Poland must support mothers of disabled, children – bishop After a ban on aborting disabled children came into force, Poland’s Catholic Church urged “all possible help” for pregnant women and single mothers. “It isn’t enough just to implement the law – those governing today, as well as the Church and other groups have a supreme…
Poland’s constitutional court published January 21 the rationale for its declaration that abortion for foetal abnormalities is unconstitutional three months after it made the ruling. In the highly anticipated ruling on October 22, the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw said that the law introduced in 1993 was incompatible with Poland’s constitution. But the law did not…
The Vatican’s official news agency has vowed to do better after an observant Irish reader spotted they refer to ‘UK bishops’ when they mean just prelates from England and Wales. Vatican News, a news information portal provided by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, was taken to task by a concerned reader of The Irish Catholic…
Stating that Brazil’s federal government displayed contempt for protecting the health of the population and showed criminal conduct, 380 Brazilian Christian religious leaders filed an impeachment request against President Jair Bolsonaro for the crime of shirking his responsibilities. “Faced with the most serious public health crisis in the history of the country and the planet,…
The chairman of the US bishops’ pro-life and international policy committees said President Joe Biden’s memo rescinding the so-called ‘Mexico City policy’ January 28 is a “grievous” action that “actively promotes the destruction of human lives in developing nations”. “It is antithetical to reason, violates human dignity, and is incompatible with Catholic teaching. We and…
Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz said at a farewell Mass January 24 that the Church would remain a source of strength for Catholics in Belarus despite a change in leadership. The departing archbishop of Minsk-Mohilev also promised that he would remain an active bishop at the Cathedral of the Holy Name of Mary in the capital, Minsk.…
Indian Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy marked 100 days in prison with a letter highlighting the cases of poor people languishing in jail who begin their trials without even knowing their criminal charges. Ucanews.com reported on January 25 that in his letter to Jesuit colleagues, the 84-year-old priest also expressed gratitude for the “overwhelming” solidarity of…
Pontifical Academy for Life say no to ‘vaccine nationalism’ The Pontifical Academy for Life has stressed the importance of overcoming “vaccine nationalism” so that everyone can have the opportunity of being vaccinated and nobody is left behind in the fight against Covid-19. A statement from the Academy warns that “faced with the very serious problems…
‘Time is running out’ to save sharks and rays The BBC reported that sharks and rays are disappearing from the world’s oceans at an “alarming rate”. A new study suggests that the number of sharks found in open ocean has dropped by up to 71% over 50 years, with three quarters of the species studied…
Cathedral soup kitchen feeds Seoul’s homeless The Seoul archdiocese is helping homeless people with a soup kitchen run out of Myongdong Cathedral. The energy and chemicals division of SK Group, the third-largest conglomerate in South Korea, is sponsoring the programme by supporting 1,400 packed lunches each week. Lunches are served to homeless people every Wednesday,…