Catholic News 2
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court began its term nine months ago with Merrick Garland nominated to the bench, Hillary Clinton favored to be the next president, and the court poised to be controlled by Democratic appointees for the first time in 50 years....
GANZHOU, China (AP) -- A worker with blood dripping from his head marked a low point in the tense, grinding life at a southeastern China factory used by Ivanka Trump and other fashion brands. An angry manager had hit him with the sharp end of a high-heeled shoe....
NEW YORK (AP) -- For a president seemingly at perpetual war with "fake news," the resignation of three CNN journalists over a retracted story about a Donald Trump Russian connection is a gift from the political gods when the struggling effort to pass a health bill dominates the headlines....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration expects to launch a limited version of its travel ban on six mostly Muslim countries on Thursday, but has yet to say how it will be implemented or what it will do to avoid the chaos that accompanied the initial ban....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration said Tuesday it has detected "active preparations" by Syria for a chemical attack and threatened to retaliate - warning of action that could plunge America deeper into a civil war alongside the fight against Islamic State militants....
PARIS (AP) -- A new and highly virulent outbreak of data-scrambling software - apparently sown in Ukraine - caused disruption across the world Tuesday. Following a similar attack in May , the fresh cyber-assault paralyzed some hospitals, government offices and major multinational corporations in a dramatic demonstration of how easily malicious programs can bring daily life to a halt....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate GOP leaders abruptly shelved their long-sought health care overhaul Tuesday, asserting they can still salvage it but raising new doubts about whether President Donald Trump and the Republicans will ever deliver on their promises to repeal and replace "Obamacare."...
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) -- Bill Cosby's "town hall" tour is unlikely to happen before his retrial on sex assault charges in Pennsylvania, one of his lawyers said Tuesday....
(Vatican Radio) Christians and minorities in conflict areas of the Middle East are in need of protection, since religious communities are no longer able to live together in peace, according to the Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Yves Daccord.In an interview with Vatican Radio, Mr. Daccord outlined the worst humanitarian crises in the world at the moment, saying climate change and third-party intervention have aggravated conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Northeastern Nigeria, which have displaced millions in recent years.Listen to the full interview: Community separation leads to tensions"The social fabric of the Middle East is being destroyed, and what happens in Iraq, Syria, or Yemen - for a different reason - is that different communities were able to live together, including minorities," Yves Daccord said.He said what most worries him over the last few years is "a separation of the communities". This th...
(Vatican Radio) Christians and minorities in conflict areas of the Middle East are in need of protection, since religious communities are no longer able to live together in peace, according to the Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Yves Daccord.
In an interview with Vatican Radio, Mr. Daccord outlined the worst humanitarian crises in the world at the moment, saying climate change and third-party intervention have aggravated conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Northeastern Nigeria, which have displaced millions in recent years.
Listen to the full interview:
Community separation leads to tensions
"The social fabric of the Middle East is being destroyed, and what happens in Iraq, Syria, or Yemen - for a different reason - is that different communities were able to live together, including minorities," Yves Daccord said.
He said what most worries him over the last few years is "a separation of the communities". This then leads to tensions and "pressures against minorities, like Christians, but also between Sunni and Shia [Muslims]".
Mr. Daccord called on all parties to keep communities from seeking revenge or engaging in ethnic cleansing.
"We need to remind all state parties to a conflict that their first responsibility is to care for civilians, starting with minorities."
Worst humanitarian crisis: Yemen
He said one of the worst crises in the world today is the situation in Yemen.
The health system there, he said, is a good example because the Red Cross recorded 150 attacks against hospitals in 2015.
"It's no surprise today that the system is so weak that it can't absorb shock, and then you have a cholera crisis".
Mr. Daccord said this merely compounded the already-dire humanitarian disaster. "People have little-to-no food anymore. All food comes from the outside."
Root causes
When asked about the causes of the crises in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Northeastern Nigeria, Yves Daccord said there is a "juxtaposition of problems".
One, he said, is climate change.
"We always forget, but Syria had clear climate change issues long before the war, where rural people had to leave to go to town."
Another, according to Mr. Daccord, is the intervention of third parties.
"All of them are internal conflicts which have become internationalized. They are first and foremost conflicts between people and their government, and then suddenly other powers come in, either directly or through proxy, which makes it extremely complex for the people and extremely complex for humanitarians to intervene."
(Vatican Radio) The Holy See has told the United Nations that abortion should not be considered part of the term ‘sexual and reproductive health’ and that ‘gender’ means only biological sexual identity and difference.Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN in Geneva, made the remarks during a meeting on a UN resolution for coordinating humanitarian assistance.He said the Holy See regrets the inclusion of several abortion methods, especially the “vacuum extractor”, in a resolution entitled “Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations”.Archbishop Jurkovic said the Holy See insists “insist that healthcare services must never be intended - or operate - against the life of the most defenseless or the unborn. The application of the right to life must never discriminate based on the various stages of life.”“Although we acknowledge the par...
(Vatican Radio) The Holy See has told the United Nations that abortion should not be considered part of the term ‘sexual and reproductive health’ and that ‘gender’ means only biological sexual identity and difference.
Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN in Geneva, made the remarks during a meeting on a UN resolution for coordinating humanitarian assistance.
He said the Holy See regrets the inclusion of several abortion methods, especially the “vacuum extractor”, in a resolution entitled “Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations”.
Archbishop Jurkovic said the Holy See insists “insist that healthcare services must never be intended - or operate - against the life of the most defenseless or the unborn. The application of the right to life must never discriminate based on the various stages of life.”
“Although we acknowledge the particular risks that women and children face in humanitarian emergencies contexts and their specific and integral needs regarding access to basic healthcare, essential obstetric services, sanitary and food security, we cannot accept as an appropriate solution those services that provide and/or promote abortion,” he continued.
Archbishop Jurkovic also clarified the Vatican’s position on two points regarding abortion and gender identity. He said:
1. The Holy See does not consider abortion, access to abortion, or access to abortifacients as a dimension of the terms “sexual and reproductive health” and “sexual and reproductive healthcare services”.
2. With reference to “gender”, the Holy See understands the term to be grounded in biological sexual identity and difference. We kindly ask that the text of this statement be included on the official records of this meeting.
Please find below the full address:
Statement by His Excellency Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva at the ECOSOC Humanitarian Segment Explanation of Position on the resolution entitled “Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations”
Geneva, 23 June 2017
Mr. President and Distinguished Co-facilitators,
My Delegation would like to thank the co-facilitators and OCHA for their commitment and hard work in achieving consensus during this year’s informal negotiations of the resolution entitled “Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations.”
Despite an open and fruitful cooperation of many delegations, this year’s negotiations have been particularly difficult. If, on the one hand, we made some progress, such as specific paragraphs on famine and food insecurity, on the other hand, we regret the inclusion of the controversial Minimal Initial Service Package (MISP) in the text.
The Minimal Initial Service Package (MISP) is a set of priority activities, provided by UNFPA, and includes 13 types of Reproductive Health Kits designed for women and girls of reproductive age, some of which entail abortion. Among them, “KIT 10” provides the well-known “vacuum extractor”, which is the most common method to procure abortion, and which brings serious risks also to the mother’s health.
Our Delegation would like to insist that healthcare services must never be intended - or operate - against the life of the most defenseless or the unborn. The application of the right to life must never discriminate based on the various stages of life. Although we acknowledge the particular risks that women and children face in humanitarian emergencies contexts and their specific and integral needs regarding access to basic healthcare, essential obstetric services, sanitary and food security, we cannot accept as an appropriate solution those services that provide and/or promote abortion. For these reasons, our Delegation dissociates itself from the paragraphs of the resolution that promote MISP as a proper answer to the already dramatic situations faced by so many women and children in challenging humanitarian settings.
In addition, our Delegation would like to reiterate its reservations on the following concepts:
1. The Holy See does not consider abortion, access to abortion, or access to abortifacients as a dimension of the terms “sexual and reproductive health” and “sexual and reproductive healthcare services”.
2. With reference to “gender”, the Holy See understands the term to be grounded in biological sexual identity and difference. We kindly ask that the text of this statement be included on the official records of this meeting.
I thank you.
