The U.S. State Department on Dec. 7 designated China a “country of particular concern” for its systematic, egregious, and ongoing violations of the religious freedom of its citizens.
The Chinese Communist Party has rightly been under scrutiny for its persecution of religious groups, including the internment of Uighurs in concentration camps in Xinjiang and the organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners, as well as for arrests and imprisonment of followers for reason of their practice, the destruction of church buildings and symbols, and the arrest or intimidation of Christians holding private Bible studies.
At a recent event on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s Third Committee session, the Jubilee Campaign—together with the Coordination of Associations and Individuals for Freedom of Conscience—brought the untold stories of Chinese children’s experiences of religious persecution.
The left is actively working to undermine the integrity of our elections. Read the plan to stop them now. The event exposed the fact that the Chinese Communist Party has utterly failed to uphold its treaty obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which China is a signatory.
While entire religious communities have been persecuted in China because of their religious and spiritual beliefs, children have suffered tenfold.
The government has separated children from their parents and has threatened to beat the children if the parents do not renounce their faith. Government authorities have even threatened parents of adopted children that they will forcibly take away those children, return them to their original families, or put them up for adoption again if the family does not give up its beliefs.
In addition, in keeping with the 2018 Revised Regulations on Religious Affairs in China, local authorities have interpreted the regulation to ban attendance for all children at churches and other houses of worship, as well as to prohibit children from attending any religious activities, such as religious summer camps, or religious instruction, such as Sunday school.
Vietnamese poet jailed for 12 years for subversion
A court in central Vietnam has imposed a harsh prison sentence on an elderly poet and blogger for his posts critical of the communist government.
On Dec. 15, the People’s Court of Nghe An Province sentenced 68-year-old Tran Duc Thach to 12 years in prison for charges of “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s government” under Article 109 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code. He will also have to serve another three years’ probation after his sentence.
Vietnam News Agency reported that Thach, who was arrested in April, was accused of writing and posting articles distorting the country’s political, economic and social events, and smearing government leaders on Facebook from May 2019 to March 2020.
The state-run agency said the former soldier, who served with North Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War, was among five co-founders of the Brotherhood for Democracy, which is banned by the government. Many of its members have been jailed since its establishment in 2013.
It said his crimes were seen as being dangerous and aimed at fighting the one-party government.
Thach had been imprisoned for three years in 2009 for “conducting propaganda against the state” along with his two fellow dissidents Vu Van Hung and Pham Van Troi. However, he was among over 10,000 prisoners granted amnesty in 2011 to mark the country’s National Day.
His poetry describes life without freedom and justice, while his novels cover human rights abuses and the legal system in the Southeast Asian country.
On Cages and Evangelization in China
Joshua Wong is a young Chinese human rights activist, recently sentenced to 13 and a half months in prison on the Orwellian charge of “incitement to knowingly take part in an unauthorized assembly”—meaning, in Chinese Newspeak, urging others to protest peacefully the tyranny now throttling Hong Kong. In his first letter from prison, the uncowed Mr Wong wrote, “Cages cannot lock up souls.” Indeed, they cannot. But the failure to defend the caged by standing in solidarity with them can do the gravest damage to evangelization.
Jimmy Lai, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent Catholic defenders of religious freedom and other basic human rights, was back in jail in early December; his bail in a civil lease dispute was revoked on the grounds that he might flee and is a national security risk to boot. The real reason for his incarceration, of course, is that keeping Mr Lai in prison stifles his ongoing challenge to repression. In numerous interviews, Jimmy Lai has em-phasized that his Catholic faith undergirds and sustains his commitment to human rights for all, even as the Xi Jinping regime tries to ruin his business and threatens his life. Has Jimmy Lai been encouraged by a public word of protest from the Vatican against his persecution since he became a prime target of China’s overlords? No.
Martin Lee is another devout Catholic—a distinguished barrister and pro-democracy activist—who has seen his work undone as Beijing tightens its stranglehold on Hong Kong in brazen disregard of the commitments it made in 1997, when Great Britain reverted sovereignty over the territory to China. Profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Mr Lee rebuffed any suggestion that he would ever leave Hong Kong.
Catholics praised for helping Vietnam’s pandemic fight
High-ranking government officials have praised Vietnamese Catholics for their great contributions to the Covid-19 fight and returned some former church properties as Christmas gifts during their festive visits.
On Dec. 22, National Assembly chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, accompanied by central and local officials, offered Christmas and New Year flowers and greetings to Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh at the Arch-bishop’s House in Hue, the capital of Thua Thien Hue province.
Using anti COVID vaccine is lawful even if it includes cell lines from aborted foetuses
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issue as press released, approved by the Pope, whereby it “is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted foetuses in their research and production process.”
The statement comes as a response to “several requests for guidance regarding the use of vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, which, in the course of research and production, employed cell lines drawn from tissue obtained from two abortions that occurred in the last century.”
The Congregation does “not intend to judge the safety and efficacy of these vaccines, although ethically relevant and necessary, as this evaluation is the responsibility of biomedical researchers and drug agencies. Here, our objective is only to consider the moral aspects of the use of the vaccines.”
“As the Instruction Dignitas Personae states, in cases where cells from aborted foetuses are employed to create cell lines for use in scientific research, there exist differing degrees of responsibility’ of cooperation in evil.” For example, ‘in organizations where cell lines of illicit origin are being utilized, the responsibility of those who make the decision to use them is not the same as that of those who have no voice in such a decision.’
“The fundamental reason for considering the use of these vaccines morally licit is that the kind of cooperation in evil (passive material cooperation) in the procured abortion from which these cell lines originate is, on the part of those making use of the resulting vaccines, remote. The moral duty to avoid such passive material cooperation is not obligatory if there is a grave danger, such as the other-wise uncontainable spread of a serious patho-logical agent – in this case, the pandemic spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19.”
“It must therefore be considered that, in such a case, all vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience with the certain knowledge that the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used in production of the vaccines derive.”
“It should be emphasized, however, that the morally licit use of these types of vaccines, in the particular conditions that make it so, does not in itself constitute a legitimation, even indirect, of the practice of abortion, and necessarily assumes the opposition to this practice by those who make use of these vaccines.”
Vatican City (AsiaNews)
Francis: Inculturated Zairean rite a ‘promising model’ for Amazon
Pope Francis is praising an inculturated African Mass rite as a model for a proposed Amazonian indigenous rite even though the African Eucharistic liturgy incorporates the pagan custom of “invocation of ancestors.”
“The Zairean rite suggests a promising way also for the possible elaboration of an Amazonian rite,” writes Francis in his preface for a new book titled Pope Francis and the Roman Missal of the Dioceses of Zaire: A Promising Rite for Other Cultures.
The Zairean Mass, sometimes called the “Congolese Mass,” is “until now the only inculturated rite of the Latin Church approved after the Second Vatican Council,” claims Vatican News — although the Vatican also approved “Twelve Points of Adaptation” for a Hinduized “Indian rite Mass” in 1969.
Commending the Zairean rite for its cultural vibrancy and spirituality, Pope Francis says that the liturgical inculturation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is an invitation for enhancing the different gifts of the Holy Spirit, thus enriching humanity.
“Animated by religious songs with an African rhythm, the sound of drums and other musical instruments constitute real progress in the rooting of the Christian message in the Congolese soul. It is a joyful celebration. It is a true place of encounter with Jesus,” observes Francis.
This is not the moment to include half-baked theological speculations in the liturgy.
The pontiff insists that liturgical inculturation in Africa and the Amazon is possible “without upsetting the nature of the Roman Missal, to guarantee continuity with the ancient and universal tradition of the Church.”
Francis commendation of the Zairean Mass comes a year after the pontiff celebrated a special Mass for Rome-based Congolese Catholics in St Peter’s Basilica using the Zairean rite. Liturgists, however, are disturbed by pagan elements in the Zaire Mass, especially the rite of the “Invocation of the Ancestors of Upright Heart (invocation ancetres au coeur droi),” together with the saints in the opening rites of the Holy Mass — particularly as the congregation may even invoke their pagan ancestors.
In comments to Church Militant, Dr Joseph Shaw, editor of The Case for Liturgical Restoration explained the biblical, theological and liturgical “absurdity” of incorporating the invocation of ancestors into the liturgy.
Pope forges ahead with financial reforms
Pope Francis is pushing forward with his reforms of Vatican finances with a new law that tightens oversight over Holy See invest-ments and ensuring greater transparency.
The move comes as the Vatican continues its investigation into a disastrous €350 million London property investment which had been overseen by the Secretariat of State, the body which sits at the heart of the Church’s central administration.
The new law, which cames into effect on 1 January 2021, removes the Secretariat of State’s power to manage investments and property holdings and hands that authority to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA). APSA oversees the bulk of Vatican investments and also acts as the equivalent of a treasury.
The Pope has also ruled that APSA will also take over control of Peter’s Pence from the Secretariat of State. The Peter’s Pence fund is derived from donations made from Catholics across the world and its purpose is to help the Pope run the Holy See and fund charitable projects.
Francis’ legislation comes after a letter he wrote in November authorising that APSA would take over the management of the Secretariat of State’s funds. In that letter the Pope called for the Vatican to exit the investment in 60 Sloane Avenue “as soon as possible.”
By 4th February 2021, the latest law explains, the Secretariat of State must transfer all “cash funds” in Vatican or foreign bank accounts, “securities and real estate investments,” and investments in companies or investment funds to APSA to manage. In turn, APSA will be held accountable to the Secretariat for the Economy, which has a general oversight role.
DNA study suggests humans descended from two people
Disagreements between those who support creationism and those who support the theory of evolu-tion have been going on for decades.
The book of Genesis tells us that all of humanity is ultimately descended from just two people. Does science agree? According to the New Zealand Herald, a recent study says “maybe.”
The study was done by Mark Stoeckle and David Thaler of the University of Basel, Switzerland. They examined the “genetic barcodes” of over 5 million animals from 100,000 different species — and one of those species was humans.
Based on those barcodes, which are really just tiny bits of DNA from the mitochondria of living cells, the researchers concluded that their data are “consistent with” the hypothesis that all of humanity are the descendants of a single pair of adults who lived 100,000 to 200,000 years ago, writes the Herald. The study showed that there is very little genetic diversity among humans when you look at our mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial DNA is a part of our genetic code that is passed to us from our mothers and it doesn’t mix with our nuclear DNA, making it possible to trace a direct maternal genetic line.
Mitochondrial DNA is the small circular chromosome found inside mitochondria. These organelles found in cells have often been called the powerhouse of the cell. The mitochondria, and thus mitochon-drial DNA, are passed only from mother to offspring through the egg cell. The study, published in the journal Human Evolution in May 2018, sparked news outlets to declare “All humans are descended from just two people, scientists claim.”
Looking beyond the headlines, science journalist Michael Marshall notes in an article for Forbes that “DNA barcoding is not a perfect method of identifying species, but it works pretty well.” Marshall alludes to the limitations of “drawing big conclusions from mitochondrial DNA, and especially from a single gene.”
LANDMARK STUDY: DEVOUT MUSLIMS HATE WEST
A groundbreaking study strongly linking Muslim religiosity to prejudice and hostility towards the West is “distressing,” a Kuwaiti researcher who spe-cializes in the psychology of religion has revealed. Dr Bashar Albaghli, who studied Muslims from 17 Arab countries between 18–70 years of age, says he expected to find a link between Islamic fundamentalism and West hatred, but was shocked to dis-cover “even intrinsic (moderate) Muslim religiosity” strongly predicting prejudice towards the West.
“In fact, the only groups that had favourable attitudes toward the West were the secular and nonreligious Arabs,” Albaghli, a behavioural psychologist at the prestigious University of St Andrews, Scotland, explained on the Jihad Watch website.
Albaghli revealed that he was also “quite surprised by the response of many Western universities that were hesitant to invest in this research” titled “The Link between Muslim Religiosity and Negative Attitudes toward the West: An Arab Study” and published by The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion.
Jews, Muslims Decry Court Decision Backing Belgian ban on Kosher, Halal Slaughter
Despite concern that a Belgian law bans Jewish and Muslim religious slaughter practices, a European Union court has said the law is justified by the need to promote animal welfare even if it does not accommodate religious freedom.
“This decision goes even further than expected and flies in the face of recent statements from the European institutions that Jewish life is to be treasured and respected,” said Pinchas Goldschmidt, the head of the Conference of European Rabbis, BBC News reports.
The European Court of Justice, the highest court in the European Union, said the Belgian law requiring animals to be stunned limited the rights of Muslims and Jews but did not ban ritual slaughter. The law’s “interference with the freedom to manifest religion” met an “objective of general interest recognized by the European Union, namely the promotion of general welfare.” The law would not affect the sale in Belgium of kosher and halal meat produced in other countries, it noted.
Ben Weyts, the Flanders government’s nationalist welfare minister, welcomed the decision, saying “we’re writing history today.” The animal rights group Gaia also welcomed the decision.