Stray bullet falls at feet of priest celebrating Mass in Brazil

CNA Staff, May 27, 2020 / 04:29 pm (CNA).- A Costa Rican bishop has warned that although same-sex marriage has been legalized in the country, the Catholic Church will continue to proclaim the truth of God’s plan for sexuality and marriage.

Despi… […]

Pachuca, Mexico, Dec 17, 2019 / 04:35 pm (CNA).- Last week, the Hidalgo state legislature in Mexico defeated a bill that would have legalized abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion is already legal in the state in cases where doctors determine there is a grave risk to the health of the mother, for serious genetic or congenital malformations in the child, and for up to 90 days in cases of rape.

The bill would have legalized abortion on demand up to 12 weeks, and up to 24 weeks for minors, persons with disabilities, and in cases of rape. The legislation stated that “the embryo cannot be considered a person or a human being until the first trimester of pregnancy is completed.”

The bill was introduced March 21 by representatives Areli Miranda of the Democratic Revolution Party and Viridiana Aceves of the Social Encounter Party, along with more than a dozen members of the National Regeneration Party (Morena) of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The Dec. 12 vote on the bill was 10 for and 15 against, with 5 abstentions.

Pro-life organizations hailed the vote. The Network of Pro-Life Youth of Mexico thanked the lawmakers who voted against the bill. In a statement sent to ACI Prensa, they said that “we always back public policies and the development of specific strategies by the government so they can support vulnerable women and always defend both lives.”

Rodrigo Iván Cortés of the National Front for the Family told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner, that “Life has won today in Hidalgo.”

He noted that there is a tradition in Mexico, which takes place at noon on Dec. 12, of recalling the Archangel Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary that she would conceive a son, Jesus. The vote against the abortion legislation occurred at noon on Dec. 12, he said.

Cortés praised the work of Javier Serbulo, Hidalgo state director of the National Front for the Family, who helped set up the Blue Wave (pro-life) Coalition that allowed the 15 pro-life legislators to stand firm.

He also criticized the heavy pressure exerted on Morena party members to vote for the abortion bill.

Speaking to ACI Prensa, Marcial Padilla, director of the pro-life organization ConParticipación, said the Dec. 12 vote showed that “despite various efforts by sectors in the government and political parties to impose abortion on the country, they failed to get the legislators and society to buy an anti-life narrative.”

“This motivates society, especially the young people who support the right to life, that they don’t have to yield to the pressure by abortion groups,” he said.

[…]

Mexico City, Mexico, Jan 2, 2020 / 05:51 pm (CNA).- The president of the Mexican bishops’ conference expressed his support for a bill that would grant more freedom to the Church in the country, loosening long-established restrictions on religious groups.

“I like the proposal a lot because it is framed in terms of human rights,” said Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera López of Monterrey at a Dec. 22 press conference.

He stressed that “citizens have the right to believe or not believe, the right to belong or not belong to a church or religion. This is the point of departure and it’s very important.”

The bill reforming the 1992 Law on Religious Associations and Public Worship was introduced last month by Senator María Soledad Luévano Cantú and is now being studied by Senate committees.

The AP reported Dec. 18 that “among specific measures, it would reportedly allow religious groups greater access to all manner of media, including TV, radio and newspapers, relax regulations on church ownership of property, provide for cooperation between church and state on cultural and social development and allow ‘conscientious objections’ to law on religious grounds.”

It would also let church authorities offer spiritual services in government facilities including hospitals, rehabilitation centers and military institutions.

The separation of church and state in Mexico traces back to the mid 1800s when a series of reforms were instituted, particularly under the presidency of Benito Juarez. Church properties not used for worship and instruction, such as cemeteries, were nationalized. Birth and marriage records were placed under civil authority.

Tensions heightened at the beginning of the 20th century with the enactment of the 1917 Constitution and the “Calles Laws” instituted by then President Plutarco Elías Calles, which banned religious congregations and imposed restrictions on priests and public worship.

The Calles Laws sparked the Cristero rebellion for religious freedom in the late 1920s, leaving tens of thousands of government and rebel fighters dead. Although the war ended in 1929, religious persecution continued for a number of years afterwards.

It was not until the constitutional reforms of 1992 and the enactment of the Law on Religious Associations and Public Worship that same year that the Catholic Church was able become a juridical person and monastic orders were no longer prohibited.

Catholic churches built before 1992 are still considered federal property and the Church cannot have radio or TV stations.

According to Archbishop Cabrera López, amending the religious associations law would give “freedom to citizens but it also gives the state freedom to be autonomous, to be independent against any reading of the law that would make a break with the secularity of the state.”

“I believe there is no law as secular as this one that has been introduced because nowhere do there appear privileges and cronyism between government officials and pastors.”

Luévano Cantú, who introduced the proposal, is a member of President López Obrador’s Morena political party. However, President Lopez Obrador recently came out against the proposed reform. At a Dec. 18 press conference he stated that “that issue should not be broached.”

“I consider that this has already been resolved for more than a century and a half, I believe this was resolved, the separation of the Church and the State. To God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” he said.

López Obrador said the majority of Mexicans “agree that the secular state should prevail, which the Constitution establishes. And the secular state, it also has to be said, means guaranteeing religious freedom.”

“We shouldn’t sponsor anything that means confrontation,” the president said.

However, Archbishop Cabrera López argued that the reform bill does not harm the secular state.

“No priest, no bishop can claim to have power in the country,” he said, and stressed that the bill “is very good; although it does not expressly say that the separation of Church and State must be maintained, it is sufficiently clear that there can no longer be privileges, and of course it would be antiquated to imagine a government married with some religion.”

[…]