EWTN News Nightly | Wednesday, September 15, 2021

[Music] papal trip pope francis inspires catholics in slovakia before returning to the vatican see our report from rome pro-life law how the u.s justice department is trying to derail protections in texas pro-life rally a crowd gathers to support a critical issue in mexico and concerns on capitol hill lawmakers questioned the withdrawal from afghanistan and the actions of military leaders on ewtn news nightly for wednesday september 15 2021 [Music] thank you so much for being with us tonight i'm tracy sabo pope francis returns to rome after his apostolic journey to slovakia the holy father's last engagements were the prayer with the bishops and mass at the national shrine of sastine doric mass saw the memorial of our lady of sorrows pope francis invited slovaks to imitate mary in her journey her prophecy and her compassion the pope also encouraged christians to a faith that becomes compassionate and identifying themselves with those who are hurt and suffering ewtn news rome correspondent colin flynn joins us now colin great to see you uh tell us what did the pope say at the press conference on today's papal flight good evening tracy well the pope was asked a number of questions on the papal flight returning to rome as is custom to have a press conference on the plane but the biggest question tracy was about whether or not politicians should be given communion who support abortion now the pope responded to this by saying that the church is a community and for anyone who supports abortion then they are outside of that community but at the same time he said that any shepherd in the church referring presumably to priests and bishops they must act pastorally and not politically and he went on to say that this was because everybody must be accompanied and can you tell us how the pope marked his final day in slovakia i can indeed today was as you mentioned the end of his four-day papal trip to hungary and slovakia one day in hungary three days in slovakia and it also marked the end of pope francis's 34th apostolic trip now earlier this morning before leaving bratislava the capital of slovakia pope francis visited the national shrine of sasten this is a very popular shrine in slovakia which welcomes around 200 000 visitors every year and this morning more than 50 000 people turned up to attend an open air mass with the holy father the mass was to celebrate the solemnity of our lady of the seven sorrows who is the patroness of slovakia and the pope he's not the first important visitor to go to the shrine mother teresa paid a visit in 1987 and saint john paul ii prayed there in the local basilica in 1995. and tracy during his homily pope francis urged the people gathered to open their hearts to compassion and live a faith quote that identifies with those who are hurting suffering and forced to bear heavy crosses and colin before i let you go what was the overall message or theme from the pope's apostolic trip well on sunday when he first arrived in hungary all eyes were on his meeting of course with prime minister viktor orban now the pope insisted that this trip was one of pilgrimage not a political one the prime minister then took to facebook after their meeting to say that he had asked pope francis not to let christian hungary perish prime minister victor orban has very much modeled himself as a christian and a supporter of christian values and then in slovakia they called the bovic people's party they say that they stand on three pillars christian national and social and yesterday speaking in slovakia the pope said that the cross should not be used as a political symbol and he warned against christians trying to be triumphalists in their faith his homily was all about christian identity and what that means he pointed out that christians often use crosses and crucifixes in a superficial way he said to the thirty thousand people who are gathered many christians here have crucifixes and crosses around their necks on their walls at home in their cars etc but had no real relationship with jesus he said quote what good is this unless we stop to look at the crucified jesus and open our hearts to him the cross is not a flag to wave but the pure source of a new way of living and then he added that a true believer views no one as an enemy but everyone as a brother and sister and after his homily tracy the pope went on to visit one of the poorest communities in slovakia a settlement of roma people where he condemned discrimination against them tracy i'll call him thanks so much colin flynn ewtn news rome correspondent thank you again thank you tracy well back in rome the holy father is already making news earlier today he rejected the resignation of the archbishop of hamburg in germany archbishop stefan heza offered to step down after he was faulted for his response to sexual abuse claims in his previous diocese the vatican found that archbishop heza made procedural errors but did not intentionally cover up abuse claims the u.s justice department is going after the new pro-life law in texas that bans abortions after a baby's heartbeat is detected the doj asked a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order to block the law from being enforced white house correspondent owen jensen reports president joe biden slamming the new texas heartbeat law a law that the united states supreme court refused to stop now other states say they're looking to replicate the texas law just the other night in california at a political rally if you don't think women's rights are under assault you're not looking the pro-life group susan b anthony list pinned this tweet recently women in texas and across the nation are leading the fight to modernize our outdated abortion laws special shout out to the 11 pro-life women state legislators who co-authored the heartbeat act texas sb-8 protecting unborn babies with a beating heart and the texas catholic conference of bishops wrote we celebrate every life saved by this legislation opponents of the law argue the term heartbeat is misleading they call it embryonic cardiac activity or worse electrically induced flickering of embryonic tissue these attempts to dehumanize the unborn are disturbing meanwhile controversial covet 19 mandates after united airlines announced its vaccine requirement the vaccine rate for employees went from 59 to 79 in less than a month the president today meeting with business executives this after it was announced companies with 100 or more workers must mandate vaccinations for their employees or do weekly testing the goal curbed the surging delta variant those opposed accuse the president of overstepping his authority the vaccine requirements work and more companies are instituting them even at fox news that require it and i'm not being facetious when i say that currently children under age 12 are not eligible for vaccines owen jensen ewtn news nightly well is the trump beating ladder for joint chiefs of staff chair general mark milley to resign republican lawmakers say yes after recent revelations from a closed door briefing and a new book which claims general maylie tried to stop former president trump from taking military action against china capitol hill correspondent eric grazalis reports republicans on the armed services committee claim that general mark milley and the biden administration aren't being truthful when they say that all u.s commanders in afghanistan agree to the timeline lawmakers say last night general austin miller a commander who was on the ground told them he did talk to his to austin mackenzie and millie and told them that he had been opposed to the total withdrawal democrats say republicans are jumping to conclusions there were a set of recommendations that were made by military leaders they weren't they weren't all the same we don't we don't need group think we need people offering candid views and he did general milley's troubles may be just beginning with the new book titled peril washington post reporters bob woodward and robert costa say that general milley took extraordinary steps reaching out to china's top general who was concerned about former president trump's behavior according to the book general milley said quote generally i want to assure you that the american government is stable and everything is going to be okay we're not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you and quote if we're going to attack i'm going to call you ahead of time it's not going to be a surprise after the january 6 capital riot the book states house speaker nancy pelosi called the general and general milley told her not to worry there are quote a lot of checks in the system the authors wrote general milley quote was certain that trump had gone into a serious mental decline during a pentagon meeting according to the book general milley told top military leadership you're not to sign off on any order to use nuclear weapons without his approval former president trump says if general milley did do this that is treason pentagon officials say some of the depictions in the book are nonsense and there is no secret meeting and no attempt to undermine the president at the capitol eric rosales ewtn news nightly california's governor gavin newsom has defeated a recall election which he says vindicates his pro-abortion agenda we said yes to women's fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does for her body early returns show newsome capturing a 65 majority despite earlier indications of a narrow race conservative radio talk show host larry elder finished with 47 percent of the opposition support suggesting a possible rematch between newsom and elder in next year's election as governor newsome continues in office california's catholic leaders are asking him to veto a native american bill which they say disparages saint junipero sarah three of the saints missions became san diego san francisco and los angeles whose voting majorities propelled newsome's recall victory [Music] hundreds of pro-lifers held a rally outside of mexico's supreme court earlier this week [Music] [Applause] the country's supreme court justices are holding a weeks-long debate on abortion they are considering whether medical personnel should have the right to opt out of performing an abortion on religious grounds the vote was suspended until next week days after the kim regime's annual anniversary north korea tests new long-range cruise missiles the north korean weapons do not violate u.n sanctions despite their range in response south korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile the tests come as the foreign ministers of south korea and china meet about security issues separately japan's chief cabinet secretary condemned the north korean missile test also in the pacific taiwan conducts defensive drills after recent beijing provocations taiwan's president tsai wore a green camouflage uniform while inspecting the drill mainland china claims the taiwan as its own and has recently flown missions towards taiwan president biden will convene a four nation meeting at the white house next week to discuss taiwan and other security issues coming up a disturbing report about baby body parts what you need to know about the treatment of aborted babies [Music] well in a story we continue to follow judicial watch has obtained new documents through a freedom of information act request that reveals the fda has been involved in research that utilizes humanized mice according to the documents the fda purchased aborted babies heads organs and other tissues which scientists then implanted in mice these humanized mice were then used to test biologic drug products joining me now to talk more about this is meredith d liberto senior attorney at judicial watchmeat welcome back thanks so much for coming on again we appreciate it i know judicial watch received nearly 200 pages of records and communications between the fda and advanced biosciences resources can you tell us more about what was discovered in those documents sure and thank you for having us back again um these were documents that were previously produced by the fda but they redacted a large amount of information mostly financial information and we successfully fought those redactions in court the judge agreed that we were um able to get some of that information so what we got was essentially the same records but more information out of those records and can you talk a little bit more about that i know that the fda spent i guess nearly 60 000 on fetal body parts back in 2012. can you talk to more you know talk more about that and also those fees for services schedule which included special processing and preservation the thing we had a theory when we looked at the original documents and that was that the government the federal government was paying for body parts which is illegal under federal law uh what we needed though was some of this information to become public and what happened was when they released these schedules what it proved was that we were correct they weren't paying for processing field tissue they're paying for individual organs and individual pieces of these aborted human children and that is illegal according to federal law yeah and that money is taxpayer monday money that is going to this gruesome research what are the implications of that that is a very good question there were criminal referrals from both the house and senate judiciary committees when some of this started to come to light thanks to the undercover uh videos from center for medical progress both houses both the senate and the house had a very in-depth meetings and hearings and people were deposed and they sent criminal referrals to the department of justice and the fbi and neither one of those groups has said what became of those criminal referrals and meredith i know during the trump administration the fda actually terminated its contract with the supplier of the aborted baby parts do we know why that contract was terminated what we have is the letter that the government issued and it was kind of nondescript it said they were concerned about how the uh group how abr was operating and that they were in compliance with the federal law that prohibits trafficking of human fetal tissue the problem is is that we know that the federal government is still buying aborted human tissue and so has the federal government stopped paying other companies abr was definitely complicit but so was the federal government and meredith where do you think we go from here what do you think should be done i definitely think there needs to be more uh an outcry to find out what happened with those criminal deference uh referrals i'm sorry um this that's not a small thing to have congressmen uh submit those we need to know what became of that i also think there needs to be a bigger cry for transparency in these kinds of cases this is 100 taxpayer money we have a right to know if our taxpayer money is being used to harvest and traffic human aborted fetal tissue um these babies are at least 14 weeks old when they are aborted and used they were not allowed to have chromosomal defects sometimes they asked for specifically for boys for girls uh this is gruesome and as taxpayers we have a right to know what's going on yeah it is so disturbing it's really kind of unbelievable before i let you go we have a little less than a minute left is there any more information that was uncovered that you think is really important for our viewers to know i think the thing that stands out to me is the federal government even after ending this contract tried to withhold this information why the people need to question why our federal government is covering up for potential for uh breaking federal law why is the federal government covering that up and then we need to we need to be make our voices heard well meredith thank you so much for coming on again we really appreciate it mayor the d liberto senior attorney at judicial watch thanks again thank you up next the growing debate about vaccine mandates how a judge is getting involved [Music] a federal judge has temporarily blocked the state of new york from mandating its medical workers to be vaccinated 17 health care professionals sued the state because the mandate did not allow for religious exemptions new york says that it is considering its legal options as health care costs continue to rise health sharing ministries such as solid solidarity healthcare provide an alternative way to cover cover health care expenses while aligning with catholic beliefs the organization facilitates money sharing between its members to help pay for their medical bills without financially supporting medical procedures that go against catholic teaching such as abortions joining us now to discuss this is chris mattis president of solidarity health share chris welcome great to see you absolutely great to have you on so tell us a little bit more about your group why you started it i understand it was deeply personal to you yeah you know in 2011 my wife was diagnosed with colon cancer and so we were thrust into the medical world and insurance and you know lots of issues and really found especially because her disease was very advanced she had about a two month prognosis that it was very hard to get anything other than just a standard of care that wasn't going to save her life and we we struggled with insurance but we also found that we needed to get care that they weren't going to pay for so at one point we raised money and we raised a lot of money for her care and she it extended her life she lived 17 months which we would say is a win 15 months more with our children and um and so as we went through that we just thought this is so much better like having a little old woman from you know wisconsin send five dollars and say i wish i could do more and having you know this this experience of christians sharing each other um it was this experience of almost like the communion of saints of how we're supposed to come together and then when the affordable care act mandates came out with you know forcing us to pay for contraceptives and abortifacients we knew there needed to be a solution and and and healthcare sharing seemed like the right way to do it and really seemed like what we as catholics were probably called to do all along right is come together bear each other's burdens and support each other and so that's what we've been doing we've been been at it for five years now and and god has blessed us with a lot of great members and families and great stories of how we've come together that's wonderful tell us a little bit more you know how is it different from health insurance yeah you know our our families do health care differently in the sense that we instead of paying you know exorbitant premiums we instead we contribute a monthly amount and then we share each other's medical expenses so as those monthly dollars come in and the medical bills come in we match families together uh they actually get to see it in their portal who they're sharing with i get to know exactly where my dollars went what family it went to i can send them a little note of encouragement they can say thank you and and they're able to share their bills but overall it's very similar in the sense that bills come directly to us from the provider we go through and process make sure it's all eligible for sharing especially when it comes to the you know the ethical guidelines that we have and then we share it among the members and the provider gets the payment directly from the ministry on behalf of the members okay it really i mean it almost sounds like health insurance even though it's technically not right what's covered under the plan so it's everything all the traditional things you'd imagine preventative care wellness visits cardiovascular acute care emergencies cancer care a lot of people think oh there must not be cancer patients we have a ton of members who unfortunately have gone through that and i think we've been able to do a great job supporting them and caring for them but also a lot of things that are uniquely catholic things like vasectomy reversals tubal like duplication reversals technology the life-affirming fertility care we also share in the mental health we just announced uh as a ministry that we're going to start sharing into pharmacy and the prescriptions and which is something health sharing doesn't traditionally do so we share in all of those things it's really comprehensive i mean there's not a lot that people would be left without and ultimately the families get to make the decision of what kind of care they get where they're going to go and we help them through that process yeah and are there certain guidelines that people have to adhere to yeah you know we certainly expect that people are we you know there's a there's a religious exemption for healthcare sharing so we want to make sure people are of like mind and faith and so they agree to our our shared beliefs uh we are very clear that we are faithful to the teachings of the church so we won't share into things that aren't um and we find that that's actually a big win for a lot of families we've got a lot of stories of families where we were able to intercept something recently we had a family that they had no clue that a physician was planning a potential termination of of one of their twins and we were able to intercept that and let them know what was happening and stop that from happening and the family was able to advocate for themselves as well and those twins are still thriving in utero right so there's a very clear set of guidelines but ultimately we allow people to make their medical decisions within that that framework yeah talk about that you know the community and why that's so important yeah you know again i i think one of the big things is knowing where your health care collars go you know for a lot of people my family included there's several times of the year we haven't done anything we've gone to the doctor we haven't had any expenses and and we're all paying out for something right so knowing first of all that those dollars are going to the good of another family is a great thing seeing how my family is supporting someone else also seeing that other people are supporting us the other piece is we you know we have this this uh prayer stream on our on our portal for our members that we introduced last year and it's incredible to see the community that's formed around people coming in saying hey please pray for my husband he's going into surgery pray for my daughter and even sometimes praying for things that have nothing to do with health care please pray for my sister who's going through this and and there's this sense of community that's built around that and ultimately what i learned when angela was in her cancer treatment was that's what we needed we didn't need bureaucracy we didn't need red tape we didn't need all of those things we needed people who care which is one of the reasons why our staff it's one of the jobs they're supposed to pray for our members of their their job is to make sure we know who to pray for they pray twice a day in the office plus well you know throughout their day um and they're able to there's times when i walk in and see our staff just on the phone praying with members uh so that that sense of community is something that's been missing from healthcare for a long time uh it's certainly something that we as catholics are are good at if we want to put our our minds to it and so we we really love that part of what we do that is so great we're almost out of time but if people want to get more information how can they do so yeah definitely visit us at solidarityhealthshare.org that's where all the information is you can find out a lot more and then contact us you know by phone or by email through the website um we have a lot of people there to help you understand health sharing explain even more how it works and make sure families understand it before they join great and i also put up that information on my twitter site too awesome thank you tracy thank you so much for coming on chris thank you for what you do we appreciate it thank you and we thank you for watching tonight for the entire ewtn news nightly team i'm tracy sable good night and god bless

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 24min 33sec (1473 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021