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The commission investigating deaths and abuses during Nepal's communist insurgency received a one-year extension Thursday after being unable to finish its work on thousands of claims and complaints collected from victims and their families. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission received 58,052 claims and complaints since 2 commissions were established in 2015 - one to probe enforced disappearances and another to investigate more than 60,000 complaints of violations committed during the war. More than 17,000 people are believed to have been killed in a decade of fighting between communist rebels and government troops before a United Nations-brokered peace deal ended the conflict in 2006.It took years for the government to set up the commission, and even longer to establish the laws and regulations for it to function. The government said in a statement that the decision to extend the commission's tenure was made at a Cabinet meeting Thursday. ...
(Vatican Radio) Human rights activists have vowed to sue Hungary at the European Union's top court after the government announced that it will hold asylum seekers in border camps made up of shipping containers while their asylum requests are settled. The container plan is part of a Hungary's tough anti-immigration policy that has raised concerns within the EU and advocacy organizations.The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, one of the country's leading rights groups, says it will sue Hungary at the European Court of Justice in every case where asylum-seekers in its words illegally kept in custody. That would likely force the Hungarian government to make compensation payments.In its words the government would do better instead to improve the quality of the open reception centers and spend this money on the integration of people who have found asylum in Hungary.The announcement came shortly after János Lázár, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's chief...
(Vatican Radio) On Saturday, Pope Francis named Archbishop Henryk Hoser, S.A.C., the Bishop of Warszawa-Praga, as a Special Envoy of the Holy See to Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina.The scope of his mission, according to the press release announcing the appointment, is “to acquire a profound understanding of the pastoral situation” in Medjugorje, with special concern for the “needs of the faithful who come on pilgrimage;” and on the basis of that understanding “to suggest possible pastoral initiatives for the future.” His mission, therefore, “will have an exclusively pastoral character.”Responding to questions from journalists, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Greg Burke said, “The Special Envoy of the Holy See will not enter into the question of the Marian apparitions, which are the competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.” Archbishop Hoser’s mission, he said, “is a sign of Ho...
The government of Kenya declares drought situation, a national disaster. The International Federation of the Red Cross says infact 11 million people in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia need help.Speaking Friday after a brief on the situation on the ground by Cabinet Secretaries involved in drought management and food security at State House Nairobi, President Uhuru Kenyatta called on all stakeholders to support the government by up-scaling drought mitigation programmes.“Support from our partners would complement government’s efforts in mitigating the effects of drought,” said President Kenyatta.On Tuesday this week, The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) called on the government to declare drought a national disaster noting that about 2.4 million in the country needed help urgently. “We hasten to appeal to the Government to declare the current drought a national disaster in order to beckon the international community to step forward and support the...
(Vatican Radio) The World Day of the Sick, established by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1993, is celebrated each year on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, 11 February. This year marks the 25th annual commemoration of the day.The theme chosen for World Day of the Sick 2017 is “Amazement at what God has accomplished: ‘The Almighty has done great things for me’.” In his message for the Day, Pope Francis said, “This celebration likewise gives the Church renewed spiritual energy for carrying out ever more fully that fundamental part of her mission which includes serving the poor, the infirm, the suffering, the outcast and the marginalized” – echoing the words of St John Paul.Pope Francis also focused on the Marian aspect of the commemoration, saying, “I encourage all of you, the sick, the suffering, physicians, nurses, family members and volunteers, to see in Mary, Health of the Infirm, the sure sign of God’s love for every human ...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday. In remarks ahead of the traditional prayer of Marian devotion, the Holy Father offered a meditation on the Gospel reading for this Sunday, taken from the 5th chapter of Gospel according to St. Matthew, in which Our Lord says:Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.Reflec...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday spoke of the importance of the bond of brotherhood and of how easy it is for petty jealousies and envy to damage that bond and set off a process that can lead to the destruction of families and peoples.The Pope was speaking during the homily at morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, a Mass that he offered to Father Adolfo Nicolás, the former Superior General of the Society of Jesus who is preparing to continue in his mission in Asia. Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni: Brotherhood is destroyed by small thingsReflecting on the first reading of the day which speaks of Cain and Abel, Pope Francis said that in this reading from Genesis, for the first time in Bible we hear the word ‘brother’ and we listen to a “story of brotherhood that should grow and be beautiful, but ends up destroyed”.“A story which begins ‘with a little jealousy’: Cain is irritated because his sacrifice does not p...
Vatican Radio’s English Africa Service would like to inform listeners in Rome, Italy, that the English Africa Service programme broadcast four times daily on Rome's FM 103.8 frequency is moving to a digital platform beginning Tuesday, this week, 15 February 2017.From this date onwards, the ‘English Africa Programme’ can be heard only through the Vatican Radio World Channel on Digital Audio Broadcasting standard known as DAB or its updated version DAB+, which will require the purchase of a digital radio receiver. However, listeners can continue to listen to the podcast of the daily programme throughout the day by logging on to our website www.radiovaticana.va, click on English and then go to the On-demand and Podcast section on the right hand side of the page; click on ‘English for Africa Programme.’In recent years, Vatican Radio has experimented with digital transmission technologies, including DAB, which is said to be cheaper and has a bette...
(Vatican Radio) “How can a priest, at the service of Christ and of His Church, come to cause such evil? How can one who has consecrated his life to leading the little ones to God, end up instead devouring them in what I have called a ‘diabolic sacrifice,’ which destroys both the victims and the life of the Church?”Pope Francis has once again spoken out strongly against the evil of sex abuse perpetrated by clergy and religious. His words come in the preface to a book by a victim of clerical sexual abuse, Daniel Pettit, today a husband and father of six children.In his preface, the Holy Father describes meeting Mr Pettit at the Vatican during the Year of Consecrated Life. “I couldn’t imagine that this man, enthusiastic and passionate about Christ, was a victim of abuse by a priest,” the Pope writes. “And yet this is what he told me, and his suffering struck me deeply. I saw once more the fearful damage caused by sexual abuse, and the l...
The All India Catholic Union (AICU), the largest lay Catholic organization in India, has called on the Prime minister Narendra Modi to use his influence and that of his government to negotiate with the countries of the Middle East to free Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, kidnapped in Yemen on March 4, 2016. In the letter, signed by the President, Lancy Da Cunha, Catholics express the anguish of the Christian community over the long months of imprisonment undergone by the Salesian priest, in the hands of jihadi militants linked to the Islamic State. Cunha says: "We ask for your personal intervention and assistance to ensure that he will return home as soon as possible and in complete safety. We hope and pray that you will support us".Since last March, Fr. Tom, a native of Kerala state, has been a captive of an Islamic group after it a home for the sick and elderly of the Missionaries of Charity in Aden, in southern Yemen. In the attack four sisters of Mother Teresa and 12 ...
