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Mexico City, Mexico, Dec 10, 2019 / 07:30 pm (CNA).- The apostolic nuncio in Mexico, Archbishop Franco Coppola, has said that anyone who wants to report sexual abuse by the country’s clergy is free to email him, and he will try to help.
Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner, Coppola explained that “many times the people who have appealed here were victims who hadn’t been listened to by those responsible for the Church and they come to the nunciature motivated by the commitment that Pope Francis has clearly expressed in favor of the victims.”
Coppola said the doors of his office are open to receive complaints and accompany victims “in their search for justice.”
The nuncio said that while it is not within the competency of his office “to conduct an investigation or take measures, what I have tried to do is facilitate the victim’s access to the competent Church authority, whether on the level of the diocese, religious superior or the Holy See, accompanying the victim in his search for justice.”
Coppola stressed that efforts to prevent and fight sexual abuse by the clergy are “key because abuse is a betrayal of the very mission of the Church.”
“The mission of the Church is to make present a God who saves and these kinds of acts by committed by members of the clergy instead of saving and healing, wound and destroy people’s lives,” he said.
The nuncio recalled Pope Francis’ words in a 2018 letter on sexual abuse:
“Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated.”
Coppola noted that “following the pope’s instructions, the Church has been developing a ‘zero tolerance’ policy, in the sense of proceeding with speed; applying concrete measures against abusers and also punishing any kind of cover up.”
“Trust is going to be gradually regained to the extent that the faithful find the merciful face of the Father reflected in their pastors,” he said.
The nuncio also highlighted the guidelines developed by the Mexican bishops’ conference “which detail the procedures to follow in these cases in accordance with Mexican legislation and canonical legislation.”
Specifically, they entail “listening to, welcoming and accompanying the victim in order to make the appropriate complaint,” he explained.
Regarding the canonical process, Coppola said that “the bishop has to carry out a preliminary investigation on the facts, take the appropriate precautionary measures so the alleged culprit can’t be a repeat offender, and immediately inform the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome which will indicate to him to steps to follow in the penal process.”
“In the civil area, the bishop has to notify the prosecutor’s office of the crime he has knowledge of, so that the civil authority can also take appropriate measures to carry out justice and exact reparation for the harm committed. It’s the bishop’s obligation to continue to accompany the victim and his family, ensuring them of the necessary psychological and spiritual help.”
On Jan. 7, 2019, the Mexican bishops’ conference formally installed a National Team for the Protection of Minors. One of the team’s first tasks is to compile national statistics on sexual abuse by clergy.
At a Feb. 10, 2019 press conference, the president of the Mexican bishops’ conference, Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera of Monterrey, reported that over the past nine years, 152 priests in Mexico have been removed from ministry for sexual abuse of youths or vulnerable adults and some, due to the gravity of the crime, have been sent to prison. However, he did not give further details on the number of those in jail.
The apostolic nuncio provided ACI Prensa for publication his e-mail address for victims of clerical sexual abuse in Mexico: nuncio.mexico@diplomat.va.
A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Washington D.C., Dec 10, 2019 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- A Uighur-American whose mother has been held captive in a Chinese detention camp was one of several witnesses to testify on Tuesday before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the unfolding human ri… […]
London, England, Dec 10, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- Every voter and politician must resist attacks on the right to life, and Catholic politicians must do so as both a human rights matter and as a “fundamental matter of our faith,” Northern Ireland’s Catholic bishops have said ahead of the Dec. 12 U.K. general election.
“We have consistently said that the equal right to life, and love, of a mother and her unborn child is so fundamental to the common good of every society that citizens deserve the fullest participation in the democratic debate about the legislation which governs it,” Northern Ireland’s bishops said Dec. 5.
Northern Ireland’s strong laws against abortion were drastically weakened Oct. 21, under an act of the U.K. Parliament that took effect due to the absence of a ruling executive in the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly.
“This was a tragic day for the unborn children who will now never bless our world with their unique and precious lives,” the bishops said. “It was also a sad day for our local democracy as this draconian Westminster abortion legislation was introduced over the heads of local citizens.”
“The right to life is not given to us by any law or government, and any law that removes this right is unjust and must be resisted by every voter and political representative,” they continued. “For Catholic politicians this is not only a matter of protecting the human right to life but also a fundamental matter of our faith. Voters have a duty to inform themselves on the position of election candidates in respect of their willingness to support and cherish equally the lives of mothers and their unborn children.”
The general election will be the U.K.’s third since 2015. Normally they would be held every five years.
The elections in England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland will determine who will fill a total of 650 parliamentary seats in the House of Commons.
Brexit is a central issue. Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes the early election will increase the number of Members of Parliament for his Conservative Party, making his Brexit plans easier to achieve.
The Conservative Party currently leads a governing coalition, with confidence and supply from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party. The Conservatives Party has not mentioned abortion in its most recent party platform.
Sinn Fein, a nationalist party putting forward MP candidates in Northern Ireland, backs legal abortion up to 12 weeks into pregnancy. However, its MPs do not take their seats in parliament.
Two U.K. opposition parties, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, have made the full decriminalization of abortion part of their party platforms. Recently, the Liberal Democrats deselected a former MP as a candidate because of his Catholic faith and views on same-sex marriage and abortion.
Party members are required to support these party platform stands on abortion. The move has drawn criticism from Church leaders like Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury.
“As Christians, we must express the gravest concern that a number of political parties have dispensed with considerations of individual conscience making unequivocal manifesto commitments to deny the unborn child the right to life,” Davies said Dec. 5.
“I cannot fail to draw your attention to this further radical assault upon the sanctity of human life, presented as a program for government and the danger of discarding the rights of individual conscience in determining the right to life of the unborn child,” he said.
The bishop asked for prayers for candidates and for “light in making the difficult choices which an election involves.”
Both Catholic and Anglican leaders have criticized the pro-abortion rights party platforms.
Christine Hardman and James Newcombe, who are Church of England bishops, have written an open letter on behalf of the House of Bishops promising the Anglican bishops will “vigorously challenge any attempt to extend abortion provision beyond the current 24-week limit.” Their letter responded to 383 clergy and laity who in their letter to The Times objected to the manifesto promises to decriminalize abortion.
The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales issued a Nov. 29 statement urging voters to consider issues of human rights and the dignity of human life.
The English and Welsh bishops laid out several criteria for voters to consider when choosing their new MPs, foremost of which is respect for human life, including in the womb, and including care for those who are terminally ill and dying “while resisting the false compassion of assisted suicide or euthanasia.”
The fate of Northern Ireland as the United Kingdom prepares to leave the European Union was another major focus of Northern Ireland’s Catholic bishops. They said the outcome of Brexit will have “a significant impact on our fragile peace and on our political, economic and social life.”
“Competent voices are needed to enunciate our concerns and we encourage voters to choose candidates who value positive relationships within and beyond these islands,” they said.
Other topics of the bishops’ letter included welfare reform, housing and homelessness, and human trafficking.
The major significance of the approaching election “brings an even greater responsibility on us, as followers of Jesus, to reflect in a conscientious and informed way on the breadth of issues involved,” the bishops said. They called for prayers for political candidates and respectful discussion about the issues at stake.
The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland also stressed the right to life as fundamental. The bishops’ pre-election message did not endorse any political party or candidate, but said abortion, assisted suicide, and euthanasia are “always morally unacceptable,” and that all politicians should be urged to resist the decriminalization of abortion, which leads toward abortion on demand for any reason.
The Catholic Parliamentary Office, an agency of the Scottish bishops’ conference, also reports on its website the votes of politicians on several bills, organized by parliamentary constituency.
These votes include the decriminalization of abortion, which the office said would clear the way for “abortion on demand, for any reason, up to birth.” MPs’ votes on a bill to legalize assisted suicide are also recorded, as are how MPs voted on the parliamentary act which imposed permissive abortion laws and same-sex marriage on Northern Ireland.
Distributions of a leaflet version of this information by priests in the Angus area prompted accusations of favoritism towards the local Conservative Party candidate because the leaflets noted the Scottish National Party candidate’s pro-abortion rights stand, the newspaper The National reports.
A spokesman for the Scottish Catholic Church rejected this claim.
“As you will be aware 59 different messages were sent out each one referencing the voting record of the incumbent MP. They show a range of voting behavior and do not indicate support or otherwise for any candidate, rather they offer publicly available information to parishioners on the most fundamental moral issues … addressed in the last parliament,” the spokesman said.
Two years ago, I wrote an article prompted by the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a journalist from my homeland, the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta. The contract killing of a journalist who was working […]
Washington D.C., Dec 10, 2019 / 04:55 pm (CNA).- A violent attack at “Mary’s Shrine” in Washington D.C. on Tuesday shook the community and prompted prayer and solidarity among staff and regular attendees.
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Quezon City, Philippines, Dec 10, 2019 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- Listening is the first step in evangelization, the newly-appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples said Tuesday in Quezon City.
“Evangelization is communication. God is a God who communicates, who dialogues. But He is also a God who listens,” Cardinal Luis Tagle said Dec. 10, according to ABS-CBN News.
He was speaking during a meeting of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, which included the groundbreaking of the Veritas Asia Institute of Social Communications.
Cardinal Tagle encouraged a “spirituality of listening, to God, to neighbors and to the signs of the times.”
“Listening comes first,” he stated. “Many people are longing for someone and a community to listen. Even if you have no words, you communicate your presence, your compassion, your unity.”
The cardinal commented that “we are all in a hurry, rushing to say something, to issue a statement even when we have not heard yet. We have already something prepared without knowing what the question or statement is.”
He added that the Church needs people “who generate greater trust and confidence, as “in our world today [there is] so much fear, suspicion and prejudice. We don’t know whom to trust. We need people who can generate that atmosphere of trust.”
Cardinal Tagle also reflected that “having a beautiful building in itself does not guarantee evangelisation; it is the training and formation of people,” saying that “some of the most memorable catechetical lessons were learned under a tree” when he was a child. “If I were asked where we had these catechetical lessons, I could not name any building. Children were gathered. We had cookies. We had candies. And we came to the lessons.”
The cardinal, who is 62, was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples Dec. 8. He had served as Archbishop of Manila since 2011.
He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Imus at age 24, and was appointed bishop of that see in 2001.
Vatican City, Dec 10, 2019 / 03:50 pm (CNA).- The Italian businessman responsible for investing millions of Vatican funds owned a stake in an online options trading company fined in 2016 by the Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading investor… […]
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