Europe

Rome Newsroom, Apr 26, 2020 / 03:29 pm (CNA).- Italy’s bishops have criticized Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for failing to lift the ban on public Masses.

The Italian bishops’ conference Sunday released a statement denouncing Conte’s decree on “phase 2” of the coronavirus lockdown restrictions, which it says “arbitrarily excludes the possibility of celebrating Mass with the people.”

During a press conference April 26 to announce the next phase of Italy’s COVID-19 restrictions, beginning May 4, Conte said funerals may resume with a maximum of 15 people present. Other religious celebrations, including public Masses, will resume “in the coming weeks.”

In their April 26 statement, the bishops referred to two bodies which advised Conte on lifting lockdown measures: the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the equivalent of the Prime Minister’s office, and the Technical-Scientific Committee for COVID-19.

The bishops said: “The Presidency of the Council and the Technical-Scientific Committee are reminded of the duty to distinguish between their responsibility — giving precise indications of a health nature — and that of the Church, called to organize the life of the Christian community, in compliance with the measures prepared, but in the fullness of one’s autonomy.”

The prime minister’s office responded late Sunday night to the bishops’ statement, according to news agency ANSA. The message said “a protocol will be studied that will allow the faithful to participate in liturgical celebrations as soon as possible in conditions of maximum security.”

The Italian bishops’ conference (CEI) said it had been in “continuous and available dialogue” with the government for weeks.

During these negotiations, “the Church accepted, with suffering and a sense of responsibility, the government limitations taken to face the health emergency,” the bishops said, adding that during these conversations “it was explicitly emphasized that — when the limitations taken on to face the pandemic are reduced — the Church demands to be able to resume its pastoral action.”

The statement claims the Italian bishops had also presented their own guidelines and protocols for a transitional phase which would meet all health standards.

Public Masses throughout Italy have been suspended for nearly seven weeks after the Italian government issued a decree March 8 suspending all public religious ceremonies, including funerals.

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.”

[…]

CNA Staff, Apr 24, 2020 / 12:17 pm (CNA).- The president of the Scottish bishops’ conference wrote Friday to the Scottish health secretary, saying the permission for women to self-administer both stages of a medical abortion at home during coronavirus is born of ideology rather than true concern for women.

“I believe it is profoundly depressing that in the midst of this unprecedented global pandemic when the resources of almost every government on earth are being diverted towards the preservation of life, especially the lives of the weak and vulnerable, the Scottish Government continues to act to end the lives of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society, the unborn,” Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen wrote April 24 to Jeane Freeman, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport and a member of the Scottish National Party.

“It is more than disheartening that the Scottish Government should see fit to promote ‘abortion at home’ as though this were a trivial matter equivalent to taking any other medication at home. A position like this appears to be more a matter of ideology than of genuine and dispassionate concern for women’s wellbeing,” the bishop, a Benedictine, wrote.

The Scottish government has lifted restrictions on at-home medical abortions during coronavirus.

A medical abortion is a two-step process that involves the ingestion of mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone blocks the effects of the progesterone hormone, inducing a miscarriage. Misoprostol is taken up to two days later, and induces labor.

Women in Scotland have been able to self-administer misoprostol in their homes since 2018. However, until recently, they had to take mifepristone at a clinic.

The medications will be delivered by mail.

Because of coronavirus-related lockdowns, the Scottish government has allowed at-home self-administration of mifepristone as well, following a phone or video consultation with a doctor.

A similar permission was made in England last month, and Sinn Féin’s leader in Northern Ireland has pressed for a similar change in that region.

Bishop Gilbert said he found the Scottish government’s decision “deeply troubling.”

He said that while mifepristone and misoprostol “not only end the life of an unborn child,” they “are also a risk to the health of its mother,” noting that even in the best of circumstances – administration at a clinic with several hours of clinical observation – there is “a real risk of severe bleeding and sepsis in a small number, and a need for further surgery in a larger proportion, depending on the stage of the pregnancy.”

The bishop added that “vulnerable women in unsatisfactory domestic circumstances are particularly at risk.”

He asked whether, under the new policy, women are “receiving information on all available options including details of organisations which can offer support to both the mother and the baby,” if enough time is given to counselling during the consultation, and “is it appropriate for drugs which end the life of a human being to be sent by post, trivialising what is an extremely serious and life-changing procedure”.

“Aside from the Scottish Bishops’ Conference’s absolute opposition to abortion, there are also serious practical concerns involved here,” he said. “The decision to allow women to take potent abortifacient  medications  in a largely unsupervised manner at home is not only fatal for the innocent human beings in the womb but also constitutes a real risk to women’s present and longer term health and wellbeing.”

Bishop Gilbert added that “it is of particular concern that there is no way of establishing that a woman is not being coerced into an abortion in the context of a poorly safeguarded online consultation.”

“In the current situation, there is already an increase in complaints about domestic abuse since the Coronavirus restrictions were put in place. It is far from clear how the Scottish Government proposes to set in place the prudent support procedures which permit all the relevant factors in each individual case privately and without coercion.”

[…]

Perugia, Italy, Apr 24, 2020 / 08:30 am (CNA).- The president of the Italian bishops’ conference has written a letter calling for Sunday Mass to resume in Italy as the country begins to ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

“The time has… […]

CNA Staff, Apr 23, 2020 / 02:40 pm (CNA).- The United Kingdom’s Minister for Women and Equalities has announced plans to prohibit minors from undergoing any permanent procedure intended to change their gender. The policy was announced by the mini… […]

Denver Newsroom, Apr 23, 2020 / 02:35 pm (CNA).- A British judge’s order requiring a contraceptive device be implanted in a woman with learning disabilities against her will is “deeply problematic,” a bioethicist has said.

Justice Gwynneth Knowles issued a written ruling April 21 after a hearing at the Court of Protection in London that took place via Skype due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The BBC reported that the judge decided that an implanted contraceptive device would be in the best interests of the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

She said the woman, who is in her 20s and pregnant, lacked the mental capacity to make decisions about contraception. The court heard that the woman had given birth to a number of children, who have been taken into foster care. Specialists noted that she had suffered from a number of health problems and argued that further pregnancies could present significant risks.

According to the BBC, the woman agreed to having a contraceptive injection every three months, but did not want to be fitted with a contraceptive device.

The Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which is responsible for the woman’s care, argued that she might miss the quarterly appointments and should therefore be fitted with the device.

The judge said the device should be fitted when the woman undergoes a planned Cesarean section, the BBC reported.

Michael Wee, education and research officer at the Anscombe Bioethics Centre in Oxford, argued that the ruling was “morally inappropriate” and “heavy-handed”.

“This judgment is deeply problematic because it raises fundamental questions of whether contraception should be seen as an acceptable medical or social intervention to solve a problem, and whether it is the kind of intervention that the state or the judiciary should ever encourage or compel by law.”

“This is a case concerning a person lacking the relevant mental capacity for the decision at hand, which is whether to have a contraceptive device fitted or not. Under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, in such cases the Court of Protection takes on the role of determining what is in the person’s best interests,” he said.

“Sometimes, the courts do side with the wishes and feelings of those who lack capacity, as when the Court of Appeal overturned a forced abortion ruling last year. But this is not a given, as the courts may decide that the gravity of the situation ultimately outweighs the person’s wishes and feelings in determining their best interests.”

Wee, who was appointed as a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life in February, noted that the judge accepted four points advanced by the specialists. First, that a pregnancy in the near future would pose a serious health risk. Second, that the woman was likely to become pregnant again in the absence of contraception. Third, that the woman lacked the capacity to make decisions about contraception and, fourth, that she might not comply with the requirement for regular injections.

“On this basis, the judge concluded that an intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) would be in the woman’s best interests,” he said.

“It is unfortunately easy to see contraception as a quick-fix solution — one that conveniently erases fertility from the picture, without seeking to address underlying questions of what is appropriate and responsible sexual behavior, and what social support can be provided for vulnerable people.”

He added: “It is odd that there is no consideration of whether the woman is mentally capable of consenting to sex, even though the judge accepted evidence that the woman does not have capacity to make decisions about contraception.”

“Consent to intercourse and consent to contraception are surely intimately linked, and if there is any doubt about the woman’s capacity to have genuinely consensual intercourse then this raises serious questions of abuse and other safeguarding issues relating to any previous, ongoing and future sexual relationships. Contraception does not solve, and may even entrench, such a dangerous situation.”

Wee concluded: “Additionally, one must not forget that IUDs can prevent the implantation of an embryo, thus leading to the loss of human life. It is therefore especially morally inappropriate for a court to intervene in this heavy-handed way.” 

[…]

CNA Staff, Apr 23, 2020 / 11:24 am (CNA).- The bishops of Northern Ireland wrote to members of the region’s legislature Wednesday urging them to debate the abortion regulations imposed by the British government and to formulate new, pro-life regulations.

“We take this opportunity to encourage you to debate these Regulations as a matter of urgency,” the bishops of Northern Ireland wrote April 22 to members of the legislative assembly. “Insofar as they exceed the requirements of the Northern Ireland Act 2019, we urge you 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.”

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.

The bishops recalled their “responsibility to do all we can to promote a culture of care and respect for life in our society. This includes a responsibility to inform the conscience of all members of the Catholic Church and people of good will regarding the fundamental moral values at stake in the issue of abortion.”

They said their opposition to the regulations “is rooted in the Catholic Church’s teaching concerning the dignity of every human life, regardless of age, ability, gender or background.”

The Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019, which mandated new abortion regulations in the region, is “an unjust law,” the bishops said, “which was imposed without the consent of the people of Northern Ireland.”

The bishops added they are “morally obliged, wherever possible, to do all we can to save the lives of unborn children, which could be lost through abortion, and to protect mothers from the pressures they might experience at the time of an unplanned pregnancy. We trust that you recognise this to be an obligation we all share as concerned citizens and public representatives.”

“As the Catholic Bishops of Northern Ireland we are eager to enter into dialogue with MLAs from across the political parties in an attempt to explore, where possible, how new Regulations can be formulated, which express the will of most people in our society to support and protect the lives of mothers and their unborn children,” the bishops wrote.

The Northern Ireland Executive is a power-sharing body that includes both unionists and Irish nationalists.

The largest party in the assembly, by one member, is the Democratic Unionist Party, which have emerged as a leading pro-life party in the region. However, the unionist party has had links to the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, an ecclesial community particularly hostile to the Catholic Church.

The next largest party is Sinn Féin, an Irish nationalist party that has historically enjoyed significant Catholic support. It supported the liberalization of abortion laws in Northern Ireland imposed by the British parliament, and its party members endorsed the repeal of the Republic of Ireland’s Eighth Amendment, which protected unborn children.

The remaining parties in the assembly allow their MLAs a conscience vote on abortion.

Jim Allister, the Traditional Unionist Voice’s sole MLA and a member of the opposition, said on the regulations’ coming into force that “From today, what should be the safest place for an unborn, namely its mother’s womb, can become on a whim one of the most dangerous places.”

And the leader of the Green Party in Northern Ireland, Clare Bailey, has welcomed the new regulations, saying that “access to abortion is a positive move.”

First Minister Arlene Foster, who is also leader of the DUP, said earlier this month that “I don’t believe abortion on demand should be available in Northern Ireland,” calling it “a very retrograde step for our society.”

“Instead of supporting people who find themselves in crisis pregnancies, we’re not even having any discussion around that and how we can support people in those circumstances, how we can provide perinatal care,” she added.

In contrast, Michelle O’Neill, deputy First Minister and vice president of Sinn Féin, urged that women in Northern Ireland be allowed to perform medical abortions at home.

At-home medical abortions were discussed by the region’s executive April 6, which reportedly led to a row between the DUP and Sinn Féin.

The pro-life group the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children have placed billboards in the region that urge the repeal of the regulations, and note that “Abortion kills babies”.

The poster campaign is set to expand after the Advertising Standards Authority, a regulator, rejected complaints about the billboards.

The ASA affirmed that the advertisements comply with freedem of speech defenses in the Human Rights Act 1998.

Liam Gibson, SPUC’s Northern Ireland Political Officer, said that “We intend to extend the initiative and continue to build support for the restoration of the right to life of all unborn children.”

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.

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.

Though in England, Wales, and Scotland, two medical professionals must certify in all cases that there were lawful grounds for abortion, in Northern Ireland under the new regulations only one medical professional is needed for certification in elective abortions or in cases of immediate necessity where there is a risk to the life of the mother.

The lower threshold in Northern Ireland was adopted at least in part because “it is likely that there will be a more significant number of people raising conscientious objections than in other parts of the UK.”

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

Buffer zones have not been set up around locations where abortions are procured, barring protest in the locations’ immediate vicinity. The government has decided to wait and see what the situation will be, keeping the matter under review so it can “respond to any challenges as needed at the time.”

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.

John Hayes, the Conservative MP for South Holland and The Deepings, said ahead of the regulations’ introduction that the process was “overriding devolution.”

“It seems likely this will be interpreted as the UK Government imposing its will on a reluctant part of the Kingdom which is doubtless disdainfully regarded by Whitehall’s liberal elite as antediluvian,” he wrote earlier this month.

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.

In October 2019, the High Court in Belfast had ruled that the region’s ban on the abortion of unborn children with fatal abnormalities violated the UK’s human rights commitments.

[…]

CNA Staff, Apr 22, 2020 / 09:30 am (CNA).- A 45-minute phone call between Pope Francis and French president Emmanuel Macron revealed “a lot of convergence” between the two leaders on the coronavirus crisis, the president’s office has said. 

French officials told reporters April 21 that the pope and Macron had discussed the debts of developing countries, aid to Africa, the need for a global ceasefire and the importance of a united Europe. 

“There is a lot of convergence in vision and in the answers,” the Elysée said.

The Holy See press office made no official statement regarding the conversation, in line with its policy of not commenting on private talks between the pope and world leaders. But the French version of the Vatican News website reported the Elysée’s account of the discussion and noted that Macron had renewed his invitation to the pontiff to visit France. 

Macron summarized his conversation with the pope in a Twitter post April 21. He said they had spoken about “the ordeal that humanity is going through and what it requires of us: to support Africa and help the poorest countries; to alleviate suffering by a universal truce in conflicts; and to show a supportive and united Europe.”

Last week Macron echoed Pope Francis’ appeal in his Easter Urbi et Orbi message for debt relief for the world’s poorest countries amid the coronavirus crisis. In a televised address April 13, Macron called for debt cancelation “on a massive scale.”

After the discussion with the pope, Macron spoke to representatives of French religious groups, including Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the French bishops’ conference. 

According to the newspaper Le Figaro, Macron suggested that public religious services could possibly resume in France in mid-June, but with a limited number of worshipers. 

[…]

Rome, Italy, Apr 22, 2020 / 03:16 am (CNA).- Living under coronavirus-caused quarantines and stay-at-home orders, many Catholics may find themselves unable to practice the faith in the ways to which they are accustomed.

When you can’t attend Mas… […]

Rome Newsroom, Apr 21, 2020 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- Public Masses will resume in Austria on May 15, the country’s chancellor has said.

Sebastian Kurz made the announcement at a press conference in Vienna at noon local time April 21.

Fr. Peter Schipka, secretary general of the Austrian bishops’ conference, confirmed that public liturgies would begin again from May 15, according to the Austrian Catholic news agency Kathpress.

Kurz said at the press conference that church services will “naturally” still be subject to certain restrictions. In particular, churches will have to ensure “that the distance rule is observed everywhere,” Kathpress reported.

Kurz, a Catholic, also announced the news on Twitter April 21, alongside other measures to ease the lockdown in Austria.

“It is good that we can go the way of reopening and there is also light at the end of the tunnel for the economic development of our country,” he tweeted.

“Our motto for the next phase is clear: as much freedom as possible, as much restriction as necessary.”

A statement on the website of the Federal Chancellery of Austria said that church services will be permitted “subject to certain conditions and safety regulations to protect health”.

The statement added that Susanne Raab, the country’s minister of education and cultural affairs, will share further details, in consultation with religious communities, on Thursday, April 23.

Responding to the news, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna tweeted: “We will soon be able to celebrate the Eucharist together with great joy and responsibility.”

He added: “Faith needs both: the celebration together and the personal relationship with God. This is where Christianity comes from. The community of the Church is something essentially different from a club or a group of friends.”

Austria, which has a population of 8.9 million, was one of the first European countries to enter lockdown. The first two cases of coronavirus were confirmed on February 25. From March 16 onwards, Austrians were ordered not to leave their homes except for reasons such as essential work or shopping.

Almost 15,000 people have contracted COVID-19 in Austria and 491 people have died as of April 21, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

[…]

London, England, Apr 21, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- Elderly and disabled coronavirus patients have the same right to life-prolonging treatment as others, the bishops of England and Wales have said. 

In a statement April 20, the bishops noted that th… […]