Aloha Friday Ohana,
I wonder where is the Moral Leadership of MP Alexy 11 when needed. This is getting out of hands. Looks like Catholic Priest and Nuns come to the rescue once again.... then they call it prostelityzing? Oh !
Russian abortions killing, sterilizing millions of moms
Moscow, Apr. 13 (LifesiteNews.com/CWN) - An English-language news magazine from Moscow reports that up to one third of Russian abortions result in the death of the mother. The Russian government has been alarmed for some time at the impending demographic disaster created by the low birth rate. In addition, after decades of Communism, which endorsed abortion as a form of birth control, the physical and psychological after-effects of so many millions of abortions have yet to be completely felt. The Soviet Union was the first nation in the world to legalize abortion in 1920.
Conservative estimates put the Russian abortion rate at 60 percent of all pregnancies, approximately a tenth of which are for girls under 18. Vladimir Kulakov, the deputy director of the Russian Women's Health Center, says that of some 38 million women of childbearing age, about 6 million are infertile, and medical authorities consider abortions a major cause of infertility.
Now a new study shows that the death rate of women seeking abortion is also uncommonly high. Abortion is a dangerous invasive procedure whether legalized or not, but with many Russian medical facilities stocked with antiquated equipment, many more women are dying from abortion complications in Russia than elsewhere.
Kulakov told Mosnews.com that of 3.5 million annual Russian pregnancies, only 1.5 million children are actually being born. Add to that the death rate of one woman in three and the number of women of child-bearing years who are capable of conceiving, and Russia's demographic disaster is promising to be worse even than the most somber predictions. Kulakov said that as many as 15 percent of Russian couples are infertile and suggests a government-funded program of artificial insemination.
A small, new missionary society of Catholic priests and sisters who do pro-life and post-abortion work in Siberia have written in their latest newsletter that the official statistics are very conservative. The group runs an orphanage, crisis pregnancy center, and post-abortion counseling service in Vladivostok and runs a number of social programs for elderly people and youth.
The deliberate and calculated abolition of family values by Communist government directives has resulted in massive rates of divorce, domestic violence, alcoholism, and skyrocketing rates of STD's including HIV, the newsletter said. In 1995, a report showed that almost half of all murder cases were a result of domestic violence and predicted that by the year 2000, 800,000 Russians could be infected with HIV.
Sister Julia Kubista of the Sisters in Jesus the Lord wrote of a report on Russian television that said family values "had not been stressed in Russia for half a century and they lamented the outrageous divorce rates, sickening abortion rates, the amounts of orphans, and the extent of drug use." Sister Julia reported that some Russian women have had as many as 30 abortions.
Moscow patriarch hopes new Pope will change policy
Apr. 13 (CWNews.com) - The Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow hopes for "a new era in relations" with the Holy See under the next Pope. Patriarch Alexei II, who frequently criticized Vatican policies during the pontificate of John Paul II, said that the next Pontiff should show "the necessary wisdom and tact" to advance relations with the Moscow patriarchate.
In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the Russian prelate called for the eliminations of "all the complications that are an obstacle" to ecumenical relations, so that the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches could focus on their "shared witness" to the Gospel.
