Rosary marathon: Nazareth’s Basilica of the Annunciation leads prayer for expectant women and unborn

May 4, 2021 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

The Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, northern Israel. / StateofIsrael via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0).

CNA Staff, May 4, 2021 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth will lead the global rosary marathon for an end to the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday.

Catholics gathering May 4 at the basilica, which marks the spot where tradition holds that the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary, will offer the rosary “for all expectant women and their unborn babies.”

The church in Israel is the fourth of 30 Catholic shrines around the world to lead the rosary during the month-long initiative introduced by Pope Francis.

The pope launched the prayer marathon on May 1, when he led the rosary in St. Peter’s Basilica. The initiative will end on May 31 with a rosary in the Vatican Gardens.

The first shrine to lead the event was Walsingham in England on May 1, followed by the shrine of Jesus the Savior and Mother Mary in Elele, Nigeria, on May 2 and Jasna Góra in Poland on May 3.

The rosary at the Basilica of the Annunciation is due to take place at 7 p.m. Jerusalem time and will be live-streamed.

Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa invited Holy Land Catholics to take part in the event in an April 29 message.

He wrote: “Thirty shrines have been chosen to lead the Marian prayer on each day of the month, each one entrusted with a particular prayer intention for different groups of people most affected by the pandemic. Each day, the official channels of the Holy See will broadcast live, the prayers from each of the Shrines.”

He continued: “One of these 30 shrines chosen to lead the prayer is the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, which has been entrusted with the prayer intention for expectant women and the unborn. The prayer will take place on May 4, 2021, at 7:00 pm, Jerusalem time.”

“I ask everyone to join in this Marian prayer of intercession for an end of this painful pandemic and I wish you a peaceful and spiritually fruitful time of Pentecost waiting.”

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Abortion groups in South Africa can’t find doctors willing to perform abortions

August 24, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Johannesburg, South Africa, Aug 24, 2019 / 03:38 pm (CNA).- Despite efforts by abortion advocates to expand the number of abortion clinics in South Africa, doctors in the country are largely unwilling to perform the procedure.

Under the Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1996, abortions are legal in South Africa up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. In cases of rape, incest, and financial hardship, abortions are legal up to 20 weeks.

Kgaladi Mphahlele, manager of Doctors Without Borders’ Choice of Termination of Pregnancy in Rustenburg, said it is hard to find clinics willing to perform abortions or doctors willing to give referrals.

Mphahlele said access to abortion clinics is necessary to prevent women from seeking unsafe abortion methods, according to Health-E News.

Guttmacher-Lancet Commission in Johannesburg issued a report last year finding that out of the 8000 medical clinics in South Africa, about 7% performed abortions, Health-E News reported.

Judiac Ranape, a nurse who trains doctors on abortions, argued that conscientious objection is a problem.

“You’ll find an operations manager who says, ‘We won’t perform it [an abortion] because it’s against my religious beliefs’,” Ranape said, calling for restrictions on conscientious objection.

However, surveys show that the general population in the country is strongly opposed to abortion.

The South African Social Attitudes Survey, conducted 2003-2006, found that 9 of out 10 adults in South Africa believed abortion to be wrong in times of financial dilemma, and three-quarters said abortion was still immoral if the child was to be born with a disability.

Church leaders have called for efforts to provide women facing difficult pregnancies with alternatives to abortion. Catholic Mater Homes, a pro-life group in the Archdiocese of Cape Town, is one such organization. It works to provide shelter for women during a crisis pregnancy.

“The establishment of Mater Domini was was born out of the need that existed within Archdiocese of Cape Town to create an alternative to abortion for women who might have felt forced into making such a decision out of desperation,” the organization’s Facebook page reads.

“When we talk about the nameless, faceless and voiceless victims of abortion, we have to include the mothers, who so often find themselves in helpless circumstances, with little other alternative but to make the difficult choice to end the life of their unborn child.”

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