Pro-lifers hold vigil as debate begins on New South Wales abortion bill

August 6, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Sydney, Australia, Aug 6, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- As the parliament of New South Wales opened debate on a bill to decriminalize abortion in the Australian state Tuesday, hundreds of pro-lifers joined a three-day prayer vigil.

The Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 would allow abortion for any reason up to 22 weeks of pregnancy; after that, it would allow for abortions if two doctors believe an abortion should be performed, considering physical, social, and psychological circumstances.

The Legislative Assembly, the lower house of the state parliament, began debating the bill Aug. 6.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney is calling all Catholics to pray against the bill’s passage. He opened St Mary’s Cathedral for 65 hours of continuous Eucharistic adoration beginning the afternoon of Aug. 5, which will conclude the morning of Aug. 8.

“I need you to be praying, to be fasting and to be contacting your MP and saying this is not good enough,” Archbishop Fisher said in an Aug. 1 video message.

The bill does not mandate any counseling or period of consideration for the woman, and it would require doctors with conscientious objections to refer women to other abortion providers.

Dr. Richard Lennon, a Sydney medical doctor, participated in a pro-life vigil and spoke to The Catholic Weekly, the publication of the Archdiocese of Sydney, about his concerns regarding lack of conscience protections.

“To send someone off to have an abortion is just as bad as doing it oneself,” he said. He added that “similar law is in existence in Victoria where one doctor has been brought before the medical board and warned because he refused to do a sex-selection abortion.”

“As a doctor what I want to do is to offer them support and the best medical care I can. But abortion is none of that, it is anti-health and anti-medicine,” Lennon stated.

The bill would also make it a criminal offense for individuals to perform abortions without the proper authorizations, carrying a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment for doing so.

According to supporters of the bill, it clarifies what they believe were previously ambiguous terms in penal code with regard to abortion.

But opponents believe it opens the possibility of elective abortion at any time, as long as two doctors consent.

Under current law, abortion is only legal in NSW if a doctor determine’s that a woman’s physical or mental health is in danger. “Mental health” has been interpreted by courts to include “economic and social stress.”

The bill was to have been introduced to the state parliament July 30, and debated last week. Debate was delayed, however, after concerns it had been rushed through without proper consideration.

During debate Aug. 6, Kevin Conolly, a member of the Liberal Party (part of the governing Coalition with the National Party), said the bill “will allow more abortions to occur including late-term abortions. I do not believe there is public support for that.”

“The bill is not just about the decriminalisation of abortion – it’s about the expansion of practice of abortion.”

Conolly added: “Doctors should not be forced to participate in ending the life of their patient.”

Tanya Davies, a Liberal member and fomer women’s minister, said the bill fails sufficiently to support women, saying, “There must be inbuilt requirements for pre- and post-abortion counselling if we are truly to be caring and compassionate to the women,” adding that it sees abortion “as a medical procedure akin to removing an ingrown toenail almost.”

The bill is opposed by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church of Australia, and the NSW Presbyterian Church.

“Rather than pursuing laws that will lead to more abortions, we should instead be investing in ways to support pregnant women who feel they have no other choice,” Archbishop Fisher said July 29.

Bishop Michael McKenna of Bathurst said July 31 that “Those who propose the legislation are no doubt sincere in their arguments. However, as so often in this debate, someone is forgotten. That is the human being: unborn, but human, who has no rights when her or his life or death is being decided. Also forgotten are those medical professionals who would conscientiously oppose such procedures, from whom the law could withdraw protection. And thoroughly forgotten are the mothers faced with difficult circumstances in their pregnancies, for whom, instead of genuine care, only the bleak option of a termination is offered.”

And Fr. David Ranson, administrator of the Diocese of Broken Bay, said that “the killing of life, with the liberal possibility allowed for in the proposed legislation, cannot make ours a more human society. If with legal sanction we kill those who are most vulnerable, either at the beginning or at the end of their life, we rob ourselves of our human dignity which is best demonstrated in a quality of care exercised even in the face of life’s demand and challenge. Such an option represents a gross failure of social imagination and public moral leadership.”

But Simon Hansford, the head of the Uniting Church in Australia, an ecclesial community which claims 243,000 members across the country, has indicated his support for the bill, saying, “people face difficult decisions. Respect for the sacredness of life means advocating for the needs of women as well as every unborn child.”

Both Coalition and Labor MPs are being given a conscience vote on the bill.

It is supported by NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and health minister Brad Hazzard, but is opposed by police minister David Elliott, finance minister Damien Tudehope, and treasurer Dominic Perrottet.

The bill was introduced by Alex Greenwich, an independent member who was instrumental in the legalization of same-sex marriage in Australia.

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After US mass shootings, Mexican bishops denounce hate speech, xenophobia

August 6, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Mexico City, Mexico, Aug 6, 2019 / 03:53 pm (CNA).- In a recent statement, the Mexican bishops’ conference voiced “great sorrow” at recent acts of violence in both the U.S. and Mexico, which they said were “provoked by intolerance, xenophobia and discrimination.”

Last week, a Mexican police officer shot and killed a Salvadoran man waiting to hop a freight train to the U.S. The prosecutor’s office said the man attacked the officer, but the local migrant center contested this account.

On Saturday Aug. 3, an armed man opened fire at a shopping complex in El Paso, TX. He killed at least 20 people and injured more than two dozen others before he was taken into police custody.

The alleged shooter reportedly published a four-page document online in the hours before the attack, detailing his hatred toward immigrants and Hispanics. He also reportedly described the weapons he would use in the shooting.

Less than 24 hours later, a 24-year-old man fired an assault rifle in downtown Dayton, Ohio, killing nine people and injuring more than two dozen others. Within one minute, Dayton police arrived and killed the shooter.

The Mexican bishops’ conference offered “prayers for the relatives of those who lost a loved one in these fateful events or who were injured.”

They said that “with sadness we see these acts of violence are increasing, encouraged by those who create divisions, who close their hearts to their fellow human beings, and don’t recognize the human dignity that every person possesses, regardless of the color of their skin or nationality.”

Warning that “hate speech only engenders aggression and death,” the bishops called for both government officials and citizens in the United States and Mexico to “foster a discourse in accord with peace, equality, fraternity and collaboration, since both nationals and foreigners that reside in a country make a nation greater and stronger.”

In addition, they encouraged prayers for all victims of hatred and violence, that they may “find the consolation of faith and peace in Jesus Christ Our Lord.”

 

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

 

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Archbishop Chaput: Look deeper than symptoms to solve mass violence

August 6, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Philadelphia, Pa., Aug 6, 2019 / 10:50 am (CNA).- Gun control laws alone will not stop mass shootings effectively, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, said in a column written in response to the recent shootings in Gilroy, Calif., El Paso, and Dayton, Ohio.

Chaput belives that there needs to be societal shift to transform the present “culture of violence.”

Writing in his Aug. 5 column, Chaput said that while he fully supports the use of background checks and restrictions on who is able to purchase firearms, “only a fool can believe that ‘gun control’ will solve the problem of mass violence.”

“The people using the guns in these loathsome incidents are moral agents with twisted hearts. And the twisting is done by the culture of sexual anarchy, personal excess, political hatreds, intellectual dishonesty, and perverted freedoms that we’ve systematically created over the past half-century.”

Chaput drew from his experience as Archbishop of Denver consoling the community after the shooting at Columbine High School. At the time, he buried some of the victims, and met with their families.

During his testimony to the U.S. Senate shortly after the Columbine shooting, Chaput spoke of “a culture that markets violence in dozens of different ways” that has become “part of our social fabric.”

“When we build our advertising campaigns on consumer selfishness and greed, and when money becomes the universal measure of value, how can we be surprised when our sense of community erodes,” he asked at the time. “When we glorify and multiply guns, why are we shocked when kids use them?”

Chaput also addressed the use of the death penalty and the legality of abortion as “certain kinds of killings we enshrine as rights and protect by law,” which creates a societal “contradiction.” This contradiction has reduced the view of human life, he said.

In 1999, Chaput suggested that America embrace a “relentless commitment to respect the sanctity of each human life, from womb to natural death,” and that he did not think the shooting at Columbine High School would be the last mass shooting.

“In examining how and why our culture markets violence, I ask you not to stop with the symptoms,” he said. “Look deeper.”

Chaput repeated this call in his column Monday, saying, “treating the symptoms in a culture of violence doesn’t work. We need to look deeper. Until we’re willing to do that, nothing fundamental will change.”

In focusing on the hearts of those who commit mass schootings, twisted by the culture created in the past 50 years, Chaput’s statement was markedly different than others published by Catholic bishops in the wake of the shootings.

The USCCB issued a sweeping statement Aug. 4 requesting “effective legislation that addresses why these unimaginable and repeated occurrences of murderous gun violence continue to take place in our communities.”

“As people of faith, we continue to pray for all the victims, and for healing in all these stricken communities. But action is also needed to end these abhorrent acts,” said the bishops.

Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh called for various gun control measures in an Aug. 5 statement, including “limiting civilian access to high capacity weapons and magazines.” Zubik also said there was a need to address websites that encourage violent acts, as well as to improve access to mental healthcare and work to overcome racism.

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso did not call for increased gun control measure, but instead urged the people of El Paso to “recommit to love” and to “brace ourselves for just action that will overcome the forces of division and build a more loving society.”

And Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati said Aug. 4 that “it is with a heavy heart that we turn to the Lord in prayer on this Sunday. As tragic and violent shootings continue in our country … I ask for everyone of faith to join in prayer for the victims and their loved ones. May we, the Catholics of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, in unity petition our Blessed Mother to intercede for our families and neighbors to know the peace and healing of Jesus, her Son.”

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