64% of young voters say America is in decline

Data from a recently released poll show increasing despair among Gen-Z voters over the current political climate in the U.S., with the vast majority expressing the belief that almost all politicians are corrupt. The poll found that 64% of voters ages 18 to 30 agreed with the statement “America is in decline.”  READ

Political leaders should bolster the family

“Gallup surveys reveal that at least half of women with children prefer to stay home — and supermajorities prefer at least the option to stay home,” write Steve Cortes and CatholicVote’s Brian Burch. It’s time America’s political leaders responded to the needs of American families.  READ

Many ‘pride’ events took place on military bases

According to documents newly obtained via a Freedom of Access to Information (FOIA) request from CatholicVote and Judicial Watch, U.S. Air Force bases have recently hosted numerous pro-LGBTQ “Pride” events geared toward children. It appears several such events have taken place since the Biden Department of Defense last year stated it would no longer allow drag shows on military bases. READ

This week on Faith On Trial

Listen now: https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/

Iowa drops hate crime charge against ‘Satan slayer’

Iowa reportedly dropped a “hate crime” charge against Michael Cassidy, the Christian veteran who destroyed a Satanic statue in the state capital last December. Cassidy’s attorney Sara Pasquale said she is “hopeful that this case will bring awareness to similar situations throughout the country.”  READ

Most British voters want immigration freeze

A recent survey found that most of the British public wants to end mass immigration. When asked if “Britain should have a five-year freeze on all further immigration that is not essential to supporting the NHS,” 32% of respondents strongly agreed, 17% tended to agree, 13% tended to disagree, and only 11% strongly disagreed. READ

NY Attorney General Letitia James Loses First Round in Legal Battle Against Pregnancy Help Organizations

 Update: New York Court Orders Lawsuits Remain in Rochester, Rejecting State’s Attempt to Shift Cases to Manhattan

New York Supreme Court Justice Sam Valleriani issued the consolidation order on May 24, 2024. This combines a lawsuit brought by James against pregnancy help organizations in Manhattan, New York, with the previously filed case brought by the organizations in Rochester’s Monroe County Court. James had tried to relocate the lawsuit against her from its Rochester venue to New York County Court in Manhattan, hundreds of miles aways.

 

Peter Breen, Thomas More Society Executive Vice President & Head of Litigation:

 

“For the past month, Letitia James’ has tried to illegally frighten and harass New York’s pregnancy help organizations into silence, threatening them with lawsuits if they keep speaking their truthful message about Abortion Pill Reversal. We brought suit in Rochester, near to where most of the organizations are headquartered and work. Instead of agreeing to a convenient venue, James then sued these charitable organizations in Manhattan, despite the fact that not a single one of the organizations is located there. We are pleased that the Court in Monroe County agreed that the cases should be consolidated together and heard in Rochester, the ‘most fair, appropriate and logistically convenient venue,’ and not in Manhattan, which has no connection to the case. We look forward to defending Heartbeat International, CompassCare, and all of New York’s pregnancy help organizations targeted by James’ unconstitutional witch-hunt. New Yorkers deserve to know that Abortion Pill Reversal is not just possible but safe and effective, and our clients have the right to share that truth with women who are undergoing a chemical abortion that they do not want to continue.”

 

Thomas More Society attorneys filed suit on April 30, 2024, against James in Monroe County, on behalf of Heartbeat International and a group of New York pregnancy help organizations. On May 6, 2024, James filed a lawsuit against the same organizations, in New York County, which covers Manhattan.

 

Read the Order of Consolidation, granted May 24, 2024, by Justice Sam L. Valleriani of the Supreme Court of the State of New York – Monroe County, in the consolidated lawsuits, now titled Letitia James v. Heartbeat International, et al., here.

Read the Decision on Motion to Consolidate, dated May 21, 2024, by Justice Sam L. Valleriani of the Supreme Court of the State of New York – Monroe County, here.

 

Read the Memorandum of Law in Support of Motion to Consolidate, filed by Thomas More Society attorneys on May 7, 2024, here.

Read about Thomas More Society’s representation of Heartbeat International, CompassCare, and other pregnancy help organizations in New York, and see relevant legal filings, here.

 

About Thomas More Society

Thomas More Society is a national not-for-profit law firm dedicated to restoring respect in law for life, family, and freedom. Headquartered in Chicago and with offices across the country, the Thomas More Society fosters support for these causes by providing high quality pro bono legal services from local trial courts all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. For more information, visit thomasmoresociety.org

Breaking: National Park Service Grants Knights of Columbus Permit to Hold Memorial Day Service – Update on guest’s interview

Richmond, VA—Today, First Liberty Institute and the international law firm McGuireWoods LLP announced that the National Park Service has granted a permit to the Knights of Columbus Petersburg Council 694 allowing the Knights annual Memorial Day Mass service in the Poplar Grove National Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia.  The Knights have held the service at the park every year since at least the 1960s. 

 

“We are grateful to the NPS for allowing the Knights to hold their service this Memorial Day,” said John Moran, Partner at McGuireWoods. 

 

Roger Byron, Senior Counsel at First Liberty, added, “The Knights are thrilled that they will be able to exercise their religious beliefs and keep this honorable tradition alive.  We appreciate the tremendous support of Governor Youngkin and Attorney General Miyares in this case.”

 

Founded almost 150 years ago in the United States, the Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal service order with over 2 million members worldwide. One long-standing way the Knights have lived out their faith and their patriotism is by holding Memorial Day masses to honor and pray for the nation’s fallen soldiers.  Until last year, the Knights had always held a Memorial Day mass within the Poplar Grove National Cemetery, and the mass (or a prayer service when a priest was not available) had been celebrated there every year without incident since at least the 1960s.  But last year, for the first time, the NPS denied the Knights a permit to hold the service in the cemetery, citing a new policy that designates “religious services” as prohibited “demonstrations.” 

 

A lawsuit against NPS filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia by First Liberty Institute and the international law firm McGuireWoods LLP was dismissed after an agreement to allow the service was reached.

 

# # #

 

About First Liberty Institute

First Liberty Institute is the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.

BOMBSHELL INTERNAL DOCUMENT CALLS FOR REFORM OF JESUITS

In an internal document leaked to the press, a prominent Uruguayan Jesuit described in detail the many reasons why the Jesuits are in crisis and decline around the world and called for significant reform of the religious order. READ

New York high court upholds mandated insurance coverage for abortion, Diocese of Albany to appeal ruling

CV NEWS FEED // New York’s highest court ruled on May 21 that it would uphold legislation requiring insurance companies to cover abortions. In response, the Diocese of Albany announced it will appeal the ruling. 

“While we respect the decision issued today by the New York State Court of Appeals we will again seek review by the United States Supreme Court of this critical challenge to religious freedom,” the Diocese said in the May 21 statement. 

The Diocese argued that “regulatory action by the state to require religious organizations to provide and pay for coverage of abortion in their employee health plans” is “unconstitutional” and “involves government entanglement in the fundamental rights of free exercise of faith and conscience.”

State financial regulators approved the pro-abortion regulation in 2017. The state legislature codified it into law in 2022. 

As CatholicVote previously reported, in 2021, the Diocese of Albany, together with a group of Catholic and Anglican nuns and several other dioceses and Christian churches across denominations, filed suit against the state over the regulation. 

Becket Fund, a religious liberty law foundation involved in the case, stated on its information page: “Each group is challenging New York’s abortion mandate because it believes that life begins at the moment of conception, and that to intentionally end the life of an unborn child is a grave moral sin.” 

According to the Becket Fund, the Diocese had previously asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its case on April 23. 

The Supreme Court agreed to consider the case, then sent it back to the state’s highest court to reconsider. The state’s May 21 decision to uphold the regulation is the result of the high court’s reconsideration. According to a May 21 Associated Press News report, the high court found that the state’s criteria for religious exemptions were “too vague,” giving officials “too much discretion to determine which companies wouldn’t have to follow the rule.”

This week on Faith On Trial

Listen now: https://faith-on-trial.simplecast.com/episodes/peter-breen-mike-gonzalez-5-25-2024-ngYcjdEU

Biden Admin Files Charges Against More Pro-Life Americans After Putting a Dozen People in Prison

(LifeSiteNews) – The Biden administration has already put a dozen pro-life Americans in prison for protesting abortion, but that’s apparently not enough for Biden and the radical abortion activists in his administration.

The Justice Department on Monday filed suit against two pro-life groups and several pro-life advocates on Monday by falsely claiming their abortion protests are intimidating and somehow violate the bogus FACE law that limits the free speech rights of pro-life Americans. Biden’s cronies accuse them of “intimidating” abortion customers at two abortion businesses in Ohio.

Biden officials claim the two groups, Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and Red Rose Rescue, along with seven pro-life Americans, violated the FACE law. After putting a dozen pro-life Americans in prison on bogus charges, these new charges seek tens of thousands of dollars in “fines” for violating the law that infringes on pro-life free speech.

The Justice Department is seeking financial damages, including $20,516 for first violations and $30,868 for subsequent offenses as well as injunctive relief as provided by the FACE Act.

A DOJ press release does not mention criminal charges, but nothing prevents Biden officials from bringing them.

Monica Miller, who heads the Citizens for a Pro-Life Society group, denied any wrongdoing and told LifeNews that she is one of the people named in the legal charges the Biden administration is bringing. She indicated Father Fidelis Moscinski, a Catholic priest, is also charged along with Laura Gies, Clara McDonald, Jay Smith, Audrey Whipple and Lauren Handy, who is already in federal prison based on the first round of disputed FACE charges.

Miller said her pro-life activities – which include protests outside abortion centers as well as handing women inside abortion centers red roses with information about abortion alternatives, do not violate the FACE law because they do not threaten anyone nor do they block “access” to abortion

Miller said they “never block anything or anyone–and if the Department of Justice is coming after us for our peaceful–life-saving efforts it’s because they will simply play fast and loose with the FACE language having to do with ‘physical obstruction’ that prevents ‘freedom of movement.’”

She indicated that there have been 37 abortion protests and no one in any of the protests has been charged with anything until now.

As a result of the pro-life activities, five babies were saved from abortions.

“We have NEVER been charged with FACE, and indeed, the red rose rescue we did at the Planned Parenthood in Bedford Heights, June 5, 2021, one of the two that involves this DOJ accusation, — all charges were dropped,” Miller indicated. “We have every confidence that through our great attorneys we will prevail over this bogus attempt by the weaponized JOJ to drag even RRR under its persecution of those who seek to defend the unborn from violence.”

Pro-life women reportedly denied medical care in jail

A group of House lawmakers are calling for answers amid reports that two pro-life women were denied “necessary medical care” while in prison awaiting sentencing. Jean Marshall, 74, and Heather Idoni, 59, were convicted of violating the controversial Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for blocking access to a notorious late-term abortion facility in Washington, D.C. READ

This week on Faith On Trial

 Listen Now:

https://faith-on-trial.simplecast.com/episodes/erica-ahern-roger-byron-5-18-2024-SfCrbR6m

BIDEN ADMIN TO ISSUE GOVERNMENT PHOTO ids TO NON-CITIZENS

The Biden administration is planning to roll out a taxpayer-funded program giving government-issued identification cards to thousands of illegal migrants crossing the southern border. FOX News reported late Thursday afternoon that “the pilot program is expected to commence this summer with the distribution of approximately 10,000 cards.” READ

Possible Trump-DeSantis ticket and other things

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – There is a lot of hubbub this week about the possibility of a Trump-DeSantis ticket this fall. Of course the speculation of who Mr. Trump will chose as his running-mate will dominate this year’s political guessing game, as the VP choice always does. But this year it is even more intriguing.

And considering that several other VP candidates are also from Florida, it might be an interesting exercise to see how this might play out. First let’s look at the Constitutional problems such a ticket would produce. As we all know, the election will be determined by which candidate can gain a majority of the electoral vote.

The Electoral College is made up of representatives from each state in numbers equivalent to that state’s total membership in Congress, that is House members and two Senators. Thus to obtain a majority a candidate for president – and the same goes for vice president – needs 270 electoral votes for election.

The Constitution places very little restrictions on the electors except for this: “The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves.”

Consider a close election in which the electoral majority for president is decided by 29 votes. If Trump is the winner, what happens to DeSantis? Florida’s 30 electors may not cast their vice presidential votes for him. So who is elected vice president?

According to the constitution, in the event that no one receives the 270 votes, the senate will choose the vice president from among the two top electoral vote winners. Now if the Democrats hold the senate the candidate selected will most probably be Kamala Harris, resulting in a Trump-Harris Administration. You’d have to go back to the early days of the republic, Adams-Jefferson, to find a similar situation.

Would the GOP run that risk? In 2000 George W. Bush, and his vice presidential choice Dick Cheney, were both from Texas. They solved the problem by having Mr. Cheney move back to his home state of Wyoming. Could that happen for a Trump-DeSantis ticket? As governor DeSantis can’t take up residence out of state, but would Mr. Trump do so?

Of course the Democrats in New York might just solve Mr. Trump’s dilemma for him by providing him a residence at Rikers Island.

By the way, just so you know, the situation is much different if no presidential candidate reaches 270 votes. In that case the House must choose from the top three candidates, with each state getting one vote, thus it takes 26 states to win.

***

We’re all aware of the current commotions (riots?) on our college campuses by the modern-day Nazi Youth. Several months ago before all the Jew-shaming started, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Expression (FIRE) released, in conjunction with the College Pulse, a report of how free speech was tolerated or not on the nation’s campuses.

The report covered 254 colleges and surveys from 55,102 individuals from those campuses, from which the report made it’s College Free Speech Rankings for 2024. Here are a sample of the findings, starting at the bottom.

“Harvard University obtained the lowest score possible, 0.00, and is the only school with an ‘Abysmal’ speech climate range[O1] . The University of Pennsylvania, the University of South Carolina, Georgetown University, and Fordham University also ranked in the bottom five,” it reported.

Additionally, “Students from schools in the bottom five were more biased toward allowing controversial liberal speakers on campus over conservative ones and were more accepting of students using disruptive and violent forms of protest to stop a campus speech. …  Deplatforming attempts that occurred at schools ranked in the bottom five had an alarming 81% success rate.”

The four schools listed as “Good” on free speech were Michigan Technological University, Auburn University, the University of New Hampshire, and Oregon State University. Rounding out the top five was Florida State University with a rating of “Above Average.”

Here’s how some of the leading institutions who are in the forefront of the latest campus uprisings were ranked: George Washington University, 185; Columbia University, 213; and Yale University, 234. The sorry state of higher education today.

***

Several notes of interest on my radio program:

A few weeks ago we had on Ed Flynn, you might remember from his and his wife’s book, Thunder of Justice. He is the author of a new book exploring the messages of the alleged Marian apparition at Garabandal, Spain. The alleged apparitions occurred to four young girls, 11 and 12 years old, from 1961 to 1965. The messages reportedly from the Blessed Mother contained warnings about a future miracle, a chastisement, and a divine reset.

The messages have created quite a stir and Flynn was on the program to talk about the new book, Garabandal, The Warning and The Great Miracle. If you follow the link at the bottom you can hear the interview by selecting Episode 408.

Then last week we had on the program Fr. Tad Pacholcyk, senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethical Center in Philadelphia. He was on to discuss the ethical considerations and moral teachings on in vitro fertilization and related matters. This, of course, is a subject that has been thrust to the forefront of political and religious conversations since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos were human children. Again, you can find the link at the bottom of the column; go to Episode 410.

What happened to Episode 409? Well that one was one of the most interesting we had this year. One of our guests was our own Dexter Duggan who spent 20+ minutes with me in a wide ranging discussion from St. Francis de Sales to bias in journalism and abortion law in Arizona. Good interview, but I did make one mistake: when I gave the studio the program notes, I misspelled Dexter’s name by leaving out a G.

Dexter: mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

Report from the Iowa Catholic Conference

Roundup of 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 short Zoom webinar with a recap of the 2024 Iowa legislative session. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, May 22 at 7 p.m. You can learn about the ICC’s advocacy efforts as well as hear updates on the new immigration law and the “heartbeat” abortion law. Don't miss this opportunity to engage! Please register here.

Lawsuits challenge new immigration law

A lawsuit has been filed in federal court challenging the new state law on “illegal reentry by certain aliens.” It asks for the law to be stopped from going into effect on July 1 and a finding that the law is unconstitutional. It argues Senate File 2340 could cause someone who has previously been deported from the U.S. to face jail time or be deported, including those in the country legally with a green card or with a valid asylum claim. The American Immigration Council, American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Iowa filed the suit on behalf of the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice.

The federal Department of Justice has also filed a lawsuit against the law arguing that the federal government has exclusive power to regulate immigration.

The Iowa bishops oppose enforcement-only measures that reduce humanitarian protections and provide no viable solutions for long-time residents without legal status.

The law:

Makes it an aggravated misdemeanor for a person who has been previously denied admission or deported from the US to be in Iowa.

Does not allow police to make arrests on the school property, church grounds or hospitals.

Requires a judge, after a conviction, to order the person to return to the country from which the person entered.

Bills approved by the governor

Gov. Reynolds is wrapping up the signing of bills from the legislative session. Among the bills of interest signed:

SF 2251, expanding Medicaid health insurance coverage for a mother for a full year after the baby is born (ICC supported)

HF 2319, prohibiting counties and cities from funding guaranteed income programs (ICC opposed).

SF 2421, which creates the Choose Iowa Food Purchasing Pilot Project to help support local food purchases by schools, food banks, and emergency feeding organizations, and directs $300,000 in funding to the program (ICC supported the provision).

The War On Science

By Bill Donohue, Catholic League president

 

Anti-Catholics are famous for saying the Catholic Church is anti-science. Yet it is well acknowledged that the role played by the Catholic Church in the making of the scientific revolution was central. Today, those who are profoundly anti-science are militant secularists, many of whom, ironically, work in higher education and in the medical profession.

 

It was scientists like Copernicus, Boyle, Linnaeus, Faraday, Kelvin, Rutherford and Kepler who were responsible for the origins of modern science. As David Klinghoffer notes, they were “overwhelmingly religious.” To be specific, they sought to understand God through his creation.

 

This doesn’t stop Catholic critics from pointing to Galileo as the classic example of the anti-science legacy of the Catholic Church.

 

But Galileo did not get into trouble because of his ideas; after all, his ideas were taken from a priest, Copernicus, who was never punished. Indeed, Father Roger Boscovich continued to explore Copernican ideas at the same time that Galileo was charged with heresy, without attracting a bit of opposition. Had Galileo not presented his hypothesis as fact—that was the heresy—he would have escaped trouble.

 

Contrary to the mythology, Galileo never spent a single day in prison. Nor was he tortured. In fact, he spent his time under “house arrest” in an apartment in a Vatican palace, with a servant. More important, his work was initially praised by the Catholic Church: Pope Urban VIII bestowed on him many gifts and medals. A century later all of Galileo’s works were published, and in 1741 Pope Benedict XIV granted him an imprimatur.

 

Today many of those who follow science are being punished for doing so. Just consider what is happening to students and professors who insist that sex is binary.

 

When a 67-year-old woman found someone “with a penis” grooming himself next to a young girl in a Planet Fitness ladies’ locker room in Fairbanks, Alaska, she took a photo of him to prove her experience. Those who run the gym said he had every right to be there: he identified as a woman, so that was that. She was banned from ever entering again.

 

When a man walked around totally naked in a Planet Fitness ladies’ locker room in North Carolina, he was arrested for indecent exposure. But not because the gym is unalterably opposed to such behavior—they were upset because he didn’t tell them in advance that he believes he is a woman. In other words, indecent exposure is not indecent if the pervert with male genitalia says he is a woman.

 

“Brittney Griner and Her Wife Are Expecting Their First Child.” That is the headline published by “Today” on the famous woman basketball player and her girlfriend.

 

In the Planet Fitness examples, and in the “Today” instance, it is painfully obvious that we are living in a surreal world, one where politics has thrown science overboard.

 

A man can say that he is a woman—or a worm for that matter—but when self-identification contradicts reality, such declarations are palpably false. To be explicit, there is no such thing as a transgender person. It is a fiction. We are either male or female (intersex persons are not a third sex). Planet Fitness can rely on politics, e.g., the ideology of transgenderism, but in doing so it is contradicting science.

 

Similarly, it is a legal fiction to say that two people of the same sex can marry. Marriage is a universal institution designed to channel the sex drive of men and women in a socially responsible way. An important function of marriage is the possibility of the procreation of children; they need a stable and patterned environment in which to grow.

 

In other words, the most important cell in society, the family, is integrally tied to the institution of marriage. They are both the reserve of one man and one woman, and no amount of ideological protestation matters.

 

Brittany and her lover are denied by nature from having a family. They can rent a womb, acquire someone else’s baby, or adopt the children of some other couple, but they cannot create their own offspring. That’s the way nature, and nature’s God, work.

 

Science is not based on whim or fancy. It is based on laws that reflect the empirical reality of nature.

 

In a sane society, those who teach that the sexes are interchangeable, and that two people of the same sex can realistically marry and have a baby, should be fired for misrepresenting science. They are more akin to the devotees of the Flat Earth Society than they are to serious scholars.

 

To those who say such a position is lacking in compassion for those who disagree with this analysis, it needs to be said that when compassion conflicts with truth, it needs to take a back seat.

 

It is regrettable, yet understandable, that those who work in higher education and in the medical profession have witnessed an attrition in the prestige they once enjoyed. They alone are to blame and they alone can fix it. Rediscovering the verities of science is a good place to start.

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.  

-30-

(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.