CNA Staff, Jul 31, 2020 / 06:15 am (CNA).- Hate crimes against Christians in India increased by 40% in the first half of 2020 despite a three-month nationwide lockdown, according to a new report.
In a report published July 29, the ecumenical group Per… […]
CNA Staff, Jul 31, 2020 / 03:45 am (CNA).- The Catholic Church supports vaccination because it helps to protect society’s most vulnerable people, bishops in England said Thursday.
In a three-page paper issued July 30, the bishops said they wante… […]
Denver Newsroom, Jul 31, 2020 / 03:00 am (CNA).- As the beginning of the fall school term approaches, Catholic schools in dioceses across the U.S. are asking the parents of students returning in person to sign waivers of liability amid the risk of coro… […]
CNA Staff, Jul 30, 2020 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- The president of Loyola University Maryland announced Friday that the Flannery O’Connor Residence Hall was being renamed, saying, “some of her personal writings reflected a racist […]
“Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine, but demonic.” — Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance (Ignatius Press, […]
CNA Staff, Jul 30, 2020 / 04:11 pm (CNA).- The government of Syria plans to build a replica of Hagia Sophia, with support from Russia, as a protest against Turkey’s decision to turn the famous former Byzantine cathedral back into a mosque.
Bishop Nicola Baalbaki, the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Hama, has approved the construction of a new church built as a replica of Hagia Sophia in the city of Suqaylabiyah, which has a heavily Greek Orthodox population, according to Lebanon’s Al-Modon media.
The idea for the new church originated with Nabeul Al-Abdullah, a leader of the National Defense Forces militia, which supports the Syrian government. Abdullah has donated land on which the replica will be built, according to Greek City Times. He also secured approval for the project, as well as support from Russian officials, who are now helping plan the construction of the church.
Russia has supported the Syrian government against Turkish-backed rebels in the western part of the country during the nation’s ongoing civil war.
Located in modern-day Istanbul, Hagia Sophia was built in 537 as the cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. After the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453, the basilica was converted into a mosque. Under the Ottomans, architects added minarets and buttresses to preserve the building, but the mosaics showing Christian imagery were whitewashed and covered.
In 1934, under a secularist Turkish government, the mosque was turned into a museum. Some mosaics were uncovered, including depictions of Christ, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, Justinian I, and Zoe Porhyrogenita. It was declared a World Heritage Site under UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in 1985.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed a decree July 10 converting it into a mosque following a ruling by the Council of State, Turkey’s highest administrative court, earlier that day which declared unlawful an 80-year old government decree converting the building from a mosque into a museum.
Religious leaders around the world, including Pope Francis, decried the move, with the pope saying it caused him “great sadness.”
As a mosque, the Christian mosaics in Hagia Sophia will have to be covered during prayers, as will as the seraph figures located in the dome.
Catholic bishops across the United States joined their Greek Orthodox counterparts in observing a “Day of Mourning” on July 24.
CNA Staff, Jul 30, 2020 / 03:30 pm (CNA).- Leading U.S. Catholic bishops on Thursday criticized the Trump administration’s decision to consider ending DACA.
The Department of Homeland Security had announced on Wednesday that it would still consi… […]
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 30, 2020 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- The number of Canadians killed by physician-assisted suicide nearly doubled between 2017 and 2019, according to a report released by the Canadian government. More than a third of those who opte… […]
Washington D.C., Jul 30, 2020 / 01:30 pm (CNA).- The fate of a long-imprisoned Catholic bishop in China was the focus of a congressional hearing on Thursday, amid growing concern he may have died in the custody of the Communist government.
“Pres… […]
Mexico City, Mexico, Jul 30, 2020 / 11:52 am (CNA).- The Mexican Bishops’ Conference hailed the Supreme Court’s 4-1 decision striking down a lower court ruling that had ordered the state of Veracruz to legalize abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
“Today in Mexico the culture of life is triumphing,” the conference tweeted after the Supreme Court announced its ruling Wednesday.
The conference thanked “each and every one who joined together to pray and to raise their voices.”
Veracruz state’s constitution protects life from conception to natural death, and state law provides few exceptions.
However, a legal challenge alleged that the ban on abortion constituted discrimination against women. A lower court had instructed state lawmakers to enact legislation allowing for abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The state appealed, and the case was sent to the first bench of the Supreme Court.
If the Supreme Court had upheld the lower court ruling, it would have opened the door to the legalization of abortion throughout the country. Currently, only Mexico City and Oaxaca state have legalized abortion on demand up to 12 weeks’ gestation.
Supreme Court Justice Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá, nominated to the bench in 2018 by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, presented arguments backing the lower court’s ruling and was the only judge to vote in favor of it.
Voting against were justices Norma Lucía Piña Hernández, Margarita Ríos Farjat, Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo and Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena.
Auxiliary bishop Alfonso Miranda of Monterrey, Guardiola, secretary general of the Mexican bishops’ conference, posted on Twitter after the ruling, “Thank you. Blessed be God. #Yes to life.”
The Archdiocese of Mexico City tweeted that “today life won in Veracruz–and in the country itself–thanks to the Supreme Court’s rejection of the effort to decriminalize abortion in the state, recognizing that this procedure is not a right in any law, whether national or international.”
In the run up to the vote, the Mexican bishops’ conference and other pro-life organizations had spoken out strongly against the expansion of legal abortion.
More than 200 local and federal legislators, joined by more than 200 jurists, had presented an open letter to the Supreme Court on July 28, asking them to overturn the lower court’s decision.
In addition, more than 200,000 people signed a CitizenGO petition asking the Supreme Court to reject the appeal and defend the right to life.
A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been adapted by CNA.
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