High court weighs constitutionality of Chile’s abortion bill

Acapulco, Mexico, Feb 6, 2018 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Acapulco, Mexico, reported that two priests were murdered early Monday morning, Feb 5.

Fr. Iván Añorve Jaimes, pastor of Holy Family Parish in the town of Las Vigas, and Fr.  Germain Muñiz Garcia, the pastor of Mezcala; were killed in an attack by unidentified individuals in Taxco township.

According to a press release from the Guerrero State Attorney General’s Office, the victims were traveling on the Iguala-Taxco highway when they were suddenly cut off by another vehicle, from which shots were fired. The assailants fled the scene.

“As a Church we are greatly troubled by this tragic event which is mourned by the entire archdiocesan community and that of the Diocese of  Chilpancingo-Chilapa. We call on the authorities, that once the truth is known, that justice be served,”  a statement from the Archdiocese of Acapulco reads.

After lifting up their prayers for the souls of the priests, the Archdiocese of Acapulco also asked prayers for “the conversion of those who, forgetting that we are brothers, commit this kind of crime, which injures the dignity of the human person so much, snatches away the sacred gift of life and sows pain and suffering in the family and in society.”

“Let us not relent in our efforts to build peace in our family, in our community, in our state, in our homeland. Let us ask the Lord for this peace every day,” the statement concludes.

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, Apr 5, 2017 / 07:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Bishops of Paraguay made an urgent appeal for peace after hundreds of demonstrators set fire to the National Congress building in Asuncion on the night of March 31.

In a statement signed March 31, the Paraguayan Bishops’ Conference urged that there “be no more wars between brothers! Let us always work for peace!”

The violent demonstrations in Asuncion occurred when a group of legislators approved a constitutional amendment which would allow the reelection of the President of Paraguay, Horacio Cartes.

In a surprise move, and holding the vote behind closed doors, 25 senators supported the controversial measure. The opposition has called the measure illegal, a coup d’état.

So far, the riots have left at least one dead, many more injured – including legislators, police and protesters – and 200 people arrested.

“At this critical time for our homeland, we Bishops of Paraguay make an urgent appeal for peace,” the Bishops’ Conference stated in their communiqué.

“We observe with sorrow the public confrontation and want to call on everyone: the authorities and the people. Let’s not use violence, protect everyone’s life, so the demonstrations don’t turn into a battlefield. Let us respect life!”

The bishops urged both the citizens and government to look “not only at the motivations for your actions but also the consequences, and act with due common sense.”

“We urge the leaders and political representatives to win the people’s trust with concrete gestures of encounter, dialogue and transparency, respecting the process in which freedom and the possibility to act are not constrained by the urgency of political procedures,” they continued.

Finally, the Paraguayan bishops encouraged a dialogue between all parties because “peace requires the culture of encounter, the search for the common good, national unity.”

“We want a fraternal country where we work for that daily peace, as Pope Francis exhorted at the beginning of his visit to our country in 2015. Let’s make it possible. Let’s not let this get out of hand. ‘A family divided cannot stand,’” the bishops concluded.

Pope Francis, attentive to what is happening on the continent, said in his Sunday Angelus message that he is following “with close attention everything that is going on in Venezuela and Paraguay. I pray for their people, very beloved by me, and I invite everyone to persevere tirelessly, avoiding all violence, in the search for a political solution.”

After the pope’s message, the President of Paraguay, Horacio Cartes, posted a message on his social media in which he proposed holding immediate discussions with a representative of the Bishops’ Conference, the opposition, the political parties, the legislature, and the executive branch.

“I value immensely that His Holiness is following attentively the events in my homeland and I share his conviction that violence can never be the way to work for the good. Political solutions must be made within the institutional framework,” the president said.

Meanwhile, the Paraguayan bishops thanked “the Pope for his love and concern for the situation our homeland is going through right now.”

“At the same time, we welcome with hope the call made on television by the President of the Republic for a dialogue among the political actors, among whom are included the Paraguayan Bishops Conference,” they added.

“We recognize the value of this call as a response to the Pope’s request for the search for political solutions which is the responsibility of all actors of the representative bodies of our Nation.”

The statement signed by the President of the Paraguayan Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Edmundo Valenzuela Mellid, also indicates that in this effort they must avoid “all violence.”

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Santiago, Chile, Jan 16, 2018 / 05:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In the first official encounter of his apostolic visit to Chile, Pope Francis expressed his shame and sorrow for the child sexual abuse crisis that occurred at the hands of clergy of the Catholic Church.  

“I feel bound to express my pain and shame at the irreparable damage caused to children by some ministers of the Church,” the Pope said Jan. 16.

Speaking to the country’s civil leaders, he said “I am one with my brother bishops, for it is right to ask for forgiveness and make every effort to support the victims, even as we commit ourselves to ensuring that such things do not happen again.”

The Church in both Chile and Peru has faced strong fallout from sexual abuse scandals, which have damaged the Church’s image and created a strong distrust of the hierarchy.

The major case in Chile is that of Fr. Fernando Karadima, who once led a lay movement from his parish in El Bosque. He was found guilty of sexually abusing minors in 2011.

The Pope’s meeting with the Chilean authorities, civil society, and diplomatic corps, was his first official encounter during his apostolic trip to Chile and Peru Jan. 15-22.

He will be in Chile through Jan. 18, visiting Santiago, Temuco, and Iquique. During the visit he will have lunch with the Mapuche residents of the Araucania region, and visit the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

From Chile he will go to Peru, visiting Lima, Puerto Maldonado, and Trujillo. He will meet with indigenous Amazonians and pray before the relics of Peruvian saints before returning to Rome Jan. 22.

In his speech the Pope said that the future of Chile depends on the ability of both its people and leaders to listen to one another, preserving the country’s ethnic, cultural and historical diversity from “all partisan spirit or attempts at domination,” which threaten the common good.

He enumerated the different groups of people he believes most need to be listened to: children, the unemployed, native peoples, migrants, youth, and the elderly.

“It is necessary to listen,” he said. “To listen to the native peoples, often forgotten, whose rights and culture need to be protected lest that part of this nation’s identity and richness be lost.” As well as migrants, who come to this country in search of a better life.

We should also listen to young people and their desire for greater opportunities, he continued, especially in education, “so that they can take active part in building the Chile they dream of.”

Quoting the Te Deum homily of deceased Chilean Cardinal Silva Henríquez, the Pope said that “We – all of us – are builders of the most beautiful work: our homeland. The earthly homeland that prefigures and prepares the (heavenly) homeland that has no borders.”

The Pope encouraged people to strive to make Chile a place that welcomes everyone, and where everyone feels called to join in helping to build up the nation.

“Yours is a great and exciting challenge: to continue working to make this democracy, as your forebears dreamed, beyond its formal aspects, a true place of encounter for all,” Francis said.

He quoted the words of St. Alberto Hurtado, a Chilean Jesuit who died in 1952 and was canonized in 2005, who said: “A nation, more than its borders, more than its land, its mountain ranges, its seas, more than its language or its traditions, is a mission to be fulfilled.”

A visit to the saint’s shrine is part of the Pope’s schedule at the end of the day, during a private meeting he’ll have with local Jesuits.

“Each new generation must take up the struggles and attainments of past generations, while setting its own sights even higher,” he said. “Goodness, together with love, justice and solidarity, are not achieved once and for all; they have to be realized each day.”

“It is not possible to settle for what was achieved in the past and complacently enjoy it, as if we could somehow ignore the fact that many of our brothers and sisters still endure situations of injustice that none of us can ignore.”

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