Catholic News 2
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senior State Department official asked the FBI to help last year in reducing the classification of an email from Hillary Clinton's private server, according to FBI investigative files made public Monday. It was to be part of a bargain that would have allowed the FBI to deploy more agents in foreign countries, according to the files....
WHITE PLAINS, New York (AP) -- Hillary Clinton is expanding her campaign into states Democrats haven't won in decades, a sign of confidence in her presidential prospects and mounting efforts to win control of the Senate....
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi forces have launched their most complex anti-Islamic State operation to date: retaking the country's second-largest city of Mosul....
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi and Kurdish forces launched a long-awaited offensive Monday to drive the Islamic State group out of the country's second largest city, Mosul, but the operation could take weeks, if not months, and many fear a humanitarian crisis....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- More is riding on the battle for Mosul than the recapture of the Islamic State's main stronghold in northern Iraq. Also on the line is the Obama administration's theory that the extremists can be defeated in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere without American ground troops doing the fighting....
(Vatican Radio) Following months of anti-government protests and violence from the Amhara and Oromo regions, Ethiopia has declared a state of emergency, which includes a ban of online communications. Diplomats are also restricted from traveling more than 40 km outside of the nation’s capital, Addis Ababa, without prior notice or approval. The state of emergency will last six months. Over the past year more than 500 people have died in anti-government protests, but the level of violence escalated when 55 people were killed this month at a religious festival in Bishoftu. About 60% of Ethiopia’s population has been involved in protest and civil unrest for the past year. The Ahmara and Omoro are the two largest ethnic groups in the nation and are also the majority of the protestors. International entities such as the United Nations and European Union have called for government intervention. The Bishops of the Catholic Church of Ethiopia are calling for actio...
(Vatican Radio) Following months of anti-government protests and violence from the Amhara and Oromo regions, Ethiopia has declared a state of emergency, which includes a ban of online communications.
Diplomats are also restricted from traveling more than 40 km outside of the nation’s capital, Addis Ababa, without prior notice or approval. The state of emergency will last six months.
Over the past year more than 500 people have died in anti-government protests, but the level of violence escalated when 55 people were killed this month at a religious festival in Bishoftu.
About 60% of Ethiopia’s population has been involved in protest and civil unrest for the past year. The Ahmara and Omoro are the two largest ethnic groups in the nation and are also the majority of the protestors. International entities such as the United Nations and European Union have called for government intervention. The Bishops of the Catholic Church of Ethiopia are calling for action.
The General Secretary of the Ethiopian Bishops’ Conference, Father Hagos Hayish, spoke to Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni about the recent protests and the need to create open dialogue between citizens and the government.
Listen:
Father Hagos says the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in Ethiopia has met with other religious leaders in the country to review the situation. The main goals of the encounters are to create an open dialogue and to encourage peace. He says they aim to create a link between statesmen, the youth and the 'elders' to encourage them to speak openly and address the issues instead of engaging in violence.
Fr Hagos explains that “the religious leaders in Ethiopia, together, made a request to the nation’s statesmen twice, on public media, asking the public and the government to solve this situation.”
He also says the Catholic Church has led a 30-day prayer, starting on the Ethiopian New Year on September 11. And is organizing a ‘prayer for peace’ initiative which will last an extra seven days.
Father Hagos explains that the Bishops’ Conference is involved in an interfaith council of Ethiopia, which counts seven religious leaders belonging to Christian and Muslim faiths.
He highlights that members of the council are “continuously discussing this and we are hoping that people will be able to listen to one another. Maybe after listening, we can come to the main agenda of all of these issues we are trying to understand.”
So, he says, the round table he is helping to set up will provide a platform for all the stakeholders to be able to voice their concerns and find a peaceful way to work towards a solution of dialogue and exchange.
“Our call is very inclusive, but we can’t anticipate what kind of response we will get. We are very optimistic that it will inspire the minds of Ethiopians” he says.
As regards a possible timeframe for the round table, Fr Hagos says it is too early to make that public information.
(Vatican Radio) The United Nations' agency farming and food agency, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has issued a report saying the pledge to eradicate hunger and poverty must go hand in hand with rapid transformations of farming and food systems to cope with a warmer world.Agriculture, including forestry, fisheries and livestock production, generate around a fifth of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, the FAO says, and agriculture must both contribute more to combating climate change while bracing to overcome its impacts, according to The State of Food and Agriculture 2016."There is no doubt climate change affects food security," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said while presenting the report. "What climate change does is to bring back uncertainties from the time we were all hunter gatherers. We cannot assure any more that we will have the harvest we have planted."That uncertainty also translates into ...
(Vatican Radio) The United Nations' agency farming and food agency, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has issued a report saying the pledge to eradicate hunger and poverty must go hand in hand with rapid transformations of farming and food systems to cope with a warmer world.
Agriculture, including forestry, fisheries and livestock production, generate around a fifth of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, the FAO says, and agriculture must both contribute more to combating climate change while bracing to overcome its impacts, according to The State of Food and Agriculture 2016.
"There is no doubt climate change affects food security," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said while presenting the report. "What climate change does is to bring back uncertainties from the time we were all hunter gatherers. We cannot assure any more that we will have the harvest we have planted."
That uncertainty also translates into volatile food prices, he noted. "Everybody is paying for that, not only those suffering from droughts," Graziano da Silva said.
FAO warns that a "business as usual" approach could put millions more people at risk of hunger compared to a future without climate change. Most affected would be populations in poor areas in sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia, especially those who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Future food security in many countries will worsen if no action is taken today.
Overhauling farming and food systems will be complex due to the vast number of stakeholders involved, the multiplicity of farming and food processing systems, and differences in ecosystems. Yet, efforts must begin in earnest now as the adverse impacts of climate change will only worsen with time, the report emphasizes.
"The benefits of adaptation outweigh the costs of inaction by very wide margins," emphasized Graziano da Silva.
Time for commitments to be put into action
"2016 should be about putting commitments into action," urged Graziano da Silva, noting the international community last year agreed to the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate agreement, about to come into force. Agriculture will be high on the agenda at the 22nd Conference of the Parties in Morocco starting November 7.
The FAO report underscores that success in transforming food and agriculture systems will largely depend on urgently supporting smallholders in adapting to climate change.
Developing countries are home to around half a billion smallholder farm families who produce food and other agricultural products in greatly varying agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions. Solutions have to be tailored to those conditions; there is no one-size-fits-all fix.
The FAO report describes alternative, economically viable ways of helping smallholders to adapt and making the livelihoods of rural populations — often the most exposed to the downside risks of climate change - more resilient.
The report provides evidence that adoption of ‘climate-smart' practices, such as the use of nitrogen-efficient and heat-tolerant crop varieties, zero-tillage and integrated soil fertility management would boost productivity and farmers' incomes. Widespread adoption of nitrogen-efficient practices alone would reduce the number of people at risk of undernourishment by more than 100 million, the report estimates.
It also identifies avenues to lower emission intensity from agriculture. Water-conserving alternatives to the flooding of rice paddies for example, can slash methane emissions by 45 percent, while emissions from the livestock sector can be reduced by up to 41 percent through the adoption of more efficient practices.
FAO's road map also identifies policies and financing opportunities for the sustainable intensification of agriculture.
The way forward
Negative global effects of climate change are already being felt in some cereal crop yields,. Climate change will likely lead to a loss of nutritional content of some foods, such as declining zinc, iron and protein counts in staple cereals, and trigger new health issues — including diarrhoea for humans and an array of transboundary animal diseases.
Beyond 2030, according to scientific evidence, negative pressures on food production will be increasingly felt everywhere. Until then, adverse impacts of higher temperatures are sharply skewed towards developing countries, pointing to dimmer prospects for their food self-sufficiency.
Helping smallholders adapt to climate change risks is critical for global poverty reduction and food security. Close attention should be paid to removing obstacles they may face and fostering an enabling environment for individual, joint and collective action, according to the report.
FAO urges policy makers to identify and remove such barriers. These obstacles can include input subsidies that promote unsustainable farming practices, poorly aligned incentives and inadequate access to markets, credit, extension services and social protection programmes, and often disadvantage women, who make up to 43 percent of the agricultural labour force.
The report stresses that more climate finance is needed to fund developing countries' actions on climate change. International public finance for climate change adaptation and mitigation is growing and, while still relatively small, can act as a catalyst to leverage larger flows of public and private investments. More climate finance needs to flow to sustainable agriculture, fisheries and forestry to fund the large-scale transformation and the development of climate-smart food production systems. Adaptation and mitigation of climate change must occur in tandem.
Without action, agriculture will continue to be a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. But by adopting climate-smart practices and increasing the capacity of soils and forests to sequester carbon, emissions can be reduced while stepping up food production to feed the world's growing population, the report said. Food systems can further contribute by minimizing food losses and waste, as well as by promoting healthier diets that also leave a lighter environmental footprint.
(Vatican Radio) Thousands of people rallied on Sunday in Hungary's capital Budapest for press freedom and against government corruption after the sudden closure of the country's largest leftist newspaper. Listen to the report by Stefan Bos Those attending a rally organized by civic groups and opposition parties gathered at Free Press Road, a traditional location for protests but made more symbolic by last week's closure of the largest opposition newspaper Népszabadság (People's Freedom). While the owner, publishing company Mediaworks, says last week's closure followed "considerable" losses and falling readership, critics maintain the government pressured it to close down. Though talks have been held about restarting the paper, Miklós Hargitai, a Népszabadság journalist, told protesters that he feared everyone will now lose their jobs. "Seventy people worked at the Népszabadság. Thei...
(Vatican Radio) Thousands of people rallied on Sunday in Hungary's capital Budapest for press freedom and against government corruption after the sudden closure of the country's largest leftist newspaper.
Listen to the report by Stefan Bos
Those attending a rally organized by civic groups and opposition parties gathered at Free Press Road, a traditional location for protests but made more symbolic by last week's closure of the largest opposition newspaper Népszabadság (People's Freedom).
While the owner, publishing company Mediaworks, says last week's closure followed "considerable" losses and falling readership, critics maintain the government pressured it to close down.
Though talks have been held about restarting the paper, Miklós Hargitai, a Népszabadság journalist, told protesters that he feared everyone will now lose their jobs. "Seventy people worked at the Népszabadság. Their future is in danger, despite the fact that not everyone was involved in politics. We won't let it happen," he said.
He also claimed that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's government was the only one since the 1990 end of the communist regime "which doesn't tolerate any control or criticism, not even questions" and said the Hungarian leader did not given an interview to the paper in 10 years.
WIDER CONCERNS
It comes amid wider international concerns about a perceived crackdown on critical media in Hungary, which is ruled by a right-wing government which pushed through a controversial media law.
The opposition says Hungary's media landscape has changed considerably in the last few years, with many print and online publications as well as radio and television stations coming under the control of Orbán's inner circle and showing an unquestioning pro-government line.
Opposition media have also complained that companies were allegedly pressured by the government not to advertise with them
while state advertisements, another source of revenue, were removed and placed in more pro-government outlets.
Yet Prime Minister Orbán's Fidesz party has denied wrongdoing. It insisted that the closure of the leftist Népszabadság newspaper, which existed since 1956, was purely a financial decision.
It also blamed the Socialist Party, one of whose foundations sold its minority stake to current owner Mediaworks last year, for its failure.
Southern India's Kerala state is planning to declare itself Open Defecation Free (ODF) on Nov. 1, an achievement made possible by cooperation between Catholic Church groups and the state's Communist-led government. The state government, as part of a federal campaign for a cleaner nation, hopes to eliminate open defecation by the end of October, 2016. Kerala will become the second state in India to achieve this distinction after the northeastern state of Sikkim. K. Vasuki, head of the Suchithwa (cleanliness) Mission, the government agency coordinating the campaign said church agencies and parishes played "a big role" both in facilitating the construction of toilets in such areas and changing the mindset of people who were against the idea of owning a toilet. About 50,000 self-help groups and social service organizations under 33 Catholic dioceses in the state are working with the government. Only 3 percent of h...
Southern India's Kerala state is planning to declare itself Open Defecation Free (ODF) on Nov. 1, an achievement made possible by cooperation between Catholic Church groups and the state's Communist-led government. The state government, as part of a federal campaign for a cleaner nation, hopes to eliminate open defecation by the end of October, 2016. Kerala will become the second state in India to achieve this distinction after the northeastern state of Sikkim.
K. Vasuki, head of the Suchithwa (cleanliness) Mission, the government agency coordinating the campaign said church agencies and parishes played "a big role" both in facilitating the construction of toilets in such areas and changing the mindset of people who were against the idea of owning a toilet. About 50,000 self-help groups and social service organizations under 33 Catholic dioceses in the state are working with the government. Only 3 percent of houses in Kerala are without toilets, most of them in hills or in coastal areas.
Father George Vettikkattil, executive director of Kerala Social Service Forum, said self-help groups created awareness about the need to end the practice of open defecation. Vasuki said about 90 percent of the 190,000 toilets needed to achieve "open defecation free status" have been constructed in Kerala. Six of the 14 districts have already declared an end to open defecation. The government plans to declare the entire state ODF on Nov. 1, when the state celebrates 61 years since it was formed.
Eliminating open defecation India by 2nd October 2019 – the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi – is one of the key aims of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan movement launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi two years ago on Gandhi's birthday. According to the Swachhta Status Report 2015, more than half of the rural population (52.1 per cent) of the country still defecates in open. As of August 2016, only 17 of Indian 685 districts have been declared ODF by the government. Of the more than 600,000 villages in India, 54,732 were declared ODF as of 31st March 2016. These figures are sourced from responses to parliament questions. (Source: UCAN and others)
(Vatican Radio) The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced it will be holding its next meeting from November 14th to 16th, in Baltimore for the fall general assembly.A statement from the USCCB said that during the assembly, the bishops will elect a new president, vice president, and five committee chairs. In addition, they will discuss and vote on the Conference’s strategic plan for 2017-2020, and will receive a report and recommendations on promoting peace in violence-stricken communities.The bishops will hear from Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, as he gives his final address as USCCB president upon completion of his three-year termThe bishops will also vote for new chairmen-elect of the following five USCCB committees: Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, Committee on International Justice and Peace, and the Committee on th...
(Vatican Radio) The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced it will be holding its next meeting from November 14th to 16th, in Baltimore for the fall general assembly.
A statement from the USCCB said that during the assembly, the bishops will elect a new president, vice president, and five committee chairs. In addition, they will discuss and vote on the Conference’s strategic plan for 2017-2020, and will receive a report and recommendations on promoting peace in violence-stricken communities.
The bishops will hear from Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, as he gives his final address as USCCB president upon completion of his three-year term
The bishops will also vote for new chairmen-elect of the following five USCCB committees: Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, Committee on International Justice and Peace, and the Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People.
Additionally, the bishops will discuss and vote on the Conference’s 2017-2020 strategic plan, Encountering the Mercy of Christ and Accompanying His People with Joy, to support the five priorities approved last November. The priorities are:
• Evangelization: Open wide the doors to Christ through missionary discipleship and personal encounter.
• Family and marriage: Encourage and heal families; inspire Catholics to embrace the sacrament of matrimony.
• Human life and dignity: Uphold the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death with special concern for the poor and vulnerable.
• Vocations and ongoing formation: Encourage vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life, and provide meaningful ongoing formation to clergy, religious and lay ministers.
• Religious freedom: Promote and defend the freedom to serve, witness and worship, in the U.S. and abroad.
Several reports will also be given including an update from the USCCB Task Force to Promote Peace in Our Communities.
An update will also be given on planning preparations for the upcoming Convocation of Catholic Leaders, The Joy of the Gospel in America. The Convocation is scheduled to take place from July 1st to 4th, 2017 in Orlando, Florida.
