Young Catholics in Ireland say their voices have not been heard during synodal process

CNA Staff, Jun 25, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- The parliament of the Channel Island of Guernsey voted Wednesday to approve a bill expanding abortion time limits, and removing time limits altogether on the abortion of unborn children with disabilities.

Votes held June 24 on 12 propositions made by the health and social care committee of the States of Guernsey carried each of them.

Under the new law meant to ‘modernize’ the territory’s abortion law, the abortion time limit will be increased to 24 weeks, as it is in the UK. The previous law, adopted in 1997, permitted abortion up to 12 weeks. There will be no upper limit on when a child with “significant fetal abnormality” can be aborted. These propositions were approved by a 23-13 vote, with one abstention.

The new law also decriminalizes the procurement of abortion outside the legal framework; drops a requirement that the mother consult with two medical practitioners; allow nurses and midwives to preform medical abortions; and allows medical abortions at home.

It will also force conscientious objectors to make referrals without delay; “make clear that health practitioners may not refuse to participate in care required to save the life or prevent serious injury to the physical or mental health of a woman”; and “create a power in the Law for the Committee for Health & Social Care to make regulations making further provision in relation to the circumstances in which the right of health practitioners to conscientiously object to the provision of care in relation to abortions may be exercised.”

Guernsey is a self-governing Crown Dependency for which the UK is responsible, located off the coast of Normandy. The new law will extend to Guernsey and its associated islands, but not Alderney and Sark, which are also part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey.

During debate on the propositions, according to the Guernsey Press, Deputy Richard Graham commented that “I regret that Health & Social Care have identified the UK as the gold standard to be followed, instead I would urge them to look to those countries that have low abortion rates, and seek to learn lessons from them, they are no less civilised, no less compassionate than we are, and they strike me as a far better abortion role model than the UK.”

The Bailiwick Express reported that Deputy Emilie McSwiggan, a member of the health and social care committee, said: “What we are trying to do is find a way through that is as compassionate as it can be, which is as fair as it can be, which balances and reflects the choices that people have to make and allows people to make those choices safely and within the context of a legal framework that is clear and modern and fair.”

Several amendments to the new law, which sought to reduce the proposed time limit on abortions or to maintain limits on the abortion of unborn children with disabilities, had been defeated June 19. The amendments would have retained the same time limits for the abortion of children with disabilies as of all unborn children; made clear that non-fatal conditions such as Down syndrome or cleft palate are not considered fatal foetal abnormalities; and changed the time limit for abortions to 16 or 22 weeks, rather than 24.

Earlier, a sursis motivé to stay the deliberation of the draft law and allow for broader public consultation had been defeated.

According to official figures, 113 abortions were performed in Guernsey in 2018, with a further three involving Guernsey residents performed in England and Wales.

The Catholic Church on the island held an all night prayer vigil at St. Joseph’s Church in St. Peter Port ahead of debate last week.

Bishop Egan of Portsmouth, the diocese which includes Guernsey, urged Catholics earlier this month to resist the “fundamentally detestable” efforts to liberalize the island’s abortion law.

In a June 7 message he argued the changes would violate the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” and the injunction “Love thy neighbor as thyself”, which formed the basis of laws in civilized societies.

“This is why abortion and the current proposal to ‘modernize’ — that is, to increase — its availability in Guernsey is fundamentally detestable,” he said. “Under the bogus word ‘modernization,’ an attempt is being made to further liberalize abortion, to make it a lot easier and a lot more common.”

Egan said: “They want to allow abortions much later in pregnancy, abortions to be carried out with less red tape, abortions to take place at home and outside hospitals, and, grimly, abortions right up to birth for a disabled child, a child unwell, or a child with Downs syndrome. How must a person with Downs syndrome feel about this?”

“They refer to abortion euphemistically as a ‘procedure,’ a ‘termination’ with help from ‘the professionals.’ But what procedure can justify any professional terminating the life of an innocent baby? The more you see what an abortion is, the more you can see it is anti-life, anti-human and anti-woman.”

In a joint letter, John P. Ogier, pastor of Spurgeon Baptist Church, and Fr. Bruce Barnes, the Catholic Dean of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, criticized the timing of the debate amid the coronavirus pandemic.

They wrote: “We believe this is an entirely inappropriate time to be considering such a sensitive and morally important issue, in the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic and with such a truncated timescale for public debate and consideration.”

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Glasgow, Scotland, Sep 4, 2018 / 05:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archdiocese of Glasgow has welcomed the city council’s decision Monday to reroute a Protestant march which was to have passed by a Catholic parish where a priest was allegedly assaulted when a similar march passed by in July.

“We are grateful that common sense has prevailed,” a spokesman for the archdiocese said Sept. 3.

“The re-routing of the march will bring relief to the people of St Alphonsus parish and the surrounding area, who viewed with anxiety and fear the prospect of another march past the church so soon after the disgraceful scenes earlier this summer.”

The Glaswegian public processions committee imposed an alternate route on a proposed march by the Rising Star of Bridgeton Royal Black Preceptory No. 672.

The preceptory is a Protestant, loyalist fraternal order separate from, but closely linked to, the Orange Order.

Orange marches are organized by the Orange Order, largely in Northern Ireland and Scotland, to commemorate the defeat of James II by William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. James had been deposed as king of England, Ireland, and Scotland in a 1688 revolution by the Parliament of England after he had expanded toleration of Catholics and Protestant nonconformists in the officially Protestant kingdoms.

A spokeswoman of the Glasgow City Council said the public processions committee “heard evidence from Police Scotland that disorder was likely should the march take place on the original route – requiring around 20 times the number of officers that would otherwise attend.”

John McBride, a Police Scotland Superintendent, told the city council that “this parade causes a serious concern for the police in terms of public order and disruption to the life of the community … because it can be reasonably expected that there will be a significant protest to the parade should it occur.”

“It is my view that the resources which would be required to police the parade would be disproportionate to the numbers involved in the parade,” McBride added.

The Orange walk is expected to include about 60 marchers.

The Royal Black Preceptory is considering appealing the council’s decision.

Opposition to Orange walks have increased since a July 7 incident.

Canon Tom White, 43, was greeting parishioners after Mass that day when an Orange march approached St. Alphonsus parish.

According to the Archdiocese of Glasgow, Canon White was spat at, verbally abused, and lunged at.

A 24-year-old man was later arrested and charged in connection with the alleged assault.

The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland has denied any involvement in the assault on the priest.

Some subsequent Glaswegian Orange walks were cancelled after outcry over the attack on Canon White.

Police Scotland Superindendent Stephen Hazlett told the city council that “this is an area that needs to heal itself. It might take several years to de escalate back to where we were before July 7. We need to give the community time to reconcile themselves and return to normality. The feeling I get is that the time at this present moment is not right. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

A petition at change.org posted after the July 7 attack calling on Glasgow City Council to end the Orange walks has gained more than 83,000 signatures.

James McLean, spokesman for the  Rising Star of Bridgeton Royal Black Preceptory said, “We feel we are being marginalised and demonised and that Glasgow City Council are acting clearly at the behest of the Roman Catholic Church.”

Scotland has experienced significant sectarian division since the Scottish Reformation of the 16th century, which led to the formation of the Church of Scotland, an ecclesial community in the Calvinist and Presbyterian tradition which is the country’s largest religious community.

Sectarianism and crimes motivated by anti-Catholicism have been on the rise in Scotland in recent years.

An April poll of Catholics in Scotland found that 20 percent reported personally experiencing abuse of prejudice toward their faith; and a government report on religiously-motivated crime in 2016 and 2017 found a concentration of incidents in Glasgow.

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Valletta, Malta, Feb 2, 2018 / 12:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A close friend of slain Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia says the reporter’s life and death is a reminder that “one should have the courage to stand for one’s convictions.”

Maltese priest Fr. Joseph Borg spoke with CNA about Galizia’s legacy.

A well-known Maltese journalist famous for her shocking, in-depth stories exposing government corruption, Galizia was assassinated in October 2017 when a rental car she was driving exploded as she left her home in Bidnija. Three people have been arrested in connection with the bombing.

She was frequently threatened because of her work, and was best known for her investigations into corruption among the Mediterranean nation’s politicians.

Shortly before her death, Galizia had suggested on her blog that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his wife had used offshore bank accounts to hide payments from the Azerbaijani ruling family.

Galizia’s claims about the Maltese minister triggered early elections in the country, from which Muscat’s Labour Party managed to come out victorious.

Fr. Borg, Director of the Maltese Catholic radio RTK, was familiar with Galizia and wrote an obituary for her in The Guardian after her death. The two had a friendly relationship and were familiar with each others’ work. He had defended her work publicly, and at one point gave evidence in her defense during a court case against her.

In an interview with CNA, Borg said Galizia, who investigated Maltese connections in the 2015 Panama Papers leak on her blog “Running Commentary,” was aware that her work was unlikely to make an impact, but she was nonetheless committed to telling the truth.

When it came time for the elections after the leak, he said Galizia told him “I know that what I’m writing will not make a difference for the election result, people don’t care, but I have to write it because someone has to write it. We have to document what’s happening.”

Journalists have a responsibility to pursue stories like this, Borg said, stressing that “we can’t be consequentialists. We can’t say, ‘what will be the effect if it’s true?’”

“If it’s public interest we have to write it,” he said, explaining that while it is unethical to publish false information, “you can also be unethical by not writing something that you should write, not writing something that is of public interest…(this) is unethical.”

He said Galizia first got involved with investigative stories on corruption scandals during Malta’s election in 1981, two years after Britain pulled troops off the island in 1979. A constitutional crisis emerged when the Labour Party, despite taking in less votes that the opposing Nationalist Party, managed to end up with more seats in parliament.

Protests erupted, rapidly turning violent. Galizia became active in covering the story, writing for both the The Sunday Times of Malta and the Malta Independent, where she had a regular column, until her death.

In 2008 she launched her blog, which quickly became one of the most popular websites in Malta, as she could publish stories and commentary that weren’t able to be printed in the papers.

In this sense, Borg said one of Galizia’s greatest contributions to journalism is that “she gave hope to people. You go to her with a story and it gets published. She takes risks if she believes in people.”

Despite her high readership and Galizia’s efforts to unveil the shadowy misdeeds of those in power – including a Maltese politician who reportedly visited a brothel during a trip to Germany – Borg said the public was largely indifferent.

“The irony is that the economy was good and it became better, so people didn’t care,” he said.

“Even if you look at the demonstrations that were done after her funeral, one was very great, but then people dwindled. This is the situation. Most people reason out and say ‘I’m okay, what’s the big fuss? All of them are corrupt, so who cares?’”

Borg said if reporters stop covering difficult stories because of indifference, “what use is journalism?”

Using a colloquial Maltese phrase, he said it would be like “’a sun that does not heat’ – is it better that it’s cold?”

Galizia was able to raise the bar for journalism in Malta, Borg said, explaining that many Maltese journalists were in some sense “offended” that people went to her with the good stories, instead of them.  

Because of this, “now we have many people in mainstream journalism who have been trained to compete with her to get better stories,” Borg said, so “that was another contribution.”

He also pointed to Galizia’s “total disregard of a consequentialist approach to journalism,” and her attitude that “you have to do what you have to do” for the sake of public interest.

“She was not perfect, sometimes she got stories wrong, sometimes she also had gossipy parts, [but] most of the time she was incredible,” he said. “The main stories, what she wrote about corruption in Malta, incredible.”

“Her courage has inspired other journalists to go after more stories and we are getting more stories,” he said. And while some of this can be attributed to the fact that people simply need to find someone else to run their story, “journalists feel a bit ashamed if they don’t sort-of take risks like her.”

This is one of Galizia’s “best contributions to journalism in Malta,” Borg said, adding that other people and organizations should have the same courage to stand up for the truth, because “if someone who is alone does it, if you are part of an organization or institution, why shouldn’t you?”

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