The
COURIER
Ash Wednesday February 14
February 2024
Official Newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester, MN | dowr.org
Surrogacy Is an Injustice to All Involved,
Minnesota Catholic Conference
Inside the Capitol
Bishop Barron Says in Support of Pope Francis
Putting Families First at the Capitol
�ycles of abuse, addiction, poor health out-
From usccb.org
�ishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, chair-
comes, academic under achievement, and crime seem impossible to end. All too often, at the heart of these issues is the breakdown of the family. While there is no single cause nor solution, we know that these outcomes exacerbate the breakdown of the family and when families are economically stable many of these issues can begin to heal. The Families First Project, an initiative of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, serves to advocate for removing barriers to family stability and economic security so that Minnesotans can get married, stay married, and raise a family. The first fruits of the Families First Project will be seen by many of Minnesota’s families when they file their taxes this year. Through legislation spearheaded by our Families First Project and supported by the testimony of families like yours, Minnesota’s legislature passed a nationleading, permanent state-level child tax credit. So, what does this mean for eligible families? The Child Tax Credit is a reduction in the amount owed on state taxes for a given year. For those who do not owe taxes, the credit is refunded through their tax return. But to receive the credit, it is imperative to file an individual income tax return, regardless of earned income. This credit and other tax benefits like the Working Family Credit, education tax credit, and education subtraction for children's schooling expenses help
man of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, issued this reflection in support of the Holy Father’s January 8 remarks to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, which included a specific mention of the harms of surrogacy: Pope Francis strongly condemned the practice of surrogacy calling it ‘a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child.’ He emphasized that a child is a gift and as such can ‘never (be) the basis of a commercial contract.’ Surrogacy represents the commodification and instrumentalization of a woman’s body, treating her as a ‘carrier’ rather than a human person. And just as troubling is the fact that the child is reduced to terms of buying and selling as an object of human trafficking. The commercialization of women and children in surrogacy is underlined by the belief that there is a right to have a child. The child becomes an object for the fulfillment of one’s desires instead of a person to be cherished. In this way, the genuine right of the child to be conceived through the love of his or her parents is overlooked in favor of ‘the right to have a child by any means necessary.’ We must avoid this way of thinking and answer the call to respect human life, beginning with the unborn child. It might be the case that couples earnestly want to have children without resorting to surrogacy, but painful and even life-threatening medical
Pope Francis speaks to Georgios Poulides, ambassador of Cyprus to the Holy See and dean of the Vatican diplomatic corps, as diplomats accredited to the Holy See gather in the Sistine Chapel for a group photo on Jan. 8, 2024. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
obstacles make childbirth hazardous or impossible. The serious prospect of a life without biological children has been dismissed by some, but we have a responsibility to accompany these couples in their suffering. The Church teaches that married couples are not obliged to actually have children, but to be open to any life that might be the fruit of their union. The desire to utilize surrogacy might feel like the desire to form a family naturally, but no matter how well-intentioned, surrogacy always does grave injustice to the child, any discarded embryos (who are our fellow human beings), the commodified birth mother, and the loving union of the spouses.
Families, cont'd on pg. 7
INSIDE this issue
Pointing to Signs and Wonders page 5
Thank God for Principals page 6
Should We Go on a Marriage Retreat?
page 7
