Angelus News | August 27, 2021 | Vol. 6 No. 17

WORLD
■ Vatican: Beware killer robots
Speaking from its capacity as a permanent observer to the United Nations, a
Vatican statement warned against the potential danger for peace and security of
“killer robots” during the Aug. 3 meeting of the Group of Governmental Experts
on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS).
The statement described LAWS as “swarms of ‘kamikaze’ mini drones,” and
spoke of other weaponry-like drones, unmanned vehicles and missiles which use
artificial intelligence to identify and target enemies.
“If functioning without any direct human supervision, such systems could make
mistakes in identifying the intended targets due to some unidentified ‘bias,’ ” the
statement read. It also warned that the development of such systems could violate
standing international laws and norms.
“The end does not justify the means used to achieve it,” the Vatican said.
Father Olivier Maire, who was killed on Aug. 6. |
CNS/MONTFORT MISSIONARIES
■ France: Suspect in
priest killing confesses
A 40-year-old Rwandan immigrant
turned himself in for the murder of Father
Olivier Maire, French provincial
of the Montfort Missionaries.
Emmanuel Abayisenga reportedly
beat Father Maire to death on Aug.
6. At the time, Abayisenga was living
in housing provided by Father Maire
in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre while he
awaited trial for the 2020 arson attack
on the cathedral of Nantes.
In another bizarre development,
French Catholic newspaper La Croix
identified Abayisenga as the man in a
2016 photo seen greeting Pope Francis
during a papal audience in Rome.
While some French politicians have
cited Father Maire’s death as evidence
of the country’s failed immigration
policies, Catholics have focused on the
murdered priest’s charity.
“This man was under police control,
and it was the priest himself who took
the risk of welcoming him!” tweeted
Father Cédric Burgun, a friend of Father
Maire and vice dean of the canon
law faculty at the Catholic University
of Paris. “Because charity and mercy
take risks that some politicians have
forgotten.”
■ Britain blocks treatment for Jewish baby
A right-of-life battle drawing international scrutiny is unfolding in the U.K.,
where an appeals court has upheld a high court decision to cease life-threatening
treatment for a 2-year-old Hasidic Jewish girl.
Alta Fixsler is the daughter of Israeli parents, who was born in the U.K. eight
weeks premature and with severe hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in 2018.
Doctors treating the girl argue that continued treatment is not in her “best interests.”
But Fixsler’s father — who is also a U.S. citizen — and mother are contesting
the plan to remove life-sustaining treatment, citing their religious beliefs.
Hospitals in both Israel and the U.S. have offered to continue treatment for the
girl. The U.S. Embassy in London has issued a provisionary visa to allow her to
enter the country, while U.S. senators from both parties have asked U.K. prime
minister Boris Johnson and President Joe Biden to intervene.
In an Aug. 9 Wall Street Journal column, writer William McGurn said the case
came down to whether life-or-death decisions are “best left to the courts and the
clinicians.”
“Or might there be something to be said in cases like Alta’s,” McGurn continued,
“for deferring to the two people who love her most, her mom and dad —
Abraham and Chaya Fixsler?
Hope after a hard year — People attend a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Bechara Rai, Maronite patriarch, to
mark the one-year anniversary of Beirut's port blast on Aug. 4. The explosion killed more than 200 people,
injured more than 6,000, and displaced more than 300,000. The cardinal has come under pressure recently for
speaking out on behalf of the people of Lebanon. | CNS/MOHAMED AZAKIR
4 • ANGELUS • August 27, 2021