Bathurst, Australia, Aug 2, 2018 / 08:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As Australian families face a difficult drought, a diocese in New South Wales is offering struggling families assistance with their school fees.
“The provision of affordable Catholic … […]
Queensland, Australia, Aug 2, 2018 / 11:23 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, Australia encouraged members of parliament to look beyond the “worn-out ideologies and tricky language” behind a bill to legalization abortion in Queensland.
“When you talk about abortion you’re talking about two lives the mother and the child and both lives matter,” Archbishop Coleridge said, in comments reported by diocesan newspaper The Catholic Leader.
“To speak of a woman’s rights is important, but what of the rights of unborn children, or do they have no real human status?”
The archbishop responded to a Queensland proposal that would legalize abortion on demand up to 22 weeks, and abortion until birth with the permission of two separate doctors.
It would also prohibit protesters from coming within 150 meters of an abortion clinic.
Doctors would be permitted to refuse to perform abortions if they have moral objections to doing so, but they must refer patients to another doctor.
Currently, abortion is illegal in Queensland except when a doctor believes a woman’s physical or mental health to be in serious danger.
The proposal to legalize abortion is expected to be introduced this month, based on a June report from the Queensland Law Reform Commission, which recommended removing abortion from the Criminal Code.
It is uncertain whether it has the support to pass in parliament, local media reports said.
Opponents of the bill have argued that while the legislative proposal is being presented as a matter of health, it will in fact legalize abortion based on financial, social, or eugenic reasons.
“According to the draft bill, abortion will be permitted until the moment of delivery if two doctors consider that ‘in all circumstances, the termination should be performed’,” Archbishop Coleridge said in The Catholic Leader.
“So, it’s not a health issue. It’s an essentially moral issue that concerns the good of society as a whole because it touches on questions of life and death.”
He cautioned that many women choose abortion out of desperation, believing that they have no other options, because those who support abortion do not present other choices.
“Those MPs who favour the legislation should say why they can accept that Queensland babies who may have reached 40 weeks gestation can be aborted when health isn’t a factor,” he said.
Bombay, India, Aug 1, 2018 / 03:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A proposed ban on the sacrament of confession suggested by a government body in India was slammed by Catholic leaders as an unconstitutional violation of religious freedom.
The move to abolish co… […]
Parramatta, Australia, Jul 30, 2018 / 04:38 pm (CNA).- While Germany has the potential to be a major European leader, the Church in the country must take a strong stand to insist on moral direction as well, said Cardinal Gerhard Mueller in a recent int… […]
Islamabad, Pakistan, Jul 27, 2018 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- Imran Khan has emerged as the victor in a general election held in Pakistan Wednesday, July 25. The professional cricket player-turned-politician has previously voiced support for the country’s controversial blasphemy laws.
While votes are still being tallied in some areas, Khan’s centrist Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) have won 115 seats so far, becoming the largest party in the National Assembly.
Khan, who ran as a populist reforming candidate, has publicly supported laws imposing strict penalties for blasphemy against Islam – including desecrating a Quran or insulting Mohammed. Penalties for insulting Islam’s chief prophet include fines, prison, and even the death penalty.
While no one has been formally executed for the crime in Pakistan, mob violence and killings have accompanied public accusations of blasphemy. This includes the assassination of Salmaan Taseer, the Muslim governor of the Punjab province and a critic of the blasphemy laws, and Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic and Pakistan’s only Christian cabinet member. Bhatti’s cause for beatification was opened by the Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi in 2016.
In his 2011 autobiography, Khan spoke out against a lack of government action against religious leaders who used the issue of blasphemy “arguably [to] incite murder.”
Coming just weeks before the election, his public backing for the controversial laws was seen by many observers as a concession to hardliners in the country ahead of the vote.
Parties running on an explicitly anti-blasphemy platform did poorly at the polls, with Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, which campaigns under the rallying cry “Death to Blasphemers” failing to win a single seat, despite a garnering a large following in the province of Punjab.
As CNA has previous reported, accusations of blasphemy are disproportionately leveled against religious minorities, and the laws are seen as a vehicle for religious intolerance or persecution. While Pakistan is 97 percent Muslim, 14 percent of blasphemy cases are brought against non-Muslims.
Cardinal Joseph Coutts, Archbishop of Karachi, has spoken about the religious climate in Pakistan, which he says is getting more dangerous for Christians. In an interview with CNA in June, he raised the risks increasing posed by radicalization and foreign influences.
While saying that the majority of Pakistani Muslims are moderate and support democracy, he noted that some extremists do not.
“[They] don’t accept democracy, they don’t accept the international declaration of human rights, they say it’s not Islamic.”
While saying that Islamic hard-liners are a small minority, Coutts cautioned that they are now becoming a more prominent force in the life of the country.
“We’ve always had these kinds of people on the fringes, but they weren’t dominant,” he added. “Now they are becoming more assertive.”
While he will need to form a coalition to formally take power, Khan is widely expected to become Prime Minister. He has pledged to create 10 million new jobs in five years and promised in his acceptance speech to prioritize the rule of law and end institutional discrimination.
“We will not do any kind of political victimizing. We will establish the supremacy of the law; whoever violates the law, we will act against them.
“We will set an example of how the law is the same for everyone. If the West is ahead of us today, it is because their laws are not discriminatory; this will be our biggest guiding principle.”
Although pledging to end corruption, the victory comes with allegations of vote-rigging. Every party apart from Khan’s Movement for Justice have complained about the way the vote was conducted. European Union observers characterized the campaign as having a “lack of equality” among the parties.
Despite this, the second largest party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has accepted the result. Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, a senior party official said that despite “reservations” over the way the election was held, they were accepting the result to “strengthen democracy in the country”.
“Even if democracy is flawed,” he said, “its solution is more democracy, and then more democracy.”
If Khan becomes Prime Minister, it will be only the second democratic transition of power in Pakistan’s history.
Beijing, China, Jul 25, 2018 / 12:00 am (CNA).- Continuing a controversial plan, Chinese bishops allied with the government have told dioceses to prepare local versions of a “Sinicization” program to bring the Catholic Church more in-line w… […]
New Delhi, India, Jul 23, 2018 / 01:40 pm (CNA).- An audio recording broadcast last week by an Indian television station appears to indicate that Cardinal George Alencherry may have been aware of a nun’s claim that a bishop had raped her.
In the… […]
Canberra, Australia, Jul 19, 2018 / 11:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull called Thursday for Pope Francis to dismiss Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, who was convicted in May of failing to report allegations of child sexual abuse disclosed to him in the 1970s.
“As far as Philip Wilson is concerned, he should have resigned, he should have resigned,” Turnbull said July 19, according to The Australian.
“And the time has come for the Pope to sack him. There are many leaders that have called on him to resign, it is clear that he should resign, and I think the time has come now for the ultimate authority in the church to take action and sack him.”
Turnbull was preparing to meet with a group of Australian bishops, and he said they would be “discussing a range of issues.” The Church in Australia is seeking clarity over federal funding for Catholic schools.
Archbishop Wilson, 67, was convicted May 22 of concealing abuse committed by a fellow parish priest in New South Wales in the 1970s. At the time, Wilson had been ordained a priest for only one year.
The victims of the scandal, Peter Creigh and another altar boy who is unnamed for legal reasons, said they both had told Wilson of their abusive experience with Fr. James Fletcher.
The archbishop was sentenced July 3 to a 12-month sentence, which will likely be served as house arrest, but he plans to appeal his conviction.
Archbishop Wilson said that “I am conscious of calls for me to resign and have taken them very seriously. However, at this time, I am entitled to exercise my legal rights and to follow the due process of law. Since that process is not yet complete, I do not intend to resign at this time.”
“However, if I am unsuccessful in my appeal, I will immediately offer my resignation to the Holy See,” he added.
Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Gregory O’Kelly of Port Pirie apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Adelaide.
Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, president of the Australian bishops’ conference, said July 5 that “a number of survivors, prominent Australians and other members of the community have publicly called on Archbishop Wilson to resign.”
“Although we have no authority to compel him to do so, a number of Australian bishops have also offered their advice privately,” he said, while adding that “only the Pope can compel a bishop to resign.”
Archbishop Coleridge said the conference has been “closely following” Archbishop Wilson’s case and they respect his decision to appeal, which is “the right of any citizen,” but said that “we also recognize the ongoing pain this has caused survivors, especially those who were abused by Jim Fletcher.”
Kolkata, India, Jul 18, 2018 / 11:44 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The superior general of the Missionaries of Charity said Tuesday the congregation is “deeply saddened and grieved” by the alleged sale of several children by an employee of one of its homes for unwed mothers.
“Even while we place our full trust in the judicial process that is underway, we wish to express regret and sorrow for what happened and desire to express in unequivocal terms our condemnation of individual actions which have nothing to do with the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity,” Sister Mary Prema Pierick said in a July 17 statement.
“We are fully cooperating with the investigations and are open to any free, fair and just inquiry.”
Earlier this month two women affiliated with the Missionaries of Charity, one a religious sister and one an employee, were arrested over the alleged sale of a baby boy.
Anima Indwar, who had worked at the Nirmal Hriday home in Ranchi since 2012, and Sister Concelia (Konsalia), were arrested July 3 and 4. Sister Concelia had been sister-in-charge of the unwed mothers section at the home since June 2017.
Indwar was trusted with escorting the unwed mothers, their babies, and their guardians to hospital and to the Child Welfare Committee office when the religious sisters were engaged with other duties.
Several child protection officers seized admission and attendance registers from Nirmal Hriday June 29, “without providing the receipt for such seizure to the Home,” according to Sister M. Prema.
The officers were interested particularly in the case of Karishma Toppo and her baby, who was born at the shelter May 1. Toppo agreed to hand over her child to the Child Welfare Committee, and Indwar escorted her to surrender her child to the welfare committee.
“Neither Nirmal Hriday nor the Sisters had any way to ascertain whether the child was actually surrendered to CWC. This is so because CWC as a matter of practice did not give any acknowledgment to the Home after obtaining custody of a child from an unwed mother,” Sister M. Prema stated.
Indwar admitted July 3 that Toppo’s child had not been given to the CWC, and she was arrested.
The following day Sister Concelia and Sr. Marie Deanne, superior of Nirmal Hriday, were questioned by police, and Sr. Concelia was arrested. The home’s 11 unwed mothers, another mother with her child, and a guardian were all taken from Nirmal Hriday by the CWC.
On July 6, another Missionaries of Charity home in Ranchi, Shishu Bhawan, was raided by the police. Records there were seized without receipt, and 22 children living at the home were taken.
“It is distressing that CWC has meted out such treatment to a Home which its officials themselves had described as having an ‘excellent environment for the care of children’ only about two weeks before,” Sr. M. Prema said in regard to Shishu Bhawan.
Police say that a couple complained to the CWC in Ranchi that a baby boy they received after payment had been taken back. They say the couple reportedly paid Indwar 120,000 Indian rupees ($1,760). They complained that Indwar took their money in exchange for a child, and that she later took the child back from them for some “formalities”, without returning the money.
Indwar has admitted that she sold children.
Sister Concelia described her experience in a video.
“I came to know that a baby, delivered in May, was missing when the Child Welfare Committee came to check,” she said in a video. “We found out that the baby had been sold off by a staffer.”
Sister Concelia has recounted her conversation with Indwar. “When I initially asked the staffer about the baby, she did not want to tell me anything. It was only when I kept pressing for details that they told me the baby had been sold,” she said.
A small portion of the money had been given to the guard, while nine times that amount was given to “a sister.”
Sister Concelia said that Indwar told her she did not take any money.
The nun said she informed authorities about the matter and said the baby should be brought back.
A police source said that Indwar provided to police a handwritten note from Sister Concelia asking Indwar to take the blame on herself, Matters India reports.
Sister Concelia’s defenders, including the bishops of India, are asking whether she was an accomplice, or the victim of a coerced confession.
“Nobody was allowed to meet Sister Konsalia in custody,” Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi, said. “Her advocate could meet her on Wednesday, eight days after her arrest, only after we approached the court,” he said July 12, according to the Hindustan Times. “During the 10 minutes interaction that the advocate could have with her, she said she was forced by the police to give her statement.”
Bishop Mascarenhas had objected that the nun was being treated as a criminal. He said she is diabetic with varicose veins, and wasn’t aware of her statement.
He also condemned the sale. “It shouldn’t have happened. But, accusing the entire congregation of Mother Teresa is wrong.”
India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development has instructed states to inspect all childcare homes run by the Missionaries of Charity.
A spokesperson for the Missionaries of Charity has said the order stopped dealing with child adoption in India in 2015, and did not take money for adoptions when it did assist in them. The order is conducting their own investigation about the case.
Members of opposition parties have accused India’s ruling party, the Hindu-nationalist group the Bharatiya Janata Party, of harassing and persecuting the missionaries on the basis of unbelievable allegations.
The Jharkhand police have also called for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into foreign funds received by Missionaries of Charity institutions. R.K. Mallick, the senior police officer, told NDTV that the recommendation was motivated by irregularities investigators detected.
The Albanian-born Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata in 1950. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and canonized in 2016. There are now 5,167 Missionaries of Charity sisters, both active and contemplative, around the world. The order has 244 houses in India.
In addition to the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, members of the Missionaries of Charity take a fourth vow pledging “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.”
Sr. M. Prema said the order “vows to continue their whole-hearted and free service to the poorest of the poor, by serving the needy and vulnerable even in the middle of the unprecedented and unfounded criticism that it faces today. We have full faith in the courts of law and the investigating authorities and are confident that justice shall prevail.”
“We pray for all those who have been hurt by the recent developments and we ask God to bless all those who are standing by us in these painful and difficult moments, and we lift up to God in prayer all people of goodwill,” she added.
“May our Mother, St. Teresa of Calcutta intercede for us before our Almighty Father.”
New Delhi, India, Jul 17, 2018 / 03:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development announced Monday that it has instructed states to inspect all childcare homes run by the Missionaries of Charity.
The move comes after several children were allegedly sold by an employee of Nirmal Hriday, a Missionaries of Charity home for unwed mothers in Jharkhand state.
Maneka Ghandi, women and child development minister, added July 16 that all childcare and adoption institutions must register with the Central Adoption Resource Authority within the month.
Earlier this month two women affiliated with the Missionaries of Charity, one a religious sister and one an employee, were arrested after a couple complained that they were sold a baby boy, who was then taken back by the shelter.
Anima Indwar, who had worked at the shelter as a sweeper since 2002, and Sister Konsalia, were arrested July 4 and 5 in Jharkhand. Another shelter employee is also under investigation.
Indwar admitted that she sold the children. In one deal, a couple from Uttar Pradesh adopted the child and the deal was finalized through the guard. She denied that Sister Konsalia was present during the transaction. She said the baby’s birth mother was involved in the exchange.
Police appear to have been alerted July 3 when a couple from Uttar Pradhesh complained to the Child Welfare Committee in Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand, that a baby boy they received after payment had been taken back.
Police say that a couple reportedly paid 120,000 Indian rupees ($1,760) to Indwar. The couple complained that Indwar took their money in exchange for a child, and that she later took the child back from them without returning the money.
The baby in question was born May 1 to a shelter resident, and was apparently given to the couple two weeks later. On July 1, Indwar reportedly asked the couple to return to the shelter with the baby for some “formalities.” She then took the child from his adoptive parents and did not give him back. The baby is now in state custody.
Sister Konsalia described her experience in a video.
“I came to know that a baby, delivered in May, was missing when the Child Welfare Committee came to check,” she said in a video. “We found out that the baby had been sold off by a staffer.”
Sister Konsalia has recounted her conversation with Indwar.
“When I initially asked the staffer about the baby, she did not want to tell me anything. It was only when I kept pressing for details that they told me the baby had been sold,” she said.
A small portion of the money had been given to the guard, while nine times that amount was given to “a sister.”
Sister Konsalia said that Indwar told her she did not take any money.
The nun said she informed authorities about the matter and said the baby should be brought back.
A police source said that Indwar provided to police a handwritten note from Sister Konsalia asking her to take the blame on herself, Matters India reports.
Sister Konsalia’s defenders, including the bishops of India, are asking whether she was an accomplice, or the victim of a coerced confession.
Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi, speaking to NDTV, charged that police are “treating the whole of Mother Teresa’s organization as a criminal gang.”
Bishop Mascarenhas, speaking in his role as the Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, condemned the shelter staffer accused of selling the babies, but said the rule of law was not being followed in Sister Konsalia’s case.
“Nobody was allowed to meet sister Konsalia in custody,” he said. “Her advocate could meet her on Wednesday, eight days after her arrest, only after we approached the court,” he said July 12, according to the Hindustan Times. “During the 10 minutes interaction that the advocate could have with her, she said she was forced by the police to give her statement.”
Mascarenhas had objected that the nun was being treated as a criminal. He said she is diabetic with varicose veins, and wasn’t aware of her statement.
Mascarenhas condemned the sale.
“It shouldn’t have happened. But, accusing the entire congregation of Mother Teresa is wrong,” he said July 12.
Babulal Marandi, former chief minister of Jharkhand, visited the shelter July 14 and interacted with the sisters, the news site Matters India reports. He alleged that the case had become a “media trial.” He said the Missionaries of Charity have served society for many years.
“The government should conduct a direct probe instead of issuing statements to the media,” he said.
However, police have said the accusations were filed on the basis of evidence, including confessions by the accused.
All four babies have been recovered by authorities. At the time of the arrests, there were a dozen pregnant women living at the shelter. They have now been transferred to a government-run home.
A spokesperson for the Kolkata-based Missionaries of Charity said that the order stopped dealing with child adoption in India in 2015, and did not take money for adoptions when it did assist in them. The order is conducting their own investigation about the case.
Members of opposition parties have accused India’s ruling party, the Hindu-nationalist group the Bharatiya Janata Party, of harassing and persecuting the missionaries on the basis of unbelievable allegations.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has backed the Missionaries of Charity. She accused the BJP government of making “malicious attempts to malign” the charity and the name of Mother Theresa.
Rameshwar Oraon, the leader of Jharkhand Congress and a former police officer, said some police appeared to be taking part in the political controversy over the police action against the Missionaries of Charity.
The Jharkhand police have also called for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into foreign funds received by Missionaries of Charity institutions. R.K. Mallick, the senior police officer, told NDTV that the recommendation was motivated by irregularities investigators detected.
The Albanian-born Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata in 1950. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and canonized in 2016. There are now about 3,000 Missionaries of Charity sisters around the world.
In addition to the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, members of the Missionaries of Charity take a fourth vow pledging “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.”
© Catholic World Report