RELIGION HEADLINES SUN 6-15-25

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(SRN NEWS)  A federal judge has ruled that two government agencies cannot punish Catholic employers and health care providers if they refuse to pay for or provide sex-change operations for their workers.  The decision bars the Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing a rule it imposed in 2024 under President Biden.  The judge also barred the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from punishing employers for refusing to cover so-called “gender-affirming care” in their health insurance policies.  A similar challenge over in vitro fertilization is being launched.

(  )  The United Nations is taking Guatemala to task over its pro-life laws.  A panel of independent experts who make up the U.N. Human Rights Committee says Guatemala violated the rights of a 14-year-old rape victim by denying her request to have an abortion.  The committee compared the abortion refusal to torture.  In Guatemala, abortion is banned except in cases where the life of the mother is at risk.  Prior to 1973, no abortions of any kind were allowed.  The country’s constitution contains a protection for human life from conception.

(  )  Montana’s Supreme Court has struck down several pro-life laws, including the state’s 20 week abortion ban.  The state high court says in the ruling that the Montana constitution includes a “right to be left alone” and to have access to abortion. The justices ruled that this right is not affected by the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe versus Wade.  The pro-life measures approved by Republican lawmakers in 2021 had been blocked since a judge issued a preliminary injunction against them that year.  Voters have also enshrined abortion in the Montana Constitution.

(  )  Pope Leo will continue his predecessor’s controversial agreement with China that gives the Communist government veto power over the Vatican’s selection of bishops.  No other country has such an arrangement and conservative Catholics were outraged that Pope Francis gave in to China’s demand.  Pope Leo has made his first appointment of a Chinese bishop and expressed satisfaction that the decision has been approved by the Communist Party.  The Vatican calls the approval “a further fruit of the dialogue between the Holy See and the Chinese authorities.”