An American diocese has said it is investigating the incident of a pro-life priest who placed the body of an aborted baby on an altar and broadcast it on Facebook Live to get people to vote for Donald Trump, causing what the diocese called “the desecration of the altar”.
Bishop Patrick Zurek of Amarillo said: “We believe that no one who is pro-life can exploit a human body for any reason, especially the body of a foetus.” Its use for political purposes was “against the dignity of human life,” he added.
Pro-life supporters in the Church denounced activist Fr Frank Pavone for what he said was an “emergency situation” on the eve of the US presidential election.
“What did he do?” wrote Ed Mechmann, a public policy director whose areas of concern include pro-life issues, in a blog for the Archdiocese of New York. “He used a dead aborted baby, laying naked and bloody on an altar, as a prop for his video.”
But Fr Pavone said he was trying to drive home, in a powerful way, what it meant to choose one presidential candidate over the other. Fr Pavone, appealing for votes for Mr Trump, said he was showing “the Democrats’ support of baby-killing”.
“I’m showing the reality,” he said in an interview on election day with Catholic News Service. Fr Pavone is a member of Trump’s Catholic advisory group.
Bishop Zurek said the diocese “deeply regrets the offence and outrage caused by the video for the faithful and the community at large. The action and presentation of Fr Pavone in this video is not consistent with the beliefs of the Catholic Church.”
Fr Pavone said that everyone should be repulsed by the act of abortion and that was what he was trying to show.
He said he was alone in a chapel with the body, which he said was given to him by a pathologist who had received it from an abortion clinic.
“This person had enough of a conscience to say, ‘I’m not going to throw it away’ and gave the body to a pastor, and the pastor, knowing my role, contacted me and we both arranged to honour the child with a viewing,” he said.
By Election Day, the video had been viewed 707,000 times. Father Pavone said he has apologised to those who were offended and has posted an apology but has not taken down the video.
Patheos blogger Scott Eric Alt pointed out that the Code of Canon Law spells out that the altar “must be reserved for divine worship alone”.
Euthanasia kills triple the number expected in Quebec
A report from the Quebec government revealed 262 euthanasia deaths in the first seven months after the province legalised the practice last December.
Quebec health minister Gaetan Barrette told journalists he was surprised at the figure, which is about three times higher than anticipated. He said the number of euthanasia deaths in the province could reach 300 by the end of the year, but the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition believes the figure will be closer to 450.
Coalition director Alex Schadenberg told the newspaper Canadian Catholic News that even in Quebec, where the requirements for reporting and oversight are the most rigorous, euthanasia deaths are probably being underreported.
He also expressed frustration at a lack of transparency in other provinces, making it impossible to compile accurate statistics on assisted suicide and euthanasia, leaving no way of identifying instances of abuse.
“A system was promised, but we don’t know what it is,” Mr Schadenberg said.
Quebec’s law resembles those of Belgium and the Netherlands, in which doctors self-report instances of euthanasia.
Pope asks homeless for pardon
Speaking to thousands of homeless people, Pope Francis asked their forgiveness for failures to recognise their dignity and alleviate their suffering.
“I ask your forgiveness if I have ever offended you with my words or for not having said something that I should have,” the Pope said during a Year of Mercy last Friday. He added: “I ask your forgiveness for all the times that we Christians stand before a poor person or a situation of poverty and look the other way.”
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