CNA Staff, Jul 20, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- The bishops of the Philippines have issued a pastoral letter accusing the government of undermining the country’s democratic institutions.
The two-page letter, dated July 16, was released ahead of… […]
CNA Staff, Jul 20, 2020 / 11:10 am (CNA).- Australian Catholic students have sent an open letter to the country’s bishops ahead of the upcoming Fifth Plenary Council of the Church in the country, urging the bishops to remain committed to the Church’s teaching and reject calls for the ordination of women.
“Many submissions to the Plenary Council have made the laudable recommendation that women be more effectively integrated into the existing governing structures of the Church,” says the letter, which was signed by more than 200 students and alumni associated with the Australian Catholic Students Association (ACSA). The lead signatory was the president of the ACSA, Alexander Kennedy.
“However, it was with great sadness that we note many submissions have called for a change to the very constitution of the Church also willed by Christ,” they added. “We call on the Plenary Council and the Bishops of Australia to reject unambiguously all calls for the ordination of women.”
The Fifth Plenary Council is scheduled to take place on October 3-10, 2021, in Adelaide, Australia, followed by a second assembly July 4-9, 2022 in Sydney. The dates were pushed back from their original schedule in October 2020 and mid-2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The students’ letter explained that they fully support the respect owed to the roles women play in the Church, but that they, like St. Pope John Paul II and his successors, do not believe that these roles extend to ordination to the priesthood. Instead, they have “wholehearted support for the integration of women into even more prominent roles in areas such as sacred theology, communications, evangelization and (insofar as lay people are able) governance.”
ACSA Vice President Claudia Tohi added that “This letter expresses our longing to share Christ with others unashamed, with clarity and with the help of our leaders.”
“Truth,” said Tohi, “is not determined by the mood of the times, nor is it a mere abstract concept. Truth is a person, the Son of God who gave up His life for the salvation of all humankind.”
The emphasis on the lay vocation, they said, would be “far more encouraging of women than any tokenistic program or power-wrangling we have seen in some of the Plenary submissions.”
The letter was also critical of certain assumptions about the path young people wish to see the Church take in the coming years.
“Young people desire an authentic relationship with Christ; this will not be facilitated by a committee,” said the letter. “We believe true reform of the Church will not come from merely shifting resources from one committee to another, but in the rediscovery of, conviction about, and love for the Catholic faith by every Catholic.”
Some papers have called for what the ACSA letter described as “the dilution of truths of the faith,” which they say “stand to alienate young people and society at large.”
“Why should anyone take the doctrine and mysteries of Christ and His Church seriously if her members do not,” they asked.
“We call on the Plenary Council to recommit the Church in Australia to the timeless truths of the Gospel as proclaimed by the Church for twenty centuries,” said the letter.
CNA Staff, Jul 17, 2020 / 07:00 pm (CNA).-
The Diocese of Hong Kong has been targeted by “spear-phishing” operations from the Chinese government, a technology publication is reporting.
According to ZDNet, hackers associated with th… […]
Rome Newsroom, Jul 17, 2020 / 06:30 am (CNA).- On Easter Sunday in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, three innocent women were burned and tortured while local Catholics were at Mass for the Resurrection of the Lord.
“One cannot ignore … […]
CNA Staff, Jul 15, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jullundur, who has been charged with the rape of a nun, has tested positive for coronavirus. The announcement comes as his bail was cancelled after he failed to appear at trial.
The bishop has been charged with raping a nun repeatedly over the course of two years, allegations he denies.
Officials of India’s Punjab state, where Bishop Mulakkal resides, announced July 14 that he had tested positive for coronavirus. He is displaying symptoms of Covid-19, The Indian Express reported.
A court in Kerala had on July 13 cancelled his bail and issued a warrant for his arrest. He had failed to appear before the court both that day and July 1.
The court in Kerala has ordered that he appear before it Aug. 13.
The bishop did not appear at court in the beginning of July saying that Jalandhar was within a coronavirus containment zone. But prosecutors demonstrated that according to the city’s administration, his residence was within the containment zone on July 1, according to Hindustan Times.
The Tribune India reported July 9 that a priest of the Jullundur diocese claimed Bishop Mulakkal had sought permission from the district administration to travel to Kerala for the court hearing and was denied. Both Jalandhar’s Deputy Commissioner and a local health official denied receiving such a request.
Bishop Mulakkal’s lawyer had tested positive for coronavirus July 3, and the bishop then began a 14 day quarantine July 6.
The Kerala High Court dismissed a petition July 7 to dismiss the case against Bishop Mulakkal. A trial court had dismissed a similar petition in March.
The bishop’s charges stem from a member of the Missionaries of Jesus who has said he raped her during his May 2014 visit to her convent in Kuravilangad, in Kerala. In a 72-page complaint to police, filed in June 2018, she alleged that the bishop sexually abused her more than a dozen times over two years.
The Missionaries of Jesus is based in the Jullundur diocese, and Bishop Mulakkal is its patron.
Bishop Mulakkal was arrested in September 2018 amid protests calling for a police investigation of the allegation. He was subsequently released on bail.
The bishop has claimed the allegations were made in retaliation against him because he has acted against the nun’s sexual misconduct. He said the nun was alleged to be having an affair with her cousin’s husband.
The bishop was charged in April 2019 with rape, unnatural sex, wrongful confinement, and criminal intimidation. He faces imprisonment of 10 years to life if found guilty.
A witness in the case against the bishop, who is also a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, told investigators Sept. 9, 2018 that from 2015 to 2017 she participated in sexual video chats with the bishop, having been pressured by him, and that he groped and kissed her April 30, 2017, at a convent in Kannur.
This second alleged victim did not wish to press charges, but there have been calls for police in Kerala to bring a suo motu case against Bishop Mulakkal.
Bishop Mulakkal was temporarily removed from the administration of his diocese shortly before his arrest.
CNA Staff, Jul 9, 2020 / 01:15 pm (CNA).- A federal commission is calling on the U.S. to push for greater respect for human rights in North Korea, in exchange for a freeze on their nuclear program and not full denuclearization.
In a new report release… […]
CNA Staff, Jul 2, 2020 / 10:30 am (CNA).- Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden condemned China’s forced sterilizations of Uyghur women on Wednesday—nine years after he told a Chinese audience that he was “not second-guessing” the country’s one-child policy.
In a campaign press release on Wednesday, Biden decried the “unconscionable crimes against Chinese women” revealed in an Associated Press report on Monday. The AP investigation found a systematic campaign by the Chinese Communist Party of pregnancy checks and forced abortions, sterilizations, and implantations of IUDs on Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.
In 2011, however, Biden himself was criticized by pro-lifers for telling a Chinese audience that he understood China’s one-child policy.
Speaking at Chengdu’s Sichuan University in August of 2011, then-Vice President Biden brought up the demographic challenges in the U.S. of having fewer working-age citizens to support a greater number of retirees.
“But as I was talking to some of your leaders, you share a similar concern here in China,” Biden said.
“Your policy has been one which I fully understand – I’m not second-guessing – of one child per family,” he said. “The result being that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.”
Human rights organizations have repeatedly reported that the one-child policy—since updated to become a two-child-per-family limit—is enforced by the Communist government through forced abortions and sterilizations of women who do not comply.
The Trump administration, beginning in 2017, stopped funding the UN’s population fund (UNFPA) because of its partnership with the Chinese government. The State Department said that “China’s family planning policies still involve the use of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization.”
The U.S. had also pulled funding of the UNFPA in 2002 over China’s implementation of the one-child policy, but the Obama administration restored funding in 2009.
Biden, in 2011, was criticized by some Republicans for his deference to the policy. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the House pro-life caucus, called the policy “cruel, inhumane and the most egregious systematic attack on women ever.”
In January, 2020, Smith warned that “the pervasive use of forced abortion and forced sterilization” was continuing in China, especially “against ethnic minorities, especially the Uyghurs, as a way of population control and as another manifestation of genocide.”
Monday’s AP report showed that many Uyghurs are sentenced to detention camps in the region for having too many children. Parents of three or more children are fined, jailed, or separated from their families, with police searching homes for hidden children.
On Thursday, Biden cited the AP report on the forced abortion and sterilization in Xinjiang to attack President Trump’s policy on China’s human rights abuses as “indefensible, marked by desperation for a failing trade deal.”
Trump has been criticized for not issuing sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for the human rights crisis in Xinjiang, where reports have shown that more than 1,300 detention camps have been set up for Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. Survivors of the camps have reported undergoing indoctrination, forced labor, torture, and other abuses.
Members of the Uyghur diaspora and survivors of the camps have said that Uyghurs and other minorities have been sterilized or forced to practice birth control. Two survivors of the camps, Mihrigul Tursun and Gulbahar Jelilova, have said they were administered or witnessed other women being administered unknown substances in the camps that stopped their menstruation.
The AP reported on Monday that the abuses were “far more widespread and systematic than previously known.” The birth rate in the region plunged by 24% in 2019, the AP said, and in certain parts of the province birth rates had fallen by more than 60% from 2015 to 2018.
Although Trump on June 17 signed legislation to impose sanctions on Chinese officials culpable in abuses committed against Uyghurs, sanctions have not been issued yet. Trump told Axios on June 19 that he hadn’t yet done so because “we were in the middle of a major trade deal.”
Nury Turkel, a Uyghur human rights advocates who is a commissioner at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, told CNA that “there is no excuse for delaying action against China.”
CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2020 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- The new national security law in Hong Kong is an assault on the rights of the people, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, July 1.
“… […]
CNA Staff, Jun 30, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Joseph Zen, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, has warned that new security laws in the province could lead to a clamp down on religious freedom.
In a series of videos posted Tuesday on the Facebook page “Catholics Concerned about the Hong Kong National Security Law Group,” Zen said that he had ‘no confidence” in religious freedom protections in the new security law.
On May 28, the Chinese legislature approved a resolution imposing “security laws” on Hong Kong. These laws aim to criminalize anything Beijing considers “foreign interference,” secessionist activities, or subversion of state power, and will permit Chinese security forces to operate in the city.
Although the full provisions of the law were only released on June 30, last week Cardinal John Tong Hon, Zen’s successor as bishop and currently the administrator of the diocese, publicly voiced support for the measures, and said that it was not a threat to religious freedom.
“I personally believe that the National Security Law will have no effect on religious freedom, because Article 32 of the Basic Law guarantees that we have freedom of religion, and we can also openly preach and hold religious ceremonies, and participate in religious activities,” Cardinal Tong Hon told the diocesan newspaper last week.
Zen said that he thought it was “wrong” that people were encouraged by the government to speak out in support of the law before the full details were unveiled, but acknowledged that his successor was in a “tricky” situation.
“On the one hand, it will be a lot of trouble if we don’t support the government. We never know what they will do to our Church,” said Zen. “On the other hand, [Tong] disappointed many within the Church by giving his support.”
The full terms of the law were released on the evening of June 30 shortly ahead of July 1, the anniversary of the handover of the area from Great Britain to China, traditionally a day of pro-democracy protest in the city.
Under the new law, a person who is convicted of secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces will receive a minimum of 10 years in prison, with the possibility of a life sentence. The law’s broad definition of terrorism includes arson and vandalizing public transportation “with an intent to intimidate the Hong Kong government or Chinese government for political purposes.”
“This is not only against the ‘one country, two systems’ policy, but also the basic law [of Hong Kong],” Zen said of the new measures.
The provision of the law regarding collusion with foreign governments has raised alarm bells among Hong Kong’s Catholic population.
Cardinal Tong Hon said last week that he believed that the diocese’s independence from the mainland government and state-sponsored Church, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, would not be considered to be colluding with a foreign government. The diocese, he said, “has always had a direct relationship with the Vatican; the relationship between the Hong Kong diocese and the Vatican should be regarded as an internal matter.”
“After the national security legislation, it should not be regarded as ‘collusion with foreign forces’,” he said to the diocesan newspaper.
Zen said that while Tong may be confident the new law would not be used to bring the local Church under mainland control, he had “no confidence” that this would be the case.
“Our religious freedom means that the affairs of the Church are handled by ourselves without the need to involve the government,” said Zen in the video posted on Tuesday.
The cardinal noted the long record of state interference in religion on the mainland, including recent efforts by the government to re-translate scriptures to be more in line with Chinese customs and reflective of Communist principles.
“Even His Eminence Cardinal Tong will agree there is no true religious freedom [on the mainland], yet the government denies this fact,” Zen said. “It’s meaningless to argue in the literal sense of the terms [of the law], it is a fact to be perceived,” Zen added.
Zen said that Tong had yet to face questions he “might find difficult to answer,” including if “the Chinese Patriotic Association can comply with the traditions of our Catholic faith,” and what Cardinal Tong’s response will be if the government sets up a Catholic Patriotic Association group in the city.
Zen also noted the lack of support, or even reaction from the Holy See on the recent developments both in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
“I have no idea on why the Vatican remained silent–perhaps she hopes to establish diplomatic relations with (Mainland) China,” said Zen who also criticized the Vatican’s provisional deal with China on the regularization and appointment of bishops on the mainland, which is set to expire in September.
While the terms of the agreement remain unpublished, Zen said “we can see no benefit” to the deal for Chinese Catholics, adding there is “no true religious freedom” on the mainland.
“It is not a worthy deal,” he said.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 30, 2020 / 07:00 am (CNA).- In July 2019, President Donald Trump met with survivors of religious persecution at the White House.
Uyghur human rights activist Jewher Ilham told Trump about her father, Ilham Tohti, a human… […]
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