The home country of Pope Francis could become the largest country in Latin American to legalise elective abortion. A bill that would make abortion legal in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy passed Argentina’s House of Deputies on Friday last week. It faces a tougher vote in the Senate, which could take it up this month. The new legislation, introduced by President Alberto Fernández, has reopened a bitter debate in which Francis has intervened. Abortion “is not a primarily religious issue but one of human ethics,” Francis, former archbishop of Buenos Aires, wrote last month to two women’s groups that had requested his input. “Is it fair to hire a hitman to solve a problem?” The pope’s handwritten letter was a direct response to mothers from some of the largest slums in his former archdiocese. The mothers wrote: “Our voice, like that of unborn children, is never heard … They classified us as a ‘factory of the poor’ or ‘workers of the State’. Our reality as women who overcome life’s challenges with our children is overshadowed by women who claim to represent us without us giving our consent, stifling our true positions on the right to life.” “The homeland is proud of having women such as these,” Pope Francis wrote. “They truly are women who know what this life is.”
The chairman of the Bishops’ Commission on Youth has called for a strategy by Church and government leaders to address child labour in the Philippines.“We need to intensify efforts to protect the most vulnerable, especially the children,” said Bishop Rex Alarcon of Daet. Children have become “collateral damage from the Covid-19 pandemic” according to a recent report from the Department of Labour and Employment, which has launched a campaign to rescue children in poor rural areas.
A 37-year Methodist has become the latest victim in continuing violence aimed at the media in Pakistan. Qais Javed, the journalist son of Mohan Masih, a former member of the ruling Pakistan Justice Party, was shot dead on 7 December in a drive-by shooting outside his home.
The Cathedral of Turin has faced criticism after putting facemasks on the Virgin Mary, Joseph, the Magi and others in its annual crib. Augusta Montaruli of the right-wing Brothers of Italy party and an MP for Turin, complained that the Nativity should free people’s minds from the current worries of the coronavirus pandemic. She said the Nativity scene should bring back believers to a particular atmosphere lived 2,000 years ago.”
Nearly 100 protestant churches have been shut down by Communist Party authorities in eastern China this year. Party authorities cited “violations”, such as "disobeying the government", "being too close to a school”, or using a “dilapidated building”. Christians in China are expected to embrace the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
Emphasising hope amid what the Iraqi bishops called “conflicts, extremism, emigration, and the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic" Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako said the visit of Pope Francis in March next year will be a “providential occasion” for Iraqi Christians and the entire Middle East.
The news that the Austrian constitutional court had decided to repeal the current total ban of assisted suicide in Austria was received with “great dismay” by the Austrian bishops’ conference. “Up to now Austria has been a positive role model. The ghastly memories of mass euthanasia under the Nazis have always been seen as a warning”, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn recalled. “I am worried that greater pressure will be put on sick, tired and suffering people to see themselves as burdens for others and consequently to move themselves out of the way by committing suicide. If someone wants to jump off a bridge, one will try and stop them. Are we now supposed to give them the final shove?” he asked. Meanwhile Spain's Catholic bishops have condemned a new government-backed draft law which would make the country Europe's sixth to allow active euthanasia, and called for "prayer and fasting" against it.
Pope Francis has pledged the Vatican City State will reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 as he called on countries to tackle climate change. He was speaking virtually at a United Nations climate summit hosted by the UK and France and in partnership with Italy.
Catholic bishops and Protestant clergy in Kenya have jointly urged caution as the country’s schools prepare to open early next year. The schools have remained partially open with the bulk of students staying at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the government has announced that a full opening will start on 4 January 2021.
On 4 December a US district court overturned the Trump administration’s attempts to limit the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme (DACA). The court decision allows new applicants to DACA for the first time since 2017. Around 650,000 people are protected from deportation by DACA, which covers those who came to the United States before the age of 16 and meet other requirements. Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville, auxiliary bishop of Washington and chairman of the bishops’ conference committee on migration, welcomed the decision.
The Vatican will begin vaccinating employees and citizens against Covid-19 using the Pfizer vaccine. Dr. Andrea Arcangeli, director of the Vatican health service, said it was “our duty to offer all residents, employees and their families the opportunity to be immunized against this dreaded disease.”Vaccinations are expected to start in the city state in January 2021. Brazil and Mexico have also announced plans to start vaccinations in the new year.
Spain's Madrid diocese is seeking the beatification of 140 martyrs from the 1936-1939 Civil War, half of them laity, aged between 25 and 94. The latest process follows the Pope's earlier approval of the causes of 196 others, to add to the almost 2000 already beatified or canonised as martyrs.
Fr Rainer Maria Schiessler, 60, one of Munich’s most popular priests, plans to celebrate Mass non-stop for twelve hours on Christmas Eve. Twelve one-hour Masses will be celebrated in his parish of St Maximilian from midday onwards he told the Munich Abendzeitungon 10 December. It was not possible to have 1,000 people in church at the same time this year because of the Covid pandemic “but we can allow 100 people 12 times”, he said. Mass-goers would not have to register first but will pick up clothes pegs from a basket at the church entrance then return them after their Mass for the next person to pick up. Pegs and basket will be disinfected after each Mass.
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