Mexico City, Mexico, Jul 29, 2020 / 02:45 pm (CNA).- The first bench of the Mexican Supreme Court on July 29 overturned a lower court’s ruling that could have opened the door to legalized abortion throughout the country.
In a 4-1 ruling, the pan… […]
Mexico City, Mexico, Jul 28, 2020 / 03:58 pm (CNA).- The Catholic bishops of Mexico have spoken out strongly against any effort to justify abortion ahead of a Supreme Court ruling that could affect the legalization of abortion throughout the country.
… […]
CNA Staff, Jul 24, 2020 / 06:35 pm (CNA).- A man on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia attempted on Sunday to set fire to a crucifix outside a Catholic church, while parishioners worshiped inside the building.
The man, whose name has not been released to the public, threw two homemade incendiary devices at the crucifix of St. Martin De Porres Catholic Church in the village of Pierrot, part of the town of Vieux-Fort on Saint Lucia – a small island in the eastern Caribbean.
While the perpetrator tried to set fire to the statue, which only burned briefly before it was extinguished, he yelled “judgment.” He then entered the church with two more incendiary devices, but parishioners restrained the man before handing him over to the police.
In a video of the incident, parishioners can be seen running from the building in panic as the perpetrator yelled inside the church.
Deacon Harris Wilfred said he first noticed the disturbance as parishioners began to run outside. The deacon then held a cross in front of himself and urged the trespasser to leave.
“The guy came inside the church where I was standing saying ‘fire burn, fire burn’… What I had to do was to hold a cross in front of me and tell him, ‘Look, go back, go back,’” he told local news outlet Loop St. Lucia.
Archbishop Robert Rivas of Castries lamented the event, especially as it takes place during the pandemic and people are faced with numerous uncertainties. He stressed the sanctity of churches and their contribution to the community.
“That there would be an attack on sacred worship where people are in communion with each other and with their God, praying for the good of their country and their nation and for others … In the midst of their goodness, we have an infiltration, a perpetration of evil,” he said in a video response to the incident.
“The Church is one of the places where people seek solace, where people go to be in communion with their brothers and sisters and faith. The Church is a place of worship where we give honor and praise and glory to God. The Church is a place of peace.”
Rivas said the young man has a psychological disorder, and has attempted similar actions in the past. He encouraged the community to be more compassionate, and to support mental health services but stressed the importance of ensuring the community’s safety.
“Maybe we have another social issue here – how we care as a society for the mentally ill. If this a known person in a community, how is the community dealing with mental illness in the community?” he asked.
“He is a person that needs help. As a Church, I certainly would be very compassionate towards him and I’m sure the Church community too would be compassionate towards him. But, it is a crime.”
“If something similar was done inside the church it could have endangered the lives of worshipers during Mass. It is a serious offense, a serious matter that needs to be dealt with.”
The archbishop said the perpetrator spoke in slogans associated with the Rastafarian religion, and he offered to meet with Rastafarian leaders, who have distanced themselves from the crime.
“[If] we met and had some dialogue so that there would be better understanding and that we could also look at the language that we use in religious groups and to see [if] it is language that builds peace or is our language that creates conflict and can lead to violence.”
Peter ‘Ras Ipa’ Isaac, a former President of the Iyanola Council for the Advancement of Rastafari (ICAR), demanded an apology in response to the archbishop’s remarks. He told local media the perpetrator should not be assumed to be Rastafarian simply because he wears his hair in dreadlocks, a style with religious meaning for Rastafarians, or because he used language associated with the religion.
“Not everyone who misses a fall and says ‘Oh Jesus’ is a Christian,” Isaac told the St. Lucia Times.
“For Archbishop Rivas to suggest that this young man is a Rasta and he is requesting discussion with the Rastafarian community is insulting,” he added.
Isaac said he was personally insulted by the remark.
“We want Rivas to apologise to the Rastafarian community and to me as a Rasta because I do not take lightly to calling anyone who has matted hair a Rasta,” Isaac added.
There are approximately one million Rastafarians worldwide, most of them resident in the Caribbean. On the island nation of St. Lucia, which has a population of roughly 200,000, there are fewer than 4,000 Rastas. The majority of the nation’s population is Catholic.
In his remarks, Archbishop Rivas stressed the importance of forgiveness.
“What happened in Pierrot should never have happened, and we don’t want it to happen again. We should be taking the measures [to ensure] it doesn’t happen again …. by having hearts that are willing to forgive and to be understanding, to be kind and gentle,” he said.
“These are all virtues that Jesus has taught us, and if we can practice them we can change the world which we live, and make it a better place for all.”
CNA Staff, Jul 23, 2020 / 04:52 pm (CNA).- The dire economic situation in Venezuela, combined with the effects of the pandemic lockdown, has led to a crisis more severe than the biblical plagues in Egypt, said one local bishop.
“The plagues of Egypt are nothing compared to what we are suffering here,” Bishop Polito Rodríguez Méndez of San Carlos, Venezuela told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in a recent interview.
He called for international aid to alleviate the crisis, which has hit the poorest of the poor especially hard.
Under the socialist administration of Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval, with severe shortages of food and medicine, high unemployment, power outages, and hyperinflation. Some 4.5 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015.
The coronavirus pandemic has now exacerbated a situation that was already at a crisis point, the bishop said.
With a paralyzed economy and GDP now below zero, he told ACN, “those most affected are the poorest of the poor – they have nothing to eat, they have no chance of living a decent life.”
Some 96% of households in Venezuela are living in poverty, according to studies.
“A family earns about three or four dollars a month. A carton of eggs costs two dollars and a kilo of cheese costs three dollars,” Rodríguez explained. “We’ve been under the lockdown for more than two months, and everything has become very expensive. It is impossible to go on like this.”
The bishop said the crisis in Venezuela is likely to worsen in the coming months, which will seriously affect the Church in the country, which is already lacking financial resources.
“Our churches have been closed for four months and the priests have nothing to eat,” he added.
Another big problem is the decrease in money sent back from abroad by the nearly 5 million Venezuelans who have emigrated.
“The other day, I met with a seminarian who was crying. His parents had been let go, they have nothing to live on and can’t send their son anything,” he said. “We’re living on God’s providence.”
Due to the pandemic, the country’s borders are closed to prevent the entry of migrants who have lost their jobs and are trying to return to Venezuela from Colombia, Peru, Chile or Argentina.
Additionally, a recent plague of worms has devastated plantations in the states of Cojedes, Portuguesa and Barinas, adding to the food insecurity in the region.
Rodríguez said he is asking God to give them the strength to help those who are in need and are facing a crisis that continues to grow.
“Despite personal limitations, we’re not going to abandon the people in this terrible situation we’re going through,” he said.
He also called for international support to aid the struggling nation.
“We don’t want outside intervention, especially armed intervention, but we have to ask for international humanitarian and health care aid because if not, we have no other alternative: either COVID kills us or hunger kills us.”
Rome Newsroom, Jul 22, 2020 / 09:15 am (CNA).- More than 48,000 people have signed an online petition asking the Brazilian bishops to open a beatification cause for the most recent bishop to die from the coronavirus.
Bishop Henrique Soares da Costa of… […]
Rome Newsroom, Jul 20, 2020 / 11:30 am (CNA).- At least nine Catholic bishops have died from the coronavirus worldwide as the pandemic continues to spread across the Americas.
Bishop Henrique Soares da Costa of Palmares, Brazil, became the latest bish… […]
CNA Staff, Jul 16, 2020 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- Canada’s bishops issued a pastoral letter Tuesday expressing concern for senior citizens who receive inadequate institutional care, a situation that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
&ld… […]
Lima, Peru, Jul 15, 2020 / 02:25 pm (CNA).- A group of Franciscan sisters in Ica, Peru, is offering a facility free of charge as temporary quarantine housing for coronavirus patients who are asymptomatic or experiencing only mild symptoms.
The temporary shelter was dedicated July 14 in La Tinguiña, Ica Province, one of the regions still under lockdown due to the large number of COVID-19 cases.
According to local media, the mother superior of the convent, Mother Rosa Fernández, made the commitment to provide rooms at no cost to infected people who need to quarantine until they are no longer contagious.
The rooms each contain their own bed and bathroom, with everything sanitized. The facility is the first of its kind in the region.
During the opening ceremony, Fernández asked God to bless the people who have made this initiative possible, as well as all who will use the facilities, that the Lord may restore their health “as soon as possible.”
“If our humble house can be of any use, well, here it is,” she said.
Local government and health officials were on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony opening the housing facility, which will provide 30 beds.
The mayor of La Tinguiña, Juan Roque Hernández, stressed that Fernández is providing the housing for free.
“[She] is not charging us a dime for the room,” he said.
In previous statements to local media, Mayor Hernández stressed that the temporary housing complies with healthy and safety protocols, and its use help create “an epidemiological fence that reduces the number of cases in the region.”
The mayor stressed that this initiative also seeks to raise awareness among the people on the importance of temporary housing for people with COVID-19 in order to prevent the spread of the virus in the community.
According to the Ministry of Health, Peru has had more than 330,000 cases of the novel coronavirus with more than 12,000 deaths. The country ranks fifth worldwide in the number of COVID-19 cases, and the Ica region has more than 9,000 cases to date.
To prevent the pandemic from advancing, the country’s government declared a mandatory national lockdown from March 16 to June 30. However, some areas remain under lockdown due to the high number of new daily cases.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Rome Newsroom, Jul 14, 2020 / 09:00 am (CNA).- A hospital boat named after Pope Francis has been delivering medical aid along the Amazon River as rural communities struggle amid Brazil’s devastating coronavirus outbreak.
“This vessel… […]
Lima, Peru, Jul 9, 2020 / 02:51 pm (CNA).- The archbishop of Arequipa, Peru, thanked the doctors fighting the coronavirus pandemic, saying they offer hope to many.
“I am convinced that, along with the evils that this pandemic has brought us or m… […]
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