Catholic News Service has published briefs on these topics: Fight against corruption; Vietnamese gangs terrorize Catholic community; Bishops advocate for right to health care.
Humanity must unite in fight against corruption, Pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christians and non-Christians must join the fight against corruption, which tears apart the bonds that unite humanity, Pope Francis said. Corruption “reveals such strong anti-social conduct” that it “dissolves the pillars upon which society is founded: coexistence among people and the vocation to develop it,” the Pope wrote in the preface to a new book. “Corruption breaks all of this by replacing the common good with a particular interest that contaminates every general outlook,” he wrote. “It is born of a corrupt heart and is the worst social plague because it generates serious problems and crimes involving everyone.” The new book, “Corrosion,” was written by Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and Vittorio V. Alberti, an Italian philosopher. The book’s release coincided with the Vatican’s first “International Debate on Corruption.” The meeting, sponsored by the dicastery and the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, looked at corruption as a global problem and at its connections to organized crime and the Mafia.
Priests say Vietnam is letting gangs terrorize Catholics in northeast
HANOI, Vietnam (CNS) — Police have looked the other way as groups of youths have terrorized a Catholic community in northeast Vietnam. Ucanews.com reported that, throughout June, gangs of youths — wearing red T-shirts with yellow stars and waving national flags — have attacked Catholics and their property in Song Ngoc Parish in Quynh Luu District of Nghe An province. “We see that the attacks have been carried out in an orchestrated manner, and the police know well what is occurring, but are ignoring what is going on,” said 11 priests in a June 13 petition given to the Vietnamese government. The priests accused the government of “aiding and abetting those who intentionally violate laws, cause hatred and divide Catholics from others.” The attacks have occurred at night, and at least two Catholics have been seriously injured, sources told ucanews.com.
Bishops ‘committed to ensuring fundamental right’ to health care
INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) — As the country awaits the U.S. Senate’s plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in the coming weeks, the U.S. bishops made it clear June 15 during their annual spring assembly in Indianapolis that their efforts are focused on “ensuring the fundamental right of medical care” for all people. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also reinforced its stand that the American Health Care Act passed by the U.S. House May 4 needs major reform — to provide quality health care for the “voiceless,” especially children, the elderly, the poor, immigrants and the seriously ill. “We find ourselves in a time marked by a deep sense of urgency and gravity,” said Bishop George L. Thomas of Helena, Montana. “Within two weeks, we may see a federal budgetary action with potentially catastrophic effects on the lives of our people, most especially children and the elderly, the seriously ill, the immigrant and our nation’s working poor.” Referring to the House bill, known as AHCA, and its plan to “eliminate $880 billion from Medicaid over the next decade,” Bishop Thomas continued, “If left unchallenged or unmodified, this budget will destabilize our own Catholic health care apostolates, take food from the mouths of school-aged children and the homebound, and deny already scarce medical resources to the nation’s neediest in every state across the land.”