Around half of Japan’s ruling party law-makers have had dealings with the Unification Church, an official said on September 8, after the assassination of ex-premier Shinzo Abe heightened scrutiny of the religious organization also sometimes known as the Moonies.
The man suspected of shooting Abe dead in July allegedly targeted the former prime minister believing he was linked to the sect.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi said a probe found some lawmakers had accepted support for election campaigns from the church and its spin-off groups.
Other LDP lawmakers had attended meetings or paid fees to the organization, whose members are sometimes colloquially referred to as “Moonies” after Korean found-er Sun Myung Moon.
Of 379 elected LDP lawmakers, 179 “had some sort of links” with the Unification Church, Motegi told reporters.
“We take the results seriously. We honestly feel sorry, and we’ll make sure the party no longer has any relationship at all” with the church, he said.
Last week, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said LDP members must cut ties with the group, following controversial revelations of its links with a raft of Japanese politicians.
The Unification Church has condemned Abe’s murder and denied accusations of coer-cive fundraising tactics among its members, but Kishida’s government has seen its approval ratings drop in recent weeks as more de-tails have emerged.
“Nearly 90%” of LDP lawmakers that attended gatherings hosted by organizations linked to the church told the probe they were not aware of the hosts’ affiliation, Motegi said. “Our awareness was lacking, and that’s all the more reason that more efforts need to be made to raise awareness” of the issue, he added.
The Vatican’s silence on China is disconcerting
On September 3 , as a new consistory began in Rome, Pope Francis created 20 new Cardinals. Six came from Asia — Singapore, Mongolia, Timor-Leste (East Timor), South Korea, and two from India.
New cardinals came from five continents, ensuring that the universality of the Church is really, truly, global. And three new religious members were appointed, from the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (Eudists), the Consolata Missions Institute and the Legionaries of Christ.
Among religious orders re-presented in the College of Cardinals, the largest are the Salesians, who now number ten.
This is all very good news and I applaud the Holy Father for these appointments. I began my human rights work in Timor-Leste, during Indonesia’s brutal and bloody occupation, and worked there throughout and beyond its transition to independence.
I have had the privilege of meeting the current Bishop of Dili, Virgilio do Carma da Silva, and am so pleased he has been made his country’s first cardinal. It is a signal of solidarity and respect for that beautiful, benighted and often forgotten half-island that fought for freedom and human dignity for a quarter of a century with immense sacrifice and has risen from the ashes over the past two decades in an inspiring way.
Indonesian Christians decry stalled church project
The denial of building permit to a Protestant church in Cilegon city in Indonesia’s westernmost province of Banten goes against the spirit of religious moderation, Christian leaders say.
The Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI) criticized the refusal of permit for the construction of a church by the Batak Society Christian Church (HK-BP) Maranatha in Geram village.
“This incident harms the 1945 Constitution, which guarantees equality of every citizen to adhere to a certain religion and to worship freely in accordance to their own religions,” Reverend Jeirry Sumampow, a spokesman of PGI, said in a statement on Sept-ember 9.
He said the politics of identity had become worse and was threatening religious tolerance. “It is sad to see that there are still groups of people who hurt their brothers and sisters,” he added.
The opposition to the church came from a group of Muslims calling themselves the Committee of Local Wisdom Savior in Cilegon. They staged a protest on Sept. 7 demanding denial of per-mission based on then Serang district head’s 1975 decree providing for the closure of Christian places of worship in the area.
They later met with Cilegon Mayor Helldy Agustian in his office and pressured him to sign on the dotted line. A video of the incident went viral on social media.
First cardinal vows to export Singapore’s peace, harmony
Cardinal William Goh has vowed to promote the model of Singapore’s peace and harmony among religions in Asia and the world during a thanksgiving Mass celebrating his elevation as a cardinal by Pope Francis.
“Singapore is an icon for religious harmony in the world, where religious leaders and government work hand in hand for the good of the society, instead of being at odds with each other,” Cardinal Goh, 64, said during his homily at St. Joseph’s Church at Bukit Timah on Sept. 8.
Goh said that his appointment as a cardinal was “beyond his expectation” and “a very humbling experience.”
He said he wants “to spread such peace and unity to the rest of Asia by fostering dialogue between different religions.”
Top government ministers and officials including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, some 23 leaders of various religions and religious organizations, and more than 3,500 Catholics attended the event. Bishops representing Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei also participated in the pro-gram.
A commemorative booklet — “That They May Live” — was released to mark the occasion. The book outlines four thrusts of Cardinal Goh’s pastoral view for his cardinalate: Faith in Asia, Aid to the Poorest and the Least, Climate Action and a New Way of Inter-religious Dialogue for Human Fraternity, says a press release from Singapore Archdiocese.
The Singapore prelate was among 20 new cardinals of the Catholic Church created by Pope Francis in a consistory at the Vatican on Aug. 27. He is among the six new cardinals from Asia. “He doesn’t take it as a personal honour, he does it as service.” Premier Lee said he was happy to join the event to celebrate Archbishop William Goh becoming a cardinal, a rank second only to the pope in the Church hierarchy.
“I wish Cardinal Goh all the best in his new appointment and am confident he will continue working with fellow religious leaders in our multi-religious landscape, to maintain our unity and harmony, especially as we build a new social compact for the country,” Lee posted on his official Facebook page after the event.
Taiwan donates to Catholic charities for Ukraine refugees
Taiwan has donated a total of US$ 89,600 to various Catholic groups in Europe to support humanitarian aid to refugees who fled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Former Taiwanese Vice President Chen Chienjen handed over the donation on behalf of the government following a Mass for peace in Ukraine at the Minor Basilica of Santa Sofia, a Ukrainian Church in Rome on September 5, Focus Taiwan reported. Chen, 71, a Catholic and member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, donated the funds to three Catholic groups and the Minor Basilica of Santa Sofia. During his address after the Mass, Chen praised Ukrainians for their unyielding resistance against Russia’s aggression. He stated that Taiwan deeply sympathized with the suffering of Ukrainians and would learn from Ukraine’s example to firmly defend themselves in the face of “China’s intimidation and military threats.”
Like John Paul II, Pope Francis heads to Kazakhstan during time of war
Popes seem to have a habit of visiting Kazakhstan amid major crises and conflicts that risk fracturing regional stability and splintering its diverse religious and ethnic communities, and Pope Francis’s visit this week is no exception.
When Pope John Paul II visited Kazakhstan in 2001, it was just 10 years after the country gained independence amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and roughly 10 days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States that levelled the Twin Towers and claimed thousands of American lives.
Shortly after, U.S. President George W. Bush declared his global War on Terror, which John Paul II had tried to prevent, and which heightened the prospect of a further escalation of geopolitical and interfaith tensions.
At the time, Kazakh citizens were still grappling with how to craft a new society in the post-Soviet era and tensions with Islam were at an all-time high in the majority-Muslim nation, where Christians are a small minority.
In his speeches and homilies throughout the visit, John Paul II offered encouragement to those still disillusioned by the breakup of the Soviet Union, and he also sent a clear message of tolerance, praising the central Asian nation as a place of harmony where different religious confessions were able to work together in building a world without violence.
Two years later, in 2003, the first Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions was launched by former President Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev – a Soviet and Kazakh politician who served as first president of Kazakhstan from its independence in 1991 until his formal resignation in 2019 – in an effort to foster stronger ties among Kazakhstan’s different religious communities and to shed light on the unique inter-religious history of the country. Pope Francis, who is poised to arrive in Kazakhstan on September 13 for the seventh edition of the congress, finds himself in a similar situation of regional instability and uncertainty, as the country is in many ways caught in the middle of the Ukraine-Russia war, the region’s most violent conflict since the World War II.The war, which erupted after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, has so far caused around 12 million people to flee their homes and has claimed thousands of civilian lives, including those of children.
”Synodal Way” votes to establish permanent “Synodal Council” to oversee Church and dioceses in Germany
In a move aimed at achieving what critics have compared to communist councils in the Soviet Union, participants of the Ger-man “Synodal Way” on Saturday voted to create a “Synodal Council” that would permanently over-see the Church in Germany.
At the Frankfurt meeting on September 10, the controversial suggestion won almost 93% of all votes. Only five bishops rejected the document, CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language Partner agency, reported.
The bishops’ names are a matter of public record because the vote was not by secret ballot — a change of proceedings after bishops blocked a pro-LGBT document earlier.
Like others arising from the controversial German event, also known as the “Synodal Path,” the proposal has met fierce criticism. In June, Cardinal Walter Kasper, a theologian considered close to Pope Francis, said there could be no “Synodal Council,” given Church history and theology.
“Synods cannot be institutionally made permanent. The tradition of the Church does not know a synodal church government. A synodal supreme council, as is now envisaged, has no basis in the entire history of the constitution. It would not be a renewal, but an unheard-of innovation.”
On this day almost 800 years ago, the practice of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament began
This Sept. 11 marks 796 years since perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament began in Avignon, France, a practice that has now spread throughout the world.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, perpetual adoration refers to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament without interruption or with pauses for only short periods of time.
The term is used “in a moral sense, when it is interrupted only for a short time, or for imperative reasons, or for circumstances beyond control, to be resumed, however, as soon as possible,” he added.
The encyclopaedia indicates that many experts attribute the beginning of the practice of ado-ration of Jesus in the Eucharist to the moment in which the feast of Corpus Christi was established in 1246 by Bishop Roberto de Thorete, at the suggestion of St. Juliana de Mont Cornillon.
However, the first recorded perpetual adoration was in Avignon in 1226.
On Sept. 11, King Louis VII asked to expose the Blessed Sacrament as a way to celebrate victory over the Albigensians, a sect that flourished in southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries. “In thanksgiving, the Blessed Sacrament covered with a veil was exposed in the Chapel of the Holy Cross” in Orleans, reads the encyclopedia.
This Muslim NBA vet is marching for persecuted Christians
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?
Gorbachev’s legacy inevitably bound to that of Pope John Paul II
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.