Real Madrid’s Brazilian defender Marcelo holds their trophy during the club’s celebration of their 14th European Cup at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid on May 29, 2022, a day after beating Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League final in Paris. – Real Madrid claimed a 14th European Cup as Vinicius Junior’s goal saw them beat Liverpool 1-0 in the Champions League final at the Stade de France amid chaotic scenes yesterday. / Oscar del Pozo/AFP via Getty Images.
Lima, Peru, May 31, 2022 / 12:25 pm (CNA).
Real Madrid CF returned Sunday to Spain after winning the EUFA Champions League final, and offered the Virgin of Almudena both this trophy and that it won April 30 by winning the Spanish football league.
Real Madrid won the May 28 Champions League Fiinal 1-0 against Liverpool F.C. The match was played in Paris and the winning goal was scored by Vinicius Junior in the 59th minute. This is the 14th time that Real Madrid has won the European football competition.
The team, which was received by tens of thousands of fans in the streets of the Spanish capital May 29, went to Almudena Cathedral in the evening and was received by Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid.
It is not the first time that Real Madrid has offered the Champions League trophy to Our Lady.
During the visit, Cardinal Osoro greeted the players “with affection and joy”, saying that “it is stimulating to share a path with others, to support each other in the search for success.”
As reported by the Archdiocese of Madrid, the cardinal thanked them for taking the name of the Spanish capital to as many corners as did Saint Isidore the Farmer, “a simple man with presences on all continents,” to whom a Holy Year is being dedicated in the Archdiocese of Madrid.
During the brief ceremony, Real Madrid’s public relations director, former footballer Emilio Butragueño, read some petitions, one of which asked that those present experience “the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary.”
— Archidiócesis de Madrid (@archimadrid) May 29, 2022
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A Catholic pregnancy center called “Aid for Women” in north Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood was vandalized with red paint and the words “fake clinic” and “the dead babies are in Gaza” at 3 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 23, just hours after the closing of the Democratic National Convention. Mary FioRito, a spokesperson for the center, said that vandals also cemented the doors shut, forcing the nonprofit to cancel appointments for around 12 women. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Aid for Women.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 23, 2024 / 18:37 pm (CNA).
A Catholic pregnancy center in Chicago called “Aid for Women” was vandalized in the early morning hours after the closing of the Democratic National Convention.
No one was present at the center at the time of the incident. Police have been contacted and are investigating the incident as a violation of the Freedom of Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, according to Mary FioRito, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a spokesperson for Aid for Women.
Aid for Women is a non-profit which according to its website was “founded on the faith and teachings of the Catholic Church.”
The nonprofit operates five pregnancy centers and two maternity homes in the Chicago area. The group partners with the Archdiocese of Chicago and offers a range of services including ultrasounds, abortion pill reversal medications, counseling, and material aid.
FioRito, who has been a regular volunteer at Aid for Women for over two decades, told CNA that the incident occurred in north Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood at 3 a.m. Friday morning, hours after the DNC’s final closing.
The act of vandalism was caught on the center’s security camera. The footage has now been turned over to police.
According to FioRito, four vandals splattered red paint and painted the words “fake clinic” and “the dead babies are in Gaza” on the center’s entrance. FioRito said that the vandals also cemented the center’s doors shut, forcing staff to cancel all appointments on Friday — which she said were with about a dozen women.
The doors at “Aid for Women,” a Catholic pregnancy center in north Chicago, were cemented shut by vandals at 3 a.m. on Aug. 23, 2024, hours after the closing of the Democratic National Convention. Credit: Photo courtesy of Aid for Women.
As of Friday afternoon, the center’s doors were still cemented shut and there is no timeline on when it will be able to reopen. FioRito said that this means the Aid for Women pregnancy center may have to cancel its appointments or ask women to visit another location on Saturday, which FioRito said is their busiest day.
FioRito said that when she saw the pictures of the damage to the center she was “horrified.”
Addressing the vandals she said: “You’re not hurting us; you’re hurting these women.”
“These are working-class women. A lot of stuff for them is a struggle. Why would you do this to women who already are facing so many obstacles? It baffles me,” she said.
The act of vandalism was caught on the center’s security camera. The footage has now been turned over to police.
According to FioRito, there was an unusually low police presence in the neighborhood at the time of the incident due to the DNC which took place in another part of town.
FioRito lamented that pregnancy centers have borne the brunt of anti-abortion anger since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“It’s so strange to me that pregnancy centers are somehow the collateral damage of all this anger over Roe being overturned because the pregnancy centers didn’t have anything to do with it,” she said. “Pregnancy centers are largely apolitical … they are not political advocates, they are not legal advocates, they simply help women.”
Edgewater is an urban neighborhood as culturally diverse and “not a wealthy neighborhood.”
“Many of the women we serve are not women of means,” she said. “Pregnancy is hard enough. You don’t need something like this layered on top of it, making your life even harder.”
“If the people who did this were intending to hurt the pro-life movement or get back at the pro-life movement for Dobbs, all they’re really hurting is poor women when they do something like this,” said FioRito.
The DNC took place at Chicago’s United Center this week, Aug. 19-22. Several of the Democratic speakers, including Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, highlighted abortion as a central issue in the 2024 election and condemned pro-life attempts to restrict abortion.
A local Planned Parenthood operated a free mobile abortion clinic just outside the convention. Planned Parenthood Great Rivers reported on Thursday that the mobile clinic had provided nine vasectomies and eight chemical abortions.
Rome, Italy, Jul 31, 2019 / 03:01 am (CNA).- Each year the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as other Eastern Christians, participate in a fasting season Aug. 1-14 in preparation for the Aug. 15 feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God (which is ce… […]
1 Comment
Los Blancos are doing fine. Hats off to gaffer Carlo Ancelotti, his footballers and Real Madrid fans. Well played.
Los Blancos are doing fine. Hats off to gaffer Carlo Ancelotti, his footballers and Real Madrid fans. Well played.