The case of Bishop Stowe

Bishop John Stowe of the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, is facing scrutiny after years of regularly undercutting the work of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Stowe’s behavior “can only serve to embarrass the USCCB and will continue to hamper their pastoral witness if left unaddressed by the Holy See,” writes Jayd Henricks.  READ

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

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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

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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

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