News Roundup

Family under attack from ideologies, Pope says

Christians are called to bring hope to those going through dark times, especially families who are threatened by ideologies prevalent in today’s world, Pope Francis said.

The Pontiff has frequently condemned “new theories of gender” as an ideology that corrodes the traditional understanding of sexuality and family life and he has been trenchant in criticising international aid to developing countries when it is conditional on accepting such new ideologies.

Addressing the Schonstatt Fathers, who were in Rome for their general chapter, the pope urged them to be “bearers of a message of hope in these dark situations that people in every stage of life are going through.”

“Today, there are many marriages in crisis, young people tempted, the elderly forgotten, children suffering,” he said. “We often see that the nature of the family is under attack by various ideologies, which shake the foundations that support the personality of the human being and, in general, society as a whole.”

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US pro-life leaders criticise Government warning against pregnancy care centres

Pro-life leaders in the US state of Minnesota denounced a consumer alert issued by the state’s Attorney General Keith Ellison against pro-life pregnancy centers.

The impact of Ellison’s statement is to “besmirch” the good work of pregnancy resource centers and put people on notice that he has a target on their back, said Jason Adkins, executive director and general counsel for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

Adkins stressed that pregnancy resource centers “should be truthful about what services they offer and what they do not,” adding that “not all of them have medical staff, nor do they hold themselves out as having such resources.”

Many of these centers focus on connecting women with housing and providing an environment where they can access clothing and other support, he said, noting that the attorney general’s alert is “a solution in search of a problem.”

Ellison’s alert states that “many so-called crisis pregnancy centers may pose as reproductive health care clinics despite not providing comprehensive reproductive healthcare to consumers,” and some don’t provide any health care services at all.

It says the centers are “private organisations that attempt to prevent or dissuade pregnant people from accessing their constitutionally protected right under the Minnesota Constitution to a safe and legal abortion.”

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Decline of traditional UK family revealed in new report

Nearly half of British children now grow up outside the traditional two-parent household, according to a report on the make-up of the modern family.

A review being published today by Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, has found that almost a quarter of families are headed by a lone parent, compared with the EU average of one eighth.

Forty-four per cent of those born in 2000 will have spent some of their childhood up to age 17 outside a traditional “nuclear” family, compared with 21 per cent of people born in 1970.

Before the appointment next week of the new prime minister, de Souza has urged the government to centre policy on families. She will revise the “family test”, which is applied to all new domestic laws and policies, to put families “at the heart” of policymaking.

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European Court refuse to hear case involving Down syndrome ad

The European Court of Human Rights has refused to review a ban in France of an ad that drew attention to the very high number of children with Down Syndrome who are aborted each year.

The Fondation Jérôme Lejeune had claimed that the French Broadcasting Council’s designation of the video as not “a message of general interest” constituted unjust censorship.

This ruling came in spite of the fact that the French government itself had recognised, both in the domestic proceedings as well as before the Court, that the broadcasting authority’s letter had “significantly influenced the behavior of the television channels, inviting them to avoid future broadcasting of the concerned message”.

“Freedom of expression is the foundation of every free and democratic society, enshrined in international human rights law. We believe that every voice deserves a chance to be heard, which is why we represented Fondation Jérôme Lejeune at the European Court of Human Rights. This is a failure of justice not just for people with Down syndrome and disability rights advocates, but for all concerned with free expression in Europe,” said Jean-Paul Van De Walle, serving as legal counsel, Europe, for ADF International.

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Increase in ambulance calls after abortion pills became more available

Ambulance dispatches and 999 calls responding to abortion pill concerns have risen by 64% since 2019, according to an investigation by GB News.

The pills were made more readily available at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, allowing women to be posted the two pills after a telephone consultation with a specially trained nurse or doctor, removing the need to be seen and assessed in person.

Six ambulance trusts in England replied to GB News’ Freedom of Information request, which asked for the number of 999 calls and ambulances dispatches from people concerned about abortion pills.

They show there were at least 380 call-outs in 2019, this increased by 64 percent to 624 in 2020, with some ambulance trusts having double the number of calls and subsequent responses.

With face-to-face consultations no longer mandatory, there have been concerns raised over whether there is enough safeguarding for vulnerable women or children.

37-year-old Kirsty Deakin from Solihull was forced by her boyfriend to order abortion pills over the phone during the first lockdown.

She told GB News: “I made the call to an abortion clinic sort of hoping they’d question my decision.

“Because I knew deep down, I didn’t want to do it. They didn’t even offer me a scan…I could have been anyone on the phone when I rang for the pills.”

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Deaths of despair rise as religion recedes, new US research shows

Religious practice has significant effects on the mortality rates of so-called ‘deaths of despair’.

That’s according to a new research paper from three US academics.

In recent decades, death rates from poisonings, suicides, and alcoholic liver disease have dramatically increased in the United States.  Examining the phenomena, Tyler Giles (Wellesley College), Daniel Hungerman (University of Notre Dame) and Tamar Oostrom (The Ohio State University) found that these “deaths of despair” began to increase relative to trend in the early 1990s.

They also found that this increase was preceded by a decline in religious participation, and that both trends were driven by middle-aged white Americans.

Moreover, using repeals of blue laws (restricting Sunday trading) as an external shock to religiosity, they inferred that religious practice has significant effects on these mortality rates.

They concluded that social factors such as organized religion can play an important role in understanding deaths of despair.

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 ‘Stop pushing mothers into aborting disabled babies’

Doctors should not ‘terrify’ expectant mothers who are found to be carrying unborn children with serious disabilities, or push them to have an abortion, according to Dominic Lawson, a leading British commentator who has a child with Down Syndrome.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Lawson said that the UK Health Secretary, “should instruct those working within the National Health Service to give parents-to-be an up-to-date and balanced account of the lives of those with conditions such as Down’s and spina bifida, rather than terrify them with horror stories, when they are at their most vulnerable.”

He was responding to a television documentary broadcast last week by Channel 4, entitled Disability And Abortion: The Hardest Choice.

One participant recounted how when she was pregnant with her second son at the age of 34, scans indicated he had Down’s. “We told them that we didn’t want to talk about aborting him, but [the medics] kept saying it. We were asked on three occasions if we wanted to abort him, the last time a few days before he was born” she said.

“They were telling us he might not be able to walk or talk, that his life would be really, really, difficult. They made us feel that bringing a child like Aidan into the world would be a really bad thing.

“For a while it made me feel guilty [for having him].”

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Six who met to study their faith on trial in Moscow

A trial of Muslims, the largest for nearly eight years, begun in the Russian capital with a preliminary hearing last week.

The six Moscow residents had met to study the teachings of the late Islamic scholar Said Nursi. However, they stand accused of “organising” and “participating in” the activities of “Nurdzhular”, which was banned as extremist in 2008 but which Muslims in Russia deny ever existed as a formal organisation. If convicted, the six men could face lengthy prison sentences or six-figure fines.

The men have been in detention in Moscow’s infamous Butyrka Prison since their arrests in October 2021.

The indictment accuses four of the defendants of creating an “organised and purposeful gathering of pupils of a ‘home madrassah'”, in which they “conducted propaganda work among these citizens, their training within the framework of the teachings of Said Nursi – namely, [they] carried out oral public translation of books from [Nursi’s collection of sermons] Risale-i Nur .. held collective discussions of these books, [and] joined with students in conversations, explaining to them the provisions of this religious literature”.

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Catholic hospitals cannot be forced to perform abortions, says US court

A federal appeals court in the US has blocked a push to force doctors to perform abortions or sex-change surgeries.

The decision was made on religious freedom grounds.

“This ruling is a major victory for conscience rights and compassionate medical care in America,” Joseph Davis, counsel at the legal group Becket, said.

“Doctors cannot do their jobs and comply with the Hippocratic Oath if the government requires them to perform harmful, irreversible procedures against their conscience and medical expertise,” he said.

The court case is known as Franciscan Alliance v. Becerra. Franciscan Alliance, a hospital network founded by the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration. Becket is the alliance’s legal representation. Nine states joined the suit, as did other groups including the Christian Medical and Dental Association.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday sided with a lower court order and permanently enjoined the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from requiring the Catholic hospital network to perform abortions or sex-reassignment surgeries “in violation of its sincerely held religious beliefs.”

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Christian convert in India burned to death by own family

The wife and son of an evangelist, the sole Christian convert in his extended family in majority Hindu India, helped neighbors burn him to death because of his faith, Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported.

Police described the crime as a family matter and refused to investigate the killing of the man identified as Madhavan, CSW reported in urging prosecutions for the crime.

“CSW forcefully condemns the gruesome murder of the evangelist Madhavan. It is deeply disappointing to see that the police officials haven’t even registered a complaint, let alone taken any action in response to this egregious act,” CSW Founder and President Mervyn Thomas said. “We urge the government of West Bengal and the central government of India to ensure that justice is served in this case and that the perpetrators do not enjoy the impunity that often surrounds such crimes in India.”

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