Europe

CNA Staff, May 5, 2020 / 02:01 pm (CNA).- After complaints that a pro-life event held by the Aberdeen Life Ethics Society violated a ‘safe space policy’, an investigation has resulted in no action being taken against the pro-life group.

Ales held an event March 12 called “Does Abortion Violate Human Rights?”, about which some students at Aberdeen University complained. Among the complaints were that it included “highly graphic material,” the Gaudie, Aberdeen University’s student paper, reported April 30.

Ales told the Gaudie that “In response to these unfounded complaints, we provided [the Aberdeen University Students’ Association] with various examples of our efforts to warn attendees about sensitive content. We maintain that these efforts fulfilled our obligation to caution anyone who might be uncomfortable with an honest discussion of abortion (i.e., the intentional killing of antenatal humans by vacuum aspiration, poisoning, and/or dismemberment).”

“Thankfully, AUSA was satisfied with our defence against these vexatious complaints and will take no action against us. We look forward to organising future public events about the ethical importance of human life in the womb, and we pledge to continue to offer clear and explicit content warnings about the grisly reality of abortion,” the pro-life group continued.

Ausa told complainants that “the issues have been raised with ALES and they have provided assurances to AUSA that clearer and more explicit content warnings, and cautions will be issued, prior to showing similar videos in the future,” and that “on this basis we have concluded that no further action will be taken by AUSA against ALES and this matter is now concluded.”

One of those who complained about the event, Martin Le Brech, called Ausa’s decision “very disappointing,” adding: I hope AUSA will thoroughly scrutinise ALES’ activities and listen to the wider University community that is utterly embarrassed such misinformation and graphic contents are regularly spread on campus. We need to make sure our University is a safe space for everybody, free of bigotry and insidious violence.”

And Leah Robb, president of the Pro-Choice Society, said that if Ales “continue with similar events/demonstrations I am considering launching another complaint to AUSA.”

Ales was granted affiliation by the Aberdeen student association in May 2019, following a protracted disagreement.

In October 2018 Ausa had prevented the affiliation of Ales, citing its own pro-choice policy which it adopted in 2017. The policy says, in part, that “Ausa should oppose the unreasonable display of pro-life material within campus and at Ausa events.”

The move limited Ale’s access to funds and venues at the university.

After failing to have the policy changed, Ales filed a lawsuit in April 2019 against Ausa and the university, “alleging unlawful discrimination against the society and the violation of rights protected by UK law.”

In its lawsuit, Ales charged that Ausa’s no platform policy violates the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998 by restricting “the freedoms of association and belief for certain students on the basis of an ideological litmus test.”

According to the Gaudie, Ales received “a financial pay-out” from Ausa over the matter.

After receiving affiliation, Ales stated: “We look forward to actively engaging with the student body and working to foster a civil yet honest conversation about the vitally important ethical issues surrounding human life. While there are some intolerant students who wanted our society to fail … we truly believe that there are many more students on this campus who are willing to take a fair-minded approach to this debate. These are the students we’ve heard from all along the way – they may not agree with our position, but they adamantly believe that we should be free to espouse our beliefs on campus.”

Pro-life groups at other Scottish universities have faced similar problems.

In 2018 the University of Strathclyde (in Glasgow) lifted a ban on pro-life groups following legal pressure. Strathclyde Sudents for Life argued that the student associaton’s no platforming policy violated the Equality Act 2010 “by directly discriminating against a group of students based on their beliefs.”

Glasgow Students for Life were barred from affiliation by the Glasgow University’s Students’ Representative Council in November 2018.

In March 2018 a joint committee on human rights of the UK parliament noted troubling barriers to free speech at the nation’s universities, writing: “Whilst the original intention behind safe space policies may have been to ensure that minority or vulnerable groups can feel secure, in practice the concept of safe spaces has proved problematic, often marginalising the views of minority groups.”

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CNA Staff, May 5, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- Poland’s bishops have intervened in a debate about whether presidential elections scheduled for May 10 should go ahead despite a nationwide lockdown.

A statement from the permanent council of the Po… […]

London, England, May 5, 2020 / 09:00 am (CNA).- A parish in London’s West End is offering the homeless adoration, access to sacraments, and the rosary — along with food provided by a five-star restaurant. 

St. Patrick’s Church in Soho, an area known for its nightlife and red-light district, is offering a remarkable ministry to the homeless as the capital struggles to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. 

Pastor Fr. Alexander Sherbrooke said he had “a strong sense that the Holy Spirit is literally building a church on the streets” in response to the crisis. 

When the city began to shut down in mid-March, Westminster City Council turned to Sherbrooke, who has overseen daily outreach to the homeless since he arrived in the parish in 2001.

He told CNA that the council had asked St. Patrick’s to increase its provision of food to the homeless significantly while it tried to house those living on the streets. 

The parish, founded in 1792, had previously fed the homeless in its parish center. But after Catholic churches across the country were ordered to close because of the virus, St. Patrick’s was forced to improvise. It began serving the homeless food on its doorstep twice a day, Monday through Sunday.

“On most days we are providing up to 320 meals,” Sherbrooke explained. “On average, we probably see 220 people a day, some of whom come for both breakfast and dinner.”

Hot food is supplied by the Connaught Hotel, a five-star restaurant in London’s affluent Mayfair district, as well as by Wiltons Restaurant in Jermyn Street. The Pret a Manger chain provides sandwiches. 

“It’s a very sophisticated operation and we fully intend to be diligent in preserving social distancing, personal hygiene, food hygiene, etc,” the priest said. “We have a good number of volunteers. We also continue to provide a shower and lavatory facility.” 

Sherbrooke explained that the homeless in the West End live off the footfall generated by local businesses, restaurants and theaters. 

“There is none of that now,” he said. “It’s amazingly empty and can be quite intimidating, particularly at nighttime.”

”The West End has many who are alcohol and drug dependent and without their normal source of income, this can create a volatile situation. Police are very present, but the West End is very inhospitable, at times threatening and not very pleasant.”

“I’ve been in the parish for some 17 years, throughout which  much of my time has been spent in pastoral care for those who are needy. But nothing has really prepared me for where we are at the moment.”

Volunteers at St. Patrick’s are determined to relieve spiritual as well as physical deprivation. As food is distributed, they pray before the Blessed Sacrament in a nearby adoration tent, while observing social distancing. Sherbrooke is available for visitors seeking a sacramental encounter, sitting at a safe distance and behind a white sheet. There is also a tent offering lectio divina. 

“This enhanced feeding facility has come very much as a response to the request of the local authority,” Sherbrooke said. “We have a long tradition of feeding people happily and well. But in a very strange sort of way, the Church, from being a physical reality behind four walls, is now a reality in the street.”

Sherbrooke, who cites St Damien of Molokai and Mother Teresa as inspirations, continued: “It’s imparting a spiritual, pastoral care, where I have a strong sense that the Holy Spirit is literally building a church on the streets. There’s lectio divina. There’s adoration — in other words, a prolongation of the Holy Mass — confession, rosary, etc.”

“We are ministering to the people. We are going to them, speaking to them, giving rosaries and sharing the Gospel. So there is a real work of evangelization going on.”

Volunteers also distribute a sheet each week with reflections, Scripture readings, and advice on how to pray.

“So there’s a kind of catechesis of the poor which is going on,” Sherbrooke said.

“There is a very real sense that in this terrible virus situation that God is creating a very different kind of Church, much more evangelical, and perhaps simpler. All this has happened not through management but I believe through God’s providence.”

He noted that despite the present dangers volunteers felt a strong sense of supernatural protection. 

“Personally, I would say that the way that I haven’t caught [the virus] — given the reality of the situation here — is that every day I pray that the Precious Blood of Jesus will come into my heart, my veins, my lungs, and protect me from the virus so that I can do this work,” he said. 

In 2011, St. Patrick’s reopened after a £4 million restoration project, which included the excavation of the basement and the creation of the parish center, located beneath the church. Food for the homeless is now prepared there every day.

“It’s almost as though God has crafted this parish for this work at this time,” Sherbrooke said.  

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CNA Staff, May 4, 2020 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- The Republic of Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission has decided that an atheist child was discriminated against by his Catholic school when students were rewarded for attending a religious ceremony.

The commission, an independent, quasi-judicial forum, ruled that the Yellow Furze National School in County Meath had discriminated against an atheist student.

Early in the 2019 school year, the students had been promised a homework pass if they took part in the choir during a First Communion ceremony

The boy’s mother complained, but the school defended its policy.

“Any student, regardless of his/her religion in our school who opted not to participate in this extracurricular event was not ‘rewarded,'” the school said, according to the Irish Post last year.

The school added that children of any religion were able to participate in the choir, and that the claim of discrimination was thus “wholly unfounded.”

The commission said the school “does not appreciate this action had an adverse effect on students who are not of a Catholic faith,” the Irish Times reported.

His mother said that “on that day my son was the only child in the class who was not participating. He was also the only non-Catholic child in the class.” She added that “he came out of school crying.”

“We are atheist and this is not a choice that is open to him,” she said.

The Irish Post reported in 2019 that the boy was one of two pupils in his class of 33 to receive homework instead of attending the choir ceremony.

According to the commission the boy’s parents were “deeply hurt and upset” by the school.

“We felt that the school had disregarded the fact that we have a different set of beliefs,” the mother told RTE News. “We felt that our child had been singled out and punished for not being a Catholic,” and she added that she hoped the ruling would “change things for children here who are not Catholic”.

The mother has since enrolled her son in a different school.

The commission ordered the school to pay €5,000 and demanded the school review its policies so it complies with the Equal Status Acts. The school will also have to post a memo of its compliance in a noticeable location within the school.

The mother told RTE News she will return the €5,000 to the school, “because it will be our friends and our neighbours who will be funding it, through school fundraising. We have been vindicated, but we feel that it would be wrong to accept this money.”

Catholic schools in Ireland make up 90% of all primary schools in the country, the Irish Times reported. The ruling is likely to affect how other schools promote and organize religious events.

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Rome Newsroom, May 3, 2020 / 08:30 am (CNA).- The liquefaction of the blood of the early Church martyr St. Januarius occurred Saturday amid the coronavirus lockdown, leading the Archbishop of Naples to bless the city with the miraculous relic.

“Dear friends, I have a big announcement to make: even in this time of coronavirus, the Lord through the intercession of St. Januarius has liquified the blood!” Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe said May 2.

Cardinal Sepe, the Archbishop of Naples, offered a Mass via video livestream from the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary to celebrate the recurring miracle, and then used the relic of the liquified blood to bless the city.

“How many times our saint has intervened to save us from the plague, from cholera. St. Januarius is the true soul of Naples,” he said in his homily.

St. Januarius, or San Gennaro in Italian, the patron of Naples, was a bishop of the city in the third century, whose bones and blood are preserved in the cathedral as relics. He is believed to have been martyred during Diocletian persecution.

The reputed miracle is locally known and accepted, though has not been the subject of official Church recognition. The liquefaction reportedly happens at least three times a year: Sept. 19, the saint’s feast day, the Saturday before the first Sunday of May, and Dec. 16, the anniversary of the 1631 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

During the miracle, the dried, red-colored mass confined to one side of the reliquary becomes blood that covers the entire glass. In local lore, the failure of the blood to liquefy signals war, famine, disease or other disaster.

“Naples has never given up in the face of the misfortunes that have affected it,” Sepe said.

The cardinal praised the health care workers who are serving those infected by the coronavirus in the city. Naples is the capital of the region of Campania, where 4,459 people have been documented with COVID-19 by the Italian Ministry of Health.

“But there is another possible epidemic that worries me in the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city,” Sepe said, referring to the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia.

“There are those who are good at making a fortune in times of epidemic. … Let’s move, intervene immediately, because the underworld is faster than our bureaucracy. The Camorra does not wait. It is up to us to get rid of all [criminal] organizations. We must overcome and affirm the right to hope,” the cardinal said.

Amid Italy’s lockdown, anti-mafia experts have warned that Italy’s criminal organizations could take advantage of the redirection of police resources, and profit from the government stimulus that could inadvertently fund mafia-controlled industries.

The coronavirus lockdown also prevented the traditional procession for the miracle of St. Januarius from taking place. This procession had even continued in Naples during World War II, according to ACI Stampa.

Public Masses have not been allowed in Italy for the past eight weeks under the country’s coronavirus restrictions. 

The president of the Italian bishops’ conference, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti said May 2 that the bishops had reached an agreement with the government, and that he expects public Masses to resume “in the coming weeks” if the infection curve flattens.

“As a Church, we have certainly shared in suffering the limitations imposed to protect the health of all,” he said.

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London, England, May 1, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- The metropolitan archbishops of England and Wales acknowledged the pain of Catholics who cannot receive the Sacraments because of the coronavirus lockdown in a message issued Friday. 

In the message… […]

Rome Newsroom, Apr 30, 2020 / 02:01 pm (CNA).- In the central Italian countryside, at the edge of the Umbrian woods just outside Norcia, a group of Benedictine monks prays and works from well before the sun rises until it sets.

This much has not chang… […]

Rome Newsroom, Apr 30, 2020 / 11:45 am (CNA).- After eight weeks without funerals, Italian families will be able finally to gather together to mourn and pray at funeral Masses for the victims of the coronavirus starting May 4.

In Milan, the largest city in Italy’s coronavirus epicenter, priests are preparing for an influx of funeral requests in the coming weeks in the Lombardy region, where 13,679 have died.

Fr. Mario Antonelli, who oversees liturgies on behalf of the Archdiocese of Milan, told CNA that archdiocesan leadership met April 30 to coordinate guidelines for Catholic funerals as more than 36,000 people remain positive for COVID-19 in their region.

“I am moved, thinking of so many dear people who have wanted [a funeral] and still desire one,” Fr. Antonelli said April 30.

He said that the church in Milan is ready like the Good Samaritan to “pour oil and wine on the wounds of many who have suffered the death of a loved one with the terrible agony of not being able to say goodbye and embrace.”

A Catholic funeral is “not just a solemn farewell from loved ones,” the priest explained, adding that it expresses a pain like childbirth. “It is the cry of pain and loneliness that becomes a song of hope and communion with the desire for an everlasting love.”

Funerals in Milan will occur on an individual basis with no more than 15 people in attendance, as required by “phase two” of the Italian government’s coronavirus measures. 

Priests are asked to notify local authorities when a funeral is scheduled to take place and ensure that social distancing measures defined by the diocese are followed throughout the liturgy. 

Milan is home to the Ambrosian rite, the Catholic liturgical rite named for St. Ambrose, who led the diocese in the 4th century.

“According to the Ambrosian rite, the funeral liturgy includes three ‘stations’: the visit / blessing of the body with the family; community celebration (with or without Mass); and burial rites at the cemetery,” Antonelli explained. 

“Trying to reconcile the sense of the liturgy … and the sense of civic responsibility, we ask the priests to refrain from visiting the family of the deceased to bless the body,” he said.

While Milan archdiocese is limiting priests from the traditional blessing of the body in the home of the family, the funeral Mass and burial rites will be able to take place at a church or “preferably” at a cemetery, Antonelli added. 

During the nearly two months without Masses and funerals, dioceses in northern Italy have been maintaining telephone lines for grieving families with spiritual counsel and psychological services. In Milan, the service is called “Hello, is this an angel?” and is operated by priests and religious who spend time on the phone with the sick, the mourning, and the lonely. 

Aside from funerals, public Masses will still not be allowed throughout Italy under the government’s May 4 coronavirus restrictions. As Italy eases its lockdown, it remains unclear when public Masses will be allowed by the Italian government.

Italian bishops have been critical of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s latest coronavirus measures, announced on April 26, saying that they “arbitrarily exclude the possibility of celebrating Mass with the people.”

According to the prime minister’s April 26 announcement, the easing of lockdown measures will allow retail stores, museums, and libraries to reopen beginning May 18 and restaurants, bars, and hair salons June 1.

Movement between Italian regions, within regions, and within cities and towns is still prohibited except under strict cases of necessity.

In a letter April 23, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia, the president of the Italian bishops’ conference, wrote that “the time has come to resume the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist, and church funerals, baptisms and all the other sacraments, naturally following those measures necessary to guarantee security in the presence of more people in public places.”

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CNA Staff, Apr 30, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- The bishops of England and Wales have urged parishes to help domestic abuse victims after a surge in requests for aid during the coronavirus crisis. 

Since the lockdown began in the U.K. March 23 there h… […]

CNA Staff, Apr 29, 2020 / 01:01 pm (CNA).- A legislation scrutiny committee of the House of Lords last week published a report on the abortion regulations imposed on Northern Ireland by the British government, noting that the regulations are more expansive than were required by law.

Among the key criticisms in the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee’s April 23 report was the six-week duration of public consultation on the proposed regulations. The committee includes members of the Conservative Party, Labour, and the Liberal Democrats, as well as crossbenchers.

“In our view this is too short for so sensitive a topic, the committee wrote. “Added to which, it took place during the General Election period and in the run up to Christmas, neither of which conforms with best practice. Of the over 21,000 responses received, 79% registered general opposition to any change to the established position in Northern Ireland.”

The committee received a number of submissions that “criticise the Government response to the consultation for failing to explain why such a strong level of objection has been overridden,” and which “assert that no attempt has been made to engage with them to address their objections or with the restored Northern Ireland Executive, and that certain provisions … were not included in the consultation document.”

In addition, the Lords’ committee said that the regulations should not have been made so soon before a parliamentary recess: “While acknowledging that due to the current coronavirus crisis, Ministers have had much to occupy them, we find it regrettable that the Government chose to lay so controversial an instrument just as a recess started and, more importantly, so close to the implementation date set out in the 2019 Act, thereby denying Parliament an opportunity for scrutiny before the instrument came into effect.”

The Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020, which came into force March 31, allow elective abortions up to 12 weeks of pregnancy; abortions up to 24 weeks in cases of risk to the mother’s physical or mental health; and abortion without time limit in cases of severe fetal impairment or fetal fetal abnormality.

Previously, abortion was legally permitted in the region only if the mother’s life was at risk or if there was risk of long term or permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health.

The new framework was adopted to implement Westminster’s Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019, which decriminalized abortion in Northern Ireland and placed a moratorium on abortion-related criminal prosecutions, and obliged the UK government to create legal access to abortion in the region by March 31.

The NI EF Act required that the recommendations of a UN report on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women be implemented.

The legislative scrutiny committee said its report on the regulations sets out the key points made in submissions from members of the House of Commons, House of Lords, and the Northern Ireland Assembly, as well as churches and other organizations.

“This Report also notes several instances where the Government’s administrative process for bringing these Regulations forward appears suboptimal,” it added, before drawing the regulations to the special attention of the House.

The committee noted that nearly all the submissions it received are critical of the regulations’ provision for conscientious objection.

Conscientious objection is allowed for direct participation in abortion, but not for ancillary, administrative, or managerial tasks associated with the procedure, because, according to the regulations, that “would have consequences on a practical level and would therefore undermine the effective provision of abortion services in Northern Ireland.”

The exclusion of those carrying out ancillary, administrative, or managerial tasks from conscientious objection may be “too narrow and does not adequately protect” the rights to religious or philosophical beliefs under the European Convention on Human Rights.

According to the committee, the Attorney General for Northern Ireland submitted that ancillary staff are unlawfully discriminated against because the Northern Ireland Act 1998 prevents the Assembly and the Secretary of State “from enacting any provision which discriminates against any person or class of person on the ground of religious belief or political opinion.”

The committee wrote that “Given the sensitivity of the issues around conscientious objection, the House may wish to ask the Minister to consider further the scope of the policy and how it will be interpreted.”

The report also discussed the regulation of abortion in cases of severe fetal impairment or fetal fetal abnormality.

Several submissions said the abortion of those with severe impairment is contrary to EU law because the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “extends to those in the womb,” but that the region’s attorney general acknowledged that the NI EF Act required the implementation of such a regulation because of CEDAW.

“There therefore appears to be a question over which UN Convention should take priority,” the committee wrote.

However, the Northern Ireland Office holds that the UNCRPD is not a binding law, and added: “we do not agree that the provision extends protection to those in the womb.”

The legislative scrutiny committee noted that the “the regime chosen largely mirrors the services available in the rest of the UK. In the light of the overwhelmingly negative response to the consultation exercise, it would have been better if the reasons for the specific policy choices made, were explained in more detail in the EM, and the House may wish to press the Minister for further explanation.”

Other submissions noted that “severe disability” could be interpreted differently and could include cleft lip or Down syndrome, and that the CEDAW recommendation requires the provision of abortion for “severe foetal impairment”, while  not “perpetuating sterotypes towards persons with disabilities.”

“The House may wish to press the Minister about how these provisions will be interpreted,” the committee noted.

Some submissions also noted that because the baby’s sex can be identified at 10 weeks, and elective abortions are permitted up to 12 weeks, “there is a significant omission in the Regulations in that … they do not prevent abortion on the grounds of the foetus’s gender.”

The report concludes noting that “the NIO states that, where possible, this statutory framework mirrors the Abortion Act 1967 so that provision will be broadly consistent with the abortion services in the rest of the UK. The NIO was, however, obliged by law to implement the specific recommendations of the CEDAW Report which relate to Northern Ireland. This report has sought to expand on some of the Government’s policy choices and also to air the main issues drawn to our attention in submissions, to assist the House in the forthcoming debate.”

Right to Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said April 28 that the committee “chosen to draw these regulations to the special attention of the House. The Committee has reported on a number of serious issues with the regulations.”

“MPs and Peers at Westminster must take on board these problems and vote against the regulations when they are brought before Parliament,” she added.

The regulations are due to be voted on before May 17.

David Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, commented April 25 that Northern Ireland’s abortion law “should have been decided in Northern Ireland not imposed by Westminster. Both Parliament and the Northern Ireland Office have shown great contempt for the people of Northern Ireland – and for normal constitutional and parliamentary good practice – in seeking to impose, by diktat, laws which in the rest of the UK have led to one child in the womb being aborted every three minutes.”

Lord Alton wrote that the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee’s report highlights “that this issue needs to be reconsidered in Northern Ireland by the Assembly which is responsible for what the law and policy on this issue. Riding roughshod over the Assembly in this way shows contempt for devolution, power sharing, proper political process, and the people of Northern Ireland.”

The bishops of Northern Ireland have encouraged members of Northern Ireland’s devolved legislature to debate the regulations, and, “insofar as they exceed the requirements of the Northern Ireland Act 2019 … to take steps to formulate new Regulations that will reflect more fully the will of a significant majority of the people in this jurisdiction to protect the lives of mothers and their unborn children.”
 
Northern Ireland rejected the Abortion Act 1967, which legalized abortion in England, Wales, and Scotland; and bills to legalize abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, or incest failed in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016.

Northern Irish women had been able to procure free National Health Service abortions in England, Scotland, and Wales since November 2017. They are allowed to travel to the rest of the UK to procure abortions during the coronavirus outbreak.

The amendment to the NI EF Act obliging the government to provide for legal abortion in Northern Ireland was introduced by Stella Creasy, a Labour MP who represents a London constituency.

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