21ST NOVEMBER | PRAYING FOR DECEASED MOTHERS
The feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Last year, on 26 November, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, spoke the following words at the celebration of the Angelus in St Peter’s Square;
Yesterday tormented Ukraine commemorated the Holodomor, the genocide perpetrated by the Soviet regime which, 90 years ago, caused millions of people to starve to death. That lacerating wound, instead of healing, is made even more painful by the atrocities of the war that continues to make that dear nation suffer. For all peoples torn apart by conflicts, let us continue to pray tirelessly, because prayer is the force of peace that stops the spiral of hatred, that breaks the cycle of revenge and opens up unexpected paths of
reconciliation.
Ukraine has been the focus of world attention since February 2022, when it was brutally attacked by Russia in an unprovoked escalation of its invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory which began in February 2014. The message of the Pope in the context of the continuing war in Ukraine holds true today as the Holodomor is once again commemorated on the fourth Saturday in November. Please remember in your prayers the souls of the men and women, the young and the elderly, who lost their lives in this purposed famine of 1930s under the Soviet regime.
Also continue to pray for our sisters and brothers who in these last few years have fled harm’s way from war in Ukraine and have found a safe haven in the United Kingdom and in other nations. Let us pray that the trauma being inflicted in our days may cease, and that the wounds of the past may heal but never be forgotten.
May Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede for us with her Son for a lasting peace.

Historical note
The Ukrainian Famine or Holodomor (death by starvation) was one of the most tragic events in early 20th century history. This man-made famine inflicted by the Soviet regime under the dictator Josyf Stalin saw many millions of people intentionally starved to death between 1932 and 1933. Stalin’s plan of forced collectivisation was to be implemented whatever the cost. Even though harvests were bountiful, Ukrainian farmers were not allowed to keep even one head of wheat, all was confiscated! Although the Soviet information machine tried to hide its criminal actions, gradually reports began to find their way into newsrooms in the west. The world community largely chose to ignore these reports, refusing to believe that in modern times such an atrocity could be committed against a people. It was unthinkable that Ukraine, considered the breadbasket of Europe, would see millions of Ukrainian peasant farmers starve to death, just as it would be unfathomable that in less than a decade another genocide would strike at the heart of Europe. We can only imagine the despair of the dying masses: as scripture says “God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me.” (Job 30:19-21).

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-11/pope-interreligius-dialogue-colloquium-dicastery-iran-peace.html


Pope Francis addresses participants in a Joint Colloquium between the Dicastery for Interreligious dialogue and the Iranian “Centre for Interreligious ...

Abortion law review group is a sham says Bishop Keenan
The group set up to recommend changes to abortion laws principally consists of pro-decriminalisation campaigners
Recently, I’ve hoped that the trust Scots had in our parliament could recover from the doldrums in which it languishes. Last year’s Scottish Social Attitudes Survey found trust in the Scottish government at its lowest level since devolution, with less than half of us trusting it to act in our best interests. But discovering the identity of the members chosen by the government for its supposedly independent abortion law review expert working group, tasked with recommending possible changes to abortion laws, has dealt my hopes a blow.
Of 13 members, six are abortion providers or practitioners and 10 have already expressed a view in favour or represent organisations that support decriminalisation of abortion. None represent a pro-life constituency or organisation. In terms of membership alone, the “expert group” lacks both credibility and legitimacy.
Its terms of reference expect members to be “respectful of all views and opinions expressed within the group” and yet, before a ball is kicked, as it were, it has censored any contradictory views and opinions, of which there are many, questioning the current liberality of our abortion laws.
Right off the bat, the expert group has established a “non-regression principle”, ensuring that their discussions and advice to the government will countenance no reduction in time limits or grounds for abortion, no matter what evidence is presented. The norm in Europe is a 12-week limit and Britain’s 24 weeks is now beyond the stage of viability. Increasingly, babies born before 24 weeks will survive.
Solid medical consensus holds that a unique human life begins at conception and a decent constituency of Scottish citizens concurs with the Catholic Church that this human life merits some social respect and legal protection at some point in the womb. Many Scots raise an eyebrow at the description of abortion as healthcare, when that abortion sadly ends another human life with all its potential.
These reasonable positions merit a hearing in any expert group which the government has set up and on which it intends to depend. Yet the government has ensured that the group’s report will commend decriminalisation, effectively allowing the right to abortion for any reason up until birth. The set-up of this expert group will no doubt upset pro-lifers who already see it as a sham, but it will do more than that. It will be another nail in the coffin of the trust Scottish citizens once placed in government to treat them fairly, and of its claim to act with integrity.


Bishop John Keenan of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paisley has condemned a “supposedly independent abortion law review” into Scotland’s abortion law for excluding all pro-life representation.

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