Catholic News 2
MONTECRISTI, Ecuador (AP) -- Ecuadoreans began burying loved ones felled by the country's deadliest earthquake in decades, while hopes faded that more survivors will be found....
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan's attorney general will announce criminal charges Wednesday against two state regulators and a Flint employee, alleging wrongdoing related to the city's lead-tainted water crisis, according to government officials familiar with the investigation....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Clinton emerged from New York's presidential primary closer to clinching the Democratic nomination and becoming the first woman to reach that milestone. Republican Donald Trump strengthened his own path to the general election with a commanding victory, but has little room for error in the states ahead....
ATLANTA (AP) -- Talk about a short memory. Kyle Korver came out shooting, and this time he couldn't miss....
PORTOVIEJO, Ecuador (AP) -- Despite the grief roiling this earthquake-stricken town, Pablo Cordova has something to be thankful for: He can return the coffin his wife had obtained for his funeral....
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan's attorney general will announce criminal charges Wednesday against two state regulators and a Flint employee, alleging wrongdoing related to the city's lead-tainted water crisis, according to government officials familiar with the investigation....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Voters who say they want to see an outsider inhabit the White House propelled Donald Trump to victory in the Republican primary in his home state of New York on Tuesday night....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Front-runners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton swept to resounding victories in Tuesday's New York primary, with Trump bouncing back convincingly from a difficult stretch in his Republican campaign and Clinton pushing tantalizingly close to locking up the Democratic nomination....
Washington D.C., Apr 19, 2016 / 04:56 pm (CNA).- The Catholic University of America’s business school has received several major financial gifts, including the largest donation in university history. The Washington, D.C., university announced a total of six commitments totaling $47 million. The money will go to general university programs as well as operational costs for the business school, which will be renamed the Tim and Steph Busch School of Business and Economics after the lead donor in the project. Boston Cardinal Seán O’Malley, chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees, praised the development.“Today marks a historic day for Catholic University, in which it is propelled forward in its mission to serve both Church and nation through the incredible generosity of several benefactors,” he said.According to a statement by the university, “The lead gift of $15 million from the Busch Family Foundation is the largest financia...
Washington D.C., Apr 19, 2016 / 04:56 pm (CNA).- The Catholic University of America’s business school has received several major financial gifts, including the largest donation in university history.
The Washington, D.C., university announced a total of six commitments totaling $47 million. The money will go to general university programs as well as operational costs for the business school, which will be renamed the Tim and Steph Busch School of Business and Economics after the lead donor in the project.
Boston Cardinal Seán O’Malley, chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees, praised the development.
“Today marks a historic day for Catholic University, in which it is propelled forward in its mission to serve both Church and nation through the incredible generosity of several benefactors,” he said.
According to a statement by the university, “The lead gift of $15 million from the Busch Family Foundation is the largest financial commitment the University has received to date.”
The Busch Family Foundation is run by Tim Busch and his wife, Steph. Tim Busch is founder and CEO of Pacific Hospitality Group and The Busch Firm, as well as co-founder and chairman of The Napa Institute. He is currently concluding his time on the university’s Board of Trustees.
CUA said that the business and economics school “will be renamed in recognition of their support for the University’s approach to thought-leading business education informed by the principles of Catholic social teaching.”
University president John Garvey noted that the Busches are CUA “largest benefactors to date” and expressed thanks for their “unparalleled support for the unique approach of our business school.”
Garvey also said that they have “attracted other major supporters whose gifts have nourished the school’s success.” Other donors include the Arthur and Carlyse Ciocca Charitable Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation, university alumnus Joe Della Ratta, and the Blanford Charitable Gift Fund.
Among the projects supported with these donations are the renovation of Maloney Hall, where the business and economics school will be relocated; academic programs in the business school; and a new Institute for Human Ecology, which will respond to Pope Francis’ encouragement in Laudato Si to examine the relationship of man and the created world.
“We are committed to supporting Catholic University's vision for business education which integrates principled entrepreneurship and Catholic social teaching in a distinctive way,” said Tim Busch of the donation.
“Students at the school of business and economics learn how businesses can be highly profitable and innovative, while also meeting the needs of communities and promoting human flourishing,” he said.
Washington D.C., Apr 19, 2016 / 05:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Now that the U.S. has declared that the Islamic State is waging genocide against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria, what will be done to help the victims move forward?That was the question at an April 19 congressionalWill the US take action to protect the victims of genocide by Islamic State?hearing before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in Washington, D.C.“Defining these crimes does not necessarily mean that justice will prevail,” Frank Wolf, a former congressman, stated in his testimony.On March 17, the U.S. State Department declared that ISIS – also known as ISIL or “Daesh” – is committing genocide in Iraq and Syria against Christians, Yazidis, and Shia Muslims. The agency’s designation followed similar declarations by the European Union, the U.S. Congress, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of ...
Washington D.C., Apr 19, 2016 / 05:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Now that the U.S. has declared that the Islamic State is waging genocide against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria, what will be done to help the victims move forward?
That was the question at an April 19 congressional
Will the US take action to protect the victims of genocide by Islamic State?
hearing before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in Washington, D.C.
“Defining these crimes does not necessarily mean that justice will prevail,” Frank Wolf, a former congressman, stated in his testimony.
On March 17, the U.S. State Department declared that ISIS – also known as ISIL or “Daesh” – is committing genocide in Iraq and Syria against Christians, Yazidis, and Shia Muslims. The agency’s designation followed similar declarations by the European Union, the U.S. Congress, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, claimed in his testimony before the commission that there are two types of genocide: physical and spiritual. The religious minorities of Iraq faced both, as they “felt totally abandoned” when the Islamic State were expanding, and were “dying spiritually because they had lost hope,” he said.
The genocide declaration was the U.S. “showing these people that they should not lose hope,” he added.
Although a genocide designation recognizes the victims, there are still millions of internally displaced persons in Iraq and Syria, as well as refugees fleeing the conflict who reside in neighboring countries.
There are 3.4 million internally displaced persons in Iraq and 7.5 million in Syria, Dr. Robert George, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, noted in his testimony. More than 4.8 million registered refugees reside in states neighboring Syria.
The continued geographic existence of the Islamic State poses a threat to religious minorities in the region, he added. “ISIL threatens the very existence of minority religious communities,” as well as Iraq’s stability, he said. “All civil liberties are wiped out wherever ISIL gains control.”
With genocide officially declared, what more can be done by the U.S. to help the beleaguered minorities of Iraq and Syria?
For one, the U.S. must start planning for the liberation from the Islamic State of towns and cities in northern Iraq, Anderson said. It important that the “liberating military force be integrated” with the area and not seen as another occupying force replacing Islamic State, he said.
The U.S. can also ensure that humanitarian aid sent to the Kurdish Regional Government “actually reaches” the displaced persons there, he added, and that genocide victims who fled to Kurdistan have access to schools and jobs there.
Also, genocide survivors cannot be at the “back of the line” in the U.S. refugee resettlement process, he added, noting that for fiscal year 2016, of the 1,366 Syrian refugees set for admittance “fewer than three percent came from the groups targeted for genocide.”
The U.S. must help Christians resettle elsewhere if they want, but also help them stay, he continued, adding that it is in the security interest of the U.S. to keep the Middle Eastern Christian communities intact. Religious pluralism will crumble if they leave, he said.
Lack of religious freedom and pluralism were the “genocidal antecedents” of the Islamic State, he continued, and the U.S. cannot beat IS without solving these problems. Religious minorities cannot have “second-class status,” he said: the “antidote is full equality in law and practice.”
The State Department must also designate Syria and Iraq as “Countries of Particular Concern” where there are “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom” that have been either perpetrated or tolerated by the government, George insisted. To do so would show “fidelity to the truth”, he added.
The designation is made by the State Department to point to the worst violators of religious freedom abroad. It can carry consequences such as adopting economic sanctions against the country until its situation improves.
Just moments before at the hearing, the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Rabbi David Saperstein, had defended the State Department’s lack of such a designation in the past for Iraq. The law “does not talk about non-state actors” perpetrating the crimes, just governments, he said.
The current Iraqi government “clearly has made an effort to try and stop Daesh,” he said. “On that basis in past years, the determination was made that it did not rise to that level.” He added that the agency will make “new determinations” shortly.
George also insisted that the U.S. could make a goal of resettling 100,000 Syrian refugees within its borders, with the “strictest vetting” and a “prioritization on vulnerability,” such as candidates who were abused, enslaved, or tortured. The. U.S. should also allocate sufficient resources to the agencies responsible for the vetting of refugees, he said.
“The public needs to support this,” he said, but they won’t if they think national security will be compromised in the process. “It’s not that they’re cruel, it’s not that they lack compassion. They have legitimate concerns about security,” he admitted. “We believe those concerns can be met.”
“And we think we can make the process more expeditious if we make sure that the funding is there for the security checks to be done in a comprehensive and effective way.”
