【353-354】 Senator John McCain Decides to End Cancer Treatment

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AS IT IS

Senator John McCain Decides to End Cancer Treatment

August 24, 2018

Sen. John McCain speaks at a rally in support of Republican Sen. Thad Cochran at the Mississippi War Memorial in Jackson, Miss., June 23, 2014.

American Senator John McCain has chosen to discontinue his medical treatment for brain cancer.

The family of the Republican Party's 2008 presidential nominee and former prisoner of war announced the decision Friday. They said “With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment.”

His wife Cindy posted a message on Twitter: “I love my husband with all of my heart. God bless everyone who has cared for my husband along this journey.”

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In July 2017, doctors found the cancerous growth and operated on McCain. Two weeks later, McCain returned to the Senate floor. He cast the deciding vote against a Republican measure to end the Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare.

Republican President Donald Trump criticized that decision. He and McCain have had long-standing disagreements. During his campaign, Trump also questioned the senator’s public image as a war hero, saying of McCain’s past, “I like people who weren’t captured.”

McCain flew for the navy. His plane was shot down during the war in Vietnam. He was imprisoned, kept in isolation, and tortured by the North Vietnamese. He refused to give the North Vietnamese any military information. McCain was finally released after the cease-fire along with other American prisoners of war on March 14, 1973.

Lt. Commander John S. McCain III, a POW for over five years, waves to well wishers March 18, 1973 after arriving at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida. (AP Photo)

Entering politics

McCain retired from the Navy. He has served in Congress representing Arizona since 1982. He has been absent because of his medical condition since December.

The 81-year-old McCain has seven children, four with his wife Cindy Hensley, and three from his first marriage to Carol Shepp.

After the announcement Friday, former Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman said, “becoming John McCain’s friend has been one of the great blessings of my life. Today I am praying for him and his family.”

I’m Bryan Lynn.

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Words in This Story

journey – n. the act of traveling from one place to another

isolation – n. the state of being separate from other people, places, or things

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AS IT IS

Some Say It’s Time for Women as Priests, But It’s Unlikely

August 24, 2018

Pope Francis is greeted by a group of nuns during his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

The Roman Catholic Church does not allow women to become priests. With the latest sex abuse crisis, some believe it is time for a change. But, they admit, it is unlikely the church will change anytime soon.

Pope Francis and the male priests at the Vatican have said repeatedly that the teaching against female priests comes from God and cannot be changed.

“I don’t see any movement to ordain women,” said Margaret McGuinness, a religion professor at La Salle University in Philadelphia. “The people in power aren’t going to look at this as a solution,” she added.

In the United States, an organized campaign asking for female priests dates back to the 1970s. Its leaders have used the new sex abuse cases — in which the accused are all priests – to help their argument.

In one case, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is accused of abusing at least two children as well as adult men studying to be priests. In another, a grand jury report from the state of Pennsylvania says that about 300 priests sexually abused about 1,000 children in six dioceses since the 1940s.

Role of female in the Catholic Church

Bridget Mary Meehan has led a movement calling for female priests that challenges the Church’s teachings. She said, “If we had women as equals and partners, women ordained in the Catholic Church, the church would not be in this mess, because we would have parents who would minister and who would make sure children are protected.”

Church teaching says anyone who tries to ordain a woman will be expelled from the church. The Vatican considers such an act as bad as the sexual abuse of children.

Kate McElwee, head of the Women’s Ordination Conference, said Church leaders have worked hard over many years to protect abusive priests and ignored the victims.

Pope Francis, she noted, has called on all Catholics to help create a new culture in the church to stop the sexual abuse of children. McElwee said this would require “everyone at the table” and the end of the old male-only leadership.

Under Catholic rules, the priesthood is only for men because Christ chose only men as his 12 apostles. It is considered an unbreakable rule from God.

Pope Francis has repeatedly said women cannot become priests. But he has called for a greater role for women in the decision-making areas of the church.

In 2016, he created a commission to study the role of female deacons in the early years of the Catholic Church. The work of that commission was never released to the public, but some believe it may someday allow women to become deacons.

Deacons can perform many priests’ duties except they are not permitted to celebrate Mass.

Kate McElwee said her organization would welcome a decision to let women be deacons because this might lead to the ordination of women as priests.

Shortage of priests

The Women’s Ordination Conference and its allies also believe women priests could help the church with its biggest problem: the shortage of priests in many parts of the world.

One of the worst shortages is in the Amazon area of South America. An early report for the Vatican’s 2019 meeting on the Amazon called for church leaders to find new “official ministries” for women to serve there.

Michael Higgins teaches at Sacred Heart University in the U.S. He does not think women will be ordained as priests in the near future. But, he said, that a culture of male power “doesn’t work anymore.”

Margaret McGuinness, the La Salle professor, said Church leaders would have to make important changes to stop Catholics from leaving.

She added, “If they don’t do something, people are just going to walk away.”

I’m Susan Shand.

Susan Shand adapted this story for Learning English based on Associated Press news reports. Hai Do was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

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Words in This Story

priest – n. a person who has the authority to lead or perform ceremonies in some religions and especially in some Christian religions

diocese – n. the area that is controlled by a bishop

ordain – v. the official act or process of making someone a priest

apostles – n any one of the 12 men chosen by Jesus Christ to spread the Christian religion

deacon – n. an official in some Christian churches whose rank is just below a priest

Mass – n. a Christian ceremony especially in the Roman Catholic Church in which people eat bread and drink wine representing the body and blood of Jesus Christ

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