Free Republic

Williams Guevara-Martinez was almost 17 when he left his home near San Salvador, El Salvador, and headed north with three other youth and a 30-something guide known as a “coyote.” Guevara’s older brother Adam, had paid the coyote thousands of dollars for the 2,000-mile trip, which took 12 days. Guevara traveled by foot and car, finally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in the back of a truck. Fifteen minutes later, immigration officials discovered his illegal entry and sent him to a Texas shelter. He was there 24 days before flying from Houston to Baltimore, where he was reunited with two brothers,...

After news broke July 17 of Catholic Charities of Baltimore’s aim to house unaccompanied immigrant children at a Baltimore-area facility, the first response Executive Director William J. McCarthy received was positive: an e-mail praising the agency’s decision with a pledge of $200 in support. Others like it have poured in to the agency, Maryland’s largest social service provider. As for the detractors? “Critics are cowards,” McCarthy said. “Most of the responses I’ve received are from supporters,” he said. “What I’m really encouraged by is the number of affirming, supportive and thoughtful people who recognize this for the humanitarian crisis that...

President Barack Obama's executive order of July 21 has installed workplace rules forbidding the firing of gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people by the federal government and federal contractors -- a key provision in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act languishing in Congress. The U.S. bishops have opposed the bill, known as ENDA, which was passed by the Senate last November but was never scheduled for a vote in the House. The bill has been introduced in almost every Congress since 1994. "Today's executive order is unprecedented and extreme and should be opposed," said Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of...

Guns and other weapons are officially unwelcome at Catholic churches, schools and other buildings owned, leased or operated by the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Diocese of Savannah in Georgia. Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory and Savannah Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer issued a decree prohibiting guns and knives with blades longer than 5 inches from parishes, churches, schools, administrative offices and other buildings owned or used by the Catholic community effective July 1. In a statement, the bishops said Catholic places of worship are sanctuaries where “ways of peace and reconciliation” should be the rule. “This decree is rooted in...

Growing up in New Albany, Ind., during the 1950s, I never heard the term “domestic church,” but I knew what it meant. I knew it because my parents and my friends’ parents made their homes domestic churches, even before that phrase from our Catholic tradition was retrieved during the Second Vatican Council. I guess you could say that my childhood friends and neighbors were at home in church and in church at home. But what did it mean in practical terms that we experienced the family as a domestic church? For one thing, it meant that nearly every Catholic family...

Archbishop William E. Lori joined with Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston July 14 to urge all U.S. senators to reject legislation aiming to compel all employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortifacients. In a letter sent to all senators, the archbishops outlined how the “misnamed” “Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act of 2014” (S. 2578) would violate federal religious freedom and conscience protections. The bill, introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wa.), is a response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which exempts closely held for-profit companies from providing insurance coverage...

Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden is enthused by the fruit that came from recent discussions between U.S. bishops and Iran’s religious leaders. “When you build a certain sense of trust and respect, then you can move forward and deal with the issues,” he said. The faith leaders announced June 14 that they oppose actions that endanger the life, health, dignity and welfare of others, including the creation of weapons of mass destruction. That declaration was the result of a March dialogue between a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Supreme Council of the Seminary Teachers...

From the head of the U.S. agency in charge of the welfare of more than 50,000 Central American children who have been apprehended at the Mexican border, to the Honduran cardinal who heads the international Catholic relief agency, Caritas, the message was clear, those minors are as much refugees as the people fleeing upheaval in Syria or South Sudan. “How are these children different from refugees from Sudan” or other war-torn countries, asked Eskinder Negash, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, known as ORR, in the Department of Health and Human Services. “Regardless of whether they have family here,...

Asking for forgiveness, Pope Francis told abuse survivors that “despicable actions” caused by clergy have been hidden for too long and had been “camouflaged with a complicity that cannot be explained.” “There is no place in the church’s ministry for those who commit these abuses, and I commit myself not to tolerate harm done to a minor by any individual, whether a cleric or not,” and to hold all bishops accountable for protecting young people, the pope said during a special early morning Mass for six survivors of abuse by clergy. The Mass and private meetings held later with each...

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced July 1 that it is selling six nursing homes and one assisted living facility operated by archdiocesan Catholic Health Care Services to a Flushing, New York, health care management company for $145 million. The company, Center Management Group, owns and operates 15 nursing homes in New York and New Jersey. Under the agreement, the company has pledged to maintain the Catholic character of the nursing homes. The date for the sale has not been set. The $145 million sale price for the nursing homes will be decreased by certain obligations under the terms of the...

Pope Francis telephoned Rome’s chief rabbi to personally express his sadness over the murder of three kidnapped Israeli teens whose bodies were found June 30 in Hebron, West Bank. Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni said the pope phoned him at home late in the afternoon July 1 and said: “Good evening. This is Pope Francis. I wanted to personally express my sadness for the death of the three youths.” The rabbi told Rome’s Il Messaggero newspaper he was surprised since the Vatican press office had already published a strong statement condemning the murders of the boys who were kidnapped in mid-June...

In a narrowly tailored 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court June 30 said closely held companies may be exempted from a government requirement to include contraceptives in employee health insurance coverage under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The court said that Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods, the two family-run companies that objected to the government mandate that employees be covered for a range of contraceptives, including drugs considered to be abortifacients, are protected from the requirement of the Affordable Care Act. The opinion essentially held that for-profit companies may hold protected religious views. But the court also said that government requirements...

The Eucharist conforms Catholics to “the pattern of Christ’s self-giving love” and compels them to see the dignity of the poor and perform acts of mercy, Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori said at the June 21 opening Mass for this year’s Fortnight for Freedom. The Mass coincided with the feast of Corpus Christi. “By entering the dynamic of Christ’s self-giving eucharistic love, we are impelled ... to work for a loving and just society where the dignity of human life is respected from conception until natural death and all the stages in between,” he said in his homily. More than...

Praying for peace in the Holy Land alongside leaders of long-antagonistic nations, Pope Francis called on God to act where human efforts had failed, to end what he described as violence inspired by the devil. “More than once we have been on the verge of peace, but the evil one, employing a variety of means, has succeeded in blocking it,” the pope said June 8 at an evening ceremony in the Vatican Gardens. “That is why we are here, because we know and we believe that we need the help of God.” The pope addressed his remarks to Israeli President...

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ruled June 4 that members of the Catholic Benefits Association (CBA), including the Archdiocese of Baltimore and Catholic Review Media (CRMedia), are exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s mandate requiring all employers, including most religious employers, to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion-causing drugs. Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore said the court decision will allow the CBA to provide “quality, cost-competitive, morally compliant health care benefits for their employees.” Here’s what Catholics need to know: This all began in 2011 when the HHS defined “preventive services.” Congress...

A memorial of candles, daisies and a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe clustered around a black-and-white photo of 16-year-old Oscar Torres, who was shot and killed on the spot May 26. Days later, his blood still stained the ground. The memorial was steps away from Viva House, a Catholic Worker House and soup kitchen. Its founders, Brendan Walsh and Willa Bickham, didn’t know Torres or his family, but have reached out to his parents and brother who live nearby. Viva House also made a donation to his parents to help them transport his body to his native Mexico, where...

Naomi Phillips, 85, sat in the shade outside Village Crossroads II watching the community’s formal dedication May 19. She moved to the new Catholic Charities affordable senior housing community in March after living most of her adult life in Latrobe Homes, subsidized city housing in East Baltimore. Village Crossroads, she said, is “real nice” and reminds her of her childhood home in North Carolina. “I love it because I was born in the country,” she said. “There’s nice country air and peace and quiet.” The 180-unit community includes two buildings, Village Crossroads I and II, near the intersection of Belair...

When Pope Francis highlights his upcoming pilgrimage to the Holy Land by meeting with the leader of the Orthodox Church, the papal delegation will include Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, a most interested observer. Since May 2012, the archbishop emeritus of Baltimore has served as grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher, which promotes the support and protection of Christians in the Holy Land. The pope is scheduled to meet May 25 in Jerusalem with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, according to Catholic News Service, “considered first among equals by Orthodox bishops.” According to an official itinerary, the...

Via social media, I heard there is a student club at Harvard planning a “Black Mass” for today. When I first heard of it, I didn’t think much about it except to pray for all involved, on both sides of the issue. Then, as today approached, I started to see more in my feed about this “Black Mass,” and I wondered if someone had penned a response, official or otherwise. You see, I’m not looking for official guidance on how to respond to a group of students exercising their first amendment right to free speech, especially if they change venues...

Before I started reading Something Other Than God: How I Passionately Sought Happiness and Accidentally Found It, I wasn't sure what to expect. I am a regular reader of Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog, Conversion Diary, so I knew the author was an excellent writer with six children and an intense fear of scorpions. I also knew she had made the journey from atheism to Catholicism. As Jennifer raised questions about Christianity and then Catholicism, sometimes I found myself arguing with her. Other times I realized she was asking a question I couldn’t easily answer myself. Why does God answer some people’s...