NAT IONA L CAT HOL IC R EGIST ER , JA N UA RY 2 , 2022
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ABORTION AND THE SUPREME COURT. As of 2021, the United States was one of only seven countries in the world to permit abortion after 20 weeks of a woman’s pregnancy. Two high-profile cases made their way to oral argument before the Supreme Court, and they held great promise for pro-lifers. L to R: On Nov. 1, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court building after the court heard oral argument in the case challenging Texas’ ban of abortion after the unborn child’s heartbeat can be detected at six weeks. Religious sisters take part in a procession from Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York to Planned Parenthood Dec. 4, the day after the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Mississippi v. Jackson Women’s Health, which seeks to ban abortion after 15 weeks’ gestation. Yuki Iwamura and Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images
Seeds of Renewed Faith Sought Amid Scandal of Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians y e a r i n r ev i ew BY P E T E R J E S S E R E R S M I T H S TA F F W R I T E R
The year 2021 upended expectations that the global COVID-19 pandemic would be tamed and showed political polarization increasing as religious belief declined. In North America, the Catholic Church took steps to plant the seeds of religious renewal and put Catholic witness to the Gospel into action. In the United States, the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol over the election of President Joe Biden, which involved five deaths and 150 badly injured police, prompted Catholic leaders to urge the country to cultivate moral and civic virtues needed for unity. Biden, the country’s second Catholic president, promised unity and delivered on COVID-19 relief and infrastructure bills. But Biden proceeded to disappoint Catholics in a variety of policy areas and enflame divisions. U.S. bishops criticized Biden on migration for his aggressive deportation of Haitian migrants in the face of Haiti’s extremely unsafe conditions and for his full-throated embrace of abortion politics. The Health and Human Services Department began moving ahead on a new transgender mandate, and the Food and Drug Administration approved RU-486 pills for abortion without medical supervision up to 10 weeks. The president’s refusal to moderate the demands of the Democratic Party’s progressive agenda in Congress also sabotaged wide support for his “Build Back Better” social spending bill. It left in doubt the survival of a generous child tax-credit provision praised for reducing child poverty and encouraging parents to have chil-
dren as the U.S. “baby bust” deepened. Biden’s political clout swiftly unraveled after his withdrawal of U.S. military and civilian contractor personnel from Afghanistan led to the country’s complete surrender to the Taliban in time for the 20th anniversary of 9/11, with thousands of American citizens, green-card holders, and Afghan allies left behind. The president’s efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 also deepened political divisions by imposing a farreaching vaccine mandate. By the end of the year, the U.S. saw the arrival of the Omicron variant and the pandemic’s end nowhere in sight. The year also saw significant court decisions that touched deeply on the country’s social tensions. Kyle Rittenouse, a white teenager who shot and killed two men and injured a third (all white) during the 2020 Kenosha, Wisconsin, race riots, was found to have acted in selfdefense and not guilty of the charges against him. More significantly, the state of Georgia successfully brought the murderers of Ahmaud Arbery to justice for trapping and killing the Black young man who was jogging through a neighborhood. The Deep South state is now putting on trial local authorities whose corruption and racism had allowed Arbery’s killers to go free for months. Oral arguments in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health led court watchers to conclude Roe v. Wade might actually soon be overturned, with the abortion fight potentially going to the states. The widespread polarization also came at a time when the U.S. Catholic Church recognized the seeds of American renewal had to come from the Gospel. The U.S. bishops approved
in November a pastoral letter and three-year plan to revive Catholic belief in the Eucharist. But the country indicated hunger for the Gospel. The Bible in a Year podcast soared to the top of the podcast charts shortly after its January 2021 release and remained the No. 1 downloaded religion podcast for most of 2021. The Knights of Columbus also leaned into their efforts to promote the history and holiness of Native American Catholicism with a new documentary, Enduring Faith. The Knights also organized an official pilgrimage in honor of Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk, promoting awareness of the cause to canonize the Lakota holy man and Catholic catechist. The discovery of 215 Indigenous children in unmarked graves led to a national reckoning in Canada’s Catholic Church and gave new impetus to recognize and heal the decades of abuse done to Indigenous children. Pope Francis met extensively with Indigenous leaders in Rome to plan an apostolic visit to Canada and deliver an apology on behalf of the Church. In Mexico, Catholics adopting the lessons of the U.S. pro-life movement held a massive March for Life with 300,000 participants in Mexico City and a million participants in total in marches across the country. Rodrigo Iván Cortés, president of the National Front for the Family, told ACI Prensa they had a powerful message for every level of government. “Let them listen loud and clear: We do not want more deaths; we want more life. We do not want them to legalize the crime of abortion,” he said. “We want them to protect the pregnant woman and the baby that she carries within her.”
TRAGIC ANNIVERSARY AND ABRUPT DEPARTURE. Above, refugees board a bus for a refugee-processing center Aug. 31 at Washington Dulles International Airport after being evacuated from Kabul due to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan following U.S. military withdrawal after 20 years. At right, people cross the Brooklyn Bridge on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
DETERMINED LEADER. Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 16 meeting in Baltimore. The archbishop presided over an assembly that overwhelmingly voted to accept a teaching document on the Eucharist. The bishops’ conference also unveiled its three-year Eucharistic Revival plans at the meeting, the body’s first in person since 2019. In his opening address to his brother bishops, he exhorted them, ‘Our neighbors do not need a new story. What they need is to hear the true story — the beautiful story of Christ’s love for us ... and the hope he brings to our lives.’ AP photo/Julio Cortez
ANOTHER COVID LENT. A priest sprinkles ashes on a parishioner’s head at Tijuana’s Cathedral during the Ash Wednesday ritual in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, Feb. 17. Amid the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tijuana Archdiocese and others across the globe decided to sprinkle ashes on the head instead of marking the forehead of the parishioners, as a measure to avoid contact and spread of the virus. Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images
A POPE AND A PRESIDENT. Pope Francis meets U.S. President Joe Biden at the Apostolic Palace on Oct. 29 at the Vatican. Biden met with the Pope to primarily discuss climate change and COVID-19, but taking center stage was the debate of whether President Biden should receive Communion, given his staunch public support for abortion rights and transgender ideology. Biden said the Pope reportedly told him to continue to receive, and the Vatican didn’t comment. Vatican Pool/Getty Images