Pope Francis at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on May 17, 2023. / Vatican Media
Denver, Colo., May 31, 2023 / 11:45 am (CNA).
Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of June is for the abolition of torture.
“Torture is not past history. Unfortunately, it’s part of our history today,” Pope Francis said in a video released May 30.
“How is it possible that the human capacity for cruelty is so huge?” he questioned.
“There are extremely violent forms of torture. Others are more sophisticated, such as degrading someone, dulling the senses, or mass detentions in conditions so inhumane that they take away the dignity of the person.”
The pope reminded the faithful that this is not something new. He urged everyone to “think of how Jesus himself was tortured and crucified.”
He added: “Let us put a stop to this horror of torture. It is essential to put the dignity of the person above all else. Otherwise, the victims are not persons, they are ‘things’ and can be mistreated mercilessly, causing death or permanent psychological and physical harm lasting a lifetime.”
Pope Francis concluded his message with a prayer: “Let us pray that the international community commit itself concretely to abolish torture, guaranteeing support to victims and their families.”
Pope Francis’ prayer video is promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.
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Co-chairs of Harvard Right to Life, Olivia Glunz (right) and Ava Swanson (left) led a pro-life demonstration on Harvard University’s campus on May 4, 2022, in response to a pro-abortion rally on campus. / Joe Bukuras/CNA
Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 6, 2022 / 17:03 pm (CNA).
Being a pro-life student on most secular campuses was never easy, but it has taken a dramatically more intense turn now that a May 2 draft ruling of the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which suggested that the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, has been leaked to the public.
In response, angry students have been shown in videos posted online shouting profanities and insults at their pro-life schoolmates.
Those same, raw emotions were on display May 4 at Harvard University, one of the world’s premiere academic institutions. That afternoon, about three dozen members of the school’s pro-life group, Harvard Right to Life, were subjected to a slew of insults and obscenities when they staged a counter-demonstration in response to a rally of about 70 students protesting the possible overturning of the Roe decision.
One passerby called the group the “Harvard Virgins Club.” In response to another verbal attack, a member of the pro-life group responded, “We love you so much!”
“No you don’t!” the passerby shouted back. “You don’t love me at all! You want me to be a Jesus freak like the rest of you!”
A pro-lifer responded back, “God bless you sir!” An additional pro-lifer said, “We love you guys! We love you!”
Students from Harvard University’s pro-life group, Harvard Right to Life, gathered in Harvard Yard May 4, 2022, in order to show the university that there are pro-life voices on campus. Joe Bukuras/CNA
Despite the rough treatment, pro-life students told CNA they won’t be intimidated.
Olivia Glunz, a 19-year-old freshman and co-chair of Harvard Right to Life, told CNA that now that the Dobbs’ draft decision has been leaked, she thinks there will be significant pushback directed at pro-life voices on campus.
“But at the same time,” she added, “I think it’s more important to speak out now.”
Glunz said that the leaked decision will give the pro-life movement motivation. Those who may have been too afraid to speak up about their pro-life beliefs may now be more inclined to speak up, she added.
That motivation is exactly what pushed Glunz to lead the Harvard Right to Life’s May 4 demonstration, which she says is the student pro-life group’s first “public facing” event on campus since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Glunz, of Yardley, Pennsylvania, told CNA that she felt uncomfortable being screamed at and insulted, but added that she wasn’t surprised, either.
Glunz said that the visceral reactions from pro-choice students towards their signs and chants “cemented” her pro-life convictions. She added, “I think comparing the anger of the other side to our joy and cheer was really telling.”
The “joy and cheer” that Glunz was referring to consisted of positive chants such as “Love them both,” and the singing of Civil War hymns like “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Ava Swanson, a 20-year-old sophomore and co-president of Harvard Right to Life, told CNA that being pro-life at the Ivy League school entails “tip-toeing around a lot” because many pro-life students are “really worried” about what their friends will think if they discover their pro-life views.
Some students have told Swanson they could never be friends with a pro-lifer, but she noted that in some cases they have been open to discussing the issue once they’ve learned she is opposed to abortion.
The Monserrate Home is administered by the sisters of the Congregation of the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Poor in Colombia. / Screenshot of Twitter post
Zipaquira, Colombia, Dec 23, 2021 / 17:20 pm (CNA).
The Bishop of Zipaqui… […]
Washington D.C., Oct 10, 2017 / 02:52 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A political advertisement for pro-life Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has been blocked by Twitter for statements about Planned Parenthood selling fetal body parts for medical research.
“I’m 100 percent pro-life. I fought Planned Parenthood, and we stopped the sale of baby parts, thank God,” Blackburn says in her video.
Twitter blocked the ad, telling the Blackburn campaign that the comment was “deemed an inflammatory statement that is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction.”
The tech company said the advertisement would be reinstated if the comment was removed.
Blackburn encouraged her supporters to join her in “standing up to Silicon Valley” by sharing the video. Although the video cannot be part of a paid promotion on Twitter, users can link to the video on the site and retweet Blackburn’s post of the video.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>.<a href=”https://twitter.com/Twitter?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@Twitter</a> shut down our video ad, claiming it's "inflammatory" & "negative." Join me in standing up to Silicon Valley → RETWEET our message! <a href=”https://t.co/K3w4AMgW6i”>pic.twitter.com/K3w4AMgW6i</a></p>— Marsha Blackburn (@VoteMarsha) <a href=”https://twitter.com/VoteMarsha/status/917457080025481216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>October 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
Blackburn is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee which will be left open by the retirement of current senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).
Earlier in the two-and-a-half-minute video, Blackburn claims that the “left calls me a wingnut or a knuckle-dragging conservative,” criticizes the Senate’s failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and affirms her support of Second-Amendment rights and the Trump Administration’s immigration policies.
After investigative reporting by the Center for Medical Progress which revealed Planned Parenthood’s practice of taking money from medical research companies in exchange for aborted fetal tissue, Blackburn chaired a Republican-run House panel to investigate the organization and fetal tissue research more broadly.
After their investigation, she and her panel urged Congress to stop the funding of Planned Parenthood.
The practice of fetal tissue donation is legal in the United States if the donating company makes no profit off of the transaction. Planned Parenthood has since announced that it would no longer donate aborted fetal tissue for reimbursement.
Pro-life activists criticized Twitter’s move to refuse promotion of the ad.
“We are profoundly disappointed, but not surprised that Twitter continues to censor pro-life speech,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life advocacy organization, Susan B. Anthony List, in a statement.
“While we have observed that this censorship seems to be applied selectively to pro-life groups, Twitter’s move has broad, chilling implications for all sorts of advocacy and political speech. We hope anyone seeking to engage in political speech will join us in denouncing the censorship of Rep. Blackburn,” Dannenfelser said.
“Such heavy-handed tactics only backfire on those who use them.”
Conversion is an ongoing and a never-ending opportunity. Torturers need to be evangelized with regular doses of the Good News.