Catholic News 2
DENVER (AP) -- It wasn't the headliners, but some political groupies took time Tuesday to gather and watch the vice presidential candidates debate....
FARMVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine repeatedly challenged Mike Pence during Tuesday's vice presidential debate, attempting to tie the Indiana governor to some of Donald Trump's most controversial statements about women, immigrants and foreign policy. Trump's running mate maintained a folksy, soft-spoken demeanor, even as he mounted an uneven defense of the New York billionaire....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Not all the claims in the vice presidential debate stand up to scrutiny. A look at some of them and how they compare with the facts:...
FARMVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Democrat Tim Kaine aggressively challenged Republican Mike Pence over a long list of Donald Trump's controversial positions and statements Tuesday night, drawing a vigorous defense of Trump's tax history. But Pence sidestepped criticism of Trump's demeaning comments about women, his public doubting of Barack Obama's citizenship and broader questions about his temperament....
Bogotá, Colombia, Oct 4, 2016 / 03:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After Colombian voters narrowly rejected a peace deal with the FARC rebels on Sunday, the Archbishop of Tunja encouraged the nation's faithful to “continue to pray and work” for peace, since “before all else, it is a gift, a grace of God.”A peace agreement was signed Sept. 26 to end the 52-year conflict between the Colombian government and the Marxist rebel group, but was submitted to a referendum Oct. 2 to be ratified. In that plebiscite, 50.2 percent of voters rejected the peace deal.Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, who is president of the Colombian bishop' conference, told CNA that “as the Church, it is our part to continue to invite all Colombians to pray for peace, because peace before all else is a gift, a grace of God and also our task. So we must continue praying and working.”He added that the Church in Colombia invited “all Colombians to vote, and to vot...
Bogotá, Colombia, Oct 4, 2016 / 03:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After Colombian voters narrowly rejected a peace deal with the FARC rebels on Sunday, the Archbishop of Tunja encouraged the nation's faithful to “continue to pray and work” for peace, since “before all else, it is a gift, a grace of God.”
A peace agreement was signed Sept. 26 to end the 52-year conflict between the Colombian government and the Marxist rebel group, but was submitted to a referendum Oct. 2 to be ratified. In that plebiscite, 50.2 percent of voters rejected the peace deal.
Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, who is president of the Colombian bishop' conference, told CNA that “as the Church, it is our part to continue to invite all Colombians to pray for peace, because peace before all else is a gift, a grace of God and also our task. So we must continue praying and working.”
He added that the Church in Colombia invited “all Colombians to vote, and to vote conscientiously, reflecting, trying to understand what you were doing. Naturally, we did not insinuate how one should vote.”
“Anyway, I believe that this leads us, first of all, to have to make a very serious commitment to not stop working for peace; that must be our goal, a goal pursued with great insistence,” Archbishop Castro stated.
The archbishop emphasized that both Timoleón Jiménez, the leader of FARC, and president Juan Manuel Santos spoke in favor of continuing the peace process, and said it is important to work for “political reconciliation, and on the other hand for personal reconciliation.”
Archbishop Castro also urged Colombians to not categorize “as good and bad ” those who voted for or against the peace accord, since “many voted 'No' not because they don't want peace, but because they want a better, more structured peace, where not so much is given away to the guerrillas.”
“For now I believe that, despite everything, all Colombians need to be reconciled.”
Dialogue is needed following the referendum, the archbishop said: “A calm dialogue, a positive dialogue of all the forces facing each other.”
“Something very good can come out of dialogue, such as a series of contributions to reform the peace accord and to work on it again for the peace process,” Archbishop Castro reflected.
He emphasized that “in no way” can the hope for peace be lost, since “all Colombians want peace.”
Archbishop Castro underscored that “the problem is not whether people want peace or not. We all want peace here in Colombia, but some think that a much better accord can be made than the one that was, and so they voted 'No.'”
He also urged the government to “develop a new pedagogy,” explaining the complex terms of the peace accord to voters in a simpler way.
Estamos en manos del Señor. Él es el dueño de la historia, pero cada uno debe asumir su propia responsabilidad en la tarea de construir paz.
— Rubén Salazar Gómez (@cardenalruben) October 3, 2016
Cardinal Rubén Salazar Gómez of Bogotá tweeted shortly after the referendum that “We are in the hands of the Lord. He is the lord of history, but everyone must assume his own responsibility in the task of building peace.”
The peace accord was reached after four years of negotiations in Cuba. The deal was to have incorporated some of FARC's leadership into the government in exchange for their disarmament and renunciation of kidnapping and drug trafficking.
Many Colombians who voted against ratification charged that it was too lenient on the FARC; those members who confessed to crime were to have been given more lenient sentences, and not face time in conventional jails.
Those who voted no on ratifying the deal want to renegotiate the agreement, with fewer concessions made to the FARC.
Since 1964, as many as 260,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in Colombia's civil war.
The conflict has engendered right wing paramilitaries aligned with the government, as well as secondary rebel groups such as the National Liberation Army.
Pope Francis had expressed approval of the peace deal when it was agreed to in August, and his Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, attended the Sept. 26 signing in Cartagena.
Santos has said he accepts the result of the referendum, but will continue to work toward peace with the FARC. And the rebel leader, who is known as Timochenko, has said his guerrilla movement “maintains its will for peace and reiterates its disposition to use only words as the weapon to build toward the future.” The existing ceasefire is expected to remain in place.
Fewer than 38 percent of voters participated in the referendum, and the result was divided regionally: voters in outlying provinces were in favor of the peace agreement, while those more inland tended to oppose it.
Dublin, Ireland, Oct 4, 2016 / 05:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- For Ireland’s leading archbishop, Pope Francis’ call for a “revolution of tenderness” is a challenge to defend all life, including the unborn children protected by the Republic of Ireland’s eighth constitutional amendment.“This amendment is precious and wonderful – it places as the very foundations and substructure of our laws a clear conviction that all human life is worth cherishing,” Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh said Oct. 1.“It is therefore fundamentally a declaration of tenderness and love for the equal right to life of both a mother and her unborn child. It is an undertaking to respect, defend and vindicate that right here in Ireland,” he continued.The Eighth Amendment to the Republic of Ireland’s constitution, approved in a national referendum in 1983, acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and the equal right to life of the mother. It guarante...
Dublin, Ireland, Oct 4, 2016 / 05:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- For Ireland’s leading archbishop, Pope Francis’ call for a “revolution of tenderness” is a challenge to defend all life, including the unborn children protected by the Republic of Ireland’s eighth constitutional amendment.
“This amendment is precious and wonderful – it places as the very foundations and substructure of our laws a clear conviction that all human life is worth cherishing,” Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh said Oct. 1.
“It is therefore fundamentally a declaration of tenderness and love for the equal right to life of both a mother and her unborn child. It is an undertaking to respect, defend and vindicate that right here in Ireland,” he continued.
The Eighth Amendment to the Republic of Ireland’s constitution, approved in a national referendum in 1983, acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and the equal right to life of the mother. It guarantees respect for those rights and pledges to “defend and vindicate that right” as far as practical.
The amendment has started to face opposition from activists, prominent politicians and media personalities, under the “Repeal the Eighth” campaign.
Archbishop Martin criticized that campaign.
“Demands to quash and abolish this amendment go against the Good News that the life of every person is sacred and inviolable, irrespective of the stage or state of that life – from the first moment of conception until the moment of natural death,” he said.
The archbishop’s remarks were intended for the Day of Life 2016, an annual event initiated by St. John Paul II and celebrated in Ireland since 2001. The archbishop stressed the need to reach out to those in crisis, like pregnant women and their families.
For Archbishop Martin, tenderness is a challenge to show active concern for everyone.
“Nowadays the way of tenderness is indeed counter-cultural and revolutionary,” he said. “It is perhaps the only way to confront inhumanity and cruelty, to bridge the great divide which greed has created between the rich and the poor, and to expose the pervasive ‘throwaway culture’ which surrounds us.”
His remarks come weeks ahead of the Citizens' Assembly, chaired by Republic of Ireland Supreme Court Judge Mary Laffoy. It will meet Oct. 15 in Dublin to discuss abortion, and all hearings will be streamed online. Its 99 members were chosen at random.
It will hold several hearings to hear from experts and interest groups. Laffoy will file a report with the Republic of Ireland’s legislature next year, the Belfast Telegraph reports.
The assembly will hold a number of public hearings on the issue of abortion and is expected to hear from experts and interested groups before the judge files a report to the legislature next year.
Some pro-life commentators have voiced concern that abortion backers will infiltrate the gathering and that the assembly represents an abdication of parliament’s responsibility.
An estimated 20,000-30,000 backers of legalized abortion marched in Dublin Sept. 24.
The Life Institute, which supports Ireland’s pro-life law, said between 25,000 and 30,000 people attended the pro-life Rally for Life last year.
The pro-life group is campaigning with the hashtag “#RepealKills” in order to “bring the attention of the public to the fact that this means repealing the right to life of the preborn child, and that abortion campaigners are looking for abortion on demand.”
“If we are going to debate abortion then we need to debate exactly what it does to mothers and babies,” said Niamh Ui Bhriain, director of the Life Institute.
Ireland’s abortion law is in the international focus. A leaked document attributed to billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations revealed funding for several pro-abortion groups in Ireland that are working collectively to repeal the pro-life amendment.
In the document’s analysis, a win for legalized abortion in Ireland “could impact other strongly Catholic countries in Europe, such as Poland, and provide much needed proof that change is possible, even in highly conservative places.”
Regional efforts within Ireland to oppose the Eighth Amendment have drawn limited support.
On Sept. 19 the Kildare County Council, by a vote of 18-9, rejected a motion supporting the repeal of the amendment and the institution of wider abortion services in Ireland.
Ui Bhriain said the vote is more reflective of what pro-life campaigners find.
“We’re canvassing the nation on this issue, and the views of the ordinary voter are not being remotely reflected in the strident media campaign for repeal,” she said.
“There’s a growing public awareness that beyond the ‘repeal the eighth’ slogan is the grim reality of abortion, and that abortion on demand is the aim of Irish abortion campaigners,” she added. “This is not supported by most Irish people, who see the unborn child as a human being, and are increasingly uneasy with calls for abortion to be made freely available.”
The scientific and media climate have also changed in pro-lifers’ favor, according to Ui Bhriain.
“Science - and social media sharing - has revealed the humanity of the preborn baby, and we will make sure that the reality of slogans such as 'repeal' will be revealed in this debate”
Tracy Harkin of the group Every Life Counts noted the archbishop’s support for the disabled and everyone who lives with life-limiting conditions, born and unborn.
“We are hearing a never-ending media clamor to have abortion legalized for preborn babies who are diagnosed with a life-limiting condition, and the archbishop's observation reminds us that if we truly believe in disability rights then we cannot argue for abortion on the basis on severe disability,” Harkin said.
Harkin’s daughter, Kathleen Rose, is a 9-year-old living with Trisomy 13, which is sometimes called a fatal abnormality. She said she was glad that Archbishop Martin spoke for her child’s right to life and the right of “every child who is valuable and important despite their disability.”
“The reality is that terms like 'fatal fetal abnormality' have been shown to be incorrect and misleading, and we are always talking about preborn babies who are alive and kicking at the time a diagnosis is made,” she said.
“The fact remains that many babies with these severe disabilities do have very short lives, but their families say that time together is precious, is important and is a bridge to healing.”
The Republic of Ireland allows abortion if there is a risk to a woman's life, including from suicide. Official figures say 26 abortions were carried out in 2014 and again in 2015.
Abortion law was changed in 2013 after controversy over the death of Savita Halappanavar, who was admitted to a Galway hospital while miscarrying.
She reportedly asked for an abortion, which doctors refused because the baby still had a heartbeat. Halappanavar later died of a severe antibiotic-resistant infection following her miscarriage.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Video released Tuesday shows a black man killed by Los Angeles police was armed just before he was shot dead but the footage failed to capture him when officers say he twice turned toward them holding the loaded semi-automatic handgun....
BEIRUT (AP) -- Forces backing Syrian President Bashar Assad pressed their offensive Tuesday on Aleppo's rebel-held zone from the south, after capturing areas on other fronts in recent days. As reinforcements arrived, including Shiite fighters from Iraq, the strategy appeared to be to retake rebel-held areas bit by bit, backed by massive Russian airpower, rather than risk a potentially costly all-out ground battle....
CHICAGO (AP) -- Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to create a new agency to better investigate police shootings and misconduct allegations is moving toward approval, even as critics say it's not strong enough to keep a close eye on a police force plagued by a reputation for brutality and experts say it doesn't match efforts of other cities facing similar challenges....
PRESCOTT VALLEY, Arizona (AP) -- Hillary Clinton appealed to voting mothers Tuesday outlining ways she hopes to curb gun violence as president and provide paid family leave and sick days for struggling working moms. Donald Trump tried to blame his opponent about revelations that his massive financial losses could have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for years....
