Extreme poverty intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic is forcing people in remote areas of communist North Korea to bury dead loved ones secretly in unmarked graves in forests at night to avoid high funeral costs, reports say.
North Korea recorded “zero” new infections over the previous 24 hours and the death toll remained at 74, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on July 30, citing officials. The total number of cases was put at 4.8 million out of a total population of 26 million people.
If true, the death rate of 0.0016 percent, is the lowest in the world.
The claims, however, are disputed by foreign experts who say the government is hiding the real infection figures and death toll to ensure North Korean leader Kim Jongun retains a firm grip on a nation facing a staggering economic situation, Associated Press reported.
Other outlets report that the pariah state is recording increasing deaths from the pandemic, prompting helpless Koreans to go for clandestine burials for family members — something very unusual as filial piety and reverence to ancestors are important in Korean culture.
Singapore should ban picking genetically best embryos
Genetic testing has recently attracted much interest in Singapore, with the Ministry of Health (MOH) issuing a public warning on the risks of consumer genetic testing, as well as announcing subsidies on IVF (in vitro fertilization) embryo genetic testing for some patients at risk of transmitting heritable genetic defects to their offspring.
In May 2021, the ministry placed a moratorium on genetic testing and insurance, which bans insurers from requiring their clients to provide predictive gene-tic test results for disease sus-ceptibility.
A more controversial development is the use of predictive genetic tests to select IVF embryos for good health and intelligence, in what is known as pre-implantation genetic testing for polygenic risks (PGT-P).
As good health and intelligence are complex traits deter-mined by the combination of multiple genes, polygenic risk scores (PRS) are used to estimate an individual embryo’s likelihood of developing an adult-onset, multi-factorial trait by analyzing the combination of specific gene-tic variants within its genome. The risk here is because there is no genetic modification, there are minimal risks involved, as it is basically a technique for picking the “winning ticket” in the “genetic lottery” for good health and intelligence.
It must however be noted that there is an important distinction between embryo testing and selection to avoid serious harm from known genetic defects and for so-called ‘enhancement’, like better health and greater intelligence.
Quo vadis? Pope revitalizes ancient theologian’s rules as a timely guide
When Pope Francis gave his first full-length interview after his election in 2013, he was asked about the importance of the church providing solid points of reference in a rapidly changing world. The new Pope pulled out his thumb-worn breviary and read out a Latin quote from a fifth-century French monk.
Highlighting the words of St. Vincent of Lérins, Pope Francis raised a curtain onto his pontificate: presenting a little-known but once highly influential theologian whose name and citations would soon appear in a number of papal speeches, documents and interviews over the next decade.
The Pope’s favorite quote? That Christian doctrine should follow the true and legitimate rule of progress, so doctrine may be “consolidated by years, enlarged by time, refined by age.”
It expresses how doctrine can develop and how there can be growth in the expression and awareness of the faith and in morals “while always remaining faithful to its roots,” He told re-porters on the plane to Rome from Morocco in 2019.
This is the point the Pope returned to again when speaking to reporters on his flight back to Rome from Canada July 29, when he said St. Vincent offered a “very clear and illuminating” rule for proper doctrinal development.
Like every one one of his predecessors, “Pope Francis has the difficult task of protecting the deposit of faith even while encouraging legitimate growth and progress,” U.S. Msgr. Tho-mas G. Guarino told on Aug. 3 in an email response to questions.
Tradition properly understood, he said, is “the root of inspiration for the church to go for-ward,” not backward.
No one’s responsible for killing 16,000 Nepalese people
It still remains a Himalayan task for Nepal to achieve the transitional justice and reconciliation process to restore the social order that was ruptured because of mass atrocities during the protracted civil war from 1996 to 2006.
Sixteen years after the civil war left about 16,000 dead and 15,000 reported missing, repairing society after massive human rights violations has proved elusive in Nepal as the country does not possess the required political will.
The decade-long conflict was between the monarchy and Maoist rebels and as such transitional justice and reconciliation became tricky, which is even otherwise a balancing act. On the one hand, it upholds universal human rights norms to ensure justice for victims and, on the other, it respects the legitimacy of a political solution to a conflict.
King Gayanendra Shah, who ruled the nation of 30 million people at the time, subscribed to the divine right theory, which asked his subjects to treat him as an incarnation of the Hindu god, Vishnu. He took charge after the royal massacre in 2001 and reigned until 2008, when parliament declared Nepal a republic, ending the monarchy.
As chaotic politics and unstable governments continue, the bigger question asked is who will pin the responsibility for the atrocities, and on whom? Both security forces and rebels are accused of carrying out torture, killings, rapes and enforced disappearances.
The/ Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by rebel leaer Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the then prime minister. G.P. Koirala, pulled the curtain down on the 10-year conflict in the country.
Young Sudanese woman to be stoned to death
A court in Sudan has sentenced a 20-year-old woman to be stoned to death for alleged adultery.
The judgment comes as violence toward girls and women soars in the wake of last year’s military coup.
Civil society and human rights groups in Sudan and beyond have called for the abolition of the obligatory sentence of stoning to death under the 1991 Sudan Criminal Act.
The young woman’s trial, which did not meet recognized international standards, took place in Kosti city, White Nile State in July. Human rights advocates say accusations of adultery and blasphemy are often motivated by revenge, rather than based on fact.
The previous Islamist regime of Field Marshall Omar Bashir was overthrown in 2019. Democracy activists hoped Sudan’s penal code would be reformed in line with international standards and conventions.
However, a coup in October 2021 put the military and Islamist traditionalists back in effective control. Consequently, there has been a climate of impunity for those attacking women and girls challenging traditional roles by leaving their homes to go to school or work, or to be involved in civil society.
Until recently, rape victims could be charged with adultery: in 2014, a woman in Sudan was convicted of committing indecent acts after being gang raped, apparently because the act of reporting the rape was considered proof of her sin.
Nondenominational Churches Are Adding Millions of Members. Where Are They Coming From?
Over the last decade Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and every other Protestant family has declined except for those who say they are nondenominational.
The 2020 US Religion Census, due out later this year, tallied 4,000 more nondenominational churches than in 2010, and nondenominational church attendance rose by 6.5 million during that time. At the same time, mainline Protestant Christianity is collapsing following five decades of declines. In the mid-1970s, nearly a third of Americans were affiliated with denominations like the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, and the Episcopal Church. But now, just one in ten Americans are part of the mainline tradition.
In 2021, nondenominational Protestants in the United States outnumbered mainline Protestants. But what is causing this tremendous shift in the church landscape?
Raising banner, protesters raise questions about ‘Doctrine of Discovery’
In a brief protest at a papal Mass in Canada, Indigenous women unfurled a banner that said, “Rescind the Doctrine.”
The protest July 28 was a momentary but graphic reminder of how, when representatives of Canada’s First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities met Pope Francis at the Vatican in March and April, they asked him specifically for a formal repudiation of the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery.”
The phrase describes a collection of papal teachings, beginning in the 14th century, that blessed the efforts of explorers to colonize and claim the lands of any people who were not Christian, placing both the land and the people under the sovereignty of European Christian rulers.
The loss of the land, language, culture and spirituality of the Indigenous peoples of Canada and the foundation of the residential school system all can be traced to the doctrine, Indigenous leaders told reporters after their meetings with the Pope.
Asked July 20 if the Pope was expected to say something about the “Doctrine of Disco-very” while in Canada July 24-29, Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said, “a reflection is underway in the Holy See on the Doctrine of Disco-very,” and the study is nearing its conclusion. However, he said he was not certain that a statement would be completed before the papal trip ends or if the Pope would speak about it while in Canada.
Sarain Fox, an activist and member of the Batchewana First Nation near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, told Canada’s CBC News that she was one of the people holding the banner as Mass began in the National Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.
“It’s important for us to be recognized as human beings, so it’s not enough just to apologize. You need to talk about the root of everything,” which is the Doctrine of Discovery, Fox told.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a 2016 statement on the Doctrine of Disco-very, acknowledged the connect-ion between it and the government’s residential school policy, which forcibly removed Indigenous children from their homes and sent them to schools where their language, cultures and spiritualities were suppressed.
Religious orders call for international intervention in Haiti
Religious orders working in Haiti have called on the inter-national community to directly intervene to address the reign of terror of armed gangs they described as “diabolical, frightening and unacceptable.”
The same gangs are responsible for nearly four kidnappings a day in 2022 and violence that killed more than 200 and forced 3,000 to flee their homes during July alone.
In an Aug. 4 open letter to Najat Maalla M’jid, U.N. special rapporteur on violence against children, the Justice Coalition of Religious — made up of 20 religious orders — urged the inter-national community “to respond swiftly and effectively to the atrocities occurring in Haiti.”
In a document of testimonies published by the coalition, Passionist Father Rick Frechette, a doctor in Port-au-Prince, said “99% of people on the street want a foreign military force to save them.” He described the situation on the streets of Port-au-Prince as “Somalia-type battles.”
The coalition letter noted that the “Haitian state has failed in its sovereign obligation to protect the population.” It diverged from a July 29 statement from the Haitian bishops’ conference, which said state authority must be restored and that the government must take immediate action to “disarm the gangs, to allow the police to tackle violent crime and create a climate of serenity and confidence.” The bishops’ message stopped short of calling for action from the international community.
Nigerian cardinal says it’s not just Christians paying price of country’s violence
According to the former top Catholic official of Nigeria’s capital city, the violence in the country is “getting out of hand.” It’s not only Christians paying the price, he said. None of the country’s 200 million people are safe. “There is great insecurity throughout the country, people are being killed every day; bandits and terrorists seem to have a free hand,” said Cardinal John Onaiyekan, archbishop emeritus of Abuja. “We don’t know where the security forces are.”
“No one is safe, not just Christians. It is as if the government has lost control.” The country has presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for February and March 2023.
According to the prelate, both Christians and Muslims are victims of violence, perpetrated by criminals who “go around illegally killing innocent people.”
Speaking on the occasion of the XIX Plenary Assembly of the Symposium of the Bishops’ Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), which ended on July 31 in Accra, Ghana, Onaiyekan said his country has been experiencing “indiscriminate” violence since the rise of Boko Haram in 2009.
The insurgency group is one of the largest Islamic terrorist organizations, and their stated goal is to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state, much like ISIS tried to do in Iraq.
Pope Francis on birth control: Can the teaching of the Church on contraception change?
Can the Church’s teaching on birth control change? During Pope Francis’ return flight from Canada, a journalist asked him about the possibility of a development in the Church’s teaching on contraception.
“This is very timely. But know that dog-ma, morality, is always in a path of development, but development in the same direct-ion,” Pope Francis responded on July 30.
The pope went on to say that he thinks that the development of Catholic moral doctrine, in general, is fine but recommended in particular that it follows the rules outlined by the 5th-century theologian St. Vincent of Lérins.
Pope Francis explained that St. Vincent of Lérins taught “that true doctrine in order to go forward, to develop, must not be quiet, it develops ut annis consolidetur, dilatetur tempore, sublimetur aetate.”
“That is, it consolidates with time, it expands and consolidates, and becomes more steady, but is always ‘progressing.’ That is why the duty of theologians is research, theological reflection. You cannot do theology with a ‘no’ in front of it … the magisterium will be the one to say no,” the pope added.
Francis also addressed the recent controversy over a book published by the Vatican’s publishing house, which discussed “the possible legitimacy of contraception in certain cases.”
The book “Theological Ethics of Life: Scripture, Tradition, and Practical Challenges” was a 528-page synthesis of a theological seminar sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2021.
Pope Francis said: “On the issue of contraception, I know there is a publication out on this issue and other marriage issues.”
“These are the proceedings of a congress and in a congress there are hypotheses, then they discuss among themselves and make proposals. We have to be clear: those who made this congress did their duty because they tried to move forward in doctrine, but in an ecclesial sense, not out, as I said with that rule of St. Vincent of Lerins.”
On the subject of birth control, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception).”
St. Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae, the landmark encyclical reaffirming Church teaching against contraception, on July 25, 1968.