An advanced, unedited version of a ‘general comment’ on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by the United Nations Human Rights Committee wants to define abortion and assisted suicide as a human right.
International News
Theologian Says Postponing Sex Abuse Norms Shows Francis-US Church ‘Tensions’
“Clearly, the relationship between [Pope] Francis and the U.S. Church started with some tensions from the very beginning,” says theologian Massimo Faggioli, “… and it has become more tumultuous since then.”
Pope’s Battle to Persuade Europe on Immigration
So far, Pope Francis’ agenda on immigration has not proved powerful enough to withstand Europe’s new political reality, where opinion and votes are more easily driven by buzzwords such as “crisis” and “invasion.”
Pope Names Archbishop Scicluna Adjunct Secretary of CDF
Pope Francis named Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, arguably the Catholic Church’s most respected abuse investigator, to be adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Ethiopian Bishops Welcome Nation’s First Female President
Ethiopia’s bishops welcomed the election of the nation’s first female president, Sahle-Work Zewde, and said they were pleased that women “are getting their rightful place in the development of the country.”
Archival Discovery at Catholic U. Leads to Kristallnacht Remembrance
Jews worldwide will remember the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht. In a direct German translation, it means “Crystal Night,” but it is more commonly thought of as “Night of Broken Glass,” as Nazis and their sympathizers rampaged through Nazi Germany — which by this time had absorbed Austria and the Sudetenland — the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938.
UK Envoy to Vatican Impressed by Women’s Leadership in Church
Sally Axworthy, the British ambassador to the Holy See and a supporter of women in leadership, has said she believes the Vatican is making progress and finds the Catholic Church, particularly women religious, to be a key partner in fighting plagues such as slavery and human trafficking.
New ISIS Attack on Egyptian Copts Mirrors Previous Strike
On the same road and with the same style of last year’s attack, members of ISIS killed seven Coptic Christians Nov. 2 on a bus carrying worshippers returning from a visit to St. Samuel the Confessor Monastery in El Minya Governorate.
Caravan Heads to Mexico City; Guadalupe Basilica Opens for Migrants
The caravan of migrants making its way through Mexico has started arriving in Mexico City, where the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the world’s most-visited Marian shrine, has opened its shelter for pilgrims to weary Central American migrants.
Blair’s Ex-Homeless Czar Wants Pope, Vatican to Lead the Fight
Visitors from around the world come to Trafalgar Square to admire famed works of art in the National Gallery, the towering Lord Nelson column, and to get a glimpse of Big Ben at the end of Whitehall. Yet for Dame Louise Casey, who served as Britain’s homelessness czar under Tony Blair, she wants passersby to look past things, and at the people.