CNA Staff, Aug 22, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).- The Catholic Church in Belgium has reported a significant rise in adult baptisms.
CathoBel, the website of the Catholic Church in Belgium, reported Aug. 20 that 305 adults will be baptized this year, an increase of 61 compared to 2019.
The number of adult baptisms has grown steadily from 143 in 2010, to 180 in 2015, to more than 300 in 2020.
Although the majority of Belgium’s 11.5 million population are baptized Catholics, Sunday Mass attendance is below 7%.
The largest number of adult baptisms will take place this year in the Diocese of Tournai, a primarily French-speaking area in western Belgium. The diocese will baptize 127 adults, compared to 93 in the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels.
According to CathoBel, those seeking baptism include Narumol Chanassit, a 42-year-old who arrived in Belgium from Thailand in 1996. He will be baptized Sunday, Aug. 23, with his 18-year-old son, Niral, and eight-year-old daughter, Nicole, at Our Lady of the Snows Church in Borgerhout. They will be baptized by Deacon Eric Bochar, a member of the catechumenate team of the Diocese of Antwerp.
The website quoted the family as saying: “This Sunday will mark for our family the beginning of a new life that we have been waiting for so long. We long for our new birth so much.”
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Dublin, Ireland, Sep 24, 2018 / 03:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Irish Health Minister Simon Harris has announced that he intends to make it possible for women in the Republic of Ireland to have abortions free of charge, following the recent legalization of abortion in the country.
Harris said he didn’t want “cost to be a barrier” to women wanting to obtain abortions, and that it would become part of Ireland’s public health system. Funds to pay for the procedures will be included in this year’s budget, according to local media reports.
Harris stated in a speech in January that an estimated 170,000 Irish women have traveled to other countries for abortions since 1980.
Irish president Michael Higgins signed the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, which was voted on in a country-wide referendum in May, into law Sept. 18. The law had previously provided for equal protection of the lives of both the mother and the unborn child.
In terms of Irish law, the next phase will involve the Health Minister submitting a new law governing abortion, which is expected to reach the Irish legislature in October and could be in force by 2019, according to NPR. Draft legislation suggests that the new law could allow elective abortion up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy.
Prominent Irish doctors have expressed concerns about the government’s quick turnaround to begin performing free abortions, citing safety concerns for the women involved.
Dr Peter Boylan, chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and Dr John O Brien, chair of the Irish College of General Practitioners, both stated that talks with the Department of Health about how abortions will be delivered have been lagging.
Boylan also advised against a three-day waiting period for women seeking abortions, claiming the waiting period may “act as a barrier and [make] unwarranted assumptions about women’s ability to make their own decisions.”
Ireland is also facing a potential shortage of doctors willing to participate in abortions; surveys show that roughly seven out of 10 general practitioners in Ireland are unwilling to perform abortions.
Dr Mary Favier, vice president of the Irish College of General Practitioners, told the Oireachtas Health Committee Sept. 18 that “there are concerns about capacity and resourcing issues such as staffing, facilities, training.”
“They are concerned about the potential lack of appropriate specialist support, the possibility of medical complications for their patients, what will be the public reaction to those who don’t provide and those who do,” the Irish News reported Favier stating.
“They have a fear of litigation, they wish to see an acknowledgement of conscientious objection and how to accommodate this in the clinical pathway but also an acknowledgement of conscientious commitment and how to support this.”
Taoiseach Leo Varadker has said that Catholic hospitals will not be permitted to opt out of performing abortions, though individual medical professionals may.
The removal of the Eighth Amendment follows the decisive result of the national referendum held in May. Only one county, Donegal, voted to keep the amendment.
CNA Newsroom, Jun 4, 2024 / 09:45 am (CNA).
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Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, papal almoner, after cutting the ribbon on a new “Pope’s Laundromat” for the homeless. / Credit: Holy See Press Office
Rome Newsroom, Nov 5, 2023 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis opened two new laundromats for the homeless in the northern Italian city of Turin on Thursday, Nov. 2.
The new facilities are part of an initiative launched in collaboration with the international consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble and the consumer electronics company Haier Europe, with the assistance of the Community of Sant’Egidio and Apostolic Almsgiving, the papal office of charitable activity.
“With the two new laundries inaugurated in Turin we hope to be able to help many people in difficulty to improve their living conditions, starting from the possibility of taking care of their personal hygiene and that of their clothing,” said Riccardo Calvi, communications director for Procter & Gamble Italia.
The laundromats are located in the parish of San Giorgio Martire and the La Sosta welcome center in Turin’s city center and are operated by volunteers of Sant’Egidio.
The new facilities include washers and dryers donated by Haier as well as detergent. In addition to the laundry services, there are hot showers, and a full range of personal hygiene products will be available, such as shampoo, conditioners, body washes, razors, and shaving creams provided by Procter & Gamble.
These services are “offered free of charge to the poorest people, in particular those without a fixed abode,” Calvi said.
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, papal almoner, joins future clients on the new papal laundromats for lunch. Credit: Holy See Press Office
This is not the first such project that the pope has launched in Italy. In 2015 Pope Francis launched a barbershop for the poor, a service run by volunteers, to help provide essential grooming services for Rome’s indigent and homeless.
This effort was followed by the first “Pope’s Laundromat,” which opened in Rome in 2017 and a second one in the Ligurian port city of Genoa in 2019.
This initiative was born out of Pope Francis’ apostolic letter Misericordia et Misera, which was released at the conclusion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2016.
“The Church must always be vigilant and ready to identify new works of mercy and to practice them with generosity and enthusiasm,” the letter reads.
“Let us make every effort, then, to devise specific and insightful ways of practicing charity and the works of mercy. Mercy is inclusive and tends to spread like wildfire in a way that knows no limits. Hence we are called to give new expression to the traditional works of mercy,” it continues.
“[This initiative] is a concrete and tangible sign supported by the Apostolic Charity Office: A place and a service to give concrete form to charity and at the same time intelligence to the works of mercy to restore dignity to many people,” a press release said.
New washers and dryers at the recently opened papal laundromat in Torino, Italy. Credit: Holy See Press Office
Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski has been at the helm of the pope’s charitable initiatives since becoming papal almoner in 2013.
“When we help the poorest and most vulnerable, we are truly Christians, because we are the means of the Gospel,” Krajewski said.
“This initiative, which is repeated over time, is a source of joy for me because this is a further possibility of being close to wounded humanity, a way to demonstrate the presence and closeness of God to the last,” he said.
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