Church in El Salvador criticizes constitutional reform allowing unlimited presidential terms

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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CNA Staff, Mar 31, 2020 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- Local media in Nicaragua are reporting that despite the nation’s bishops’ conference suspending Mass and prohibiting large gatherings, the mayor of Granada is going ahead with an annual pilgrimage … […]

Veracruz, Mexico, Aug 30, 2019 / 12:53 am (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Xalapa in Mexico called for peace after a massacre at a night club in the town of Coatzacoalcos claimed 26 lives on Tuesday night.

According to the Veracruz state Attorney General’s Office, 10 women and 16 men died in the attack, and 11 more people were injured. The office said the attack was clearly deliberate.

The local press reported that a group of armed men entered the Caballo Blanco bar, opened fire and threw Molotov cocktails.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the attack “lamentable,” saying “it fills us with sadness.”

López Obrador condemned those responsible for the attack, and noted claims that the attackers may have been previously arrested and released by authorities.

Fr. Manuel Suazo, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Xalapa, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language sister agency, that the local Church “deeply laments the tragedy that took place.”

“We journey in solidarity with the relatives who are suffering grief and pain in face of this terrible situation, which once again fills with mourning the homes of many people in Veracruz,” he said.

In the most recent report from the Executive Secretariat of the National System of Public Safety in Mexico, released in July, Veracruz had seen 133 first-degree murders so far this year, making it ninth in the country.

Through July 31, the agency reported 1,550 homicides in the state of Veracruz.

According to the Mexican newspaper El Universal, the first half of 2019 has been the most violent on record in the country, with 17,065 homicides nationwide.

Suazo said that the area is already experiencing a “continued situation of insecurity and violence.” This new tragedy, he said, “makes citizens feel helpless because the insecurity has not been brought under control, but has increased.”

“Enough of the violence and insecurity. Not one more victim! We want to live in peace,” he said.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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