Welcome to the July 1, 2020 edition of
Just 3 Things, the weekly social action newsletter of the Office of Human Life & Dignity. Today is the memorial of St. Junipero Serra, our country's first Hispanic saint and today the Washington Post published the Archbishop's op-ed defending Serra. Here are some of the social justice news items of the week. If this email was forwarded to you and you'd like to receive it each week,
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Louisiana state Democratic Sen. Katrina Jackson, who sponsored the 2014 Unsafe Abortion Protection Act,
said this week the U.S. Supreme Court "continues its practice of putting the interests of for-profit abortion businesses ahead of the health and safety of women." On June 29, in
June Medical Services v. Russo, the Court struck down, 5-4, the Louisiana law that requires abortion doctors to have hospital admitting privileges. Kansas City Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, said: "We will not rest until the day when the Supreme Court corrects the grave injustice of
Roe and
Casey and recognizes the Constitutional right to life for unborn human beings."
The Washington Post today published Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone's op-ed defending St. Junipero Serra. Historically sensitive and very well written, the essay is forceful and deftly argued. Over the weekend, the archbishop led a rosary and prayed the St. Michael prayer at the site of the toppled statue of St. Junipero Serra in Golden Gate Park on June 27. His earlier statements on the vandalizing of the statues of the recently canonized saint can be found
here. A video is below and a second video interview with the curator of Misión San Francisco de Asís or Mission Dolores is available
here as well. Finally, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez published a vehement defense of St. Junipero that can be found
here.
Pray for Hong Kong. Late Tuesday the Communist government published the text of a new security law intended to crush dissent in Hong Kong.
Pro-democracy protests erupted this morning. The current cardinal for Hong Kong and his successor disagree about how bad this will be for Hong Kong's Catholics and for human rights for all residents of the former British colony. On this date in 1997, Great Britain handed Hong Kong over to China.