London, England, Jun 30, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In response to an ongoing effort in the U.K. to allow abortions to take place up to birth, a massive group of doctors and medical students signed a letter denouncing the controversial campaign.
Over 1,400 medical associates addressed the British Medical Association, saying that a change in policy won’t reflect the opinions of all the medical staff or majority of women in Britain – and that it’s also an extreme measure that could damage the BMA’s reputation.
“We represent a variety of positions on the issue of abortion, but believe this motion is out of keeping with both our duties as responsible professionals and the expressed wishes of British women with regards to the legality and regulation of abortion,” the letter reads.
The motion was debated on June 27 at the association’s annual meeting. If passed, the measure would implement an increase in the accessibility of abortions from the current law of 24 weeks, potentially offering abortions from anywhere between 28 weeks until birth.
The proposal would also allow for abortions to be offered for any reason, a distinct difference from the current law which requires previous consultation.
In their letter, the medical staff cited a recent study from ComRes, which showed that a large majority of woman in the U.K. would in fact rather have abortion restrictions increased rather than decreased.
The letter also referenced the intense backlash received by the Royal College of Midwives, which announced last year that it supports abortion under any reason, even up to birth.
“Many commentators on this controversy were pro-choice but recognized that taking this position was an extreme move, and the outrage caused reputational damage both to the Royal College of Midwives and to the wider midwifery profession.”
Professor John Campbell, a 35-year long member of the BMA as well as a supporter of the letter, wrote a June 26 article to the Daily Mail, noting that the damages from abortion have already been tremendous and that the new measure pose an even greater threat to women and children.
Since the procedure was legalized in the U.K. in 1967, over eight million unborn infants have been aborted, Campbell said. He then noted that interpretation of the country’s abortion law has shifted from defense of a women’s safety to abortions on demand.
But increasing the availability of abortions ultimately threatens the mental health and well-being of women, especially if they are not counseled through the process properly, Campbell said.
He cited recent news of a 22-second consultation given to a woman at a Maria Stopes center, saying many women choose abortion “simply because they were not given enough time to talk it through.”
The BMA is the trade union for doctors, and works to promote medical and health legislation in the U.K. Established in 1832, there are now an estimated 156,000 doctors and even more medical students.
The effort to lessen the country’s abortion restrictions was debated by 500 members, but the results have not yet been made public.
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Cardinal Juan José Omella, the archbishop of Barcelona, Spain, and Spain’s Ombudsman Ángel Gabilondo. / Credit: CEE
ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 30, 2023 / 14:30 pm (CNA).
The president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE), Cardinal Juan José Omella, has handed over to the people’s ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, a total of six volumes of data on cases of sexual abuse of minors.
In Spain, the role of the ombudsman is to defend the fundamental rights and public liberties of citizens by watching over the activities of local and national governments as well as the administration of justice.
Speaking to Radio Nacional de España, Omella explained that all the data on cases collected by the Spanish dioceses has been turned in.
In total, the ombudsman has received “six volumes of reflection with all the data that we have up to now.” He stressed the Spanish prelates commitment to “put in place all means to eradicate” the abuse of minors.
The cardinal also said that these situations cause “great harm, not only to the Church but [also] to society.”
A year ago, the Congress of Deputies (the lower house of the national Legislature) entrusted the ombudsman with setting up an independent commission to report on complaints of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.
A month earlier, the Spanish Bishops’ Conference made public that it had hired the law firm Cremades & Calvo Sotelo to conduct an external audit on the matter. The work was expected to take one year. Conclusions from the audit have have not yet been released.
In Spain there are more than 200 offices dedicated to the protection of minors and the prevention of abuse run by dioceses, religious congregations, and lay movements. The CEE reported that during 2022, the diocesan offices have trained more than 150,000 people, especially children and adolescents.
Throughout 2022, the CEE has received testimony on 186 new cases of abuse that occurred since 1950. The allegations involve include 74 religious order clergy, 36 diocesan clergy, 49 non-ordained consecrated persons, and 27 laymen, all male. Of them, 90 have died, 69 are alive, and in 27 cases their situation has not been confirmed, the CEE reported.
Regarding the victims, 179 were minors at the time the abuse occurred.
According to a very detailed study by the ANAR Foundation (Aid to At-Risk Chidren and Adolescents) published in 2021, priests represent a total of 0.2% of those responsible for child abuse in Spain between 2008 and 2019. Most of these situations occurred with adolescents aged 16 and over.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, speaking to journalists, Dec. 9, 2022 / Marcin Mazur
Kyiv, Ukraine, Dec 10, 2022 / 00:00 am (CNA).
Every effort for peace in Ukraine coming from Pope Francis and the Holy See is welcome, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister said Friday, whether it is helping to mediate for the exchange of prisoners or in assisting migrants and refugees.
However, the time for broad negotiations after the Russian aggression has not come yet, Dmytro Kuleba told a small delegation of journalists visiting Ukraine on Dec. 9 that his country has requirements for any such mediation to eventually take place.
The interview lasted about 40 minutes, and the questions dealt with Holy See-Ukraine relations, Holy See efforts for peace, and how Ukraine would welcome this effort.
Though appreciating Pope Francis’ constant mention of the Ukrainian situation and expressing an open invitation to the pope to visit the country, Kuleba also told CNA that some of the pope’s words have been “painful” for Ukrainians.
Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, speaking to journalists, Dec. 9, 2022. Marcin Mazur
Pope Francis has often stressed that the Holy See is available to facilitate broad negotiations. Kuleba told journalists that “the protocolar response would be that a negotiation would be more than welcome,” but “the sad truth is that the time for this broad mediation hasn’t come yet and the reason for that is President [Vladimir] Putin.”
If you want peace, Kuleba said, “you do not send 100 missiles every week to destroy infrastructure. You do not send one wave of your soldiers after another into the Donbas. You don’t do all these things when you seek a peaceful solution.”
And so, he concluded, “the day for a big mediation will come, but we are not there yet, to our deepest regret.”
Kuleba told CNA that mediation should have some requirements, as any other commitment the Holy See would undertake. He said he also tackled this issue in the last meeting with the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher.
Gallagher, whose role is equivalent to that of a foreign minister, spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart on Dec. 2 in Lodz, during the OSCE Ministerial Council.
I met with Secretary for Relations with States of the Holy See Mons. Paul R. Gallagher. I briefed Archbishop on Ukraine’s efforts to alleviate the global food crisis through our #GrainFromUkraine program and details of President @ZelenskyyUa’s Peace formula. pic.twitter.com/SNAc3iGbq4
Kuleba said he told Gallagher that the Vatican could choose which aspect to help with.
The Vatican might help with negotiating an exchange of prisoners, for instance, or the “return of thousands of kids kidnapped from Russia,” or also participating “in the implementation of the peace formula.”
However, Kuleba added that “picking an issue is the first step, while the second step is how you address the issue,” adding that “mistakes” needed to be avoided.
Among such “mistakes,” according to Kuleba, are the notion of a brotherhood between Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian people.
“We are not brothers and if you insist on the concept you are misled,” the Ukrainian minister told journalists since Russians “came to Kyiv to rape, to violate all the laws of God on the land of Ukraine.”
Kuleba also said hat one cannot be “neutral in public comments” and should “always remember that Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the victim of the aggression.”
Any attempt at making both sides somehow evenly responsible created “a completely wrong message,” the minister warned.
In his Oct. 2 Angelus, Pope Francis appealed to Russia’s President Vladmir Putin to stop the war, and to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be seriously open to the pope’s proposal.
Kuleba explained why he was somewhat critical of such appeals by Pope Francis: While saying President Putin should stop the war made “perfect sense,” calling on President Zelenskyy to be open to serious peace proposals made it sound like Zelenskyy was “not open to peace.”
In other words, Kuleba added, the pope’s words wrongly “create the impression that both sides are guilty: one is guilty because of the attack, and the other is guilty because [it is] not open to peace proposals.”
Ukraine’s Foreign minister called on journalists to be pay attention when writing about a “serious peace proposal” being “based on the territorial integrity of Ukraine”, including Crimea.
“Every time you write or read or say that Ukraine insists on the restoration of Crimea, you send a message that Crimea is a special case. But for us and international law, there is no difference between [the towns of] Sebastopol and Kherson, Yalta and Donetsk.”
Speaking about the role religion can play in helping to reconstruct the country, the Ukrainian foreign minister said that the “Russian aggression caused big fractures” among religions. He also pointed to differences in viewpoints between Muslims in Russia and in Ukraine, and Russian and Ukrainian Jews.
Kuleba said that the “first and foremost expectation from confessions is to console people, to help them spiritually.” Most people turned to God “only in times of hardship,” he added.
“When everything is fine, you forget about God. Now, there is a higher demand for spiritual help, to be consoled by the Church.”
Kuleba also spoke to CNA about sanctions imposed on Dec.1 against some Orthodox clerics and moves to legislate against Russian influence through religious means.
Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, speaking to journalists, Dec. 9, 2022. Marcin Mazur
The Ukrainian government will draw up a law banning churches affiliated with Russia under moves described by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as necessary to prevent Moscow being able to “weaken Ukraine from within,” according to Reuters.
Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council told the government to draft the law following a series of raids on parishes that Kyiv said might be taking orders from Moscow.
Such moves, Kuleba told CNA, were motivated by “unacceptable” behavior by some clerics, such as the blessing of Russian soldiers for success on the battlefield.
Kuleba, however, praised the role of the churches, especially the presence of chaplains on the front.
Speaking about Pope Francis’ position on the Ukrainian issue, Kuleba said that he saw improvements.
“The truth,” he said, “is that this war shattered many foundations of the global political order.”
A big disappointment, he added, was what Pope Francis had said about NATO “barking” at the gates of Russia.
Kuleba stressed that he understood how and why the pope used the expression, but he noted that this argument was forged in Russia, so even mentioning served to legitimize it.
While it was “painful that the pope said something like that, I have to commend the pope for understanding”, Kuleba added, saying he was grateful to the pontiff for not sticking to “concepts that do not work and do not meet the reality check.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister said he was moved by the public prayer of Pope Francis for Ukraine on Dec. 8 in Rome. “[The] pope’s compassion means a lot to us and goes directly to the heart of Ukrainians,” Kuleba said.
He added that “obviously, we are waiting for his visit. He has many followers in Ukraine”, not only from the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic communities: “The visit of the pope will be welcomed by a bigger part of Ukrainian society. So we are looking forward to welcoming him.”
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