(Vatican Radio) The Custody of the Holy Land announced late Monday that the Fr. Dhiya Aziz, OFM has been liberated, and the Custos, Franciscan Fr. Pier Battista Pizzaballa confirmed the announcement in brief remarks to Vatican Radio.“The situation remains very grave and dramatic in Syria, though we are doubtless happy and relieved that Fr. Dhiya [Aziz] has been released,” he said. The Custody had had no news of the Fr. Dihya since Saturday, July 4, in the late afternoon. Fr. Dhiya was allegedly treated well during his kidnapping.Click below to hear our report A statement from the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land thanks those around the world who prayed for a successful outcome to this trial that Fr. Dhiya endured, as well as the faithful of Yacoubieh, of which he is the pastor, his religious family and his family in Iraq.The statement goes on to say, "The Custody does not forget that other religious are still missing in Syria and it invites everyone to con...
(Vatican Radio) The Custody of the Holy Land announced late Monday that the Fr. Dhiya Aziz, OFM has been liberated, and the Custos, Franciscan Fr. Pier Battista Pizzaballa confirmed the announcement in brief remarks to Vatican Radio.
“The situation remains very grave and dramatic in Syria, though we are doubtless happy and relieved that Fr. Dhiya [Aziz] has been released,” he said. The Custody had had no news of the Fr. Dihya since Saturday, July 4, in the late afternoon. Fr. Dhiya was allegedly treated well during his kidnapping.
Click below to hear our report
A statement from the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land thanks those around the world who prayed for a successful outcome to this trial that Fr. Dhiya endured, as well as the faithful of Yacoubieh, of which he is the pastor, his religious family and his family in Iraq.
The statement goes on to say, "The Custody does not forget that other religious are still missing in Syria and it invites everyone to continue praying for peace in [that] country."
Washington D.C., Jan 5, 2016 / 12:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On the cusp of 2016, the president of the U.S. Bishops Conference is calling for greater protection of pro-life professionals and organizations in the year ahead. Archbishop Kurtz, who heads the Archdiocese of Louisville, Ky., lamented the absence of the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA) in Congress’ 2016 omnibus funding bill. He warned that the failure to include robust conscience protections against participation in abortion is a cause for grave concern.“The principle at stake is whether people of faith and others who oppose abortion and abortion coverage should be compelled to participate in them,” the archbishop said Dec. 23. “We will continue to reach out to the White House and Congressional leaders untiringly until proper protections are guaranteed.”“Many Catholic and other institutions, including those that provide health care and other human services to the poor and vulner...
Washington D.C., Jan 5, 2016 / 12:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On the cusp of 2016, the president of the U.S. Bishops Conference is calling for greater protection of pro-life professionals and organizations in the year ahead.
Archbishop Kurtz, who heads the Archdiocese of Louisville, Ky., lamented the absence of the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA) in Congress’ 2016 omnibus funding bill. He warned that the failure to include robust conscience protections against participation in abortion is a cause for grave concern.
“The principle at stake is whether people of faith and others who oppose abortion and abortion coverage should be compelled to participate in them,” the archbishop said Dec. 23. “We will continue to reach out to the White House and Congressional leaders untiringly until proper protections are guaranteed.”
“Many Catholic and other institutions, including those that provide health care and other human services to the poor and vulnerable, have joined in our support of ANDA,” the archbishop continued. “Without ANDA, these caring organizations face legal threats to their very existence, as they lack clear and enforceable protection for their freedom to serve the needy in accord with their deepest moral convictions on respect for human life.”
The Abortion Non-Discrimination Act had been included in the House of Representatives’ draft Labor / Department of Health and Human Services appropriations bills since 2013, but was never enacted. Its provisions would strengthen protections provided by the Weldon Amendment and the Church Amendments.
The Weldon Amendment has been included in HHS appropriations bills since 2005. It bars U.S. states that accept federal funds from discriminating against institutions and health care entities that do not provide coverage of abortion or refer for abortions. The Church Amendments, first passed in the 1970s, bar individuals and entities from being required to violate their religious beliefs or moral convictions against abortion as part of a government program.
In an Oct. 25 primer, the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities analyzed the proposed Abortion Non-Discrimination Act.
According to the primer, the act would protect medical professionals from being forced to take part in abortions despite their moral and religious objections. Some current protections for these persons lack a “right of action” that would allow victims to take their cause to court. Existing provisions threaten a total loss of federal funds to those who violate the law, but there are concerns this penalty is so massive it will never be applied in practice.
The primer points to several cases of coercion. Cathy DeCarlo, a nurse at a New York hospital, who was forced by her superiors to dismember a 22-week-old unborn child in 2009. Vanderbilt University has told nurses that they must assist in abortions despite their objections. In California in 2014, the state’s department of managed health care told Catholic and other organizations they must include unlimited elective abortion coverage in employee health plans.
Congress approved the latest federal spending package on Dec. 18. Congress also failed to limit funds for the abortion provider Planned Parenthood, which was the renewed subject of controversy after investigative journalists charged that it violated laws in alleged sales of fetal remains.
Archbishop Kurtz said that the omnibus bill addressed other critical issues. However, he said ANDA represents “modest reform” that would have made federal conscience laws on abortion “workable and enforceable.”
The act has drawn opposition from pro-abortion rights organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union.
The archbishop blamed “partisan polarization” for the exclusion of the provisions.
“I am deeply concerned that a foundational principle that has received long-standing, bipartisan support in the past has suddenly become partisan. No one should be forced by the government to actively participate in what they believe to be the taking of an innocent life,” he said.
Archbishop Kurtz voiced gratitude for ANDA supporters, saying they showed commitment to maintaining a consensus in favor of conscience protection. He strongly urged opponents of the provisions to reconsider, saying they opposed even “modest enforcement of a venerable principle that is rooted in the constitution and has long enjoyed broad, bipartisan support.”
Elmont, N.Y., Jan 5, 2016 / 02:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Monday established a new eparchy for the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in the United States and Canada, to serve several thousand Catholics of the India-based Church.The eparchy was created Jan. 4 by elevating an existing apostolic exarchate.The Pope named Bishop Thomas Mar Eusebius Naickamparambil as head of the Eparchy of St. Mary, Queen of Peace. Bishop Naickamparambil had been head of the preceding apostolic exarchate since it was established in 2010.The new eparchy will be based at St. Vincent de Paul Malankara Catholic Cathedral in Elmont, New York on Long Island, Vatican Radio reports.The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church’s faith and customs are ancient. It dates back to the time of St. Thomas the Apostle’s evangelization of India in the first century. The Church celebrates the West Syrian, or Antiochian rite, as do the Maronite Catholic Church and the Syriac Catholic Church. The Church was ...
Elmont, N.Y., Jan 5, 2016 / 02:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Monday established a new eparchy for the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in the United States and Canada, to serve several thousand Catholics of the India-based Church.
The eparchy was created Jan. 4 by elevating an existing apostolic exarchate.
The Pope named Bishop Thomas Mar Eusebius Naickamparambil as head of the Eparchy of St. Mary, Queen of Peace. Bishop Naickamparambil had been head of the preceding apostolic exarchate since it was established in 2010.
The new eparchy will be based at St. Vincent de Paul Malankara Catholic Cathedral in Elmont, New York on Long Island, Vatican Radio reports.
The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church’s faith and customs are ancient. It dates back to the time of St. Thomas the Apostle’s evangelization of India in the first century. The Church celebrates the West Syrian, or Antiochian rite, as do the Maronite Catholic Church and the Syriac Catholic Church.
The Church was separated from the Holy See for several centuries because of disputes with Latin Rite missionaries, who sought to impose their own customs on the native clergy and faithful. The Church reunited with the Holy See in 1930. Over 400,000 Catholics are members of the Church, according to the Catholic Near East Welfare Association.
The Eparchy of St. Mary, Queen of Peace is the only Syro-Malankara eparchy or exarchate outside of India.
The new eparchy will serve 11,500 faithful, who mainly live in the states of Illinois, Texas, Michigan, Florida, and New York, as well as the District of Columbia. The eparchy has 19 priests in 19 parishes or missions, as well as three institutes of women religious.
Bishop Naickamparambil was born June 6, 1961 in the village of Mylapra in the south Indian state of Kerala. He was ordained a priest of the Syro-Malankara Archeparchy of Trivandrum in 1986. He earned a doctorate in philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and has written a book on the Jesuit philosopher and theologian Father Bernard Lonergan.
In July 2010 Benedict XVI named him a bishop and appointed him first exarch of the Exarchate for the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in the U.S. The bishop also served as apostolic visitor to Canada and Europe.
CNA contacted the new eparchy for a statement but did not receive a response by deadline.
DALLAS (AP) -- Even the escalating tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia, two big oil-producing countries, can't halt the slide in energy prices....
DALLAS (AP) -- Even the escalating tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia, two big oil-producing countries, can't halt the slide in energy prices....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- There were more airline deaths worldwide due to deliberate acts in 2015 than from accidental air crashes, for the second year in a row, according to an industry tally....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- There were more airline deaths worldwide due to deliberate acts in 2015 than from accidental air crashes, for the second year in a row, according to an industry tally....
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- On the presidential campaign trail, Gov. Chris Christie is touting his prosecutions of extremists while he was New Jersey's U.S. attorney, renewing questions about the government's methods in two highly publicized cases....
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- On the presidential campaign trail, Gov. Chris Christie is touting his prosecutions of extremists while he was New Jersey's U.S. attorney, renewing questions about the government's methods in two highly publicized cases....
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) -- When the U.S. wanted to show the world it didn't recognize what it called China's "excessive" territorial claims in disputed waters of the South China Sea this fall, it sent a warship near one of Beijing's newly built artificial reefs....
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) -- When the U.S. wanted to show the world it didn't recognize what it called China's "excessive" territorial claims in disputed waters of the South China Sea this fall, it sent a warship near one of Beijing's newly built artificial reefs....
BURNS, Ore. (AP) -- The armed activists who flocked to a remote wildlife refuge to take a stand against the federal government also looked prepared for a nippy day of hunting or fishing....
BURNS, Ore. (AP) -- The armed activists who flocked to a remote wildlife refuge to take a stand against the federal government also looked prepared for a nippy day of hunting or fishing....
KUWAIT CITY (AP) -- Kuwait announced on Tuesday it has recalled its ambassador to Iran over attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in the Islamic Republic, the latest Arab ally of Saudi Arabia to line up behind the kingdom amid rising regional tensions following its execution of a leading Shiite cleric and opposition figure....
KUWAIT CITY (AP) -- Kuwait announced on Tuesday it has recalled its ambassador to Iran over attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in the Islamic Republic, the latest Arab ally of Saudi Arabia to line up behind the kingdom amid rising regional tensions following its execution of a leading Shiite cleric and opposition figure....
