Women's rights advocates worry that gains could be lost if foreign troops leave Afghanistan before real peace is achieved. The stakes are high as US officials analyze their options.

Setara Hassan has been on the frontline of fighting for gender rights in Afghanistan, helping women tell their stories in their own voices with the all-female television network Zan TV. Now working with a program to lift women out of poverty, Hassan sees violence surging, peace talks with the Taliban floundering and the international troop presence uncertain, and she fears the worst — right up to civil war.

"I want to be optimistic. I think it's time for the Afghan people to sit around the table and negotiate on a peace deal," Hassan says. "However, I have lost hope, like many other Afghans, seeing the escalation of violence  during the peace talks."

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https://www.dw.com/en/nato-in-a-quandary-as-it-awaits-joe-bidens-afghanistan-plans/a-56578884

WASHINGTON — As Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska walked the halls of the Capitol recently, the two moderate Republicans marveled to each other about how much time President Biden had spent with them during a meeting in the Oval Office.

The session had been scheduled for an hour, but then it stretched on and on, doubling in length as the conversation bubbled. The president, who has at times angered the left wing of his party by insisting there is still room for compromise with Republicans, told the lawmakers that he felt like he was back in the Senate, which he “liked the best” of any job he’s had.

Mr. Biden, it seemed, did not want the meeting to end.

“We go back a long, long time,” Ms. Collins, a senator for 24 years, said of Mr. Biden, who served in the body for 36 years. “He loves the Senate.”

Weeks into his presidency, Mr. Biden’s identity as a creature of the Senate and a deft navigator of its clubby idiosyncrasies has become a defining feature of his governing approach. He has leveraged his relationships with Republicans like Ms. Collins to create space and pressure for bipartisan compromises, even if none have yet materialized. And he has taken a hands-on approach to rallying Democratic lawmakers around his agenda, in the process ensuring that his party has a singular message and unified front against the many obstacles standing in his way.

To be sure, Mr. Biden is encountering a deeply polarized Senate that at times bears little resemblance to the one in which he served more than a decade ago, and he has made clear that he is willing to bypass Republicans on issues where he has the votes to do so and public opinion on his side. For all his chummy meetings and talk of bipartisanship, it now appears highly likely that his $1.9 trillion stimulus plan will be forced through on partisan votes over the opposition of Republicans — including many Mr. Biden has actively courted — who say it is far too large.

Still, the president is personally working Capitol Hill in a way that his recent predecessors could not, leveraging decades-old relationships and experience in Congress that they did not have.

The approach reflects the challenges Mr. Biden faces in maneuvering his priorities through an evenly split Senate, which has elevated the importance of working closely with its members. Already, he has transformed the West Wing into a veritable revolving door for senators.

Not long after his session with 10 Republicans that included Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski, a contingent from Delaware, Senators Thomas R. Carper and Chris Coons, both Democrats and allies of the president, met with him for an hour. After them came a group of top-ranking Democrats, including Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader from New York, who were in the Oval Office for 90 minutes. Last week, a bipartisan group of senators sat down with Mr. Biden to discuss infrastructure.

Afterward, Mr. Biden exchanged letters and phone calls with the senators, including Ms. Collins.

The sessions are starkly different from the sort former President Donald J. Trump held with lawmakers in either party, especially the anger-fueled, insult-filled meetings he had with top Democrats, complete with the president’s name-calling (he once told Ms. Pelosi she was a “third-rate” politician) and boasting (“I hate ISIS more than you do,” he told her).

Instead, Mr. Biden has gone out of his way to court Republicans, treating them to his first official Oval Office meeting — an honor he knew, as a former senator, would flatter them — from which they emerged with no agreements, but a palpable sense of bonhomie.

“The president was very gracious,” Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who discussed education funding with Mr. Biden, said after their meeting. “If we’re going to go forward as a country, we have to do a better job than we’ve been doing of figuring where those who disagree with us are coming from.”

Senator Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican who gushed to the president about how nice it was to talk with other humans during the pandemic, confessed to his colleagues after their meeting that Mr. Biden “knew more about his plan than we did and Joe Biden knew more about the Republicans’ plan than they did,” Mr. Carper recalled.

When weather prevented Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota, from attending in person, he called in to one meeting with Mr. Biden, whom he later described as “cordial,” “interested” and “engaged.” Mr. Rounds told the president that he had personally received a stimulus check — evidence, the senator argued, that the next round of relief payments should be more targeted.

“He made it clear that he thought that the relationships that he had established in the United States Senate were still pretty important,” Mr. Rounds said. “But he didn’t give up any of the aces that he may have in his hand.”

Yet Mr. Biden is using the sessions to cultivate relationships with important potential allies.

Senator Jon Tester, a centrist Democrat from Montana who could be a crucial swing vote on the stimulus plan, said after his audience with Mr. Biden that in his 14 years in the Senate, no president had ever invited him to the Oval Office before.

“I’m going to be honest with you: It was pretty emotional for me,” Mr. Tester said. “I told the president that.”

Senators who had visited during Mr. Trump’s term remarked at the makeover of the room. Mr. Biden had taken down a portrait of the populist President Andrew Jackson, and replaced it with one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who helped bring America out of depression with the creation of robust government programs. As they looked around the room, they saw busts of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez and Robert F. Kennedy, each civil rights heroes.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/16/us/politics/biden-congress-senate.html

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The Jesuit priest who presided over an inaugural Mass for President Joe Biden is under investigation for unspecified allegations and is on leave from his position as president of Santa Clara University in Northern California, according to a statement from the college's board of trustees.

Rev. Kevin O'Brien allegedly “exhibited behaviors in adult settings, consisting primarily of conversations, which may be inconsistent with established Jesuit protocols and boundaries,” according to the statement by John M. Sobrato, the board chairman.

O'Brien gave the service at Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, one of the most prominent Catholic churches in Washington, in January for Biden, who is the nation's second Catholic president, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, their families and elected officials before the inauguration ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

O’Brien also presided over services for Biden’s inaugurations as vice president.

The priest has known Biden's family for about 15 years, according to the university. O’Brien was then serving at Georgetown University, another Jesuit college. O'Brien has been president of Santa Clara University since July 2019.

Sobrato's statement, posted Monday to the university's website, did not specify the allegations against O'Brien but said the trustees “support those who came forward to share their accounts.”

Sobrato said that while O'Brien is on leave, the priest will be cooperating with the independent investigation, with conclusions to be shared with the Santa Clara University Board of Trustees. O'Brien didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tracey Primrose, spokeswoman for the Jesuits West Province, which is overseeing the investigation, did not elaborate on the investigations to The Mercury News.

“Jesuits are held to a professional code of conduct, and the Province investigates allegations that may violate or compromise established boundaries,” Primrose told the newspaper.

Primrose did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment Thursday night.

O’Brien joined the Society of Jesus in 1996, according to the university, and was ordained to the priesthood in 2006.

Located in Silicon Valley, the Jesuit institution has an annual undergraduate enrollment of roughly 5,500 students. Ranked as one of the top 25 schools for undergraduate teaching nationwide, the private university has a million-dollar endowment and counts California Govs. Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown among its alumni.

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https://news.yahoo.com/biden-inauguration-priest-under-investigation-045458196.html?

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The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States, flouting a warning from the Vatican, have overwhelmingly voted to draft guidance on the sacrament of the Eucharist, advancing a push by conservative bishops to deny President Biden communion because of his support of abortion rights.

The decision, made public on Friday afternoon, is aimed at the nation’s second Catholic president, perhaps the most religiously observant commander in chief since Jimmy Carter, and exposes bitter divisions in American Catholicism. It capped three days of contentious debate at a virtual June meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The measure was approved by a vote of 73 percent in favor and 24 percent opposed.

The Eucharist, or holy communion, is one of the most sacred rituals in Christianity, and bishops have grown worried in recent years about declining Mass attendance and misunderstanding of the importance of the sacrament to Catholic life.

But the move to target a president, who regularly attends Mass and has spent a lifetime steeped in Christian rituals and practices, is striking coming from leaders of the president’s own faith, particularly after many conservative Catholics turned a blind eye to the sexual improprieties of former President Donald J. Trump because they supported his political agenda. It reveals a uniquely American Catholicism increasingly at odds with Rome and Pope Francis.

Asked about the bishops’ decision at a vaccination event on Friday, Mr. Biden said it was “a private matter and I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

The action is the latest sign of how the nation’s bitter political divisions are shaping religious life. Christians across denominations are facing similar divides. Earlier this week at the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Nashville, a more moderate majority narrowly headed off a takeover attempt by a hard-right movement.

Read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/us/targeting-biden-catholic-bishops-advance-controversial-communion-plan.html

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As U.S. Catholic bishops draft a controversial document on whether priests can deny communion to politicians who support abortion, one House Democrat has implied that the Catholic Church should lose its tax-exempt status if churches institute such a ban.

“If they’re going to politically weaponize religion by ‘rebuking’ Democrats who support women’s reproductive choice, then a ‘rebuke’ of their tax-exempt status may be in order,” wrote Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., in a Twitter post lashing out at Catholic bishops.

Huffman's post came after nearly 60 House Democrats released a “statement of principles to warn the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops against what they deem as “weaponizing” the Eucharist.

The statement was released after the USCCB voted Friday to approve the continued drafting of the document “on the meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the Church.”

An overwhelming majority of the bishops (168) voted in favor of proceeding with the draft document, while 55 voted against proceeding. The bishops will continue working on the document, which will be presented to the public at a later date. While the document will provide guidelines for the reception of communion, it will leave “decisions on withholding Communion up to individual bishops.”

In their statement, the Democrats “solemnly urge” the Church “to not move forward and deny this most holy of all sacraments, the source and the summit of the whole work of the gospel over one issue.”

“… We seek the Church’s guidance and assistance but believe also in the primacy of conscience,” it reads. “In recognizing the Church’s role in providing moral leadership, we acknowledge and accept the tension that comes with being in disagreement with the Church in some areas.”

It continues: “We recognize that no political party is perfectly in accord with all aspects of Church doctrine. This fact speaks to the secular nature of American democracy, not the devotion of our democratically elected leaders. Yet we believe we can speak to the fundamental issues that unite us as Catholics and lend our voices to changing the political debate — a debate that often fails to reflect and encompass the depth and complexity of these issues.”

It adds: “We believe the separation of church and state allows for our faith to inform our public duties and best serve our constituents. The Sacrament of Holy Communion is central to the life of practicing Catholics, and the weaponization of the Eucharist to Democratic lawmakers for their support of a woman’s safe and legal access to abortion is contradictory."

The debate over whether pro-abortion Catholic politicians should receive communion has intensified following the election of President Joe Biden, a pro-abortion Catholic who attends mass regularly. As he campaigned for president ahead of the 2020 presidential election, a priest in South Carolina refused to serve Biden communion due to his abortion advocacy.

Last month, more than 60 bishops also wrote a letter to Archbishop Jose Gomez calling for the delay of the debate over whether pro-abortion Catholic politicians should receive communion, citing concerns that implementing a national policy on the matter would pose a threat to the unity of the Church.

Supporters of withholding communion from pro-abortion Catholic politicians, both inside and outside the Church hierarchy, point to the Church’s Code of Canon Law as the justification for their position. The Code of Canon Law states that those who are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

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https://www.christianpost.com/news/democrats-warn-catholic-church-against-denying-them-communion.html?clickType=link-most-popular

Are the American Catholics about to join the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Australia?...

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster will remain in the realms of satire, after an attempt to have its Australian wing formally recognised was rejected by a South Australian legal authority on the grounds that the purported religion is nothing more than a "hoax".

• An adherent of the offbeat movement launched a legal bid to secure it legal status as an incorporated entity
• She said formal recognition would have allowed greater transparency
• SA's Civil and Administrative Tribunal rejected the bid, describing the church as a "sham" and a "parody"

Adelaide woman Tanya Watkins, a self-described "captain" of the church and adherent of its creed of "Pastafarianism", has made repeated attempts to secure the offbeat movement official status as an incorporated association.

After the latest attempt was knocked back by the Corporate Affairs Commission, Ms Watkins sought a review of that decision, and the matter was subsequently referred to the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (SACAT).

The tribunal heard evidence from the commission and from Ms Watkins, who contended that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was formed for a "religious, educational, charitable or benevolent purpose", thereby meeting the criteria of South Australia's Associations Incorporation Act.

Ms Watkins told the tribunal the church placed emphasis on helping others, and had engaged in acts of charity such as an event at Flinders University to "feed the hungry".

In a ruling handed down earlier this year, and recently published online, SACAT Senior Member Kathleen McEvoy rejected the arguments for incorporation.

"Ms Watkins explained to the tribunal that she was seeking incorporation for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Australia in order that the association would be recognised as a not for profit organisation under the Act, and be a legal entity in its own right," Ms McEvoy stated.

In the ruling, Ms McEvoy noted that while various "Pastafarian texts" are set out in traditional religious forms, they "contain some surprising articulations", such as references to the books of the Bible as the "Old Testicle" and "New Testicle".

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-19/sa-church-of-the-flying-spaghetti-monster-proposal-rejected/100228038

Considering that all religions are hoaxes... some are more satirical than others....

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