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NEW YORK (AP) -- Charlie Murphy, the older brother of Eddie Murphy and a comic performer in his own right who turned encounters with Rick James and Prince into standout sketches on "Chappelle's Show," has died. He was 57....
CHICAGO (AP) -- Two suburban Chicago men who posed for photos holding a black Islamic State group flag at a Lake Michigan beach park were arrested Wednesday on federal terrorist charges, and an undercover operative said one of the men suggested homosexuals should be thrown off the city's tallest building....
CHICAGO (AP) -- United Airlines sought to quell the uproar over a man being dragged off a plane by announcing on Tuesday that it would no longer ask police to remove passengers from full flights and would compensate customers who were on the flight when the man was removed....
PARIS (AP) -- With a bleed-the-rich video game and suggestions of a "Frexit," French far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon is rattling financial markets by rising in polls just 11 days before the country's presidential vote....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump has declared: "I am my own strategist." That would seem to bode poorly for his actual strategist, Steve Bannon....
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Russia vetoed a Western-backed U.N. resolution Wednesday that would have condemned the reported use of chemical weapons in a town in northern Syria and demanded a speedy investigation into the attack that killed nearly 90 people....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort will register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for lobbying work he did on behalf of political interests in Ukraine, led at the time by a pro-Russian political party, his spokesman said Wednesday....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Laying bare deep and dangerous divisions on Syria and other issues, President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that U.S. relations with Russia "may be at an all-time low." His top diplomat offered a similarly grim assessment from the other side of the globe after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow....
Vatican City, Apr 12, 2017 / 12:57 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday, the Vatican announced that EWTN’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw has been named by Pope Francis as a consultor to the Vatican Secretariat for Communications.“I am extremely humbled and honored by the Holy Father’s appointment,” Warsaw said in a statement April 12. “This is a tremendous recognition of the role which EWTN plays in the life of the Church throughout the world. I am grateful to Pope Francis for his confidence and look forward to serving the universal Church in this post.”The announcement of Warsaw’s appointment was made in an April 12 communique from the Vatican, along with the names of 12 other new consultors.The Secretariat for Communications was established by Pope Francis in 2015. One of its primary responsibilities is the restructuring and consolidation of the Holy See’s various communications outlets.In his role as consultor,...
Vatican City, Apr 12, 2017 / 12:57 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday, the Vatican announced that EWTN’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw has been named by Pope Francis as a consultor to the Vatican Secretariat for Communications.
“I am extremely humbled and honored by the Holy Father’s appointment,” Warsaw said in a statement April 12. “This is a tremendous recognition of the role which EWTN plays in the life of the Church throughout the world. I am grateful to Pope Francis for his confidence and look forward to serving the universal Church in this post.”
The announcement of Warsaw’s appointment was made in an April 12 communique from the Vatican, along with the names of 12 other new consultors.
The Secretariat for Communications was established by Pope Francis in 2015. One of its primary responsibilities is the restructuring and consolidation of the Holy See’s various communications outlets.
In his role as consultor, Warsaw will help advise the Pope and the Holy See on media and communications matters.
Warsaw joined EWTN in 1991 and worked in senior management positions in television production, satellite operations and technical services. In 2000 he became president of EWTN, and in 2009 he assumed the post of CEO. In 2013 he was named chairman of the board.
EWTN was launched in 1981 by Mother Angelica of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. The largest religious media network in the world, it reaches more than 268 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories.
In addition to 11 television channels in multiple languages, EWTN platforms include radio services through shortwave and satellite radio, SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 500 AM & FM affiliates. EWTN publishes the National Catholic Register, operates a religious goods catalogue, and in 2015 formed EWTN Publishing in a joint venture with Sophia Institute Press. Catholic News Agency is also part of the EWTN family.
In addition to Warsaw, other new consultors to the Secretariat are: Fr. Ivan Maffeis, Undersecretary of the Italian Bishops Conference; Fr. José María La Porte, Dean of the Faculty of Institutional Social Communications of the Pontifical University of Santa Croce; Fr. Peter Gonsalves, S.B.D., Dean of the Faculty of the Science of Social Communications at the Pontifical Salesian University; Fr Eric Salobir, O.P., Promoter General for Social Communications of the Order of Preachers; Fr. James Martin S.J. of America Magazine; Fr. Jacquineau Azétsop S.J., Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Pontifical Gregorian University; Paolo Peverini, Professor of Semiotics at Luiss Guido Carli University; Fernando Giménez Barriocanal, President and Managing Director of Radio Popular-Cadena COPE; Ann Carter of Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications; Graham Ellis, Vice Director of BBC Radio; Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio, Chief ICT Auditor at the United Nations and Michael Paul Unland, Executive Director of the Catholic Media Council.
By Mark PattisonWASHINGTON(CNS) -- A new study issued by the Pew Research Center shows thatrestrictions on religion around the world, both by governments and their citizens, are onceagain on the rise after having ticked downward in prior years.Of the198 countries and self-administered territories in the study, released April 11,105 experienced widespread government harassment of religious groups in 2015 --the most recent year for which statistics are available. This is up from 85 in 2014and 96 in 2013. What the study called "limited harassment" -- cases thatwere isolated or affected a small number of groups -- also rose, taking place in52 countries in 2015, up from 44 in 2014.Theeighth such Pew report on religious intimidation, it contains both a GovernmentRestrictions Index and a Social Hostilities Index to reach its conclusions. Itidentified Russia, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Nigeria as having the highestoverall levels of government restrictions and social hostilities involvingre...
By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A new study issued by the Pew Research Center shows that restrictions on religion around the world, both by governments and their citizens, are once again on the rise after having ticked downward in prior years.
Of the 198 countries and self-administered territories in the study, released April 11, 105 experienced widespread government harassment of religious groups in 2015 -- the most recent year for which statistics are available. This is up from 85 in 2014 and 96 in 2013.
What the study called "limited harassment" -- cases that were isolated or affected a small number of groups -- also rose, taking place in 52 countries in 2015, up from 44 in 2014.
The eighth such Pew report on religious intimidation, it contains both a Government Restrictions Index and a Social Hostilities Index to reach its conclusions. It identified Russia, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Nigeria as having the highest overall levels of government restrictions and social hostilities involving religion among the world's 25 most populous countries. Egypt had the highest levels of government restrictions in 2015, scoring 8.7 on a scale of zero to 10, while Nigeria had the highest levels of social hostilities at 9.1; a fractured Syria scored 9.2, and Iraq's score in 2007, the first year studied, was 10.
The Government Restrictions Index, according to Pew, measures government laws, policies and actions that restrict religious beliefs and practices, including banning particular faiths, prohibiting conversion, limiting preaching or giving preferential treatment to one or more religious groups in its 20 measures. The Social Hostilities Index measures 13 different acts of religious hostility by private individuals, organizations or groups, such as religion-related armed conflict or terrorism, mob or sectarian violence, harassment over attire for religious reasons or other religion-related intimidation or abuse.
The United States scored "high" on social hostilities at 4.2, placing it 41st overall among the 198 nations, and "moderate" and in 68th place in government restrictions at 3.7. Both figures are more than double the 2007 numbers of 1.9 and 1.6, respectively.
The report observed the situation in Europe, as 2015 opened with the terror attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine in France, and ended with countless numbers of refugees from Syria and Iraq fleeing to the continent to escape protracted wars in the Middle East.
In Europe, there were 17 incidents of "religion-related mob violence" in 2015, up from nine the previous year, the report said. "While the Middle East-North Africa region continued to have the largest proportion of governments that engaged in harassment and use of force against religious groups, Europe had the largest increase in these measures in 2015."
The study noted, "In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan concert hall shootings, some Muslims in France faced violent attacks by social groups or individuals. For example, two Muslim places of worship in the cities of Le Mans and Narbonne were attacked by grenades and gunshots the day after the Charlie Hebdo shooting. France's Interior Ministry reported that anti-Muslim incidents more than tripled in 2015, including cases of hate speech, vandalism and violence against individuals."
"More than half of the 45 countries in the region experienced an increase in government harassment or use of force from 2014 to 2015," the report said. "Twenty-seven European countries saw widespread government harassment or intimidation of religious groups in 2015, up from 17 countries in 2014. And the governments of 24 countries in Europe used some type of force against religious groups, an increase from 15 in 2014."
Worldwide, governments' use of force to keep religionists in line increased in 2015, with 23 nations each recording at least 200 incidents that year. "There was an even bigger increase in the number of countries with at least one, but no more than 200, incidents of government use of force against religious groups," the report said -- 83 in 2015, compared to 60 in 2014.
Christians were subjected to some form of restriction in 128 countries, and Muslims were subjected to hostility in 125 -- an indication of each faith system's global spread. But Jews, who make up 0.2 percent of the world population, faced some form of harassment in 74 countries in 2015 -- down from 81 in 2014. And Hindus, while facing harassment in just 18 countries, were persecuted in India, home to 95 percent of the world's Hindus -- mostly because of attacks by one caste against another.
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