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Welcome to Thursday. An NCR commentary says that many Americans, including Catholics, voted for Donald Trump because they thought he was "pro-life," but those voters were conned by a narcissistic sociopath. A new Global Sisters Report series seeks to examine the questions most often raised about the possibility of women religious being ordained as deacons or of women deacons joining religious institutes and orders.
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** How Catholics got conned by Donald Trump ([link removed])
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Many Americans, including Catholics, voted for Donald Trump because they thought he was "pro-life" but they were conned, Franciscan Sr. Fran Ferder and Fr. John Heagle write in a commentary for NCR.

Ferder and Heagle, who share a counseling ministry in Oregon, remind readers of the 2017 book written by 27 mental health professionals titled The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, in which they attempted to warn of the danger he posted to the U.S. and the world. The book described Trump as an impulsive, callous man who only cared about his own self-interest and had a reputation for using and abusing women, borrowing money he never repaid and getting revenge on people he thought were disloyal to him.

"The psychiatrists and psychologists turned to the Hare Psychopathy Index to help describe a profile of Trump," Ferder and Heagle write. "In him, the authors recognized the patterns of exploiting, lying, blaming, manipulating, entitlement, impulsive behavior and avoiding responsibility that characterizes the narcissistic sociopath."

"We had elected him president of the United States."

You can read more of the commentary here ([link removed]) .

More background:
* As we move into a presidential administration that does not disparage — or openly threaten — the media, our job remains to tell the truth, uncover what may be hidden and hold the powerful accountable, writes NCR executive editor Heidi Schlumpf ([link removed]) .

* Trump has been a national obsession since he began running for president in 2015. He consumes all the oxygen in the room, writes Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese ([link removed]) . We must get over our obsession with Trump and return to building the kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice and peace.

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** Diaconal ministries link women religious to restoration of women deacons ([link removed])
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In this new series at Global Sisters Report, Phyllis Zagano seeks to examine the questions most often raised about the possibility of women religious being ordained as deacons or of women deacons joining religious institutes and orders.

The first essay recalls the most recent history of the discussion of women deacons in the church, starting in May 2016, when Pope Francis responded to a question posed at the triennial assembly of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG): If women religious are already performing the many ministries of deacons, why not form a commission to study the restoration of women to the diaconate?

The pope responded by naming 12 scholars, including Zagano, to the Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women who returned a report by June 2018. The pope gave a portion of the report to the UISG leadership at their May 2019 assembly. It has not been published.

The same question arose again during the October 2019 Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region and the pope named a new commission to study the question, which will begin meeting this year.

"Specific questions arise when considering women religious in the ordained diaconate," writes Zagano. "While in the Orthodox Churches, the question of women deacons is not debated — women, and especially monastic women, are and have been ordained as deacons — the Latin rite West has debated the issue for hundreds of years."

You can read more here ([link removed]) .

More background:
* Keep up with the rest of Phyllis Zagano's series, "Women Religious, Women Deacons: Questions and Answers ([link removed]) ."

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** Building a Common Future ([link removed])
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This week, we continue our series, Building a Common Future ([link removed]) , in which we asked Catholic politicians, activists and scholars to offer advice to President-elect Joe Biden.

"Building our common future: It's what the United States, indeed, the entire world needs right now," we wrote in an editorial ([link removed]) introducing the series.

Today's commentary ([link removed]) comes from Johnny Zokovitch, executive director of Pax Christi USA, and focuses on gun violence. "There are numerous policies, programs and efforts that the new administration can take to save lives, but I want to focus on how it can shore up the foundation of our gun violence prevention strategy: background checks," Zokovitch writes.

You can read Monday's commentary on rural poverty by Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky here ([link removed]) . Tuesday's commentary by U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) on income inequality and the widening wealth gap can be found here ([link removed]) . Wednesday's commentary by Richard Trumka on labor union organization can be read here ([link removed]) .

Read the rest of Zokovitch's commentary here ([link removed]) .
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** More headlines
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* Religious leaders in a Georgetown-hosted webinar said ([link removed]) people of faith have a moral duty to end the death penalty and resist policies that treat human beings as disposable.

* ICYMI: The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments asked priests to take special anti-COVID-19 precautions ([link removed]) this year when distributing ashes on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17.

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** Final thoughts
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Don't forget to join us today at 1:30 p.m. Central on Facebook ([link removed]) or YouTube ([link removed]) as NCR opinion editor Olga Segura and NCR executive editor Heidi Schlumpf chat with Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, about our Building a Common Future series ([link removed]) . See you then!

Until Friday,

Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Managing Editor
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Twitter: @ncrSLY ([link removed])

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