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| CA Drops Prosecution Against Sandra Merritt, Who Exposed Planned Parenthood Aborted Baby Part Sales |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-28-2025, 06:39 AM - Forum: Abortion
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California Drops Prosecution Against Sandra Merritt, Who Exposed Planned Parenthood Aborted Baby Part Sales
![[Image: sandramerritt2.png]](https://www.lifenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/sandramerritt2.png)
LifeNews | Jan 27, 2025
After eight years of prosecuting Sandra Merritt, the California Attorney General’s office agreed to a plea deal to end this criminal case with no prison time and no fines for her role in the undercover journalism and videos that exposed Planned Parenthood’s trade in aborted baby body parts.
Before this unprecedented case, the State of California had never criminally prosecuted undercover journalists for surreptitious recordings made in the public interest. Yet, this courageous grandmother was charged with 16 felonies and faced more than 10 years in prison for shining a light on the abortion industry’s profit from illegal organ harvesting from aborted babies.
Liberty Counsel has defended Merritt for more than a decade against California’s and Planned Parenthood’s two-pronged strategy of criminal indictments and a civil lawsuit. The negotiated plea agreement includes the state dropping all remaining felony counts.
Merritt will plead “No Contest” to only one felony charge, which, after a one-year probationary period will be reduced to a misdemeanor at sentencing, and then expunged from her record entirely. Merritt will serve no prison time, will pay no fines, and will have no other penalties imposed for revealing the truth about Planned Parenthood. The deal is essentially a complete victory for Merritt in this politically-motivated criminal case.
Merritt, along with her co-defendant, David Daleiden, the founder of the Center for Medical Progress, produced a series of undercover videos recorded at the National Abortion Federation’s (NAF) 2014 and 2015 abortion convention and trade shows. The videos explicitly show the abortion industry’s illegal abortion practices and sales of human body parts. The recordings capture Planned Parenthood executives haggling over the prices of baby body parts, picking through bloodied arms and legs of aborted babies in a pie tray, and discussing how to alter abortion methods to avoid violating partial-birth abortion law and obtain more profitable body parts to sell.
Rather than investigate Planned Parenthood, then California Attorney General Kamala Harris met with top Planned Parenthood officials in 2016 and subsequently ordered criminal investigations into Merritt and Daleiden while the next state attorney general, Xavier Becerra, eventually charged them with violating California’s recording law.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Sandra Merritt did nothing wrong. She did the right thing by exposing the depravity of the abortion industry. This plea agreement ends an unjust criminal case by dropping these baseless criminal charges without any prison time, fines or other penalties. Sandra deserves to be applauded and acclaimed for revealing these horrors and then enduring this selective and vindictive prosecution as a result. Murdering human babies to harvest their body parts for profit is evil and there is no excuse for Sandra’s political persecution. This is an extraordinary result for Sandra and the State of California deserves to walk away virtually empty handed.”
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| CDC ordered to stop working with WHO immediately, upending expectations of extended withdrawal |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-28-2025, 06:07 AM - Forum: Health
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CDC ordered to stop working with WHO immediately, upending expectations of extended withdrawal
![[Image: AP25021053982407.jpg]](https://www.stripes.com/incoming/yrt5dl-ap25021053982407.jpg/alternates/LANDSCAPE_910/AP25021053982407.jpg)
President Donald Trump signs an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 20, 2025. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Starts and Stripes/Associated Press | January 27, 2025
NEW YORK — U.S. public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization, effective immediately.
A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, John Nkengasong, sent a memo to senior leaders at the agency on Sunday night telling them that all staff who work with the WHO must immediately stop their collaborations and “await further guidance.”
Experts said the sudden stoppage was a surprise and would set back work on investigating and trying to stop outbreaks of Marburg virus and mpox in Africa, as well as brewing global threats. It also comes as health authorities around the world are monitoring bird flu outbreaks among U.S. livestock.
The Associated Press viewed a copy of Nkengasong’s memo, which said the stop-work policy applied to “all CDC staff engaging with WHO through technical working groups, coordinating centers, advisory boards, cooperative agreements or other means — in person or virtual.” It also says CDC staff are not allowed to visit WHO offices.
President Donald Trump last week issued an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing the U.S. from WHO, but that did not take immediate effect. Leaving WHO requires the approval of Congress and that the U.S. meets its financial obligations for the current fiscal year. The U.S. also must provide a one-year notice.
His administration also told federal health agencies to stop most communications with the public through at least the end of the month.
“Stopping communications and meetings with WHO is a big problem,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a University of Southern California public health expert who collaborates with WHO on work against sexually transmitted infections.
“People thought there would be a slow withdrawal. This has really caught everyone with their pants down,” said Klausner, who said he learned of it from someone at CDC.
“Talking to WHO is a two-way street,” he added, noting that the two agencies benefit from each other’s expertise. The collaboration allows the U.S. to learn about new tests, new treatments and emerging outbreaks — information “which can help us protect Americans abroad and at home,” Klausner said.
The CDC details nearly 30 people to WHO and sends many millions of dollars to it through cooperative agreements. The U.S. agency also has some of the world’s leading experts in infectious diseases and public health threats, and the two agencies’ staffers are in daily contact about health dangers and how to stop them.
The collaboration halt isn’t the only global health effect of Trump’s executive orders. Last week, the president froze spending on another critical program, PEPFAR or the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
The anti-HIV program is credited with saving 25 million lives, including those of 5.5 million children, since it was started by Republican President George W. Bush. It was included in a Trump administration freeze on foreign aid spending slated to last at least three months.
PEPFAR provides HIV medication to more than 20 million people “and stopping its funding essential stops their HIV treatment,” International AIDS Society President Beatriz Grinsztejn said in a statement. “If that happens, people are going to die and HIV will resurge.”
A U.S. health official confirmed that the CDC was stopping its work with WHO. The person was not authorized to talk about the memo and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A WHO spokesperson referred questions about the withdrawal to U.S. officials.
Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. And CDC officials didn’t respond to the AP’s request to speak with Nkengasong about the memo.
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| Trump administration halts cases against pro-lifers, strongly limits future FACE Act use |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-27-2025, 11:17 AM - Forum: Abortion
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Trump administration halts cases against pro-lifers, strongly limits future FACE Act use
The Department of Justice stopped three pending Biden-era prosecutions of pro-life activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act on Friday, with strict new requirements for future invocations of the law to prevent it from being weaponized in the next four years.
![[Image: GettyImages-2189744490.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2189744490.jpg)
President Donald Trump
Getty Images
Jan 25, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews [slightly updated - not all hyperlinks included from original]) — (Updated.) The Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) put a stop to three pending Biden-era prosecutions of pro-life activists under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act on Friday, with stringent new requirements for future invocations of the law to prevent it from being weaponized again in the next four years.
In response to this development, Dr. Monica Miller of Red Rose Rescue and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society told LifeSiteNews that her organizations are “incredibly grateful”:
Quote:We are incredibly grateful, especially grateful to God, that this pathetic lawsuit is gone. It never should have been brought in the first place. Indeed, Red Rose Rescues do not violate the FACE Act, as Red Rose Rescuers do not physically block or interfere with anyone’s freedom of movement. (Please see redroserescue.com for information on this innovative rescue strategy.) But, under the Garland/Biden DOJ, federal prosecutors were simply bending, twisting, and broadening the language of the FACE Act to make what we did fit their perverted interpretation. If we needed to go to trial our Thomas More Society attorneys felt confident we would prevail against this unjust charge. With the dismissal of this FACE case it is the total icing on the cake, on top of Trump’s pardons of the pro-life prisoners who were convicted of violating the FACE law and the extra charge of Conspiracy to Interfere with Civil Rights, resulting in draconian years-long prison terms. Now all pro-life rescuers are free at all levels in terms of the federal prosecutions.
We look forward to the repeal of the FACE act, the worst pro abortion law next to Roe v Wade.
Enacted in 1994, the FACE Act ostensibly protects access to facilities run by both pro-life and pro-abortion organizations, including abortion facilities, pro-life pregnancy centers, and churches. However, conservatives have argued that the DOJ under the Biden administration weaponized the act to prosecute pro-life activists while only a handful of pro-abortion vandals had been arrested after a string of attacks on churches and pro-life centers in the wake of the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Among the most egregious Biden prosecutions have been 23 pro-lifers prosecuted by the Biden Justice Department for entering abortion centers and refusing to leave, and who received prison time despite several of them being elderly with medical issues. Also concerning was the case of Mark Houck, a Philadelphia pro-lifer whom the DOJ prosecuted under the FACE Act after arresting in a morning FBI raid for a physical altercation with a hostile abortion supporter that local authorities had already dismissed. Houck was acquitted in January 2023; Trump pardoned the 23 others on Thursday.
On Friday, multiple media outlets obtained a copy of a memo from Kathleen Wolfe, a supervisory official at DOJ’s Civil Rights Division (CRD). Citing President Donald Trump’s “promise of ending the weaponization of the federal government,” it directs that “future abortion-related FACE Act prosecutions and civil actions will be permitted only in extraordinary circumstances, or in cases presenting significant aggravating factors, such as death, serious bodily harm, or serious property damage.” In the absence of such factors, incidents will be left to state or local law to adjudicate.
“Additionally, until further notice, no new abortion-related FACE Act actions criminal or civil – will be permitted without authorization from the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division,” it says.
It also instructs prosecutors to “immediately dismiss, with prejudice,” three pending cases against pro-life activist Cal Zastrow, Matthew Connolly, and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society.
“If needed, further case-specific guidance will follow for cases in which a criminal conviction has already been obtained but in which a sentence has not yet been imposed, or in which the appeals are not yet completed, that did not present significant aggravating factors,” the memo adds.
“In all three of these cases, our attorneys have led the defense of pro-life advocates targeted by Biden’s DOJ – which had sought crushing penalties, fines, and injunctions against them, to stop them from sharing their pro-life message,” Thomas More Society executive vice president and head of litigation Peter Breen responded. “These cases should have never been brought and we are thankful to the Trump administration for righting that wrong.”
“While this handful of cases are now slated for dismissal, there is no shortage of ongoing attacks on life-affirming ministries across the country as pro-abortion states double down on anti-life policies and lawfare,” he added. “As these legal battles multiply in pro-abortion states, we will tirelessly continue to defend the entire pro-life movement.”
The Trump administration’s actions give relief to those already targeted and ensure no new federal cases will arise in the next four years, but the danger remains of a future Democrat administration using the FACE Act just as President Joe Biden did. To solve the issue, Republicans in Congress reintroduced this week a bill to simply repeal the FACE Act.
The FACE Act Repeal Act of 2025 is expected to easily pass the U.S. House of Representatives and be signed by Trump if given a chance, but before reaching the president’s desk, it will still face a challenge in the Senate, which has a Republican majority with 53 seats but requires 60 votes to pass most types of legislation.
[See also: Mike Lee introduces Senate version of House bill to repeal FACE Act]
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| Dom Guéranger on these Latter Days |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-26-2025, 08:11 AM - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
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Dom Guéranger on these Latter Days
The Liturgical Year, Vol. XI, pp. 426-429
Taken from here. January 25, 2025
Dom Prosper Guéranger, in his commentary on the Epistle of the 20th Sunday after Pentecost, offers a profound description of these times, when there is “an almost universal falling off” from infinite and unchangeable truth. These words can well be applied to our times, where the apostasy has reached the highest cupola of the Church and the sons of darkness seem to be victorious.
We know, however, that after God lets fall a great chastisement on mankind and on the Church representatives responsible for that great apostasy, Our Lady will intervene and we will see a time of peace and holiness, the Reign of Mary promised at Fatima and Ecuador.
Dom Guéranger:
It is then [in the Latter Days] more than at all previous times that the Faithful will have to remember the injunction given to us by the Apostle in today’s Epistle; that is, they will have to comport themselves with that circumspection which he enjoins, taking every possible care to keep their understanding, no less than their heart, pure in those evil days.
Supernatural light will, in those days, not only have to stand the attacks of the children of darkness, who will put forward their false doctrines; it will, moreover, be minimized and falsified by the very children of the light yielding on the question of principles; it will be endangered by the hesitations and trimmings and human prudence of those who are called far-seeing men.
Many will practically ignore the master truth, that the Church never can be overwhelmed by any created power. If they do remember that Our Lord has promised Himself to uphold His Church even to the end of the world, they will still have the impertinence to believe that they do a great service to the good cause by making certain politically clever concessions, which, if they were tried in the balance of the sanctuary, would be found under weight!
Those future worldly-wise people will quite forget that Our Lord will have no need for helping Him to keep His promise of crooked schemes, however shrewd those may be; they will entirely overlook this most elementary consideration - that the cooperation, which Jesus deigns to accept, at the hands of His servants in the defense of the rights of His Church never could consist in the garbling, or in the disguisement of those grant truths which constitute the power and beauty of the Bride.
Is it possible that they will forget the Apostle’s maxim, which he lays down in his Epistle to the Romans - that the conforming oneself to this world - the attempting an impossible adaptation of the Gospel to a world that is un-christianized is not the means for proving what is the good, and acceptable, and the perfect will of God. So that it will be a thing of great and rare merit, in many an occurrence of those unhappy times, to merely understand what is the will of God, as our Epistle expresses it.
Look to yourselves, would St. John say to those men, that ye lose not the things which ye have wrought; make yourselves sure of the full reward, which is only given to the persevering thoroughness of doctrine and faith!
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| Lutheran women ‘priests’ help lead pilgrimage organized by Pope Francis’ diocese |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-26-2025, 08:03 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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With frustrating consistency, Pope Francis continues to expand and fructify the errors of Vatican II and his Conciliar papal predecessors:
Lutheran women ‘priests’ help lead pilgrimage organized by Pope Francis’ diocese
Attended by religious leaders of various creeds – including the Catholic Church, the Lutheran church, the Greek Orthodox – an ecumenical pilgrimage took place through Rome on Thursday night, with participants joining in a call for increased unity.
![[Image: ecumenical-vigil.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ecumenical-vigil.jpg)
Ecumenical leaders at the Jan 23 pilgrimage in Rome
© Michael Haynes
Jan 24, 2025
ROME (LifeSiteNews) — Male and female clerics of the Lutheran, Greek Orthodox, and Catholic Churches joined in an ecumenical pilgrimage across Rome last night, praying for Christian unity in their respective churches.
Attended by religious leaders of various creeds – including the Catholic Church, the Lutheran church, the Greek Orthodox – an ecumenical pilgrimage took place through the streets of Rome on Thursday night, with participants joining in a call for increased unity between their churches.
“Today, gathered here as a community of Christians, we are gathered from different cultures and denominations to celebrate our common faith,” said Bishop Paolo Ricciardi, an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Rome since his appointment by Pope Francis in 2017.
The ecumenical vigil formed part of a week-long series of official events sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Rome, marking the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Concluding the week, and forming the ecumenical highlight, will be the Pontifical Vespers on Saturday, presided over by Pope Francis and joined by a plethora of ecumenical delegates.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, from January 18 through 25, has become an occasion for an increasing variety of ecumenical ventures between Catholics and members of others creeds. While such events take place on a more local level, those in Rome are afforded a particular significance, not least due to the role the Pope plays by virtue of his own participation.
Thursday’s ecumenical pilgrimage began at the Lutheran Evangelical church of Rome, before walking through the streets in a candle-lit procession to the Greek Orthodox church belonging to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, before concluding at the Catholic church of St. Camillo de Lellis.
Alongside Ricciardi (who was the leading Catholic prelate in attendance) the event also drew: Dr. Ian Ernest, the outgoing representative of the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury in Rome; Mirella Manocchio, the female pastor of Rome’s Lutheran church and president of the work of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Italy; Matthew Laferty, the director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome, who has responsibility for the World Methodist Council’s relationship with the Holy See; Archimandrite Simeon Katsinas, of the Greek Orthodox Church.
![[Image: 65173FA1-D445-469C-B78E-F3FF788B00B3-scaled.jpeg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/65173FA1-D445-469C-B78E-F3FF788B00B3-scaled.jpeg)
Bp. Ricciardi reads a message in Rome’s Lutheran Christuskirche. © Michael Haynes
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Lutheran pastor Mirella Manocchio preaches in the Lutheran Christuskirche. © Michael Haynes
Each church stop saw ecumenical leaders read a Gospel passage, deliver a brief homily-style reflection, and a series of petitions invoking divine assistance in fostering further unity.
At the Lutheran church, Manocchio delivered her homily to the congregation, marking her out as the lead female religious leader amongst the group.
An oil lamp was also lit inside the Lutheran church, and carried in procession to each church, where it was handed over to the respective religious leaders, followed by the sign of peace between all.
Such gifts represented “light and hope,” said Monsignor Marco Gnavi, who leads the Office for Ecumenism and Religious Dialogue of the Diocese of Rome. “This offering of gifts also represents circularity, sharing and diversity in the same faith,” he added.
Once in the Catholic church, the participants jointly recited the Our Father using the customary Protestant version, which ends with the line “for thine is the kingdom, the power and glory, for ever and ever.” They also recited the ecumenical version of the Nicene Creed.
Scripture readings and prayers were centered on the theme of Christ’s conversion with Martha, which Gnavi said was a “central theme” in the current age.
Explaining why, he said that “not only the Churches but also the people must face many expressions of real death, which also means division, separation, up to conflict and the massacre of the innocents. … The dialogue between Jesus and Martha shows how in every man and every woman there is a question, implicit or explicit, of faith.”
Much attention has also been paid to the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea which occurs this year. The year 2025 is a rare occurrence in that the See of Rome and those of the East celebrate Easter on the same date, which has in turn given further motivation to the ecumenical bodies of both parties. Gnavi cited the Nicaea anniversary in relation to this year’s Christian Unity Week.
![[Image: 35541DC8-410B-498B-8024-1309C3097C75-scaled.jpeg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/35541DC8-410B-498B-8024-1309C3097C75-scaled.jpeg)
Lutheran pastor Mirella Manocchio preaches in the Catholic church of St. Camillo de Lellis, Rome. © Michael Haynes
Despite the significant anniversary of Nicaea, this year’s events for Christian Unity Week are notably less prominent than in 2024. This is likely due in no small part to the scandal-driven resignation of the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, in recent weeks. Welby was a leading figure in the ecumenical events last year, even receiving Pope Francis’ permission to celebrate and Anglican “Eucharist” in an ancient Catholic basilica in Rome.
Anglican Evensong was also celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica as part of last year’s proceedings. This year, such events have been noticeably absent. Apart from Thursday’s processional vigil, the official ecumenical proceedings linked to the Diocese of Rome have been largely limited to a nightly ecumenical vespers with various Christian bodies, in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.
Contrary to the Vatican’s contemporary approach to ecumenical relations is the Church’s traditional teaching and approach to interreligious relations. Indeed, in Pope Pius XI’s 1928 encyclical Mortalium animos, Catholic participation in Protestant ceremonies or “assemblies” was expressly forbidden. Pius XI wrote:
Quote:… it is clear that the Apostolic See cannot on any terms take part in their assemblies, nor is it anyway lawful for Catholics either to support or to work for such enterprises; for if they do so they will be giving countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ.
He added that the Gospel-style of unity involves return to the Catholic Church:
Quote:The union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the same as He instituted it.
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| Pope Francis institutes 23 women as Lectors, described as ‘tectonic shift’ in Catholic Tradition |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-26-2025, 07:54 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Once again, Pope Francis expands and fructifies the errors in Vatican II.
The following is taken from Vatican II's "Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People," Apostolicam Actuositatem (Nov. 18, 1965):
Quote:The lay apostolate, in all its many aspects, is exercised both in the Church and in the world. In either case different fields of apostolic action are open to the laity. We propose to mention here the chief among them: Church communities, the family, the young, the social environment, national and international spheres. Since in our days women are taking an increasingly active share in the whole life of society, it is very important that their participation in the various sectors of the Church's apostolate should likewise develop (AA §9).
The article by SiSiNoNo on The Errors of Vatican II reminds us with respect to the above quote that:
Quote:The more active participation is provoked, to a great extent, by the false "dogmas" that we have just related, and carried out under their signature, a participation that was condemned by Pius XI as "a grave disorder to eliminate at all cost" in his encyclical, Quadragesima Anno, because it takes "mothers of families" away from their proper duties (AAS23 [1931] 200).
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Pope Francis institutes 23 women as Lectors, described as ‘tectonic shift’ in Catholic Tradition
Following his Canon Law changes in 2021, Pope Francis has now instituted men and women as Lectors four times, citing the 'common priesthood' in doing so. Liturgical scholars have warned that such actions contradict centuries of Catholic Tradition.
![[Image: PF-FL-2025.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/PF-FL-2025.jpg)
Pope Francis institutes a woman as Lector, Jan 26, 2025
Vatican News Youtube
Jan 26, 2025
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews [Emphasis mine]) — Pope Francis instituted 40 men and women in the ministry of Lector today, marking the fourth time he has done so since his controversial changes to Canon Law in 2021.
During Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on January 26, Pope Francis formally instituted 23 women and 17 men as Lectors, handing them a copy of the Bible and instructing them to proclaim the faith to young and old:
Quote:As readers and bearers of God’s word, you will assist in this mission, and so take on a special office within the Christian community; you will be given a responsibility in the service of the faith, which is rooted in the word of God, You will proclaim that word in the liturgical assembly, instruct children and adults in the faith, and prepare them to receive the sacraments worthily.
The ceremony is a recently formed event, and takes place in light of the Pope’s two liturgical writings in 2021. These include his motu proprio “Spiritus Domini” – by which he changed Canon Law to open up the male roles of lector and acolyte to women – and his apostolic letter “Antiquum ministerium,” which further drew on texts from Vatican II to establish the lay ministry of catechist for both men and women.
The 40 men and women hailed from Europe, South America and the Philippines, and it is by far the largest group to receive the ministry in the four years that Francis has performed the ceremony.
![[Image: Screenshot-2025-01-26-at-10.04.50.png]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-26-at-10.04.50.png)
Pope Francis, Jan 26, 2026. ©Vatican News YouTube
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Pope Francis, Jan 26, 2026. ©Vatican News YouTube
![[Image: Screenshot-2025-01-26-at-10.15.52-e1737889106154.png]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-26-at-10.15.52-e1737889106154.png)
Male and female Lectors line up before Pope Francis, Jan 2025. ©Vatican News YouTube
Prior to the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church formed seminarians for the priesthood by the series of minor and major orders.
However, in his 1972 motu proprio “Ministeria quaedam,” Pope Paul VI curtailed the “minor orders” of Tonsure, Porter, Lector, Exorcist and Acolyte, as well as the major order of subdeacon, highlighting instead “the universal priesthood of believers.” Paul VI also changed the minor orders from “ordinations” to “institutions.”
The minor orders of Lector and Acolyte are still practiced in seminaries offering the post-conciliar liturgy, but referred to as “ministries” rather than minor orders, due to Ministeria quaedam.
Since Paul VI’s text, the liturgical actions traditionally performed by seminarians holding the respective “minor orders” have been performed by lay men and women in the Novus Ordo liturgy.
By virtue of his 2021 text Spiritus Domini, Francis codified what had become widespread practice whilst also raising what had become the widespread practice of women in the Novus Ordo liturgy to a formal ministry.
To accompany the new motu proprio, Pope Francis penned a letter, addressed to then-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer SJ. In his letter, the Pope asserted that there is “an ever greater urgency today to rediscover the co-responsibility of all the baptized in the Church, and especially the mission of the laity.”
Drawing from the Amazon Synod in Spiritus Domini, Francis urged “the need to think about ‘new paths for ecclesial ministeriality.’ Not only for the Amazonian Church, but for the whole Church, in the variety of situations.”
Focusing his attention on the institution of female ministers, Francis quoted again from the Amazon Synod, saying “it is urgent that ministries be promoted and conferred on men and women[.] … It is the Church of baptized men and women that we must consolidate by promoting ministry and, above all, the awareness of baptismal dignity.”
![[Image: cq5dam.thumbnail.cropped.1000.563.jpeg]](https://www.vaticannews.va/content/dam/vaticannews/agenzie/images/srv/2025/01/26/2025-01-26-s--messa-in-occasione-della-domenica-della-parola-di-/1737884615328.jpg/_jcr_content/renditions/cq5dam.thumbnail.cropped.1000.563.jpeg)
Pope Francis with a new female Lector, Jan 2025. ©Vatican News
However, liturgical scholars have opposed Francis’ move. One such individual is Dr. Peter Kwasniewski – Thomist and liturgical scholar – who has long warned against Francis’ opening of the Church’s orders to women and laymen.
Authoring a book-length response to the question of women as ministers – Ministers of Christ: Recovering the Roles of Clergy and Laity in an Age of Confusion – Kwasniewski defended the traditional Catholic teaching on reserving the liturgical ministries to men only.
Spiritus Domini, he wrote, was “a tectonic shift both in theology and in praxis,” before adding:
Quote:The motu proprio Spiritus Domini therefore commits a double categorical error by conflating the dignity of the baptized with the dignity of active liturgical ministry.
Joining Kwasniewski was Bishop Athanasius Schneider, of Astana, who has written at length on the liturgical history and import of male-only roles at the altar.
Commenting on the role of women in the liturgy, Schneider wrote:
Quote:“The liturgical service of women in the Eucharistic liturgy, as reader and as acolyte and servant at the altar, was altogether excluded in the theological reasoning of the whole Old Testament and New Testament traditions, as well as of the two-thousand-year-old Eastern and Western tradition of the Church (see the cited study by Martimort).”
Instead, he posited the “common priesthood” – the aspect cited by recent popes in expanding liturgical roles to laity – as being exercised by praying from the nave of the church: “the common priesthood, on the other hand, is represented by those persons who, during the liturgy, are gathered in the nave of the church, representing Mary, the ‘handmaid of the Lord,’ who receives the Word and makes it fruitful in the world.”
With files from David McLoone.
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| Requiescat in pace: Bishop Richard Williamson |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-25-2025, 12:03 PM - Forum: Appeals for Prayer
- Replies (4)
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We have received word that His Excellency Bishop Williamson has suffered a stroke and is unconscious. He has received Last Rites.
The Bishop's Telegram channel, Truth Unchained, implies he is not expected to recover:
![[Image: Screenshot-2025-01-25-105518.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/MH1xhDsS/Screenshot-2025-01-25-105518.png)
PRAYER FOR THE SOULS IN THE AGONY OF DEATH
ETERNAL Father, by the love Thou bearest toward St. Joseph, who was chosen by Thee from among all men to exercise Thy divine fatherhood over the Thy Son made Man, have mercy on us and upon all poor souls who are in their agony.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . . Glory Be . . .
ETERNAL Son of God, by the love Thou bearest toward St. Joseph, who was Thy most faithful guardian upon earth, have mercy on us and upon all poor souls who are in their agony.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . . Glory Be . . .
ETERNAL Spirit of God, by the love Thou bearest toward St. Joseph, who guarded with such tender care most holy Mary, Thy beloved spouse, have mercy on us and upon all poor souls who are in their agony.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . . Glory Be . . .
JESUS, Mary and Joseph, I give Thee my heart and my soul.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul in peace with thee.
![[Image: dying-top.jpg]](https://www.fisheaters.com/dying-top.jpg) |
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| Trump separates taxpayer dollars and abortions |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-25-2025, 09:06 AM - Forum: Abortion
- No Replies
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Trump reinstates Mexico City Policy, separates taxpayer dollars and abortions
The president on Friday signed an executive order reinstating the policy
Fox News [adapted] | January 24, 2025
An executive order President Donald Trump signed Friday will overturn two Biden memorandums and reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which forbids using taxpayer dollars to fund nongovernmental organizations that perform or promote coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.
The Mexico City Policy, initiated by the Reagan administration, has been rescinded by every Democratic president and reinstated by every Republican president since its creation.
During the Biden administration, the Pentagon paid for service members to travel over state lines for abortions, and Veterans Affairs medical centers were allowed to offer abortion counseling and abortion procedures for service members and their beneficiaries, Fox News Digital previously reported.
The administration also provided abortion access to migrants detained at the border, offering transport of unaccompanied pregnant children to states without abortion restrictions.
The White House said that, for nearly five decades, Congress annually enacted the Hyde Amendment and similar laws that prevent federal funding of elective abortion, "reflecting a longstanding consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice."
"However, the previous administration disregarded this established, commonsense policy by embedding forced taxpayer funding of elective abortions in a wide variety of Federal programs," the White House wrote in a statement. "It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion."
Biden's Presidential Memorandum, Protecting Women's Health at Home and Abroad, was signed Jan. 28, 2021, and alleged the policy's restrictions negatively affected women’s reproductive health and undermined U.S. partnerships in global health efforts.
Trump's order rescinds two Biden executive actions that promoted access to abortions and included abortion in the definition of "reproductive healthcare."
The language in the new order clarified the memorandum is "not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person."
The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) told Fox News Digital the policy "will decrease abortion access in countries around the world."
"This far-reaching policy defunds health organizations in other countries that provide abortion services or information, even for victims of sexual assault," CRR said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. "Many of these critical organizations will likely shutter as a result or be forced to stop providing or even talking about abortion services."
CRR representatives also referenced the administration's Geneva Consensus Declaration Friday night, which is a joint initiative to "secure meaningful health and development gains for women; to protect life at all stages; to defend the family as the fundamental unit of society; and to work together across the UN system to realize these values," according to a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The CRR called the declaration "an anti-reproductive rights and anti-LGBTQ political statement" that "intentionally misrepresents itself as an official international agreement, and attempts to undermine the broad legal basis for reproductive rights as human rights."
"The reinstatement of President Trump’s Global Gag Rule (GGR) and rejoining of the Geneva Consensus are direct assaults on the health and human rights of millions of people around the world," said Rachana Desai Martin, CRR chief government and external relations officer.
"We saw the devastating impact of the GGR during the last Trump administration when contraception and vital reproductive services were cut off," Martin added. "There was a spike in pregnancy-related deaths, reproductive coercion and gender inequality worldwide. Many clinics and health programs shuttered, leaving vulnerable populations with nowhere to get birth control, pregnancy care and other vital health services."
Live Action, a global human rights movement dedicated to ending abortion, posted on X after the order was signed.
"The Mexico City policy which ensures American tax dollars do not fund killing children internationally through abortion has been reinstated by President Trump!" the post said.
Fox News Digital requested comment from Planned Parenthood and Physicians for Reproductive Health but did not immediately receive a response.
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