Catholic News 2

The African Regional Conference on Families is expected to take place in Nairobi, Kenya between 22 and 24 September 2016.

The Conference will be a platform to celebrate the African Family; deliberate on what is currently ailing African families as well as be an opportunity for participants to look for ways forward.

President of the Africa Organisation for Families, Anne Kioko told Waumini News Today, in Nairobi, that her organisation is concerned by the recent concerted push for the legalisation of abortion and implementation of controversial Comprehensive Sexuality Education in schools.  Kioko expressed concern for the innocence of children.

“These programs go way beyond regular sex education and are designed to change all sexual and gender norms of society. They openly promote promiscuity, high-risk sexual behaviour and sexual pleasure even to very young children.” She said

The African Regional Conference is being organised by the World Congress of Families in partnership with The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops among others.

(By Rose Achiego, Waumini News in Nairobi)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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Belleville, Ill., Aug 11, 2016 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With the second anniversary of riots in Ferguson, Mo., this week, Bishop Edward Braxton of Belleville has noted the downfalls of racial division and spoke about the importance of moral leadership as the best way to combat the growing division among citizens in the United States.

“In a time of the breakdown of a sense of togetherness among people, there is an acute need for a new authenticity,” Bishop Braxton, whose diocese includes East St. Louis, wrote in a July 20 column for The Belleville Messenger.

“When individuals bring the openness, understanding, humility, and compassion to their positions of leadership, the potential for establishing or re-establishing community is significantly increased,” he continued.

On August 9, 2014, police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot an unarmed African-American teenager, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis.

The incident in Ferguson sprouted riots, looting, and general unrest in the city and led to hundreds of arrests. It also gave way to the popularization of the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

Over the past year, similar racially-fueled episodes have ranged from police brutality in Baton Rouge to a shooting rampage against police officers in Dallas.

“The heartbreaking images of blood stained scenes of death, grieving relatives, multiple funerals, overwhelmed civic leaders, and prayers for healing and reconciliation have become commonplace,” Bishop Braxton, who served as auxiliary bishop of St. Louis for five years, stated.

“It is a grief that cannot be spoken and a pain that does not end,” he continued.

In the heat of these events, the bishop highlighted the tension across the country, and said that 59 percent of Americans “believe the relationship between people of different races is becoming worse.”

However, Bishop Braxton believes that the “Black Lives Matter” and the “All Lives Matter” movements need not be incompatible.

“Must it be either one mantra or the other? Can it not be both?” he asked in his column.

“We all know that the work of police officers is very difficult and very dangerous. They leave their homes each day not knowing if they will return unharmed. They deserve our respect and gratitude. Their lives matter,” he said.

Although all human beings are created equally, Bishop Braxton also pointed out that the level of peril that certain groups face are more imminently dangerous than others, and thus, require additional protection against their marginalization.

“The point of Black Lives Matter is that many in the African-American community face existential threats that must not be ignored,” the bishop noted, saying “it is necessary to acknowledge the legitimacy of the particular concern for the lives of People of Color.”

“Ultimately, there must be at least a tacit recognition that there are other vulnerable, marginalized groups in the country whose lives also matter,” he continued.

In order to bridge the gap these violent episodes have imposed, the bishop believes “moral leadership in action” will offer healing in the divided communities across the United States. For Bishop Braxton, this means working towards genuine unity through service.

“The moral authority needed to bring fragmented factions together can only come about if those in diverse positions of leadership are open to an attitude of genuine service to individuals and groups holding divergent points of view,” Bishop Braxton stated.

“To provide moral leadership in action, we must all think, listen, learn, pray, and act,” he continued, saying that every citizen has a duty to unite their communities.

The Illinois bishop additionally placed a particular emphasis on the election year, noting that the president of the United States and other leaders in power will have significant sway in uniting the country.

He also called for authenticity, service, and compassion as ways to mend the brokenness that many people face in the United States, and urged that both citizens and leaders take their roles seriously.

“It may be that it is only by committing ourselves to praying, listening, learning, thinking, and acting in the presence of the Holy Spirit that we will be able to demonstrate moral leadership in action as servant leaders showing, without ambiguity, that all lives really do matter!”

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Washington D.C., Aug 11, 2016 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A small patch of the city of Miami is being called “ground zero” for the Zika virus in the United States, adding fuel to the abortion debate surrounding the disease, which can cause birth defects in unborn children.

"I understand a lot of people disagree with my view – but I believe that all human life is worthy of protection of our laws. And when you present it in the context of Zika or any prenatal condition, it’s a difficult question and a hard one," Florida Senator Marco Rubio told POLITICO magazine.

"But if I’m going to err, I’m going to err on the side of life," he added.

New Zika cases in the area of Wynwood, Miami, have public officials concerned, because they  seem to have been contracted from local mosquitoes rather than from travelling or being in close contact with someone from the Caribbean or Latin America, where the disease has been most widespread.

Public health officials are warning pregnant women to stay away from the area because of the threat Zika can pose to unborn children, particularly those in the early stages of pregnancy. Namely, Zika has been linked with an increased risk for microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with a small head, and, in severe cases, stunted brain development.

"Obviously, microcephaly is a terrible prenatal condition that kids are born with. And when they are, it’s a lifetime of difficulties," Rubio told POLITICO. "So I get it. I’m not pretending to you that that’s an easy question you asked me. But I’m prolife. And I’m strongly prolife. I believe all human life should be protected by our law, irrespective of the circumstances or condition of that life."

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life political advocacy group, said in a statement on Monday that Rubio was “absolutely right” to defend unborn children who are at risk due to Zika.

“Zika should not be used as a springboard for a search-and-destroy mission against disabled babies,” she said. “Rather, adults, children, and unborn children who are victims all deserve the same standard of care. Killing the patient is not medical treatment and we cannot make advances in medicine if we destroy patients before we find treatments for them.”

“The United States strives to be a beacon for disability rights. To advocate abortion in cases of Zika and other prenatal diagnoses is a major step backwards for the rights of Americans with disabilities and a distraction from the urgent need to develop a vaccine or method to eliminate mosquitos carrying the virus,” Dannenfelser added.   

Despite the latest outbreak, a doctor with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told The New York Times that the United States has a much better chance of containing the virus than some Latin American countries due to better mosquito control, more air-conditioning and less standing water than other countries.

At the start of the Zika outbreak, many countries in Latin America issued an advisory cautioning women to avoid pregnancy for up to two years, until the virus is under control. Abortion is illegal in many countries in the heavily Catholic region.

In February, the United Nations issued a statement calling for the repeal of laws and policies “that restrict access to sexual and reproductive health services in contravention of international standards” in Zika-affected countries in order to give women access to abortion and birth control.

Also in February, a Brazilian journalist with microcephaly spoke out against the calls for abortion, saying that it does not “give children a chance to succeed,” and that she was living a “happy and fulfilled life” despite having microcephaly.

On his return flight from Mexico in February, Pope Francis strongly rejected abortion as a response to the fears surrounding the Zika virus outbreak.

“Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. It is a crime. It is to throw someone out in order to save another. That’s what the Mafia does. It is a crime, an absolute evil,” the Pope said Feb. 18.

“It’s against the Hippocratic oaths doctors must take. It is an evil in and of itself, but it is not a religious evil in the beginning, no, it’s a human evil. Then obviously, as with every human evil, each killing is condemned.”

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