News and Press

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Family is the focus of the next multimedia Ave Explores series — Ave Explores: Catholic Family Life — hosted by Katie Prejean McGrady of Lake Charles.

Ave Explores: Catholic Family Life kicked off Wednesday, August 19, and will feature podcasts, an article, social media exclusives, and Facebook Live events each week through September 11. Contributors include Jackie and Bobby Angel, Emily Jaminet, Kathryn Whitaker, Damon and Melanie Owens, Timothy P. O’Malley, Fr. Cassidy Stinson, Danielle Bean, Ryan McQuade, and Lisa M. Hendey.

The newest Ave Explores series will celebrate the diversity of families and their role in the Church. From singles to couples with many children and from priests and religious to grandparents and grandchildren, viewers will learn how each family is called to holiness and to share their faith with the world.

The Ave Explores podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Play Music. Sign up to receive limited-time, weekly emails about new stories, podcasts, and Facebook Live events for Ave Explores: Catholic Family Life at avemariapress.com.

The Most Reverend Glen John Provost, Bishop of Lake Charles, has announced the receipt of a sizeable legacy, perhaps the largest contribution ever made to the Diocese of Lake Charles, from the estate of Elizabeth Singletary Richard and her late husband, Leslie R., both longtime residents of Cameron Parish.

Catholic Charities of Southwest Louisiana, with assistance from Second Harvest Food Bank, is expanding its food distribution to Ragley at St. Pius X Catholic Church, 16816 Highway 171. 

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Diocese of Lake Charles

LAKE CHARLES — A former “fake-news” journalist for Cosmopolitan, a urologist expelled for defending the integrity of the medical profession, and an attorney devoted to promoting the dignity of the human person were all honored on July 17 for their efforts to promote family values.

The third annual Ruth Institute awards dinner was part of a two-day Summit for Survivors of the Sexual Revolution held July 17-18 at Treasures of Marilyn’s. The Ruth Institute provides decades of research to support individuals and families harmed by divorce, the hook-up culture, and other forms of family breakdown.

This year's recipient of the Public Witness of the Year Award is Sue Ellen Browder for her courageous expose in her book, Subverted: How I Helped the Sexual Revolution Hijack the Women’s Movement. As the dinner’s keynote speaker via video, Browder shared details of how she helped invent the “Cosmo Girl” during her two decades of writing for Cosmopolitan magazine after she was hired in 1971. 

While Browder, who grew up in the small town of New Hampton, Iowa, did not live the lifestyle that she was soft selling to other women, she said she honestly believed that people knew the stories she was writing about casual sex, contraception and abortion as a woman’s path to personal fulfillment were all a fantasy. 

“It wasn’t until I became a Catholic at the age of 57, after I had been away from Cosmo for many years, that I could look back at what I had been doing and see the damage it had done to the culture,” she said. That’s when she knew she had to come clean and seek forgiveness.

The propaganda that was used to sell the sex revolution’s false values to American women were stories that were made up to make it seem as if single women were having these happy-go-lucky sex lives, said Browder.

“Propaganda is the language of the serpent. It contains some truth, but it is twisted,” she said. “Modern propaganda is far more subtle and sophisticated than a straight-out lie. It is purposely designed not just to change what you think, but also to change how you act.”

Browder said God was never mentioned in Cosmopolitan. She also said that telling the truth about contraception, abortion, the sexual revolution and anything that is sold by Cosmo advertisers is considered an attack.

“What made me most miserable in my life was having an abortion when I was 27,” Browder said upon reflecting on her conversion experience in 2003. “What made me happiest was my beautiful 40-year marriage. Today, what has healed the pains of my past and brought me the deepest joy I have ever known is my relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Receiving the Professional Integrity Award was Dr. Paul Church, a practicing urologist for more than 35 years and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston before his retirement from clinical practice in 2017.

Dr. Church was fired, and his medical license nearly revoked when he challenged hospital superiors to be more truthful about the health consequences of high risk LGBTQIA+ sexual behavior. Met with increasing efforts to silence his concerns, he was eventually expelled from the medical staff in December 2015. Two other hospitals where Dr. Church held appointments expelled him as well, and a fourth hospital revoked their staff position offer fearing repercussions from the LGBT community.

In his acceptance of the award via a video message, Dr. Church said in its decision to expel him, it was evident the medical center had chosen the path of political correctness and promotion of a social agenda unrelated to a practice of medicine or the advancement of healthcare.

“It’s easy to become discouraged in this climate of political correctness and censorship and rejection of the truth,” he said. “We aren’t winning many battles, but we must continue to fight the good fight and support prayerfully and financially those organizations on the frontlines like the Ruth Institute.”

The Public Activist Award was presented in person to Cathy Cleaver Ruse, whose professional experience spans the fields of communication, public policy and law.

The “condescending” attitude of the Fairfax County School Board in Virginia is all it took to light a fire under Ruse when she learned her local school board voted to allow transgender bathrooms.

Even though her children attend Catholic schools, when she heard there was only one “no” vote for the policy, she decided to attend a board meeting so she could meet the person who cast the lone vote.

“A woman named Elizabeth Schultz was my new hero,” said Ruse. “I thanked her and told her I wanted to help. I have been singularly focused about five years now. It was if God anointed me to go fight for this.”

Ruse serves as Family Research Council’s Senior Fellow for Legal Studies and Legal Supervisor for Ave Maria School of Law/Culture of Life Foundation Washington Externship Program.

Live-streaming and online programs during the Summit were available on topics including: Surviving Childhood Sexual Abuse, Clergy Sex Abuse By the Numbers, Pornography as a Public Health Crisis, Medical Issues in the LGBT Subculture, Reporting on the Transgender Movement, and Protecting Your Family from Pornography. Each topic concluded with a Q&A discussion panel.

•••••••••

The Ruth Institute, founded by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse in San Diego in 2008, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It has since relocated to Lake Charles in 2015. For more information, visit www.ruthinstitute.org or call 760-295-9278. To learn more about Sue Ellen Browder's conversion story, click here.

By Pamela Seal
Diocese of Lake Charles

No matter what side of the abortion issue you are on — pro-life or pro-choice — one thing is certain. The life of a child is lost every single time. Whether the abortion took place last week, last year or even 30 years ago, Marjorie Long wants people to know something else that is certain: forgiveness and healing through a Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat.

His Excellency, The Most Reverend Glen John Provost, Bishop of Lake Charles, ordained four men to the priesthood for the Diocese of Lake Charles on Saturday, June 27, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The four are the Reverend Samuel Bond, the Reverend Joseph Caraway, the Reverend Andrew DeRouen, and the Reverend Levi Thompson. Additionally, Bishop Provost ordained the Reverend Mr. Michael Beverung as a transitional deacon, the penultimate step to ordination to the priesthood. Bishop Provost's homily follows.