Only abortion law in Europe not to help women

VILLAFRANCA DEL PENEDÉS,

The new abortion law which the Spanish government is hoping to pass shortly will be the only one in Europe that does not offer any assistance to the woman who wants to have an abortion. A judicial report just published in Madrid says: “It leaves the woman completely alone at a very difficult moment for her - the consequence of an unexpected pregnancy. ”

A significant element of the new law is that it will also be the only one of its kind where the patient will receive information about alternatives to abortion “in a sealed envelope. ” Other European countries include a personal interview with the woman to discuss the situation, while the Spanish law will not oblige doctors to inform patients objectively “of the medical risks involved or of the possible consequences of abortion. ”

Opponents of the proposed legislation also say it discriminates against medics who are against abortion. If a foetus is found to be gravely ill, a clinical committee will decide if an abortion is permitted or not. Those in favour of the law say in such cases, that while the child might live, it would not have “a decent life”, but this is to play God. The law expressly forbids anti-abortionist doctors from sitting on such clinical committees, so the outcome of their deliberations will hardly be balanced. They will tend to opt for abortion.

As for the time limit till which abortions are to be permitted, 14 weeks, this will be the third-latest in Europe, only beaten by Sweden and Holland.

Source: La Razón / ACPress.net



Court ruling overturns stringent church requirements

VILLAFRANCA DEL PENEDÉS

A court ruling in Catalonia has overturned a council decision which required places of religious worship to adhere to the same standards as those required of theatres and buildings licenced for recreational use. This included legislation on policing.

Evangelicals had lodged a complaint at the requirements, arguing that they were highly inappropriate for the activities held by a church, were unconstitutional, and went against the basic principle of religious liberty. The court ruling has gone in their favour, and sets an important precedent for places of worship across the region, some of which have had huge problems with local councils in getting new buildings registered for use as churches.

Some of the requirements insisted upon were as follows: that the church building could not have more than a certain number of storeys, that the street where they were located must be more than 10m wide and with a 3m pavement, no place of worship could be within 100m of another one, or that tha maximum number of seats in the building must not exceed 100.

The Federation of Evangelical Organisations and the Catalan Evangelical Council lodged a formal complaint at what they considered to be totally unreasonable demands. The court ruling now renders these earlier requirements null and void. It also appears that in general, councils cannot insist that churches get a licence to allow them to open a place of worship. This will have wide repercusssions for Evangelical Churches all over Spain.

Source: FEREDE, EFE / ACPress.net


Dying for the love of a football club

MADRID, 06/03, 2009

Barcelona Football Club is considered to be one of the world greats. Today it is one of the most powerful institutions in Catalonia, with more than 200,000 members and over 200 million followers worldwide. What is not so well-known is that it was founded by a Protestant, Joan Gamper, to provide an outlet for discriminated Protestants.

If all one sees is millions of euros, a majestic stadium, a great team and League and European champions, it is hard to believe that Barcelona F.C. is the fulfilment of a dream of a Swiss Protestant gentlemen who lived in Barcelona. In his day, Protestants were discriminated against to the extent that those who wanted to play football could find nowhere to do so, because of their ´religious condition´. There was nowhere for them to play, so Gamper had the idea of founding a club, one that would become rather more than ´just´ a club.

Gamper was born in Winterthur in 1877, the eldest of five children. His mother died during the birth of the youngest, and this left the family in a precarious position. They moved to Zurich, and Gamper - perhaps lacking domestic stability - turned to a new development in educational concepts, sport, as a personal outlet. He proved to be very good, winning prizes in both cycling and athletics. He also played rugby, football, tennis and golf. His greatest love though, was football.

In 1898 he moved to Barcelona to look for work and wrote a sports column for two Swiss newspapers. Because he was a Protestant, he joined the Evangelical Swiss Church in the city and there got to know a group of youngsters who were all from the Sant Gervasi district. He played football with them in the street. He knew the youngsters at the Methodist Church also played football and he organised matches after work in a well-lit square. This went on for about a year until he managed to have a standard ball sent from Switzerland.

Together with 36 youngsters he set about the task of forming a football club. He was aided and abetted by the Soler gymnasium where lots of sports were played, and a small sports magazine, Los Deportes, was produced. Due to his having an enthusiastic group of youngsters around him, it was not hard to organise a club, which he called after the city in which they were based. F.C. Barcelona was born.

However, other issues were not so easy as the Constitution only permitted Roman Catholicism and religious differences were only accepted with great difficulty. So after the first year, most of the foreign players had to leave. Gamper stood down as captain in 1900 and it wasn´t till 1909, by then married to a staunch Catholic, Emma, that he applied to lead the club once more. He became Chairman at a time when the club was on the point of folding. Yet from that moment, and under his leadership (he was Chairman five times), the team was highly successful. His fame spread abroad, and he became well-known for being a hard-working and exceptional leader. In fact, it was because of this fame and his strong ethical and religious convictions that he was so ferociously opposed in Spain.

Gamper´s twenty-five years of involvement with Barcelona were twenty-five years of constant accusations. His sporting rivals could not compete with Barcelona on the pitch so they devoted their time to attacking Gamper personally in an attempt to destroy him, and by extension, the club. Gamper, as far as he was able, defended himself in the courts in order to clear his name.

Finally, in June 1925 at a fund-raising event in a packed stadium, the 14,000 people booed the Spanish national anthem and cheered the English national anthem which was played by a visiting sailors´ band. This led to the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera intervening directly in the club.

Accused of stirring up Catalan nationalism, Gamper was deported and the ground closed for six months. It was the end of his time as a director of Barcelona, for when he returned from his enforced exile, no one wanted to give him the opportunity of returning to his beloved club. Gamper could not cope with being cold-shouldered in this way and, after five terrible years, in July 1930, he committed suicide. It is said he died for the love of Barcelona Football Club.

Source: ´Una Historia de desamor´ / ACPress.net


Service to commemorate first heresy trial

MADRID, June 3, 2009

May 21st was the 450th anniversary of the first auto de fe, the notorious heresy trials organised by the Spanish Inquisition.

In 1559, and with King Philip II in personal attendance, the first trial took place in the main square in Valladolid. Several Protestants were burnt at the stake, accused of being ´heretics´ by the Inquisition. The Anglican Church decided to hold a commemorative service last month to recall the heroic deaths of these first Spanish Christian martyrs.

Following a tradition that itself goes back nearly 150 years, they held ´divine office´, a practice begun by Bishop Juan Bautista Cabrera in 1868, in commemoration of the martyrs of the Reformation. The service was held in the Anglican Cathedral in Madrid and was presided by the incumbent Anglican Bishop of Madrid, Carlos López Lozano. He was assisted by two other Anglican Bishops, one from Portugal, the other from Greenland. Also present were representatives of other Christian groups, as well as the Federation of Evangelical Organisations.

In his sermon, López spoke about this first group of martyrs who, very early in the morning, were taken to the main square in Valladolid to hear the sentence pronounced against them: ´Guilty! ´ They heard this accusation no fewer than 89 times throughout the farce of a trial, and were considered guilty simply because they had embraced the Reformed Christian faith.

The commemoration coincided with the 50th National Synod of the Spanish Anglican Church, at which the first two volumes of the series ´Spanish Dissidents of the 16th Century´ were presented.

Source: ACPress.net