Year: 2019

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News Briefs

Ecuador votes not to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape

September 18, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Quito, Ecuador, Sep 18, 2019 / 12:15 pm (CNA).- A bill to decriminalize abortion in all cases of rape failed in the Ecuadorian legislature Tuesday, amid opposition from the Church and civil organizations.

It would have allowed abortion also in cases of non-viable fetal deformity, incest, and nonconsensual artificial insemination.

Sixty-five members of the unicameral National Assembly voted in favor of the bill Sept. 17, five short of the number needed for it to pass. Fifty-nine voted against the bill, and six abstained.

Abortion is legal in Ecuador only in cases of the rape of a woman with mental disabilities or when the mother’s life is determined to be at risk.

The bill to decriminalize abortion in some cases was introduced to the full legislature in January.

The proposal was first made in 2016, and it was approved by the legislature’s Justice and the Structure of the State Commission in December 2018.

Some legislators proposed that instead of decriminalizing the abortion of children conceived in rape, rapists be given greater penalties.

Tens of thousands of Ecuadorians marched on the streets of Guayaquil in June to protest the bill, as well as to support marriage, conscience protectiosn, and parental rights.

Archbishop Alfredo José Espinoza Mateus of Quito issued a statement Sept. 17 saying, “abortion cannot be the answer that a civilized society gives to the pain and anguish of women, men, and their families. Talking about abortion as a solution is a painful irony … abortion cannot be a ‘solution’, it is a drama, a failure of every society.”

“Neither the embryo nor the fetus is a simple part of the mother’s body that carries it; it is in it and depends on it, but it is a biologically different reality and is not comparable to any other part of the woman’s body. The first solidarity and the first hospitality that every human being finds is the maternal womb. It is the first experience of welcome and tenderness,” Archbishop Espinoza continued.

He said, “no law that legalizes the death of a defenseless human being can be ethical … The pregnant woman knows well that she carries a human life in its beginnings.”

The archbishop added: “Abortion does not remedy rape. The child conceived through rape is completely innocent. We must work on the prevention and care and protection of girls and young people in our country. Defending the life of the conceived child does not mean defending, protecting, or covering up rapists, or approving violations.”

Together with leader of evangelical ecclesial communities, the Archdiocese of Guayaquil organized a day of prayer for life held Sept. 16 that invoked God’s wisdom and strength for the country’s legislators.

The Ecuadorian constitution states that “girls, boys and adolescents shall enjoy the rights common to human beings, in addition to those specific to their age. The state shall recognize and guarantee life including its care and protection from conception.”

An effort to expand abortion access in Ecuador also failed in 2013.

Women who procure abortion in Ecuador can face up to two years imprisonment.

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News Briefs

Italian priest kidnapped in Niger now missing for one year

September 18, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Niamey, Niger, Sep 18, 2019 / 12:05 pm (CNA).- One year ago, Fr. Luigi Macalli was abducted in the middle of the night, from his parish Church in Niger. The priest remains missing, and his friends and family say they have no idea where he is.
 
“On Tuesday, 17 September 2019, we commemorate the first anniversary of the abduction of our Italian SMA confrere, Fr. Pier Luigi Maccalli,” the Society of African Missions, Macalli’s religious community, posted online Tuesday.
 
“It is a sad day for the Society of African Missions, for his missionary brothers, his family and especially for the people of Niger whom Fr. Luigi served with great faithfulness and love.”
 
Macalli was kidnapped from his parish in remote Bomanga, near the border between Niger and Burkina Faso, in western Africa. The identity, affiliation, and motivation of the kidnappers is not clear.
 
“We are in silence and prayer,” Fr. Salako Désiré, provincial superior of the SMA’s Benin-Niger province, told ACI Africa Tuesday.

The society has asked supporters to continue praying that Macalli will be found alive and in good health.

Maccalli, an Italian, had been a missionary in Ivory Coast for several years before he was sent 12 years ago to the Archdiocese of Niamey, in Niger. Remote areas of the diocese lack roads, telephone service, and other infrastructure.

Another priest was with Macalli on the night he was abducted, and managed to escape. The priest said that armed kidnappers took Macalli’s cell phone and computer when they abducted the priest.

Weeks into his abduction, there were reports that Maccalli might have been taken across Niger’s border into Burkina Faso where jihadist militants have camps in the region’s forests. There have been, however, no demands for ransom or other communications from his kidnappers.

Named after the Niger River, the Republic of the Niger is bordered by Libya to the northeast, Chad to the East, Benin to the southwest, Nigeria to the South, Algeria to northwest, and Mali and Burkina Faso to the West. The country is predominantly Muslim; less than one percent of Niger’s people are Christians.

 

A version of this story was first published by CNA’s partner agency, ACI Africa. It has been adapted by CNA.

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News Briefs

Senate confirms Catholic law professor as Asst. Secretary of State

September 18, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Washington D.C., Sep 18, 2019 / 11:40 am (CNA).- The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm a prominent Catholic law professor to a high-ranking State Department position.

By a margin of 49 to 44, Robert Destro, a law professor at Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, was confirmed by the Senate as the next Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) joined Democrats in opposition to Destro’s confirmation.

“Robert Destro is one of the nation’s experts on human rights, both in terms of international law and the moral basis for human rights,” Thomas Farr, president of the Religious Freedom Institute, told CNA in a statement, noting Destro’s experience both as a human rights scholar and activist “in the best sense of that term.”

Destro’s new role at the State Department is tasked with promoting democracy, civic and religious freedom around the world.

It “is the senior human rights position in American diplomacy,” Farr said, charged with promoting human rights “not simply as the right thing to do (which it is), but also as a strategic interest of the United States.”

“Destro will excel in both tasks,” Farr said.

Destro is the founding director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Law & Religion at Catholic University; he previously served as a Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1983 to 1989, addressing issues of discrimination on the basis of disability, national origin, and religion.

He has also served on the State Department’s Working Group on Religion in Foreign Affairs, as well as the special counsel for voting rights for the Ohio Secretary of State from 2004 to 2006.

Stephen C. Payne, dean of Catholic’s law school, said he was “thrilled” by the appointment, and that in Destro the “country — and the rest of the world — is getting a strong advocate and leader for Democracy and Human Rights, and we wish him well.”

The appointment was also welcomed by Toufic Baaklini, president of the group In Defense of Christians (IDC), who cited Destro’ years of work with the group and called him “a critical leader in the fight for genocide recognition for victims of ISIS in Iraq and Syria” and “a powerful voice for religious freedom in the Middle East, and throughout the world.”

Senate Democrats questioned Destro at his confirmation hearing in March over the role of religion in foreign affairs as well as the redefinition of marriage.

Destro said that he would work to improve both training on religious freedom and understanding of the role of religion in foreign affairs within the State Department, and cited his own past work bringing various religious groups together on the international stage.

Destro said that he had learned from “the many years that I have been dealing with the State Department” that many at the agency “have had a hard time dealing with the issue of religion, and that’s one of the issues I’d like to bring to their attention.”

Later in the hearing, he explained that the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2016—authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and signed into law by President Obama—required religious freedom training for all foreign service officers.

Destro said he would work to expand on that, saying that “not only do the foreign service officers need to be trained, but so do the lawyers at the State Department and at USAID.”

“I think that we need to bring people together, and I’ve devoted most of my career, for at least the last 16 years, to doing just that,” he said of bringing religious groups together.

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The Dispatch

Ironies in the fire

September 18, 2019 George Weigel 3

The eminent sociologist Peter Rossi was a world-class punster whose scholarly accomplishments fed a sometimes-whimsical view of the human condition — in which, Rossi memorably observed, “there are many ironies in the fire.”  That’s certainly […]

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News Briefs

Austin bishop saddened by city’s intention financially to support abortion

September 17, 2019 CNA Daily News 2

Austin, Texas, Sep 17, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- Last week the Austin City Council voted to provide funding for costs associated with abortion, a move that was protested by the city’s bishop when it was proposed in August.

The city council voted Sept. 10 to provide $150,000 for transportation, lodging, or childcare for Austin residents seeking to procure abortion.

“I am saddened by the recent news that members of the Austin City Council are working on a proposal to increase financial support for access to abortion in the community,” Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin had said Aug. 21.

“I, along with the Catholic Church, continue to affirm the intrinsic value of human life and the dignity of every person in a way that transforms culture,” he stated.

He added that the funds “would be better used to provide emotional, material and spiritual support for pregnant women and families in need.”

“Please join me in continuing to work with our government leaders, praying that all life will be protected from conception to natural death,” Bishop Vasquez said.

Texas had passed a law earlier in the year banning local governments from financially supporting abortion providers. The state law was in reaction to Austin’s decision to lease a building to Planned Parenthood for $1 a year.

Sen. Donna Campbell, who authored the Texas law, said she was unsurprised Austin would “use taxpayer dollars to pay for transportation and lodging to those seeking an abortion.”

Austin’s decision has been challenged in a lawsuit by former councilman Don Zimmerman, who charges the policy violates a state law criminalizing the furnishing of “means for procuring an abortion knowing the purpose intended,” the Texas Tribune reported.

Texas has adopted several laws regulating abortion in recent years.

A study published in March found that the number of abortions procured in Texas decreased 18 percent after the application of a 2013 law regulating abortion clinics. Though the total number of abortions fell, the number of abortions procured during the second trimester increased.

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