Rome Diocese expresses solidarity with anti-Mafia priest following attempted assassination

“Abortion is a crime disguised as a solution” and “The size of your body doesn’t take away your rights” are among the signs held high by pro-life marchers in Madrid, Spain, on Sunday, March 10, 2024. / Credit: Nicolás de Cárdenas/ACI Prensa

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 11, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

In a festive atmosphere, thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid, Spain, on Sunday to participate in the annual March for Life with the theme “Yes to Life” in an event that featured powerful testimonies.

“It’s time to unmask the lies, horrors, businesses, and ideologies that sustain the culture of death and assume responsibility for repairing, healing, and making possible the culture of life and true progress,” the organizers of the pro-life event emphasized in their manifesto for the event.

Before the start of the march, the president of the Spanish Federation of Pro-Life Associations, Alicia Latorre, told the media that the objective of the march is to say “yes” to life especially “at this time when there are special attacks, not only by the laws but also against those who defend life.”

Latorre charged that “they want to turn into rights acts that are objectively perverse and that benefit no one. Not only do they take the lives of the unborn or the sick who are at the end of their life, but they also scar every person who participates in these acts and also society.”

Some of those attending the march carried banners that read “Abortion is a crime disguised as a solution,” “The size of your body doesn’t take away your rights,” “Life is valuable from its beginning to its natural end,” and “Praying is not harassment.” A group of participants marched behind a banner with the line from Luke’s Gospel “Blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

At the end of the march route, a stage was set up on Paseo de la Castellana, Madrid’s main thoroughfare, where the manifesto was read and two powerful testimonies were given.

‘Just because life isn’t easy doesn’t make it any less beautiful’

Paloma Zafrilla is the sister of Carlos, a young man who is 96% disabled. “He’s like a 6-month-old child,” Zafrilla told the assembled crowd. “He is 26 years old, but he doesn’t walk, he doesn’t talk, he doesn’t communicate. He is exactly like a baby. What he does do is smile and complain when something is bothering him,” she explained.

When her brother was diagnosed at 7 months old, his parents were pressured to not have more children “because they didn’t know how they might turn out, if the diagnosis were to be repeated” and they even told them “that it was very selfish to bring children into the world who could live with this misfortune, with this tragedy,” Zafrilla said.

“They even told me how could we take care of little Carlos, that in the end there was no quality of life. I can only assure you that there is no greater life than what is in my house. And especially everything is due to my brother,” she recounted, while also acknowledging that living with a disabled person isn’t easy.

Nevertheless, she added: “Just because life isn’t easy doesn’t make it any less beautiful, of course. And in this case it is quite the opposite. It’s much more fun. And it makes you look at everything with a much more special perspective,” she said to the resounding applause of those present.

Before concluding her remarks, Zafrilla observed that “a life is never less of a life according to what your abilities are, because we are not machines and our value is not based on what we produce.”

‘Half a heart trotting like a horse’

Clara and Diego, along with their three children, also gave their testimony. Their youngest child, Felipe, was diagnosed at 20 weeks with congenital heart disease (hypoplastic single ventricle syndrome). His mother stated that she and her husband were told that the boy wasn’t going to make it to birth. 

During the first ultrasound at 6 weeks, Clara recounted, they heard the baby’s “half heart trotting like a horse.” When the parents were told of the diagnosis, they were given “a short and bad, catastrophic life prognosis,” she said.

Throughout the pregnancy, the doctors asked them if they were prepared “because it was going to be quite a complicated life,” to which Clara commented: “I think we can all say that we have complicated lives, regardless of whether there is an illness or not. And in this case, yes, it has been complicated, but full of joy.”

However, the terrible outcome didn’t materialize and the determination of Felipe’s parents made the doctors work hard to save the child. “They went all out,” Clara acknowledged, to the point that this case led to the first child organ transplant being performed in 2021 with the donor in asystole, a type of cardiac arrest and the blood type being incompatible.

Regarding her older children, Clara says proudly: “They are prepared for the suffering, the illness, and the death they know can come. They are prepared for that as well as going to the park.”

Clara concluded her remarks by encouraging everyone to overcome the fear that arises in these situations: “It paralyzes you. But any decision based on love, which is to pursue life, is well made. You are a good mother and you are a mother, even if your eyes don’t see that ultrasound because they don’t want to show it to you, even if your ears don’t hear it, you’re still a mother.”

The event concluded with releasing balloons into the sky and a live ultrasound of a baby at 25 weeks, whose beating heart was all that could be heard.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Madrid, Spain, Nov 17, 2017 / 12:15 am (ACI Prensa).- Fr. Joseph of Jesus is a Chinese priest, faithful to the Catholic Church. Life is not easy for Catholics in China. Those who adhere to Rome are persecuted by the Chinese government, which only grants freedom of worship to those belonging to the state-controlled Patriotic Church.

Fr. Joseph recently shared his story on the “In the Footsteps of the Nazarene” program by the EUK Mamie Foundation, run by the Home of the Mother of Youth congregation of religious sisters.

His back faces the camera in the interview, and the precise details of his life in China, as well as his precise location – he is currently in Europe – are withheld for security reasons.

Fr. Joseph described what it was like growing up in a Catholic family in China. He is the third of five children, despite the rigid one-child policy instituted by the Chinese government.

“From time to time when the police would come into town, my parents had to go into hiding, away from us,” he said. “My older brother took care of us, we also had to hide everything we had in the house, because if the government discovered there was more than one child, they could take everything away from us.”

“Because they had more than one child, some Catholic parents had their houses destroyed and they were left with nothing,” the priest said.

“It was a test of faith, because as a child you don’t understand why it is that because you’re Catholic you have to live on less food and be separated from your parents,” he said.

However, he still persevered in his faith. His brother is also a Catholic priest.

The Catholic faith was maintained through “the domestic Church,” with families praying Lauds or Vespers secretly, and especially the Rosary.

“The Rosary is what gave us the strength for years because we didn’t have the sacraments or priests; but the faithful prayed every day at least one Rosary in the early morning and another one at night,” and at the end they said a “prayer to Our Lady of Fatima who gave us the strength to live as true Christians,” he recounted.

At age 15, Fr. Joseph felt that he was being called to the priesthood.

“I was thinking that in China there are a lot of people who don’t know Christ and the Catholic Church because we Christians are a minority,” he said. “So I thought that when I finished my studies I would go to the seminary and become a priest. That moment changed my life because I saw what the Lord wanted for me.”

He was inspired in his decision by the local pastor in the area, a dedicated priest responsible for 60 villages, who would celebrate Mass in the five largest villages, traveling from one to the next by bicycle.

“He’s an example of faithfulness to Christ and the Church because he didn’t want to be part of the official Chinese church and consequently he had to spend some time in prison or under house arrest,” Fr. Joseph said.

However, the priest accepted the sufferings that came to him, Fr. Joseph said, adding that at more than 80 years of age, that priest still wakes up at 3:30 every morning to pray and celebrate Mass.

“His exemplary life was decisive for me in finding my vocation. He is a priest for everyone, with such exemplary dedication.”

For more than 60 years, Catholics have faced persecution in China. The government-endorsed church, known as the “Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association” is loyal to Chinese communist authorities, who claim the right to decide whom to appoint as bishops, an authority that the Catholic Church reserves to the Pope.

Catholics who choose to remain loyal to Rome, particularly to the Pope’s juridical authority to appoint bishops autonomously, make up the “underground Church,” with its own bishops, priests, and lay faithful.

“There are…30 bishops of the underground Church who are not recognized by the state and so they cannot freely exercise their ministry,” Fr. Joseph said. “They are under house arrest and under surveillance, there are people who monitor their visits, whom they meet and their topics of conversation. Priestly ordinations are done in secret with no else knowing about it.”

Being part of the Catholic Patriotic Association would make life easier – with public Masses, a regular schedule, and the right to worship freely. But Fr. Joseph chooses to remain loyal to Rome despite the hardships.

“Fundamentally it’s not the same because the Church is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic,” he said. “The Patriotic Church is independent from Rome and I can’t accept that, because of my faith.”

Challenges abound, but the life of underground Christians in China is a witness of faith, Fr. Joseph said.

He asked for prayers that Chinese Christians may remain faithful, because “they teach us that the faith is much more precious than life, and that in living the faith we encounter Christ. We have to bear witness to those around us so those who don’t know the faith can find it.”

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

[…]

Rome, Italy, Mar 2, 2018 / 10:31 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday, Pope Francis continued his surprise “Mercy Friday” initiative with a visit to a home that keeps children with their mothers, who might otherwise be separated because of imprisonment.

Called “Leda’s House,” the home allows women who might have otherwise been imprisoned or put under house arrest for minor crimes to be rehabilitated while continuing to care for their children with supervision.

Located in the EUR neighborhood of Rome, the houses opened just one year ago and is the first of its kind in Italy. It currently houses five young mothers, between 25 and 30 years old, and their children. Most come from Rome, though one is from elsewhere in Italy and another is from Egypt.

According to a Vatican press release March 2, the women, children, and staff of the home all greeted Pope Francis with amazement. He spent some time speaking with the women and children before giving the kids giant chocolate Easter eggs.

According to the Vatican, the gift was “welcomed with great joy by the children, who invited him to have a snack with them.”

Today, #PopeFrancis continued his surprise “Mercy Friday� initiative with a visit to a home that keeps children with their mothers, who might otherwise be separated because of imprisonment.
Read the full story here: https://t.co/1u9xV5Ydqg
All Photos ©, Credit: Vatican Media/CNA pic.twitter.com/IoZPO5Yz4K

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) March 2, 2018

The women shared their appreciation of the opportunity to raise their children, despite the challenges. The Pope also left some gifts for the women, including a signed parchment to remember his visit.

During his visit, Francis was welcomed by Lillo Di Mauro, the head of the overseeing governmental department, along with the head of “Leda’s House,” who both highlighted the intense difficulties of children whose parents are imprisoned.

To avoid embarrassment, the children may make up stories about their incarcerated parents, they said, or they may become “aggressive and unmanageable,” although they are not bad children.

“The stay in the structure,” according to the Vatican’s press release, “allows mothers to accompany and take their children back to school, and to carry out activities useful for learning a profession, in view of future reintegration into the world of work and society.”

The women are able to continue living in a home environment and raising their children, while accompanied by staff and educators.

Pope Francis’ visit to “Leda’s House” is a continuation of his “Mercy Friday” custom, which he began during the Jubilee of Mercy, in 2016.

Originally planned once per month for the duration of the jubilee year, the Pope has continued these visits as a means of practicing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. He has met with refugees, children, women freed from sex trafficking, and the terminally ill, among others.

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