Imprisoned Nicaraguan bishop nominated for European Parliament human rights award

San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, Jan 4, 2021 / 03:46 pm (CNA).- Several hours before the beginning of 2021, a 9-year-old Argentine boy was saved from a stray bullet by a small metal crucifix on his chest, an event that local media have called “a New Year’s Miracle.”

According to a report from the police office of San Miguel de Tucumán, capital of the northwestern province of Tucumán, “the event took place around 10:00 pm on December 31 2020: a 9-year-old boy named Tiziano, from the neighborhood of Las Talitas, checked in with his father into the ER of the Baby Jesus Hospital in the southern part of the capital city with a superficial wound in the thorax, produced by a firearm.”

“After being checked thoroughly by several doctors on staff for 48 minutes, the boy was released,” the report says.

Tiziano’s family contacted José Romero Silva, a journalist from Telefé, Jan. 1 to explain how the boy’s life was saved: the bullet hit in the middle of the small metal crucifix that the boy received as a gift from his father. Tiziano’s aunt sent Silva a picture of how the bullet damaged the crucifix, which prevented the bullet from causing any real damage, except for a minor superficial wound.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”es” dir=”ltr”>[MILAGRO DE AÑO NUEVO] Anoche minutos antes de la 00 una bala perdida le pegó en el pecho a un Niño en Las Talitas. Pero el impacto fue en un crucifijo que el menor llevaba puesto, lo que salvó su vida. El Cristo quedó intacto y el Niño con una herida por el roce<a href=”https://twitter.com/telefetucuman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@telefetucuman</a> <a href=”https://t.co/N0vfFPtE8U”>pic.twitter.com/N0vfFPtE8U</a></p>&mdash; José Romero Silva (@Josecitors) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Josecitors/status/1345172600113262593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>January 2, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

Silva shared the picture in his Twitter account, writing: “New Year’s Miracle: yesterday, minutes before 00 hours a stray bullet hit the chest of a boy from Las Talitas. But it hit in a crucifix the minor was wearing.”

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null / Credit: Pexels

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 21, 2023 / 18:50 pm (CNA).
In a Sept. 20 post on X, the National Justice and Peace Commission of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference requested that the agreement made between a government agency and an … […]

Quito, Ecuador, Jun 14, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- The Ecuadorian bishops’ conference expressed Thursday their rejection of the recognition of same-sex marriage by the Constitutional Court, and recalled that a marriage is comprised of one man and one woman.

The Constitutional Court recognized gay marriage June 12 in a 5-4 decision.

The minority opinion stated that “the proper avenue for recognizing marriage equality is the procedure to amend the constitution, which is the competency of the National Assembly.”

The majority opinion judges stated that they based their decision on one by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights and by interpreting Article 67 of the Constitution of Ecuador “in light of the constitutional norms favorable to the equality of persons and which rejects all types of discrimination.”

In a statement published June 13, the bishops pointed out that “the Constitutional Court under no argument is entitled to reform the content of the Constitution of the Republic including the concept  of marriage, defined in its Art. 67 as the union of one man and one woman.”

The prelates also noted that “two judges on the Constitutional Court were morally and legally impeded from participating in processing these cases, as they have been lawyers in cases advancing this cause and advocates of marriage equality before being appointed judges and moreover, they previously publicly expressed their criteria in support of this claim.”

The Ecuadorian bishops recalled that “the definition of marriage, as the union of a man and a woman was approved by the Ecuadorian people through the referendum held in 2008, with 63% of the vote, precisely to protect and strengthen the institution of marriage which is the only one that guarantees the continuance of the human species and its free development, therefore five judges simply cannot go against the sovereign will of Ecuadorians.”

The bishops reaffirmed their commitment to respect for human rights regardless of “age, race, sex, religion, sexual orientation or culture,” and reiterated their desire to “promote marriage between a man and a woman … as the foundation of the family and of society, an institution that must be recognized and guaranteed by the Ecuadorian Government.”

The bishops said that the recognition of marriage and the family is finally a “religious freedom right, recognized by the Secular State of Ecuador.”

In conclusion, the bishops committed to “teaching children and young people that marriage according to the Christian faith is the indissoluble union between a man and a woman and that, as a fruit of that love, children are born for society and the Kingdom of God.”

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