Two significant interviews dropped late last week, in which key figures in the organization of the upcoming meeting of the heads of the world’s bishops’ conferences on the theme of child protection gave their views […]
Santiago, Chile, Nov 29, 2018 / 12:48 pm (ACI Prensa).- Chilean president Sebastián Piñera signed into law Wednesday a bill permitting people aged 14 or older to change their name and gender in the civil registry.
The law signed Nov. 28 defines gender identity as “the personal or internal conviction of being a man or woman, in the person’s self-perception, which may or may not correspond with the sex and name verified on the birth registration certificate.”
It was first introduced in 2013 during the administration of Michelle Bachelet under the name “Recognizing and Giving Protection to the Right of Gender Identity.”
Although some legislators filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court to declare the measure unconstitutional, this was rejected Oct. 25.
From 18 years of age, a person will be able twice to “obtain the rectification of the name and sex” in the registry.
Minors between 14 and 18 years of age will have to process the request in family court and have the approval of at least one of their parents or guardians.
Lacking that, the minor must ask a judge to intervene to proceed with the change of name and sex in the civil registry.
Once the minor makes the change they will not be able to retract it until turning 18.
Minors under 14 were finally not included in the law.
The law is part of the “Friendly Settlement Agreement” signed in 2016 between the Homosexual Integration and Liberation Movement and the Chilean state, with the mediation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
In this agreement, the state committed to “continue to perfect institutions on the foundational level ” and to “improve and adapt” public policies and legislation to prevent discrimination and guarantee the rights of the LGBTI population.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Washington D.C., Nov 29, 2018 / 11:30 am (CNA).- The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday in favor of a procedural motion to advance a resolution that could end U.S. involvement in the conflict in Yemen. By a margin of nearly two-to-one, senators backed a motio… […]
Vatican City, Nov 29, 2018 / 09:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Shrines and sanctuaries should be places of welcoming and mercy where the sacraments can be received, Pope Francis said Thursday to an international gathering of shrine rectors and pastoral workers.
“The shrine,” the pope said Nov. 29 in the Vatican’s Sala Regia, “is a privileged place to experience mercy that knows no boundaries.”
“In fact, when mercy is lived, it becomes a form of real evangelization, because it transforms those who receive mercy into witnesses of mercy,” he said.
Pope Francis also told the group he hopes each shrine has the presence of one or more “missionaries of mercy” to help with this evangelical work, and if they do not, to ask the Pontifical Council for the Promoting the New Evangelization to help.
Missionaries of mercy are the approximately 1,000 priests from around the world Francis authorized during and after the 2016 Jubilee Year of Mercy to spread the message of God’s mercy and forgiveness, particularly through the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Pope Francis spoke to priests and lay people participating in an international convention on the daily work and operation of shrines. Held Nov. 27-29 at the Vatican, it brought together 586 participants from five continents. The group plans to hold similar conventions once every three years.
The theme of the gathering was “The shrine: an open door to the new evangelization”; it took place following Pope Francis’ February 2017 decision to move the competency for shrines and sanctuaries under the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.
Speaking to participants, Francis said shrines are irreplaceable because through catechesis and the “testimony of charity” they help sustain popular piety.
He noted two important aspects of a Catholic shrine: prayer and hospitality. He said hospitality is important because when pilgrims come to a shrine, often after having made a long journey, “it is sad when it happens that, on their arrival, there is no one to give them a word of welcome.”
He also warned against paying more attention to the material needs of the shrine than to visitors. Pilgrims, he said, should be made to feel “‘at home,’ like a long-awaited family member who has finally arrived.”
Keep in mind, he said, that some people visit religious shrines for reasons beside piety or devotion. For example, because of local tradition, the art present, or the beautiful natural setting.
When people are welcomed, their hearts become more open to being “shaped by grace,” he stated. “A climate of friendship is a fertile seed that our Shrines can throw into the soil of the pilgrims, allowing them to rediscover that trust in the Church.”
Above all, a shrine is a place of prayer, he emphasized, adding that with many of the world’s shrines being devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, there she “opens the arms of her maternal love to listen to everyone’s prayer and to fulfill it.”
He urged sanctuaries to celebrate the sacraments frequently, since they are the universal prayers of the Church and to “nourish the prayer of the individual pilgrim in the silence of his heart,” since many people visit a shrine wishing to receive a specific grace or the answer to a particular prayer.
“With the words of the heart, with silence, with his formulas learned by heart as a child, with his gestures of piety…everyone must be able to be helped to express his personal prayer,” he said.
Vatican City, Nov 29, 2018 / 05:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis wrote in his 2015 encyclical, Laudato si, that, “by learning to see and appreciate beauty, we learn to reject self-interested pragmatism.”
The Holy Father quoted this lin… […]
Bangui, Central African Republic, Nov 29, 2018 / 12:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The bishops of the Central African Republic have set aside a day of mourning and a day of prayer for victims of ongoing violence in the country.
December 1 will be a day of mourning. The date is significant, as it marks the anniversary of the Central African Republic’s establishment as a republic after French colonial rule.
In a communique, the bishops urged “men and women of good will to refrain from celebrating 1 December as a sign of mourning,” according to Vatican News.
On the following day, the first Sunday of Advent, prayers will be held in memory of the victims of violence in the country. The bishops said all donations collected on this Sunday will be given to support victims and their families.
The prayer and mourning initiative was announced at a Nov. 26 press conference in Bangui.
Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, the archbishop of Bangui and president of the CAR bishops’ conference, said the appeal is a response to ongoing violence and an attempt to raise awareness about the situation in the country.
“Following the unfortunate and repetitive events that have plunged Central African families into mourning since 2012, the most recent of which are those of Bangui, Bambari, Batangafo and Alindao, the Central African Bishops’ Conference is holding its extraordinary session on 24 November 2018 and hereby issues this communiqué,” he said, according to Vatican News.
The Central African Republic has suffered violence since December 2012, when several bands of mainly Muslim rebel groups formed an alliance, taking the name Seleka, and seized power.
In reaction to the Seleka’s attacks, some Central Africans formed self-defense groups called anti-balaka. Some of these groups, mainly composed of Christians, began attacking Muslims out of revenge, and the conflict took on a sectarian character.
According to Reuters, the violence has displaced more than 1 million people and brought the country’s food security to a level four in the international food security classification system, one step away from “famine.” The U.N. humanitarian chief for CAR, Najat Rochdi, said nearly 3 million of the country’s 4.6 million population are in need of aid. More than half of them are in desperate need.
“If the situation is remaining the same and people are not going back to work their fields… it means that, yes, in a very few years we will have a famine in Central African Republic,” Rochidi said.
Recent acts of violence include the torching of several Christian internal displacement camps. At least 42 people – many of whom were refugees – died in a Nov.15 attack Thursday on the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Alindao.
At the press conference on Monday, Nzapalainga pointed to the Constitution of the Central African Republic, which states, “The human person is sacred and inviolable. All public officials, all organizations, have an absolute obligation to respect and protect it.”
Vatican City, Nov 28, 2018 / 08:00 pm (CNA).- The next gathering of the Council of Cardinals, also known as the C9, will take place Dec. 10-12. It will likely be the last meeting of […]
It is cheering news that John Henry Newman’s canonization now appears to be at hand since a second miracle attributed to his intercession has been accepted. Whenever I am asked how I became Catholic (Newman […]
Washington D.C., Nov 28, 2018 / 05:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The US House of Representatives passed Tuesday H.R. 390, a bill titled “Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act,” which seeks to assist with the rebuilding of the Christian and Yazidi communities in Iraq and Syria.
Having also passed the Senate, the bill now will go to President Donald Trump, who has indicated he is willing to sign it.
The bill was introduced by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and was cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 47 members of Congress. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) was the lead Democratic co-sponsor of the bill. The bill was passed unanimously in the House Nov. 27.
H.R. 390 would provide funding to entities, including those who are faith-based, that are assisting with the humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery efforts in Iraq and Syria to religious and ethnic minorities in the area.
It would also direct the Trump administration to “assess and address the humanitarian vulnerabilities, needs, and triggers that might force these survivors to flee” the area, as well as identify potential warning signs of violence against religious or ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria.
Additionally, the bill will support entities that are conducting criminal investigations into members of the Islamic State who committed “crimes against humanity and war crimes in Iraq,” and will encourage foreign governments to identify suspected Islamic State perpetrators in security databases and security screenings to assist with their capture and prosecution.
The Senate unanimously passed a slightly amended version of the bill Oct. 11.
“The fact that this bill passed both the House and the Senate unanimously shows that the American response to genocide transcends partisanship and that there is enormous political will to protect and preserve religious minorities in the Middle East, including Christians and Yazidis, who were targeted for extinction,” said Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl Anderson upon the bill’s passage. Anderson testified at a congressional hearing about the bill.
“We thank Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ), the bill’s author, and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), its lead cosponsor, for their leadership in partnership with Knights of Columbus on this important bill,” he said.
Smith noted that “over-stretched groups on the ground” have been “fill[ing] the gap” in providing aid to survivors of Islamic State. He said that so far, Aid to the Church in Need has contributed more than $60 million, and the Knights of Columbus more than $20 million, to the region’s response.
The bill took 17 months to pass, Smith told CNA, and was introduced three separate years. Smith was able to visit Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, and he said he found the work the archbishop was doing there to be inspiring. The congressman said that it was important to include faith-based entities among those receiving funding under the bill.
Since Islamic State came to power in the region, the Christian and Yazidi populations have been decimated, Warda explained to CNA. And even though Islamic State is no longer in power and the area has been liberated, the region’s Christians are still struggling due to the conflict.
Many people have not been able to rebuild their homes, and a lack of job prospects cause
people to leave even though the situation is largely safe, said Warda. In order to provide long-term security for the region’s Christians, he said that there needs to be an emphasis on economic opportunities for young people.
“I’m a shepherd there. I have to really speak to my people there and tell them that it’s safe. It’s safe to be and to prosper at the same time,” he said. “So, providing jobs. Helping and really realizing some of the economical projects for the young people, to help them stay and prosper in the area.”
Many of the area’s Christians fled to Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. While Warda said that he would love to work on luring them back to Iraq, he conceded that this task is “really difficult.”
Another effort to ensure long-term safety for religious minorities will require a cultural shift, Warda explained. The deaths or displacement of Christians and Yazidis are considered “collateral damage” by the government, said Warda. This mentality resulted in “the majority of the persecution” faced by those groups.
He laid blame on the public school curriculum used in Iraq, which provides no information at all about religious minority groups in the country.
“There’s nothing about Christians,” he explained, noting that non-Muslims are described as infidels, and conspiracy theories about these groups abound.
Warda was particularly pleased with the inclusion of support for the criminal prosecution of Islamic State members who committed genocide. This, he said, will ensure that “history will not be written by people like ISIS. For the first time, the victims of this genocide will be able to tell their story and to provide history from their side.”
The ability for these groups to have their stories heard will be a way to ensure that this genocide and displacement does not happen again.
“Unless you tell Muslims that there’s something wrong in the way that you teach Islam, the history will repeat itself,” the bishop explained. Even though Islamic State was defeated, “the ideology is still there.”
“Writing the history from the side of the victims; it would help the other (side) to realize ‘okay, never again,” he said.
“Hopefully.”
Washington D.C., Nov 28, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a letter last week urging the Senate to pass the bipartisan First Step Act, which aims to “improve the lives of thousands of peop… […]
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