Scotland’s bishops protest against closure of churches amid new lockdown

London, England, Jun 30, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In response to an ongoing effort in the U.K. to allow abortions to take place up to birth, a massive group of doctors and medical students signed a letter denouncing the controversial campaign.  

Over 1,400 medical associates addressed the British Medical Association, saying that a change in policy won’t reflect the opinions of all the medical staff or majority of women in Britain – and that it’s also an extreme measure that could damage the BMA’s reputation.

“We represent a variety of positions on the issue of abortion, but believe this motion is out of keeping with both our duties as responsible professionals and the expressed wishes of British women with regards to the legality and regulation of abortion,” the letter reads.

The motion was debated on June 27 at the association’s annual meeting. If passed, the measure would implement an increase in the accessibility of abortions from the current law of 24 weeks, potentially offering abortions from anywhere between 28 weeks until birth.

The proposal would also allow for abortions to be offered for any reason, a distinct difference from the current law which requires previous consultation.

In their letter, the medical staff cited a recent study from ComRes, which showed that a large majority of woman in the U.K. would in fact rather have abortion restrictions increased rather than decreased.

The letter also referenced the intense backlash received by the Royal College of Midwives, which announced last year that it supports abortion under any reason, even up to birth.

“Many commentators on this controversy were pro-choice but recognized that taking this position was an extreme move, and the outrage caused reputational damage both to the Royal College of Midwives and to the wider midwifery profession.”

Professor John Campbell, a 35-year long member of the BMA as well as a supporter of the letter, wrote a June 26 article to the Daily Mail, noting that the damages from abortion have already been tremendous and that the new measure pose an even greater threat to women and children.

Since the procedure was legalized in the U.K. in 1967, over eight million unborn infants have been aborted, Campbell said. He then noted that interpretation of the country’s abortion law has shifted from defense of a women’s safety to abortions on demand.

But increasing the availability of abortions ultimately threatens the mental health and well-being of women, especially if they are not counseled through the process properly, Campbell said.

He cited recent news of a 22-second consultation given to a woman at a Maria Stopes center, saying many women choose abortion “simply because they were not given enough time to talk it through.”

The BMA is the trade union for doctors, and works to promote medical and health legislation in the U.K. Established in 1832, there are now an estimated 156,000 doctors and even more medical students.

The effort to lessen the country’s abortion restrictions was debated by 500 members, but the results have not yet been made public.

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Four men carry a statue of St. Bonaventure during a candlelight procession on July 14, 2023, in Bagnoregio, Italy, his birthplace, on the vigil of the saint’s feast day. / Patrick Leonard/CNA

Bagnoregio, Italy, Jul 15, 2023 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The birthplace of St. Bonaventure, a 13th-century intellectual giant now revered as a doctor of the Church and the “second founder” of the Franciscans, paid homage to its patron Friday night on the vigil of his feast day with music, prayers, and a candlelight procession.

For the citizens of Bagnoregio, an idyllic town nestled in Italy’s Lazio region about a 1½ drive north of Rome, the July 15 feast is both a solemn holy day and a wellspring of civic pride. Bonaventure’s “braccio santo,” or holy arm — the only surviving relic of the saint — is kept in a silver, arm-shaped reliquary housed in a side chapel of Bagnoregio’s Cathedral of San Nicola and San Donato.

Friday’s procession, which commenced at the cathedral, was led by the town’s confraternities of the Most Blessed Sacrament, St. Francis, and St. Peter. Following them were a brass band, a statue of the saint adorned with flowers and carried by four men, and a priest carrying the holy arm. Then came Cardinal Fortunato Frezza, numerous priests, and this year’s first communicants, followed by other religious and residents.

As the participants made their way down the candlelit Via Roma, onlookers watched from windows, balconies, and restaurants bustling with patrons on a warm summer evening.

Arriving at the piazza Sant’Agostino, Cardinal Frezza, standing beneath a monument of Bonaventure, offered a brief reflection on the importance of the saint and of procession as a form of popular devotion.

The relic “gives us strength to sustain our weakness … It is a relic that is alive and active,” observed the cardinal, a noted biblical scholar. It is “an arm that teaches,” he said, the very right arm that “wrote his works of great intellect and wisdom.”

The cardinal closed his brief catechesis by saying “our life is a holy procession, an itinerary of the mind towards God.” Here he was playing on the title of one of Bonaventure’s most important theological works, Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, “The Journey of the Mind to God.” Following a benediction with the relic, the procession continued down Via Fidanza, looping around the main gate and then back up Via Roma to the cathedral. The faithful entered and Cardinal Frezza imparted the final blessing, again with the relic.

The Franciscans’ ‘second founder’

Born in 1217 (or 1221, according to some accounts) as Giovanni Fidanza in Civita di Bagnoregio (then in the territory of the Papal States), he displayed great acumen and intellectual curiosity. He was, however, plagued by ill health in his youth. His mother called upon the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi, and he was, according to the legend, miraculously cured.

The young Bonaventure studied at the nearby Franciscan convent. Given his great talent, at 18 he left Bagnoregio to study in Paris, then the intellectual capital of Europe.

He joined the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor in 1243. At the University of Paris, he studied under the renowned Franciscan theologian Alexander de Hales; in 1257 he earned his teaching license (magister cathedratus) in theology there. Bonaventure was a contemporary of St. Thomas Aquinas, whom he met as they were both teaching at the university. The two future doctors of the Church were united in defending the then-nascent Franciscan and Dominican orders, whose orthodoxy was called into question by the secular clergy.

Bonaventure’s teaching career was cut short; in 1257 when he was appointed minister general of the Franciscan order, which was then plagued by internal factionalism due to divergent understandings of Francis’ spirituality following his death.

To rectify this, Bonaventure spent much time traveling around Europe to help maintain the unity of the order. In 1260 went to Narbonne, France, to solidify the rule of the order and that same year he started writing (which was completed three years later in 1263) the Legenda Maior, “The Major Legend,” considered the definitive biography of St. Francis. For Bonaventure, the key to righting the order lie in Francis’ ideals of obedience, chastity, and poverty, which he re-established as the Franciscans’ guiding principles.

Enduring influence

In addition to his contributions as the “second founder” of the Franciscans, Bonaventure had a profound impact on the papacy. Following the chaos of the three-year conclave in Viterbo that elected Gregory X in 1271 (the longest papal election in the history of the Church), the new pontiff, also a Franciscan, entrusted Bonaventure with preparing many of the key documents for the Second Council of Lyon (1272-1274) which sought to unify the Latin and Greek Churches.

He was made a cardinal in the consistory of May 28, 1273. He did not, however, see the end of the council, as he died on July 15, 1274. He was canonized in 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV and proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pope Sixtus V in 1588.

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI, who was a great admirer of Bonaventure, visited the saint’s birthplace to venerate the relic and address the faithful. In 2010 he dedicated three consecutive Wednesday audiences on the saint, outlining the importance of his governance of the Franciscans and his theological, philosophical, and mystical works. Bonaventure’s writings, Benedict observed, demonstrate that “Christ’s works do not go backwards, they do not fail but progress.”

“For St. Bonaventure, Christ was no longer the end of history, as he was for the Fathers of the Church, but rather its center; history does not end with Christ but begins a new period,” Benedict said.

“The following is another consequence: Until that moment the idea that the Fathers of the Church were the absolute summit of theology predominated, all successive generations could only be their disciples,” Pope Benedict explained.

“St. Bonaventure also recognized the Fathers as teachers forever, but the phenomenon of St. Francis assured him that the riches of Christ’s word are inexhaustible and that new light could also appear to the new generations,” he said. “The oneness of Christ also guarantees newness and renewal in all the periods of history.”

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San Sebastian, Spain, Aug 6, 2019 / 09:59 am (CNA).- María Martínez Gómez is a former abortion nurse in Bilbao who used to go by the name “Amaya.” An unexpected experience in the most unexpected of places prompted Gomez… […]