Canadian Catholics won’t be bullied into supporting abortion, bishop says

CNA Staff, Nov 24, 2020 / 08:00 pm (CNA).- Argentine president Alberto Fernández said Sunday he hopes Pope Francis won’t be angry because of a bill he introduced in the country’s legislature to legalize abortion. The president, a Catholic, said he had to introduce the bill to solve “a public health problem in Argentina.”

Fernández made the statement Nov. 22 on the Argentine television program Corea del Centro.

In defense of his position, the president explained “I am a Catholic, but I have to solve a problem in Argentine society. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing is the president of France who approved abortion in France, and the pope at that time demanded to know how being a Catholic he was promoting that, and the answer was  ‘I govern many French people who aren’t Catholics and I have to solve a public health problem.’”

“That’s what’s going on with me more or less. Beyond that, no matter how Catholic one is, on the issue of abortion, it seems to me that this is a different discussion. I don’t agree very much with the logic of the Church on that issue,” Fernández said.

The president’s reference to a public health crisis seemed to refer to unsubstantiated claims from abortion advocates in the country, who claim that women in Argentina die frequently from so-called “clandestine” or unsafe illegal abortions in the country. In a Nov. 12 interview Bishop Alberto Bochatey, who heads the Argentine bishops’ conference healthcare ministry, challenged those assertions.

Pope Francis is an Argentine.

When asked if “the pope will be very angry about” the initiative, Fernández replied: “I hope not, because he knows how much I admire him, how much I value him and I hope he understands that I have to solve a public health problem in Argentina. Finally, the Vatican is a state within a country called Italy where abortion has been allowed for many years. So I hope he’ll understand.”

“This is not against anyone, this is to solve a problem” and if the abortion law passes,  “that doesn’t make it mandatory, and those who have their religious convictions, all of them very respectable, are not obliged to abort,” he said in justification of the law.

Fulfilling a presidential campaign promise, Fernández introduced the bill to legalize abortion Nov. 17.

The bill is expected to be debated by the legislature in December.

The legislative process will begin in the Chamber of Deputies (lower house) committees on General Legislation, Health and Social Action, Women and Diversities, and Criminal Legislation and then go to a full session of the chamber. If passed there, it will be sent to the Senate for debate.

In June 2018, the Chamber of Deputies passed an abortion bill with 129 votes for, 125 against and 1 abstention. After intense debate, the Senate rejected the bill in August by a vote of 38 to 31 with two abstentions and one lawmaker absent.

During the interview, Fernández said his bill would have the necessary votes to pass.

According to the Argentine president, a “serious debate” is not about “abortion yes or no”, but “under what conditions are abortions performed” in Argentina. Fernández accused pro-lifers of wanting “clandestine abortions to continue.” For “those of us who say ‘yes to abortion,’ what we want is for abortions to be performed in appropriate sanitary conditions,” he said.

After Fernández introduced his bill, several pro-life organizations announced activities in opposition to legalizing abortion. More than 100 lawmakers have created the Argentine Network of Legislators for Life to fight abortion measures at federal and local levels.

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news agency. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 16, 2023 / 18:50 pm (CNA).
A group of Catholic leaders from Costa Rica — including Daniel Blanco, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San José — recently participated in a webinar titled “Sac… […]

Mexico City, Mexico, Dec 12, 2018 / 05:40 pm (ACI Prensa).- With 26 priests murdered in the last six years, Mexico received a prominent mention in the 2018 Report on Religious Freedom in the World, recently published by the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Julieta Appendini, ACN’s director in Mexico, explained that although the country is not experiencing “a persecution such as in the Middle East,” where religious minorities are being killed, they are instead seeing “new forms of persecution.”

The majority of the murders of priests are due to their “getting in the way” of organized crime and drug trafficking, since the priests “provide stability to society,” Appendini told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language sister agency.

She added that confrontations between Catholics and Protestants in southern Mexico are also recorded in the ACN report, as well as cases of looting churches and extortion.

The ACN director in Mexico explained that the religious freedom report analyzes the right to religious liberty in 106 countries.

“Every two years, we see how each country is doing based on this right which is founded on Article 18 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights,” she said.

Appendini said the situation in 2018 “has gotten worse,” since “in 38 countries out of 196 there is serious, heavy persecution and discrimination,” which is primarily concentrated in the Middle East and Africa.

In addition to China and Russia, India is also a critical case, where the government promotes Hinduism and encourages discrimination and repression of religious minorities such as Christians.

“Out of the world’s population, 61 percent, we’re talking 2.5 billion people, live in a country where there is religious persecution or discrimination.”

Faced with this situation, she said, ACN is seeking to inform and raise awareness, encourage prayer, and be bridges of charity.

“The foundation has helped financially, through all the donations of our benefactors throughout the world, especially for the persecuted Christians,” she said.

Appendini said that ACN has provided “emergency aid on all levels. Not just with spiritual support, but with food, building their churches, schools, and with emergency aid so they can survive.”

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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