Gov. Kevin Stitt announced that he will not decide on whether to commute Julius Jones’ sentence, which the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended he do, until after a clemency hearing on Jones’ case is completed. Stitt issued the following statement on Tuesday evening: “I am not accepting the Pardon and Parole Board’s recommendation to…Read More
Gov. Kevin Stitt announced that he will not decide on whether to commute Julius Jones’ sentence, which the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended he do, until after a clemency hearing on Jones’ case is completed. Stitt issued the following statement on Tuesday evening: “I am not accepting the Pardon and Parole Board’s recommendation to…Read More
Gov. Kevin Stitt said he is leaning on his faith and the advice of former Oklahoma governors as he carefully considers whether to commute the sentence of a high-profile death row inmate. Stitt said Friday he is still considering whether to commute the sentence of Julius Jones, whose case has garnered national attention. “It certainly is something…Read More
Pope Francis is expected to receive Joe Biden on Oct. 29, in the U.S. president’s first official visit to the Vatican since his inauguration, according to sources at the Apostolic Palace. The sources told CNA on Sept. 25 that their information came directly from the Prefecture for the Pontifical Household. Though encounters with heads of…Read More
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a pair of bills Sept. 22 that relate to privacy surrounding abortion, and a policy expert commented to CNA that the laws highlight the importance of parent-child communication regarding difficult topics such as abortion. Kathleen Domingo, Executive Director of the California Catholic Conference, told CNA that the new laws, while…Read More
Gov. Kevin Stitt said he is leaning on his faith and the advice of former Oklahoma governors as he carefully considers whether to commute the sentence of a high-profile death row inmate. Stitt said Friday he is still considering whether to commute the sentence of Julius Jones, whose case has garnered national attention. “It certainly is something…Read More
Oklahoma abortion clinics are seeing a surge in out-of-state patients after Texas recently implemented the strictest anti-abortion law in the country. Women are traveling from as far as Houston, Galveston and Corpus Christi to seek an abortion in Oklahoma City. A spokesman for the Trust Women clinic in Oklahoma estimates the facility has seen an eightfold increase in patients traveling from Texas. One…Read More
Oklahoma abortion clinics are seeing a surge in out-of-state patients after Texas recently implemented the strictest anti-abortion law in the country. Women are traveling from as far as Houston, Galveston and Corpus Christi to seek an abortion in Oklahoma City. A spokesman for the Trust Women clinic in Oklahoma estimates the facility has seen an eightfold increase in patients traveling from Texas. One…Read More
Dozens of Oklahoma state lawmakers are calling on Governor Kevin Stitt to order an independent investigation into the case of a death row prisoner. The lawmakers are even taking Richard Glossip’s case to national TV. A documentary about Glossip a few years ago titled “Killing Richard Glossip” continues to get international attention. Now, there is…Read More
The United States evacuated about 65,000 refugees out of Afghanistan last month as the Taliban took over Kabul and most of Afghanistan. Many of those refugees are being dispersed throughout the U.S., including almost 2,000 people here in Oklahoma. They were originally expected to arrive in the Sooner State as soon as early September, but…Read More
Dozens of Oklahoma state lawmakers are calling on Governor Kevin Stitt to order an independent investigation into the case of a death row prisoner. The lawmakers are even taking Richard Glossip’s case to national TV. A documentary about Glossip a few years ago titled “Killing Richard Glossip” continues to get international attention. Now, there is…Read More
The United States evacuated about 65,000 refugees out of Afghanistan last month as the Taliban took over Kabul and most of Afghanistan. Many of those refugees are being dispersed throughout the U.S., including almost 2,000 people here in Oklahoma. They were originally expected to arrive in the Sooner State as soon as early September, but…Read More
Mario Ramirez of Milwaukee helped carry part of a homemade statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe that bobbed in the massive crowd headed toward the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building Sept. 21. Though the Guatemalan immigrant is a permanent resident of the United States, he went out to march for immigration reform along with…Read More
Catholic refugee advocates on Tuesday praised President Joe Biden for pushing to raise the refugee cap in the coming fiscal year, and urged even more refugee admissions. On Monday, President Biden recommended that the United States double its limit on refugee resettlement in the coming fiscal year, to 125,000 refugees from 62,500. The U.S. bishops’…Read More
In addition to a major abortion case, the Supreme Court this fall will consider cases on vocal prayer at executions and state tuition assistance for religious schools, and could decide take up other religious freedom cases. Although the court usually decides death penalty cases on the “emergency docket” – reserved for urgent petitions outside the…Read More
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – While it has been more than five years since an execution has taken place in Oklahoma, execution dates have been set for several death row inmates. These will be the first executions performed in Oklahoma since 2015. In 2014, the State of Oklahoma executed Clayton Lockett for killing 19-year-old Stephanie Nieman in 1999.…Read More
Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Mississippi’s lone abortion clinic, presented its legal argument Monday for why the U.S. Supreme Court should strike down the state’s 2018 law prohibiting abortions after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, setting the stage for a momentous showdown over Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The filing…Read More
Catholic nuns and his grandparents’ example helped instill in Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas the belief that all people were children of God and that the racist flaws of American society were a betrayal of its best promises, he said in a lecture Thursday. “My nuns and my grandparents lived out their sacred vocation in…Read More
A Texas abortionist admitted to aborting a child whose heartbeat could be detected after the passage of a law banning such abortions. The Washington Post published Dr. Alan Braid’s confession as an opinion piece. Braid wrote that “on the morning of Sept. 6,” nearly a week after Texas’ law banning abortions after six weeks of…Read More
Two Catholic archbishops Sept. 17 objected to two House committees advancing portions of the $3.5 trillion budget bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, with language that funds abortions being added to wording they support to improve access to affordable health care for all. The funding of abortion, “the deliberate destruction of our most…Read More
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – While it has been more than five years since an execution has taken place in Oklahoma, execution dates have been set for several death row inmates. These will be the first executions performed in Oklahoma since 2015. In 2014, the State of Oklahoma executed Clayton Lockett for killing 19-year-old Stephanie Nieman in 1999.…Read More
The U.S. bishops’ migration committee chairman Sept. 15 welcomed a move by House members to include language in the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill to provide a pathway to U.S. citizenship for beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and other immigrants. “We are pleased that the House Committee on the Judiciary has taken this important step, setting up…Read More
The US Department of Justice asked a federal judge on Tuesday to issue a preliminary injunction against Texas’ law prohibiting most abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, following a suit from the DOJ against the law last week. A preliminary injunction, if granted, would prevent the law from being enforced while the DOJ’s…Read More
The pro-life group Live Action claimed Tuesday that Google banned “all” Live Action ads, accusing the tech company of siding “squarely with extremist pro-abortion political ideology.” “They aren’t hiding their bias anymore,”Live Action Founder and President Lila Rose said in a statement. “Google’s censorship baldly reveals that the corporation is in the pocket of the…Read More
Tears flowed down the faces of Abigail “Abby” Agudelo’s classmates, as earlier this year she became the first student with Down syndrome to graduate from St. Augustine’s School in Andover, Massachusetts. “We know other parochial schools in Massachusetts are striving to do the same today,” Abby’s mother, Wendy Agudelo, told CNA in an interview in…Read More
Homily for the Twenty-Four Sunday in Ordinary Time by Fr. Stephen Hamilton. Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” And he…Read More
In a recent interview, Pope Francis condemned a movement to legalize euthanasia across Europe, calling it the sign of a broader “throwaway culture” that treats the elderly and unborn children as “disposable.” “What is (deemed) useless is discarded. Old people are disposable material; they are a nuisance. Not all of them, but of course, in…Read More
The Justice Department is suing Texas over the state’s new controversial restrictions on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday. Garland said the law is plainly improper both for its onerous restrictions on abortion access and for the provisions allowing state residents to sue anyone who aids or carries out restricted…Read More
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and several lawmakers held a ceremonial bill signing Thursday for nine anti-abortion laws. The laws include banning abortions if a doctor can detect a fetal heartbeat, and only doctors board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology can perform an abortion. All nine bills and their authors are listed below: SB 918 restores Oklahoma’s…Read More
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and several lawmakers held a ceremonial bill signing Thursday for nine anti-abortion laws. The laws include banning abortions if a doctor can detect a fetal heartbeat, and only doctors board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology can perform an abortion. All nine bills and their authors are listed below: SB 918 restores Oklahoma’s…Read More
Four dissenting Supreme Court Justices warned last year that the majority’s decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma would cause chaos in the Sooner State and beyond. Their warning is coming true in the underreported story of the year, as Justice Neil Gorsuch’s misguided opinion has created legal and economic havoc. Justice Gorsuch, joined in 2020 by…Read More
The Oklahoma attorney general’s office has pushed back its timetable for resuming executions, telling the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals that the Oct. 7 date requested for death row inmate John Marion Grant is too soon to meet state requirements. In a brief filed on Friday with the court, Attorney General John O’Connor said Corrections…Read More
Four dissenting Supreme Court Justices warned last year that the majority’s decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma would cause chaos in the Sooner State and beyond. Their warning is coming true in the underreported story of the year, as Justice Neil Gorsuch’s misguided opinion has created legal and economic havoc. Justice Gorsuch, joined in 2020 by…Read More
The Supreme Court halted the execution of a Texas death row inmate Wednesday who asked that his pastor be permitted to lay hands on him and pray while he dies. John Ramirez, convicted of a 2004 murder at a Corpus Christi convenience store, asserted that a Texas policy prohibiting his pastor from placing his hands…Read More
After a new Texas law banned abortions after six weeks of gestation, a number of pro-abortion Christian organizations joined abortion industry leaders like Planned Parenthood in promoting the crime. “The churches, known as ‘Reproductive Freedom Congregations,’ are united in their public support for a woman’s right to an abortion and are determined to ‘take God…Read More
The U.S. bishops’ conference on Monday launched a new initiative to promote civility amid political polarization, appealing to Pope Francis’ 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti “My hope is that this initiative will assist all of us as we seek to ‘become neighbors to all,’ as the Holy Father calls us to do, and take up the…Read More
The Oklahoma attorney general’s office has pushed back its timetable for resuming executions, telling the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals that the Oct. 7 date requested for death row inmate John Marion Grant is too soon to meet state requirements. In a brief filed on Friday with the court, Attorney General John O’Connor said Corrections…Read More
A group of abortion advocates are suing to prevent five pro-life laws from taking effect in Oklahoma. The Center for Reproductive Rights, several Planned Parenthood affiliates, the Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice and Tulsa Women’s Reproductive Clinic are among groups that signed onto a lawsuit alleging a slate of new state laws violate a woman’s constitutional right to…Read More
Democrat Abby Broyles has filed a statement for candidacy for Oklahoma’s Fifth Congressional District. Broyles, a former investigative journalist and attorney, plans to challenge Republican Congresswoman Stephanie Bice. Broyles’ campaign committee filed the statement Tuesday. Bice is serving her first term after defeating Kendra Horn in November’s election. The victory reclaimed Oklahoma’s Fifth Congressional District…Read More
A group of abortion advocates are suing to prevent five pro-life laws from taking effect in Oklahoma. The Center for Reproductive Rights, several Planned Parenthood affiliates, the Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice and Tulsa Women’s Reproductive Clinic are among groups that signed onto a lawsuit alleging a slate of new state laws violate a woman’s constitutional right to…Read More
Democrat Abby Broyles has filed a statement for candidacy for Oklahoma’s Fifth Congressional District. Broyles, a former investigative journalist and attorney, plans to challenge Republican Congresswoman Stephanie Bice. Broyles’ campaign committee filed the statement Tuesday. Bice is serving her first term after defeating Kendra Horn in November’s election. The victory reclaimed Oklahoma’s Fifth Congressional District…Read More
The Texas Heartbeat Act, which prohibits abortion once a baby’s heartbeat is detected, came into effect today. While, pro-lifers are celebrating, not everyone is happy. President Joe Biden released a statement saying in part, “This extreme Texas law blatantly violates the constitutional right established under Roe v. Wade… The Texas law will significantly impair women’s…Read More
The nation’s second Catholic president blasted a new pro-life law on Wednesday that banned most abortions in Texas President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. said in a statement that the new state ban on abortions after six weeks “will significantly impair women’s access to the health care they need, particularly for communities of color and individuals…Read More
By a 5-4 vote, the United States Supreme Court rejected an emergency request to block Texas’ new pro-life law. The decision permits the Texas law, which outlaws abortions after six weeks, to stay in place. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett voted in the majority. Chief Justice John…Read More
The Biden administration told refugee organizations to prepare for the arrival of up to 50,000 Afghans without visas, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Nine State Department-contracted nonprofits that resettle refugees in the U.S. are trying to recruit more staff and volunteers to help process arriving Afghans, according to the WSJ. Some of the…Read More
A Texas law that prohibits abortion when a fetal heartbeat can be detected became effective Wednesday (Sept. 1) in a barrier-breaking development hailed by pro-life advocates and decried by abortion-rights defenders. The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to block enforcement of the measure in response to a last-ditch request by abortion-rights organizations meant the law became…Read More
A Republican congressman attempted to organize a rescue mission to Afghanistan in order to extract American citizens left behind by the Biden administration — and threatened US diplomats who declined to help him in the endeavor, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. The effort by Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) was in defiance of warnings by US…Read More
The number of Americans who homeschool has skyrocketed since the beginning of 2020, with the latest census data showing that over 11% of U.S. households now educate their children at home. The sea change first began to show itself in the Fall of 2020 at the beginning of the 2020/2021 school year. Some families were…Read More
The state Pardon and Parole Board on Tuesday set tentative dates for clemency hearings in the cases of several death row inmates who face execution while the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals weighs whether the capital punishments may move forward. Clemency hearings for the inmates would take place 21 days before their scheduled executions. A formal approval…Read More
The state Pardon and Parole Board on Tuesday set tentative dates for clemency hearings in the cases of several death row inmates who face execution while the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals weighs whether the capital punishments may move forward. Clemency hearings for the inmates would take place 21 days before their scheduled executions. A formal approval…Read More