Facade of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly of Bolivia. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons / EEJCC

ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 27, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

One year after the Spanish newspaper El País published the report “Diary of a Pedophile Priest,” which recounted the sexual abuse of minors committed in Bolivia by the deceased Jesuit priest Alfonso Pedrajas, journalists from ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, went to the South American country to look into the political implications of the case, how the scandal has affected the Church’s image in Bolivia, and the response of the civil justice system.

Pedrajas, better known as “Padre Pica,” arrived in South America in the early 1960s as part of his formation process with the Jesuits. For 10 years he lived in Peru and Ecuador, where he allegedly committed his first abuses while still a seminarian, and in 1971 he settled permanently in Bolivia.

There the Society of Jesus appointed him assistant principal of the John XXIII Institute, a boarding school whose mission was to form the most prepared students in the country, with a special predilection for those immersed in poverty.

Three years later, Padre Pica would become the school’s principal, where he reportedly sexually abused more than 80 minors over a period of almost 30 years.

Since the scandal broke, both the Jesuits in Bolivia and the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference have worked to cooperate with the justice system and elicit complaints from victims. Several initiatives were also launched to guarantee that victims would be heard and support provided to them.

In this context, lawsuits began to be filed implicating several Jesuit priests for abuses committed decades ago, and even a class-action complaint was filed by a group of former students of the John XXIII Institute against the current provincial of the Society of Jesus in the country, Father Bernardo Mercado, who is currently under investigation by the justice system.

A Senate truth commission to respond to the abuses

Regarding the Bolivian Senate’s move to pursue the abuse cases by creating a Special Truth Commission, the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference charged that the Senate’s work “has been very biased” due to attempts to politically instrumentalize it and because of pressure from the majority ruling party.

One of the senators on the commission, Nelly Gallo Soruco, a member of the opposition-leaning Citizen’s Community party, spoke with ACI Prensa about the work they have carried out in recent months and the steps to follow in the future.

The main objective of the Special Truth Commission is to conduct an investigation and then submit a report that will be made available to the president of the Senate. Gallo strongly emphasized that the commission has no power to impose criminal penalties or administer justice.

“The special commission,” Gallo explained, “was formed as a result of the concern that arose after the publication in Spain of the El País report.” The commission began operating in June 2023, she said.

The Citizen’s Community party member began to be part of the commission due to the fears that her party had about the “possible manipulation for political purposes” of abuse cases in the Church. In total there are six senators on the commission, three of whom belong to the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party, historically related to former Bolivian president Evo Morales. 

“There was a susceptibility that the majority could [manipulate] the objective that the commission has. By the time I joined, several interviews had already been conducted with those involved, among them the former students of the John XXIII school and the ombudsman,” Gallo said.

The senator noted that while she was present the commission also interviewed Pedro Lima, a controversial and well-known media figure in Bolivia, a MAS sympathizer, and a former Jesuit.

Lima has repeatedly charged that he was expelled from the Jesuits when he decided to report cases of abuse. For Gallo, Lima is a person who has “a very strong feeling against the Church.” ACI Prensa contacted Lima to get his take on the case and the senator’s statements, but he declined to comment.

Abuse issue in Bolivia is ‘very common’

Gallo also stressed the importance of realizing that the issue of abuse is “sensitive and must be treated carefully”; “unfortunately it’s very common” in Bolivian society, she said, and “the authorities aren’t paying much attention to it.”

Furthermore, she added that many of the laws protecting minors “are not fully complied with or are not functional.”

“We need this commission to fulfill that role, that of enforcing legislative regulations and not manipulating them in a political-partisan way. It should proceed with the respect that the victims and the religious institution deserve, within which these very painful situations of abusing children arose,” Gallo said.

The legislator pointed out: “We have seen that the Church and the Society of Jesus have been very open and have had no intention of hiding anything; that has been a great help in being able to remove any thoughts of complicity.”

Gallo categorically stated that “the Church is not guilty of the individual actions of its members.”

The importance of religious freedom in Bolivia

“We are firm defenders of freedoms and human rights, especially religious freedom. We need churches to be a center of trust for the free exercise of faith,” the senator said.

The truth is that religious freedom in the South American country is increasingly threatened and many commentators are beginning to express their concern.

The “Pedrajas Case” and the various complaints that followed could be the perfect excuse for the government to openly and definitively attack the Bolivian Catholic Church. 

“We are concerned that these deplorable cases may be used to politically persecute the Church,” Gallo reiterated.

The abuse crisis in Bolivia continues to cast a shadow on the Catholic Church in the country, especially regarding the victims, who seemed to have sought answers and justice in vain. As the investigations progress, and despite the efforts of the Church, everything seems to indicate that the road ahead will be very long.

In a panorama where faith is faltering, Bolivia faces a painful crossroads in which the search for solutions seems to be trapped in a vicious circle of mistrust, legal loopholes, economic interests, and political pressures.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

A view of the modern area of the Catholic cemetery located on the southern hillside of Mount Zion in April 2024. In the background are the buildings of the Arabic neighborhood of Abu Tor. / Credit: Marinella Bandini

Jerusalem, Apr 27, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

This past February, the Custody of the Holy Land filed a petition in the Jerusalem District Court against the confiscation of a piece of land inside the Catholic cemetery, which is located on the southern hillside of Mount Zion and serves as a parish cemetery. 

The affair is part of a project to build a cable car running from First Station (the shopping and entertainment area in West Jerusalem) to the Old City’s Dung Gate (the main access to the Western Wall and close to the City of David archaeological site), passing over the Hinnom Valley (or Geenna). The cable cars would be strung over some 15 pylons, from about 30 to 85 feet high, and would ferry up to 3,000 people per hour in up to 72 cars that can each hold 10 people.

The Jerusalem Development Authority (a joint agency of the government and the Jerusalem Municipality), which is responsible for the project, is exploring the opportunity to use the piece of land in the cemetery to place a cable car support pylon.

The Custody of the Holy Land fears that the cable car may pass over the cemetery, a detail that had been ruled out during a preliminary meeting in 2017, as evidenced by a protocol that CNA was able to view. Relying on that premise and promise at that time, the custody did not exercise its right to object to the project.

However, on Christmas Eve 2023, everything changed. A planning notice by the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee of the Jerusalem Municipality was found on a pylon close to the cemetery announcing that that piece of land was going to be temporarily confiscated (for at least eight years). 

According to Eliana Touma, an attorney and legal adviser of the Custody of the Holy Land, who was contacted by CNA, “the custody didn’t receive any kind of formal notice from the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee.”

The area subject to confiscation (not yet effective) is situated on the northeast side of the cemetery. It is the oldest part of the cemetery, where there are some graves of British soldiers from the time of the British Mandate in Palestine. These graves would need to be removed and relocated if the construction of the cable car pylon were to proceed. This risks turning a local dispute into an international case.

Also in this area is the sarcophagus of Francesca Barluzzi, sister of architect Antonio Barluzzi, who designed some of the famous holy sites in the Holy Land cared for by the custody. This year marks the centenary of two of them: the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor and the Basilica of Agony in Gethsemane.

In this same cemetery, in the more modern section, is the burial place of Oskar Schindler, one of “righteous among the nations,” who is credited with saving the lives of more than 1,000 Jews during the Holocaust. The grave is visited by many Jews and is almost completely covered by stones.

According to Touma, “the lawyers of the custody met the representative of the Jerusalem Development Authority at least three times in January and February before submitting the petition,” and “a tour at the cemetery was done in February, to show them that in that area there are the graves of the British soldiers.”

After nothing came of these meetings, the Custody of the Holy Land filed a petition in the Jerusalem District Court, a legal action that must be undertaken when a decision from the state or any other governmental office is believed to have damaged the subject in any way.

“It’s no longer possible to oppose the plan because the deadlines for doing so have expired, and we have relinquished our opposition based on what was promised to us,” Touma explained to CNA. “At the moment, the only option we have is to oppose the confiscation, and that’s what we’re doing with this petition.” 

The petition was filed against the Jerusalem Development Authority, the Municipality of Jerusalem, and the Local Planning and Building Committee of the Jerusalem Municipality. The court gave the respondents until June to respond to the petition (and reach an agreement). A first hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16.

According to Touma, the petition’s main arguments are threefold.

First, the Custody of the Holy Land claims that authorities have broken the promise made in 2017 not to run the cable car over the Franciscan cemetery on Mount Zion.

“Discrimination” is another important argument: “Lands owned by the state and used for public purposes that have been leased by the Israel Land Authority cannot be confiscated, while the land owned by the Church is going to be confiscated even though it is used for public purposes [cemetery].”

The accusation of discrimination is particularly loaded with meaning in a social and religious context like this one. In using this argument, there’s a growing sense among Christian churches that they are being targeted by Israeli institutions. The attack on properties would ultimately be nothing but a threat to their existence, carried out with different arguments whenever the opportunity arises.

The third argument concerns the nonnecessity of the land confiscation itself.

“According to previous judicial decisions,” Touma told CNA, “in order to confiscate land, it is necessary to demonstrate that the specific part of land is really needed and essential for the project. This justification was not provided.”

A land confiscation is the toughest and most extreme action of an administration and the Custody of the Holy Land considers it “not proportionate, not reasonable, and not just at all.”

“We must stop it, especially when we have the legal right and opportunity to do so,” Touma said. “We must take proactive steps to prevent any interventions that could dramatically affect the churches. It’s essential to establish clear boundaries and to make it unequivocally clear that we will not remain silent.”

Speaking to CNA, the custos of the Holy Land, Father Francesco Patton, lamented “the continuous assault on the Holy City by constructions and changes to the landscape, which sometimes even damage or expropriate Church properties.”

The fact that the confiscation of a cemetery area is at issue “aggravates the situation because traditionally, these areas are the most respected in the Holy Land,” he continued. “The issue of cemetery areas deeply touches the sensitivities of Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. Wherever there are cemetery areas, they should be protected as much as possible.”

There is also another cemetery, belonging to the small Karaite community, a Jewish religious denomination, considered by some a sect, originating in Mesopotamia in the early eighth century, that is affected by the project. Its cemetery is located on the opposite side of the Hinnom Valley from the Catholic cemetery, on the slope beneath the Abu Tor neighborhood, opposite Mount Zion. The cable car would pass directly over it, and the community has objected to the project. 

However, the high court dismissed the objections by the Karaite community, saying that if the Jerusalem authorities moved it, it would pass over the Catholic cemetery, which wasn’t possible due to their agreement with the Custody of the Holy Land. The fact that the promise to the custody is mentioned in a court ruling may strengthen the custody’s position. 

Every Tuesday evening at 10 p.m., between 800 and 900 students converge on the historic St. Joseph’s Chapel at Lille Catholic University for a candlelight Mass. / Credit: Courtesy of Prudence Cuypers

National Catholic Register, Apr 27, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

“The good makes no noise,” St. Francis de Sales would say of Lille’s candlelight Mass. 

Indeed, while France regularly shows itself to be at the forefront of the de-Christianization of the West and recently made headlines for its constitutionalization of abortion, the embers of Christian renewal are already igniting — quietly yet powerfully — on the country’s northern horizon.

Every Tuesday evening at 10 p.m., between 800 and 900 students converge on the historic St. Joseph’s Chapel at Lille Catholic University for a candlelight Mass. This number has been growing month after month since the initiative was launched in 2016 and has significantly increased the number of new catechumens there journeying toward baptism.

For its initiators, this unexpectedly successful formula is a universal model to be exported to touch the souls of the vast number of young people who thirst for interiority in a world profoundly atomized by the expansion of the virtual world into all spheres of daily life.

‘Simplicity of beauty’

Launched on the initiative of a group of six students in a small chapel under the chaplaincy of the prestigious Lille university (France’s largest private not-for-profit university, also known as “La Catho”), the candlelight Mass quickly surpassed the 300-participant mark, forcing the organizers to relocate in order to continue to welcome the growing flow of students, whether believers or simply curious. 

To this end, in 2019, the large St. Joseph’s Chapel adjoining the school, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year and was long used as a room for students to take exams, was restored. The following year, the building’s capacity of some 600 seats was met at the Mass, forcing students to arrive early to avoid standing or sitting on the floor. 

During Lent this year, the security service had to turn away hundreds of faithful, as current regulations forbid the reception of more than 900 people in the building.

How to explain the craze for a Mass in the middle of the week when Europe’s churches are tending to empty out at a worrying rate? 

While traditionalist and charismatic movements within the Church have had a rare ability to galvanize crowds in France in recent years, as demonstrated by the incredible success of pilgrimages to Chartres and Paray-le-Monial, this Mass in Lille makes no claim to any particular identity or sensibility, other than an attachment to the beauty of the liturgy and the quality of its preachers. The chants are usually sung by a polyphonic choir, whose depth and musicality the participants praise.

“Over and above the various movements developing within the Church today, I think that what is most likely to attract young people is the simplicity of beauty,” said Joséphine Auberger, a student at La Catho and head of communications at the chaplaincy.

She added: “I have a friend who usually only attends the Traditional Latin Mass, precisely because of his quest for beauty, and who finds himself completely in this celebration, and I think he’s far from alone.”

For Louis Tranié, a physiotherapy student and vice president of the chaplaincy office, the “WYD Lisbon” effect (referring to the World Youth Day that attracted hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to the Portuguese capital in August 2023) has also added to the fervor surrounding this weekly gathering.

“People attract people; word of mouth has played a big part in this unexpected triumph, not to mention the fact that immersion in the dark also attracts many young people estranged from the Church, who are thus no longer afraid of being judged by their neighbors,” Tranié noted.

“The time — 10 p.m. — also represents free time for these students, who have finished their day and generally have nothing planned for that time,” evoking an ideal moment to “give something to God and receive something in return,” added Father Charles-Marie Rigail, chaplain at the Catholic university.

Anchor in a changing world

Placed mainly in the choir and central aisle, so that only Christ on the crucifix is illuminated, the candles are there to help the young participants raise their gaze to heaven in an authentic heart-to-heart with God, stripped of all worldly artifice. 

“Everything is focused on the Word of God, of his Church, which goes so much further than what men are capable of creating, and which is part of a long history and tradition that goes back a long way, offering a solid anchor for all those who are thinking about their future and feel they are living in a very changeable world, very liquid and filled with uncertainties,” Rigail said.

He added with a smile that the world’s Instagram and other social networks, on which young people spend a lot of their time, will never be able to quench this thirst to belong to something beyond fashions and ephemeral electronic devices.

“This is how to touch people’s hearts, break down current prejudices about the Church, and raise awareness of its usefulness and relevance, trying to offer something that is good and as right as possible.”

The young chaplain also pointed out that, alongside the community dimension instilled by the crowd, this darkness penetrated by candlelight alone makes for a very personal experience, a necessary condition for the interiority that this Mass aims to foster.

Creating torchbearers 

Apart from the triumph of the initiative, revealed by figures directly at odds with the general trend in the country, other fruits are already visible, made manifest by the doubling of new catechumens every year for the past four years. 

“I make it a point to stay and chat with people after Mass, and I meet all kinds of people, from classic practicing Catholics to avowed atheists, some of whom, moved by what they saw, end up wanting to know more, while some nonpracticing believers decide to go further in their faith,” Rigail said. 

This evangelizing mission is reinforced throughout the rest of the week by the various activities promoted by the eight young members of the chaplaincy office and the many volunteers who assist them.

The ultimate mission of this initiative, as Rigail recalled, is in fact not to turn those who approach it into “consumers of beautiful liturgy” but rather into Catholics capable of being actors of their own faith and exporting this model once they’ve left university.

“We’d be missing the point if, on arriving in their local parishes, these young people were discouraged by far less engaging celebrations and decided to travel 50 kilometers to find a liturgy that suited them,” he concluded. “On the contrary, our aim is to increase their appreciation of the liturgy to the point of encouraging them to roll up their sleeves and get more involved in their parishes to enhance the beauty of the celebrations and thus reproduce locally the ‘little miracle of Lille.’”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and is reprinted here on CNA with permission.

Attendees lay flowers at the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan to mark the 109th anniversary of World War I-era mass killings on April 24, 2024. / Credit: KAREN MINASYAN/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

As historians and human-rights activists mark the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide this week, some are warning that Armenia is once again facing another existential threat.

Speaking on “EWTN News Nightly” on Wednesday, Simone Rizkallah, an Armenian activist with the Philos Project, said that “this feels less like a remembrance and more like a truly historical event that we are in the midst of.”

The Armenian Genocide was carried out by Ottoman Turks in 1915 and resulted in the deaths of some 1.5 million Armenian Christians, according to historians. Though recognized as a genocide by the U.S. and more than 30 other countries, Turkey denies that characterization.

The massacre took place over a hundred years ago. But it has been less than a year since Azerbaijan, another Muslim neighbor of Armenia and an ally of Turkey, unleashed a violent takeover of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, resulting in more than 100,000 Armenian Christians fleeing their homes. The mass exodus of ethnic Armenians has been called a case of “ethnic cleansing” by some leaders in the international community.

Rizkallah fears that rather than marking the end of Azerbaijan’s aggression, Nagorno-Karabakh was just the beginning.

“Azerbaijan and Turkey are now continuing to threaten Armenia proper and have made it very clear that they will not stop at taking Artsakh and Nagorno Karabakh, which they have already done, but they will take all of Armenia eventually,” she said.

Why does it matter? 

Armenia is a small country in the South Caucasus that has a population of approximately 2.9 million. It is a deeply religious country and one of the few Christian nations in the Near East.

According to Rizkallah, Armenia is the oldest Christian nation in the world, having officially converted to Christianity in the year 301. Since then, the people of Armenia have clung to Christianity, maintaining the light of the faith in the region throughout the centuries.

But now, sandwiched between Turkey and Azerbaijan, two Muslim nations with much larger populations, economies, and militaries, Armenia’s very existence appears to be threatened.

Last October the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNA that there were “real chances” of peace with Armenia “in a short time.”

On April 23 Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan agreed to cede four border villages to Azerbaijani control. Despite protestations from many Armenian citizens, Pashinyan said that the concessions were the only way to avoid direct war with Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh a warning of what is to come? 

Lara Setrakian, an Armenian reporter and human rights activist, told CNA that though Armenia has attempted to integrate and shelter the Nagorno-Karabakh refugees, seven months after fleeing, they are largely living in poverty with “very little hope of seeing their homes again.”

“Some of these people have horrific injuries, many have lost family members,” she said. “They’ve been through quite a lot, some of them came in showing signs of malnutrition. So, the rehabilitation of these people has been a massive task.”

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan continues to imprison members of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnically Armenian former leadership.

Ruben Vardanyan, former state minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, is one such prisoner who is being kept in complete isolation in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital. According to an April 25 statement by his family, Vardanyan has been kept in “worsening prison conditions” with very little contact with the outside world.

Setrakian believes that all of Armenia is similarly “in a very tough spot.”

She explained that there has been a “significant” military buildup by Azerbaijan in strategic places along the two countries’ border and said that Pashinyan’s concession would likely not be the last.

“Armenia is being squeezed by the threat of force and the continual use of force on its borders,” she said.

What’s next? 

Until recently, nearby Russia had helped to maintain the balance of power in the region. But on April 17, a Russian peacekeeping force stationed near the Azerbaijan-Armenia border since 2020 withdrew in what was seen as a concession to Azerbaijan.

Setrakian believes that Russia has grown more reliant on Azerbaijani oil after it invaded Ukraine, prompting it to be more permissive of Azerbaijani aggression, with disastrous results for Armenia. 

“Armenia has stepped into a phase of making concessions and Azerbaijan has been asking for more and more,” she said.

It has gotten to the point that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has begun referring to Armenia as “western Azerbaijan” and is claiming that Armenia has “always” been a part of Azerbaijan.

“This is really very disturbing,” Setrakian said, adding that “it’s exactly what Putin did in Ukraine” and that “it legitimizes going for any swath of modern-day Armenia that they consider to be their historical claim.”

Activists urge U.S. intervention

While the U.S. has expressed solidarity with the Armenian people and sent some aid during the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis, many activists feel there is more that could be done to help the Armenian Christians.

One way activists feel the U.S. could do more is by sanctioning Azerbaijan and cutting off all delivery of military aid. According to the Government Accountability Office, the U.S. Department of Defense sent $164 million worth of “security aid” to Azerbaijan.

Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, believes that assistance needs to end.

He led a rally in front of the White House on Wednesday in which he called on President Joe Biden and Congress to stop sending weapons to Azerbaijan, saying: “We can’t let a repeat of 1915 happen again on our watch.”  

Meanwhile, Alexis Wilkins, a political commentator for PragerU and granddaughter of Armenian immigrants, also told CNA that the U.S. should intervene to help the Armenians.  

Wilkins said that to her the Armenian Genocide is personal, explaining that while the world calls it a “genocide,” she calls it “the reason my Papa didn’t know any of his aunts or uncles.” 

She admitted that while there are many factors at play in global politics, she believes that “strong leadership and intervention will be necessary” to avoid a similar disaster.

“The continuation of not delineating right from wrong is not a victimless crime,” she said. “Not 109 years ago, and not now today. True peace is through strength, and exhibiting weakness in this regard is essentially to look evil in the face and say: ‘Go ahead.’” 

Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, chapel and statue. / Credit: Joseph Antoniello, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

Franciscan University of Steubenville will continue to separate its housing, restrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams on the basis of biological sex — rather than self-asserted “gender identity” — despite recent federal changes to Title IX guidelines.

The announcement comes after President Joe Biden’s Department of Education issued a new interpretation of Title IX, which states that all prohibitions on sex discrimination will now apply to discrimination based on a person’s self-asserted “gender identity.” 

Religious schools, such as the Catholic Franciscan University, are exempt from Title IX provisions that violate their faith.

Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, the president of Franciscan University, sent a letter to students that stated that the new interpretation of Title IX does not apply to the university because it is inconsistent with the Catholic Church’s teaching on sex. The university president referenced Franciscan’s compendium on human sexuality, which states that a person’s “sexual identity” is based on his or her biology.

“We believe in the inherent dignity of every human person,” Pivonka wrote in the email. “And as a passionately Catholic institution, we believe in and follow the teachings of the Catholic Church that consider ‘sex’ to refer to the objective reality of a human person as a man (male) or as a woman (female), grounded in and determined by a person’s biology.”

Per the university’s policy, neither employees nor students will be forced to refer to a person with pronouns that are inconsistent with the person’s biological sex. They will also not face any discipline for “holding views and beliefs” consistent with the university’s position on human sexuality, which is based on Catholic teaching. 

In his letter, Pivonka noted that there is a difference between “behaviors that may be judged by our current cultural norms to be discriminatory,” such as explaining the Catholic teaching on sexuality, and “behaviors that, in fact, violate the dignity of a person,” such as harassment or violence. 

“Violations of the dignity of a person will not be tolerated on this campus,” he said. “Presenting authentic Catholic teachings, which convey truth, beauty, liberty, and healing, uplift the human person in every respect. Teaching what the Church teaches is an act of charity and our duty as a Catholic university.”

The Biden administration implemented the new regulations late last week. According to the executive summary, the changes are meant to “clarify that sex discrimination includes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

The new interpretation of Title IX has already created tension with states that have passed laws restricting women’s and girls’ athletic competitions and other private spaces to only biological women and girls. Public officials in at least two states, Oklahoma and Florida, have already said they would not comply with the new rules. 

null / Credit: KieferPix/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

Provisional data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week showed that the fertility rate in the United States hit a record low and the total number of births in the country was the lowest it’s been in decades. 

According to the report, slightly fewer than 3.6 million babies were born in 2023, or 54.4 births per 1,000 women aged 15 through 44. This was a 2% decline in total births and a 3% decline in births per 1,000 women when compared with the previous year.

The total fertility rate, which estimates how many children an average woman would have over the course of her life based on the yearly data, was just over 1.6 births per woman, which was a 2% decline from the previous year. This is well below the replacement rate needed to sustain a population, which is about 2.1 births per woman over her life.

This was the fewest number of babies born in the United States in a year since 1979 and the lowest fertility rate recorded in American history — just under the previous record lows set in 2020.

The 2023 decline reverses a minor fertility rate bump for the calendar years of 2021 and 2022, which was the first increase since 2014. The 2023 numbers continue a wider trend in fertility declines since the 1960s when contraception became widely available in the United States and the women’s liberation movement began to emerge. Abortion became widely available in the 1970s after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision — which was overturned in 2022.

Fertility rates by age group

The birth rate dropped for teenagers and women in their 20s and 30s — but the decline was sharper for teenagers and women in their 20s than it was for women in their 30s. The birth rate for women in their 40s did not show significant changes. 

According to the data, the 2023 birth rate for teenagers aged 15 through 19 was 13.2 per 1,000 women, which was a 3% decline from the previous year. The birth rate for women aged 20 to 24 was 55.4 births for 1,000 women, which is a 4% decline from the previous year. The birth rate for women aged 25 through 29 was 91 births per 1,000 women, which was a 3% decline from the previous year.

The 2023 birth rate for women aged 30 through 34 was 95.1 births per 1,000 women, which was a 2% decline from the previous year. For women aged 35 through 39, there were 54.7 births per 1,000 women, which was a decrease of less than 1%.

Fertility rates by ethnic group

According to the report, most ethnic groups saw a decline in total births and a decrease in fertility rates from 2022 to 2023 — but this reduction affected some ethnic groups at different rates.

The total number of births was down 5% for American Indian and Alaska Native women, 4% for Black women, 3% for white women, and 2% for Asian women. For Hispanic women, the total number of births went up by 1%. There was not much change for Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander women.

No ethnic group saw an increased general fertility rate from 2022 to 2023. It decreased by 5% among American Indian and Alaska Native women and Black women, by 3% for Asian and white women, and by 1% for Hispanic women. The rate was virtually unchanged for Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander women.

There are now more than 100 priests in the four dioceses of Sierra Leone. / Credit: Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 26, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

Bishop Natale Paganelli, 66, arrived as a Xaverian missionary in 2005 in Sierra Leone. In an interview with the Catholic magazine Omnes posted April 25, he noted that the majority of Catholic priests in that African country are sons of Muslims.

“Most priests are sons of Muslims. Why? Because of the schools,” explained the prelate of Italian origin, who also spent 22 years in Mexico and who was apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Makeni in Sierra Leone from 2012–2023.

“When the Xaverians arrived they used a very interesting strategy. Since there were almost no schools in the country’s north, they began to establish them, first primary schools, then secondary schools. Evangelization came through the schools,” he continued.

Regarding Muslims who study in Catholic schools, Paganelli explained that “the majority of them, attending our schools, which have a lot of prestige, thanks be to God, come into contact with Christianity, with priests, and at a certain point they ask for baptism and take a catechumenal course at the same school. Generally, there is no opposition from parents.”

In fact, he noted, “we say that there is very good religious tolerance in Sierra Leone. This is one of the most beautiful things that we can export to the world, not only diamonds, gold, other minerals.”

The “only serious problem” he has had, the prelate explained, has been with the Muslim tribal chiefs, “because they wanted Catholic schools in each village, but I could not build a Catholic school in each village, it was impossible; there were already 400, a very large number.”

One of the priests who is the son of Muslims is the current bishop of Makeni, Bob John Hassan Koroma, who took over the diocese that was administered by Paganelli until May 2023.

The Italian prelate said there are now more than 100 priests in the four dioceses of Sierra Leone. “The number of priests is growing but religious vocations, especially women’s vocations, are a little less because that’s more complicated, because in their culture women are not highly regarded, so it’s more difficult for them to think about consecrated life.”

Paganelli also explained that at Easter Muslims, like Catholics, also ask their houses to be blessed; and just as Muslims share Christmas dinner with Christians, they also invite those who believe in Christ to share food on the last day of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting and purification.

In general, the bishop said, “there is a good relationship” between Muslims and Christians. “The majority of marriages in our diocese are mixed, between Catholics and Muslims. They say that love solves many problems and creates a lot of unity, and it’s true,” the prelate concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne attends a German Synodal Way assembly on March 9, 2023. / Credit: Synodaler Weg/Maximilian von Lachner

CNA Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 13:57 pm (CNA).

Four German bishops on Wednesday distanced themselves from the controversial Synodal Way’s plans for a permanent body to oversee the Church in Germany, instead appealing for unity with the universal Church. 

The four bishops are the same who have previously blocked funding for this body: Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne and three prelates from Bavaria: Gregor Maria Hanke, OSB, of Eichstätt; Stefan Oster, SDB, of Passau; and Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg.

In a joint statement, the prelates confirmed on April 24 that they would not be parties to a committee charged with setting up a German “Synodal Council, as this would conflict with the sacramental constitution of the Church.”

The four bishops also rejected the view that the German Bishops’ Conference could legally establish a “synodal committee” if four of its members did not support the committee. 

Given the Vatican’s repeated interventions against the German process, the bishops said on Wednesday they would instead look to the Synod of Bishops in Rome to point the way for “a more synodal Church [in Germany] in unity with the universal Church.

Warning of a threat of a new schism from Germany, the Vatican intervened as early as July 2022 against plans for a German synodal council. 

In January 2023, Rome asserted “that neither the Synodal Way, nor any body established by it, nor any bishops’ conference has the competence to establish the ‘synodal council’ at the national, diocesan, or parish level.” German Bishops’ Conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing immediately dismissed the warning. 

In the meantime, Synodal Way organizers have continued with plans to establish a synodal committee: On Monday, April 22, German diocesan bishops approved the statutes for a synodal committee.

The move is a significant development: The German prelates were initially expected to vote on the statutes for a preparatory committee during their February plenary assembly. 

However, that vote was suspended following another Vatican intervention. 

Following a March meeting where “differences and points of agreement were identified,” the Vatican and Synodal Way supporters announced they would work together to resolve the issues.

Given that the bishops have now adopted the statutes for a synodal committee and the lay organization ZdK already approved these on Nov. 25, 2023 — despite earlier warnings from Rome of the risk of a new German schism — it is unclear how, or if, the Vatican will respond. 

According to an earlier report on the official portal of the Church in Germany, katholisch.de, the synodal committee will still meet again in June to discuss plans. 

The Synodal Way — “Synodaler Weg,” sometimes translated as Synodal Path — is not a synod but a highly controversial event designed to create “pressure” on the Church, as one founder has admitted. 

The German process, which cost several million dollars, not only aims to establish a permanent synodal council: Delegates also passed several resolutions to change Church practices based on transgender ideology and have called for the priestly ordination of women, same-sex blessings, as well as changes to Church teaching on sexual acts.

null / Orhan Cam/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

The addition of “gender identity” in the Biden administration’s interpretation of anti-discrimination rules could jeopardize state laws that restrict women’s sports and women’s locker rooms to only women, according to legal scholars.

Late last week, President Joe Biden’s Department of Education redefined the prohibition on sex discrimination in education, enshrined in the 1972 Title IX provisions, to include discrimination based on a person’s “gender identity.” 

The new guidelines prohibit any policy and practice that “prevents a person from participating in an education program or activity consistent with their gender identity.”

Although the new guidelines do not clearly explain how the mandate would be enforced, experts at the legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the conservative Heritage Foundation told CNA that it could force educational institutions to allow men who identify as women to access sports competitions, women’s locker rooms, bathrooms, and dormitories that are exclusive to women. 

Other concerns they noted included free speech protections for those who use pronouns that align with a person’s biological sex when it conflicts with the person’s self-proclaimed gender identity and the effect this change could have on other federal agencies, who base their sex discrimination policies on Title IX.

The guidelines apply to public and private educational institutions that accept federal money, which imposes the new rule on K-12 schools, colleges, trade schools, and other institutions. They apply regardless of whether state laws restrict these competitions and spaces to only women. The law does contain an exemption for religious schools that claim certain provisions of the new rule violate their beliefs. 

“This is a … radical redefinition of sex,” Matt Sharp, who serves as senior counsel and director of Center for Public Policy at ADF, told CNA.

“Rather than sex being based on biology, now your ‘gender identity’ comes into play [in these anti-discrimination provisions],” Sharp said. 

Sarah Parshall Perry, who serves as a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told CNA that the change will have a “catastrophic impact” on women. 

All anti-discrimination provisions that apply to a person’s sex, she noted, will now apply to a person based on his or her self-described “gender identity.”

“All of these [anti-discrimination rules] are lumped under the exact same heading of sex,” Perry, who previously served as senior counsel at the Department of Education, added.

Tension growing between states and federal government

Less than a week into the promulgation of the new guidelines, the reinterpretation is already causing tension with states that have passed laws to protect women’s sports and prevent males from entering women’s locker rooms and bathrooms. Public officials in Florida and Oklahoma have warned the administration that they will not comply with the mandate.

“Florida rejects Joe Biden’s attempt to rewrite Title IX,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a video message posted on X on Thursday. 

“We will not comply and we will fight back,” he said. “We are not going to let Joe Biden try to inject men into women’s activities. We are not going to let Joe Biden undermine the rights of parents and we are not going to let Joe Biden abuse his constitutional authority to try to impose these policies on us here in Florida.” 

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters called the change an attack on states, families, and women. He instructed school districts to not comply with the administration’s definition. 

“Biden’s rewrite of Title IX is one of the most illegal and radical moves we have ever seen from the federal government,” Walters said. “Oklahoma will not sit idly by while radicals trample on the Constitution and take away women’s rights. We are taking swift and aggressive action against Biden in his war on women.”

Currently, West Virginia is facing a legal challenge against its law that prohibits biological males from engaging in women’s and girls’ athletic competitions. The lawsuit accuses the state of discriminating against males who self-identify as women. It bases its argument on Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination — a claim used in the lawsuit before the federal government officially changed its interpretation.

An appellate court ruled against West Virginia, but the state’s lawyers at Alliance Defending Freedom are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Sharp said the administration’s redefinition of sex discrimination does not change the legal argument used to defend these state laws. 

He told CNA that the administration’s change is “unlawful” and that these interpretations “violate the plain meaning of Title IX,” which is “built upon an understanding that there are … only two sexes.”

“The legal approach is exactly how it’s always been,” Sharp said.

Penny said the administration’s redefinition of sex goes against the “entire purpose and history and mission” of the ratifiers of Title IX, which she said “was a significant movement for the women’s liberation movement.”

Now those who defend the traditional understanding of the law, she noted, are seen as “being conservatives or libertarians.”

“Sex has always meant [the] biological distinctions between men and women,” Penny said.

Families, donors, and others gather with Bishop Erik Pohlmeier for the dedication of the “Precious Ones Baby Mausoleum” at the San Lorenzo Cemetery in St. Augustine, Florida, on April 23, 2024. / Credit: Fran Ruchalski/courtesy of the Archdiocese of St. Augustine

CNA Staff, Apr 26, 2024 / 09:51 am (CNA).

Families gathered with St. Augustine Bishop Erik Pohlmeier on a sunny Tuesday this week for the dedication of the “Precious Ones Baby Mausoleum” at the city’s San Lorenzo Cemetery.

Six years in the making, the 44,000-pound granite mausoleum is designed for babies lost at a young age through miscarriage, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), or stillborn births. A brick walkway marked by a charcoal cross leads up to the brilliant white mausoleum, which is full of burial spaces that are ready to honor little ones. 

Miscarriages are common events, and women often suffer through them quietly, one 2018 study found. About 10% to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, usually because of development issues, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

More than 20,000 babies are stillborn every year in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and there are more than 3,000 reported cases of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) in the U.S. each year.

“It’s beautiful to see all those families that were there today, that were together,” Maureen Shilkunas, director of the Office of Human Life and Dignity at the Diocese of St. Augustine, told CNA in a video call. “I think about all the children that they have lost together and they’ll all be entombed together.” 

Shilkunas works closely with couples who experience miscarriage or child loss and helps them prepare for the memorial. The remains of miscarried babies are buried together, in a communal entombment, because they are so small. 

“It’s a very unusual and a very unique situation to think that we all, when we go to funerals, unless it’s our own family, you really don’t know who we’re buried next to or entombed next to,” she continued. 

“But what an opportunity that today was given to these families to see all of these siblings playing together on the lawn and attending Mass together, knowing that their siblings who are home with God will also be together.” 

“And that’s really a special thought to see that, how they’re all together and having that fellowship.”

The crypt was a $250,000 project, largely a gift of the laity to the local Church. Michael Hoffman, the director of stewardship and development at the diocese, found that people were eager to give. 

Once Hoffman got the word out, it took only six months to raise the funds and another three months to build the mausoleum.  

May Oliver, the previous director of the human life office, took inspiration for the Precious Ones Mausoleum from a former law in Texas that required burial for all remains of children who died from abortion, miscarriage, or stillbirth.

A woman who had lost two daughters during pregnancy called the diocese asking for help. Though the diocese would sometimes bury miscarried babies in the Catholic cemetery, Oliver wanted to offer more resources to her and other families in these situations.

She decided to start a “Campaign for the Precious Ones” in her diocese, offering Masses for couples who had miscarried or lost a child. 

But the long-term goal was the Precious Ones Mausoleum. 

“It is really an educational process,” Oliver told CNA in a phone call. “Before, we used to be much more aware that these babies should be buried, but we have to reeducate our Catholic community and the community at large.”

Miscarriages are often “not acknowledged in many ways,” Shilkunas said. 

Parents often have to request the remains from the hospital, and in some hospitals, the remains are even treated as clinical waste and incinerated. Women often report a lack of social support, understanding, or even acknowledgement of their loss. 

“It’s really time to be talking about these things,” Shilkunas said. “And it’s time for us to let people know that this should be the common conversation, that we really should be able to walk through [it with] mothers and fathers.”

Pohlmeier noted that the pain of the loss is “made worse” when hospitals “don’t treasure that gift [of life].”

“There are lots of people who take that [gift of life] very seriously and then suffer the loss of a child … that immediately touches their hearts and moves them in a way that only the awareness of this gift of life can do,” Pohlmeier told CNA.

“For the pain that people feel because we treasure the gift of life from its earliest moments, we ought to treat the situation with every dignity and respect,” the bishop said.

The diocese built relationships with local funeral homes and hospitals so that couples can hear about Precious Ones in their time of need. Each of the 12 empty crypts will be named for a saint so that they will be easy to identify for visiting family members. Hoffman told CNA that he hopes to add a reflection garden surrounding the mausoleum.

Any couple, regardless of their faith background, can have their child buried in the mausoleum at no cost to them. Pohlmeier said that even those who aborted their child could bring remains to be buried. 

He anticipated that as chemical abortions at home increase, there may be more “immediate regret,” with mothers having to deal more directly “with the remains.”  

“That experience of [the] healing the power of God and the suffering of loss might come as a shock to some people after it’s too late,” Pohlmeier added. “But of course, that doesn’t change for us at all the care and respect that we would show to both mother and child in those situations.”

When asked what it was like to finally see the mausoleum at its dedication, Oliver said it was “beautiful.”

The dedication involved a Mass concelebrated by five priests and Pohlmeier, with the Knights of Columbus color guard attending in full regalia, wearing berets and carrying swords. 

It was a “cloudless blue sky,” Oliver recalled, and Pohlmeier’s homily, which touched on how loving one’s neighbor extends “to those that have lost the life of a child,” stood out to her. 

“It was beautiful, heartfelt,” Hoffman said of the homily. “And he touched everybody, not necessarily [just] the parents that have lost kids, but the people that supported the endeavor, the initiative, people that prayed on it.”

The mausoleum not only helps honor unborn children and the grief of their parents but could also have an effect on hospitals and “to our culture as a whole,” Pohlmeier told CNA. 

“The simple existence of it has a certain evangelization quality in raising the awareness of how precious a life in the womb is,” Pohlmeier noted. 

“It seems crucial to our pro-life witness and to our responding to the grief of families in our parishes,” he continued.

“This is really a testament to our faith, our Church, and especially the Diocese of St. Augustine that we value life so much that we will erect something to make sure that [lost children] have a proper burial,” Oliver said. 

“My hope is that other dioceses and other states take this on because I can only tell you the comfort that it is bringing to families, and the beauty and the dignity that it is showing to them the way we honor [the children],” Shilkunas added. 

Shilkunas recalled seeing “the pride” that parents had at the dedication ceremony “in talking about these children in front of their children who are running around.” 

“It’s a beautiful opportunity,” she said. 

“It’s a testament to the diocese,” Hoffman added. “It’s going to be there forever, and it’s a testament to the diocese that we value life.”