tagged articles with: violence

Is the Church inside or outside the establishment?

 Major national Churches are often the focus of protest. A homeless man, known to the authorities for his radical activism, once slipped into one with his supporters and wrecked it, overturning tables and lashing out with a homemade whip. His point was that what should have been a place of prayer for all people had become an institution fleecing the poor. Those were tougher times than now, and he was executed a week later.

Vatican calls for reflection after Gaddafi death

The news of the death of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi marks the end of a much too long and tragic phase of a brutal struggle to bring down a harsh and oppressive regime.  This dramatic event obliges us yet again to reflect on the immense toll of human suffering which accompanies the affirmation and collapse of any system which is not based on the respect and dignity of the human person, but rather on the prevailing affirmation of power.

LIBYA 2011 Poem by SHARI EPPEL

Dale Farm eviction starts with violence in the biggest traveller site in Europe

The eviction, which could cost up to £18m, marks the end of a 10-year battle between travellers, who bought a former scrapyard on green belt land in 2001 and established their caravans there, and the council. More travellers joined them and some semi-permanent chalet dwellings were built. Over the past few days, travellers and their supporters have reinforced the perimeter of the 49 illegal plots at the site. 

Church, groups condemn killing of Italian priest in the Philippines

 Lone gunman reportedly kills Fr. Fausto Tentorio, a leading anti-crime campaigner in Kidapawan, Mindanao. The priest was due to attend a regular meeting of Kidapawan diocese clergy at the house of Bishop Romulo de la Cruz in Kidapawan City today. Father Tentorio had been an active law and order campaigner in Arakan town. Only recently, he was appointed as head of a civilian anti-criminal task force in the town.

Where child sacrifice is a business

Protesters bed down at cathedral

 Protesters are preparing to spend their second night camped out in the grounds of St Paul's Cathedral as part of an anti-capitalist demonstration in London. The Reverend Dr Giles Fraser, Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, said: "People have a right to protest and it's been very good natured. Church went down well this morning. There were no problems. We had no problems getting people in. People were very helpful."

Anti-corporate protests to hit London

 "This is a people-powered movement protesting against the increasing social and economic injustice in the UK," OccupyLSX supporter Kai Wargalla explained on Wednesday.  "We want to stand with...the overwhelming majority who value people over profit. We want to make our voices heard against greed, corruption and for a democratic, just society," she added.

London 2012: "100 days of peace" campaign is launched

Explosive new book details war on unborn baby girls

Imagine waking up one day to find that every single woman in the U.S. has disappeared. Picture this, writes author and scientific journalist Mara Hvistendahl, and you will come close to understanding the magnitude of over 160 million baby girls being selectively aborted in Asia and East Europe over the last few decades.

Dead wrong: Catholics must no longer support capital punishment

The Catholic Church's position on capital punishment has evolved considerably over the centuries. And as a result, "it is not a message that is immediately understood -- that there is no room for supporting the death penalty in today's world," said a Vatican's expert on capital punishment and arms control.

UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women Announces USD 17.1 Million in Grants to Groundbreaking Efforts to Protect Women and Girls

“Violence against women is a human rights and public health emergency,” Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, said of the 15th batch of annual grants from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) which awarded $17.1 million for 22 initiatives.

ASIA/INDIA - Catholic Church attacked in Kerala: "We are exposed to different extremism", says the Bishop

  A Catholic church was attacked and devastated by vandals wearing masks in the diocese of Quilon, in South Kerala (Southern india). This is what His Exc. Mgr. Stanley Roman, Bishop of Quilon tells Fides, who is "concerned that, as Christians, we are exposed to the growth of different religious extremism.

Heroic New York priests vividly recall Sept. 11 attacks

 Fr. Rutler, current pastor of Church of our Savior in New York City, was living at St. Agnes Parish near Grand Central Station during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He told CNA that he remembers the details of that day 10 years ago “very well – as though they happened yesterday.” 

Libya: ‘Atrocious’ abuses by Qadhafi forces cause for “extreme alarm”, UN.

 The United Nations voiced “extreme alarm” today at reports of “atrocious human rights violations” in Libya, including mass summary executions apparently carried out by Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi’s forces in the last few days before they lost Tripoli, the capital.

England riots: The world is watching

 Certainly Europe has been watching. Its papers and TV channels have devoted enormous coverage to the riots.  "Disunited Kingdom", said the headline in the French paper Liberation. Le Monde's front page was "England in flames".

Liberation, a left-leaning paper, made a wider point: "The riots in London are a serious alarm call for the UK but also for all mixed and unequal Western societies".

UK riots: What turns people into looters?

 Rioters have set fire to cars and buses. Llooting makes "powerless people suddenly feel powerful" and that is "very intoxicating". "The world has been turned upside down. The youngsters are used to adults in authority telling them they cannot do this or this will happen. Then they do it and nothing happens."

Looting - why not if you are a moral relativist?

 The Youth of the Middle East rise up for basic freedoms.The Youth of London rise up for a HD ready 42" Plasma TV. That seems to be a consensus view and not many people are now trying to blame the rioting on "the cuts". Unless we recover some basic Christian values in our society it will happen again and probably more seriously during some summer soon. 

Ethiopia 'using aid as weapon of oppression'

 A joint undercover investigation by BBC Newsnight and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has uncovered evidence that the Ethiopian government is using billions of dollars of development aid as a tool for political oppression. 

Facing down a tyrant, Mugabe and the White African by Ben Freeth

Freeth’s book, which shares the name of a documentary film made about his family, is a personal account of a terrible decade spent working in Zimbabwean agriculture. During the most intense phase of Mugabe’s farm invasions in 2000-2002, Freeth worked for the Farmers’ Union, doing what he could to protect his members – several of whom were killed in their homes.