Pope set to visit the faithful in Thailand and Japan: Vatican
of Human Rights and the UK Committee on Equality and Diversity ruled that Northern Ireland’s ban on all abortions is discriminatory, breaches human rights, is out of date and hinders good care.
“The particular arrangements in Northern Ireland even criminalise midwives who attempt to offer and support women who wish to terminate their pregnancies,” she said.
“This is fundamentally an issue of women’s rights, women’s rights of self-determination to make the choice that is right for them about their pregnancy, and the rights of individual midwives to opt out of providing terminations, recognising that others will step in to ensure that women receive the care they deserve.”
A UK Government spokesperson POPE Francis will travel to Thailand and Japan in November for a visit expected to highlight his call for complete nuclear disarmament and to honour the small Catholic communities in each country.
The Vatican confirmed the November 19-26 trip, and its diplomatic representative in Thailand, Archbishop Paul Tschang InNam, announced the Thai stop yesterday.
Francis (below) will be in Thailand on November 20-23 before heading to Japan, where government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the pope would meet with the emperor and prime minister Shinzo Abe.
It will be Francis’ fourth trip to Asia, where he has already visited South Korea, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Burma and Bangladesh.
The last pope to visit Japan was Saint Pope John Paul II in 1981.
He was also the last pope to visit Thailand, in 1984.
During his official visit to Thailand, Francis will preside at religious ceremonies and make pastoral visits to Catholic communities.
“When I heard the news about the papal visit, as a Christian, I’m very delighted because it will be a once-in-a-lifetime moment,” said Sister Aranya Kitbunchu, a member of the congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“We will get to meet him as a real person, not through TV. I believe that his visit will bring peace to the people.” Francis’s Japan visit includes Tokyo as well as Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were hit by US atomic bombs towards the end of the Second World War.
A call for a world without nuclear weapons has been Francis’ long-time message. Nagasaki Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami, who heads the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan, expressed gratitude to Francis, noting he and others in the Japanese church have been asking for his visit for years.
He acknowledged that Japan does not have as many Christians as some other nations.
But he said Francis had special feelings for Japan, referring to how last year the pope had the Vatican print up thousands of cards of a Nagasaki nuclear bombing child survivor carrying his dead brother on his back.
The card had the words “The fruit of war” printed on it.
“I think the pope was laying the groundwork for this visit,” the archbishop said in a statement.
Having the pope in Nagasaki will also highlight the legacy of Christian missionaries dating back to the samurai era, including 26 martyrs killed in 1597.
It will help honour the socalled “Hidden Christians”, who kept the faith alive during decades of persecution.
Japan, whose main religions are Buddhism and Shintoism, has about 441,000 Catholics, many in Nagasaki, comprising fewer than 1% of the overall population.
Thailand, with an overall population of 69 million people, has some 388,000 Catholics.