Richmond, Va., Feb 18, 2018 / 06:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- According to a recent study, wedding bells are not ringing for the majority of younger adults in the United States, while marriage rates for older adults have increased over the past 50 years.
T… […]
London, England, Feb 17, 2018 / 03:17 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Proposals to bar pro-life demonstrations and outreach with a legal ‘buffer zone’ outside abortion clinics drew objections from a leading U.K. bishop who stressed the legitimacy of their cause.
“There are members of the public, often associated with churches, who gather peacefully to pray outside abortion clinics and witness to the good of human life in a dignified way,” Bishop John Sherrington said Feb. 16. “They do so because of their fundamental belief in the protection of unborn life and the good of the mother.”
Bishop Sherrington, an auxiliary bishop of the Westminster archdiocese, is responsible for the Day for Life, when the local Catholic Church dedicates a day to raising awareness about the value of human life at every stage from conception to natural death. In England and Wales, the 2018 observance falls on Sunday, June 17.
The bishop’s remarks were submitted to a British government review of abortion clinic protests as parliament and several localities consider “buffer zones.” Possible proposals could bar the display of images deemed distressing and the use of loudspeakers, but also bar congregating in large groups and approaching women going into clinics.
In 2017, Labour Party M.P. Rupa Huq organized a cross-party letter supporting buffer zones that drew support from 113 M.P.s, including Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Sky News reports.
Bishop Sherrington was critical of the proposal.
“A blanket introduction of ‘buffer zones’ carries with it the danger of both denying freedom of expression and fostering intolerance towards legitimate opinions which promote the common good,” he said.
“The offering of leaflets is part of helping to inform women who might not have had impartial information before,” he said. “There are also those who offer practical alternatives and assistance if a woman wants to make a different choice.”
Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced the Home Office review in November 2017. It sought views about “alleged harassment and intimidating behavior near abortion clinics in England and Wales.”
“While everyone has a right to peaceful protest, this review is about ensuring the police, healthcare providers and local authorities have the right powers to protect women making these tough decisions,” Rudd said in a Nov. 26 announcement. “The decision to have an abortion is already an incredibly personal one, without women being further pressured by aggressive protesters.”
The review would consider comparisons to how demonstrations are treated in Australia, France and the U.S. It would assess several factors: the scale, frequency and nature of the protests; laws against harassment and intimidation; and the public’s right to lawful, peaceful protest.
Bishop Sherrington backed protest, rightly understood.
“In a democratic society the freedom to protest and express one’s opinion is always to be considered in relation to the common good,” he said. “It should not be necessary to limit the freedom of individuals or groups to express opinions except when they could cause grave harm to others or a threat to public order.”
Current legislation already provides the means to deal with harmful or threatening behavior, he said.
The comment period for the review ends Feb. 19.
In December, John Hansen-Brevetti, clinical operations manager at the Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Ealing, told a House of Commons’ Home Affairs committee that up to 40 protesters at a time have gathered outside the clinic, Sky News reports. He charged that they have physically grabbed or blocked women or have been “using other means of intimidation.”
However, Antonia Tully, director of campaigns at the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said that the protests are “peaceful, prayerful people, standing near abortion facilities, offering women the help that they are simply not getting anywhere else.”
Ahead of a January meeting of Ealing Council, Tully said that “peaceful, prayerful pro-life vigils must continue to offer help to desperate women.”
Vatican City, Feb 17, 2018 / 08:53 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During his annual Lenten meeting with the priests of Rome last week, Pope Francis confirmed that Blessed Pope Paul VI will be made a saint sometime this year.
“Paul VI will be a saint this year,” the Pope said Feb. 15, at the end of a long question and answer session with priests of Rome. The text of the private meeting was published by the Vatican Feb. 17.
During the meeting, Francis gave lengthy answers to four questions from priests. Afterward, texts containing meditations by Pope Paul VI, a gift from the Pope, were handed out to each of the priests. “I saw it and I loved it,” Francis said about the book.
“There are two [recent] Bishops of Rome already saints,” he continued, referring to St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II, who were canonized together in April 2014.
Besides Blessed Pope Paul VI, he noted that John Paul I’s cause for beatification is also ongoing. “And Benedict and I,” he added, are “on the waiting list: pray for us!”
According to Vatican Insider, Feb. 6 the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the second miracle needed for the canonization of Bl. Pope Paul VI by a unanimous vote.
The next step is for Pope Francis to also give his approval, with an official decree from the Vatican. Then the date for the canonization can be set. The canonization could take place in October of this year, during the Synod of Bishops on the youth, Vatican Insider reported.
The miracle attributed to the cause of Paul VI is the healing of an unborn child in the fifth month of pregnancy. The case was brought forward in 2014 for study.
The mother, originally from the province of Verona, Italy, had an illness that risked her own life and the life of her unborn child, and was advised to have an abortion.
A few days after the beatification of Paul VI on Oct. 19, 2014, she went to pray to him at the Shrine of Holy Mary of Grace in the town of Brescia. The baby girl was later born in good health, and remains in good health today.
The healing was first ruled as medically inexplicable by the medical council of the congregation last year, while the congregation’s consulting theologians agreed that the healing occurred through the late pope’s intercession.
Abuja, Nigeria, Feb 17, 2018 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Women religious in Nigeria held a National Day of Prayer and Fasting for the respect of human life on Ash Wednesday, in light of the ongoing violence within the country.
The Feb. 14 day of prayer and fasting was facilitated by the Nigeria Conference of Women Religious and the African Faith & Justice Network’s women empowerment project, with the theme “Nigeria Catholic nuns uphold the sacredness of life through prayer.”
The event included women from multiple religious congregations throughout the country, according to CANAA.
The sisters gathered reflected on the increasing “communal clashings” within Nigeria, including the alarming conflicts between farmers and herdsmen. They also pointed to the various killings, kidnappings, and particular violence against women that has been ongoing within the country.
The sisters additionally noted personal experiences of violations against human dignity, including multiple kidnappings within their own religious communities. One community recalled having their major superiors and councilors kidnapped and held for ransom in a dungeon for weeks, while another group of sisters expressed a similar occurrence.
Other instances of kidnapped or killed religious have surfaced over the past few years in Nigeria, causing further concern over the ongoing violence produced mainly by ethnic or religious conflicts, as well as the insurgency of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram.
As violations against human dignity continue to plague Nigeria, the sisters encouraged the government and officials to enact measures of security for the defenseless and to create a safe environment for the people of Nigeria that would safeguard the lives of all people.
Prompted by the AFJN to use their influence for the good of human life, the sisters have taken up the mission to defend life within the country by bringing these issues to the public square – particularly through their most recent day of prayer and fasting.
While overwhelmed by the gravity of the challenge, the sisters said that after prayer, they have risen to the call to give public witness to the sacredness of life. AFJN also asked for prayers for the sisters’ challenge ahead in promoting human dignity in Nigeria.
“May the sisters’ boldness and courage to act on behalf of justice in the public forum bring change of hearts, move the government and elected officials to act for the common good, and bring consolation to many who have lost their loved ones to violence in Nigeria.”
Vatican City, Feb 17, 2018 / 05:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday the Vatican announced that Pope Francis has reconfirmed Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston as head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, also reconfirming seve… […]
La Paz, Bolivia, Feb 17, 2018 / 12:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The General Secretariat of the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference called on civil authorities to conduct a “thorough investigation” of recent explosions in the city of Oruro that have left 12 dead and at least 60 injured.
“We lift up our prayers for the victims and express our solidarity with relatives of those who have died in the two explosions in Oruro during the carnival festivities. We call on the authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation and to take measures to prevent these lamentable incidents,” the bishop said in their Feb. 14 statement.
The first explosion occurred Saturday Feb. 10 during a procession honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary. Eight people died and 40 were injured.
According to police reports, the cause was an exploding gasoline container. Bolivian official Carlos Romero informed local media that there was no evidence that dynamite or some other explosive was the cause.
Another explosion took place Feb. 13, one block from the previous one.
This time the police ruled out a gasoline leak and reported that the explosion was caused by six pounds of dynamite and ANFO (ammonium nitrate-fuel oil), a highly volatile explosive.
The explosion left four dead.
The Archbishop of Sucre Jesús Juárez said it is the task of the civil authorities to discover the reasons and the truth behind the incidents. “May truth ever triumph over the darkness of lies,” the prelate said, according to the Bolivian bishops’ communications office.
Bolivia’s Secretary of Defense, Javier Zavaleta, told Red Bolivisión reporters that three people have been arrested on “suspicion” in the last incident.
Zavaleta said that “the possibility that the two events may be coordinated” has not been ruled out, and although the police maintain that the first explosion was accidental, the secretary noted that there still remain “loose ends” in the investigation.
He pointed out that dissemination on social media of “edited audios, not spontaneous, with special effects in the background,” along with testimonies of supposed witnesses, creates suspicion of an organized “operation.”
The Secretary of Defense also called for calm, noting that a contingent of Bolivian police are deployed in the affected city.
Meanwhile, experts from the Institute for Forensic Investigations from Cochabamba and La Paz and from the Institute for Technical Scientific Investigations of the Police Academy, along with prosecutors, are working on gathering evidence to determine the facts.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Rome, Italy, Feb 16, 2018 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Yesterday Pope Francis issued a new letter motu proprio entitled Imparare a congedarsi, or “Learning to take your leave.”
Pope Francis made only some minor adjustments to canon law concerni… […]
Vatican City, Feb 16, 2018 / 03:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Prominent American professor Mary Ann Glendon has resigned from the Board of Superintendence which oversees the Institute of Religious Works, the so-called Vatican Bank.
“Professor Glendon … […]
Vatican City, Feb 16, 2018 / 03:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Palestinian Foreign Affairs minister, Ryadh al Maliki, met officials of the Vatican Secretariat of State Feb. 16, asking the Holy See to amplify its voice defending the status quo in Jerusalem… […]
Manila, Philippines, Feb 16, 2018 / 01:41 pm (CNA).- After some Filipino Catholics developed mysterious rashes on Ash Wednesday, the Diocese of Caloocan investigated to determine the cause of the skin irritant.
While sabotage was initially suspected a… […]
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