APRIL 22, 2016 | THELEAVEN.ORG
NATION
10
Sanders says his invitation to Vatican wasn’t an endorsement
V
CNS PHOTO/TYLER ORSBURN
Representatives of faith-based groups gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington April 18 as the justices hear oral arguments in a challenge by several states to President Barack Obama’s deferred deportation programs.
Deferred deportation programs has day in court
W
ASHINGTON (CNS) — All eyes are once again on what seems to be an evenly divided Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments April 18 in a major case impacting a U.S. immigration policy. After the 90 minutes of oral arguments in United States v. Texas, the eight Supreme Court justices must now determine if the U.S. president can temporarily protect undocumented parents of American citizens from deportation and give them temporary work permits. At issue are President Barack Obama’s 2015 executive actions
expanding a 2012 program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and creating the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, known as DAPA. The program had been put on hold last November by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, upholding a Texas-based federal judge’s injunction against Obama’s actions. Twenty-six states, including Texas, are suing the federal government in the case, saying the president went too far with his actions. Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller said the president was not just putting a temporary block on deportations,
but giving undocumented immigrants a “lawful presence” in this country that would enable them to qualify for benefits such as Social Security and Medicare. The justices spent a lot of time focused on the phrase “lawful presence” and Chief Justice John Roberts in particular quizzed U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. about it before noting that being lawfully present, having a license and a job did not necessarily mean someone was legally present in the United States. Verrilli pointed out that the primary issue at stake was the “pressing human concern” to avoid breaking up families of U.S. citizen children.
ATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said attending a Vatican conference on Catholic social teaching did not represent a political endorsement of his run for higher office. When asked about the controversy surrounding the invitation during a presidential campaign cycle and whether that translated into the Vatican somehow supporting his bid, he told the Italian daily La Repubblica, “No, that’s not it. The Vatican isn’t involved in that. The conference isn’t a political event.” Sanders was one of about 35 economists, academics, church leaders and politicians invited to attend a conference April 15-16 dedicated to St. John Paul II’s 1991 social encyclical “Centesimus Annus.” The meeting was jointly sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and Bolivian President Evo Morales were also invited to speak at the two-day conference. In his 15-minute address, the Jewish senator extolled the Catholic Church’s social teachings, saying few others “rival the depth and insight” the church displays in its moral teaching on the challenges of a market economy. He extensively quoted from Pope Francis’ many interventions, while also offering snippets of his own political platform, describing the effects deregulation, financial fraud and corporate campaign financing has had in the United States. Despite the huge political, economic and moral challenges, he said, “Pope Francis himself is surely the world’s greatest demonstration against such a surrender to despair and cynicism” and is an inspiration for building a global consensus for a better world. He told reporters that Pope Francis’ encyclical on creation “has played a profound role in turning many people’s minds around about the urgency of the moment in terms of dealing with climate change. So when I received this invitation — yeah, I know it’s taking me away from the campaign trail for a day — but when I received this invitation, it was so moving to me that it was something that I could not just simply refuse to attend.”
Pew survey tracks effect of faith on Americans’ everyday lives By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service
W
ASHINGTON (CNS) — A new Pew Research Center study of Americans across the religious spectrum finds that faith plays a measurable role in how people live their everyday lives. “People who are highly religious are more engaged with their extended families, more likely to volunteer, more involved in their communities and generally happier with the way things are going in their lives,” said the introduction to the study, “Religion in Everyday Life,” which was issued April 12. “Nearly half of highly religious Americans — defined as those who say they pray every day and attend religious services each week — gather with extended family at least once or twice a month,” compared to three in 10 of less religious Americans. Also, 65 percent of highly religious adults say they have donated money, time or goods to help
the poor in the past week, more than half again as many as the 41 percent who are less religious. “And 40 percent of highly religious U.S. adults describe themselves as ‘very happy,’ compared with 29 percent of those who are less religious,” the report said. Of course, such virtue does not extend into all areas of life. “Highly religious people are about as likely as other Americans to say they lost their temper recently, and they are only marginally less likely to say they told a white lie in the past week,” the Pew report noted. “When it comes to diet and exercise, highly religious Americans are no less likely to have overeaten in the past week, and they are no more likely to say they exercise regularly. Highly religious people also are no more likely than other Americans to recycle their household waste.” As for Catholics, “three-quarters of Catholics say they look to their own conscience ‘a great deal’ for guidance on difficult moral questions. Far fewer Catholics say they look a great deal to the Catholic Church’s teachings, the
Bible or the pope for guidance on difficult moral questions,” with 21, 15 and 11 percent, respectively, saying they do, according to the report. Catholics are the single largest religious group in the United States at 21 percent of the survey population, according to Pew’s Besheer Mohamed, the report’s principal author. Pew asked about 16 particular behaviors, in two groups of eight, as to whether they were considered by respondents to be essential to Christian identity. On none of them did more Catholics than Christians overall deem them essential; the closest they came was attending religious services — 35 percent of all Christians, 34 percent of Catholics. In descending order of importance, here is what Catholic respondents declared to be essential: believing in God; being grateful for what you have; being honest at all times; forgiving those who have wronged you; praying regularly; committing to spend time with your family; working to help the poor and needy; attending religious services; not losing your temper; reading the Bible or
other religious materials; and — with a tie between them — helping in the congregation and dressing modestly. Bringing up the rear were working to protect the environment; buying from companies that pay a fair wage; living a simple lifestyle; and resting on the Sabbath. There were not great differences between Catholics and other Christians on the order of the list from top to bottom. Pew purposely did not ask about specifics relating to the Ten Commandments, Mohammad said, adding it would have been “a little doublebarreled.” When making major life decisions, Catholics are slightly more likely than Americans overall to use their own research (84 percent-82 percent), seek advice from family (50 percent-43 percent) and to ask advice from experts (30 percent-25 percent). They are a bit less likely to conduct their own personal and religious reflection (39 percent-45 percent) or to seek advice from religious leaders (10 percent-15 percent).