Catholic priest in India will face trial for alleged hate speech

The Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania holds a “Mercy Witness for Life” rally on July 23, 2016, outside of the former site of Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s closed abortion clinic in Philadelphia. Gosnell was convicted of the first-degree murder of three infants, the involuntary manslaughter of his patient Karnamaya Mongar, and other felony counts. / Credit: Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 13, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

During Tuesday night’s presidential debate with former President Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris refused to say whether she opposes late-term abortions and denied that they happen in the United States.

However, more than a dozen states, in fact, allow on-demand abortions after the point of viability, and nine of those states permit abortions throughout the entirety of pregnancy.

What’s more, studies from pro-abortion groups and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that thousands of abortions happen late into pregnancy every year.

“Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion,” the vice president claimed. “That is not happening — it’s insulting to the women of America.”

During the debate, Trump said Harris’ vow to codify Roe v. Wade into national law would legalize late-term abortion. The now-defunct landmark Supreme Court ruling forced states to permit abortion at least until the point of fetal viability, at which point the unborn child could survive outside the womb. The exact moment of fetal viability is different for every pregnancy, but this usually occurs in the 23rd or the 24th week.

Trump said Harris would support abortion in “the seventh month, the eighth month, [and] the ninth month,” to which Harris retorted: “That’s not true.”

When asked by ABC debate moderator Linsey Davis whether she would support any restrictions on abortion, Harris ducked the question and said she supports what she called the “protections” of Roe v. Wade. Harris used the word “protections” in reference to making abortion legal, not to to mean protecting the unborn.

Although ABC’s debate moderators — Davis and David Muir — intervened to “fact check” Trump on several of his arguments, neither of them corrected Harris to inform viewers where late-term abortions are legal and occur in the United States.

However, Roe v. Wade did not prohibit states from allowing abortion much later into pregnancy, some of which do permit abortion in the seventh, eighth, and ninth months.

In nine states and Washington, D.C., abortion is legal for the entirety of pregnancy, until the moment of birth, for any reason. In one state, elective abortion is legal through the second trimester, which concludes at the end of the 27th week of pregnancy. In another four states, abortion is legal through the 24th week of pregnancy, regardless of whether the unborn child has already reached viability.

States where on-demand late-term abortion is legal

The most permissive abortion laws are in Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. A woman can procure a legal abortion through the ninth month of pregnancy, until the moment of birth, for any reason. 

Minnesota, the home state of Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, has some of the most permissive pro-abortion laws in the country. Walz signed legislation in January 2023 that declared abortion “a fundamental right” and prohibited local governments from taking any action that interferes with that legal right. This provided even stronger protections for Minnesota’s laws on abortion, which permit the procedure until the moment of birth.

Virginia allows elective abortion through the second trimester of pregnancy, which ends in the 27th week. This is three or four weeks after the unborn child could survive outside the womb.

In four other states — Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and New Hampshire — abortion is legal in the 24th week of pregnancy, regardless of whether the unborn child is viable. About a dozen states allow abortion up until the point of viability, which is often determined by the physician, who may be an abortionist. More than 20 states restrict abortion earlier than viability.

How often does late-term abortion happen?

State laws vary on what data abortion clinics must record and report to the government. Most states provide some data to the federal government, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not offer a comprehensive breakdown of the exact gestational ages of preborn children at the time of an abortion.

However, the CDC does report its estimates of how many abortions occur in the 21st week of pregnancy or later. In 2019, the CDC estimated about 4,882 abortions were performed at least 21 weeks or later into pregnancy. The data is incomplete because it excludes the nine states that permit abortions at that stage of pregnancy and the District of Columbia.

The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, which provides estimates through voluntary surveys, reported that about 0.9% of abortions were conducted in the 21st week or later in 2023. The report estimated more than 1 million total abortions, which would mean that more than 9,000 abortions occurred in the 21st week or later.

If the Guttmacher Institute’s reporting is correct, this would mean that, on average, between 24 and 25 abortions in the 21st week or later occur every day in the United States.

[…]

Pope Francis speaks to religious leaders on the grounds of Indonesia’s national mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept 5, 2024. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Jakarta, Indonesia, Sep 5, 2024 / 00:13 am (CNA).

Pope Francis visited the grounds of Southeast Asia’s largest mosque on Wednesday for an interfaith meeting in Indonesia, where he signed a joint declaration condemning religious-based violence with Muslim leader Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar.

The Istiqlal Joint Declaration 2024 is titled “Fostering Religious Harmony for the Sake of Humanity.” 

Named for Indonesia’s national Istiqlal Mosque, the document calls for religious leaders to work together to promote human dignity, interreligious dialogue, and environmental protection.

“The values shared by our religious traditions should be effectively promoted in order to defeat  the culture of violence,” the declaration says. 

“Our religious beliefs and rituals have a particular capacity to speak to the human heart and thus foster a deeper respect for human dignity.”

Pope Francis became the first pope to visit the grounds of Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque on Sept. 5. The massive mosque is among the largest in the world, accommodating up to 250,000 people at a time. John Paul II, who visited Indonesia in 1989, was the first pope to ever visit a mosque during his visit to Damascus in 2001. 

According to the mosque’s grand imam, Istiqlal is second only in size to Mecca and Medina, and its influence extends to Indonesia’s roughly 242 million Muslims.

The interfaith meeting sought to promote religious tolerance and moderation in Indonesia, which faces challenges with the rise of hardline Islamist groups and instances of violence against Christians.

Speaking to representatives of Indonesia’s six officially recognized religions —  Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Catholicism, and Protestantism — Pope Francis articulated his vision for interreligious dialogue.

“Sometimes we think that a meeting between religions is a matter of seeking common ground between different religious doctrines and beliefs no matter the cost. Such an approach, however, may end up dividing us, because the doctrines and dogmas of each religious experience are different,” the pope said.

“What really brings us closer is creating a connection in the midst of diversity, cultivating bonds of friendship, care and reciprocity.”

Pope Francis added that when religious leaders cultivate bonds, it enables them “to move forward together in pursuit of the same goals: defense of human dignity, the fight against poverty and the promotion of peace.”

Pope Francis arrived at the mosque through the Alfattah Gate, where Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar warmly greeted him. The two leaders then proceeded to the newly constructed “Tunnel of Friendship,” an underground passage connecting the mosque to Jakarta’s Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, built by the Indonesian government to foster dialogue and unity.

Before entering the “Tunnel of Friendship,” Pope Francis expressed his hope that it would become “a place of dialogue and encounter.”

Pope Francis told the grand imam, “I hope that our communities may increasingly be open to interreligious dialogue and be symbols of the peaceful coexistence that characterizes Indonesia.”

´The interfaith event took place in a red and white tent on the mosque grounds. It unfolded with a traditional Muslim welcome dance known as Marawis, followed by a brief chanting of a passage from the Quran by an Indonesian woman and a reading from the Gospel of Luke.

Representatives of the other four recognized religions stood in solidarity as the declaration was read aloud to participants in the tent.

The Istiqlal document identifies dehumanization and climate change as two serious crises facing the world today, emphasizing the shared responsibility of religious communities in tackling global challenges. It also affirms the need for interreligious dialogue to resolve “local, regional and international conflicts, especially those incited by the abuse of religion.”

The joint declaration at the Indonesian mosque was reminiscent of the Abu Dhabi declaration on “Human Fraternity” that Pope Francis signed with Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of al-Azhar in the United Arab Emirates, when he became the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula in 2019.

On Thursday, the Indonesian grand imam underlined the significance of the meeting, pointing to Istiqlal Mosque’s influence across Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country.

As Indonesia’s only state mosque, the Istiqlal Mosque is “expected to provide guidance to more than one million mosques and prayer rooms scattered throughout the islands of the Republic of Indonesia,” he explained.

“This mosque also seeks to promote religious tolerance and moderation in Indonesia,” the Muslim leader underlined.

In a moving gesture of solidarity and friendship at the closing of the event, the imam kissed Pope Francis on the head, while the pope kissed the grand imam’s hand and then touched it to his cheek.

Pope Francis will conclude the third day of his apostolic journey to Southeast Asia and Oceania by celebrating Holy Mass in Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta. On Friday he is expected to depart Indonesia for Papua New Guinea.

[…]

Holy Ghost Cathedral in Enugu, Nigeria.

Enugu, Nigeria, May 7, 2021 / 13:29 pm (CNA).
The Bishop of Enugu announced on Thursday a week of prayer in atonement and reparation following the desecration of the city’s cathedral, reportedly by followe… […]