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Four aid workers missing in Iraq

January 29, 2020 CNA Daily News 0

Baghdad, Iraq, Jan 29, 2020 / 10:11 am (CNA).- Four men working in Iraq for the French humanitarian organization SOS Chrétiens d’Orient went missing last week in Baghdad.

The organization works to support Eastern Christians with humanitarian material aid; it has permanent missions in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt.

SOS Chrétiens d’Orient has said four of its employees disappeared Jan. 20 after they made a trip to an appointment by car. The group tried to contact them the following day, unsuccessfully.

“It was clear that they had disappeared” by Jan. 22 “and therefore we immediately alerted the French authorities,” the group said, adding that both French and Iraqi authorities are working to find them.

The missing employees had gone to Baghdad “to renew their visas and the registration of association with the Iraqi authorities and to monitor the association’s operations” in the country.

In a Jan. 24 statement, SOS Chrétiens d’Orient said that “we have received no ransom demand, no information on the fate of our four friends and collaborators. We are of course in close contact with their families. The association and all our teams share their terrible concern.”

Christians in Iraq have suffered persecution in recent years, especially during the invasion of the Islamic State.

Prior to when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, there were about 1.5 million Iraqi Christians. Today, that number is believed to be fewer than 500,000.

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Pope Francis: ‘The beatitudes always bring joy’

January 29, 2020 CNA Daily News 3

Vatican City, Jan 29, 2020 / 04:45 am (CNA).- The beatitudes should be a defining feature of a Christian’s identity because they reveal the way that Jesus lived his life, Pope Francis said Wednesday.

“The beatitudes always bring joy; they are the way to joy,” Pope Francis said Jan. 29.

“It will do us good to take the Gospel of Matthew today, chapter five verses one to eleven, and read the beatitudes — perhaps a few more times during the week — to understand this road so beautiful, so sure of the happiness that the Lord offers us,” he said in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

Pope Francis said that the beatitudes should be considered “a Christian’s identity card”  because they reveal “the face of Jesus himself.”

“There are eight beatitudes,” he said. “It would be nice to learn them by heart to repeat them, to have precisely in mind and heart, this law that Jesus gave us.”

Pope Francis began a new series of catechesis on the eight beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel. In this series, the pope will reflect on one beatitude per week over the next two months in his Wednesday general audiences.

The pope said that the beatitudes are a message for all of humanity. 

“It’s hard not to be touched by these words of Jesus, and it is a just desire to want to understand them and to welcome them more fully,” he said.

Francis clarified that the beatitudes bring one the true joy of being “blessed,” which is different from worldly happiness.

“It is the Easter joy,” the pope said.

In giving himself to us, God often chooses “unthinkable paths” that test our limits, bringing tears or defeat, the pope said. It is the joy of one who “has the stigmata, but is alive, one who has died to himself and experienced the power of God.”

“But what does the word ‘blessed’ mean? The original Greek term makarios does not indicate one who has a full belly or is doing well, but is a person who is in a condition of grace, who progresses in the grace of God,” he said.

The pope noted that Jesus taught the Beatitudes as a part of his “Sermon on the Mount,” adding that the mountain is an allusion to Sinai, where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments.

“Jesus begins to teach a new law: to be poor, to be meek, to be merciful. These ‘new commandments’ are much more than norms. In fact, Jesus does not impose anything, but reveals the way of happiness,” Pope Francis said.

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The Dispatch

The bullies and that book

January 29, 2020 George Weigel 28

Immediately after news broke on January 12 that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah had written a book on the crisis of the priesthood in the 21st-century Church, online hysteria erupted—which rather underscored […]

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50,000 young pilgrims climb to ‘Cristo Rey’ shrine

January 28, 2020 CNA Daily News 1

Mexico City, Mexico, Jan 29, 2020 / 12:00 am (CNA).- More than 50,000 Mexican young people made a pilgrimage Saturday to an iconic monument and shrine to Christ the King, situated atop Cubilete Mountain, over 8,000 feet above sea level in the Guanajuato state of Mexico.

The Witness and Hope Movement, which organizes the annual youth pilgrimage, said in a statement that the young pilgrims committed themselves Jan. 25 “to Mexico in these difficult times of insecurity, economic stagnation and the outside pressure it is undergoing.”

Devotion to Christ the King figures largely into Mexican history.

During the 1920’s the country’s government in power initiated a series of repressive measures and outright persecution against the Church. The Mexican government banned religious orders, restricted public worship, and prohibited priests from wearing clerical attire in public.

Allegiance to Christ the King became a hallmark of resistance, as did the cry “Viva Cristo Rey!” 

Mexico was consecrated to Christ the King in 1914 and the consecration was renewed in 1924 and 2013.

The Jan. 25 youth pilgrimage focused on the life of Blessed Anacleto González Flores, who was named the patron of the Mexican laity in 2019.

González  was arrested, tortured, and killed in 1927 by government forces for his support of the efforts of the National League in Defense of Religious Liberty to resist the persecution of the Church.

According to pilgrimage organizers gave witness “in defense of his faith and love for his homeland, even when such defense cost him his own life.” 

The statue of Christ the King atop Cubilete Mountain was erected in 1950, in honor of the martyrs of the Cristero War (1926-1929).

Weighing 80 tons and 65 feet tall, it is the largest bronze statue of Christ in the world. Beneath the statue is an adoration chapel. Pope Benedict XVI visited the shrine in 2012.

The statue was built on the site where a smaller statue of Christ was dynamited in 1928 by the government of President Plutarco Elías Calles.

The Jan. 25 pilgrimage saw “the greatest attendance ever, more than 50,000 young people from all over the country,” the Witness and Hope movement said.

Young people “not only want to announce God’s plan with our witness but also bravely denounce the injustices and outrages that are committed daily in our country, outrages that on many occasions have led to the loss of peace, tranquility and even the lives of thousands of Mexicans,” organizers said.

“We young Catholics of Mexico are tired of the situation our homeland is going through. It’s disturbing to be in a country where the authorities say they are for peace but routinely show their interest in legalizing the assault on the lives of the innocent that are still in their mothers’ wombs,” a spokesman for the movement said.

Young Mexicans “want to publicly take up our role as builders of peace and as defenders of our faith and our principles. We know this is not simple but we’re aware of the urgency of doing this.”

“As Mexican society it’s necessary to combat all those situations of corruption, impunity and illegality that generate violence and reestablish conditions of justice, equality and solidarity that build peace,” the spokesman said.

The organization entrusted its efforts to “Mary of Guadalupe, recognizing her as mother and intercessor of all Mexicans and as Queen of Peace.”

 

A version of this story was first reported by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

 

 

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Three churches reportedly burned down in Sudan

January 28, 2020 CNA Daily News 0

Khartoum, Sudan, Jan 28, 2020 / 04:27 pm (CNA).- According to a local rights group in Sudan, three churches in a town were burnt down in December 2019 and quickly rebuilt, only to be burnt down again earlier this month.

Human Rights and Development Organization said that a Catholic church, an Orthodox church, and a Sudan Internal Church in Bout were burnt down on both Dec. 28 and Jan. 16; the church buildings had been rebuilt in the interim. Bout is the capital of Tadamoun district in Blue Nile state, more than 300 miles southeast of Khartoum.

According to HUDO, the alleged arsons were reported to Bout police each time, “but police did not investigate further or put preventive measures.”

The human rights organization has decried the attack and criticized the government for negligence of religious freedom.

But the Sundanese religious affairs minister, Nasr al-Din Mufreh, has claimed that only one church had been attacked twice.

The Sudan Tribune reported that Mufreh stated “Sudan’s full commitment to protecting religious freedoms.”

“If it is proven that it occurred as a result of a criminal offence, the perpetrators will be identified, pursued and brought to justice,” he said. He added that a suspect had been interrogated, but was released for lack of evidence.

Mufreh added that “The Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Blue Nile state government have committed themselves to build a church with modern materials (…) and taking appropriate measure for its future protection.”

Sudan was listed as a Country of Particular Concern for its religious freedom record by the US Department of State from 1999 to 2019.

In December 2019, it was moved to the Special Watch List “due to significant steps taken by the civilian-led transitional government to address the previous regime’s ‘systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.’”

Sudan had been under the military dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir since 1989, but pro-democracy protests led to his overthrow in April 2019. The country is now led by a transitional government.

According to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, under Bashir the government “actively promoted and enforced a strict interpretation of Sunni Islam and imposed religious-based constraints on Muslims and non-Muslims.”

At least 90 percent of Sudan’s population is Muslim, and sharia is the source of the nation’s legislation. Apostasy from Islam is punishable by the death penalty.

[…]

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Trump and Netanyahu propose two-state plan for Israel-Palestine peace

January 28, 2020 CNA Daily News 0

Washington D.C., Jan 28, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a new peace plan for the Middle East on Tuesday. The plan includes an independent Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem. 

Trump said Jan. 28 that the plan offers a “win-win opportunity for both sides” and a “realistic two-state solution that resolves the risk of Palestinian statehood to Israel’s security.” 

“This is the first time Israel has authorized the release of a conceptual map, illustrating the territorial consequences it’s willing to make for the cause of peace,” said Trump. “And they’ve gone a long way. This is an unprecedented and highly significant development.” 

Netanyahu, who was in Washington on Tuesday for the unveiling of the plan, also used the term “realistic” when describing the proposal and said that it “strikes the right balance where others have failed.” 

Despite optimism from the two leaders, the proposal was not welcomed by the Palestinian Authority. President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement on Tuesday evening that the proposal “will not pass.” Protests erupted in Gaza following the announcement of the plan.

Under the terms of the proposal, the Palestinian state would have a capital city called Al-Quds, the Arabic name for Jerusalem, which would include parts of East Jerusalem. Despite this, Trump insisted that Jerusalem would also remain “Israel’s undivided–very important–undivided capital.” The United States moved their embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in 2017. 

Under the plan, none of Jerusalem’s Old City or territory within the current security wall would be ceded to the  Palestinian state. The agreement also preserves the status quo policy regarding control of various religious sites, including the site of the Temple Mount and Al Aqsa Mosque, and, under the proposal, Muslims would still have access to the site. 

The plan also proposes the construction of a “West Bank-Gaza Tunnel” to connect the two halves of the new state, and that a third of the Gaza Strip be designated as a “high-tech manufacturing industrial zone.” 

Trump claimed Tuesday that the plan would “more than double Palestinian territory” without causing additional displacement for either Israelis or Palestinians. The plan includes provision for a “land freeze” over the next four years to maintain the borders of the proposed Palestinian state. 

As part of the plan, Trump also pledged $50 billion towards the Palestinian state for job creation and poverty reduction. Trump said that if Abbas and the Palestinian Authority “choose the path to peace,” that the United States and other countries “will be there, we will be there to help you in so many different ways.” 

After the announcement of the plan, Trump sent out a variety of tweets in English, Hebrew, and Arabic championing the proposal.

 “I will always stand with the State of Israel and the Jewish people. I strongly support their safety and security and their right to live in their historic homeland. It’s time for peace!” the president tweeted in English and Hebrew.

“This is what a future State of Palestine can look like, with a capital in parts of East Jerusalem,” Trump tweeted in Arabic and English. Both tweets included a map of the proposed two states. 

Parts of the proposed plan would seem to be in line with the Holy See’s stated preferences for a lasting peace in the Holy Land.

Monsignor Fredrik Hansen, chargé d’affaires of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See, told the UN Security Council on Jan. 22 that Pope Francis continues to advocate for a two-state solution and a status quo policy in Jerusalem for shared religious sites. 

“Indeed, the appeal to maintain the status quo of the holy sites of Jerusalem, dear to Jews, Christians and Muslims in virtue of their religion and important for the cultural heritage of the whole human family, is one that has been repeatedly made,” said Hansen. 

Pope Francis, Hansen said, wishes for Jerusalem to live out “its vocation as a city of peace,” which can be a symbolic location of peace and encounter, with respect between religions and continued dialogue.

[…]