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KHARABRUD, Iraq (AP) -- An Iranian Kurdish rebel group received military training in weapons and explosives from U.S. and European advisers as part of the international program backing Kurds in the war against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the group's commander told The Associated Press....
NEW YORK (AP) -- After being roughed over by online critics for his performance moderating back-to-back live interviews with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Matt Lauer made a knowing reference during an interview with comic Dana Carvey on Thursday....
The sainthood conferred by Pope Francis on Mother Teresa of Calcutta on Sept. 4 here in the Vatican, was greeted with great enthusiasm and applause across the globe, including in India but especially in Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, the capital of eastern India’s West Bengal state, that the Albania-born nun adopted as her home town. A large Indian government delegation, including Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj and West Bengal state Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, was in St. Peter’s Square where the Pope declared Mother Teresa a Saint. Mmany of the delegation members were not Christians, a proof of the universal appeal and admiration that Mother Teresa enjoys among people of other faiths. Among the estimated 120,000 people from across the world present at the canonization ceremony was Mr. Namit Bajoria, a leading entrepreneur, philanthropist and also the Designate Honorary Consul of the Republic of Macedonia in Kolkata. ...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received the participants in an international interreligious congress on Thursday in the Consistory Hall of the Apostolic Palace. Organized by the Instituto del Diálogo Interreligioso – the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue of Argentina, in partnership with the Organization for American States and with the collaboration of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the symposium opened Wednesday, September 7th, at the Pontifical Augustinianum Institute to explore the theme: América en diálogo – Nuestra casa común – “America in Dialogue: our common home”.The two-day gathering is the first of its kind for the organizations involved, and its working sessions focused on the Holy Father’s encyclical letter, Laudato si’.Click below to hear our report In remarks prepared for the occasion, Pope Francis said, “The world looks constantly to us, believers, to see what our att...
Berhanu Sinamo 29 years old is a teacher in Ethiopia. He is a Catholic. Berhanu has just been elected President of the International Coordinating Young Christian Workers (ICYCW) making him the first African to lead the movement. Berhanu was elected at the 9th ICYCW Congress that was held in Seoul, South Korea between 19 August – 1 September 2016. At the time of his election, Berhanu was serving as the deputy chairperson of Ethiopia’s national YCW.Berhanu said he is honoured that members of ICYCW entrusted him with the important task of serving young Christian workers in different parts of the world. He called on all young Christian workers to answer God’s call by being faithful to their work. “As Christians, one of the ways Young people can contribute to spreading the Good News is by dedicating themselves to the work they are involved in and honestly serve the people, this by itself is a testimony to the Gospel. In the meantime when we are committed to our ...
Ghanaian Bishop Peter Atuahene of Goaso Diocese in the Brong-Ahafo Region, has called upon devotees of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Catholics, in general, to be merciful to the earth by joining in the fight against the indiscriminate destruction of the environment. The Bishop said the abuse of the earth should be a concern for everyone. In a homily at the closing Mass of the ninth Sacred Heart Congress at the Amaniampong Senior high School at Asante-Mampong in the Konongo-Mampong Diocese on 4 September, Bishop Atuahene said the earth was under threat and was crying for help.The four-day Congress, from 1 to 4 September 2016, attended by about 20,000 devotees of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the league Tarcisians of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Confraternity, members of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, several Priests and Religious was on the theme: Committing the Family to the Mercy of God through the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Congress held every five years was ...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis says today’s society “is increasingly showing its need of mercy” and described Benedictine monasteries “as oases of spirituality” where people can obtain that mercy. The Pope’s comments came on Thursday during an address to participants of the International Congress of Benedictine Abbots and Abesses taking place in Rome.Pope Francis said when we talk of our world needing more mercy, this is not "a slogan or a recipe" but instead something that comes from the very heart of Christian life making that person "more attentive to the needy and showing solidarity with them." This, he declared, is the concrete quality of the love that shows “the authenticity and credibility” of the Church’s message.In a Church that is called to concentrate increasingly on the essentials, the Pope said monks and nuns have a vocation of nurturing their special gift and responsibility: namely “to keep...
A consultation was organized by National Council of Churches, the umbrella organization of around 30 Protestant and Orthodox Churches in India, in New Delhi, India on September 5-6, 2016 bringing Christians and Muslim leaders together seeking ways to check increasing violence against religious minorities in India.The 50 attending religious leaders met to discuss "challenges for the freedom of religion and belief in India" under Prime Minister Narendra Modi who heads the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party led federal government.Currently religious minorities, especially Christians are "facing physical, symbolic and structural violence" from Hindu extremists across the country, said Father Z. Devasagaya Raj, secretary of the Indian Catholic bishops' conference's office for Dalit and indigenous people. "Every Indian should have the right to practice and promote their religion peacefully," he said.Christian and Muslim leaders maintain that H...
(Vatican Radio) Sophie from Kenya works for an NGO promoting greater awareness of human trafficking and shared with us her horrific story of how at the age of 13 she was tricked and enslaved by her own uncle. Now aged 21, Sophie was among those participating at an international conference in Nigeria against human trafficking that was organized by Caritas Internationalis and the Pontifical Council of Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People. She spoke to Susy Hodges.Listen to the interview with Sophie, a former victim of human trafficking: Sophie said her ordeal began when at the age of 13, her parents gave money to her uncle so she could be taken by him to a boarding school located in a rural area outside the capital, Nairobi. Instead, unknown to her parents, the uncle never took her to school, spent the money on his own family and kept her locked up at his house. She was forced to work as a minder for his children. Sophie told us how her uncle&rsqu...
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin has sent a telegramme to participants at an international ecumenical conference on Orthodox spirituality organised by the Bose community in the north of Italy.The encounter, taking place from September 7th to 10th, is focused on the theme ‘Martyrdom and Communion’. The prior of the monastery, Fr Enzo Bianchi and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch John X opened the conference, while the president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, will give a concluding address.In the message the Vatican Secretary of State says that in the context of the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis sends greetings to all the representatives of the different Churches and hopes that the “days of study and reflection may be an auspicious occasion for fraternal encounter and exchanges, and for a sincere sharing” as they listen together to the Word of God and deepen their unde...
