– Tej Francis
Email: tejfrancis@gmail.com
WASHINGTON
AMID YEAR’S VIOLENCE, CATHOLIC LEADERS DECRY SHOOTINGS, URGE POLICY CHANGES
(CNA) Amid the multiple mass shootings that took place in the U.S. during 2019, Catholic leaders spoke out against them, urged legislators to make changes to put a stop to these actions and asked Catholics to pray and work toward possible solutions.
During the summer, Bishop Edward Braxton of Belleville, Illinois, decried “a crisis of gun violence” in the United States and asked Catholics in his diocese to come together and think of ideas to stop these tragedies from recurring.
In his reflection, “A National Crisis: A Pastoral Reflection on the Deadly Epidemic of Gun Violence in the United States,” he asked Catholic leaders — clergy, religious and lay — to establish opportunities to pray for an end to gun violence and to search for solutions. He also acknowledged that answers have been hard to come by, noting that many Catholics have told him they “feel helpless, even paralyzed,” to respond to the ongoing violence, a frustration that he said he equally shares.
VATICAN
CARDINAL GRECH, RENOWNED THEOLOGIAN, DIES AT AGE 94
(Catholic Herald) Cardinal Prosper Grech, an internationally renowned theologian, died on Monday at the age of 94.
Cardinal Grech was born on the island of Malta on Christmas Eve, 1925. He entered the Augustinian Order at the age of 29 and was ordained a priest in Rome in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in 1950.
By 1953 he had completed his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University, obtaining his licentiate and doctorate in sacred theology, and went on to receive a further licentiate from the Pontifical Biblical Institute.
After pursuing further studies at both Oxford and Cambridge, Grech returned to Rome, where he served as an expert at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and taught at several universities attached to the Holy See.
He was created a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, but, being over 80 at the time of Benedict’s resignation, was too old to vote in the conclave of March 2013. He did lead a meditation for the cardinal-electors gathered in the Sistine Chapel before the start of voting.
DUBLIN, IRELAND
PUSH FOR BUFFER ZONES IN IRELAND FOLLOWS PRO-LIFE VIGIL OUTSIDE DUBLIN HOSPITAL
(CNA) A pro-life rosary vigil on New Year’s Day outside Dublin’s National Maternity Hospital sparked calls by abortion supporters for “exclusion zones” around clinics in Ireland.
On Wednesday, dozens of pro-life advocates—the Irish Times estimated “around 100 people”— gathered for a rosary vigil outside National Maternity Hospital on Holles Street in Dublin, on the one-year anniversary of a law allowing for legal abortion up to 12 weeks in Ireland.
“Today 1st Jan 2020, the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Holy Mother of God, we gathered at the National Maternity Hospital for a public rosary vigil in memory of all the babies murdered this year across Ireland,” the group Our Lady of Lourdes Protectors tweeted. Another rosary vigil is reportedly planned for Saturday night.
Pro-life advocates have been protesting and praying outside abortion clinics and GP practices in Ireland since abortion was legalized in the country.
Since pro-life advocates began protesting outside abortion clinics in Ireland, exclusion zones have been discussed as a means of keeping the protests at a certain distance.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties is campaigning for “safe zones” to “allow people to access healthcare in private and with dignity, as is their right.”
Ireland’s health minister Simon Harris said on Thursday that he is working on a “constitutional” way of setting up exclusion zones.
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