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(Vatican Radio) The International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened proceedings against an Islamist militant from Mali for ordering the destruction of Timbuktu’s religious and cultural heritage.The ICC says the trial wants to send the message that attacks on religious sites constitute war crimes.Listen to Devin Watkins' report: The International Criminal Court has seen two ‘firsts’ in a single trial: the first war crimes proceedings for the destruction of cultural heritage, and the first confession and apology of a defendant.Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi is on trial for ordering the destruction of religious and cultural monuments in Mali’s capital of Timbuktu.Nine mausoleums and a mosque were destroyed by armed groups during Mali’s civil war in 2012, at least one of which was a World Heritage Site.Al Madhi was a member of the Ansare Dine rebel group which seized control of the capital in conjunction with Al Qaeda.He enforced the rulings of the Islami...
Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a; Lk 14:1, 7-14Most Rev. Paul-Émile Léger served as Archbishop of Montreal from 1950 to 1968, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1953 by Pope Pius XII. He was one of the most powerful men in Canada and within the Catholic Church. He was a man of deep conviction and humility. Then on April 20, 1968 he resigned his office and leaving his red vestments, crosier, miter, and pallium in his Montreal office, disappeared. Years later, he was found living among the lepers and disabled, outcasts of a small African village. When a Canadian journalist asked him, "Why?" here is what Cardinal Léger had to say: "It will be the great scandal of the history of our century that 600 million people are eating well and living luxuriously and three billion people starve, and every year millions of children are dying of hunger. I am too old to change all that. The only thing I can do which makes sense is to b...
Berlin, Germany, Aug 23, 2016 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The plummeting number of priestly vocations in the Catholic Church in Germany is raising questions about the roots of the problem, and whether the situation has been manufactured to promote non-priestly ministry.According to figures published by the German bishops' conference, never before have so few priests been ordained in the Church in Germany: a total of 58 men became priests in the country in 2015.Within the last decade, the number of ordinations has dropped by half: In 2005, a total of 122 diocesan priests were ordained. And five decades ago, in 1965, the number was 500.Whilst there were almost 20,000 Catholic priests in Germany in 1990, today their number has dropped to 14,000. And this drastic decline is set to continue, judging by the figures: last year also marked the first time in history that the number of new seminarians dropped to double digits. Only 96 new students were registered in 2015. At the same tim...
Vatican City, Aug 23, 2016 / 03:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday the Vatican announced that Pope Francis has named Martin D. Holley, currently Auxiliary Bishop of Washington D.C. and an advocate of minority issues, as the new Bishop of Memphis, Tenn.After serving 12 years as Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Washington, Bishop Holley has been appointed the fifth Bishop of Memphis, a city sometimes called “The Good Samaritan on the banks of the Mississippi.”“Bishop Holley has demonstrated both pastoral sensitivity and administrative ability that should serve him well as he now undertakes his new ministry in western Tennessee,” Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington D.C., said in an Aug. 23 press release announcing the bishop’s appointment.“We rejoice that the Church of Memphis is receiving such a talented and caring pastor of souls.”Bishop Holley, 61, was born Dec. 31, 1954, in Pensacola, Fl. and ordained a ...
NEW DELHI (AP) -- Doctors in northern India have surgically removed 40 knives from the stomach of a man who had swallowed them over the past two months, one of the physicians said Tuesday....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Traffic fatalities were up 9 percent in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year, continuing a surge in deaths that began two years ago as the economy improved and travel picked up, according to preliminary estimates released Tuesday by the National Safety Council....
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey's artillery shelled Islamic State group targets across the border in Syria for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, a senior Turkish official said, amid reports that Turkey-backed Syrian rebels were preparing an offensive against an IS-held border town in northern Syria....
(Vatican Radio) A report by Unicef says thousands of children from Central America are trying to reach the United States, with Mexico being used as their final transit zone. Listen to James Blears' report: The Unicef report says that in the first six months of this year almost 26,000 unaccompanied children were detained at or around the US Border. Mexican authorities confirm they apprehended more than 16,000 of these migrant children and youngsters. Thirty thousand families of undocumented migrants were also discovered in this region.Most come from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which are ravaged by extreme poverty and criminal gangs which recruit by force, and indoctrinate children as young as eight. Those children who refuse to obey are often murdered. These three countries have some of the worst homicide rates in the world.Non-governmental organizations estimate that as many as 20,000 Central American would be migrants annually vanish in Me...
Manila, Philippines, Aug 23, 2016 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid President Rodrigo Duterte's fierce war against the underworld of drugs in the Philippines, the country's bishops are rallying with a pastoral appeal to end unjust violence while encouraging efforts to maintain law and order.“We are disturbed by an increasing number of reports of suspected drug-peddlers, pushers and others about whom reports of criminal activity have been received, have been shot, supposedly because they resist arrest,” stated a recent press release from the Bishops Conference of the Philippines.“It is equally disturbing that vigilantism seems to be on the rise,” the bishops continued, noting the increasing number of murders portrayed in the media. Since his election in May, President Duterte has handed out death sentences to drug dealers in an effort to end the illegal drug culture in the Philippines. Although over 600,000 dealers have already turned themselves i...
NEW YORK (AP) -- Take that, Pokemon. On Sunday, the Japanese prime minister turned up at the Olympics closing ceremonies to promote the 2020 Tokyo games dressed up as Mario , the eponymous hero of the popular video game series created in 1985....
