Sacramento, Calif., Apr 30, 2019 / 12:02 am (CNA).- If California moves forward with its proposed law trying to force priests to violate the seal of Confession, it is not just Catholicism but all religions that will suffer, said a Dominican priest in a… […]
Buffalo, N.Y., Apr 29, 2019 / 08:54 pm (CNA).- Three priests have been temporarily removed from ministry in the Diocese of Buffalo, after seminarians say they engaged in salacious and inappropriate conversation during a party at a parish rectory. Offic… […]
Anyone who heard a talk or lecture over the years by Justice Antonin Scalia was aware of the treasure available to editors who would gather them together for publication. Following Scalia’s death in 2016, Christopher […]
Caracas, Venezuela, Apr 29, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- The director of Caritas Venezuela, Janeth Márquez, has said they are again asking the government of Nicolas Maduro to open “a wide door to humanitarian aid” to alleviate shortages due to the economic crisis.
In a statement broadcast April 24 by EWTN Noticias, Márquez also requested that this humanitarian channel include the participation of more agents. In addition she that that it is necessary “for the criteria to be clear on availability, transparency and especially how and where the humanitarian aid is going to arrive.”
Caritas Venezuela has been requesting permission for the entry of humanitarian aid since 2015 to deal with the emergency resulting from the shortage of food and medicine.
Márquez explained that when Nicolas Maduro announced permission to the Red Cross for the entry of aid April 11 this was “very specific” and covered “only healthcare issues having to do with medical and surgical supplies.”
Márquez said that while the permission was in the process of being granted, Caritas began monitoring the situation to identify the priority needs.
“We view (the permission) positively because it opens the door to what now means cooperation, the solidarity of other countries; but it continues to be very specific,” Márquez said.
However, she noted the need for permission for the entry of more aid on the international level, with the participation of more actors.
Regarding the challenges to social action by the Catholic Church, she explained that “there are many problems that we have, and so the Church has specific challenges: the first is to prioritize the issues, i.e. where we can work.”
She said that the Church has prioritized children under five, pregnant and nursing women, abandoned elderly, and migrants. “The challenge is to be able to prioritize, save lives and alleviate suffering,” she stated.
A second challenge is to look after the “caregivers” supporting the work of the Church: “Our people who are providing care and aid also have problems,” and so it is important to formulate policies to assist them, she said.
“The third challenge is related to time and geography, since life-long aid cannot be considered.” Márquez noted that “the Church has the challenge of advocating so the changes are necessarily structural.”
Regarding how to collaborate with the work of Caritas, Márquez said the first way “is to help us make the problem visible.” Secondly, “for people to advocate in their countries so that international aid can strengthen changes in Venezuela.”
In addition, people can “help civil society organizations or the Church so they can develop, for example, centers to care for malnourished children, to buy the requirements of water, hygiene and food.”
Márquez expressed her gratitude for the collaboration of many people. “All this solidarity that comes from door to door helps the Church continue to work and serve her people, as well as to minister to the most vulnerable,” she said.
Finally, she encouraged collaborating with Caritas Venezuela, and to continue to pray that “humanitarian aid can enter Venezuela and improve the situation in the country.”
The last newsletter from Caritas Venezuela, published in November 2018, said that the evaluation carried out on children in seven dioceses revealed that 57% of minors were malnourished, or at risk of becoming so.
They also indicated that 31% of families had not had running water in the last week or that the supply was less than three days a week.
Regarding the migration factor, 55% of households responded that some member of their family had emigrated. According to the households interviewed, 40% left the country in search of better economic opportunities.
Under Maduro’s socialist administration, Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval, with severe shortages and hyperinflation leading 3 million to emigrate.
Colombo, Sri Lanka, Apr 29, 2019 / 05:48 pm (CNA).- One week after the Sri Lanka Easter bombings, authorities continue to seek those responsible for the violence, while enacting new security measures throughout the country.
With police urging caution … […]
Washington D.C., Apr 29, 2019 / 05:02 pm (CNA).- The majority of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom are found in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, according to a report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released Monday. The report’s introduction focused on abuses against China’s Uyghur Muslims.
USCIRF released April 29 its 20th annual report documenting the world’s worst violators of religious freedom. With the exception of Cuba— the only majority Chirstian country listed, other than Russia— all the countries identified as the worst offenders are located in the eastern hemisphere.
“Our goal is not only to call out the offenders, but to provide concrete actions for the U.S. government to take in working with these countries to get off our lists,” USCIRF Chair Tenzin Dorjee said in a release accompanying the report.
Each year the group identifies “countries of particular concern” using the criteria of “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations” of religious freedom.
Non-state actors are given the designation “entities of particular concern” using similar criteria.
Some of these violations include torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; prolonged detention without charges; causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction or clandestine detention of those persons; or other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons, the report says.
Among the 16 countries designated as CPCs for 2019 are ten flagged by the state department in November 2018: Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The list also includes six other countries: Central African Republic, Nigeria, Russia, Syria, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
In addition the group identified 12 countries that meet either one or two of the three criteria for a CPC, placing them on the “Tier 2” list. These include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, and Turkey.
Among the non-state entities of concern this year, USCIRF identified the Islamic State, the Taliban in Afghanistan, al-Shabaab in Somalia, and, making their first appearance on the list this year, the Houthis in Yemen and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist militant group in Syria.
The Houthis are a Shiite Muslim tribe that took control of a key territory and chased the president from the capital city in 2015, and Saudi Arabia and some Arab allies intervened on behalf of the opposing faction. Iran continues to back the Houthis, who are battling the Saudi-led coalition for control of the country, especially the strategically important port city of Hodeidah.
The resulting three-year long Yemeni civil war has left between 13,500 and 80,000 people dead and millions displaced, with an estimated 14 million or so people facing pre-famine conditions.
The report particularly highlights the plight of the Uyghur Muslim minority in China. To date, between 800,000 to 2 million Uighurs— or about 10% of their population— have been detained and sent to “re-education camps” to be subjected to abuse and political indoctrination.
The report calls on the US government to sanction those in the Chinese government responsible for the detention of the Uyghurs. It also recommends the appointment of a special advisor to the president on international religious freedom.
The commission noted that while the Vatican reached a provisional agreement with China on the appointment of bishops in September, “nevertheless, repression of the underground Catholic Church increased during the latter half of the year.”
Among the report’s inclusion of commissioners’ “individual views” were those of Johnnie Moore, who called the Vatican-China deal “one of the most alarming incidents as it relates to religious freedom in the entire year.”
“Within days of the Vatican negotiating its deal, the Chinese used it as cover to embark upon the closure of several of the nation’s largest and most prominent unregistered church communities,” Moore wrote.
He believes the Vatican “now bears a significant moral and legal responsibility to help solve the problem which it helped created—albeit inadvertently—by providing China license to viciously crack down on Christian communities (as cited in this report), and by providing the Chinese government further cover to continue its incomprehensible, inexcusable and inhumane abuses of Muslim citizens in the western part of the country.”
“While I am entirely for direct engagement on these issues, including with the most severe violators in the world, that engagement must not result in these types of unintended consequences, as has been the case in China. The Vatican made a terrible mistake, which it must take seriously. This debacle must be dealt with urgently and seriously.”
USCIRF is a bipartisan commission that advises the President, Congress, and the Secretary of State on international religious freedom issues.
Ottawa, Canada, Apr 29, 2019 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- Over one percent of all deaths last year in Canada were the result of euthanasia, a new government report has revealed.
The Fourth Interim Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, released this month by Health Canada, showed that from January to October of 2018, a total of 2,613 people in Canada received “medical aid in dying,” amounting to 1.12% of all deaths.
Only one person self-administered their own lethal does in a physician – assissted suicide. In all other cases, according to the report, the patient died following a deliberately administered lethal dosage by a doctor or a nurse at the request of the patient – effectively medicinal homicide.
Assisted suicide laws in the United States typically require patients to self-administer the drug, but this is not the case in Canada.
If a similar ratio of deaths were recorded in the United States, approximately 30,000 people–the equivalent capacity of Harvard University’s football stadium–would die each year at the hands of doctor or nurse administered dosages.
In Oregon, the first state to legalize assisted suicide, only 0.4 percent of deaths each year are from euthanasia.
These figures do not include the Northwest Territories, Yukon, or Nunavut, as numbers in these areas were extremely small, or Quebec, which has a different reporting system. Since December 2015 until March 2018, a total of 1,664 people have been killed by physicians in Quebec.
At the time the bill was first introduced in April 2016, Cardinal Thomas Collins from the Archdiocese of Toronto said that he thought it was a sign that society was heading in the wrong direction.
“At a time when our priority should be fostering a culture of love, and enhancing resources for those suffering and facing death, assisted suicide leads us down a dark path,” said Collins.
“At first sight it may seem an attractive option, a quick and merciful escape from the suffering that can be experienced in life, but fuller reflection reveals its grim implications, not only for the individual but for our society, and especially for those who are most vulnerable. Such fuller reflection is sorely needed now.”
In June 2016, the Canadian parliament passed Bill C-14, which legalized physician-assisted suicide and physician-administered euthanasia throughout the country. Since that time, more than 6,700 Canadians have died as a result of medicinal homicide.
The vast majority of physician-induced deaths in the first 10 months of 2018 took place in either a hospital or in the patient’s home. About five percent occurred in a nursing home or long-term care facility, and another four percent were in hospice.
Only seven percent of those who received medical aid in dying were between the ages of 18 and 55. The average age of a person who was euthanized was 72, and it was nearly evenly split between men and women.
Over six out of 10 people who chose medical aid in dying had some form of cancer, which was by far the largest majority of cases. The next highest, with 16 percent, was circulatory/respiratory system issues.
Neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS, accounted for 11 percent of medically-assisted deaths.
The report shows that very few people who requested medically-assisted dying would have their requests denied. In Canada’s Atlantic provinces, which includes Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and New Brunswick, fewer than seven requests were denied. A total of 30 people died before a decision could be made about whether to grant assistance in dying.
Presently in the United States, assisted suicide is legal in eight states. Many others are considering bills to legalize the procedure.
The report’s release comes shortly ahead of the 22nd National March for Life, to be held in Ottawa on May 9. Abortion has been legal in Canada for 50 years, when then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau decriminalized the procedure in 1969. Trudeau’s son, Justin Trudeau, is the current prime minister.
The younger Trudeau’s government sparked controversy in the summer of 2018 when it enacted a new policy mandating that organizations with an opposition to abortion were not eligible for funding from the Canadian Summer Jobs program, even if the organization in question did no pro-life work at all. This requirement was eventually dropped after public outcry.
Aberdeen, Scotland, Apr 29, 2019 / 03:47 pm (CNA).- With the University of Aberdeen’s student association meeting one person short of a quorum last week, it will be at least five months before a pro-life group will have another chance to overturn a pro-choice policy it calls discriminatory.
In October the Aberdeen University Students’ Association prevented the affiliation of the Aberdeen Life Ethics Society, citing its own pro-choice policy. The move limits Ale’s access to funds and venues at the university.
After failing to have the policy changed, Ales filed a lawsuit April 12 against Ausa and the university, “alleging unlawful discrimination against the society and the violation of rights protected by UK law.”
According to Aberdeen daily The Press and Journal, Ales put a motion before Ausa to re-word the pro-choice policy at its April 23 meeting. “But while it required 38 members to form a quorum, only 37 attended – forcing the meeting to adjourn without any decisions made,” wrote James Wyllie.
Ausa will not meet again before September.
An Ales spokesman said that “while it is frustrating that student political engagement at Aberdeen is so anaemic that a minimum quorum can’t even be reached, the students don’t bear the sole blame here,” The Press and Journal reported. The pro-life group charged that had the student association’s board of trustees repealed the policy, “no lawsuit would have been necessary and the discriminatory policy would have been relegated to the dustbin where it belongs.”
Ales announced the rejection of its application for affiliation Oct. 19, 2018, saying: “We were rejected because the Student Council passed a policy in November 2017 declaring AUSA to be ‘pro-choice’ and pledging to ‘no-platform’ any society that opposes abortion. Since our proposed society is unashamedly pro-life, we have been banned from affiliating.”
The pro-life group said that the pro-choice policy is “being used as political cover to ban student speech on campus, it also treats the student body as undivided on the issue of abortion.”
Ausa has cited its pro-choice policy, adopted in November 2017, as the basis for its decision. The policy says, in part, that “Ausa should oppose the unreasonable display of pro-life material within campus and at Ausa events.”
Ales’ suit charged that Ausa’s no platform policy violates the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998 by restricting “the freedoms of association and belief for certain students on the basis of an ideological litmus test.”
In an April 19 statement on its Facebook page, Ausa noted it had been “served with a writ” and that “we are not able to comment on the content of the lawsuit in any detail as we are in the process of seeking legal advice. However, we would like to reassure our students that we firmly remain a pro-choice institution and strongly support the values that this idea represents.”
The Press and Journal reported April 25 that an Ausa spokeswoman said its pro-choice policy “remains suspended until the necessary amendments have been made to bring the policy in line with the relevant legislation” and that “there is therefore no barrier to the proposed Aberdeen Life Ethics Society affiliating to Ausa and any application will be treated in the same manner as any other application to affiliate.”
Ausa’s board of trustees has recommended that the student council repeal the pro-choice policy.
Earlier this month Ales said it has twice submitted motions to the student body to allow its affiliation, but “on both occasions … our motions were decisively defeated by the students in attendance.”
“It was disconcerting to watch our fellow students affirm and uphold our legal disenfranchisement, but it serves as proof that student democracy at Aberdeen is broken, serving only to insulate students from dissenting opinions.”
Pro-life groups at other Scottish universities have faced similar problems.
Last year the the University of Strathclyde (in Glasgow) lifted a similar ban on pro-life groups, following legal pressure. Strathclyde Sudents for Life argued that the student associaton’s no platforming policy violated the Equality Act 2010 “by directly discriminating against a group of students based on their beliefs.”
Glasgow Students for Life were barred from affiliation by the Glasgow University’s Students’ Representative Council last November.
In March 2018 a joint committee on human rights of the UK parliament noted troubling barriers to free speech at the nation’s universities, writing: “Whilst the original intention behind safe space policies may have been to ensure that minority or vulnerable groups can feel secure, in practice the concept of safe spaces has proved problematic, often marginalising the views of minority groups.”
Spokane, Wash., Apr 29, 2019 / 03:20 pm (CNA).- Gonzaga University students were hired to serve as aides at an on-campus retirement home in which lived several priests accused of sexual abuse.
Between 2000 and 2015, students at the university were hir… […]
Seattle, Wash., Apr 29, 2019 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- The new coadjutor archbishop of Seattle promised Monday to be a pastoral leader to Catholics in Washington state, noting that his ministry will focus on the principles of dialogue and accompaniment, in im… […]
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