News Briefs

Parents of comatose girl in UK may take her abroad for treatment, court rules

October 3, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

London, England, Oct 3, 2019 / 02:01 pm (CNA).- The High Court of Justice ruled Thursday that the parents of Tafida Raqeeb may take her to Italy for medical treatment. The five-year-old girl has been comatose since February, and UK doctors want to remove her life-sustaining treatment.

Doctors at Royal London Hospital, where Raqeeb is on life support, had barred her parents (Muhhamed Raqeeb and Shalina Begum) from taking her abroad for treatment. Barts Health NHS Trust, which operates the hospital, had asked that the court find that ending Raqeeb’s life-sustaining treatment is in her best interest.

Alistair MacDonald, the High Court judge, wrote in his Oct. 3 ruling that “where a child is not in pain and is not aware of his or her parlous situation, these cases can place the objective best interests test under some stress”.

“Tests must be looked for in subjective or highly value laden ethical, moral or religious factors… which mean different things to different people in a diverse, multicultural, multi-faith society,” stated MacDonald, who before his appointment as a judge practised family law, and is regarded as an expert on children’s rights.

He wrote that continued treatment was “consistent with the religious and cultural tenets by which Tafida was being raised”.

“There is no justification for interfering with the right to receive treatment in another EU member state,” the judge said.

“Transfer for treatment to Italy is the choice of her parents in the exercise of their parental responsibility and having regard to the sanctity of Tafida’s life being of the highest importance, I am satisfied, on a fine balance, that it is in Tafida’s best interests for life-sustaining treatment to continue,” Macdonald found.

The BBC reported that lawyers for Barts Health NHS Trust “said hospital bosses would consider appealing against the ruling.” They have 21 days to do so. The NHS trust said MacDonald’s decision “has clear ramifications that go beyond Tafida,” and could affect other patients being cared for in its hospitals. It stated: “The judge has granted us more time to consider the implications of this judgment for the Trust, other NHS organisations, doctors and patients.”

Two doctors from the Gaslini Children’s Hospital in Genoa examined Raqeeb via video link in July, and they agreed to care for her in Italy, saying they did not believe her to be brain dead. Her family have raised money for her transfer.

A lawyer for the Italian hospital told the court, according to The Evening Standard, that “When you drill down, it is based on differing views of what quality of life Tafida has. Clinicians (in England) don’t think she has a quality of life. Her parents do.”

Raqeeb suffered an arteriovenous malformation which resulted in a burst blood vessel in her brain, and has been in a coma since Feb. 9.

The AVM triggered cardiac and respiratory arrest, as well as a traumatic brain injury. Doctors at the Royal London Hospital say there is no chance she will recover from her coma, and declared any further medical treatment futile.

Raqeeb’s family are Muslim, and have argued that Islamic law “said only God could take the decision to end her life,” the BBC reported.

Begum, a solicitor, has said she wants to “exercise her rights as a parent.”

Muhhamed Raqeeb said he and Begum were thrilled by the High Court’s judgement.

According to The Guardian, Begum said that “We have always had Tafida’s best interests at heart and we have never wanted to come to court to have to argue for our rights to seek continued care in a world-class hospital [the Gaslini] willing to give her the treatment she needs. The entire experience of having to fight for our daughter’s life over the last three months has been exhausting and traumatic for all of her family and we are glad it is now finally over.”

She added that Tafida “is not dying and we are continuously seeing small but important signs that she is gradually improving and we have always been hopeful that she might make something of a recovery if she is just given the time and the right treatment to continue to improve.”

Begum commented, “If it happens to me, I want my life to continue until a time that God actually takes me, not withdraw life support from me.”

David Lock, a barrister for Raqeeb and Begum, said the judgement was an “enormous relief” and that the family “wanted to get on with the transfer” to Gaslini Children’s Hospital.

And Paul Conrathe, a solicitor for the family, said MacDonald’s ruling recognized “that a child’s best interests are not merely medical, but include broader social and religious values. It also recognised the legal right of parents to request life-prolonging treatment in another EU state so that their child can be treated under that system of care and ethics.”

He added, according to The Telegraph, that Raqeeb’s parents “look forward to her receiving outstanding care at the Gaslini hospital in Genoa. They will also feel at peace knowing that Tafida will be cared for under the Italian ethical and legal system.”

Bishop John Sherrington, an auxiliary bishop of Westminster and the English and Welsh bishops’ representative on life issues, welcomed the ruling, which he said “has taken account of the wishes of Tafida’s parents and their innate urge to do all they can to help their daughter in what are truly tragic circumstances. The heart-breaking illness of Tafida Raqeeb and the distress which the illness of a child causes parents touches the hearts of many people.”

“I trust that all the medical professionals will cooperate to continue to give her the best possible care and appropriate treatment. Such international cooperation is essential good practice in the care of tragically difficult lives,” he continued.

In July, Bishop Sherrington had urged that the public be reserved in judgement on Raqeeb’s case, saying that “difficult dilemmas have to be faced. In that process, I hope that all due weight will be given to the wishes of her parents, while also respecting the clinical judgement of the doctors caring for her. Those of us not in possession of all the relevant information might best be reserved in our judgement.”

Katie Gollop, a barrister representing Barts Health NHS Trust, said MacDonald’s ruling could affect other children.

Raqeeb’s case follows similar campaigns by parents with children in NHS care. Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans, and Isaiah Haastrup were all gravely ill children on life-support treatment. The parents of each of those children lost court battles in recent years against hospitals that wanted to end their treatment, and prohibit them from being taken abroad for treatment.

The NHS trust cited both Gard’s and Evans’ cases in its arguments against continuing treatment for Raqeeb and against allowing her to receive treatment elsewhere.

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US ambassadors: Religious groups provide aid where governments cannot 

October 3, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Oct 3, 2019 / 01:37 pm (CNA).- U.S. diplomats asked the Holy See to join the multilateral International Religious Freedom Alliance Wednesday, underscoring the contributions of faith-based organizations to flourishing and free societies around the world.

Faith-based institutions unleash “spiritual capital into a society,” Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback told CNA. He said these non-governmental organizations “bring the heart and hands,” helping the parts of society where governments or big institutions cannot reach.

“Governments are not real good about ‘Hey, let us help you get out of alcoholism,’ but churches are. That is just one quiet example,” Brownback said.

A symposium held at the Vatican Oct. 2 focused on the unique role that faith-based organizations play in providing humanitarian aid, combatting human trafficking, and advancing religious freedom in different parts of the world.

“Faith communities have been foundational, that is, fundamental to our work,” U.S. Ambassador-at-large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons John Cotton Richmond said at the symposium.

“Governments are limited by borders. They are limited by jurisdictions, election cycles, political will, and sometimes their self-imposed political struggles. But faith communities are not similarly bound,” Richmond said.

The ambassador said that faith-based organizations have the advantage of being able to “operate through networks that extend beyond any government or regime.”

“They do not last for just a cycle … They can build and plant for the long term,” he said.

“Faith-based communities with their contributions to philosophy have contributed to the foundation of the modern human rights movement. Faith-based groups have advanced the idea that all people have inherent value and intrinsic worth regardless,” Richmond said.

Representatives from Aid to the Church in Need, Caritas, Talitha Kum, the Community of Sant’Egidio, AVSI, Adyan Foundation, and the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development participated in the symposium, “Pathways to Achieving Human Dignity,” co-hosted by the Holy See’s Secretariat of State and the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

The U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich announced at the symposium that the embassy will be awarding financial grants to each of the faith-based organizations that participated in the event.

“There has never been a more critical time to work with and to support faith-based organizations,” Gingrich said in her opening address Oct. 3.

“Today, religious freedom is under attack in nearly every part of the world. Faith-based organizations, through their unique ability to build trust and encourage dialogue, can play a critical role in turning the tide,” Gingrich said.

“Faith-based organizations are advocates for the most vulnerable among us, including those enslaved by human trafficking. They are also providers of humanitarian assistance, helping governments deliver aid effectively and honestly to those most in need,” she said.

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Bishop praises brother’s forgiveness of officer in fatal Dallas shooting

October 3, 2019 CNA Daily News 2

Dallas, Texas, Oct 3, 2019 / 12:03 pm (CNA).- The brother of Dallas man fatally shot by an off-duty police officer used his time in court to offer a hug and a message of forgiveness to the officer as she received her prison sentence.

“If you truly are sorry, I know I can speak for myself, I forgive you,” said 18-year-old Brandt Jean to former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger during his victim impact statement.

“I hope you go to God with all the guilt, all the bad things you may have done in the past,” he said. “If up go to God and ask him, he will forgive you.”

Guyger, 31, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday for the murder of Botham Jean, a 27-year-old black man who was killed last September. She will be eligible for parole in 5 years.

Guyger was off-duty but still wearing her police uniform when she entered Jean’s apartment and fatally shot him. She said she had just finished a long shift, was distracted by a series of text messages from a colleague with whom she was having an affair, and did not realize she had entered the wrong apartment by mistake.

Thinking that she was in her own apartment, she saw Jean sitting on the couch, thought he was an intruder, and opened fire.

Prosecutors had sought at least 28 years in prison, in recognition of the fact that Jean was about to turn 28 years old when he was killed. Guyger’s defense had argued that the murder was a mistake rather than a malicious act.

Protestors outside the courthouse objected to the sentence, saying it was too short.

Inside the courtroom, however, Brandt choked back tears as he addressed Guyger, saying, “I don’t even want you to go to jail. I want the best for you, because I know that’s exactly what Botham would want…and the best would be give your life for Christ.”

“I love you as a person, and I don’t wish anything bad on you,” he continued, before asking – and receiving – permission to give Guyger a hug. The two shared a tearful embrace, with whispers that were not audible to those around them, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Bishop Edward Burns of Dallas praised the encounter, saying, “What an incredible example of Christian love and forgiveness we witnessed during the victim impact statement as Botham Jean’s brother, Brandt, forgave Amber Guyger, encouraged her to turn her life over to Christ and gave her a hug.”

“He said it is what Botham would’ve wanted,” Burns continued. “I pray we can all follow the example of this outstanding young man. Let us pray for peace in our community and around the world.”

After the sentencing, State District Judge Tammy Kemp offered Guyger her personal Bible, the Dallas Morning News reported. She encouraging Guyger to read it and told her, “Forgive yourself.”

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Why this Franciscan nun is about to run her 10th marathon

October 3, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Chicago, Ill., Oct 3, 2019 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- You might say that running 10 marathons is extreme.

Well, Sr. Stephanie Baliga, who is about to run her tenth, is somewhat of an extreme person. Just ask her. She’ll tell you.

She was once even more of an extreme runner, she told CNA.

But while she was a college athlete at the University of Illinois, she was grounded by a foot injury. While she recovered, Baliga, who had been running seriously since she was 9 years old, had some time to reevaluate her life.

“The metatarsal of my foot spontaneously fractured, so I went from being in very good shape to completely messed up because it was a…complete fracture. So I was in a boot and crutches for a very long time,” Baliga told CNA.

“And it made me – it forced me to reevaluate my life priorities and realize that I had pretty much placed running on this pedestal. It was how I defined myself and how I thought, how I understood who I was, and how I explained myself everybody else.”

But the injury, and the time off, made Baliga realize that her approach to running, and to life, was “super-not-sustainable and really didn’t make sense. So I needed to completely reevaluate what I was thinking about my life and who I was.”

It was during that time that Baliga connected with some students from her campus Newman Center and began delving deeper into her Catholic faith. She said when her friends invited her on a retreat, she was ready to go.

“I was pretty open to it,” Baliga told CNA. “It was pretty clear that Jesus was preparing for me to be ready for that point in time.”

It was on that retreat, during Eucharistic Adoration, that Baliga said she encountered the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist in a new way.

“There was this increasingly intense realization of his presence and the sense, the knowledge that Jesus was really there in the Eucharist and this is real, it’s not just some stuff that people say because it’s nice to talk about, or it’s nice because it ties the theology together. But this is actually real…and that I needed to completely change the ways that I live my life.”

After that retreat experience, it didn’t take long for Baliga to realize she was being called to the vocation of religious life.

“So I’m kind of an extreme person,” Baliga said.

She said after the experience of realizing Jesus is real, she took time to delve more deeply into prayer and her faith community. It wasn’t long after that that she realized she was being called. “It was only like five months, because I’m extreme,” she added.

Baliga said she felt drawn to a Franciscan order from the start of her discernment because of their “love of the Eucharist and focus on the Eucharist, and love of the poor and work with the poor, and then (living in) actual poverty.”

As she was looking into different religious orders, Baliga said she considered one that would have required her to completely give up running, because it wouldn’t have been compatible with that order’s way of life. In prayer, she said, she told Jesus that if he was asking her to give up running, that was ok.

“I told Jesus that if he really would rather me not run ever again, that’s what I’ll do…if that’s what’s needed, that’s what I’ll do,” she said.

“And that was just kind of this experience of freedom in that once I gave run into Jesus, which is what I did at that moment, it then became his. And then he was able to use it for his glory instead of me being selfish and prideful and…showy about my running.”

Around February of her senior year, Baliga found the sisters that she would soon join – the Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago. A relatively new religious community, there were only two other sisters in the order at that time.

Baliga decided to join after graduating from the University of Illinois in 2009.

The order encourages sisters to exercise as their schedule allows, and Baliga has been able to keep up her running – though not in full habit, she said.

“I wear a bandana, and a T-shirt, and then a long running skirt with tights,” she said.

“Some orders do run in their habits because they’re shorter, but ours…we have ankle-length habits. It would be kind of a problem.”

Sr. Baliga ran her first marathon as a sister in 2011, and for the past several years has used the Chicago Marathon as a chance to recruit people to be on a team that raises donations for her order’s mission.

“My community runs a place called Mission of Our Lady of the Angels, and we work with the poor on the west side of Chicago. We are a presence of Jesus here on the west side and this is one of the worst areas in the United States and leading Chicago in murders this year and things of that nature,” she said.

“So we provide a presence of peace, and a presence of love, and a presence of Jesus here in the midst of violence and poverty. We feed about 1,000 families a month with food and provide clothing and household goods for that same group, as well as work with senior citizens and families and do a lot of special events.” 

This year, she’s recruited 105 people for Team Our Lady of the Angels for the October 13 marathon, and so far they have raised more than $126,000 of the $200,000 goal.

The money will go toward the renovation of an old Catholic school building that caught fire in 1950, killing 92 students and three sisters. Sr. Baliga and her sisters plan to transform the building into a community center.

According to the team’s fundraising page, the new outreach center will provide space for the Mission’s donation storage and distribution, a handicapped accessible kitchen and dining room, meeting space for neighborhood and retreat groups, and a 60+ bedroom retreat center for volunteers and retreat guests.

Sr. Baliga also has a personal fundraising page for the marathon, where she is raising $30,000 for the boiler system in the sisters’ church and school.

“I have spent the past 9 years of my life tackling maintenance issues. BY FAR the most annoying, long-lasting, and time-consuming issue was the BOILERS/ heat system. It has innumerable issues. The only advantage has been my opportunity to evangelize at least 10 different HVAC repair companies,” Baliga wrote on her fundraising page.

“This is the year the Lord has made. Both boilers in the school-rectory-church heat system will be replaced by winter 2020-2021. I am running the 2019 Chicago Marathon to end the boiler issues once and for all.”

By press time, Baliga’s page had raised about half of its goal.

Baliga said she would encourage anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation as herself in college – wonder what God is calling them to do – to be courageous.

“I think the Church right now needs saints and saints in the making. So we need people to be courageous…if people think Jesus is calling them to religious life, he probably is. So people should seriously take that very seriously and not wait,” she said.

“Listen to Jesus and make the sacrifices that he asks because the rewards will be great. Honestly, here on earth, he has provided for us beautifully here. And then obviously we know that he’ll provide infinitely for us in heaven.”

 

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How a Palestinian village sheds light on the drama of Christians in the Holy Land 

October 3, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Jifna, West Bank, Oct 3, 2019 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Jifna is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, just 5 miles north of Ramallah –the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority- and 14 miles north of Jerusalem.

The village of about 2,000 people is unique because, until recently, it had retained a Christian majority for almost 1,500 years, in a region where Christians are a shrinking minority.

In fact, Jifna’s most famous landmark is not one of the elaborate mosques and minarets that dominate the Palestinian landscape, but instead is the ruins of the Roman Church of St George, which was built in the 6th century.

Jifna faces struggles. And those challenges are a fair representation of the many complex issues that threaten the survival of Christian communities in the Holy Land.

In September, during a visit to the region organized by the Philos Project, a group of Catholic leaders was able to visit the St. Joseph Parish in Jifna. They spoke directly to members of the local Catholic community and their pastor, Fr. Joney Bahbah.

At an informal gathering in the parish hall, Fr. Bahbah spoke enthusiastically about the crown jewel of his parish: the Catholic school that “serves everyone, including our Muslim brothers.”

The school was established by the Latin Catholic Patriarchate in 1856.

According to the official statistics of the Latin Patriarchate, Jifna has been losing Christians to migration, and only 870 remain in town, out of which 428 are Latin Christians.

A large group of Christians left the Palestinian territories during the Second Intifada (“Uprising”), a period of intensified Israeli-Palestinian violence that began in late September 2000 and ended in early 2005.

“Christians are one of the most peaceful, highly-educated, and upwardly-mobile communities in Israel. These loyal citizens serve as a buffer between the Jewish and Muslim populations and offer a powerful testimony to the love and forgiveness that is offered by Jesus Christ,” Robert Nicholson, president of the Philos Project, and an expert on the region, told CNA

But many anti-Christian incidents sparked by Muslims make Christians wary, he said, especially when local disagreements are framed as religious incidents and dangerously escalate.

A traumatic episode happened April 24, when a Christian woman from Jifna got into a traffic altercation with a young Muslim man, the son of an influential Palestinian leader with alleged connections to the powerful Fatah movement in Ramallah. After the altercation, the man was taken into custody by the Palestinian police.

In revenge, some members of the Muslim family rounded up friends from the nearby Al-Am’ari refugee camp, and on April 26 traveled to Jifna, where they destroyed property and hurled anti-Christian insults.

According to a report from Al-Monitor: “Some of the gunmen…also fired into the air and demanded that the Christians pay the Jizyah – a per capital annual tax – called the dhimmi – levied on non-Muslim subjects living under Islamic rule.” 

“Jifna residents made emergency calls to the police, but it would be three hours before anyone would arrive. Part of the delay, it turned out, was because Jifna lies in Area B of the West Bank — administered by the Palestinians but with joint Israeli-Palestinian security control — the police needed approval from Israeli authorities before entering it,” Al Monitor explained.

Commenting on the incident and its impact on local Christians, Wadie Abunassar, the Director at The International Center for Consultations, wrote on Facebook that “the residents of Jifna, most of whom are Christians, have voiced anger and resentment for two main reasons: first, the big attack carried out by some residents of Al-Am’ari refugee camp and, second, the delay in the arrival of the Palestinian security forces.”

“We hope that everyone will learn that Christians are an inalienable part of the Palestinian people, that they should not be vulnerable in any way,” Abunassar said.

At the parish hall in St. Joseph, a local lay Christian explained to the Philos Project group that in the Palestinian territories, “we Christians have a strong sense of nationality and Palestinian identity.”

The political stance of many Christians in the West Bank mirrors those of the Muslim majority. They believe in the “right of return” -to the land currently occupied by Israel- and blame Israel for most, if not all, of their current sufferings.

But the lay Christian speaking to the group, who himself spent time in an Israeli prison for joining the Second Intifada, wondered “if the end of the occupation (from Israel) would bring to power a radicalized version of Islam that would totally decimate us.”

According to Nicholson, “Palestinian society cannot survive without Christians. Although they only make up about 1% of the population, Palestinian Christians provide about 50% of the health services and 70% of the educational programs in the West Bank and Gaza. There will be no flourishing State of Palestine without a strong local church. The Palestinian Authority should do a lot more to empower and protect Christians living under its rule.”

When trying to explain other causes of the shrinking population of Christians in the Holy Land, Fr. Bahbah acknowledged the lack of opportunities in the region. He also took a swipe at the allure of western secularization.

“Today’s young (Palestinians) want to have fun, to dance, to travel… They don’t like Jesus,” he said.

The economic reasons for Christians to emigrate have to do with the state of near collapse of the Palestinian economy, in part because of the crippling regulations imposed by Israel.

But Nicholson believes that the survival of Christian communities in the Holy Land requires a significant engagement with Israel.

“Israel offers a unique, if unusual, opportunity for Christian renaissance in the Middle East: unique because Israel is one of the few countries in the region that is stable and free, and unusual because Israel identifies as a Jewish state. Anyone who cares about Middle Eastern Christians should seize on this opportunity, finding ways to work with Israel and strengthen the local church. This will help Christians in Israel, but it will also send a much-needed message of hope to those living in other parts of the region,” he told CNA.   

Meanwhile in Jifna, the Christian village surrounded by olive groves, apricot trees and grapevines, Fr. Bahbah says that he keeps on with his daily tasks as a pastor with a sense of hope.

“We believe that peace will come, because Jesus lived here and he loves this land.”

 

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