Americas

CNA Staff, Oct 2, 2020 / 10:01 am (CNA).- The recent construction and dedication of a church building in Cuba represents a “small miracle”, according to the Claretian priest who led the project for years.

San Benito Abad church was consecrated Aug. 29 by Archbishop Dionisio Guillermo García Ibáñez of Santiago de Cuba. It is located in San Benito del Crucero, fewer than 20 miles northeast of Santiago de Cuba.

It is one of the first churches to be built in Cuba since the country’s revolution.

Communist rule in Cuba was established soon after the conclusion of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, which ousted the authoritarian ruler Fulgencio Batista.

Under communism churches and schools were closed, and priests were exiled or assigned to re-education camps. The Church was driven underground until religious tensions in the country began to ease in 1991. St. John Paul II then visited the island in 1998.

Fr. Juventino Rodríguez told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner, that the “small miracle” of the construction of San Benito Abad was possible thanks to a great commitment and enthusiasm to strengthening the growth of the Catholic community.

Fr. Rodríguez explained that the project required years of “patient waiting” on the part of the Catholic community, which had to develop Church life in mission houses that the faithful themselves made available since their church building was confiscated.

A church had been built in San Benito del Crucero in the 1950s, but it was confiscated by the government after the revolution.

For many years, Fr. Rodriguez said, “everything was paralyzed and dead”, until Dulce María Guilarte offered her home for church life in January 1996, and “since then there have always been catecheses, celebrations of the Eucharist, and baptisms.”

The Claretian priest said that the church life of the San Benito community was strengthened thanks to the mission houses that other faithful also made available for many years.

He especially recognized Vivian Cobas Ayala, whose house “was where the community spent the longest time developing its life and mission.” That house was destroyed in 2012 by Hurricane Sandy, however, and until the August dedication of the new church the community met at the home of another faithful Catholic, Concha Ayala.

Cobas and her children donated the land, which previously had a mission house on it, for the new church, which has a pastoral center in the basement.

Fr. Rodríguez said the new church was built in two years, although construction was stopped due to force majeure for more than eight months. The archdiocese managed to contact a family from Chicago who took on the financing, although the entire Church in Cuba collaborated in some way to achieve the goal.

“Recognizing all those who aided in the construction of the new church of San Benito del Crucero is not easy. It was always the dream of the community, of the missionaries and of the
Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba,” he said.

Amid the joy over the new church, Fr. Rodríguez said that many Cubans consider it an act of  “’heroism’ to approach and enter the church.”

After the revolution, the Church, worship, and public expressions of religion were prohibited, “and until not many years ago that continued. All this has had a lasting impact in people, because it had negative consequences in their academic, work, and social life”.

“And although now that has been overcome legally … people haven’t forgotten it and continue to have fears and are cautious. Unfortunately, entering a church still has many social disadvantages and it’s not easy to overcome them,” he stressed.

However, Fr. Rodríguez said that from now on, “surely it will not be so difficult to find room for encounter, coexistence, formation and development in which the entire population can participate. It’s a great challenge for the community.”

“With the new church and with the San Benito Pastoral Center a new stage in the life of the community opens that augurs new hopes for evangelization,” he concluded.

Sacred Heart of Jesus parish near Pinar del Rio, the first new Catholic church in Cuba since the the country’s revolution 60 years ago, was inaugurated in January 2019. It was to be the first of three new parishes, with the others in Havana and Santiago de Cuba.

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Quito, Ecuador, Sep 28, 2020 / 05:19 pm (CNA).- The Ecuadorian president on Friday vetoed the entire Health Code bill passed by the country’s legislature. The bill would have opened the door to abortion, surrogate motherhood, and teaching gender … […]

Bogotá, Colombia, Sep 24, 2020 / 03:56 pm (CNA).- The Colombian Bishops’ Conference this week offered prayers and voiced “deep sorrow” over two new massacres in the country in recent days.

“We the Catholic bishops,” they … […]

Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 23, 2020 / 08:01 pm (CNA).- Organizers of the first international virtual pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe said the social media livestream of the event reached more than 3 million people, including 106 groups.

“Spiritually and virtually, we joined together at the feet of the Virgin of Tepeyac to ask for her intercession to face the onslaught of the COVID pandemic. Once again, the Empress of America has united her people, today suffering from misfortune,” the organizers said in a statement.

The international pilgrimage took place Sept. 19 and included a rosary and livestreamed Mass, offered by Bishop Víctor Aguilar Ledesma, president of the Committee on Laity at the Mexican Bishops’ Conference.

Participants made a commitment to respect human dignity and to go out to the marginalized and needy.

In his homily, Aguilar, the auxiliary bishop of Morelia, noted that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic does not change the Church’s essential mission.

“We wanted to continue to fulfill the mission entrusted to us to keep on evangelizing. The methods and ways will change, but not the mission, which will be the same: to announce the Gospel,” he said.

“The Church was born to evangelize. By nature, she announces the Gospel, which we cherish,” he added. “The Church evangelizes or ceases to be the Church, no matter the circumstances.”

While the challenges surrounding the coronavirus pandemic are difficult, they are not the worst circumstances the Church has ever seen, nor will they be the last challenges Christians will be called to face.

“We must not forget that we are all called to be witnesses of Christ in the world, to be salt and light on earth,” he said.

Christ wants his followers to bear fruit, even in times of difficulty, Aguilar said. This requires a complete attachment to him.

“Detached from Christ, we, the branches, die,” the bishop warned. But when we remain firmly attached to Christ, who is our strength, he will help us weather any storm.

“We can lose our jobs, our health, a loved one, our money. But we can’t lose the faith that unites us, that joins us to Christ our Lord. Let’s not lose the faith. Ever,” he said.

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CNA Staff, Sep 23, 2020 / 11:01 am (CNA).- Mexico is investigating reports that at least six of its nationals were among women in US immigration custody on whom hysterectomies were allegedly performed without their full consent, the country’s foreign minister said Tuesday.

“We are already in contact with six of whom could potentially have been subjected to this procedure,” Marcelo Ebrard said at a Sept. 22 press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City.

He said, “It’s something unacceptable”, and added that “if confirmed, it’s a major issue and should not only be sactioned, but other measures taken as well.”

Last week The Intercept reported a whistleblower complaint had been filed by several advocacy groups on behalf of a nurse at a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center for migrants in Georgia.

The nurse, Dawn Wooten, as well as several immigrant women, claimed that an apparently high rate of hysterectomies were performed on immigrant women while in ICE custody at Irwin County Detention Center, and that some of the women did not understand the procedure they were receiving.

According to the whistleblower complaint, the immigrant women were referred to one doctor in particular who was allegedly known for performing frequent hysterectomies; Wooten called the doctor “the uterus collector.” Wooten reported that some nurses could not communicate well with Spanish-speaking migrants,

One immigrant told the activist group Project South that during a two-month period, she met five other women at the prison who had received hysterectomies, and who “reacted confused when explaining why they had one done.”

Wooten agreed with accounts from detainees who said they had undergone hysterectomies without fully understanding what was happening.

“I’ve had several inmates tell me that they’ve been to see the doctor and they’ve had hysterectomies and they don’t know why they went or why they’re going,” she said.

“These immigrant women, I don’t think they really, totally, all the way understand this is what’s going to happen depending on who explains it to them.”

According to the complaint, another detainee was frightened and did not understand what medical procedure she was receiving; she was reportedly given three different answers by three different staffers.

The acting director of U.S. immigration services has ordered an expedited investigation into the allegations.

ICE health services director Dr. Ada Rivera has said that only two women have been referred for hysterectomies at Irwin County Detention Center since 2018.

The Mexican foreign ministry said last week that its consulates in Atlanta and El Paso are following up on the allegations of involuntary hysterectomies at the location in Georgia, and of allegations of sexual abuse against a Mexican citizen by ICE agents in El Paso.

“The Consulate has requested detailed information from the authorities in order to clarify the possibility of said surgeries being performed in Mexican citizens, as well as information on the procedures carried out and its corresponding justification. The Government of Mexico will promptly follow up through its various diplomatic and legal instruments to fully understand what happened,” the ministry said in a Sept. 16 statement.

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CNA Staff, Sep 23, 2020 / 09:01 am (CNA).- Religious leaders in the Canadian province of Quebec are speaking out against tightening COVID-19 restrictions in certain areas, which they say treat worship services more strictly than physically comparable e… […]

CNA Staff, Sep 15, 2020 / 10:58 am (CNA).- A group of pro-life lawyers in the Dominican Republic have called on lawmakers to reject a bill legalizing abortion in certain cases. They say the proposal would violate the country’s ban on the death pe… […]

CNA Staff, Sep 14, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- A Canadian bishop has announced a month-long prayer of reparation after the cathedral’s tabernacle was stolen and later found dumped in a nearby canal. 

Bishop Gerard Bergie of the Diocese of St. C… […]

CNA Staff, Sep 11, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- A former colonel of the Salvadoran military, Inocente Orlando Montano Morales, has been convicted in a Spanish court for is participation in the murder of five Jesuit priests in 1989. Montano has been sentenced to more than 133 years in prison.

The former colonel was El Salvador’s vice-minister for public security during the civil war that divided El Salvador in the 1980s. He was convicted Sept. 11 of planning and ordering the killing of five Jesuit priests, all of whom were Spanish, at the Central American University in San Salvador.

A Salvadoran Jesuit priest, their housekeeper, and her daughter were also killed, but the former colonel was convicted in Spain only of the killings of the five Spanish Jesuits.

Montano maintained his innocence, though witnesses testified that he believed the Jesuits were collaborators of the Marxist guerilla Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, which El Salvador’s military junta fought in a bloody civil war that spanned more than a decade.

The Jesuits in El Salvador were active proponents of peace talks and a negotiation between the government and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. One of the priests killed, Father Ignacio Ellecuria, SJ, was an outspoken critic of El Salvador’s government, according to Reuters.

The killings took place on Nov. 16, 1989, during a battle being waged across the city of San Salvador. Ellecuria served as rector of the Central American University, which was occupied by an elite battalion of the Salvadoran army.

A unit of the Salvadoran Army dragged from their beds the six Jesuits and shot them.

The priests killed were Ellacuría, rector of UCA; Ignacio Martín-Baró; Segundo Montes; Amando López; Joaquín López y López; and Juan Ramón Moreno Pardo. All were Spaniards except for López y López, a Salvadoran.

The priest’s housekeeper Elba Ramos and her 15-year-old daughter Celina were also killed.

The soldiers left a message at the site of the killings meant to implicate the guerillas.

The government was supported by the United States during the twelve year conflict, which killed 75,000 people, and during which 8,000 people disappeared. The United Nations has estimated that 85% of civilians killed during the conflict died at the hands of government forces.

In January, the U.S. Department of State announced that 13 former Salvadoran military members would not be eligible for entry into the U.S. because of their involvement in the killings.

“The United States supports the ongoing accountability, reconciliation, and peace efforts in El Salvador,” Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State, said Jan. 29.

“We value our ongoing working relationship with the Salvadoran Armed Forces, but will continue to use all available tools and authorities, as appropriate, to address human rights violations and abuses around the world no matter when they occurred or who perpetrated them.”

“Today’s actions underscore our support for human rights and our commitment to promoting accountability for perpetrators and encouraging reconciliation and a just and lasting peace.”

Pompeo said Jan. 29 that the U.S. “condemns all human rights abuses that took place on both sides of the brutal civil war in El Salvador, including those committed by governmental and non-governmental parties.”

The Atlacatl Battalion, which killed Fr. Ellacuría and his companions, was trained by American advisers.

The State Department said Jan. 29 it had credible information that the 13 former Salvadoran military personnel “were involved in the planning and execution of the extrajudicial killings” of November 1989.

It listed Montano, Juan Rafael Bustillo, Juan Orlando Zepeda, Francisco Elena Fuentes, Guillermo Alfredo Benavides Moreno, Yusshy René Mendoza Vallecillos, José Ricardo Espinoza Guerra, Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos, Carlos Camilo Hernández Barahona, Oscar Mariano Amaya Grimaldi, Antonio Ramiro Avalos Vargas, Angel Pérez Vásquez, and José Alberto Sierra Ascencio, who it said ranged in rank from general to private.

The 13 were designated under the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act 2019, which bars them and their immediately family members from entering the U.S.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 9, 2020 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- The tabernacle that was stolen earlier this week from the St. Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral in St. Catharines, Ontario was recovered on Wednesday, September 9.

A group of parishioners from … […]