Select Page
The flags of Italy and Vatican City. / alexfan32 via Shutterstock.
Rome, Italy, Jun 25, 2021 / 04:45 am (CNA).
From the prime minister to a famous rapper, many Italians have weighed in on the Vatican’s recent intervention in a possible new “anti…
The diocesan mandate to receive Communion in the hand continues. In addition, “Those who serve in parish ministries must be fully vaccinated . . . This includes altar servers and people who work in the kitchen and all those who serve in any volun…
Read MoreNathan Webb “was hired in August 2019 to manage the parish’s Paypal and Venmo online payment service accounts that were used to collect donations from parishioners,” according to the report on the alleged embezzlement at Christ the K…
Read MoreIn a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court ruled that the city of Philadelphia should not require Catholic Social Services to provide foster-care referrals for same-sex couples. “This is a victory for the common good and for thousands of chil…
Read MoreThe parish, Corpus Christi Church, is being merged with other predominantly African-American parishes to form a new parish; an archdiocesan spokesman said that the parish’s sacred artifacts will be “removed and centrally stored to be reloc…
Read MoreThe Fairness In Women’s Sports Act would have required schools to “designate intercollegiate, interscholastic, or intramural athletic teams according to the biological sex of the team members” and would have prevented biological male…
Read MoreFollowing the announcement that hundreds of unmarked graves were found at the Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, Chief Cadmus Delorme of the Cowessess First Nation said that radar had detected over 600 bodies.The school was operated…
Read MoreDalits were once more commonly known as “untouchables” under the caste system. Maid Ambadipudi Mariyamma, 44, was allegedly tortured before her death.“Police brutality upon them is nothing new,” said Father Z. Devasagaya Raj, fo…
Read More
Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki of Poznań. / Polish Bishops’ Conference.
Warsaw, Poland, Jun 25, 2021 / 03:45 am (CNA).
Catholic bishops have criticized the European Parliament’s declaration that abortion is “essential healthcare” and conscientious objection should be redefined as a “denial of medical care.”
Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, the president of the Polish bishops’ conference, said that the European Parliament’s vote in favor of the Matić Report signaled that the European Union was embracing “a culture of death and exclusion.”
“I am deeply saddened by the European Parliament resolution calling for the possibility of killing unborn children,” the archbishop of Poznań wrote on his Twitter account June 24.
“The culture of life envisaged by the Founding Fathers of the EU is turning into a culture of death and exclusion, with ideology taking precedence over reason.”
Bishop Kevin Doran noted that every Irish member of the European Parliament (MEP) voted in favor of the report.
Writing on social media, he said: “Very disappointing to see [that] every Irish MEP voted today against the right to freedom of conscience which is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in favour of the non-existent human right to abortion. God bless our healthcare professionals.”
Very disappointing to see the every Irish MEP voted today against the right to freedom of conscience which is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in favour of the non-existent human right to abortion. God bless our healthcare professionals. @Martin_Long
— Kevin Doran (@KevinElphin) June 24, 2021
In a press release issued after the vote, the European Parliament said that MEPs regretted that some EU states have “a so-called conscience clause” recognizing the right of medical practitioners not to participate in abortions.
“This leads to the denial of abortion care on the grounds of religion or conscience and puts women’s lives in danger,” it said.
The press release quoted Predrag Fred Matić, the Croatian politician who presented the report to the European Parliament, as saying: ‘‘This vote marks a new era in the European Union and the first real resistance to a regressive agenda that has trampled on women’s rights in Europe for years.’’
Members of the European Parliament, the EU’s law-making body, voted by 378 votes in favor, 255 against, and 42 abstentions, to adopt the report at a plenary session in Brussels, Belgium.
In addition to describing abortion as an “essential” health service and rejecting conscientious objection, the report declares that violations of “sexual and reproductive health and rights” are “a form of violence against women and girls.”
Only two of the EU’s 27 member states — Poland and Malta — do not permit abortion on demand or on broad social grounds.
The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), an NGO based in Strasbourg, France, suggested that the report’s supporters were seeking “to introduce a new norm without it appearing at first sight to be imposed.”
It said: “The choice of the institution in this strategy is not to be underestimated, because although the resolutions of the European Parliament have no binding legal value, they are the expression of an opinion that the Parliament wishes to make known.”
“A resolution may subsequently serve to politically legitimize action by the member states or the institutions; it is intended to produce practical effects.”
“More importantly, it can express a pre-legislative intention that can later be used to justify binding acts. There is, therefore, no doubt that an act of the European Parliament represents the gateway to the heart of the normative system.”
CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported that the group Christian Democrats for Life criticized the European Parliament vote.
It said that “the spirit of the Christian founding fathers of the European Union is turned into the absolute opposite by this decision, which will certainly lead to a further inner turning away from Europe among many citizens of the Union.”
The initiative Maria 1.0 also deplored the vote, saying that the European Parliament’s appeal for access to “safe and legal abortions” in the EU “borders on the cruelest barbarism.”
David Sassoli, the president of the European Parliament, is expected to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Saturday.
Posted by bcadmin | Jun 25, 2021 | Church, Featured, News, Weekly Headlines |
COVID-19 vaccine mandates are being imposed on college students across the nation, including at many Catholic universities. Before returning to campus, students must first scale a vaccination wall or gain a medical exemption. Almost all institutions also provide exemptions for students with religious and conscientious objections. But Creighton University (where I have served on the […]
Archbishop Arthur Roche, appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in May, recommended Eucharistic adoration in an interview with EWTN News.
“When I’m sitting in front of the Blessed Sacr…
The annual US death toll of 300-400 women “bears repeating, because birth control’s connection to blood clot risk is so little known and discussed, both from doctors prescribing the contraceptives and from the drug manufacturers’ inse…
Read MoreThe Syrian civil war began in 2011 and has claimed an estimated 400,000-600,000 lives. “At the beginning of the war,” said Sister Joseph-Marie Chanaa, “we were asked by our superiors if we wanted to leave Syria. The answer by all the…
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jun 25, 2021 | Catholic Living, Featured, News, Weekly Headlines |
Sudden rumors that Pope Francis may issue possible restrictions on his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum has caused an uproar among devotees of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). Eric Sammons highlighted here at Crisis the growth and passionate desire among some of the faithful for the traditional form of the liturgy, and he noted […]
Posted by bcadmin | Jun 25, 2021 | Associated Press, Catholic Church, Church in Mexico, Church in the Americas, Mexico, News |
It hasn’t been a good week for Mexico’s colonial-era architecture.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jun 25, 2021 | Associated Press, Catholic Church, Church in Asia, Church in Philippines, News, Philippines |
Late Philippine President Benigno Aquino III was hailed Friday for his integrity in a Southeast Asian nation long plagued by corruption.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jun 25, 2021 | Associated Press, Catholic Church, Church in Europe, clerical sexual abuse, News, Poland |
Poland’s state commission for fighting sex abuse of minors said Thursday it has asked the Vatican for data on abuse by the clergy in Poland.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jun 25, 2021 | abuse cover-up, Archdiocese of Dubuque, Associated Press, Catholic Church, Church in the US, clerical sexual abuse, diocese of Davenport, Diocese of Des Moines, Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa, News, statute of limitations |
Catholic priests who victimized Iowa children decades ago cannot be prosecuted despite a new law eliminating the statute of limitations for child sex abuse, the state attorney general says.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jun 25, 2021 | Associated Press, California, Catholic Church, Catholic hospitals, Church in the US, News |
The University of California’s governing board has adopted a new policy that tightens the rules on affiliations with hospitals that impose religious restrictions on health care.
Read MoreReading I Gn 17:1, 9-10, 15-22
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him
and said: “I am God the Almighty.
Walk in my presence and be blameless.”
God also said to Abraham:
“On your part, you and your descendants …
Recent Comments