Guam governor wants to expand abortion, but local doctors are unwilling

Mexico City, Mexico, May 17, 2017 / 06:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Mexican priest is in “delicate but stable” condition after being stabbed in the neck Monday evening at Mexico City’s cathedral, according to government and church authorities.

Father José Miguel Machorro Alcalá, 55, was stabbed in the neck and torso May 15 at the conclusion of saying Mass at the cathedral.

Witnesses reported that it appeared the attacker’s intention was to slit the priest’s throat.

Authorities detained a suspect at the scene who had reportedly attempted to flee the cathedral. The suspect has been identified as John Rock Schild, who identified himself as an artist from the United States. He is believed to be about 30 years of age.

Afortunadamente la policía detuvo al agresor! pic.twitter.com/ehHNRhK19w

— Padre José Aguilar (@PadreJosedejesu) May 16, 2017

At a news conference, the lawyer of the Archdiocese of Mexico, Armando Martínez, asked for prayers for the priest and said the motive for the attack was still unclear.

“We cannot talk about terrorism, we cannot talk about motives, because we obviously have no significant facts,” he said.

In a radio interview Tuesday morning, archdiocesan spokesman Hugo Valdelomar said the attack occurred as Fr. Machorro was blessing the congregation with holy water. He said the priest suffered severe injuries to his neck and near his lung.

Fr. Machorro was transferred by helicopter to a private hospital. He was operated on, and is now stable but in intensive care, according to the Mexico City archdiocese.

Masses at the cathedral are continuing at regularly scheduled hours.

The attack is one of many recent attacks against priests in Mexico. Drug trafficking has led to increased murder and kidnapping in the country. In recent years, 17 priests have been murdered and many others have been kidnapped or assaulted.

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Camagüey, Cuba, Feb 26, 2020 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- Accompaniment for seminarians is critical in Cuba, a priest has said, reflecting that Cubans are “a tired people, a people without hope, it’s a people that really feels helpless.”

Fr. Alberto Reyes Pías, a priest of the Archdiocese of Camagüey and spiritual director for the archdiocesan seminary, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language new partner, that “The two words Cubans live with are survive or leave.”

“There are a lot a people for whom the Church is the only thing that gives them some hope, gives them some meaning. There are lot of people going through an interior process in the Church, which gives them meaning.”

Pias spoke to ACI Prensa at the Feb. 18-22 Night of Witnesses event organized by the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need in Mexico to draw attention to persecuted Churches.

He emphasized that “there’s a feeling of stagnation” in Cuba, but that “there’s this feeling that ‘I can count on the Church’” among Cubans, which “is something that means a lot to the Cuban people.”

Turning to priestly formation in particular, he said there is a particular need to accompany seminarians, since “often there are really good, nice people, but sometimes guys also come who are very broken.”

He lamented that “the situation of the family in Cuba is quite disastrous. They come to us very broken. I believe the most important thing is ‘we’re going to live what one day you will have to help others experience.’ Then it’s to accompany them, to listen to them.”

“One thing I usually say is ‘don’t hold anything back.’ I’m not here to judge you, I’m here to accompany you, but you also have to heal things yourself if you want to be a healer later on. You’ve got to go through a process.”

“The seminary can’t be a tunnel, something you go through to become a priest, because the problem is not becoming a priest, what’s at stake here is your happiness, your fulfillment. You’ve got to go through a process. And processes are painful,” the spiritual director noted.

Pías explained that “we would like them to have done some previous work, so they don’t come to the seminary to discern, although it’s true that the seminary is a time of confirming what you have seen. We try to have them have done some previous work, of accompaniment, of working with the priests.”

“We meet with them ahead of time such that we don’t admit anyone to the seminary who doesn’t have a certain level of discernment. Because there are things it’s better to do on the outside, beforehand,” he added.

Pías explained that “the majority of the seminarians don’t come from Christian families. In fact, it Cuba there’s a very interesting phenomenon going on. In many places in the world children are brought to the Church by their parents, but not in Cuba. In Cuba a lot of children go to catechism class, adolescents, young people, go on their own, and in fact there are parents who have started coming to church because of their children.”

“Most of our vocations are young people who one day encountered Jesus Christ and are fascinated,” he said.

He also noted that Cuba is marked by emigration.

“I’m in a parish where I’ve been for 15 years now. Out of that community I was with 15 years ago, I think 95% of them are in the United States. In fact, when I have gone to the United States, to Miami, they tell me, ‘Father, come here, because we’re all here.’”

“What’s beautiful is that very many of these people are still practicing, they’ve become catechists in the United States, they’re leading couples’ groups, so the seed has borne fruit. But there’s continual emigration,” he said.

The priest also reflected that in Cuba, “we’ve lived in a system in which the absolute value has been fidelity to the system.”

“In fact there are young people whom I would not say are immoral, I’d have to say they’re amoral. They don’t know where there’s good and where there’s evil,” he noted.

For Pías, “one of the greatest works of the Church, obviously besides evangelization, that you  encounter Jesus Christ, is to discover values, so that whatever happens, you can be a person who can later build something with his life.”

“Something very beautiful is how there are guys who enter the Church broken and you see them continue on the journey and they end up having a Christian family, where values are lived and a different kind of education is given to the children, giving them something that was never given to them. When you see something like that, you say it’s all worth it,” he concluded.

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Bogotá, Colombia, Sep 6, 2017 / 02:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid a dire political and human-rights crisis in Venezuela, Pope Francis will meet privately with “the bishops of Venezuela present in Colombia” during his trip to South America, according to the director of the Holy See’s Press Office, Greg Burke.

After his plane took off for Colombia Sept. 6, the Pope addressed the accredited journalists accompanying him on the flight and asked them to pray for peace in Colombia and for dialogue in Venezuela.

“I would like to tell you that during the flight we will fly over Venezuela,” Pope Francis said. “And so I’m asking you to pray so there can be dialogue, that there will be stability, with dialogue with everyone. Thanks for your work.”

The Pope also thanked journalists “for this work you’ll be doing to accompany me on this trip which is a little special because this is a trip to also help Colombia to go forward on its path of peace. I’m asking for your prayers for this during the trip.”

Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas told CNA the bishops of Venezuela would “express to the Pope the affection of the Venezuelan people for the successor of Peter.”

“Also, of course, we’re going to converse with the Pope, we’re going to thank him for the support he’s giving to the Venezuelan people in such difficult circumstances that we’re going through, and also we’re going to express our concerns regarding some problems of the current situation,” he said.

Cardinal Urosa noted that Venezuela is currently going through “an extremely serious situation, a situation of poverty, of great distress.”

“Those of us who are inside the country are living through extremely distressing circumstances and great political unrest, of difficulty because of the shortage of food. There are people who simply and quite frankly aren’t eating or are eating very poorly, and the shortage of medicine. It’s shameful that there there is no medicine in Venezuela.”

“But on top of that there is a situation of ongoing turmoil and angst over the trampling of the rights of a great many Venezuelans in various circumstances,” he said.

Venezuela is in the midst of escalating protests and violence, as President Nicolás Maduro has suppressed opposition and democracy activists, and moved to seize legislative power in the country. The results of a July 30 election convened by Maduro have been dismissed as illegitimate by the United States and several other nations, and a burgeoning economic crisis has led to widespread chaos.

Cardinal Urosa reflected on the fact that “a great many Venezuelans have had to migrate due to the adverse circumstances and that that is always something very painful.”

“But thanks be to God those Venezuelans are very concerned about the country, are praying for Venezuela and are united in asking God that we may be able to resolve our conflicts in a peaceful manner,” he stressed.

Despite the crisis Venezuela is facing, Cardinal Urosa encouraged the faithful to not lose hope.

“We have to hope against all hope. We have to certainly trust in God Our Lord and we have to act.”

The archbishop lamented that often “the people get discouraged and don’t feel like taking action anymore. I’m not talking about fomenting violence but about defending our rights and the rights of others.”

The cardinal encouraged the faithful to “organize ourselves, seek to express our discontent, support the people that are suffering, support those who are imprisoned, support the people who are toiling away. We’ve got to do all this and not start complaining in an absolutely ineffective and frustrating way.”

During his homily at a Mass celebrated this week, Cardinal Urosa stressed the critical role of the Venezuelan bishops in opposing government actions for years before the current crisis broke out.

“During 1999, 2000, there was silence, nobody was criticizing the government, no one way saying anything, we Venezuelan bishops pointed to a series of very serious failures by the government and that’s why the president [Hugo Chavez] attacked us,” he recalled.

“Our interest has always been in working for and defending our people,” he pointed out, since “we want to be good shepherds.”

The cardinal then told CNA that the Venezuelan bishops “fulfilled our duty as good shepherds. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, the good shepherd seeks the welfare of his sheep, the good shepherd does not want his sheep to be mistreated, and all this we’re doing and we will continue to do because that’s our duty.”

“May the Lord hear our prayers and may we be able to quickly resolve this terrible situation that we’re going through.”

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