Number of people leaving Catholic Church in Austria fell in 2020

Ghent, Belgium, Jan 14, 2020 / 12:30 pm (CNA).- A Belgian lawyer has admitted to searching the social media profiles of potential jurors to weed out “devout Catholics” for a trial. The lawyer is representing a doctor who is accused of “unlawfully poisoning” an autistic woman via euthanasia. 

Lawyer Walter Van Steenbrugge, who is defense counsel for one of the three unnamed doctors on trial in Ghent, said that while he would not ban all Catholics from serving on the jury, he would be doing a poor job as a lawyer if he allowed a “devout” Catholic on the jury. 

Van Steenbrugge was quoted in Het Nieuwsblad, a Flemish newspaper, saying that lawyers “only get brief information about the jury members, and we have to deal with what we think about the candidates on social media.” 

In particular, Van Steenbrugge said, a potential juror with a devotion to Mary would be disqualifying from the case. 

“It goes without saying that I will exclude people who turn out to be ‘extremely Catholic,’ for example if they express a great Marian devotion,” he said. “We do not want a jury member who would appear to have ever written that euthanasia should be considered murder.”

On January 14, Van Steenbrugge said that this process was “logical” and that he would be a “bad lawyer” if he did not exclude these jurors. 

There have been approximately 60 people who have been summoned as potential jury members for the death of Tine Nys. Nys, an autistic woman, died by euthanasia in 2010. Her relatives say that her condition did not reach the standard required for euthanasia in Belgium, and that she sought to end her life due to a failed relationship. Belgian law requires that a person have “constant and unbearable suffering” that is “incurable.” 

Children are permitted to request euthanasia, as well as those with mental illnesses such as depression. Belgium’s euthanasia laws are among the most liberal in the world. 

Nys’ death is the first time doctors in Belgium have been charged with “unlawful poisoning ” after administering euthansaia. The doctors have not been named, but the BBC reported that they are the doctor who administered the drugs, her primary care physician, and a psychiatrist. 

Nys’ sisters said that she had a history of psychiatric problems as a child, but had not received treatment for 15 years. They said she had been diagnosed with autism just two months before her death, and had not been treated for the condition.

Additionally, they say the doctors who carried out the procedure were “amateurish,” and that one had requested that Nys’ father hold the needle in his daughter’s arm as he had forgotten to bring bandages. The doctor also requested that Nys’ parents listen through the stethoscope to confirm that she was no longer breathing. 

Other lawyers have supported Van Steenbrugge’s juror examinations, and said that it is common practice to search for a potential juror online and to look at their social media presence. 

Lawyer Kris Luyckx, who is not representing anyone in Nys’ case, told Het Nieuwsblad that he works with social media professionals “who gather as much information as possible through open sources, as soon as we have a list of candidates.” Luyckx said that the potential jurors are then color-coded depending on if they would be a good fit for the case.

“So I think it is not so strange that Mr. Van Steenbrugge would exclude very devout Catholics in this matter,” he said. 

Another lawyer disagreed, saying that he personally does not exclude large groups of people due to their religion or other factors. 

“I think that is a step too far,” said lawyer Walter Damen to Het Nieuwsblad. “How do you know for sure that Catholics or Christians are against euthanasia? And what about people who hold a different faith? In fact, even the greatest atheist can be against euthanasia,” said Damen. 

About six people per day die by euthanasia in Belgium. In October 2019, four-time Paralympic medalist wheelchair racer Marieke Vervoort made headlines after she requested and received euthanasia.

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Krakow, Poland, Oct 8, 2019 / 10:30 am (CNA).- The Archbishop of Krakow has compared the LGBT rights movement in Poland to communism. Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski made the comparison in a pastoral letter to the archdiocese released on S… […]

Pope Francis stands on an altar erected outside the Parliament Building in Budapest’s Kossuth Lajos’ Square during a public outdoor Mass on April 30, 2023. / Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Apr 30, 2023 / 05:47 am (CNA).

During an outdoor Mass in Budapest on Good Shepherd Sunday, Pope Francis called on Hungarians to be “open and inclusive,” reflecting on how Jesus wants his flock to share the abundant life they’ve received from him.

“Though we are diverse and come from different communities, the Lord has brought us together, so that his immense love can enfold us in one embrace,” the pope said in his April 30 homily, speaking in bright sunshine to more than 50,000 people gathered in and around the Hungarian capital’s picturesque Kossuth Lajos Square.

“[A]ll of us are called to cultivate relationships of fraternity and cooperation, avoiding divisions,” he said, “not retreating into our own community, not concerned to stake out our individual territory, but rather opening our hearts to mutual love.”

Prior to Mass, held outside the city’s majestic neo-Gothic Parliament building, the pope was transported in his wheelchair to a specially constructed altar platform flanked by banners in the colors of the Vatican and Hungarian flags and simply adorned with a towering wooden crucifix.

Cardinal Peter Erdő, the archbishop of Budapest, was the principal celebrant of the Mass; since the pope’s knee injury has impeded his mobility, he has called on cardinals to take his place at the altar.

In his homily, Francis zeroed in on “two specific things that, according to the Gospel, [the Good Shepherd] does for the sheep. He calls them by name, and then he leads them out.”

“The history of salvation does not begin with us, with our merits, our abilities, and our structures. It begins with the call of God,” the pope said.

“[T]his morning, in this place, we sense the joy of our being God’s holy people. All of us were born of his call.”

Pope Francis said he spoke especially “to myself and to my brother bishops and priests: to those of us who are shepherds.” He called on the faithful to be “increasingly open doors: ‘facilitators’ — that’s the word — of God’s grace, masters of closeness; let us be ready to offer our lives, even as Christ … teaches us with open arms from the throne of the cross and shows us daily as the living Bread broken for us on the altar.”

Seeing closed doors is “sad and painful,” the pope said. He referred specifically to the “closed doors of our selfishness with regard to others; the closed doors of our individualism amid a society of growing isolation; the closed doors of our indifference towards the underprivileged and those who suffer; the doors we close towards those who are foreign or unlike us, towards migrants or the poor.”

The pope’s plea was, “Please, let us open those doors! Let us try to be — in our words, deeds, and daily activities — like Jesus, an open door.”

As open doors, the Lord of life can enter our hearts, Pope Francis assured, with “words of consolation and healing.”

Speaking to his Hungarian hosts, he urged them to be “open and inclusive” and “in this way, help Hungary to grow in fraternity, which is the path of peace,” an apparent reference to the country’s contested migration policies.

While the pope has praised the country for being a leader in assisting persecuted Christians in other countries and welcoming more than a million war refugees from neighboring Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s curbing of migrants from the Middle East and Africa is generally seen as being at odds with the pope’s call to openness. During the migrant crisis of 2015, Orbán sealed Hungary’s southern border with Serbia, closing off the main land route into Europe.

Pope Francis ended his homily with a reminder that Jesus “calls us by name and cares for us with infinitely tender love. He is the door, and all who enter through him have eternal life. He is our future, a future of ‘life in abundance.’

“Let us never be discouraged,” the pope said. “Let us never be robbed of the joy and peace he has given us. Let us never withdraw into our own problems or turn away from others in apathy. May the Good Shepherd accompany us always: with him, our lives, our families, our Christian communities and all of Hungary will flourish with new and abundant life!”

In his Regina Caeli reflection after the Mass, the pope referenced the ongoing fighting in Ukraine.

“Blessed Virgin, watch over the peoples who suffer so greatly. In a special way, watch over the neighboring, beleaguered Ukrainian people and the Russian people, both consecrated to you,” he said.

“You, who are the Queen of Peace, instill in the hearts of peoples and their leaders the desire to build peace and to give the younger generations a future of hope, not war, a future full of cradles not tombs, a world of brothers and sisters, not walls and barricades.”

Ending his three-day visit to Budapest, the pope is scheduled to deliver a speech on culture and academics Sunday afternoon at the Péter Pázmány Catholic University. He then will have a farewell ceremony at 5:30 p.m. local time before departing on his return flight to Rome.

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