Washington D.C., Mar 26, 2019 / 03:22 pm (CNA).- US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Tuesday an expansion of the pro-life Mexico City Policy and the slashing of funds to the Organization of American States in response to its abortion advocacy.
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Caracas, Venezuela, Mar 26, 2019 / 03:03 pm (CNA).- The Justice and Peace Commission of the Venezuelan bishops’ conference has repudiated last week’s arrest of Roberto Marrero, chief of staff to opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
In the early hours of March 21, agents of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service stormed the homes of Marrero and Sergio Vergara, an opposition legislator and Merror’s neighbor.
Marrero was arrested along with his driver, Luis Páez. The Argentine daily Clarin reported that Marrero is being held in El Helicoide, a government facility often used to house political prisoners. He has been accused by the government of Nicolas Maduro of terrorism and treason.
Guaidó reported on Twitter that Marrero alerted him that the agents “planted two rifles and a grenade” in his house.
The Venezuelan bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission stated March 22 that it “repudiates” the detention of Marrero and the raid on Vergara, “in the face of the actions committed by officials of SEBIN, with the authorization of judges and the participation of prosecutors from the Public Prosecutor’s Office.”
They stated that these acts “attack and violate the fundamental rights provided for in our Magna Carta”, such as personal freedom and parliamentarian immunity, “which the members of the National Assembly enjoy in the exercise of their functions.”
“This ecclesial body laments these violations and denounces them to the pertinent bodies so that they may exercise and comply with the powers that the constitution and laws confer on them in order to restore the violated rights of these citizens,” they said.
The bishops’ conference’s commission reminded “the judicial officials, prosecutors of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the arresting police officers that they cannot justify their actions alleging compliance with orders from superiors. The consequent crimes of those actions are imprescriptible.”
“In accordance with our Magna Carta, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, we reiterate that no individual should be apprehended and deprived of his freedom by arbitrary decisions,” the bishops stated.
In face of this incident, they called on Venezuelans “not to lose hope and to trust in the power of Jesus Christ, which is the power of love.”
Under Maduro’s socialist administration, Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval, with severe shortages and hyperinflation leading millions of Venezuelans to emigrate.
Guaidó declared himself interim president in January and has been recognized by a number of Western governments, but has been unable to secure the support of Venezuela’s military.
Caracas faced blackouts March 25-26. The government has blamed an attack by the opposition, while the opposition has noted decades of corruption and a lack of investment.
Hagatna, Guam, Mar 26, 2019 / 02:38 pm (CNA).- The head of the Catholic Church in Guam has expressed strong opposition to a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana, which this week has been a center of debate by the country’s legislators.
In a March 25 statement, the Coadjutor Archbishop of Agaña, Michael Byrnes, said the Guam Cannabis Industry Act of 2019 will harm the general welfare of the island.
“Certainly it will adversely affect the common good of our families, marriages, youth, government organizations, businesses and the very identity of our island as a family-oriented community,” said Byrnes.
Bill 32 was introduced by Sen. Clynt Ridgell in January 2019. The bill is currently being debated by lawmakers following a public hearing on the issue.
Byrnes said many of Guam’s people already struggle with substance abuse, and a greater promotion of marijuana will not alleviate the situation.
“While the Catholic Church permits the use of some drugs for therapeutic purposes such as relieving pain and nausea, it is clear about the evils of drug abuse,” he said, warning that many people who use marijuana are seeking an escape from the burdens and responsibilities of life.
Calling the proposal a “false solution” that will only lead to more problems, the archbishop stressed that what Guam needs is for people to be more present and attentive in their various walks of life – as students, employees, family members, and youth.
“Rather than escape, we need engagement,” he said.
He cited passages in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that emphasize the virtue of temperance and instruct that the use of drugs, “except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense.”
While the bill would allow for the legal use of marijuana only by those age 21 and over, Byrnes said underage users will be affected as well.
He pointed to a survey by the CDC’s High School Youth Risk Behavior, which reported that 49 percent of high school students in Guam have used marijuana, 10 percent more than students on the U.S. mainland.
Byrnes said other studies have shown that long-term abuse of marijuana, when initiated at a young age, is especially detrimental to brain development and can also become addictive.
“We need our youth and our young adults – people of all ages – to be fully engaged in the various activities of their lives and our communities,” he said.
The legalization of marijuana has seen engagement from both sides of the issue. A petition at Change.org has received more than 800 signatures in opposition to the bill. However, a separate petition on the website has received more than 3,000 signatures in favor of it.
Archbishop Byrnes said the bill’s passing will “only harm the common good of our island, not enhance it.”
“As a community already riddled with a drug problem of epidemic magnitude, we need to focus on reducing the presence of illegal drugs and substances that intoxicate our people, not aid their proliferation.”
Chicago, Ill., Mar 26, 2019 / 12:37 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago has spoken out against a pair of Illinois abortion bills, calling them a radical and disturbing movement away from the common good.
In a March 23 letter to the people of h… […]
Vatican City, Mar 26, 2019 / 09:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis amended canon law Tuesday to create a new mechanism for dismissing a religious man or woman who has deserted their community.
Under the new law, promulgated by the pope in an apostolic… […]
Atlanta, Ga., Mar 26, 2019 / 12:09 am (CNA).- The Georgia Senate has approved a bill that would ban abortions after an unborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected, about six weeks into pregnancy.
The state Senate passed House Bill 481 on Friday. It … […]
The Christian Joy of Coming Together In the last months before his conversion, Saint Augustine heard the story of Gaius Victorinus, the pagan neo-Platonist philosopher who was himself converted to Christianity in his old age. […]
Chengdu, China, Mar 25, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- Wang Yi and more than 100 members of his congregation were detained in China’s Sichuan province in early December. Some were released the next day, but then put under house arrest. Wang, his wife, and nearly 10 others remain in detention, charged with inciting subversion.
Wang is pastor of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, which has now been closed. Some members of the ecclesial community are in hiding, some have been effectively exiled from the Sichuanese capital, and others are under surveillance. In all, more than 300 members of the community have been arrested, according to the church.
The building rented by Early Rain Covenant Church has new tenants, and police turn away those looking for the church.
The community posted on its Facebook page March 20 that one of its members was last seen two days earlier at a train station “being escorted by multiple plainclothes police officers. His head was shaved and he was handcuffed. We do not know where he was being taken.” The statement added that several members “have been forcefully evicted from their homes.”
Wang has been an outspoken opponent of the Chinese government’s effort to ‘Sinicize’ religion.
Religious freedom is officially guaranteed by the Chinese constitution, but religious groups must register with the government, and are overseen by the Chinese Communist Party. The Sinizication of religion has been pushed by President Xi Jinping, who took power in 2013 and who has strengthened government oversight of religious activities.
Earlier this year Early Rain Covenant Church posted a May 2017 sermon by Wang, called “When to Resist, When to Submit”.
He gave the example of the police coming to the church and offering two options: that the pastor attend religious instruction at the Religious Affairs Bureau once a month and that the list of candidates for elders and pastors be reported, or the church’s property will be confiscated and the leaders arrested.
Wang held in his sermon that “in matters involving the body, God wants us to wholly submit, to give up these things, to bear the losses. But the Lord has not given them [i.e., governments] the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”
“Over the past 2000 years of church history and Chinese church history, the church has always been faced with this struggle and this choice … what should we do? Which option should the church choose?”
“What the gospel gives us is freedom of the soul and submission of the body,” Wang stated, arguing against seemingly small compromises with the government.
“How do we demonstrate that we are a group of people who trust Jesus, who follow Jesus to the cross? How do we demonstrate that Christians are are goup of people whose souls are free? That we are no longer a people who are slaves through fear of death?” he asked. “It is through bodily submission, through bodily suffering, that we demonstrate the freedom of our souls.”
It is against the backdrop of the Sinicization of religion that the Holy See has been in negotiations with China’s government in recent years.
In September 2018 the Holy See and Beijing reached an agreement meant to normalize the situation of China’s Catholics and unify the underground Church and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.
The Church in mainland China has been divided for some 60 years between the underground Church, which is persecuted and whose episcopal appointments are frequently not acknowledged by Chinese authorities, and the CPCA, a government-sanctioned organization.
The agreement has been roundly criticized by human rights groups and some Church leaders, including Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong.
In December, two bishops of the underground Catholic Church agreed to step aside in favor of bishops of the CPCA, in the wake of the September agreement.
And the month prior, four priests from the underground Church in Hebei province who refused to join the CPCA were taken into police custody for indoctrination.
Even now, in 2019, the First Vatican Council (1869-70) haunts us still. It has, in many ways, paralyzed Catholics and kept them from thinking more radically about what is needed in this dark hour. It […]
Nairobi, Kenya, Mar 25, 2019 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- What happens when you give a Franciscan $1 million?
He gives it away.
At least that’s what Brother Peter Tabichi, OFM, plans to do with the $1 million prize he won March 23, which came alongside t… […]
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