Vatican City, Feb 24, 2021 / 07:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis on Wednesday named a specialist in aging to be his personal doctor, after his previous physician died earlier this year.
Roberto Bernabei, 69, is from Florence, Italy, and is a professor of in… […]
Vatican City, Feb 24, 2021 / 05:00 am (CNA).- A robust understanding of the right to religious freedom is being eroded in the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Vatican’s foreign minister said in a video message to the United Nation… […]
Vatican City, Feb 24, 2021 / 04:15 am (CNA).- Pope Francis expressed his condolences on Tuesday after three people were killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy traveling in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Luca Attanasio, the Italian amba… […]
CNA Staff, Feb 23, 2021 / 08:01 pm (CNA).- Alliance Defending Freedom International has launched a petition addressed to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to rule in favor of religious freedom in Chile.
The ruling will have ramifications for all member states of the Organization of American States.
The petition campaign addresses the case of Sandra Pavez, a lesbian and former nun. The Diocese of San Bernardo did not renew her certificate of suitability to continue teaching religion classes in 2007 because Pavez chose to cohabit with her female partner and go public with the relationship.
Bishop Juan Ignacio González Errazuriz of San Bernardo had informed Pavez that if she continued in that relationship “he would be obliged to revoke her certificate of suitability, for not giving ‘the witness of a Christian life’, which the Catholic Church expects from its teachers,” the campaign explains.
Religion classes in Chile are governed by Decree 924 of 1983, issued by the country’s Ministry of Education, which requires all schools to offer optional religion classes in accordance with the student’s religion. The decree also states that the teacher must have a certificate of suitability issued by “the corresponding religious authority,” in this case the Bishop of San Bernardo. The decree also empowers that authority to revoke the certificate of suitability, which Bishop González did.
Consequently, Pavez “could not continue teaching that specific class.”
The revocation of the certificate of suitability to teach Catholic religion classes entailed “no negative judgement about the professional competence of Pavez, nor was her right to continue teaching other subjects questioned, even in the same establishment.”
“This is in fact what happened, without Pavez losing even for a moment the source of her livelihood, nor was she removed from the school community,” the campaign notes.
Pavez sued the Catholic Church for discrimination and filed for an injunction with the San Miguel Court of Appeals. The court denied the injunction, ruling that the revocation was neither illegal nor arbitrary, and Chile’s Supreme Court confirmed the appeal court’s decision.
In 2008, the teacher took her case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights based in Washington, D.C, “which agreed with her, stating that she has the right to teach Catholic religion classes even against the objection of her church and that the faith communities cannot require teachers’ conduct to be faithful to their beliefs, not even in private schools.”
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, located in Costa Rica, now has the case, with a decision forthcoming some time in 2021.
Both the Inter-American Commission and the Inter-American Court are organs of the OAS to protect human rights in the hemisphere.
Those signing the petition hope that the court will consider “all the interests and rights involved, since we know that what it decides in this case may create ramifications that will extend to the exercise and enjoyment of our rights in the states we live in,” the campaign states.
ADF International warns the decision will determine whether religious schools “will be able to ensure that their religious educators fulfill their obligation of fidelity … that they voluntarily profess.”
In addition, the decision will also determine “whether states will respect the right of parents to have their children receive a religious education that is consistent with their convictions.”
“International human rights law recognizes as a central element in the teaching of religion – which is a manifestation of freedom of religion – the freedom of each religious community to choose who will teach it on their behalf.”
Likewise, “human rights treaties also recognize for us, parents, the freedom and right to guarantee that our children receive a moral and religious education that is in accordance with our convictions,” the campaign adds.
“By virtue of our freedom of religion, we have an expressly recognized and protected right to spread our faith, starting with ensuring that it will be transmitted to our children.”
Signers of the petition consider the “consistency of life” of those who teach religion to be “absolutely central.”
Lagos, Nigeria, Feb 23, 2021 / 07:49 pm (CNA).- Three years after Leah Sharibu was abducted from her school in Dapchi in Yobe State within Nigeria’s Diocese of Maiduguri, the Archbishop of Lagos has called on the country’s head of state to “do all in his power … to secure her release.”
In a Feb. 20 statement by the Director of Social Communications of Lagos Archdiocese, Fr. Anthony Godonu, Archbishop Alfred Adewale Martins says “it is sad” that the Nigerian school girl is still being held, three years after she was kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents.
Archbishop Adewale urges President Muhammadu Buhari to “do all in his power as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, the one from whom all other security agencies take their orders, to secure her release.”
Leah is among the 110 girls abducted from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC) Dapchi in Yobe State by members of the Boko Haram militia Feb. 19, 2018.
While most of the girls were released the following month, Leah, aged 14 at the time of her kidnapping, did not regain her freedom for reportedly refusing to convert to Islam. Five other girls died while in captivity, according to reports.
Following the release of the 104 girls, Buhari said that his government will not relent in efforts to bring Leah safely back home.
Making reference to the assurances Buhari give in March 2018 for Leah’s release, Archbishop Adewale regrets that “she along with others are still languishing in the hands of their abductors till date.”
“We have been told that several efforts have been made to ensure her release, but we are yet to see them materialize,” the 61-year-old Nigerian archbishop says, adding that “one can only imagine the severe physical, emotional, and psychological torture she and her parents have been going through all these years.”
In the Feb. 20 statement issued by the Director of Social Communications of Lagos Archdiocese, Archbishop Adewale also calls on Buhari’s government to work toward the release of other abducted students “and unite them once again to their already distraught families.”
Multiple reports indicate that Boko Haram has been responsible for attacks and kidnappings in Nigerian schools. Just last week, gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram militants raided the Government Science Secondary School in Kagara in Nigeria’s Niger State in the North-Eastern part of the country, kidnapping at least 20 teenage boys.
One student was killed during the Feb. 17 attack.
The militant group claimed responsibility for the December 2020 abduction of 300 boys from the Government Science School in Kankara, Katsina State, a territory covered by the Diocese of Sokoto. The boys secured their released after a week in captivity.
The Islamist militant group also claimed responsibility for the April 2014 abduction of 276 girls from their school in Chibok, Northeastern Nigeria. 100 of the girls are reportedly still missing.
In the Feb. 20 message, Archbishop Adewale also acknowledges with appreciation the January 27 appointment of Service Chiefs and reminds them of “the enormous responsibility ahead of them, especially the need to win back the full confidence of Nigerians in the military.”
The ordinary of Lagos further urges the new Service Chiefs to take the fight against insurgents to a higher level by “buoying the morale of the officers and men of the force and to employ sophisticated intelligence techniques to identify and further decimate the Boko Haram members and the bandits terrorizing the country.”
Chicago, Ill., Feb 23, 2021 / 07:13 pm (CNA).- A Latino Catholic entrepreneur and founder of a successful ministry for millennials was this month listed among the most influential Latinos in Chicago under age 40 by a national Hispanic business publicat… […]
In an effort to assist CWR readers in their Lenten journey, we shall be offering weekly reflections on the oh-so-maligned but oh-so-necessary Ten Commandments (commandments, we should note at the outset, not suggestions!). Our point […]
Washington D.C., Feb 23, 2021 / 06:00 pm (CNA).- After a critique of the transgender movement was de-listed by Amazon this week, U.S. senators responded.
On Sunday, conservative scholar Ryan Anderson reported that his 2018 critique of the tran… […]
Trenton, N.J., Feb 23, 2021 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- An alleged abuse victim who last year went public with allegations against the Bishop of Brooklyn has now filed a lawsuit in a New Jersey court, claiming that the bishop abused him repeatedly in the late 1… […]
CNA Staff, Feb 23, 2021 / 04:35 pm (CNA).- The nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary has been opposed by Democrats For Life of America, which has called for his nomination to be withdrawn… […]
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