Victims Are Everywhere

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue:

They’re everywhere. Everywhere you go there is a victim. It’s more than a pastime—it’s an industry. Racism, in particular, is a big draw.

The Astros beat the Phillies this year in the World Series, but the big news, in some circles, was the absence of black baseball players on either team. To be sure, no one claimed that blacks were discriminated against in competing with whites playing professional baseball, probably due to the fact that there is no supporting evidence. Nonetheless, the lack of diversity, many commentators said, was indicative of a racial problem.

No one seemed to complain about the lack of Asians playing hockey or whites playing basketball. Nor is anyone complaining about the number of Hispanic jockeys. Perhaps these are oversights.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy recently said that those who are talking about the crime issue are “playing the [race] card.” Michael Moore once observed that gun owners are basically racists.

Some teachers and commentators like to use a whiteboard to make their points. Earlier this year, a community organizer and author from Seattle said, “Whiteboards can be racist.” She also declared that “the study of physics” has racist elements.

The wife of newly elected senator John Fetterman, Gisele, said in late October that “swimming in America is very racist.” She did not comment on her husband when, in 2013, he tracked down an unarmed black jogger with his car, stopping him at gunpoint, simply because he heard some gunshots nearby.

Last year in Portland, Oregon a newly renamed high school chose an evergreen tree to be its mascot, but the vote had to be delayed because some said that trees were used to lynch blacks and were therefore racist. 

Some contend that blacks who partake in bird watching may become victims of racism, and that is because white racists do not appreciate black bird watchers. “Systemic racism doesn’t stop at the park gates,” said the author of a book on this subject.

Social Psychology Quarterly published a study this year showing that when people adopt dogs, it takes longer for dogs with black names to be adopted than dogs with white names. For example, pit bulls are “a breed that is stereotyped as dangerous and racialized as Black.”

Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation, has often commented on the existence of racist highways, and says it is his job to fix it. No progress report has been made.

A human rights expert at the U.N. said this fall that unless we first tackle racial injustice, the global climate crisis cannot be solved. Similarly, a few months ago a Penn State meteorologist said that racism was “inexorably” linked to climate change. Also, Mother Jones cited data that “people of color are exposed to 46% more nitrogen dioxide pollution each year than white people.”

Blacks do far less homework than whites and Asians, but that apparently is not a factor in their poor test scores. Two years ago an academic journal concluded that higher temperatures account for their performance, citing the lack of air conditioning. The New York Times said this is “the latest evidence that the burdens of climate change fall disproportionately on people of color.”

Not all victims are black. In June, pop star Lizzo changed the lyrics of her new song, “Grrrls,” after making what her critics said was an “ableist slur” when she sang, “I’m a spaz.” She said she understands the power of words “as a fat black woman in America.”

A study was published at the end of last year showing that the temperature in offices was typically sexist: woman don’t like AC’s being too cold and because it makes them feel uncomfortable. Newsweek.com ran a piece titled, “Office Aircon Is Sexist to Women, Study Finds.”

When Taylor Swift steps on her special bathroom scale, it may read “fat.” Her fans said this was an example of “fatphobia.” This same phenomenon, “fatphobia,” made a big splash on TikTok a few weeks ago when a fat woman said, “I’m a fat woman traveling.” She said she has a hard time fitting into an airline seat. This has discouraged fat people from flying, which, she said, was classic “fatphobia.”

President Biden agrees. On October 26, he said it was unfair to charge more money for bigger seats because “they hit marginalized Americans the hardest, especially...people of color.”

Talking about “people of color,” Yi-Fen Chou learned that his poem was selected for inclusion in the Best American Poetry anthology for the year 2015. He was delighted. However, his real name is Michael Derrick Hudson. Why the name change? When he submitted his poem for publication under his real name, he was rejected by 40 publishers, but when he adopted an Asian name, he struck gold!

It seems victimhood has many faces.

Abortion Seekers are Flocking to Illinois

The Chicago Tribune has reported Illinois abortion clinics are seeing a rapid increase in the number of out-of-state patients since Roe v. Wade was overturned. The report comes half a year after the landmark Supreme Court ruling which sent the issue abortion back to the states. The right to abortion is now entrenched in state law in Illinois and the state is quickly becoming the “abortion capital of the U.S.”

Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League says, “Abortion providers and the government of Illinois are working to draw women here from across the region for abortions.” “This is bound to have an impact on people’s reproductive choices. Poor women throughout the Midwest are being told they need abortions in Illinois — not affordable housing, or adequate health care, or better child care options, but just abortion,” he continued.

Nearly a third of Planned Parenthood of Illinois patients now are from out of state, as opposed to about 6% prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Jennifer Welch, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, told the Tribune, “It is clear that abortion bans don’t stop people from having or needing abortions, they just make it more difficult to access care. The number of patients from other states forced to travel to our health centers is at a historic high.”

CDC PUSHES LGBTQ AGENDA ON SCHOOLS

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's school health division released a guide for schools to self-assess their commitment to maintaining an “inclusive environment” for homosexual and “trans” children. The guide has schools grade themselves from C to A, and tells C schools that they must “commit to change.” A school with mostly A's is considered “highly inclusive” and an “awesome ally,” the guide states.  READ 

PRAYERS FOR BENEDICT XVI

The Vatican confirmed Wednesday that Pope Benedict XVI has experienced a sudden decline in his health, but is stable and under medical care. “I can confirm that in the last few hours there has been a worsening due to advancing age,” said Holy See Press Office director Matteo Bruni. Pope Francis had publicly requested prayers for the 95-year-old, saying that he is “very ill.”  READ

New times and days for Faith On Trial in 2023 -- expanded to an hour

 

Court Sides With Religious Freedom Over Military Refusal to Accommodate

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled unanimously in favor of three U.S. Marines of the Sikh faith seeking religious accommodation under the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The Marine Corps would not allow the Sikh recruits to keep their beards and hair unshorn or wear their turbans, as is their practice, during the 13-week basic training known as “boot camp.”

The D.C. appeals court reversed a lower court ruling denying a preliminary injunction on behalf of Jaskirat Singh, Milaap Singh Chahal and Aekash Singh in the case Singh v. Berger.

The injunction allows Jaskirat Singh and Chahal to proceed to recruit training, but the District Court will now reconsider the case of Aekash Singh, who plans to attend Officer Candidate School rather than recruit training.

The Court stated that “the cost of military service has never entailed the complete surrender of basic rights.”

The Marines failed to demonstrate the harm that maintaining the Sikh practices in question would cause.

The Court ruled that “RFRA forbids the federal government—including the Marine Corps—from substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion unless it shows that burden is in furtherance of a compelling government interest and is the least restrictive means of doing so. ... [T]he Corps must demonstrate the specific harm that ‘would’—not could—result from granting the specific exemptions to particular religious claimants.”

The military unlawfully penalized Singh, Chahal and Singh specifically for their faith. “The Plaintiffs are, in effect, penalized through the outright denial of their desired military careers solely for practicing their faith,” the opinion states.

The government has made exceptions in the military for women’s hairstyles, tattoos and the like, but in this case, sought to deny wearing articles of faith and grooming styles that are specifically tied to the Sikh religion. The Court, however, found that the government did not meet the burden of proof in this case.

“In short,” the opinion states, “even fully crediting the Marine Corps’ overarching compelling interests in developing unit cohesion, stripping individuality, and building a team-oriented state of mind, the Government has not come close to meeting its burden of showing why it has a particular interest in denying hair, beard, and religious article exceptions to these Plaintiffs while making them available to others in the same or analogous form. In other words, the Corps has not shown, in light of its preexisting exemptions to the grooming process—which go largely unexamined by Colonel [Adam] Jeppe—that denying these accommodations would have any impact on its claimed interests.”

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said: “The ruling in favor of the three U.S. Marine Corps recruits of the Sikh faith demonstrates once again that the military continually violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Our cases involving the COVID shot mandate have revealed a shocking disdain for RFRA by the highest levels of military command, beginning with Joe Biden. The courts have continually ruled against the military. At some point, one would hope that the military and Joe Biden will understand that they, too, are under the law. We have no king in America who is above the law.”

Holly Randall | First in the Fight Testimonials

Anarcho-Tyranny in the Vatican: President of Priests for Life Goes the Way of the J6 Dissidents - The Stream

Fr. Frank Pavone

By JOHN ZMIRAK 

Those who read me regularly will recognize the term “Anarcho-Tyranny.” In blunt, stark terms it means “Anarchy for me, but Tyranny for thee.” So the BLM rioters who trashed American cities nationwide and killed more than 12 Americans got off with slaps on the wrist, with the future Vice President raising bail money for them.

But the peaceful January 6 protestors who weren’t murdered by police rotted in solitary confinement for months awaiting charges, and remain in conditions so bad that some are now begging to be sent to Guantanamo Bay. They plead to be treated as well as actual terrorist members of ISIS.

Speaking strategically, Anarcho-Tyranny is a political technique for amassing and holding power, by selectively enforcing laws to terrorize your political opponents — first with the rage of mobs who fight on your side, then (if some fools defend themselves) with the punitive force of law, applied without mercy or context. It is one of the multiple techniques first employed by the Nazis, now adopted by our elites to crush dissent in America.

The High Priest of Caesar, Mammon, and Sodom

No surprise, then, that Anarcho-Tyranny is in full force at the Vatican, which became with Pope Francis’ election a blatant partisan of Globalist micromanagement, population control, and public health dictatorship. The Vatican now functions as the tame, complacent chaplain of Caesar, Mammon, and Sodom, as if the apostles after Pentecost had signed up to work as agents of Pontius Pilate.

Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.

I don’t know what this implies for the grand claims of papal authority made at Vatican I in 1870. I agonized over that question until I finally … lost interest. That’s for theologians of the future to wrangle over. I do know it means that the human institutions of the Roman Catholic Church can no longer be trusted any further than I could throw hulking, degenerate cardinals such as Joseph Tobin of Newark.

Father Frank Pavone, Thrown Under the Bus

In light of all that, I can only sneer at the news that the courageous apostle of Life Fr. James Pavone has been stripped of his priesthood, in secret proceedings whose outcome was leaked to the press before he was informed. Some of the charges against him include unwarranted “disobedience” to his bishop — a charge he denies.

Now in a healthy church that’s not pimping for Mammon, such disobedience could be serious. Like the military, the church can only function if priests obey their superiors. But what if their superiors are ordering them to commit war crimes? Or if they’re colluding with the enemy? Then things get kind of muddled, don’t they? What should French soldiers have done when Marshal Petain’s government ordered them to start rounding up Jews for Hitler? 

What’s a Little Parking Lot Sex Between Friends?

Are Catholic bishops worthy of obedience? A few are. Many others aren’t. Let’s look at the case of one American bishop, and a priest whose infractions weren’t deemed serious enough even to suspend him, much less to make him a layman, and kick him to the curb.

I’m speaking of Rev. Wayne Ball, who was caught and convicted in 2003 of public lewdness for having sex with another man in a car in a parking lot. As Catholic gadfly journalist George Neumayr reports, “In 2018, Knestout selected Fr. Wayne Ball pastor of St. Augustine parish in the Richmond diocese.” But the bishop and Ball hid his criminal record from parishioners. Neumayr writes:

I asked Ball if Bishop Knestout, who heads up the U.S. bishops’ “protection” committee against sexual abuse, had apprised Ball’s parishioners of his 2003 guilty plea for a public sexual offense. Ball confirmed that the congregation was left in the dark about that matter, but defiantly said that that didn’t matter given that the judge in the case later “dismissed” the guilty plea and “expunged” his record.

Don’t miss the priceless video of Neumayr confronting Bishop Knestout at the front door of his palace to ask why he promoted a sex offender, while colluding in the cover-up of his character.

Now I want to be scrupulously fair to everyone involved here. Since “disobedience” is apparently the worst crime a priest can commit, it’s possible that Ball was innocent of that. Maybe no bishop ever told him not to have sex with men in cars. I can totally believe that.

Don’t Mess with Our Friends in the White House

The Vatican is sending a blatant message to every priest in the world: Support Donald Trump, denounce Catholic abortion-supporters Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, and hold our feet to the fire for neglecting the prolife cause (but doubling down on open borders)? We’ll pore over the lawbooks like one of Stalin’s prosecutors until we can toss you out of the priesthood.

For Biden, Pelosi, and their allies inside the church, an unborn child is just a bag of medical waste, to be exploited for vaccines or hair shampoo, or simply dumped and burned. It’s of no more moral significance than a bag of thigh fat from a liposuction clinic. And it certainly would be blasphemous for a Catholic to toss something like that up on the altar.

Have sex with men in cars? Just keep quiet and try to be more discreet, and you’ll get appointed to a cushy parish with a nice, comfy rectory.

Blaspheming Against Moloch

The other key charge against Fr. Pavone was a vague one of “blasphemous communications” on social media. Since no specifics were given, I must conclude that this refers to Fr. Pavone reportedly conducting a Mass for the unborn with the corpse of an aborted child up on the altar, then tweeting out video and pictures. Pro-choice Catholics worldwide were squealing about this when it happened, claiming that it was “blasphemy.”

For Biden, Pelosi, and their allies inside the church, an unborn child is just a bag of medical waste, to be exploited for vaccines or hair shampoo, or simply dumped and burned. It’s of no more moral significance than a bag of thigh fat from a liposuction clinic. And it certainly would be blasphemous for a Catholic to toss something like that up on the altar.

But Catholics and Orthodox have long employed the relics of saints on altars — bits of bones, or hair, or clothing that belonged to some heroic martyr or preacher. Some might find that practice “icky,” but it goes back to the days of the Roman persecution, when hidden Christians celebrated the Eucharist on top of martyrs’ tombs.

Martyrs don’t only include adults who calmly choose to die rather than renouncing Jesus. There’s another category in Catholic theology, which grants the status of “martyr” to anyone killed out of “hatred of the faith.” That’s why the church always considered the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem (feast day Dec. 28) to be the first Christian martyrs.

If you think as I do that legal abortion comes straight from the pit of Hell, and its practice is a counter-sacrament which defies Christ and scoffs at His Church, then you think of abortion’s victims as martyrs in that sense. Killed by a culture and government that hates Christ and His Church. And what Fr. Pavone did was perfectly fitting and apostolic. Even if his theology (and mine) is wrong here, the intent was clearly reverence for a murdered innocent, not blasphemy against God.

But his actions certainly did blaspheme the church of Caesar, the priesthood of Mammon, and the reigning world spirit of Sodom. No wonder this Vatican cracked down on him, as its secular allies in the Justice Department are rounding up pro-lifers for long terms in prison. They’re two corrupt faces of the same piece of silver, whose face bears the apostolic image of … Judas.

 ***

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. He is co-author with Jason Jones of “God, Guns, & the Government.”

America’s Biggest Issues: Religious Freedom

America's Biggest Issues: Which America Do You Choose? | The Heritage Fo...

Army Plaintiffs Receive Relief From Shot Mandate

SAN ANGELO, TX – Texas District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix granted a preliminary injunction for six Army soldiers and four Army West Point cadets who were denied their religious accommodations from the COVID-19 shot mandate.

The U.S. Army is now prohibited from taking any disciplinary, punitive or separation measures against any of these service members.

The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in October 2022 stating that the Army violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) and the First Amendment by denying their religious accommodation requests from its mandatory COVID-19 shot mandate, while simultaneously granting medical and administrative exemptions. Each plaintiff had requested an exemption to the Army’s shot mandate due to their sincerely held religious beliefs that oppose the COVID injections that are all associated with aborted fetal cell lines.

Judge Hendrix referenced President George Washington in his order when he wrote, “Our first commander in chief cautioned that ‘[w]hile we are Contending for our own Liberty, we should be very cautious of violating the Rights of Conscience in others.’ Letter from George Washington to Colonel Benedict Arnold (Sept. 14, 1775), in THE PAPERS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1 REVOLUTIONARY WAR SERIES 455–56 (1985). And since the Revolutionary War, religion has played a key role in our country’s military. ‘When the Continental Army was formed[,] those chaplains attached to the militia of the 13 colonies became part of our country’s first national army.’ Congress specifically authorized and required chaplains to be part of the Army. ‘The great majority of the soldiers in the Army express religious preferences,’ and ‘its members experience increased needs for religion as the result of being uprooted from their home environments, transported often thousands of miles to territories entirely strange to them, and confronted there with new stresses that would not otherwise have been encountered if they had remained at home.’ Our Constitution ‘obligates Congress, upon creating an Army, to make religion available to soldiers’ because the Army must not ‘deprive the soldier of his right under the Establishment Clause not to have religion inhibited and of his right under the Free Exercise Clause to practice his freely chosen religion.’”

“The Army does not dispute this history or its ongoing obligation to accommodate its soldiers’ religious freedom, including compliance with RFRA. But it has failed to prove that its ongoing imposition of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which indisputably burdens some soldiers’ sincerely held religious beliefs, serves a compelling interest through the least restrictive means available. As a result, the Army must retreat from imposing its mandate in this particular field and permit religious exemptions to these Plaintiffs,” the court wrote.

So you want to be a deacon – this week on FOT

This week Deacon Mike and Gina host Deacon Jim Houston, director of deacons for the Diocese of Des Moines, on the changes in the application and formation process for new deacons  https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/. This program, is timely for the Christmas holidays as the feast of St. Stephen, first deacon and first Christian martyr is December 26. There will be a “call” from the bishop before the end of the year for those interested in knowing more about diaconate service.

AND next year Faith On Trial will be expanded to an hour and will air twice during the weekends: 2 p.m. Saturday and 9 p.m. Sunday on the Iowa Catholic Radio Network.  If you miss an episode you can still listen to our FOT podcast by following the link above. 

Pro-Life Women Punished In U.S. And U.K.

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue 

A woman nurse in Texas has been ordered by President Biden’s Department of Veteran Affairs to assist in performing abortions or she will lose her job. A woman in Birmingham, England has been arrested for silently praying outside an abortion clinic and may go to prison. 

The Texan woman sued the VA in December and the English woman was arrested in December. 

The Texan nurse, Stephanie Carter, is a Christian who has been working at the VA for 23 years. She sued after the VA issued its mandate on September 9. Her lawsuit says she “cannot perform, prescribe, or counsel for abortion services because of her sincerely held religious beliefs that unborn babies are created in the image of God and should be protected.” 

Even though the VA is supposed to honor requests for a religious exemption, it denied Carter her request. “Once again,” her lawyer said, “the Biden administration seems ignorant of the law, or just doesn’t care.” 

The English woman, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, is a Christian who was charged with four counts of breaking the Public Space Protection Order. It prevents people from “influencing,” “advising,” “persuading,” “informing,” “occupying space,” or “expressing opinion” near an abortion facility. She did none of these things. She did not carry signs or placards and she never spoke to anyone. Her crime was to silently pray. 

Vaughan-Spruce has been barred from praying outside abortion clinics and could be sentenced to two years behind bars. “My faith is a central part of who I am, so sometimes I’ll stand or walk near an abortion facility and pray about this issue. This is something I’ve done pretty much every week for around the last 20 years of my life,” she said. 

These two incidents prove that the pro-abortion forces in the West not only promote violence in the womb, they use the law as a weapon to destroy the free speech and religious liberty rights of pro-life persons. This is demonic.

Canon lawyer: only Pope could have laicized Fr. Pavone

After the Vatican dismissed pro-life leader Fr. Frank Pavone from the priesthood with “no possibility of appeal,” canon lawyer Fr. Gerald E. Murray pointed out that the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law “does not state that the possible penalties” for the offenses the Vatican accused Pavone of committing “include dismissal from the clerical state.” “Only the Pope, who enjoys ‘full and supreme power in the Church’ (canon 332, 1), can issue such a decision against which there is no possible appeal,” Murray added.  READ  

FBI paid Twitter millions in 2020

More internal files released Monday show that the FBI not only prepared Twitter to censor a bombshell scandal about then-candidate Joe Biden’s adult son days before the 2020 presidential election, but paid more than $3.4 million to Twitter for their “legal process response,” apparently referencing the time the Big Tech company’s executives spent coordinating with the agency.  READ

South Dakota Health Secretary Out of a Job After Noem Discovers Transgender Group’s Contract

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem terminated the contract after The Daily Signal reached out with questions about a “Gender Identity Summit” that the state’s largest employer, Sanford Health, will host next month with The Transformation Project. The project celebrates controversial medical interventions for minors and hosts events in which people ritually “burn” their “old name or pronouns.” From the Daily Signal.

NC Governor’s School fires professor for speaking about harms of racially divisive ideology

 ADF attorneys represent Dr. David Phillips in lawsuit

RALEIGH, N.C. – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed suit in state court Friday on behalf of a professor whom the North Carolina Governor’s School fired after he spoke out about the harms of the racially divisive ideology embraced by the school. Dr. David Phillips is a well-respected English professor who has spent eight summers teaching at the Governor’s School, a residential summer program for the state’s most talented rising high-school seniors.

For years, Phillips spoke out against the school’s increasing adoption of critical theory, an ideology that views everyone and everything through the lens of characteristics like race, sex, and religion, labeling people as perpetual oppressors or victims based on group membership alone. After Phillips delivered three optional seminars in June 2021 critiquing critical theory and the increasing bias and lack of viewpoint diversity in higher education, North Carolina public school officials fired him mid-session without any explanation.

“In an academic environment committed to exploring a wide range of differing viewpoints, as the Governor’s School claims to be, no teacher should be fired for offering a reasoned critique of critical theory. But that’s what happened to Dr. Phillips,” said ADF Senior Counsel Hal Frampton. “There is no lawful explanation for the way North Carolina public school officials treated Dr. Phillips. He was beloved, respected, and regarded by both students and faculty as an advocate for students who felt that their voices weren’t being heard and their perspectives weren’t welcomed at the Governor’s School. By firing him, the Governor’s School violated his constitutional right to free speech and unlawfully retaliated against him for deviating from the Governor’s School’s ideological orthodoxy.”

Over his eight years teaching at the Governor’s School, Phillips has encouraged his students to think for themselves and has notified the administration of the hostility that he and other students with “privileged” characteristics experienced. Phillips’ three optional seminars, which were similar to others he’d delivered in previous years and open to any student or staff member to attend if they so desired, discussed (1) a social psychology critique of some concepts from critical theory; (2) understanding speech through the lens of speech-act theory; and (3) the increasing ideological bias and lack of viewpoint diversity in higher education.

Following these lectures, a group of students and staff members reacted with open hostility, referencing race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion in their comments and questions. Despite the hostility, Phillips stayed long after the conclusion of each lecture to answer questions, even offering to meet with students later for further discussion. The day after Phillips’ third optional seminar, the Governor’s School fired him without warning or explanation. When he asked why, he was told no explanation would be given, and that there was no appeal or other recourse. Phillips had always received glowing performance reviews without a single negative comment up until the point of the lectures.

ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit, Phillips v. North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, in the Superior Court for Wake County, North Carolina.

Frank Pavone cancels Mass but vows legal action after Vatican dismisses him from priesthood

By Zelda Caldwell, Katie Yoder

Washington D.C. Catholic News Agency (CNA)

The national director of Priests for Life, Frank Pavone, canceled a scheduled livestreamed Mass today, one day after CNA published a report that he was continuing to celebrate Mass after the Vatican had removed him from the priesthood.

In a defiant statement addressed to Church leaders and posted on his organization’s website Saturday, Pavone vowed to continue his ministry despite his dismissal from the clerical state.

“It’s about the millions of supporters of the movement I help to lead and will continue to lead,” he wrote, adding that he would respond by taking “all appropriate canonical and civil action as well as public communications to the Faithful.”

In a Dec. 13 letter to U.S. bishops obtained by CNA and confirmed by multiple sources as authentic, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, wrote that the prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy issued the decision on Nov. 9, adding that there was “no possibility of appeal.”

The letter indicated that Pavone has been dismissed from the clerical state for “blasphemous communications on social media” and “persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop,” CNA reported yesterday. The communication from Pierre does not specify the actions that led to Pavone’s dismissal or name the bishop he disobeyed.

“Father Pavone was given ample opportunity to defend himself in the canonical proceedings, and he was also given multiple opportunities to submit himself to the authority of his diocesan bishop,” explains a separate statement attached to Pierre’s letter. “It was determined that Father Pavone had no reasonable justification for his actions.”

The statement refers to Pavone as “Mr. Pavone” and calls him “a lay person,” underscoring the dramatic and immediate nature of the Vatican’s action. 

Pavone remains defiant, calls himself ‘Father’

Pavone has continued to celebrate Mass since the Vatican's communication, including a Mass streamed online Saturday. The Priests for Life website states that Pavone “is a Catholic priest in good standing, and exercises his ministry in full communion with the Catholic Church.” 

In an email to CNA on Saturday, Pavone said that he was not aware of the Vatican’s action.

“How did CNA learn about this before I did?” he asked. In a subsequent email, he added that CNA’s inquiry was “the very first communication that came to me about this.”

Saturday evening he posted a defiant statement to his followers, in which he addressed statements to Pope Francis, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, and the U.S. bishops. 

The statement was signed “Fr. Frank Pavone” in spite of the Vatican’s announcement that he is no longer a priest.

Addressing Pope Francis, Pavone wrote: “Your Holiness, I want to continue serving as a faithful priest and full-time pro-life leader. You can allow me to do so under a supportive bishop, and many of the faithful understand that this is the most reasonable solution.”

To Archbishop Pierre, the apostolic nuncio, he wrote: “Your Excellency, your communication to the bishops dated December 13th contains serious errors and omissions. But that has marked this process all along, so there is no surprise there, and those errors will be addressed separately and thoroughly.

“But in particular, when you say there is ‘no possibility of appeal’ to this decision, you speak only in a very narrow legal sense, and completely ignore the appeal that is being made to the People of God themselves. This is not just about me; it’s about the millions of supporters of the movement I help to lead and will continue to lead, and of the work that the People of God have already evaluated and judged worthy of their ongoing support,” Pavone wrote.

He then vowed to take legal action and make a direct appeal to his supporters.

 “To those of you who have been part of this travesty publicly or in the shadows, we will be taking all appropriate canonical and civil action as well as public communications to the Faithful,” Pavone wrote.

It is not clear in what diocese Pavone, 63, is incardinated as a priest. On the Priests for Life website, it says he received permission from the Vatican in 2019 to transfer from the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas, where he was incardinated in 2005, to another, unnamed diocese.

Pavone hosted the show “Defending Life” on EWTN for many years until the bishop of Amarillo, Texas, revoked Pavone’s permission to appear on the network. EWTN is the parent organization of CNA.

A history of clashes with hierarchy

Originally based in Staten Island, New York, Priests for Life is now headquartered in Titusville, Florida, within the Diocese of Orlando. That diocese, also, did not respond to CNA’s request for comment Saturday.

Pavone has served as the pro-life organization’s national director since 1993.

In that role he has a long history of conflicts with bishops, beginning more than 20 years ago with the late Cardinal Edward Egan of the Archdiocese of New York. Egan succeeded the late Cardinal John J. O’Connor, who ordained Pavone in 1988 and encouraged his pro-life work.

Bottom of Form

In his email, Pavone directed CNA to a document posted on his personal website titled “Summary of How Fr. Frank and Priests for Life Have Been Treated by Some in the Hierarchy.”

“We all expect that the pro-abortion groups, like Planned Parenthood, will target, harass and try to intimidate us. And they do try,” he wrote.

“But when such treatment comes from bishops and other Church authorities — which it increasingly does — it’s particularly deplorable,” he added. “Instead of supporting and encouraging the pro-life work of the Church, some of these men try to obstruct and hinder it, and abuse their authority to try to intimidate priests and laity who make ending abortion the top priority of our lives.”

Pavone has been at odds with Bishop Patrick J. Zurek in Amarillo since the latter became bishop there in 2008. In 2011, Zurek publicly suspended Pavone, though Pavone later had the suspension overruled by the Vatican. The Amarillo Diocese did not respond to CNA’s requests for comment prior to publication.

Pavone’s political activism played a role in his problems in Amarillo.

An outspoken supporter of former president Donald Trump, Pavone served on official Trump campaign outreach positions in 2016 and was originally a co-chair of Trump’s 2020 pro-life coalition as well as an advisory board member of Catholics for Trump. Canon law forbids clerics from having an active role in political parties unless they receive the permission of their bishop. 

In November 2016, Pavone filmed a video at the Priests for Life headquarters, urging support for Trump. The video was staged with the body of an aborted baby laid before Pavone on what appeared to be an altar. 

Zurek said soon after the video’s release that he would open an investigation into the incident, calling it “against the dignity of human life” and “a desecration of the altar,” adding that “the action and presentation of Father Pavone in this video is not consistent with the beliefs of the Catholic Church.”

Deeper Than We Thought: The Stench Has Reached Heaven - The Stream

Deeper Than We Thought: The Stench Has Reached Heaven - The Stream: Could God be allowing America to plummet because of pride? We need to be broken and re-align our hearts with God's.

Vatican dismisses Father Frank Pavone from priesthood

By Shannon Mullen, Joe Bukuras – Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Father Frank Pavone, a well-known pro-life activist and national director of the organization Priests for Life, has been dismissed from the clerical state for “blasphemous communications on social media” and “persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop,” CNA has learned.

In a Dec. 13 letter to U.S. bishops obtained by CNA and confirmed by multiple sources as authentic, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, wrote that the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy issued the decision on Nov. 9, adding that there was “no possibility of appeal.”

“Father Pavone was given ample opportunity to defend himself in the canonical proceedings, and he was also given multiple opportunities to submit himself to the authority of his diocesan bishop,” explains a separate statement attached to Pierre’s letter. “It was determined that Father Pavone had no reasonable justification for his actions.”

Fr. Frank Pavone

Pavone, however, told CNA Saturday that he had not been notified about the Vatican's judgment.

The communication from Pierre does not specify the actions that led to Pavone’s dismissal or name the bishop he disobeyed.

The statement refers to Pavone as “Mr. Pavone” and calls him “a lay person,” underscoring the dramatic and immediate nature of the Vatican’s action. 

“Since Priests for Life, Inc. is not a Catholic organization, Mr. Pavone's continuing role in it as a lay person would be entirely up to the leadership of that organization,” the statement says.

Pavone is still saying Masses, including one streamed online Saturday. The Priests for Life website states that Pavone "is a Catholic priest in good standing, and exercises his ministry in full communion with the Catholic Church."

In an email to CNA on Saturday, Pavone said that he was not aware of the Vatican’s action.

“How did CNA learn about this before I did?” he asked. In a subsequent email he added that CNA's inquiry was “the very first communication that came to me about this.”

It is not clear in what diocese Pavone, 63, is incardinated as a priest. On the Priests for Life website, it says he received permission from the Vatican in 2019 to transfer from the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas, where he was incardinated in 2005, to another, unnamed diocese.

Pavone hosted the show “Defending Life” on EWTN for many years until the Bishop of Amarillo, Texas, revoked Pavone’s permission to appear on the Network. EWTN is the parent organization of CNA.

A history of clashes with hierarchy

Originally based in Staten Island, New York, Priests for Life is now headquartered in Titusville, Florida, within the Diocese of Orlando. That diocese, also, did not respond to CNA’s request for comment Saturday.

Pavone has served as the pro-life organization’s national director since 1993.

In that role he has a long history of conflicts with bishops, beginning more than 20 years ago with the late Cardinal Edward Egan of the Archdiocese of New York. Egan succeeded the late Cardinal John J. O’Connor, who ordained Pavone in 1988 and encouraged his pro-life work.

In his email, Pavone directed CNA to a document posted on his personal website titled “Summary of How Fr. Frank and Priests for Life Have Been Treated by Some in the Hierarchy.”

 “We all expect that the pro-abortion groups, like Planned Parenthood, will target, harass and try to intimidate us. And they do try,” he wrote.

“But when such treatment comes from bishops and other Church authorities — which it increasingly does — it’s particularly deplorable," he added. "Instead of supporting and encouraging the pro-life work of the Church, some of these men try to obstruct and hinder it, and abuse their authority to try to intimidate priests and laity who make ending abortion the top priority of our lives.”

Pavone has been at odds with Bishop Patrick J. Zurek in Amarillo since the latter became bishop there in 2008. In 2011, Zurek publicly suspended Pavone, though Pavone later had the suspension overruled by the Vatican. The Amarillo Diocese did not respond to CNA's requests for comment prior to publication.

Pavone’s political activism played a role in his problems in Amarillo.

An outspoken supporter of former president Donald Trump, Pavone served on official Trump campaign outreach positions in 2016, and was originally a co-chair of Trump's 2020 pro-life coalition, as well as an advisory board member of Catholics for Trump. Canon law forbids clerics from having an active role in political parties unless they receive the permission of their bishop. 

In November 2016, Pavone filmed a video at the Priests for Life headquarters, urging support for Trump. The video was staged with the body of an aborted baby laid before Pavone on what appeared to be an altar. 

Zurek said soon after the video’s release that he would open an investigation into the incident, calling it “against the dignity of human life” and “a desecration of the altar,” adding that “the action and presentation of Father Pavone in this video is not consistent with the beliefs of the Catholic Church.”

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On his website, Pavone details his version of what happened in the video. He also has posted a transcript of what he said on the video.

“Much of the criticism revolved around my having placed the baby on an "altar" and some started getting into technical complaints about what should or should not be done with an altar. But to the extent that they want to get technical, so can I, and I pointed out that this was a table in our office, not a consecrated altar in a chapel,” he wrote.

“That table, sometimes used for Mass, was also the place where all my videos in this educational series of election broadcasts were made,” he continued. “In retrospect, I should have made the baby video in a different location so as to avoid any confusion to begin with.”

Pavone wrote in his account that the baby’s remains were given to him so he conduct a proper burial, which he said he did after making the video.

Pavone stepped down from the two positions with Trump’s re-election campaign in 2020 at the request of what he called “the competent ecclesiastical authority.” But he continued to use his social media platforms to advocate for Trump and denounce the Democratic Party.

Those posts led to another confrontation with Zurek shortly before the 2020 election.

In tweets that were subsequently deleted, Pavone reportedly called then Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden a “[expletive] loser” and said the Democratic party was “God-hating” and “America-hating” and that Biden’s supporters “can’t say a [expletive] thing in support of their loser candidate without using the word Trump.”

“What the hell do you have to say for yourselves, losers?” Pavone asked.

Pavone also reportedly tweeted that he would hear the confession of a Catholic who votes Democrat, “but we are trained that in the absence of repentance, absolution has to be withheld.”

In response, the Amarillo Diocese issued a statement disavowing Pavone’s comments, saying he used “scandalous words not becoming of a Catholic priest.”

“These postings are not consistent with Catholic Church Teachings,” the diocese said in its statement. “Please disregard them and pray for Father Pavone.”

Nurse Practitioner Files Suit Challenging VA Abortion Rule

 By Jorge Gomez 

This week, First Liberty filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) new rule titled “Reproductive Health Services” that immediately allowed elective abortions at VA medical clinics.

We filed suit on behalf of nurse practitioner Stephanie Carter whoworks at the Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Center in Temple, Texas. She has religious objections to performing, prescribing, or counseling for abortions and working in a facility that engages in such activity for reasons other than to save the life of the mother. She twice requested a religious accommodation, but was told that no process exists to review such requests.

The VA announced the rule in September, claiming it was necessary “because it has determined that providing access to abortion-related medical services is needed to protect the lives and health of veterans.” There is no mention of gestational age limits. The rule allows for abortions whenever they can be justified as “needed to promote…the health of the (mother).” The rule received more than 50,000 public comments, many of which opposed the VA’s decision.

Our lawsuit explains that this new rule is illegal because it disregards longstanding federal law prohibiting VA clinics from performing abortions and fails to account for the sincerely held religious beliefs of medical providers who are impacted by the rule. But in its zealous pursuit of radical policy, the Biden administration appears willing to violate the law.

The 1992 Veterans Health Act explicitly prohibits VA clinics from performing abortion services. By enacting and now enforcing the rule, the VA is far outside its scope of authority. First Liberty attorneys Danielle Runyan and Christine Pratt explained in a recent op-ed for Stars and Stripes:

“Once again, the Biden administration seems ignorant of the law, or just doesn’t care. The new VA rule disregards longstanding federal law that prohibits VA clinics from performing abortions. Since 1992, Congress has prohibited abortions at VA clinics in Section 106(a) of the Veterans Health Care Act, which provides that ‘the Secretary of Veterans Affairs may provide to women…general reproductive health care…but not including under this section…abortions.’”

Runyan and Pratt further point out that “while federal law protects the rights of VA staff who don’t want to perform or assist with abortions…there is no provision within the VA rule explaining how religious accommodations will be processed.” The VA’s enforcement of its invalid rule could have devastating consequences for our client, as well as all employees at VA clinics who have a religious objection to participating in providing abortion services.

In Carter’s case, she is also now at risk of violating the Texas Human Life Protection Act that expressly prohibits abortions. Because the facility where she works is under concurrent jurisdiction with the State of Texas, medical providers there are required to comply with Texas law. While the administration maintains that the rule takes priority over state laws prohibiting abortion, the Supremacy Clause does not apply because the rule is invalid as a matter of law. So, under Texas law, Carter could face a felony conviction with no less than $100,000 in civil penalties for each violation and the loss of her nursing license.

The VA abortion rule and the lack of a religious accommodation process is only the latest in the administration’s terrible track record on religious liberty.

The Department of Defense vaccine mandate has forced thousands of service members to choose between their religious faith or serving their country. First Liberty continues to fight on behalf of U.S. Navy and Air Force service members whose religious accommodation requests have been denied. As one federal court pointed out when it granted protection to our clients, the Navy’s religious accommodation process is, “by all accounts … theater. The Navy has not granted a religious exemption to any vaccine in recent memory. It merely rubber stamps each denial.”

Not only has the administration shown a particular disdain for service members who want to serve in a manner consistent with their religious beliefs, it has repeatedly pushed policies that would harm the rights of religious Americans in the health industry. For example:

• In October, First Liberty delivered a compelling 42-page public comment to another proposed rule, commonly known as the “transgender mandate,” which would roll back extensive civil rights protections for Americans of faith in healthcare.
• The Department of Health and Human Services revoked several important religious liberty protections and pursued regulations that could harm faith-based foster-care and adoption agencies, religious employers, charities, universities, schools, hospitals and healthcare professionals.

The Biden administration has wielded and abused the power of the federal government to put religious Americans in the crosshairs. What hope is there that it will not use this VA abortion rule to do the same?

Given this pattern of hostility and violations, people of faith need to remain vigilant. The Biden administration has constantly used the alphabet soup of federal agencies to target and harass religious Americans. It’s increasingly clear that these policies are aimed at trampling the rights of religious healthcare professionals and making them conform to extreme ideology.

DOJ Official Admits Targeting Pro-Lifers Is Response to Overturn of Roe

The Justice Department has been targeting pro-life activists through the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act as a response to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, according to Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.

Gupta delivered remarks at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division’s 65th Anniversary earlier this month. The associate attorney general described the overturn of Roe v. Wade as a “devastating blow to women throughout the country” that took away “the constitutional right to abortion” and increased “the urgency” of the DOJ’s work—including the “enforcement of the FACE Act, to ensure continued lawful access to reproductive services.”

She did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Signal.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta looks on as U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice Aug. 2. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division enforces the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services.”

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It protects both pro-life pregnancy centers and abortion clinics, as a DOJ official noted to Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, last week.

At least 98 Catholic churches and 77 pregnancy resource centers and other pro-life organizations have been attacked since May, but the DOJ has apparently not charged a single person in connection with these attacks. Meanwhile, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has charged 26 pro-life individuals with FACE Act violations this year.

The DOJ has not responded to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment on this point.

Pregnancy resource centers are typically run by pro-life women who seek to offer expectant mothers alternatives to abortion. Such centers provide diapers, baby clothes, and resources for both mothers and fathers, empowering them to care for their child, overcome addictions, build community, and find jobs.

 

World Health Organization publishes video calling COVID jab skeptics a ‘major killing force’

(LifeSiteNews) — The World Health Organization has published a video claiming that people opposed to the COVID jabs are “anti-science” and a “major killing force.” 

In a recently published video on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Twitter page, Dr. Peter Hotez said that “anti-vaccine activism” is “anti-science aggression” and links people who refused the COVID injections to the “far right.”

The WHO has made this wholesale condemnation of “anti-vaccine activists” despite the fact that many people have been seriously injured or even died after receiving the experimental COVID jabs. A Swiss study for instance found elevated troponin levels – indicating heart injury – across all vaccinated people, with 2.8 percent showing levels associated with subclinical myocarditis.

Furthermore, a group of scientists recently conducted a risk-benefit analysis which showed that getting a COVID-19 “booster shot” is at least 18 times more dangerous than catching the virus itself for young people under the age of 30. 

However, the WHO’s showcased physician did not acknowledge these facts in his rant. 

“We have to recognize that anti-vaccine activism, which I actually call anti-science aggression, has now become a major killing force globally,” Hotez said in the video, using a backdrop of photos of protestors against the COVID shots. 

The University Professor of Biology at Baylor College of Medicine claimed that “during the COVID pandemic in the United States, 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives because they refused a COVID vaccine, even after vaccines became widely available.” 

“And now the anti-vaccine activism is expanding across the world […].” 

“It’s a killing force,” Hotez proclaimed. “Anti-science now kills more people than things like gun violence, global terrorism, nuclear proliferation, or cyber-attacks.” 

The scientist did not provide evidence for this dramatic claim. 

“And now it’s become a political movement,” he continued. “In the U.S. it’s linked to far [sic] extremism on the far right, same in Germany.” 

“So this is a new face of anti-science aggression. And so we need political solutions to address this.’ 

The doctor did not provide evidence in the video that opposition to the dangerous, experimental COVID jabs is linked to extremists. 

Hotez is a pediatrician who works in the field of vaccine research and development and, in addition to his post at Baylor College of Medicine, is the Chair of Tropical Pediatrics at Texas Children’s Hospital.  

The WHO is known for its radical pro-abortion stance and promotion of “abortion access” all around the world. 

 Its current director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was a member of the Ethiopia’s communist Tigray People’s Liberation Front and served its Minister of Health when it was in power. The party was declared a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government in 2021. 

Hotez appears to be very close to Ghebreyesus, as he recently described him as “my brother and mentor Dr. Tedros,” in a Tweet responding to the murder of the WHO director’s uncle.

University of Washington forced to turn over aborted baby parts documents in victory for David Daleiden

SEATTLE (LifeSiteNews) – Attorneys with the pro-life legal nonprofit Thomas More Society have delivered a victory for pro-life investigative journalist David Daleiden in his ongoing battle with the University of Washington, reaching a settlement that will shed even more light on the university’s ongoing sale of and experimentation on fetal tissue derived from abortions.

Under the settlement, UW agreed to hand over “significant” documents pertaining to its acquisition and sale of human body parts from aborted babies (with unredacted job titles) and subsequent research and to agreements with Planned Parenthood or other abortion providers, as well as communications and manuals pertaining to related policies, reports, research, financial records, contracts, and grant applications. UW will also pay Thomas More $30,000 in legal fees.

 “There’s no ‘abortion exception’ to our nation’s public records laws, and the People have a right to know how their government is run,” said Thomas More’s vice president and senior counsel Peter Breen. “We are pleased at the successful resolution of this lawsuit by settlement. That settlement secured attorney’s fees from the UW and nearly everything that David Daleiden was seeking from the UW: thousands of pages of new documents on the buying and selling of aborted fetal tissue trafficking, including job titles and all non-personal information. These are public records of a taxpayer-funded program, and this settlement secures Mr. Daleiden’s rights to the documents he needs as a citizen journalist.”

As previously covered by LifeSiteNews, the University of Washington has for years fought in court to keep the details of its fetal tissue activities out of the public eye.

The legal battle began when Daleiden requested documents from the school’s taxpayer-funded Birth Defects Research Laboratory about trafficking in aborted fetal parts and organs. The public information request was met with a lawsuit from staff of Planned Parenthood and other abortion centers, along with researchers and others, to force heavy redaction of these government documents.

In March, the groups Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, Pro-Life San Francisco, and Rehumanize International located and photographed a freezer at the University of Washington’s Seattle campus containing rows of bags containing aborted fetal bodies and body parts.

The sale of aborted fetal remains for research and experimentation first came to the political forefront in 2015, when Daleiden’s group Center for Medical Progress (CMP) began releasing undercover videos of meetings with Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation personnel detailing the practice, which set off a firestorm of controversy and a string of revelations about the abortion industry breaking multiple federal laws against profiting off human tissue, altering abortion procedures for the sake of procuring better tissue samples, and potentially even committing partial-birth abortions or infanticide; as well as video examples of abortion workers displaying callousness toward the humanity of the children their work killed.