Month: July 2019

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News Briefs

Ariz. Catholic agency hopes to house asylum seekers in unused detention center

July 11, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Tucson, Ariz., Jul 11, 2019 / 05:17 pm (CNA).- A Catholic agency in Tucson, Arizona is hoping to transform an unused portion of a juvenile detention center into housing facilities for immigrants seeking asylum.

Since January, Catholic Community Services in Arizona has housed asylum seekers in the local Benedictine Monastery, the third largest shelter for migrants in the United States, according to the Sahuarita Sun. Due to monastery renovations, they must relocate later this month.

Arizona Public Media reported this week that a $100 one-year renewable lease is currently being drawn up for the organization to use a portion of the Pima County’s Juvenile Justice Complex.

The county board of supervisors must approve the move during the next board meeting in August.

The justice complex can hold 350 people, but currently houses less than 50. Catholic Community Services is hoping to use the additional 300 beds, plus an attached kitchen and laundry room, in a portion of the facility that is separate from the area still used as a juvenile detention center.

Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Tucson said the justice complex will provide a safer and healthier environment to shelter the migrants, who typically stay no longer than a few days.

“Even though the monastery was a lovely environment, it was not setup in its infrastructure for our needs. The plumbing system especially was a real challenge,” he said, according to Arizona Public Media.

The county would pay for operating costs, and would then request reimbursement from the federal government, which is responsible for the immigrants seeking asylum, the Sahuarita Sun reports.

Some renovations will be necessary, to make the space more comfortable and inviting. Jan Lesher, chief deputy county administrator, stressed that the asylum seekers are not being imprisoned, and the building will be altered to reflect that.

“What we hope to do is make it as seamless as possible for those who live in the community and those asylum seekers passing through,” she told Arizona Public Media.

 

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News Briefs

Colombian bishop to bless entire city to counter violence

July 11, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Buenaventura, Colombia, Jul 11, 2019 / 04:18 pm (CNA).- Bishop Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya of Buenaventura will perform blessings throughout his cathedral city Saturday, hoping to counter it’s extreme violence, including kidnappings and murders.

Buenaventura is Colombia’s main port on the Pacific, and so is a key point in the international drug trade.

In recent years, Human Rights Watch has said the city’s neighborhoods are controlled by “paramilitary successor groups” which engage in extortion and violence.

Bishop Jaramillo had originally shared the idea of performing a blessing on the city from a helicopter. The news has been erroneously reported by some media as an exorcism.

The Bishop of Buenaventura told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language sister agency, July 10 that the blessing will be done July 13, but not from a helicopter.

“We are going to form a line of vehicles with a firetruck and a statue of Saint Bonaventure. We’re going to go to all locations, to the most difficult neighborhoods where people have been killed in recent years,” he explained.

The caravan and the people who will be waiting throughout the city “will form a people who are going to reinterpret those places of death so they will now be places of life,” Jaramillo said.

At every place the caravan stops, the bishop will offer a prayer, there will be a hymn, and the community will gather together to hear a testimony. “We’re going to pray for the victims and to then do a blessing,” he said.

“Where blood flowed, where blood was shed, we are now going to pour holy water as a sign of reparation at the place where those who died were struck down by violence,” the bishop stated.

Last month, the prelate told Agenzia Fides, “we’ve had 54 violent deaths so far this year, but there are a lot of people who have disappeared. And people don’t report it. The problem is there is still not a culture of reporting because there is fear, we have a society that is afraid to report.”

The bishop also denounced the existence of so-called “torture chambers” or “chop-up houses” where people who were kidnapped are tortured and killed because they got in the way of or did not support gangs and organized crime, something thought to have disappeared in 2015.

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News Briefs

Va. legislature ends gun session, after bishops had hoped for ‘genuine discussions’

July 11, 2019 CNA Daily News 2

Richmond, Va., Jul 11, 2019 / 03:01 pm (CNA).- The Virginia legislature adjourned Tuesday a special session called by the governor after fewer than two hours. The session was meant to consider gun control bills, and the state’s bishops had earlier expressed hope for dialogue.

The July 9 session was called by governor Ralph Northam (D); both houses of the General Assembly are controlled by Republicans with one-seat majorities.

“It is our hope that our elected officials will engage in genuine discussions about comprehensive legislation that will help save lives and make our communities safer,” Bishops Michael Burbidge of Arlington and Barry Knestout of Richmond had said in a July 8 statement ahead of the special session.

“We urge our state leaders to engage in civil and meaningful dialogue, seeking to combat all violence in our communities,” they added, while also recognizing “that many factors contribute to the violence in our society, which will not be solved by a single piece of legislation.”

Northam had called the special session in light of the May 31 killings in Virginia Beach, in which a gunman shot to death 12 people. The gunman, DeWayne Craddock, died in a shootout with police.

According to the AP, Northam had proposed eight gun control measures for the special session.

Senate majority leader Tommy Norment had proposed a bill July 8 to ban broadly guns in government buildings in the state. Norment’s fellow Republicans strongly objected to the bill, and it was withdrawn.

During the brief session, legislators did task a bipartisan crime commission with studying policy proposals that might have prevented the Virginia Beach killings.

In November, all 140 seats in both houses of the General Assembly are up for re-election, and gun control is expected to be an important topic of campaigning.

In their statement ahead of the special session, the bishops noted that they continue to keep in prayer Craddock’s 12 victims, and that “we also continue to pray for their families, those injured, their co-workers and those who provide assistance within the community.”

“We must also discern what can be done to make our communities safer and address the root causes of violence and terror,” they added.

“Respect and reverence for human life – all life, at every stage of development and in all circumstances – require us to protect it. The culture of violence pervading our society must be challenged.”

The bishops said that the Virginia Catholic Conference has advocated “for reasonable safety regulations for firearms and proper screening for those seeking to acquire a firearm.”

They added that “firearms often serve the legitimate purpose of self-defense and the defense of loved ones,” and that “mental health has been a factor in past shootings and more resources should be invested in early intervention for those at risk of committing a violent act due to mental illness.”

“We will continue to be advocates for proposals that promote a comprehensive approach to combating increasing occurrences of violence, keeping respect for all life at the forefront and ensuring the fundamental liberties of all Americans are protected,” the bishops stated.

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News Briefs

Vatican tomb investigation uncovers empty graves

July 11, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Jul 11, 2019 / 10:35 am (CNA).- The opening of two tombs on Vatican property revealed both graves to be completely empty, providing no answers in the unsolved disappearance of an Italian girl 36 years ago, the Vatican reported Thursday.

“The research has given negative results: no human findings or funerary urns were found,” stated Holy See spokesman Alessandro Gisotti July 11.

The tombs, located on Vatican extra-territorial property adjacent to Vatican City State, were opened in an attempt to find a clue to the 1983 vanishing of Emanuela Orlandi.

Orlandi was the daughter of an envoy of the Prefecture of the Pontifical House and a citizen of Vatican City State. Her disappearance at age 15 has been the subject of international intrigue, including suspicion about the Vatican’s role, since it occurred.

The Vatican authorized the opening of the graves after a request by Orlandi’s family, which had last year received an anonymous letter suggesting a clue could be found near a large statue of an angel in the Teutonic College cemetery.

The tombs opened were those of Princess Sophie von Hohenlohe, who died in 1836, and Duchess Charlotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who died in 1840.

Charlotte’s monument bears an inscription indicating it was erected in 1848 by her son, Frederick VII of Denmark.

According to Gisotti, von Hohenlohe’s tomb revealed an empty underground compartment of approximately 13 by 12 feet. The opening of the sarcophagus of Charlotte also revealed no human remains. Relatives of both women were informed of the discovery.

The Vatican’s next step following the discovery, Gisotti explained, will be to look into documentation about structural renovations that took place in the cemetery at the end of the 1800s and in the 1960s and ‘70s.

The opening of the graves was performed by the Vatican construction staff and overseen by a forensic anthropologist and his team, the Vatican gendarmerie, and by the Vatican tribunal’s promoter of justice.

Members of Orlandi’s family, and their lawyer, were also present.

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News Briefs

Vincent Lambert dies after removal of food and water

July 11, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Reims, France, Jul 11, 2019 / 03:34 am (CNA).- Vincent Lambert, a 42 year-old quadriplegic man, died in a French hospital Thursday morning, 9 days after doctors withdrew his food and water.

“Vincent died at 8:24 this morning,” Lambert’s nephew, Francois Lambert, told AFP News Agency.

Lambert died July 11 at University Hospital in the northern French city of Reims, where doctors had withdrawn his water and feeding tubes more than one week before. Lambert had been under what his doctors called “profound and continuous sedation” since then.

The Vatican issued a statement Thursday, noting sadness over the news of Lambert’s death.

“We pray that the Lord will welcome him into his house and we express closeness to his loved ones and to those who, up to the last, have committed themselves to assist him with love and dedication,” said Alessandro Gisotti, interim director of the Holy See press office.

Gisotti also recalled the April 2018 words of Pope Francis, when in reference to Lambert’s case, he said: “God is the only master of life from the beginning to the natural end and it is our duty to always guard it and not yield to the culture of waste.”

Vincent Lambert was a quadriplegic and severely disabled for more than 10 years, after he sustained severe head injuries in a 2008 traffic accident.

After the accident, Lambert became the center of a protracted court battle over whether to have his food and hydration removed. Lambert’s wife and six of his eight siblings supported the removal of life support, while his parents, reported to be devout Catholics, fought against it. His wife said Lambert had told her he would not want to be kept alive if in a “vegetative state,” but this was never put in writing.

Several media outlets reported that Lambert “wept” when his family informed him of the doctors’ intentions to remove food and water last week.

“It’s murder in disguise, it’s euthanasia,” Lambert’s father told French media Monday.

Euthanasia is illegal in France. However, a 2005 law allows physicians to refrain from using “disproportionate” treatments “with no other effect than maintaining life artificially.”

In 2015, the European Court of Human Rights approved the removal of Lambert’s life support, arguing in a 12-5 decision that the choice to stop his intravenous feeding did not violate European rights laws.

On June 28, The Court of Cassation ruled that a lower court did not have the legal competence to order his feeding tubes be reinserted. On July 2, doctors informed Lambert’s family via email that they would withdraw food and water.

Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, has consistently advocated for Lambert and his family. He wrote a letter July 9 asking the priests of his archdiocese to offer Mass for Lambert.

“Dear brothers,” he wrote, “it is now the time for contemplation, for compassion, and for prayer for Mr. Vincent Lambert. Either today or tomorrow I suggest that you celebrate Mass for his intention and entrusting him to the Lord, the God of mercy. This intention can also be extended to all of his relatives.”

Also on July 9, Pope Francis tweeted a prayer in apparent reference to Lambert’s case.

“We pray for the sick who are abandoned and left to die,” the pope wrote. “A society is human if it protects life, every life, from its beginning to its natural end, with which is worthy to live or who is not.”

“Doctors should serve life, not take it away.”

 

This story was updated with the Vatican statement.

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