No Picture
News Briefs

What is the state’s role in promoting virtue?

September 6, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Washington D.C., Sep 6, 2019 / 10:30 am (CNA).- The debate over competing culturally conservative visions for the future of the U.S. continued Thursday night at the Catholic University of America, as Sohrab Ahmari and David French offered their prescri… […]

No Picture
News Briefs

Pope commends Mozambican HIV clinic community as Good Samaritans

September 6, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Maputo, Mozambique, Sep 6, 2019 / 04:06 am (CNA).- Visiting the Zimpeto health clinic Friday, Pope Francis told the community that their care for the suffering recalls for him the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Zimpeto DREAM clinic, which opened in 2002, is focused on HIV prevention and antiretroviral treatment. The facility is run by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a lay movement centered on peace and helping the poor.

“I cordially greet the director, the healthcare workers, the patients and their families, and all those present. Seeing the competence, professionalism and love with which you receive and care for so many suffering persons, particularly patients with HIV-AIDS, and especially mothers and children, makes me think of the parable of the Good Samaritan,” the pope said in his prepared remarks Sept. 6 at the clinic in Maputo.

“All those who come here, with despair and anguish, are like the man lying on the side of the road. Those of you here have refused to walk by or continue on your way … This Centre shows us that there are always people ready to stop and show compassion, who do not yield to the temptation to say ‘There is nothing to be done’ or ‘It’s impossible to fight this scourge’. Instead, you have set about finding solutions.”

He commended them for heeding the “almost inaudible” cry of marginalized women: “That is why you opened this house, where the Lord lives with those lying on the side of the road – to those suffering from cancer or tuberculosis, and to hundreds of the malnourished, especially children and young people.”

Francis told the community that each of them are “a sign of the heart of Jesus,” and that in hearing the cry of the suffering they “realize that medical treatment, however necessary, is not enough. So you deal with the problem in its entirety, restoring dignity to women and children, and helping to point them towards a better future.”

He affirmed their humility, and their efforts “to find sustainable means in the search for energy and for gathering and storing supplies of water.”

“The parable of the Good Samaritan ends with his bringing the wounded man to an inn and entrusting the innkeeper with part of the expenses and a promise to pay the remainder upon his return,” the pope recalled.

He said those cured at the hospital “are part of the payment that the Lord has left with you. Having emerged from the nightmare of suffering, and without concealing their condition, they are now a sign of hope for many persons. Their willingness to dream can serve as an inspiration to many people lying on the wayside who need a welcoming hand.”

“For your part, you will be repaid by the Lord ‘when he returns’, and this should fill you with joy,” Francis said.

He exhorted the community to “keep receiving those who come to you, go out and look for the wounded and helpless in the peripheries… Let us not forget that their names are written in heaven with the inscription: ‘These are the blessed of my Father’. Renew your efforts to ensure that this hospital will always be a place that gives birth to hope.”

 

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Miraculous healing at Knock Shrine confirmed by Irish bishops

September 5, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Tuam, Ireland, Sep 5, 2019 / 04:24 pm (CNA).- The Catholic Church in Ireland has for the first time recognized a miracle attached to the Knock Shrine, where a woman was cured of multiple sclerosis thirty years ago.

Marion Carroll had been bedridden for years until she was healed in 1989 during a blessing with a monstrance at the shrine.

“I recognise that Marion was healed from her long-standing illness while on pilgrimage in this sacred place,” Bishop Francis Duffy of Ardagh and Clonmacnois said in his homily during a Sept. 1 Mass at the shrine, located in Knock, about 20 miles north of Tuam.

“Many have attested to the dramatic change that came about in Marion here and on her return to Athlone in 1989. Without doubt there was a healing, a cure of the illness that beset Marion for several years. Marion was liberated from sickness and its impact on her and on her family. It is also a healing for which there is no medical explanation at present, it is definite and yet defies medical explanation.”

Bishop Duffy was leading a diocesan pilgrimage to the shrine, in which Marion and her family participated.

Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam also spoke at the Mass, saying, “today the Church formally acknowledges that this healing does not admit of any medical explanation and joins in prayer, praise and thanksgiving to God. In these situations, the Church must always be very cautious. This is illustrated by the fact that thirty years have elapsed since this took place, during which time the examination by the Medical Bureau testifies that there is no medical explanation for this healing.”

While many visitors to the shrine have claimed cures or favors, this is the first cure which the Church in Ireland has recognized as miraculous.

Carroll was cured in 1989, when Bishop Colm O’Reilly, then Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, blessed her with a monstrance.

She had been taken to the shrine on a stretcher, as she was paralyzed. Her eyesight was also impaired, and she was epileptic.

After the Mass, she was taken to a rest and care centre, where she asked that her stretcher be opened; when it was, she stood up and was well.

Since her cure, Carroll has volunteered at the shrine, assisting pilgrims.

The Knock Shrine is built on the site of an 1879 apparition of the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, angels, and the Lamb of God on the south gable of the town church. For a period of about two hours, a crowd gathered to adore the apparition and to pray the rosary. Despite a rainstorm, the ground around the gable did not get wet.

Unlike most other Marian apparitions, the Virgin Mary was silent the entire time and did not offer any sort of message or prophesy.

Vatican officials found the apparition at Knock to be “trustworthy and satisfactory” after two separate commissions, in 1879 and in 1936.

Shortly after the apparition, Knock became a sight of pilgrimage. Pilgrims chipped away the original wall by taking away pieces of cement as relics.

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Effort to pass abortion bill in NSW could push government into minority

September 5, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Sydney, Australia, Sep 5, 2019 / 03:03 pm (CNA).- As the Australian state of New South Wales considers a bill to decriminalize abortion, two members of parliament from the governing coalition are threatening to separate from the majority government if certain limiting amendments to the bill do not pass.

Tanya Davies and Kevin Conolly told the state’s premier, Gladys Berejiklian, that they will “no longer sit in the party room” if amendments to the bill are not passed, which would push the Liberal Party and National Party coalition into  minority government, The Guardian reports.

The government would go from 48 to 46 seats in the lower house, the Legislative Assembly; it is already in the minority in the Legislative Council.

The amendments the MPs are pushing for include the removal of provisions in the bill which require doctors who have a conscientious objection to performing abortions to refer patients elsewhere.

They are also pushing for an amendment to ban sex-selective abortions, which Davies first introduced in August. The amendment was voted down in the Legislative Assembly, with some legislators arguing it could lead to racial discrimination and profiling, and that sex-selective abortion “is not an issue in NSW”, reported The Catholic Weekly, the Archdiocese of Sydney’s publication.

Amendments to the bill will be considered beginning Sept. 17, after which a final vote will occur.

The bill passed the Legislative Assembly Aug. 8 by a 59-31 vote; votes on the bill have been delayed several times because of opposition and concerns it has been rushed through without proper consideration.

The Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 would allow abortions for any reason up to 22 weeks of pregnancy; after that, it would allow for abortions if two doctors believe an abortion should be performed, considering physical, social, and psychological circumstances.

It would require medical practitioners to offer counseling to a woman seeking to procure an abortion, if they believe it would be beneficial.

According to supporters of the bill, it clarifies what they believe were previously ambiguous terms in penal code with regard to abortion.

But opponents believe it opens the possibility of elective abortion at any time, as long as two doctors consent.

Under current law, abortion is only legal in NSW if a doctor determines that a woman’s physical or mental health is in danger. “Mental health” has been interpreted by courts to include “economic and social stress.”

The Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church of Australia, and the NSW Presbyterian Church all oppose the bill.

When the bill passed the lower house, Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney expressed his disappointment, stating that “if a civilisation is to be judged by how it treats its weakest members, New South Wales failed spectacularly today.”

The bill “still allows abortion right up to birth. It conscripts all medical practitioners and institutions into the abortion industry by requiring them to perform abortions themselves or direct women to an abortion provider. It still does nothing to protect mothers or their unborn children or to give them real alternatives,” he said.

Bishop Richard Umbers, an auxiliary bishop of Sydney and the Australian bishops’ delegate for life, said that despite the bill’s advancement, “the Catholic Church will continue to provide support, advise and care for all women facing any decision surrounding her pregnancy.”

He thanked all who “rallied to oppose the culture of death,” saying: “The graces given by God to the people of Sydney as a result of your fervent and tireless prayers and support for life will bring about great good for NSW in ways we will be blessed to witness and in many unknown ways.”

[…]