Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 23, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

A group of nuns and religious associations fighting for exemption from a New York law mandating they provide abortion coverage to their employees has gained support from a coalition of Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Catholic, and other Christian groups as they take their legal battle to the Supreme Court.

In Diocese of Albany v. Harris, the plaintiffs are suing the state of New York after it mandated employers to cover abortions in their employee health insurance plans. The nuns have been engaged in the litigation since first filing suit in 2017. Their case is one of several religious freedom cases that could be on the Supreme Court docket this term.

Twenty states including Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio have thrown their weight behind the case, alongside the University of Notre Dame’s Religious Liberty Clinic and various Catholic health care professionals and organizations. Together with the various religious groups, they collectively filed seven friend-of-the-court briefs asking the Supreme Court to block the mandate.

“New York is bullying nuns into bankrolling abortions because they serve all people, no matter their faith,” said Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at the religious liberty law firm Becket, in a press release. “That is unacceptable — as this outpouring of support shows, religious organizations should be free to care for the needy without having to violate their beliefs.”

The plaintiffs, including the Sisters of St. Mary, a contemplative order of goat-herding Anglican nuns, asked the state in the filing for protection against the regulation, but the New York court refused.

Following the initial decision, the religious groups appealed to the Supreme Court, which returned it to the state court in May. In their filing, they asked the court to reconsider the case in light of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a religious liberty case that upheld the religious liberty of private Catholic adoption agencies.

However, the lower court once again denied the plaintiffs’ appeals, upholding the abortion mandate, leading Becket to appeal to the Supreme Court for a second time this past September.

The seven briefs include a joint contribution from Muslim and Hindu groups as well as from Jewish and Christian groups, including the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) and representatives from various Protestant denominations.

In their respective briefings, the diverse coalition explains why the protection of religious freedom is crucial for those who are practicing members of a minority faith.

“Abortion has been at the center of a religious, moral, political, and judicial firestorm for decades,” the amicus briefing filed by the Christian coalition reads. “Until recently, supporters and opponents of abortion rights acknowledged that coercing religious organizations to support abortion triggers profound questions of religious freedom.”

Having previously forced religious charity organizations to include contraception in their employee health plans, the briefing states, “New York has taken the long next step” by “dragooning religious organizations into becoming complicit in abortion,” a move the briefing calls “an intolerable invasion of religious autonomy.”

“The Constitution protects the free exercise of religion,” the brief submitted by The Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team of the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness adds. “In a religiously pluralistic and highly regulated society like ours, there can be no free exercise of religion for minority faiths without religious exemptions.”

The Supreme Court will consider whether to hear the case “later this fall,” according to Becket.

Lima Newsroom, Oct 23, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

The apostolic nunciature in Peru announced that Pope Francis has approved the expulsion of two more members of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (Sodality of Christian Life) in the wake of the report of the special mission he sent in July 2023 to investigate allegations of abuse.

The statement from the nunciature was published Oct. 21 by the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference.

The text mentions José Ambrozic Velezmoro, former assistant for Temporalities, Communications, and Apostolate as well as former vicar general, along with Father Luis Antonio Ferroggiaro Dentone.

Although the name of Ricardo Trenemann Young also appears in the statement, his expulsion from the sodality had already been announced on Sept. 25.

According to the nunciature, Pope Francis made the decision “after evaluating the defense [statements] corresponding to the accusations that emerged during the ‘Special Mission’” entrusted to Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and official of the same dicastery, respectively.

“In adopting this decision, the scandal caused by the number and gravity of the abuses reported by the victims was considered, particularly contrary to the balanced and liberating experience of the evangelical counsels in the context of the ecclesial apostolate,” the statement added.

The statement said that “these are cases of abuse of office and authority, particularly in the form of abuse in the administration of ecclesiastical goods, as well as sexual abuse, in some cases even of minors.”

“In this regard, in the case of Rev. Ferroggiaro Dentone, the present disciplinary decision is not an obstacle to the proceedings that are simultaneously being carried out by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, given the clerical state of the accused,” it explained.

The statement concluded by stating that “Pope Francis, together with the bishops of Peru and those places where the Sodality of Christian Life is present, saddened by what happened, ask forgiveness from the victims and join in their suffering. They also ask this society of apostolic life to, without further delay, provide for justice and reparation.”

On Sept. 30, the sodality published a statement signed by its superior general, José David Correa González, affirming that it accepts with “humility and obedience” the decision of the pope to expel several of its members and renewed its “adherence to the Vicar of Christ” and its love for the Catholic Church.

The text was issued following the dismissal of 10 of its members, announced on Sept. 25.

The apostolate assured that it will continue “collaborating with the various bodies of guidance and accompaniment that the Holy See indicates to us” and reiterated its commitment “to listening to and caring for the victims, and to the processes of reparation through justice and truth.”

Correa also said the sodalits will continue with the process of renewal, “trusting in the Lord who has sustained us throughout these years and will continue to accompany us under the care of holy Mary our Mother.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 23, 2024 / 14:35 pm (CNA).

Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed that she would oppose religious exemptions in abortion laws if elected president and emphasized that she would not make concessions to Republicans on the issue.

The Democratic nominee made the comments in a Tuesday interview when NBC News’ Hallie Jackson asked Harris “what concessions would be on the table” when considering federal laws on abortion and specifically whether she would consider “religious exemptions.”

“I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body,” Harris responded.

Jackson followed up on the question, asking whether the vice president would extend “an olive branch” to moderate Republicans who support legal abortion but do not support all of Harris’ abortion policies. But the Democratic nominee also rejected this, saying abortion “cannot be negotiable.”

“I’m not gonna engage in hypotheticals because we could go on a variety of scenarios,” Harris said. “Let’s just start with a fundamental fact, a basic freedom has been taken from the women of America: the freedom to make decisions about their own body. And that cannot be negotiable, which is that we need to put back in the protections of Roe v. Wade.”

Harris continued, adding that former president Donald Trump “allowed Roe v. Wade to be overturned” and said: “So that’s my point about what is nonnegotiable — it has to be that we agree that it is so fundamental that we allow women the ability with their doctor, with, if they choose, talking with their faith leader, to be able to make these decisions and not have the government tell her what to do.”

The vice president’s opposition to religious freedom exemptions regarding abortion laws is consistent with her record as a senator. In 2019, Harris introduced the Do No Harm Act, which would have scaled back religious liberty exemptions to government mandates that exist in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Under the proposed law, which failed to make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, religious employers would not be exempt from covering “any health care item or service” that is required under federal law. This would have eliminated religious exemptions to any coverage related to abortion, contraception, transgender surgeries, or any other health care issue.

Harris introduced the proposal when the Catholic Little Sisters of the Poor sought a religious exemption to an Affordable Care Act rule that mandated coverage of drugs that could induce abortions. Although the sisters were initially denied, they obtained their religious exemption with a victory in the United States Supreme Court thanks to the exemptions that Harris was trying to remove from federal law.

Opposition to religious liberty exemptions for abortion is also consistent with the Biden-Harris administration’s policies over the last four years.

The Biden-Harris Department of Health and Human Services promulgated a rule in 2022 that sought to force all hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, to provide abortions if it constituted a “stabilizing treatment” under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). This rule was blocked by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the administration’s appeal.

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “direct abortion is never permissible.” 

Grazie Pozo Christie, a senior fellow at The Catholic Association, said in a statement that Harris “should clarify, and quickly, whether given the chance she would force Americans who object on religious or conscience grounds to participate in abortion.”

“Sadly, it would not be the first time Harris has used her political power to trample the rights of religious Americans,” Christie said.

Harris has committed to enshrining a legal right to abortion into federal law at least until the point of viability by codifying the abortion standards set in the now-defunct Roe v. Wade ruling. During her candidacy for president, she has also refused to disavow late-term abortion, which is legal in several states.

CNA Staff, Oct 23, 2024 / 14:05 pm (CNA).

A Texas death row inmate whose execution was recently halted was prevented from testifying at the state capitol on Monday after the office of Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton refused to let him testify in person, citing security concerns. 

The Supreme Court of Texas granted an emergency motion last week to halt the execution of Robert Roberson, which had been scheduled to take place Oct. 17. 

In an opinion issued when the Texas Supreme Court halted the execution, Justice Evan Young noted that the Legislature “has subpoenaed an inmate subject to a sentence of death to appear as a witness” and that “if the sentence is carried out, the witness obviously cannot appear.”

Bishop Joe Vásquez of the local Diocese of Austin told “EWTN News Nightly” that the bishops of Texas, who praised the halting of Roberson’s execution, believe that “he is innocent, and at least his case should be reviewed.”

Roberson was convicted in 2003 of the murder of his infant daughter, Nikki, whom he had brought to a local hospital with severe injuries. Roberson claimed the baby had fallen from her bed, but medical experts argued that her injuries were consistent with child abuse.

Testimony at his trial included the claim that Nikki’s injuries were consistent with “shaken baby syndrome,” a formerly common diagnosis that is controversial today among experts. 

Since his conviction, Roberson has attempted to establish his innocence by invoking Texas’ “junk science” law, which allows defendants to argue that scientific evidence used in their conviction was flawed. He would be the first person in the U.S. put to death for a conviction linked to “shaken baby syndrome” if his execution ends up moving forward, CBS News reported.

The canceled Oct. 21 hearing, convened by the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence, was set to consider testimony regarding the “junk science” law. Lawmakers had issued a subpoena for Roberson to appear before the committee to testify, effectively delaying Roberson’s execution — a tactic that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has since criticized. 

In the end, Roberson was also not permitted to testify to the Legislature virtually, with lawmakers citing the fact that he has autism and has rarely interacted with modern technology during his 20-year incarceration. The Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee hopes to have Roberson appear to testify in person at another time. 

Last week, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops said in a statement that it was “grateful” for the decision to halt the execution. The Catholic Church teaches that the death penalty is “inadmissible,” even for people who have committed heinous crimes. 

“Now is the time for all Texans to demand justice for Robert and denounce the execution of a likely innocent man, which violates the laws of God and humanity to which we hold one another accountable,” the bishops said.

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the executive director of the anti-death penalty Catholic Mobilizing Network, likewise praised “the bipartisan, courageous leadership of the Texas legislators who took action that led to this temporary stay of execution.”

“As Catholics, we know that every life is sacred,” Murphy said. “Catholic teaching on the ‘inadmissibility in all cases’ of capital punishment is crystal clear — no exclusions or exceptions.”

“We will continue to educate, advocate, and pray that soon, every state — including the state of Texas — will be free of the scourge of capital punishment,” she said.

Vatican City, Oct 23, 2024 / 13:35 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis said the Holy Spirit plays an essential role in the unity of a husband and a wife, and advised married couples to invoke the Spirit’s help for their marriage, because the separation of spouses is a source of suffering for children.

“What can the Holy Spirit have to do with marriage, for example? A great deal, perhaps the essential,” the pope said during his weekly audience with the public in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 23.

“Christian marriage is the sacrament of self-giving, one for the other, of man and woman. This is how the Creator intended it when he ‘created man in his own image … male and female he created them (Gn 1:27),’” Francis said to crowds gathered in an overcast square. 

In the Wednesday general audience, the pontiff continued his series of teachings on the Holy Spirit, focusing on the role of the Third Person of the Trinity in the sacrament of matrimony, including the couple as a “realization of the communion of love that is the Trinity.”

Francis said like the Trinity, “married couples, too, should form a first-person plural, a ‘we.’ Stand before each other as an ‘I’ and a ‘you,’ and stand before the rest of the world, including the children, as a ‘we.’”

“How much children need this unity — mother and father together — unity of parents, and how much they suffer when it is lacking,” he emphasized. “How much the children of separated parents suffer, how much they suffer.”

Drawing on the story of the wedding at Cana, Francis noted that for “so many couples, one must repeat what Mary said to Jesus, at Cana in Galilee: ‘They have no wine.’ The Holy Spirit is he who continues to perform, on a spiritual level, the miracle that Jesus worked on that occasion; namely, to change the water of habit into a new joy of being together.”

“It is not a pious illusion: It is what the Holy Spirit has done in so many marriages, when the spouses decided to invoke him."

“No one,” the pope continued, “says that such unity is an easy task, least of all in today’s world; but this is the truth of things as the Creator designed them, and it is therefore in their nature. Certainly, it may seem easier and quicker to build on sand than on rock; but Jesus tells us what the result is…”

Pope Francis noted that marriage needs the support of the Holy Spirit, “the Gift,” and recommended that marriage preparation include a deeper spiritual preparation in addition to just psychological, legal, and moral information.

“Where the Holy Spirit enters, the capacity for self-giving is reborn,” he said.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 23, 2024 / 11:40 am (CNA).

The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case to determine the legality of a Tennessee law that prohibits doctors from performing so-called transgender surgeries on minors and prevents doctors from prescribing them puberty blockers and hormones.

The law is facing a legal challenge from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ administration as well as from three families in the state.

Although the case only addresses Tennessee’s law specifically, a Supreme Court ruling could set a nationwide precedent that would apply to state laws around the country that prohibit gender transition surgeries and drugs for children. More than 20 states restrict or prohibit doctors from performing such surgeries or providing such drugs for patients under the age of 18.

The court scheduled oral arguments for the case to be heard in December — less than two years after Gov. Bill Lee signed the prohibition into law.

State law prohibits doctors from performing surgery on a minor’s genitals that are intended to make them resemble the genitals of the opposite sex. It also prohibits chest surgeries and other aesthetic surgeries intended to make the child appear more similar to the opposite sex.

The law further prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty blockers, which delay a child’s natural development during puberty, if the intention is to facilitate a gender transition. It also prevents doctors from prescribing estrogen to boys and testosterone to girls if the intention is to facilitate a gender transition.

Doctors and health care providers can incur a $25,000 penalty for violating the state law.

A report published earlier this month by the medical watchdog group Do No Harm found that doctors in the United States provided at least 13,994 children with either transgender drugs or surgeries. The report identified more than 5,700 children receiving transgender surgeries but also noted that these numbers are likely higher because some data isn’t publicly available.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is defending the law in court against challenges from the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) and three Tennessee families represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Tennessee.

A complaint filed by the DOJ refers to transgender drugs and surgeries for minors as “medically necessary care.” It argues that the state law violates the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution by discriminating “on the basis of sex and on the basis of transgender status in violation of the equal protection clause.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson told CNA that the DOJ does not comment on pending litigation. 

The ACLU filing with the Supreme Court makes similar arguments, stating that “discrimination based on a person’s transgender status necessarily imposes differential treatment based, in part, on that person’s sex assigned at birth.” 

The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment guarantees every person “equal protection of the laws” in every state.

CNA reached out to the Tennessee ACLU for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication. In a post on X, the Tennessee ACLU wrote that “trans youth deserve the same chance to thrive as their peers.”

“Trans youth deserve a future,” the post read. “Gender-affirming care is life-saving care, and we’re ready to stand for it boldly. Tennessee, we’ll see you in court.”

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Tennessee attorney general’s office referred CNA to an Oct. 18 op-ed published by Skrmetti in The Hill.

“Many doctors, states, and countries share Tennessee’s view on gender-transition interventions for minors; the federal government and others do not,” Skrmetti wrote.

“People who disagree with Tennessee’s law can advocate for a different law through the democratic process,” he added. “While the federal government is free to favor its transition-first, ask-questions-later approach, the Constitution does not bind Tennessee to that same choice.”

Vatican City, Oct 23, 2024 / 11:10 am (CNA).

The Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in the south of France will ordain six men to the transitional diaconate on Dec. 1, ending a Vatican suspension on diocesan ordinations to the priesthood or diaconate that has lasted over two years.

Ordinations were halted by the Vatican in June 2022 following a fraternal visit to the diocese by Archbishop (now Cardinal) Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille.

The ordinations of six seminarians from the traditionalist community Missionaries of Divine Mercy will take place in the Collegiate Church of Saint-Martin in Lorgues, according to an Oct. 21 announcement from Bishop François Touvet.

Pope Francis appointed Touvet a coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in November 2023, putting him in charge of religious communities and of the training of priests and seminarians.

As coadjutor, Touvet is serving alongside Bishop Dominique Rey, who has led the French diocese since 2000. Touvet will succeed Rey upon Rey’s 75th birthday.

Touvet said this week the Dec. 1 ordinations “are the fruit of a trusting and peaceful dialogue maintained with the superior of the community [of the Missionaries of Divine Mercy] and the Dicastery for Divine Worship.”

While the Missionaries of Divine Mercy recognize the validity of the post-Vatican II liturgy, one of its three charisms is the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.

The group, which was founded under diocesan law, is also dedicated to the missions of mercy and evangelization, especially among Muslims.

Touvet wrote that while the statutes of the community, founded in 2005, indicate that priests and deacons should use the liturgical books from prior to the reform of the Second Vatican Council, the community’s members “recognize the validity of the current missal and have sought, since their foundation almost 20 years ago, a true insertion in diocesan life under the authority of the bishop.”

The diaconate ordinations scheduled for later this year are a “favorable outcome” of exchanges with the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Touvet said, since permission to offer the Traditional Latin Mass “can only be granted to a recently ordained priest by the Holy See” since the 2021 promulgation of Traditiones Custodes.

The bishop invited prayers for the soon-to-be deacons and “so that the liturgy is not a place of combat but of communion in Jesus Christ the savior.”

Suspension of ordinations

The Vatican requested the suspension of ordinations in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in summer 2022 due to “questions that certain Roman dicasteries were asking about the restructuring of the seminary and the policy of welcoming people to the diocese,” according to an announcement by Bishop Dominique Rey at the time.

The diocese had seen a record number of ordinations to the priesthood under Rey’s leadership, which began in 2000, but questions were raised about his approach to evaluating candidates for the priesthood. He was also under scrutiny for having welcomed to the diocese a large number of religious orders and lay groups across a wide spiritual spectrum that included both charismatic and traditionalist communities.

Known for his support of the Traditional Latin Mass, Rey had also ordained diocesan clerics using the 1962 Roman Pontifical and had used the same book for the ordinations of religious communities, including the Institute of the Good Shepherd. 

After Pope Francis promulgated Traditionis Custodes, the 2021 motu proprio restricting the celebration of Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, the bishop had highlighted the concerns of some priests and communities present in his diocese who offered Mass according to the old rite. 

Aveline’s fraternal visit to Rey’s diocese took place in early 2022 at the request of the Vatican.

Synod delegates have elected new members of the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.

Read all

 

Puebla, Mexico, Oct 23, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Father Marcelo Pérez, a priest of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas in the Mexican state of Chiapas, died on Oct. 20, killed by two men who shot him after he had celebrated Mass. His diocese now remembers him as a “tireless apostle of peace.”

According to information provided by the diocese through a statement shared on Oct. 21, Pérez was born on Jan. 17, 1974, in San Andrés Larráinzar in Chiapas state.

From a young age he felt the call to the priesthood and entered the Our Lady of Guadalupe seminary in 1990 in the Archdiocese of Tuxtla Gutierrez. He was ordained a priest on April 6, 2002.

During his ministry, Pérez worked in various parishes. In his last two years, he served as pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in San Cristóbal de las Casas.

His pastoral work included tasks such as coordinator of the Social Ministry of the Province of Chiapas. According to the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas: “His life was spent in search of justice and peace, especially in Simojovel, Pantelho, and San Cristóbal de las Casas.”

The diocesan statement noted that this commitment earned him consequences. ”All this service he performed led him to suffer a long period of threats, persecution, harassment, slander, defamation, even an unfounded arrest warrant, which put his personal safety at risk, to the point of his life being taken.”

One of the most difficult moments of his ministry occurred in 2021 when 21 young people were kidnapped by the self-defense group “El Machete” with whom Pérez was said to have ties. According to local media, the attorney general’s office of the state of Chiapas issued an arrest warrant for him, but it was never carried out.

In an Aug. 2 interview with online news El Heraldo de Chiapas, Pérez assured that his work was always oriented toward peace and rejected the accusations against him, stating that “we never foment violence, even though the work we do is very visible and there is an arrest warrant that the government issued against me, but these are false accusations.”

In the same interview, he revealed that a “price” had been put on his life, with a value of between 150,000 and 1 million Mexican pesos (between $7,500 and $50,000), “but we live under the protection of God; there is a lot of violence but we continue to build peace.”

In its statement following his murder, the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas said that “even knowing that his life was in danger, he lived a profound faith in God and a great love for the people that took him to the ultimate consequences, sealing today, with his blood, his commitment to give his life.”

The Catholic Church demands justice and a ‘total end to violence’

The Mexican Bishops’ Conference lamented in a statement the “brutal murder” of the priest, noting that this act “not only deprives the community of a dedicated pastor but also silences a prophetic voice that tirelessly fought for peace with truth and justice in the Chiapas region.”

The Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas also issued a statement in which it demanded that the three levels of government “completely halt the violence” affecting Chiapas, describing it as the result of “impunity, complicity, and corruption.”

The diocese reiterated its demand for the “immediate disarmament and dismantling of crime gangs” operating in the region. It also called for the murder of Pérez to be solved and for “justice be done until those truly responsible are found.”

Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, who ordained Pérez as a priest, described him as a man “committed to justice and peace among Indigenous peoples.”

In a statement shared with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, he emphasized that the murdered priest “never got involved in partisan politics but always fought for the values ​​of the kingdom of God” and added that the priest was “very focused on his vocation, very prayerful and spent a lot of time before the tabernacle.”

The cardinal noted that “his murder shows us, once again, the climate of violence that has been unleashed in Chiapas and in almost the entire country.” He affirmed that this situation is indicative “that the government and all of us, including the churches, are overwhelmed. We haven’t managed to stop the violence, but rather it is increasing.”

The Latin American Bishops’ Council (CELAM, by its Spanish acronym), after expressing its “consternation,” recognized Pérez as a “tireless seeker of peace and justice for his people, the fruit of his faithful commitment to the Gospel and his total dedication to Christ present among those who suffer the most.

U.N.: Murder of Pérez ‘absolutely unacceptable’

The murder was also condemned by Jesús Peña Palacios, deputy representative in Mexico of the United Nations Human Rights Organization, who noted that since 2015, Pérez had been under precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), “due to the constant risk to his life and personal safety due to his work in defense of human rights in Simojovel and other places in Chiapas.”

“The murder of Father Marcelo is absolutely unacceptable. His work was widely recognized by Indigenous peoples in Chiapas and also internationally. Despite having protective measures and constant complaints about the attacks he faced, these were insufficient to prevent his murder,” Peña said.

The governor of Chiapas, Rutilio Escandón, shared a video on social media on Oct. 21 in which he assured that “investigations began yesterday so that this homicide does not go unpunished and that the guilty parties face justice and the full weight of the law comes down upon them.”

Likewise, in an Oct. 21 press conference, Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, deplored “the homicide, the murder of Father Marcelo Pérez Pérez in San Cristóbal de las Casas.”

“The investigation is underway. Yesterday, the secretary of the interior was in communication with both the state government and the diocese and the ecclesiastical authorities. We are coordinating to be able to make progress in the investigation and ensure that this crime does not go unpunished,” she said.

Sheinbaum added that as the investigation progresses, she will look into whether this case will be taken up by the federal attorney general’s office.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Rome Newsroom, Oct 23, 2024 / 06:19 am (CNA).

The Vatican announced Tuesday evening that Pope Francis had accepted the request of Indonesian Bishop Paskalis Bruno Syukur, OFM, not to be made a cardinal in a December consistory as had been previously announced.

The bishop’s request “was motivated by his desire to continue growing in priestly life and in service to the Church and the people of God,” a brief message from the Holy See Press Office said.

At the beginning of October, Pope Francis announced he would create 21 new cardinals, including Syukur, at a consistory to be held Dec. 7.

The 62-year-old Franciscan was consecrated bishop of Bogor, a diocese just south of Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta, in February 2014.

From 2001–2009, Syukur was the Franciscan provincial minister of Indonesia. In 2009, he became the general delegate for the Asia and Oceania region, which includes India, Pakistan, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia.

The bishop has also held leadership positions in the Indonesian bishops’ conference.

According to the liturgical schedule released by the Vatican’s master of ceremonies Oct. 12, the ceremony to create the new cardinals — 19 eligible to be cardinal-electors — will be held in the afternoon on Dec. 7 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The following day, on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, Francis and the entire College of Cardinals will celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving together in the Vatican Basilica.

With Syukur’s withdrawal, as of Dec. 7, the total number of eligible cardinal electors will be 140, 110 of whom were chosen by Pope Francis. This means the current pontiff has named 79% of the men who will one day elect his successor.