Churches in Rome can reopen for private prayer

London, England, Aug 3, 2018 / 10:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An order of Benedictine nuns based near the site in London where Catholics were martyred during the Reformation announced Friday they will soon open a house at the childhood home of their foundress, whose cause for canonization was opened in 2016.

The Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre, OSB, will formally open a chapel in Grancey-le-Chateau, 25 miles southest of Langres, France, Aug. 15, at the property where their foundress, Mother Marie-Adèle Garnier, was born in 1838.

“We give thanks to the Sacred Heart for this historic moment for our Congregation. Our sisters from all over the world are gathered here together to remember the birth of our foundress – the birth of our Monastic Family,” Mother Marilla Aw, OSB, superior general of the order, said Aug. 3.

“We hope that the opening of this house will be an impetus for many people to come to know the charism of our Mother Foundress who is now a Servant of God. Her teachings are profound, and she has already led many souls to the adoration of the Heart of Jesus hidden in the Eucharist.”

The chapel at the site, Maison Garnier, is dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. The nuns hope the site will become a pilgrimage destination for those devoted to Mother Marie-Adèle. The property includes a museum and a conference and retreat center.

Mother Marie-Adèle founded the Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre in 1898. The order is dedicated to perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

In 1901, the anti-clerical French government passed the Law of Associations, which greatly expanded the state’s authority over religious orders and regulated their educational work. As a result, the sisters went into exile in London, where they were able to freely wear a habit for the first time.

They eventually settled at Tyburn, the London site where in the 16th and 17th centuries several hundred martyrs – priests, religious, and lay men and women – were executed by the Protestant state for their refusal to give up their Catholic faith.

Throughout her life as a religious, Mother Garnier, who now went by Mother Mary of St. Peter, experienced intense physical suffering, so much so that when she went more than two hours without suffering, she wondered if Christ had forgotten her.

Despite her sufferings, which included debilitating migraines, her sisters say she remained cheerful and gentle with everyone, and counseled other sisters through their trials.

The order as a whole also suffered financial problems and strange demonic attacks, including instances of possession or objects being picked up and thrown across the room. But Christ promised Mother Mary of St. Peter that he would not let the order dissolve.

In 1922, Christ appeared to Mother Mary of St. Peter and told her that she would suffer and die soon. For the next two years, she suffered intense chest pains and congestion problems, until she became bedridden.

On November 15, 1923, on a Host a priest brought her, she saw the Heart of Jesus, alive in the Eucharist. She died June 17, 1924 at the Tyburn convent.

Her cause for canonization was opened Dec. 3, 2016 by Bishop Joseph-Marie-Edouard de Metz-Noblat of Langres.

Today, the contemplative order has spread throughout the world, with convents in England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Italy, and France.

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Lourdes, France, May 23, 2018 / 12:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- American veterans in search of healing attended a recent pilgrimage to Lourdes, through the Archdiocese for Military Services and the Knights of Columbus.

Among the pilgrims was Charles Baldin… […]

CNA Staff, Apr 24, 2020 / 12:17 pm (CNA).- The president of the Scottish bishops’ conference wrote Friday to the Scottish health secretary, saying the permission for women to self-administer both stages of a medical abortion at home during coronavirus is born of ideology rather than true concern for women.

“I believe it is profoundly depressing that in the midst of this unprecedented global pandemic when the resources of almost every government on earth are being diverted towards the preservation of life, especially the lives of the weak and vulnerable, the Scottish Government continues to act to end the lives of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society, the unborn,” Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen wrote April 24 to Jeane Freeman, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport and a member of the Scottish National Party.

“It is more than disheartening that the Scottish Government should see fit to promote ‘abortion at home’ as though this were a trivial matter equivalent to taking any other medication at home. A position like this appears to be more a matter of ideology than of genuine and dispassionate concern for women’s wellbeing,” the bishop, a Benedictine, wrote.

The Scottish government has lifted restrictions on at-home medical abortions during coronavirus.

A medical abortion is a two-step process that involves the ingestion of mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone blocks the effects of the progesterone hormone, inducing a miscarriage. Misoprostol is taken up to two days later, and induces labor.

Women in Scotland have been able to self-administer misoprostol in their homes since 2018. However, until recently, they had to take mifepristone at a clinic.

The medications will be delivered by mail.

Because of coronavirus-related lockdowns, the Scottish government has allowed at-home self-administration of mifepristone as well, following a phone or video consultation with a doctor.

A similar permission was made in England last month, and Sinn Féin’s leader in Northern Ireland has pressed for a similar change in that region.

Bishop Gilbert said he found the Scottish government’s decision “deeply troubling.”

He said that while mifepristone and misoprostol “not only end the life of an unborn child,” they “are also a risk to the health of its mother,” noting that even in the best of circumstances – administration at a clinic with several hours of clinical observation – there is “a real risk of severe bleeding and sepsis in a small number, and a need for further surgery in a larger proportion, depending on the stage of the pregnancy.”

The bishop added that “vulnerable women in unsatisfactory domestic circumstances are particularly at risk.”

He asked whether, under the new policy, women are “receiving information on all available options including details of organisations which can offer support to both the mother and the baby,” if enough time is given to counselling during the consultation, and “is it appropriate for drugs which end the life of a human being to be sent by post, trivialising what is an extremely serious and life-changing procedure”.

“Aside from the Scottish Bishops’ Conference’s absolute opposition to abortion, there are also serious practical concerns involved here,” he said. “The decision to allow women to take potent abortifacient  medications  in a largely unsupervised manner at home is not only fatal for the innocent human beings in the womb but also constitutes a real risk to women’s present and longer term health and wellbeing.”

Bishop Gilbert added that “it is of particular concern that there is no way of establishing that a woman is not being coerced into an abortion in the context of a poorly safeguarded online consultation.”

“In the current situation, there is already an increase in complaints about domestic abuse since the Coronavirus restrictions were put in place. It is far from clear how the Scottish Government proposes to set in place the prudent support procedures which permit all the relevant factors in each individual case privately and without coercion.”

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