Bishop Luis Argüello, Secretary General and spokesman for the EEC. / Screenshot Youtube CEE
ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 20, 2021 / 10:32 am (CNA).
Warning: This article contains graphic sexual content that may not be appropriate for all readers.
A Spanish bishop has decried as “aggressive and crude” the six sex education guides being promoted by the socialist government in Getafe, Spain.
The Getafe City Council, governed by a coalition of the Spanish Socialist Workers (PSOE) and Podemos political parties, recently published the guides, entitled “Gender Rebels,” which encourage young girls and adolescents to “turn off the TV and turn on your clitoris,” and which ridicule the Virgin Mary as a model of someone who is “without a life of her own and asexual.”
The guides were financed with public funds from the Ministry of Equality and claim to be “a collection to blow up the sexist stereotypes that limit our way of being in the world” and which rebel against a “genitalistic, androcentric, phallocentric, penetrocentric and heteronormative society.”
Bishop Luis Argüello, spokesman and general secretary of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, questioned whether the Law for the Comprehensive Protection of Minors, which was passed April 15 by the Congress of Deputies, “can protect girls and adolescents” from the proposals contained in the sex ed guides, which he described as radical.
Rather than “Gender Rebels,” he encouraged people to instead be “rebels of common sense.”
The Diocese of Getafe also criticized the guides, deploring that they were paid for “with public resources, which ought serve the common good” but instead “disseminate partisan proposals with a strong ideological bias which do not respect everyone’s conscience or interests.”
The diocese said these guides are “an expression of the most radical gender perspective,” which “denies the biological truth about human beings,” blames the Church for “the patriarchy’s violence against women” and also “offends religious sentiments.”
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Turin, Italy, Dec 6, 2019 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- In Turin, Italy, the Daughters of Jesus the King is a religious community of blind and visually impaired sisters who aim for holiness, and to be a sign that in Christ, there are no barriers that cannot be overcome.
Sister Lorena Logrono, superior of the Daughters of Jesus the King, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that the origin of the congregation traces back to the Poor Daughters of Saint Cajetan, which was founded by Blessed Giovanni Maria Boccardo 135 years ago.
“When Blessed Giovanni Maria Boccardo became ill, he left the Congregation of the Poor Daughters of Saint Cajetan in the hands of his brother Luigi, who was also appointed head of the institutes for blind girls in Turin,” she explained.
“There a young woman asked Fr. Boccardo about becoming a religious, but she couldn’t be admitted because she was blind. Some time later, he received the inspiration to found a congregation for blind people, which would have the charism of the Poor Daughters of Saint Cajetan but be dedicated to contemplation.”
“And then, in 1932, the contemplative branch, the Daughters of Jesus the King, began,” the sister said.
Sister Lorena, who does see, belongs to the Congregation of the Poor Daughters of Saint Cajetan and is the superior of the Daughters of Jesus the King in Turin, Italy.
“The Daughters of Jesus the King have always had the assistance of a sister who does see, more for practical matters like, when they have to go to see the doctor, but inside the convent everything is adapted and they are completely independent,” Logrono said.
There are eight members of the Daughters of Jesus the King, and they are between 38 and 100 years of age.
Sister Maria Patrizia Speculato, 69 entered the congregation at 21.
“I had studied physical therapy in Florence at the institute for the blind and there I got to know the congregation. I had felt since I was a little girl the Lord’s call and although I pulled back from that for a while, when I finished studying I saw that the Lord was calling me again. And the desire to consecrate myself to Him rose up again. That enabled me to overcome all of the difficulties for entering, such as leaving my family which is from Naples and go to live in Turin. When you have a vocation you do everything necessary to follow it,” she told ACI Prensa.
Sister Maria Patrizia explained that her charism is to “offer the life of prayer and sacrifice for the Holy Father, for the priests and their sanctification, and for preserving and spreading the faith.”
They pray the complete Liturgy of the Hours because they have it translated into Braille, as well as many other books on spirituality. They also do an hour of Euchastic Adoration every day; they meditate an hour in the morning and a half an hour in the afternoon; they pray the rosary after Holy Mass.
“Our life is to grow in intimacy with Christ,” Sister Maria Patrizia explained.
A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Daniel O’Connell, lithograph attributed to R. Evan Sly (EP OCON-DA (17) II) from the National Library of Ireland. / Credit: National Library of Ireland
Dublin, Ireland, Aug 9, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Daniel O’Connell, known as “The Liberator,” was a pivotal figure in 19th-century Ireland, championing the cause of Catholic emancipation.
Opposed to violence, he advocated for Catholic rights through peaceful means, emphasizing dialogue and legal reform, and organizing mass demonstrations to rally public support and raise awareness about the injustices faced by Catholics.
“Daniel O’Connell’s achievement in forcing the British government to concede Catholic emancipation in 1829 was immense,” Bishop Niall Coll of Ossory told CNA. “The penal laws, a series of oppressive statutes enacted in the 17th and early 18th centuries that targeted the Catholic majority in Ireland, restricting their rights to own land, hold public office, and practice their religion were set aside.”
O’Connell’s efforts culminated in the passage of the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which allowed Catholics to sit in Parliament and hold public office and significantly transformed Irish politics.
O’Connell was born in 1775 in Caherciveen in rural Kerry. His parents had managed to maintain their land despite the penal laws, thanks to their remoteness, business sense, and help from Protestant neighbors. O’Connell’s earliest years, until he was 4, were spent with an Irish-speaking family that instilled in him an inherent understanding of Irish peasant life.
After studying in France at the English Colleges in St. Omer and Douai during the French Revolution, he returned to Ireland, completed his studies, and was called to the bar. In 1802, then a successful barrister, he married a distant cousin, Mary O’Connell, and they had 12 children — seven of whom survived to adulthood. In 1823 he founded the Catholic Association with the express aim of securing emancipation.
O’Connell’s early experiences were critical to his political and social formation, according to Jesuit historian Father Fergus O’Donoghue, who told CNA that O’Connell’s exposure to European influences undoubtedly shaped his character, his opposition to violence, and his deep-seated opposition to tyranny.
“He witnessed the French Revolution, which appalled him and set his heart completely against violence,” O’Donoghue told CNA. “What Daniel O’Connell really did was produce a political sense in Ireland that was never previously generated. Irish Catholics lived in appalling poverty and were neglected. He energized them. He brought Church and laity together into politics and constitutionalism.”
Bishop Fintan Monahan at Daniel O’Connell’s memorial in Rome. Credit: Bishop Fintan Monahan
O’Donoghue explained how O’Connell’s arousal of a nationwide Irish Catholic consciousness impacted politics and society but also had far-reaching consequences beyond Irish shores.
“When Irish Catholics emigrated, which of course many were forced to do, many of them were already politically aware. That’s why Irish people got so rapidly into American politics and into Australian politics later.”
“He was part of the enormous revival of Irish Catholicism in the 19th century. Before the Act of Union, various relief acts had been passed so Catholics officially could become things like judges or sheriffs, but none really were appointed in numbers. He was blistering in highlighting the difference between the law and reality. He was liberal, which amazed people; he believed strongly in parliamentary democracy. Many Catholics were monarchists and tending to be absolutists and he was having none of that. Under no circumstances would he approve of violence.”
Coll told CNA how O’Connell’s personal reputation extended his influence worldwide: “The fact that he could remain a devoted and practicing Catholic — while supporting the separation of church and state, the ending of Anglican privileges and discrimination based on religious affiliation, and the extension of individual liberties, including those in the sphere of politics — made him a hero and inspiration to Catholic liberals in many European countries.”
Coll continued: “The fact that his political movement was based upon popular support and the mobilization of the mass of the people, while yet being nonviolent and orderly, gave proof that political agitation did not necessarily have to be anticlerical or bloody. The attention his movement and opinions received in the continental European press was remarkable, as were the number and distinction of European writers and political figures who visited Ireland with the express purpose of securing an audience with O’Connell.”
Coll agreed firmly with historians who believe no other Irish political figure of the 19th or early 20th century enjoyed such an international reputation as did O’Connell throughout his later public career.
Among those whom O’Connell also influenced were Eamon de Valera, president of Ireland; Frederick Douglass, social reformer and slavery abolitionist in the United States; and Gen. Charles de Gaulle. Indeed, de Gaulle, when on an extended visit to Ireland, insisted on visiting Derrynane House in Kerry, the home of Daniel O’Connell.
When asked how he knew about O’Connell, de Gaulle replied: “My grandmother wrote a book about O’Connell.” The grandmother in question was Joséphine de Gaulle (née Maillot), a descendant of the McCartans of County Down and his paternal grandmother, who wrote “Daniel O’Connell, Le Libérateur de l’Irlande” in 1887. De Gaulle’s father, Henri, was also a historian interested in O’Connell.
In The Tablet,Dermot McCarthy, former secretary to the Office of the Irish Prime Minister, wrote that O’Connell’s primary legacy was “lifting a demoralized and impoverished Catholic people off their knees to recognize their inherent dignity and realize their capacity to be protagonists of their own destiny.”
Minister for Culture, Communications, and Sport Patrick O’Donovan said last month: “Daniel O’Connell was one of the most important figures in Irish political history, not just for what he achieved, but for how he achieved it. He believed in peaceful reform, in democracy, and in civil rights; ideas and concepts to which we should still aspire today.”
However, in its official communiques praising O’Connell, the Irish government minister failed to mention the word “Catholic” even once.
For O’Donoghue, the absence of any Catholic context is unsurprising given the prevailing secular attitudes among many of the country’s politicians.
Bishop Fintan Monahan, bishop of Killaloe, visited O’Connell’s grave in Rome during the Jubilee for Youth, telling CNA: “In 1847, the Great Famine was at its most severe and O’Connell’s final speech in the House of Commons was an appeal for help for its victims. Due to his physical weakness, this final speech was barely audible.”
O’Connell died in Genoa on May 15, 1847, on the 17th anniversary of the first time he presented himself at the House of Commons.
It was hoped that his heart might be interred in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. However, Pope Pius IX feared offending the British government on whose goodwill Catholic missionaries depended in many parts of the world. A requiem Mass was offered for O’Connell in the Roman baroque basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle. The attendance included the future cardinal, now canonized saint, John Henry Newman.
O’Connell had said he wished to bequeath “his soul to God, his body to Ireland, and his heart to Rome.”
Katie Ledecky visits students at Stone Ridge of the Sacred Heart School following the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic games / Credit: Stone Ridge of the Sacred Heart School
Leave a Reply