Krakow, Poland, Oct 10, 2019 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- The Polish bishops’ conference has agreed to begin the canonization process for the parents of Saint John Paul II.
The Polish episcopate made the announcement Oct. 10, setting in motion the first s… […]
Armagh, Northern Ireland, Oct 9, 2019 / 02:51 am (CNA).- Health professionals in Northern Ireland are writing to the region’s secretary to protest a liberalization of the region’s abortion laws, which the UK parliament is set to impose on Northern Ireland this month unless Northern Ireland’s parliament reconvenes.
According to the Impartial Reporter, over 800 health professionals in Northern Ireland have written to the Secretary of State expressing concern and opposition to the potential legal change.
“As a Christian my faith in God also plays a major part of my belief in the sanctity of life,” a midwife from County Fermanagh told the Impartial Reporter.
“[God’s] word says we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ and it is my personal conviction that the miracle of life is given by God. But I want to make the point that many midwives who are part of the ‘Midwives for Both Lives’ Facebook group are of non-faith backgrounds and still they believe in protecting the life of the unborn child,” she said.
The British parliament voted in July to add same-sex marriage and a loosening of abortion restrictions as amendments to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill, which is designed to keep the region running amid a protracted deadlock in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
The Northern Ireland Catholic bishops’ conference has condemned the legislation’s “unprecedented” use of authority to legalize abortion in the region.
The Assembly has been suspended for the past two years due to a dispute between the two major governing parties. The Democratic Unionist Party, the largest, is opposed to changing the law. Sinn Féin, another prominent party in Northern Ireland, backs a liberalization of the abortion law.
If Northern Ireland Assembly is not reconvened by Oct. 21, the expansion of abortion rights and the legalization of same-sex marriage will take effect. Secretary Julian Smith would be mandated to put the laws into effect by March 31, 2020.
The UK government on Tuesday morning published guidelines for health professionals for when the abortion law tentatively goes into effect. The guidelines state that between Oct. 22, 2019 and March 31, 2020, no criminal charges can be brought against those who have an abortion, or against health care professionals who perform and assist in an abortion.
The health professionals’ letter of concern also lamented a lack of conscience protections in the bill for medical personnel who object to participating in abortions. The new guidelines instruct those health professionals with a conscientious objection to direct women to information about where to obtain an abortion elsewhere.
The guidelines go on to say that health professionals may object to participating “hands-on” in an abortion, but this does not include the “ancillary, administrative and managerial tasks” related to the procedure.
“You must not express your personal beliefs (including political, religious and moral beliefs) to patients in ways that exploit their vulnerability or are likely to cause them distress,” the guidelines state.
Last year, the Republic of Ireland held a referendum in which voters repealed the country’s pro-life protections, which had recognized the life of both mothers and their babies. Irish legislators then enacted legislation allowing legal abortion in what had long been a Catholic and pro-life stronghold.
Elective abortion is legal in the rest of the United Kingdom up to 24 weeks, while currently it is legally permitted in Northern Ireland only if the mother’s life is at risk or if there is risk of permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health.
Northern Irish women have been able to procure free National Health Service abortions in England, Scotland, and Wales since November 2017.
Leaders of the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, Methodist Church in Ireland, Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and the Irish Council of Churches, have called on their congregations to lobby their locally elected representatives, and ask them to reconvene the assembly before the deadline.
“We are, along with others, gravely concerned that the imposition of this Westminster legislation,” the leaders wrote, calling for two special days of prayer over the weekend of October 12-13 for the unborn and for women facing difficult pregnancies and their families.
The religious leaders also objected that the people of Northern Ireland were not consulted about the measure, and there is no evidence that it reflects the will of the citizens.
Arlene Foster, the leader of the DUP, has reiterated her party’s stance in its opposition to abortion, and she called for the restoration of the devolved government in the region.
Krakow, Poland, Oct 8, 2019 / 10:30 am (CNA).- The Archbishop of Krakow has compared the LGBT rights movement in Poland to communism. Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski made the comparison in a pastoral letter to the archdiocese released on S… […]
Kaunas, Lithuania, Oct 8, 2019 / 12:49 am (CNA).- One of the newest cardinals of the Church says he drew strength from the Mass and the Blessed Virgin during the decade he spent in a Soviet prison camp in Siberia.
Sigitas Tamkevicius, archbishop emeritus of Kaunas, Lithuania, was elevated to the rank of cardinal in the Oct. 5 consistory.
As a priest in Lithuania, Tamkevicius played an active part in resisting communist persecution of the Church. With four other priests, he founded in 1978 the Catholic Committee for the Defense of Believers’ Rights.
He also set up the Chronicle of the Catholic Church of Lithuania, a small magazine – produced on a typewriter – that reported on the situation of the Church and of Catholics in the Baltic state.
In 1983, Tamkevicius was arrested and held by the KGB. He was sentenced to 10 years of forced labor and exile. He served some of his sentence in Siberia.
In a statement to EWTN and ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language sister agency, Tamkevicius explained that during his time in prison, “my stronghold was my faith, which I kept alive by praying a lot.”
“I could only celebrate Mass secretly. I celebrated the Eucharist with great care, and for me it was a great source of strength in prison,” he said.
To get the bread and wine, Tamkevicius resorted to the meal tickets the prisoners received. He was able to receive bread – and could request that it be unleavened – and a dry grape, which he would use to make the wine.
The cardinal said other prisoners would comment about his faith, and the strength that it gave him.
“They told me, ‘It’s easier for you because you have faith, because you can say Mass and that makes you stronger than us.’”
Tamkevicius also turned to the Virgin Mary as a source of strength, from the moment he was sentenced and sent on a train to the forced labor camp.
“I placed myself in the hands of the Virgin,” he said, adding when he returned from the prison camp, he immediately went from the train station to the Chapel of the Virgin of the Gate of Dawn in Vilnius.
“There I celebrated Mass, and gave thanks to the Lord and also to the Virgin,” he said.
In his statement, the new cardinal said his appointment by Pope Francis surprised him. At 80 years old, Tamkevicius will not be able to vote in the next conclave. He emphasized that he sees his appointment as the pope’s effort to draw attention “to the entire Church that suffered during the Soviet years.”
He also echoed Pope Francis’ frequent emphasis on martyrdom, saying “if a believer is not ready to suffer for his faith, then he’s a very weak believer. Our local Church can give a good example to the whole Church, because during the 50 years of Communism, we kept our faith.”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
London, England, Oct 7, 2019 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- An advertising company has has apologized for displaying a pro-life billboard in the United Kingdom, saying it is removing the ad and will make a donation to a pro-abortion charity.
The billboard was erected in Walthamstow, East London, as part of the #StopStella campaign. The campaign is in reference to local Labour MP Stella Creasy, the leader of a movement to force legal abortion on Northern Ireland later this month. Creasy is now pushing to fully legalize abortion throughout the United Kingdom via amendments to the Domestic Abuse Bill.
The organization the Centre for Bioethical Reform UK paid for the 20-foot billboard, which featured a picture of Creasy next to an image of a baby who was aborted at 24-weeks gestation. The billboard read “Your MP is working hard…. To make this a human right.”
Clear Channel, the company that produced the billboard, issued an apology and pledged to donate the money they were paid for the advertisement to Abortion Support Network. The apology followed a series of tweets by Creasy about a seperate billboard from the same campaign which appeared overnight Sept. 30.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Twitter-can you get me the CEO of <a href=”https://twitter.com/CCUK_Direct?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@CCUK_Direct</a> advertising? how much did you get for this crap? <a href=”https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@metpoliceuk</a> still think this is just 'free speech' and not harassment of women in walthamstow? Am sorry for the graphic images and <a href=”https://twitter.com/patel4witham?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@patel4witham</a> am reaching out to you for help now. <a href=”https://t.co/rOG7Gc3App”>pic.twitter.com/rOG7Gc3App</a></p>— stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) <a href=”https://twitter.com/stellacreasy/status/1178593407280799744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>September 30, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
In addition to calling out the company, the MP asked to Metropololitan police to invesitgate the ads as “harassment.”
Centre for Bioethical Reform UK, which is the UK branch of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, said that the aim of the billboard was to inform the people of Walthamstow about “the humanity of the unborn child and the reality of abortion.”
The United Kingdom has different free speech laws than the United States, including on sensitive issues such as abortion. Several jurisdictions in the UK have worked to enact so-called “buffer zone” laws that prevent pro-life activists from demonstrating near abortion clinics. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 2014 that similar legislation in America was unconstitutional.
The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform is known for their controversial “genocide awareness project” that displays images of aborted children on large banners, in public view. In the U.K., the CEO of the Center for Bioethical Reform UK was arrested in 2010 for protesting with similar banners.
The Democratic Unionist Party, the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and a member of the coalition government in Westminster, is opposed to changing the region’s abortion law.
Bills to legalize abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, or incest failed in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016.
Recently, Northern Ireland’s High Court ruled that the country’s abortion law was a violation of human rights.
In her Oct. 3rd decision, Justice Siobhan Keegan said that the law violated the U.K.’s human rights legislation. She, however, declined to make a formal declaration of incompatibility, due to the fact that there is already legislation in place that would make abortion legal in Northern Ireland in the near future.
A bill was passed in July by the British parliament that will make both abortion and same-sex marriage legal in the region if a devolved government is not formed by Oct. 21.
Paris, France, Oct 7, 2019 / 12:23 pm (CNA).- At least 42,000 people protested in Paris Sunday against a bill that would allow single women and lesbian couples access to IVF. Many French bishops have spoken against the bill.
Police said there were 42,000 at the Oct. 6 protests, while a media-funded researchers estimated 74,000, and organizers 600,000.
Speaking at the protest, former legislator Marion Maréchal said the French government is seeking “to voluntarily deprive a child of a father or to transform him and the mother who carries him into a consumer product.”
Organizers of the protests said the move would weaken the family and thus society, and that it is unjust “to authorize the manufacture of children voluntarily deprived of a father.”
Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris has said that the bill “touches on the most essential foundations on which our human societies are built: filiation, the non-commercialization of the human body, respect of all life from its conception until its natural death, the best interest of the child, a philanthropic and non-commercial medicine, a human ecology where the body is not an instrument but the place of the edification of the personality.”
And Archbishop Eric de Moulins d’Amieu de Beaufort of Reims, president of the French bishops’ conference, commented: “I’m afraid we are going down a very dangerous path.”
The bill passed the National Assembly last month, and will soon be considered by the Senate.
In France, IVF is now restricted to men and women who are married or have cohabited at least two years.
The bill would make women under 43 eligible for artificial insemination and four rounds of IVF treatment fully covered by French health care. According to the Washington Post “women in their mid-30s would also get coverage for egg freezing.”
It would also allow all children conceived through IVF to discover the identity of their biological father.
Last month, the National Academy of Medicine said in a report on the effort to revise bioethics law that while a woman’s desire for maternity is legitimate, “the deliberate conception of a child deprived of a father is a major anthropological break that is not without risks for the psychological development of the child.”
President Emmanuel Macron included the expansion of IVF provision in his 2017 campaign.
Introducing the bill, health minister Agnès Buzyn said, “the criterion that defines a family is the love that unites a parent and child.”
Berlin, Germany, Oct 5, 2019 / 10:00 am (CNA).- Thirty years ago, prayers in St. Nicholas Church in Leipizig helped to bring about a peaceful revolution in the middle of Germany.
That revolution finally swept away the wall – and with it the tota… […]
Birmingham, England, Oct 4, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- An employment tribunal in England stated Wednesday that a biblical view of sex and gender is “incompatible with human dignity” in a ruling against a doctor who was denied employment after … […]
Belfast, Northern Ireland, Oct 3, 2019 / 04:41 pm (CNA).- The High Court in Belfast ruled Thursday that the region’s existing abortion law is in violation of the United Kingdom’s human rights commitments.
“It’s a very sad day that the court has denied the right to life for unborn children,” Bernie Smyth, director of the pro-life organization Precious Life, said Oct. 3. Smyth was present when the ruling was made.
The case challenging the legality of the country’s abortion laws was brought forward by a woman named Sarah Ewart, who was denied an abortion in 2013 after it was determined that her baby would not live outside the womb. Ewart, who lives in Belfast, traveled to England for the procedure and has been an advocate for abortion rights in Northern Ireland since then.
Justice Siobhan Keegan declined to make a formal declaration of incompatibility, due to the fact that there is already legislation in place that would make abortion legal in Northern Ireland in the near future. A bill was passed in July by the British parliament that will make both abortion and same-sex marriage legal in the region if a devolved government is not formed by Oct. 21.
Last year, a similar challenge to Northern Ireland’s abortion law was dismissed on a technicality. That case was led by Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, which the judge said had no legal standing to appeal the abortion law.
At that time of the dismissal, the court said there would be a stronger case if it were to be led by a woman who was unable to have an abortion after becoming pregnant after sexual assault or who was carrying a baby with an abnormality. Ewart stepped in to lead this new case.
While elective abortion is legal in the rest of the United Kingdom up to 24 weeks, currently it is legally permitted in Northern Ireland only if the mother’s life is at risk or if there is risk of permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health.
In September, thousands of people took to the streets of Northern Ireland to protest abortion coming to the country. The “March for their Lives” was organized by Precious Life, who at the time told CNA they were “heartened and encouraged” by the strong turnout, which was estimated to be over 20,000.
The people of Northern Ireland made “ a strong stand against the extreme and undemocratic legislation that Westminster is forcing on Northern Ireland,” said Smyth.
“We believe Northern Ireland is being used as a Trojan horse to push for full ‘decriminalisation’ of abortion across the UK, a euphemism for the full legalisation of abortion through the whole nine months of pregnancy,” said Smyth.
Bills to legalize abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, or incest failed in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016.
Northern Irish women have been able to procure free National Health Service abortions in England, Scotland, and Wales since November 2017.
London, England, Oct 3, 2019 / 02:01 pm (CNA).- The High Court of Justice ruled Thursday that the parents of Tafida Raqeeb may take her to Italy for medical treatment. The five-year-old girl has been comatose since February, and UK doctors want to remove her life-sustaining treatment.
Doctors at Royal London Hospital, where Raqeeb is on life support, had barred her parents (Muhhamed Raqeeb and Shalina Begum) from taking her abroad for treatment. Barts Health NHS Trust, which operates the hospital, had asked that the court find that ending Raqeeb’s life-sustaining treatment is in her best interest.
Alistair MacDonald, the High Court judge, wrote in his Oct. 3 ruling that “where a child is not in pain and is not aware of his or her parlous situation, these cases can place the objective best interests test under some stress”.
“Tests must be looked for in subjective or highly value laden ethical, moral or religious factors… which mean different things to different people in a diverse, multicultural, multi-faith society,” stated MacDonald, who before his appointment as a judge practised family law, and is regarded as an expert on children’s rights.
He wrote that continued treatment was “consistent with the religious and cultural tenets by which Tafida was being raised”.
“There is no justification for interfering with the right to receive treatment in another EU member state,” the judge said.
“Transfer for treatment to Italy is the choice of her parents in the exercise of their parental responsibility and having regard to the sanctity of Tafida’s life being of the highest importance, I am satisfied, on a fine balance, that it is in Tafida’s best interests for life-sustaining treatment to continue,” Macdonald found.
The BBC reported that lawyers for Barts Health NHS Trust “said hospital bosses would consider appealing against the ruling.” They have 21 days to do so. The NHS trust said MacDonald’s decision “has clear ramifications that go beyond Tafida,” and could affect other patients being cared for in its hospitals. It stated: “The judge has granted us more time to consider the implications of this judgment for the Trust, other NHS organisations, doctors and patients.”
Two doctors from the Gaslini Children’s Hospital in Genoa examined Raqeeb via video link in July, and they agreed to care for her in Italy, saying they did not believe her to be brain dead. Her family have raised money for her transfer.
A lawyer for the Italian hospital told the court, according to The Evening Standard, that “When you drill down, it is based on differing views of what quality of life Tafida has. Clinicians (in England) don’t think she has a quality of life. Her parents do.”
Raqeeb suffered an arteriovenous malformation which resulted in a burst blood vessel in her brain, and has been in a coma since Feb. 9.
The AVM triggered cardiac and respiratory arrest, as well as a traumatic brain injury. Doctors at the Royal London Hospital say there is no chance she will recover from her coma, and declared any further medical treatment futile.
Raqeeb’s family are Muslim, and have argued that Islamic law “said only God could take the decision to end her life,” the BBC reported.
Begum, a solicitor, has said she wants to “exercise her rights as a parent.”
Muhhamed Raqeeb said he and Begum were thrilled by the High Court’s judgement.
According to The Guardian, Begum said that “We have always had Tafida’s best interests at heart and we have never wanted to come to court to have to argue for our rights to seek continued care in a world-class hospital [the Gaslini] willing to give her the treatment she needs. The entire experience of having to fight for our daughter’s life over the last three months has been exhausting and traumatic for all of her family and we are glad it is now finally over.”
She added that Tafida “is not dying and we are continuously seeing small but important signs that she is gradually improving and we have always been hopeful that she might make something of a recovery if she is just given the time and the right treatment to continue to improve.”
Begum commented, “If it happens to me, I want my life to continue until a time that God actually takes me, not withdraw life support from me.”
David Lock, a barrister for Raqeeb and Begum, said the judgement was an “enormous relief” and that the family “wanted to get on with the transfer” to Gaslini Children’s Hospital.
And Paul Conrathe, a solicitor for the family, said MacDonald’s ruling recognized “that a child’s best interests are not merely medical, but include broader social and religious values. It also recognised the legal right of parents to request life-prolonging treatment in another EU state so that their child can be treated under that system of care and ethics.”
He added, according to The Telegraph, that Raqeeb’s parents “look forward to her receiving outstanding care at the Gaslini hospital in Genoa. They will also feel at peace knowing that Tafida will be cared for under the Italian ethical and legal system.”
Bishop John Sherrington, an auxiliary bishop of Westminster and the English and Welsh bishops’ representative on life issues, welcomed the ruling, which he said “has taken account of the wishes of Tafida’s parents and their innate urge to do all they can to help their daughter in what are truly tragic circumstances. The heart-breaking illness of Tafida Raqeeb and the distress which the illness of a child causes parents touches the hearts of many people.”
“I trust that all the medical professionals will cooperate to continue to give her the best possible care and appropriate treatment. Such international cooperation is essential good practice in the care of tragically difficult lives,” he continued.
In July, Bishop Sherrington had urged that the public be reserved in judgement on Raqeeb’s case, saying that “difficult dilemmas have to be faced. In that process, I hope that all due weight will be given to the wishes of her parents, while also respecting the clinical judgement of the doctors caring for her. Those of us not in possession of all the relevant information might best be reserved in our judgement.”
Katie Gollop, a barrister representing Barts Health NHS Trust, said MacDonald’s ruling could affect other children.
Raqeeb’s case follows similar campaigns by parents with children in NHS care. Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans, and Isaiah Haastrup were all gravely ill children on life-support treatment. The parents of each of those children lost court battles in recent years against hospitals that wanted to end their treatment, and prohibit them from being taken abroad for treatment.
The NHS trust cited both Gard’s and Evans’ cases in its arguments against continuing treatment for Raqeeb and against allowing her to receive treatment elsewhere.
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