Melinda Gates has said that she is “optimistic” the Church will change its teaching on contraception.
Mrs Gates, who was raised Catholic, said she had “agreed to disagree” with the Church on the issue, claiming that contraception was “one of the greatest anti-poverty innovations the world has ever known.”
In a BBC interview, Gates said her charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, worked “very extensively with the Catholic Church” and has had “many discussions with them, because we have a shared mission around social justice and anti-poverty”.
She added that Pope Francis had not changed Church teaching “yet”, but “these things take time”. She said she was “optimistic” the Church would change its teaching “over time”.
The Gates foundation last week co-hosted a summit in London on the issue of access to contraception in the developing world. Reuters says it expected to raise at least $2.5 billion.
At the same time Priti Patel, Britain’s secretary of state for international development, said the Government would increase aid for family planning and abortion by 25 per cent, spending £225 million over the next five years.
Anne Scanlan, director of education at charity Life, said the move was “absolutely shocking”. She cited a ComRes poll showing that 65 per cent of Britons oppose taxpayer-funded abortions overseas.
Obianuju Ekeocha, founder of Culture of Life Africa, told the Catholic News Service that wealthy nations were “spitting in the face” of African democracy by promoting abortion against the will of the people in Africa. She said Western governments were acting like “old colonial masters”.
Northern Iraq needs our help right now, says bishop
Bishop Declan Lang has urged Catholics to support displaced Christians in Kurdistan, saying that despite the defeat of ISIS in Mosul there is still a major humanitarian crisis in the region.
ISIS seized the Iraqi city in 2014, but since October a US-led coalition has been engaged in a major offensive and last week Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared victory. Mosul had been ISIS’s most important urban stronghold in Iraq.
But Bishop Lang said that the international community must not “turn away” from the crisis. He said that “Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven from their homes”, many of them “suffering physical or mental trauma”.
There are an estimated one million internally displaced people in Kurdistan, as well as more than 200,000 Syrian refugees. The Diocese of Erbil is providing support and helping people find education and employment.
Bishop Lang, who chairs the bishops’ conference department of international affairs, recommended that Catholics donate to aid agencies in the area.
Jesuit’s map sells for £155,000
A map of the world by famed Jesuit missionary Fr Matteo Ricci has been sold at auction in London for £155,000.
The map, in two panels, was made by Fr Ricci for the Chinese imperial court in the early 17th century. It is among six known manuscript copies.
Fr Ricci established the first permanent mission in China in 1582.
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