announced he would vote against a proposed constitutional amendment in Florida that would enshrine a right to abortion in the state’s constitution. The former president had previously signaled support for the amendment.

Harris has also launched a Catholics for Harris-Walz coalition to rally Catholic support behind her campaign. The campaign scheduled a virtual event for the coalition three weeks ago, but it was abruptly canceled.

Lima Newsroom, Sep 4, 2024 / 17:16 pm (CNA).

Lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina has reported that the dictatorship in Nicaragua of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, has deported a group of foreign priests and nuns who were working in the Central American country.

“There were two meetings. It seems they were summoned [to appear] from different congregations or from different parts of the country. All the priests and religious who attended were foreigners. During the time they were in that ‘trap’ they were shown an indoctrination video of the dictatorial couple,” Molina explained in an interview with the Spanish-language edition of EWTN News.

The lawyer is the author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?”, which in its fifth installment released Aug. 15 cites 870 attacks by the Nicaraguan dictatorship against the Catholic Church since 2018, the year there were widespread demonstrations against the authoritarian regime and its unpopular proposed reforms. 

Molina also explained that the religious men and women were threatened with imprisonment or deportation if they said or did anything that the dictatorship might consider hostile.

“I had information that some of the religious were deported from the country and were also prohibited from speaking out because there are some religious, from those same congregations who remain in the country and [can’t say anything either]: They are under constant threat from the dictatorship,” she reported.

Retirement fund for Catholic priests confiscated

Molina also referred to the regime’s move to cancel 1,500 nonprofit organizations or nongovernmental organizations, including hundreds of Catholic and evangelical organizations, and even the priests’ retirement fund that had existed for 24 years and that had been frozen by the dictatorship last year.

“This seriously harms sick and retired priests and also robs us laypeople and the Catholic Church, who had constantly contributed to this fund to later on [be able to] maintain their health and also give some assistance — which they well deserve — to retired priests,” the researcher in exile explained to EWTN News.

“It’s just the way the Sandinistas do things: They steal everything, they make everything disappear and use it for the party’s own benefit, and also to continue using it for repression. This is something that the Church is not going to get back,” she said.

In addition to the taxes on assets and charitable donations passed by the legislature on Aug. 22, and with the cancellation of the priests’ retirement fund, “what the dictatorship is doing is suffocating, more and more, the Catholic Church, since, with all the attacks it has committed, it has not been able to make the Catholic faith and religion completely disappear from Nicaragua, which is what they want,” Molina said.

Catholic schools affected

In this wave of closures of nonprofit organizations, “countless religious schools belonging to different orders were also affected … These schools, since 2020, have had their savings accounts confiscated, frozen by the dictatorship,” Molina denounced.

An egregious example, the Central American University (UCA) of the Jesuits, was confiscated in 2023 and hasn’t been operational again to this day as the Nicaraguan dictatorship doesn’t know “what it’s going to do with all these schools, which are close to being confiscated, because they won’t be able to administer them.”

“For the moment,” Molina pointed out, “they have the nuns, the brothers in charge of the schools, but they have threatened them, telling them that all the money they get from paying tuition will go to the coffers of the Sandinista Front and also that they will have permanent surveillance regarding education.”

“To date they have not taken the schools from them, but it is in fact in the law that all those assets will go to the state,” she warned.

The decision to cancel the 1,500 organizations was announced through ministerial agreement 38-2024-OSFL, published on Aug. 19 in the official government newspaper La Gaceta and signed by the head of the Ministry of the Interior of Nicaragua, María Amelia Coronel Kinloch.

The text states that the attorney general’s office must transfer the liquid and fixed assets of all these organizations “to the title of the State of Nicaragua.”

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

CNA Staff, Sep 4, 2024 / 16:46 pm (CNA).

Today is the eighth anniversary of Mother Teresa’s canonization. Pope Francis declared her a saint on Sept. 4, 2016 — just over a dozen years after she was beatified by her friend and fellow saint, Pope John Paul II. 

St. Teresa of Calcutta, who was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, gained fame around the world for caring for the poorest of the poor and sharing Christ’s love with them. She founded the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order that carries on her work today around the world. 

St. John Paul II and Mother Teresa, two of the most famous and consequential Catholic saints of the 20th century, weren’t just friends. As followers of Christ, they complemented each other in profound ways, with Mother Teresa putting into practice so many of the Catholic teachings that John Paul eloquently taught. 

“Where John Paul provided the theological and intellectual foundation for understanding human dignity in the face of the great darkness of the 20th century — abortion, euthanasia, atheism, communism, and materialism — Mother Teresa was a living witness to what the pope was teaching,” the editors of the National Catholic Register noted in 2016. 

Though Mother Teresa was a decade older than John Paul, they both experienced significant milestones in their faith lives in 1946 — he was ordained a priest that year and Sister Teresa heard a “call within a call” to serve the poor on the streets of Calcutta. Throughout both of their lives, they were deeply devoted to the Virgin Mary and to the rosary. 

In 1986, the pope visited Mother Teresa’s hospice center, Nirmal Hriday, which she had founded in 1952 in the heart of the slums in Calcutta. Tens of thousands of sick and forgotten people, who would otherwise have perished on the streets, died a dignified death at the center over the decades. 

According to news reports, Pope John Paul was “visibly moved” and even disturbed by what he saw at the hospice, such that he was rendered speechless. He called Nirmal Hriday “a place that bears witness to the primacy of love.”

“Our human dignity comes from God … in whose image we are all made. No amount of privation or suffering can ever remove this dignity, for we are always precious in the eyes of God,” he said in a speech given outside the center.

In Nirmal Hriday, “the mystery of human suffering meets the mystery of faith and love,” the pope continued; there, people ask every day why God would allow such death and suffering.

“And the answer that comes, often in unspoken ways of kindness and compassion, is filled with honesty and faith: ‘I cannot fully answer all your questions; I cannot take away all your pain. But of this I am sure: God loves you with an everlasting love. You are precious in his sight. In him I love you too. For in God we are truly brothers and sisters,’” the pope said. 

Mother Teresa later described the day of the pope’s visit as “the happiest day of my life.” 

At that meeting and whenever they met afterward, John Paul would kiss the top of the diminutive nun’s head and offer her a blessing, while she fervently kissed his papal ring.

Mother Teresa died in 1997. At her beatification in 2003, an aging John Paul said: “I am personally grateful to this courageous woman, whom I have always felt beside me. Mother Teresa, an icon of the Good Samaritan, went everywhere to serve Christ in the poorest of the poor.”

“Let us praise the Lord for this diminutive woman in love with God, a humble Gospel messenger and a tireless benefactor of humanity. In her we honor one of the most important figures of our time. Let us welcome her message and follow her example,” the pope said of his friend.

“Virgin Mary, queen of all the saints, help us to be gentle and humble of heart like this fearless messenger of love. Help us to serve every person we meet with joy and a smile. Help us to be missionaries of Christ, our peace and our hope. Amen!”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 4, 2024 / 16:16 pm (CNA).

President Joe Biden praised Vice President Kamala Harris at a Labor Day rally in Pittsburgh, claiming she has “the moral compass of a saint,” a statement that has sparked some objections from Catholic theologians.

“She has a backbone like a ramrod and she has the moral compass of a saint — this woman knows what she’s doing,” Biden told the cheering crowd. 

“I promise you if you elect Kamala Harris as president, it will be the best decision you will have ever made,” the president said.

Some of Harris’ positions — particularly her staunch support of abortion — are inconsistent with saintly values, according to Catholic theologians and philosophers who spoke to CNA. As vice president, she led the administration’s efforts to expand abortion and has vowed to codify the abortion standards set in the now-defunct Roe v. Wade ruling, which would override state-level pro-life policies.

While serving as attorney general of California, Harris co-sponsored legislation that restricted the free speech of pro-life pregnancy centers, which the Supreme Court found violated the First Amendment. As a senator, she questioned judicial nominees about their memberships in the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization.

Edward Feser, a Catholic philosopher and professor at Pasadena City College, told CNA that Biden’s assertion that Harris has the moral compass of a saint is “so manifestly ludicrous that it would be unworthy of [a] comment if it didn’t come from a president of the United States, and a Catholic one at that.”

“Someone who truly had the ‘moral compass of a saint’ would condemn abortion as murder instead of supporting it enthusiastically as Vice President Harris does,” Feser said.

Dominican Father Thomas Petri, president of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies, told CNA that promoting abortion “is certainly not the position of a saint” or even “a person with right reason” because defending life “is not simply an issue of faith — it’s an issue of ethics.” 

“A saint is going to have qualities, not just of reason, but of faith, and is not going to advocate for things that are contrary to God’s law,” Petri said.

Petri noted that government leaders can and have achieved sanctity, referencing St. Thomas More, St. Stephen the Confessor, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Officials who rose to sainthood such as these three “understood that … leadership [and] … all authority on Earth stems from God’s own authority, and they understood themselves as subject to that authority,” according to Petri.

“They lived in their roles of authority as believers who understood that they were not a final authority and they would be under judgment themselves,” Petri added.

Petri suggested Biden was being “too cavalier” with his reference to sanctity, which he said is common among Catholics but that “when you take the spiritual life seriously, you start to understand what sanctity really is.”

“Being a saint is a lifelong project and obviously requires grace,” Petri said.

Joe Heschmeyer, a staff apologist at Catholic Answers, told CNA that the best way to determine what the “moral compass of a saint” looks like is “to listen to the actual saints.” He specifically referenced St. John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelium Vitae, which focuses on the “value and inviolability of human life.”

“St. John Paul II describes how ‘the Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus’ message’ and how ‘every person sincerely open to truth and goodness’ can come to see ‘the sacred value of human life from its very beginning until its end and can affirm the right of every human being to have this primary good respected to the highest degree,’” Heschmeyer said, quoting the former pontiff.

“For this reason, he reminds us that ‘the mere possibility of harming, attacking, or actually denying life in these circumstances is completely foreign to the religious and cultural way of thinking of the people of God,’” he added.

Biden, the country’s second Catholic president, has invoked religion to promote policies that are inconsistent with Church teaching on several occasions. In March of last year, the president said that banning transgender medical interventions for minors was “close to sinful.” In April, he made the sign of the cross while promoting abortion at a rally, which led to condemnation by several bishops.

The Sept. 2 rally in the battleground state primarily focused on support for unions and workers. Harris spoke about efforts to keep steel manufacturing in the United States and her opposition to a proposed sale of the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel to a Japanese firm Nippon Steel.

In 2020, Biden won Pennsylvania by fewer than 1.2 percentage points. In 2016, former president Donald Trump won the state by fewer than 0.75 percentage points. For the 2024 election, polling averages show the presidential race virtually tied in the Keystone State.

We hurried to a fast-food restaurant to have lunch together on my friend Jerrie’s short work break. Arriving at the door about the same time, six young men got inside just in front of us. Knowing we didn’t have much time to spare, we grumbled inwardly. They stood as a group at both registers to be sure each of them could order first. Then I heard Jerrie whisper to herself, “Show grace now.” Wow! Sure, letting us go first would have been nice, but what a great reminder to think of others’ needs and desires and not only my own.

The Bible teaches that love is patient, kind, and unselfish; it’s “not easily angered” (1 Corinthians 13:5). “It often . . . prefers [others’] welfare, and satisfaction, and advantage, to its own,” wrote commentator Matthew Henry of this love. God’s kind of love thinks of others first.

In a world where many of us are easily irritated, we frequently have occasion to ask God for help and the grace to choose to be patient with others and to be kind (v. 4). Proverbs 19:11 adds, “A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”

That’s the love that brings honor to God, and He might even use it to bring others thoughts of His love for them.

With God's strength, let’s take every opportunity to show grace now.

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 4, 2024 / 15:46 pm (CNA).

The Catholic Church in Latin America is once again preparing to host an International Eucharistic Congress, the fifth the region has hosted since 1934.

On this occasion, the event will take place in Quito, Ecuador, Sept. 8–15 in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the country’s consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

EWTN will provide complete coverage of the opening and closing Masses and Eucharistic processions as well as all the important sessions and speakers.

Eucharistic congresses “are an expression of a particular veneration and love of the universal Church for the Eucharistic mystery, a source of fraternity and peace,” explains the website of the 53rd Eucharistic Congress of Quito 2024.

The first International Eucharistic Congress took place in 1881 in Lille, France. In 1934, the first Latin American city hosted an event of this magnitude dedicated to Christ in the Eucharist.

Below is a brief history of the four international Eucharistic Congresses held in Latin America prior to Quito 2024.

Buenos Aires 1934

During the pontificate of Pius XI, the Argentine capital was chosen to host the 32nd International Eucharistic Congress held Oct. 10–14, 1934, with the theme “The Social Kingship of Christ through the Eucharist.”

The Holy Father appointed Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, as papal legate, and at that time Archbishop Santiago Luis Copello headed the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires.

According to statistics, the events held Oct. 12–14 were attended by an estimated 1 million people, and the main celebrations took place around a large monument several meters high known as the Cross of Palermo.

Rio de Janeiro 1955

Under the pontificate of Pius XII, the 36th International Eucharistic Congress took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event was held July 17–24, 1955, with the theme “The Eucharistic Reign of Christ the Redeemer.”

At that time, the archdiocese was headed by Cardinal Jaime de Barros Câmara, and the pontiff sent the secretary of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation, Cardinal Adeodato Giovanni Piazza, as his representative.

On the last day, Pius XII gave a radio message in which he thanked the people for their devotion and in which he stated that if the gift of God, the Eucharist, was truly known, “there would be no member of the faithful who would fail to take an active part in the divine Sacrifice on the Lord’s day.”

Also, the day after the conclusion of the Eucharistic congress, the first General Conference of the Latin American bishops was held in Rio de Janeiro, after which the Latin American Bishops’ Council (CELAM, by its Spanish acronym) was created.

Bogotá 1968

Under the theme “Vinculum Charitatis” (“Bond of Charity”), the 39th International Eucharistic Congress was held in Bogotá, Colombia, Aug. 18–25, 1968, for which Pope Paul VI appointed Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro as papal legate.

On that occasion, the Archdiocese of Bogotá was headed by Cardinal Luis Concha Córdoba.

Although he appointed a representative, the pontiff visited Colombia from Aug. 22–25. During a Mass celebrated in Bogotá, Paul VI noted that the sacrament of the Eucharist offers men and women the “hidden, living, and real presence” of Jesus Christ.

During his visit to the Colombian capital, the pope also inaugurated the second General Conference of the Latin American Bishops, which would take place in Medellín.

Guadalajara 2004

Finally, the 48th International Eucharistic Congress — the fourth in Latin America — was held in Guadalajara, Mexico, under the theme “The Eucharist: Light and Life of the New Millennium.”

The congress took place Oct.10–17 during the pontificate of St. John Paul II, who appointed Cardinal Josef Tomko, then-president of the Pontifical Committee for Eucharistic Congresses, as papal legate.

At that time, the Archdiocese of Guadalajara was led by Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez.

One of the most popular events was the pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Zapopan, in which nearly 2.5 million pilgrims participated.

On the last day of the congress, from St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Pope John Paul II inaugurated the Year of the Eucharist.

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

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Vatican City, Sep 4, 2024 / 15:16 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis praised the high birth rate of Indonesia during his first official meeting with the country’s leaders on Wednesday, calling public attention to global demographics and sustainable growth policies in the Asian region.

Addressing Indonesian President Joko Widodo and civil leaders at the Istana Negara Presidential Palace Hall, the 87-year-old pontiff said the diverse nation’s high fertility rate should be an example for other countries around the world. 

“Your nation has a high birth rate and please continue in this; you offer an example of this to other countries,” he said candidly, deviating from his prepared speech.  

“This might make one laugh, but there are some families that seem to prefer to have a cat or dog, but this, this doesn’t work,” he added.

In May, Pope Francis repeated his particular concern for the “demographic winter” affecting Europe and other industrialized nations at the General State of the Birth Rate conference in Italy, warning politicians and business leaders that declining fertility rates will have dire consequences for the future.

While World Bank statistics show Indonesia’s birth rates have also steadily declined from 5.5 births per woman in 1960 to 2.2 births in 2022 — reflecting the wider global trend of declining national birth rates — the Asian nation is still above the 2.1 replacement level rate of fertility required for a country to maintain its population.

Pope Francis’ praise for Indonesian leaders’ “work of craftsmanship” for the country’s growth and development is similar to the esteem he expressed for Mongolian leaders one year ago during a visit to that country on his 43rd apostolic journey.

Last September, the pope commended the “political foresight” of Mongolian leaders to be “at the service of a common development” for the people of the country.

According to a 2015 Demographic Research article, Mongolia experienced a marked “historical fertility change” during the 1960s and 1970s due to the country’s improved social and economic development and, in part, to strong pronatal government policies — which support motherhood and child health and education — implemented after World War II. 

World Bank data currently shows Mongolia has a birth rate of 2.8. Family-friendly policies, including the “Order of Maternal Glory” award that provides additional government support for mothers with four or more children, have been in effect in Mongolia since 1957. 

Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has called on world leaders and policymakers to introduce laws that prioritize the needs of families, youth, and future generations.

Following his morning engagement with Indonesia’s political leaders, Pope Francis attended a gathering with the young people of Scholas Occurrentes at the Centre of Graha Pemuda in Jakarta on Wednesday afternoon.   

“We are from different religions but we only have one God,” the pope said to the children before saying a prayer at the end of the meeting. “A blessing is always a universal gesture of love — God bless each one of you. Bless all your desires. Bless your families. And bless your present and also your future.” 

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