Ervina and Prefina with their mother at the Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital Pope baptises conjoined twins separated by Vatican’s Bambino Gesu Hospital
Two conjoined twins successfully separated in June by surgeons at the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospitalhave recently been baptised by Pope Francis.
The Baptism of babies Ervina and Prefina at the Pope’s residence of Casa Santa Marta, was announced by Central African Republic politician, Antoinette Montaigne.
The mother of the twins, Hermine Nzotto, expressed her gratitude to the Holy Father in a letter in which she recounts her life as a “peasant girl of the forest”, born in a village 100 km from Bangui, Central African Republic, where on June 29, 2018 (the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul), her twins were born with fused skulls.
In Bangui in 2015, Francis launched his Jubilee Year of Mercy opening the Holy Door of the cathedral.
“That my daughters have been baptised by His Holiness,” she said in her letter, “confirms to me that God is truly close to the end.”
PAV: Choosing abortion being confined ever more to private sphere
New guidelines for chemically-induced abortion published by Italy’s Ministry of Health last week “will certainly not” change people’s minds “on what remains one of the most painfully lacerating questions in bioethics”, says the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), in a note released on Friday.
Previous guidelines restricted the use of abortion-inducing drugs up to the seventh week of pregnancy, and required women to be cared for in a hospital when taking the drug. The new guidelines allow the use of the so-called “abortion pill” up to the ninth week of pregnancy, and no longer require a hospital stay.
“The step being taken,” the Pontifical Academy of Life emphasises, “beyond the obviously fundamental evaluation of efficaciousness and the safety of the woman, seems to go in the direction of an ever stronger confinement to the private sphere of an act of such huge emotional, social and moral relevance.”
The PAV insists that the search for a model in society by which “new life and its conception, as well as families, are accompanied and sustained” must not be renounced. Such accompaniment and support “are the litmus test of an attentive and sensitive society that knows how to wisely and far-sightedly build its own future”.
Francis asks Mary ‘Mother of Hope’ to intercede for Nigeria’s persecuted Christians
Pope Francis prayed Saturday for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “Mother of Hope”, for Nigeria’s persecuted Christians and for peace in conflicts in Africa.
“Today I would like to pray in particular for the population of the northern region of Nigeria, victims of violence and terrorist attacks,” Pope Francis said in his Angelus address on August 15.
“The Virgin Mary, whom we contemplate today in heavenly glory, is the ‘Mother of Hope’,” he said. “Let us invoke her intercession for all the situations in the world that are most in need of hope: hope for peace, for justice, hope for a dignified life.”
More than 600 Christians in Nigeria have been killed in 2020 so far, according to a report on May 15 by the Nigerian human rights organization, International Society for Civil Liberties, and the Rule of Law (Intersociety). The same report found that up to 12,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since June 2015.
Christians in Nigeria have been beheaded and set on fire, farms set ablaze, and priests and seminarians have been targeted for kidnapping and ransom.