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More Holy Week processions prohibited in Cuba

A Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish procession honoring the patroness of Cuba on Sept. 7, 2023. / Credit: Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in Havana, Cuba

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 28, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

The regime of President Miguel Díaz-Canel in Cuba has prohibited several Holy Week processions in different cities of the country, including the El Vedado area of Havana as well as in Bayamo, a town that was the scene of major protests earlier this month.

Last week, ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, reported on the prohibition of processions in the Diocese of the Most Holy Savior located in the Bayamo-Manzanillo area in the province of Granma, due to the regime’s fear that new protests would break out. The prohibition has been extended to the capital, Havana, according to a Catholic priest.

In a March 25 Facebook post, Father Lester Zayas, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the El Vedado business district of Havana, reported that the day before he had been notified by the government that “the Holy Burial procession would not be approved.”

The Dominican friar stressed that the interruption of this Good Friday tradition will have significant repercussions on the community.

“The refusal seems to be related to my person. Apparently my homilies make some people uncomfortable or nervous,” he commented.

The priest also believes that this decision is a “punishment” for his homilies, which he denied are political in nature but rather shed the light of the Gospel on reality. He called the ban on the procession a “violation of religious freedom” since the parish’s request for permission for the procession was made “in the name of the people” and not in his name.

“Never in my years of priesthood have I made use of public space, say during processions, to call for anything other than piety,” he explained. Given the situation, the priest said that the procession would take place inside the church.

In addition to Zayas’ announcement, according to sources from the Catholic Church cited by the Cuban media outlet 14ymedio, the suspension of outdoor processions has been confirmed in at least two other parishes in the province of Villa Clara, located in the central region of the island.

Father Wilfredo Leiter, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in the town of Sagua la Grande in Villa Clara, said on social media that the authorities have also prevented him from carrying out the Holy Burial procession on Good Friday.

“A lot of people are asking me why we carried out this large crucifix during the Palm Sunday procession. Answer: This figure of Christ crucified was supposed to be brought out on Good Friday but the authorities who claim to respect religious freedom didn’t give permission for that day, so we took it out today. As it was taken down from the altar and weighs 300 pounds we weren’t going to not let it be taken out on the streets,” the priest stated.

Osvaldo Gallardo, a writer and religious freedom activist who lived for more than 40 years in Cuba, told ACI Prensa that the “government fears these processions because they can get out of control.”

“We will find out on Good Friday itself or later if more public religious expressions are prohibited,” he added.

Almost 1,000 violations of religious freedom

Amid the restrictions imposed on Holy Week processions, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) reported March 27 that in 2023 that there were at least 936 incidents violating religious freedom in Cuba.

The most common repressive measures, according to the OCDH report, included arbitrary arrests and harassing families at their homes to prevent them from attending Sunday Mass.

The report also noted that several members of Ladies in White, a citizen opposition movement that brings together wives and other relatives of Cuban prisoners, have had their freedom to worship restricted.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Oregon reports significant uptick in assisted suicides

The Oregon State Capitol in Salem. / Credit: Zack Frank/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is reporting a significant rise in assisted suicide prescriptions and deaths in the state, a move that comes after authorities in 2022 began allowing out-of-state residents to access the lethal services.

Since the state’s passage of the “Death with Dignity Act” in 1997, assisted suicide numbers have been generally rising there, with a markedly sharp uptick since 2013. OHA on March 20 released its 2023 assisted suicide data summary that reported a considerable increase in suicide prescriptions in 2023. 

The study found that assisted suicide prescriptions in the state rose from 433 in 2022 to 560 last year.

Of those 560 prescriptions, 367 people are known to have died from ingesting the suicide “medications.” This is up from the 304 who died from assisted suicide drugs in Oregon in 2022.

Over half, or 56%, of the assisted suicide deaths were of males, while the vast majority, 82%, were 65 years old and above, although one patient was 29. Sixty-six percent of those given a suicide prescription had cancer.

Nearly all — 92% — said their reason for obtaining the drugs included concern over “loss of autonomy.” Additionally, 82% also reported they were concerned about their “decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable” and 64% cited concerns over “loss of dignity.”  

According to the OHA report, only three patients were referred for psychological or psychiatric evaluation, and 154 patients were granted exemptions from the statutory 15-day waiting period.

Just sixty patients, 16%, had a health care provider present when they consumed the suicide drugs.

In all, 2023 saw a nearly 30% increase in assisted suicide prescriptions and a 20% rise in deaths.

This uptick comes after the state passed a law in 2022 dropping its residency requirement for assisted suicide, which made it legal for Oregon doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to people who do not reside in the state. 

The 2023 report said 23 non-Oregon residents utilized the state’s suicide services. However, it noted that this number “may not represent all DWDA deaths from out-of-state residents,” because information on a patient’s state of residence is not collected during the prescription process and OHA does not receive death certificates from other states. 

The state’s relaxation of residency rules was condemned at the time by Oregon Right to Life, which expressed worry that it would mark the start of “death tourism” in Oregon. 

Oregon Right to Life President Lois Anderson said this month, meanwhile, that the state’s assisted suicide laws represent an “appalling lack of care and respect for the lives of Oregonians and those who travel from out of state to receive these death-inducing drugs.”

“Physician-assisted suicide targets vulnerable people who are made to feel that their lives are no longer valuable or worth living,” she said in a March 20 statement. “Instead of continuing to prescribe toxic cocktails of life-ending drugs, we should provide truly compassionate measures, ensuring that people facing end-of-life decisions have access to high-quality palliative care.” 

Anderson told CNA that she is especially concerned for the state’s most vulnerable residents, who she said are under special threat in the assisted suicide laws.

“After 26 years, the law has had a corrosive effect on medical professionals and caregivers who see assisted death as a legitimate response to illness and disability,” she explained. 

Now, Anderson said, there “are no real protections against coercion.”  

She urged people to give special care whom she believes are most targeted by the state’s assisted suicide laws. 

“Our elderly, disabled, medically fragile, and chronically ill neighbors need us to seek them out, actively communicate that each one is a person with infinite value, and find practical ways to help them in their daily lives,” she said. 

Since assisted suicide was legalized in Oregon there have been 4,274 lethal prescriptions and 2,847 reported deaths in the state, per OHA.

PHOTOS: Pope Francis washes the feet of inmates at women’s prison in Rome

Pope Francis kisses the foot of one of the 12 women whose feet he washed at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Thursday washed the feet of 12 prisoners at a prison facility in Rome, with the pontiff continuing a regular tradition of holding the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at local penitentiaries.

The Holy Father told female inmates at the Rebibbia correctional facility, located about six miles from Vatican City, that Jesus “never tires of forgiving” but rather “we are the ones who get tired of asking for forgiveness.”

Pope Francis speaks during a Mass at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Francis speaks during a Mass at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media

“We all have our small or big failures — everyone has their own story. But the Lord always awaits us, with his arms open, and never tires of forgiving,” the Holy Father said, according to Vatican News.

Pope Francis presides over a Mass at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Francis presides over a Mass at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media

The pope during the Mass washed the feet of 12 of the female prisoners present. The dozen inmates were of “different nationalities,” the Vatican said.

Pope Francis washes the feet of 12 women at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Francis washes the feet of 12 women at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media

The pope subsequently “met with the inmates and staff of the penitentiary” and received several gifts including products from the prison complex’s farm.

Pope Francis meets with the inmates and staff of the penitentiary Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Francis meets with the inmates and staff of the penitentiary Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media

In years past, Francis has traveled to prisons and other facilities in and around Rome to wash the feet of marginalized individuals.

In 2023 he washed the feet of 12 young men and women at the Casal del Marmo juvenile detention center on Rome’s outskirts.

Pope Francis meets with the inmates and staff of the penitentiary Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Francis meets with the inmates and staff of the penitentiary Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media

Francis instituted the custom shortly after the start of his papacy. After visiting the Casal del Marmo youth detention center in 2013, he presided at Holy Thursday Masses at a center for the disabled in 2014, the Rebibbia New Complex Prison in 2015, a center for asylum seekers in 2016, Paliano prison in 2017, Rome’s historic Regina Coeli prison in 2018, and Velletri men’s prison in 2019.

The Holy Father skipped the tradition in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pope Francis meets with the inmates and staff of the penitentiary Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Francis meets with the inmates and staff of the penitentiary Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media

Governors in West Virginia, Utah, Idaho sign religious freedom bills

null / Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Governors Jim Justice of West Virginia, Spencer Cox of Utah, and Brad Little of Idaho — all Republicans — signed legislation in their states to enhance religious freedom protections. 

The new West Virginia law establishes stronger religious freedom protections for student organizations at public universities. The Utah law allows residents to bring civil action against government entities if those entities violate their religious freedom. And the new Idaho legislation protects religious rights for faith-based adoption centers and foster care homes.

West Virginia

The West Virginia legislation amends a 1931 West Virginia law that guarantees “free expression on campus.” The amendment ensures that public universities cannot discriminate against student organizations, including faith-based organizations, if those groups require that members adhere to certain values. 

Under the new protections, a public university cannot deny a religious, political, or ideological organization any benefit or privilege generally made to other organizations based on a requirement that its leaders or members “affirm or adhere to the organization’s sincerely held beliefs, comply with the organization’s standards of conduct, and further the organization’s mission or purpose.”

Matt Sharp, a senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement that the new protection safeguards “the ability of belief-based student organizations to associate with those who align with the organization’s mission and purpose.”

“Religious clubs must remain free to require their leaders and members to adhere to their religious beliefs and values,” Sharp said. “This critical legislation specifically ensures that student groups at public universities can freely choose their leaders and members, and further their mission, absent of discrimination.”

Utah

The new Utah law recognizes religious freedom as “a fundamental right” and sets statewide standards for bringing civil action against a local or state government entity when a person believes that entity has violated his or her religious freedom.

Under the new law, which mirrors some of the federal protections in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, people can bring civil cases against public entities if they substantially burden their religious freedom by withholding a government benefit; assessing civil, criminal, or administrative penalties or damages; or exclude a person from a government program or from access to a government facility or service.

Greg Chafuen, a legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement that “citizens shouldn’t be left defenseless when their government attempts to burden their ability to live and worship according to their faith.”

“This law provides a sensible balancing test for courts to use when reviewing government policies that infringe upon the religious freedom rights of Utahans,” Chafuen said. “The law doesn’t determine who will win every disagreement, but it does ensure that every Utahan — regardless of their religious creed or political power — receives a fair hearing when government action forces a person to violate his or her religious beliefs.”

Idaho

The new Idaho law prevents state and local government entities from discriminating against adoption centers or foster care providers for adhering to their religious beliefs.

Under the law, entities cannot deny contracts, grants, or agreements based on the organization’s adherence to policies and procedures that align with “a sincerely held religious belief.” This also applies if the adoption center or foster care provider’s sincerely held religious beliefs contribute to decisions about where to place a child. 

Chafuen said in a statement that faith-based providers “have served children looking for loving homes for centuries while living out their sincerely held religious beliefs.” 

“We applaud Idaho for prioritizing the well-being of kids by prohibiting state and local government officials from discriminating against adoption and foster care providers and parents simply because of their religious beliefs and moral convictions,” Chafuen said. “This law helps children benefit from as many adoption and foster care agencies as possible, faith- and non-faith-based alike.”

Canadian judge grants 27-year-old autistic woman’s request for assisted suicide

null / Video_Creative / Shutterstock.

CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

A judge in Canada has ruled that a woman with autism can be granted her request to die by assisted suicide, overruling efforts by the woman’s father to halt the deadly procedure. 

In a decision this week, Justice Colin Feasby of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta said the 27-year-old woman, identified in documents as “MV,” would be allowed to access the country’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) even as her father argued that she was “vulnerable” and “not competent to make the decision to take her own life.” Feasby’s decision set aside an earlier injunction against the woman’s request for assisted suicide.

Canadian law stipulates that anyone seeking assisted suicide be suffering from “a serious illness, disease, or disability,” be experiencing “unbearable physical or mental suffering,” and be unable to reverse either the disease or the attendant suffering.

MV’s father argued that his daughter “is generally healthy” and that “her physical symptoms, to the extent that she has any, result from undiagnosed psychological conditions.” 

Feasby himself noted that the woman “has not provided any evidence” to contest those assertions, “nor has she identified her medical condition or provided information concerning her symptoms and how they cause her to suffer.” 

In his decision, the judge frankly admitted to MV: “I do not know you and I do not know why you seek MAID.” Her reasons for doing so, he wrote, “remain your own because I have respected your autonomy and your privacy.”

While Feasby acknowledged that the parents of the woman will suffer “substantial” harm if she kills herself, the harm she herself will experience “goes to the core of her being,” he argued. 

“An injunction would deny MV the right to choose between living or dying with dignity,” he claimed. 

“Further, an injunction would put MV in a position where she would be forced to choose between living a life she has decided is intolerable and ending her life without medical assistance,” the judge claimed. “This is a terrible choice that should not be forced on MV as attempting to end her life without medical assistance would put her at increased risk of pain, suffering, and lasting injury.”

Though the ruling set aside the earlier injunction, Feasby said the decision would be stayed for 30 days in order to allow the father to appeal.

The judge pointed out that “nothing that I have written should be taken to minimize or diminish [the father’s] potential loss.”

The woman’s father “can perhaps take some solace in the fact that he did his best to persuade [her] of the value of her life and her parents’ commitment to loving and supporting her,” he wrote. 

Assisted suicide has been legal in Canada since 2016. The Canadian government earlier this year postponed plans to expand its assisted suicide program to include those suffering from mental illness after a parliamentary report said the country’s health system is “not ready.”

The Canadian government’s website says that “eligibility for MAID for persons suffering solely from a mental illness has been delayed” until March 2027.

South Dakota to create ‘Med Ed’ video to combat ‘abortion misinformation’

South Dakota's Governor Kristi Noem arrives to speak during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) meeting on Feb. 23, 2024, in National Harbor, Maryland. / Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

A prominent pro-life group is praising South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem for signing a “Med Ed” bill that it says will mandate the creation of an informational video to combat “abortion misinformation.”

According to a March 25 statement by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA), the South Dakota bill is the “first legislation of its kind drafted to end the confusion caused by the abortion lobby through direct education to doctors.”

Kelsey Pritchard, SBA state public affairs director, said in the statement that “though every state with a pro-life law allows pregnant women to receive emergency care, the abortion industry has sown confusion on this fact to justify their position of abortion without limits.”

“With many in the media refusing to fact-check this obvious lie, other states should look to South Dakota in combating dangerous abortion misinformation,” she said.

The bill, passed overwhelmingly by the Republican-controlled legislature, was signed into law by Noem, who is also a Republican, on Monday. Introduced by state Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt, who is a nurse, the bill requires the South Dakota Department of Health to create an informational video describing the state’s abortion law and clarifying when “life-threatening or health-threatening” exceptions apply.

Now that the bill has been passed into law the Department of Health has until Sept. 1 to create the video and accompanying informational materials. The video and materials will be posted to the Department of Health’s website for doctors and the public to use as a reference in understanding the state’s abortion laws.

South Dakota is one of 14 states that prohibit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. While some states allow exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and fetal anomaly, South Dakota only makes exceptions in cases where the mother’s life or health is in danger.

The ACLU of South Dakota decried the bill when it passed out of committee, saying in a Feb. 28 statement that it “gives anti-abortion activists a guise to appear to care about pregnant patients while actually passing legislation that further enshrines anti-abortion cruelty.”

Pritchard, however, said that the new informational material will help to clear up confusion on when the exception allows an abortion to take place in the state.

“Regardless of political affiliation or whether someone is pro-life or pro-choice, South Dakotans of all philosophies can celebrate that moms will be better protected through direct education to our doctors on their ability to exercise reasonable medical judgment in all situations,” she said.

According to SBA, Kentucky and Oklahoma have also taken steps to clarify their abortion exceptions and the Texas Medical Board is currently considering issuing a clarification to its life of the mother exception.

Easter holiday is canceled then restored in heavily Christian Indian state

St. Paul's Church, in Imphal, capital of Manipur state, after the church was set on fire in 2023. / Credit: Anto Akkara

Bangalore, India, Mar 28, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

After Indian officials’ announcement that Easter Sunday would be a “working day” this year was met with widespread protests from Christians, the governor of the state of Manipur in northeast India issued a statement reestablishing the annual holiday.

The March 28 reversal by the Manipur government, which is led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came within 24 hours after Manipur Gov. Anusuiya Uikey canceled the Easter holiday.

“In partial modification of the government order … dated 27th March, 2024, the governor of Manipur is pleased to declare that only the 30th March 2024 [Saturday] will be working day for all government offices,” the order read.

The previous day the government had announced that “the governor of Manipur is pleased to declare 30th [Saturday] and 31st [Sunday] March 2024 as working days for all government offices.”

Christians account for nearly half of Manipur’s population of 3.7 million. 

Archbishop Linus Neli, who heads the 100,000-strong Catholic Church in the state, told CNA that the Church had protested the cancellations of the Easter holiday to government officials. 

“We are storming the competent authority, awaiting reply,” Neli said.

A half an hour later, the archbishop shared with CNA the government’s “revised order regarding [Easter] working day.”

Tribal dancers waiting their turn at the celebration following the installation Mass of the new archbishop of Imphal Archdiocese, Linus Neli. Credit: Anto Akkara
Tribal dancers waiting their turn at the celebration following the installation Mass of the new archbishop of Imphal Archdiocese, Linus Neli. Credit: Anto Akkara

Prior to that, several Christian groups including those in Manipur had called for the cancellation of the order that stunned the Christians across the country.

“The decision to declare these sacred days as regular working days is not only insensitive but also disrespectful towards the religious sentiments of the significant portion of the population in Manipur,” lamented the Senapati District Catholic Union of Manipur in its condemnation of the governor’s order on the morning of March 28.

Of the 3.7 million Christians in Manipur state, 26% are ethnic Naga tribals, 16% are members of Kuki tribes, and more than 10% of the nearly 2 million Meiteis have also embraced the Christian faith in Manipur.

“By compelling government offices to operate on these holy days, the order not only disregards the religious rights of the Christian community but also fails to recognize the cultural diversity and religious pluralism that should be upheld and respected in democratic society,” the Senapati district Catholic forum pointed out.

“Height of insanity of the Manipur government,” a Christian pastor from Manipur who runs a theological college outside Manipur told CNA.

“What is happening is Manipur is nothing new,” John Dayal, an outspoken Catholic columnist and activist, told CNA.

“The BJP governments both at the national level and in several states had tried to insult and tinker with Christian holy days like Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter several times in the past,” Dayal pointed out.

“In 2002, I moved the Delhi High Court successfully against the bid to make Good Friday and Easter Sunday ‘working days’ against the Atal Behari Vajpayee [who was the BJP prime minister then],” said Dayal, a former member of the National Integration Council headed by the prime minister.

“This Manipur move is keeping with [Prime Minister] Modi’s consistent scheme to whittle away rights of Christianity and Islam in new ‘Bharat.’” (Bharat is the new name the Hindu nationalist BJP has proposed for India).

Since May 2023, Manipur has seen a protracted violent clash between the majority Meiteis, most of them Hindus, and the minority Kukis (all of them Christians) that has left more than 230 dead by the official conservative death toll. Over 50,000 Kuki Christians have been chased out from the Imphal valley along with over 10,000 Meiteis who were driven out from Kuki strongholds.

Amid the violence, over 600 churches have also been destroyed. The majority of them were Kuki, but 250 Meiti Christian churches were destroyed as well in what is seen as an attempt to stop Meiteis from embracing the Christian faith. 

Meanwhile, in another piece of good news for the Christian community, Carmelite Sister Mercy, who had been arrested on a charge of “abetting the suicide” of a sixth-grade girl at the Carmel School in Ambikapur in central Chattisgarh state, was released on bail on March 28 by the trial court.

The girl student committed suicide at home after the nun had questioned her and two other girls for being together in the bathroom for a long period of time. After other students complained to the nun, she asked the girls to bring the parents to school the next day.

Following the suicide of the girl, Hindu nationalist organizations promptly organized a huge crowd to march to the school. Police were brought in and arrested the nun the next morning. Although the large crowd tried to storm the school on Feb. 8, police prevented an arson attack.

Trump’s Bible peddling: welcome message or ‘misunderstanding’ about the faith?

Trump announced his Bible project on social media during Holy Week, saying he partnered with country singer Lee Greenwood on the initiative. / Credit: Screenshot/EWTN News Nightly

CNA Newsroom, Mar 28, 2024 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s message touting a patriotically-themed King James Bible is seen as either a welcome, “heartfelt” religious exhortation or a “potentially dangerous misunderstanding” about the Christian faith, according to several Catholic observers.

Trump announced his Bible project on social media during Holy Week, saying he partnered with country singer Lee Greenwood on the initiative. Greenwood’s 1984 song “God Bless the USA” is traditionally played before Trump’s campaign rally and event speeches.

In addition to the sacred Scriptures, the “God Bless the USA Bible” includes the Constitution of the United States and the country’s Declaration of Independence as well as the lyrics to Greenwood’s hit song.

“Our Founding Fathers did a tremendous thing when they built America on Judeo-Christian values. Now that foundation is under attack, perhaps as never before,” Trump declared. He went on to exhort Americans to “pray that God will bless America again.”

“Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country,” Trump stated. “It’s one of the biggest problems we have. That’s why our country is going haywire.”

“This Bible is a reminder that the biggest thing we have to bring back to America and to make America great again is our religion,” he repeated.

Needed and ‘heartfelt’ message

“We need more politicians promoting the Bible and our founding principles,” commented Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center and author of “Stops Along the Way: A Catholic Soul, a Conservative Heart, an Irish Temper, and a Love of Life.”

“Good for Donald Trump actually promoting religion,” he added.

CatholicVote President Brian Burch seconded Bozell, saying: “It’s refreshing to hear a presidential candidate talk this way.”

In contrast, Burch said, the administration of incumbent President Joe Biden “has put our churches under surveillance, refused to prosecute violence against our churches, and decimated religious freedom protections.”

For his part, Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, told CNA he also welcomed the message. 

“His belief in God, his belief in the importance of Christianity, going to the core of his message [of] the intertwining of religion and the fate of this country — are all heartfelt,” Roberts said. 

“I think it’s important we not overthink this, or over-scrutinize it, but to see it for what it is, which is a great witness by a political leader who has not always spoken about his faith,” he said.

Roberts argued that critics of Trump could learn from the parable of the prodigal son. “When any man or woman maybe has not been the greatest witness of God’s truth decides that he or she wants to speak up, let’s welcome him or her with open arms,” he said.

‘Potentially dangerous misunderstanding’

Bradley Gregory, an associate professor of biblical studies at Catholic University of America (CUA), on the other hand, argued that Trump’s Bible marketing “reflects a basic, potentially dangerous misunderstanding of how our Christian faith should relate to our politics.” 

Gregory, who also serves as associate dean for graduate studies at CUA’s School of Theology and Religious Studies, said that it’s “often underappreciated just how much our understanding of Scripture is affected by what we ‘pair’ with it, either mentally or in this case physically within the same book.” 

“Whenever Scripture and something political are implied to be on the same level, even subconsciously, it makes it that much harder for the Church to see and challenge things that might be in conflict with the Gospel,” Gregory said. 

“And worse, one of the sad patterns of Church history is that when Christians do this and invest political causes with a kind of religious devotion, compromises that betray the heart of the Gospel are usually not far behind,” he said.

Roberts noted that for Catholics, Trump’s promotion of the King James Bible left something to be desired. That version has traditionally been used by Anglicans and other Protestant denominations; it is distinct from the version of the Bible approved by the Catholic Church, which in the U.S. includes the New American Bible among other approved translations.

“It’d be nice if [the God Bless the USA] Bible had all the books in it,” Roberts said. “As a serious Catholic, I’m going to read one version of the Bible,” he said. “The entire Bible. It’s not going to have anything additional in it."

Matthew Bunson, vice president of EWTN News, made similar observations in an interview on the subject with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol on Wednesday.

Trump is tapping, Bunson said, "into what is a wider concern in the United States for decline in religiosity, a decline, as he puts it, in prayer,” he continued. “It’s captured all, I think, by the phrase that he uses in his social media blasts [Wednesday], that he wants to ‘make America pray again.’”

Bunson’s full interview with Sabol can be viewed below.

New Hampshire legislators reconsider ‘medical aid in dying’ legislation

The state capitol building of New Hampshire in Concord, New Hampshire. / Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Baltimore, Md., Mar 28, 2024 / 11:30 am (CNA).

The New Hampshire House of Representatives is poised to reconsider its narrow passage of a bill that would legalize assisted suicide in the “Live Free or Die” state.

Last week, New Hampshire state representatives passed HB 1273 by a margin of just three votes, 179-176. Twenty-four representatives abstained during the vote. However, the bill has not been advanced to the New Hampshire Senate, as one member of the slim majority, Rep. Mike Ouellet, filed a motion to reconsider. 

The Republican politician had initially voted in favor of the proposed law. However, the following day, Ouellet revealed that he wanted to change his vote due to his faith.

“I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life,” the lawmaker told the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism. The Republican politician felt “torn because the bill would conflict with his faith.”

HB 1273 has nine co-sponsors in the lower house (six Democrats and three Republicans) but only one co-sponsor (Debra Altschiller, a Democrat) in the state Senate.

The measure would allow health care providers to “provide a prescription for medical-assistance-in-dying medications to an individual” after determining that individuals have “mental capacity; terminal condition; [a] prognosis of six months or less, or is enrolled in Medicare-certified hospice; voluntarily made the request for medical assistance in dying; and the ability to self-administer the medical assistance in dying medications.”

If the New Hampshire House of Representatives confirms the vote in favor of HB 1273, the state Senate will then take up the bill. The upper chamber is comprised of 24 members (14 Republicans and 10 Democrats); but since the 179-176 vote in the lower house was not along party lines, it is unclear how the Senate would line up on the controversial issue.

Whither Sununu?

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has also not disclosed whether he supports or opposes HB 1273. The Republican politician, who decided not to run for reelection in 2024, has both Catholic and Greek Orthodox ancestry. He was sworn in on a Greek Orthodox Bible that belonged to his great-great-grandfather. 

However, in a March 10 interview with Manchester-based WMUR-TV, Sununu expressed that he was open to considering the proposed law: “I don’t want to say it’s absolutely dead on arrival.” 

New Hampshire would join neighboring Maine and Vermont if HB 1273 passes the state Senate and is signed into law by the governor. It would also become the 11th state to legalize physician-assisted suicide.

The Diocese of Manchester, which takes up the entire state of New Hampshire, has rallied opposition to the bill. Bishop Peter Libasci issued a document on end-of-life issues in April 2022, mere months before the introduction of the legislation.

Rationale for opposition to bill

The document, titled “Three Beliefs: A Guide for New Hampshire Catholics on End-of-Life Decisions,” indicated that the faithful “should avoid the opposite extremes of the deliberate hastening of death on the one hand and the overzealous use of treatment or care to artificially extend life and prolong the dying process on the other.”

The diocesan guide also made it clear that “assisted suicide (or ‘euthanasia’) is a grave evil. It is always morally wrong. In the Catholic view, there is never a situation where it is right to either assist in someone else’s suicide or to arrange for it on one’s own behalf.”

An update on the Manchester Diocese’s “Catholic Citizenship News” website, posted after the House’s initial vote, disclosed that “the diocese is working alongside the NH Coalition for Suicide Prevention, a diverse group that includes health care providers, veterans, and people with disabilities and their advocates. The Church teaches that suicide is always a tragedy and that a caring community should respond with hospice and palliative care to better meet the needs of those facing the end of life.”

130,000 oppose leftist government’s attempt to change meaning of Spain civil war monument

A monumental cross towers above the Valley of the Fallen complex. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 28, 2024 / 10:30 am (CNA).

The Association for Reconciliation and Historical Truth has garnered more than 130,000 signatures on a petition calling for the Madrid regional government to protect the Valley of the Fallen as an asset of cultural interest (BIC, by its Spanish acronym) in opposition to the socialist government’s plans to desacralize and reconfigure the area’s historical significance.

In the petition, which is posted in Spanish on HazteOir’s web portal, the petition’s promoters explain that “the social-communist government has put the machinery in motion to destroy the Valley of the Fallen and transform it into a “museum” of horrors by rewriting history with falsehoods, blaming one side for all the evils [of the 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War] and hiding the crimes of the other.”

Two years ago, the Madrid regional government, headed by President Isabel Díaz Ayuso of the People’s Party, refused to declare the area as a BIC on the basis that the regional Heritage Law prevented it. “After updating the Heritage Law and running out of excuses, she’s still not keeping her word,” the association charges.

The Valley of the Fallen is a monumental complex that has previously been designated as a national heritage site. It was built in the Madrid mountains after the Spanish Civil War with the intention of serving as a center for reconciliation and for the interment of combatants from both sides of the conflict.

The complex has an underground basilica in which thousands of combatants from both sides are buried. Above it stands the largest cross in the world certified by the Guinness Book of Records at 500 feet tall. In the surroundings, a monumental Way of the Cross was built, almost three miles long with about 2,300 steps that ends at the basilica.

Next to it, a community of Benedictine monks from the Monastery of St. Dominic of Silos was established.

Pope Pius XII erected the monastery as an abbey in 1958, the only one in the 20th century to not have been previously designated a priory. In 1960, Pope John XXIII raised the abbey’s church to a minor basilica.

Initially, a social studies center was established on the grounds, which functioned from 1958 to 1982. The abbey runs a hostel and the Holy Cross Choral School, where about 30 boys are educated.

Currently, the Valley of the Fallen is in disrepair due to inadequate maintenance by the government’s national heritage agency. Since 2019, the government has announced plans to eliminate the Holy Cross Valley of the Fallen Foundation, an institution created at the time of the monument’s construction, and create in its place a new legal framework.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.