NBA veteran Enes Kanter Freedom has been using his plat-form as a professional basket-ball player to take direct aim at the Chinese Communist Party for its egregious human rights abuses.
“People need to understand this … the Chinese Communist Party does not represent the Olympic values of excellence, of respect, of friendship. The whole world knows that they’re a brutal dictatorship and they engage in censorship, they tread on freedoms, they do not respect human rights, and they hide the truth,” Freedom told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in February.
But with no team signing a contract with the 6-foot-10, 250-pound center since February, he, and others, say that he’s paying the price for his activism — activism that includes explicitly calling out the NBA, his former team the Boston Celtics, and other players in the league for hypocrisy, citing their relationship with, and failure to condemn, China.
The 30-year-old seems more determined than ever to work in defence of human rights.
Freedom, a practicing Mu-slim from Turkey, will be speaking on September 24 at the March for the Martyrs in Washington D.C., an event dedicated to raising awareness of the plight of persecuted Christians around the world.
But why did Chacon choose a Muslim to speak at an event advocating for persecuted Christians?

This week’s death of former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev at the age of 91 has triggered an avalanche of commentary and tribute around the world, mostly focusing on Gorbachev’s role in the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet system for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
A sidebar to the story that probably deserves more prominence than it’s received, however, is that the Mikhail Gorbachev the world is now lauding, meaning the reformer and change agent, arguably never would have come to be without the moral and political pressures on the Soviet system created by Pope John Paul II.
Let’s recall the tick-tock in the Gorbachev story.
Born in 1931, for most of his career Gorbachev followed the path of the typical Soviet apparatchik. He became a member of the Community Party’s Central Committee in 1978, the same year the Archbishop of Krakow was elected to the papacy, and a few months later Gorbachev became a member of the Politburo – the same time, as it turns out, the new pontiff was making his historic first visit to Poland, showing the world a people collectively asserting an alternative vision of life to official Soviet ideology.

The Pontifical Academy for Life has published an interview with a theologian who says Catholic teaching on contraception is open for “theological discussion, within the Church, and even the possibility of dissent.”
The interview with Father Maurizio Chiodi, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life since 2017, was published in Italian and English and shared on the pontifical academy’s Twitter page. It was conducted by Fabrizio Mastrofini, the communications and social media manager of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
The Pontifical Academy for Life present-ed the interview with Chiodi as a clarification of the work of a 2021 seminar on ethics in which theologians debated a “basic text.”
One of the drafters of the Basic Text and participant in the conference, Fr. Maurizio Chiodi, answered some questions to clarify the meaning of the work done.
A Vatican-published book synthesizing the three-day conference recently came under fire for suggesting that the Catholic Church’s constant opposition to the use of contraception in marriage — clarified in the encyclical Humanae vitae — could change.
Father Chiodi in 2017 publicly argued that some circumstances in marriage could “require contraception” as a matter of responsibility.
In the Aug. 19 article, Chiodi said, “Humanae Vitae, like any encyclical, including Veritatis Splendor, is an authoritative document, but with no claim to infallibility.”
“When it comes to Humanae Vitae, and the earlier stance contained in Casti connubii — which was even stronger — we are in the realm of doctrina reformabilis (‘reformable doctrine’),” he said.
“This,” Chiodi added, “does not legitimize hastily substituting one’s own idea with the teaching of the magisterium, claiming for oneself an infallibility denied to the magisterium, but it does open up theological discussion, within the Church, and even the possibility of dissent, both for the individual believer and the theologian.”

A team of archaeologists’ uncovered evidence this month that may be the “smoking gun” con-firming the location of the house of St. Peter.
While excavating a fifth-sixth century Byzantine basilica at the el Araj archaeological site located on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in Israel, the team discovered a large Greek mosaic that seems to bolster the theory that the church was built over the home of Ss. Peter and Andrew.
Steven Notley, the academic director at the excavation of what is being called “The Church of the Apostles,” is a professor of the New Testament and Christian Origins at Nyack University. He told in a phone interview that the basilica’s mosaic is the “most definitive archaeological connection [we have] with [St.] Peter.”
The mosaic is inscribed with a petition that asks for the inter-cession of St. Peter, who is referred to as “the chief and commander of the heavenly apostles.”
Byzantine Christian writers commonly referred to the Apostle Peter by this title.
The inscription also mentions a donor named Constantine, “a servant of Christ,” and is framed in a round medallion with two strands of black tesserae, or glass mosaic pieces, that are part of a larger mosaic on the floor of the basilica’s sacristy.
The mosaic is inscribed with a petition that asks for the inter-cession of St. Peter, who is referred to as “the chief and commander of the heavenly apostles.” Steven Notley.

Four Nuns who were kidnapped in Nigeria’s southern Imo State on Sunday, Aug. 21, have been returned to their community.
Sisters Johannes Nwodo, Christabel Echemazu, Liberata Mbamalu and Benita Agu were freed unconditionally – meaning without the payment of a ransom – according to a statement issued Aug. 23 by members of the Sisters of Jesus the Savior (the Saviourite Sisters, or SJS) to which the nuns belong.
“With hearts full of joy, the Sisters of Jesus the Savior wish to announce the unconditional and safe release of four of our sisters who were abducted around Okigwe-Umulolo on the 21 of August 2022,” reads the statement signed by the director of the order, Sister Zita Ihedoro.
“Today is a memorable day for us, therefore we wish to share this joy with all men and women of goodwill who, in one way or the other, have contributed to the quick and safe release of our dear sisters,” the statement adds.
“We sincerely appreciate and thank you for your prayers and moral support during this difficult moment,” Ihedoro said, before imploring Jesus “to bless, protect and provide for you, especially in times of difficulty.”
The four nuns were kidnapped along a local highway on Sun-day morning on their way to a thanksgiving Mass.
It’s still not known who kidnapped them or why, but it is increasingly becoming clear that Nigeria’s Christians in recent years have become targets for attacks, kidnappings and even killings.

The Committee for Life, the Laity, and the Family of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference ex-pressed its opposition to four bills introduced in Congress to legalize euthanasia. The committee said the country is facing “a new manifestation of the culture of death and the throwaway culture.”
In an Aug. 18 statement, the committee said that “the Gospel commits us not to be indifferent in the face of discussions on the beginning and end of life.”
There are currently four bills to legalize euthanasia: two introduced last year and two this year.
In its statement, the Church in Argentina warned that “we are facing a new manifestation of the culture of death and the throwaway culture” and at the same time, “we are a people that wants such important needs as health, work, housing, and land” to be taken care of.
“Although a society cannot eliminate suffering, it can always commit itself with all its energies to the lives of those who suffer,” the committee said, noting that Argentina “has a rich history of doing so” with multiple alternatives “to accompany physical and spiritual pain with science and humanity.”
“In the hospices and in the cottolengos (homes for the physically and mentally disabled), we see a great example of this,” the committee said.
In its statement, the Committee for Life, the Laity, and the Family pointed out that “even in cases of diseases that have no cure, all patients must be cared for and accompanied so that their lives are respected until natural death. We are not the masters of life and therefore we place our-selves at its service.”
The bishops’ committee call-ed for valuing “palliative and comprehensive care, which relieves pain in serious illness and helps those who suffer and bears much fruit in the human person and in their family.”

Speaking on background, a Vatican source has said Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu’s apparent invitation to participate in a high-profile meeting of cardinals next week represents a personal gesture on the part of Pope Francis, but that it does not necessarily mean Becciu’s rights as a cardinal, stripped by the pope two years ago, are being restored. Over the weekend Becciu made headlines for telling attendees of a small, private Mass, which he celebrated Sunday, that he is being “reinstated” by Pope Francis. According to Italian media outlets, Becciu told congregants at Italy’s Golfo Aranci that, “On Saturday, the Pope phoned me to tell me that I will be reinstated in my cardinal duties and to ask me to participate in a meeting with all the cardinals that will be held in the coming days in Rome.”

Calling for the gathered prelates to be meek, faithful, close to their flocks and tender, and to pay attention to both the big and small events of life so people can “savour the presence of Jesus alive in our midst,” Pope Francis created 20 new cardinals Saturday, including 16 eligible to vote for the next pontiff.
“To us, who in the church have been chosen from among the people for a ministry of particular service, it is as if Jesus is handing us a lighted torch and telling us: ‘take this; as the Father has sent me so I now send you’,” Francis told the cardinals. “In this way, the Lord wants to bestow on us his own apostolic courage, his zeal for the salvation of every human being, without exception.”
Francis spoke to the prelates of the “fire” that Jesus “came to bring the earth, a fire that the Holy Spirit kindles in the hearts, hands and feet of all those who follow him.” God himself, Francis said, is a “powerful flame” that “purifies, regenerates, and transfigures all things.”
But there is also a slow-burning fire, the pope said, that of the “charcoal,” which makes God’s presence warm and nourishing for everyday life.
The “fire” that comes from “presence,” he said, was once experimented and shared by Saint Charles de Foucauld, a poor hermit Francis declared a saint earlier this year. He “lived for years in a non-Christian environment, in the solitude of the desert, staking everything on presence: the presence of the living Jesus, in the word and in the Eucharist, and his own presence, fraternal, amicable and charitable,” the Pope said.
Francis listed several examples of that charcoal fire that is present in the “small” things, such as the consecrated who live in the “quiet and enduring fire in their work-place, in interpersonal relationships, in small acts of fraternity. It is also in the unassuming ministry of a parish priest, in the Christian married couples and their “homemade” prayers, and in the elderly, representing “the hearth of memory, both in the family and the life of the community.”
“How important is the fire of the elderly!” he said. “Around it families unite and learn to interpret the present in the light of past experiences and to make wise decisions.”

Pope Francis  led a number of major events at the end of August, starting with the creation of 20 new cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Inducting the appointees into the College of Cardinals at an ordinary public consistory Aug. 27, the Pope will give each new cardinal: a scarlet biretta — the “red hat” — whose colour signifies a cardinal’s willingness to shed his blood for the faith; a gold ring, a sign of their special bond with the church of Rome; and a scroll testifying to his new office and containing the name of his titular church in Rome.
On Aug. 28, the Pope will leave Rome for L’Aquila, 55 miles east of the capital, where he is scheduled to open a seven-centuries-old celebration of forgiveness and meet with the families of those who died in a 2009 earth-quake.
Back in Rome, the Pope  then hold an important closed-door assembly with the College of Cardinals Aug. 29-30.
All the world’s cardinals have been invited to attend the consultative session to reflect on the apostolic constitution “Praedicate evangelium” (Preach the Gospel) on the reform of the Roman Curia — a project that has been an important focus of this pontificate.
The Pope will then end the day Aug. 30 with Mass with all the new cardinals and the College of Cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Pope convening the world’s cardinals in Rome offers a rare chance for the College of Cardinals to get to know each other and to serve as a consultative body for the Pope.
With 20 new members inducted into the College of Cardinals Aug. 27, Pope Francis will bring up to 132 the number of cardinal electors, and the college as a whole will have 226 members.
Some of the significant characteristics of the college after the Aug. 27 consistory can be seen in numbers:
— The college is elderly. The average age of cardinals today is 78, and the average age among the cardinal electors is 72. Even though nine electors are under the age of 60 and one is 48 years old, nearly three-quarters of the electors are 70 and older. Almost 41% of the entire college is over the age of 80.
— The college is international. Today there are more than 90 countries represented in the entire college and 71 countries among the electors. That’s a notable increase from 2005, when all 117 eligible cardinal electors came from 53 countries.

Bishop Rolando Álvarez is under house arrest in Nicaragua’s capital Managua after being detained by police August 19 in a pre-dawn raid.
Bishop Álvarez had been confined to his residence for two weeks along with five priests, a seminarian, and a cameraman of a religious television channel. The priests and cameraman have reportedly been put in prison in the capital now, while the Bishop is under house arrest. A police statement said authorities had been waiting for several days for what they called a “positive communication” from the Diocese of Matagalpa, which had not been forthcoming. No formal charges have been announced.