Washington D.C., Jan 24, 2018 / 02:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After two students opened fire at their high schools this week, bishops in the US have offered prayers and condolences for the victims and their families.
“Over the past two days in Kent… […]
Washington D.C., Jan 24, 2018 / 01:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Cecile Richards, who has served as president of Planned Parenthood since 2006, will soon step down from her position, two sources told BuzzFeed News on Wednesday.
No official timetable has been reported, but a statement provided to BuzzFeed said that Richards “plans to discuss 2018 and the next steps for Planned Parenthood’s future” at next week’s board meeting.
During Richards’ tenure as president, Planned Parenthood increased the number of abortions performed each year by more than 10 percent. In 2006, Planned Parenthood performed 289,750 abortions. In the 2016-2017 report, that number had grown to 321,384.
On average, Planned Parenthood carried out 320,000 abortions each year during Richards’ tenure.
Despite increasing the number of abortions during her time as president, the overall number of patients treated by Planned Parenthood fell. In 2006, Planned Parenthood treated 3.1 million people. In 2016, that number had dropped to 2.4 million, yet the amount of federal funding received by Planned Parenthood had increased by over $200 million.
A total of 32 clinics closed during the last year alone.
During Richards’ time as president, a series of videos produced by the Center for Medical Progress alleged that Planned Parenthood was involved in the sale of aborted fetal parts for profit.
The Department of Justice is currently investigating Planned Parenthood due to these videos. Congress earlier launched several investigations.
It is not immediately clear what Richards plans on doing next, although her memoir, titled “Make Trouble,” will be released in April.
News of Richards’ departure was well-received from former Planned Parenthood clinic worker Abby Johnson. Johnson, who now leads the pro-life group “And Then There Were None,” comprised of former abortion clinic employees, said in a statement that she would enjoy hearing from Richards now that she’s left the industry.
“As an organization that helps abortion workers leave their jobs, we would love to hear from Cecile as she exits the industry and have her hear from former workers of her organization – and how leaving was the best choice they made,” said Johnson.
“As a powerful woman, she has the capability to stand up for women and their families without relying on the lie that abortion is good for them and empowers them, when in reality it does the opposite.”
Mosul, Iraq, Jan 24, 2018 / 12:59 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A newborn baby was sentenced to death after Iraqi tribal leaders discovered it had been conceived in rape committed by an ISIS terrorist. With the help of some Catholic sisters, the child’s mother was able to make a plan for the baby to be adopted.
The young woman’s story was recently shared by Aid to the Church in Need, a pontifical foundation supporting Catholic ministries in the Middle East.
ACN reported that the young woman, whose name was not released, had been kidnapped and raped by jihadists. During the ISIS occupation of northern Iraq, Christian and minority women were routinely kidnapped by ISIS, and often were treated as sex slaves for militants.
When tribal elders learned a teenager had become pregnant while in ISIS captivity, “they made the decision to kill the baby as soon as it was born.”
“They could not live a baby conceived by ISIS. For them it was practically the devil,” ACN stated.
ACN reported that the woman was put in contact with a group of religious sisters, and that she gave birth to the child with their help. The mother asked that the child be placed in an orphanage run by the sisters. A month later it, was adopted by a Christian family.
The pontifical foundation stated that the child’s adoptive family “will surely educate their new son in love and forgiveness. This is contribution of Christians in Iraq and the entire Middle East today. Evil never has the last word.”
The mother is under protective care to avoid any risk of retributive violence.
ACN reported that an anonymous witness told the group that saving the mother and child “could only have happened thanks to the presence of the Church” and that it is “an example of life and why our presence and culture of life are so important here.”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jan 24, 2018 / 11:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After security forces killed at least six people participating in Church-organized protests this weekend, the Archbishop of Kinshasa has likened his country to an “open prison”.
The protesters were calling for Joseph Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to step down. His two-term limit expired in December 2016, but he has refused to resign and has not allowed elections to be held.
“We were dispersed by tear gas, stun grenades and live bullets. We have again seen deaths, injuries, priests being arrested, and the theft of citizens’ property,” Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya said Jan. 23 at a church in the capital, Kinshasa.
“Christians were prevented from praying. Others were prevented from leaving by … police and military who were armed as if they had been on a battlefield,” he said.
“How can you kill men, women, children, youths and old people all chanting religious songs, carrying bibles, rosaries and crucifixes?” Cardinal Monsengwo asked. “Are we now living in an open prison?”
During Jan. 21 demonstrations against Kabila, six people were shot dead by security forces, and dozens more were wounded. Hundreds have been detained, including at least a dozen priests and nuns, The Guardian reports.
The protests were organized by the Lay Coordination Committee of the DRC, which has the backing of many clerics in the country.
Arrests were also reported in Mbuji-Mayi, Goma, and Lubumbashi.
The US Department of State said Jan. 23 that “We are appalled that the DRC government, including President Kabila, would employ repressive tactics and disproportionate use of lethal force against civilians – including religious leaders and children – exercising their democratic rights to call for credible and inclusive elections.”
“The use of lethal force against Congolese citizens, and the cutting of internet and SMS service, undermine the democratic process, obstruct implementation of the St. Sylvestre Accord and contravene international human rights norms,” added State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert.
The latest demonstrations and arrests follow a similar incident on Dec. 31, 2017. Then, several protestors were killed and more than 120 arrested, most of them in Kinshasa.
The bishops in the DRC have asked that Kabila not seek a third term as president. He has been in power since 2001. With about half the population identifying as Catholic, the Church in the DRC is one of the country’s most important institutions.
The Church played a crucial role as mediator in negotiations that led to an agreement reached at the end of 2016 that Kabila would step down following elections to be held in 2017. Those elections were not held, and have now been delayed until December.
The delay in elections has been attributed by the government to difficulties with voter registration.
Vatican City, Jan 24, 2018 / 10:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking to members of the Yazidi community, a religious minority which has been persecuted by the Islamic State, Pope Francis said Wednesday that everyone has a fundamental right to freedom of religion, and no person or group has the power to deny it.
“It is unacceptable that human beings be persecuted and killed because of their religious affiliation! Every person has the right to freely profess his religious beliefs without constraints,” the Pope said Jan. 24 in a room adjoining the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall to representatives of the Yazidi community who have taken refuge in Germany.
“I raise my voice in favor of Yazidi rights, above all the right to exist as a religious community: no one can bestow on themselves the power to cancel a religious group because it is not part of those called ‘tolerated.’”
Yazidis are a religious minority largely from the Nineveh Plains in Iraq. Communities can also be found in Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Iran, and Syria, though many have fled to Europe, and particularly Germany, in response to religious persecution.
In March 2016, they were part of a group, which included Christians and Shia Muslims, declared to be victims of Islamic State genocide by the United States government. It marked the first time the U.S. had declared a genocide is taking place since 2004 in Darfur.
During the meeting, Francis voiced his support and prayers for the innocent victims of such “senseless and inhuman barbarism.”
He also expressed his concern for members of the Yazidi community who may still be in the hands of terrorists, stating his hope “that everything possible will be done to save them; as well as to trace the missing and to give identity and worthy burial to those killed.”
Even those who have been lucky enough to escape have still had to leave behind everything they had, he noted, deploring the “unspeakable violations” which have been committed against their fundamental human rights, such as abductions, slavery, torture, forced conversions, and killings.
“The international community cannot remain a silent and inert spectator in the face of your drama,” he said, adding an appeal to institutions and people of other communities to help them rebuild their homes and places of worship.
Even today, persecution against minorities, which includes Christians, continues, he pointed out, and said that the Holy See never tires “of intervening to denounce these situations, demanding recognition, protection and respect.”
“May God help us to build together a world where we can live in peace and brotherhood,” he concluded.
Vatican City, Jan 24, 2018 / 04:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his message for the World Day of Social Communications, published Wednesday, Pope Francis said that in a world of lightning-fast communication, there is a responsibility to combat falsehood and… […]
Vatican City, Jan 24, 2018 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At the end of the general audience Wednesday, Pope Francis spoke out against violence, particularly its escalation amid political protests taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Unfortunately, troubling news continues to come from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Therefore, I renew my call for everyone to commit to avoiding all forms of violence,” he said Jan. 24.
“On her part, the Church wants nothing other than to contribute to the peace and to the common good of society.”
The Democratic Republic of Congo is currently experiencing deadly political tensions as protesters, banned by the Congolese government, demand that President Joseph Kabila step down.
Dozens of people have died in political protests, and militia violence has increased, prompting fears of a return to civil war.
Under Kabila, who has held office since 2001, Congolese bishops have spoken out against the government’s human rights violations and the president’s plan to remove term limits that bar him from re-election.
The bishops also helped mediate an agreement between the country’s ruling political coalition and opposition leaders, culminating in a Dec. 31, 2016 agreement.
The agreement allowed Kabila to remain in office beyond his mandate but he must step down after an election to be held this year. However, the country’s electoral commission then said an election could not be organized until December 2018. The president’s opponents fear Kabila aims to remain in power, while the president has blamed delays on a slow voter registration process.
The eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo are also suffering from armed conflict, with millions of people forced from their homes.
Francis’ appeal for peace was made at the end of the general audience in St. Peter’s Square. Following just two days after his return from a Jan. 15-22 apostolic visit to Chile and Peru, the Pope recapped the events of the trip, highlighting some important moments.
He noted that in Chile, the trip was preceded by protests, for various reasons, which he said made the motto of the visit, “My peace I give you,” even more “current and alive.”
“These are the words of Jesus addressed to the disciples, which we repeat in every Mass: the gift of peace, which only Jesus, dead and risen, can give to those who entrust themselves to Him,” he said.
In his meeting with Chilean authorities the Pope encouraged them to continue developing their democracy and to listen to the voices of the poor, young, elderly and immigrants.
In his homily for the first Mass of the trip, he emphasized the importance of the Beatitudes, especially “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
The Pope said that an important moment of the trip for him was his visit to the women’s prison in Santiago. “The faces of those women, many of them young mothers, with their little ones in their arms, expressed hope” in spite of everything, he said.
His meetings with consecrated men and women and with bishops were also “very intense,” he stated. During his visit with the bishops, he urged them to reject any compromise when it comes to the sexual abuse of minors, and to trust in God, “who through this hard proof purifies and renews his ministers.”
Two other Masses were also celebrated in Chile: one in the north in Iquique, and the other in the south, in the Araucania region, where the Mapuche Indians live.
He also met with young people and with students and faculty of the Catholic University of Chile, encouraging them to ask themselves, in the words of the Chilean saint, Alberto Hurtado: “What would Christ do in my place?”
In Peru, the motto of Francis’ visit was “United by hope.” There, he said that his meeting with indigenous communities of the Amazon in Peru was “emblematic” of the unity that can be found not in uniformity, but in all the richness of the differences inherited from history and culture.
Speaking to political and civil authorities, he strongly denounced ecological-social degradation and corruption, which he said on Wednesday, “ruins hearts.”
“And I remarked that no one is exempt from responsibility in the face of these two wounds and that the commitment to counter them concerns everyone,” he continued.
In Trujillo, Peru, the Pope held Mass, met with priests and consecrated, and participated in a Marian celebration, in which he crowned the Immaculate Virgin of the Gate of Otuzco, a popular Marian devotion in Peru, the “Mother of Mercy and Hope.”
The final day of the trip took place in Lima, “with a strong spiritual and ecclesial accent,” he said. In Lima he met with around 500 contemplative women religious, who he said are “a true ‘lung’ of faith and prayer for the Church and for the whole society.”
He also prayed before the relics of five Peruvian saints in the Cathedral of Lima and again met with bishops of the country.
“As always, the word of Jesus gives full meaning to everything,” he said. “And so too the Gospel of the last Eucharistic celebration summarized God’s message to his people in Chile and Peru: ‘Repent and believe in the Gospel’ (Mk 1:15).”
“Thus – the Lord seemed to say – you will receive the peace that I give you and you will be united in my hope,” he concluded.
Santiago, Chile, Jan 23, 2018 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- A dog named Rambo lived up to his “action hero” name, when his barking alerted sleeping religious sisters that a chapel next to their convent was on fire.
In the early morning hours of Jan. 20, a fire destroyed the Virgen de la Candelaria Chapel in the town of Calafquen, Chile, next to the home of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters. Police suspect the fire was caused by arson.
Fr. Alejandro Gutiérrez is the pastor of San Sebastián Parish, which includes the chapel. The priest told Radio Bio Bio that the sisters’ house “is attached to the church. A much greater tragedy could have happened there. If the dog’s barking hadn’t alerted them, the fire would have spread to the convent and we would be grieving over a much more serious incident.”
Gutiérrez explained that the chapel was 80 years old, and the sisters there worked mainly in education.”
“This just creates a new opportunity to continue serving Jesus Christ and to strengthen our faith,” he priest said.
Sources told ACI Prensa that around 3:30 in the morning, a group of masked arsonists broke a window in the rear of the Church, and threw a fire bomb inside.
Four companies of firefighters arrived on scene to fight the flames. With the help of the neighbors they were able to keep the fire from spreading to the nuns’ convent.
The Panguipulli fire chief, Rodolfo Zúñiga, told Cooperativa Radio that the electricity to the church was shut off at the junction box, so the fire was probably caused by a third party.
“Unfortunately for our town, as residents of Panguipulli, [arson] is already becoming routine, the situation is lamentable, but once again today we had one of the most beautiful chapels in the area reduced to rubble,” the fire chief said.
The Carmelite superior, Sister Maria Daniela, told Radio Bio Bio that she believes the fire was intentional, though the sisters had not received any kind of threats.
“We are women of peace. This is an oasis of peace,” the religious explained. “I never would have imagined that people would come and do something bad.”
Sister Maria Daniela sent a message to those responsible: “you need to place yourselves in the presence of God. It’s sad to know that there are people dedicated to doing evil, because the world does not progress with evil.”
Two other churches in Panguipulli were also recently attacked and two received threats, including the town’s main church.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Both Dr. Craig, who is Protestant, and I agreed heartily in our opposition to dumbed-down versions of Christianity and that authentic faith ought never to […]
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