Over the course of the next six months, Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Nashville will help resettle 150 Afghans into local communities as part of the effort to help them escape Taliban rule under the U.S. State Department’s Afghan Placement Assistance Program.
“We serve people because we can address their needs, and addressing the humanitarian needs of refugees has been part of the mission of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Nashville since its founding in the early 1960s,” said Rick Musacchio, diocesan director of communications. “Catholic Charities works in collaboration with federal partners to make the re-settlement process manageable and not overwhelming for local communities,” he added.
Kellye Branson, director of Refugee and Immigration Ser-vices, is heading the effort on behalf of Catholic Charities. “We had a really quick turnaround to think about it. We were asked how many we could accommodate,” Branson said.
“To get everybody’s thoughts about what might be possible,” she reached out to several entities, she said, including the Nashville mayor’s office, metro-area schools, health officials, the Tennessee Office for Refugees, the Nashville International Center for Empowerment and other local organizations that serve refugees.
“I looked at how many refugees we were projected to get over the next year, how many refugees we’ve served in the past and 150 was where we landed as a number that we felt comfortable accepting over the next six months, that we could garner enough support for, and that we could manage when it came to providing services,” she told. the Tennessee Register, Nashville’s diocesan newspaper.

Muslim clerics in Pakistan are voicing opposition to a draft bill that would only allow “mature people” to change their religion. The top trend on Twitter in Pakistan on Sept.15 was “#Islam mukhalif bill na manzoor [reject anti-Islam bill],” as a debate on the bill aimed at stopping forced religious conversions raged in the media.
Opponents of the bill seemed to direct their ire at Naveed Amir Jeeva, a Christian legislator who has been pushing the Prohibition of Forced Religious Conversion Bill, pending with the Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, since 2019. Some even shared the Pakistani politician’s profile on social media, spewing hate and condemnation.
Human rights and minority groups have been demanding the government resurrect and pass the bill that would criminalize the kidnapping, forced religious conversion to Islam and subsequently forced marriage of underage girls in Pakistan.
A parliamentary committee to protect minorities from forced conversions recommended in February that only a “mature person” (adult) may be allowed to change religion after appearing before an additional sessions judge.
The committee suggested that the judge set a date for an inter-view within seven days of receipt of the conversion application. An additional clause empowered the judge with the option to grant the person 90 days to undertake a comparative study of the religions concerned before return to his office with a final decision.

The Catholic Church in India’s Mizoram state has joined other Christian denominations and youth associations in assisting Christian refugees fleeing unrest in Myanmar.
According to media reports, over the past six months thousands of Christians from Myanmar have sought refuge in Christian-dominated Mizoram after the military junta intensified its crackdown on rebels in Chin state bordering India.
“At present there are around 15,000 refugees from Myanmar living in Mizoram, mostly in Champhai on the Indo-Myanmar border, a strategically important location,” Bishop Stephen Rotluanga of Aizawl told.
“The Church is engaged in humanitarian work along with several other denominations, Caritas India, Catholic Relief Services, the Young Mizo Association and NGOs. Our top priorities are to give them shelter, medicines and food and we have successfully executed our program along with the help of our partners.
“There is no problem for us to help the refugees because people from Myanmar
have been coming back and forth to Mizo-ram for decades. Many have relatives on both sides of the border, hence people can understand their suffering and welcomed them with open arms.
“Many refugees are staying with their relatives and others are in relief camps managed by churches and NGOs. The Young Mizo Association is very active and helping all the agencies to fulfil the requirements.”
Bishop Rotluanga said the state government has encouraged and appreciated the relief work and Mizoram’s chief minister had even asked the prime minister to help with emergency relief funds.
“There are several issues that have to be tackled with love and care as the refugees are in shock and are in trauma leaving their country. Many have lost their near and dear ones. Most of them are Christians at our camp but there are also a few Muslims,” he said.
“We are expecting more refugees in our state after fresh conflict flared up. We already have around 11,500 refugees in our state at present,” said C. Lalrosanga, a member of the lower house of parliament.

The Pope is calling for “intensified prayer and fasting” for Afghanistan, which he follows with “great concern”. “As Christians,” he said at the Angelus, “in historical moments like these we cannot remain indifferent.”
Francis expressed his sympathy “for those who mourn for the victims of the suicide attacks,” asking that “we continue to assist those in need and pray that dialogue and solidarity may lead to peaceful and fraternal coexistence,” and calling for help to be given especially to women and children.
Earlier, before the recitation of the Marian prayer, to some thousands of people present in St Peter’s Square, commenting on the passage of the Gospel in which Jesus says that “there is nothing outside man that, entering into him, can make him impure”, while it is “from within, from the heart” that evil things are born, Francis urged people to “learn to blame oneself” for evil.
“Often,” he said, “we think that evil comes above all from outside: from the behaviour of others, from those who think badly of us, from society. How often we blame others, society, the world, for everything that happens to us! It is always the fault of others, of people, of those who govern, of bad luck. It seems that problems always come from outside. And we spend our time laying blame; but this is a waste of time. You become angry, bitter, and keep God out of your heart. Like those people in the Gospel, who complain, are scandalised, polemical and do not welcome Jesus. One cannot – he warned – be truly religious in complaining: complaining poisons, brings anger, resentment and sadness that close the doors to God”.

Bp Paul Hinder, Apostolic Vicar of southern Arabia (United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen) and Apostolic Administrator of the vacant seat of northern Arabia (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain) issued a pastoral letter ahead of the 2023 Synod.
In it, he writes: “As a Church of migrants amidst a Muslim society, comprising the faithful of different nationalities and traditions, our witness stands unique and important within the universal Church.”
Titled “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you” (Zechariah 8:23), the letter underscores the importance of a shared synodal journey of a Church that is one of a kind, made up of migrants in a Muslim majority region.
The prelate encourages “the active participation of all the faithful” in the synodal process in the vicariates of northern and southern Arabia, which will officially open on 15 October at St Joseph Cathedral in Abu Dhabi, a few days after Pope Francis leads services in the Vatican (9-10 October).
The Synod is divided in three phases, between October 2021 and October 2023. The first diocesan phase aims at listening to the people of God, while the second and third phases will focus on the continental and universal Church, so that the People of God can journey together in each, with the Synod as much a process as an event.

An archdiocese in the Philippines has begun allowing non-Catholics to be buried in Catholic cemeteries due to the scarcity of vacant burial lots brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cebu province in the central Philippines has recorded 38,088 Covid cases including 1,193 deaths, according to the latest government figures. The island is also recording a daily average of 10-15 deaths per day, which is affecting the availability of burial plots in cemeteries.
As such, charity demands that clergymen allow non-Catholics to be buried in Catholic-owned cemeteries during the pandemic, Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu said in a Sept. 2 pastoral letter. “In cases of non-Catholics who have died from Covid, and for whom there are no more vacant burial slots in their own respective cemeteries, I take it as an act of charity to allow their burial in Roman Catholic cemeteries during this time of pandemic,” he wrote.
Catholic cemeteries are usually reserved only for members of the Church.
The bishop said the decision was an “act of goodwill” that would last as long as necessary.
Archbishop Palma urged authorities to open more cemeteries to accommodate those who have died of Covid-19.
Non-Catholics expressed appreciation for the gesture.

78 new priests were ordained, and about 250 men and women religious professed their perpetual vows during the summer of 2021: these vocations are good news and a sign of hope for the Church of Vietnam, in the midst of a difficult time for the nation, marked by the fourth wave of Covid-19. In the diocesan territories affected by the virus, classified as “green areas”, the local communities were able to celebrate solemn masses, in simplicity and often outdoors; in South Vietnam, where the Corona virus infection with the Delta variant is more widespread (the so-called “red zones”), the liturgies of priestly ordination and religious profession have been postponed for now. Those celebrated in the permitted areas took place following strict precautionary anti-Covid protocols, inside seminaries or convents with only the candidates present, and with a limited number of faithful. With-out the massive crowds, without the feasts organized in the past, the new priests and religious lived their ordination in profound intimacy with God, aware of their important ministry.

A webinar heard a world re-nowned Jesuit Islamic scholar ex-pounding how Islam and Christia-nity now shape the world.
The August 29 program on “Political Religion: How Islam and Christianity Shape the World” was webinar jointly organized by the Institute of Dialogue between Reli-gions and Cultures, Loyola College, Chennai and Islamic Studies Asso-ciation, Delhi.
Father Felix Körner, who teaches Theology of Religions at Berlin’s Humboldt University, invited his listeners to penetrate through the various identities that one holds to reach the deepest form of one’s identity as the God given vocation to participate in God’s project for oneself and for the world.
Such an understanding would make both Christians and Muslims understand that their religions call them to exercise power with respon-sibility so that the power turns into service of the other. It will help liberate humans from all forms of slavery and lead to the empower-ment of the marginalized, added Father Körner, who has specialized in Islamic Studies and Catholic theology.
He hold doctoral degrees in both disciplines and has taught at the Jesuit run Pontifical Gregorian University until 2019.
Christians and Muslims live in diverse contexts and often find themselves as minorities among others. The Jesuit scholar invited both Christians and Muslims to reflect on their ‘weakness’ not as a burden but as grace; a gift and a task.
It’s a gift since ‘weakness’ transforms ‘unruly forms of power’ into service and a task since the voices of the vulnerable make the poor visible and audible in the public sphere. Father Korner called upon both communities to embrace pluralism as an opportunity to become an inspiration for society: a presence that heals without hidden agenda and supports the other with competence and without competing compulsions.

An Afghan Christian has tearfully pleaded with Christians across the globe to not forget the underground church following the Taliban takeover of his country. In a four-minute video, the man says he feels abandoned under Taliban rule but pledges to “continue God’s work” in the conflict-torn country.
Global Catalyst Ministries, a Christian group, published the footage on Aug. 19, several days after the Taliban captured Afghan capital Kabul and established control over the Central Asian country.
In the video, the face of the man is blurred and his voice changed, presumably to protect his identity. He speaks in his native language but the video has English subtitles.
Despite the tears and fears that have gripped the small Christian community, the man declares: “We are not leaving the field.”
The man begins the video with greetings — “Hello, dear sisters and brothers” — on the first day under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
“I don’t know what the future of this country will be. We are not able to control our emotions because we’ve worked so hard for 20 years. All of our work over the past 20 years has been lost overnight,” he says
“Only God understands how much pain we have and how broken our hearts are.” As his voice chokes in emotion, he says it was not the fear but the collapse of the country that had brought tears to Christians’ eyes.
“We are crying not out of fear but because our hearts ache for our beautiful country. It has now been destroyed by this savage and extremist group. Every precious thing of value in our nation is now destroyed,” he says.

“William” is refusing to take a coronavirus vaccine because he fears Indonesia’s military will use the country’s inoculation programme to poison him and wipe out his fellow Papuans.
Decades of conflict, racism and human rights abuses are fuelling Covid conspiracy theories among his neighbours at a time when their breakaway region is facing a renewed threat from the pandemic.
“I won’t take a vaccine if it’s brought here by Indonesia,” William, who asked not to use his real name, told AFP.
He said he would gladly sign up for any dose administered directly by the World Health Organization.
“But [many people] here are worried that if the jabs come through Indonesia they will be replaced with some other chemical substance that will kill us,” he added.
There is no evidence of a genocidal plan by Indonesia, which has drafted the armed forces to help run a nationwide vaccination drive, including in Papua. But a widespread hatred of the military runs deep in the region, located on the eastern edge of the Southeast Asian archipelago nation and just north of Australia.