Catholic News Service has published briefs on the following topics: Fighting in the Congo; Mass for solidarity with immigrants; Challenging California’s assisted suicide law; Educating refugees, and Supreme Court ruling on death row case.
Church reports more than 3,300 killed in Congo fighting since October
ARU, Congo (CNS) — More than 3,300 people have been killed in Congo’s Kasai region in fighting between the army and rebels since October, Catholic leaders said. The church’s findings were released in a United Nations statement June 20. Church sources also said that 20 villages had been destroyed, half of them by government troops. In all, 3,383 people died in clashes in the region. The number contrasts with U.N. reports that have put the number of dead at about 400. The U.N. has also said more than 20 mass graves have been discovered. The army’s spokesperson could not be reached for comment. The office of the papal nuncio in Kinshasa sent a note to the Vatican’s Fides news agency saying that Bishop Felicien Mwanama Galumbulula of Luiza and Bishop Pierre-Celestin Tshitoko Mamba of Luebo were forced to flee the violence. The message said 60 parishes, 34 religious houses and 141 schools were closed or damaged because of the fighting, and 31 Catholic health facilities were also affected. Five seminaries also were forced to close. The violence was triggered by the death of a local leader at the hands of police in Kasai in August. Supporters of the leader soon began attacking soldiers and police in the region.
Archbishop Gomez celebrates special Mass in solidarity with immigrants
LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said in his homily at June 18 Mass that “the promise of America is that this land will be a home for all peoples.” That promise is for all “no matter what the color of their skin, or what nation they came from, or what language they speak, or what religion they believe,” he said during a special Mass he celebrated in solidarity with all immigrants. Thousands joined the archbishop for the Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. It was the culmination of a novena — nine days of prayer and reflection — at parishes throughout the three counties that make up the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and a three-day, 50-mile walk by pilgrims from Orange County to the cathedral for all those impacted by the nation’s broken immigration system. “Let us pray for our country today,” Archbishop Gomez said in his homily. “May we know peace and security and freedom in our borders, and may our children be blessed. Let us pray for our leaders in Washington and all those who serve our country in government and law enforcement. Let us dedicate ourselves — all of us — to the beautiful promise of America!”
Judge OKs court challenge to California’s assisted suicide law
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) — A Superior Court judge ruled June 16 that a civil rights lawsuit challenging California’s assisted suicide law will go forward. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Ottolia denied California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, which had asked the judge to decide the case against the plaintiffs without a trial. Five California physicians and the American Academy of Medical Ethics brought the legal challenge last year. The judge scheduled a conference for Oct. 20 to determine when the case will be ready for trial. The ruling is “a really big deal,” said attorney Alexandra Snyder, executive director of Life Legal Defense Foundation, which represents the plaintiffs. “The End of Life Option Act is a dangerous law that exposes vulnerable individuals to direct and indirect pressure to commit suicide.” By treating terminally ill patients with six months or less to live differently from other patients, the 2015 End of Life Option Act violates the patients’ due process and equal protection rights under the California Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, the plaintiffs argue. The law authorizes doctors to prescribe lethal prescriptions to any patient determined by two doctors to have six months or less to live.
Jesuit program goes to ‘the margins’ to bring education to refugees
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Jesuit Worldwide Learning: Education at the Margins offers a mixture of online and in-person educational opportunities in service of people who have been displaced because of political turmoil, violence and other crises throughout the world. Officially formed in 2010, the initiative originated from an effort seeking international cooperation in the Jesuit education community as early as 2006, as Jesuit Father Charles Currie explained. “The project initially was called Jesuit Commons, stressing that it wasn’t an attempt to have kind of a form of educational colonialism, but we’re all in this together, caring, learning together,” Father Currie told Catholic News Service. Involved with Jesuit Worldwide Learning from the beginning, Father Currie emphasized the Jesuits’ long-standing tradition of education. Since St. Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus in 1540, Jesuit education has been grounded in the effort to transcend international borders. “There’s no doubt that Jesuits from the very beginning were international,” Father Currie said. “The world is our home.”
High court: State erred in denying poor defendant independent evaluation
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, said the state of Alabama erred in denying an indigent defendant now on death row a separate psychiatric evaluation that would assist in his own defense. The ruling, issued June 19, overturned the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in 2015 in the case of James McWilliams, and returned it to that court for further review. In 1985, McWilliams was arrested and charged with the 1984 rape and capital murder of a store clerk in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A month before his arrest, the high court determined in a ruling in Ake v. Oklahoma that the state was required to provide the defense with sufficient qualified personnel to conduct a separate psychological examination of an indigent defendant. McWilliams was found guilty in 1986. For his sentencing hearing, he underwent psychological testing as requested by his defense attorneys, but the doctor’s report did not arrive in time to be reviewed before a death sentence was handed down. In its ruling in McWilliams v. Dunn, the Supreme Court said the petitioner “did not receive that assistance” as outlined in the Ake ruling, thereby “denying his lawyer the opportunity to translate these data into a legal strategy,” said Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority.