In a one-two punch in just over a week’s time, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam made inflammatory comments viewed by many as defending infanticide, only days later to have an old yearbook photo surface of him in blackface next to another individual dressed in KKK robes.
The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily put on hold a state law restricting Louisiana abortion providers.
Arlington Bishop Michael F. Burbidge called on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam Feb. 2 “to do what is best to restore the trust and confidence of the people in our leaders” after a racist photo from the governor’s 1984 medical school yearbook emerged a day earlier.
In a step to restore trust in the Catholic Church, dioceses in Texas released their lists of priests against whom credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been determined. The 15 dioceses disclosed Jan. 31 the names of 278 individual clerics who have such credible allegations in Texas. The statewide disclosure removed duplication of clerics who appear on multiple diocesan lists.
Colorado lawmakers have proposed a bill to require all public schools and charter schools to either use a comprehensive sex-ed curriculum that contradicts human nature and is inconsistent with Christian values, or no instruction on sexuality at all.
The Catholic Church in the state had removed its opposition to the Child Victims Act, or CVA, after the Legislature a week earlier expanded the retroactive window to include both private and public institutions, noting that the support for all victims – regardless of where the abuse occurred – had been a critical reason the bishops could not support past versions of the bill.
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, was joined by more than 100 other members of the House Jan. 24 in introducing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act of 2019, a measure that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation.
Today lawmakers in Albany are expected to pass the Child Victims Act, making it easier for victims of sexual abuse to sue as adults.
The Freedom of Religion Act, introduced Jan. 16 in the House of Representatives, would – if enacted in its current form – ban religious discrimination in the U.S. immigration system.
An exchange between Catholic high school students and a Native American tribal leader in Washington Jan. 18 was vilified on social media the following day, but the immediate accusations that the students showed racist behavior have been stepped back as more details of the entire situation have emerged.
