Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s blatant promotion of New York’s horrid abortion law seems to have been a tipping point. Demands, demands, that Catholic leaders do something serious to confront unbridled abortionism in the ranks of Catholic politicos are being published […]
Montpelier, Vt., Jan 25, 2019 / 12:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A bill was introduced in the Vermont House of Representatives Tuesday that would prohibit public entities from interfering with or restricting women’s access to abortion.
The Freedom of Choice Act, H.57, was introduced Jan. 22 by Reps. Ann Pugh and Maxine Grad. It has 91 co-sponsors in the 150-member body, and was referred to the Committee on Human Services.
The bill is meant to “safeguard the right to abortion” by ensuring it is not “denied, restricted, or infringed.”
It asserts that “every individual” has a fundamental right to choose or refuse contraception or sterilization, that “every individual who becomes pregnant has the fundamental right to choose to carry a pregnancy to term, give birth to a child, or to have an abortion”, and that “a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus shall not have independent rights under Vermont law.”
In addition to all branches of the state government, the bill would also apply to municipal governments in Vermont.
The bill was introduced the same day that New York passed its Reproductive Health Act; the anniversary of the 1973 US Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
Left-leaning states have moved to enact stronger abortion rights since October’s appointment of Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice to replace the retiring justice Anthony Kennedy.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that “in the face of a federal government intent on rolling back Roe v. Wade and women’s reproductive rights, I promised that we would enact this critical legislation within the first 30 days of the new session – and we got it done,” shortly after signing the legislation.
New York’s law codified the finding of Roe v. Wade, meaning that abortion would remain legal in New York even if the case were to be overturned by the Supreme Court.
While the New York law officially limits abortion to the first 24 weeks gestation, abortion is permitted at a later gestational age for reasons related to the wellbeing of the mother. Additionally, the bill removes act of abortion from the criminal code, and instead places it in the public-health code, and strips most safeguards and regulations on the procedure. Non-doctors will now be permitted to perform abortions.
The New York State Catholic Conference commented that “Our beloved state has become a more dangerous one for women and their unborn babies.”
In July 2018, Massachusetts passed a law that would ensure abortion remains legal in the state should the Supreme Court ever overturn Roe v. Wade.
New Mexico’s legislature is also considering an abortion rights law. The bill would repeal the state’s laws criminalizing abortion, which date to the 1960s but have not been enforced since 1973.
Panama City, Panama, Jan 25, 2019 / 11:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis heard confessions at a youth prison in Panama Friday, telling the young inmates that “you have a bigger purpose,” and that there is joy in heaven for one repentant … […]
San Francisco, Calif., Jan 25, 2019 / 09:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Walk for Life West Coast aims to gather thousands of pro-life advocates in San Francisco in the next days for mutual support, outreach and inspiration.
“Great speakers. Great w… […]
Vatican City, Jan 25, 2019 / 07:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis Friday appointed the next archbishops of two metropolitan sees – Fr. Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio was named to Lima, Peru and Archbishop Jose Antonio Fernandez Hurtado to Tlalnep… […]
Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan 25, 2019 / 12:00 am (CNA).- An Indonesian Christian, the former governor of Jakarta was released from jail on Thursday completing a two-year long sentence for alleged blasphemy against Islam.
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Chinese Christian, was Jakarta’s governor from 2014 to 2017. He was sentenced to prison that year, after being convicted of blasphemy after he charged that his opponents in his reelection race misused a Quranic verse about Muslims being ruled by non-Muslims.
A video of his comments with inaccurate subtitles was later released. Hundreds of Muslim protestors gathered outside the court and called for his imprisonment.
Similar demonstrations of 150,000 people had twice occurred against the governor. The protests were largely supported by the Islamic Defenders Front, a group that has previously been involved with violence against Christians and Shia Muslim groups.
“He’s back. My dad’s a free man! Thank you everyone for the support,” his son, Nicholas Sean wrote on Instagram, after Purnama’s release.
Human Rights Watch reported on Jan. 23 that Purnama’s case has highlighted the decline of the country’s freedom of speech and religious tolerance. Violation of a 1965 blasphemy law, which can lead to a jail sentence of up to five years, has been used to punish religious minorities in the predominantly Muslim country, the NGO said.
“[Purnama’s] unjust conviction is a reminder that minorities in Indonesia are at risk so long as the abusive blasphemy law remains in place,” said Elaine Pearson of Human Rights Watch.
Before his release, Purnama issued a letter on Instagram apologizing for any distress his comments may have caused. According to Bloomberg, in the letter, he thanked God for his prison sentence as a time to reflect on his future in politics.
“I am very grateful to God, the creator of heaven and earth, for being imprisoned. If I were re-elected in the gubernatorial election, I would have been a man who controlled the City Hall, but in here I learned to control myself forever,” he said.
Reuters reported that the former governor said he will not pursue politics at this time. Rather, Purnama said he is thinking about running a talk show and his family oil business.
Blasphemy laws can carry serious penalties in countries around the world. In Sudan and Saudi Arabia, corporal punishment, such as whipping, can be the punishment for violating blasphemy laws. In Russia and Kazakhstan, correctional labor has been prescribed as punishment for blasphemy.
A USCIRF study found in 2017 that Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Qatar, and Egypt have some of the world’s most severe blasphemy laws.
Asia Bibi, a Catholic mother-of-five, was acquitted in 2018 of a blasphemy conviction eight years after she was initially sentenced to death in Pakistan. The country has never officially carried out an execution under the blasphemy law, but accusations alone have inspired mob and vigilante violence.
“Blasphemy laws are a way for governments to deny their citizens – and particularly those of minority religions – the basic human rights to freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression,” Dr. Tenzin Dorjee, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said in a statement last October.
Tokyo, Japan, Jan 24, 2019 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- Thousands of convenience stores in Japan will stop selling pornographic magazines, a move they say will help create an environment more conducive to families.
Both Lawson Inc. and 7-Eleven Japan Co. announ… […]
The Walk for Life West Coast 2019 (www.walkforlifewc.com), a peaceful protest of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision striking down the nation’s anti-abortion laws, will be held this Saturday, January 26, beginning […]
Washington D.C., Jan 24, 2019 / 05:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A survey of bishops in the US released this week found that among respondents, 41 percent believe it theoretically possible to ordain women as deacons, and only 33 percent believe this should be allowed.
The survey released by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University (CARA) was sent in September 2018 to 192 bishops, of whom 108 responded, resulting in a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 6.25 percentage points.
The responses regarding the possibility of female diaconal ordination and whether it ought to occur suggest that eight percent of bishops in the US might believe it possible, yet not believe it should be authorized.
Diocesan deacon directors were also surveyed by CARA. Of the 186 deacon directors invited to participate, 133 responded, leading of a margin of error of 4.55 percentage points.
Asked if they believe the USCCB would implement the sacramental ordination of women as deacons were it authorized by the Holy See, 79 percent of bishops and 72 percent of deacon directors responded in the affirmative. Of bishops, 54 percent said they would consider implementation in their own local Church, and 62 percent of deacon directors believed their ordinary would do so.
Twenty-seven percent of bishop and deacon director respondents believe the Church will authorize the sacramental ordination of women as deacons.
Among the bishops, 97 percent agreed strongly or somewhat that their diocese is committed to increasing women’s involvement in ecclesial leadership; 86 percent of deacon directors affirmed this.
Asked if it would be helpful to have women deacons in liturgy, word, and charity ministries, most of the bishops responded in the affirmative for each category. Most deacon directors responded affirmatively as well, and all of the deacon directors said women deacons serving in charity ministries would be somewhat or very helpful.
It is to be held definitively that priestly ordination is reserved only to men.
The question of female deacons has recently resurfaced after Pope Francis appointed in August 2016 a commission to look into the historical role of deaconesses in the early Church.
Non-sacramentally ordained deaconesses were part of the early Church, although it is not entirely clear what their role was.
In June 2018, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and head of the commission, clarified that “the Holy Father did not ask us to study whether or not women can be deaconesses…but rather, [he asked us] to try to say in a clear way what the problems are and what the situation was in the ancient Church on this point of the women’s diaconate.”
Francis has acknowledged that the subject of deaconesses has already been studied by the Church, including a 2002 document on the diaconate from the International Theological Commission, an advisory body to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The document, which gave a thorough historical context of the role of deaconesses in the ancient Church, overwhelmingly concluded that female deacons in the early Church had not been equivalent to male deacons, and had neither a liturgical nor a sacramental function.
The ITC wrote: “a ministry of deaconesses did indeed exist, and that this developed unevenly in the different parts of the Church. It seems clear that this ministry was not perceived as simply the feminine equivalent of the masculine diaconate. At the very least it was an ecclesial function, exercised by women, sometimes mentioned together with that of sub-deacon in the lists of Church ministries.”
In his seminal 1982 work Deaconesses: An Historical Study, referenced several times by the ITC, Aime Martimort wrote that “the Christians of antiquity did not have a single, fixed idea of what deaconesses were supposed to be,” and that “the Greek and Eastern canonists of the Middle Ages were even less able than those of antiquity to know who and what deaconesses were.”
He added that “the continuity of a true ecclesiastical tradition was lacking in the case of deaconesses,” and that their institution “lasted only as long as adult baptisms were the norm” and that “it rapidly became obsolete.”
According to Martimort “the resemblance between the ordination rituals of the deacon and deaconess … should not deceive us,” and that “the various euchologies had already given fair warning that there were significant differences as well as resemblances.”
“During all the time when the institution of deaconesses was a living institution, both the discipline and the liturgy of the churches insisted upon a very clear distinction between deacons and deaconesses.”
Martimort concluded that “the real importance and efficaciousness of the role of women in the Church has always been vividly perceived in the consciousness of the hierarchy and of the faithful as much more braod than the historical role that deaconesses in fact played. And perhaps a proposal based on an ‘archeological’ institution might even obscure the fact that the call to serve the Church is urgently addressed today to all women, especially in the area of the transmission of Faith and works of charity.”
Panama City, Panama, Jan 24, 2019 / 04:32 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- At the opening ceremony for World Youth Day in Panama on Thursday, Pope Francis asked participants to let themselves be united across lands and cultures by the love of Christ.
“We co… […]
© Catholic World Report