Argentine boy saved from stray bullet by crucifix

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dec 21, 2019 / 12:00 am (CNA).- Leaders of the Argentine bishops’ conference met with Argentina’s president Dec. 18, to express their opposition to new abortion protocols in the country.

“We were surprised by the presentation of the protocol on abortion as one of the first acts of the new government. This way of acting pains and concerns us, which avoids reasonable democratic debate on the protection of life, the first human right,” the bishops said in a statement.

Their visit came after the administration of Argentine president Alberto Fernández, who took office last week, updated the country’s abortion protocol to guarantee access to abortion to women who have been raped.

Argentine law allows abortion in cases when the mother’s life or health is in danger, or in cases of rape. But pro-choice activists maintain that it has not in fact been accessible because of hospitals’ discretion and conscientious objection.

The new protocol “will be used as a guide, especially in cases where the law clearly allows for the interruption of pregnancies,” Health minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia said.

“We are respectful of conscientious objection but conscientious objection cannot be used as an institutional alibi for not complying with the law,” Gonzalez added.

The bishops say the protocol violates Argentine law, since it was imposed by a government official “contrary to the National Constitution, international treaties and the country’s Civil and Commercial Code, among other laws that protect life at conception.”

In their meeting with the president, the bishops objected that the protocol practically “authorizes abortion on demand.”

Argentine pro-lifers, known as the “Blue Wave” for the blue neckerchiefs they have adopted as a symbol of their movement, took to the streets Dec. 18, demonstrating in front of the Ministry of Health and calling for the protocol to be rescinded and for the Health Minister to resign.

ernández, of the Justicialist Party, assumed office Dec. 10. He has also announced plans to decriminalize abortion.

A bill to legalize abortion through the first 14 weeks of gestation narrowly passed the Chamber of Deputies in 2018, but was rejected by the Senate.

In May, an obstetrician-gynecologist was found guilty of having prevented an abortion in Argentina, after he decided in May 2017 to save the life of an unborn baby whose mother had taken misoprostol. Dr. Leandro Rodríguez Lastra was found guilty of failing to carry out his duty as a public functionary, as he was not registered as a conscientious objector. The child was eventually adopted.

And in March, the Archbishop of Tucumán called on society to be committed to protecting life, after an 11-year-old rape victim received a Caesarean section.

He encouraged the faithful to care for the life “of every child, of every adolescent, of every elderly person, of every sick person,” and daily “to protect, to care for, to serve, every human life, because every life has value.”

“It is very important to be called together in prayer, but for this prayer to become a real commitment to protect every human life and defend every human life with passion, courage and with much generosity and dedication,” he added.

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Oaxaca, Mexico, Mar 8, 2021 / 11:41 am (CNA).- A group of feminists taking part in a women’s rights march in Oaxaca City on Sunday attacked Ss. Cosmas and Damian parish, as well as other buildings, both public and private.

As part of the protests organized in Mexico for International Women’s Day, masked women armed with stout sticks broke open the outer doors of Ss. Cosmas and Damian March 7, smashed the windows of the inner doors, gained entry and stormed inside to tag the interior with graffiti, destroy glass cases, windows, pews, and a confessional.

A statue of Saint Jude was also destroyed, and one of the pews was damaged and thrown out onto the street.

Mujeres forzaron la entrada de la iglesia de San Cosme y San Damián, ubicada en J. P. García, en la ciudad de #Oaxaca, y realizaron destrozos. | Alondra Olivera pic.twitter.com/IrYAgAYc3M

— Quadratín Oaxaca (@Quadratinoaxaca) March 7, 2021

As they passed through the city, they also damaged the Oaxaca Cathedral, the state Ministry of Health, and other private and public buildings.

According to the Mexican news agency Quadratín, the women were protesting commonplace sexual harassment, rapes, killings, and disappeared women, and called for “an end to femicide and transfemicide.”

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Havana, Cuba, Jan 30, 2020 / 04:50 pm (CNA).- A pro-democracy group in Cuba says its members are continuing to experience repression and harassment from police and government officials under the presidency of Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Eduardo Cardet, the national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement (CLM), says he was blocked Jan. 25 from traveling to the United States from Cuba, despite having his recently renewed passport and the appropriate visa.

According to the CLM, an immigration official at the Havana airport told Cardet he was prohibited from traveling. Asked why, the official reportedly told Cardet that “he ought to know the reason” and gave no further details.

Cardet was arrested Nov. 30, 2016, outside his home on charges of attacking law enforcement, scandal, and disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2017. The CLM contends, however, that the real reason for Cardet’s arrest was his criticism of the legacy of Fidel Castro and for his pro-democracy activism.

Cardet was released from prison under certain conditions in May 2019 and completed his sentence in September that year.

He was consequently “totally free and had no restrictions imposed on him,” Carlos Payá, CLM’s representative in Spain, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language new partner. Payá called the government’s refusal to let Cardet travel Jan. 25 “an arbitrary decision by the regime.”

Regis Iglesia, the CLM’s spokesman, says he was similarly blocked Jan. 1 from boarding an American Airlines plane departing from Miami International Airport for Havana because the Cuban government had notified the airlines that Iglesias was prohibited from entering the country. The Cuban dissident leader was exiled to Spain in 2010 by the Fidel Castro regime.

The CLM blasted the travel ban as a discriminatory violation of international law and a total disregard for the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Cuba has signed.

The organization has reported that other members had been given citations by State Security agents and threatened with prison if they continued their activism, been called terrorists by police officials, and been accused of vandalism.

The group said on its website last December that Cuban State Security issued a citation to Eduardo Cardet on Christmas Day, warning him that “the expansion of this organization will not be permitted” and that it would have “zero tolerance for the opposition.”

The Christian Liberation Movement was founded in 1988 by Oswaldo Payá and four other founders to achieve “peaceful and democratic change and respect for human dignity.” It advocates for free, fair, multiparty elections and other democratic reforms.

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