The Society of Priest of St. Jacques announced this Friday, April 30th, that the remaining seven of the 10 Catholic leaders kidnapped in Haiti on April 11 have been released and are in good health.
One of the several criminal groups operating in the country released three of the kidnapped, but kept four Haitian priests and a nun as well as one French priest and one nun on April 11, when they were in the town of Croix-des-Bouquets, on their way to the installation of a new parish priest.
The criminal gang behind the abduction, calling itself “400 Mazowo,” had demanded a 1 Million dollars ransom. It was not clear if it had been paid in part or in full.
The abduction of the priests and religious sparked massive outrage in Haiti, which is battling a spike in kidnappings for ransom. Following the clergy kidnappings the Catholic Church openly criticized the government’s “inaction,” declaring a week of Mass suspensions and church closings.
The measure forced President Jovenel Moise to announce a reshuffling of the government, including the resignation of the Prime Minister.
In their statement, the Society of Priests of Saint Jacques, a French missionary congregation, said the victims were “unharmed,” and thanked the ambassadors of France and the United States “for their discreet and effective diplomatic contribution”.
Archbishop Max Leroy Mésidor of Port-au-Prince. Haiti’s capital, welcomed the release of the clergy, but noted that “our contentment will be greater when we see that we live in a country where kidnappings do not exist. Our contentment will be greater when we live in a country where everyone can move where they want, when they want in respect for the law.”
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A Brazilian court has ruled that “Catholics for the Right to Decide” must remove the term “Catholic” from its name, as the organization’s goals are incompatible with the values of the Catholic Church. The organization is an outgrowth of the U.S.-based Catholics for Choice, which advocates for pro-abortion policies.
“In defending of the right to decide on abortion, which the Church clearly and severely condemns, there is a clear distortion and incompatibility of the name used in relation to the aims and specific actions of the association, which directly attack morality and good customs, in addition to harming the public good and interests,” said a decision from Judge Jose Carlos Ferreira In a Sao Paolo lawsuit.
The suit was filed by the Don Bosco Center for Faith and Culture Association, which argued that the use of the term “Catholic” by the pro-choice group is fradulent, since “under the pretext of defending the ‘reproductive rights of women,’” it is actually promoting the “murder of babies in the womb.”
A lower court had dismissed the complaint as unfounded and said that only an ecclesiastical authority had standing to bring such a complaint.
But the Don Bosco Center then filed an appeal with the Second Chamber Court, which ruled in the center’s favor Oct. 27.
Ferreira wrote in his decision that Catholics for the Right to Decide represents a “public, notorious, total and absolute incompatibility with the values” of the “Catholic Church in a general and universal way.”
In addition, the judge ruled that “freedom of speech will not be compromised in the least, and the association may defend its values and ideas (including abortion) as it deems appropriate, provided that it uses a consistent name, without presenting itself to society under the name of another institution that publicly and conspicuously adopts opposite values.”
Chris Tonietto, a Brazilian legislator and attorney who worked on the case, said after the ruling that “the name was considered subversive because it perverts the meaning of Catholicism itself, which is why we say that they created confusion.”
“This organization has always acted to create confusion, so much so that the name ‘Catholics for the Right to Decide’, was certainly used in an abusive and undue way,” he said.
On its Facebook page, the NGO stated that “it was not officially notified” of the court’s decision and “became aware of the decision through the press.”
The organization pledged to “take the appropriate measures after receiving the court order.”
Catholics for the Right to Decide was founded in 1993, as the U.S. organization Catholics for Choice expanded into Latin America. In recent years, the group has invested millions of dollars to promote the legalization of abortion in Latin America.
In October 2012, a spokesperson for the U.S. bishops’ conference told journalists that Catholics for Choice “is not a Catholic organization.”
“It never has been, and it was created to oppose the Catholic position on abortion,” the spokesperson said.
Pro-life supporters march in this year’s March for Life in Ottawa, Canada, May 9, 2024. / Credit: Peter Stockland
Ottawa, Canada, May 10, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
Thousands of pro-lifers packed onto Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, and spilled out onto Wellington Street on May 9 for the 27th annual National March for Life.
The diverse crowd gathered on the Hill at noon with its members bearing both homemade and professionally crafted signs pledging them to stand fast for the unborn and vulnerable.
The march’s theme, “I Will Never Forget You” was taken from the prophet Isaiah’s poignant question: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast?”
Participants in the Ottawa, Canada, March for Life on May 9, 2024, sing the national anthem. Credit: Peter Stockland
The rally and march were broadcast live by the U.S. cable network EWTN. (Editor’s note: EWTN is the parent company of Catholic News Agency.)
This year’s speakers included pro-life speaker and author Abby Johnson, President of 40 Days for Life Shawn Carney, and Campaign Life Coalition Vice-Chair Jeff Gunnarson.
The opening prayer was led by Father Daniel Szwarc, OMI, who traveled to Ottawa from the Arctic Circle together with three young women engaged in pro-life activities in their small Inuit village of Naujaat.
Diana Kringayark told the crowd that every week she and the other women buy baby products to distribute to 40 village families to show that “every baby is important.”
Diana Kringayark shares about her pro-life ministry in Naujaat, Nunavut, at the Ottawa March for Life on May 9, 2024. Credit: Peter Stockland
Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Damphousse encouraged the marchers to act with “courage, compassion, and conviction.”
Conservative members of Parliament Cathay Wagantall and Arnold Viersen were the only federal politicians to address the crowd.
In her brief speech, Wagantall emphasized that advocating for the unborn and the vulnerable is particularly difficult for Canadian politicians. But she hailed the number of young people in the crowd as a sign of hope.
“If you think it is a battle out here, you know it is a battle in there,” the Saskatchewan member of Parliament said, indicating the Houses of Parliament behind her.
Angelina Steenstra of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign introduced Nathalia Comrie, a young woman who, at 17, was pregnant and felt that “abortion was the only choice my family would accept.” She said she was told that “everything would go back to normal after the abortion.”
Nathalia Comrie shares the story of her abortion and the support she received from Silent No More Awareness Campaign and the Sisters of Life at the Ottawa, Canada, March for Life on May 9, 2024. Credit: Peter Stockland
“That was a lie,” Comrie said. After years of depression and substance abuse, she was introduced to the Sisters of Life, and through them to other women who, like her, had suffered as the result of abortion.
“I will never forget my son Kaeden. He is why I am silent no more,” Comrie said.
In the crowd of clergy, habited religious sisters, elderly, schoolchildren, and loud teenagers were women who had found themselves, like Comrie, in situations where they felt pressured and alone.
Christa Ranson came to the March for Life from Montreal because she knew what it was to have considered abortion.
Thousands gather to hear opening speeches at the 27th annual National March for Life in Ottawa, Canada, on May 9, 2024. Credit: Peter Stockland
Ranson had been scheduled to undergo an abortion on two separate occasions. The first time she was actually on the table being prepped for the abortion when she decided not to go through with it. The second time, after hearing her son’s heartbeat by ultrasound, Ranson decided she “just couldn’t do it.”
Ranson said she now tells her son: “I loved you when you were just a heartbeat.”
When asked why it was important for her to come to the March for Life, she told Canada’s The Catholic Register that it was to let women know there is a choice other than abortion.
Thousands gather on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, for the 27th annual National March for Life on May 9, 2024. Credit: Peter Stockland
“What a lot of people don’t realize is that, when you are on that table, those babies are living, they have a heart, they have feelings.”
“I want other women to know that even if it is difficult, it will be okay and it is worth it. If women are making the decision because of health reasons, or financial reasons, they should reach out. There are resources out there, there are doctors out there who will help.”
"What the dictatorship is doing is suffocating, more and more, the Catholic Church," says lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina. / Credit: Martha Calderón/EWTN Vatican
Lima Newsroom, Sep 4, 2024 / 17:16 pm (CNA).
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