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Rome, Italy, Dec 20, 2019 / 07:42 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Friday made a surprise visit to a high school in Rome, where he spoke to about 800 students and answered questions about war, peace, and the coexistence of different cultures and religions.
The Pilo Albertelli State High School is close to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major. The pope arrived there by car in the morning Dec. 20.
According to Matteo Bruni, Holy See press office director, students performed a song for Francis and the dean of the school gave an address.
Pope Francis rang the school bell and wished everyone a Merry Christmas.
He also answered several questions from students, Bruni said, including one about different cultures and religions living together. The pope answered the question by speaking about immigration, also in his own country of Argentina, and about the “need to live together.”
“In addressing non-believers, he emphasized the value of witness to awaken curiosity about the Gospel and faith,” Bruni said
Pope Francis reminded the students about the importance of leisure and dreams, which bring “oxygen to the soul.” He also addressed the problem of loneliness, which can lead to melancholy, and spoke about the difficult road of gratuitous love which is made possible through patience and “small sacrifices.”
He also spoke about the important relationship between a teacher and a student.
One student asked him about the seeming contradiction in using war to bring about peace and security. The pope spoke about the difficult situations in some countries and referenced a video message on the theme of peace he recorded earlier the same day with the secretary general of the United Nations.
At the start of the visit, Francis greeted faculty and staff with the director of L’Osservatore Romano, Andrea Monda, who was formerly a religion teacher at the high school.
As religion teacher, in 2018 Monda led a group of 15 students in writing the meditations for the pope’s Way of the Cross at the Colosseum on Good Friday March 30, 2018.
Pope Francis also greeted these students during his meeting.
Monda told CNA in 2018 that he sees the pope’s choice to entrust young people with the Via Crucis reflections as being in line with the greater focus of his pontificate, “trying to give a voice to those who have no voice.”
In Monda’s view, young people are also often at the peripheries. But Pope Francis says not to speak only about youth or to youth, but to “let the youth talk and then listen to them.”
Vatican City, Dec 20, 2019 / 07:40 am (CNA).- Pope Francis and the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres recorded a video message together at the Vatican Friday in which the two leaders urge the importance of religious freedom, human dignity, and environmental protection.
“We must not remain indifferent to the human dignity trampled on and exploited, to attacks against human life, whether it is yet to be born or that of every person in need of care,” Pope Francis said in the video message recorded with the the UN Secretary General at the Vatican Apostolic Palace Dec. 20.
“We cannot, we must not turn away when the believers of various faiths are persecuted, in different parts of the world. The use of religion to incite hatred … cries out for God’s justice,” the pope said.
The UN Secretary General added: “Tragically we see Jews being murdered in synagogues, their gravestones defaced with swastikas; Muslims gunned down in mosques, their religious sites vandalized; Christians killed at prayers, their churches torched. We need to do more to promote mutual understanding and tackle rising hatred.”
“Our meeting is especially meaningful during this Christmas season. This is a time of peace and goodwill and I am sad to witness Christian communities – including some of the world’s oldest – unable to celebrate Christmas in safety,” Guterres said.
Antonio Guterres, former prime minister of Portugal, has served as the UN Secretary General since 2017. He first met Pope Francis at the Vatican as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 2013, and again as secretary general during the pope’s 2015 visit to UN headquarters in Geneva.
“You are a messenger for hope and humanity – for reducing human suffering and promoting human dignity,” the UN Secretary General told the pope.
He thanked Pope Francis for being a “clear moral voice” and for promoting interfaith relations, particularly through the Abu Dhabi declaration on human fraternity with the Grand Imam of Al- Azhar.
“This declaration is extremely important when we see such dramatic attacks on religious freedom and the lives of believers,” he said. “The United Nations has also launched a Plan of Action to Safeguard Religious Sites and a strategy to combat hate speech.”
In August, the UN General Assembly inaugurated the first International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief to be marked each year on Aug. 22.
UN Secretary General also thanked Pope Francis for highlighting the issue of climate change in his encyclical Laudato Si.
“To promote love of people and care for our planet. To uphold our common humanity and protect our common home. Our world needs that more than ever. Coming to Rome from the COP25 in Madrid, I call on all countries around the globe to commit to carbon neutrality by 2050, in line with what the scientific community tells us is necessary to rescue the planet,” Guterres said.
Pope Francis said that the need to reduce polluting emissions is “urgent and necessary” for an integral ecology. “Let’s do something before it’s too late,” he said.
In a 40-minute private meeting at the Vatican, the two leaders discussed “the crisis of multilateralism” in addressing global issues such as migration, human trafficking, climate change, and disarmament, according to the Holy See Press Office.
They also focused on the implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and current conflict situations and humanitarian emergencies.
Following the meeting, the UN Secretary General also met with Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Secretary for Relations with States Richard Gallagher.
“Confidence in dialogue between people and between nations, in multilateralism, in the role of international organizations, in diplomacy as a tool for understanding and understanding, is indispensable for building a peaceful world,” the pope said in the video message.
“Christmas, in its genuine simplicity, reminds us that what really matters in life is love,” he said. “These are days when our eyes are turned to the heavens to entrust to God the people and situations that we most cherish.”
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Washington D.C., Dec 19, 2019 / 03:51 pm (CNA).- The Senate is set to re-authorize the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom for the next three years, in a compromise bill that has drawn charges of hampering its ability to do good work.
The re-authorization is found in an omnibus spending bill that was released Dec. 16.
The move was praised by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’s spokeswoman, who said, “The inclusion of provisions related to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2020 is vital for continuing to advance religious freedom worldwide.”
She praised the “bipartisan compromise” that will “enhance its credibility and transparency.”
But the new omnibus bill clarifies that commissioners of the USCIRF cannot accept travel expenses from any non-federal source, a change that angered former USCIRF commissioner Kristina Arriaga.
Arriaga resigned from the organization in November, citing “a move towards more bureaucratic controls.”
“USCIRF’s strength is derived from its independence, its nonpartisanship, and its nimbleness. It’s good that USCIRF lives on but the reauthorization has seriously disabled its effectiveness,” Arriaga told CNA in an email.
Earlier this year, the Senate proposed bills that would have included further restrictions on what the USCIRF’s commissioners were able to do, and what they must report. Arriaga resigned in part due to these proposed policies.
“USCIRF needed reform and transparency, but instead of creating legislation stipulating qualifications required of staff and commissioners, Congress offers legal representation to the staff alone,” she added. This means that “the government becomes both partner and enforcer” and that those who do not “read from the script” of the government will be punished.
“The message from Congress is clear: Commissioners are no longer in charge of the Commission,” said Arriaga.
Nashville, Tenn., Dec 19, 2019 / 03:28 pm (CNA).- Pro-life advocates warned against efforts to expand abortion after backers of abortion provider Carafem filed a legal challenge against a Nashville suburb’s zoning regulations that limit surgical abortion clinics.
“Wilson County Right to Life is deeply saddened by the fact that Carafem is not only performing medical abortion, but is working toward expanding its abortion services to include surgical abortions in our community through this suit,” Trecia Dillingham, president of Wilson County Right to Life, said Dec. 19. “We regret that we now share the label of abortion destination along with four other Tennessee communities.”
The abortion provider Carafem opened in Mt. Juliet March 1. It said it would initially offer birth control and medical abortions up to 10 weeks into pregnancy. Carafem said it planned to offer surgical abortions in the future, The Tennessean reports.
Carafem’s website bears the motto “Abortion. Yeah, we do that.” It has three other clinics in the U.S., in Atlanta, the Chicago metro area, and the D.C. metro area.
Mt. Juliet, an eastern suburb of Nashville, has a population of about 35,000 people. The Carafem clinic in Mt. Juliet is in a commercial zoning district in a medical pavilion with several medical providers.
Two days after the Mt. Juliet clinic opened, city commissioners met at a specially called Sunday meeting March 3. They introduced an ordinance allowing surgical abortion clinics only in special industrial zones. The ordinance also provides that these abortion clinics cannot be located within 1,000 feet of any churches, parks, schools, libraries, child care facilities, or residential areas, the Associated Press said. Commissioners passed the ordinance unanimously in April.
The lawsuit charges that the ordinance is “a complete ban on surgical abortion clinics within the city limits of Mt. Juliet” both “in purpose and effect.” This illegally targets the constitutional right to an abortion, it argued. It cites city commissioners and the city’s mayor who said their motivations included opposition to aboriton.
The lawsuit aims for a ruling that the ordinance is unconstitutional and seeks an injunction against its enforcement.
Backers of the lawsuit include the ACLU, the ACLU of Tennessee, and the law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.
In discussions about the clinic, former city Commissioner Brian Abstom told a local television station, “I am pro-life, so I will take any action possible within the law to make sure it’s not here,” the Associated Press reports.
Soon after the ordinance passed, Mayor Ed Hagerty said that zoning in general aims “to protect the health, safety and welfare” of city residents, The Tennessean reports.
Other pro-life advocates criticized the lawsuit.
“It’s tragic that as most Tennesseans are preparing to celebrate the birth of a child, pro-abortion activists are attacking the fundamental right to life,” Will Brewer, the legislative lobbyist for Tennessee Right to Life, said Dec. 19. “This litigation underscores the paramount importance of carefully drafting public policies that can withstand the highest constitutional scrutiny.”
Thomas H. Castelli, the legal director of the ACLU of Tennessee, defended the lawsuit.
“No matter how someone feels about abortion, it is not their place to judge someone else’s decision to end their pregnancy,” Castelli said. “When a person has made that decision, they should be able to get the care they need without facing unnecessary obstacles.”
“Mt. Juliet politicians passed this targeted ordinance solely to interfere with a woman’s personal decision-making,” he said. “We cannot allow those who want to put abortion completely out of reach to implement another law that stands in the way of necessary, constitutionally-protected health care.”
The ACLU of Tennessee cited the remarks of City Commissioner Brian Abston, who said of the abortion clinic: “I realize they have rights, but my constituents and I don’t want it here.”
His March statement to NewsChannel5 Nashville also said: “I was disgusted to hear they plan to open in my district and my town. If there is anything we can legally do to keep them from opening in Mt. Juliet we will do it.”
City Commissioner Ray Justice said that he has talked with commission members who are “100 percent behind shutting this abomination down.”
“This is not Mt. Juliet. This is not us,” he said.
The lawsuit claims that within two days of the clinic’s opening, it was completely booked for 30 days.
Nashville’s Planned Parenthood abortion clinic temporarily halted abortions in December. The Carafem clinic in Atlanta reported many more women traveling from Tennessee to get an abortion during this time, the lawsuit said.
About 8,600 abortions were performed in Tennessee in 2017, according to figures from the Tennessee Department of Health Services.
Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi is among the plaintiffs challenging Tennessee’s 2015 law requiring a 48-hour waiting period and mandatory in-clinic counseling for a woman seeking an abortion. A federal judge has not made a ruling in that case, the Associated Press reports.
Austin, Texas, Dec 19, 2019 / 02:10 pm (CNA).- Pro-life group Texas Right to Life has been issued a $7,500 fine by the Texas Ethics Commission for illegally funding a political radio ad for the 2018 re-election campaign of a Republican state senator, Texas sources have reported.
The ethics commission’s general counsel, Ian Steusloff, told The Dallas Morning News that corporations are normally banned by state law from politically funding candidates or representatives currently in office.
The commission issued the fine to Texas Right to Life, the state affiliate of National Right to Life, in November after it was found that the group’s corporate branch, not its political action committee, had paid $37,915 for a radio ad for the campaign of Senator Bob Hall.
Kimberlyn Schwartz, director of media and communication for Texas Right to Life, told The Dallas Morning News that the group had already “self-corrected and self-reported” the error, and said that the ethics commission “is known for targeting citizens and nonprofits, including Texas Right to Life.”
“Due to the commission’s web of rules aimed at limiting free speech, average citizens find it very difficult to be engaged in the political process without incurring hefty fines and lengthy court battles,” Schwartz added.
The Dallas Morning News reported that the funds were used to air radio ads on Dallas stations featuring Hall’s voice starting in December 2017. The ads included a disclosure that they had been paid for by Texas Right to Life.
The expenses were disclosed in a January 2018 finance report, and attributed the funds to Texas Right to Life’s corporate arm.
In February 2018, Texas Right to Life issued a correction, noting that the source of the funds had been “inadvertently” misidentified and that they instead came from its political action arm, just before an ethics complaint was filed against the group.
In March 2018, Texas Right to Life provided documentation to show that their corporation had reimbursed their political action committee for the funds.
That same month, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops encouraged Catholics to sever ties with the group and instead give their time and efforts to other pro-life groups, including Church-sponsored pro-life ministries, after taking issue with Texas Right to Life’s stance on multiple political problems, as well as their voter guide.
In a parish advisory notice issued to Catholic churches in the state, the bishops objected to the group’s opposition to incremental pro-life reforms, such as laws that restrict certain types of abortion rather than outlaw the act entirely, and mentioned “conflicts on end-of-life reform” and issues with the organization’s voter guide among their concerns about the organization.
“The bishops have been compelled to publicly correct Texas Right to Life’s misstatements on end-of-life care and advance directives,” the bishops stated.
“Texas Right to Life implied that the legislation the bishops were supporting allowed euthanasia and death panels rather than the reality that the legislation reflected the long-standing Church teaching requiring a balance of patient autonomy and the physician conscience protection.”
The bishops added that the group’s voter guide excluded pro-life members of the Texas legislature, and “was not based on a fair analysis of a legislator’s work.”
In response, Texas Right to Life issued a statement that they were “disappointed but not surprised” by the bishops’ “uncharitable mischaracterizations” of the group.
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