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Four Freedom Caucus members object to Veterans Affairs IVF funding plan

Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Montana, speaks at a press conference on the debt limit and the Freedom Caucus's plan for spending reduction at the U.S. Capitol on March 28, 2023, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 22, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Four congressmen in the conservative House Freedom Caucus voiced “strong objections” to a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) plan to expand its coverage of in vitro fertilization (IVF) to unmarried veterans, including those in same-sex relationships.

Under the previous rules, the VA only covered IVF treatments for married couples who produce their own eggs and sperm for the fertility treatment. The new policy will allow donor eggs and sperm and cover treatments for unmarried people who require such donations to create an embryo.

The lawmakers, led by Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Montana, expressed their dissent in a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough on March 20. He was joined by Caucus Chairman Bob Good, R-Virginia; Rep. Mary Miller, R-Illinois; and Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Oklahoma. 

“An IVF embryo is the earliest stage of life that exists outside of the womb,” Rosendale said in a statement accompanying the letter.

“Through this expansion, a surplus of embryos will be created, which are likely to result in abandoned or cruelly discarded human life,” Rosendale said. “Accompanying that, legislation has been introduced previously to expand IVF at the VA, meaning the legality of this decision is questionable at best.”

IVF is a fertility treatment in which doctors extract eggs from the woman and fertilize the eggs with sperm to create human embryos in a laboratory without a sexual act. Clinics create a surplus of embryos to maximize the likelihood that the mother can bring one healthy baby to term — the remaining embryos are often discarded, which ends a human life, or frozen indefinitely. 

The letter from the lawmakers notes that expanding IVF “creates a plethora of ethical concerns and questions” and calls the treatment “morally dubious.” Because most human embryos are either destroyed or abandoned, the signatories conclude it “should not be subsidized by the American taxpayer.”

Rosendale and his three colleagues also requested information from the VA pertaining to what the department does with surplus embryos, how many are destroyed or frozen, how much the IVF expansion and embryo storage will cost taxpayers, and what specific law grants them the authority to take this action.

Rather than expanding IVF, the lawmakers suggested the VA provide reimbursements for adoption efforts instead. 

“There are around 400,000 children in foster care nationwide, and approximately 117,000 are waiting to be adopted,” the letter adds. “The VA also provides fertility and infertility care to help veterans who struggle with infertility. It would make more sense to use the funds that the expansion of IVF will cost to bolster adoption efforts at the VA.”

Under its current policies, the VA can provide up to $2,000 for adoption expenses, but only if the veteran has a service-connected disability that causes infertility. The law does not allow coverage for surrogacy. 

Access to IVF became a major political issue after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created through IVF are covered under the state’s “Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.” After several clinics stopped providing IVF, Republicans and Democrats in the state quickly passed legislation to grant clinics immunity in the deaths of human embryos, which was signed by Gov. Kay Ivey, who claims to be pro-life.

A large number of Republicans, including lawmakers who are outspoken on other pro-life issues, distanced themselves from the ruling and embraced IVF despite the destruction to human life that is integral to the industry. Few have spoken out against the process. 

The Catholic Church opposes IVF because it separates the marriage act from procreation and destroys embryonic human life. Acknowledging the advances in science available today to those seeking help having children, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops warns Catholics on its website of the ethical issues involved.

“The many techniques now used to overcome infertility also have profound moral implications, and couples should be aware of these before making decisions about their use,” the guidance reads.

Bent Like the Palm Trees

Bent Like the Palm Trees

The Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange is a 130-foot tall, five-level stack interchange near the Athens and Watts communities of Los Angeles It is considered one of the most complicated interchanges in the United States, with multiple entries and exits in all directions between the I-105 and the I-110. Returning to LAX from traveling, I always look forward to my husband driving me home through this interchange. It offers a breathtaking view of Los Angeles; you can see the city below and downtown in the distance. The Santa Monica Mountain Range serves as a backdrop. Some days the range looks more beautiful than others, depending on how clear the sky is. Then there are the palm trees (another iconic symbol of Los Angeles, in addition to the freeways). They stand out high above the rest of the city like tulips in a garden, and are a sign that I am home. Even where I grew up on Palmetto Ave., fifty miles from downtown, palm trees line both sides of the street. 

I’ve wondered on Palm Sunday what palm-waving feels like to those who don’t have this connection to the palm tree. As a child, I loved watching the palm trees sway in the Santa Ana winds. Palms are more like grass than hardwoods, so they bend easily in strong winds, even up to hurricane conditions. The palm fronds aren’t as resilient and blow down easily. As children, we felt lucky if we witnessed the moment a large frond fell from above. It was almost exhilarating. After high winds, the street and front yard would be covered in fronds. My father would spend a morning collecting the palm debris and the rest of the day complaining about it.

Though ubiquitous across southern California, most varieties of palm trees are not native to the state. Falling palm fronds can be dangerous to cars, pedestrians, and buildings. Improperly maintained palm trees can accumulate dead and dry fronds over time and become highly flammable, yet palm-tree trimming itself presents unique dangers to those who are tasked with their maintenance. Yet few think about this as they take in the sight of palm trees standing tall, silhouetted by the sun, or bending (but not breaking) in the winds.  

The liturgical Procession with Palms offers two Gospel reading options, Mark 11:1-10 or John 12:12-16. The community, gathered outside the church with palms in hand, will either hear Mark’s description: “Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields” (Mark 11:8). or John’s version of the great crowd that “took palm branches and went out to meet [Jesus]” (John 12:13). There is an important distinction here. Mark’s gospel speaks of leafy branches, while John’s specifically mentions palm branches. Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem in Luke’s Gospel doesn’t mention branches at all, while Matthew states, “The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road” (Matthew 21:8). Palm branches are mentioned only in John’s gospel, and yet they are the chosen liturgical sacramental. 

Signs and symbols are important to us. They remind us of a time, people, places, and feelings. John’s gospel differs from the synoptic gospels. It presents a more developed theology, employing symbolism to communicate it. The specificity of the palm branches in John’s gospel allowed his intended audience to easily infer the meaning of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Palms were a symbol of joy and victory in that time and place and for the people his Gospel was intended for. We don’t know for certain what kind of branches were used to welcome Jesus in Jerusalem (or if branches were used at all, based on Luke’s account). What matters most is that Jesus came home, and his return was a victory. 

The palms I wave on Palm Sunday are familiar to me. They have a symbolic meaning unique to my experience. The second Gospel reading every Palm Sunday retells Jesus’ road to crucifixion. Gathered in the worship area in our pews, we are still holding the palms we waved outside for the procession. As I listen to the Gospel account of Jesus’ crucifixion the palm branch in my hand reminds me that like the palm trees, Jesus was bent to great extremes—but I trust that he’ll stand tall among us, silhouetted by the sun on Easter.   

Claudia Avila …

Fetal homicide law used in New Hampshire for first time in murder of mother and child

null / Carl Ballou / Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 21, 2024 / 18:30 pm (CNA).

A New Hampshire man was charged with the murder of a pregnant woman and her unborn child, which is the first time the state’s fetal homicide law has ever been invoked.

William Kelly, 38, was charged with second-degree murder on allegations that he recklessly caused the death of 33-year-old Christine Falzone. He also faced another count of second-degree murder on allegations that he recklessly caused the death of her unborn child. 

The indictment from the Carroll County Grand Jury was announced on March 15. 

According to the New Hampshire Department of Justice, Falzone was somewhere between 35 and 37 weeks pregnant at the time of her death, which means she was only a few weeks away from giving birth. Authorities have not disclosed a suspected motive for the alleged murder but noted that Falzone and Kelly lived together. 

The double murder charges present a first-of-its-kind case in New Hampshire. This is the first time any person has been charged under the fetal homicide law enacted in 2018, which allows homicide prosecutions when a third party commits a violent criminal act that causes the death of a preborn child of a woman who is more than 20 weeks pregnant.

In most situations, New Hampshire law does not recognize the rights of preborn children — the state allows abortions through the 24th week of pregnancy. The fetal homicide law only applies when there is a violent criminal action taken by a third party that causes the preborn child’s death — not when a woman procures an abortion or takes an action that causes the death of her preborn child.

According to National Right to Life, 38 states have laws that allow homicide prosecutions when a violent criminal act causes the death of a preborn child. In 30 of those states, this applies at every stage of pregnancy. The other eight, including New Hampshire, only apply in the later stages of pregnancy. 

Falzone was found dead on Dec. 17, 2023, after authorities received a phone call about a woman who was unconscious and not breathing, according to the state’s Department of Justice. An autopsy found that the cause of death was a homicide caused by multiple blunt force injuries. Kelly, who was the immediate suspect in the homicide, was taken into custody.

‘Women should be outraged’: Lawmakers urge Supreme Court to restore abortion pill restrictions

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Mississippi, urges the Supreme Court to restore abortion pill restrictions at a Capitol Hill press conference hosted by Reps. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, and August Pfluger, R-Texas, Mar. 21, 2024. / Credit: Peter Pinedo/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 21, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

With the Supreme Court set to hear arguments in a high-stakes abortion case next week, pro-life House members are urging the court to restore what they believe are necessary restrictions on the abortion drug known as mifepristone.

Speaking at a Capitol Hill press conference on Thursday, lawmakers and activists said it was crucial that the court rule in favor of the pro-life groups in the case Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. Food and Drug Administration (AHM v. FDA), which is set to be heard by the Supreme Court on March 26.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, claimed that “in addition to killing an unborn child,” chemical abortion “presents significant health risks to pregnant women that is at the core of the lawsuit.”

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Mississippi, said at the press conference that in loosening restrictions on mifepristone, the Biden administration is “endangering lives.”

“I’m praying for the justices as they hear these oral arguments next week for all women and unborn children who have suffered from these drugs,” she said. “I’m praying that the right decision will be made.”

“Women should be outraged that other women are put in danger like this,” she continued. “This just is not right, and women deserve better than this.”

What’s at stake?

Represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), several pro-life groups sued the FDA in 2022 to restore abortion drug restrictions, most notably requiring in-person doctor’s visits and prohibiting obtaining mifepristone by mail.

The Fifth Circuit Court ruled in 2023 that the FDA had to restore those restrictions but the Biden administration quickly appealed, leaving the ultimate decision with the Supreme Court.

On March 26 the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case before deciding whether to restore the mifepristone restrictions.

What is mifepristone? 

Mifepristone is the drug most used in chemical abortions, which now accounts for 63% of all U.S. abortions. Mifepristone works by cutting off the nutrients necessary for an unborn baby to continue growing, essentially starving the baby to death.

In 2021 the FDA under the Biden administration loosened mifepristone restrictions allowing the pill to be mailed to women and taken without any in-person examination by a doctor. The administration also issued new guidance allowing retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone, which allowed CVS and Walgreens to begin selling the drug in certain states this month.

Lawmakers and leaders speak up 

In November 2023, over 100 members of Congress signed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to rule in favor of the pro-life groups in AHM v. FDA. On Thursday, several of those lawmakers spoke in front of the U.S. Capitol, continuing to press the Supreme Court to restore mifepristone restrictions.

“This is about protecting the safety of Americans from a politicized FDA,” said Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas.

“The FDA’s disregard for federal law and patient safeguards is appalling, and it’s unacceptable,” he continued. “We cannot allow politics to dictate health care decisions, especially when it comes to matters as critical as the health and safety of women.”

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tennessee, said that “the White House should be ashamed” and that “this is about profit, this is about a predatory industry that preys upon young girls.”

Also present at the press conference were several pro-life leaders including Dr. Christina Francis, an OB-GYN and CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

“As an OB-GYN,” Francis said, “it is appalling to me that the FDA would leave women to perform their own chemical abortions at home, alone, without even one in-person visit to the doctor.”

“What’s even more shocking is that the FDA removed its safeguard despite its own label, stating that roughly 1 in 25 women who take these drugs will end up in the emergency room,” she said.

According to Francis, in-person doctor’s visits are especially vital to check for ectopic pregnancies and to verify the unborn baby’s level of development. Without knowing this information, Francis said, the likelihood of serious complications increases dramatically.

Abortion groups plan protest

Several lawmakers at the press conference mentioned that this case would not ban mifepristone and expressed hopes that increasing protections would be a unifying factor. Several pro-abortion groups, nevertheless, are vehemently opposed to any restrictions on mifepristone.

The Women’s March is one such group and has organized a demonstration outside the Supreme Court on the day of the hearing.

In a statement obtained by CNA, Women’s March executive director Rachel O’Leary Carmona said that “with the 2024 election approaching, and the GOP’s attack on women’s bodily autonomy growing disturbingly stronger every day — it’s crucial to shine a national spotlight on access to mifepristone and for Americans to understand what is at stake for women.”

“The reality of a nationwide abortion ban and limited access to reproductive health care is not a hypothetical — it’s happening right in front of us for all Americans to see,” Carmona said. 

‘I have never worked on a case like this’

In an exclusive interview with CNA, Erik Baptist, the lead ADF attorney on the case, said that the FDA’s decision to drop the mifepristone restrictions was “unprecedented” and based on “reckless” politics instead of science.  

“I have never worked on a case like this where a federal agency tasked with securing the safety of the general public, in particular here, women, has callously disregarded health without basis,” he said. “That is unprecedented what the FDA did here.”

With the hearing fast approaching, Baptist, who is Catholic, said he is grateful for the U.S. bishops’ recent national call for prayer for the case.

“It would be great to have millions of Catholics across this country in union saying a prayer for the outcome of this case, for women’s health, for their protection, and for everybody involved in this case on the issue of chemical abortion in general,” he said.

Baptist said that he expects the Supreme Court will not issue a final ruling until the end of its 2024 term in June.

U.S. Catholic school report highlights steady enrollment, school choice

null / Credit: Billion Photos/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Mar 21, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Following three years of modest growth, enrollment in Catholic education has remained stable since 2023, according to new data made public Wednesday by the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA).  

The NCEA, which gathers statistics on Catholic school enrollment in the United States each year, reported that enrollment remained steady with a 0.0% change in enrollment from 2022-2023 to 2023-2024.

Following two straight years of notable growth, Catholic school enrollment had again risen slightly nationwide in 2022-2023.

“Although the national enrollment decline since 2013-2014 school year has been 281,251, a 14.2% loss of the student population, enrollment in more recent years has stabilized,” the report read. 

Of the 5,905 Catholic schools in the U.S., enrollment in the southeast region of the U.S. has experienced the highest enrollment growth since the 2019-2020 school year, at a 3.6% increase, while the Great Lakes, West, and Far West regions account for almost half of the Catholic school population.

Catholic school closures — averaging about 130 closures a year since the early 2000s according to NCEA data shared with CNA in an email — have been lower in the past two school years. Only 55 schools closed or consolidated in the 2023-2024 school year, while 44 closed in 2022-2023. Meanwhile, 20 new Catholic schools have opened, and 38% of Catholic schools have a waiting list. 

Following record expansion of state “school choice” programs in 2023, the NCEA found that 13.7% of Catholic school students use school choice programs to help them attend Catholic school. 

In four states — Ohio, Florida, Indiana, and Arizona — more than half of Catholic school students are using a school choice program.

Those programs “offer families the ability to choose Catholic schools” by helping parents finance tuition and other educational expenses through programs including state educational savings accounts, tax credit scholarships, and private school vouchers.

“Catholic schools should advocate for the expansion of these programs, enhance awareness among families, and tailor their educational offerings to attract and retain students benefiting from school choice, ensuring access to Catholic education for a broader demographic,” the report noted. 

The NCEA also found an increase in the amount of students with diagnosed disabilities to 7.8%, from the previous year’s 6.9%, which “reflects a growing recognition and accommodation within Catholic schools.”

“The inclusion and support of students with disabilities are indicative of the Catholic education system’s commitment to serving all children,” the report noted. 

Catholic schools in the southeast had the highest percentage of students with diagnosed disabilities, at more than 11%, the NCEA found.

In addition to disability accommodations, 129 Catholic schools featured dual-language immersion programs designed to teach students in both their native and second languages in order to promote bilingual students.

Nineteen percent of Catholic school students are Hispanic or Latino, which the NCEA noted “reflects broader demographic shifts in the United States and the Catholic education system’s response to these changes.”

The NCEA also found an increasing trend of non-Catholic students enrolling in Catholic schools, making up 21% of Catholic school students, which, the report noted, presents both “opportunities and challenges.” 

Meanwhile, 16% of faculty are non-Catholic, and 12% have not reported a religious affiliation.

While the majority of elementary schools remain parish-sponsored, the NCEA found “notable growth” in elementary diocesan schools, from 2.4% in 1990 to 18% in 2023, “signaling a trend towards consolidation and centralized management within dioceses.”

St. Mary’s Gaels men’s basketball team makes history, heads to NCAA tournament

The St. Mary's mens basketball team wins the West Coast Conference, earning themselves a spot in the NCAA tournament. / Credit: Ryan Barnett

CNA Staff, Mar 21, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

The St. Mary’s Gaels men’s basketball team made history this season by winning the West Coast Conference regular season and tournament titles on March 12, earning them an automatic bid for the NCAA men’s tournament.

It’s the third time in program history that the team has won both titles in the same season. This is their fifth tournament title. Their previous tournament title wins came in 1997, 2010, 2012, and 2019.

Since the beginning of the calendar year, the Gaels have only lost one game, winning 17 out of 18 games and ended the regular season 26-7 overall. The Gaels going into the tournament as the No. 5 seed in the West Region. 

St. Mary’s will now face No. 12 Grand Canyon Antelopes in their first-round game at 10:05 p.m. ET on Friday, March 22.

St. Mary’s College, located in Moraga, California, was founded in 1863 by Father Joseph Sadoc Alemany, OP, who became the first archbishop of San Francisco. In 1868 the college was handed over to the De La Salle Christian Brothers, who still administer the school. The private Catholic liberal arts college has a student body of approximately 4,000 students. 

Several other Catholic colleges will be joining St. Mary’s in the “Big Dance,” including Creighton University, Gonzaga University, Marquette University, St. Peter’s University, and the University of Dayton. There are also eight Catholic universities that made it to the NCAA women’s tournament — University of Notre Dame, University of Portland, Gonzaga University, Creighton University, Fairfield University, Sacred Heart University, College of the Holy Cross, and Marquette University.

Denny Bulcao, a St. Mary’s alum and former play-by-play announcer for the Gaels, told CNA that he believes the team has a “good chance of getting to the Sweet 16, possibly farther.”

“This would be our first Sweet 16 since 2010,” he said. “We’ve come pretty close about two or three times since. The last two seasons we lost in the round of 32.”

Bulcao was in attendance at the Gaels West Coast Conference Tournament championship game at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, where the team beat Gonzaga 69-60.

“​​The energy and atmosphere in Las Vegas is always electric, especially the semifinal and final games because so many Gonzaga fans attend,” Bulcao shared. “This year there were more St. Mary’s fans than I’d ever seen, which was excellent!”

St. Mary’s “won the semifinal game against Santa Clara pretty easily,” he added, “and the final was a hard-fought win over Gonzaga, a team that usually wins the conference and tournament championship.” 

“St. Mary’s winning the regular season championship and the tournament championship is a really big deal, and it’s also especially fun to see St. Mary’s alumni and people that I worked with in the athletics department at the games.”

The former announcer highlighted the team’s defense and solid rebounding as its strengths.

“These are things that our head coach, Randy Bennett, has always stressed,” he explained. “We have a few talented shooters in guard Aidan Mahaney and forward Alex Ducas. Our ‘bigs,’ Mitchell Saxen and Mason Forbes, are usually solid. We also usually don’t make stupid mistakes or commit too many turnovers.”

Despite having a rocky start to their season, Bulcao said, “I think the team finally figured out who the true five starters would be and how they could play well together. Our point guard Augustas Marciulionis really stepped up and became the leader of the team, something we didn’t have and desperately needed for the first 10 games.”

Montana Supreme Court OKs pro-abortion measure for voters in 2024

null / Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Mar 21, 2024 / 11:35 am (CNA).

The Montana Supreme Court this week gave the green light to a pro-abortion amendment to the state’s constitution that may appear before voters in November. 

In a 6-1 decision issued on Monday, the court held that state Attorney General Austin Knudsen had “erred” when his office determined that the proposed pro-abortion ballot measure was “legally insufficient” to be placed on the ballot in this year’s election. 

The measure as described on the Montana secretary of state’s website would “[prohibit] the government from denying or burdening the right to abortion before fetal viability” and would further forbid any restrictions on abortion “when it is necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”

State Deputy Solicitor General Brent Mead said in a Jan. 16 letter that the measure fails the state’s “separate-vote requirement,” which mandates that multiple state ballot measures be prepared and submitted separately so that voters can distinguish between them. 

The measure would change Montana state law in numerous ways, Mead argued, including rules regarding fetal viability and medical regulations; the measure as it was written “creates an express right to abortion but denies voters the ability to express their views on the nuance of the right,” he argued. 

In their ruling, the justices disagreed with Mead’s assessment, arguing that the ballot proposal “effects a single change to the Montana Constitution on a single subject,” namely the right to abortion.

“If [the measure] is placed on the ballot, voters may ultimately agree or disagree with the proposed change that [it] offers,” the justices wrote, “but they will be able to understand what they are being asked to vote upon.”

The court ordered that Knudsen “prepare a ballot statement consistent with the applicable statutory requirements” and that his office “forward the statement to the Montana secretary of state within five days.”

In his dissent, Justice Jim Rice argued that the attorney general “properly determined that the initiative, in its totality, is legally insufficient.” 

He wrote that the measure makes “two or more changes to the constitution that are substantive in nature” and that it is “virtually impossible … for a voter to fully comprehend the effects of its multiple provisions.”

Abortion supporters and pro-life advocates have been battling at the ballot box in the nearly two years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 repeal of Roe v. Wade. 

Voters in seven other states around the country — California, Vermont, Michigan, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, and Ohio — have voted in favor of abortion since Roe’s repeal with residents either voting to expand abortion access or else voting down pro-life measures at the ballot box. 

Nearly a dozen other states, meanwhile, are considering various abortion measures, both pro-life and pro-abortion, in November. 

CUA panel: Prenatal testing poses unique threat to preborn children with Down syndrome

Carissa Carroll, pictured with her son Jack, founded the nonprofit organization Jack's Basket to celebrate babies with Down syndrome / Credit: Screenshot/EWTN Pro-Life Weekly

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 21, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

As many countries celebrate World Down Syndrome Day on March 21, a panel of pro-life leaders and scholars is calling attention to the threat that prenatal testing poses to preborn children who are diagnosed with Down syndrome in the womb.

“[The mother] often faces tremendous internal and external pressure to undergo an abortion,” said J.D. Flynn, who moderated the panel at the Catholic University of America’s Institute for Human Ecology and is himself the father of two children with Down syndrome. 

Prenatal screening within the first 11 through 14 weeks of pregnancy can determine whether a preborn child has a higher likelihood of having Down syndrome, but a follow-up diagnostic test can confirm whether the child has the condition. Although efforts to destigmatize the condition have had some success, the likelihood that a mother will abort her child increases dramatically after such a diagnosis. 

A 2012 study that compiled data from 24 studies between 1995 and 2011 found that more than two-thirds of preborn children who were diagnosed with Down syndrome in the womb were killed via abortion. Rates throughout Europe are even higher — more than 90%. In Iceland, nearly all preborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted and only about two or three children with Down syndrome are born every year.

Mary O’Callaghan, a visiting fellow at Notre Dame University’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, noted a disconnect between the “more positive” attitude the public expresses about people with Down syndrome and the “more aggressive targeting” of abortion for preborn children with Down syndrome.

“Those with Down syndrome are increasingly showing us their ability to flourish,” said O’Callaghan, who also has a child with Down syndrome. In spite of this, she said, “we’re in a much worse place in respect to abortion and Down syndrome.”

Bridget Brown, a 36-year-old woman with Down syndrome who serves on the National Catholic Partnership on Disability Council on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, expressed the same concern. 

Noting the trends in countries such as Iceland, Brown said she may be from the last generation of people with Down syndrome: “The world may never again benefit from our gifts.”

“This is genocide — the systematic killing of a whole people,” Brown added, citing a letter she wrote to Pope Francis about the situation in Iceland before meeting the pontiff in 2017.

Bridget Brown meets with Pope Francis in Vatican City on Oct. 21, 2017. Credit:  L'Osservatore Romano.
Bridget Brown meets with Pope Francis in Vatican City on Oct. 21, 2017. Credit: L'Osservatore Romano.

According to Tracy Winsor, who co-founded an organization to support couples who carry their children to term after a prenatal diagnosis called Be Not Afraid, many women consider abortion after a diagnosis because receiving the news is a “traumatic event” for most couples and is presented as a “worst-case scenario.” 

Winsor noted that doctors will present a lot of information, which “can be overwhelming” at the moment. She advises parents to immediately connect with parents who have children living with Down syndrome and to advocates for individuals with Down syndrome.

O’Callaghan agreed: “Meeting with other parents around this time is very helpful [in reducing abortion].” Prenatal testing, she noted, should be oriented toward preparing for their child.

“They need to think about prenatal testing oriented toward the health of their child,” O’Callaghan said.

Brown similarly noted that like everyone else, her “life is filled with hopes and possibilities” and encouraged couples who receive a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis for their preborn child to approach the situation positively. 

“Make plans based on dreams and not on fears,” Brown said. “Believe in yourself and your child.”

A Divine Seed

A Divine Seed

When we talk about the decline of religion in modern life, religious orders are not often our first topic of conversation. Shrinking Catholic religious life is a relatively specialized concern affecting a relatively small number of people. What use are orders of priests or nuns when 30 percent of U.S. adults belong to no religious denomination at all?

From one perspective, the religious life can seem like a refuge for men and women holding too tightly to an outdated mode of existence. From another, it can seem like the last refuge against a secular world firmly opposed to the truths of religious tradition. Sensing the Spirit: Toward the Future of Religious Life, Judith A. Merkle’s intervention into the question of the religious in a secular frame, is neither a surrender to the secular world nor a retreat from it. In fact, Merkle is not making an argument for the continued relevance of religious life at all. She insists that it is relevant and important because it still exists—and it must now adapt to the changed landscape of religious belonging in what Charles Taylor (one of her main interlocutors) calls the “secular age.”

The book is divided into two sections. The first utilizes Taylor to contextualize religious life in our current world. Taylor argues that we are a population of selves buffered against each other by extreme subjectivity; we live in a world that has lost its ontological commitments to a divinely ordered cosmos, and so we now have many different ways of creating meaning. If Taylor is right, then the ideas and identities that characterize religious life have to be rethought. The idea of a charism, monastic identities like virtuosi, and other concepts whose purpose is “attaining, or helping others to attain, some sort of spiritual perfection” must be reinterpreted for today’s world. Doing so can help better articulate the space that religious life must occupy.

Merkle invokes a biological metaphor: seeds. As religious congregations face the realities of a secularized world, they must unfurl in contemplative action like slowly germinating seedlings. They must adapt and settle into their niches, shift and grow as plants in hostile climates do to survive. It is a metaphor from nature and Scripture: from small beginnings emerge large trees in which “the birds of the air come and make nests” (Matthew 13:32). When it comes to religious life, the pope has a green thumb, too: in a message on the 2023 World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Francis called the gift of vocation “a divine seed that springs up in the soil of our existence, opens our hearts to God and to others, so that we can share with them the treasure we ourselves have found.”

Merkle even has a specific plant in mind: the ice plant, whose bright color against the dull desert sand shines like ice. These plants have a distinctive “flexing and packing mechanism,” intricate folds that only open when enough water has saturated them—a sort of time-release to ensure hydration in dry climates. Merkle uses this metaphor to “gain insight into the adaptations possible for religious congregations today.” She highlights four ways that religious congregations can act in our world: “As a bridge between the sacred and the secular; as a religiously focused lifestyle; as a trajectory of becoming holy and finding wholeness, and as a witness to values which matter—the coming of the Kingdom.” As her title suggests, the Holy Spirit, which both destabilizes and renews, will guide those who are seeking to reimagine religious life.

 

In the second half of the book, Merkle sketches out what she sees as the future of religious life in a secular age. For instance, what does it mean to make a vow of poverty in a world that condemns poverty, either on the grounds of economic injustice or as a failure to achieve the promises of capitalism? How about a vow of obedience, in a culture of justified skepticism toward institutional hierarchy? Or chastity, in a sex-obsessed culture?

Merkle’s response to each is that religious life is a call to conversion which draws us out of the flow of secular life toward a deeper relationship with God. Some might see vows as either an act of resistance against secularity or as an uncritical submission to a dominant authority, but Merkle recontextualizes the vows as a form of worship that “reflect the postures of gratitude, appreciation, and dedication to God.” A person who takes vows becomes attuned as a “worshipping self” who applies devotion to every aspect of existence. A devotional existence is a communal one, a charitable one, an abundant one. As Merkle puts it, “religious life is best described through the language of the abundance of the Kingdom, the hundredfold.”

This abundance Merkle connects with the Jesuit theologian Bernard Lonergan’s fourth level of consciousness, which he calls religious experience. Religious experience for both Merkle and Lonergan is not strictly rational, but instead a result of judgments of value. Religious conversion and experience are oriented toward that which has ultimate value, God, and lead us to “share in the divine nature in the deepest way.” Conversion involves more than making good decisions in day-to-day existence; it’s a desire to know and do what is truly and finally good. 

For Merkle, a fundamental human realization is that “through grace we are capable of God.” It is this realization that alerts us to our calling in life, whether to marriage, the single life, or religious life. God’s grace allows us to be receptive to our particular call and to live out that call well. The only thing that sets the religious calling apart for Merkle is that it is more direct. The religious call cuts out worldly intermediary concerns like careers, money, or romantic relationships; God’s ultimate value shines like a beacon, giving all vows their rationale. Merkle recasts the traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as conditions of the conversion to religious life. Each is undertaken in unrestrained pursuit of God. Poverty is a symbol of absolute trust in a God who provides. Celibacy puts God in place of a loving spouse and children, and through that divine relationship, meaningful human relationships bloom. Obedience is not obedience to an arbitrary authority but the authority that comes from the “active presence of Jesus in the community.”

 

Merkle is aware of the variety of practical solutions proposed for a revival of religious life, but by this book’s end it is clear that her question is not one of organizational strategies but theological sourcing. Merkle is not primarily concerned with how a religious order can attract and keep new members. She is interested, instead, in how people who take religious vows can best form themselves to their vocation in this de-sacralized world. She urges authenticity, an informed faith, and love over fear.

One comes to the end of Merkle’s engaging text hoping for more concrete takeaways about reform possibilities within the Church. Her breadth of knowledge and clear awareness of the practical issues facing religious communities today indicate that she would have innovative solutions for the problems religious communities face.

Yet solutions are contextual and contingent, and therefore temporary. Merkle seeks something eternal, a return to biblical virtues like faith, hope, and love to take religious life out of the realm of the political and into the discourse of the ultimate. To make use of her favored metaphor, the tree-like structure of a religious congregation may wither and fail, its branches bound up and burned. But a tree can also image heaven. The role of religious orders now is to fold themselves into the lattice of those branches.

Sensing the Spirit
Toward the Future of Religious Life
Judith A. Merkle
T&T Clark
$16.06 | 192 pp. 

Jack Nuelle

Notre Dame Law grad pilots legal program for parents of children with disabilities

Veronica Webb leads a seminar for parents in fall 2023. / Credit: Courtesy of Notre Dame Law School

CNA Staff, Mar 21, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

An occupational therapist turned lawyer is piloting a legal program, now midway through its first semester at Notre Dame Law School, to help children with disabilities receive the education they need. 

Veronica Webb helped launch the Special Education Law Clinic in November 2023 to enable parents of children with disabilities to maneuver the challenging legal realm of obtaining education for their children.

The clinic has a practical component, enabling it to offer free services, including legal aid, to parents of children with special needs. 

“Some cases are direct representation where we work directly with the families,” Webb told CNA. “In other cases, we’re doing consulting services, so we’re more behind the scenes, helping support the family as they work with the schools.” 

Webb says that special education “can be difficult for parents to navigate without legal support.”  

“The schools will deny certain services or disagree with what the parents think is appropriate for the child,” she said. 

Sometimes it’s a case of the school treating the diagnosis, not the child, Webb said.

“But we really have to look at what [a child’s] specific strengths and specific needs are to do him justice and support him in the most meaningful way to him specifically,” she explained. 

“We work really closely with their parents so that we really understand and get to know the child’s strengths and their needs,” she said. 

The clinic helps parents “to advocate for their child in a more effective and knowledgeable way,” Webb told CNA. “… All of these components and people kind of come together to support the child because the child is at the heart of everything that we’re doing.”

Veronica Webb at law clinic, pictured next to a Notre Dame law student. Credit: Casey Patrick, courtesy of Notre Dame Law School
Veronica Webb at law clinic, pictured next to a Notre Dame law student. Credit: Casey Patrick, courtesy of Notre Dame Law School

‘A desire in my heart’

Webb’s path to special education law began when she was young. 

“I have a cousin who has autism, and he and I had a very unique bond when we were growing up,” Webb recalled. 

Because of this, she decided to volunteer at her cousin’s summer camp.

“I found out through volunteering that I also had similar connections with other children with special needs,” she said. “And it really just kind of put a desire in my heart to serve them.”

Webb was interested in occupational therapy (OT) and law school “from a young age” but ultimately decided on OT because she “wanted to have a more hands-on impact with the children.” 

But after practicing in a sensory integration clinic in California for three years, she realized she wasn’t making “the impact … that I wanted to make.”

Webb would advocate for the kids as their therapist, attending meetings and trying to communicate their needs to the schools. But she lacked legal training.

“And so I went to law school,” Webb said. “I uprooted my life. I moved across the country.” 

She said the decision would have been hard to make without her faith guiding her. 

“I loved my occupational therapy job,” she recalled. “I was so happy there … But I felt such a strong desire for justice and just a strong calling that I had to respond,” she said. 

Shaped by faith  

Webb, one of six children, says that being Catholic has “shaped” her.

“From a Catholic perspective, we’re called to serve those in need. We also have to protect them and do justice for them,” she said, adding: “I think being Catholic and very purposefully trying to discern God’s will for my life opened me to these experiences and undoubtedly led me to the work I’m doing now.”

Webb says she’s “very grateful to Notre Dame” and “the local community, who is inviting us into this very intimate, personal aspect of their lives.”

“It’s very humbling to be allowed to witness what is going on in their lives and serve them in this capacity,” she said of the families who work with them.

“I really am hopeful that we’re able to serve these families and provide justice and peace and support to their families and their children so that they don’t have to shoulder the burden alone anymore,” she continued.

Veronica Webb leads a seminar for parents last fall. Credit: Courtesy of Notre Dame Law School
Veronica Webb leads a seminar for parents last fall. Credit: Courtesy of Notre Dame Law School

Webb says that South Bend, Indiana — the city where Notre Dame is based — didn’t have the resources parents need for their children’s special education. 

“We saw a need in this area specifically, and it just made sense to fill it,” she said. “Especially at a Catholic university, where the mission of serving and supporting these families with special needs who are often marginalized and have a lot thrown at them — it so beautifully aligns with the Catholic Church’s mission and Our Lady’s university.”