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The Catholic Church in India, on Jan 30 has endorsed a Supreme Court (SC) order that invalidated Church courts or ecclesiastic tribunals annulling marriage of a Catholic couple.

The president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) Cardinal Oswald Gracias said at a press conference,  organized at the Bhopal Pastoral Centre that there is no contradiction in the SC order as they  have been following it even before.

The prelate also made it clear that the annulment of the marriages by the church courts does not violate any civil law and hence, make no offence.

The SC in its January 19 order declared the divorce granted by the ecclesiastical tribunal under the Christian personal law as invalid as it cannot override the laws of the land while dismissing a public interest litigation (PIL) that sought direction to legalize the marriage annulment by the church courts.

The vice president of the CCBI, Bishop Filipe Neri Ferrao, secretary general of the CCBI, Bishop Varghese Chakkalakal, Archbishop of Bhopal Leo Cornelio and vice secretary general of the CCBI Father Stephen Alatara also joined the cardinal to address the media to shed light on the 29th Plenary Assembly of bishops in the Central Indian capital of Madhya Pradesh state. 

The Assembly will begin on January 31 and conclude on February 8 with the election of new office bearers to head the Church body consisting 132 dioceses with 182 Bishops.  (Mattersindia)

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Is 58:7-10; I Cor 2:1-5; Mt 5: 13-16

There is a story about a duck that broke his wing during the flight home for the winter. A sympathetic farmer retrieved the fallen duck and took him home. The farmer's children adopted the duck as their pet and began to feed him from the table and take him along as they performed their daily chores. By the next fall, the children were heartbroken as they watched the duck look at the other ducks who were flying south for the winter, but his wing still wasn't strong enough for the flight. Every time a flock flew south, the duck would look longingly into the sky and then return to play with the children. Well, the second year the duck's wing had grown much stronger, but the children had fed the duck so well that when he attempted to take off he was too fat to get off the ground. After one or two attempts he gave up and returned to play with the children. The third year the duck was completely healed. But as the other ducks quacked their call to go south, the duck never even looked up as they flew over. He had become so accustomed to the comfort of his new existence he had lost his focus on the true calling and meaning of his life. …God has not called us to be fat ducks, satisfied with a world that is going to go up in smoke. God has called us to be eagles soaring through the clouds of holiness; shaking out the salt of a godly life; shining out the light of the truth of Jesus Christ, and bringing as many men as we can to glorify our Father in Heaven.

Introduction: The common theme of the readings today is our mission to the world as salt and light.  In our first reading, the prophet Isaiah gives examples of how we are to allow the light of God to shine through us.  “Share your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.   Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday” (58:7, 10).  St. Paul, in the second reading, tells us that our proclamation of Faith will carry the Spirit and His power when we rely on the power and wisdom of God.  Using two simple metaphors in today’s Gospel, Jesus outlines the role of Christians in this world. The Christian’s task is to be the salt of society, preserving, reconciling, adding flavor, giving meaning where there is no meaning and giving hope where there is no hope.  Every Christian needs to reflect the light borrowed from Christ and radiate that light in the form of love, kindness, mercy, forgiveness and humble service. 

Exegesis: The salt of the earth: In the ancient world salt was highly valued.  The Greeks called salt divine and the Romans said, "There is nothing more useful than sun and salt."  The English word 'salary' literally means 'salt money'.  In the time of Jesus, salt was connected in people's minds with three special qualities. (i) Salt was connected with purity because it was white and it came from the purest of all things, the sun and the sea.  Salt was the most primitive of all offerings to the gods.  Jewish sacrifices were offered with salt.  The Orientals made their oaths with salt to ratify them.  They believed that it was the salt that kept the seas pure.  As the salt of the earth, the Christian must be an example of purity, exercising absolute purity in speech, in conduct, and even in thought.  God calls His children to preserve and purify.  The Church is to preserve modesty (1 Tm 2:9), morality (Eph 5:3-12), honesty and integrity (Jn 8:44-47).

(ii) Salt was the commonest of all preservatives in the ancient world when people did not have fridges and freezers.  It was used to prevent the putrefaction of meat, fish, fruits and pickles.  As the salt of the earth, the Christian must have a certain antiseptic influence on life and society, defeating corruption and making it easier for others to be good.  Christians are to be a preserving influence to retard moral and spiritual spoilage in the world.  “As the salt of the earth, you are called to preserve the Faith which you have received and to pass it on intact to others.  Your generation is being challenged in a special way to keep safe the deposit of Faith.”(Youth Day- 2002 Message by Pope St. John Paul II).

(iii) Salt lends flavor to food items. Job declares, “food without salt is a sadly insipid and even a sickening thing” (Job 6:6-7).  One of the main functions of salt is to season food, to give it taste and flavor.  This image reminds us that, through Baptism, our whole being has been profoundly changed, because it has been "seasoned" with the new life which comes from Christ (cf. Rom 6:4).  ‘The salt which keeps our Christian identity intact even in a very secularized world is the grace of Baptism” (Youth Day- 2002 Message by Pope St. John Paul II). Christianity lends flavor to life, although people think the opposite about us.  In a worried and depressed world, the Christian should be the one man who remains full of the joy of life, conveying it to others.  It is our duty to make the world palatable (bearable), not just to others but also to God so that He can, so to speak, continue to bear with it, in spite of its "distasteful" wickedness.  To be the salt of society also means that we are deeply concerned with its well-being.  We have to preserve the cultural values and moral principles Jesus has given us, and in this way to make a contribution to the development of cultural and social life.  Thus, we will be adding flavor to the common life.  As salt seasoned and preserved food, and as it kept a fire burning uniformly in an oven for a longer time, the disciples were to improve the tone of society ("season" it), preserve the Faith, and extend the fire of the Spirit through their evangelization efforts.

Are we insipid salt?  Jesus went on to say that, if salt became insipid, it was fit only to be thrown out and trodden on by men.  Usually salt does not lose its flavor and its saltiness.  But when mixed with impurities, salt can lose its ability to enhance flavor.  We, too, might lose our ability to be a "flavoring agent" for the world if we allow "impurities" into our lives (1 Cor 15:33). Therefore, we need to keep ourselves free from sin (Eph 5:3-7). Blocks of cow dung, mixed with salt and other animal manure and dried in the sun, served as fuel for outdoor ovens in the time of Jesus. When the fuel paddies were lit in an oven, the mixed-in salt would help the paddies burn longer, with a more even heat.  When the family spent the salt-dung block, they would throw it out onto the road to harden a muddy surface.  As the salt of the earth, the Christians keep the fire of Faith alive even under stress. If Christian "salt" loses its "flavor," its “uselessness” invites disaster. If a Christian is not fulfilling his purpose as a Christian, if he or she does not bring to life the purity, the antiseptic power and flavor of salt, then he or she invites disaster.  His, or hers, is the fate of the repentant and returned apostate Jew in the Jewish community and the repentant apostate in the early Church. As penance for this sin, each had to lie across the door of the synagogue or Church and invite people to trample upon him/her as they entered. Today, there is a new, non-irritating, brand of Christianity around. It is without offense and without effect. Ah, but dear friends, Jesus didn’t call us to be the “sugar of the world.” He called us to be the “salt of the earth.”

The light of the world: The metaphor of light is often used in the Bible.  The Jews spoke of Jerusalem as “a light to the Gentiles.”  But Jerusalem does not produce its own light.  It is God who lights the lamp of Israel.  Moreover, Jerusalem cannot hide its light.  When Jesus commanded his followers to be the light of the world, he demanded nothing less than that they should be like him, the One who claimed to be the Light of the world.  "As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world" (Jn 9:5).  Christ is the "true" or "original" Light (Jn 8:12).  Citizens of the kingdom are simply "luminaries" reflecting the One True Light, just as the moon reflects the light of the sun (2 Cor 4:6).  The radiance which shines from the Christian comes from the presence of Christ within the Christian's heart as the radiance of a ‘radiant bride’ comes from the love in her heart.  Christians are to be torch-bearers in a dark world.  We should not try to hide the light which God has lit in our lives.  Rather, we should let it shine so that others may see our good deeds and praise God.  St. Paul exhorts the Christians in Philippi “to be blameless and innocent in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world” (Phil 2: 15).

The role of Christians as Christ’s light of the world. (i) A light is something which is meant to be seen.  (The lamp in Palestine was like a sauce-boat full of oil with a wick floating in it.  When people went out, for safety's sake they took the lamp from its stand and put it under an earthen bushel measure, so that it might burn without risk until they came back).  Christians must be visible like a "city" on a hilltop and a lamp on a "lamp stand."  Jesus therefore expects His followers to be seen by the world (Jn 13:35; 17:21). In addition, they must radiate and give light.  "Let your light shine before men" (Mt 5:16).  By this metaphor Jesus means that our Christianity should be visible in the ordinary activities of the world, for example, in the way we treat a shop assistant across the counter, in the way we order a meal in a restaurant, in the way we treat our employees or serve our employer, in the way we play a game or drive or park a motor car, in the daily language we use, in the daily literature we read.

(ii) A lamp or light is a guide to make clear the way.  So then, a Christian must make the way clear to others.  That is to say, a Christian must of necessity be an example.  “The light which Jesus speaks of in the Gospel is the light of Faith, God’s free gift, which enlightens the heart and clarifies the mind.  It is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ Who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:6).  Our personal encounter with Christ bathes life in new light, sets us on the right path, and sends us out to be his witnesses.” (Youth Day message by Pope St. John Paul II).  It is the Christian's duty to take a stand which the weaker brother will support, to give the lead which those with less courage will follow.  The world needs its guiding lights.  There are people waiting and longing for a leader to take a stand and to do the thing which they do not dare by themselves.

iii) A light can often be a warning light.  A light is often the warning which tells us to halt when there is danger ahead.  It is sometimes the Christian's duty to bring to his fellowmen a necessary warning.  If our warnings are given, not in anger, not in irritation, not in criticism, not in condemnation, but in love, they will be effective.  

iv) Light exposes everything hidden by darkness.  Note Jn 3:19; 1 Cor 4:5; Eph 5:8–11.  When our teens, baptized and confirmed, get pregnant and do drugs at the same rate as the general teenage population; when our marriages end in divorce at the same rate as the rest of society; when we cheat in business, or lie, steal, and cheat on our spouses at the same statistical level as those who say they are not Christians -- something is wrong.  Let us pause for a moment and ask ourselves whether we are the light which can be seen, the light which warns, the light which guides: these are the lights which the Christian must be.

Life messages: 1) We need to act as salt and light by sharing in Christ's ministry as priest, prophet, and king.  As priest, Christ offered a sacrifice of love to the Father.  What sacrifices of love do we offer to the Father? We can offer our married, single, or family life, work, outreach to others, and even relaxation along with our prayers and suffering to God.  We can offer them at any time, but the best time is at Mass when we offer ourselves with Christ to the Father.  As prophet, Christ proclaimed the Good News of salvation.  He also calls us to evangelize others (both fellow-Catholics and non-Catholics), by word and example, at home and at work.  We bear witness most effectively when others see the difference Christ has made in our lives, shining through us as the Light which can be seen, the Light which warns, and the Light which guides.  Finally, as King, Christ became servant to all through His Self-giving.  He also calls us to give of ourselves so the workplace and the home may become more humane. He calls us to serve in our parishes so they can grow and become more alive.  He calls us to integrate our Christian Faith into our daily lives so that our service may be His service to others. So we make a difference as Christians when we offer ourselves to God, when we proclaim the Good News in word and example, and when we serve others.  God calls us to worship, to witness, and to give.

2) We need to live our short lives as traces of salt and candles of light: It only takes a sprinkling of salt to transform a dull and tasteless piece of meat.  Just a little salt transforms everything.  Just a pinch of soul-salt will add flavor to the lives of hundreds, or even thousands.  Just as salt acts as a preservative and adds flavor to food, so the exemplary lives of Christians lend flavor to life by helping people to live correctly and by keeping society wholesome. Just a little light empties the world of darkness.  With a little Faith and love we can light up a big social area.  Does that encourage us?  It should. We may think we’re insignificant –  and in a way we are – but with a little bit of Christ, we become a veritable lighthouse, illuminating the way for many.  This Christ-light removes the darkness caused by hatred, spite and jealousy. Our good deeds and actions reflect the image of Jesus, the light of the world. We can speak with kindness and respect, we can value ourselves, we can tell the truth and we can use our talents. We can listen and talk, we can engage in dialogue and we can come to know people of different ethnic backgrounds, people with different lifestyles and sexual preferences, people of other faiths and people of no faith – and this will bring the light of Christ to illumine and change the world.  Salt is a hidden but powerful influence.  Light is a visible and revealing influence.  Jesus tells us that we are not only to be the salt of the earth but also the light of the world.  We are called to make a tangible impact on the world around us.  Does our life make a difference?  It should.  Jesus said we are to be salt and light.  Does our life make a difference?  It can, if we surrender ourselves to Christ.  Does our life make a difference?  If we live for Him, it will! 

Dr. James Stewart, a great British preacher, once said: “The greatest threat to Christianity is not communism, atheism, materialism, or humanism. It is Christians trying to sneak into Heaven incognito without ever sharing their Faith, without ever living out the Christian life as salt of the earth and light of the world.” This is exactly the problem Jesus was trying to remedy with the part of the Sermon on the Mount on the Beatitudes.

A little boy was taken by his mother to see a famous cathedral. On the windows were the pictures of various Christians. As he was watching the sunbeams shining through the stained-glass windows, he asked his mother, "Who are those people on the windows?" She said, "They're saints." The little boy looked at the windows and said, "Well, now I know what saints are. They are people who let the light shine through." That little boy got it right. That's what a saint is-someone who lets the light of Jesus shine through his life.

(Source: Homilies of Fr. Anthony Kadavil)

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(Vatican Radio) Educating for peace is the theme of a proposed joint document to be drawn up by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the World Council of Churches’ Office of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation.

The proposal was the main subject under discussion at a meeting of staff members of the Pontifical Council and colleagues from the WCC office this week. During the encounter in the Vatican on Monday and Tuesday, participants also discussed recent and future activities, underlining the urgency of interfaith dialogue “in today’s global context”.

Below please find the full statement:

The staff-members of the Office of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation (IRDC) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) as well as their colleagues from the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID), held their annual meeting at the PCID Offices on 30th-31st January 2017.

Both the delegations expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to meet a few days after the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. They gave thanks to God for their friendship and fruitful cooperation in promoting constructive relations with individuals and communities belonging to other religious traditions.

The principle agenda of the meeting was to discuss and to deliberate upon a proposed joint document on Education for Peace, following similar joint projects in the past.

It was followed by the exchange of news and views on their respective activities over the past year and planned activities.

Both the PCID and the IRDC agreed to continue their collaboration, in particular, the work relating to the joint document on Education for Peace, given the urgency of the matter in today’s global context.

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Vatican City, Jan 31, 2017 / 08:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Jesus wasn’t worried about his polling results, Pope Francis said Tuesday – instead, he was concerned with each and every person, seeing everything about them, even those things which were seemingly small or inconsequential.

“Statisticians might have been inclined to publish: ‘Rabbi Jesus’ popularity is falling.’ But he sought something else: he sought people,” the Pope said Jan. 31 during Mass at Casa Santa Marta.

“And the people sought him. The people had their gaze fixed on him, and he had his fixed on them.”

People might be tempted to say, yes, Jesus looks on the people, “on the multitude,” Francis said, but no, he looks on each individual person. “This is the peculiarity of Jesus’ gaze,” he explained. “He does not standardize people; He looks at each person.”

In the book of Hebrews, it says to run the race of faith “with perseverance, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,” he said, adding that Jesus is always near us, “always in the crowd.”

“He didn’t walk around with guards to protect him, so that the people could not touch him. No, no! He stayed there and people surrounded him. And there were more people around every time Jesus went out.”

The Pope explained how Jesus’ closeness helps him to see both the big things in our lives, and also the small.

“The gaze of Jesus falls on both the big and the small. That’s how Jesus sees us all: He sees all things, but looks at each of us. He sees our big problems, our greatest joys, and also looks at the little things about us.”

After Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead, and after he healed the woman who was hemorrhaging for 12 years, people were astonished, Francis said. Likewise, if we run “with perseverance, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, we will be ‘completely astonished.’”

“I go forward, looking at Jesus. I walk ahead, keeping my gaze fixed on Jesus, and what do I find? That he has his gaze fixed on me! And that makes me feel this great astonishment. This is the astonishment of the encounter with Jesus,” he said.

“But let us not be afraid! We are not afraid, just as that woman was not afraid to touch Jesus’ mantle. Let us not be afraid! Let us run down this road with our gaze ever fixed on Jesus. And we will have a beautiful surprise: He will fill us with awe. Jesus himself has his gaze fixed on me.”

 

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By Carol Zimmermann

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- School choice initiatives are no longer at the back of the class raising their hand and never getting called on. Today, they are taking a front seat in education circles, state assemblies and even Washington politics.

Vouchers, tax credits and education savings accounts -- earning more state approval in recent years and optimistically looking for more gains this year -- also have some extra wind in their sails with President Donald J. Trump's campaign pledge to provide a $20 billion voucher program and his pick of a school voucher advocate as his nominee for education secretary.

Currently, 27 states and the District of Columbia have some type of school choice measure in place and a number of states have legislation on the table for this year.

The only federally funded voucher program is the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships to low-income children in Washington for tuition at participating private schools. This program is awaiting reauthorization from Congress this year.

Michael Scott, the director of the D.C. Catholic Conference, said the District of Columbia scholarship program may have a more secure future under the Trump administration and also could "trail-blaze the way for other federally funded school choice programs in the nation."

He said the program has faced "numerous political challenges" threatening to undermine it during the past 13 years. In December, Congress approved stop-gap legislation to fund the federal government through April.

This spring, the new Congress will have to approve another spending bill to keep federal agencies running through the end of the 2017 fiscal year, which ends in September.

Across the country at the state level, Catholic conferences are involved in lobbying efforts to promote school choice as a way to provide more families access to Catholic schools.

Sister Dale McDonald, a Sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the public policy and research director for the National Catholic Educational Association, said the NCEA sees school choice as a justice issue.

"We aren't meant to serve only the rich. As a church, we're committed to serving all God's people," she told Catholic News Service Jan. 26.

She said school choice initiatives primarily make Catholic schools accessible to low-income families, but there has been a concerted effort in recent years to find ways to help middle-class families similarly be able to afford a Catholic school education for their children.

Tom Chapman, executive director of the Iowa Catholic Conference, said the middle class would benefit from school choice legislation before Iowa lawmakers this year.

The state's lawmakers will consider education savings accounts that would allow parents who choose not to enroll their children in a public school to receive a deposit of public funds of about $5,500 to $6,000 in a savings account set up by the state that can be used for Catholic school tuition and fees.

Chapman said the state already has had a tax credit scholarship plan in place for about 10 years that lets individuals and corporations allocate a portion of their state taxes to private nonprofit scholarship organizations that give public and private school scholarships.

He thinks the parental school choice momentum is building in the state mainly from grass-roots efforts and he hopes the lawmakers will not see this solely as a partisan issue.

Andrew Vandiver, associate director of the Kentucky Catholic Conference, said his state is one of the few without any type of school choice legislation, but he is optimistic that a scholarship tax credit program coming before the state's general assembly in February will pass.

He said interest in the initiative has been growing and a lot of grass-roots' support is behind it. Enrollment in Catholic schools in the state includes a large number of non-Catholic students, which he said is part of the schools' mission. "We don't want this to be a luxury for the wealthy. We want it to be open for all families."

Vandiver said the nomination of Betsy DeVos as education secretary certainly raises the voucher issue in people's minds. "They feel more hopeful," he added.

Members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions grilled DeVos at her Jan. 17 confirmation hearing for her support of vouchers. She is former chairman of the American Federation for Children, a school choice advocacy group, serving from 2009 to 2016.

She told the senators: "Parents no longer believe that a one-size-fits-all model of learning fits the needs of every child."

The Senate committee was scheduled to vote on DeVos' nomination Jan. 31.

During Trump's first week in office there was no discussion, or listing on the White House website, about his education plans.

Sister McDonald said if the president does follow up on his promise for a $20 billion voucher plan, which she said will likely be in the form of state grants, it would be something the NCEA and Catholic conferences would want to look at carefully. If any of the proposals would force schools to violate Catholic teaching, they wouldn't take the money, she noted.

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Contributing to this story was Richard Szczepanowski from the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington.

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Follow Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim.

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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Jamal Nasrallah, EPA

By Dale Gavlak

AMMAN, Jordan (CNS) -- Promised resettlement in the United States after escaping death and destruction in their homeland, many Syrian refugees are frustrated and angry over President Donald Trump's executive action banning their entry to the U.S. until further notice.

"We're frustrated. We were told that we were accepted for resettlement in the U.S., and now everything is at a standstill," a Syrian refugee woman told Catholic News Service, wiping away tears as she surveyed her crumbling home in the Jordanian capital.

"Neither the U.S. Embassy nor the International Organization for Migration have responded to our repeated telephone calls about our status or what to expect in the future," said the mother of four young children, whose family fled to Jordan in 2013 after their home was bombed. Rahma provided only her first name for fear of reprisal.

"If there is no longer any chance of being resettled in the U.S., then we would like to know whether we can apply somewhere else which will welcome us," she said.

The burden of not being able to work in Jordan over these past years has left Rahma's family desperate, unable to provide even the basic necessities of food and heating for the winter.

Refugee Abdel Hakim, a pharmacist from the southern Syrian town of Daraa, cannot contain his anger at seeing his dreams of starting a new life in the United States dashed. He and his family were far along in the approval process and expected to travel shortly from Jordan to the U.S. He called the measure "discriminatory and racist."

"In the beginning, we didn't want to leave Syria. But as it's been plunged deeper in war, we now find even the door to America has been slammed shut in our faces," he told CNS.

Trump's Jan. 27 presidential action ended indefinitely the entry of Syrian refugees to the U.S., pending a security review meant to ensure terrorists cannot slip through the vetting process. As well, it suspended the entire U.S. refugee resettlement program for 120 days.

The action also slapped a 90-day ban on all entry to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries with terrorism concerns, including Syria. While Jordan is not on that list, the Middle East kingdom hosts more than 1.5 million refugees who have fled conflicts in neighboring Syria and Iraq, including flight from the so-called Islamic State militants.

"These dramatic and discriminatory policies will only harm, not help, U.S. interests and our national security," Jesuit Refugee Service-USA said in a statement criticizing the decision.

For the past 15 years, as waves of refugees fleeing the 2003 Gulf war, the Syrian civil war and those persecuted by Islamic State militants have flooded Jordan in search of a safe haven, Catholic and other churches have provided food, clothing, heating and other items, regardless of the refugees' religious background. International faith-based aid groups, such as Catholic Relief Service and Caritas, have been at the forefront of efforts helping refugees, mainly from Syria and Iraq, but also those who fled the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011.

Resource-poor Jordan has struggled to provide water and electricity, education and health services to hundreds of thousands of refugees as the grinding conflicts in their homelands show little sign of ending. Many Syrian refugees accepted for U.S. resettlement have arrived from Jordan.

More than 27,000 Syrian refugees from 11 Middle Eastern host countries were under consideration for resettlement to the U.S. and in various stages of the approval process at the time of Trump's action, according to the International Organization for Migration, a U.N.-related agency that interviews and prepares refugees for resettlement.

Quickly, the measure sparked mass protests at U.S. airports and other venues, where people demanded its repeal. Angry demonstrators criticized the ban as completely contrary to America's ideals and its storied history of accepting immigrants fleeing persecution in search of a better life.

King Abdullah II of Jordan visited Washington Jan. 30, becoming the first Arab leader to meet members of the Trump administration, including Vice President Mike Pence and the secretaries of defense and homeland security.

The king raised the controversial bans in his talks, according to an official statement, which said he "emphasized that Muslims are the No. 1 victims" of Islamic terrorists, whom he called religious "outlaws" who "do not represent any faith or nationality."

King Abdullah will address the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 2 and is expected to meet Trump.

The monarch is considered Washington's closest Arab ally battling the Islamic State as part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria. Jordan hosts considerable U.S. military hardware and personnel, serving as a critical base for U.S. air operations against the Islamic State in Syria. It has also experienced deadly Islamic State attacks on its territory.

Jordan has also called the new administration's proposal to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem "a red line" that could evoke "catastrophic" consequences, including widespread violent unrest at home and in the region. Jordan is the custodian of Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem under a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, only one of two treaties the Jewish state has with Arab countries.

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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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