Vatican City, Jan 9, 2019 / 10:50 am (CNA).- Cardinal Walter Brandmüller made headlines last week, after he told German news agency DPA that debate over the clerical sexual abuse crisis should not “forget or […]
New York City, N.Y., Jan 9, 2019 / 11:00 am (CNA).- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called for a change to the state’s constitution to enshrine abortion rights. Leading pro-life leaders called his statements “abhorrent” and “out of step” of mainstream politics.
Speaking Monday at an event in Manhattan, Cuomo said that he hopes to pass an amendment that “writes into the constitution a provision protecting a woman’s right to control her own reproductive health.” He was joined at the event, hosted at Barnard College, by former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Pro-life activists decried Cuomo’s wish for a constitutional amendment protecting abortion and the imminent law as extremist politics at work.
“Gov. Cuomo’s extremist push to conflate abortion with healthcare is a tragic example of politics and ideology triumphing over medicine and the science of embryology,” Americans United For Life CEO Catherine Glenn Foster told CNA.
In New York, changing the state constitution requires the state legislature to approve the amendment in addition to passage in a statewide voter referendum. The earliest such an amendment could be passed is 2021.
In the near term, the New York state legislature is likely to pass the Reproductive Health Act later this month. The legislation would codify the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade and that permit abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. The bill was first introduced in 2007.
The New York state senate recently returned to Democrat-majority control for the first time since 2010, and the bill is widely expected to become law.
Foster said that the Reproductive Health Act has “nothing to do with women’s rights or enhancing women’s health,” and instead, it would simply make abortion more dangerous by stripping away health and safety regulations on abortionists.
“Under Gov. Cuomo’s leadership, New York nail salons will be more regulated than abortion facilities,” Foster added.
Foster’s comments were echoed by Tom McCluskey, March for Life vice president of government affairs.
McCluskey told CNA that it was “abhorrent” that Cuomo would prioritize abortion legislation during this time, and that this move was “out of step with the mainstream.”
“The American consensus has consistently supported limiting abortion to, at most, the first trimester,” McCluskey said, pointing out that only six countries allow abortion to occur after the 20th week of pregnancy.
“[The proposed amendment] is just another example of Democratic extremism that benefits none and hurts our most vulnerable.”
Manila, Philippines, Jan 9, 2019 / 10:42 am (CNA).- Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila told pilgrims at a popular annual procession in the Philippines to take caution against becoming “fanatics,” stressing that true devotion is about how one lives one’s whole life, not a single day.
“A fanatic does not love,” the cardinal told thousands gathered at midnight Mass on Wednesday. “Fanatics hold on to who gives importance to them. But a devotee … is devoted because of love, and that is what Jesus showed us.”
“Devotion is a daily act…. In every kind of love, loyalty, and union, it must be daily,” he said, according to UCA News.
The cardinal gave a homily at a Mass to kick off the annual Black Nazarene procession. Known as the traslacion, the 19-hour procession through the streets of Manila takes place each year on Jan. 9. Millions of pilgrims take part in the 7-kilometer procession; this year’s crowds were expected to top 5 million.
The statue of the Black Nazarene is a kneeling Christ cloaked in a maroon robe and crowned with thorns. The life-sized statue bears a cross.
It was brought to the Philippines by Augustinian missionary priests in 1606. The statue is believed to have acquired its black color after being partially burnt when the ship carrying it caught fire on a voyage from Mexico.
Since then it has survived fires that destroyed its host church twice, two earthquakes, floods from numerous typhoons and bombings during World War II. The image is normally enshrined in Manila’s famous Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, popularly known as the Quiapo Church. Many miracles have been reported in connection with veneration of the statue.
The traslacion tradition is deeply beloved in the country, where some 80 percent of the population is Catholic. However, it is also controversial. Barefoot pilgrims eager to touch the Black Nazarene statue shove and climb over one another, resulting each year in injuries and sometimes deaths.
By midmorning Jan. 9, the Philippine Red Cross said they had treated more than 600 people for bruises, fainting, breathing problems, and other conditions. At least three people had been hospitalized, the BBC reported.
In 2012, Msgr. Clemente Ignacio, rector of the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, acknowledged the problem of fanaticism among pilgrims.
“We admit that there were elements or excess of fanaticism that needs to be corrected,” he said, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“It’s our task to slowly form and educate the faithful about their devotion and the right way of expressing such devotion that will not harm themselves and others.”
Local priest Fr. Danichi Hui told UCA News he expected this year’s procession to be more orderly than normal, as participants were asked to take a “Devotee’s Pledge” that promised to follow the rules of the event.
Some 7,000 police officers were deployed to secure the procession, and soldiers were on stand-by, local news outlets reported.
While I was in Chicago for the Christmas break, I had a wonderful meeting with around thirty young Jesuits, all in their “pre-tertianship” period of formation. This means that these men had already passed through […]
Washington D.C., Jan 9, 2019 / 07:45 am (CNA).- President Donald Trump signed the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act on Tuesday.
The law, which was authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), authori… […]
Vatican City, Jan 9, 2019 / 05:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Persevere in prayer, remembering that God the Father is waiting to answer his children – even if the result is to change the person, not the circumstance, Pope Francis said at the general aud… […]
The Vatican is a hotbed of rumor, gossip, and speculation at the best of times — and these times are not those times. The Roman atmosphere at the beginning of 2019 is typically fetid and […]
It’s time to admit we’re addicted to outrage. Other people are just so darn wicked. Or liberal. Or racist. Or tacky. Our political leaders know how to channel this outrage into power for themselves. Our […]
Washington D.C., Jan 8, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- Opus Dei confirmed this week that in 2005 it reached a $977,000 settlement with a Washington, D.C. woman who alleged that Opus Dei priest Fr. C. John McCloskey sexually assaulted her in the context of pastoral counseling.
The story has made headlines because of McCloskey’s connection to political and media circles in Washington, D.C. But it has also gained attention because of the place Opus Dei has occupied in popular culture, especially after the publication of the 2003 novel “The Da Vinci Code,” which offered a portrayal of Opus Dei many critics dismissed as fantastical.
But what is Opus Dei?
Founded in 1928 by Spanish priest Fr. Josemaria Escriva, the movement was borne of Escriva’s vision to help lay Catholics in Madrid understand the baptismal calling of holiness and evangelization. He called the movement Opus Dei to emphasize his belief that its foundation was a “work of God,”- or, in Latin, “Opus Dei.”
The movement began as a program of Catholic spiritual and intellectual formation for laymen, and began admitting women to its programs of formation two years after its foundation.
Technically, Opus Dei is a “personal prelature,” which is a Church structure comprised of priests and deacons joined together to “accomplish particular pastoral or missionary works,” according to canon law. The priests and deacons of the prelature are not members of a religious order, like the Jesuits or Benedictines, and therefore, they do not make public vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, as religious priests and brothers do. Instead, they are secular clerics, as are diocesan priests, which means that like diocesan priests, they are obliged to celibacy and to obedience, but they are not bound to poverty, or to other aspects of monastic, or religious life.
Because Opus Dei is a “personal prelature,” its members are the priests and deacons incardinated into its structure. However, Opus Dei also involves lay Catholics, who associate themselves to the mission of the prelature by means of individual agreements.
Association comes at different levels: some unmarried Catholics collaborate with Opus Dei as “numeraries,” who dedicate much of their life and time to Opus Dei and its mission; “supernumeraries” are typically married, and share in Opus Dei’s work and mission in the context of their families; “cooperators” may be married or unmarried laity who collaborate with or support Opus Dei at a less committed level. There are also diocesan priests and bishops associated with Opus Dei through an organization called the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross.
Though commonly referred to as “members,” numeraries, supernumeraries, and cooperators are not formally members of Opus Dei, and remain subject to the jurisdiction of their own diocesan bishops and pastors. The prelate, or head, of Opus Dei does not exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction for those collaborators, except in regard to specifically delineated matters related to collaboration in the prelature’s mission. The educational and spiritual work of Opus Dei, including formation, is subject to the oversight of the diocesan bishop in each place where the prelature operates.
In 2016, there were more than 2,000 priest members of the prelature, and more than 90,000 lay people were connected to the organization by means of agreements. The prelature is operative in nearly 70 countries, and headquartered in Rome.
In the United States, Opus Dei supports Catholic schools, generally segregated by sex, in several cities. The organization offers formation through spiritual direction, retreats, “evenings of recollection,” at which priests offer spiritual guidance and confession, and through “circles,” small group meetings of spiritual formation. In Washington, D.C., Opus Dei operates the Catholic Information Center, a centrally-located bookstore offering weekday Mass and frequent evening programs.
Opus Dei has been criticized by some observers, who say the organization in inconsistent in its practices in different regions, promotes secrecy about its practices and governance, and focuses its recruiting on persons of wealth or influence.
Opus Dei’s spirituality is rooted in the writings and thought of Fr. Josemaria Escriva, who was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2002. Escriva’s work focused on becoming holy in ordinary life, by means of a deep prayer life, offering to God sacrifices and challenges, and the cultivation of virtue.
Quito, Ecuador, Jan 8, 2019 / 04:29 pm (ACI Prensa).- The Ecuadorian legislature began debate on decriminalizing abortion last week, amid opposition from the Church and various civil organizations.
The decriminalization of abortion is part of the reform of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code. The proposal would liberalize this procedure in cases of rape, non-viable fetal deformity, rape, and incest.
The Ecuadorian bishops’ conference stated in a Jan. 3 communiqué that “human life is above any political and religious banner or positions erroneously called conservative or progressive.”
“We invite all men and women of good will, families and, in a special way, the members of the assembly, to exposit with clarity and courage their scientific, ethical and legal arguments, free of any fundamentalist position, whether it be of a social, political or religious character,” the bishops encouraged.
The Ecuadorian bishops’ conference also stated that “we have prepared a document with the counsel of renowned professionals in the fields of medicine, ethics, and law, referring in a particular way to the rights of unborn children.”
Cristina Franco, of Guayaquil Pro-Life Lawyers, told ACI Prensa that the proposal to decriminalize abortion in the case of rape was made by Ernesto Pazmiño Granizo, the former People’s Ombudsman, in 2016, and other proposals were later added to it.
Finally, the proposal was incorporated into the reform of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code, and it received the approval of the National Assembly’s Justice and the Structure of the State Commission in December 2018, a necessary previous step for it to be debated in the Plenary Assembly.
“The Constitution of Ecuador requires a bill to be submitted to two debates prior to the sanction or objection of the Executive Branch. The first debate began January 3, and out of that, the Commission will issue a second report prior to the second and final debate,” Franco said.
An additional session would have to be held the coming week as part of the first debate, before the bill will be returned to the Justice and Structure of the State Commission.
“This report would have to make note of the bill’s rejection or acceptance by the legislators, as well as proposals presented by the representatives of the different civil organizations.”
Cristina Valverde, a lawyer, told ACI Prensa that “currently, the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code does not penalize abortion if the life of the woman is in danger or if the pregnancy was the consequence of the rape of a woman with a mental disability.”
Valverde said that pro-life groups were eventually able to enter the Plenary Assembly Jan. 3 to “tell the members of the assembly that the majority of Ecuadorians want sexual violence to be eradicated and for life to be respected from conception.”
She said the proposal to decriminalize abortion will eventually go back to the Justice Commission, “where we hope they completely eliminate this article and that life will be respected from conception just as the Constitution of Ecuador guarantees in Article 45.”
Article 45 ensures that “girls, boys and adolescents shall enjoy the rights common to human beings, in addition to those specific to their age. The State shall recognize and guarantee life including its care and protection from conception.”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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