Obama Disappoints With Mexico City Reversal

WASHINGTON, D.C., JAN. 26, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Justin Rigali called President Barack Obama's decision on day three of his presidency to reverse the Mexico City Policy to be "very disappointing."Obama issued an executive order Friday to lift an 8-year ban on U.S. funding of organizations that perform and promote abortion in developing nations.

The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities said in a statement that "an administration that wants to reduce abortions should not divert U.S. funds to groups that promote abortions."Obama repeatedly insisted during the presidential campaign that he wasn't for abortion, but rather for reducing the number of abortions without making the procedure illegal.

Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. episcopal conference, wrote to Obama before last week's inauguration urging him to retain this policy: "'The Mexico City Policy, first established in 1984, has wrongly been attacked as a restriction on foreign aid for family planning.

In fact, it has not reduced such aid at all, but has ensured that family planning funds are not diverted to organizations dedicated to performing and promoting abortions instead of reducing them.""Once the clear line between family planning and abortion is erased," the cardinal added, "the idea of using family planning to reduce abortions becomes meaningless, and abortion tends to replace contraception as the means for reducing family size.

""The worst"Criticism from the Vatican came Saturday when Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, that "among the many good things that he could have done, Barack Obama instead has chosen the worst.""If this is one of the first acts of President Obama, with all due respect, it seems to me that the path toward disappointment has been very short," the archbishop added.

Archbishop Elio Sgreccia, the retired president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told the Italian news agency ANSA that the president's move "deals a harsh blow not only to us Catholics, but to all the people across the world that fight against the slaughter of innocents that is carried out with abortion.

"Obama received some praise from the Church for signing an executive order Thursday to ban torture.Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the U.S. episcopal conference said the bishops welcomed the order, and that the ban "says much about us -- who we are, what we believe about human life and dignity, and how we act as a nation."

"La Mujer de Bronce" performed in the World Meeting of Families

The 15th of January "La Mujer de Bronce" performed to close to four thousand people at the World Meeting of Families.

Here we share with you some pictures of the event

Holy See: Aborting the Disabled No Cure for Prejudice

ROME, DEC. 4, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The U.N. International Day of Persons With Disabilities focused attention on a convention that aims to stop prejudice against the handicapped, but the agreement is fundamentally flawed, attests the Holy See.

The U.N. day, celebrated Wednesday, had the theme: "Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities: Dignity and Justice for All of Us."The convention has been signed by 136 member states, but the Holy See is not one of them and will not be if the wording is not changed. This is because in various propositions, the convention leaves the door open to aborting the handicapped because of their disabilities.

Though the Holy See contributed to the preparation of the text, its request to include an explicit rejection of the aborting of the disabled was not accepted.

Franco Previte, the president of the Italian association Christians for Service, applaudes the Holy See's refusal to sign the convention.

"The methods of reproductive health, mentioned in articles 23b and 25a of the convention, can give room for selective abortion, promoting abortive birth control, the limitations of births and sterilizations -- means that offend human dignity," he told ZENIT.

"If practices such as abortion, sterilization and euthanasia are not explicitly rejected," Previte added, "there is the possibility that those who are disabled, especially psychologically disabled persons, would be sterilized or euthanized to halt the diffusion of genetic disabilities."

"Thus," he said, "we find ourselves before the denial of the right to life, a fundamental right for humanity."