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Thirty-two Things That Caught My Eye: Censoring the Jimmy Lai Story, Pope Francis Warns Europe about Freedom, the Cruelty of Chemical Abortion & More

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Jimmy Lai during an interview in Hong Kong, May 29, 2020 (Tyrone Siu / Reuters)

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2. Wall Street Journal editorial: TikTok Suspends a Film on Jimmy Lai

On April 18 the Acton Institute released to the public its powerful documentary about Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong newspaperman who’s been in prison for the past 29 months. On Tuesday the Acton Institute’s TikTok account—which was set up the same day “The Hong Konger” premiered—was suspended. Coincidence, tongzhi?

This was not the message that TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew sent when he testified before Congress in March. Mr. Chew presented TikTok as any another American social-media company and discounted influence over content decisions from his Beijing-based parent company, Bytedance.

He denied that TikTok, with global headquarters in Singapore and Los Angeles, would ever censor on behalf of China’s Communist Party. “I want to be unequivocal on this,” Mr. Chew said. “We do not remove or promote content on behalf of the Chinese government.”

How do you define unequivocal? Maybe TikTok doesn’t get an explicit order to remove material Beijing disapproves of. Then again, it doesn’t need one. In 2019 the Guardian reported on past internal guidelines revealing how TikTok censored videos that mentioned such subjects as the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square and the spiritual group Falun Gong that is banned in China.

Do watch The Hong Konger here:

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4. Pope Francis: Freedom is under threat in Europe

Pope Francis said Wednesday that freedom is under threat in Europe as people choose consumerism and individualism over building families and community.

Even today, “freedom is under threat,” he said May 3. “Above all with kid gloves, by a consumerism that anesthetizes, where one is content with a little material well-being and, forgetting the past, one ‘floats’ in a present made to the measure of the individual.”

“This is the dangerous persecution of modernity that advances consumerism,” he underlined.

“But when the only thing that counts is thinking about oneself and doing what one likes, the roots suffocate,” he warned. “This is a problem throughout Europe, where dedicating oneself to others, community feeling, the beauty of dreaming together and creating large families are in crisis. All of Europe is in crisis.”

5. Religious Freedom Commission calls out India, Nigeria and Vietnam for abuses

6. Nicole Winfield: Pope speaks of secret peace ‘mission,’ help for Ukraine kids

Deportations of Ukrainian children have been a concern since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Francis said the Holy See had already helped mediate some prisoner exchanges and would do “all that is humanly possible” to reunite families.

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8. Father Roger J. Landry: Suicide, Depression, and a ‘Crisis of Hope’: Offering Real Help to Our Youth in Despair

It’s obvious that there is a crisis of hope underneath the persistent sadness and the consideration of ending one’s life. This is linked to a crisis of meaning, of the “why” of living, of what gives motivation to be able to change one’s own circumstances for the better, not to mention change one’s environment and the world.

This crisis of hope is linked to a crisis of faith. Gen Z, those born between 1999 and 2015, are experiencing a rapid decline of faith in God. Since 2010, religious practice among high schoolers has dropped 27%. Thirteen percent now define as atheist and 16% as agnostic.

In his 2008 encyclical of Christian hope, Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict described hopelessness as St. Paul once did to the Christians in Ephesus, connecting those living “without hope” to those living “without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Hope comes from recognizing, Pope Benedict said, that God is with us in the world, bringing good out of evil, bringing justice to victims, helping us find eternal meaning even in the most ordinary activities. The failure to transmit the faith effectively to younger generations, and the rise of secularism with its practical atheism spurring people to live as if God doesn’t exist, is doubtless abetting the crisis of our young.

Similarly, the multi-pronged crisis of the family has to be a contributing cause. The trauma of divorce, the absence of father figures, the loneliness that comes from fewer brothers and sisters leading the young to try to earn friends outside the home, the competition for love and attention against parents’ new boyfriends or girlfriends can all create a crisis in the sense of feeling genuinely and stably loved. Being unconditionally and firmly loved is the real source of joy, of what can provide hope in the midst of setbacks and contradictions.

Young persons’ perceptions of that love cannot be taken for granted, especially when they are struggling in authentic self-love while experiencing rapid changes within and around them.

. . .

Culturally, rather than assisting them . . . many in our culture are causing confusion. Those promoting the right to suicide — indeed, glorifying it as a dignified, noble choice in response to suffering — are doing incalculable harm. Either suicide is an evil, a cry for help and loving compassion, an issue of mental health and effective pain management, a tragedy we’re trying to prevent, or it is good for individuals in any type of pain, a good for their families and friends to be unburdened of caregiving, a good for the society, saved of the costs of their health care and the infection of their depression. The right to die movement is proclaiming that life, sometimes, is just not worth living, and how can those well-funded messages catering to our sense of individualism, autonomy, and a fear of being dependent, not have an impact on our youth? Out of love for our youth and anyone else tempted toward suicide, we must vigorously and perseveringly oppose this cultural poison.

As we continue to digest the CDC report, search for the causes of the unsettling trends, and try to find appropriate remedies, it’s a time for all of us to check in on the young people in our life, especially girls, to ask how they’re doing, to talk to them about the pressures they’re under, to ask about how their friends are doing, and to start communicating to them, more intentionally and explicitly, the reasons for hope we have within us (1 Peter 3:15).

 

9. Can religion help treat America’s loneliness epidemic? Surgeon general says yes

10. Margot Cleveland relays the testimony of a woman who reached out to her after hearing her talk about chemical abortion during a radio interview.

I don’t know if I was in shock or not thinking things through. But it never occurred to me that I would be expelling an actual baby in my apartment. I was not prepared for what happened. Neither was my husband. I inserted the pills on Sunday, Jan. 2, 2000. My husband’s brother played college football and they were in a bowl game that day, so we sat on the couch and watched the game.

I started having intense cramping. At one point I went to the toilet, and a baby came out. It looked exactly like the pictures of seven- to 9-week-old babies you see in photos. It was rounded. There was a black eye. My husband fished it out of the toilet and held the dead baby in his hand. I remember looking at it and wondering what it was.

But I also knew what it was. I remember going completely numb. I did not ask to hold the baby. I just stared at it. My husband looked at me, and I think he was in shock too. He put the baby in the toilet and flushed it.

I have never forgiven myself.

. . .

We now have three children, but I still cry myself to sleep thinking of that baby. Nobody prepared me for what happened that day. Nobody even told me what would happen that day. I mourn that baby. I regret what I did with everything in me.

11. Elizabeth Kirk: Buyer beware: Women’s safety is a key oversight in the abortion pill debate

12. Leigh Snead:  Carrying the Cross of Infertility: An Open Letter

If you think you might be called to adopt a child, get that paperwork started. It takes a long time, and it’s tedious. And, even once it is complete, the wait for a child can be long and excruciating, especially since your arms have felt empty for so long already.  You needn’t stop trying to conceive to do this.

13. Ryan Hanlon on the Adoption Process in the U.S. on C-SPAN

14. Kay Hymowitz: The Transgender Children’s Crusade

It’s not that many kids sign up for bottom surgery; on the contrary, those numbers remain extremely small. But trans and “gender questioning” minors have been joining a little-understood revolution in striking numbers. The “gender journey,” the search for one’s “authentic” gender identity, is reshaping the biographies of the susceptible young into a radical and damaging new form. The crusade has been urged on by social and corporate media and their celebrity representatives, endorsed by a shockingly complicit medical establishment, promoted by educators, advanced by judges, and applauded by politicians at the highest levels. (“Incredibly brave transgender children,” is President Biden’s characterization.) Whether they realize it or not, supporters are showing a willful ignorance about child nature and endorsing views completely at odds with child psychology and legal and cultural traditions. In the process, they are undermining children’s understanding of, and parental confidence in, the most basic human realities.

15. Leor Sapir: Nothing to See Here

After a suspicious internal report, a truly comprehensive and impartial investigation of Washington University’s Transgender Center is needed more than ever.

16.  Becket: Feds tell Catholic hospital to blow out sanctuary candle or face penalties

Saint Francis Health System in Oklahoma told to remove chapel candle or stop serving those in need

17. Ashley McGuire: The FBI’s Catholicism Memo Is No Laughing Matter

A government looking to quell violent extremism should be studying the few remaining ties that bind us — instead of trying to sever them.

18. Ivana Greco: Why Rural Maternity Wards Are Disappearing

Before the labor and delivery ward closed, almost all of the women it served were insured by Medicaid. The hospital reported that in 2019, 82 percent of its labor and delivery payments were from Medicaid; 10 percent of patients were uninsured, and 8 percent had private insurance. This so-called payer mix matters because Medicaid coughs up significantly less for hospital births than commercial insurance. Windham Hospital estimated it would save $2.5 million annually by closing its inpatient obstetrics service and sending laboring women to other local hospitals.

The hospital has also struggled to find staffing for its maternity services. In public filings, Windham explained that in 2015, a local OB-GYN group stopped delivering at the hospital. After that, the number of births at the hospital dropped significantly, to 58 when the maternity ward closed in 2020, down from 376 in 2014. The loss of patients can have a cascading impact on a labor and delivery ward’s ability to operate safely. If providers don’t keep their skills sharp by delivering babies, it becomes riskier for women to deliver there. During public argument, an attorney for the hospital explained: “The reality is Windham cannot safely operate its OB service due to a lack of available obstetricians and other clinical staff.”

Connecticut is a small state, and at least compared to more remote regions of the United States, the closure of Windham’s maternity unit didn’t massively increase travel time to the hospital for women in labor. Lisa Thomas, a local elected leader and activist in the area who has opposed the closure of the unit, told me that the next closest hospital is likely a 25- to 30-minute drive from Windham. Still, according to Thomas, many of the routes involve rural roads prone to weather problems, accidents, and slow-moving farm equipment. For Windham’s poorest residents, the increased travel time is particularly burdensome, as it involves seeking care away from supportive family and friends who may lack transportation. Plus, for women in labor, any additional travel time can make a significant difference. (While Windham’s emergency room can still assist laboring women in emergencies, pregnant mothers are usually sent elsewhere.)

. . .

In neighboring Tolland County, Johnson Memorial Hospital is also facing pushback for closing its maternity ward. That hospital has, however, just opened up a new geriatric wellness center. In a news release, the hospital said, “With a significant increase in the number of older adults anticipated in our service area in the coming years, the need for this new unit is undeniable.”

In other words, economies of scale support expanding geriatric care while reducing maternity care. Absent state action, the future of Connecticut’s health system, it appears, lies not in birthing babies, but caring for the elderly. This is a grim harbinger for both the state and the nation.

19.

20.Dr. Jeffrey Barrows: I’m a doctor who survived stage IV cancer. Euthanizing children isn’t medical care

Just days ago, the Netherlands announced that it will broaden its regulations on euthanasia so that doctors can end the lives of terminally ill children as young as 1 year old. This is not medical care; it’s barbaric.

In 2022, I was diagnosed with stage IV cancer. Without strong treatment, my odds of surviving more than a few months were not good. My medical team, however, was committed to exploring every possibility for saving my life. They proposed different treatments and put together a plan that would give me the best possible chance. They believed that no matter how long I had left, every day was worth fighting for.

Had my doctor told me that I shouldn’t pursue treatment, that I should just die, I would have been devastated. In the Netherlands, however, children of nearly any age who are diagnosed with terminal illnesses won’t have time to be devastated; they might be killed first. As a survivor of a terminal illness, that leaves me aghast. But as a doctor, even more so.

. . .

These types of laws need to be stopped. The Netherlands provides a perfect example of what can happen if a nation becomes comfortable with the idea of doctor-prescribed death. Had I lived in California, New Mexico or Vermont in 2022, I would likely have been offered assisted suicide – and had I been offered it in a dark moment, I could have said yes. Instead, I am alive, and I recently received the wonderful news that my cancer is in remission. I have years of life ahead of me – life that state governments across the nation would have compelled physicians to help snuff out.

21. Robert Brennan: Finding meaning from dementia to duty to dying

I could see the passing of a 101-year-old woman with little quality of life as a blessing. My wife and her sister only saw their mom . . . and now she was gone. There would be no more 24/7 care, no more management of her health, and no more opportunities for them to put the hands and heart of God into practical acts of love. They are now dealing with a void that will never be filled completely.

22. Ericka Andersen: Abortion is an issue for men, too

Sympathy and empathy for men who have experienced a partner’s abortion are in short circulation, but a new study shows that post-abortion men are suffering without a lifeline.

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25.  Aid to the Church in Need: ‘Without Christians there will be no peace in Lebanon’

26. Scott Stanley in Christianity Today: How to Improve Your Odds for a Successful Marriage

A substantial number of practicing Christians believe that living together before marriage is a good idea—at least 41 percent, by one estimate. Although far more nonreligious people believe the same thing (88%), 41 percent is not a small group, and it’s likely growing over time.

A recent report from the Institute for Family Studies surveyed people who married for the first time in the years 2010 to 2019. My colleague Galena Rhoades and I found conclusions similar to those of past studies: Patterns of cohabitation before marriage remain associated with higher odds of divorce.

What people often miss is the inertia that comes with moving in together. In essence, cohabiting couples are making it harder to break up before nailing down their commitments. Many of them get stuck in a relationship they might otherwise have moved on from.

Consistent with our theory of inertia, we find that couples who moved in together before engagement were 48 percent more likely to end their marriages than those who cohabited only after getting wed or at least engaged. We also show that moving in together for “relationship testing” or financial convenience is associated with higher risks for divorce.

27. Priest buys, dedicates new cemetery plots for ‘lost sheep’ on ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’

On April 30, Father McKay joined some three dozen ministry supporters to bless and dedicate the Good Shepherd cemetery section at SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery in Springfield, Pennsylvania.

The section, featuring a large statue of Christ as the Good Shepherd and accommodating 40 cremation urns, was personally purchased for approximately $40,000 by Father McKay, who plans to be buried in a casket there as well. Our House Ministries will review and decide requests for burial in the plot on a case-by-case basis.

Our House Ministries staffer Patrick Kennedy told OSV News his sister Kelly Ann, who recently died of cancer, was among the first buried in the Good Shepherd section, along with two individuals who succumbed to addiction and related illnesses.

“Father found that a lot of people were being cremated, and the ashes were winding up in basements and not in consecrated ground,” said Kennedy. “These were people who had died of addiction (as well as) people who just didn’t have the means to be buried. And he decided that he was going to buy a place to put them. He came up with the idea of the lost sheep, so he wanted to be the Good Shepherd.”

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29. Father Peter John Cameron, O.P.: Following is prayer and life is something we learn

Life is something we learn by following Someone who is fully alive. The following of prayer is an asking for the Good Shepherd to pass on his own vitality and excellence to us. Following means committing our whole self to the exceptional Shepherd, offering to him our personality, our intelligence, our freedom. Following changes us. Following is a way of acknowledging that things in our life need to change.

Cardinal Ratzinger wrote:

“Following” is something interior: a new direction for one’s life — surrendered to the will of another, so that being with this other and being at his disposal are now the really important content of a human existence. “To follow” means to entrust oneself to the Word of God, to rate it higher than the laws of money and bread, and to live by it. Only in losing themselves can human beings find themselves. To follow Christ, then, means to enter into the self-surrender that is the real heart of love. To follow Christ means to become one who loves as God has loved. In the last analysis, to follow Christ is simply for people to become human by integration into the humanity of God.

30. Hugh Hewitt: Why we must read fiction even as terrible times loom

“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one,” Steinbeck writes. “Humans are caught — in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too — in a net of good and evil. There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well — or ill?”

That is why we must read, even as terrible times loom and circuses explode every day across the media. There remains only one story, but understanding the people in that story requires mental equilibrium and a taste of many worlds, many perspectives. There is only one story, and that story matters — urgently now, when the net of good and evil is full to bursting. We must not lose its thread.

31. Eric Cohen: Jewish values can save Western civilization

32.  How to Be Human with Father Servais Pinckaers, O.P.: 

The human is more than human: Moral theory can never truly grasp the full meaning of the human itself, unless it realizes that the human is always greater than our idea of it. Whatever is human always exceeds our ideas about it. No concept of humanity can adequately grasp the best and noblest qualities of the human person.

….

The human dimension is revealed particularly in times of trial and suffering, which touch us intimately and show us true reality. It also makes us sensitive to the suffering of others and teaches us that goodness of heart that we describe as “human.” The human is also revealed in love and hatred, hope and discouragements, sadness, fear, and joy, in all the stirrings of the human heart, which open to us life’s secrets.

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