– Tej Francis
IRELAND
POPE FRANCIS APOLOGIZES FOR ‘CRIMES’ OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN IRELAND
(CBC News) Pope Francis issued a sweeping apology Sunday for the “crimes” of the Catholic Church in Ireland, saying church officials regularly didn’t respond with compassion to the many abuses children and women suffered over the years.
But as Francis led a service attended by 130,000 in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, elsewhere in the city victims of abuse were joined by activists and supporters to protest against the first papal visit to Ireland in almost 40 years. They asked members of the public to stand in solidarity with them over what they call an attempt to silence and marginalize those the church harmed.
The demonstration held in the Irish capital’s Garden of Remembrance was organized by Colm O’Gorman, a victim of clerical child abuse. Participants said they had urged people to book tickets for the papal visits in Ireland with the intention of not using them to create empty seats and lower attendance numbers. While 500,000 people snapped up tickets to see Francis say Mass, local media said police reported only about one-quarter that number attended.
Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away, somber protesters marched through the Irish town of Tuam and recited the names of an estimated 800 babies and young children who died at a Catholic Church-run orphanage there, most during the 1950s. The children were buried in an unmarked mass grave whose discovery was confirmed only last year.
Francis, who is on a weekend visit to Ireland, told the hundreds of thousands of people who turned out for Mass that he met Saturday with victims of all sorts of abuses: sexual and labour, as well as children wrenched from their unwed mothers and forcibly put up for adoption.
Responding to a plea from the adoptees, the pope assured their aging biological mothers that it wasn’t a sin to go looking for the children they had lost. The women had been told for decades that it was.
“May the Lord keep this state of shame and compunction and give us strength so this never happens again, and that there is justice,” he said.
CINCINNATI, OHIO
CATHOLIC JUDGE DEFENDS DEATH PENALTY SENTENCE ON THEOLOGICAL GROUNDS
(CNA) A Catholic judge in Ohio who recently sentenced a man to death defended his decision on both legal and theological grounds. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker sent convicted serial killer Anthony Kirkland to death row Aug. 28, agreeing with a jury’s recommendation of capital punishment.
Kirkland, 49, was convicted of killing three women and two teenage girls. He has been serving a life sentence for two of the adult murders, while the death sentence was handed down for killing a 13- and 14-year old girl.
“As a person who morally believes in the sanctity of life, to judge another to determine if the imposition of the death penalty is appropriate is not a duty I take lightly,” Dinkelacker said, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
He stressed the rule of law, saying without it, “those not able to protect themselves become prey for those like Kirkland.”
“I took an oath to follow the law and I will do that,” the judge said, according to Fox 19 Now. “To do otherwise, is morally, legally, philosophically and theologically wrong.”
But Dr. Kevin Miller, a theology professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville, suggested that following the law does not require the use of the death penalty. “Prosecutors in Ohio are never obliged by state law to request – and judges are never legally obliged to impose – the death penalty,” Miller told CNA.
He said that the Church has taught since John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae in 1995 that the death penalty can only be justified when it necessary to defend society. “Pope Francis has strengthened that part of the teaching,” Miller said, adding that there is still room for prudential judgment while taking into account these principles.
ST PAUL, MINNESOTA
CIRCUIT COURT UPHOLDS ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ ON CURRENCY
(CNA/EWTN News) The phrase “In God We Trust” does not violate the Constitution, a circuit court of appeals ruled on Aug. 28.
The 3-0 decision by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul, Minnesota came in response to an action brought by a group of 29 atheists and supporters. They contended that the national motto “In God We Trust” appearing on currency was a violation of the First Amendment clause against the establishment of a state religion and a violation of their freedom of speech.
Tuesday’s decision upheld a lower court ruling from December 2016. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a similar decision upholding the constitutionality of the phrase in May 2018, in which the use of the motto on currency was not deemed to be compelled speech.
Circuit Judge Raymond Gruender said that putting “In God We Trust” on currency did not establish a religion, and that it “comports with early understandings of the Establishment Clause.” Further, Gruender said, the motto appearing on money also did not constitute compulsory religious practice and was therefore not a constitutional violation.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Michael Newdow, who represented the atheists and atheist groups, said in an email to Reuters that Tuesday’s decision was “utterly revolting.”
In addition to attempting to remove “In God We Trust” from currency, Newdow has also litigated attempts to remove the phrase “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. He was not successful in that effort.
“In God We Trust” was made the country’s national motto in 1956, when President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law. The phrase had appeared on currency since 1864, and appeared on paper money about 100 years later.
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