The House passed the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, also referred to as the American Rescue Plan of 2021, early Saturday morning, Feb. 27. While the bill will fund vaccines, testing and tracing, and will also provide economic relief to American families and adult dependents, it doesn’t include prohibitions on abortion funding.
Two Catholic organizations in southern Texas are prepared to provide humanitarian relief to a combined 400 migrants a day, with the expectation that U.S. Customs and Border Protection will release more migrants as soon as next week.
Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth wants people to consider three questions regarding the use of social media: does this need to be said? Is it my place to say it? And am I saying this in a way that builds up or tears down?
Just after 1 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29, Thomas Hackett stood in the middle of about 50 people crowded on a Washington D.C. street corner. With his eyes closed and fist clenched around wooden rosary beads, he led the group through a series of Hail Mary prayers.
For about 200 people, subfreezing temperatures, blistering winds, and a recommendation to stay at home didn’t matter. They joined about 60 pro-life advocates for the 48th National March for Life from the Museum of the Bible to the Supreme Court.
The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life and international policy committees said President Joe Biden’s memo rescinding the so-called “Mexico City policy” Jan. 28 is a “grievous” action that “actively promotes the destruction of human lives in developing nations.”
President Joe Biden’s wide-ranging executive order to extend existing federal nondiscrimination protections to LGBTQ people exceeds the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2020 ruling on the issue in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, said the chairmen of five U.S. bishops’ committees. However, Biden’s order on “‘sex’ discrimination exceeds the court’s decision,” they said.
The U.S. bishops’ conference pro-life chairman has called President Joe Biden’s intent to codify Roe v. Wade “deeply disturbing and tragic,” in response to a statement made by the second-ever Catholic president on Jan. 22.
As Joe Biden prepared to be inaugurated as the 46th U.S. president, Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, expressed hope the incoming administration “will work with the church and others of goodwill” to “address the complicated cultural and economic factors that are driving abortion and discouraging families.”
Catholics across the country are invited to take part in the “9 Days for Life” novena Jan. 21-29 for the protection of human life.
