JUDGE FINDS SIX PRO-LIFERS GUILTY;CUA FIRES PROFESSOR WHO INVITED ‘ABORTION DOULA’;ANALYSIS: HOW TRUMP’S PRO-LIFE MESSAGE CAN WIN;CHICAGO OFFICIALS HAVE LONG FRETTED OVER ‘BORDER CRISIS’

 

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31 JUDGE FINDS SIX PRO-LIFERS GUILTY  Six pro-lifers are facing up to 11 years in prison after a judge found them guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, but the Religious Freedom law firm representing the group’s leader has announced that they will appeal the conviction.  READ CUA FIRES PROFESSOR WHO INVITED ‘ABORTION DOULA’  The Catholic University of America (CUA) has fired the professor who invited an “abortion doula” to speak on campus. Melissa Goldberg’s termination came after CUA President Peter Kilpatrick stated there was “clear evidence that the content of the class did not align with our mission and identity."  READ ANALYSIS: HOW TRUMP’S PRO-LIFE MESSAGE CAN WIN  Catholic attorney Tim Busch praised former President Donald Trump’s “winning message on abortion” in a Monday op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. Trump is “doing the hard work of being pro-life without alienating the majority of Americans who describe themselves as pro-choice,” Busch wrote.  READ TAYLOR SWIFT’S ROLE IN 2024  A recent Newsweek poll showed that just shy of 1 in 5 respondents would be more likely to vote for the candidate pop singer Taylor Swift endorses in the 2024 presidential election. As Newsweek reported Sunday, 18% “of voters say they're ‘more likely’ or ‘significantly more likely’” to vote for Swift’s preferred candidate.  READ TROUBLE IN THE BIG APPLE  A bipartisan chorus of lawmakers blasted Democratic New York City Councilman Yusef Salaam after he implied he was “racially profiled” at a brief police traffic stop during which he received no ticket. Salaam is the chairman of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee.  READ CHICAGO OFFICIALS HAVE LONG FRETTED OVER ‘BORDER CRISIS’ Multiple Chicago Democrats have long used the word “crisis” to refer to the nation’s unprecedented immigration surge, according to internal emails recently unearthed by The Daily Signal. Their use of the word came despite constant messaging from President Joe Biden and his administration that there was “no crisis” at the border. READ BIDEN ADMIN MET WITH DISGRACED ANTI-PARENT GROUP  New reports show that a senior member of the Biden administration’s Department of Education (DOE) met with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) less than a year before the SPLC branded parental rights organizations as “hate groups.”  READ HOT BUTTON ISSUES  Do you know what the Church teaches on issues like socialism, climate change, or capital punishment? Apologist Trent Horn has the answers in this episode of the EDIFY podcast!  LISTEN NOTRE DAME CATHOLIC PAPER ASKS COURT TO AWARD FEES  Following their victory in court, student-run newspaper the Irish Rover has requested that the pro-abortion Notre Dame professor who filed a “frivolous” defamation lawsuit against them now pay $178,000 to cover their attorney fees.  READ WASHINGTON STATE BILL AND SEAL OF CONFESSION  Lawmakers in Washington state have submitted a new version of a past bill requiring priests to act as mandatory reporters of child abuse or endangerment. Senate Bill 6298 requires priests to report instances of child abuse, this time with an exception allowing priests to maintain the seal of Confession, which did not exist in the previous, failed version.  READ HE HEARS US ALL  A man with a plumbing leak underneath his home prays that the damage is not as bad as it might be. Meanwhile, a family down the road requests prayers for their loved one currently on the surgeon’s table for quadruple bypass heart surgery. Do we really need to pray for God’s help in our little everyday inconveniences? Here, Jacob Hawk reminds us how prayer actually works, and how we tend to misunderstand the way God hears us all.  READ CATHOLIC 101  Nobody goes from couch potato to Olympian without gradual and consistent training. We can say the same for the spiritual “contest.” The season of Septuagesima isn’t on the official liturgical calendar anymore, but the kind of gradual break-in it suggests might be just the thing to get us in shape for the distance-run of Lent. Anyone wanting to ease into Lent will find this article a great help!  READ SAINT OF THE DAY  St. John Bosco was born to a poor family in Italy. After his ordination, he was sent to Turin, where he witnessed poverty and depravity. The poverty of the city’s abandoned children moved him to found the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales (the Salesian order), which trained boys in trades and provided catechesis. By the time of the saint’s death in 1888, Oratories had spread all over Europe. Today there are over 14,000 Salesians worldwide.  READ DAILY PSALM  “Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.” (Psalm 32:5)  READ DAILY READINGS  Today's Mass readings  READ HERITAGE  “The history of Catholicism in America is not simply Catholic history. It is American history . . . part of the warp and woof, the very fabric and meaning, of American life.” So wrote the late historian Kevin Starr. The Catholic missionaries of the northeast have been largely erased from history textbooks. Discover their amazing story and its meaning for our American life.  READ Paid for by CatholicVote Civic Action, a 501(c)(4) organization. CATHOLICVOTE  |  PO Box 3310  |  Carmel, IN 46082  |  (317) 669-6127