Catholic News 2
Ryan Lochte lost three major sponsors when swimsuit company Speedo USA, clothing giant Ralph Lauren and skin-care firm Syneron-Candela announced in quick succession Monday they were dumping the swimmer over a drunken incident during the Rio Olympics that he initially described as an armed robbery....
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- A defiant Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Monday that he again restored the voting rights of about 13,000 felons who served their time after his previous attempt was thwarted by Republican lawmakers and the state Supreme Court....
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that he thought he had just a few weeks to live during his battle with cancer a year ago....
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey vowed Monday to fight Islamic State militants at home and to "cleanse" the group from its borders after a weekend suicide bombing at a Kurdish wedding, an attack that came amid recent gains by Syrian Kurdish militia forces against the extremists in neighboring Syria....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans stepped up their attacks on Monday on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server and pointed to newly released messages to allege that foreign donors to the Democratic presidential nominee's family charity got preferential treatment from her department....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Republican Donald Trump promised on Monday to be "fair, but firm" toward the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally, a shift in tone that raised questions on whether he's backtracking from previous pledges to push for mass deportations....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Donald Trump's paid campaign staffers have declared on their personal social media accounts that Muslims are unfit to be U.S. citizens, ridiculed Mexican accents, called for Secretary of State John Kerry to be hanged and stated their readiness for a possible civil war, according to a review by The Associated Press of their postings....
A senior Iranian religious scholar has written to Pope Francis, thanking him for his recent remarks that Islam is not equal to terrorism. In his letter, posted on his official website on Sunday, Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi of Qom also stressed that it is necessary for religious leaders to adopt clear stances when it comes to accusing religions of violence. “I am really delighted to have heard your comments during your last trip to Poland in which you stated “Islam is not equal to terrorism” and further dismissed the association of violence and harshness with any and all divinely-sent religions,” Ayatollah Shirazi wrote. “Your wise and logical stance regarding Islam in disassociating the religion from the inhumane actions and atrocities of the Takfiri groups such as Daesh is truly admirable,” he said. Travelling back to Rome on July 31 from a pastoral visit to Poland, Pope Francis had made the comment at an in-flight pr...
A senior Iranian religious scholar has written to Pope Francis, thanking him for his recent remarks that Islam is not equal to terrorism. In his letter, posted on his official website on Sunday, Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi of Qom also stressed that it is necessary for religious leaders to adopt clear stances when it comes to accusing religions of violence. “I am really delighted to have heard your comments during your last trip to Poland in which you stated “Islam is not equal to terrorism” and further dismissed the association of violence and harshness with any and all divinely-sent religions,” Ayatollah Shirazi wrote. “Your wise and logical stance regarding Islam in disassociating the religion from the inhumane actions and atrocities of the Takfiri groups such as Daesh is truly admirable,” he said.
Travelling back to Rome on July 31 from a pastoral visit to Poland, Pope Francis had made the comment at an in-flight press conference, when asked by a journalist to comment on the 84-year old French priest Fr. Jacques Hamel who was slain while celebrating Mass on July 26 by two Islamic State terrorists.
Ayatollah Shirazi agreed with Pope Francis saying, “such barbaric acts have nothing to do with divinely-sent religions and their various schools of thought.” “Rather, they originate from the inferior materialistic objectives of some corrupt superpowers who seek nothing but to obtain more illegitimate wealth,” he said. Ayatollah Shirazi prayed for the success of the Pope “in spreading kindness, peace and spirituality in the world.”
Philippine senators opened an inquiry Monday into the killings of more than 1,700 suspected drug dealers and users amid a crackdown spearheaded by President Rodrigo Duterte, with witnesses accusing some policemen of gunning down suspects or being involved in illegal drugs. Sen. Leila de Lima, who heads the Senate justice committee leading the investigation, said that she was worried about the widespread killings, and that law enforcers and vigilantes may be using the crackdown ``to commit murder with impunity.''At least 1,779 drug suspects have been killed, including 712 who were gunned down in clashes with police, with the rest being slain in still-unclear circumstances, possibly by anti-vigilantes, national police chief Director-General Ronald dela Rosa told the senators, adding that he did not condone extrajudicial killings. Another senator, Antonio Trillanes IV, asked dela Rosa why the police have failed to stop the spate of killings perpetrated by suspecte...
Philippine senators opened an inquiry Monday into the killings of more than 1,700 suspected drug dealers and users amid a crackdown spearheaded by President Rodrigo Duterte, with witnesses accusing some policemen of gunning down suspects or being involved in illegal drugs. Sen. Leila de Lima, who heads the Senate justice committee leading the investigation, said that she was worried about the widespread killings, and that law enforcers and vigilantes may be using the crackdown ``to commit murder with impunity.''
At least 1,779 drug suspects have been killed, including 712 who were gunned down in clashes with police, with the rest being slain in still-unclear circumstances, possibly by anti-vigilantes, national police chief Director-General Ronald dela Rosa told the senators, adding that he did not condone extrajudicial killings. Another senator, Antonio Trillanes IV, asked dela Rosa why the police have failed to stop the spate of killings perpetrated by suspected anti-crime vigilantes, including motorcycle-riding gunmen.
The high number of deaths has alarmed human rights groups and leaders of the dominant Catholic Church, as well as the United States and U.N.-appointed human rights experts, who have warned the Philippine government and its officials that they could be held liable amid the widespread killings.
Duterte, who built a name as a tough crime-busting mayor before rising to the presidency in June, has repeatedly threatened criminals, especially drug dealers, with death.
The Ecumenical Bishops Forum that brings together Catholic and Protestant bishops of the Philippines has called for a "deeper analysis" of the spate of killings in the country that have been linked to the government's anti-narcotics campaign. The bishops warned that the killings will only "exacerbate" the problem of illegal drugs. They also noted that most of those killed are "small time and poor people." (Source:AP/UCAN)
Vatican City, Aug 22, 2016 / 04:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Monday Pope Francis appointed U.S. Archbishop Michael W. Banach as Apostolic Nuncio to Guinea Bissau, marking the latest in a string of American nuncio appointments so far this year.The announcement that Archbishop Banach, previously nuncio to several other countries, will now be overseeing the Holy See’s relations with Guinea Bissau came in an Aug. 22 communique from the Vatican.Designated Titular Archbishop of Memphis in 2013, Archbishop Banach was named nuncio to Senegal and apostolic delegate to Mauritania March 19, and as nuncio to Cape Verde July 9. He will continue to hold these positions in addition to his new appointment as nuncio to Guinea Bissau, all of which sit along the Northwest coast of Africa.Born in Worcester, Mass. and ordained a priest for the diocese in July 1988, Archbishop Banach, 53, was originally made a Vatican ambassador in 2013 when he was named apostolic nuncio to Papua New Guinea and the S...
Vatican City, Aug 22, 2016 / 04:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Monday Pope Francis appointed U.S. Archbishop Michael W. Banach as Apostolic Nuncio to Guinea Bissau, marking the latest in a string of American nuncio appointments so far this year.
The announcement that Archbishop Banach, previously nuncio to several other countries, will now be overseeing the Holy See’s relations with Guinea Bissau came in an Aug. 22 communique from the Vatican.
Designated Titular Archbishop of Memphis in 2013, Archbishop Banach was named nuncio to Senegal and apostolic delegate to Mauritania March 19, and as nuncio to Cape Verde July 9. He will continue to hold these positions in addition to his new appointment as nuncio to Guinea Bissau, all of which sit along the Northwest coast of Africa.
Born in Worcester, Mass. and ordained a priest for the diocese in July 1988, Archbishop Banach, 53, was originally made a Vatican ambassador in 2013 when he was named apostolic nuncio to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
His transfer to the four West African nations this year comes amid a string of other appointments by Pope Francis of U.S. Vatican diplomats to the African continent.
In February, the Pope appointed Msgr. Peter Bryan Wells, the highest ranking American in the Vatican Secretariat of State, as both archbishop and his new ambassador to South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia. In July he was also appointed nuncio to Swaziland.
Aside from the move of Wells and Banach, in March Pope Francis appointed Msgr. Paul Russell, at the time the head of the Vatican nunciature in Taiwan, as nuncio to Turkey and Turkmenistan – an important post given recent tensions between Turkey and the Holy See over Pope Francis’ use of the term “genocide” during a 2015 Mass commemorating the Armenian martyrs, as well as his recent visit to the country.
While there aren’t too many Vatican ambassadors from the U.S., most of them seem to be making their way to the world’s peripheries.
