Muslims and Catholics joined in Friday prayers at the mosque in the Normandy town where an elderly priest was slain this week, with one imam chastising the extremists as non-Muslims who are “not part of civilization.”
Muslims came from other parts of France for the service shared with Christians.
The killing Tuesday of 85-year-old Rev. Jacques Hamel as he celebrated morning Mass sent shockwaves around France and deeply touched many among the nation’s 5 million Muslims. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, as well as the July 14 truck attack in Nice, where 84 people were killed by a man who plowed his truck down a seaside promenade. Continue reading
“I do not believe it is right to identify Islam with violence,” the Pope told journalists during the July 31 papal flight to Rome following his apostolic journey to Poland. “This is not right and it is not true.” “I don’t like to speak about Islamic violence,” the Pope said, taking into account that one sees violence every day in the newspapers, even at the hands of baptized Catholics. “There are violent Catholics!” he said. “If I speak of Islamic violence, I must speak of Catholic violence.” –
A priest was killed and another person seriously injured when two members from an Islamic extremist group stormed the Church of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray in Normandy, France, on July 26. The assailants slit the throat of Father Jacques Hamel, who was 85 years old.
French religious leaders have called for more security at places of worship following the murder of an elderly priest in Normandy on Tuesday.
OXFORD, England- Catholic church leaders have reacted to the slaying by Islamists of an elderly French priest yesterday morning with a call to resist feelings of vengeance and hatred and to help build a civilization of love.
About two weeks before the opening ceremony for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Father Leandro Lenin Tavares was putting the final touches on what he hopes will be a very successful spiritual mission: coordinating the interreligious center for athletes at the Olympic Village.
African American religious leaders have added their weight to calls for action on climate change, with one of the largest and oldest black churches in the US warning that black people are disproportionally harmed by global warming and fossil fuel pollution.
(RNS) Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton announced