The Catholic bishops of Nicaragua said that the country is going to municipal elections next Sunday without solving the problems they had highlighted in their statement of September 26, 2012 .
The bishops appealed to the people to vote and become protagonists of their country.
“The demoralisation of a people leads to apathy, to let others decide. Let us never forget that we, the people of Nicaragua, have the last word and decide the future that the country has to assume.”
They said that the country urgently needs politicians that serve with mercy and, quoting Pope Francis, unmask the fact that politics is made only of predators.“We invite all not to be spectators of reality, this is also an invitation to political discernment, in order not to allow political predators to continue to dominate Nicaragua, and that the people themselves decide wisely, to recover what we lost in the country: the ability to exercise citizen rights,” the bishops said.
Pope rebukes Cardinal Sarah
In a very rare move, Pope Francis issued a striking rebuke to Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. He criticised Cardinal Sarah’s interpretation of the papal document giving episcopal conferences much more authority in translating liturgical texts. Sarah tried to limit this autonomy, emphasising that the texts still need the Vatican’s approval, implying that little had changed.
The Pope stressed that this is not the case, stating that the Vatican should not have “a spirit of imposition on the bishops’ conferences”. The Pope’s letter also contradicts Cardinal Sarah’s claim that the Vatican’s existing norms for liturgical translations remain in force.
Irish government prepares for abortion referendum
Pro-life politicians strongly criticised the vote taken by a parliamentary committee removing from the constitution of the pro-life Eighth Amendment which recognises the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn child.
This decision paves the way for the government to prepare a referendum question on an outright repeal or a partial repeal of the Eighth Amendment. The government has indicated that a referendum will be held in May or June next year.
At a conference entitled ‘Welcoming Children with Disability’, Bishop Kevin Doran criticised the move to introduce abortion in the case of a fatal foetal abnormality. He asked why if the inclusion of people with disability is a characteristic of a civilised society, discrimination against unborn people with disability, simply because of their disability, is acceptable.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)