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(Vatican Radio) Valerie, a dynamic teenager from DRC whose family has found refuge in South Africa; Luwam, a dancer from Eritrea, and Wahida, an English teacher who fled Afghanistan are some of those telling their stories in a new series of Jesuit Refugee Service videos produced by the JRS “Mercy in Motion” campaign. Every week, as from Friday, 16 September, you can watch and listen to some uplifting, encouraging, sometimes sad or dramatic – but never – despairing stories of refugees from across the globe on Vatican Radio’s English Facebook page.At a moment in time in which an unprecedented 65 million people are on the move in search of a safe place, peace and a decent, better future, these videos aim to contribute to a better understanding of who “refugees” are and why – as Pope Francis has said many times – it is important to build bridges and not walls, and that inclusion and integration are not a threat, a...
Washington D.C., Sep 15, 2016 / 06:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- If the U.S. uses its moral authority' to pressure Vietnam on human rights issues, the southeast Asian country will change for the better, religious freedom advocates maintained at a conference on Monday.“Vietnam wants to be part of the world, and I’m sure it does. It needs to not treat religious liberty as the poor sister of the human rights family, or worse, as the eccentric uncle of the human rights family,” Kristina Arriaga, a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, stated at a Sept. 12 event hosted by the Hudson Institute on religious freedom in Vietnam.“Without religious freedom, no other right exists,” she added.The freedom of citizens to practice their religion in Vietnam “varies,” the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom noted in its 2016 annual report, because while “the government has made dramatic openings with respec...
By Rhina GuidosWASHINGTON (CNS) -- Can you put a dollar value on religion? OneGeorgetown University researcher has attempted something close to it, releasingfindings from a study that says organized religion and behaviors associatedwith it contribute, by one estimate, nearly $1.2 trillion to the United States.Brian Grim, of the Religious Liberty Project at GeorgetownUniversity, unveiled on Sept. 14 findings of a study he conducted with MelissaGrim, of the Newseum Institute, and which analyzed the economic impact of344,000 religious congregations, "from Adventist to Zoroastrians," around thecountry.Depending on which factors one considers, religioncontributes $378 billion, by the most conservative of estimates, and up to $4.8 trillion tothe U.S. annually, Brian Grim said of the study sponsored by Faith Counts, anonprofit organization of religious groups, whose aim is promoting the value of faith.University of Pennsylvania professor Ram Cnaan, who also is program director for the Pro...
By Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a change to church law, Latin-riteCatholic deacons may not preside at a wedding when one or both of the newspouses are members of an Eastern Catholic church.The new rule is one of the changes to 11 canons in theLatin-rite Code of Canon law that Pope Francis approved in order to harmonize the lawsof the Latin and Eastern Catholic churches on several issues involving thesacraments of baptism and marriage.After more than 15 years of study and worldwideconsultation, the conflicting rules were resolved by adopting the Easterncode's formulations for the Latin church as well, said Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of thePontifical Council for Legislative Texts.The bishop spoke to journalists Sept. 15 after thepublication of an apostolic letter published "motu proprio" (on hisown initiative) in which Pope Francis ordered the changes to the Latin Code ofCanon Law, the 1983 text governing the majority of the world's Catholics.In the Eastern Cathol...
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "South Park" has taken on the controversy over San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's national anthem protest....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Thursday that he created the Atlantic Ocean's first national monument because the planet cannot be protected without trying to safeguard its oceans....
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- An officer responding to a reported armed robbery shot and killed a 13-year-old boy when the teen pulled a firearm from his waistband that was later determined to be a BB gun but looked "practically identical" to the weapon that police use, authorities said Thursday....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The four-star officers in charge of each U.S. military branch pleaded with lawmakers to find common ground and avoid the return of strict, across-the-board spending limits that increase the risk of sending inadequately trained and equipped troops into combat....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Donald Trump says he believes women should be able to obtain birth control without a prescription....
Am 8:4-7; I Tm 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13 Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, once told about a make-believe country where only ducks lived. On Sunday morning all the ducks came into Church, waddled down the aisle, waddled into their pews and squatted. Then the duck minister came in, took his place behind the pulpit, opened the Duck Bible and read, "Ducks! You have wings, and with wings you can fly like eagles. You can soar into the skies! Ducks! You have wings!" All the ducks yelled, "Amen!" and then they all waddled home. [Jim Burns, Radically Committed (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1991).] No one flew or even tried. Friends, there’s just too much truth to that little fable. Using the parable of a rascal manager in today’s Gospel, Jesus challenges us to see that it is time for the children of light to quit waddling. It's time for us to soar by wisely using our God-given talents and blessings for the welfare of others, thus glorifying God...
