Thousands of protesters took to Argentina's streets on Saturday. They were holding Argentine flags and wearing the sky-blue scarves that identify them as anti-abortionists.

The protesters also carried signs with slogans like "Save Both Lives!" and "March for the Unborn."

The pope's handwritten letter is now doing the social media rounds. It is addressed to a group of Argentine women protesting a proposal to legalise abortion.

The women come from the shantytowns of Buenos Aires where Francis used to minister. For several years they have been opposing efforts to decriminalise abortion.

Procuring an abortion is like paying a murderer, Francis points out.

The question of human ethics needs to be considered, he suggests.

"Is it fair to eliminate a human life to solve a problem? Is it fair to hire a hit man to solve a problem?"

This is not the first time Francis has used the hit man analogy in relation to abortion.

"Is it licit to throw away a life to resolve a problem?" he said at a Vatican-sponsored anti-abortion conference in 2019.

"Is it licit to hire a hit man to resolve a problem?".

Francis - who is also from Argentina - is grateful to the women for their activism.

"The country is proud to have women like you," he says.

President Alberto Fernandez announced earlier this month that he would present a bill to legalise abortion.

Doing so will save lives by preventing women from resorting to unsafe, clandestine procedures, he says.

Fernandez campaigned on promises he would propose legislation to legalise it.

This is the first opportunity he has had to put his proposal into action.

Francis has always strongly upheld Catholic doctrine forbidding abortion.

He denounces it as part of today's "throwaway culture". This culture doesn't respect the dignity of the unborn, the weak or elderly, he says.

He offers a merciful approach to women who have resorted to abortion, however.

They may seek absolution from a priest. In the past only bishops were allowed to absolve women seeking forgiveness for abortion.

Source

• ABC News
• New York Post
• DW
• Image: The Jakarta Post

Bishop Eduardo Taussig announced June 13 that the Eucharist in his diocese was to be distributed only in the hand, until the pandemic concluded.

The bishop asked Catholics at that time to avoid putting priests or ministers of Communion in a difficult position "by requesting communion on the tongue, either at Mass or outside of the celebration." Read more

Taussig (pictured) says the closure of the seminary in his diocese was ordered after a controversy surrounding the reception of the Eucharist during the coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic.

He also noted the Congregation said that due to the trouble the seminary had to maintain a rector (it has had seven in the past 15 years) it did not seem worth it to keep the seminary open.

The Vatican's decision to close the Argentine seminary of Santa Maria Madre de Dios Seminary in December when the academic year ends took Taussig by surprise.

"But it is a directive that comes directly from the Holy See," he says.

"As a bishop, I know that when Rome has spoken, the discussion is over."

"We bishops make a promise of fidelity and obedience to the Holy Father," said Taussig, adding that the Vatican has many perspectives to consider when making decisions and that these decisions were made in light of similar situations around the world.

He has been discussing with the Vatican where the students will be sent to continue their studies.

"We are going to discern for each [seminarian] and decide the most appropriate school and timeline for their transfer. Some will go to Mendoza, to San Juan. We will see these changes in the coming weeks."

Last month when Taussig's diocese announced the seminary's upcoming closure, he noted "difficulties that the diocese is going through were taken into consideration, in the context of the measures related to COVID-19 prevention, and the reluctance or lack of obedience to the provisions that had been established."

A large number of the priests in the San Rafael diocese have not complied with COVID-19 directives regarding the distribution of communion in the hand.

Among these priests are many former students of the Santa Maria Madre de Dios seminary, which has been seen by some to be behind the priest's "reluctance" to require communion in the hand, Taussig says.

This refusal to comply had caused "serious scandal inside and outside the seminary and diocese," he adds, pointing out that receiving the Eucharist in the hand or on the tongue are both equally accepted by the Church.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: PagadianDiocese.org

His reason for the mock service? The government is allowing bars and restaurants to reopen after being closed for several weeks due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic but a ban on religious ceremonies still remains in force.

"We are standing here today dressed like this, carrying a tray, because it seems this is the only way we can serve the word of God," Pastor Daniel Cattaneo posted on a social media on Friday.

"So, apart from the breaded veal headed for table four, here goes the word of God from the house of the Lord to all nations."

"We want to exercise our constitutional right to practice our faith," the Argentinian pastor says.

"Bars can open, shops can open, why are they discriminating against us?"

Although the virus is still spreading rapidly in Argentina's capital city of Buenos Aires and the surrounding area, Argentina is otherwise COVID-free.

Santa Fe province, which is where the church is located, has been successful at containing the virus and has started reopening activities, including bars.

They are allowed to be open from 7am to 11pm, at up to 30 percent capacity and must keep a register of clients in case any of them later tests positive.

However, no more than 10 people are allowed to attend church services.

Besides avoiding the ban by opening his church as a bar, Cattaneo has announced "drive-in worship" for Sunday worship in an open plot near the church.

A record high of 1,391 new cases was recorded in Argentina on Friday. All but 89 of the new cases are in Buenos Aires. There have been 28,764 cases and 785 deaths in Argentina so far.

Argentina has been more successful in its fight against the virus than Brazil and Chile, which have had around 830,000 cases and 161,000 cases respectively.

Brazil has the world's second-highest COVID-19 death toll after a further 843 deaths pushed its total to 41,901. The United States has the highest number of deaths, with 116,034 recorded as at 12 June.

Source

• The Guardian
• The Daily Beast
• Image: Nation Editions

Aregentina has 4,500 shanty towns and illegal settlements.

Seven priests - including Bishop Gustavo Carrara - who live and minister in the slums of Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, met with President Alberto Fernandez last week.

The priests' suggestions helped broaden understanding of the reality of those who live in the slums and what isolation would be like for them.

The filmed a video with Fernandez in the background, where they urged all people to stay home, including those in the country's slums.

"In the slums it is also possible to be in quarantine. We know that the neighbors sometimes have little space. If you see someone in the streets who needs help to isolate themselves, let us know.

"Let there be no grandparents in the streets, bring them to our parishes," the priests say in a video shared by Fernandez on Twitter.

"The parishes in the slums are open for whatever is necessary."

The priests and the president then prayed the Our Father.

The Holy Father, Poipe Francis, asked all Christians to do so last Wednesday to ask for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The meeting took place in the president's house, as he is in semi-isolation because he's over 60. In Argentina this is considered an at-risk age for COVID-19 patients.

Fernandez brought the priests together because they have first-hand knowledge of the situation in the slums and have a sense of the general mood of the population.

They can also help keep people calm if the quarantine continues much longer.

An estimated seven percent of the population of Buenos Aires live in one of several shantytowns.

"We told the president that social peace has a lot to do with the help that is given," said one priest after the meeting.

"The president showed knowledge of the situation and assured us that more help is coming."

To help protect those most at risk, most of the 40 priests who live in the slums are setting up cots in their parish grounds so the elderly don't have to live on the streets. Schools are being re-purposed so homeless people and drug addicts can be cared for.

"If people are starving, they are going to go out and work," another priest said. "Even if this means placing themselves and others in danger."

"In our neighborhoods, the social issues are above health, even if they go hand in hand," he added. "If the social issue is not resolved, we won't be able to take care of the health of our neighbors."

Di Paola said rather than ask people to stay home in their almost unbearable homes, people should be to "stay in the neighborhood."

"They can take time out for walks but avoid social gatherings."

Source

• Crux
• Image: MercoPress

Priests Nicola Corradi and Horacio Corbacho were sentenced to 42 and 45 years in prison, respectively, while the school employee, Armando Gomez, got 18 years.

The sentencings by Judges Carlos Diaz, Mauricio Juan and Anibal Crivelli of the Collegiate Criminal Court No. 2 were live streamed in Argentina.

The sentences cannot be appealed. Continue reading

The movement, led by the Argentine Coalition for a Secular State, began a week after an anti-abortion choice Senate vote sent thousands of Argentinians out into the streets to protest.

The Church lobbied against the legalised abortion bill. Every year, about 500,000 illegal and unsafe abortions take place in the country.

Since the abortion rights vote, at least one woman has died from an attempt to perform an abortion on herself.

The Collective Apostasy movement is aimed at weakening the hold of the Church in Argentina; about two-thirds of Argentinian people are Catholics.

A manifesto from the movement has been posted on social media.

It says: "Obtaining the vote for women, the divorce law, marriage equality, the gender identity law, the assisted human fertilisation law, the law of integral sexual education, the dignified death law were all done fighting clerical power, which seeks to have total dominion over our minds and bodies."

Hundreds of people gathered in Buenos Aires on Saturday to oppose the influence of religion on Argentine politics.

The gathering centred on a signature drive for Argentinians wanting to renounce their affiliation to the Church through a form that will later be given to the Argentine Bishops' Conference.

Organisers hoped thousands would officially register their desire that the Church not interfere in Argentine politics and that their names be eliminated from its registries.

"We are receiving the apostasies of all the people who want to renounce their ties to the Catholic Church," said one of the organisers, Maria Jose Albaya.

Source

• Crux Now
• Alternet
• Image: Flash News

The intense debate—both in the culture at large and in the Senate chamber—often invoked a similar process that took place recently Ireland, a country with similarly Catholic roots.

There are many instructive comparisons to be made between how the process played out in these two countries.

Activists for legalisation—both in Ireland and overseas—used the 2012 death of Savita Halappanavar to begin the end of the Irish Eighth Amendment protecting prenatal children.

Though independent inquiries, including the coroner's inquest, found that Halappanavar died as a result of malpractice related to undiagnosed sepsis, activists pushed the false claim that she died because of the Irish law forbidding abortion.

Media and politicians largely accepted this version of the story.

The result was an overwhelming victory for legalisation, with two-thirds of the Irish people voting to repeal the Eighth Amendment and legal protection for prenatal children.

Abortion activists—both in Argentina and overseas—used the 2015 murder of a 14-year-old girl whose boyfriend apparently beat her to death for becoming pregnant to attempt to change Argentina's law protecting prenatal children.

The difference was that a diversity of views on abortion in the media—and especially the political class—made for an actual debate among those who have power in Argentina.

Abortion activists in both Ireland and Argentina were aided by male chief executives who, while claiming to be anti-abortion, changed their stated views for unclear and possibly dubious reasons.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar campaigned as anti-abortion but shifted his views not only as momentum built to repeal the Eighth Amendment, but also as he became shrouded in controversy when it was revealed many Irish women died of cervical cancer even though his health ministry told them they were in the clear.

Argentina's President Mauricio Macri, a conservative who described himself as pro-life, nevertheless signaled that if the Senate had voted for the abortion bill he would have let it become law by not vetoing it.

The difference in Argentina was powerful pro-life women in the legislature calling out their male chief executive. Continue reading

• Image: YouTube

In Argentina, abortion is allowed only in cases of rape and in risks to a woman's health.

Thousands of women, most of them poor, are hospitalised each year for complications linked to unsafe abortions.

Support for decriminalising abortion drew stronger support in Buenos Aires, the capital, than in the more conservative provinces. Observers attribute that difference to the bill being voted down in the Senate, as it includes more representation from outlying areas.

At the same time as the vote was being held, Catholics celebrated the Eucharist in a "Mass for Life", while women and supporters of decriminalisation filled the streets outside the Congress.

Backers of the measure said legalising abortion would save the lives of many women.

The Health Ministry estimated in 2016 that the country sees as many as half a million clandestine abortions each year, with dozens of women dying as a result.

Opposing the bill, the Catholic Church and other groups said it violated Argentinian law, which guarantees life from the moment of conception.

"Everyone had time to express their viewpoints and be heard by legislators in a healthy democratic exercise. But the only ones that didn't have an opportunity to make themselves heard are the human beings that struggled to be born," Cardinal Mario Poli said in his homily at the mass for Life.

"We have done little to accompany the women when they find themselves in tough situations, particularly when (the pregnancy is) the result of rape or situations of extreme poverty," he said.

In a statement after the vote, the Argentinian bishops' conference said the Senate debate opened an opportunity for dialogue and a chance to focus more on social ministry, and that it was time to address the "new divisions developing between us ... through a renewed exercise of dialogue."

"We are facing great pastoral challenges to speak more clearly on the value of life," they said.

Source

• The Tablet
• Religion News Service
• Image: The Week UK

The motto of the rally was "Protect them both," meaning the mother and the unborn child.

Catholics - as well as Evangelicals, atheists and others marched together to make their views known.

Most of the speakers against the bill have been laity from various religious backgrounds.

If passed into law, the bill will allow women to have an abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Currently, abortion is illegal unless the mother has been raped or her health is at risk.

This was the second pro-life rally in Argentina.

Although President Mauricio Macri says he is pro-life, he has allowed the ongoing debate to take place.

He says he will not veto the law if it were to pass through Congress.

In Buenos Aires, organisers read a statement asking legislators of both the government and the opposition to categorically reject the proposed bill.

"We rally because we want to protect both lives since, whether it's done at the mother's request or not, abortion causes the woman and those around her irreparable damage, becoming an attack against society's common good," the statement said.

Organisers said that behind the problem of abortion there are "difficult and painful situations, of violence, marginalisation, poverty, lack of formation, loneliness and abandonment; but our most intimate conviction is that abortion is never the solution."

Catholic Bishop Pedro Laxague of Zarate-Campana said: "As representatives of different faiths in favour of both lives, we recognise human life as a gift from God, as a miracle that begins at conception," he said.

Source

• Crux Now
• The Tablet
• Image: The Tablet
  

The bishops say their decision came in light of a "longing of Pope Francis", who was the former bishop of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Francis has promised human rights groups the church would hand over documentation to help clarify the crimes committed by the military regime. Read more

While he agrees prisoners must pay the price for the crimes they have committed, the punishment can be effective "only when inmates are helped to look toward the future rather than only back at a past lived out in shame", Francis said to prisoners at the Ezeiza federal penitentiary in Argentina via a video message.

"Let us not forget that for punishment to be fruitful it must have a horizon of hope. Otherwise it remains closed in itself and is just an instrument of torture; it isn't fruitful."

The inmates are taking part in the prison's university programme.

Francis says the programme and others like it provide "a space for work, culture, progress" and are "a sign of humanity".

Francis used to visit the prison when he was living in Argentina.

He still stays in touch via Sunday phone calls which he makes each week.

This week's video message was a special communication, sent to mark the occasion of the opening of a musical course for inmates, carried out in cooperation with the University of Buenos Aires.

Source

• Patheos
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Latina Lista
  

After the police raid in the northeastern province of Entre Rios, Argentina in late August, the two nuns confirmed their testimony, leading to the abbess, Mother Maria Isabel (Luisa Toledo is her given name) to be investigated and called to testify by a local court, on the grounds of unlawful privation of liberty.

Talking to a journalist but keeping her identity hidden, one of the former religious said that worse than the physical torture was the "psychological" abuse because, she claims, the mother superior made her believe she was responsible for the evils of the world.

The religious sisters who made the allegations claim they had to "escape" the cloister, which they had entered voluntarily, one in 1988 and the second ten years ago. They claimed they had been forced to torture themselves, using a cilice - a barbed chain typically worn around the upper thigh, which has a long tradition in the Catholic Church.

It's been used by many saints, including Mother Teresa, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Therese of Lisieux. It's currently used by members of some religious orders and movements such as Opus Dei.

Maria Isabel was supposed to testify late last week, but she had the flu, so her testimony was rescheduled for the upcoming days.

The 17 Carmelites who remain in the convent have denied any abuse against them. Earlier in the month, they published a video on Facebook which quickly became viral, through an account that was later deleted.

In it, they explained that they were happy "to be brides of Christ" and called the allegations of tortures "an invention."

Source

• Crux
• Image: www.pinterest.com
  

Marcelo Figueroa is a personal friend of the Pope's.

Beginning in September, Mr Figueroa will edit an Argentine publication that combines material from the weekly Spanish-language edition of L'Osservatore Romano with local content.

The publication is an attempt to ensure that the Pope's messages arrive in his home country as they were intended, without any filter or spin.

The paper will be supervised by the local bishops' conference.

Continue reading

The priests, together with a lay group, say there are attacks "of every kind" against the Pope, Crux reported.

Local media and political leaders have either tried to claim Francis as their own or discredit his every word, it is alleged.

An inter-religious alliance signed a petition "ratifying our commitment to the Pope's intentions and our repudiation to the actions against him".

One attack against Francis was launched by a former president of Uruguay, Julio Maria Sanguinetti.

Writing in Argentina's La Nacion newspaper, Mr Sanguinetti praised the start of Francis's pontificate.

His "colloquial and open style, his austere life and his generalised combating against the horror of clerical sexual abuse surrounded him with hope".

He noted the Pope's compassionate attitude towards women who have had an abortion.

Also noted was Francis's call for priests to work in the slums, which "earned him applause of the liberal sectors of the Catholic world and gave him credit in public opinion".

Yet, according to Mr Sanguinetti, the last three years have shown a Pontiff who fails to be "universal" by constantly meddling in Argentina's political affairs.

The former president also described Francis's economic vision as "anachronistic" and even "anarchist".

He also criticised Francis's outlook on refugees and migrants in Europe.

Italian blog Il Sismografo, considered a semi-official voice of the Vatican's Secretariat of State, has repeatedly complained about newspaper coverage in Argentina.

These media outlets "do everything in their power to outdo each other in the amplification of falsehood, hypotheses, suppositions and insinuations" regarding Francis.

The blog stated that newspapers report people who wrongly appoint themselves as papal spokespersons.

Sources

• Crux
• Image: Times Union

During the Pope's audience on August 19, an activist from the "Dialogue for Malvinas" campaign thrust a sign towards Francis's hands as he passed by.

It read: "It's time for Argentina and Britain to discuss the Falklands."

Gustavo Hoyo, director of the "dialogue" movement, has been tweeting pictures of ordinary Argentines and well-known faces holding the placard.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner tweeted a photo of the Pope with the sign.

Argentina has repeatedly called for a bilateral discussion between London and Buenos Aires, excluding the Falkland islanders themselves.

They base their argument on a 1965 United Nations Decolonisation Committee resolution which "invites the governments of Argentina and Great Britain to proceed ... with a view to finding a peaceful solution to the problem".

President Fernandez de Kirchner has frequently lobbied the Pope to intervene on her country's behalf, but the Vatican has been clear it doesn't wish to involve itself in the dispute.

A Vatican spokesman said on Wednesday: "There has been no change of position on this issue. The Pope does not want to enter into this debate."

The spokesman added: "The Pope is presented with many things during his general audiences. He receives a long queue of people."

"Holding something does not mean that he is taking a position either way."

Before he was Pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio firmly stated the Malvinas are Argentina's and were usurped by the UK.

Britain and the Falkland Islanders have long rejected calls for dialogue, with the argument that there is nothing to discuss.

In a 2013 referendum, the islanders voted overwhelmingly to remain British.

A spokesman for the UK Foreign Office said the Falkland Islanders have a right to decide their own future, as enshrined in the UN Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• The Telegraph
• The Mirror
• Image: Bloomberg

They grabbed 24-year-old Adriana and bundled her into the car before speeding away. Lita never saw her daughter again.

It was the second time tragedy had befallen Boitano: a year earlier, in 1976, her 20-year old son, Michelangelo, had disappeared on his way home.

As many as 30,000 people are thought to have joined the ranks of Argentina's desaparecidos, the term used for political opponents of Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship who were kidnapped, tortured for information and then made to vanish.

For Boitano, the loss of her two children not long after she was widowed in 1968 transformed her into an activist, a role she still plays today, at the age of 83.

"The strength to live came from our children - to search for them in the hope that they would be alive. Because I was left with nobody," she told the Guardian.

That search has taken her all the way inside the halls of the Vatican, where, she believes, meticulous files have been kept about the people who disappeared.

These files were principally collected through the papal nuncio's office in Buenos Aires at the time, where victims' families would file written complaints about the disappearances.

South America's bloody history with military dictatorship will return to the spotlight on Wednesday when Pope Francis touches down in Bolivia, where he is expected to pray at the site where the body of a Jesuit priest, Father Luís Espinal, was found in 1980 after he was kidnapped, tortured and killed by paramilitaries.

The murder was met with outrage and marked a turning point from the country's history of dictatorships to democracy.

"It was the beginning of the democracy that we continue having in Bolivia," Father Xavier Albo told the Catholic news site The Pilot, "with all the ups and downs that democracies have." Continue reading

Sources

• The Guardian
• Image: Seychelles News Agency

The Pope's order came after a meeting he had last week with Lita Boitano, 83, whose two sons "disappeared" during the dictatorship.

They were among the 20,000 people who were made to "disappear" by the Argentinian authorities, who saw them as subversives.

The Vatican collected a large amount of information on these cases, principally through the papal nuncio's office in Buenos Aires.

Mrs Boitano is president of the Argentinian human rights group Familiares

Pope Francis has asked the Vatican's secretariat of state to take charge of opening the files.

Work has already begun on declassifying these archives.

Opening the archives could eventually help the families of thousands of victims of the military regime finally discover the fate of their loved ones.

The possibility of the Vatican issuing a statement of self-criticism regarding its role during Argentina's dictatorship was discussed at a meeting between Mrs Boitano, the Pope and a Vatican official, Mrs Boitano said.

The most important documents to be released could be the reports wired to Rome by the Vatican's then ambassador to Buenos Aires, Msgr Pio Laghi, who met regularly with the military chiefs.

Msgr Laghi even played tennis on a regular basis with the navy's then commander-in-chief, Admiral Emilio Massera, considered to have been one of the bloodiest members of the military junta.

The Vatican also collected information from victims' families, who turned to Msgr Laghi for help.

The nuncio's office kept files on the thousands of disappearances reported by relatives and pleaded to the military for clemency, often acting as a go-between in specific cases.

Italian media reported a Vatican official saying that the relevant archives could be opened in a year, after they are scanned and digitised.

Mrs Boitano pleaded for an immediate opening of the archives as many of the parents of the "disappeared" are elderly and cannot wait.

Pope Francis was Archbishop of Buenos Aires before being elected Pope in 2013.

Sources

• The Guardian
• Image: MPR News

In a letter to the theological faculty of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, the Pope used language he had previously applied to pastors.

According to an article in the National Catholic Reporter, Francis wrote that the Second Vatican Council "produced an irreversible movement of renewal that comes from the Gospel".

So teaching and studying theology means living on a "frontier", he continued.

"We must guard ourselves against a theology that is exhausted in the academic dispute or watching humanity from a glass castle," the Pope said.

"You learn it to live: theology and holiness are an inseparable pair."

"Do not settle for a theology of the desk," he added. "Your place for reflection [is] the boundaries."

"And do not fall into the temptation to paint over them, to perfume them, to adjust them a bit and tame them," Francis wrote.

"The good theologians, like the good shepherds, smell of the people and of the road and, with their reflection, pour oil and wine on the wounds of humankind."

"Theology may be an expression of a Church which is a 'field hospital,' which lives its mission of salvation and healing in the world," he continued.

Pope Francis said the sort of theologian formed at the university must not be "an intellectual without talent, an ethicist without kindness or a bureaucrat of the sacred".

Similarly such an aspiring theologian must not be a theologian "of the museum" who "accumulates data and information on revelation without really knowing what to do with it".

Rather, such an aspirant should be "is a person able to build around themselves humanity, to transmit the divine Christian truth in a truly human dimension".

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Spiritual Travels

The Pope's remark came in a private letter to a director of an Argentine NGO that tries to combat drug crime.

Francis wrote, "I hope we're in time to avoid Mexicanisation. I was talking to some Mexican bishops and it's become a thing of horror there".

Mexican foreign minister Jose Antonio Meade said Francis's remarks had "stigmatised" the country.

"Mexico is making enormous efforts to combat drug trafficking," he stressed.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, said Francis meant in no way to offend the Mexican population "for whom he holds a special affection, nor to underestimate the commitment of the Mexican government in its fight against narco-trafficking".

The Pope was merely trying to emphasise the seriousness of the problem, Fr Lombardi said.

Continue reading