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Eritrean Catholic Church remains opposed to health facilities’ closure

July 9, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Asmara, Eritrea, Jul 9, 2019 / 01:01 pm (CNA).- As the Eritrean government continues to seize and close Catholic healthcare sites throughout the country, the Church has denounced the intimidation used during the nationalization.

The government’s action began in June, and by July 9 as many as 29 Catholic hospitals, health centers, and clinics had been shuttered.

Agenzia Fides reported that a group of nuns who ran a health facility in southern Eritrea were asked to leave their residence July 4, and that in Zager (Zaghir), about 20 miles north of Asmara, police forced nuns away from their health facility and sealed its doors July 5.

“Though the Catholic bishops have expressed their opposition to this measure, they have not yet received any response from the State authorities,” read a recent statement from the Eritrean Catholic Church.

“While in some locations actions of force were involved, in other centres the staff were ordered to ‘get out of the way,’ the premises were sealed, and the staff was placed in a position where they were unable to attend to patients … Threatening words and bullying were spoken in various (health) centres,” the Church continued.

Eritrea’s bishops framed the problem as one of religious liberty, saying: “It is our firm belief that, with the recent requisition of our clinics, a specific right of our religion has been violated, which prescribes, ‘to love others and to do good to them.’ Any measure that prevents us from fulfilling … the obligations that come to us from the supreme commandment of brotherly love is and remains a violation of the fundamental right of religious freedom.”

Papal charity Aid to the Church in Need was told by a source in the Eritrean Catholic Church that “the staff at some of the clinics refused to hand over the keys so the soldiers broke into them.”

Archbishop Menghesteab Tesfamariam of the Eritrean Archeparchy of Asmara has called for the Church’s faithful to observe the Apostles’ Fast, which lasts through July 11, in response to the nationalization of the health facilities.

A letter from the Church to the health ministry after the seizure said that “the government can say it doesn’t want the services of the Church, but asking for the property is not right.” It added that the Church’s social services cannot be characterized as opposition to the government.

Eritrea is a one-party state whose human rights record has frequently been deplored.

It is believed the seizures are retaliatory, after the Church in April called for reforms to reduce emigration. The bishops had also called for national reconciliation.

Government seizure of Church property is not new, however.

A 1995 decree restricting social and welfare projects to the state has been used intermittently since then to seize or close ecclesial services.

In July 2018, an Eritrean Catholic priest helping immigrants and refugees in Italy told EWTN that authorities had recently shut down eight free Catholic-run medical clinics. He said authorities claimed the clinics were unnecessary because of the presence of state clinics.

Christian and Muslim schools have also been closed under the 1995 decree, according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2019 annual report.

Eritrea has been designated a Country of Particular Concern since 2004 for its religious freedom abuses by the US Department of State.

Many Eritreans, especially youth, emigrate, due to a military conscription, and a lack of opportunities, freedom, education, and health care.

A July 2018 peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which ended a conflict over their mutual border, led to an open border which has allowed for easier emigration.

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UK man booted from class over Christian beliefs wins appeal

July 9, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Sheffield, England, Jul 9, 2019 / 11:58 am (CNA).- A UK appeals court has ruled in favor of a Christian man who was removed from a university course in 2016 for posting online that homosexuality is sinful.

Felix Ngole had been taking a postgraduate course in social work at the University of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England.

During a Facebook debate about Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Ngole posted that “the Bible and God identify homosexuality as a sin” and that “same-sex marriage is a sin whether we like it or not. It is God’s words and man’s sentiments would not change His words,” the Guardian reported.

An anonymous complaint was filed with the university, and officials held a “fitness to practice” hearing, determining that the comments Ngole had made could negatively affect gay people he may encounter as a social worker, according to the BBC.

After being removed from the class, Ngole challenged the decision, arguing that he had been expressing a traditional Christian belief and that his rights of free speech and thought under the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated by the university.

Deputy high court judge Rowena Collins Rice ruled against Ngole in 2017, agreeing that the university had acted within its rights in removing him from the class.

The appeals court, however, disagreed. In a July 3 ruling, a three-judge panel overturned the previous court decision, saying the university hearing was “flawed and unfair,” the BBC reported.

Lord Justice Irwin, Lord Justice Haddon-Cave and Sir Jack Beatson instructed the university to hold a new hearing to consider Ngole’s case.

The University of Sheffield is considering its response to the ruling. The BBC cited a spokesperson for the university, who said that while it supports students’ right to a range of beliefs, “we have a responsibility to look at how any concerns raised could impact a student’s fitness to practise once registered.”

Ngole said the ruling is “great news, not only for me and my family, but for everyone who cares about freedom of speech, especially for those working in or studying for caring professions.”

“As Christians we are called to serve others and to care for everyone, yet publicly and privately we must also be free to express our beliefs and what the Bible says without fear of losing our livelihoods,” he said, according to The Guardian.

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Catholic woman with schizophrenia being held for blasphemy in Indonesia 

July 8, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Jakarta, Indonesia, Jul 9, 2019 / 12:05 am (CNA).- A mentally ill woman who identified herself as a Catholic is being held for blasphemy in Indonesia after an incident last week in which she brought a dog to a mosque and did not remove her shoes inside.

The woman, who has a schizophrenia diagnosis, was arrested on July 2 for blaspheming Islam, which is a criminal offense in the Muslim-majority country. It is punishable by up to five years in prison.

The incident for which the 52 year-old woman was arrested was caught on video and shared widely within the country. It shows the “visibly distressed” woman arguing with mosque members while her dog runs around, according to the Associated Press.

The woman had come to the mosque thinking that she was breaking up the wedding of her husband to another woman, according to reports from The Australian. Authorities charged her with blasphemy for failing to remove her shoes inside the mosque, and for bringing her dog, which is considered a ritually impure animal in the Islamic religion.

The woman is only being identified by SM, her initials. According to The Australian, her relatives have sent medical records to officials to prove that the woman is mentally ill and did not intentionally blaspheme the Islamic faith.

The woman was held at Jakarta’s Police Hospital, which confirmed that she had schizophrenia and recommended that she instead be transferred to a psychiatric facility.

Despite her mental illness, police have said that the blasphemy charges stand until a court decides otherwise. International human rights groups have long opposed blasphemy laws such as those in Indonesia. They argue that they are used primarily to manipulate and persecute Christians and other religious minorities.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority nation in population in the world. While 87% of the population are Muslim, 10% are Christian, and 2% are Hindu. Discrimination and attacks on religious minorities in the country are not uncommon.

In April, Indonesia’s Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a Buddhist woman of Chinese descent who was convicted of blasphemy for complaining about the volume of a local mosque’s call to worship. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Her complaint is thought to have sparked a riot against Chinese-Indonesians, during which multiple Buddhist temples were burned or ransacked.

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian and the former governor of Jakarta, completed a two-year sentence in January 2019 on a conviction of insulting the Quran.

Yunahar Ilyas, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), a prominent body of political Islam, said that the woman’s actions should “not be considered as blasphemy” because of her schizophrenia, but he did not directly call for a drop of the charges against her, The Australian reported.

Amnesty International condemned SM’s recent arrest, calling it “inappropriate” given her history of mental illness.

“This latest, unfortunate and absurd case is further proof that blasphemy laws should be repealed. Police must immediately release the woman and drop the charges against her,” said Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty Indonesia, The Australian reported.

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Venezuelan bishops condemn death of naval captain while in custody

July 8, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Caracas, Venezuela, Jul 8, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- The Venezuelan bishops’ justice and peace commission have condemned the death in custody of Rafael Acosta Arévalo, a naval captain who was arrested over an alleged assassination plot against president Nicolas Maduro.

Acosta’s lawyer alleges the officer had been tortured while in custody. Two members of Venezuela’s military counterintelligence agency have been charged in relation to Acosta’s death.

The bishops also protested that police had allegedly disfigured and left blind Rufo Chacón Parada, a youth, as he was demonstrating about the lack supplies in the country.

“The Venezuelan state is responsible. We will not consent to the manipulation, dissimulation and downplaying of these grave incidents,” the bishops’ justice and peace commission stated July 4.

“It is our commitment as a Church, which sees in the suffering faces of the relatives and those of the victims the suffering of Our Lord Jesus Christ. These two victims represent today the cries of many other citizens who have been subjected to the same patterns and whose cases have been blacked out.”

The bishops said that “the forced disappearance, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, excesses committed by the police … against Venezuelans are practices that have taken hold in the military and police corps, and are occurring on an ongoing basis, like a secret that cries out in our consciences.”

“This immoral, ignoble and dishonorable conduct is an attack on the dignity of the person and violates the conventions and treaties signed by the republic which directly makes responsible those officials that order, apply or tolerate this conduct or areable to prevent it, and do not do so,” they added.

In the case of Chacón “the disproportionate use of force once again leaves indelible consequences on this family: a young bachelor who is now blind, disfigured, and with no desire to live, a traumatized mother who in addition to life’s basic rights being denied her, that of protesting, of complaining, of finding unacceptable this fragile existence which we have been subjected to by government mismanagement. Silence is not an option in face of so much outrage,” the bishops said.

The bishops demanded that Acosta’s case be investigated “in accordance with the international standards and protocols related to cases of torture and not as a simple criminal investigation. That includes conducting a proper autopsy in accordance with law and with independent experts and adequately preserving the entire body of evidence.”

The bishops noted that the men charged in relation to Acosta’s death, Lt Ascanio Tarascio and Sgt Estiben Zarate, are 22 and 23, and asked: “This is the generation the armed forces are passing the baton to? Who taught these young men how to do so much harm to their brothers? What are the responsibilities of their superiors in the chain of command in these institutions?”

They emphasized that “these young perpetrators are also victims of a system that has allowed this moral and spiritual degradation in our county.”

Acosta was captured by Venezuela’s Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence June 21, and he was later listed as among 14 Venezuelans arrested for participation in an alleged assassination plot.

Acosta appeared in a wheelchair before a military tribunal June 28, but collapsed before proceedings began. He died the following day in a military hospital.

Under Maduro’s socialist administration, Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval, with severe shortages and hyperinflation. More than 4 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015.

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Japan awards priest for promoting friendship in Africa through judo

July 8, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Dublin, Ireland, Jul 8, 2019 / 05:19 pm (CNA).- A Capuchin Franciscan priest from Northern Ireland who spent 50 years on mission in Zambia has been awarded one of Japan’s highest honors for his promotion of judo in Africa.

“It’s a great recognition. I’m very proud of it, but I’m also surprised and overcome by the enormity of it. It’s not something I was expecting at all,” Father Jude McKenna told the Belfast Telegraph.

The 84-year-old judo expert is one of this year’s recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, awarded each year by the Japanese government. The award is “given to people who make a very significant contribution to the spread of Japanese culture,” the priest told the Belfast Telegraph.

McKenna, a native of Ballymoney, Northern Ireland, lived in Zambia from 1966 until 2017, when he retired to Dublin due to failing eyesight.

McKenna’s twin brother Brian was ordained a priest at the same time as Jude and they both joined the Capuchin Franciscans. When the time came for the brothers to be given their assignments, Jude was sent to Zambia, and Brian to California.

Father Jude said he was always a keen boxer, and after three visits to Japan, developed an affinity for judo, a form of self-defense developed in Japan in 1882 that today is generally practiced as a sport.

In addition to his missionary work in Africa, McKenna helped to spread the practice of judo across Zambia and throughout Africa. He founded the Lusaka Central Sports Club in Zambia’s capital.

McKenna’s award, given June 26 by Japan’s Ambassador to Ireland Mari Miyoshi in Dublin, was in recognition of his “outstanding contribution towards strengthening bilateral relations and promoting friendship between Japan and Zambia through judo,” the Belfast Telegraph reports.

Established in 1875, the Order of the Rising Sun was Japan’s first national award.

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N Ireland bishops denounce ‘undemocratic’ attempt to expand abortion

July 8, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Belfast, Northern Ireland, Jul 8, 2019 / 03:01 pm (CNA).- Bishops in Northern Ireland have spoken out against amendments to a bill in the British parliament that would liberalize abortion provision in the region, bypassing its self-governance.

Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh said July 6 that he is “deeply concerned by suggestions that amendments are being considered to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill … which will hijack this Bill to remove existing legal protection for unborn babies and to ‘fast track’ the legalisation of abortion on demand in Northern Ireland. How tragic it is for humanity that some legislators would ‘fast track’ the ending of the lives of the most defenceless in our society.”

Abortion is legally permitted in Northern Ireland only if the mother’s life is at risk or if there is risk of permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health. Elective abortion is legal in the rest of the United Kingdom up to 24 weeks.

British prime minister Theresa May has said abortion should be a devolved issue for Northern Ireland, but the Northern Ireland Assembly is currently suspended due to disagreements between the two major governing parties.

Archbishop Martin added that “it is urgent to restore an executive in Northern Ireland, so that the common good of all our people can be served. There is something particularly cynical, however, in taking advantage of the present political crisis to remove the right to life of the most vulnerable of our people; the unborn baby. The common good cannot be served in this way.”

“A legal framework for the protection of unborn human life is an important statement about the respect due to each and every child, and about the society in which we live,” he stated.

He asked that Catholics and other pro-life persons “contact Members of Parliament as a matter of urgency, requesting that he or she vote against any attempt to remove legal protection from unborn babies.”

Bishop Noel Treanor of Down and Connor urged similar action, asking July 6 that people contact their MP “to register their objection to this undemocratic process.”

“The protection of human life, inviolable from its conception until its natural end, is a matter of fundamental ethical and social ethical importance for citizens, society and the state,” he said, lamenting that the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill “is being used to introduce amendments aiming to liberalise provision of abortion in Northern Ireland without the say-so of either the citizens of Northern Ireland or their elected representatives.”

Bishop Treanor called the efforts an “eleventh hour initiative” to instrumentalize a bill meant “to put in place measures to accommodate the ongoing absence of a Northern Ireland Assembly. The issue of the protection of human life and the redefinition of marriage are not … devolved matters, which should be decided upon by the people of Northern Ireland.”

Since the bill is being considered by the British parliament, the English and Welsh bishops’ life issues spokesman, also encouraged citizens to speak out against it.

Bishop John Sherrington, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, said July 5 the bill’s effect in Northern Ireland “would be to provide for abortion on demand up to 28 weeks,” while in England and Wales “it would remove almost all of the existing legal safeguards surrounding abortion which limit abortion. Removing these is a step which I hope that legislators will not take.”

“Such a change would leave Northern Ireland with a significantly different abortion framework to the Republic of Ireland, where, following the recent referendum, there is a twelve week limit. It would also leave Northern Ireland, England and Wales with some of the most extreme abortion laws in the world, and more than twice the limit of most European countries,” Bishop Sherrington stated.

Right to Life UK has warned that amendments to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill “would potentially lead to significant numbers coming across the border for abortions from the Republic of Ireland,” where abortion is not generally available after 12 weeks.

Clare McCarthy, a Right to Life UK spokesperson, said July 8 that Northern Ireland’s abortion law “should be a decision for the people of Northern Ireland and their elected representatives” and that it is “inappropriate to bring forward abortion amendment to a Bill which has nothing to do with abortion in any way.”

McCarthy noted that “100,000 people in Northern Ireland are alive today because Northern Ireland did not accept the same abortion law that was introduced into Britain in 1967.”

The Belfast Telegraph reported July 8 that Labour and Co-operative MP Stella Creasy, who represents a London constituency, had introduced amendments “seeking to extend abortion provision” in Northern Ireland.

Earlier this year Creasy intended to propose an amendment to a draft Domestic Abuse Bill that would give the British parliament jurisdiction over abortion laws throughout the United Kingdom. However, the bill’s scope was restricted to England and Wales by the Conservative government.

The Democratic Unionist Party, the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and a member of the coalition government in Westminster, is opposed to changing the region’s abortion law.

Bills to legalize abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, or incest failed in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016.

Northern Irish women have been able to procure free National Health Service abortions in England, Scotland, and Wales since November 2017.

The region’s abortion law is also facing a legal challenge from Sarah Ewart, a Belfast woman who traveled to England in 2013 for an abortion after her doctors reportedly told her that her baby would not survive outside of the womb.

In June 2018, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission challenged the region’s abortion laws in the UK Supreme Court. While the Supreme Court concluded that Northern Ireland’s abortion laws violated human rights law by banning abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, and incest, it threw out the case saying it had not been brought forward by a person who had been wrongfully harmed by the law. It is expected that the court will consider Ewart to have standing to bring the case.

Other amendments to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill would introduce same-sex marriage in the region; block a no-deal Brexit; and restrict prosecution of British soldiers for killings committed during the Troubles.

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