Chinese Catholics barricade themselves in church to prevent demolition

Seoul, South Korea, Mar 9, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The first Bishop of Pyongyang, an American born-bishop, and numerous priests and laity are among the 213 who could be beatified and advanced on the process to sainthood under a process begun in South Korea.

Bishop Lazarus You Heung-sik of Daejon predicted it will take at least ten years before any beatification or canonization, “but for our people, these people are already holy.”

The bishop heads the Korean bishops’ committee considering the beatifications. He told Asia News that important parts of the path to beatification are the Catholic faithful’s prayer and “desire to follow the spirit of the martyrs.”

One group under consideration for beatification includes Servant of God Bishop Francis Borgia Hong Yong-ho and 80 companions. This broad group ranges from the martyrs of the 1901 Jeju massacre, in which about 300 Catholics were killed, to the victims of persecution following the division of Korea following the Second World War.

Bishop Hong, born in 1906, was ordained a priest in 1933 under Japanese occupation. He was named the first native Bishop of Pyongyang in 1944. He was an apostolic vicar to a region considered mission territory by the Church. With the rise of communism, he was imprisoned in 1949. His fate is unknown, but he is believed to have died in a concentration camp in North Korea.

Until 2013, when he would have been 107, the Vatican considered him missing. Acknowledgment of his death opened the path to possible beatification.

Bishop Patrick James Byrne, a native of Washington, D.C., is also among the group. The Maryknoll missionary was born in 1888. He was ordained a priest in 1915, then served in Korea and Japan before the Second World War. In April 1949 he was named the first apostolic delegate to Korea, and ordained a bishop at the age of 60 in 1949.

In July 1950 he was arrested by communists and put on trial. He and other priests were put on forced marches. During a four-month-long forced march, suffering from bad weather and a lack of food and shelter, he died Nov. 25, 1950.

Altogether, the group associated with Bishop Hong includes two bishops, 48 priests, three seminarians, seven religious sisters, and 21 lay people.

The second group, Servant of God John Baptist Yi Byeok and his 132 companions, were all lay people killed for their faith between 1785 and 1879. Yi was from a family of court dignitaries who under the Joseon dynasty converted to Catholicism and helped evangelize Korea. He was martyred at the age of 33.

One of their number, Alexius Hwang Sa-yeong, died by martyrdom when his arms and legs were tied to four animals which were then driven away in opposite directions, dismembering him.

Another in the group died in exile and his martyrdom must be verified.

The Korean bishops’ conference has set up a special committee for the causes of saints with a Vatican mandate to consider martyrs who belong to different dioceses.

[…]

Pope Francis meeting with Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk and representatives of the Russian-Orthodox Church in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, Sept. 14 2022 / Vatican Media Pool

Rome Newsroom, Sep 14, 2022 / 05:17 am (CNA).
Pope Francis met Wednes… […]

Brisbane, Australia, Oct 8, 2018 / 04:22 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A parliamentary committee reportedly supported a proposal Oct. 5 to significantly expand abortion in the northeastern Australian state of Queensland.

The proposed law, set to be debated in Queensland parliament this month, would allow women to terminate pregnancies up to 22 weeks gestation and until birth with the permission of two doctors. The proposed changes are based on a June report from the Queensland Law Reform Commission, which recommended removing abortion from the Criminal Code.

The proposal would also enforce 150 meter “safe zones” around clinics and medical facilities that perform abortions in order to exclude protesters.

Under the proposal, doctors would be permitted to refuse to perform abortions if they have moral objections to doing so, but they must refer patients to another doctor.

Although the Labor party controls the majority of Queensland’s parliament, Health Minister Steven Miles urged the opposition Liberal National Party to allow a conscience vote on the bill. Miles said if the LNP allows a vote to take place, “the bill will likely pass,” and “if they don’t it will be very difficult for it to pass,” as reported by the Australian Associated Press.

Tim Mander, deputy leader of the LNP, has refused to confirm or deny if his party would allow a conscience vote, saying it would be decided at a party room meeting Oct. 9. He said the Health Minister’s demands indicated that the majority party was uncertain whether they had enough votes from its own members to pass the bill.

Abortion is currently illegal in Queensland except when a doctor believes a woman’s physical or mental health to be in serious danger.

Opponents of the bill have argued that while the legislative proposal is being presented as a matter of health, it will instead legalize abortion based on financial, social, or eugenic reasons.

Dr. Jovina James, a general practitioner from Queensland, objected to the bill’s inclusion of a requirement for conscientious objectors to abortion to refer women to another doctor for the procedure.

“Do they even know what conscientious objection means?” she said in September as reported by the diocesan newspaper The Catholic Leader.

“It is not a distaste for abortion. It’s a deep, unshakeable belief that this act is contrary to the human good…that this is not healthcare, and this is not what I signed up for when I promised to ‘do no harm.’”

Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane weighed in on the proposed legal changes in August.

“According to the draft bill, abortion will be permitted until the moment of delivery if two doctors consider that ‘in all circumstances, the termination should be performed’,” Archbishop Coleridge told The Catholic Leader.

“So, it’s not a health issue. It’s an essentially moral issue that concerns the good of society as a whole because it touches on questions of life and death.”

He cautioned that many women choose abortion out of desperation, believing that they have no other options, because those who support abortion do not present other choices.

“Those MPs who favor the legislation should say why they can accept that Queensland babies who may have reached 40 weeks gestation can be aborted when health isn’t a factor,” he said.

[…]