Complaint filed against student and doctor in Mexico for advising on how to abort at home

Guadalajara, Mexico, Sep 25, 2018 / 12:00 am (CNA).- The president of the Mexican bishops’ conference has demanded that the dignity of human bodies be respected, after two trailers were found in Mexico’s Jalisco state, containing 157 corpses.

In a statement published Sept. 21, Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega responded to the discovery, which he said “has caused outrage in society.”

On Sept. 18, locals in the municipality of Tlajomulco alerted authorities to the presence of a trailer emitting foul odors. The trailer contained corpses reported to be murder victims connected to organized crime, which apparently could not be kept in a morgue due to lack of space.

The former director of the Jalisco Forensic Sciences Institute, Luis Octavio Cotero Bernal, is presumably responsible for the scandal. He was dismissed from his position shortly after the bodies were discovered. There has not yet been an official statement on the discovery of the bodies.

The bodies from the trailer and a second one are now in a warehouse belonging to the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office.

In his statement, Cardinall Robles said that believing in the “resurrection of the dead is to affirm something essential to the Christian faith.”

“Human existence does not come to an end  with the years lived in this world, since Jesus Christ by rising has made us sharers in eternity,” he added.

For this reason, the cardinal emphasized, “the dignity of every individual is not lost even after death, human remains require the respect due to those who in life were persons, made in the ‘image and likeness of God,’ who await, through the merits of Jesus Christ, to be redeemed and saved for eternal life.”

“Death is not the end, the annihilation,  the elimination, much less the extinction of a human person,” the archbishop said.

Burying the dead, he continued, “is a way of expressing faith in the Resurrection, since by so doing it is understood that the person reposes with the firm hope of one day being awakened by the eternal light of Heaven.”

“Besides belonging to a very ancient tradition of burying the dead, we know that it has been considered a corporal work of mercy. Societies of all times and cultures have set aside suitable places for the interment of their deceased, places that express compassion, respect and veneration toward those who shared our same pilgrim journey.”

Robles lamented undignified storage of human corpses, and explained that it “makes evident a process of the lamentable and gradual dehumanization of our society which has been permeating us and makes us deduce that government institutions have been overrun.”

“With the lack of care and attention to the bodies that have not been identified, the discouragement of people hoping to find their loved ones grows,” he wrote.

Robles, who is Archbishop of Guadalajara wrote that “for social, humanitarian, religious and public health reasons, it is urgent to follow the proper procedures to obtain and carefully archive genetic information which could lead in the future to the identification of the remains of those who now remain in anonymity.”

“We call then for the respect due honor due to human beings in whatever their circumstances, from the most vulnerable and defenseless to the most obscure and ignored. Any human breath is a sign of the goodness of the Creator,” he concluded.

Mexican officials are now seeking a long-term solution to the body storage problem presented by the victims of organized crime.

The BBC reported that in 2017 Mexico experienced its most violent year with more that 25,000 murders, according to official figures.

Since 1990 one cardinal, 47 priests, one deacon, four men religious, nine laypersons and one Catholic journalist have been killed in Mexico according to a report by the Catholic Multimedia Center of Mexico.

It is also estimated that since 2000, 105 journalists have been murdered in Mexico.

This article was originally published CNA’s Spanish-language sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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CNA Staff, Jan 19, 2021 / 11:01 pm (CNA).- As the second wave of coronavirus has severely impacted people in the Amazon, Brazilian bishops have asked for donations of oxygen supplies to help patients in crowded hospitals.

“We, bishops of Amazonas and Roraima, make an appeal: For the love of God, send us oxygen,” said Archbishop Leonardo Steiner of Manaus according to a recent video, Independent Catholic News reported.

Archbishop Steiner released the video Jan. 16 emphasizing difficulties faced by residents of Amazonas – a state in northwestern Brazil. He said that during the first wave of the virus, victims faced a lack of information and hospital beds. Now, he said, the patients are dying from a lack of oxygen tanks.

He encouraged listeners to put themselves in the services of others and follow pandemic restrictions instead of focusing on political divisions and promoting arguments.

“I make another appeal in [the] name of our bishops, that we put ourselves at the service of others, that we continue to use a mask, follow social distancing and carry on caring for each other’s health,” he said.

“We are in a difficult moment of the pandemic, which seems almost without an end. Let us all make our contribution and engage with solidarity in caring for the life of one another.”

According to Agence France-Presse, COVID-19 has killed over 210,000 people in the country. In Amazonas, the virus has caused an average of 149 deaths per 100,000 residents. Of Brazil’s 27 states, the Amazonas is the second-worst region to be affected by the coronavirus.

Governor Wilson Limas tweeted last Thursday that the state began to airlift 235 patients to five other Brazilian states because of a lack of oxygen supplies. Over 60 premature infants in Manaus were also airlifted to hospitals in Sao Paulo, about 2,500 miles away from Manaus, on Jan. 15.

Health officials have expressed concern that the coronavirus in the region has mutated into more contagious strains.

As oxygen supplies continue to diminish, those with Covid-19 and their families have forgone hospitals and relatives have waited hours to purchase oxygen supplies for themselves. While in line for a new oxygen market, local resident Fernando Marcelino told AFP that supplies are limited.

“Everyone here has a family member being treated at home. They prefer that to leaving them to die in the hospitals,” said Marcelino.

“The oxygen is arriving, but we don’t know how long that will last for,” he added.

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Just how hardened are the hearts of supporters of the pro-abortion movement with regard to the destruction and disposal of unborn human life? Consider the Seventh Circuit’s rejection of a challenge—and the Supreme Court’s refusal […]