Catholic News 2
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The manual for the staff at Trump University events was precise: The room temperature should be 68 degrees. Seats should be arranged in a theater-style curve. And government prosecutors had no right to see any documents without a warrant....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Clinton is set to unleash a major foreign policy attack on Donald Trump, using a speech in San Diego to cast the Republican as unqualified and dangerous....
DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) -- Donald Trump is losing business to Mexico - a prestigious golf tournament at his resort at Doral....
BEIJING (AP) -- As a teenager, Wang Keming felt nothing but contempt for the older peasant his village singled out for collective persecution in 1970. Stirred by Mao Zedong's radical ideology and inured to the rampant violence of China's Cultural Revolution, he beat the man bloody and saw nothing wrong with it....
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The victim of a murder-suicide that locked down the UCLA campus for hours Wednesday was a mechanical engineering professor who was married with two children, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation....
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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jun 1, 2016 / 04:18 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The reported gang rape of a 16-year-old girl by more than 30 men in Rio de Janeiro has sparked protests in the country – and condemnation by an official of the local archdiocese who met with the victim, and who called it “a brutal, inhuman act.”On May 21, the girl went to her boyfriend's house and says she woke up the next day, drugged and naked, in another house, surrounded by some 30 men with weapons.A brief video of the gang rape was shared on social media, and was met with some misogynistic comments blaming the victim.Maria Christina de Sá is an official of the youth ministry office of the Archdiocese of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, who met with the girl and her family in a private encounter.“I saw a youth with a calm face, though in anguish through so many interviews and questions, and very upset by what has happened – by the attack and by the accusations ...
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jun 1, 2016 / 04:18 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The reported gang rape of a 16-year-old girl by more than 30 men in Rio de Janeiro has sparked protests in the country – and condemnation by an official of the local archdiocese who met with the victim, and who called it “a brutal, inhuman act.”
On May 21, the girl went to her boyfriend's house and says she woke up the next day, drugged and naked, in another house, surrounded by some 30 men with weapons.
A brief video of the gang rape was shared on social media, and was met with some misogynistic comments blaming the victim.
Maria Christina de Sá is an official of the youth ministry office of the Archdiocese of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, who met with the girl and her family in a private encounter.
“I saw a youth with a calm face, though in anguish through so many interviews and questions, and very upset by what has happened – by the attack and by the accusations she has suffered,” Maria Christina told CNA May 31.
She said the attack “affects not only women, but deserves repudiation by all of us.”
In her meeting with the girl, Maria Christina says she had “a wonderful impression of her, as a young woman of surpassing sweetness, but who also expressed great suffering for the attacks she suffered.”
The girl's family “is also very upset,” she added. “Her father cries non-stop over everything that happened to his daughter, as does her mother.”
The accusations against the victim – that she dressed scandalously, “deserved it,” consented, or was using drugs – were roundly condemned by the archdiocese's youth ministry official.
“It seems that no one looks at the situation as something dramatic that could happen to anyone, and are rather judging her,” Maria Christina said.
She pointed out that what is at issue is the atrocious act of sexual violence committed against a 16-year-old girl.
“In a situation like this, we should ask ourselves: how would Jesus Christ behave? Look at the woman caught in adultery: he did not say, 'I condemn you.' On the contrary, he said: 'Has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.'”
After having provided the support and solidarity of the youth ministry office, Maria Christina said that the victim is being cared for by Brazil's federal office for protection of children and adolescents, and that with her family, she is being moved from state of Rio de Janeiro because she fears for her life.
Michel Temer, the acting president of Brazil, has committed to forming a federal police force to deal with violence against women.
Warrents have been issued for the arrest of more than 30 suspects, including the girl's boyfriend.
Brazilian cities have been hit by protests demanding an end to sexual violence and the country's rape culture. Online protests have also taken place, using the hashtag #EstuproNuncaMais (RapeNeverAgain).
One Brazilian Facebook user posted an image of the Virgin Mary embracing a young girl, with the caption “Child, I cried for you this morning.” The photo has since gone viral.
CNA contacted the office of Cardinal Orani Tempesta of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, which said the archbishop would not comment on the case at that time, but reitirated the Church's absolute repudiation of all acts of violence committed against women.
The Brazilian bishops' conference also declined to comment.
Photo credit: www.shutterstock.com.
Philadelphia, Pa., Jun 1, 2016 / 05:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia described as “misleading” an article claiming that his leadership of a working group on the Pope’s most recent document “sends a signal” regarding U.S. policy on Communion.“Our ‘committee’ is very ad hoc and may exist for only three or four months,” Archbishop Chaput told CNA June 1.“Our goal is to gather what the bishops of the USA are doing and share that information with the other bishops, and then also send a report to Cardinal (Lorenzo) Baldisseri who has asked for reports from the various conferences.”In a June 1 article, the Catholic Herald reported that Archbishop Chaput had been named chairman of a five-bishop committee that was working on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for a positive reception and implementation of Pope Francis’ recent apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia.“Th...
Philadelphia, Pa., Jun 1, 2016 / 05:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia described as “misleading” an article claiming that his leadership of a working group on the Pope’s most recent document “sends a signal” regarding U.S. policy on Communion.
“Our ‘committee’ is very ad hoc and may exist for only three or four months,” Archbishop Chaput told CNA June 1.
“Our goal is to gather what the bishops of the USA are doing and share that information with the other bishops, and then also send a report to Cardinal (Lorenzo) Baldisseri who has asked for reports from the various conferences.”
In a June 1 article, the Catholic Herald reported that Archbishop Chaput had been named chairman of a five-bishop committee that was working on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for a positive reception and implementation of Pope Francis’ recent apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia.
“The news sends a signal on the question of admitting divorced and remarried people to Communion,” the Catholic Herald said, citing instances in which Archbishop Chaput has affirmed Church teaching on the subject.
However, Archbishop Chaput said that the Catholic Herald’s characterization was not entirely accurate.
“There is no policy dimension to what we are doing,” he said. “The bishops in the group are currently the chairmen of various committees and I am the chair-elect of the committee on Laity, Marriage, Family and Youth.”
Amoris Laetitia, released April 8, is the conclusion of a two-year synod process discussing both the beauty and challenges of family life today.
While much of the Western secular media focused its coverage on homosexuality and the question of communion for the divorced-and-remarried, actual topics discussed in the meetings were much broader, with synod fathers touching on themes such as domestic violence, incest and abuse within families, and marriage preparation.
Both of the synods sparked controversy amid speculation over whether there would be a change in the Church’s practice that the divorced-and-remarried may not receive Communion. In accordance with the words of Jesus that “anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery,” the Church says that those living in adultery – or any other unrepentant grave sin – may not receive Communion.
Pope Francis did not make any changes to Church teaching in the document, but one of its chapters – dealing with those in irregular marriage situations – has been the subject of much post-synod debate.
Vague language in the chapter has allowed a variety of interpretations. Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, maintains that it does not change the Church's discipline on admission of the divorced-and-remarried to Communion.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, on the other hand, has said it “opened a door” to admitting the divorced-and-remarried to Communion, and that the document marks the “turning of a page” in the Church's history “after 1,700 years.”
However, the matter was dealt with explicitly by St. John Paul II, who wrote that “the Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried. They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist.”
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, stormed a hotel in the capital Wednesday evening, killing at least six people and taking a number of hostages, police said. The scene at the Ambassador Hotel, frequented by government officials and business executives, appeared to be at a standoff overnight....
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A fired Florida police officer was arrested and charged Wednesday with manslaughter and attempted murder in the fatal shooting of a legally armed black musician after prosecutors say an audio recording and physical evidence show the musician had thrown his weapon to the ground and was running away when the lethal round was fired....
