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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 13, 2024 / 15:54 pm (CNA).

Two proposed constitutional amendments — one pro-life and one pro-abortion — will appear on Nebraska ballots on Nov. 5, the state Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

One referendum would establish constitutional protections for unborn children in later stages of pregnancy and the other would create a constitutional right to obtain an abortion.

Both proposed amendments faced legal challenges, which claimed the proposals violated the constitution’s single-subject rule. The Supreme Court found that both amendments contain one general subject and are not in violation of the rule.

Pro-life amendment

The pro-life referendum would grant constitutional protections to “unborn children” that protect them from “abortion in the second and third trimesters” except in the case of a medical emergency or when the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest.

It would effectively prohibit elective abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy.

Although the proposed amendment would not grant constitutional protections to unborn children in the first trimester of pregnancy, state lawmakers would be allowed to adopt stronger pro-life protections than what is established in the amendment.

Pro-abortion amendment

The pro-abortion referendum would establish “a fundamental right to abortion until fetal viability, or when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient.” It would prohibit “the state and its political subdivisions” from interfering with the newly established constitutional right.

It would effectively guarantee the legality of elective abortion until viability, which occurs around the 23rd or 24th week of pregnancy.

The text defines viability as the point at which “there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’ sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.” A preborn child’s viability would be determined by “the patient’s treating health care practitioner,” who is often the abortionist.

The text does not elaborate on when the “health” of the mother exception would apply or whether “mental health” would be included in the exception.

Because the Nebraska measures are mutually exclusive and cannot both be added to the constitution, the measure with the most “for” votes will be added. For a ballot measure to pass in Nebraska, it needs more “for” votes than “against” votes and must receive at least 35% of the total votes cast at that election to be in favor of the measure. The governor is responsible for determining whether there is a conflict, per state law.

Nebraska’s current abortion laws

Under current law, Nebraska allows elective abortion through the 12th week of pregnancy. After 12 weeks, a woman can only obtain an abortion when the child is conceived in rape or incest or if there is a medical emergency.

The pro-life referendum would allow the current law to stay in place. However, the pro-abortion referendum would substantially expand abortion.

Nebraska is one of 10 states where abortion will be on the ballot this fall.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about Florida’s new six-week abortion ban on May 1, 2024, in Jacksonville, Florida. Harris has made abortion policy a central issue of her presidential campaign. / Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 13, 2024 / 10:45 am (CNA).

A political action committee that supports Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential candidacy launched a $15 million advertisement campaign in key battleground states that promotes the Democratic nominee’s pro-abortion political agenda.

The campaign, launched by American Bridge 21st Century on Thursday, will air television, radio, and digital advertisements promoting Harris’ support for abortion and criticizing former President Donald Trump. The advertisements will air in three important swing states: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

“American Bridge’s program to defeat Donald Trump has always been about three things: abortion, democracy, and freedom,” Bradley Beychok, co-founder of American Bridge 21st Century, said in a statement.

“Voters in the Blue Wall states, especially women, will make or break this election,” Beychok continued. “That’s why American Bridge is putting their true stories about Trump’s threats to reproductive rights [abortion] at the forefront of our paid media program, and why we’re fighting to make sure that voters know how much is at stake this November.”

One of the television advertisements airing in Michigan opens with a resident who works as a physician’s assistant saying: “I think Kamala Harris understands the people I serve [because] she’s not going to stop until reproductive rights [abortion] are restored.”

“We know exactly where Trump stands on abortion,” the physician’s assistant continues. “When I heard him bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade, it gutted me.”

The advertisement quotes the former president taking credit for the United States Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which allowed states to pass restrictions on abortion. Trump has campaigned on the position that abortion policies should be set by states but has said he would not sign a federal law that prohibits abortion.

Harris has said she would support legislation to codify Roe v. Wade’s abortion standards into federal law, which would prevent states from adopting pro-life laws that restrict abortion. In the Sept. 10 presidential debate, the vice president refused to say whether she supports late-term abortion. 

The advertisement alleges that Trump could restrict birth control and in vitro fertilization or sign a federal law that prohibits abortion. The former president has said he does not support federal restrictions on abortion or restrictions on birth control or in vitro fertilization.

This advertisement campaign builds on Harris’ emphasis on abortion policy as a key element of her 2024 presidential campaign. The vice president has led the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to promote abortion and has consistently supported abortion as a senator and as the attorney general of California.

American Bridge 21st Century intends to spend about $140 million on advertising campaigns to support Harris’ candidacy. The political action committee’s funders include billionaires Michael Moritz and Reid Hoffman, according to OpenSecrets.

Polls are showing tight races in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. According to averages compiled by RealClearPolling, Harris is ahead by less than two percentage points in Wisconsin and by less than one percentage point in Michigan. The polls show Harris and Trump virtually tied in Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania, both mail-in and in-person early voting begins on Sept. 16. In Michigan, mail-in early voting begins on Sept. 26 and in-person early voting starts on Oct. 16. In Wisconsin, mail-in early voting begins on Sept. 19 and in-person early voting starts on Oct. 22.

Deacon Bob Young, representing Knights of Columbus Council 694, accepts the First Liberty Institute's Philip B. Onderdonk Jr. Religious Liberty Award award at the American Legion’s National Convention in New Orleans on Aug. 28, 2024. / Credit: Jeric Wilhelmsen/The American Legion

CNA Staff, Sep 13, 2024 / 10:15 am (CNA).

A council of Knights of Columbus in Virginia has received a religious freedom award after it won a dispute earlier this year with the government over celebrating Mass at a federal cemetery.

The First Liberty Institute awarded the Knights of Columbus Council 694 its Philip B. Onderdonk Jr. Religious Liberty Award in recognition of the Petersburg council’s successful challenge to a federal rule prohibiting Mass at Poplar Grove National Cemetery. The religious freedom group assisted the knights in their challenge.

The Knights’ council has held an annual Memorial Day Mass at the Petersburg-area cemetery for decades, yet the National Park Service (NPS) had determined in 2023 that the observance was prohibited due to it being a religious service.

The Knights filed a challenge to the rule in May of this year, arguing that the prohibition violated the First Amendment as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The federal government ultimately backed down and allowed the council to hold the Mass.

First Liberty Institute senior counsel Roger Byron said in giving the award that the Knights’ “commitment to its mission and the ideal of religious liberty was made clear once again this year when it stood firmly to keep their annual Memorial Day Mass at a national public cemetery in Virginia.”

“In the face of an unconstitutional policy adopted by the National Park Service, the Knights refused to back down and stood up to defend the First Amendment,” Byron said.

“We honor the Knights’ commitment to our first freedom.”

Prior to backing down and allowing the Mass, park service officials had said the Knights could hold the observance “outside the cemetery on a patch of grass near the parking lot,” which the Knights’ filing said was “unreasonable, unnecessary, and unconstitutional.”

In their filing, the Knights said the Petersburg council “has hosted a Memorial Day Mass inside the Poplar Grove National Cemetery every year (with few exceptions)” for upwards of 60 years or more.

“[T]he location is important to us,” the Knights told NPS when filing for the Mass permit.
“It’s our religious belief that the memorial service needs to be inside the cemetery itself, not outside the cemetery somewhere. That’s why we’ve always had it there every year since at least the 1960s or before.”

The Onderdonk award has been given since 2015 to “a hero and protector of religious liberty,” First Liberty Institute says on its website.

Instead of a trophy, the recipient “receives a Henry Repeating Arms Military Service Tribute Edition .22 caliber commemorative rifle, specially engraved for the award,” the organization says.

The Knights were also recently in the news when former President Donald Trump sharply criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for her earlier aggressive questioning of judicial nominees who were members of the Knights of Columbus.

In 2018 Harris questioned three different nominees over their membership in the global Catholic organization. She said that the pro-life and pro-marriage views of the Knights conflicted with constitutional rights to abortion and same-sex marriage and questioned the nominees’ suitability for office.

null / Credit: Fabio Sola Penna via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 13, 2024 / 08:51 am (CNA).

For the pro-life movement to achieve its goal of eliminating abortion, it must first help bring about a dramatic change in societal sexual ethics, according to a new essay by Ryan T. Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

“So long as nonmarital sex is expected, large numbers of Americans will view abortion as necessary emergency contraception,” Anderson concludes in his essay, titled “The Way Forward After Dobbs,” published in the Catholic-led ecumenical journal First Things.  

“So long as marriage rates are declining and marriage age is delayed — but the human sex drive persists — abortion rates will remain high,” Anderson writes.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, he argues, while a major victory for the pro-life movement, came at a time when support for abortion had already become firmly entrenched in the culture.  

“Generations of Americans were catechized in the beliefs that abortion is a right and that unborn babies have no rights — and that we have no duties to the unborn,” Anderson, who is Catholic, writes.

“Though [the] Dobbs [Supreme Court decision] did important work to repair part of the damage to our constitutional order, it doesn’t — couldn’t — erase half a century of political and social corruption,” Anderson said. 

Anderson argues that the shift in public opinion in favor of abortion that has taken place in recent years has resulted in the pro-life movement’s recent defeats at the ballot box. Although some states have passed legislation effectively restricting abortion, every ballot initiative that received a direct vote from the people has liberalized abortion policies, and in some cases, overruled state-level pro-life laws.

“The change in public opinion over the past decade is hard to come to grips with, but the pro-life movement needs to do just that,” Anderson said.

When Roe v. Wade was still in effect, Anderson said, “it was easier to affirm the dignity of the child in the womb” because such an affirmation “was abstract and did not imply a threat to anyone’s ‘choice.’”

“It seems that most Americans, even some who consider themselves pro-life, support four exceptions: rape, incest, life of the mother, and … ‘my case,’” Anderson continued. “Or ‘my daughter’s case,’ or ‘my girlfriend’s case.’”

Although some people who facilitate abortions “know that abortion stops a beating heart,” Anderson writes, “they don’t always care, or … they aren’t always willing to make the personal sacrifices that follow.” He noted that most abortions are procured when a pregnancy occurs outside of marriage and that one of the roots of the problem is “multiple generations of a sexual culture that incentivizes abortion.”

According to Anderson, the root cause is “the sexual revolution, a revolution that conservatives have never attempted to combat in a sustained way, despite many one-off campaigns and skirmishes.”

The sexual revolution began in the 1960s with a movement to increase social acceptance of sex outside of marriage. It was accompanied by the women’s liberation movement and the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the first birth control pill. 

“Our primary task isn’t to persuade people of the humanity of the unborn — anyone who has ever seen an ultrasound knows all about that — but to change how people lead their sexual lives,” Anderson says. “We have a pro-life movement, but could anyone seriously suggest that we have a pro-marriage or pro-chastity movement?”

Anderson notes that statistics show that among secular Americans, premarital sex is very common. It’s even common among Christians who regularly attend church services, he writes.

“Before we try to persuade the secular world of a Christian sexual ethic, we might try persuading Christians,” he says. 

Anderson encourages priests and pastors to preach about life and chastity from the pulpit, which he argues they do too rarely. He also says the movement needs “culture-forming, opinion-shaping organizations,” which he called “a daunting task.”

“Our cultural incrementalism can be broad-spectrum: new TV shows and movies that aren’t hokey after-school specials, policies to protect kids from the harms of social media and online pornography, effective church ministries,” Anderson adds. “The task is enormous. But we haven’t devoted enough time, treasure, or sophistication to it.”

Anderson also argues that the pro-life movement should “organize politically and help politicians find paths to success — not ask them to engage in political suicide missions.” He notes that even though pro-life efforts through ballot referendums have failed, many pro-life politicians have still found success in states in which the population voted to expand abortion.

“Policy wonks must devise effective pro-marriage policies,” Anderson concludes. “Cultural entrepreneurs must apply the professionalism of the conservative legal movement across our culture-shaping institutions. Most importantly, the Church must devise ministries that will transform lives, because short of religious revival, none of the changes we need will be possible.”

The Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania holds a "Mercy Witness for Life" rally on July 23, 2016, outside of the former site of Dr. Kermit Gosnell's closed abortion clinic in Philadelphia. Gosnell was convicted of the first-degree murder of three infants, the involuntary manslaughter of his patient Karnamaya Mongar, and other felony counts. / Credit: Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 13, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

During Tuesday night’s presidential debate with former President Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris refused to say whether she opposes late-term abortions and denied that they happen in the United States.

However, more than a dozen states, in fact, allow on-demand abortions after the point of viability, and nine of those states permit abortions throughout the entirety of pregnancy.

What’s more, studies from pro-abortion groups and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that thousands of abortions happen late into pregnancy every year.

“Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion,” the vice president claimed. “That is not happening — it’s insulting to the women of America.”

During the debate, Trump said Harris’ vow to codify Roe v. Wade into national law would legalize late-term abortion. The now-defunct landmark Supreme Court ruling forced states to permit abortion at least until the point of fetal viability, at which point the unborn child could survive outside the womb. The exact moment of fetal viability is different for every pregnancy, but this usually occurs in the 23rd or the 24th week.

Trump said Harris would support abortion in “the seventh month, the eighth month, [and] the ninth month,” to which Harris retorted: “That’s not true.”

When asked by ABC debate moderator Linsey Davis whether she would support any restrictions on abortion, Harris ducked the question and said she supports what she called the “protections” of Roe v. Wade. Harris used the word “protections” in reference to making abortion legal, not to to mean protecting the unborn.

Although ABC’s debate moderators — Davis and David Muir — intervened to “fact check” Trump on several of his arguments, neither of them corrected Harris to inform viewers where late-term abortions are legal and occur in the United States.

However, Roe v. Wade did not prohibit states from allowing abortion much later into pregnancy, some of which do permit abortion in the seventh, eighth, and ninth months.

In nine states and Washington, D.C., abortion is legal for the entirety of pregnancy, until the moment of birth, for any reason. In one state, elective abortion is legal through the second trimester, which concludes at the end of the 27th week of pregnancy. In another four states, abortion is legal through the 24th week of pregnancy, regardless of whether the unborn child has already reached viability.

States where on-demand late-term abortion is legal

The most permissive abortion laws are in Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. A woman can procure a legal abortion through the ninth month of pregnancy, until the moment of birth, for any reason. 

Minnesota, the home state of Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, has some of the most permissive pro-abortion laws in the country. Walz signed legislation in January 2023 that declared abortion “a fundamental right” and prohibited local governments from taking any action that interferes with that legal right. This provided even stronger protections for Minnesota’s laws on abortion, which permit the procedure until the moment of birth.

Virginia allows elective abortion through the second trimester of pregnancy, which ends in the 27th week. This is three or four weeks after the unborn child could survive outside the womb.

In four other states — Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and New Hampshire — abortion is legal in the 24th week of pregnancy, regardless of whether the unborn child is viable. About a dozen states allow abortion up until the point of viability, which is often determined by the physician, who may be an abortionist. More than 20 states restrict abortion earlier than viability.

How often does late-term abortion happen?

State laws vary on what data abortion clinics must record and report to the government. Most states provide some data to the federal government, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not offer a comprehensive breakdown of the exact gestational ages of preborn children at the time of an abortion.

However, the CDC does report its estimates of how many abortions occur in the 21st week of pregnancy or later. In 2019, the CDC estimated about 4,882 abortions were performed at least 21 weeks or later into pregnancy. The data is incomplete because it excludes the nine states that permit abortions at that stage of pregnancy and the District of Columbia.

The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, which provides estimates through voluntary surveys, reported that about 0.9% of abortions were conducted in the 21st week or later in 2023. The report estimated more than 1 million total abortions, which would mean that more than 9,000 abortions occurred in the 21st week or later.

If the Guttmacher Institute’s reporting is correct, this would mean that, on average, between 24 and 25 abortions in the 21st week or later occur every day in the United States.

null / Credit: Chodyra Mike 1/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2024 / 18:20 pm (CNA).

A state judge nixed North Dakota’s protections for unborn babies on Thursday, saying that the state constitution creates a right to abortion before the unborn baby is viable outside the womb, which is usually defined at 22 or 23 weeks of pregnancy. 

North Dakota District Judge Bruce Romanick’s 24-page order making abortion legal up to the point of fetal viability is set to go into effect in 14 days. 

The ruling overturned the law that North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed in April 2023, which allowed abortion only in certain cases, such as pregnancies caused by rape or incest, within the first six weeks of pregnancy, and cases of serious health risk for the mother.

The Red River Women’s Clinic filed the original lawsuit in 2022 against a 2007 “trigger law” that went into effect after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. That law was later overturned by the state Supreme Court. The clinic has since relocated a few miles from Fargo, North Dakota, to Moorehead, Minnesota.

Romanick was ruling on the state’s request to dismiss the 2022 lawsuit. The state had argued that a trial wouldn’t make a difference as the clinic had since moved out of state.

Romanick ruled that the state’s abortion restrictions were unconstitutional because “pregnant women in North Dakota have a fundamental right to choose abortion before viability” under the state constitution, which protects “life, liberty, safety, and happiness” for individuals “including women.”

North Dakota Right to Life said in a statement Thursday that it is “deeply disappointed” by the ruling, arguing that the judge used “poor methodology” to go against “the standard legal process.”

“This ruling was made in response to the state’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, yet instead of either dismissing the case or setting a court hearing date, the judge unilaterally issued a ruling that dismantles critical protections for the unborn and vulnerable women across our state,” the statement read.

“The judge’s poor methodology and decision to bypass the standard legal process reflect a troubling disregard for the legal protections that were put in place to ensure informed consent and promote the safety of North Dakotans,” the statement continued. 

The judge also ruled that the restrictions were void because of their “vagueness.” He argued that the law violated due process because it was not clear enough to physicians which abortions they could perform legally and could have “a profound chilling effect on the willingness of physicians to perform abortions.”

“All North Dakota citizens, including women, have the right to make fundamental, appropriate, and informed medical decisions in consultation with a physician and to receive their chosen medical care … Such a choice is a fundamental one, central to personal autonomy and self-determination,” the court document reads.

“Unborn human life, pre-viability, is not a sufficient justification to interfere with a woman’s fundamental rights,” the judge continued. “Criminalizing pre-viability abortions is not necessary to promote the state’s interest in women’s health and protecting unborn human life.”

North Dakota Right to Life argued that the ruling was dangerous for both women and unborn children.

“We firmly believe that this ruling does a grave disservice to our state and will lead to harmful consequences for women, minors, and unborn children alike,” the statement read.

The group argued that the decision “opens North Dakota to unrestricted abortion access — eliminating necessary safeguards such as waiting periods, parental consent for minors, and critical health and safety standards.”

“In doing so, the judge’s decision directly undermines the well-being of women and young girls, putting their health at risk and disregarding the will of the people in North Dakota,” the statement continued.

Signage is strewn across the intersection after Hurricane Francine swept through the area on Sept. 11, 2024, in Houma, Louisiana. / Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

Hurricane Francine made landfall in southern Louisiana on Wednesday evening as a Category 2 storm, bringing 100 mph winds in some areas and copious rainfall. Many parts of the state, already drenched with previous rains, remained flooded Thursday even as Francine moved out of the region heading north.

Low-lying areas near and to the east of where Francine made landfall faced storm surge of five to 10 feet, the Washington Post reported. At the peak of the storm, 450,000 people in Louisiana were without electricity, a figure that has dropped to around 350,000, per the AP.

Kim Burgo, vice president of disaster operations at Catholic Charities USA, told CNA on Thursday afternoon that the aid organization is helping to fund and coordinate relief efforts through local Catholic Charities agencies in the region. The hardest-hit diocese in southern Louisiana has been Houma-Thibodaux, as well as parts of the Dioceses of Baton Rouge and Lafayette and the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Burgo said the local Catholic Charities organizations in these areas are undertaking assessments to determine the needs of the affected populations, especially the poor whom they already serve on a regular basis. She said their primary concern is ensuring that people have access to necessary supplies and services — such as generators and food — to help them get by as power is restored and cleanup begins.

Each individual Catholic Charities agency in the region is accepting donations, as is Catholic Charities USA, which will distribute 100% of the donations to the affected areas.

“Each agency or each diocese will have their own criteria and different ways to help. And certainly, there are locations where people can drop off goods and items,” Burgo said, noting that some parts of Louisiana were spared flooding and storm damage despite their proximity to damaged areas.

Catholic Charities of Acadiana (CCA), which serves the Diocese of Lafayette, is already soliciting volunteers to help with relief efforts. The group says it needs volunteers who can do damage assessments, roof tarping, muck out and cleanup, debris removal and chainsawing, and in-kind donations management. The group also encouraged people of goodwill to donate to its disaster relief fund.

Burgo said CCA has begun assembling and distributing supplies, assisting the National Guard by unloading trucks filled with essential items like tarps and anti-mold products.

Meanwhile, in Houma-Thibodaux, a big focus is on distributing meals to people in need, especially for those still without power. The lack of electricity is especially impactful for low-income households as it disrupts the functioning of medical equipment and impedes food preservation, among other issues. 

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New Orleans is also mobilized to help the community, but weather conditions were so bad that the agency said on social media that its offices would be closed until Friday, Sept. 13. Officially, 7.33 inches of rain fell at New Orleans International Airport on Wednesday, making it the second-wettest September day on record, the Washington Post reported. 

Burgo emphasized that Catholic Charities serve as a long-term presence in the community, providing support not just in times of disaster but also during peaceful periods. She encouraged people in need of assistance or those willing to offer help to reach out to their local Catholic Charities office or visit the national website.

“We’re not an organization that just goes in and does some work and then leaves. We’re there in both the times of sunshine and the times of disaster events,” she said.

St. Josaphat Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic church in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. / Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0

CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

A recently ordained priest in Chicago is denying accusations from Illinois state officials that he molested a child during a recent penance service that allegedly took place at a youth retreat.

A letter from Chicago archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich to St. Josaphat Parish, posted this month to the Archdiocese of Chicago’s website, said the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) “has opened an investigation into allegations they termed child exploitation and child molestation” allegedly committed by Father Martin Nyberg.

The incident allegedly occurred during a “public penance service,” according to the archbishop. Nyberg has served as an associate pastor at St. Josaphat in the city’s Sheffield neighborhood since July of this year, the prelate said.

The 28-year-old priest “strenuously denies the allegations,” Cupich wrote, though the archdiocese “reported the allegations to civil authorities and offered assistance to the accusers” in accordance with archdiocesan policy.

“I asked Father Nyberg to step aside from ministry until civil authorities have completed their investigations and our Independent Review Board has presented its recommendations to me,” Cupich wrote.

“Father Nyberg agreed to cooperate fully with this process, and we will provide him with pastoral assistance as he awaits its outcome.”

The archbishop sent a similar letter to members of St. Paul of the Cross Parish, where Nyberg served as a deacon from 2023 to 2024.

Reached for comment, a spokeswoman with the Archdiocese of Chicago said the archdiocese has “nothing to report beyond the letter.”

“Our processes are clearly outlined on our website. This case will be handled according to our policies, and we will communicate the outcome as is our practice,” she said.

But CBS News Chicago reported that the alleged incident reportedly took place at an “eighth-grade confirmation retreat” in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in late August.

Students allegedly “said they were asked inappropriate sexual questions at the aforementioned confession service during the two-day overnight retreat,” while some said they were “touched inappropriately by Nyberg.” 

DCFS spokeswoman Heather Tarczan, meanwhile, told CNA on Thursday that the department’s investigation “just started and we are working with local law enforcement.”

“At this time, we cannot say exactly how long it will take,” she said.

According to the Chicago Catholic, Nyberg was born in Chicago and attended The Catholic University of America and the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary.

He was ordained on May 18 of this year and celebrated his first Mass at St. Edward Parish in Chicago.

This report was updated on Friday, Sept. 13, at 7:40 a.m. with remarks from the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Jennie Bradley Lichter is set to become the new president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. / Credit: Photo courtesy of March for Life Education and Defense Fund

CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

The March for Life announced Thursday that longtime president Jeanne Mancini will pass the torch early next year to Jennie Bradley Lichter, a leading pro-life lawyer and policy expert.

“Leading the March for Life has been the honor and opportunity of a lifetime, one for which I will be forever grateful. There have been countless highlights during my time as president of March for Life, including the momentous overturn of Roe v. Wade,” said Mancini, who has led the pro-life organization for the past 12 years.

“I’m convinced that building a culture of life through compassionate public witness to the inherent dignity of the unborn and their mothers is as critically important today as it was the tragic day abortion was first legalized in the United States — or at any time since,” she said.

“I am more than delighted to watch how the organization will continue to grow under Jennie Bradley Lichter’s leadership.”

Catholic pro-life activist Nellie Gray founded the March for Life in Washington, D.C., in 1974 following the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. 

The organization, which now bills its march as the world’s largest annual human rights demonstration, celebrated its 51st anniversary with this year’s gathering, which took place in late January and attracted tens of thousands.

Mancini was only the second person to serve as president of the March for Life, after Gray herself, who died in 2012. Mancini’s tenure of a dozen years was marked by “consistent and extraordinarily fruitful growth,” the group says, which includes the establishment of a “rapidly expanding” state march program, already present in 16 states. 

Other major milestones under Mancini’s leadership include hosting for the first time the sitting vice president and president of the United States at the national March in 2020 as well as the landmark 2022 Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which returned the power to legislate on abortion to the states. 

Mancini said the annual march remains a vital part of the pro-life movement for several reasons — as a participation in history, as a witness to the importance of caring for pregnant women through pro-life pregnancy centers and other means, and as a recognition that the pro-life movement still has work to do — especially in the 10 states with abortion on the ballot this year. 

“We have certainly had some tough [ballot box] losses in the past couple of years, but we are living in what I perceive to be the cultural earthquake of the overturn of Roe, which is a season and will pass,” Mancini noted.

“While this season shows the profound need to educate and change hearts and minds about the destructive nature of abortion to both mother and baby, it does not in any way mean that the overturn of Roe was a mistake,” she said.

“Consider that nearly half the states have enacted life protective laws prior to the time of viability — something that couldn’t happen under a Roe regime.”

‘The spirit of a longtime marcher’

Lichter, who most recently served as deputy general counsel at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., brings a broad range of legal and policy experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, including at “the highest levels of the federal government,” the March for Life says. She also has served as senior legal fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute. 

In addition to being a “longtime marcher,” Lichter is a married mother of three and founded an initiative at The Catholic University of America — the Guadalupe Project — to provide tangible resources and support to expectant mothers and their children. 

She said this week she is “looking forward to leading the March for Life’s engagement in conversations about legal strategy.”

“When I first began attending the National March as a college student over 20 years ago, I never could have dreamed that someday I would have the honor of leading it,” Lichter said. 

“I have long loved the positive spirit of the March, the youthfulness, the energy, the esprit de corps, the doggedness that is required of those who show up in late January whatever the weather,” she said.

“Although my vantage point at the National March will be changing, I will be bringing the spirit of a longtime marcher into my new role. And I’m looking forward to continuing to march alongside so many others who are committed to witnessing to the dignity of every human life.”

Lichter’s tenure as president will begin in February 2025. Mancini will continue to serve on the March for Life’s board of directors, the group says.

“Political and cultural winds can and do change, but no matter what happens on the ballot or in the courts or the national conversation this year or any other year, there will still be many, many thousands of Americans who will be looking to the March for Life for guidance. For leadership. For hope. For joyful witness,” Lichter continued.

“And most of all, for an opportunity to be together — in D.C. in January, every single year, or in state capitals across the country — and to show that pro-life Americans are still here, we are still motivated, we will never, ever tire of witnessing together to the beauty and dignity and utter preciousness of human life. In my mind, that’s the most powerful thing about this organization.  It is such an honor to have an opportunity to lead it. I can’t wait to get started.”

Marijuana leaves. / Credit: Armando Olivo Martín del Campo CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED

CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2024 / 13:05 pm (CNA).

The bishops of North Dakota condemned a state ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in a Tuesday statement, citing Church teaching on the harms of drug use as well as its negative physical and societal effects. 

Measure 5, if approved, would allow adults 21 and over to grow, sell, and use marijuana for recreational purposes. A similar ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana was rejected by North Dakota voters in 2018 and 2022.

“We believe individuals, families, and communities will be significantly harmed if recreational marijuana is legalized in our state,” the bishops wrote in the Sept. 10 statement. “We therefore strongly encourage Catholics and all other people of goodwill in North Dakota to vote ‘NO’ on Measure 5.”

Though cannabis is illegal on the federal level, recreational use of it is currently legal in 24 states and is on the ballot in three states: North Dakota, South Dakota, and Florida. 

The bishops noted that the substance can have harmful physical effects. 

“Marijuana is not the harmless drug that some imagine it to be,” they wrote. “Rather, there is ample evidence that regular marijuana use impairs brain functioning, stunts brain development, damages the lungs, and is linked to a lowered immune system.”

Marijuana can affect brain development in teenagers by impairing thinking, memory, and learning functions, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

“Regular marijuana use is also associated with mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and suicide,” the bishops continued. “Significant numbers of users become addicted to marijuana, and it often serves as a gateway to even harder drugs.”

Citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the bishops noted that as human life and health are gifts from God, the Church teaches that “the use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense” (CCC, 2291). 

“Thus, the political community has a duty to provide for ‘the protection of security and health [of the family], especially with respect to dangers like drugs’ (CCC, 2211),” the bishops continued. 

“Pope Francis recently spoke out against legalizing recreational drugs, calling such policies an ‘illusion’ that only leads to more drug use,” the bishops added.

The bishops also cited increased societal problems such as crime and hospitalizations due to cannabis use. 

“Other states that have gone down the road of legalizing recreational marijuana have seen spikes in drug use, mental health problems, crime, DUIs, emergency-room visits, hospitalizations, and workplace accidents, all associated with marijuana use. 

“Things have gotten so bad in Colorado that Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver issued a lengthy pastoral letter last December cataloging the extensive harms caused by recreational marijuana since its legalization in 2012, characterizing it as ‘disastrous to our society,’” the bishops noted. 

The legalization of marijuana “is destroying the health and social fabric of Colorado,” read a  2021 study on the impact of marijuana legalization in Colorado by Missouri Medicine. 

“Suicide, overdoses, ER visits, hospitalizations, and domestic and street violence due to cannabis are soaring while cannabis tax revenues are an anemic 0.98% of the 2021 state budget,” the study noted. 

“Likewise, just a few months ago, our brother bishops in Minnesota issued a pastoral letter warning of the serious risks of marijuana usage in the wake of its legalization last year,” the bishops added. “Why would we ever want to go down this same path?”