Bishop calls for intense day of prayer and fasting for end of violence in Mexico

Santiago, Chile, Jan 12, 2018 / 02:42 pm (ACI Prensa).- Just days before Pope Francis’ visit to Chile, three Catholic churches in the capital of Santiago were attacked by unknown assailants.  

A fourth church – Christ the Poor Man Shrine – was targeted by a bomb threat and was subsequently investigated by a bomb squad.

Hours before, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Parish in the Estación Central district was fire bombed. The arsonists fled the scene, leaving behind messages against the Holy Father’s visit to the country.

“Pope Francis, the next bombs will be in your cassock,” said a pamphlet left behind.

The community of priests that live at Saint Elizabeth’s and the neighbors immediately worked to extinguish the fire, which damaged the entrance doors and several windows.

Two other chapels in the city also suffered damage, including broken windows and doors.

At some of the churches, pamphlets were left behind, saying, “We will never submit to the dominion they want to exercise over our bodies, our ideas and actions because we were born free to decide the path we want to take…We are attacking with the fire of battle, making your disgusting morals explode.”

The pamphlets also called for “autonomy and resistance” in the Mapuche conflict. The Mapuche are the largest indigenous group in the country. Many of them live in the region of Araucania, which Pope Francis will visit during his trip.

Chile incorporated Araucania by military conquest between 1861 and 1883, resulting in a major rift between the government and the Mapuche people. The tension continues to this day, with Mapuche communities calling for the return of ancestral lands, respect for their cultural identity, and in some cases, autonomy.

“This was a cowardly act. I’m upset, pained, because this is a poor community, a struggling community: these are people who don’t know the consequence of what they’re doing,” the parochial vicar Fr. Marcelo Cabezas lamented.

“On the other hand, if there are attacks, it’s because we’re having an impact as Catholics,” he said.

No one was injured in any of the attacks. Police investigators are on location to determine if the attacks were related.

Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Mahmud Aleuy, visited the damaged churches and said the Government of Chile will prosecute the offenders when found.

The Archdiocese of Santiago released a statement saying, “We are deeply pained by these incidents, which contradict the spirit of peace that animates the Pope’s visit to the country.”

“With humility and serenity we call on those who have committed these acts, which we consider in no way to represent the feeling of the vast majority of the population, to reflect on the need that exists for respect and tolerance among all, to build a homeland of brothers.”

Later in the morning, a group of protestors stormed the apostolic nunciature, before the police arrived and evicted them from the building.

Roxana Miranda, head of wrote a group that protests high mortgage rates, took responsibility for the nunciature protest in a Twitter statement. She said the group was protesting the cost of the papal visit.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Asunción, Paraguay, Dec 30, 2020 / 08:47 pm (CNA).- The House of Representatives of Paraguay held one minute of silence for “the babies that will die” few hours after the Senate in neighboring Argentina legalized abortion.

Un minuto de silencio. La plenaria de la Cámara de Diputados aprobó el minuto de silencio por la aprobación de la ley del aborto por parte del Congreso de la Nación Argentina. @780AM pic.twitter.com/N1tG62xlmx

— Luis Acosta (@lacostasoy) December 30, 2020

In a statement and a video released by the Paraguayan Congress’ press office, the representatives observed the minute of silence upon the request of congressman Raúl Latorre.

“I ask for a minute of silence for the thousands of lives of Argentinian brothers and sisters who are going to be lost, even before they are born, based on the recent decision made by the Senate of the neighboring country”, Latorre said.

After the minute of silence Congressman Basilio Núñez, a physician, said that “what has happened in Argentina is a tragedy”, and reminded that Paraguay’s House of Representatives has declared itself as pro-life and pro-family. The minute of silence was supported also by the three leading women in Congress, Norma Camacho, Blanca Vargas, and Esmérita Sánchez.

The abortion law was approved by the Argentinian Senate on Wednesday, December 30. The new law, in practice, will allow abortions at any time until birth and has no provisions for protecting the baby if he or she survives a late-term abortion.

[…]

Bishop Cristobal Ascencio with pilgrims from the diocese of Apatzingán, Mexico, Nov. 8, 2023. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Insigne Nacional Basilica of Guadalupe

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 10, 2023 / 19:00 pm (CNA).
A Mexican bishop from one of the r… […]