News from around the Catholic world for the week ending 9 May.
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• The UN attacks Church over teachings on abortion
• Islamist militant group claims responsibility for kidnapping of school girls in Nigeria
• Australian bishops gather for their plenary meeting
• English-born Archbishop awarded Australian Catholic University’s highest honour
• Sydney conference to explore the impact of pop culture
TRANSCRIPT
SARAH: The Vatican has come under fire this week by members of the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) at a hearing in Geneva.
The Committee has been questioning representatives of the Holy See on its handling of the sex abuse scandal to examine whether there have been violations of the UN charter against torture. During the questioning one of the UN committee members began targeting the Catholic Church’s stance on abortion, asking whether it might be responsible for nine-year-old rape victims giving birth. The committee member claimed that stopping abortion in all circumstances violates the UN charter against torture.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, responded by saying that “The Holy See’s goal is to prevent children from being tortured or killed before birth, as is stipulated in the Convention”.
Archbishop Tomasi also cited instances where babies have been born alive after failed abortion attempts, as well as late term abortion methods which involve the dismembering of the living child and its extraction from the womb in pieces.
This is not the first time the UN has publicly criticised the Church’s stance on abortion. Earlier this year, they openly claimed that the Church’s teachings on abortion and contraception harm young women. In a report by a UN committee, they stated that the Church must allow access to abortion services in certain circumstances. Earlier this year the UN widened its definition of torture, concluding in a report that refusing to allow legalised abortion, not allowing women to test their children for foetal abnormalities and not allowing transgender people to change their gender on official documents, all constitute as torture.
See this story at LifeSiteNews
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An Islamist militant group has claimed responsibility for the abduction of 300 school-age girls in Northern Nigeria.
The Boko Haram group, translated to “Western Education is sinful” in English, kidnapped the girls on April 14 in Nigeria’s Borno state. The militants claim divine instruction for the kidnappings, and have allegedly transported the girls to the countries of Chad or Cameroon.
Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has pledged to find the kidnapped girls, however the government are yet to establish their location. Mr Jonathan assured the girls parents on national television that his government would “get their daughters out.”
Nigerian Archbishop of Abuja Cardinal John Onaiyekan spoke to Vatican Radio on Wednesday, criticising both the barbarity of the militants and the failure of the government response:
CARDINAL ONAIYEKAN: “We know that Boko Haram have no sense of humanity. We know that they are killing innocent people. But that they should be able to cart away almost 300 children in the Northeast of Nigeria without any trace of where these children are really baffles us.”
SARAH: The kidnappings have also recently attracted international attention. The United States and Britain are offering assistance, with details yet to be released. According to US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, the US have thus far worked with Nigeria in intelligence sharing, and are ready to assist in an appropriate manner. Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop responded to the kidnapping by stating that “[t]hreats against the welfare of these girls by Boko Haram are appalling.”
The latest attacks come in the fifth year of the Islamist insurgency in the north of Nigeria which has claimed thousands of lives.
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Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart has been re-elected as the President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) this week at the Plenary meeting of Australian Bishops.
During the meeting Archbishop Hart said: “I thank my fellow bishops and diocesan administrators for their dedication and commitment in governing the Australian Catholic Church at a time when we are facing many challenges.”
Adelaide’s Archbishop Phillip Wilson was also re-elected as the Vice-President of the ACBC.
Perth’s Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB and Port Pirie’s Bishop Gregory O’Kelly SJ were both elected to the ACBC Permanent Committee.
Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge and Canberra-Goulburn Archbishop Christopher Prowse along with Bishop of Darwin Eugene Hurley and Bishop of Wollongong Peter Ingham all were re-elected to the ACBC Permanent Committee.
Over the course of the week, the Bishops have discussed the treatment of refugees, the Royal Commission and evangelisation.
“With prayer and planning we trust that our discussions and decision-making may be guided by the Holy Spirit,” Archbishop Hart said.
Following their meeting in North Sydney, the Australian Catholic Bishops will attend the weeklong meeting of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania in New Zealand.
That story via ACBC Media Blog
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Australian Catholic University (ACU) has conferred its highest honor, Doctor of the University, on English-born Archbishop Michael Louis Fitzgerald at a ceremony in Sydney this week.
The ceremony recognised Archbishop Fitzgerald for his contribution to fostering better understanding and relations between Christians and other faiths, and with Islam in particular.
Archbishop Fitzgerald is considered one of the Holy See’s leading experts on Islam. He has served as a lecturer at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome and in Uganda, as a General Council of the Missionaries of Africa in Rome, as Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue then as President, and finally as Apostolic Nuncio to the Arab Republic of Egypt, and Delegate to the Cairo-based Arab League. Archbishop Fitzgerald retired from diplomatic service in 2012 and now lives and works at the White Fathers’ institution in Jerusalem.
The ceremony, which took place at ACU’s North Sydney Campus, was attended by several bishops including Melbourne’s Archbishop Dennis Hart and Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Paul Gallagher.
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Eminent Cambridge and Oxford scholar Dr Roger Scruton will be in Australia next week for Campion College’s National Core Conference.
The conference will address how entertainment culture shapes people and society, and will also feature Dr Andrew Mullins and Dr Ryan Messmore as speakers.We caught up with Campion College’s Michael Mendieta to find out more:
MICHAEL MENDIETA:“We’ve organised some leading speakers – internationally renowned speakers – to come in to equip young people with the language they’ll need today and into the future to defend the values (particularly) of […] Judeo-Christian values and the more conservative traditional values in Western civilisation.”
SARAH: The conference will take place next Tuesday, 13th of May, at Novotel Parramatta, beginning at 12:30pm. Entry is free.
See the full interview with Michael for more information.
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That’s it from us for this week’s headlines, thanks for listening. For more details of those stories or for more Catholic talks, interviews and programs, visit cradio.org.au.
