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Southern Cross, Page 2 Headline Hopscotch Thursday, July 9, 2020 Florida bishops hail new law on parental consent before minor has abortion ORLANDO, FLA. (CNS) Pro-life advocates in Florida applauded Gov. Ron DeSantis when he signed a bill June 30 that requires parental consent before a minor has an abortion. In a statement following the signing of the bill, the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops thanked Florida’s governor for signing S.B. 404. “This commonsense measure sim ply holds abortion to the same consent requirements as most every other medical decision involving a child, including sim ple interventions such as tak ing an aspirin or getting ears pierced,” the statement added. The bill was passed by Florida’s Legislature Feb. 20. According to News Service of Florida, the governor did not make a public statement about the bill sign ing, but legislative supporters praised the measure and said parents need to be involved when their underage daugh ters consider having abortions. Opponents contend the paren tal-consent requirement will endanger teens who could be subject to retribution or abuse if their parents find out they are pregnant or considering an abortion. Ruling in Montana case called ‘welcome victory’ for religious freedom WASHINGTON (CNS) The consensus from religious lib erty advocates following the June 30 Supreme Court ruling on pub lic funds and sectarian schools is the Blaine amendments, a hated remnant of 19th-century anti-Catholic bigotry, are finally gone for good. “The court should be applauded...for stating clearly that laws like Montana’s that treat people of faith like sec ond-class citizens have no place under our Constitution,” Carrie Severino, president of the advocacy group Judicial Crisis Network, said in a statement posted on Twitter. “The justices have gone a long way toward blotting out the stain of religious bigotry that has permeated so much of the law in this area.” The case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, was brought by three mothers who had been sending their children to Stillwater Christian School in Kalispell with the help of a state A woman carries stone on her head at a granite quarry in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in early June, during the COVID-19 pandemic. (CNS photo/Anne Mimault, Reuters) scholarship program created in 2015. The Montana Department of Revenue issued an adminis trative rule a few months after the program started, saying the tax credit donations could only go toward nonreligious, private schools. In its 5-4 rul ing the Supreme Court said this exclusion violated the U.S. Constitution. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts cited the Blaine amendments, a ban on government aid to sectarian causes or religious institutions that came out of an era in which official government hostility to Catholics was at its peak. Montana ratified a Blaine Amendment to its state constitu tion in 1889 and again in 1972. Thirty-six other states also have them. “Many of the no-aid pro visions belong to a more check ered tradition shared with the Blaine Amendment of the 1870s,” Roberts observed. “That proposal - which Congress nearly passed - would have added to the federal Constitution a provision similar to the state no-aid provisions, prohibiting states from aiding ‘sectarian’ schools.” Listen, respond to modern world, Vatican panel tells Catholic media WASHINGTON (CNS) When Vatican communication leaders met virtually with U.S. and Canadian Catholic journalists and communication leaders June 30, they urged the group to keep up their work, think of new ways to have a broader reach and not get weighed down by society’s current polarization. “We have something to bring” to the modern world “and a huge amount to learn” from it, said Bishop Paul Tighe, secretary general of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The bishop, who has addressed this group in person at previous events, is a past secretary of the former Pontifical Council for Social Communications. He was joined in the virtual panel by Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, and Natasa Govekar, director of the dicastery’s theological-pastoral section, which coordinates Pope Francis’ Instagram page. The Vatican officials had a simple message, urging the group above all to really engage with readers, viewers and social media followers. Ruffini stressed that communication is about relationships, which the other panelists also echoed. Govekar emphasized that a key part of communication is not just getting the word out but listening. The panel addressed the opening session of the Catholic Media Conference via a Zoom call, replacing the session that would have kicked off the gathering this year in Portland, Oregon, which was canceled due to the coronavirus. Some workshops and other parts of the annual conference were available to participants in an online format. Southern Cross (USPS 505-680) is published bi-weekly, 26 issues per year. Periodicals Postage Paid at Savannah, GA and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Southern Cross, 2170 East Victory Drive, Savannah, GA 31404. Publisher: Very Rev. Stephen D. Parkes, Bishop-elect of Savannah Communications Project Director: Jill Parks Editor: Michael J. Johnson Reporter: Donnell Suggs Telephone: 912-201-4054 Email: editor@diosav.org Online: southemcross-sav.org Subscription Price: $15.00 per year Address & Subscription Changes: Contact your parish Office: Southern Cross 2170 East Victory Drive Savannah, GA 31404—3918 ©Southern Cross/Diocese of Savannah Office for the Protection of Children and Young People: Toll free reporting hot line: (888)357-5330