Catholic Herald report- Cosmetic surgery “can be aggressive toward the feminine identity”, a Vatican discussion document has said.

The text, published by the Pontifical Council for Culture, also addresses violence against women, cultural pressures regarding women’s physical appearance, attitudes that subjugate women or that ignore male-female differences, and the growing alienation of women from the Church in some parts of the world.

The council has chosen to discuss the theme “Women’s Cultures: Equality and Difference” during its plenary assembly on February 4-7 at the Vatican. A news conference was scheduled for February 2, but the council issued its discussion document on the topic in late January.

The document, drafted by a group of women appointed by the council, looked at the continuing quest to find balance in promoting women’s equality while valuing the differences between women and men, the concrete and symbolic aspects of women’s potential for motherhood, cultural attitudes toward women’s bodies, and women and religion, including questions about their participation in Church decision-making.

The council said the theme was chosen “to identify possible pastoral paths, which will allow Christian communities to listen and dialogue with the world today in this sphere”, while recognising that in different cultures and for individual women the situation will be different.

While cautioning against generalisations, the document rejects the notion that there are no differences between men and women, and that each person “chooses and builds his-her identity; owns him-herself and answers primarily to him-herself”.

In preparing the document and the plenary discussions, the council sought input from women around the world. But the process attracted criticism, particularly for the English version of a video featuring an Italian actress, Nanci Brilli, asking women to send in their experiences. Many women felt the use of a heavily made-up actress ran counter to the point of seeking input about the real lives of most women. The council quickly took the English version off YouTube.

In the section on women and the Church, the document described “multifaceted discomfort” with images of women that are no longer relevant and with a Christian community that seems to value their input even less than the world of business and commerce does.

Many women, it said, “have reached places of prestige within society and the workplace, but have no corresponding decisional role nor responsibility within ecclesial communities”.

Council members are not proposing a discussion of ordaining women priests, the document said and, in fact, statistics show ordination “is not something that women want”. But it said: “If, as Pope Francis says, women have a central role in Christianity, this role must find a counterpart also in the ordinary life of the Church.”

The vast majority of Catholic women today do not want a bishop’s “purple biretta”, it said, but would like to see church doors open “to women so that they can offer their contribution in terms of skills and also sensitivity, intuition, passion, dedication, in full collaboration and integration” with men in the Church.

The preparatory document looked at how much pressure women face regarding their body image and the way women’s bodies are exploited in the media, even to the point of provoking eating disorders or recourse to unnecessary surgery.

“Plastic surgery that is not medico-therapeutic can be aggressive toward the feminine identity, showing a refusal of the body in as much as it is a refusal of the ‘season’ that is being lived out,” it said.

“‘Plastic surgery is like a burka made of flesh.’ One woman gave us this harsh and incisive description,” the document said. “Having been given freedom of choice for all, are we not under a new cultural yoke of a singular feminine model?”

The document also denounced violence inflicted on women: “Selective abortion, infanticide, genital mutilation, crimes of honour, forced marriages, trafficking of women, sexual molestation, rape – which in some parts of the world are inflicted on a massive level and along ethnic lines – are some of the deepest injuries inflicted daily on the soul of the world, on the bodies of women and of girls, who become silent and invisible victims.”

Source: Catholic Herald

Christian Today report- Efforts by Japan and Jordan to secure the release of two of their nationals held captive by Islamic State militants remain “deadlocked” and the situation remains highly unpredictable, Japanese officials said.

Militants had threatened to kill Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh unless a would-be suicide bomber being held on death row in Amman was handed over by sunset on Thursday.

Japanese journalist Kenji Goto was also being held by the militants.

“The situation is deadlocked,” Japan’s deputy foreign minister, Yasuhide Nakayama, said in Jordon late on Friday according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said in Tokyo on Saturday that the situation was unpredictable and that anything could happen, NHK reported.

“Anything could happen,” he said. “We can’t predict it at all. While preparing for every situation, I want to make every effort for Mr Goto’s release.”

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga arrived at the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s office on Saturday afternoon, and the prime minister is on standby to receive regular updates on the situation, NHK said.

Jordan’s army said on Friday state agencies were “working round the clock”.

An audio message purportedly from Goto said the pilot would be killed if Jordan did not free Sajida al-Rishawi, jailed for her role in a 2005 suicide bomb attack that killed 60 people in Amman.

The message extended a previous deadline set on Tuesday in which Goto said he would be killed within 24 hours if al-Rishawi was not freed.

The hostage crisis comes as Islamic State, which has already released videos showing the beheadings of five Western hostages, is coming under increased military pressure from US-led air strikes and by Kurdish and Iraqi troops pushing to reverse the Islamist group’s territorial gains in Iraq and Syria.

Abe has repeatedly said Japan would not give in to terrorism and would keep cooperating with the international community.

The hostage crisis erupted after Abe announced in Cairo $200 million in non-military aid for countries opposing Islamic State, but his government has rejected suggestions it acted rashly and stressed the assistance was humanitarian.

Goto went to Syria in late October. According to friends and business associates, he was attempting to secure the release of Haruna Yukawa, his friend and fellow Japanese citizen who was captured by Islamic State in August.

In the first video purportedly of Goto, released just over a week ago, a black-clad masked figure with a knife said Goto and Yukawa would be killed within 72 hours if Japandid not pay Islamic State $200 million.

A video last Saturday appeared to show Goto with a picture of a decapitated Yukawa, saying his captors’ demands had switched to the release of al-Rishawi. Tuesday’s video featured an audio track over a still picture that appeared to show Goto holding a picture of Kasaesbeh.

Source: Christian Today

Christian Today report- Plunged into chaos just hours after entering this world, nine babies found alive after a gas blast in a Mexican maternity hospital underwent DNA tests on Friday in a bid to reunite them with their parents.

Thursday’s blast devastated the hospital on the western edge of Mexico City, sending a fireball into the air and killing a nurse and two infants. But dozens of people, including mothers and newborns, who were inside at the time survived, many cut by broken glass.

“We have nine DNA tests pending,” Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said. “There are parents who have identified their children, but as the babies did not have bracelets on, we have to follow a protocol to identify them.”

Mancera said several babies survived because their mothers sheltered them with their own bodies during the blast.

Several babies were found under the rubble. Scores of rescue workers dug through the concrete and twisted metal for survivors.

People seeking information on family members gathered around police lines that were set up to keep bystanders away from the chaotic scene earlier in the day. Some of the injured were evacuated by helicopter, and aerial footage showed firefighters scrambling over the skeletal wreckage of the building.

Ambulances were at the scene to treat survivors. Around 100 people were in the hospital at the time of the explosion, according to a city official.

A leak in a hose from the truck, which was fueling the hospital’s tanks, was believed to have triggered the explosion, officials said.

“They tried to stop the leak, but it was not possible,” Mancera said.

Many areas of Mexico City have no mains gas supply, and rely on deliveries from gas trucks. Mancera said the gas truck company involved had been working in Mexico City since 2007.

President Enrique Pena Nieto gave his condolences on Twitter, while Pope Francis urged his Twitter followers to pray for the victims and their families.

Source: Christian Today

Christian Post report- Close to 300 Muslim students armed with iron bars and sticks attacked a Christian boys’ school in northern Pakistan, reportedly in retaliation to French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo’s controversial drawings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. The attack left four Christians injured.

“It is very sad that Islamic radicals attack Pakistani Christians because of Charlie Hebdo. Christians condemn the blasphemous cartoons. It is a shame that even after 67 years since the birth of Pakistan, Christians have not yet been considered Pakistani citizens, but are seen as ‘Western allies,'” Nasir Saeed, director of the NGO Center for Legal Aid Assistance & Settlement, told Fides News Agency.

The attack occurred on Panel High School in the city of Bannu, in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Muslim students apparently were able to jump over the outer walls of the school and open the gates before attacking the Christians.

The school has been closed down at least for two days, with additional security measures being considered to protect the students.

Last weekend, Muslim mobs burned down a number of churches and pastors’ homes in Niger, also in protest of Charlie Hebdo’s drawings. At least 10 people were killed in the clashes, with pastors in the capital Niamey revealing that almost anyone associated with churches was targeted.

Marches have also been held in Pakistan, where Muslims insisted that freedom of speech does not give the right to disrespect religion.

The protests concern the Muhammad drawings published by Charlie Hebdo throughout the years, which are considered offensive to many Muslims around the world. The satirical magazine experienced a terrorist attack organized by al-Qaeda earlier in January, when 12 people were shot dead in its offices in Paris. The two gunmen who carried out the attack, and were later killed, said that they were “avenging” Muhammad.

Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons have often targeted Christians as well, as Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill pointed out on Sunday.

“The cartoons of prophet Muhammad are childish caricatures compared to what this publication allows itself in mocking the feelings of Christians,” Kirill said in a sermon.

“Today, in saying ‘no’ to terrorism, killings, violence, we also say ‘no’ to the inexplicable drive by a certain group of people to deride religious feelings.”

Several other Christian leaders, including Pope Francis, have said that it is wrong to ridicule religion in such a way, while also speaking out against terrorism.

“You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others,” Francis told reporters after the attack.

The minority Christian community in Pakistan has been targeted both by the ruling government’s blasphemy laws that often focus on religious minorities, but also by radical mobs that seek to take justice into their own hands.

Saeed said that Christians in such communities are often targeted for actions in Western countries.

“Whenever incidents occur in western countries, the faithful Pakistanis are attacked. Christians, who are already living under constant fear for their lives, become even more vulnerable,” the CLAAS director said. “It is the politicians’ duty to create a cultural environment and a society in which Christians and religious minorities feel safe.”

Source: Christian Post