Donald Trump faced a backlash for saying during an interview with the broadcaster MSNBC that “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who have had abortions.
The Republican front-runner issued a statement hours later clarifying that he meant to say doctors performing the abortion would be punished instead – and that he was speaking hypothetically, on the assumption that abortion had been made illegal. His comments provoked uproar.
What the media are saying
The Economist observed: “With his poorly thought-out comments on abortion Trump managed a rare feat: he united both sides of the polarised debate.” Trump angered pro-life supporters by seeking to punish those having abortions rather than those performing them. Pro-lifers also feared Trump was “hurting their cause with his poor understanding of a complex ethical issue”.
Ralph Hallow of The Washington Post reported that Trump’s statements led the National Right to Life Committee to endorse Ted Cruz for the Republican candidacy nomination. Pro-life groups are expected to “spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in independent expenditures for direct mail, phone banking, radio ads and email” promoting Mr Cruz in the 18 states that have not yet voted.
What Catholics are saying
“Trump’s very new to being pro-life and he seems uncurious about all of it,” said blogger Matthew Archbold of the National Catholic Register. Archbold suggested that Trump, admired for his “shoot from the hip” answers, managed to “shoot from the hip into his own foot. And the pro-life movement was injured in the melée as well.” A spokesman for the US bishops’ conference was forced to clarify that punishing women who had abortions had never been the Church’s policy.Trump’s remarks will add weight to the case made by Catholic academics George Weigel and Robert George, who warned in an article in the National Review: “Mr Trump’s record and his campaign show us no promise of greatness; they promise only the further degradation of our politics and our culture.”
The most overlooked story of the week
✣Reports about priest’s crucifixion ‘are baseless’
What happened?
Reports that a Salesian priest was crucified by ISIS on Good Friday have been described as “baseless” by government and Church sources. Fr Tom Uzhunnallil was kidnapped by ISIS in an attack by Islamists on a Missionaries of Charity home for the aged in Aden, Yemen, that left four nuns and 12 others dead.
Why was it under-reported?
Rumours circulated in India that the kidnappers had threatened to crucify Fr Uzhunnallil on the day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus. In his Easter homily, Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna said that ISIS had followed through on the threat. The media across the world then stated as fact that Fr Uzhunnallil had been crucified. Many news outlets later clarified that the priest was reportedly still alive. But these reports, lacking an alarming headline, were not read so widely.
What will happen next?
According to Sushma Swaraj, the Indian foreign minister, “the government is adopting all possible means for the quick and safe release of Fr Tom”. She said the details of the negotiations could not be divulged.
However, an unnamed official told the Indo-Asian News Service: “The Vatican, the FBI, the Catholic Church’s working groups in Jordan and Abu Dhabi, besides Indian Embassy officials in Djibouti along with Indians based in Yemen, are all working hard to see that the priest is rescued.”
✣The Week Ahead
Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation following the synod on the family, Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”), is to be published today. Speaking to reporters flying with him from Mexico to Rome in late February, Pope Francis said the document “will summarise all that the synod said”, reflecting on broken families and how to better integrate them into parish life.
Professor Mary McAleese, former president of Ireland (pictured) and visiting professor at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, will give a talk on Monday at the university about the history of the Anglo-Irish relationship.
The bishops of England and Wales will gather at Hinsley Hall in Leeds from Monday to Wednesday for the spring plenary assembly of the bishops’ conference. It is thought they will be discussing the apostolic exhortation, released three days earlier, and that they may consider a statement on the European Union referendum on June 23.
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