Americas

Washington D.C., Feb 5, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- President Donald Trump used the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening to highlight U.S. commitment to restoring democracy in Venezuela, inviting the opposition leader to attend as a guest of honor.

Juan Guaidó, leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly and recognized by the U.S. as the interim president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, watched the speech from the House Gallery on Tuesday.

“Mr. President, please take this message back to your homeland,” Trump told Guaidó. “All Americans are united with the Venezuelan people in their righteous struggle for freedom!  Socialism destroys nations.  But always remember, freedom unifies the soul.”

Venezuela has been torn by violence, upheaval, widespread hunger and hyperinflation under the Nicolas Maduro regime. According to the Organization of American States (OAS), the number of Venezuelans fleeing the country is expected to total 6 million by the end of the year.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, praised the move.

“By inviting Interim President Juan Guaidó and the Special Envoy for Intelligence and Law Enforcement Mr. Iván Simonovis, one of Venezuela’s longest held political prisoners of the Maduro narco-dictatorship, the Trump Administration has sent a clear message that the U.S. will continue to stand with the Venezuelan people as they work towards a free and democratic Venezuela,” Rubio said in a statement released shortly following the speech Tuesday.

“I think the message tonight was very clear, and that is the freedom and the wellbeing of the people of Venezuela still remains a top and important priority for this president,” Rubio said in a video statement. 

“I have all the confidence in the world that the day is coming when Venezuela will be free and democratic again.”

Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, said that condemning Maduro was a “complex” issue and that she “is absolutely concerned with the humanitarian crises that’s happening.”

“I think it’s important that any solution we have centers the Venezuelan people and centers the democracy of the Venezuelan people first. I am very concerned about U.S. interventionism in Venezuela, and I oppose it,” the freshman congresswoman said.

Maduro was inaugurated for a second term as president of Venezuela last year following contested 2018 elections, but the bishops’ conference has said his election was invalid.

Guaidó declared himself the interim president of the country in January of 2019, and promised a transitional government and free elections. He was received by the Holy See on a visit in February, where the Vatican expressed its “grave concern” for a “just and peaceful solution” to the country’s crisis.

The country’s bishops’ conference has repeatedly called for free and fair elections for new leadership, a call backed by the Holy See.

Cardinal Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, the archbishop-emeritus of Caracas, has blamed the regime for “a terrible ruin which is growing more and more” in the country, and that if the Maduro administration “truly had love for Venezuela they would have already left power.”

Guaidó was a guest at the White House on Wednesday as well, with discussion expected on a democratic transition of power in the country.

[…]

La Plata, Argentina, Feb 4, 2020 / 05:22 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis has dismissed from the clerical state Argentine priest Roberto Juan Yannuzzi, founder and superior of the Miles Christi (Soldier of Christ) Institute, who has been found guilty of abuse.
… […]

Bogotá, Colombia, Feb 3, 2020 / 05:14 pm (CNA).- Amid an ongoing court case challenging legal abortion in Colombia, the nation’s bishops have spoken up in defense of the right to life for the unborn.

“[T]he Magisterium of the Church teache… […]

Ottawa, Canada, Feb 3, 2020 / 03:30 pm (CNA).- The president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decrying the effort to further expand euthanasia within the country. 

“We strongly urge the Government of Canada, before proceeding further, to undertake a more extensive, thorough, impartial, and prolonged consultation” on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) legislation, Archbishop Richard Gagnon of Winnipeg wrote last week.

The archbishop told the prime minister that a delay in further legal changes was urgently needed “in order to ensure all pertinent factors–social, medical and moral–are carefully and thoroughly considered,” wrote Archbishop Richard Gagnon of Winnipeg. 

The letter, dated January 31, was also addressed to three members of Trudeau’s cabinet as well as the leaders of the other four parties represented in Canada’s parliament. 

Gagnon called the proposed changes to MAiD legislation, which include advance directives and allowing those who do not have a reasonably foreseeable death to be euthanized, “deeply troubling.” 

“Further attempts to make (MAiD) available to mature minors, the mentally ill, and the cognitively impaired are evidence that the current safeguards are inadequate and can be legally challenged and overturned,” he said.

In September, the Quebec Superior Court ruled that MAiD should not be restricted to those with a terminal illness or a “reasonably foreseeable death.” The Canadian federal government announced that they do not intend to appeal the decision and will let it stand. The law will go into effect in March. 

Prior to this decision, a Canadian would have to be an adult with a “reasonably foreseeable death” in order to be eligible for an “assisted death.” There is no legal requirement for a patient to possess a prognosis of a certain number of months or weeks left to live in order to receive “assisted death.” 

In Canada, patients have the choice of either self-administering the lethal medication, or having a doctor do it. The vast majority of MAiD cases involve a doctor administering the drugs. 

Gagnon said that the bishops were “disappointed and deeply concerned” by this decision, as well as by a Department of Justice questionnaire that provided Canadians an opportunity to weigh in on the legalization and eligibility criteria for MAiD patients. 

Although the bishops “agree in principle with consulting Canadians,” they found the questionnaire to be flawed on multiple levels. 

It is “inappropriate and superficial to use a survey to address grave moral questions concerning life and death,” wrote Gagnon. He added that he believed that the two-week for responses was “entirely insufficient” to study the issue of euthanasia. 

Gagnon also raised concerns that the questionnaire was biased towards increased eligibility for MAiD, and neglected to address concerns regarding the outside factors that may cause a person to wish to end their life. The archbishop said that consultation on the euthanasia question “should take account of the full rage of factors that can influence a decision to request euthanasia/assisted suicide,” such as loneliness, inadequate medical support, a lack of family and community assistance, or psychological crisis. 

Instead of MAiD or euthanasia, Gagnon said that Canada should expand access to palliative care services. 

This, he argued, would result in fewer people seeking to end their lives. Presently, most Canadians do not have access to palliative care, and it is not guaranteed to be fully funded by the country’s Health Act. Conversely, Canadians have both a right to widely-available MAiD services, and the procedure is fully funded. 

Gagnon explained that the Church’s ministry of attending to the sick and protecting the sick means that Catholic institutions, in addition to everyday Catholics, dedicate their lives to assisting the sick and suffering. This history is motivating their opposition to euthanasia and the proposed expansions. 

“We listen to those who, gripped by a physical or psychological crisis, see no reason for going on,” he said. “All of these people are endangered by euthanasia/assisted suicide. They need our steadfast support, our advocacy, and indeed the protection afforded by the very safeguards this government is trying to overturn.”

[…]

Havana, Cuba, Jan 30, 2020 / 04:50 pm (CNA).- A pro-democracy group in Cuba says its members are continuing to experience repression and harassment from police and government officials under the presidency of Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Eduardo Cardet, the national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement (CLM), says he was blocked Jan. 25 from traveling to the United States from Cuba, despite having his recently renewed passport and the appropriate visa.

According to the CLM, an immigration official at the Havana airport told Cardet he was prohibited from traveling. Asked why, the official reportedly told Cardet that “he ought to know the reason” and gave no further details.

Cardet was arrested Nov. 30, 2016, outside his home on charges of attacking law enforcement, scandal, and disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2017. The CLM contends, however, that the real reason for Cardet’s arrest was his criticism of the legacy of Fidel Castro and for his pro-democracy activism.

Cardet was released from prison under certain conditions in May 2019 and completed his sentence in September that year.

He was consequently “totally free and had no restrictions imposed on him,” Carlos Payá, CLM’s representative in Spain, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language new partner. Payá called the government’s refusal to let Cardet travel Jan. 25 “an arbitrary decision by the regime.”

Regis Iglesia, the CLM’s spokesman, says he was similarly blocked Jan. 1 from boarding an American Airlines plane departing from Miami International Airport for Havana because the Cuban government had notified the airlines that Iglesias was prohibited from entering the country. The Cuban dissident leader was exiled to Spain in 2010 by the Fidel Castro regime.

The CLM blasted the travel ban as a discriminatory violation of international law and a total disregard for the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Cuba has signed.

The organization has reported that other members had been given citations by State Security agents and threatened with prison if they continued their activism, been called terrorists by police officials, and been accused of vandalism.

The group said on its website last December that Cuban State Security issued a citation to Eduardo Cardet on Christmas Day, warning him that “the expansion of this organization will not be permitted” and that it would have “zero tolerance for the opposition.”

The Christian Liberation Movement was founded in 1988 by Oswaldo Payá and four other founders to achieve “peaceful and democratic change and respect for human dignity.” It advocates for free, fair, multiparty elections and other democratic reforms.

[…]

Mexico City, Mexico, Jan 29, 2020 / 12:00 am (CNA).- More than 50,000 Mexican young people made a pilgrimage Saturday to an iconic monument and shrine to Christ the King, situated atop Cubilete Mountain, over 8,000 feet above sea level in the Guanajuato state of Mexico.

The Witness and Hope Movement, which organizes the annual youth pilgrimage, said in a statement that the young pilgrims committed themselves Jan. 25 “to Mexico in these difficult times of insecurity, economic stagnation and the outside pressure it is undergoing.”

Devotion to Christ the King figures largely into Mexican history.

During the 1920’s the country’s government in power initiated a series of repressive measures and outright persecution against the Church. The Mexican government banned religious orders, restricted public worship, and prohibited priests from wearing clerical attire in public.

Allegiance to Christ the King became a hallmark of resistance, as did the cry “Viva Cristo Rey!” 

Mexico was consecrated to Christ the King in 1914 and the consecration was renewed in 1924 and 2013.

The Jan. 25 youth pilgrimage focused on the life of Blessed Anacleto González Flores, who was named the patron of the Mexican laity in 2019.

González  was arrested, tortured, and killed in 1927 by government forces for his support of the efforts of the National League in Defense of Religious Liberty to resist the persecution of the Church.

According to pilgrimage organizers gave witness “in defense of his faith and love for his homeland, even when such defense cost him his own life.” 

The statue of Christ the King atop Cubilete Mountain was erected in 1950, in honor of the martyrs of the Cristero War (1926-1929).

Weighing 80 tons and 65 feet tall, it is the largest bronze statue of Christ in the world. Beneath the statue is an adoration chapel. Pope Benedict XVI visited the shrine in 2012.

The statue was built on the site where a smaller statue of Christ was dynamited in 1928 by the government of President Plutarco Elías Calles.

The Jan. 25 pilgrimage saw “the greatest attendance ever, more than 50,000 young people from all over the country,” the Witness and Hope movement said.

Young people “not only want to announce God’s plan with our witness but also bravely denounce the injustices and outrages that are committed daily in our country, outrages that on many occasions have led to the loss of peace, tranquility and even the lives of thousands of Mexicans,” organizers said.

“We young Catholics of Mexico are tired of the situation our homeland is going through. It’s disturbing to be in a country where the authorities say they are for peace but routinely show their interest in legalizing the assault on the lives of the innocent that are still in their mothers’ wombs,” a spokesman for the movement said.

Young Mexicans “want to publicly take up our role as builders of peace and as defenders of our faith and our principles. We know this is not simple but we’re aware of the urgency of doing this.”

“As Mexican society it’s necessary to combat all those situations of corruption, impunity and illegality that generate violence and reestablish conditions of justice, equality and solidarity that build peace,” the spokesman said.

The organization entrusted its efforts to “Mary of Guadalupe, recognizing her as mother and intercessor of all Mexicans and as Queen of Peace.”

A version of this story was first reported by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

[…]

Vatican City, Jan 27, 2020 / 08:00 pm (CNA).- The Legionaries of Christ acknowledged that sexual abuse took place at the religious order’s El Ajusco minor seminary in Mexico City between 1985 and 1992.

The group issued two separate statements Jan. 24, during its general chapter in Rome. The statements were in response to allegations of sexual abuse on the part of Fr. Antonio Rodríguez Sánchez, 65, and laicized priests José María Sabín Sabín, 61.

In its statement on Rodríguez, Legion officials said that during an internal review, “several indications were found of possible sexual abuse of minors by Fr.  Rodríguez in relation to the period when he was rector of the El Ajusco minor seminary in Mexico, between 1983-1988.”

“The initial indications [of abuse] were confirmed by complaints from victims,” the Legion said, and the Rodriguez admitted the abuse.

The Legionaries said that Rodríguez has been banned from contact with minors and prohibited from public priestly ministry since September 2019.

An investigation into Rodriguez has been sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, which began a canonical trial concerning the matter.

“There are no indications of the abuse of minors during other periods of his ministry,” the statement added.

In the case of José María Sabin, the Legionaries of Christ stated that “in relation to his time as rector of the minor seminary between 1988-1992, there are credible private complaints against him for the sexual abuse of minors that were compiled and verified during the work of reviewing cases from the past that the Congregation carried out in 2019.”

Sabín requested in 2014 to leave both the congregation and the priesthood, and the Holy See granted those requests in 2015.

The religious order said it plans to report the abuse to civil authorities in Mexico, and cooperate with any criminal investigation.

The group also said the cases of  Sánchez and Sabín are noted in a December 2019 report on abuse within the congregation, although the priests are not mentioned by name. The report documents statistics on sexual abuse but does not disclose details. 

Since its founding in 1941, 33 priests of the Legionaries of Christ have been found to have committed sexual abuse of minors, victimizing 175 children, according to the 2019 report.

Fr. Marcial Maciel, who founded the order, abused at least 60 minors, according to the order.

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

[…]

Mexico City, Mexico, Jan 22, 2020 / 01:31 pm (CNA).- Pro-life advocates in Mexico are speaking out against a leaked draft copy of Mexico’s revised National Criminal Code, which would legalize abortion throughout the country at all stages of pregnancy.

The draft copy, which was leaked to the press in recent days, is expected to be presented to Mexico’s federal congress in the coming weeks. The new criminal code is one of 14 reforms announced recently by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The document omits the entire section of the current code that criminalizes abortion and establishes the penalties for the practitioner and pregnant woman involved.

The current Federal Criminal Code imposes penalties ranging from one to three years in prison for anyone performing an abortion, although the penalty can be to eight years in prison “if physical or moral violence is involved.” A doctor or midwife who performs an abortion can also lose their medical license from two to five years.

A mother who consents to an abortion, or voluntarily induces an abortion, incurs a maximum penalty of one year in prison, except in cases of rape or when the mother’s life is at risk.

Rodrigo Iván Cortés, president of the National Front for the Family, explained that the creation of the National Criminal Code would eliminate all local criminal codes throughout the country.

As a result, abortion would be eliminated as a category of crime, “which would make this procedure non-punishable throughout the republic and at all stages,” Cortés told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language partner agency.

“This is extremely worrisome. This would go against more than 20 state constitutions in the republic. And this would be an atrocious attack on human life, the fundamental right to exist,” he warned.

López Obrador, who took office in December 2018, did not campaign on the issues of abortion and gender ideology. However, members of his National Regeneration Movement (Morena) political party who were appointed to key positions in his administration have been swift to make moves in that direction.

The Archdiocese of Xalapa in the state of Veracruz called the draft code “murderous.”

Fr. José Manuel Suazo Reyes, communications director for the archdiocese, warned that “now with the stroke of a pen they seek to do an end run around the sovereignty of the states in the republic in order to impose the culture of death.”

“The National Criminal Code seeks to legalize the murder of innocent and defenseless human beings in all the states of the republic,” he said in a Jan. 19 statement on the archdiocese website. “It seeks to impose an anti-life policy throughout the entire Mexican territory, bypassing the sovereignty of the states and trampling the local constitutions that have protected human life from conception.”

In November 2009, the Veracruz state legislature enshrined the right to life from conception to natural death in the state constitution, although state law still permits abortion in the cases of rape, risk to the life of the mother and congenital deformities.

In July 2018, a federal judge ordered the state legislature to amend its criminal code to allow abortion. The state appealed the decision, which is now pending in the Supreme Court.

Fr. Suazo stressed that “in the Catholic Church we will always be promoters and defenders of respect for human life.”

“[T]hat’s part of our doctrine, the defense of every human life, this is our conviction…” he said. “For all of this, we reject this murderous proposal that would legalize abortion throughout Mexican territory.”
 

[…]

Vancouver, Canada, Jan 22, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- A Canadian hospice is at risk of losing its government funding over its refusal to euthanize patients who request an “assisted death.” 

Fraser Health Authority, a publicly-funded organization responsible for administering healthcare for 1.6 million people in the western Canadian province of British Columbia, is ordering the Irene Thomas Hospice, a 10-bed hospice facility, to offer euthanasia to its patients. 

The hospice is operated by the non-profit organization the Delta Hospice Society, which is opposed to Canada’s “Medical Assistance in Dying” (“MAiD”) laws. 

In September 2016, about three months after euthanasia became legal in Canada, Fraser Health introduced a new policy which required all hospices receiving more than 50% of provincial funding for their beds to offer euthanasia to their residents. The hospice receives $1.4 million of its $3 million operating budget from the Fraser Health Authority, and Fraser Health funds all 10 of the beds at Irene Thomas Hospice. 

Faith-based healthcare organizations, as well as medical professionals opposed to MAiD, are not required to euthanize patients in Canada. Doctors, however, must refer patients seeking an “assisted death” to a healthcare provider who is willing to euthanize them. The Delta Hospice Society is not affiliated with a religion, but is opposed to euthanasia as a matter of principle. 

Euthanasia is readily available at Delta Hospital, which is a one-minute drive or four-minute walk away from the Irene Thomas Hospice. 

Dr. Leonie Herx, a palliative physician and the president of the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians, told CNA that less than 30% of Canadians have access to palliative care. 

Unlike other healthcare services, including MAiD, which are fully funded and accessible to all by the Canada Health Act, disability care, palliative care, and homecare services are not guaranteed or accessible everywhere. 

“So while MAiD needs to be funded provincially and accessible to all Canadians, the same does not apply to palliative care,” said Herx. 

“The rights of individuals to autonomy and their ‘right to die’ therefore seems to trump the right to assistance in living,” she added.

Herx said that presently, palliative care organizations throughout Canada are pushing for more funding for palliative care, to better assist patients in need. 

“MAiD was legalized before we had broad uptake of and access to palliative care,” she said. 

“The government missed an opportunity when crafting the Canadian MAiD legislation and could have made these important safeguards of ‘care’ (which we know mitigates desire for hastened death in many cases) also part of the Canada Health Act.” 

In Canada, unlike assisted suicide laws in the United States, those who opt for an “assisted death” are not required to self-administer the lethal medication. The vast majority of Canadians who have an “assisted death” do so by euthanasia and do not self-administer. 

Herx said that misconceptions about the purpose of palliative care can push people away from pursuing hospice care. The addition of MAiD into hospice settings makes the confusion worse. 

“Some patients are already afraid that palliative care will shorten their life and these worries can be intensified when MAiD is provided in that same palliative care centre,” she said. Considering that less than 2% of deaths in Canada each year are from MAiD, the “vast majority” of the remaining, “natural” deaths could serve to benefit from palliative care. 

The number of Canadians who chose MAiD during the first 10 months of 2018–2,613 people–is four times the total number of homicides in Canada in 2018. That year, 651 people were the victims of homicide.

Herx told CNA that “the healthcare authority in British Columbia is not recognizing the unique approach to care that is at the core of hospice palliative care.”

Speeding up death, she said, is never the aim of palliative care. Herx said there was “no reason” to mandate that hospices perform euthanasia, as it is already widely available at hospitals and in patient homes. 

Herx pointed to “strong lobbies” which are backing this new effort to expand MAiD into additional institutions which receive provincial funding, including faith-based hospitals or hospices. She warned that the pressure on all such institutions to offer assisted dying would continue.

“This current case in Delta Hospice may set the precedent for other non-religious hospices,” said Herx. 

“But then, faith-based institutions may be next.”

[…]

Tapachula, Mexico, Jan 22, 2020 / 12:40 am (CNA).- The bishop of the southern Mexican border town of Tapachula is calling for members of an incoming migrant caravan to be “treated as brothers” and welcomed by the faithful.

“We don&rs… […]