New York City, N.Y., Feb 11, 2019 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of New York has said it had only recently learned of an allegation that the deeply influential Cardinal Francis Spellman groped a visiting West Point cadet in the 1960s, but says it w… […]
Monterrey, Mexico, Feb 11, 2019 / 05:04 pm (ACI Prensa).- Over the past nine years, 152 priests in Mexico have been removed from ministry for sexual abuse of youth or vulnerable adults, the president of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference said Sunday.
At a Feb. 10 press conference, Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera of Monterrey said that some of the 152 “because of the magnitude of the [crime], have had to go to prison.” He did not give further details on the number of those in jail.
The archbishop did say that the Church in Mexico is working to “compile the statistics” on clerical sexual abuse in the in the country, since “in Mexico there is no center for compiling information, because each bishop is the one who deals [locally] with these problems.”
“I hope that very soon we’ll have the count to also let society know – it’s our duty to say how things are in Mexico,” he said.
Cabrera voiced hope that “after the more exacting measures that the Church has put in place – or as it is called, ‘zero tolerance’ – the number of cases, crimes, will go down, and also that the bishops will make every effort to put these situations in order.”
He emphasized that “as required by law, when we receive a report of this nature, we must immediately inform the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and then the Public Prosecutor’s Office determines the judicial procedures.”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Trenton, N.J., Feb 11, 2019 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- New Jersey may become the next state to approve of physician-assisted suicide after the president of the state’s Senate replaced two members of a committee who had previously voted against a bill tha… […]
New York City, N.Y., Feb 11, 2019 / 03:22 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The district attorney for Queens County, New York, has reportedly dropped an unlawful abortion charge against a man accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend, citing a new state law that removed abortion from the criminal code.
Anthony Hobson is accused of killing his girlfriend Jennifer Irigoyen, who was 14 weeks pregnant, Feb. 3. He allegedly dragged her into the stairwell of an apartment building and stabbed her multiple times in the abdomen – she later died in hospital.
Queens County District Attorney Richard Brown announced in a Feb. 8 statement that Hobson would be charged with second-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence, and fourth degree criminal possession of a weapon. He could face 25 years to life in prison.
Brown’s office cited the Reproductive Health Act, signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo Jan. 22, as the reason for dropping the abortion charge, according to the New York Times. A district attorney spokeswoman told the New York Post that the abortion charge was dropped because it was “repealed by the legislature, and this is the law as it exists today.”
The Reproductive Health Act changed New York law to allow health care professionals such as nurse practitioners and physicians assistants to perform abortions, and now permits late-term abortion at any time throughout pregnancy in case of fetal inviability or “when necessary to protect a patient’s life or health.”
One of the Democratic sponsors of the RHA, writing in a Times Union op-ed, claimed that physical assault resulting in the loss of pregnancy would now qualify as first-degree assault, which as a class B felony carries a penalty of 5-25 years.
Unlawful abortion, which is now repealed, would have been a class D felony, carrying with it a 2-7 year sentence.
In June 2018 a New York man was charged with attempted murder, abortion, and assault after the attempted murder of his 26-week pregnant fiancée. It is as yet unclear whether the Reproductive Health Act will affect that case.
In a Jan. 28 op-ed for the New York Daily News, Charles Camosy, associate professor of theology at Fordham University in the Bronx and a board member for Democrats for Life of America, predicted that the removal of abortion from the criminal code altogether would eliminate the potential to charge men who attack pregnant women with the crime of killing unborn children.
“Intellectually honest people know that when a pregnant woman is killed, something different has happened than when a woman who is not pregnant is killed. Both situations are incredibly tragic, but in the former situation, two human beings are killed, not one,” Camosy said.
Vatican City, Feb 11, 2019 / 12:26 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican Secretariat of State received Monday a delegation from Venezuela affiliated with opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has been recognized by the United States and a dozen other countries as the country’s interim president.
In the meeting, the Vatican’s “grave concern was underlined that a just and peaceful solution be urgently sought to overcome the crisis, respecting human rights and seeking the good of all of the inhabitants of the country and avoiding bloodshed,” Holy See Press Office Interim Director Alessandro Gisotti said Feb. 11.
The Venezuelan delegation was in Rome to meet with Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini in their bid for official recognition. Francisco Sucre, the head of the Venezuelan National Assembly’s commission on foreign affairs and Antonio Ledezma, former mayor of Caracas and a former political prisoner, met with Salvini Monday, as well as an undisclosed member of the Vatican Secretariat of State.
The Holy See Press Office did not state who took part in the meeting, but confirmed that it took place.
Pope Francis has sought to maintain neutrality on Venezuela, telling reporters Jan. 28 it would be “pastoral imprudence” on his part to choose a side in the current split in Venezuela.
Both Guaido and Nicolas Maduro currently claim to be the Venezuela’s legitimate president. Maduro was inaugurated at the start of his second term Jan. 10, following a contested 2018 election. Both the National Assembly and the Venezuelan bishops’ conference declared Maduro’s reelection to be invalid. Guaidó, president of the National Assembly, declared himself the nation’s interim leader Jan. 23. He has pledged a transitional government and free elections.
“The proximity of the Holy Father and of the Holy See to the people of Venezuela was reaffirmed, particularly in regard to those who are suffering,” Gisotti stated.
The meeting came after Pope Francis confirmed last week that he had received a letter from Maduro asking him to mediate in Venezuela, where both
In response, the pope said Feb. 5 that mediation would require the willingness of both parties and “little steps” diplomatically to “start the possibility of dialogue.”
Before becoming Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin served as apostolic nuncio to Venezuela, where he took part in meetings between the bishops’ conference and the Venezuelan government under Hugo Chavez. Parolin was Venezuela’s nuncio from 2009 until 2013, the year that Maduro assumed the presidency.
Maduro’s leadership in Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval, with severe shortages and hyperinflation leading millions of Venezuelans to emigrate.
The status of Venezuela’s governance is currently split, as the United States, Canada, and more than a dozen European and South American nations no longer recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s president. China and Russia are among the countries that continue to support Maduro’s leadership.
“I support in this moment all of the Venezuelan people – it is a people that is suffering – including those who are one side and the other. All of the people are suffering,” Pope Francis said Jan. 28.
Washington D.C., Feb 11, 2019 / 10:45 am (CNA).- Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), who represented North Carolina for 12 terms in the House of Representatives, passed away on Sunday – his 76th birthday.
“Congressman Jones will long be remembere… […]
“There is no other place in the Catholic world with so much suffering, and yet with so much joy, as Lourdes,” says Dr. Alessandro de […]
Vatican City, Feb 11, 2019 / 06:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis will travel to Naples in June to discuss the impact of the apostolic constitution, Veritatis Gaudium, on theological studies.
In Naples, the pope wi… […]
The priestly sex-abuse scandal has had so much publicity that it’s hard to imagine what more can be said. But what’s amazing to me is that almost nothing has been said about the relationship of […]
Vatican City, Feb 10, 2019 / 08:15 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis on Saturday called on Italian judges to better society through their work, emphasizing the virtue of justice in building a healthy public life.
“We live in a context afflicted by tension… […]
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