Worker shares how OM’s storytelling course revitalised her English classes and friendships.

Four Nigerian marine engineering students studying in Cebu, Philippines, receive practical training and spiritual encouragement through a Logos Hope engineer.

CNA Staff, May 4, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has ordered 15 psychiatric hospitals in Belgium which belong to the Brothers of Charity to cease identifying as Catholic institutions after they allowed the euthanization of patients in 2017.

The hospitals are managed by a civil non-profit corporation with the same name as the Brothers of Charity religious congregation which owns them.

The CDF decision was communicated in a letter dated March 30, stating that "with deep sadness" the "psychiatric hospitals managed by the Provincialate of the Brothers of Charity association in Belgium will no longer be able to consider themselves Catholic institutions."

In a statement responding to the CDF's decision, the superior general of the Brothers of Charity, Br. René Stockman, said that "with a heavy heart" the religious congregation "must let go of its psychiatric centers in Belgium."

Br. Stockman pointed out that it is "painful" that the psychiatric centers of the Brothers of Charity in Belgium have lost their Catholic status, considering also that the brothers "were among the pioneers in the field of mental health care in Belgium."

At the same time, Stockman said he recognizes that "the congregation [the Brothers of Charity] has no choice but to remain faithful to the charism of charity, which cannot be reconciled with the practice of euthanasia on psychiatric patients."

The decision by the Vatican's doctrinal office ends three years of disputes between the Brothers of Charity and the corporation which manages their hospitals in Belgium.

In 2017, the board decided to allow euthanasia to be carried out in its hospitals in Belgium, where the euthanasia law is among the most broad.

At the time of the decision, the board of the corporation was composed of 15 members, with only three of them religious brothers of the congregation. 

Two of the three religious brothers among the board members, Luc Lemmens, 61, and Veron Raes, 57, supported the euthanasia decision. Their terms on the board ended at the end of September 2018 and were not renewed.

The religious congregation, especially Stockman, protested the decision, reiterating the Brothers of Charity's rejection of euthanasia in their hospitals.

The brothers appealed to the Vatican, which asked the psychiatric hospitals to change their protocol allowing euthanasia as “a medical act” under certain conditions.

The hospital management responded with a long statement in September 2017, in which it contested a lack of dialogue and maintained the hospital was "perfectly consistent" with Christian doctrine.

The CDF's direction that the hospitals must no longer identify as Catholic was communicated in a letter signed by CDF prefect Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer and secretary Archbishop Giacomo Morandi.

The letter retraced the developments of the story, recalling that the document allowing euthanasia in the brothers' hospitals "refers neither to God, nor to Holy Scripture, nor to the Christian vision of Man."

According to the letter, the CDF had spoken with the Brothers of Charity and had also informed Pope Francis of the gravity of the situation.

Other audiences had also taken place beginning June 2017, including with the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Secretariat of State, the representatives of the Brothers of Charity and the managing corporation, as well as representatives of the Belgian bishops' conference.

The Holy See also sent Bishop Jan Hendriks, auxiliary of Amsterdam, as an apostolic visitor, but he did not register any steps forward nor a desire to find "a viable solution that avoids any form of responsibility of the institution for euthanasia."

The request of the CDF to the Brothers of Charity and to the managing corporation was clear: “affirm in writing and in an unequivocal way their adherence to the principles of the sacredness of human life and the unacceptability of euthanasia, and, as a consequence, the absolute refusal to carry it out in the institutions they depend on."

The corporation "did not give assurance on these points."

The CDF therefore reiterated that "euthanasia remains an inadmissible act, even in extreme cases," and strengthened the statement by citing St. John Paul II's 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae, and a Jan. 30 speech by Pope Francis to the CDF.

The CDF stressed that "Catholic teaching affirms the sacred value of human life," the "importance of caring for and accompanying the sick and disabled," as well as "the Christian value of suffering, the moral unacceptability of euthanasia" and "the impossibility of introducing this practice in Catholic hospitals, not even in extreme cases, as well as of collaborating in this regard with civil institutions."

The Brothers of Charity is a religious congregation of lay brothers founded in 1807 in Belgium, whose specialization is care for the sick and those with psychiatric diseases.

At the congregation's July 2018 general chapter the group stressed that the Brothers of Charity "believes in sacredness and absolute respect for every human life, from conception to natural death. The general chapter requires that each brother, associate member and others associated with the mission of the congregation adhere to the doctrine of the Catholic Church on ethical issues."

Vatican City, May 6, 2020 / 11:47 am (CNA).- The annual swearing-in of new Swiss Guards, which would usually take place May 6, was moved to Oct. 4 because of the coronavirus.

Instead, the Pontifical Swiss Guards marked Wednesday’s anniversary of the Sack of Rome with private, more muted celebrations, lacking the presence of guests and streamed over the internet.

The Swiss Guards marked the 493rd anniversary of the May 6, 1527 battle with Mass in the church of Santa Maria of the Pieta in the Teutonic College, followed by the “laying of the wreath,” in the Square of the Roman Protomartyrs in Vatican City.

Afterward, the commander of the Swiss Guards conferred papal honorifics on 15 guards.

After Mass, all but the newest members of the world’s smallest-but-oldest standing army marched to Square of the Roman Protomartyrs, so-named for being the site of the death of several early Christian martyrs, including St. Peter.

The Commander of the Swiss Guards, Christoph Graf, gave a speech at the ceremony in which he recounted the story of the 1527 battle known as the Sack of Rome, when 147 guards lost their lives defending Pope Clement VII from mutinous troops of the Holy Roman Empire.

During the battle, the pope was able to escape from the Vatican to Castel Sant’Angelo via a secret passageway connecting the two. It is the most significant and deadly event in the history of the Swiss Guards.

After the speech, a large wreath was placed in the square in commemoration of the guards who died during the battle.

The anniversary is usually marked by a whole weekend of events attended by representatives of the Swiss army, Swiss government, and Swiss bishops’ conference. Family and friends of the guards, and former guards who return for a visit, also participate.

In past years, the festivities have also included a concert and an audience with Pope Francis.

The main celebrant of the May 6 Mass was the assessor of the Secretariat of State, Msgr. Luigi Roberto Cona. In his homily, Cona said he wishes the guards may “truly experience Christ.”

“May you encounter a Church that is not only an institution, an institution to be defended, to be protected, which you have wisely done for 500 years now, but also a community, a believing community which has met the living and true Christ, which loves him, and intends to serve him in everyday life,” he said.

“Because every day we too, in imitation of the first Christian martyrs – and your brother guards who offered themselves at that very important moment in 1527 – we too, without the heroism of those, can offer ourselves day after day in the services we are called to perform.”

CONTEXT:

Research reveals racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in autism diagnosis; there is limited information on potential disparities related to other dimensions of services.

Acne vulgaris is an extraordinarily common skin condition in adolescents. The mainstays of acne treatment have remained largely unchanged over recent years. In the context of increasing antibiotic resistance worldwide, there is a global movement away from antibiotic monotherapy toward their more restrictive use. Classically reserved for nodulocystic acne, isotretinoin has become the drug of choice by dermatologists for moderate to severe acne. Given the virtually ubiquitous nature of acne in teenagers, there remains an appreciable need for novel therapies. In this article, we will cover the currently used acne treatments, evaluate the issues and data supporting their use, explore the issues of compliance and the mental health implications of acne care, and recommend directions for the field of acne management in adolescents in the years ahead.

Various states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes and/or decriminalized recreational marijuana use. These changes coincide with a decrease in perceived harmfulness of the drug and an increase in its use among youth. This change is of critical concern because of the potential harmful impact of marijuana exposure on adolescents. Marijuana use has been associated with several adverse mental health outcomes, including increased incidence of addiction and comorbid substance use, suicidality, and new-onset psychosis. Negative impacts on cognition and academic performance have also been observed. As the trend toward legalization continues, the pediatric community will be called on to navigate the subsequent challenges that arise with changing policies. Pediatricians are uniquely positioned to provide innovative care and educate youth and families on the ever-evolving issues pertaining to the impact of marijuana legalization on communities. In this article, we present and analyze the most up-to-date data on the effects of legalization on adolescent marijuana use, the effects of adolescent use on mental health and cognitive outcomes, and the current interventions being recommended for use in pediatric office settings.

A former student of OM Panama brings the world to her small church in western Panama.

Twice a week, 60 to 80 children receive a meal and learn about Jesus, the Bread of Life, through OM Panama’s Pan de Vida programme.

A man gives his life to Jesus and is used greatly by God during an international outreach in Panama.

Andy Lowndes, music detective for dementia charity Playlist for Life

We travel to France to find out how the 2011 Homeless World Cup helped to change lives.

Due to overwhelming response, Magnum Tonic Wine has expanded its TekChargeAYard Dance Challenge to Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, St Vincent and The Grenadines, and Guyana.The challenge was initially open to participants from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

"In order to fulfil our mandate, there are several needs we must invest in," says Stephan Bauer.

Small outreach teams will share the life-changing message of the gospel with hundreds of women in brothels and on the street this Easter.

A Dutch couple quit their jobs and change the lives of youth on the other side of the world.

Bulgaria coach Luboslav Penev and his staff encouraged over 120 children taking part in a grassroots event in Sofia designed to increase participation in football and other sports.

IT was on board a supply ship which had docked in the port of Marseille that Barney Roberts learned the news that the war was over.

It dates back to1885 and started out as a fund to help military families at home while the Second Expeditionary Force set sail for Egypt. Major James Gildea wrote a letter appealing for money and a fund was set up to provide allowances.

For many people, lockdown has meant looking for joy in the natural world around us.

A few days after a majority of Britons backed Brexit in June 2016, this newspaper reported that Nicola Sturgeon had been in talks with London Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo.

In this country, where the dank, grim days of winter are as short as a resigned sigh, the onset of some decent, dry spring weather doesn’t half raise the morale. Well, it would if the coronavirus wasn’t lurking all over the parish.

While lockdown has seen some people turn to DIY, it doesn't all have to be on the home or garden.

Dumbarton police station has temporarily closed after a member of staff showed symptoms of Covid-19.

FACE it – we are going nowhere. Even if we had a particular place to venture the regulations would not permit. For the foreseeable we shall have to contract out our travelling to others. On the upside, no airport hassle. On the downside, no giant Toblerone.

The Presbyterian minister's efforts in 1964 to send his son to an integrated school in Charlotte, N.C., led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding busing as a desegregation tool.

A $59 million investment in software developer Social Solutions aims to ease the flow of data among schools and social service providers.

In a national survey, we dug into how teachers use language to make sense of disparities in student outcomes by race and income level.

Bavaria will host the eight-team UEFA Regions' Cup finals from 18 to 26 June.

A new version of the federal research site allows users to find research related to specific school populations.

In this lesson, 7th grade English/language arts teacher Emily Park-Friend takes her students through a three-step interview activity.

New Contemporaries is in its 12th year now, an annual showing of the Royal Scottish Academy’s pick of graduates from the previous year’s degree shows. A wonderful opportunity for the young artists themselves – this is a prestigious exhibition and a prestigious venue to put on one’s CV – it is also a handy shortcut for anyone who wants to get a snapshot of the kind of work coming out of our art colleges at the moment.

There is no point in discussing what testing program best provides accountability if the tests do not actually measure any of the things we want schools to be accountable for.

As black-white achievement gaps widen in schools, so, too, do disparities in discipline rates between black and white students, according to a study published Wednesday of 2,000 schools.

The 2020 school counselor of the year draws on her previous experience as a counselor for gang members in a prison to reform discipline in her school in an Atlanta suburb. She shares her insights in this Q&A with Education Week.

Source: El Periódico - Las políticas climáticas que se centran en la agricultura y los bosques podrían llevar al aumento de los precios de los alimentos, pero reducir la deforestación e incrementar la captura de carbono en la agricultura podría reducir significativamente las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, evitando riesgos para la seguridad alimentaria, según un nuevo estudio publicado en 'Environmental Research Letters'.

A number of studies have examined the early impact of the varicella vaccination program on varicella-related hospitalizations and have found evidence of decline after vaccine implementation.

This study further documents the continued decline in varicella-related hospitalizations during the 1-dose varicella vaccination era and demonstrates statistically significant declines of >65% in all age groups. These data suggest that varicella vaccination prevented ~50 000 hospitalizations from 2000 to 2006. (Read the full article)

Combined auditory brainstem response/otoacoustic emission testing is used to screen for auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD), which leads to failure to develop normal auditory behavior and oral language. Prevalence estimates have been obtained for infants in NICUs.

ANSD risk in well-infant nurseries has not been examined. This study contributes ANSD prevalence estimates for infants admitted to well-infant nurseries and compares the costs of 2 different 2-technology screening protocols. (Read the full article)

Although gastroenteritis guidelines describe the need to perform oral rehydration, it remains underused, resulting in excessive use of intravenous rehydration. Other interventions, such as antiemetic administration, vary according to location, often resulting in differences in cost and outcomes.

In this nationwide cohort, intravenous rehydration use varied dramatically. Use was associated with the institution providing care and an increase in the need for future health care provider visits. Use of ondansetron also varied significantly across Canada. (Read the full article)

Associations between short sleep duration, obesity, and metabolic dysfunction have been proposed for children but have not been explored appropriately.

The main findings included a nonlinear trend between sleep duration and body weight and the finding that children's sleep averaged 8 hours per night regardless of body weight. Lower sleep duration values were strongly associated with increased metabolic risk. (Read the full article)

Aluminum is ubiquitous and exposure is unavoidable. Adverse health effects have been associated with large exposures in workers or those with chronic kidney disease. There are no established age-specific reference ranges or toxicity data for populations of healthy children.

We demonstrate the wide variability of aluminum reference ranges in biological samples and that the ranges are not based on studies including healthy children. Further research is necessary to establish clinically relevant reference ranges for healthy children. (Read the full article)

Registries have been established in a number of countries to monitor the health of patients with cystic fibrosis. Few international comparisons have been made between registries. International data registry comparisons may be useful for informing best practice and benchmarking.

Registry comparisons are feasible but are limited by factors such as nonstandardization of data collection. Lung function was lower in Australian children with cystic fibrosis compared with their US counterparts after adjusting for the benefits of diagnosis after newborn screening. (Read the full article)

Although it has been shown that cystic fibrosis newborn screening is beneficial, the strategies vary widely, and there has been uncertainty about the costs and consequences of different algorithms and whether screening methods/decisions should be based on assumed cost differences.

This study contributes by offering a comparison of both costs, assessed comprehensively, and the consequences associated with the 2 most popular screening methodologies, immunoreactive trypsinogen/immunoreactive trypsinogen and immunoreactive trypsinogen/DNA, by using a decision-tree framework allowing variation in the model parameters. (Read the full article)

Most states require driver education (DE) for novice drivers, and several recent substantial efforts have sought to realign DE with the aim of producing safer drivers. However, teen participation rates and how they differ among relevant subgroups remain unknown.

This study provides national estimates of teen driver participation in formal DE, a recognized gap in the literature, and identifies disparities in behind-the-wheel training among certain racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender groups, particularly in jurisdictions without a DE requirement. (Read the full article)

Parent-infant bed-sharing is a common behavior of breastfeeding mothers and various ethnic groups. Under certain circumstances, it is associated with an increased risk of sudden infant death. Blanket prohibitions against bed-sharing conflict with breastfeeding promotion and inhibit safe bed-sharing discussion.

Bed-sharing and sofa-sharing were almost mutually exclusive. Pakistani families avoided sofa-sharing and hazardous bed-sharing, and have a very low rate of sudden infant death syndrome. White British families were more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, and sofa-share with their infants. (Read the full article)

Inhaled nitric oxide for premature infants has been evaluated in multiple studies; however, these trials differed in treatment initiation, duration of therapy, and inclusion criteria. Furthermore, these trials reached differing conclusions regarding the benefit of inhaled nitric oxide.

We used a large sample of infants from children’s hospitals and found that the use of inhaled nitric oxide in premature infants was variable even when controlling for demographic characteristics and disease. (Read the full article)

As a result of safety and environmental concerns about mercury, aneroid sphygmomanometers have replaced mercury-filled devices for blood pressure measurements. Despite this change, few studies have compared the 2 devices.

Little clinical variation exists between blood pressure measurements obtained from an aneroid or mercury device, suggesting that either device could be used in a research or clinical setting. (Read the full article)

Some studies demonstrate that adolescents have different perinatal risks and outcomes than nonadolescents. Few studies have explored the maternity experiences or practices of adolescents that may underlie these differences, or compared these with nonadolescents by using a nationally representative sample.

Adolescents and young adults were more likely to experience physical abuse, late prenatal care initiation, poor prenatal health behaviors, lower breastfeeding initiation and duration rates, postpartum depression, and lower folic acid supplementation than adult women. (Read the full article)

Despite recommendations and a universal immunization program, a recent survey reported suboptimal influenza vaccination coverage in children aged 6 to 23 months in Ontario. Little is known about predictors of coverage in young children to target immunization strategies.

Full influenza vaccination coverage in young children in Ontario is <10% and declining since the 2006–2007 season. Medically high-risk children including low birth weight infants are more likely to be immunized, but maternal and health services characteristics remain important. (Read the full article)