The Church can play a role in fighting violence in Mexico, says priest

Guadalajara, Mexico, Oct 4, 2018 / 12:00 am (CNA).- After an event featuring abortion rights activists was held at a Mexican Jesuit university, the president of the Mexican bishops’ conference reiterated that the Church opposes abortion, and said that he had no prior knowledge of the event and that this forum was not authorized by the Church.

Abortion is illegal in Mexico. However, in 2007 Mexico City, the country’s capital, decriminalized abortion for up to 12 weeks for any reason. By some estimates, there have been two million abortions there since that time.

In his communiqué entitled “No to Abortion,” Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega stated “Our position as believers is founded on both Sacred Scripture and the magisterium of the Church as well as natural law and what science has demonstrated regarding the beginning of the existence of the human being,”

“Serious scientific studies prove the existence of a life, of a different person, from the moment of conception. Respect for life must not be subject to a debate, nor some eagerness for ‘openness’ or to be ‘cutting edge,’  even less so for questions of taste or feelings, as if respect for life could depend on what some people feel or think,” the prelate pointed out.

Nor can respect for life, he added, “be subject to the arbitrariness of personal conscience alone, because the conscience must be objectively formed and because what it in question is the life of an innocent person.”

“When we talk about this issue—and we don’t accept abortion—it’s not a matter of intolerance or rejecting dialogue, but of coherence with the right of every person to live, especially if it’s an innocent person, the one yet to be born,”  Cardinal Ortega pointed out.

The controversial university program was held Sept. 26 at the ITESO (Institute of Technology and Higher Studies of the West), Jesuit University of Guadalajara. It was entitled “Dialogue concerning the Right to Decide,” and featured three presenters wearing the green kerchief of the pro-abortion movement in Latin America. The speakers were affiliated with organizations that promote the legalization of abortion in Mexico and other countries in the world: CLADEM, the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights; GIRE, the Informational Group on Chosen Reproduction, and Catholic Women for the Right to Decide.

CLADEM campaigns for legalized abortion throughout Latin America.  GIRE has reportedly received more than $100 million dollars from the International Planned Parenthood Federation over the last ten years. Catholic Women for the Right to Decide (Catholics for Choice in the U.S.) has been condemned by bishops in various parts of the world.

At the center of the controversy is the Jesuit priest and outgoing rector of the university, Fr. José Morales Orozco.

In defending the university’s decision to hold the event, Fr. Orozco stated that “ITESO is for life, is against abortion, but before that it is for freedom of conscience,” explaining that “people have every right and obligation to decide in conscience what they see and nobody can judge, only God.”

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language sister agency, and ITESO spokesman said that “human life is sacred and always must be cared for and respected” and pointed out that Orozco “at the activity made it clear that the university is for life and against abortion, and for freedom of conscience.”

 ITESO “dialogues with people of different religious and political beliefs, different ethnic and cultural origins. A respectful exchange of ideas is brought about with those who think differently because this is how the reflection of the university is developed and deepened and  knowledge is increased.”

The university added that “abortion is one of the five main causes of maternal death, and these cases occur especially with poor women. It’s an issue that must be reviewed and discussed from the ethical and moral point of view, as well as its implication in terms of social justice and public health policy.”

Nevertheless, there was no presenter at the forum to explain the Church’s teaching or its basis in the sciences.

In response to the event, the president for the National Front for the Family for the state of Jalisco, Jaime Cedillo, demanded that ITESO not be a “platform to promote” abortion advocates.

Speaking to ACI Prensa, Cedillo criticized that the event at the Jesuit university was used “as a promotion of an international movement sponsored by large organizations that promote abortion.”

“At an educational institution like the university, which has a Christian inspiration, it can’t lend itself as a platform for the culture of abortion,” he noted.

Cedillo expressed his dismay that the position against abortion was not presented in order to open the doors to “a healthy debate at the university.”

He added that if a university “defends a clear position, obviously it can’t led itself to a scenario that openly promotes something to the contrary.”

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

[…]

La Paz, Bolivia, Nov 22, 2019 / 06:05 pm (CNA).- The Bolivian Bishops’ Conference called for an end to violence, as protests continue in the wake of former president Evo Morales’ resignation.

“We raise our voices to call on everyone: Enough death! Enough violence! Enough suffering and pain!” the bishops said in a statement entitled “Spiral of Violence and Death.”

“We condemn the violence wherever it comes from. We once again remind that it is irrational and irresponsible, and it is not a solution for conflicts between human beings.”

The bishops warned that the “growing spiral of irrationality and violence” will continue bringing injury, death, and mourning to the country unless demonstrators can express their demands peacefully and law enforcement can refrain from the use of excessive force.

Morales resigned Nov. 10 after weeks of protest regarding a disputed Oct. 20 election. The socialist leader had been in power since 2006.

According to the electoral commission, Morales won on the election’s first round, but the opposition claimed fraud. The Organization of American States said Nov. 10 that there was “clear manipulation” in the election, and that it was statistically improbable that Morales had won by the margin needed to avoid a runoff.

Within hours of the OAS report, Morales resigned, after being encouraged to do so by the head of the Bolivian armed forces.

The deputy head of the Senate, Jeanine Anez, is serving as interim president until elections are held. Morales has been offered asylum by Mexico.

In some cities, Morales’ supporters have clashed with police, and dozens have reportedly been killed. According to reports, blockades by Morales’ supporters have cut off food and fuel in some areas. Demonstrators in El Alto blockaded a gas plant on the route to La Paz. The military broke through, in an operation that left one dead and two injured.

On Friday, the interim government filed a criminal complaint against Morales. It accuses the former president of sedition and terrorism.

Interior Minister Arturo Murillo has presented an audio recording in which he says Morales is heard directing his supporters to create blockades to destabilize the interim government, Reuters reports.

In their statement, the bishops appealed to those in power: “Don’t call for confrontation and violence, let words of peace and reconciliation come forth from your mouths.”

“Let us all be builders of peace and ask the God of life who never desires the death of the brothers to inspire our hearts and our minds to adopt the ways of peace among all Bolivians.”

The Catholic bishops are among those working to promote peace in the country. The Archdiocese of Cochabamba was part of a commission on peace with various civil organizations earlier this week.

“We citizens of Cochabamba and Bolivia reaffirm our right to peaceful coexistence, regardless of any differences,” said the Archbishop Óscar Aparicio of Cochabamba, according to Infodecom.

An 8:00 p.m. Mass was held Nov. 21 in the Sucre cathedral to pray for peace in the country.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

[…]

Washington D.C., Feb 5, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- President Donald Trump used the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening to highlight U.S. commitment to restoring democracy in Venezuela, inviting the opposition leader to attend as a guest of honor.

Juan Guaidó, leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly and recognized by the U.S. as the interim president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, watched the speech from the House Gallery on Tuesday.

“Mr. President, please take this message back to your homeland,” Trump told Guaidó. “All Americans are united with the Venezuelan people in their righteous struggle for freedom!  Socialism destroys nations.  But always remember, freedom unifies the soul.”

Venezuela has been torn by violence, upheaval, widespread hunger and hyperinflation under the Nicolas Maduro regime. According to the Organization of American States (OAS), the number of Venezuelans fleeing the country is expected to total 6 million by the end of the year.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, praised the move.

“By inviting Interim President Juan Guaidó and the Special Envoy for Intelligence and Law Enforcement Mr. Iván Simonovis, one of Venezuela’s longest held political prisoners of the Maduro narco-dictatorship, the Trump Administration has sent a clear message that the U.S. will continue to stand with the Venezuelan people as they work towards a free and democratic Venezuela,” Rubio said in a statement released shortly following the speech Tuesday.

“I think the message tonight was very clear, and that is the freedom and the wellbeing of the people of Venezuela still remains a top and important priority for this president,” Rubio said in a video statement. 

“I have all the confidence in the world that the day is coming when Venezuela will be free and democratic again.”

Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, said that condemning Maduro was a “complex” issue and that she “is absolutely concerned with the humanitarian crises that’s happening.”

“I think it’s important that any solution we have centers the Venezuelan people and centers the democracy of the Venezuelan people first. I am very concerned about U.S. interventionism in Venezuela, and I oppose it,” the freshman congresswoman said.

Maduro was inaugurated for a second term as president of Venezuela last year following contested 2018 elections, but the bishops’ conference has said his election was invalid.

Guaidó declared himself the interim president of the country in January of 2019, and promised a transitional government and free elections. He was received by the Holy See on a visit in February, where the Vatican expressed its “grave concern” for a “just and peaceful solution” to the country’s crisis.

The country’s bishops’ conference has repeatedly called for free and fair elections for new leadership, a call backed by the Holy See.

Cardinal Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, the archbishop-emeritus of Caracas, has blamed the regime for “a terrible ruin which is growing more and more” in the country, and that if the Maduro administration “truly had love for Venezuela they would have already left power.”

Guaidó was a guest at the White House on Wednesday as well, with discussion expected on a democratic transition of power in the country.

[…]