Iquique, Chile, Jan 18, 2018 / 05:27 pm (ACI Prensa).- Pope Francis stopped the ‘popemobile’ today in the streets of Iquique, Chile today, after seeing a police officer thrown from her horse as the vehicle passed her by.
The Pope was traveling in the open car after celebrating Mass, when the horse carrying mounted officer Ana Belén Aguilera Casas reared onto its hind legs, and slightly clipped the popemobile, throwing Casas to the pavement.
Casas, who is a member of the Caribineros police corps, was cared for by several colleagues and the Holy Father, who dismounted from his vehicle after it stopped.
Accompanied by his security detail, the pope hurried to where Casas sat on the pavement.
An ambulance arrived shortly thereafter to give Casas medical attention.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Santiago, Chile, Jan 13, 2018 / 04:00 am (ACI Prensa).- As Pope Francis prepares to visit Chile next week, the inmates at San Joaquin Women’s Penitentiary Center in Santiago are cleaning, decorating, and preparing for what they believe is a providential papal visit.
The Pope will visit the prison on Jan. 16, making a 40-minute stop to meet with the women there.
Ever since the Holy Father’s visit was confirmed, the 620 women incarcerated in the prison – serving sentences for drug trafficking, homicide, robbery or other crimes – have been planning for the encounter.
“People are suffering here, there’s a lot of pain, and that the Pope would come and remember us means that God has remembered us,” said inmate Nelly Dominguez. “I believe it’s the providence of God, nothing less.”
Dominguez is serving a 15-year sentence for drug trafficking. “For me, this visit is a before-and-after,” she told ACI Prensa. “Not just in my life but in the lives of all the people here.”
“I am in the process of changing, I’m working on my spiritual life, I intend to change,” she said.
“I think good things are coming for Chile,” she added, describing the Pope’s upcoming visit as “a very great blessing from God.”
Dominguez and the prison’s other inmates are making the paper decorations for the garlands that will decorate the gymnasium where the Pope will meet with the prisoners. They are constructing 7,000 paper doves and 5,000 flowers.
As part of the program, the prison choir will perform a song composed by the inmates. Entitled “Shepherd who smells of the sheep,” the song talks about life in the prison, and the pain and hopes of the women.
Sister Nelly León, a member of the Congregation of the Good Shepherd, works in the prison. She told ACI Prensa that the time of preparation is one of “a lot of joy, festivity and gladness. It’s a second Advent for us.”
The religious sister said her community has created worksheets entitled “From Forgiveness to Peace” to help the prison population spiritually prepare.
The inmates “feel a special connection with Jesus who welcomes them,” Sister León said. She compared the Pope traveling through Chile and stopping at the prison with Jesus stopping to encounter people at various moments of his earthly life, such as Martha and Mary, the woman caught in adultery, the Samaritan woman at the well, and Veronica during the Way of the Cross.
Sister León will deliver a welcome speech to Pope Francis. She said the first thing she will do is thank the pontiff for “showing his concern for incarcerated women, because he has shown his concern for the poorest of the poor, and because his presence dignifies the lives of people in prison.”
Staff members at the women’s prison agreed that the encounter will be special for everyone involved.
Petty Officer Alicia Contreras, who participates in the prison ministry, said she thinks the visit with renew the faith of all those who participate.
Chile’s national police chief, Jaime Rojas, expressed his hope that the visit will reinforce the country’s commitment to reintegrating released prisoners back into society through education, work and spiritual support. He added that he hopes the visit will “shake up the consciences of Chileans.”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Pro-lifers march in Colombia on May 4, 2024, in the country’s capital, Bogotá, and other cities and towns throughout the country. / Credit: Eduardo Berdejo/ACI Prensa
ACI Prensa Staff, May 6, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).
Under the theme “Colombia, With Life There Is Hope,” tens of thousands of Colombians took to the streets May 4 in more than 110 cities and towns during the South American country’s 18th National March for Life, according to the United for Life platform, which organized the event.
The marchers called on Colombia’s Constitutional Court to annul its rulings that decriminalized and subsequently liberalized abortion.
United for Life was also joined by multiple pro-life organizations, including 40 Days for Life, the Men’s Rosary, and Rachel’s Vineyard, as well as dioceses, nuns, priests, families, and numerous laypeople.
The simultaneous pro-life demonstrations took place in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Cúcuta, Montería, Pereira, Cumaral, and scores of other cities.
In Bogotá, the marchers departed from the National Park and went down 7th Street until reaching Plaza Bolívar in the center of the Colombian capital.
In the country’s capital city, pro-life Colombians march from the National Park to Plaza Bolívar on May 4, 2024. Credit: Eduardo Berdejo / ACI Prensa
In front of the thousands of people holding light blue flags and wearing blue neckerchiefs — the color of the pro-life movement — the president of United for Life, Jesús Magaña, read a manifesto in which he decried the “close to 20,000 abortions that have taken place in the city of Bogotá alone,” which amounts to “20 times more than other causes of violent deaths.”
Magaña also warned that the Constitutional Court intends to “say that abortion is a fundamental right, against the entire letter and spirit of our constitution, the feelings of the Colombian people, and signed international treaties.”
“We are unwilling to remain silent and stand by in the face of the largest massacre in the country,” he declared.
“Which is why,” he said, “as citizens of Colombia who love, respect, and defend life, we have mobilized in 114 cities throughout the country to fill the streets and squares and proclaim firmly, loudly, and clearly that life is sacred, that it must be respected and cared for from the moment of fertilization until natural death.”
In addition to abortion, the pro-life leader pointed out that Colombia’s survival is in danger from “euthanasia, suicide, and structural conditions that deny life.”
The United for Life manifesto demanded that the Constitutional Court annul its pro-abortion rulings C-355 of 2006 and C-055 of 2022, “which are producing a terrible holocaust.” In addition, the organization urged the Legislature to shelve “euthanasia bills” and pass “laws that protect life,” pregnancy, motherhood, and the family.
The manifesto also demanded the Legislature “defeat bill 270 of 2024 that prohibits parents from choosing the best psychological treatment for their children according to their convictions, values, and principles.”
The text also called for forceful action against child sexual exploitation and support for “women with crisis or unexpected pregnancies through well-funded public policies.”
Marchers prayed for pregnant mothers and the victims of abortion. Credit: Eduardo Berdejo / ACI Prensa
‘The only lord of life is God’
Among those who addressed the participants was Father Laureano Barón, a priest of the Archdiocese of Bogotá who emphasized that “the only lord of life is God, from natural conception to natural death.”
“Let everyone know that Colombia is a pro-life country,” he said, encouraging prayers for the conversion of “all those who try to implement and carry forward projects that cause the death of the innocent.”
“We wish evil on no one. We ask that God touch their hearts,” Barón said.
United for Life noted that in 2023 alone, “according to figures, 52,000 elective abortions occurred in Colombia.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Leave a Reply