Catholic News 2
BEIRUT (AP) -- A cease-fire to evacuate rebel fighters and civilians from the remaining opposition-held neighborhoods of Aleppo unraveled on Wednesday, once again raising the specter of a bloody end to the battle for Syria's largest city as residents reported the resumption of shelling and brutal bombing runs....
NEW YORK (AP) -- President-elect Donald Trump, who faced fierce opposition from some Silicon Valley leaders during the election campaign, strove to assure the titans of tech on Wednesday that his administration is "here to help you folks do well."...
The Coordinator of the Justice and Peace Committee of South Sudan’s Catholic Bishops is urging the country’s citizens, especially the youth to engage in dialogue to build their nation, which is embroiled in a civil conflict that broke out in December 2013.Speaking at a two-day workshop on Conflict Management in Juba this week, Jim Long John urged the Christian youth at the training session to help communities put aside their differences and to engage in dialogue so as to live peacefully together.During the workshop, the young people identified insecurity, land grabbing, tribalism, injustice, corruption, economic crisis and cultural conflicts as issues of serious concern in South Sudanese communities.They resolved to help people address their grievances through dialogue, prayer, respect for human rights and also promote a change of attitude.Meanwhile, the government of South Sudan is to launch a national dialogue to discuss issues of forgiveness, unity and nationa...
The Coordinator of the Justice and Peace Committee of South Sudan’s Catholic Bishops is urging the country’s citizens, especially the youth to engage in dialogue to build their nation, which is embroiled in a civil conflict that broke out in December 2013.
Speaking at a two-day workshop on Conflict Management in Juba this week, Jim Long John urged the Christian youth at the training session to help communities put aside their differences and to engage in dialogue so as to live peacefully together.
During the workshop, the young people identified insecurity, land grabbing, tribalism, injustice, corruption, economic crisis and cultural conflicts as issues of serious concern in South Sudanese communities.
They resolved to help people address their grievances through dialogue, prayer, respect for human rights and also promote a change of attitude.
Meanwhile, the government of South Sudan is to launch a national dialogue to discuss issues of forgiveness, unity and national development, President Salva Kiir told the National Transitional Assembly on Tuesday.
(Source Catholic Radio Network of South Sudan).
(Vatican Radio) A Dutch court has ruled that a trove of historical artefacts being held by an Amsterdam museum must be returned to Ukraine and not to four museums in Crimea, which loaned them out for an exhibition in 2014. The decision is aimed at ending a cultural tug-of-war triggered by Russia's annexation of Crimea.Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: Wednesday's ruling by the District Court of Amsterdam came after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 left treasures in a legal limbo. Both the Crimean museums and Ukraine demanded the return by Amsterdam's Allard Pierson Museum of some 300 stunning historical artefacts. The museum had borrowed them for a 2014 exhibition that opened a month before the annexation. However judge Mieke Dudok van Heel ruled that the artefacts should be returned to Ukraine, in part because Crimea is not recognized as a separate country. She explained "that the Crimean museums take the position that the Crimean treasures ...
(Vatican Radio) A Dutch court has ruled that a trove of historical artefacts being held by an Amsterdam museum must be returned to Ukraine and not to four museums in Crimea, which loaned them out for an exhibition in 2014. The decision is aimed at ending a cultural tug-of-war triggered by Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:
Wednesday's ruling by the District Court of Amsterdam came after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 left treasures in a legal limbo. Both the Crimean museums and Ukraine demanded the return by Amsterdam's Allard Pierson Museum of some 300 stunning historical artefacts.
The museum had borrowed them for a 2014 exhibition that opened a month before the annexation. However judge Mieke Dudok van Heel ruled that the artefacts should be returned to Ukraine, in part because Crimea is not recognized as a separate country.
She explained "that the Crimean museums take the position that the Crimean treasures belong to the cultural heritage of Crimea, or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea."
However, she said, "neither Crimea, nor the Autonomous Republic of Crimea are sovereign states. It is certain that the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was anyway, at the moment of the export of the Crimean treasures, part of the sovereign state of Ukraine."
The Amsterdam court's decision was a clear victory for Ukraine, the court said that the treasures should remain in storage in Amsterdam pending the outcome of a possible appeal. While Kiev was celebrating, authorities in Crimea quickly announced they would appeal, calling the ruling "another politicized, wrong decision which contradicts the laws."
(Vatican Radio) Brazilian Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns died on Wednesday morning, aged 95, after a long struggle with lung and kidney problems.The Archbishop Emeritus of Sao Paulo was the last living Cardinal to be appointed by Pope Paul VI in 1973.Cardinal Arns served as Archbishop of Sao Paulo from 1970 to 1998. A pastor at heart, never far from his flock, Cardinal Arns was much beloved by the faithful. He was also known for having challenged leaders of the brutal Brazilian military dictatorship of 1964-1985 and for his fight against torture in Latin America.A commission created by Cardinal Arns at his Archdiocese documented many cases of torture and helped later governments pay damages to victims and shame perpetrators of violence."Let us praise God for the Franciscan life of Dom Paulo and for his courageous engagement in the defense of human dignity and inalienable rights of each person," Sao Paulo Archbishop Odilo Scherer said in a statement.Cardin...
(Vatican Radio) Brazilian Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns died on Wednesday morning, aged 95, after a long struggle with lung and kidney problems.
The Archbishop Emeritus of Sao Paulo was the last living Cardinal to be appointed by Pope Paul VI in 1973.
Cardinal Arns served as Archbishop of Sao Paulo from 1970 to 1998. A pastor at heart, never far from his flock, Cardinal Arns was much beloved by the faithful.
He was also known for having challenged leaders of the brutal Brazilian military dictatorship of 1964-1985 and for his fight against torture in Latin America.
A commission created by Cardinal Arns at his Archdiocese documented many cases of torture and helped later governments pay damages to victims and shame perpetrators of violence.
"Let us praise God for the Franciscan life of Dom Paulo and for his courageous engagement in the defense of human dignity and inalienable rights of each person," Sao Paulo Archbishop Odilo Scherer said in a statement.
Cardinal Arns will be buried in Sao Paulo’s Central Cathedral.
Following his death, the College of Cardinals is composed of 227 Cardinals, of whom 120 are Cardinal Electors, while 107 are Cardinal Non-Electors.
Columbus, Ohio, Dec 14, 2016 / 10:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) signed a bill banning abortions performed after five months of pregnancy in most cases, citing evidence that unborn babies can feel pain at this point.At the same time, he vetoed the “heartbeat bill” passed by the state’s legislature, which would have outlawed abortions once a baby’s heartbeat has been detected.“By signing S.B. 127, the 20-week ban, Governor Kasich will save hundreds of unborn lives each year and he positioned the state of Ohio to directly challenge Roe v. Wade,” Mike Gonidakis, President of Ohio Right to Life, stated.The bill “was nationally designed to be the vehicle to end abortion in America,” he added. “It challenges the current national abortion standard and properly moves the legal needle from viability to the baby’s ability to feel pain.”Gov. Kasich signed the state’s Pain-Capable Unborn Child...
Columbus, Ohio, Dec 14, 2016 / 10:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) signed a bill banning abortions performed after five months of pregnancy in most cases, citing evidence that unborn babies can feel pain at this point.
At the same time, he vetoed the “heartbeat bill” passed by the state’s legislature, which would have outlawed abortions once a baby’s heartbeat has been detected.
“By signing S.B. 127, the 20-week ban, Governor Kasich will save hundreds of unborn lives each year and he positioned the state of Ohio to directly challenge Roe v. Wade,” Mike Gonidakis, President of Ohio Right to Life, stated.
The bill “was nationally designed to be the vehicle to end abortion in America,” he added. “It challenges the current national abortion standard and properly moves the legal needle from viability to the baby’s ability to feel pain.”
Gov. Kasich signed the state’s Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act on Dec. 13, making Ohio the 18th state since 2010 to enact a ban on abortions performed after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Exceptions would exist for cases of babies conceived through rape or incest, or where the life of the mother is deemed to be at stake.
Although some pro-lifers, like the group Susan B. Anthony List, had also supported the heartbeat bill, Ohio Right to Life asked Kasich not to sign it because courts had overturned similar legislation in other states and the Supreme Court had not agreed to hear those cases.
“Legal scholars believe that asking the Court to entertain a third heartbeat law at this time would cause irreparable harm to the pro-life movement,” Gonidakis said.
Susan B. Anthony List has been working to have the Pain-Capable bill passed at the state and federal levels. President-elect Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would sign a 20-week abortion ban into law if it passed through Congress.
Such legislation will “humanize our law,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the group, insisted. She said it was in accord “with public opinion, science, and basic human decency.”
The science shows that these unborn babies can feel pain and can even survive delivery at around 20 weeks after fertilization, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of Susan B. Anthony List, says.
“Fetal surgeons recognize unborn babies as patients,” they stated in a 2015 fact-sheet. “Perinatal medicine now treats unborn babies as young as 16 weeks post-fertilization (18 weeks gestation). Pain medication for unborn patients is routinely administered as standard medical practice.”
And “the leading textbook on clinical anesthesia” notes that babies as young as 18 weeks gestation can have a physiochemical stress response to noxious stimuli,” they added.
The U.S. House passed a Pain-Capable bill in 2015, but it failed to receive the 60 votes necessary to advance in the Senate.
It’s also popular legislation, Dannenfelser has said. “Americans reject the status quo of abortion on-demand, especially painful late-term abortions,” she stated.
A poll published by Susan B. Anthony List that was conducted on Election Day showed 64 percent of registered voters who participated in the elections supported a ban on abortions after 20 weeks with exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother was at stake.
In 2013, a Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 56 percent of respondents favored legal abortion “without restriction” up to 20 weeks and not 24 weeks. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll revealed later that year that more Americans supported a 20-week ban than opposed it.
A Knights of Columbus/Marist poll released earlier in 2016 showed 80 percent of respondents supporting limiting legal abortion to the first trimester of pregnancy.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The death of Alan Thicke has saddened every fan of "Growing Pains," the warm family sitcom where he played Dr. Jason Seaver, a psychiatrist and ideal TV dad....
NEW YORK (AP) -- A U.S. study of Zika-infected pregnancies found that 6 percent of them ended in birth defects. The rate was nearly twice as high for women infected early in pregnancy....
Fed up with Europe's union across borders? Reject it. Disgusted with the U.S. political establishment? Can it....
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Prosecutors are trying Bill Cosby for an alleged 2004 sexual assault only so that a "bandwagon" of women can pursue old, unsubstantiated claims that the 79-year-old comedian drugged and assaulted them, a defense lawyer said in court Wednesday....
