Euthanization of non-terminally ill Colombian woman canceled

Arica, Chile, Jul 3, 2019 / 12:03 am (CNA).- The migration ministry in the Diocese of Arica, Chile has announced an aid campaign for the hundreds of migrants facing desperate conditions at a border crossing in the northern part of the country.

The diocese pledged to “redouble our efforts in this humanitarian emergency we are experiencing now.”

While Catholic institutions are present along the border and are providing humanitarian aid, the Diocese of Arica said more is needed to alleviate the crisis. It encouraged donations of bottled water, diapers and wipes, fruit juice and milk. Donations are being collected at San Marcos School in Arica.

The diocese also warned that the migrants are receiving insufficient medical care and face poor sanitary conditions. It noted “an increase in respiratory illnesses because of the difference between the daytime desert heat and the nighttime cold. They have gotten sick again and again without the hope of being able to continue their journey.”

An estimated 200 migrants – mostly Venezuelans fleeing a severe economic crisis – are currently stranded at the Chacalluta border crossing between Chile and Peru, Reuters reported recently.

Many of the migrants were turned away from entering Chile due to failure to meet stricter legal requirements that were recently enacted.

Chile recently imposed stricter controls on those entering its territory, as the number of Venezuelan emigrants swells. Facing violence, social upheaval and hyperinflation under Venezuela’s socialist government, more than 4 million people have fled the country since 2015.

Some 1.3 million Venezuelan emigrants are currently living in Colombia, and some 800,000 are in Peru.

On June 22, Chile enacted a policy requiring immigrants to have a passport and visa, proof of money to support their stay, and a hotel reservation or letter of invitation from a resident.

Last year, new residency requirements were introduced, including a temporary residency visa, valid for one year and renewable for the same period, a clean criminal record, and other identifying documents.

Peru has also moved to restrict the flow of migrants. The nation mandated June 15 that Venezuelans must have a passport and visa to enter the country; previously, only a national ID card was needed.

The Diocese of Arica argued that a solution to the crisis can only be found by addressing the complexity of the underlying issues and approaching migrants with a sense of accompaniment.

“The situation of the mostly Venezuelan migrants now held up on the Chilean border is certainly not going to be resolved by simply allowing or barring their entry,” the diocese said in its statement. “That’s only the first step in a complex process which requires accompaniment and solidarity.”

“If a Venezuelan family succeeds in entering our country, that will be the first step in a new life from being uprooted from their country to another where there is no certainty that their basic needs and assimilation would be guaranteed,” said the Vicar General of the Diocese of San Marcos in Arica, Fr. Mauricio Cáceres.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Katie Chihoski, a student at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, eats with her baby, Lucia, on her lap in the company of fellow students. Chihoski is among the first students to benefit from a new initiative at the Catholic college… […]

St. Hedwig’s Cathedral in Berlin, Germany. / Cedric BLN via Wikimedia (Public domain).

CNA Newsroom, Jun 19, 2023 / 16:40 pm (CNA).

Ahead of a crucial meeting on the German Synodal Way, one diocese has signaled its opposition to plans for turning the controversial event into a permanent Synodal Council — a new controlling body of the Church in Germany.

The official for the Synodal Way in the Diocese of Regensburg, cathedral chapter Josef Kreiml, warned that the preparatory work for a German Synodal Council contradicts a clear instruction from the Vatican, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

The prelate also said that the concept of synodality underlying the Synodal Way isn’t in line with either canon law or the ideas of Pope Francis.

The bishops of Germany’s 27 dioceses are expected to make landmark decisions at their meeting in Berlin on June 19-20 regarding the establishment and funding of the so-called Synodal Committee, which is to then establish a permanent German Synodal Council by 2026.

Some bishops had reportedly considered blocking the move by not providing funds for the body, which could prevent a permanent superstructure overseeing the Church in Germany modeled on the German Synodal Way.

The German Synodal Way was a multi-year process initiated by Cardinal Reinhard Marx and co-organized by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), a lay body financed by the German bishops. Its official purpose was to discuss four main issues: the way power is exercised in the church, sexual morality, the priesthood, and the role of women. 

The process was criticized by many cardinals and bishops from around the world, as well as by Pope Francis, who warned of disunity and schism in his 2019 letter to German Catholics.

The Vatican has issued a statement saying that the Synodal Way does not have the authority to oblige bishops and the faithful to accept new forms of governance and new orientations in doctrine and morals.

Citing these statements, Kreiml said that the Synodal Way had greatly interfered with the forms of ecclesial governance and had disregarded the general law of the Church, its sacramental constitution, and the proper duties of the bishops.

He urged the German bishops to respect the unity of the Church and to follow papal guidance on synodality.

Pope Francis and other Church leaders have expressed serious concerns about plans to create a permanent synodal council for the German Church. 

Such a body would function “as a consultative and decision-making body on essential developments in the Church and society,” according to a Synodal Way proposal.

More importantly, it would “make fundamental decisions of supra-diocesan significance on pastoral planning, questions of the future, and budgetary matters of the Church that are not decided at the diocesan level.”

Warning of a threat of a new schism from Germany, the Vatican already intervened in July 2022 against a German synodal council. 

In January 2023, the Vatican asserted “that neither the Synodal Way, nor any body established by it, nor any bishops’ conference has the competence to establish the ‘synodal council’ at the national, diocesan, or parish level.”

A Soviet-style council in Berlin?

In June 2022, Cardinal Walter Kasper, a theologian considered close to Pope Francis, said there could be no Synodal Council, given Church history and theology. 

“Synods cannot be institutionally made permanent. The tradition of the Church does not know a synodal Church government,” he said. “A synodal supreme council, as is now envisaged, has no basis in the entire history of the constitution. It would not be a renewal but an unheard-of innovation.”

The president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who was bishop of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart from 1989 to 1999, said the German process had invited comparisons to communist structures in the Soviet Union. “It was a political scientist, not a theologian, who recently expressed this notion somewhat strongly, referring to such a Synodal Council as a Supreme Soviet,” Kasper said.

The cardinal continued: “‘Soviet’ is an old Russian word that means exactly what we call a ‘Rat,’ a council in German. Such a Supreme Soviet in the Church would obviously not be a good idea. Such a council system is not a Christian idea, but an idea coming from quite a different spirit or un-spirit.” 

The German theologian and prelate also warned this “would choke off the freedom of the Spirit, which blows where and when it wants, and destroy the structure that Christ wanted for his Church.”

Further concerns were raised by a professor of theology from the University of Vienna in June. 

The dogmatist Jan-Heiner Tück warned that a German Synodal Council would transfer leadership authority “from sacramentally ordained persons to bodies, a conversion of power that shows a clear closeness to synodal practices in the Protestant Church in Germany.”

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