The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has a new chairman, and for the first time, the position will be held by a Catholic priest.
Jesuit priest Father Thomas Reese was first appointed to a two-year term as a member of the commission by President Barack Obama in 2014, and re-appointed in 2016.
Now he will take over as the chair of the organization, an independent, bipartisan commission that monitors and reviews religious freedom violations around the world, and makes policy recommendations to the Secretary of State, Congress and the president. Continue reading…
Category: Rome
Pope Francis to visit genocide memorial in Armenia
Pope Francis is expected to avoid using the word “genocide” when he visits a memorial to the massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians this weekend.
His notable change of tone from a statement last year that the wholesale killing of Armenian Christians between 1915 and 1923 was the “first genocide of the 20th century” is aimed at avoiding a repeat of the ensuing diplomatic rift between Turkey and the Vatican.
The pontiff’s three-day visit to Armenia, which begins on Friday, includes prayers at Tsitsernakaberd, widely known as the genocide memorial and museum, in the capital, Yerevan. Continue reading…
Catholic church accused of using ‘mafia-like’ tactics to fight sex abuse bill
The Catholic church in Pennsylvania has been accused of employing “mafia-like” tactics in a campaign to put pressure on individual Catholic lawmakers who support state legislation that would give victims of sexual abuse more time to sue their abusers.
The lobbying campaign against the legislation is being led by Philadelphia archbishop Charles Chaput, a staunch conservative who recently created a stir after inadvertently sending an email to a state representative Jamie Santora, in which he accused the lawmaker of “betraying” the church and said Santora would suffer “consequences” for his support of the legislation. The email was also sent to a senior staff member in Chaput’s office, who was apparently the only intended recipient. Continue reading…
Pope Francis with judges at the Vatican: The Church must get involved in greater politics
The Pope held a meeting at the Vatican with a hundred judges from around the world. They participated in the Summit of Judges on human trafficking and organized crime that brought together legal experts to analyze this scourge and seek to combat it.Pope Francis praised the work of judges who often work under pressure and threats. So he told them that they are called to bring hope to how justice works so that injustice does not have the last word.
He also condemned the traffickers whom he described as “the new slave hunters.”
POPE FRANCIS
“Victims are often betrayed even in the most intimate and sacred ways a person can be violated, that is, in love they aspire to give and take and that her family owes or who promise their suitors or husbands who instead end up selling them on the black market forcing them into hard labor, prostitution or sale of organs.”
Pope Francis explained that the Church is also called on to engage in the field of politics and again requested the abolition of the death penalty.
Then the pope signed a declaration in which the signatories make a number of proposals to end modern-day slavery. Among these measures, he asked to use the assets seized from traffickers in the rehabilitation and compensation of victims, the punishment of clients of sexual services or prostitution and forced labor are considered crimes against humanity. Continue reading…
Leaders of the world’s two largest faiths reconciled with a hug and a kiss
With a hugely symbolic hug and an exchange of kisses on the cheek, Pope Francis and the grand imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar Mosque, which houses a 1,000-year-old university, took a major step toward restoring relations between major branches of the world’s two largest faiths, Roman Catholicism and Sunni Islam. The two met privately for 25 minutes in the pope’s private library at the Vatican.
“This meeting is the message,” the pope told the imam, Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb. Continue reading…
‘Together 2016’ Organizer Meets With ‘Pope Francis’ to Unite Christians, Catholics on National Mall
WASHINGTON — An ecumenical event featuring Hillsong United, Lecrae, Michael W. Smith, Josh McDowell, Ravi Zacharias, Francis Chan and other renown evangelical and Catholic speakers and musicians that is set to take place in Washington, D.C. is raising concerns as it seeks to draw a million attendees to “link arms” in unity, including with the Vatican.
“Together 2016” is an event to be held on July 16 at the National Mall in Washington, and seeks to unite those of various backgrounds to “stand together for Jesus.” Both Christians and Catholics alike will be featured at the prayer and worship event…
This week, Hall announced that Jorge Bergoglio, also known as Pope Francis, will be delivering a video message to those in attendance…
Hall traveled to Rome on Thursday to meet with the Roman Catholic leader and other Vatican officials ahead of the event… Continue reading…
Related: Pope and Hillsong plan a 1 million man gathering in DC
Church official says Vatican took years to act on abuse charges
A document obtained by Crux, related to accusations of sexual and other forms of abuse against the founder of a powerful Catholic lay movement in Peru, suggests that the Vatican was informed of the charges as early as May 2011 but essentially took no action for four years.
A May 17, 2016, letter addressed to Peru’s bishops by the head of the country’s main ecclesiastical court lists multiple steps taken to inform Rome of allegations against Luis Fernando Figari, founder of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), and expresses mounting frustration at the lack of response. Continue reading…
Holy See backs global health goals, says ‘leave no one behind’
The Vatican has voiced support for global health care goals and has said that Catholic institutions are committed to combating problems like communicable diseases.
“The Holy See delegation welcomes the vital emphasis on the dignity of the human person and the strong focus on equity expressed in the pledge that ‘no one will be left behind’,” said Bishop Jean-Marie Mupendawatu.
The bishop headed the Holy See’s delegation to the World Health Organization’s World Health Assembly, held in Geneva May 23-28.
The assembly reviewed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which has 17 goals and 169 associated targets. The agenda was adopted by the U.N. Sustainable Development Summit. Continue reading…
Gift from WNC Methodists presented to Pope Francis
WLOS — HAYWOOD COUNTY, N.C. — A little bit of Western North Carolina is presented to the Pope.
Lake Junaluska World Methodist Museum wanted to present Pope Francis with a small sculpture of Methodist church founder John Wesley, seeing parallels between them.
“The Pope goes into the communities,” museum director Jackie Bolden said. “He goes into the slums, and when he travels, he goes where the people are.” Continue reading…
EU links up with Twitter, tech firms to combat hate speech
“The European Union reached an agreement Tuesday with some of the world’s biggest social media firms, including Facebook and Twitter, on ways to combat the spread of hate speech online. Under the terms of a code of conduct, the firms, which also include YouTube and Microsoft, have committed to “quickly and efficiently” tackle illegal hate speech directed against anyone over issues of race, color, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin. The sites have often been used by terrorist organizations to relay messages and entice hatred against certain individuals or groups.” –Source
And how will they define the hate speech? If it speaks against any viable foundational structure regarding Rome’s long prophesied agenda to place a mark on every person on earth, they will make the biblical truths that the remnant people preach illegal. The fact using the Bible to share truth with people in danger of hellfire is already considered a hate crime in Canada as well as in America confirms any mention of biblical truth will soon become illegal worldwide. Continue reading…