Catholic News 2

Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi made a rare visit to conflict-stricken Kachin State on Tuesday, where she met civil society groups and Catholic and Baptist church officials to promote her national peace initiatives.

During the meeting, Suu Kyi emphasized the significance of all armed ethnic groups signing the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) which will allow them to join the talks. She also stressed the importance of ethnic groups joining the ongoing 21st Century Panglong peace conference, which is meant to occur every six months. The next one is to be held in May.

Leaders from both the Catholic and Baptist churches agreed that Suu Kyi's visit would help build trust between the government and armed ethnic groups such as the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Myanmar.

Manam Tu Ja, a Catholic and chairman of the Kachin State Democracy Party in Kachin State, told ucanews.com that Suu Kyi's visit was aimed at trying to ensure that the peace conference is all-inclusive. "She gave a message to the KIA to sign the NCA so they could attend the next conference," said Tu Ja.

During the meeting, Rev. Hkalam Samson, general secretary of the Kachin Baptist Convention, said among the issues he raised with Suu Kyi were those focused on the internally displaced people (IDP) camps and restrictions on humanitarian aid. International food deliveries to around 42,000 IDPs have been blocked for months in both Kachin and Shan states.

Steven Tsa Ji, general secretary of the Kachin Development Networking Group, a civil society organization in Kachin State, says Suu Kyi needs to appreciate the reality for those people currently living in the camps.

During her visit to Kachin State, Suu Kyi also visited two IDP camps in Waimaw township, near Myitkyina where more than 2,500 people have lived since renewed fighting erupted in 2011.

On March 30, five ethnic armed groups — the Karenni National Progressive Party, New Mon State Party, the Arakan National Council, Lahu Democratic Union and the Wa National Organization of the ethnic alliance of the United Nationalities Federal Council — said they will sign the NCA, according to the state counselor's office.

In 2011, conflict resumed between the KIA and the military ending a 17-year ceasefire agreement. Since then more than 100,000 civilians have been displaced and remain in camps in Kachin and northern Shan states.

Khin Zaw Win, a Yangon-based political analyst, said Suu Kyi's visit to Kachin was about pushing for the peace that her government promised.

Meanwhile on Thursday,  as reported by Associated Press,  Suu Kyi  said she is prepared to step down if people end up dissatisfied with her leadership.  Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy took power amid high expectations after a landslide election victory over a military-supported party and five decades of army rule in the impoverished country. While her government has enacted major reforms, its performance has fallen short of high expectations.

Myanmar's citizens are also aware that her government is limited by an army-imposed constitution that gives the military veto power over most substantive legislation, making real change difficult.   Suu Kyi also reiterated her government's stance that Myanmar will not accept an international investigating commission to look into communal tensions in the western state of Rakhine, where the Muslim Rohingya minority faces severe discrimination and what the United Nations calls major human rights violations during army sweeps seeking insurgents.  

The U.N. Human Rights Council recently called for an independent international body to look into the issue, but Myanmar officials have insisted their own investigations are sufficient.  Suu Kyi's office announced after her speech that five ethnic minority factions agreed to sign a cease-fire agreement her government promoted. Many of the ethnic groups have been conducting on-again, off-again armed struggle for autonomy since Myanmar _ then called Burma _ became independent from Britain in 1948. Several of the larger and more powerful ethnic guerrilla armies have not signed the cease-fire pact. (UCAN, AP)

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Vatican Weekend for April 1st, 2017 features a report on the Pope’s general audience, a look at the phenomenon of fake news and how Christians should respond to this, a Lenten reflection inspired by the biblical story of Lazarus and a look back at the figure of Saint Pope John Paul II on the 12th anniversary of his death. 

Listen to this program produced and presented by Susy Hodges:

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Vatican Weekend for April 2nd, 2017 features our weekly reflection on the Sunday Gospel reading, “There’s more in the Sunday Gospel than Meets the Eye,” plus our resident Vatican watcher Joan Lewis reviews the past week’s events in the Vatican.

Listen to this program produced and presented by Susy Hodges:

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(Vatican Radio)  The Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has released a communique about an international conference to reflect on the 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio.

Entitled "Prospects for service to integral human development: fifty years since Populorum Progressio", the conference takes place on 3-4 April in the Vatican's Synod Hall.

It aims "to study the theological anthropological and pastoral perspectives of the encyclical, especially in relation to the labour of those who work in favour of promoting the person, and to formulate guidelines for the activity of the new Dicastery."

The meeting will be attended by members of the Pontifical Councils merged in the new Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (Justice and Peace, Cor Unum, Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, Health Care Workers), as well as representatives of the Episcopal Conferences and their social and “Justice and Peace” Commissions, representatives of international Catholic charitable organizations, and the diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See.

Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery, and Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, will introduce the conference and give a theological presentation on anthropology, respectively. It is then divided according to "the three fundamental tensions of the person: body-soul, man-woman, and person-society".

"In addition to presentations by experts from different sectors, testimonies will be offered showing how the Church operates directly in favour of the weakest," the communique reads.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, will preside at a Eucharistic celebration on Monday in St. Peter’s Basilica.

An audience with Pope Francis is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 4 April at 11:30.

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Pakistan’s Christians have condemned a public prosecutor’s reported offer to a group of Christians facing trial he would acquit them if they converted to Islam.  Nearly 60 Christians are on trial for the mob killing of two men mistaken for militants shortly after two terrorist suicide bombers blew themselves near St. John’s Catholic Church and Christ ‎Church of the Church of Pakistan,‎ in Youhanabad in Lahore on March 15, 2015.   The assault claimed 17 lives and injured more than 70.  ‎  More than 100 Christians were rounded up and put on trial after the lynching of the two.

The Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), an interdenominational organization ‎working for persecuted Christians in the country, said that Deputy District Public Prosecutor (DDPP) Syed Anees Shah offered ‎Christians acquittal if they agreed to convert to Islam.‎  ‎"How can we expect justice when people sitting in courts are inwardly biased? We demand that the ‎government takes action against the public prosecutor," Sohail Habel, a member of CLAAS told UCANEWS.  "In my 13 years of human rights activism, I have seen many such offers made to non-Muslim prisoners," ‎he said, adding that a CLAAS legal team was supporting the victims and trying to dissuade them from ‎capitulating.‎

Bishop Joseph Arshad of Faisalabad, who chairs the Catholic Bishop's National Commission for Justice ‎and Peace condemned "pressurizing" Christian prisoners.‎  ‎"Justice must be done according to the law. Nobody has authority to give such offers if they were really ‎made," he said.‎

The Express Tribune, a local English daily, quoted Prosecutor Syed Anees Shah saying that he did not ‎ask them to embrace Islam but conceded that he offered them a choice. When he was told that the ‎accused have recording of the offer, he disconnected the call.‎

Aftab Gill, information secretary of the Christian, Masiha Millat Party, condemned the offer. "I was ‎present at the court when the prosecutor made the offer. Several Christians confirmed receiving the ‎offer to embrace Islam in return for acquittal," he told UCANEWS.  ‎"We appeal to the Chief Justice of Supreme Court to pursue action against the prosecutor," he demanded.‎  ‎"We have full faith in our legal system and judiciary. But if such people are allowed to go unpunished, ‎vulnerable minorities will lose hope," Gill added.‎

Rev. Arshad Ashknaz of Christ Church of Youhanabad lamented the public prosecutor’s offer saying, “It is really bad to lead people astray.”  “This will give a bad image to the court and the whole legal fraternity,” he told AsiaNews.   In his view, “The public prosecutor can be sued for this prejudiced action. We plan to meet him soon. The government should reject this. Fear of death can force anyone to change religion”.

Forced conversion are not rare in Pakistan. The country’s human rights organizations estimate that about a thousand Hindu and Christian women are forced to convert to marry Muslim men each year.  According to the latest Report on religious minorities in Pakistan by the National Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Pakistan, five Christians converted to Islam in 2014, including three teenager girls who were abducted and forced into marriage. 

Against the backdrop, Sindh last year became the first Pakistani province to pass a law against forced religious conversions. However, the provincial government was forced to go back on its decision to protect minorities after opposition from some religious scholars.

For Rev Ashknaz, “There is no religious freedom. The whole system supports Christian women who marry their Muslim spouses, but it is a torment for Christian men who do the same. Their families suffer and their houses are burnt”.

According to Christian lawyer and rights activist Nadeem Anthony, Asia Bibi, the Catholic mother on death row for the past seven years charged with blaspheming the Prophet Mohammad, was made a similar offer.  However, “My faith is alive and I will never convert”, she told him when they met at the Sheikhupura District Jail in 2010.  “This is a common practice. Even my Muslim friends asked me to do the same. Such impositions are expected in cases of religious persecution,” Anthony said.  (Source: UCAN/AsiaNews) 

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(Vatican Radio)  The logo for Pope Francis’ Apostolic Journey to Egypt, which takes place 28-29 April, has been released by the Egyptian Catholic Church.

The three main elements present in the logo are Egypt, Pope Francis, and Peace.

“Pope of Peace in Egypt of Peace” are the words in Arabic and English at the base of the logo.

Egypt is represented by the Nile River – a symbol of life – as well as by the pyramids and the Sphinx, which highlight the long history of civilization in this African country.

The Cross and Crescent Moon at the center of the logo represent the coexistence between the various components of the Egyptian people.

A white dove signifies peace, which is both the highest gift to which every human being can aspire and the greeting of monotheistic religions.

Finally, the dove precedes Pope Francis to announce his arrival as the Pope of Peace in a country of peace.

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Thousands of hard-line Muslims marched in Indonesia’s capital on Friday, calling for the jailing of the ‎city's minority Christian governor.  Following Friday prayers, the protesters marched from Istiqlal ‎Mosque in central Jakarta to the nearby presidential palace, which was under heavy police guard.   ‎Protests against Gov. Basuki ``Ahok'' Tjahaja Purnama have snowballed since September when he was ‎accused of blaspheming the Quran and subsequently charged. His trial is still underway.‎
The turnout for Friday's protest was small compared with the hundreds of thousands who answered the ‎call of hard-line Islamic groups to flood central Jakarta for demonstrations in November, December and ‎February.  Jakarta police's director of traffic Ermayudi Sumarsono estimated the crowd at 13,000 to ‎‎15,000. Police estimates are often conservative. Earlier Friday, police said they had arrested ‎Muhammad Al Khaththath, the leader of the Muslim Peoples Forum umbrella group, and other four ‎other activists for suspected treason.  Their followers said they were not deterred by the arrests. ‎
The blasphemy case, slurs against Ahok's Chinese ethnicity and the ease with which hard-liners ‎attracted huge numbers of people to protest have undermined Indonesia's reputation for practicing a ‎moderate form of Islam and shaken the secular government as well as mainstream Muslim groups.  ‎Blasphemy is a criminal offense in Indonesia, punishable by up to five years in prison. ‎
Ahok will compete in a runoff election for governor next week against a former cabinet minister backed ‎by conservative Muslim clerics.  He was popular with Jakarta's middle class because of his drive to ‎eliminate corruption and his efforts to make the overflowing polluted city more livable. But demolitions ‎of some of the slum neighborhoods that are home to millions and ill-considered outspokenness proved ‎to be his Achilles' heel.   Opponents seized their moment last year when a video surfaced of Ahok ‎telling voters they were being deceived if they believed a specific verse in the Quran prohibited ‎Muslims from electing a non-Muslim as leader.  (Source: AP)‎

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday visited a Rome institute for blind people, continuing what he called his ‘Mercy Friday’ initiatives during the recent Jubilee year.

The institute, situated close to the Vatican, cares for 37 adults and elderly residents and offers services to a further 50 children with impaired sight who use it as a day care facility.

A note from the Vatican said that besides meeting with medical staff, volunteers and residents, Pope Francis offered a donation and signed a visitor’s book in the centre’s chapel.

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Vatican City, Mar 31, 2017 / 09:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Although the Jubilee Year of Mercy has officially ended, Pope Francis today made a surprise “Mercy Friday” visit to a center for the blind and visually impaired in Rome – showing that he doesn't think works of mercy are just for special occasions – or years.

Continuing his tradition of performing a spiritual or corporal work of mercy on one Friday a month during the Church's Jubilee of Mercy in 2016, the Pope went in the afternoon of March 31 to the St. Alessio-Margherita di Savoia Regional Center for the blind in Rome.

According to a March 31 communique from the Vatican, the Pope wished to make this visit as a “follow-up” to the private visits of the Jubilee.

This particular act of mercy, the communique stated, was to guests of the center, which organizes activities “aimed at social inclusion of the blind and visually impaired.”

During his visit, the Pope met with the different guests, some of whom have been blind from birth and others who have no vision or impaired vision due to a serious disease. Some of the guests have multiple disabilities.

Among the guests there are around 50 children who attend the center to receive practical training in life skills and in navigating daily activities, as well as 37 elderly people who are permanent residents of the facility.

Francis also greeted the president and director general of the center, the medical staff and volunteers.

Before leaving, he left a gift and signed a parchment for the center's chapel, in memory of his visit. He returned to the Vatican around 6:00 p.m.

Pope Francis kicked off his monthly works of mercy in January 2016 by visiting a retirement home for the elderly, sick, and those in a vegetative state, and a month later traveled to a center for those recovering from drug addiction in Castel Gandolfo.

Other visits throughout the year included refugees, children, formerly sex-trafficked women, former priests, infants and the terminally ill.

In December 2016, Pope Francis said in an interview with the official website for the Jubilee of Mercy that he would be making “different gestures” of mercy once a month on Fridays during the Holy Year.

 

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Raleigh, N.C., Mar 31, 2017 / 09:32 am (CNA/EWTN News).- North Carolina has modified its law on gender identity and the use of bathrooms and locker rooms, after facing pressure from LGBT activists and their allies in business, sports and entertainment.

But some say the changes take the wrong path.

“Every North Carolinian deserves to have their privacy respected in intimate settings like locker rooms and restrooms,” said Kellie Fiedorek, legal counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, March 30.

“One of government’s essential duties is to protect the citizens it governs, not to create uncertainty about whether showers and locker rooms will still be safe for women and girls,” she said. “North Carolina's economy is booming, so the state should not let the NCAA and others dictate the state’s policies and sell out their citizens’ interests based on flat-out lies about an economic doomsday that never happened.”

Fiedorek charged that the legislature “failed families by giving into hypocritical bullies.”

The repeal bill removes the portion of the 2016 law H.B. 2 that had said that in public buildings and schools, people must use the restrooms and locker rooms that align with the biological sex on their birth certificate, rather than their self-perceived “gender identity.”

Supporters of the 2016 law said distinctions on the basis of sex are necessary for private areas such as restrooms and shower facilities. They warned that the ordinance would allow any biological male into the women’s restrooms, which could lead to instances of assault.

The law drew protests from influential corporations and entertainment figures, while the Obama administration’s Justice Department, operating under a new interpretation of anti-discrimination law, contended that it violated civil rights protections on the basis of sex.

The National College Athletics Association had moved its 2016-2017 championship events out of the state because of the bill.

H.B. 2 was passed in response to a Charlotte City Council Ordinance that would have, among other provisions, allowed individuals to use restroom facilities based on their self-perceived “gender identity.”

The 2016 measure had been signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory, who was defeated in the 2016 elections by Democrat Roy Cooper. Gov. Cooper had promised to repeal the law.

The new governor, who is seeking anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity, said the latest legislation was not his preferred solution.

The new modifications passed the House 70-48 and the Senate 32-16. It reserves to the state legislature the right to regulate bathroom access. It also bars local governments from passing any new nondiscrimination ordinances or amendments applying to private employment and public accommodation until the year 2020.

 

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