Welcome to the May 12, 2021 edition of
Just 3 Things, the weekly social action newsletter of the Office of Human Life & Dignity. If this email was forwarded to you, and you'd like to receive it each week, please
click here. Valerie Schmalz
Director
Office of Human Life & Dignity
Archdiocese of San Francisco
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Christian leaders in the Holy Land expressed deep concern over growing Israeli-Palestinian violence, as the
two sides clashed in Jerusalem and Israel launched airstrikes into Gaza, responding to rocket attacks. The Catholic and Orthodox leaders appealed for “all parties to preserve the already sensitive situation in the Holy City of Jerusalem.” The Latin Patriarchate (similar to a diocese) pointed to the forced evictions of Palestinians from Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood as “a main flashpoint amid rising tensions in Jerusalem in general.”
(CNS photo)
FREE! NEW! Join Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone for a panel discussion moderated by Antonin Scalia Law School Professor Helen M. Alvaré on the topic of “Life in the Womb: the Preeminent Issue" with panelists: Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins, Live Action founder and investigative journalist Lila Rose, birth mother Kathy Folan, and her son, now an engineer, Nathan Sullivan who was placed in an open adoption. Nathan says: “You’ve heard it before: ‘I am pro-life except EXCEPT in cases of rape.’ I want everyone to realize, especially the EXCEPTer’s that you’re talking about me, and everyone like me. Life is life, no exceptions." Cosponsored by Human Life Action and the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Whether the German Catholic Church goes into schism is a hot topic among Church watchers these days after same sex blessings were conducted at churches across Germany in a protest Monday. On March 15, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a declaration in a document known as a “Responsum ad dubium” (response to a question). In reply to the query, “Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?” the CDF answered, “Negative.” Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the president of the German bishops' conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, defended what has become a somewhat common practice of "ecumenically mindful" reception of holy Communion by Protestants and Catholics during Germany's ecumenical congress May 13-16. (Photo of a blessing service as part of a day of action in defiance to the Vatican's ruling on same-sex unions in the Youth Church in Wurzburg, Germany, on Monday, May 10th. Credit: Gehrig / CNA Deutsch)