2 WWW.THERECORDNEWSPAPER.ORG NATION / WORLD THE RECORD JANUARY 23, 2020
By JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY - Show- ing hospitality makes a per- son a better human being and a better Christian and is an important part of pro- moting Christian unity, Pope Francis said. "Working together to live with ecumenical hospitality, particularly toward those whose lives are most vul- nerable, will make us - all Christians, Protestants, Or- thodox, Catholics, all Chris- tians - better human be- ings, better disciples and a more united Christian peo- ple," the pope said Jan. 22 during his weekly general audience. Christians today, like the people of Malta who welcomed St. Paul and his companions who were ship- wrecked on their island, must show hospitality to and care for those who flee violence and persecution, he said. "Unfortunately, they sometimes encounter even the worst hostility," he said. "They are exploited by crimi- nal traffickers today; they are treated as numbers and as a threat by some leaders today; sometimes inhospital- ity rejects them as a wave carrying poverty or the very dangers from which they were fleeing." In his audience talk, the pope reflected on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which takes place Jan. 18- 25. The theme for the 2020 celebration, "They showed us unusual kindness," is taken from St. Luke's account in the Acts of the Apostles of the hospitality shown by the people of Malta to St. Paul and his companions. St. Paul and the other pas- sengers of the ship were wel- comed by the Maltese people, who gave them food and shel- ter "even though they had not yet received the Good News of Christ," the pope said. The virtue of hospitality, he added, "means recogniz- ing that other Christians are truly our brothers and sisters in Christ." "We are brothers and sis- ters," the pope said. "Someone may tell you, 'But that one is a Protestant, that one is Ortho- dox.' Yes, but we are brothers and sisters in Christ." The pope said ecumenical hospitality means showing God's love to others and "a willingness to listen to other Christians, paying attention to their personal stories of faith and the history of their community." "I think about the past, in my land for example, when some Evangelical ministers came," the pope said, "a small group of Catholics burned their tents. This isn't Chris- tian. We are brothers and sisters. We are all brothers and sisters and we must give hospitality to one another." With so many migrants and refugees facing "risky voyages to escape violence, war and poverty," Pope Fran- cis called on Christians to set aside their differences and work together to show them "the love of God revealed by Jesus Christ" and that "each person is precious to God. "The divisions that still exist between us prevent us from being fully the sign of God's love for the world, which is our vocation and mission," he said.
Pope: Hospitality is an important virtue
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court of the United States is taking up cases this year of high interest to the Catholic Church. Oral arguments began Jan. 22 in Espinoza v. Mon- tana Department of Revenue, which relates to scholarship tax credit programs and reli- gious schools. The court will decide if excluding religious schools, including Catholic schools, from a state schol- arship program violates the First Amendment. Montana officials said they left out re- ligious schools because of the state constitution's Blaine Amendment, which bars public money from going to churches. A friend-of-the-court brief filed by a group of Montana Catholic school parents, which outlined the benefits their children had received from attending local Catho- lic schools, urged the court to take this opportunity to declare state Blaine Amend- ments unconstitutional Strong opinions on both sides of the abortion debate are front and center in the paperwork currently filed with the Supreme Court for its upcoming abortion case. The case challenges a Lou- isiana law that requires abor- tion providers to have ad- mitting privileges at a local hospital. The court also will examine a separate petition by the state that questions if the abortion providers have the legal standing to chal- lenge the state law on behalf of their patients. The 2014 Louisiana law was upheld last year by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The combined cases: Gee v. June Medical Services and June Medical Services v. Gee will be argued March 4. Re- bekah Gee is the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and June Medical Services is a Louisiana abor- tion provider. More than 70 friend-of- the-court briefs have been filed on both sides of this case with health care profession- als, researchers, lawmakers, states, and religious and ad- vocacy groups alike, weigh- ing in. Catholics groups that filed briefs in support of the state law included: the U.S. Con- ference of Catholic Bishops, the Thomas More Society and the National Association of Catholic Nurses along with the National Catholic Bioeth- ics Center. Catholics for Choice joined other religious groups in a brief against the state law saying its restrictions would leave only one doctor at one clinic in the state which would impact the "poorest Louisianans." Members of Congress filed two briefs on opposing sides. A group of 207 members of Congress filed a Jan. 2 brief in support of the Loui- siana law saying the state clinics are full of safety vio- lations and stressing that this was an opportune time for the court to reconsider its 1973 decision legalizing abortion. An opposing view was signed by 197 members of Congress in a late December brief challenging the state law and cautioning that ef- forts to keep it in place are part of an overall effort to overturn the court's Roe v. Wade decision. This is the court's first abortion case since Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch joined the bench and also without the swing vote of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired in 2018. But this is not the first time the court has looked at this particular case. A year ago, in a 5-4 vote, it tempo- rarily put the law on hold. In a brief order, Justice Samuel Alito said the justices needed more time to review the docu- mentation on arguments for and against the Louisiana law, titled Unsafe Abortion Protection Act. The Little Sisters of the Poor are once again going to the Supreme Court. The order of women reli- gious who care for the elderly poor have been down this road before, twice defending their right to not comply with the government's health law requiring employers to pro- vide contraceptive coverage in their health plans. Now the court is about to look at the Affordable Health Care's contraceptive man- date from a different angle, examining if the Trump ad- ministration can legally al- low religious employers to opt out of the mandate. In 2013, religious groups and houses of worship were granted a religious exemp- tion by the Supreme Court from the government's man- date in the Affordable Care Act to include coverage of contraceptives and abortion- inducing drugs in their em- ployee health plan. Three years later, reli- gious nonprofit groups chal- lenged the requirement they comply with the mandate and the court sent the cases back to the lower courts with instructions for the federal government and the chal- lengers to try to work out a solution agreeable to both sides. In 2017, religious groups were given further protection from the contraceptive man- date through an executive or- der issued by President Don- ald Trump requiring the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to write a comprehensive exemption to benefit religious ministries, including the Little Sisters of the Poor, from the contracep- tive mandate. HHS provided this ex- emption in 2018, but several states challenged it, includ- ing California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, saying HHS didn't have the power to give this exemption. The states of Pennsylva- nia and New Jersey obtained a nationwide injunction against the rules protecting religious objectors from the contraceptive mandate; that injunction was then upheld by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Phila- delphia. This is where the Little Sisters come in. They ap- pealed the circuit court's rul- ing and asked the Supreme Court to step in. In one of the two con- solidated cases, Trump v. Pennsylvania, the adminis- tration has argued that the exceptions to the contracep- tive mandate for religious groups were authorized by the health care law and re- quired by the Religious Free- dom Restoration Act, known as RFRA. Lawyers for Pennsylvania and New Jersey said the ad- ministration lacked statutory authority to issue such regu- lations and said the govern- ment did not follow proper administrative procedures. The second case will ex- amine if the Little Sisters of the Poor had the standing to appeal the 3rd Circuit ruling since a separate court order had already allowed them to refuse to provide contracep- tive coverage. "It is disappointing to think that as we enter a new decade we must still defend our ministry in court," said Mother Loraine Marie Magu- ire of the Little Sisters of the Poor. "We are grateful the Supreme Court has decided to weigh in, and hopeful that the justices will reinforce their previous decision," she said in a statement.
Court to hear life, education cases
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The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington in this 2018 file photo. The high court will hear cases related to abortion, contraception and scholarship funds for religious schools.
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Pope Francis greeted a child as he arrived for his general audi- ence in Paul VI hall at the Vatican Jan. 22.
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