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Vatican City, Oct 14, 2016 / 10:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Friday Pope Francis expressed his sorrow to learn of the death of the King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died Thursday at a hospital in Bangkok.

“I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and I extend my heartfelt condolences to the Members of the Royal Family and to all the people of the Kingdom at this sorrowful time,” the Pope’s letter to the Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha read.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, reigned over the Kingdom of Thailand since 1946 and was the longest-reigning living monarch in the world at the time of his death. He is also the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history.

“I pray that, as a fitting tribute to the late King's legacy of wisdom, strength and fidelity, all Thais may work together to further the path of peace, and I willingly invoke upon all who mourn his passing the consolation of divine blessings,” the Pope’s letter stated.

King Adulyadej died just before 4 p.m. local time on Oct. 13 in the capital city of Bangkok. He had been in poor health for some time, and had spent most of the past six years in Bangkok's Siriraj hospital.

There is no official state religion in Thailand, guaranteeing religious freedom in the country, although the king is required by law to be Buddhist. The population of Thailand is a majority Buddhist at 93.2 percent with Muslims making up the next largest religious demographic.

As of 2014, there were only about 400,000 Catholics in Thailand, out of a population of 65 million.

King Adulyadej was highly respected and beloved throughout Thailand. A police spokesman told CNN that it was estimated over 100,000 people were at the Grand Palace to witness the King's funeral ceremony Oct. 14.

The monarch of Thailand had a positive relationship with the Vatican. In 1960 the he, along with the Queen of Thailand, visited St. Pope John XXIII while on a trip to Europe. During the visit, the King invited the Pope to visit Thailand.

St. Pope John Paul II’s visit to Thailand in 1984 was, in part, a fulfillment of that invitation. While there, St. John Paul II met with the King and with refugees at the Phanat Nikhom camp in Thailand. He also visited a Buddhist temple, making him the first pope to ever do so.

On May 11, 2014, the bishops of the 10 dioceses of Thailand were received by King Adulyadej at the royal palace where he was presented with relics of both St. John XXIII and St John Paul II, one month after they were both canonized together by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square.

The relics, a vial of blood from St. John Paul II and a small piece of skin from St. John XXIII, remain in Thailand and rotate among parishes throughout the country.

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Washington D.C., Oct 14, 2016 / 11:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Following a leaked email from prominent political actors about a possible “Catholic Spring” movement to plant “seeds of the revolution” within the Church, the U.S. bishops' conference has rebuked interference in the Church and a political discourse that marginalizes the faithful and demeans women.

“There have been recent reports that some may have sought to interfere in the internal life of the Church for short-term political gain,” said Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, the U.S. bishops’ conference president. “If true, this is troubling both for the well-being of faith communities and the good of our country.”

“In our faith and our Church, Christ has given us a precious gift. As Catholics, we hold onto our beliefs because they come to us from Jesus, not a consensus forged by contemporary norms,” he said Oct. 13.

“We also expect public officials to respect the rights of people to live their faith without interference from the state,” the archbishop continued. “When faith communities lose this right, the very idea of what it means to be an American is lost.”

Archbishop Kurtz did not directly mention the controversy over a leaked email exchange from Feb. 10-11, 2012 between Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s current campaign manager, John Podesta, and Sandy Newman, president of the progressive organization Voices for Progress.

Newman appears to have initiated the email exchange, titled “Opening for a Catholic Spring? Just musing.” He cited the controversy over Catholic objections to mandatory coverage of contraception in employers’ insurance plans, which would force Catholics to provide drugs, including some abortion-causing drugs, the use of which they recognize as sinful and unethical.

“There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic church,” Newman said, asking whether contraception coverage could be a rally point for such a movement.

Newman told Podesta he has a “total lack of understanding of the Catholic Church,” adding, “Even if the idea isn't crazy, I don't qualify to be involved and I have not thought at all about how one would ‘plant the seeds of the revolution,’ or who would plant them. Just wondering…”

Podesta’s email suggested that two political organizations were intended for such advocacy.

“We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this. But I think it lacks the leadership to do so now,” he said. “Likewise Catholics United. Like most Spring movements, I think this one will have to be bottom up.”

Podesta suggested consultation with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lt. Governor of Maryland and daughter of Robert F. Kennedy. Townsend has served on the board of the National Catholic Reporter and gave a 2008 keynote address to the national conference of Call to Action, which dissents from Church teaching on issues of sexuality and women’s ordination.

The emails were released by the anti-secrecy site Wikileaks as part of an ongoing leak of emails reputedly hacked from Podesta’s email account. Podesta has echoed rumors that Russian intelligence officials were responsible for the hack. He has further alleged that some of the emails may not be authentic.

For Archbishop Kurtz, the controversy was a time to reflect on the state of political life.

“Politicians, their staffs and volunteers should reflect our best aspirations as citizens. Too much of our current political discourse has demeaned women and marginalized people of faith,” he said. “This must change. True to the best hopes of our founding fathers, we are confident that we can and will do better as a nation.”

He encouraged Catholics and all people of good will to be “good stewards” of the rights of Americans.

“The Gospel is offered for all people for all times. It invites us to love our neighbor and live in peace with one another,” the archbishop continued. “For this reason, the truth of Christ is never outdated or inaccessible. The Gospel serves the common good, not political agendas.”

The political players involved in the email exchange have had great influence. Newman, the originator of the “Catholic Spring” suggestion, once hired a young Barack Obama to run a voter registration project in Illinois in 1993.

Podesta is past president of the Center for American Progress think tank and served as chief of staff for President Bill Clinton.

In recent years, the Center for American Progress has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from the Arcus Foundation to “reclaim” religious freedom as a progressive value that “includes LGBT equality and women's reproductive health and rights.” The Center for American Progress also hosts Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson as a senior fellow. The first openly gay bishop’s 2003 election as Bishop of New Hampshire caused massive rifts within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

Christopher Hale, the current executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, told CNA Oct. 12 that the emails “do not reflect the mission of the organization.”

“I’ve think we’ve proven during my time here that we are a strong messenger for the full social magisterium of the Catholic Church,” he said. “We fought against the HHS mandate, we fought against Planned Parenthood when the tapes were released in 2015. We fought time and again for the dignity of the unborn child.”

“If our job is to be a front group for the Democratic Party, then we’re doing a pretty terrible job at it,” Hale said.

Hale acknowledged that in the past, the organization has received funding from philanthropist and liberal activist George Soros. He claimed that the organization has not received a grant from Soros in 10 years.

Catholics in Alliance’s associated group Catholics United, however, has taken funds from wealthy LGBT activists such as the Gill Foundation, founded by the wealthy businessman Tim Gill, and billionaire heir Jon Stryker’s Arcus Foundation. Grant listings and annual reports from the foundations show grants from 2012 through 2015.

The Newman-Podesta emails concerned the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services rule, first announced in late 2011, that health care plans must include coverage for sterilization and contraceptives, including some drugs that can cause abortions. The move caused widespread outcry among Catholics across the political spectrum. The Obama administration has gradually made various purported accommodations that have appeased some objectors.

Hobby Lobby, which is owned by a Christian family with objections to abortifacient contraceptives, successfully challenged the rule. It won a 5-4 Supreme Court decision in 2014 that said religious freedom protections apply to closely-held private businesses.

However, some Catholic organizations, dioceses, and other non-profits are still challenging the HHS mandate on religious freedom grounds, including the Little Sisters of the Poor and CNA’s parent organization, the EWTN Global Catholic Network.

In a May 2016 unanimous decision, the Supreme Court sent the Little Sisters’ case back to lower courts and their case is still pending, though opponents of the HHS mandate took encouragement from the decision.

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Washington D.C., Oct 14, 2016 / 12:23 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Radical Islamist militant group Boko Haram has released 21 schoolgirls kidnapped from the Nigerian town of Chibok in 2014 in a deal with the national government.

Their release was confirmed as "the outcome of negotiations between the administration and Islamist militants” by Garba Shehu, spokesman for Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari.

The BBC had been told by a security official that several captive militants were released in exchange for the birls, but the Nigeran government has since denied this.

The girls were among 276 teenage girls, now mostly ages 16 to 18, kidnapped in April 2014 from their school in Chibok, located in Nigeria's Borno state. Their abduction sparked global outrage and a social media hashtag “#BringBackOurGirls.”  

Since 2014, 58 of the girls have escaped, but the majority have remained missing. In April 2016, CNN obtained footage of the girls, allegedly recorded in December 2015 of 15 of the girls identifying themselves.

Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group whose name means “Western education is sinful,” is regarded as being among the deadliest terror groups in the world.

The group claimed responsibility for the kidnappings and has been in contact with the Nigerian government and has appeared in video messages about the kidnappings. Other video messages filmed by Boko Haram members have claimed that the girls have converted to Islam and threatened to force the girls into marriages and slavery.

Based in northern Nigeria and active in Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, Boko Haram has been responsible for attacks on villages, schools, and churches and has killed tens of thousands of Christians and other Muslims in recent years.

The group has also resorted to using children and girls in suicide bombing missions as parts of territory controlled by the group have come under attack by local forces seeking to reclaim the area.

In March 2015, the group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano

By Cindy Wooden

ROME (CNS) -- Continuing his monthly Year of Mercy visits to people in particularly vulnerable situations, Pope Francis spent an afternoon Oct. 14 at Rome's SOS Children's Village.

The village, which includes five houses, attempts to provide a home-like atmosphere for children under the age of 12 whose parents cannot care for them.

A maximum of six children and a house mother live in each of the houses at the village.

According to the Vatican press office, "The boys and girls, accompanied by staff from the center, showed the pope the village's green space, which has a mini-soccer field and a small playground. The children showed the Holy Father their rooms and their toys, and he listened to their stories and stayed for a snack with them."

When Pope Francis announced the Year of Mercy, he said that he would try each month in private to fulfill one of the works of mercy. Since December, his Mercy Friday visits have included spending time with migrants, the aged, at a recovery community for former drug addicts and at a shelter for women rescued from human trafficking and prostitution. In September, he visited the neonatal unit of a Rome hospital, then went to a hospice, spending time with people who are dying and with their loved ones.

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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Too much of the political discourse during this election year "has demeaned women and marginalized people of faith," the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said Oct. 14.

"This must change," said Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky. "True to the best hopes of our Founding Fathers, we are confident that we can and will do better as a nation."

"Politicians, their staffs and volunteers should reflect our best aspirations as citizens," he said.

The archbishop's statement came at the end of a week of fallout over controversies involving the presidential campaigns of Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

One controversy involved NBC's Oct. 9 leaking of a 2005 audio clip of Trump making lewd sexual remarks about women. The other involved an Oct. 11 release by WikiLeaks of what it said was an email chain among top officials from Clinton's campaign discussing how many powerful conservatives in the U.S. are converts to Catholicism, which one email called "an amazing bastardization of the faith."

"At this important time in our nation's history, I encourage all of us to take a moment to reflect on one of the founding principles of our republic -- the freedom of religion," Archbishop Kurtz said. "It ensures the right of faith communities to preserve the integrity of their beliefs and proper self-governance.

"There have been recent reports that some may have sought to interfere in the internal life of the church for short-term political gain. If true, this is troubling both for the well-being of faith communities and the good of our country," he said.

Christ "has given us a precious gift" in the Catholic faith and the Catholic Church, the archbishop said.

"As Catholics, we hold onto our beliefs because they come to us from Jesus, not a consensus forged by contemporary norms. The Gospel is offered for all people for all times," Archbishop Kurtz said. "It invites us to love our neighbor and live in peace with one another. For this reason, the truth of Christ is never outdated or inaccessible. The Gospel serves the common good, not political agendas."

He urged Catholics and all people of goodwill in the nation to be "good stewards of the precious rights we have inherited as citizens of this country."

"We also expect public officials to respect the rights of people to live their faith without interference from the state. When faith communities lose this right, the very idea of what it means to be an American is lost," he added.

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Copyright © 2016 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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