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“Human trafficking is an open wound on the body of contemporary society, a scourge upon the body of Christ. It is a crime against humanity,” says Pope Francis. Gathered in Rome to discuss methods for the eradication of human slavery, both law enforcement and Vatican officials exchanged ideas on how to collaborate in combating the issue and caring for victims.
A Dutch priest who had refused to leave the besieged Syrian city of Homs in solidarity with its residents, was on Monday beaten and then shot dead in his monastery by a masked gunman. During more than three years of war, Jesuit Father Francis Van der Lugt, 75, had insisted on remaining in Homs, risking starvation and near constant shellfire, until every last civilian could be evacuated from the district.
The Queen described the campaigning work of Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, as “wonderful” when the pair met at Buckingham Palace. Malala, 16, was shot in the head in Pakistan last October after campaigning for the right of girls to go to school without fear, in a part of the country where Islamic fundamentalists were trying to impose a strict form of Sharia.
An estimated 12 million Filipinos are working abroad in over 200 countries. Celeste Macaldo says she’s a “devout” Catholic who attended Mass every week until she landed a job as a caregiver in Lebanon five years ago. “For five years, I remember going to church to attend Mass only five times, and only on Christmas Eve,” she told ucanews.com.
Police are investigating the death of a young documentary maker who was sleeping rough in freezing temperatures to highlight the plight of the homeless. Lee Halpin, 26, had planned to spend a week living on the streets in his home city of Newcastle.
Summer 1936 at the start of the Spanish Civil War. The film tells us about the martyrdom of 51 members of the Claretian Community of Barbastro (Huesca, Spain). Excellent portrait of the human and religious dimension of each person involved in such a real tragedy of our history. The sacrifies of young Claretians proclaim that "Love overcomes death."
The battle has been almost universally one way as the rights of Christians, in terms of the ability to practise their faith in the public sphere, have been eroded to the point where they have virtually no protection. The cases that I have been instructed in are alarming- and it’s not just the “little people”: health workers or junior civil servants.
After 46 years on death row, DNA evidence could prove Iwao Hakamada's innocence. On Christmas Eve 28 years ago, the Catholic Church welcomed a new member in unusual circumstances. Iwao Hakamada, now 76, was in prison for a capital offense when he was baptized.
"Global security must not rely on nuclear weapons", the archbishop said in his English-language remarks. "The Holy See considers the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) an important tool to achieve this aim, without mentioning its potential civil and scientific application through its International Monitoring System
This is the book I was telling you about; It is necessary to really understand the French Revolution in order to understand all the wars and religious hatred that have happened since. The Dreyfus Affair brought down one government, caused the resignation of three Ministers of War, led to France’s most famous novelist being sentenced to a year in prison and almost precipitated the country’s second civil war in little more than 100 years.
The congregation of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd have launched an initiative to support women and children experiencing domestic abuse. The numbers are shocking. In Taiwan in 2008 alone there were 75,438 cases known to the government, in 2009, the number rose to 83,728, in 2010 98,720
Sister Megan Rice, 82, a Roman Catholic nun of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, and two male accomplices have carried out what nuclear experts call the biggest security breach in the history of the nation’s atomic complex, making their way to the inner sanctum of the site where the United States keeps crucial nuclear bomb parts and fuel.
The innocent victims are at present the citizens of Aleppo, Syria’s second city. The rebels held important districts until the Syrian army launched overwhelming force against them. As ever, women and children are particularly at risk.Aleppo has a significant Christian population, and no doubt Pope Benedict had them in mind when he called for an end to the bloodshed.
Missionaries working in rural Basilan province challenged the government and the Catholic Church Friday to do something about the spate of violence in the province, after another bloody incident this week. “We question those in authority, what have you done to protect and grant justice to the lives of the people?” the Claretian Missionaries said in a statement
Before the Spanish economic crisis hit, Mercedes Gonzalez and her family lived comfortably, she working in a shoe shop and her husband and second son in construction. But one by one, over five years each of them lost their jobs.
“Angela Gomes is a living example in the field of women’s rights and empowerment. She has continued changing lives of tens of thousands of poor and neglected women. With this film we want to spread her life and ideals across the country and also in the world,” said Noor-E-Alam, the director.
“It is very likely that the faithful have to quietly pass Pentecost this Sunday, one of the four major church feasts widely celebrated in China, as they did so at Easter,” a source told UCA News. To avoid arrest, underground priests remain in hiding and cannot carry out normal pastoral work because they have refused to support the patriotic association, the source said.
Father Pervez Khalid, one other senior priest and six Church workers were assaulted by a group 70 people on April 16 after entering the playground of Cardinal Cordeiro High School which has been seized by land grabbers. One parishioner in his forties was taken to hospital after receiving several heavy blows
This report portrays the most important developments with regard to freedom of religion, the most striking cases of intolerance and discrimination throughout Europe – and what individuals and institutions say about it. The report includes several statistics as well as analysis of the meaning of freedom of religion in the European context.
