March for Life 2022 in Baranquilla, Colombia. / Unidos por la Vida
Bogotá, Colombia, May 2, 2022 / 17:40 pm (CNA).
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people dressed in light blue and carrying banners and flags marched in more than 70 cities in Colombia to defend the life of the unborn child and to say no to abortion.
Jesús Magaña, president of United for Life, the platform that organized the event, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language sister news agency, that on April 30 some 200,000 people attended the marches in 78 cities in the country.
Large cities with marches included Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Bucaramanga, Pereira, and Manizales.
A “Manifesto for Life” written by United for Life was read at this 16th National March for Life in Colombia, stating that the Colombian people “are outraged by ruling C-055 of 2022 in which four judges of the Constitutional Court and an alternate judge sentenced unborn babies up to six months of pregnancy to a cruel death penalty without any grounds.”
“Therefore, throughout the country, we are peacefully demonstrating our rejection of this unconstitutional and criminal decision of the Court. We want to tell the world that Colombia is a country of life and that it will not rest until the right to life is restored and guaranteed from the moment of fertilization until natural death,” the text adds.
United for Life said that “all legal, political, cultural and social means” will be used “to restore precisely the right to life, which has been systematically violated for years by the Constitutional Court.”
The pro-life platform asked the four aforementioned judges of the court to resign from their positions and to “answer judicially and socially to the people for this abuse of power.”
The manifesto also invited Colombians to “rethink this type of action by the Constitutional Court, since it has become a body that breaches the balance of powers, destroys the democratic system, deforms the Constitution with its reinterpretations.”
The candidates for president of the country were asked to sign the Pact for Life “as a sign of their commitment to put forth actions and public policies that protect and promote all human life.”
“Colombia is a country that loves and respects life, that doesn’t want new violence and the extermination of human beings worked out in the offices of the Constitutional Court, especially which allows and promotes the massacre of our unborn babies. We will continue to mobilize until this massacre is stopped,” the manifesto concludes.
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Santiago, Chile, Nov 29, 2018 / 12:48 pm (ACI Prensa).- Chilean president Sebastián Piñera signed into law Wednesday a bill permitting people aged 14 or older to change their name and gender in the civil registry.
The law signed Nov. 28 defines gender identity as “the personal or internal conviction of being a man or woman, in the person’s self-perception, which may or may not correspond with the sex and name verified on the birth registration certificate.”
It was first introduced in 2013 during the administration of Michelle Bachelet under the name “Recognizing and Giving Protection to the Right of Gender Identity.”
Although some legislators filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court to declare the measure unconstitutional, this was rejected Oct. 25.
From 18 years of age, a person will be able twice to “obtain the rectification of the name and sex” in the registry.
Minors between 14 and 18 years of age will have to process the request in family court and have the approval of at least one of their parents or guardians.
Lacking that, the minor must ask a judge to intervene to proceed with the change of name and sex in the civil registry.
Once the minor makes the change they will not be able to retract it until turning 18.
Minors under 14 were finally not included in the law.
The law is part of the “Friendly Settlement Agreement” signed in 2016 between the Homosexual Integration and Liberation Movement and the Chilean state, with the mediation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
In this agreement, the state committed to “continue to perfect institutions on the foundational level ” and to “improve and adapt” public policies and legislation to prevent discrimination and guarantee the rights of the LGBTI population.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey walks across the campus of St. John’s Prep in Danvers, Massachusetts, on April 9, 2024. / Credit: Screenshot of St. John’s Prep Facebook page last visited April 19, 2024
Boston, Mass., Apr 23, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).
Pro-lifers in the Archdiocese of Boston are criticizing Cardinal Seán O’Malley over two recent appearances at Catholic education events by the pro-abortion governor of Massachusetts.
Earlier this month, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat who supports legal and publicly funded abortion and who has taken steps to make abortions easier to obtain, spoke at a fundraiser for The Catholic Schools Foundation, which raises money for Catholic schools in the archdiocese and helps poor students attend.
O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, is the chairman of the board of trustees of the foundation, though he was in Rome at the time of the gala and did not attend it.
Healey also recently visited a Catholic school north of Boston, speaking to students and answering questions.
C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, called Healey’s appearances “a grave scandal.”
“Cardinal O’Malley should be ashamed of himself. Is Maura Healey an inspiring role model for Catholic students?” Doyle said.
Thomas Harvey, chairman of the Massachusetts Alliance to Stop Taxpayer Funded Abortions, called including Healey at the Catholic events “really disgraceful,” and he placed the blame on O’Malley.
“Maura Healey is a huge proponent of killing babies in the womb, in direct defiance of Catholic teaching, and yet here she is being presented to impressionable Catholic students as if she were a Catholic role model,” Harvey told the Register by text. “And the clear message being sent to Catholic students here is that killing babies in the womb is just not that big a deal.”
In June 2004, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a document called “Catholics in Public Life,” which states: “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors, or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”
Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, pointed out that Healey was not an honoree at the gala or during her earlier appearance at the Catholic school.
Since Healey is the governor of the state, Donilon said, Cardinal O’Malley has worked with her “on a number of issues important to Catholics and the wider community,” including public funding for the archdiocese’s charitable work providing “basic needs assistance, job training, child care services, and immigration and refugee assistance to thousands of residents,” as well as building “badly needed affordable housing” and trying “to stem gun violence.”
“At the same time, the cardinal has been a leader in the pro-life movement for over 50 years and his commitment in being a staunch promoter of life is well known and unwavering,” Donilon said.
O’Malley, 79, a Capuchin Franciscan, has frequently attended the March for Life in Washington, D.C., and has spoken at pro-life rallies. Last week, The Boston Globe published a column by O’Malley urging state legislators to oppose a bill that would legalize physician-assisted suicide.
But critics such as Doyle claim that O’Malley during his time as archbishop has seemed to mix easily and uncritically with abortion-supporting Catholic politicians, including the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (whose funeral Mass he celebrated), the late Boston mayor Thomas Menino, former Boston mayor Marty Walsh, and the current governor, Healey, with whom he co-authored a column in The Boston Globe in September 2017 on immigration.
Donilon, O’Malley’s spokesman, addressing Healey’s participation in The Catholic Schools Foundation gala last week, said that “the governor has been a vocal supporter of Catholic education. … Our Catholic schools save cities and towns hundreds of millions of dollars in education costs. Our families benefit from an outstanding education based in an excellent faith-based environment.”
Gov. Maura Healey speaks to students at St. John’s Prep on April 9, 2024. Credit: Screenshot of St. John’s Prep Facebook page last visited on April 9, 2024.
Who is Maura Healey?
Healey, 53, was elected Massachusetts attorney general in 2014 with an endorsement from Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund. She served two terms as attorney general before being elected governor of Massachusetts in November 2022.
As an elected official, Healey has frequently supported public policies that clash with Catholic teachings on life and sexuality.
She has verbally attacked pro-life pregnancy centers, steered state government money to private abortion funds, and, in April 2023, quietly arranged for the flagship campus of the state-run University of Massachusetts to purchase 15,000 doses of abortion pills.
Healey’s administration in June 2023 successfully proposed a curriculum framework for public schools that calls for teaching between third and fifth grades “the differences between biological sex and gender identity” and “how one’s outward behavior and appearance does not define one’s gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Healey appeared Thursday, April 11, at the annual gala of The Catholic Schools Foundation at a hotel in Boston.
“So I didn’t have the benefit of going to Catholic school,” Healey said, according to a text of her remarks provided by a spokesman. “My mom went to Catholic school, and my nephew goes to Catholic school; we have priest[s] at the dinner table every Sunday. But I do know, both having been your attorney general and now as your governor, what your work means. And I can see that experience firsthand.”
She also said she wants to find ways “to partner” with the foundation “in the important work that you [are] doing.”
“And I want you to know that, as governor, I value our vibrant mix of education, our public schools, our private schools, and our religious schools,” Healey said.
Two days earlier, on Tuesday, April 9, Healey spent about 50 minutes with a group of 120 students at St. John’s Preparatory High School, a Catholic boys’ school founded by the Xaverian Brothers in Danvers, about 18 miles northeast of Boston, according to a description of the visit published on the school’s website. The school is in the Archdiocese of Boston, though it is not run by the archdiocese.
Healey had never visited the school before, “but it was quickly clear her personal values are closely aligned with those of the Xaverian Brothers,” the school’s write-up states.
Healey emphasized leadership and empathy during her remarks. The governor also told the students that while she believes in civil discourse, “there are some basic values that have kept our society intact,” and she told students they should “call out hate when you see it.”
“We can have differences of opinion on things,” Healey said, according to the school’s write-up, “but, to me, equality has got to abide. Respect for the dignity and worth of each person is something I call on people to really adhere to.”
Robert Joyce, a lawyer and member of the board of the Pro-Life Legal Defense Fund, which provides legal representation for pro-lifers, said that St. John’s Prep last fall turned down an offer he made to provide a pro-life assembly for students featuring a canon lawyer, a physician, and a vocations director. (The head of school, Edward Hardiman, did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.)
Joyce called Healey’s recent appearances at the gala and at the school “abominations for Catholic education.”
“They send the clear message to Catholic students and parents that critical, fundamental precepts of the Catholic faith are not all that important. In simple terms, they declare that protection of innocent unborn life and the defense of traditional marriage are negotiable with these Catholic educators,” Joyce indicated.
Healey is also a featured speaker at the annual Spring Celebration of Catholic Charities Boston scheduled for Wednesday, May 29, at the Boston Harbor Hotel in Boston. O’Malley is expected to receive an award at the event for his work in welcoming immigrants.
Healey and the Catholic Church
Healey does not often talk about religion in public, but she occasionally identifies herself as a Catholic.
In October 2018, when she was state attorney general, she led off a brief column in The Boston Globe with the words: “As a member of law enforcement and as a Catholic …”
In April 2022, when Healey criticized Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester for calling for a Catholic school to take down a rainbow flag, she added, according to MassLive.com: “And I speak as a Catholic …”
In October 2022, during a debate while she was running for governor, Healey used a Catholic reference while defending herself from a claim by her Republican opponent that a bill she had supported effectively legalized infanticide, as the National Catholic Register subsequently reported. “You know, my mom goes to Mass every morning,” Healey said.
Healey is widely thought of as a potential candidate for other offices. She would be an obvious Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts if either of the two incumbents (both in their 70s) leaves office.
Additionally, just hours before her appearance at The Catholic Schools Foundation gala, Healey participated in an event at Northeastern University in Boston honoring former Massachusetts governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis. The moderator floated Healey as a potential future candidate for president of the United States, to applause from the audience.
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and is reprinted here on CNA with permission.
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