Nigerian Diocese of Kafanchan worried about killings
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=151773&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Vicar General of the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan in Nigeria, Fr. Ibrahim Yakubu, has restated the Church’s position that the crisis in Southern Kaduna is being carried out by Fulani herdsmen who are on a Jihadi mission.Fr. Yakubu said events of the past years were enough confirmation that the herdsmen had an agenda.“First of all, all the villages that have suffered these attacks are villages that are either 100 or 90 per cent Christian”, he told New Telegraph.“Even where you have Muslim settlements, you will discover that their houses are never touched. In most cases, they will appear to have had foreknowledge of the attacks. I am saying this because before any attack occurs, they are seen moving out.“Second, the attackers while carrying out the attacks, would be shouting ‘Mu kashe arna’ (Kill the pagans). This leaves no one in doubt that the attackers are on a mission.“Why didn’t the so-called Jihadists wage war against Chri...
Vicar General of the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan in Nigeria, Fr. Ibrahim Yakubu, has restated the Church’s position that the crisis in Southern Kaduna is being carried out by Fulani herdsmen who are on a Jihadi mission.
Fr. Yakubu said events of the past years were enough confirmation that the herdsmen had an agenda.
“First of all, all the villages that have suffered these attacks are villages that are either 100 or 90 per cent Christian”, he told New Telegraph.
“Even where you have Muslim settlements, you will discover that their houses are never touched. In most cases, they will appear to have had foreknowledge of the attacks. I am saying this because before any attack occurs, they are seen moving out.
“Second, the attackers while carrying out the attacks, would be shouting ‘Mu kashe arna’ (Kill the pagans). This leaves no one in doubt that the attackers are on a mission.
“Why didn’t the so-called Jihadists wage war against Christians in Zaria and other towns in the northern part of the state where they are in the minority?
“The position of the Christians in Zaria and other Muslim-dominated places is very clear to them that they are a minority and respect such position.”
On the statement by Jamaatu Nasril Islam that more Muslims had been killed in the crisis, Fr. Yakubu replied: “I challenge them to come out with their own statistics showing the towns and villages where they were attacked by a number more than the one of the Christians.”
“I do not dispute the fact of their living in Southern Kaduna for more than a century. Things were never that bad, why now?” he queried.
(Wale Odunsi, The Daily Post, Nigeria)
Full Article
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275557&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Pope Francis shared a stage with Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on May 12, 2023, to speak at a two-day conference on "The General State of the Birth Rate," held at Conciliazione Auditorium close to the Vatican. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNARome Newsroom, May 2, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).The Vatican announced on Thursday that Pope Francis will speak at an event on Italy's demographic crisis as the country's birth rate sits at a historic low.Pope Francis will address "The General State of the Birth Rate" conference on May 10 at the Conciliazione Auditorium close to the Vatican.The two-day event organized by the Forum of Family Associations and the Foundation for Births seeks to address the 50 years of steady decline in births across Europe, and especially in Italy, and what can be done to reverse it. Births in Italy dropped to a historic low in 2023. Italy's national statistics bureau recorded 379,000 births last year, a 3.6% decline from 2022 and a 34.2% drop from 200...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275556&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Father Paul Tatu Mothobi, a member the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata (CSS/ Stigmatines) and former Media and Communications Officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC), was found dead of gunshot wounds in South Africa, on April 27, 2024. / Credit: SACBCACI Africa, May 2, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).Father Paul Tatu Mothobi, a member the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata (CSS/Stigmatines) and former media and communications officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC), was reportedly murdered last weekend in South Africa.According to a notice from the congregation's South Africa-based provincial secretary, Father Jeremia Thami Mkhwanazi, Tatu died on Saturday, April 27, "after sustaining a gunshot."Tatu, a native of Lesotho's Archdiocese of Maseru, was ministering in South Africa's Archdiocese of Pretoria. According to reports, his lifeless body was found with gunshot wounds in his car on a national road in South Africa, which r...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275548&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
God "is our peace" and "prayer leads us to meet him," said the archbishop of Bogotá, Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio. / Credit: Colombian Bishops Conference / ScreenshotACI Prensa Staff, May 2, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).The Colombian Bishops' Conference (CEC by its Spanish acronym) has called on all Catholics to join on May 3, Day of the Holy Cross, in a day of prayer for peace and reconciliation in the country."The call is made directly by the bishops and is based on recognizing the serious humanitarian crisis that multiple territories face amid armed conflict and other types of violence, as well as the complex sociopolitical panorama that the nation is experiencing today, permeated by division and polarization," the CEC announced on its website.Since Pope Francis' visit to Colombia in September 2017 and his meeting with victims of the armed conflict, the Church in that country has established a National Day of Prayer for Reconciliation and Peace to be celebrated every May...