(Vatican Radio) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a 12 billion dollar loan for Egypt over the next three years to help the country out of its deep economic crisis, despite concerns about social tensions and reports of human rights abuses including discrimination against Christians. Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: The IMF said Egypt had met strict its conditions to receive $2.75 billion immediately, with the rest subject to its economic performance and further reforms. In a statement IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the 12 billion dollar bailout was aimed at "addressing longstanding challenges". Egypt has faced high unemployment and a budget deficit of 12 percent of Gross Domestic Product. And the country failed to attract foreign investment since the political turmoil in 2011 and what became known as the Arab Spring, which saw former president Hosni Mubarak overthrown. Yet, IMF support comes with a price. The government was...
(Vatican Radio) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a 12 billion dollar loan for Egypt over the next three years to help the country out of its deep economic crisis, despite concerns about social tensions and reports of human rights abuses including discrimination against Christians.
Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:
The IMF said Egypt had met strict its conditions to receive $2.75 billion immediately, with the rest subject to its economic performance and further reforms. In a statement IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the 12 billion dollar bailout was aimed at "addressing longstanding challenges". Egypt has faced high unemployment and a budget deficit of 12 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
And the country failed to attract foreign investment since the political turmoil in 2011 and what became known as the Arab Spring, which saw former president Hosni Mubarak overthrown.
Yet, IMF support comes with a price. The government was forced to introduce austerity measures such as lifting fuel subsidies, which resulted in fuel price hikes of nearly 50 percent, sparking protests.
FREE FLOTATION
A decision to allow the free flotation of the Egyptian pound also contributed to the highest inflation since 2009. Critics claim Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has been unable to tackle the economic difficulties.
But Richard Banks, a consulting editor of the Euromoney publication, says the IMF loan could improve the situation. "I think it will enable the Central Bank and the government to effect a resolution of the currency issue within, say, three to six months."
That's a long time for residents such as Antar Ahmed. "People are fed up. The end is near," he said. "I have five children, I can't get subsidies. We can't buy medicine, fuel and food and everything. How can we afford anything?"
IMF support for Egypt comes despite concerns over its human rights record, including towards minority Christians, with restrictions over the construction and renovation of churches, anti-Christian violence and ongoing kidnappings of Christian girls and women.
Outer details of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Chicago. / Credit: Eric Allix RogersCNA Staff, May 15, 2024 / 12:12 pm (CNA).Catholics and city preservationists in Chicago are scrambling to try to preserve a historic parish on the city's North Side, one that has survived a century of the city's development including being fully moved to a new location after it was first built. Our Lady of Lourdes Parish will hold its final Mass on Sunday, May 19, before the parish merges with nearby St. Mary of the Lake. The consolidation is part of the Archdiocese of Chicago's ongoing "Renew My Church" initiative that has closed and merged dozens of parishes in order to address shrinking budgets and priest shortages. The archdiocese announced the Lourdes parish merger in 2021. Katerina Garcia, the president of the Our Lady of Lourdes Church Preservation Society, told "EWTN News Nightly" anchor Tracy Sabol this week that parishioners at the parish dispute ...
Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, SJ, archbishop of Hong Kong, China. / Credit: Daniel IbáñezRome Newsroom, May 15, 2024 / 14:17 pm (CNA).Cardinal Stephen Chow recently visited three Catholic dioceses in mainland China, one year after the bishop of Hong Kong's first historic trip to Beijing.Chow led a 10-person delegation of Catholics from Hong Kong to the southern Chinese cities of Guangzhou, Shantou, and Shenzhen in April in his second official visit to China since becoming bishop of Hong Kong."We brought our people to have an encounter … where we share common concerns, for example, youth ministry, catechism, marriage and family," Chow said in a video interview published May 5.Here is a look at some of the Catholic communities Chow visited:St. Joseph's Cathedral in ShantouSt. Joseph's Cathedral in Shantou, China. Credit: Kc1446 at Chinese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHundreds of Chinese Catholics attended a Mass in St. Joseph's Cathedral in Shantou concelebrated...
Stained-glass window at the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis. / Credit: Ella Manthey/ShutterstockSt. Louis, Mo., May 15, 2024 / 14:47 pm (CNA).Two St. Louis parishes that appealed to the Vatican after Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski ordered them to merge last year have had their appeals upheld by the Holy See, reversing the archbishop's prior decision.As part of the archdiocese's major pastoral planning initiative dubbed "All Things New," Rozanski announced a year ago that the number of parishes would be reduced by nearly 50 by way of parish mergers and closures.Under canon law, a diocesan bishop has the authority to alter parishes, but only for a just reason specific to each parish. Concern for souls must be the principal motivation for modifying a parish.Amid the All Things New process, a number of parishes announced their intention to send appeals to the Vatican, putting aspects of the mergers planned for the parishes on hold until the Dicastery for the Clergy's rulings. Af...