Catholic News 2
DALLAS (AP) -- The gunman who killed five police officers at a protest march trained at a private self-defense school in Texas, a school official said Saturday at the academy that teaches firearm tactics, including "shooting on the move," a maneuver in which an attacker fires and changes position before firing again....
(Vatican Radio) The Peace Process in Colombia, is being challenged and threatened by small diehard factions of guerrillas, who are steadfastly refusing to disarm. James Blears reports about a political fly in an ointment of balm to a wound which has festered in the heart of a nation for more than half a century.Listen: The Leadership of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia- The FARC is warning two diehard units in a remote region in the East of the country to fall in line, or to be cut adrift if they don`t lay down their arms, in accordance with the Peace settlement, which has taken more than three years to negotiate. One of its most important provisions is that the FARC disarm and start the process of settling into civilian life, evolving into a political party. But two of its units in the remote jungle, near to the Border with Brazil, refuse to disarm. One of them, calling itself The First Front Armando Rios, has announced just this,...
(Vatican Radio) The Peace Process in Colombia, is being challenged and threatened by small diehard factions of guerrillas, who are steadfastly refusing to disarm.
James Blears reports about a political fly in an ointment of balm to a wound which has festered in the heart of a nation for more than half a century.
Listen:
The Leadership of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia- The FARC is warning two diehard units in a remote region in the East of the country to fall in line, or to be cut adrift if they don`t lay down their arms, in accordance with the Peace settlement, which has taken more than three years to negotiate. One of its most important provisions is that the FARC disarm and start the process of settling into civilian life, evolving into a political party.
But two of its units in the remote jungle, near to the Border with Brazil, refuse to disarm. One of them, calling itself The First Front Armando Rios, has announced just this, directly defying the order to demobilize.
Colombia`s President Juan Manuel Santos, who`s staked his Presidency, political career and life on the peace process is warning that those guerrillas who stick to their guns will be jailed or end up in a premature grave.
He`s also set a final July 20th deadline for the Peace Settlement to be concluded, which will now come and go without incident, as both sides have agreed a unilateral ceasefire...which will hopefully prevail, with the conflict finally winding down to an historic conclusion.
(Vatican Radio) The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has condemned Hungary for sending thousands of additional security forces to its southern border with Serbia who are pushing back migrants fleeing war and poverty. An increasing number of people are already stuck in what the U.N. calls dire conditions at the Serbia-Hungary border as Hungary blocked their entry. Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: Hungary's government says as many as 10,000 police and soldiers are trying to completely seal the southern border with Serbia. New measures backed by Hungary's anti-migration Prime Minister Viktor Orbán allow Hungarian forces to return to Serbia all migrants regardless of their background if they are detained within 8 kilometers from the border. The prime minister's chief of staff János Lázár defended these policies. Stopping illegal migration is a key issue for Hungary. Not just because by doing so we are protecting Europe ...
(Vatican Radio) The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has condemned Hungary for sending thousands of additional security forces to its southern border with Serbia who are pushing back migrants fleeing war and poverty.
An increasing number of people are already stuck in what the U.N. calls dire conditions at the Serbia-Hungary border as Hungary blocked their entry.
Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:
Hungary's government says as many as 10,000 police and soldiers are trying to completely seal the southern border with Serbia.
New measures backed by Hungary's anti-migration Prime Minister Viktor Orbán allow Hungarian forces to return to Serbia all migrants regardless of their background if they are detained within 8 kilometers from the border.
The prime minister's chief of staff János Lázár defended these policies. Stopping illegal migration is a key issue for Hungary. Not just because by doing so we are protecting Europe but because first and foremost we are protecting ourselves. And we are convinced and this conviction brings us to this: No one can enter Hungary without an identity check. Only those people
can stay in Hungary whom the country allows in across its border and grants permission to stay.
HUMAN SUFFERING
Serbia has accused Hungary of breaching international law by returning migrants fleeing war and poverty. And the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says the measures led to human suffering with up to 1,300 people stuck at the Serbia-Hungary border, many without shelter and sanitation.
On Thursday a 10-year-old Afghan boy died in a drowning accident nearby, while earlier a Syrian young man reportedly drowned after he and others were pushed back into a river by Hungarian police.
UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told Vatican Radio that many desperate people still try to breach Hungary's razor wire border fence. "This restrictive policy is pushing refugees to give themselves up to human and people traffickers smugglers.
And the evidence is there. Everyday we see about 100 refugees trying to irregularly access asylum in Hungary as they come through the fence," he said.
Hungary's prime minister's office admitted to Vatican Radio more than 23,000 asylum seekers had applied for asylum in Hungary this year alone, many of them after arriving through Serbia illegally.
REFUGEES WAITING
Relative few people receive asylum: some 400,000 migrants crossed Hungary last year from which only some 500 people received some kind of international protection here.
Refugees stuck in Serbia say they have no other choice as they still seek to reach Western Europe. Some guys tried nine, ten times or five times. And I tried two times. But we have failed and we don't have any other choice. And we are thinking what should we do?
Fearing a new wave of migrants from Hungary, neighboring Austria installed new border controls, prompting an angry reaction from Hungary's government which introduced similar measures.
Despite the tensions, Austria's far-right and anti-migration presidential candidate Norbert Hofer has said he does not want his country to leave the European Union, apparently softening his position on a future referendum.
Hofer is aiming to win a rerun of the presidential vote on October 2 after his Freedom Party won a court challenge over voting irregularities.
Vatican City, Jul 9, 2016 / 11:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A new set of reforms further clarifying the roles of Vatican financial offices was announced July 9, implementing changes set in motion by Pope Francis’ 2014 edict, “Fidelis dispensator et prudens.”This new directive, entitled “Temporal goods,” affirms that the role of the Church's assets center around “divine worship, the just support for the clergy, apostolate, and works of charity, especially for the needy.”“The Church, therefore, feels the responsibility to pay maximum attention to the administration of their economic resources is always at the service of these purposes,” the document said.The motu proprio, signed July 4, ensures “the clear and unequivocal distinction between control and vigilance, on the one hand, and administration of goods, on the other,” according to a July 9 statement by the Holy See press office.“Therefore, the Motu Proprio spe...
Vatican City, Jul 9, 2016 / 11:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A new set of reforms further clarifying the roles of Vatican financial offices was announced July 9, implementing changes set in motion by Pope Francis’ 2014 edict, “Fidelis dispensator et prudens.”
This new directive, entitled “Temporal goods,” affirms that the role of the Church's assets center around “divine worship, the just support for the clergy, apostolate, and works of charity, especially for the needy.”
“The Church, therefore, feels the responsibility to pay maximum attention to the administration of their economic resources is always at the service of these purposes,” the document said.
The motu proprio, signed July 4, ensures “the clear and unequivocal distinction between control and vigilance, on the one hand, and administration of goods, on the other,” according to a July 9 statement by the Holy See press office.
“Therefore, the Motu Proprio specifies the competencies pertaining to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See and better delineates the Secretariat for the Economy’s fundamental role of control and vigilance,” it said.
The new document also touched on matters relating to pensions, health care, the payment of staff, and maintenance.
In the earlier stages of reform, the Secretariat of the Economy, headed by Cardinal George Pell, was charged with distributing salaries and benefits to Vatican staff as well as issuing guidelines and maintaining oversight of these areas.
Now the task of administration of Vatican assets will go to the the Administration of Patrimony of the Apostolic See, headed by Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, the original financial body that was in place before the creation of the Council for the Economy, Secretariat of the Economy and Office of the Auditor in 2014.
In 2013, Pope Francis created an investigatory commission to examine the Holy See’s administrative structures, the “Commission for Reference on the Organization of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See.” On it were seven lay experts, one clerical secretary, and external consultants.
The members worked from August of 2013 until May of 2014 and made recommendations to ensure greater simplicity, transparency, integrity, and accounting standards within the Vatican.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Islamic State group's Twitter traffic has plunged 45 percent in the past two years, the Obama administration says, as the U.S. and its allies have countered messages of jihadi glorification with a flood of online images and statements about suffering and enslavement at the hands of the extremist organization....
WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- NATO allies agreed Saturday to provide increased military support to countries in the Middle East and North Africa that are targets of Islamic extremism, including using NATO surveillance planes in the fight against the Islamic State group....
WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Saturday rejected any notion that the past week's stunning violence signals a return to racial brutality of a dark past, saying that as painful as the killings of police and black men were, "America is not as divided as some have suggested."...
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- A suburban Minnesota police officer who killed a black driver reacted to the man's gun, not his race, his attorney said Saturday, giving the most detailed account so far of why the officer drew his own weapon....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Since the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement three years ago, many white Americans have wrestled with how to respond. Some chose racist-tinged ridicule. Others, by word or deed, sought to show solidarity as blacks protested the deaths of fellow blacks in encounters with police. Still others, untouched personally, watched from a distance in silence....
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- When Philando Castile saw the flashing lights in his rearview mirror the night he got shot, it wasn't unusual. He had been pulled over at least 52 times in recent years in and around the Twin Cities and given citations for minor offenses including speeding, driving without a muffler and not wearing a seat belt....
