‘Prayer has been the great source of strength to me’: Cardinal Pell looks forward to Easter 

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, Apr 3, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- Brunei implemented Wednesday a sharia penal code that punishes such crimes as adultery, sodomy, rape, and blasphemy of Muhammad with the death penalty.

“Brunei Darussalam has always been practising a dual legal system, one that is based on the Syariah Law and the other on Common Law,” Brunei’s prime minister’s office said March 30.

“In fully implementing the Syariah Penal Code Order (SPCO) 2013 from 3rd April 2019, both systems will continue to run in parallel to maintain peace and order and preserve religion, life, family and individuals regardless of gender, nationality, race and faith.”

It noted that its sharia law, “apart from criminalizing and deterring acts that are against the teachings of Islam … also aims to educate, respect and protect the legitimate rights of all individuals, society or nationality of any faiths and race.”

Brunei is a country of 2,200 square miles located entirely on the island of Borneo. It is an absolute monarchy led by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, and about two-thirds of the population is Muslim.

The country had already begun adopting sharia for Muslims in 2013.

The sharia penal code includes differing punishments for Muslims and non-Muslims, and adults and minors.

Under the newly-implemented code, lesbian sex will be penalized with a fine up to $40,000, whipping up to 40 strokes, or up to 10 years imprisonment; and theft with amputation.

Those who encourage Muslims to apostasize will be subject to a fine and imprisonment, as will those who persuade someone having no religion to become a believer of a religion other than Islam.

It punishes anyone who commits qatl (homicide) on a fetus by intentionally causing its miscarriage will be punished with diya (monetary compensation to the child’s heirs) and with up to 15 years imprisonment.

As the code was put into force, Hassanal Bolkiah said that “I want to see Islamic teachings in this country grow stronger.”

Sodomy was already criminalized, and previously carried a punishment of up to 10 years imprisonment.

Capital punishment was already a punishment for some crimes, though Brunei has not executed any offenders since 1957. The burden of proof to carry out the death penalty is particularly high, requiring several competent, adult Muslim witnesses of the crime in most cases.

The Catholic Church has consistently taught that the state has the authority to use the death penalty, in cases of “absolute necessity,” though with the qualification that the Church considered such situations to be extremely rare.

St. John Paul II said that “the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil.” He also spoke of his desire for a consensus to end the death penalty, which he called “cruel and unnecessary.”

And Benedict XVI exhorted world leaders to make “every effort to eliminate the death penalty” and said that ending capital punishment was an essential part of “conforming penal law both to the human dignity of prisoners and the effective maintenance of public order.”

In a 1986 letter to the bishops on the pastoral care of homosexual persons, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated that “it is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action … but  the proper reaction to crimes committed against homosexual persons should not be to claim that the homosexual condition is not disordered.”

“When civil legislation is introduced to protect behavior to which no one has any conceivable right, neither the Church nor society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational and violent reactions increase,” the congregation stated.

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texan anti-sodomy law in the case Lawrence v. Texas, on the basis of the right to due process.

Reacting to that decision, Bishop Wilton Gregory, then the Bishop of Belleville and president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the court “has chosen to view homosexual behavior between consenting adults as a matter of privacy. However, human sexuality cannot be viewed this way. Sexual activity has profound social consequences which are not limited to those immediately engaged in sexual acts.”

He added that “The Catholic Church teaches, in agreement with other faith traditions and with what were once the norms generally accepted by society, that sexual activity belongs to the marital relationship between one man and one woman in fidelity to each other. This relationship is the basis of the family which is the basic unit of society. Respect for the purpose of human sexuality and the family needs to be reaffirmed in our society; and anything which reduces respect for them – such as yesterday’s Supreme Court decision – is to be deplored.”

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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.”

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CNA Staff, Jun 2, 2020 / 01:38 pm (CNA).- A La Salle brother and educator has been given an award in recognition of his defense of human rights amid religious repression in the Philippines.

Amnesty International Philippines announced May 28 that the I… […]