What happened?
Two pro-life activists have been charged by Californian prosecutors for secretly recording abortion providers. David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, from the Center for Medical Progress, released undercover videos in 2015, in which Planned Parenthood executives discussed the distribution of baby body parts. Daleiden and Merritt will be charged with privacy offences. Attorney general Xavier Becerra said California “will not tolerate the criminal recording of conversations”.
What did the media say?
At nationalreview.com, Ian Tuttle described the prosecution as a “transparently partisan abuse of the state’s prosecutorial power”. The videos uncovered terrible “brutality”: one former abortionist recalled being presented with “the closest thing to a baby I’ve seen”, its heart still beating. She was told to “cut down the middle of the face” to harvest the child’s brain. This kind of crime, said Tuttle, was of no interest to California’s prosecutors.
At slate.com, Mark Joseph Stern said the “uproar” had the wrong target. California’s law had strong privacy protections: the prosecutors were just doing their job. But the pro-abortion LA Times said the pro-lifers’ intention of “revealing wrongdoing and changing public policy” was legitimate. State prosecution was a “disturbing overreach”, the paper argued.
What did Catholic say?
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, a columnist for The Week, said the prosecution set a “disastrous” precedent for free speech. “Undercover journalism is in the best journalistic tradition,” Gobry wrote, and it should be welcomed, not closed down. “As a Roman Catholic, if tomorrow an undercover video shows a bishop covering up corruption, I will be clapping with both hands and sharing it as wide as I can. Because as a Catholic, I believe in my Church’s mission and want it to be accountable so it can perform that mission better.”
Tom Brejcha of the Thomas More Society, a law firm which supports
religious liberty, said that the pro-lifers’ work “is clothed with the same Constitutional protection that all investigative journalists deserve and must enjoy”.
The most overlooked story of the week
✣ Congolese bishops pull out of peace talks
What happened?
The Catholic bishops of the Democratic Republic of Congo have withdrawn from their role as mediators of the country’s peace talks. They had hoped the country’s politicians would agree a peace deal, but according to Archbishop Marcel Utembi Tapa, the bishops’ conference president, there was “a lack of sincere political will”.
Why was it under-reported?
Western media, accustomed to bishops being fairly marginal political figures, may underestimate the vital role of the Congolese bishops in the country’s talks. They have been crucial to bringing both sides – President Joseph Kabila, whose family has ruled since 1997, and the opposition – to the table. That makes the bishops’ withdrawal a watershed moment: they clearly believe the negotiations are now hopeless. Archbishop Tapa said the bishops wanted to bring the inertia and “lack of political goodwill” to international attention.
What will happen next?
According to Archbishop Tapa, “It will now be up to President Kabila to find quick ways to implement agreement on a national unity government that can lead the country to presidential and parliamentary elections.”
But there will be disputes ahead: the opposition wants Kabila to agree to step aside now that his second term has finished, and he has been reluctant to agree to this. The recent death of Étienne Tshisekedi, who would have led a National Transition Council, also makes it hard to see a way forward.
✣The week ahead
On Holy Thursday priests wash the feet of members of the congregation. Cardinal Luis Tagle of the Philippines will wash those of former drug addicts, as well as policemen, government officials and people bereaved by extrajudicial killings. The Philippines has been subject to a violent crackdown on drugs by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The following day, Good Friday, the Pope will lead the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum. The reflections have been written by scholar Anne-Marie Pellettier (right), a French theologian who was the first woman to be awarded the Ratzinger Prize.
This Sunday is Palm Sunday and World Youth Day. The Pope’s annual message looks forward to next year’s synod, which will discuss “how you, as young people, are experiencing the life of faith amid the challenges of our time” and “how you can develop a life project by discerning your personal vocation”. This year World Youth Day is celebrated at a diocesan level.
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