In this week’s edition:

• Vatican continues to use Rupnik’s artwork

• Who is Mexico’s new president?

• Pope Francis to meet with international comedians

• New bill aims to end funding for elective abortions at the VA

• and more!

Vatican slammed over news article featuring Rupnik’s art (again)

Summary: An article on vaticannews.va for The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus features artwork by alleged abuser priest Fr. Marko Rupnik. This is at least the 8th case of the site using his work over the past year.

Details:

• As we’ve previously discussed, Rupnik has been accused of the sexual, physical, spiritual, and psychological abuse of a number of religious sisters.

• While Rupnik has been removed from the Jesuits, he is still under investigation by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and (as we understand) continues to serve as a priest.

• Many Catholics on social media were in an uproar over this continued usage of his work and failure of the Vatican to distance itself from the accused.

Why we care: As Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. posted on X: “2000 years of wonderful and rich sacred art, and the editors @VaticanNews insist on repeatedly choosing Rupnik's art for their website.” We feel this perfectly captures why so many Catholics are upset. There are so many fantastic Catholic artists from history, and even many fantastic contemporary Catholic artists. Why does it seem like Rupnik is the only available option? Surely somebody in Rome understands the negative optics, no? Imagine the impression it gives to those who have been abused by the Church about the importance it places on weeding out abuse. We can’t come up with a compelling reason as to why they continue to choose his art, and can only hope that the Vatican comes to its senses and makes a change while supporting other Catholic artists.

Mexico’s first female president could be trouble for Catholic moral issues

Summary: Mexico recently elected Claudia Sheinbaum to the presidency, the first female president in the country’s history. While Sheinbaum says she hopes to maintain good relations with religious groups, her ideologies conflict with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Details:

• Sheinbaum won the country’s election on June 2 and will take office on Oct 1

• She is a member of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), the Labor Party (PT), and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM)

• MORENA is a part that promotes abortion, gender ideology, and intersectionality

• Sheinbaum has :

  • promised access to “sexual and reproductive health” for women

  • called the overturning of Roe v. Wade a “setback”

  • celebrated the legalization of homosexual “marriage”.

• The president-elect previously met with Pope Francis and Mexico’s bishops, and has voiced her ““desire to maintain good relations with the churches”.

Why we care: Forgive us for being a bit cynical, but it’s not exactly unheard of for politicians to say one thing during campaigns and then do the opposite while in office. Sheinbaum’s professed principles certainly do not align with those of the Catholic Church, and we imagine it’s only a matter of time before the two come into conflict. Our concern for religious liberty and good morality is global, but it’ll be interesting to see whether this has any effect at home given the proximity to and close cultural ties with Mexico in many parts of the US.

Vatican Dicasteries arrange meeting between Pope Francis and 100+ comics

Summary: The Dicastery for Culture and Education and Dicastery for Communication arranged a June 14 meeting between Pope Francis and over 100 humorists from at least 15 countries and “aims to establish a link between the Catholic Church and comic artists.”

Details:

• Americans expected to take part include Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jim Gaffigan, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Tig Notaro, and Whoopi Goldberg

• The Vatican says the goal is “to celebrate the beauty of human diversity and promote a message of peace, love and solidarity, and promises to be a meaningful moment of intercultural dialogue and sharing of joy and hope.”

• The only clergy member listed as an attendee is Fr. James Martin, SJ, who previously served as chaplain of Colbert’s The Colbert Report.

Why we care: We’re of two minds here. On the one hand, this doesn’t exactly seem like the group of folks we’d want having the Pope’s ear and it likely wont score him any points with the TradCaths who already think he’s too liberal. To their credit, one does need to be careful of scandal when meeting with professed Catholics who don’t seem to adhere to Church teaching. On the other hand, perhaps these are precisely the people who need to be in the room with the Pope, who need evangelization, who need a charitable encounter with the Truth. It could go either way, so we’ll be keeping an ear out to see what comes of this.

New bill would stop taxpayer dollars from funding abortions at VA centers

Summary: Appropriations bill H.R. 8580 aims to prevent the Biden administration from using taxpayer dollars to fund elective abortions at Veterans Affairs centers, pushing back against rules that allow VA centers to ignore state restrictions.

Details:

• The VA has not been allowed to use taxpayer money for abortions since 1992

• Rules introduced in 2022 allowed the VA to sidestep these regulations

• Sec 255(b) of the bill states “None of the funds appropriated in this Act shall be expended for any abortion, including through a medical benefits package or health benefits program that includes coverage of abortion.”

• Unfortunately subsection C makes exceptions in 1) the case of rape or incest, and 2) cases where the woman’s life is at risk as determined by a physician.

Why we care: Abortions should never happen, but unfortunately they do happen, though it should never be at the taxpayers’ expense. We’re happy to see some restrictions placed on the use of federal funds for abortions, but would love to see this go further. Ideally there would be no exceptions in the bill, and beyond that we’d love to see no federal funds used to fund abortions anywhere; beyond that we’d obviously love to see abortion obliterated from the face of the earth. Realistically though politics is a game of compromises, so we recognize that it might have been difficult to secure the votes for further restrictions. With that in mind we’d like to applaud those lawmakers who have supported and advanced pro-life policies and encourage them to keep the fight and continue to promulgate abortion restrictions.

Other stories

• Updates on previous stories:

  • From last week’s story on the organoids (we told you our resident bioethicist would correct us): “Regarding the cerebral organoids, your resident bioethicist would likely conclude that they themselves, while being a little creepy, don’t present a bioethical dilemma, assuming the stem cells were obtained licitly.”

  • $775k fraud at FL parish illustrates need for better internal controls

  • Steps taken to avoid controversy over Rupnik artwork at JPII shrine

• Washington, D.C. set to ordain 16 men to the priesthood - a change of ~167% from 2023

• Nearly 1,500 Eucharistic Pilgrims descend on a tiny Maryland town

• Arkansas Department of Health reported 0 abortions in 2023!

Saint of the Week

St. Anthony of Padua

What’s going on:

• Notable Feast Days