CNA Staff, Dec 31, 2020 / 12:49 pm (CNA).- In a short message published on his Twitter account, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro criticized the decision of the Argentinian Senate to legalize abortion and vowed that abortion will never become legal in Brazil – the largest Latin American country – under his presidency.
“I deeply lament for the lives of Argentinian children, now subject to being cut in their mothers’ wombs with the consent of the State. As far as it depends on me and my government, abortion will never be approved on our land. We will always fight to protect the lives of the innocent!,” tweeted Bolsonaro.
– Lamento profundamente pelas vidas das crianças argentinas, agora sujeitas a serem ceifadas no ventre de suas mães com anuência do Estado. No que depender de mim e do meu governo, o aborto jamais será aprovado em nosso solo. Lutaremos sempre para proteger a vida dos inocentes!
A new abortion law was approved by the Argentinian Senate on Wednesday, December 30. The new law, in practice, will allow abortions at any time until birth and has no provisions for protecting the baby if he or she survives a late-term abortion.
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Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on April 20, 2022. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 23, 2022 / 09:40 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said on Saturday that “we must ask for the grace to cry” with Our Lady for the lives destroyed by the Ukraine war and the other miseries of our time, like “the children discarded before they are even born.”
In a meeting on April 23 with the Catholic community affiliated with the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Tears in northern Italy, the pope said that Mary’s tears are “a sign of God’s weeping for the victims of the war” in Ukraine.
Pope Francis underlined that the war is “destroying not only Ukraine,” but it is destroying “all the nations involved in the war.”
“Because war not only destroys the people who are defeated, no, it also destroys the victor … War destroys everyone,” he said in Paul VI Hall.
“We have entrusted our prayer to the Immaculate Heart, and we are certain that our Mother has accepted it and intercedes for peace, for she is the Queen of Peace,” the pope added.
In a speech to 2,800 pilgrims from Italian parishes close to the 16th century shrine of Our Lady of Tears in Treviglio, Italy, the pope said that “our civilization, our times, have lost the [Biblical] sense of weeping.”
He said: “We must ask for the grace to cry in front of the things we see … not only wars … but the discarded, the elderly who are discarded, the children discarded before they are even born.”
“The miseries of our time should make us cry and we need to cry. …We must allow ourselves to be moved,” he added.
Pope Francis said that “Mary’s tears” intercede and help those with hearts of stone who have forgotten how to cry.
“Mary’s tears were transformed by the grace of Christ, as her whole life, her whole being, everything in Mary is transfigured in perfect union with the Son, with his mystery of salvation. Therefore when Mary cries, her tears are a sign of God’s compassion,” the pope said.
“And for this reason Our Lady’s tears are a sign of the compassion of God, who always forgives us with this compassion; they are a sign of Christ’s pain for our sins, for the evil that afflicts humanity, especially the little ones and the innocent, who are those who suffer,” he said.
The pope also spoke about the war in Ukraine in a meeting with the FIAT Association on Saturday. The FIAT Association was founded by Belgian Cardinal Leo Jozef Suenens in 1987.
“The tragedies we are experiencing at the moment, particularly the war in the territory of Ukraine so close to us, remind us of the urgency of a civilization of love. In the eyes of our brothers and sisters, victims of the horrors of war, we read the profound and pressing need for a life marked by dignity, peace and love,” Pope Francis told the group.
“Like the Virgin Mary, we must continually cultivate the missionary spirit to make ourselves close to those who suffer, opening our hearts to them. We must walk with them, fight with them for their human dignity and spread the perfume of God’s love everywhere.”
In an interview with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol, National Catholics Bioethics Center President Dr. Joseph Meaney discusses the first-ever therapy approved by the FDA using CRISPR, a genome editing technology. / Credit: “EWTN News Nig… […]
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.
Bolsonaro is one of those “vile” populists who Francis and company will have nothing to do with. Yet, he speaks the truth on the preeminent moral issue of the time in response to yet another nation (the Pope’s native land!) legalizing abortion, while we hear nothing from the Vatican. Yes, I am aware of the few pro forma comments from the Pope on the matter in last couple of months. They sound like what you would hear from someone who really does not care too much one way or another, but feels that he has to say something. On the other hand, if the Argentine government had announced it was building a wall, the reaction would have been swift and severe. The statement from the Brazilian president also compares favorably with the mealy-mouthed declaration issued by the Argentine bishops. (Do all the bishops conferences in the world use the same style book when they produce their bureaucratic gibberish?)
Bolsonaro is one of those “vile” populists who Francis and company will have nothing to do with. Yet, he speaks the truth on the preeminent moral issue of the time in response to yet another nation (the Pope’s native land!) legalizing abortion, while we hear nothing from the Vatican. Yes, I am aware of the few pro forma comments from the Pope on the matter in last couple of months. They sound like what you would hear from someone who really does not care too much one way or another, but feels that he has to say something. On the other hand, if the Argentine government had announced it was building a wall, the reaction would have been swift and severe. The statement from the Brazilian president also compares favorably with the mealy-mouthed declaration issued by the Argentine bishops. (Do all the bishops conferences in the world use the same style book when they produce their bureaucratic gibberish?)