Angelus News | June 30, 2023 | Vol. 8 No 13

NATION
The Chiefs’ Harrison Butker (center, back row) stands behind President Biden at the
White House June 5. | KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY IMAGES
■ Chiefs’ kicker sneaks pro-life
message to White House visit
Kansas City Chiefs’ kicker Harrison Butker delivered a
pro-life message during the team’s June 5 White House
visit with President Joe Biden to celebrate their Super Bowl
victory.
Butker, who kicked the game winning field goal against
the Philadelphia Eagles last February, partnered with Live
Action to wear a custom gray tie with a pro-life message:
“Vulnerari Praesidio,” a Latin phrase that means “protect
the most vulnerable.” He also wore a gold pin of two feet
the size of a 10-week-old baby in utero, a common symbol
of the pro-life movement.
“I want to give the most vulnerable, the unborn, a voice
at a place where every effort has been made to allow and
normalize the tragic termination of their lives,” Butker said
in a June 6 statement, criticizing the Biden administration’s
pro-abortion policies.
■ Maryland: Franciscans to
return to military hospital
Five Franciscan priests will be allowed back to minister to
patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
two months after the U.S. military abruptly ended their
contract.
Earlier this year, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, head of
the military archdiocese and also the president of the U.S.
bishops’ conference, had blasted the decision not to renew
the contract — which had been routinely renewed over
nearly the last 20 years — as “incomprehensible.”
The reversal comes after several Catholic lawmakers protested
the decision by contacting Defense Secretary Lloyd
Austin.
The new five-year contract awarded by the U.S. Defense
Health Agency (DHA) to the Franciscans is renewable
annually.
■ Do you go to public school,
Catholic school, or both?
Oklahoma approved the nation’s first religious charter
school June 5, allowing public funds to pay for tuition at an
online Catholic school.
“Oklahomans support religious liberty for all and support
an increasingly innovative educational system that expands
choice,” said Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt in a statement
on the state’s approval of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic
Virtual School, operated by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma
City and the Diocese of Tulsa.
Critics say that the charter is unconstitutional for using
public funds to pay for religious education, while some expect
the school’s legality may end up before the Supreme
Court someday.
“It’s extremely disappointing that board members violated
their oath in order to fund religious schools with our tax
dollars,” said state Attorney General Gentner Drummond,
a Republican. “In doing so, these members have exposed
themselves and the state to potential legal action that could
be costly.”
Though the constitutionality of religious charter schools
hasn’t been debated at the Supreme Court, the court
recently ruled that states cannot bar religious schools from
voucher programs.
Debut on the dais — Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese
for the Military Services, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops, speaks June 15 during the bishops’ spring plenary assembly in Orlando,
Florida. Also pictured are Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, USCCB vice
president (left), and general secretary Father Michael J.K. Fuller (right). The
gathering was the bishops’ first since they elected Broglio and Lori to lead the
conference last November. | OSV NEWS/BOB ROLLER
June 30, 2023 • ANGELUS • 7