The Jesuit-run Central American University in El Salvador welcomed the verdict of a Spanish court, which convicted a former Salvadoran colonel for the murder of five Jesuit priests in 1989. The verdict was “an extraordinary service to the truth” from a conflict in which many atrocities have gone unpunished, the university statement said. It expressed some sadness, however, that justice had not occurred in El Salvador, where the slayings occurred during the country’s civil war.
Macron defends blasphemy, decries ‘Islamic separatism’
French President Emmanuel Macron criticised on September 4 what he called “Islamic separatism” in his country and those who seek French citizen-ship without accepting France’s “right to commit blasphemy.”
Mr Macron defended satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that helped inspire two French-born Islamic extremists to mount a deadly January 2015 attack on the newspaper’s newsroom.
The weekly republished the images as the trial began of 14 people over the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and on a kosher super-market.
Speaking at a ceremony celebrating France’s democratic history and naturalising new citizens, the French President said, “You don’t choose one part of France. You choose France… The Republic will never allow any separatist adventure.”
Freedom in France, Mr Macron said, includes “the freedom to believe or not to believe. But this is inseparable from the freedom of expression up to the right to blasphemy.”
Boris Johnson’s son baptised Catholic
A statement from the Archdiocese of Westminster confirmed that the baptism of Wilfred Johnson took place.
“We can confirm that Wilfred Johnson was baptised in West-minster Cathedral on September 12, 2020, in a private ceremony, attended by both parents and a small number of guests, in keeping with current (Covid-19) guidelines,” said the diocese.
The government had revealed the baptism of the four-month-old boy to disprove claims in the media that the Prime Minister had taken time off work to make a social trip in Italy as the UK began to wrestle with a second wave of the coronavirus.
Johnson dismissed the allegations that he had been seen in Perugia that weekend as “completely untrue” with his spokesman inviting the media to “confirm with the priest” that he had attended his son’s baptism that day.
The priest who baptised Wilfred was Father Daniel Humphreys, the acting administrator of the cathedral, and he said performed the ceremony in the Lady Chapel. The identity of the godparents has not been revealed.
Top Muslim Torpedoes Interfaith Dialogue
Italy’s top Muslim leader, whose organization supports Pope Francis’ pact with Islam, is causing acute embarrassment to Catholic apologists of interfaith dialogue after he insulted Jews and Christians as heretics.
Yassine Baradai, national secretary of the Union of Islamic Communities of Italy (UCOII) – the largest umbrella organization of the Islamic communities in Italy – sparked outrage after trashing Judaism and Christianity as “heresy” and a “manipulation of the original message of the prophets.”
“Indeed, both these creeds are heresy according to Islam,” and the Koran, Baradai wrote in an August 29 Facebook post-summarizing a sermon he’d delivered to mark the festival of Ashura.
“If it were otherwise, we as Muslims would be required to follow Judaism or Christianity, but Islam corrects the crippling made in the residual scriptures of the Torah and the gospel,” Baradai remarked.
“Salvation was offered to the Israelite people and not the Jewish people, who are of recent nascency” since “the children of Israel weren’t Jews,” Baradai argued.
Baradai’s statement is a slap in the face of Vatican II’s pronouncements that “Islam is among the three Abrahamic religions” and that “Muslims worship with us a single, merciful God.”
Nun to head Kenyan bishops’ new national television
The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) has appointed a Catholic nun to set up a national Catholic television station. Sister Agnes Lucy Lando, the director of Research and Postgraduate Studies at Kenya’s Daystar University, is the coordinator and lead consultant to assist the conference to launch Ukweli Television Kenya. The Communications Authority of Kenya has recently issued a commercial free-to-air broadcast license to the new television station, whose motto is bringing ‘Christ to the people and people to Christ.”
Beijing Betrays ‘Patriotic’ Church
The communist – approved Catholic Church in China is facing persecution despite official status. Officially registered churches are harassed regardless of belonging to the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), a control arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This comes from a recent report by Bitter Winter, a magazine on human rights and religious liberty in China.
A CPCA deacon in Hebei province near Beijing explained his church joined the CPCA hoping the communists would allow them to worship in peace.
“But the situation has changed, and registered churches are sometimes harassed more than the unregistered ones,” he said. “They also have their crosses removed.”
In July, the CCP took down the cross from the deacon’s church and installed a surveillance camera at the entrance.
“The government is even more confident in controlling registered churches. Had we known this beforehand, we would not have joined the CPCA,” he lamented. Similar treatment has been reported from other locations throughout the country.
But the situation has changed, and registered churches are sometimes harassed more than the unregistered ones. Tweet Officials covered the sign reading “Catholic Church” with boards and removed crosses, benches and other religious symbols from a church in the Wangdangjia village. Soon thereafter, a nearby church was closed. The government in a prefecture-level city in Shandong province closed two CPCA churches in June, alleging “not many congregation members attend gatherings.”
Local officials in the town of Jinling removed a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and cross on the village church because “they were taller than the village committee building. In June, officials closed a CPCA church in Zhangmentun village. The closure occurred after they removed the 14 stations of the cross, the altar and a dove on the roof of the church.
The Missionaries of Charity see the poor as benefactors, thanks to them they can serve Jesus
The Sisters of Mother Teresa came to Hong Kong in 1983. At present, they have two religious communities with 14 missionaries who run two centres on Kowloon Peninsula, an area with rundown sections and many homeless people. The nuns’ main work is to provide hot meals to the poor (a few hundred) and shelter to the homeless (a few dozen).
Mother Teresa visited Hong Kong on several occasions. The University of Hong Kong awarded her with an honorary degree. In the 1980s and 1990s, talks were held about opening new homes in mainland China, but Beijing eventually refused the necessary permits and the plan fell through.
What follows is a message from the Missionaries of Charity published in the Sunday Examiner, Hong Kong’s Catholic weekly.
We are privileged to be part of the vibrant Church in Hong Kong and to be able to-serve the poorest of the poor here through simple and humble works of love.
In our temporary shelters for the homeless, we try to bring the light of Christ to hapless men and women, to dispel the darkness in their lives and to give them Divine Hope. The experience of the joy of prodigal sons and daughters returning to the tender and merciful embrace of our Heavenly Father gives us strength and encouragement to continue our service of patience, understanding and love for the poor. Over the years, we have witnessed with joy the love of God touching their hearts.
Mindong, Fr Liu Maochun kidnapped for 17 days to force him to join the ‘independent Church’
Fr Liu Maochun, 46, a priest of the diocese of Mindong (Fujian), has been in the hands of the Religious Affairs Bureau for 17 days. Fr Liu is not reco-gnized as a priest because he be-longs to the underground Church and refuses to sign up for membership in the independent Church (which is subject to the Chinese Communist Party).
In the late afternoon of September 1st, Fr Liu had gone to visit some sick people in the hospital. On leaving, around 6.30 pm, a group of people, sent by the Religious Affairs Bureau, arrested him and took him to an unknown location. His where-abouts is still unknown. Family members have lobbied for news of him, but to no avail. The authorities have only confirmed that he is in the hands of the Religious Affairs Bureau.
Father of Fr Liu is 86 years old and very ill and has limited mobility; his mother, 70, is also ill: both need his help.
According to information from Mindong, several priests – at least 20 – refuse to join the “independent Church.” For this they are under constant pressure from the local government and have been deprived of the freedom to treat the faithful. These pressures have grown stronger in the run-up to a possible renewal of the Sino-Vatican agreement.
Sri Lankan religious leaders oppose cannabis cultivation
Sri Lankan religious leaders say they are saddened by the efforts of some groups to promote cannabis cultivation at a time when the government is taking strong measures to eradicate drugs from the country.
Ven. Ittapana Dhammalankara Thera, chief prelate of Kotte Sri Kalayani Samagri Dharma Maha Sangha of Siyam Maha Nikaya, said the government should take immediate action to stop all promotions related to cannabis.
“Regular drug raids should be further strengthened and act-ion should be taken to eradicate narcotics from the country. At the same time, the government should make every effort to strictly enforce laws and eradicate drugs including cannabis from the country,” he said.
Experts claim that the country can generate high revenue from the cultivation of cannabis. Recent research has shown that if drugs based on cannabis are manufactured and exported, it will be possible to earn more foreign exchange than is earned from all exports.
Sri Lanka has become a major transit point for traffickers as well as suffering from widespread drug addiction. Cannabis and heroin have become the top two narcotic scourges in the country. Concerns are growing about drug abuse among young people including children.
An unforgettable missionary who transformed Bangladesh
American Holy Cross missionary priest Richard William Timm (1923-2020) was a giant among men with a big heart burning with selfless love for humanity.
More than six decades of service in Bangladesh (1952-2016) speak volumes for him, and his death on Sept. 11 in the US brought to an end a golden era of extraordinary missionary life and works that touched the lives of millions of Bangladeshis.
He will be remembered as a pioneering missionary in a land where a small but strong Christi-an community has thrived thanks to great Western missionaries like him over the past five centuries.
Bangladesh can never forget this great icon as he was “an American by blood but a Bangladeshi by spirit.” He is an inseparable part of the history of Bangladesh and his demise saddened many people of other faiths thanks to great memories of his companionship and contributions.