A Muslim jihadi has gone on a stabbing spree in Nice’s Notre-Dame Basilica, killing the male sacristan, beheading an elderly woman at the baptismal font and knifing a fleeing third woman who died in a nearby café.
The assailant in his 20s, identifying himself as “Ibrahim,” stabbed and wounded several others around the neo-gothic Basilica of the Assumption of our Lady around 9 am on Oct. 29.
Police shot and severely wounded the killer, who was heard repeatedly shouting “Allahu Akbar” [God is greatest] as he was taken away in an ambulance.
Just over a week ago, Emanuel Macron said he wanted to end ‘Islamic separatism’ in France because a minority of the country’s estimated six million Muslims risk forming a ‘counter-society’. We saw yet another example of this when a history teacher was decapitated in the street on his way home in a Paris suburb. M Paty was murdered, Macron said, “because he taught the freedom of expression, the freedom to believe or not believe.” The president is now positioning himself as the defender of French values, determined to drain the Islamist swamp.
That Macron even gave an anti-Islamism speech was itself a sign of how fast the debate is moving in France. Five years ago, when Fox News referred to ‘no-go zones’ in Paris, the city’s mayor threatened to sue.
Trump Becomes the First President Since Eisenhower to Change Faiths in Office
More than 180,000 people have stopped identifying with the Presbyterian Church (USA) in the past four years, according to official church numbers. Now there’s one more: President Donald Trump. Trump told Religion News Service in a written interview mediated by spiritual advisor Paula White-Cain that he doesn’t consider himself to be Presbyterian. He was confirmed in the church and has called himself Presbyterian numerous times over the years. But no more. “I now consider myself to be a non-denominational Christian,” Trump said in the statement. “Melania and I have gotten to visit some amazing churches and meet with great faith leaders from around the world. During the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak, I tuned into several virtual church services and know that millions of Americans did the same.”
Latest attack on Coptic Christians highlights religious violence in Egypt
On October 5, 2020, a mob of Islamic extremists attacked the homes of Coptic Christians in the Egyptian village of Dabous, located in the Upper Egypt region of Minya. According to International Christian Concern, two young Muslim adults beat up a ten-year old Coptic Christian child. Some Christian adults retaliated, triggering the attack the next day. Christians make up about 10% of Egypt’s 100 million people, making the country home to the largest Christian population in the Arab world. The vast majority of Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, the largest Church in the Oriental Orthodox communion – However there are about 350,000 Eastern Orthodox Christians, 300,000 Protestants, and just under 200,000 Catholics.
Banner in St. Peter’s Square asks Francis for clarification
Austrian Catholic Alexander Tschugguel took Vatican police by surprise on October 24 afternoon as the “Pachamama slayer” unfurled a massive banner in St Peter’s Square asking Pope Francis for “clarity on same-sex unions.”
Tschugguel led a band of faithful Catholics from Castel Sant’Angelo — where the Catholic convert had dumped five Pachamama idols into the Tiber River during the Amazon Synod — to the Vatican in protest agai-nst the pontiff’s repudiation of Catholic teaching.
As over 50 Catholics knelt praying the Rosary in front of St Peter’s Basilica, hundreds of onlookers gathered to witness the demonstration.
A veteran Vaticanist who was at the scene told Church Militant he’d never seen anything like it before and commented how long police took to clear the protest.
“On a previous occasion when a much smaller banner was raised, police ordered it taken down in less than a minute,” he remarked. “Today, it took them over 15 minutes to bring the demonstration to a halt.”
In an interview at Castel Sant’Angelo, Church Militant asked Tschugguel why he was asking for clarity when the pontiff was on record declaring his support for gay civil unions on multiple occasions.
Bottomline on pope movie mystery: ‘If you don’t fix it, you bought it’
When I was a child growing up in a small Western Kansas town, my mom from time to time would take me to Main Street to visit the shops. Most had some version of the following sign on display, meant as a warning to be careful with the merchandise: “You break it, you bought it.”
There’s a PR corollary that could be said to go like this: “No matter who breaks it, if you don’t fix it you bought it.” It means that no matter what a leader actually says or does, if he or she allows an impression to be created and doesn’t publicly disown it, then it belongs to them.
The thought comes to mind in light of the emerging mystery surrounding the new Pope documentary “Francesco” by Evgeny Afineevsky, which debuted and already is a candidate to contain the most-dissected 20 seconds of imagery about a major world leader since the Zapruder film.
In those twenty seconds, Pope Francis makes comments about civil unions for same-sex persons that created a global media frenzy, reported as the first time a Pope explicitly had endorsed civil unions. It also appeared to directly contradict a 2003 document from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, prepared by the future Pope Benedict XVI and approved by St John Paul II, warning that such laws are “gravely unjust” and insisting that Catholics may never support them.
Over 20 “caliphate builders” exposed in North Caucasus
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has uncovered two extremist cells in Russia’s internal republics of Karacha-yevo-Cherkessia and Dagestan comprising adherents of the Al-Takfir wal Hijra movement, banned in Russia, seeking to establish a caliphate in the North Caucasus, the FSB press centre told.
“The Federal Security Ser-vice of the Russian Federation dismantled the activities of two cells of the Al-Takfir wal Hijra international extremist religious movement, banned in Russia, in the Malokarachayevsk District of the Republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia and in the cities of Makhachkala, Kaspiysk, and Izberbash of the Republic of Dagestan. In all, they had more than 20 members,” it said.
The cells’ members were actively involved in promoting the radical ideology, recruited new members to this extremist religious sect, called on adherents to renounce secular laws and civil society institutions, “and also sought to set up a theocratic Islamic state – a caliphate – in the territory of the North Caucasus,” it said. “The following items were found and seized at their places of residence and the places of their secret meetings: three grenades with live primers, three PM pistols, cartridges of different calibres, a sawed-off hunting rifle, bladed weapons…” the press centre said.
Indian bishop condemns ‘inhuman’ rape-murder of Dalit woman
Church and political leaders in India have condemned the gang rape and murder of a Dalit woman in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
The 19-year-old died in national capital Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital on Sept. 29 after she was raped in Hathras on Sept. 14. She was taken to Safdarjung on Sept. 28 from Aligarh Muslim University Medical College.
“There are no words that can describe this inhuman and barbaric act. We condemn the heinous crime committed on the poor Dalit girl and destroying her family. It’s a very unfortunate and sad thing to happen in a democratic country where a crime was committed weeks ago but the administration is still in the dark,” Bishop Gerald John Mathias of Lucknow told.
“Crimes and atrocities against Dalits and the downtrodden are nothing new in this part of the country. You take any newspaper or scan a television channel you can read about their plight, the injustice done towards Dalits.
“The main reason behind the rape cases in the state is the mentality of the people here who think of women as objects and treat women as second-class citizens. Unless that mentality changes, we will hear about crimes like these every other day.” The bishop, who is based in the state capital of Uttar Pradesh, said people have no fear of the law and don’t hesitate to take the law into their hands, which is very dangerous for civil society.
According to media reports, four upper-caste men attacked the Dalit woman in Hathras. She suffered multiple fractures, paralysis and a deep gash on her tongue.
Based on the complaint filed by her parents, four men have been arrested and charged with gang rape and attempted murder.
Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash, a human rights activist, told that “the brutal gang rape and the subsequent murder of the Dalit woman in Hathras should make us all hang our heads in shame. This is a heinous crime which we condemn in no uncertain terms.”
Indians rally behind Jesuit arrested for “Maoist” links
In New Delhi, some 200 people gathered at downtown Jantar Mantar to observe the National Day of Solidarity for Father Stan Swamy.
Prominent human rights activists such as Shabanam Hashmi, Harsh Mander and Apoorvanand Jha addressed the gathering. According to them, the government has exposed itself by arresting a Jesuit priest who has worked for the rights of poor tribal communities for more than three decades.
India Matters India Medha Patkar of Narmada Bachao Andolan (save Narmada campaign), who joined the program through Zoom meeting, said her heart beats for Father Stan, who “worked for Atmanirbhar Adivasi” (self-reliant Tribal).
At Guwahati in Assam, the gateway to northeastern India, an ecumenical program was organized to show solidarity with Father Swamy. The participants demanded immediate release of the Jesuit priest all Intellectuals and activists who have been arrested for standing with the poor and the marginalized.
India_Matters India-Guwahati meeting Intellectuals, editors, politicians from the Northeast also had a virtual meeting that attracted over a hundred participants to express their solidarity with Father Swamy and other human rights activists who appear to be arbitrarily implicated by the law enforcement agencies, in what is being seen in liberal circles as an effort to intimidate those who speak up.
In Bengaluru, capital of the southern Indian State of Karnataka, large number of people cutting across religions, formed a 3-kilometer human chain against what they described as “the illegal treatment and arrest of Father Stan Swamy.”
In Kochi, Kerala, various Christian denominations on October 11 demanded the release of Father Swamy, who was arrested in what they called “in gross violation of human rights and democratic norms.”
In a statement, the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council expressed shock at the arrest of the Jesuit priest.
In Patna, Bihar, many social and human rights organizations joined a protest rally to express solidarity with Father Swamy. Some hundred people waved posters and chanted for the release of the priest, who they said was legally ‘abdu-cted’ by the NIA on trumped up charges.
Bosco youth help plant 1,000 trees on Gandhi Jayanti
Bosco Youth of Bangalore Archdiocese has celebrated the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi (Gandhi Jayanti) by pledging a greener nature.
Around 41 Bosco youth and their animators on October 2 planted more than 1,000 saplings at Kishore Farm, Manchanahalli, Chikka-ballapur district about 60 km from Bengaluru city. It was part of a mega rural plantation drive organized by the Lions Club International, Region IV.
It was yet another opportunity for the members of Bosco Youth to pledge towards a greener nature, Fathers William D’Souza, the regional director of Bosco Youth, Karnataka, explained.
He said the youth group is guided by the motto “Together Towards a Better World.”
Caritas India awarded for Covid-19 efforts
Caritas India, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India’s social wing, has bagged the award for the best non-govern-mental organization for health-care services during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Federal Health Minister Harsh Vardhan presented the award to Father Paul Moonjely, director of Caritas India, on Oct. 2 in a virtual ceremony organized by media group India Today.
“The institutional strength of the Church as a humanitarian collective helped us to team up and reach out to the last mile with the amazing support of the church leadership,” Father Moonjely said in his message after receiving the award.
“I dedicate this award to all our Covid warriors, health workers and volunteers in different parts of the country at community and institutional levels.”
The Healthgiri Awards 2020 acknowledged the invin-cible spirit of corona warriors who have led the battle against the pandemic. The awards are the reincarnated version of the Safaigiri Awards held annually on Gandhi Jayanti, the birth anniversary of the father of the nation.
This year’s event was held in the national capital to honor the pioneering efforts of corona warriors from all walks of life.
During the Covid-19 humanitarian response, Caritas India went the extra mile to show solidarity with and provide support for the vulnerable and marginalized sections of society.