Catholic News 2
GRAND-BASSAM, Ivory Coast (AP) -- It began like any other Sunday in this beach town: Kingor Nanan was preparing the Jah Live Reggae bar and restaurant for the day. A few customers had arrived, and he was sitting out front....
BRUSSELS (AP) -- Police found a man dead when they stormed a house in Brussels at the end of a major anti-terror operation Tuesday, several hours after they were shot at during a raid linked to last year's attacks in Paris, a prosecutor said....
MOSCOW (AP) -- The latest developments on ongoing Syria peace talks and the pullout of Russian forces from the country (all times local):...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Tuesday he was dismayed by "vulgar and divisive rhetoric" directed at women and minorities as well as the violence that has occurred in the 2016 presidential campaign, a swipe at Republican front-runner Donald Trump that also served as a challenge to other political leaders to speak out and set a better example....
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Donald Trump aimed to crush the White House hopes of two Republican rivals in Tuesday's primary elections in Florida and Ohio, the biggest prizes on a delegate-rich day of voting that could clarify the nomination fights in both parties. Hillary Clinton hoped to pad her delegate lead in the Democratic race....
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday announced Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta would be canonised on the 4th of September 2016. He did so during a public 'Consistory' giving his approval for the canonisation of other four new saints.To find out more about this Saint to be Veronica Scarisbrick brings you an interview with someone who personally knew her. He's Monsignor Leo Maasburg who spent many years with her as spiritual advisor, later writing a book drawn from his personal experience of the time. The title of the book is: 'Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a Personal Portrait: 50 inspiring stories never told before" and is published by Ignatius Press.Listen to Monsignor Leo Maasburg in an interview with Veronica Scarisbrick: The stories Monsignor Maasburg recounts, shed light on some of the lesser known aspects of Mother Teresa: "...for Mother Teresa the poorest of the poor were not only the people in Cal...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday announced Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta would be canonised on the 4th of September 2016. He did so during a public 'Consistory' giving his approval for the canonisation of other four new saints.
To find out more about this Saint to be Veronica Scarisbrick brings you an interview with someone who personally knew her. He's Monsignor Leo Maasburg who spent many years with her as spiritual advisor, later writing a book drawn from his personal experience of the time. The title of the book is: 'Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a Personal Portrait: 50 inspiring stories never told before" and is published by Ignatius Press.
Listen to Monsignor Leo Maasburg in an interview with Veronica Scarisbrick:
The stories Monsignor Maasburg recounts, shed light on some of the lesser known aspects of Mother Teresa: "...for Mother Teresa the poorest of the poor were not only the people in Calcutta..find them in your own family, love them and put your love for God into a living action for them.... I believe she has told us a lot about what Christ meant when he said: 'love one another as I have loved you'..."
Pope Francis has announced that Blessed Mother Teresa, along with three others, will be canonised later in the year, after miracles were recognised for each of them.Mother Teresa was, in her own lifetime, and still remains, one of the most famous people in the world. But who was she, really? And how did she come to be declared a Saint?She was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, on 26/08/1910. Her hometown of Skopje was, at the time, part of the Ottoman Empire, though it is now the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. As a child she was fascinated by stories of missionaries and was soon convinced that she too should give her life to missionary service in the Church.She initially joined the Sisters of Loreto, taking the religious name “Teresa” and spent almost twenty years in the order, often in teaching positions across Calcutta.However, her life changed during a train trip in 1946. It was onboard this train from Calcutta to Darjeeling that she felt what she later descri...
Pope Francis has announced that Blessed Mother Teresa, along with three others, will be canonised later in the year, after miracles were recognised for each of them.
Mother Teresa was, in her own lifetime, and still remains, one of the most famous people in the world. But who was she, really? And how did she come to be declared a Saint?
She was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, on 26/08/1910. Her hometown of Skopje was, at the time, part of the Ottoman Empire, though it is now the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. As a child she was fascinated by stories of missionaries and was soon convinced that she too should give her life to missionary service in the Church.
She initially joined the Sisters of Loreto, taking the religious name “Teresa” and spent almost twenty years in the order, often in teaching positions across Calcutta.
However, her life changed during a train trip in 1946. It was onboard this train from Calcutta to Darjeeling that she felt what she later described as “Call within the call.” She had long been concerned about the terrible poverty in Calcutta and suddenly felt called to serve those poorest of the poor and to live alongside them whilst she ministered to them. To that end, after receiving basic medical training, she opened her first school in 1949. One year later, she received authorisation from the Vatican to found a new religious order, the Missionaries of Charity.
From that small beginning, the Missionaries have grown into an order with over 4,000 sisters managing hospitals, shelters, orphanages and schools across the world.
Mother Teresa was not afraid of putting herself in harms way in order to help those around her. She famously brokered a temporary ceasefire between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters during the 1982 siege of Beirut. The ceasefire allowed 37 children to be rescued from a hospital which lay across the frontline of the warzone.
She was awarded the 1979 Nobel Peace prize for her work, which she accepted, but asked that a proposed gala dinner be cancelled so that the money might be used instead to help the poor in Calcutta.
Despite all of her works, Mother Teresa herself often struggled in her faith, feeling separated from God and unable to find him in the life. Those involved with promoting her path to sainthood have compared these feelings, which she called the “Darkness,” to the cries of Jesus on the Cross, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?”
After her death in 1997, work began immediately on her cause for Beatification (the normal 5 year waiting period having been dispensed with). Pope John Paul II beatified her in 2002, after recognising a miracle she worked to cure a tumour in a young Indian woman.
Pope Francis will canonise her on October 16th, after recognising her miraculous cure of a Brazilian man with multiple tumours. The man’s parish priest had prayed to Mother Teresa for a cure.
(John Waters)
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Mumbai and president of Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC), on March 14 launched the revamped website - www.release7innocents.com - for petitioning the release of seven innocent Christians of remote Kandhamal district in Odisha state of India.The seven innocent Christians - six of them illiterates - have been languishing in jail since late 2008 after their arrest on trumped up charge of the mysterious murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on August 23, 2008 that was touted as a Christian conspiracy.Following the Hindu leader's murder, nearly 100 Christians had been killed and 300 churches and 6,000 Christian houses plundered and torched in unabated violence that continued for weeks. Hindu masses - most of them illiterate - had been incited to take revenge on the Christians after the slain Swami's body was paraded across Kandhamal for two days along zigzag routes."Everyone should speak up for these people," said ...
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Mumbai and president of Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC), on March 14 launched the revamped website - www.release7innocents.com - for petitioning the release of seven innocent Christians of remote Kandhamal district in Odisha state of India.
The seven innocent Christians - six of them illiterates - have been languishing in jail since late 2008 after their arrest on trumped up charge of the mysterious murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on August 23, 2008 that was touted as a Christian conspiracy.
Following the Hindu leader's murder, nearly 100 Christians had been killed and 300 churches and 6,000 Christian houses plundered and torched in unabated violence that continued for weeks. Hindu masses - most of them illiterate - had been incited to take revenge on the Christians after the slain Swami's body was paraded across Kandhamal for two days along zigzag routes.
"Everyone should speak up for these people," said Cardinal Gracias, one of the eight advisors of Pope Francis, while signing the petition for the release of the innocents, at his office in Mumbai where he is recuperating after a surgery in the US.
The trial court had convicted the seven accused - Bijay Kumar Sanseth, Gornath Chalanseth, Durjo Sunamajhi, Bhaskar Sunamajhi, Budhadeb Nayak, Munda Badamaji and Sanatan Badamajhi - and sentenced them to life imprisonment on October 3, 2013.
"The shocking conviction is based on a fabricated Christian conspiracy theory amid hardly any credible evidence being brought before the court", pointed out journalist Anto Akkara who is anchoring the campaign for the release of the seven innocent Christian convicts.
The journalist author has made 23 trips to Kandhamal during last eight years and brought out four investigative books on Kandhamal - two each from secular human rights perspective and two each from Christian faith perspective.
In a press statement, Akkara further pointed out that two top police officials - who had relied upon the same conspiracy theory to ensure the conviction of the innocent Christians - had testified in June 2015 before the Kandhamal Inquiry Commission headed by retired High Court Judge A S Naidu that the Christian conspiracy allegations were false.
Yet, Akkara noted, the hearing on the appeal of the innocent convicts has been repeatedly postponed by the Odisha High Court.
"I urge the Chief Justice of India and other constitutional authorities to end the travesty of justice and release the seven innocents.." says the petition which can be easily signed by clicking on 'lend your voice' at the website www.release7innocents.com.
This takes one to a new page 'sign the petition'. When it is clicked, email message demanding the release of the 7 innocents will be sent to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, the President of India and the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of India simultaneously.
While veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar, in his 90's, inaugurated the website on March 3 at the Constitution Club in New Delhi in the presence of the illiterate wives of the
innocent convicts and a host of dignitaries, Swami Agnivesh, internationally known social activist and Hindu reformist leader, launched the signature campaign on the occasion.
The website has seven pages with the 'home page' summing up the travesty of justice while second page illustrates how the winding funeral procession of the slain Swami - carried out across Kandhamal for two days - triggered the mayhem and bloodshed. The third page on the site lists landmarks in the Swami's murder trial along with a grim table of the police action and court verdicts.
The fourth page titled '7 Innocents' profiles each of the seven convicts and questions the credibility of the 'evidences' brought against them. The fifth page reproduces the full text of both the concocted Beticola church resolution - that was hailed as proof for the Christian conspiracy by the trial court - and the shocking 37-page court verdict itself.
While the sixth chapter lists three videos, the final chapter provides a brief about the two secular books 'Kandhamal - a blot on Indian Secularism' and 'Kandhamal craves for Justice' - with web some of the links to media reports hailing it. (Anto Akkara)
(Vatican Radio) Peace talks underway in Geneva are offering a glimmer of hope to the people of Syria who, on March 15, look back on exactly five years of death and destruction caused by the indescribable violence of war which has killed more than a quarter of a million people.A statement released by the UN refugee agency says that international solidarity is failing to match and reflect the scale and seriousness of the humanitarian tragedy: “the biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time, a continuing cause of suffering for millions which should be garnering a groundswell of support around the world."It is a grim milestone to mark, but a necessary reminder and wake-up call as millions of ordinary Syrian people struggle to see the light at the end of a dark tunnel during which they have lost loved ones, homes, jobs, schools and the very semblance of a future.Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni spoke to a Syrian economist and civil rights activist who has been wa...
(Vatican Radio) Peace talks underway in Geneva are offering a glimmer of hope to the people of Syria who, on March 15, look back on exactly five years of death and destruction caused by the indescribable violence of war which has killed more than a quarter of a million people.
A statement released by the UN refugee agency says that international solidarity is failing to match and reflect the scale and seriousness of the humanitarian tragedy: “the biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time, a continuing cause of suffering for millions which should be garnering a groundswell of support around the world."
It is a grim milestone to mark, but a necessary reminder and wake-up call as millions of ordinary Syrian people struggle to see the light at the end of a dark tunnel during which they have lost loved ones, homes, jobs, schools and the very semblance of a future.
Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni spoke to a Syrian economist and civil rights activist who has been watching the tragedy unfold in his nation while providing civil society support and organization as well as capacity development from a base in Turkey.
He is Assaad Al Achi, the Executive Director of a Syrian civil society organization called Baytna Syria, currently based in Gazientep.
Assaad points out that in fact March 15 marks the start of the uprising – not the war…
Listen:
An uprising – Assaad says - which consisted in peaceful demands and peaceful protests that took the Syrian people into the streets only to be immediately quashed by such violence on the part of the regime that it soon became war.
“Five years on it’s heartwarming to see that the people are resilient, they have the same demands, and with the minimum reduction of violence we see the people back on the street demonstrating, asking for the same things that they were asking for back in 2011” he says.
So overall, Assaad says hope is back. He says he does not fully understand yet the reason for the Russian withdrawal from Syria “we need some time to understand what is happening”.
Assaad says every reduction of violence and hostilities is, by definition, good but he thinks it is too early to say what’s behind the Russian decision to reduce its presence in Syria.
Competing Interests at an International level
Asked why it has taken so long for international players to sit down and push forward with peace talks, Assaad points to competing interests between UN Security Council members “namely the United States and the Russian Federation”.
“Competing interests over the Middle East but not only over the Middle East: over the situation in Ukraine, over the NATO ambitions to expand towards the East etc., etc.” he says.
Assaad says the situation in Syria quickly turned into a proxy war where international affairs were being resolved.
“A lot of people cynically say we had a third world war in one country” he says.
Lack of solidarity
Assaad also speaks of how the Syrian people have felt let down, abandoned, even betrayed by the West that has shown indifference and a lack of solidarity before the suffering of the nation.
He refers to the latest estimate published by the New York Times that says some 470,000 people have been killed in the past five years.
Impunity
“About 95% of those people, according to the Syrian Observer for Human rights were killed by the regime, so when we have a regime that is that murderous, that barbaric, and nothing is being done to halt it and to keep it at bay, the regime enjoys impunity and that has been the major issue in Syria over the past five years” he says.
Assaad says the regime enjoyed a lot of impunity, and so did everyone else. This, he says, led to an inferno and escalation of violence because no one was held responsible towards their commitments.
“Especially as we are speaking of a government which is supposedly a member of the United Nations and that has to abide by International Humanitarian Law” he says.
The flaunting of International Humanitarian Law
Assaad says the regime has continuously flaunted IHL because of the paralysis within the Security Council.
This practice, he observes, de-legitimizes the Security Council and undermines the very foundations on which Europe is built upon.
He says the whole system in the United Nations must be revised as it has failed to respond to this major crisis. It has failed to respond – he says – because it is held in the hands of five countries with a right of veto and this right needs to be questioned
Hopes for the near future
Assaad says that what he is hoping for now is for the cessation of hostilities to continue.
“The people inside Syria are happy that they don’t have to face the barrel-bombs and the missiles and the cluster bombs and the missiles that were thrown at them 'en masse' by the Russian air force and by the Assad air force” he says.
His second hope – he says is for humanitarian aid to reach all areas, especially the besieged areas where people are in need of absolutely everything to survive.
“If we do not act very quickly we are going to see the same horrific images that we saw coming out of Madaya two months ago” he says.
He also points out that the only way to bring food into the besieged areas now is to buy off the Hezbollah checkpoints and Assad regime checkpoints, and this not only costs a lot of money, but it fuels the war by providing funds for more military operations and ammunition.
Assaad, who has experience working in many international contexts, says he can’t wait to go home to Syria one day.
“I’m waiting for the day when the situation allows me to move all the work we do out of Gazientep into inside Syria”.
(Vatican Radio) “Terrorism must be fought at its roots, not in its outermost branches” – that’s what a top Church official in Turkey says should be the response to acts such as Sunday’s suicide car bombing in Ankara. The evening blast tore through a crowded transport hub in the capital, killing 37 and injuring dozens of others. Security officials blame the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) though no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.A bridge linking East to West, Turkey today “is a place where there are many tensions,” the apostolic vicar of Anatolia, Bishop Paul Bizzeti, told Vatican Radio’s Antonella Palermo.“The Middle East is in turmoil, is in trouble, and everywhere in the Middle East we find a variety of peoples, religions and cultures. All that which guarantees this plurality has a chance to establish peace, the peace we all want.” “We must not forget that the ter...
(Vatican Radio) “Terrorism must be fought at its roots, not in its outermost branches” – that’s what a top Church official in Turkey says should be the response to acts such as Sunday’s suicide car bombing in Ankara. The evening blast tore through a crowded transport hub in the capital, killing 37 and injuring dozens of others. Security officials blame the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) though no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
A bridge linking East to West, Turkey today “is a place where there are many tensions,” the apostolic vicar of Anatolia, Bishop Paul Bizzeti, told Vatican Radio’s Antonella Palermo.
“The Middle East is in turmoil, is in trouble, and everywhere in the Middle East we find a variety of peoples, religions and cultures. All that which guarantees this plurality has a chance to establish peace, the peace we all want.”
“We must not forget that the terrorists are a very small part of the people ... The vast majority of people do not want violence. Therefore, terrorism must be fought in its roots, not in its outermost branches,” he says.
“Terrorism in Turkey, as elsewhere - in my opinion – is more a symptom than a cause, which is why we must address the root causes. This country, throughout history, has had a vocation to be a patchwork of peoples, religions and cultures. Surely we must respect this identity, which is an identity built over thousands of years - an identity that corresponds to its geographical vocation.”
No clarity to Syria policy, strategy
Asked if Turkey's policy regarding the conflict in Syria could be “clearer,” Bishop Bizzeti responds: “I believe that no one in Syria is playing a clear game. Living here you realize even more that there are many factors, many different forces, many interests at the global level and certainly the great powers of this world must come to an agreement because they cannot continue to allow the massacre of a population. Therefore, an agreement is necessary; it is essential. It is difficult to understand why an agreement has not been reached. There are also probably things that we don’t hear about; there are conflicting interests and this delays the process so absurdly. But this not only comes from Turkey: Europe, with its indifference, is not playing a greatly positive role. The policy of the great traditional powers - the US, Russia - does not seem very linear. All of this is very perplexing and makes one wonder what are the real intentions of the actors involved.”
see also: Pope Francis sends condolences to Turkeyafter terror attack
