Groups funding protests donated to Biden

Many of the groups financially backing pro-Palestine protests on college campuses reportedly have financial ties to President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign and billionaires George Soros and Bill Gates. Donors funding the protests “include some of the biggest names in Democratic circles: [George] Soros, [David] Rockefeller and [Susan and Nick] Pritzker,” POLITICO reported.  READ

New York ag sues pro-life centers

Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing Heartbeat International and 11 pregnancy resource centers for promoting the abortion reversal pill. The suit claims the pro-life groups make “false and misleading statements” about the pill’s effectiveness.  READ

‘Wokeness’ expert: protests show ‘rise of victimhood’ among youth

Catholic author Noelle Mering recently published a piece for The Daily Wire, exploring the problem at the root of the recent college protests. The students’ message is clear, Mering said: “we want a new regime in charge and it’s not the one reflected in the stars and stripes.” The protests, however, point to a deeper issue within the education system, as Mering points out.  READ

Catholic support for Trump soars

According to a recent poll, significantly more American Catholics – particularly Hispanics – support Trump now than during the run-up to the 2020 Presidential Election. The survey found that 55% of respondents who listed their religion as Catholic preferred Trump, compared to 43% who favored Biden. This marks a drastic shift from four years ago when Catholic support for the same two candidates was essentially split evenly.  READ

This week on FOT: IVF; what the Church teaches

What the Church teaches on IVF, this week on Faith On Trial.

Listen to the podcast now: https://faith-on-trial.simplecast.com/episodes/fr-tadeusz-pachloczyk-5-4-2024-exdxr16X

Additional resources on this topic

These are links to the two YouTube videos Fr. Tad mentioned during the program:

Video: The Struggle of Infertility, 

Video: Why is IVF Wrong?

Pelosi: Dems will kill filibuster for abortion if Biden wins

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, stated during a Monday MSNBC interview that if President Joe Biden is reelected and Democrats control both houses of Congress, the party will do away with the filibuster to pass a national pro-abortion law. “Very clearly we can enshrine into the law Roe v. Wade,” said the former speaker, a self-professed Catholic.  READ

Florida sues Biden over pro-LGBTQ Title IX changes

Florida – along with several other red states and women’s groups – announced it is suing the Biden administration over the Department of Education’s recent pro-LGBTQ changes to Title IX. “Biden is abusing his constitutional authority to push an ideological agenda that harms women and girls and conflicts with the truth,” Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on X after announcing the suit.  READ

Full-Blown Anti-Semitism

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – Shortly after I was born, my parents moved to Des Moines, Iowa from Richmond, Virginia. Both my parents were born and raised in Philadelphia, where the rest of our family resided, but they moved to Richmond for only one year, and it was during that year that I was born. Thus, while most people who know me think I was born in Philly it was really Richmond.       

          My dad was a printer and had a print-shop in Philadelphia that he ultimately lost to the city over a civil eminent domain action. They then moved to take a new job in Richmond.

          While there, dad found and applied for a job in Des Moines. He didn’t fly so he drove his old Chevy from Richmond to Des Moines for the interview. The firm was a large business with factories in DM as well as several other major cities including Kansas City, the firm’s headquarters.

          The result was a job offer as head printer. My dad turned it down saying he had applied for the plant manager’s positon and didn’t want to move his wife and new born son halfway across the country for a job similar to the one that he held.

          So he drove back to Richmond. While he was traveling the folks in Des Moines were contacted by the president of the firm who was en route to Europe on an ocean liner. They explained the situation with dad. When told of the result, he asked if they thought dad could do the manager’s job. The answer was yes so the president then told them to hire him.

          When he returned to Richmond, mom told him he had the job he wanted. They packed and moved to Des Moines.

          The reason why I bring this is up is that the president of the company was Jewish, in fact, the company was owned by a Jewish family.

          When my family arrived and moved into our new home, the family member who ran the company locally, and his wife kindly welcomed him and mom to Iowa. Mrs. Jewish Boss even bought a beautiful nick-knack mirror for our living room and later updated it with gold trim. That mirror is now in my living room and serves as a permanent memory of those early days in our family history and the welcoming Jewish family that made room for a Catholic family in a new city.

          I remember the day my mom told me that dad’s boss couldn’t shop, eat, or visit certain places because of his Jewish faith, and how we should act and think differently. As I grew it dawned on me that the Big Boss in Kansas City didn’t have a Jewish name. My father explained that during the war (WWII) he changed it so if he was captured by the Germans they would not know he belonged to the people who they thought should be exterminated.

          My dad loyally worked for that firm for some twenty-plus years until his death. At that time members of the company were more than supportive of mom, my brother, and myself.

          Later we went through the same thing with the Civil Rights movement and I learned that one of my father’s employees could not eat at a drugstore due to his skin color. My parents taught me the same about our “colored” friends. I remember at my dad’s funeral that same, now elderly, black man, approached my mom at the internment ceremony and asked if he could have the honor of one of the flowers from the casket spray.

          And now Jews are the enemy. American academics now seem to be taking up verbal (and sometimes physical) arms against anyone who is Jewish or supports Jews or the nation of Israel. One wonders if this is America or 1930s Germany and whether or not we should be expecting a new Kristallnacht.        

          The “peaceful protests” that are now engulfing some of our major universities, most rising from Anti-Semitism and pro-Hamas individuals, are clearly outgrowths of far left political philosophies, encompassing a wide range of leftist thought. This is the icing on the cake for a movement that has striven over the years to weaken our institutions and to bring Cultural Marxism and all that it implies, to the forefront of the American conversation.  

          But it is not surprising to me that the latest hubbub (dare we call them riots) has grown out of Columbia University. The school has too many historical connections with the type of ideology that is on display right now.

          It was the Communist Bella Dodd, prior to her return to the Catholic Church, who honed her Communist ideology in and around Columbia. On orders from Moscow she placed over 1,200 Communists in U. S. seminaries during the 20s and 30s in order to infiltrate the Church with Communist ideology. In the early 50s she told Bishop Fulton Sheen that world-wide several of the Red plants had achieved the rank of cardinal and bishop, indicating a successful mission.

          Dodd graduated from Columbia where she made her first Communist connections and taught at the nearby Hunter College. She was tasked by the Communist Party U.S.A. to infiltrate the New York teachers’ union, which she did.

          Columbia was also the 1934 landing point for a cadre of professors from the Frankfurt School in Germany where the concept of Critical Theory was developed. It taught that immutable human traits were responsible for all societal inequities. Thus it divided us into tribes, some as oppressors and others as the oppressed.

          This was Cultural Marxism, and one of the main proponents of it, Herbert Marcuse, was himself a product of that same Frankfurt School. That ideology has spread, throughout the academic world from college down to elementary school, and upward to professionals in all walks of life who now control a significant part of the new American establishment.

          Any wonder why this is happening now. It is to disrupt our institutions and social conventions. It’s been brewing for a while and is just now boldly coming out of the shadows of academia where it had been hiding.  

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(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every weekend on Faith On Trial or podcast at https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/)

Report from the Iowa Catholic Conference

 

The Catholic bishops of Iowa have released a statement addressing migration issues including the new “illegal reentry” law set to take effect July 1 and a call for immigration reform with humanitarian protections. 

The bishops said, “While Catholics may disagree within the limits of justice on the specific approach to reforming the immigration system, we ask lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to resist easy answers and do their job … we again ask for ‘border protection policies that are consistent with humanitarian values and with the need to treat all individuals with respect, while allowing the authorities to carry out the critical task of identifying and preventing entry of terrorists and dangerous criminals.” 

Roundup on the 2024 legislative session

Every organization that advocates at the Capitol has successes and disappointments. The Iowa Catholic Conference (ICC) invites you to join a Zoom webinar with a recap of the 2024 Iowa legislative session. You can learn about the ICC’s advocacy efforts as well as hear updates on the new immigration law and the “heartbeat” abortion law. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, May 22 at 7 p.m. Don't miss this opportunity to engage! Please register here. 

Civilize It: Unifying a Divided Church 

On Tuesday, May 14 at 2 p.m., join Cardinal Robert McElroy, Bishop Robert Barron and Bishop Daniel Flores as they dialogue on the challenge of polarization in the Church today and the path forward. The conversation will include reflections on their roles as shepherds and leaders in their dioceses and in the U.S. Church, and on important topics such as the Synod on Synodality, encounter, and where to find hope amid the polarization. 

Gloria Purvis, renowned Catholic speaker and host of The Gloria Purvis Podcast from America Magazine, will moderate the conversation. This virtual event is co-sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities USA, Glenmary Home Missioners, and the Jesuit Conference. You can watch the livestream here.

Wisconsin election fraud investigator arrested and released in attempt to ‘shut him up’

Peter Bernegger was charged with 'simulating a legal process' after he filed numerous complaints against officials and candidates whom he claims took donations facilitated by activists in the names of unsuspecting voters.

(WND News Center) — An election fraud investigator who has documented multiple cases of “Smurf” campaign donations, those made in the name of a person who was unaware his or her name was being used, has been arrested, then released, in a Wisconsin election fraud dispute.

A report in the Wisconsin Daily Star documents the case involving Peter Bernegger, the chief of Election Watch in Wisconsin.

He was charged with sending a document through the mail, “simulating a legal process,” after he filed numerous complaints against officials and candidates who, he charges his evidence shows, took donations facilitated by activists in the names of unsuspecting voters, the report said.

He posted a signature bail and was released.

“This is politically motivated where they are trying to shut me up, to shut us all up. For those who don’t know, this is the second time they have come after me; the first time was dismissed in 15 minutes when the judge learned the truth of the matter,” he explained.

The previous case involved claims he harassed Meagan Wolfe of the Wisconsin Elections Commission but there was no evidence, resulting in dismissal.

His second arrest came after he filed six complaints against Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, which are before the Wisconsin Ethics Commission, the report said.

He was given an unsigned letter from Ismael Ozanne, a DA in Dane County, accusing him of the “legal process.”

“Wisconsin statute 946.68 states that it is illegal to send or deliver legal documents, including a complaint ‘that directs a person to perform or refrain from performing a specified act and compliance with which is enforceable by a court or governmental agency,'” the report explained.

But he got no summons and had filed for dismissal, so he didn’t appear in court.

The judge, however, issued an arrest warrant and Bernegger told the publication he was released on a signature bond.

“All they wanted was for me to shut and stop filing lawsuits,” he explained.

The report documented his research has uncovered “Smurfing” in elections dating back to 2010, when ACORN, which later turned into ActBlue, was active and donating.

He explained, in the report, progressive activists use bots to take names from the FEC website, where the donor has indicated they are retired or have left the employment space blank. He said he believes they target these types of donors since ‘they are unlikely to be able to fight back.’ They then make thousands of small donations in those donors’ names without their knowledge to ActBlue and Democratic candidates.”

He said the real crimes involved are identity theft, money laundering, violations of banking regulations and such.

He alleged on social media Kaul, formerly a lawyer for Hillary Clinton, benefited from Smurf donations.

“One of the elderly donors whose name was used, 79-year-old Lydia Foght, allegedly made 26,880 political contributions to him and others over about five and a half years,” the report explained.

He also charges that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of Georgia, who has faced multiple scandals of her own in trying to create a RICO case against President Trump, allegedly accepted $184,916.45 in smurfing contributions.

Vandals write explicit pro-abortion slogans on Catholic church

Abortion activists vandalized St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon, this weekend, writing explicit pro-abortion messages on the church’s entrance doors and sidewalk. Parishioners discovered the vandalism on their way to Mass on Sunday. The graffiti messages included explicit messages and the slogan “my body my choice.” St. Patrick’s was also attacked by vandals back in 2021. READ

Biden's inversion of Title IX is devastating for men and women alike

 By Nicole Russell, Human Events

For over 50 years, Title IX has functioned as an imperfect but still valuable tool through which to help ensure that men and women are treated equally. Title IX elevated women, not above men, but to the same bracket, giving them the boost they needed to be treated equally. Last week, President Joe Biden made good on his campaign promise and revised Title IX to the detriment and safety of men and women alike.

Through the Education Department, the Biden administration has released new rules which essentially codify gender identity into the law, equal to sex discrimination. Schools can’t treat students differently and locker and bathrooms will be based on gender identity. The rules also loosen sexual assault due process procedures and colleges now can no longer be required to hold live hearings to allow students to question one another. Instead, college officials will be able to interview students separately and schools must use the preponderance of the evidence standard of proof to show guilt.

“The final regulations will help to ensure that all students receive appropriate support when they experience sex discrimination and that recipients’ procedures for investigating and resolving complaints of sex discrimination are fair to all involved,” the rules say.

Of course, in America, every student should be treated equally under the law, but Title IX already exists for that. It is not perfect. People are flawed and so is the legal system. But Biden’s new rules ensure that practically speaking, transgender students are also treated as a protected class, with rights that might usurp male, but especially female, students.

Now, under the new rules, which go into effect August 1, a woman’s right to safety and privacy in a bathroom, to live with only women in a dorm, or to compete in sports via an athletic scholarship could all be threatened under the premise of sex discrimination. This could spark new debates about the right of a woman to have privacy and safety in places like restrooms and locker rooms. It seems like it leaves little recourse for women under the new Title IX. These new rules erase any acknowledgment or protection of sex-based spaces, which is fundamental to privacy and safety for females.

This is not to claim that transgender people are inherently predatory or attempting criminal behavior. Loose policies open up loopholes for predators looking to commit crimes. We’ve seen this already in California prisons where transgender females are locked up with other women and commit crimes.

While Biden did not specifically ban schools from passing policies that protect female athletes, this rule almost ensures that women will lose more opportunities at sports scholarships, awards, and competitions, and the spots will go to transgender competitors who possess superior physiological prowess. Biden’s inversion of Title IX obliterates scholarships or awards intended for women only, destroying the original purpose of Title IX in the first place. We’ve already seen this happening in college and professional athletics from swimming and track and bicycle racing.

Biden’s erasure of due process in college for men accused of sex crimes is also unfair and frankly, discriminatory in its own way. While many allegations of rape are true, and rape is still the most under-reported crime, false accusations of rape do occur and they destroy men’s lives and reputations. Men accused of rape deserve an unbiased and fair process to defend themselves. Biden’s new rules could create kangaroo courts full of accusations and bias, not proof and evidence, destroying any chance of due process, which every student deserves.

Biden chose to protect the rights of transgender people in a way that erases the distinction between men and women. This will have the effect of reducing women’s rights altogether, something feminists have fought for, for decades. It is ironic that some of the most progressive politicians of our time have set in place policies that set women back many years.

This new rule will undoubtedly invite legal challenges to Title IX and perhaps questions about the executive branch’s overreach and consistent attempts to enforce life-altering policies through government bureaucracies. Shouldn’t these only be reserved for the will of the people to decide through Congress? Every President does this, including Republicans, but when does it go too far? Biden’s rule seems actually less like an attempt to ensure nationwide equality and more of a radical attempt to shore up the vote of young progressives wrapped up in these issues. He’ll need them since he’ll be losing moderates and middle-aged voters tired of his tanking economy and weak stance on foreign policy. But it could come at a greater cost to the millions of women counting on Title IX to ensure quality for themselves and their daughters.

Religious animas is no myth

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – Over the past few months the mainstream media has been fixated over the legal troubles of our former president. All court action whether it be the Fani Willis Show from Atlanta or the complete breakdown of the New York Judicial system, $450 million in fines for fraud in which there was no victim, illegal immigrants beating cops and released from jail without bond, and the like.

          But what has been missing from all of the legal reporting is how much anti-religious bias is being initiated by or in reaction to local and state prosecutions against people of faith. And, unfortunately, in a weekly column such as mine, or on a weekly radio broadcast, there is only enough time to focus on one or two matters, if that.

          So I decided to do something different. I went to my bookmarked religious liberty sites and decided to pick a few cases out to highlight the problem that does exist as more and more units of government come crashing down on local churches and people of faith. Here is a sampling of what I found on a short afternoon of internet surfing:

          In Colorado the state legislature created a preschool funding program to provide all parents with at least 15 hours per week of free preschool education for their kiddies. That’s fine as it sits, but the Colorado Department of Early Childhood has ruled that children enrolled in a Catholic school’s preschool program are not eligible. The state was sued by Catholic and other parents. A federal judge held a bench trial in January with no reported ruling as of this date; the case is listed only as “continued.”

          Parents in Maryland fought back against a Montgomery County Board of Education requirement that forced reading materials that promote transgenderism and gender identity on preschoolers and elementary students. A group of parents representing several faiths sued to protect their school-aged children from receiving non-age appropriate materials that violated the parents’ beliefs. In August of last year a federal judge ruled against the parents. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in December, a ruling has not been made.

          California has a special education program that provides funds to help parents who have children with disabilities. Part of the funding comes from a federal program created by the Disabilities Education Act. Under federal law the funds can be used at any school, public, private, or religious. However, under California law the funds may not be used in conjunction with a religious school, thus Catholic school parents are shut out of the program unless they transfer their children to a secular school.

          In 2017 the New York State Department of Financial Services issued a regulation that all employers cover abortion in their employee health insurance programs. A coalition of religious groups and individuals filed suit in state court which ruled in favor of the state regulation. An appeal was made to the U. S. Supreme Court which vacated the ruling and returned the case to the New York courts to reconsider its ruling, which is where the case sits right now.

          Just in the last few weeks the story emerged from Washington State in which a fifth-grade girl asked her middle school principal if she could form an afterschool prayer club so she and her friends who feel left out of other groups could come together. She and her mother met twice with the principal about the proposed club. In spite of the fact that the school had clubs for Marimba dancing, global reading, green policies, a chess club, and a recently added Pride Club, the principal turned down the request by claiming that there was no funding available. The little girl is now being represented by First Liberty who will, if necessary, take the school and its principal to court over the matter.

          In San Diego County a local black pastor, Dennis Hodges, was removed from a police and community relations board, over his views on human creation and transgenderism, both issues unrelated to his roll on the board. He had originally been appointed to the board because of his community activities and his relationship with the black community. The lawsuit which has been filed claims that Pastor Hodges removal from the board was a violation of his First Amendment (religion, speech) rights.

          Santa Clara County, California is being sued by a local church, Calvary Chapel of San Jose for using geofencing methods to spy on church members during the COVID pandemic. The county had levied a $1.2 million fine against the church for not abiding by COVID restrictions which curbed the church’s ability to worship publically. Geofencing is typically used by police to track lawbreakers, in this case those who attended the banned church services.

          When Pines Church in Maine applied to the local high school to use part of its facilities for Sunday services, a normal situation in many locales. However when Pine officials appeared before the board to consider the request they were peppered with questions about gay marriage, abortion, conversion therapy, gender reassignment treatment, and sexual ethics for children. As a result of the questioning, negotiations for the use of the building collapsed. The resulting law suit claims the board violated the state’s public accommodations act, as well as the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment.

          I did save one for last because it epitomizes what is going on in the area of religious liberty.

          In Albany, California a group of devout Christians and members of the local Lions Club joined together to build a large lighted steel and plexiglass cross on property that was owned by one of the participating members. The cross was constructed and dedicated on Easter 1971. Since that time the Lions Club lighted the cross every Easter and Christmas seasons. When lit the cross can be seen for miles, taking the message of the Gospel to all who can see it. The area surrounding the cross can be used for religious meetings, religious services, and weddings. 

          Since its erection, the Lions Club has taken care of the cross and provided all necessary maintenance, and has paid all the utility bills.

          All went well with the cross until 2016 when a complaint from an atheist group caused the city to ask the Lions Club to remove the cross. The Lions refused setting up a period of harassment by the city. The city ordered the disconnection of electrical service to the cross. It took four months for the Lions to get it restored. The city then filed a condemnation action against the cross.

          The Lions replied with a Free Exercise of Religion and Free Speech defense. In January the Alameda County Superior Court ruled in favor of the city and ordered the cross removed. The court held that “The Lions Club has not shown that its organizational purpose, its mission, involves promoting religious activities,” and thus could not assert a religious expression argument.

          The court further ruled, “The Lions Club cites no authority for the proposition that it has a right to speech in a manner that violates the Establishment Clause.” Apparently, according to the court, religious expression rights are not accorded to non-religious organizations.

          Naturally, this litany could continue and, unless effectively combated by committed people of faith, will continue. This matter is serious. It requires your attention in in all areas, spiritual, legal, and political. If not we will simply let Jesus be crucified again. 

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(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every weekend on Faith On Trial or podcast at https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/)

Nebraska Governor Pillen signs school choice bill

Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed a bill Wednesday that would expand school choice to more of the state’s families. The Nebraska Examiner reported that the bill, LB 1402, “will devote $10 million to the state treasurer to distribute private K-12 scholarships to prospective students.” Both Pillen and the bill’s sponsor, State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, R-Elkhorn, are Catholics. READ

Jesuit university’s health plan appears to cover abortion

Jesuit-affiliated Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH, appears to list abortion on its student health insurance plan. The university maintains that it does not cover abortion. “[Xavier’s] plan not only appears to cover abortion – it looks like the school specifically added it into the coverage,” Hope College student William Hurley wrote in The College Fix Tuesday. “A ‘policy endorsement’ on the plan appeared to delete an ‘exclusion’ of abortion,” Hurley indicated.  READ