Just in time for the annual March for Life, an annual poll of Americans’ views on abortion shows that 75% want “substantial” restrictions on abortion access even as more than half of respondents describe themselves as “pro-choice.” Conducted by the Marist Poll at Marist College, the survey of 1,066 adults Jan. 8-10 revealed that respondents would welcome limits on abortion so that it can be performed only during the first three months of pregnancy. Even 61% of “pro-choice” respondents favoured such a restriction. Unsurprisingly, 96% of respondents who identified as pro-life supported such a restriction.
SURVEY ASSESSES VIEWS OF BISHOPS, DIACONATE DIRECTORS ON WOMEN DEACONS
Should the Vatican permit the ordination of women as deacons — a topic that has been studied by a papal commission — a majority of U.S. bishops surveyed said they would expect the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to pave the way to implement it. There was, though, only a minority of U.S. bishops answering the survey who believe the ordination of women as deacons is theoretically possible. These were two key findings of a report issued Jan. 22 by the Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate. 62% of U.S. diocesan diaconate directors, who also were included in the survey, said their local bishop would implement the sacramental ordination of women as deacons, but just 54% of the bishops themselves said “yes” when asked “if the Holy See authorizes the sacramental ordination of women as deacons, would you consider implementing it in your diocese?”
Pope Francis established a 16-member commission on the diaconate of women in August 2016. Members’ task was to review the theology and history of the office of deacon in Roman Catholicism and the question of whether women might be allowed to become deacons. The group met over a two-year period and submitted its report to the Pope in late 2018. The findings have yet to be released.
LEADING JURIST IN INDIA SAYS VATICAN ABUSE SUMMIT MUST ADDRESS ‘MORAL PERSPECTIVE’
A retired judge from India’s Supreme Court says the upcoming Vatican summit on clerical abuse is “very important” and the Catholic Church has an obligation to hold a “correct moral perspective.”
Justice Kurian Joseph, who is Catholic, spoke to Crux in Mumbai on Jan. 17.
Pope Francis has called the heads of all the bishops’ conferences around the world to the Feb. 21-24 gathering, the first such global meeting on abuse.
“This summit is very important, from a legal and human rights perspective, but also from the moral perspective,” Joseph said.
“The Catholic Church must be recognized for her moral authority and integrity and this anti-abuse summit will play a fundamental role in the Catholic Church’s moral authority,” he continued.
“The Catholic Church has an obligation to instruct the world on correct moral perspective on these issues,” the retired judge said.
Joseph said the government and civil society have their own role to play in tackling abuse, but the Church has the duty to address the “moral perspective” of the issue. Mumbai’s archbishop, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, is a member of the organizing committee for the summit.
ARTISTS PROTEST LOYOLA COLLEGE’S APOLOGY OVER SATIRICAL PAINTINGS ROW
Artists in Chennai are unhappy that Loyola College has apologised for display of satirical paintings on contemporary issues on campus. On January 21, the Catholic minority institution now at the centre of a controversy over art works put up by a cultural group not from the college had apologised after right wing Hindu groups alleged that some of the paintings hurt Hindu sentiments.
“We acknowledge our lapse and apologise for insurmountable hurt. The venue for a cultural event was misused. We’ve immediately removed the exhibits. We are pained our pluralistic campus was used for derogative exhibits. We do not advocate anything tantamount to peace and tranquility of society,” the college said in a statement.
Cartoonist Bala, who was arrested in 2017 for a caricature of Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palani swami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, says stifling freedom of expression has become the norm in Tamil Nadu.
“The college should not have apologised. It was not their work in the first place. I find nothing wrong with those paintings. It’s an expression of a cartoonist’s view. Whether the idea is right or wrong an artist should have the right to express,” he said.
Recently, Lois Sophia, a woman researcher was arrested for criticising the state BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan.
The ruling AIADMK had also banned Kamal Haasan’s certified film Vishwaroopam till legal intervention.
Similarly, Actor Vijay’s films Mersel and Sarkar too faced heat from BJP and AIADMK for taking on Centre’s GST and state’s freebies.
20 KILLED IN PHILIPPINES CHURCH BOMBING
At least 20 people were killed and dozens wounded on January 27 in two bomb blasts at a Catholic Cathedral in Jolo, an island in southern Philippines.
Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic militant group, and other armed fighters are active in the island.
Police said at least 77 people were wounded in Sunday’s incident.
The number of fatalities was revised after police said earlier that 27 people were killed.
The first bomb went off in or near the cathedral of Jolo, the capital of Sulu province, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack, security officials said.
The initial explosion scattered the wooden pews inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and blasted window glass panels, and the second bomb hurled human remains and debris across a town square fronting the church, witnesses said.
Pope Francis has denounced the bombing of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Jolo, Philippines. Two bombs blasted the cathedral during Sunday Mass, killing 22 people and wounding 111 more.
Entrusting the victims, who included five army soldiers, to Jesus and Mary, the Pope reiterated “my strongest condemnation for this episode of violence that once again strikes this Christian community.”
President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo condemned the “act of terrorism” and vowed that government forces will pursue the perpetrators of the attack.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines will rise to the challenge and crush these godless criminals,” he said.
THE SUPREME COURT RESTORES THE REGISTRATION AND THE CIVIL VALUE OF CHRISTIAN MARRIAGES
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has restored the value and the civil effects of Christian marriage. The Court ordered the “National Database and Registration Authority” (NADRA) of Pakistan and the Punjab government to reactivate the official registration of marriages celebrated in churches by Christian citizens.
The decision was welcomed by Christians in Pakistan. “This marriage registration provision existed before 2013,” says to Fides Kashif Aslam, coordinator of the program of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP). And adds: “Local governments had suspended it, along with a package of other measures, but now the Supreme Court has restored it. The registration of Christian marriages will help to complete the data of marriages in Christian communities.”
The order of the Supreme Court is the result of the appeal presented by Pastor Shahid P. Meraj, dean of the Anglican Cathedral Church of the Resurrection in Lahore. “The lawsuit began in 2018, because the fact that marriages celebrated by Christians had no legal and civil value was considered serious,” Pastor Shahid Meraj told Fides.
JAKARTA FREES FORMER CHRISTIAN GOVERNOR CONVICTED OF BLASPHEMY
Former governor of Jakarta, Chinese ethnic Christian Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, is free again after serving almost two years for blasphemy in the national police prison at Kelapa Dua, Depok regency (West Java) Waiting for him outside the prison walls this morning was his eldest son Nicholas Sean, while supporters and sympathizers welcomed the progressive politician’s invitation to keep a low profile.
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who in recent days has expressed a desire to no longer be called with the Chinese nickname that accompanied him throughout his political career, has received a reduced sentence of three months and 15 days. Commenting on his upcoming release, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo stated that “from now on, it will be up to him to reorganize his future life.” Widodo was a political ally of Purnama, his deputy during his tenure as governor of the capital that preceded the presidency of the Republic.
A DOMINICAN PREACHES IN THE MOSQUE, RECALLING THE GREAT IMAM PROMOTER OF PEACE
Maulana Muhammad Abdul Qadir Azad, who served the faithful as Grand Imam in the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore for about 30 years and died in January 2003, was considered “a great promoter of interreligious peace and harmony and above all of dialogue between Christians and Muslims. He was a great religious leader and a lover of peace. He was an ardent promoter of harmony between different Muslim communities and people of other religions”: says the Dominican, Fr James Channan, director of the “Peace Centre” in Lahore, preaching in the Badshahi Mosque, the “Royal Mosque” in Lahore.
On January 18, before the usual Friday Prayer, Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad, current Grand Imam of the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore and son of the late Abdul Qadir Azad, organized an interreligious conference to pay tribute to his father and invited Fr Channan to preach from the pulpit of the mosque, and addressed all the faithful Muslims present.
ONE IN THREE ASAIN CHRISTIANS FACES PERSECUTION: REPORT
One in three Christians in Asia faces high levels of persecution after a “shocking increase” of religious-based threats and violence across the world, particularly in China and sub-Saharan Africa, a global advocacy group said.
Around half of China’s 100 million Christians encounters persecution, “the worst it’s been in more than a decade,” following “new laws seeking to control religious expression,” the Open Doors watchdog said.
Persecution worldwide increased for the sixth straight year, with a total of 245 million Christians — one out of nine worldwide — facing high levels in 2018, up from 215 million, or one in 12, the previous year.
“Worldwide, our data reveals that 13.9 per cent more Christians are experiencing high levels of persecution than last year. That’s 30 million more people,” Open Doors UK and Ireland CEO Henrietta Blyth said in a statement.
ASIA BIBI BLASPHEMY ACQUITTAL UPHELD BY PAKISTAN COURT
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on January 29 upheld the acquittal of a Christian woman who spent years on death row after being convicted of blasphemy.
The apex court also dismissed a petition filed by Islamists who have called for her execution.
“On merit, this petition is dismissed,” Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa said in court, saying the petitioners, led by a village prayer leader, had failed to point out any mistake in the original judgement.
Asia Bibi, a farm worker, was convicted in 2010 of making derogatory remarks about Islam after neighbours working in the fields with her objected to her drinking water from their glass because she was not Muslim.
She has always maintained her innocence in a case that has polarized Pakistan.
The Supreme Court’s quash ing of her sentence last October led to violent protests by religious hardliners who support strong blasphemy laws, while more liberal sections of society urged her release.
Hardliners had petitioned to overturn this ruling.
Asia Bibi – also known as Asia Noreen – was unable to leave Pakistan while an appeal request was pending.
“She should now be free to reunite with her family and seek safety in a country of her choice,” Amnesty International said in a statement.