Police in South Korea are investigating a doctor who mistakenly performed an abortion on the wrong woman in August. The mix-up was due to an inadvertent switch of medical charts and a failure to confirm the patient’s identity before the procedure, CNN reports. A Vietnamese woman pregnant with a 6-week-old baby entered a gynaecology clinic…
First US head of CDF group dies age 83 US Cardinal William Levada, former head of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation and retired archbishop of San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, died on September 26 in Rome. He was 83. When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, he named then-Archbishop Levada to replace…
China harvesting organs from minority groups, activists say The Chinese government is harvesting organs from religious and ethnic minorities, a human rights organisation told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva last week. The China Tribunal, which calls itself an “independent, international people’s tribunal” that investigates allegations of organ harvesting in the country, said…
France’s Catholic bishops have opposed legislation to allow medically assisted procreation for single mothers and lesbian couples and urged citizens to help block its enactment. “We hear and understand the suffering of those who cannot have children from their union with a person of the opposite sex and of homosexual women who aspire to have…
Eritrean bishops protested the government’s seizure of Catholic schools and asked that the Church be enabled to continue its educational and health services. “If this is not hatred against the faith and against religion, what else can it be?” the bishops said in a letter to Eritrea’s minister of public education. “Our voice of protest”…
A bill to decriminalise abortion in all cases of rape failed in the Ecuadorian legislature last week, amid opposition from the Church and civil organisations. It would have allowed abortion also in cases of non-viable foetal deformity, incest, and non-consensual artificial insemination. Sixty-five members of the unicameral National Assembly voted in favour, five short of…
An overwhelming majority of Americans (83%) said they support conscience protection rights for health care professionals because they should not be forced to perform procedures against their moral beliefs. 91% of faith-based health care professionals said they need conscience protections and would rather stop practicing medicine altogether than be forced to violate their conscience. These…
Family members of an 80-year-old woman in England are advocating for legalised assisted suicide after the woman was found not guilty by a UK court in an apparent “mercy killing” of her husband. Mavis Eccleston, 80, was accused of killing her husband Dennis, 81, with a lethal dose of prescription medicine. Prosecutors claimed that Mavis…
Priesthood is not a job but a gift, Pope says Being a priest is not a job or fulfilling an employment contract but is a gift from God that should be contemplated and treasured as such, Pope Francis has said. Those who turn ordained ministry into an occupation “lose the heart of the ministry, lose…
Migrants ‘enrich us’ and are ‘not a danger’ – bishop The head of the migration commission for the Bishop Luis Quinteiro emphasised that love of neighbour is essential for Christians, and this includes care for migrants and refugees. “We don’t love God if we don’t love our brothers,” stressed Bishop Luis Quinteiro of Tuy-Vigo in…