London, England, Apr 23, 2018 / 10:38 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Monday a hospitalized British child at the center of a heated legal battle was granted Italian citizenship, part of an effort to delay shutting off his life-support, and to transfer him to a Roman hospital for additional treatment and medical evaluation.
Two-year-old Alfie Evans suffers from an unidentified degenerative neurological condition and has been under continuous hospitalization since December 2016.
On Monday the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) refused to intervene in what has been a highly sensitive and complicated case, paving the way for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, where Evans has been receiving care, to shut off the infant’s life support.
After receiving the ruling from the ECHR Monday morning, the hospital scheduled Evans to be taken off life support later that day. However, according to Italian daily Avvenire, the official newspaper of the Italian bishops, Evans’ parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, were able to receive a last minute delay in order to clarify an aspect of the sentence.
Crowds of protesters lined the streets in front of the hospital Monday as they waited for the ruling, while Tom sent intermittent Facebook live posts from inside the hospital.
According to the BBC, some 200 protesters attempted to storm the hospital at one point, but were stopped by police, and backed off to the opposite side of the road.
In the meantime, Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano and Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti granted citizenship to Evans, in hopes that being an Italian citizen will allow the infant to be transferred to Italy immediately.
The decision comes less than one week after Alfie’s father, Tom, came to the Vatican to make a personal appeal to Pope Francis on his son’s behalf. In a private audience with the pope before his Wednesday general audience April 18, Tom Evans plead for asylum in Italy for his family, so that Alfie can be moved to the Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome to receive treatment.
Pope Francis has made several appeals for Alfie, asking in his April 15 Regina Coeli address for people to pray for Alfie and others “who live, at times for a long period, in a serious state of illness, medically assisted for their basic needs.”
The pope also recently tweeted about Alfie, saying it was his “sincere hope that everything necessary may be done in order to continue compassionately accompanying little Alfie Evans, and that the deep suffering of his parents may be heard.”
Debate surrounding the case flared up when in February the court ruled that Alder Hey Children’s Hospital could legally stop treatment for Alfie against his parent’s wishes. The hospital has argued that continuing treatment is not in his best interest.
Despite Tom and Kate’s desire to take their son to Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome, several judges ruled in the hospital’s favor. The case has since drawn international attention.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Rome, Italy, May 6, 2018 / 04:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Love is not empty words or what is depicted in romantic films – it is action and service toward others, Pope Francis said in a homily at a Roman parish Sunday.
Pilgrims pray in front of St. Peter’s Basilica / Hannah Brockhaus/CNA
Rome, Italy, May 26, 2022 / 08:37 am (CNA).
When St. Philip Neri came to Rome from Florence in 1533, he encountered a city in upheaval. The Sack of Rome six years prior had left famine and plague in its wake. The Protestant Reformation was in full swing and the Church was rife with corruption.
The young Philip, who would spend around 16 years in Rome as a layman before becoming a priest, soon dedicated himself to caring for the city’s sick and poor.
The saint, whose feast day falls on May 26, also realized that Rome’s people were suffering from a spiritual sickness and tiredness as well, and so he set out to reinvigorate Catholics with the joy of the faith through song and dance — and jokes.
A historic illustration of the seven churches. Hannah Brockhaus/CNA
Part of St. Philip’s outreach was the revival of the Seven Churches visit. He may not be the originator of the idea of the pilgrimage to some of Rome’s most important churches, but he is credited with renewing its popularity.
After it fell out of use once again, St. Philip’s congregation of secular priests, the Oratory, revived it in the 1960s, including holding the walk one night each year, as close as possible to the way the saint would have done it.
Fr. Maurizio Botta, who led the pilgrimage, speaks at the start in front of Chiesa Nuova. Hannah Brockhaus/CNA
After a two-year pause, on the evening of May 13 into the morning of May 14, around 800 people walked 15 and a half miles in the footsteps of the saint and his followers.
Police officers in cruisers drove ahead of the urban pilgrimage to block traffic as a sea of Catholics from around Italy crossed busy intersections and passed Friday night diners while praying the rosary in unison and singing the Taizé chant “Laudate Dominum,” whose words say in Latin, “Praise the Lord, all people, Alleluia.”
Pilgrims, including scouts, walk through Rome’s Ostiense neighborhood. Hannah Brockhaus/CNA
The rosary was prayed four times during the pilgrimage, which took almost 10 hours to complete, including stops for a sack dinner at midnight and short lessons on the virtues led by priests of the Oratory.
Pilgrims, including scouts, walk through Rome’s Ostiense neighborhood. Hannah Brockhaus
The seven basilicas were chosen by the saint for their importance to Christianity, and the walk on May 13-14 followed the path laid out in a 16th-century document almost certainly seen and used by St. Philip — and likely even written by him.
This document, recreated and printed into a booklet for use on the annual pilgrimage today, gives St. Philip’s guidance for those making the Seven Churches visit.
Eating a sack dinner in the courtyard of a church. Hannah Brockhaus/CNA
“Before setting out to make this holy Pilgrimage, each of the Brethren must lift up his mind to God, offering him the sincerity of his heart, with the purpose of desiring the sole glory of his divine Majesty in all actions, and especially in this one,” it says.
Those participating can also earn an indulgence under the usual conditions, and are asked to pray for specific intentions. These include praying for the penance of sins, the amendment of lukewarmness and negligence in the service of God, in thanksgiving for the forgiveness of sins, for the pope and the Church, for sinners still in the darkness of an evil life, for the conversion of heretics, schismatics, and infidels, and for the holy souls in purgatory.
Pilgrims stop to pray on the way to St. Peter’s Basilica. Hannah Brockhaus/CNA
The pilgrimage began at Chiesa Nuova, the church built by St. Philip for the Oratory, and proceeded to St. Peter’s Basilica, reaching the site of St. Peter’s martyrdom at sunset.
Pilgrims walk on a path next to the Tiber River. Hannah Brockhaus/CNA
Each of the seven churches is associated with a moment of Christ’s Passion and Crucifixion. At each stop, an Oratory priest preached on a virtue and its opposing vice, before everyone joined in a prayer for an increase in that virtue and for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The virtues and vices were abstinence against gluttony, patience against ire, chastity against lust, generosity against avarice, fervor of spirit against acedia, charity against envy, and humility against pride.
A street sign marking Seven Churches Way. Hannah Brockhaus/CNA
After the Basilica of St. Paul, the pilgrimage followed an ancient street still called Seven Churches Way to arrive at the catacombs and the Basilica of St. Sebastian, a third-century Christian martyr.
As a layman in Rome, St. Philip Neri used to visit the catacombs of St. Sebastian to pray. One night in the catacombs, about 10 years after moving to Rome, as he prayed, a mystical ball of fire entered his mouth and went down into his chest, exploding his ribs and doubling the size of his heart with love of God.
St. Philip was changed, both physically and spiritually, by this event, which he only revealed shortly before his death.
Pilgrims outside the catacombs of St. Sebastian. Hannah Brockhaus/CNA
Pilgrims next arrived at the Domine Quo Vadis Church after a silent, moonlit walk through the ancient Appian Way Park, flanked by the silhouettes of Italian cypress trees.
The small church of medieval origin marks the spot where, according to tradition, Jesus appeared to St. Peter as he was fleeing Rome to avoid martyrdom.
Peter asked Jesus, “Domine quo vadis?” (“Lord, where are you going?”), to which Christ said, “Venio Romam iterum crucifigi,” (“I am coming to Rome to be crucified again.”) This rebuke caused Peter to turn around and face his own martyrdom.
Pilgrims walk along the ancient Aurelian Wall on their way to the Basilica of St. John Lateran. Hannah Brockhaus/CNA
The Basilica of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls was the penultimate stop. The church, which has the tomb of St. Lawrence, is located next to Rome’s Verano Monumental Cemetery, and was included among the Seven Churches by St. Philip Neri, Father Botta said, as a reminder of mortality.
Almost 2 weeks ago I went on St. Philip Neri’s 7 Churches Walk in Rome.
800 people walked over 15 miles during the 10-hour night pilgrimage.
During the last stretch, at 5:15am, we passed through Termini train station, and Francesco caught this video of the moment. pic.twitter.com/C2SPHn5yoR
— Hannah Brockhaus (@HannahBrockhaus) May 26, 2022
The final stretch of the walk passed through Rome’s main train station, Termini, where pilgrims sang the Marian antiphon “Salve Regina.”
Pilgrims walk through Termini train station singing the “Salve Regina”. Hannah Brockhaus/CNA
The pilgrimage finished shortly before 6:00 a.m. at the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the traditional end of the walk, where the “Salve Regina” hymn was sung again in honor of the Virgin Mary.
Pilgrims sing the “Salve Regina” outside the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Hannah Brockhaus/CNAA baby and his mom enjoy a moment with a new friend at the end of the pilgrimage. Hannah Brockhaus/CNAA statue of Mary on a column outside the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Hannah Brockhaus
Too little, too late. The agents of death in Britain have had their say and it is final. Britain is killing its children and it is doomed. So be it.
A larger story for this magazine or an intrepid reporter is the complete unified silence and cowardice of the English Catholic bishops in defense of this little Catholic boy, Alfie Evans.
I shudder at what they will surely answer for in the next life. Was there even one priest at the hospital praying for this innocent child of God? The RCC is clearly well over the cliff. Account will be taken, soon. Bet on it.
Too little, too late, it seems.
Too little, too late. The agents of death in Britain have had their say and it is final. Britain is killing its children and it is doomed. So be it.
A larger story for this magazine or an intrepid reporter is the complete unified silence and cowardice of the English Catholic bishops in defense of this little Catholic boy, Alfie Evans.
I shudder at what they will surely answer for in the next life. Was there even one priest at the hospital praying for this innocent child of God? The RCC is clearly well over the cliff. Account will be taken, soon. Bet on it.