RELIGION HEADLINES TUE 2-10

(SRN NEWS)-

(  )  Israeli President Issac Herzog began a state visit to Australia on Monday with a wreath laying at the site of an anti-Semitic attack in Sydney that left 15 dead.  Herzog met victims’ families and survivors of the December 14th attack on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach.  He laid a wreath and two stones he had brought from Jerusalem at the rain-swept Bondi Pavillion near the site of the massacre.  The pavilion became an impromptu memorial in the days after the tragedy as flowers and cards were placed there.  Australian Jewish groups welcomed the visit of Herzog, a former leader of the Labor Party who now plays a largely ceremonial role.

(  )  Vice President J.D. Vance got a chance to view Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting “The Last Supper” in Milan over the weekend.  Vance was visiting the Italian city for the Winter Olympic Games.  The painting, which Leonardo completed between 1494 and 1498, is located on a wall inside the refectory of Santa Maria del Grazie, a church that is still in use.  The painting depicts the moment after Jesus tells his apostles: “One of you will betray me.”  The scene has had other interpretations by previous artists, but Leonardo reinterpreted it, placing Jesus at the center and arranging the apostles in four groups of three figures.

(  )  A judge has ruled that Arizona must stop enforcing abortion restrictions that predate and contradict a 2024 voter-approved constitutional amendment enshrining the procedure.  Maricopa Superior Court Judge Greg Como says the older laws present unnecessary obstacles to getting an abortion, including barring one if a woman was seeking it because the unborn baby has a genetic abnormality.  In Arizona and many other states, abortion law has been in flux since the Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade in 2022.  Many states are banning or restricting abortion while some are adding it to their constitutions.

(  )  Efforts to withdraw taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood are making headway.  Last year the Supreme Court ruled in favor of South Carolina’s attempt to bar its Medicaid program from reimbursing Planned Parenthood.  That decision made it clear that any state may deny state funding for care provided by organizations that perform abortions.  At the federal level, Congress has also passed a measure prohibiting Medicaid dollars from going to any clinics that perform the procedure.  Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion business and has been receiving millions of tax dollars every year.