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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. last year had drawn attention from U.S. government officials even before that now-famous encounter for her work fighting U.S. sanctions that had angered the Kremlin....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration slapped 18 Iranian individuals and groups with sanctions Tuesday for aiding the country's non-nuclear weapons programs, in a bid to show that President Donald Trump is staying tough on Iran despite his moves to let the nuclear deal stay in place for now....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a budget that proposes trillions of dollars in cuts to the social safety net and other domestic programs while sharply boosting military spending, a blueprint that elicited criticism from conservatives and moderates....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump blasted congressional Democrats and "a few Republicans" Tuesday over the collapse of the GOP effort to rewrite the Obama health care law. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed a vote on a backup plan simply repealing the statute, but that idea was on the brink of rejection, too....
(Vatican Radio) Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio to the United Nations, on Monday spoke to the UN on the role of religious figures and communities in the elimination of poverty and promotion of peace.He made the distinction between religious and political leaders, saying “they do not pretend to be who and what they are not.”Archbishop Auza said religious leaders “are primarily there to call and inspire people to action, and to remind them of the deeper meaning of and reasons for their action, furnishing the ‘reasons for the hope that is in them,’ as Saint Peter would describe it in his First Letter.”He said indicators of sustainable development towards peace would be “qualitative, not quantitative”.“More specifically, they will be ethical, evidenced in forming persons and peoples one at a time to become better men and women, boys and girls, those who see themselves as their brothers’ and sisters’ k...
(Vatican Radio) Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio to the United Nations, on Monday spoke to the UN on the role of religious figures and communities in the elimination of poverty and promotion of peace.
He made the distinction between religious and political leaders, saying “they do not pretend to be who and what they are not.”
Archbishop Auza said religious leaders “are primarily there to call and inspire people to action, and to remind them of the deeper meaning of and reasons for their action, furnishing the ‘reasons for the hope that is in them,’ as Saint Peter would describe it in his First Letter.”
He said indicators of sustainable development towards peace would be “qualitative, not quantitative”.
“More specifically, they will be ethical, evidenced in forming persons and peoples one at a time to become better men and women, boys and girls, those who see themselves as their brothers’ and sisters’ keepers and respond accordingly”.
Please find below the full address:
Intervention of Archbishop Bernardito Auza Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, on Mobilizing Religious Communities to Act with Solidarity and Shared Responsibility to End Poverty and Promote Peace
Side Event Hosted by Religions for Peace during the 2017 High Level Political Forum
United Nations Plaza, New York, 17 July 2017
Secretary General Vendley, Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Panelists, Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am grateful for the invitation this afternoon to participate in this important conversation on how to mobilize religious communities to act with solidarity and shared responsibility to help those we serve and the whole international community better to grasp the ethical principles for sustainable development and inspire them to collaborate with greater energy and effectiveness in lifting people out of poverty, fostering peace, and implementing the other pillars of the 2030 Agenda.
In my remarks, I would like to share some thoughts mainly on the ethical basis for development, namely the underlying principles why religious communities must mobilize in solidarity to end poverty and promote peace.
I believe that the greatest long-term contribution religious believers and faith-based organizations will collectively and generously offer toward the implementation of the Sustainable Development Agenda will not be the sum of the enormous work they carry out and will continue to do on the ground, in alleviating poverty, feeding the hungry, providing health care, educating multitudes from elementary schools through universities and beyond, promoting the dignity of women and especially their indispensable service as mothers, caring for our water and environment, engaging in peacemaking and peacebuilding, and so many other noble activities.
It will rather be their service as leaven for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), today until 2030 and way beyond, in the way they show the deeper anthropological and ethical reasons why our religious communities are indeed mobilizing in solidarity and responsibility in such a concerted way.
The SDGs are not ends in themselves, but means, means to bring about the true good of persons and peoples through care for our common home and all our roommates in that common home. We are living at a time in which many, especially in developed nations and here at the United Nations, like to bracket the most important questions, like those about who we are, where we come from, where we’re going, how we should treat each other, and what is good, true, and genuinely beautiful. While different religious traditions may answer these questions in slightly different ways, these foundational questions — and our answers to them —help the world not to forget about them and how important they are.
Within the specific context of the sustainable development agenda, if we lose sight of these fundamental human coordinates, there’s the serious risk that the SDGs may be understood in only partial ways, through excessively economic, environmental, or sociological lenses, while missing their deeper ethical and anthropological context and purposes. Just like anything good can be misused, if we exclude from our conversations these deeper questions about the why behind-the-what of sustainable development, then the enormous international infrastructure for peace and development could end up actually being used in some circumstances to undermine the very peace and development they were designed to advance. This could happen in particular if the SDGs become wedded, in practice, to inadequate materialistic, individualistic, or hedonistic philosophies that not only leave some behind but intentionally exclude some of our fellow human beings, especially those most vulnerable or inconvenient, from our care and concern.
That’s why it’s essential for religious leaders, communities and believers to help provide, with courage and perseverance, what we could call the “soul” or “conscience” of the sustainable development agenda. In an age of epistemological and ethical relativism, we need to help people retain a notion of the true and good. Similarly, when leaders — whether politicians or those wrapped in a religious mantle — try to instrumentalize religion for purposes incompatible with loving concern for God and neighbor, and scandalously impugn the essential nature of religion and the enormous good believers and faith based organizations do for individuals, communities and the world, we must correct them and correct the record.
This principle is easy to see when religious leaders incite followers toward atrocity crimes, as many of us were able to ponder together last Friday afternoon in the ECOSOC Chamber at the launch of the Plan of Action for Religious Leaders and Actors to Prevent Incitement to Violence that Could Lead to Atrocity Crime. But it’s likewise present when religious leaders mislead those who follow them toward treating those of other races as beneath their care, or similarly those on the move from other countries, those who are physically or mentally handicapped, those whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by pollution, or rising oceans, or increasing desertification, or those who are in the womb or at the end of life whose dignity is treated as lesser quality and undeserving of maximal reverence and protection. Religious believers and communities must, I repeat, remain the soul or conscience of the sustainable development agenda.
Religious leaders are not political leaders or social scientists, and they do not pretend to be who and what they are not. They are not primarily there to measure goals and targets through scientific indicators. They are primarily there to call and inspire people to action, and to remind them of the deeper meaning of and reasons for their action, furnishing the “reasons for the hope that is in them,” as Saint Peter would describe it in his First Letter. Through the prism of their primarily spiritual and moral mission, religious leaders, believers, religions and faith-based organizations care for the flourishing of the entire human person. Striving for authentic human development, they do not compartmentalize development, but work for the integral development of each human person and of the whole human person. Because human progress is an integral part of their vision and mission, besides places of worship they also construct community-building centers, hospitals, schools and universities. In a word, what they do and will keep doing to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals is the outward expression of their religious beliefs and moral principles. Religious leaders, believes and communities of believers work to protect life and the environment, to empower the weak and the oppressed. They help populations develop their natural resources responsibly and protect them from the exploitation of powerful economic and political interests. They are creative in lifting the poor out of poverty in all its forms and breaking walls of exclusion. Locally rooted, they have first-hand knowledge of the many forms of poverty and inequalities; they have grassroots-level credibility; they can easily find on-the ground personnel who know well their programs. Their grassroots presence favors dialogue among grassroots groups. Universally networked, they are effective advocates of international causes like the eradication of extreme poverty and the care for our common home.
Religions believe and proclaim that peace is essential to development. All studies indicate that countries and regions in conflict have regressed instead of progressing. As Pope Paul VI affirmed in 1967, development is the new name for peace. 1 Building peace requires pursuing development. Without pretentions of economic and political domination, religions and faithbased organizations are generally seen as impartial brokers in this crucial form of peace building.
Pope Francis has been seeking to contribute to this through proposing to the world an ethics based on what he calls an “integral ecology,” something he believes is the necessary foundation for integral and sustainable development (LS 18). We are facing, he wrote in Laudato Si’, not independent crises afflicting the environment on the one hand and the poor, vulnerable and marginalized on the other, but rather “one complex crisis that is both social and environmental” that demands “an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature” (LS 139).
In his September 2015 address to the UN General Assembly, Pope Francis underlined that “the misuse and destruction of the environment are also accompanied by a relentless process of exclusion,” and said that this has its roots in “a selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity that leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged.” He labeled this selfish consumerism a “culture of waste” and said it flows from a type of spiritual amnesia: we have forgotten that there is a Creator and therefore have lost a sense of wonder and reverence about how we, others human beings, other species and our common home are all related to the Creator. When we fail to see in a clear and healthy way that we are creatures in relation to a Creator and to each other, he says, we are susceptible to the sickness of viewing ourselves as masters entitled to plunder nature and treat others however we see fit (LS 2).
How important it is for religious leaders and believers to help restore the world to what lies behind the sensible, to the recognition that there is a Creator whose existence is knowable also by reason, and that this fact ought to influence the way we treat each and every one of that Creator’s creations. This is, and has to be, the joint work of religious communities in support of not just the fruits but also the roots of sustainable development.
The most important “indicators” assessing genuinely sustainable development are not going to be realized through UN negotiations or through the hard work of the UN’s statistical commission. They will not involve disaggregated data of how many have been lifted out of poverty or how many toxins have been eliminated from our air or water. The most important indicators of progress toward genuinely sustainable development will be qualitative, not quantitative. More specifically, they will be ethical, evidenced in forming persons and peoples one at a time to become better men and women, boys and girls, those who see themselves as their brothers’ and sisters’ keepers and respond accordingly, those who grasp that they are not masters but stewards entrusted with protecting and developing the gift of creation to leave it better for succeeding generations than they have received it.
The more religious leaders are able to partner with each other, the better they will be serving the peoples of the world and collaborating effectively with the international community in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Agenda. This is because religious communities’ most important contribution will be helping everyone to see both the causes of the present crises we’re working together to solve as we seek to eradicate the culture of waste at the heart of the problem and as well as the solution: namely an integral ecology that will lead to integral and sustainable development and to the mobilization in solidarity and responsibility necessary to make that integral ecology a reality.
Thank you very much for your kind attention.
1 Populorum Progressio n. 76.
(Vatican Radio) Each year, on 18th July, we mark “Nelson Mandela International Day” in recognition of the former South African President’s contribution to the culture of peace and freedom.For 67 years Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity - as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker and the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa.The Day, which falls on Mandela’s birthday, was declared by the UN Assembly. It invites individuals to honor his leadership and his commitment to promoting social justice by taking action and make a difference in their communities.Linda Bordoni asked the South African Ambassador to the Holy See, George Johannes, who spent years as a political activist and in exile as a militant of the outlawed African National Congress before becoming part of the nation’s first democratically elected Government, to share some of his memories of Nelson Mandela, the...
(Vatican Radio) Each year, on 18th July, we mark “Nelson Mandela International Day” in recognition of the former South African President’s contribution to the culture of peace and freedom.
For 67 years Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity - as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker and the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa.
The Day, which falls on Mandela’s birthday, was declared by the UN Assembly. It invites individuals to honor his leadership and his commitment to promoting social justice by taking action and make a difference in their communities.
Linda Bordoni asked the South African Ambassador to the Holy See, George Johannes, who spent years as a political activist and in exile as a militant of the outlawed African National Congress before becoming part of the nation’s first democratically elected Government, to share some of his memories of Nelson Mandela, the man:
Listen:
“I think - the Ambassador said regarding the meaning of a day such as this - it’s a great recognition of the status of the person and of the impact that he had.”
And looking up to him as to someone with the moral authority and power to inspire and bring about change as we do with people like Saint John Paul II, Mother Teresa and Archbishop Romero, he said Mandela is certainly someone “who has been recognized internationally, and that is why the Day has been set aside as a special day.”
Ambassador Johannes goes on to speak of the legacy of the man we affectionately refer to as ‘Madiba’ saying it is a legacy that touched, and continues to touch, many people, of all ages, races and religions across the world.
The Ambassador, who was a political activist with the African National Congress and then worked in the government of President Mandela, meeting with him on many occasions, recalls at length the struggles, from the 1950s on, the evolution, the imprisonment and the remarkable moral stature, charism and leadership of a man who – almost miraculously – avoided bloodshed and ruin and united all South Africans under the banner and the vision of a new South Africa: the Rainbow Nation.
He also speaks of Mandela’s personality describing him as a very disciplined person who never cow-towed to anybody: “he got up very early, he meditated, he exercised and he wrote and he did hard labor in the quarries of Robben Island. At the same time he was ‘the leader’ while being subjected to the deprivation of freedom, humiliation, physical suffering and personal tragedy.”
“I believe he did all the right things, like when he came into power he created a Government of National Unity, and his understanding was that everyone had a right to have their view heard” he said.
The Ambassador also says that in his view the way to honor Nelson Mandela’s legacy is to “remember what he did and ask ourselves ‘what can we take out of all of that?’”.
That’s why, he said, in South Africa the 18th of July is a Day of Action which invites everyone to do something for the nation.
People, he said, take food to the poor, spend time with the aged or do anything that is useful and uplifting for the community.
The Ambassador points out that next year – 2018 – marks 100 years since Mandela’s birth and he foresees special celebrations for that occasion.
He concludes looking ahead to 2018 when plans to organize an important celebration of this day here at the Vatican, with lectures and interventions from Vatican and political authorities, but also with singing and dancing “the Madiba way” as Nelson Mandela himself would have liked to do!
Gunmen in restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo kidnapped two Catholic priests in an area at the center of over two years of massacres by unknown assailants, the country's conference of bishops said on Monday.The two priests -- Charles Kipasa and Jean-Pierre Akilimali -- were taken from Our Lady of the Angels parish in Bunyuka, located between the towns of Butembo and Beni, by a group of around 10 assailants just before 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Sunday."Priests are men of God who devote their lives to the good of the population without a political agenda. To hurt them is to harm the community they serve," the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) said in a statement.CENCO called upon the security forces to do everything possible to free the men. Three other priests, abducted in the same area in October 2012, still have not been freed, the statement said.Congo's mineral-rich eastern borderlands, a tinderbox of ethnic tensions, has for more than two dec...
Gunmen in restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo kidnapped two Catholic priests in an area at the center of over two years of massacres by unknown assailants, the country's conference of bishops said on Monday.
The two priests -- Charles Kipasa and Jean-Pierre Akilimali -- were taken from Our Lady of the Angels parish in Bunyuka, located between the towns of Butembo and Beni, by a group of around 10 assailants just before 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Sunday.
"Priests are men of God who devote their lives to the good of the population without a political agenda. To hurt them is to harm the community they serve," the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) said in a statement.
CENCO called upon the security forces to do everything possible to free the men. Three other priests, abducted in the same area in October 2012, still have not been freed, the statement said.
Congo's mineral-rich eastern borderlands, a tinderbox of ethnic tensions, has for more than two decades been the theatre of successive wars and rebellions.
Beni has been among the most volatile zones in the last two years. A series of nighttime massacres that began in October 2014, mostly carried out with hatchets and machetes by unidentified assailants, has killed hundreds of civilians.
Over 930 prisoners were freed last month in an attack on the town's main prison that also killed 11 people. Another dozen people were killed when a so-called Mai-Mai militia coalition launched raids on the city center.
KINSHASA, July 17 (Reuters)
Indianapolis, Ind., Jul 18, 2017 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Many couples spend thousands of dollars on their dream wedding. But what happens when you have to call it all off?Faced with the question that no bride or groom would ever want to answer, Sarah Cummins and Logan Araujo had to decide what to do with the $30,000 non-refundable wedding reception they were left with after calling off their wedding for undisclosed reasons."It was really devastating," Cummins told the IndyStar. And besides getting some money back on the photographer, everything else seemed like sunk cost."I called everyone, canceled, apologized, cried, called vendors, cried some more and then I started feeling really sick about just throwing away all the food I ordered for the reception," she said.After checking with Araujo, Cummins decided to invite people from four local homeless shelters to enjoy a fancy dinner and reception at the Ritz Charles in Carmel, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis...
Indianapolis, Ind., Jul 18, 2017 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Many couples spend thousands of dollars on their dream wedding. But what happens when you have to call it all off?
Faced with the question that no bride or groom would ever want to answer, Sarah Cummins and Logan Araujo had to decide what to do with the $30,000 non-refundable wedding reception they were left with after calling off their wedding for undisclosed reasons.
"It was really devastating," Cummins told the IndyStar. And besides getting some money back on the photographer, everything else seemed like sunk cost.
"I called everyone, canceled, apologized, cried, called vendors, cried some more and then I started feeling really sick about just throwing away all the food I ordered for the reception," she said.
After checking with Araujo, Cummins decided to invite people from four local homeless shelters to enjoy a fancy dinner and reception at the Ritz Charles in Carmel, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. She hoped to fill the 170 spots they had reserved for guests.
"For me, it was an opportunity to let these people know they deserved to be at a place like this just as much as everyone else does," Cummins said.
She even arranged bus transportation to the venue from the various shelters, and greeted the guests as they arrived. She almost didn’t go, thinking it might be too painful, but changed her mind after one of the homeless program directors said they couldn’t wait to meet her.
"Thank you for having us," one of the guests, a homeless veteran, told Cummins as he arrived. "It means more than you know."
Cummins’ mother, along with some of her would-be bridesmaids, were also in attendance.
The guests dressed in their best and dined on the on hors d'oeuvres of bourbon-glazed meatballs, goat cheese and roasted garlic bruschetta, and the main dish of chicken breast with artichokes and Chardonnay cream sauce.
Cummins’ generosity inspired others, including Matt Guanzon of Indianapolis, who donated some suits from his own closet and recruited others to do the same, including a tailor and a gown shop, which contributed suits, dresses, and accessories.
Not much had changed about the routine of the reception, besides cutting the cake in the kitchen, and removing the head table.
Ritz center development director Cheryl Herzog was so touched by Cummins’ generosity that she reached out to the IndyStar about the story.
"I was so touched that Sarah had taken a painful experience and turned it into a joyful one for families in need," Herzog said. "It is truly a very kind gesture on her part."
Guest Erik Jensen, from a local mission, said it was “a great time."
"It's just a really great opportunity for us, that was going to be a huge tragedy in her life," he said.
"It's a great opportunity to spread love. Being homeless is kind of a big loss for all of these guys. This is just a very nice thing to do."
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Two former executives of the Vatican's pediatric hospital are going on trial on charges they diverted 422,000 euros ($485,000) in hospital donations to renovate the retirement home of the Catholic Church's retired second-in-command....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a 10-year budget blueprint that would dramatically increase military spending while putting the GOP on record favoring Medicare cuts opposed by President Donald Trump....
