Catholic News 2

Various religious leaders from North and South Korea met in Beijing and decided to further extend their dialogue by meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea this month.   The Korean Conference of Religion for Peace (KCRP) announced on May 26 that North and South Korean religious leaders would meet in Pyongyang on June 17-20.  The decision to bring spiritual people from the rival countries together came from the executive committee meeting of the Asian Conference of Religions for Peace which was held on May 18-22 in Beijing.

Members of the KCRP and Kang Ji-young, president of the [North] Korean Religious Association who attended the meeting, reaffirmed the need for reconciliation and peace in the Korean peninsula and for the resumption of the inter-Korean exchange.  They decided to hold a North and South Korean religious exchange meeting in the North Korean capital.  Currently, the KCRP is discussing the matter with newly elected President Moon Jae-in.

Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong of Kwangju, co-chairperson of the KCRP, welcomed the upcoming meeting. "Dialogue is the most effective way to solve a problem. We need to meet as [much] as possible," he said.  (Source: UCANEWS)

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(Vatican Radio) Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox and other Church leaders in Britain have offered prayers for the victims of the London terror attack, which left seven people dead and dozens of others injured. Eighteen people remain in critical condition after three men drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and then began stabbing passers-by in the Borough Market district on Saturday night.

Muslim leaders have also strongly condemned the attack, with many gathering close to the scene of the attack on Sunday to pay tribute to the victims.

Among those speaking out against this latest atrocity is Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, co-chair of Britian’s Christian Muslim Forum.

He told Philippa Hitchen his community is working together with all sectors of British society to combat extremism and uphold the country’s democratic values…

Listen:

Mogra said he was sickened and “devastated that some Muslims, in the holy month of Ramadan, when all the rest of the Muslims were filling in mosques all around the UK in prayer”, could carry out such a brutal attack on innocent people.

The Muslim leader said he was “grateful to God Almighty and to faith leadership in our country” that the religious communities are standing together, as they did in the aftermath of July 2007 attacks and the more recent Manchester bombing. He said he has received messages of solidarity from all faith communities, ranging from umbrella organizations to individual messages from the Chief Rabbi and from Catholic leaders in London.

Don't blame community for individual actions

On Monday evening, Mogra said, the East London Mosque is hosting a press conference where “religious leaders from across the spectrum have been invited […]to express condemnation in unison, and also their solidarity for one another, reminding people that a whole faith community cannot be tarnished and blamed for the action of a few individuals belonging to that faith group”.

Anti-Muslim hatred plays into terrorist hands

He added that after every attack, Muslim communities in the UK have suffered a backlash which plays into the hands of the terrorists: “that's exactly what they want, to divide us and to sow discord between our diverse community and if we turn on each other, then the terrorists win.” Mogra said Muslims are “very grateful” to police and security services, as well as members of the British public “who will not stand for any of this anti-Muslim hatred to take root in our society.”

Muslims are part of British society

Responding to Prime Minister Theresa May’s statement following the attack, Mogra said it’s important to avoid “knee jerk reactions” but rather to analyse events and “with the help and cooperation of all our communities to come up with a plan which will be effective in eradicating this scourge of terrorism” British Muslims, he added, are “fully signed up” to the “common, universal” values that the Prime Minister outlined in her speech. He also noted that “poll after poll suggests that British Muslims are integrated, they feel very much part and parcel of being British”, contributing to the economy, arts, education, health, and every sector of public life.

Working together to protect democracy

Finally, Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra stressed that it’s important to “acknowledge that Islam as a religion condemns these atrocities” and that “the Muslim community cannot be held to account as a whole and be expected to solve this on its own”. He said British Muslims believe they are “part of the solution” and are willing to work with all sectors of society, including religious organisations, “to ensure that our country is safe and remains free and democratic”.

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Vatican City, Jun 5, 2017 / 07:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has been a consistent and vocal personality in condemning the arms trade and urging world leaders to do the same, and he raised his voice on the issue again in his latest prayer video.

Published June 2, the video begins showing two world leaders sitting at a table to sign a join-accord, exchanging copies of the agreement to sign while Pope Francis says that “it's an absurd contradiction to speak of peace, to negotiate peace, and at the same time promote or permit the arms trade.”

“Is this war or that war really a war to solve problems, or is it a commercial war for selling weapons in illegal trade, and so that the merchants of death get rich?” he asks, as images of explosions and gunfire interchange with frames of the leaders shaking hands dripping with blood.

“Let us put an end to this situation,” he said. “Let us pray all together that national leaders may firmly commit themselves to ending the arms trade which victimizes so many innocent people.”



The topic is one Pope Francis has spoken out about since the beginning of his pontificate, and which he continues to bring up in any relevant occasion.

In fact, the first line of the video is taken almost verbatim from the Pope's May 2014 speech to seven new ambassadors to the Holy See who presented him with their credentials.

In the speech, Francis spoke about peace, saying “everyone talks about peace (and) everyone claims to want it, (but) the proliferation of weapons of every type leads in the opposite direction.”

He said the arms trade both complicates and distances us from finding solutions to conflicts, especially because “it takes place to a great extent outside the boundaries of the law,” and urged the new ambassadors to work toward eradicating the proliferation of weapons.

The Pope was also outspoken about the topic during his September 2015 speech to the U.S. Congress, in which he emphasized that Christians must ask “why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society?”

“Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade,” he said.

Last July, in a video message promoting peace in Syria, he lamented that “while the people suffer, incredible quantities of money are being spent to supply weapons to fighters.”

Some of the arms suppliers “are also among those that talk of peace,” he said. “How can you believe in someone who caresses you with the right hand and strikes you with the left hand?”

In his Jan. 22 , 2017, speech to the Diplomatic Corps Accredited to the Holy See, he said part of the peace-building process means eradicating the causes of violence and injustice, one of which is the “deplorable arms trade and the never-ending race to create and spread ever more sophisticated weaponry,” particularly nuclear weapons.

Coincidentally, the Pope's prayer video was published just days before six countries decided to cut diplomatic ties with the Middle-Eastern country of Qatar over it's alleged support or terrorism.

On Monday it was announced that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Libya have severed diplomatic relations with Qatar over the terrorism problem, giving Qatari ambassadors just a few days to leave their countries.

The move was made over allegations that Qatar is backing Islamist groups such as ISIS and AL-Qaeda, providing financial support despite recently joining the U.S.-led coalition against IS. Part of the decision also arose from concern that Qatar is getting too cozy with Iran, the growing regional rival of Saudi Arabia and which presents a significant nuclear threat.

What progress will actually come from the decision to cut ties is unknown, especially since Saudi Arabia itself has also been accused by many neighboring countries of financially supporting ISIS. So while the long-term effects of the decision remain to be seen, the move seems to make Francis' prayer intention all the more timely.

His prayer videos first launched during the Jubilee of Mercy and are part of an initiative of the Jesuit-run global prayer network Apostleship of Prayer. They are filmed in collaboration with the Vatican Television Center and the Argentinian marketing association La Machi.

The Apostleship of Prayer, which produces the monthly videos on the Pope’s intentions, was founded by Jesuit seminarians in France in 1884 to encourage Christians to serve God and others through prayer, particularly for the needs of the Church.

Since the late 1800s, the organization has received a monthly, “universal” intention from the Pope. In 1929, an additional missionary intention was added by the Holy Father, aimed at the faithful in particular.

Starting in January, rather than including a missionary intention, Pope Francis has elected to have only one prepared prayer intention – the universal intention featured in the prayer video – and will add a second intention focused on an urgent or immediate need if one arises.

The prayer intentions typically highlight issues of importance not only for Pope Francis, but for the world, such as families, the environment, the poor and homeless, Christians who are persecuted, youth, women and a swath of other relevant topics in the world today.

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By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Saying he was moved by reports of tens of thousands of people gathering for a funeral procession for Ukrainian Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, who died May 31, Pope Francis sent a second message of condolence to the cardinal's successor.

Being grateful for Cardinal Husar's "unique, religious and social presence in the history of Ukraine, I invite all of you to be faithful to his constant teaching and total abandonment to providence," the pope wrote June 5, the day of the cardinal's funeral in Kiev and two days after the massive procession in Lviv.

"Continue to feel his smile and his caress," Pope Francis wrote to Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych.

Addressing the major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church as "Beatitude," the pope said he had been informed of "the extraordinary influx of people who came in these days to pay homage to the mortal remains of the cardinal."

"This presence is an eloquent sign of who he was: one of the highest and most respected moral authorities of the Ukrainian people in recent decades," the pope said.

Pope Francis, who knew Archbishop Shevchuk when both were bishops in Argentina, also offered his personal condolences to the archbishop "to comfort you in the loss of one who was a father and spiritual guide to you."

Huge crowds gathered outside St. George's Cathedral in Lviv, the one-time seat of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, for the funeral procession. They watched a video of the cardinal speaking about the church and faith, and then thousands of them set off through the streets of Cardinal Husar's hometown, stopping occasionally for Bible readings, prayers and musical tributes.

With his coffin placed on an artillery gun carriage laden with flowers, the procession through Lviv last two hours. Government officials and representatives of other churches also joined the procession.

Pope Francis said he knew Cardinal Husar was a father for the entire Ukrainian Catholic Church and that he "gathered the inheritance of the 'catacombs'" where the church was forced to live for four decades under communism.

The cardinal not only gave the church back many of its structures, but he gave it "especially the joy of its history founded on faith through and beyond every suffering."

When old age and bad health led him to resign in 2011, the pope said, "his presence among the people changed style, but, if possible, became even more intense and richer."

His reflections and talks, shared on television, the radio and through his blog, showed him to be a "master of wisdom. His speech was simple, understandable to all, but very profound," the pope said. "His was the wisdom of the Gospel, it was the bread of the word of God broken for the simple, the suffering and for all those who were searching for dignity."

Whether they were Catholic or Orthodox, believers or unbelievers, the pope said, when people heard Cardinal Husar speak they heard "a Christian, a Ukrainian passionate about his identity, always full of hope and open to God's future."

"It moves me to think that today all of Ukraine is mourning him, but also that many are certain that he already is resting in the embrace of the heavenly father" and will continue to pray for Ukraine, which still is suffering from the "violence and insecurity" of the Russia-backed fighting in the East.

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