July 15, 2011 (CISA) –Militant Islamist Group bombed a protestant church where members were meeting after service on July 10 in Suleja, in Nigeria’s Niger Estate. According to Vatican Radio, there has been an upsurge of violence this week in Nigeria against Christian churches believed to be perpetrated by a fundamentalist Islamic Group known as Boko Haram.
The Vatican is turning to the Internet in its struggle against child abuse with a new website allowing clergy around the world to share information on eradicating the problem. It will be “a step … on a long and painful path,” adding the website would bring together the latest research on child abuse and Church laws, while allowing churches in different countries to have their say.
The focus of Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Zagreb, Croatia, June 4-5 will be on the family and building a community with Christian values.In the 84-year-old pope's 19th trip abroad and his 13th to a European country, he also will continue to underline the importance he places on reviving Europe's Christian roots.
Pope asked for Europeans to show goodwill to migrants escaping the conflict. The Pope has urged diplomacy and dialogue to end the conflict in Libya, in his blessing at Easter Sunday Mass in St Peter's Square at the Vatican.
The Vatican observer at the London conference on Libya said the situation in the North African country is forcing the international community to examine its obligation to intervene when the lives and rights of civilians are being threatened.
Pakistan’s leading Catholic politician has been murdered in the capital Islamabad. Minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti had received numerous death threats after calling for changes to the country’s controversial blasphemy law. The blasphemy law carries a death sentence for anyone who insults Islam, and critics say it has been used to persecute minority faiths.
More than 100 people were killed and scores of others injured in clashes between the Southern Sudan government and forces loyal to a militia leader last week, a Southern Sudan official said.The clashes took place Wednesday and Thursday.
Religious violence has cost the lives of over 50,000 people since 1999, when one-third of Nigeria’s 36 states instituted the Islamic penal code making Shari’ah (Islamic) law the highest legal authority, creating a de facto state religion in violation of the national, secular constitution.
Pablo José Barroso, the producer of a new film that brings to life the fight against the Mexican government’s persecution of Catholics in the 1920s says there are clear parallels to today’s situation in the United States and elsewhere.
