CNA Staff, Aug 12, 2020 / 02:07 pm (CNA).- The former Assistant Superintendent of Catholic Schools in Washington, D.C., has been charged with embezzling close to half a million dollars from the archdiocese over an eight-year period.

Kenneth Gaughan, 41, has been charged in two separate schemes to steal money from the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and the federal Paycheck Protection Program put in place to help small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We will not tolerate exploitation of this national emergency for personal gain,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin in a press release.

“This Office will not allow fraudsters to steal taxpayer money intended to help small businesses that are currently struggling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The criminal complaint, unsealed Aug. 11, charges Gaughan with bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and theft of government funds. He is accused of seeking and accepting $2.1 million in small business loans for companies that falsely claimed to register emotional support animals.

Gaughan reportedly used forged bank records and other paperwork to obtain the loans. Prosecutors say he used the funds to buy a yacht, $1.3 million D.C. rowhouse, and luxury car.

He is also being charged with separately embezzling $472,000 from the Archdiocese of Washington from 2010-2018. According to prosecutors, Gaughan, who served as assistant superintendent, persuaded the archdiocese to pay invoices to companies he owned under an alias for services that had not actually been provided, included anti-bullying programs and messaging software.

The Archdiocese of Washington told the Washington Post that it planned to “fully cooperate in the prosecution of the scheme to defraud.”

Gaughan has pled not guilty, the Washington Post reported.

 

CNA Staff, Aug 12, 2020 / 01:01 pm (CNA).- The Archbishop of Minsk-Mohilev called Tuesday for an end to the violent clashes occurring across Belarus following a disputed presidential election.

“At this crucial moment in our history, in the name of the God of boundless mercy, love, and peace, I call on all parties to the conflict to end the violence. May your hands, created for peaceful work and fraternal greetings, lift neither weapons nor stones. Let the force of argument, based on dialogue in truth and mutual love, prevail over the argument of force,” Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, who chairs the Belarusian bishops' conference, wrote Aug. 11.

Protests began Aug. 9 after president Alexander Lukashenko was declared to have won that day's election with 80% of the vote. Lukashenko has been president of Belarus since the position was created in 1994.

Electoral officials said that the opposition candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, earned 10% of the vote. She was detained for several hours after complaining to the electoral committee, and has fled to Lithuania.

Protests have taken place across the country, and thousands of protesters have been detained.

Belarusian athorities say demonstrators have used metal rods, and police forces have used tear gas, stun grenades, and batons on them. Police in Brest, 110 miles west of Pinsk, shot live bullets at protesters Aug. 11.

Journalists from the BBC were harassed by police in Minsk, and other journalists were reportedly detained there and in Brest and Grodno.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Aug. 10 that the election “was not free and fair,” citing “severe restrictions on ballot access for candidates, prohibition of local independent observers at polling stations, intimidation tactics employed against opposition candidates, and the detentions of peaceful protesters and journalists.”

“We urge the Belarusian government to respect the rights of all Belarusians to participate in peaceful assembly, refrain from use of force, and release those wrongfully detained. We strongly condemn ongoing violence against protesters and the detention of opposition supporters,” he added.

Archbishop Kondrusiewicz wrote that Belarus has “witnessed unprecedented tensions” related to the election, saying: “There were clashes between citizens and law enforcement officers. As a result of the active confrontation, unfortunately, the first blood has been shed and there are victims on both sides. For the first time in the modern history of Belarus, a brother raised his hand against his brother.”

“Why do we, a nation with more than a thousand years of Christian history, today seem to have forgotten about love of neighbor and our inherent tolerance towards dissenters,” he asked.

Appealing to the Slavic tradition of veche, or popular assemblies, the archbishop said, “I propose to convene immediately an emergency round table to decide the future of our fatherland behind it, and not at the barricades,” so as “to overcome the crisis in society and stop the violence as soon as possible.”

“I encourage all people of good will to pray fervently for peace and harmony in our country,” Archbishop Kondrusiewicz concluded.

Lithuania, Poland, and Latvia have also offered to mediate between the government and protesters.

Tsikhanouskaya entered the presidential race after her husband, Siahei Tsikhanouski, was blocked from running and was arrested. Tsikhanouski is a pro-democracy activist.

CNA Staff, Aug 12, 2020 / 12:10 pm (CNA).- Official figures from New York state likely under-represent the real number of nursing home residents who died as a result of COVID-19, according to a new report on Tuesday.

Officially, New York claims to have lost 6,600 nursing home residents to COVID-19, which would be just over 20% of the state’s total deaths. In neighboring New Jersey, nursing home residents account for 44% of the state’s total death toll, and in Pennsylvania, that figure rises to 68% of the total number of COVID-19 deaths. 

Unlike other states, New York only tallies nursing home deaths from COVID-19 if they actually occurred in a nursing home. A resident of a nursing home who died from COVID-19 after being transported to a hospital for intensive care would not be considered a nursing home death in New York. 

In an August 12 report by Associated Press, the New York statistics do not appear to tally either with regional patterns or with the current occupancy rates in nursing homes.

Geriatrics expert Thomas Perls told AP that the numbers given by New York do not make sense: “Whatever the cause, there is no way New York could be truly at 20%,” Perls said. 

If New York’s nursing home death percentage were the same as New Jersey, over 14,000 nursing home residents would have died from COVID-19. If it were the same as Pennsylvania, the number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 would rise to 22,012. 

According to the AP report, there are 21,000 empty nursing home beds in New York state this year. That number is 13,000 higher than the expected vacancy rate. 

While some of the “missing” nursing home patients were removed from nursing homes by concerned relatives, or died from other causes, the AP report suggests that it is likely some if not many of these “missing” patients died from COVID-19 but were not counted in state figures.

Even with the potential under-counting, New York’s reported number of nursing home deaths is already the highest in the country. 

On March 25, Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered that nursing homes accept residents who had previously been hospitalized with COVID-19, but who had not yet fully recovered. Approximately 6,300 COVID-19 patients were sent to nursing homes, which Cuomo has defended as an attempt to free up beds in hospitals. 

Cuomo’s March 25 order stated that “no resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the (nursing home) solely based” on their COVID-19 status. Over a month later, on April 29, nursing homes were given the go-ahead to deny COVID-19 patients if the residence did not think it was properly equipped to care for the patient.

The order was revoked on May 10. By that point, New York’s COVID-19 deaths had peaked and were on a steady decline. 

In the weeks following, Cuomo has condemned questions of his handling of the nursing home situation and dismissed calls for an independent assessment as “all politics.” 

By New York’s own metrics, the state ranks 35th nationally on percentage of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes. 

COVID-19 ravaged at least one Catholic religious order during the time Cuomo’s order was in place. At least 10% of the 300 Maryknoll Sisters who live at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, New York tested positive for COVID-19, plus 10 members of the center’s staff also tested positive. 

A total of 13 Maryknoll Sisters died from COVID-19, per the order’s Instagram page. According to obituaries posted on the order’s website, at least two of these sisters died in a hospital, meaning that their deaths would not be included in the nursing home tally. 

Nationally, approximately 164,000 people in the United States have died during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vatican City, Aug 12, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Wednesday that Christian faith demands conversion from individualism and a commitment to defending the inherent dignity of every person.

“While we work for the cure of a virus that affects everyone without distinction, faith urges us to work seriously and actively to fight indifference in the face of violations of human dignity,” Pope Francis said Aug. 12.

“We want to recognize the human dignity in every person, whatever his or her race, language or condition might be,” the pope said at his general audience.

Speaking via livestream from the library of the Vatican’s apostolic palace, Pope Francis emphasized that this “renewed awareness of the dignity of every human being has serious social, economic and political implications.”

He said that the pandemic has “shed light on broader social ills,” including “a distorted view of the person” that ignores human dignity and “fosters an individualistic and aggressive throw-away culture, which transforms the human being into a consumer good”.

“In the light of faith we know, instead, that God looks at a man and a woman in another manner. He created us not as objects but as people loved and capable of loving; He has created us in His image and likeness. In this way He has given us a unique dignity, calling us to live in communion with Him, in communion with our sisters and our brothers, with respect for all creation,” Pope Francis said.

“The pandemic has highlighted how vulnerable and interconnected we are all. If we do not take care of each other, starting with the least, with those who are most affected, including creation, we cannot heal the world,” he said.

Following the general audience, Pope Francis met with United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet at the Vatican.

In recent months, Bachelet, the former president of Chile, has spoken out about child marriage in Somalia, human rights violations in Yemen, and the Iranian government’s repression of civil society.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ spokesperson has also expressed concern over the application of China’s National Security Law in Hong Kong and Lebanon’s socio-economic crisis. The Vatican has not released further details of the content of the pope’s meeting with Bachelet.

Pope Francis had said at his general audience that humans have “inalienable dignity” because humanity was created in the image of God, quoting the Second Vatican Council’s pastoral constitution, Gaudium et Spes. He said that this lies at “the foundation of all social life and determines its operative principles.”

“In modern culture, the closest reference to the principle of the inalienable dignity of the person is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Saint John Paul II defined as a ‘milestone on the long and difficult path of the human race’ and as ‘one of the highest expressions of the human conscience,’” Pope Francis said.

“Rights are not only individual, but also social; they are of peoples, nations. The human being, indeed, in his or her personal dignity, is a social being, created in the image of God, One and Triune,” he said. “We are social beings; we need to live in this social harmony, but when there is selfishness, our outlook does not reach others, the community, but focuses on ourselves, and this makes us ugly, nasty and selfish, destroying harmony.”

The pope’s reflection on human dignity is part of a weekly series of catechesis on Catholic social teaching, which he began last week. Pope Francis said that he wants to “tackle together the pressing issues that the pandemic has highlighted, especially social diseases.”

“Let us ask the Lord to give us eyes attentive to our brothers and sisters, especially those who are suffering. As Jesus’s disciples we do not want to be indifferent or individualistic,” he said.

“May the Lord ‘restore our sight’ so as to rediscover what it means to be members of the human family. And may this sight be translated into concrete actions of compassion and respect for every person and of care and safeguarding of our common home.”

CNA Staff, Aug 12, 2020 / 03:26 am (CNA).- Efforts to protect people from harm and error now marginalize and even demonize others for unpopular opinions, warns a new statement urging a revival of civil engagement and conscientious respect for the convictions of others.

“We want—and to be true to ourselves we need—to be a nation in which we and our fellow citizens of many different faiths, philosophies, and persuasions can speak their minds and honor their deepest convictions without fear of punishment and retaliation,” said the newly released Philadelphia Statement.

The statement was released Aug. 11. Its signers include academics, religious leaders and other commentators, including Archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia Charles Chaput and Princeton Law School professor Robert George.

“Our liberty and our happiness depend upon the maintenance of a public culture in which freedom and civility coexist—where people can disagree robustly, even fiercely, yet treat each other as human beings—and, indeed, as fellow citizens—not mortal enemies,” the statement continued.

It cited former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who said “Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist.”

“Truly open discourse—the debates, exchange of ideas, and arguments on which the health and flourishing of a democratic republic crucially depend—is increasingly rare,” the statement continued. “Ideologues demonize opponents to block debates on important issues and to silence people with whom they disagree.”

The Philadelphia Statement takes inspiration from Philadelphia's pivotal role in American independence and the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.

It was drafted after meetings with “a diverse working group of prominent thinkers, scholars, and practitioners,” the statement's website says. It says it is the start of “an ongoing movement to restore free speech and civil discourse in American law and culture.”

The statement criticized the spread of “blacklisting;” corporations' use of “hate-speech” policies that block content deemed “wrong” or “harmful;” and speech regulations that protect students from “challenges to campus orthodoxy.”

“Common decency and free speech are being dismantled through the stigmatizing practice of blacklisting ideological opponents, which has taken on the conspicuous form of 'hate' labeling,” the statement continued. “Responsible organizations are castigated as 'hate groups.' Honest people of good faith are branded 'hate agents.' Even mainstream ideas are marginalized as 'hate speech.' This threatens our ability to listen, discuss, debate, and grow.”

The statement lamented phenomena like “social media mobs,” “cancel culture” and “campus speech policing,” all of which have drawn increasing concern from free speech advocates in recent years.

In June 2020, the Catholic former president of Florida State University's student senate said he was removed from office for questioning controversial policy positions of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation on abortion and sexuality in a private text message thread with fellow Catholic students that was later sent to student leadership.

In 2017, the payment processor Vanco dropped service for the Ruth Institute, claiming it promoted “hate, violence, harassment and/or abuse.” The institute, which rejected the charge, said it aims to combat family breakdown. The institute supports Christian teaching about marriage, family and human sexuality.

In 2012, a Catholic student group left the Vanderbilt University campus over a controversial school non-discrimination policy which barred the group from requiring its leaders to be Catholic.

At the same time, the Philadelphia Statement comes after years of debate about how to respond to political misinformation, false or misleading medical information, alleged foreign interference in elections, online harassment, political extremism, and pornography.

Free speech, in the view of the Philadelphia Statement, does not include “defamation, obscenity, intimidation and threats, and incitement to violence.”

However, it stressed, making “hate speech” an exception to free speech is “foreign to our free speech ideals.” The concept is “impossible to define” and is “often used by those wielding political, economic, or cultural power to silence dissenting voices.”

“That is why we must favor openness, to allow ideas and beliefs the chance to be assessed on their own merits; and we must be willing to trust that bad ideas will be corrected not through censorship but through better arguments,” the statement said.

To seek unity instead of division and to secure a free, pluralistic society where people may live according to their consciences, the statement said, “we must renounce ideological blacklisting and recommit ourselves to steadfastly defending freedom of speech and passionately promoting robust civil discourse.”

The statement's signers include Alan Sears, former president of Alliance Defending Freedom; Dr. Daniel Mark, past chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom; Dr. Mary Eberstadt of the Faith and Reason Institute; Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom; Howard Slugh, founder and general counsel of the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty; Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention; and Dr. Thomas Farr, president of the Religious Freedom Institute.

One signer is Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born former Muslim who is now an atheist, a staunch critic of Islam, and a research fellow at the Hudson Institution. Another signer is Dr. Charles Murray, whose controversial 1994 book “The Bell Curve” discussed social stratification and apparent racial differences in intelligence. Kevin D. Williamson, a writer for the conservative National Review, also signed. In 2018 Williamson was briefly hired by the prestigious cultural commentary journal The Atlantic, then fired for polemical comments he made in 2014 that appeared to suggest hanging as a criminal punishment for abortion.

 

CNA Staff, Aug 11, 2020 / 05:29 pm (CNA).- Two bishops have called for rosary crusades in their respective dioceses in the month of August, asking Catholics to pray daily rosaries for the end of the pandemic, for justice and peace, for an end to the desecration of churches, and for multiple other intentions.

“In our current time of crisis, our Church, world and our country need faith in God and the protection and intercession of Mary,” Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver said in an August 7 statement. “And so...I am launching a Rosary Crusade to ask Mary to urgently bring our needs to Jesus.”

Aquila invited all Catholics in his diocese to pray a daily rosary, beginning on the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, Aug. 15, through the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows on Sept. 15. He asked that they pray for 15 distinct intentions, including for an end to the coronavirus pandemic and all those who have died of the virus, and end to abortion and euthanasia and attacks against life, as well as for peace, justice and an end to discrimination on the basis of race.

“We turn to Mary in our difficulty because she is our spiritual mother, who with her ‘yes’ to the Lord embraced the mysterious ways of God’s almighty power,” Aquila noted.

Aquila said the inspiration for his rosary crusade came from Bishop Carl Kemme of Wichita, who in July announced that he was starting a rosary crusade for the month of August in his diocese for similar intentions.

In his message to the Catholics of his diocese, Kemme said that while the pandemic, racial injustice, civil unrest and other upheavals America is experiencing this year may seem like these are “unprecedented times,” the Church and her members have experienced similar - and worse - sufferings throughout the ages.

“It has been said that we live in unprecedented times. But do we really?” Kemme wrote. “After all, any amateur student of history and especially Church history can attest that Holy Mother Church has already experienced everything we are living through and even far worse, things like plagues and pandemics, persecutions of Christians, violent attacks against persons for reason of color or other discriminatory traits, the shameless desecration of churches and statues and acts that cause scandal, even by those who are called to serve as leaders of the faith.”

While the current situations may bring about feelings of “uncertainty, fear and dismay,” he said, “...the Church has been here before. The only difference between then and now is us. We are the ones whom God has chosen and destined to live at this time in history, bringing our faith to bear, as did our predecessors, so that with God’s grace and by God’s grace alone, we too will triumph and overcome all adversity and grow stronger in faith, hope and love in the process.”

Kemme said he invited all Catholics in his diocese to strengthen or rediscover their faith during these times, primarily through the sacraments of reconciliation and Holy Communion.

In addition to a renewed commitment to the sacramental life, Kemme also invited his diocese to a month-long rosary crusade, because “the Rosary has been recommended to the faithful for centuries as a prayer of contemplation, a weapon against evil and a source of divine strength and consolation.”

Numerous popes have written about the significance of the rosary as a spiritual weapon in difficult times.

In 2002, St. John Paul II declared a “Year of the Rosary”, and wrote of his love for and the merits of this devotion in his apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae.

“The Rosary has accompanied me in moments of joy and in moments of difficulty,” John Paul II wrote. “To it I have entrusted any number of concerns; in it I have always found comfort. Twenty-four years ago...I frankly admitted: ‘The Rosary is my favourite prayer. A marvellous prayer! Marvellous in its simplicity and its depth...our heart can embrace in the decades of the Rosary all the events that make up the lives of individuals, families, nations, the Church, and all mankind. Our personal concerns and those of our neighbour, especially those who are closest to us, who are dearest to us. Thus the simple prayer of the Rosary marks the rhythm of human life.’”

The rosary is a “compendium of the Gospel,” John Paul II noted, as it calls those praying it to contemplate different events and mysteries throughout the life of Christ.

“The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary's side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth. This enables her to train us and to mold us with the same care, until Christ is ‘fully formed’ in us,” he wrote.

Leo XIII was pope from 1878 until his death in 1903 and became known as the “Rosary Pope.” He wrote a total of 11 encyclicals on the rosary and instituted the tradition of October as the month of the rosary, during which Catholics are encouraged to pray the rosary daily.

“It has always been the habit of Catholics in danger and in troublous times to fly for refuge to Mary, and to seek for peace in her maternal goodness; showing that the Catholic Church has always, and with justice, put all her hope and trust in the Mother of God,” Leo XIII wrote in Supremi Apostolatus officio, his 1883 encyclical on devotion of the rosary.

“And truly the Immaculate Virgin, chosen to be the Mother of God and thereby associated with Him in the work of man's salvation, has a favour and power with her Son greater than any human or angelic creature has ever obtained, or ever can gain. And, as it is her greatest pleasure to grant her help and comfort to those who seek her, it cannot be doubted that she would deign, and even be anxious, to receive the aspirations of the universal Church,” Leo XIII added. 

Numerous other saints and popes have recommended Catholics turn to Mary in times of need, Aquila noted, including St. Padre Pio, who once said: “In times of darkness, holding the Rosary is like holding our Blessed Mother’s hand.”

Kemme noted that while Catholics may feel helpless in the face of numerous current crises,  “we can and must always pray. Prayer is not a passive response to life’s challenges, or something we do in the absence of something more productive or beneficial; no prayer in all its many forms is an active engagement, calling upon the powers of heaven to come to our assistance.”

“I am praying and hoping that thousands from all over the diocese will choose to participate so that together and through the powerful intercession of Mary, we will emerge from this present darkness with renewed faith and confidence in God.”

CNA Staff, Aug 11, 2020 / 04:14 pm (CNA).- A Catholic college in the Philippines is defending enrollment and recruitment policies that some critics have decried as a ban on homosexual students and employees. The college maintains that in alignment with Catholic teaching, no sexual orientation is prohibited, but certain sexual acts are.

Assumption College, run by the Sisters of the Religious of the Assumption, is located in Iloilo, a coastal city on the centrally located island of Panay.

A group of 80 Filipino LGBT organizations had released a statement Aug. 7 alleging that Assumption College’s policies against immorality go against the Philippines’ anti-discrimination laws.

The school responded in a statement saying, “As a Catholic institution, Assumption Iloilo is within its rights to adopt a definition of what constitutes immorality in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church.” It added that the school’s objective is to provide “an education program and environment animated by Catholic religious belief, traditions, teachings, and doctrine.”

The college’s handbooks for students and staff state that immorality, as defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church and “including but not limited to…homosexuality” is considered a grave offense punishable by firing or expulsion, after due process. Other acts listed under the heading of immorality include premarital sex, prostitution, pornography, rape, and several others.

According to the LGBT groups’ statement, city ordinances and the Philippines’ Department of Education policies prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and apply to both public and private schools.

“It is hypocritical to propose measures on immorality in an institution, while blatantly disallowing the existence of persons of diverse [identities], and denying their right to education within the said institution,” the statement asserted.

“As it stands, this discrimination has been the framework which led to young people and students not only feeling unsafe in the institution, but also being stripped of their fundamental human rights.”

The statement cited Paragraph 2358 of the Catechism, which states that people with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” “must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

Assumption College cited the same paragraph of the Catechism in its defense, agreeing that the homosexual “condition” must be accepted with sensitivity, while maintaining that homosexual acts cannot be condoned at a Catholic institution.

The definition of immorality in the school’s handbook speaks of the “acts” of a person and not the “condition” or “orientation” of a person, the school said.

“The definition sanctions ‘acts’ consisting [of] sexual misconduct from the viewpoint of a Catholic institution regardless of the ‘condition’ or ‘orientation’ of a person. The definition does not sanction the condition or orientation of a person,” the school explained.

As of Aug. 11, local media have not reported that any lawsuits have been filed against the school.

CNA Staff, Aug 11, 2020 / 03:13 pm (CNA).- As North Carolina experienced a moderate earthquake Sunday, local pastors encourage Catholics to relinquish control to God.

A 5.1-magnitude earthquake with an epicenter near Sparta, about 100 miles north of Charlotte, struck at 8:07 am Aug. 9. There were no injuries but there have been reports of damages throughout Sparta, including cracks in the road and shelves displaced in grocery stores, the Associated Press reported.

The lesson at Mass was from 1 Kings 19, wherein Elijah said, “After the wind there was an earthquake - but the LORD was not in the earthquake.”

St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Charlotte experienced the earthquakes within minutes of reading “the Lord was not in the earthquake.” Father Richard Sutter, the pastor of St. Gabriel, said it is a good reminder to trust in God.

“When there’s fear from an earthquake, when there’s fear from a storm, when there’s fear from a pandemic and uncertainty ... you have to let the Lord speak to us the truth,” he said, according to the Associated Press.

“Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and not the waves (or even earthquakes) we cannot control,” he said.

Father Melchesideck Yumo, who said the 7:30 Mass at St. Mark Church in Huntersville,  offered a similar reflection. He said it important to offer control to God during these turbulent times and follow the example of Saint Peter.

“There are a lot of storms on this journey, like the present pandemic and all of the strange happenings around the world. What do we do amidst these storms?” he asked.

“We can follow the example of Peter, and pray, ‘Lord, save me.’ We pray to God because He is in control of everything in heaven and on earth. Jesus walked on the water today in the Gospel to show that everything is under His feet. Our faith should help to dispel every fear. For Jesus says, ‘Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid.’”

Father Cory Catron, pastor of two parishes in North Carolina, including the St. Frances of Rome Mission in Sparta, said the ceiling creaked for three seconds but there was no damage done to the building.

He said, rather, the earthquake was good material for the homily and jokingly added that he was worried that fire would follow the earthquake.

According to the Charlotte Observer, Catron also urged parishioners to focus on God even during the noises and concerns of the world. He said it is important to nurture an environment of silence.

“God is found in the stillness and God is found in the silence,” he said. “We have to cultivate that silence, which is a very difficult thing to do.”

“It’s a good message that it doesn’t matter how how strange and messed up and scary everything can be, that God is still present to us.”

The earthquake was the most powerful to occur in the region since 1916.

CNA Staff, Aug 11, 2020 / 03:10 pm (CNA).- Former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, has selected Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) to be his running mate.  

Harris is the first Black woman, and the first person of Indian descent, to be selected as a running mate for a major party’s ticket. Harris’ mother was born in India, and her father was born in Jamaica. Harris is a staunch supporter of legal protection for abortion and has pushed Biden on that issue in recent months.

The choice was announced just shortly after 4:15 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, August 11. 

“I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked Kamala Harris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,” tweeted Biden on Tuesday.

Biden said that while serving as California’s attorney general, Harris worked with his late son, Beau. 

“I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I'm proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign,” he said. 

Before being selected to run with Biden, Harris made headlines for her numerous attacks on the former vice president during the primary debates. Harris was especially critical of Biden’s long-time support for the Hyde Amendment, which prevents the use of federal funds for abortions. 

Biden supported the Hyde Amendment, both with his votes and publicly in writing and speeches, for over four decades. He reversed his position in June 2019, just one day after reaffirming his support for the policy. Harris was quick to point this out during the debate. 

“Only since you’ve been running for president this time, [have you] said that you in some way would take that back or you didn’t agree with that decision you made over many, many years and this directly impacted so many women in our country,” said Harris. 

Harris noted Biden’s previous reservations about unlimited legal protection to abortion, reservations which he abandoned during the Democratic primary process. Harris asked him during the primary “Do you now say that you have evolved and you regret that?”

As California attorney general, she drew criticism from the state Catholic conference by sponsoring a bill compelling pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise “free or low-cost” abortion services to their clients. That law was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2018. 

The senator has also previously raised concerns about Biden’s character.

In April 2019, Harris stated that she believed women who have accused Biden of sexual misconduct during his time in the Senate and as vice president. 

“I believe them and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it,” she said at an event in Nevada. Biden himself denied ever acting “inappropriately” with women.

While in the Senate, Harris has served as a member of the Judiciary Committee, responsible for vetting candidates for federal judgeships. In 2018, Harris raised questions about the suitability of a candidate based on his membership of the Knights of Columbus.

In December 2018, Harris joined Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) in scrutinizing the candidacy of Brian C. Buescher, an Omaha-based lawyer nominated by President Trump to sit on the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska.

The senators asked if belonging to the Catholic charitable organization could prevent judges from hearing cases “fairly and impartially.”

In her questions to Buescher, Harris described the Knights as “an all-male society” and asked if Buescher was aware that the Knights of Columbus “opposed a woman’s right to choose” and were against “marriage equality” when he joined.

Prior to her election to the Senate in 2016, Harris served as the California attorney general from 2011-2016, and was the San Francisco district attorney from 2004-2011. 

While she has cast herself as a “progressive” prosecutor, her tenure as in California has been a source of controversy during her political career on the national level. 

Harris had a mixed record on the death penalty in California, and faced criticism for her polices which saw Californians imprisoned for non-violent drug offenses. 

Harris came out in support for the legalization of marijuana in 2018. But during a debate in July, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) noted Harris had put “over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations” as attorney general, but laughed while confirming her own use of the drug in an interview. 

Gabbard also pointed out that Harris “blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row,” referring to inmate Kevin Cooper. Cooper was convicted of a quadruple homicide and sentenced to death in 1983, despite considerable evidence of his innocence. Cooper requested additional DNA testing, which Harris blocked as attorney general. 

In 2018, after she was elected to the Senate, she admitted she “felt awful” about her decision. Cooper is still on death row. 

While Harris declined to pursue the death penalty on several occasions, in 2014 she explicitly defended the practice after a California district court found it unconstitutional. 

"I am appealing the court's decision because it is not supported by the law, and it undermines important protections that our courts provide to defendants,” said Harris, calling the decision a “flawed ruling.” 

Harris has also pushed for laws that would criminalize the parents of truant children, who are disproportionately poor. 

During her inaugural address in 2011, Harris stated that she was “putting parents on notice” that truancy would be dealt with as a crime by parents.  

“If you fail in your responsibility to your kids, we are going to work to make sure you face the full force and consequences of the law,” she said. 

Eight years later, during an interview on a podcast, Harris admitted that several parents were jailed thanks to the statewide anti-truancy law she sponsored, though she said she “regretted” it.

Since entering the Senate, Harris’ thinking has shifted, and she now says she supports ending mandatory minimum sentences along with championing other progressive criminal justice reforms.

Denver, Colo., Aug 11, 2020 / 02:40 pm (CNA).- Star-gazing might not be the first thing that comes to mind when Catholics think of St. Lawrence, the early Christian martyr who was cooked to death by the Romans on an outdoor grill.

But every August, Catholics have the chance to see a meteor shower named in his honor.

The Perseids meteor shower, also called the “tears of St. Lawrence,” is a meteor shower associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, which drops dust and debris in Earth’s orbit on its 133-year trip around the Sun. (The comet poses no immediate threat to Earth, at least not for several thousand years.)

As Earth orbits the Sun, it hits pieces of left-behind debris from the comet, causing them to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

This creates a prolific meteor shower that can best be seen in the Northern Hemisphere from late July to early August, usually peaking around Aug. 10, the feast of St. Lawrence.  

During its peak, the rate of meteors reaches 60 or more per hour.

The name “Perseids” comes from the constellation Perseus, named for a character in Greek mythology, and the radiant of the shower or the point from which it appears to originate.

The name “tears of St. Lawrence” came from the association with his feast day and from the legends that built up around the Saint after his death.

Saint Lawrence was martyred on Aug. 10, 258 during the persecution of the emperor Valerian along with many other members of the Roman clergy. He was the last of the seven deacons of Rome to die.

After the pope, Sixtus II, was martyred on Aug. 6, Lawrence became the principal authority of the Roman Church, having been the Church's treasurer.

When he was summoned before the executioners, Lawrence was ordered to bring all the wealth of the Church with him. He showed up with a handful of crippled, poor, and sick men, and when questioned, replied that "These are the true wealth of the Church."

He was immediately sent to his death, being cooked alive on a gridiron. Legend has it that one of his last words was a joke about his method of execution, as he quipped to his killers: “Turn me over, I’m done on this side!”

Catholics began calling the meteors the “tears of St. Lawrence,” even though the celestial phenomenon pre-dates the saint.

Some Italian lore also holds that the fiery bits of debris seen during a meteor shower are representative of the coals that killed St. Lawrence.

Anyone in the Northern Hemisphere should be able to view the “tears of St. Lawrence” best on the nights of Aug. 11 and 12 this year. The meteors will shower from various points in the sky rather than from one particular direction.

For the best viewing, it is recommended to go to a rural area away from light pollution.