Vatican City, Aug 4, 2019 / 03:28 am (CNA).- Pope Francis published a letter Sunday to encourage all priests to remain steadfast and prayerful during this time of purification after revelations of abuse by some […]
Vatican City, Aug 4, 2019 / 04:35 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Sunday remembered the victims, and the families of the victims, of recent shootings in Texas, California, and Ohio, asking for prayers.
“I am spiritually close to the victims of the episo… […]
Tallahassee, Fla., Aug 3, 2019 / 04:21 pm (CNA).- The 1st District Court of Appeals in Florida has overturned a circuit court ruling which deemed a 24-hour waiting period requirement unconstitutional, sending the case back to the circuit court for further review.
Denise Harle, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, praised the ruling, saying “the appeals court was on solid ground to reverse the trial court’s decision.”
“Abortion is a life-altering decision, and no woman should be rushed or pressured into it,” she said in an Aug. 1 statement.
“The appeals court noted evidence from medical experts that the standard of care for significant, non-emergency medical procedures is that they are not and should not be done on a drop-in basis,” Harle said. “The court also described evidence of the ‘mental health effects and negative outcomes’—including suicide—associated with women who undergo abortions without adequate time to process the serious consequences and come to a place of certainty.”
Medical Students for Choice in Gainesville, Florida, along with two local abortion clinics and the American Civil Liberties Union, challenged in court a June 2015 amendment to Florida’s abortion law requiring a 24-hour waiting period between the time a patient is informed of the nature and risks of having an abortion and a physician’s completion of the procedure.
Opponents of the law argued it is an unconstitutional violation of the state’s right to privacy, and singles out abortion from other riskier medical procedures that don’t require a waiting period.
The circuit court in Jan. 2018 agreed with the plaintiffs, striking the law down as unconstitutional, with the judge writing that the state had not produced evidence that such a broadly sweeping law was the “least restrictive means” of safeguarding women’s health. The Florida Supreme Court had previously blocked the new law temporarily, while the court challenge against it proceeded.
The appeals court on Aug. 1 ruled that all doubts about issues of fact must be resolved before the law can definitively be ruled unconstitutional.
“Appellees’ summary judgment motion asserted that the 24-hour Law deviates from the accepted standard of medical care in Florida by requiring the 24-hour delay and an unnecessary visit to a physician,” the decision reads.
“But the State produced conflicting evidence from medical experts that the absence of such a decision-period after receiving information about the nature and risks of an abortion procedure and the procedure itself falls below the accepted medical standard of care.”
If the State’s experts prove correct, that the 24-hour Law brings Florida in-line with the informed consent standard of care, the judge wrote, then the law would pass muster under a Florida Supreme Court’s decision approving informed consent in the abortion context. The court sent the case back to the circuit court for further review.
The Florida bishops’ conference issued a statement supporting the law after its 2015 passage. They called it “good legislation” that “gives women one day to reflect upon the risks of abortion, one day to view the image of her unborn child’s ultrasound, and one day to consult with friends, family and faith.”
They also noted that more than two dozen other states have such waiting period laws, and that Florida “already requires waiting periods before marriage, divorce, and the purchase of a handgun.”
Pope Francis has approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, paving the way for his beatification at a yet to be announced date. The miracle involved the unexplained recovery of a […]
Vatican City, Aug 3, 2019 / 07:39 am (CNA).- Worldly possessions do not make people happy; only knowing Jesus’ love and having love for others can do that, Pope Francis told a group of Catholic European scouts on Saturday.
Jesus “gives you… […]
Washington D.C., Aug 3, 2019 / 04:53 am (CNA).- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced August 1 that it is extending Syria’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, although qualified people who have not yet applied for the pr… […]
NAIROBI, Kenya (CWR) –Archbishop Bert Van Megen, the Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya, urged world Catholic youth to use all means of communication to spread the message of Laudato Si’, at an event marking the fourth […]
Enugu, Nigeria, Aug 2, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- Priests of southeastern Nigeria’s Diocese of Enugu protested Friday government inaction in the face of widespread violence. Fr. Paul Offu, a priest of the diocese, had been murdered the previous day.
Offu was shot to death Aug. 1 in the Awgu local government area, about 20 miles south of Enugu.
He was from Enugu state, and had been the pastor of St. James the Greater parish in Ugbawka.
The Enugu diocese wrote on Facebook that Offu was killed “by some hoodlums suspected to be the notorious and murderous Fulani herdsmen.”
Ebere Amaraizu, a public relations officers for Enugu police, said Aug. 2 that those responsible for the death were yet to be identified, according to the Daily Trust. The Nigerian outlet also indicated that Amaraizu indicated that the Fulani should not be blamed for the death before those responsible were apprehended.
Fr. Benjamin Achi, communications director for the Enugu diocese, told The Punch that “Fr. Offu was stopped by the murderous herdsmen while returning to his parish after a visit to priest friend.”
“They dragged him to the bush but one of the assailants said kill him that the church would not do anything if they kidnapped him,” Achi said, according to The Punch.
Priests of the Enugu diocese protested Offu’s death, marching Aug. 2 to the Enugu State Government House and police headquarters urging that officials do more to defend residents.
Violence against Christians has significantly increased in Nigeria in recent years, with the radical Islamist group Boko Haram threatening safety in the north, and smaller violent gangs threatening security in the south.
Fulani herders, most of whom are Muslim, have had increasing conflict with largely Christian farmers over limited natural resources in recent years.
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Aug 2, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- Caritas Spain has mobilized 6,200 volunteers to fight the Ebola epidemic in the affected areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. To prevent its spread they have established 22 monitoring points on the border with Uganda and South Sudan.
More than 1,800 have been killed by DR Congo’s Ebloa outbreak in the last year, and 2,700 have been infected. Last month the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global health emergency.
Alicia Fernández, a technician with Caritas Spain, is in DR Congo and said that “the fight against Ebola must take place in the communities more than in the hospitals, awareness has to be raised in the communities on the importance of maintaining hygienic methods to prevent contagion and the spread of the illness.”
Fernández also stressed the importance of the Church’s action in the fight against this epidemic since “there is no other local actor that can do what the Church does,” as it is “implanted in the life of the communities, living with them their day to day and therefore enjoys their trust and also because since the first known case it has been working to contain the outbreak.”
According to a statement by Caritas Spain, in the Diocese of Goma a second case of Ebola has been recorded and so efforts are focused on locating those who have maintained contact with the stricken person and adopting the necessary measures.
In the dioceses of Butembo and Bunia, Caritas has distributed in the last six months more than 34,000 pounds of aid to more than 23,000 sick and quarantined people. They have also published more than 9,000 posters and 9,000 informational pamphlets.
One of the Caritas social workers explained that “if a teacher falls sick, all his students are placed in quarantine, separated from their families. Caritas care for these people.”
The border with South Sudan is another of the critical points in the spread of the Ebola epidemic. The Diocese of Mahagi is located there, where one case has been detected. Caritas activated the response protocol, isolated the patient and contacted her family to disinfect the house, locate those who were in contact with her and the medical staff who treated her, as well as the sick people who were admitted to the hospital at the same time.
In addition, all the staff of Caritas’ health centers in Mahagi are undergoing training to respond to the disease.
There also have been established 22 control points at the two border crossings with Uganda and South Sudan, and for every ten houses Caritas has established an observation point, in which a person is responsible for raising awareness about the epidemic and monitoring to detect and isolate new cases.
“We have to contain the epidemic so it doesn’t reach the camps for the refugees and internally displaced people, because that would be a catastrophe,” said the director of Caritas Mahagi.
Two Ebola fatalities were confirmed in Uganda in June.
Rwanda briefly closed its border with DR Congo Aug. 1 over fears the disease might spread there.
Efforts to contain the disease have been hampered by misinformation and distrust on the part of local communities, who in some cases have retaliated against health teams by attacking them. Nearly 200 attacks on medical centers and staff have been reported this year, according to the BBC. This has limited many of the health services that non-governmental organizations are able to provide.
More than 161,000 people have received the Ebola vaccine, which is 99% effective, according to the BBC, but some are fearful of it and refuse to receive it. In addition, violence in the eastern part of the DRC has made it difficult to reach some areas of the country, and difficult to monitor the virus as it spreads.
Ebola is a deadly virus that is primarily spread through contact with bodily fluids. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pains and occasional bleeding. The disease is fatal in up to 90 percent of cases.
Several outbreaks have taken place in Africa in recent decades. An outbreak in 2014-2016 in West Africa killed more than 11,000 people and spread briefly to Spain, the US, and the UK.
Denver, Colo., Aug 2, 2019 / 03:15 pm (CNA).- A cause for the canonization of the pipe-smoking, plain-talking, mustachioed and beloved Catholic author Gilbert Keith (GK) Chesterton will not be opened, announced Bishop Peter Doyle […]
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