In this week’s edition:

• A Texas woman at the center of end-of-life issues

• Pope Francis “united in prayer” with LGBT Catholics at conference

• Texas AG sues to keep parents in the loop about contraceptives

• Google suspends pro-life activists account

• and more!

Judge orders that a disabled TX woman will continue to receive sustenance

Summary: Margaret Naranjo, a Texas woman left disabled after a car accident in 2020, will still receive food and water after a judge took action to prevent her parents from letting her die of starvation.

Details:

• Margaret, who suffered brain damage from the accident, is able to breathe on her own but cannot speak, eat, or drink without assistance.

• Her Catholic parents had made the decision to let their daughter die of starvation, as they believe was her wish.

• The parents had gone so far as to schedule a funeral for Aug. 2 and a “celebration of life” part for Aug. 3.

• A local attorney filed an emergency application out of concern for Margaret’s safety.

• A judge assigned a temporary guardian and issued a temporary restraining order against the parents.

Why we care: As explained in the article linked above, the Church is pretty clear on the ethics of situations like this. No. 2277 of the Catechism says “…an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator.” The parents claim to be “well-versed” on the Church’s teaching - either that is not true or the parents are choosing to ignore the teaching. We understand and are sympathetic to the fact that what is right does not always seem to mesh with what feels merciful, but this situation serves to illustrate the the Truth doesn’t change even when it’s uneasy and that there’s always room for education on ethical issues.

Pope Francis sends greetings to attendees of conference for LGBT Catholics 

Summary: Pope Francis said he is “united in prayer” with those attending an Outreach conference in Washington, D.C. for LGBT Catholics.

Details:

• The Holy Father’s remarks were made in response to a request by Fr. James Martin, the controversial founder of Outreach.

• The conference took place at Georgetown University, with Mass celebrated on Saturday by Cardinal Gregory.

• The conference’s panels include “LGBTQ Ministry in Parishes,” “Parenting LGTBQ Children,” “Race, Intersectionality, and LGBTQ People,” and “Gifts of a Life of Chastity.”

• The speaker lineup also includes a self-identified transgender Catholic, who planned to “[celebrate] queer theology and trans joy”.

Why we care: To us this seems to toe the line of “love the sinner, hate the sin” a bit too precariously. There is nothing inherently wrong with panels on ministering to or parenting those given to LGBT inclinations - in fact, we’d say we would be remiss in our duties as Catholics to neglect those issues. That said, given the reputation of Fr. Martin and Georgetown University one might wonder whether the conference truly encourages a proper Catholic way of living out a life with same-sex attraction, especially given the inclusion of a speaker wo celebrates “queer theology” (whatever that is). We don’t want to come across a cynical; we just aren’t crazy about the optics of the pope endorsing what many could presume to be an problematic conference.

AG Paxton sues Biden’s HHS over Title X rule removing requirement of parental consent

Summary: A Title X (family planning/preventive health services) change removes a requirement of consent by a parent or guardian before a minor may access contraceptive services. Texas AG Ken Paxton is suing to block the change.

Details:

• The rule change took place in Nov. of 2021, and states that program’s which receive Title X funding “may not require consent of parents or guardians for the provision of services to minors, nor can any Title X project staff notify a parent or guardian before or after a minor has requested and/or received Title X family planning services.”

• AG Paxton is citing a 5th Circuit Court ruling that this sort of consent requirement does not violate federal law in his suit.

• Paxton’s language in the suit alludes to attacks on parental rights in an attempt to “…implement their extremist agenda….”

Why we care: It’s absolutely mind-boggling that we live in a world in which parents must rely on legal action to have full parental authority of their children’s lives. Duty to raise our children in faith and ethics aside, how are we, as parents, supposed to protect our children if we’re not even allowed to know what goes on in their lives? We applaud AG Paxton’s good work in fighting against this insane rule and hope for his success.

Pro-life activist has account suspended by Google shortly after sending pro-life email

Summary: Trudy Perez-Poveda, a 76 year-old Florida woman, has issued a complaint against Google, hoping for the return of her data after they terminated her account without specific explanation.

Details:

• Perez-Poveda is working with Family for Life to fight the proposed pro-abortion Amendment 4.

• She sent an email about an event outside an abortion clinic; about 60 minutes later her account was suspended.

• Five days later it was permanently deleted for a breach of the company’s Acceptable Use Policy.

• Perez-Poveda requested her personal data, but Google said there was no way to restore the data despite acknowledging that it is legally hers.

• Google has not specified further was exactly it was that led to the suspension and subsequent deletion.

Why we care: We’re not conspiracy theorists here, and we’re fully willing to acknowledge the possibility that Perez-Poveda in fact did do something to breach the policy. That said, the timing is highly suspect, and should it be revealed that the termination was due to “wrong-think” then there is a serious issue on our hands; it’s no secret that many groups (the current administration included) will stop at nothing to deter the pro-life community. This is also a good reminder of the dangers of cloud services. Convenient though they may be, one mistake and years of data could be gone in an instant. It’s especially troubling to feel like that data could be held hostage unless we conform our views to those of the entity storing our data. Doom-mongering aside, let’s hope this is all a big mistake and the situation is rectified without issue.

Other stories

• Pastor who destroyed hard drive with possible child porn steps down

• Bill for child tax credit and tax breaks, which USCCB supported, fails to pass Senate

• Rupnik’s art being “cancelled”, studio says

• Poll deleted by Vatican after results show poor views of Synod on Synodality

• Pro-life news:

  • 3 more pro-life activists sentenced

  • California AG sued by Catholic pregnancy center (+ more)

• Around the world:

  • Lay Dominican rescues hundreds of relics from a flood in the Philippines

  • Austrian priest who turned rectory into crystal meth lab arrested

Saint of the Week

St. Dominic

Aug 8 | Patron saint of astronomers

This week the Order of Preachers celebrates the feast day of their founder. May his austerity and dedication to preaching the Gospel be a reminder of our own mission as Catholics.

St. Dominic, pray for us!

What’s going on:

• August 6 is the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord

• Notable Feast Days