Bishop Angaelos on ISIS killings: Prayer and Forgiveness is the Answer

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Bishop Angaelos on ISIS killings: Prayer and Forgiveness is the Answer

Christian Today report– The General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK has said we must pray for and forgive Islamic State militants in the wake of a video purporting to show the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians by the terrorist group.

“I think as Christians that’s our mandate, it’s what we do. I don’t see it as being difficult,” Bishop Angaelos told Christian Today.

“Of course it will sometimes go against what people want, but as Christians we must forgive. I will continue to advocate for people who are oppressed, and to stand up for those who do not have a voice of their own, but when it comes to crimes perpetrated against us, there is only one way forward, and that is to forgive. If we don’t forgive what do we have? Retaliation, resentment and anger, but no solution and no closure.”

Islamic State issued a video on Sunday claiming to show the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians who had been kidnapped in Libya.

The five-minute video is titled: “A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross” and the men are identified as “people of the cross, the followers of the hostile Egyptian Church.” They are shown being marched to a beach and forced to kneel on the sand.

In a message to the “crusaders”, a masked insurgent holding a knife says his fellow militants are “chopping off the heads of those that have been carrying the cross illusion.” All 21 are then murdered.

The crime has been universally condemned. David Cameron said it was an “inhumane act”, and that the UK would continue its “efforts to defeat the monstrosity of Islamist extremism”. He phoned Bishop Angaelos personally today to express his condolences; a gesture the latter described as powerful.

However, the bishop has said it is imperative that Christians respond in prayer, not aggression.

“While it may seem illogical or incomprehensible, we…pray for those who have carried out these horrific crimes, that the value of God’s creation and human life may become more evident to them, and in this realisation, that the wider effects of pain brought by this and other acts of brutality may be realised and avoided,” he said in a statement released today.

“We pray for an end to the dehumanisation of captives who become mere commodities to be bartered, traded and negotiated with.”

Speaking to Christian Today, the bishop spoke further of the brutality of the murders, and of the “dehumanisation of these men who were marched up the beach like trophies”.

The men had travelled to Libya to find work, and their families relied on them to provide financially, he said. “Not only will there be an emotional impact, but a concrete material impact” on those they leave behind.

Muslims and Christians in Egypt are equally horrified by the incident, Bishop Angaelos added, and both communities have stood together in the face of the atrocity. It’s not just Christians that are being targeted by extremists. “We need to remember that there are Muslim fishermen still held by IS,” he said.

Egypt has already begun carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Libya in response to the video, but the bishop suggested it unlikely that more violence will bring about a peaceful resolution.

“I think it’s going to be challenging, and we need to change our approach; the things we’ve tried in the past haven’t worked, and we need to keep trying new things,” he said.

“There is no solution but coexistence…How we arrive at that, I don’t know if I have an answer right now, but we need to keep working to find an answer.”

The bishop remains adamant that “every life is sacred and every death tragic” – including those of militants.

“The particular brutality demonstrated in this instance and others like it shows not only a disregard for life but a gross misunderstanding of its sanctity and equal value in every person,” he said.

“We cannot remember our Coptic brothers without also remembering all those who have lost their lives in equally brutal circumstances: journalists, aid workers, medical staff, religious leaders, a young pilot and communities that are considered incompatible with a fringe and intolerant element.”

He called on the international community to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict. “War and violence are destructive and wasteful, particularly of human life,” he told Christian Today.

“I don’t think that there’s more sanctity in the life of a Christian and the life of a jihadist, it’s a different way of living, and a different way of directing that energy, but it’s the same sacredness in God’s creation, and so I pray for a solution that doesn’t bring more death and more pain.”

Source: Christian Today

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Catholics Repeat Calls to Overturn DC Recently Passed Laws Which Violates Religious Freedom

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Catholics Repeat Calls to Overturn DC Recently Passed Laws Which Violates Religious Freedom

Christian Today report– The Catholic University of America and the Archdiocese of Washington are calling for two recently-passed laws in Washington DC to be overturned because they allegedly violate freedom of religion.

The laws in question are the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act and Human Rights Amendment Act.

The Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act will require establishments including religious organisations to accept for employment individuals whose values conflict with their beliefs, including supporters of abortion and homosexuals.

The Human Rights Amendment Act will remove the exemption from supporting and funding homosexual advocacy groups that schools and religious organisations previously enjoyed.

“Both laws violate the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of association protected by the First Amendment and other federal law,” the joint statement by the archdiocese and the university stated.

The statement warned that the laws could also violate people’s “right of expressive association for both religious and non-religious pro-life nonprofit organisations.”

The CUA and the archdiocese were part of a broader coalition that released a joint statement last week requesting that Congress overturn the two laws.

The coalition is composed of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archdiocese of Washington, the Archdiocese for the Military Services, the Catholic University of America, Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the National Association of Evangelicals.

“While we will continue to serve the city and the nation,” the group’s letter stated. “[W]e cannot surrender the constitutional freedoms that the framers of the U.S. Constitution rightly reserved to all of us.”

The two laws are still open for review and evaluation in Congress. If there are objections, both the US Senate and House of Representatives must sign a joint resolution in order to disapprove the two laws.

Source: Christian Today

Pope Francis Slams Couples Who Choose not to Have Children as ‘Selfish’

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Pope Francis Slams Couples Who Choose not to Have Children as ‘Selfish’

Catholic Herald report– Couples who choose not to have children are making “a selfish choice”, Pope Francis has said.

“If a family that has been generous in having children is looked upon as a burden, something’s wrong,” he said during his weekly general audience yesterday.

“The generation of children must be responsible, as Blessed Paul VI wrote in his encyclical Humanae Vitae. But having more children cannot be looked upon automatically as an irresponsible choice. What is more, not having children is a selfish choice.”

Continuing a series of talks about the family, Pope Francis said birthrates are a clear indication of the optimism and hope of a couple and of the society in which they live.

A society that pressures people not to have children, “that considers them a concern, a burden, a risk, is a society that is depressed,” he said, pointing particularly to European countries with declining populations because of their low birthrates.

“Life is rejuvenated and energies are increased when life multiplies,” he said. “It is enriched, not impoverished!”

He continued: “Think about this, children are the joy of the family and of society. They aren’t a problem of reproductive biology or another way of self-realisation. Even less are they a possession of their parents. No! Children are a gift. Understand?”

“Children are a gift,” he added. “Each one is unique and unrepeatable.”

Departing from his prepared text, Pope Francis told the estimated 11,000 people in St Peter’s Square that he was one of five children. “I remember my mom would say, ‘I have five children. Who’s my favorite? I have five children like I have five fingers. If you slam this one, it hurts. If you slam that one, it hurts. All five would hurt. All are mine, but they are all different like the fingers on my hand.’”

“A child is loved not because he or she is beautiful or has this quality or that one. No,” he said, parents love their children because they are their children.

Being a son or daughter is an experience of unconditional love, he said, because “children are loved even before they are born.” Pope Francis said he is always moved when a pregnant woman “shows me her belly and asks for my blessing. These babies are loved even before they come into the world. This is love.”

People love their sons and daughters “before they have done anything to deserve it, before they can speak or think, even before they are born,” he said. “Being sons and daughters is a fundamental condition for knowing the love of God, who is the ultimate source of this authentic miracle” that is new life.

Children, who rightly hope to make the world a better place, must do so without “arrogance” and always with respect for their parents, he said.

The fourth commandment asks children to “honour thy father and mother,” he said. “A society of children who do not honor their parents is a society without honour.”

Pope Francis ended his talk asking parents to pause in silence to think about their children and asking everyone to think about their parents “to thank God for the gift of life”.

He also offered prayers at the audience for more immigrants who died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. At least 29 immigrants died of hypothermia on February 9 and another 200 were reported dead on February 11 after two boats capsized during the crossing from North Africa.

Source: Catholic Herald

Gay Pastor’s Children Denied Admission to a Christian School

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Gay Pastor’s Children Denied Admission to a Christian School

Christian Today report– A gay pastor and his husband have been told their children will not be admitted to a Christian school in Nashville because of the family’s “unacceptable” lifestyle.

Pastor Greg Bullard of the Covenant of the Cross Church in Madison has two young children – Micah and Esther – with his husband, Brian Copeland, whom he wed in 2013.

Copeland was scheduled to go on a tour of the Davidson Academy, a non-denominational Christian private school, but the visit was cancelled after officials discovered that the children are being raised by two fathers. The family had not yet applied for admission.

A letter to Copeland from the school said that though the academy is not sponsored by or affiliated with any specific church or denomination, it was “founded by Christians and operates in the Christian tradition based upon clear tenets of faith and practice”.

Families are required to subscribe to the school’s Handbook for Students and Parents, the letter continues, in which there is a Statement of Faith.

“The first point of the Statement is as follows: We believe God has revealed himself, His purposes, and His ways in the Bible, which is therefore absolute in its truth and authority over daily living.

“The practical application of this principle extends to the lifestyle conduct of those who are part of the school.”

The letter also points to a section on Admission Policy in the Handbook, which says homosexuality is “in opposition to the mission” of the school.

According to the Handbook, “any lifestyle conduct…which impedes the school’s credibility with its constituency or the general public is unacceptable. One example of such lifestyle is homosexuality.”

“Just as your believe strongly in affirming all persons who worship at your church, we believe strongly in a strict interpretation of the Scriptures regarding the institution of marriage. I believe another education provider would be a better fit for your children,” the letter concludes.

Copeland shared the letter on Facebook, writing that he did so to “let my friends know that discrimination affects people you know and love and still hurts no matter how many times you go through it.”

He told The Tennessean that he and Bullard do not want to “harm the school” but want to show highlight inequality. The couple are not victims, he added, and do not wish to restrict anyone’s religious beliefs.

“I want to make that very clear,” Copeland said. “We want our children to have a Christian education, and we’re finding that very, very hard.”

The Davidson Academy has yet to comment.

Source: Christian Today

 

Australia’s Senior Rabbi Resigns After Calling Abused Boys’ Father a ‘Lunatic’

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Australia’s Senior Rabbi Resigns After Calling Abused Boys’ Father a ‘Lunatic’

Christian Today report– Australia’s most senior Orthodox rabbi resigned this morning from two top posts in the community after a royal commission into child sex abuse heard that he called the father of three abused boys a “lunatic”.

Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant resigned as president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, which is resolutely conservative on issues such as gay marriage. He also resigned as a general manager at the leading charity Jewish Care Victoria and lost his place on the Victoria Police multi-faith advisory committee.

In a text to Australian Jewish News, he had said that Zepheniah Waks, the father of 17 sons including whistleblower Manny Waks and two others who were abused, was “killing” the Chabad community.

He sent the text as Zephaniah Waks was telling the commission how his family was ostracised and bullied after detailing the abuse that was endured at Chabad’s yeshivah centre in Melbourne.

In the text, Klugant continued: “Zephania is attacking Chabad, he is a lunatic on the fringe, guilty of neglect of his own children. Where was he when all this was happening?”

Manny Waks, who has felt able to speak out because he has left the community, welcomed the resignation.

He told The Guardian: “I hope this is his first step towards educating himself about child sexual abuse and that he can contribute towards being a part of the solution to it from now on.

“But he is unfit to hold any leadership position. As he holds several high-profile positions within the Yeshivah community, I feel he should resign from them all.”

The director of the Sydney Yeshivah centre, Rabbi Yosef Feldman, also resigned last week after his evidence caused offence to child sex abuse victims and members of the Jewish community.

The commission has been investigating how schools, churches, sports clubs and government organisations responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse since 2013.

Eighteen months ago the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia issued a statement on child sexual abuse timed for Yom Kippur, begging forgiveness from victims and condemning cover-ups.

Source: Christian Today

Nation Honors and Celebrates George Washington on Presidents’ Day Holiday

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Nation Honors and Celebrates George Washington on Presidents’ Day Holiday

Christian Post report– Many government offices and services, and also some businesses, will be closed Monday as the nation celebrates Presidents’ Day, originally known as “Washington’s Birthday,” in honor of the first U.S. President George Washington.

An annual federal holiday, Presidents’ Day is always observed on the third Monday of February, and is a time of patriotic celebration and remembrance.

Established in 1885 in recognition of President Washington, who was born on Feb. 22, the federal government still officially calls it Washington’s Birthday. However, it’s often celebrated by remembering all the presidents, including the incumbent chief executive, and not just Washington or Lincoln.

Many state governments have officially renamed it as Presidents’ Day, “Washington and Lincoln Day,” or other such designations.

Apart from Washington, presidents William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan were also born in February.

From 1879 to 1967, it was observed on Feb. 22, but it shifted to the third Monday of February as Presidents’ Day after Congress proposed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which sought to move the celebration of several federal holidays to a series of predetermined Mondays. The proposal was supposedly aimed at creating three-day weekends for the nation’s workers.

“The story of Presidents’ Day date begins in 1800. Following President George Washington’s death in 1799, his Feb. 22 birthday became a perennial day of remembrance,” according to History.com. “At the time, Washington was venerated as the most important figure in American history, and events like the 1832 centennial of his birth and the start of construction of the Washington Monument in 1848 were cause for national celebration.”

Many retailers and restaurants across the country offer special sales and discounts to mark the occasion.

The United States Postal Service says post offices will be closed. The New York Stock Exchange will also be closed.

Bank Of America, Capital One, Keybank, Citi Bank, Sovereign Bank, HSBC, Suntrust, Huntington, US Bank, and PNC will also be closed, according to Heavy.com.

Several states require that public schools teach their students about the achievements of the presidents prior to Presidents’ Day.

Source: Christian Post

 

Ukrainian Bishops in the US Pray for Their Homeland

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Ukrainian Bishops in the US Pray for Their Homeland

Catholic Herald report– Ukrainian Catholic bishops in the US have appealed for daily fasting and prayer for the citizens of their homeland.

They also called for prayers for “the conversion” of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and “for unity and independence” for the nation.

The bishops said they made the appeal in unison with Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, Ukraine, and the other Ukrainian Catholic bishops, who have asked Catholics in their country to fast and pray daily.

On February 12, a new ceasefire agreement was reached, offering some hope the strife would end. It began shortly after midnight on Sunday. Previous ceasefires have not held.

Last March, Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine, and pro-Russian separatists control Ukraine’s eastern regions.

Ukrainian Catholics fled Crimea to escape arrests and property seizures after the annexation. Most parishes have closed in Ukraine’s war-torn Luhansk and Donetsk regions, where separatists declared an independent “New Russia” after staging local referendums last spring.

The US Ukrainian Catholic bishops urged Catholics to fast and pause from their daily activities “for an extended amount of time to reflect and pray for the people of Ukraine.”

“Meditate on the horrific sufferings of the people of Ukraine, as you pray to God for peace and unity. Pray to the mother of God for her intercession with her son, Jesus Christ, and for her maternal protection of the people of Ukraine,” they said. “Pause to identify with the suffering as you pray for peace. Sacrifice valued time and thought in prayer for our brothers and sisters who suffer.”

The statement was signed by Archbishop Stefan Soroka of Philadelphia, who is metropolitan of US Ukrainian Catholics in the United States; Bishop Richard S Seminack of St. Nicholas in Chicago; Bishop Paul P Chomnycky of Stamford, Connecticut; Bishop Bohdan J Danylo of St. Josaphat in Parma, Ohio; Auxiliary Bishop John Bura of Philadelphia.

In Ukraine, the fighting has gone on since April 2014 and has left about 5,400 dead and 1.2 million people uprooted.

Source: Catholic Herald

UN Security Council Calls for an End to Shi’ite-Sunni Violence in Yemen

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UN Security Council Calls for an End to Shi’ite-Sunni Violence in Yemen

Christian Today report– The United Nations Security Council on Sunday demanded Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen withdraw from government institutions, called for an end to foreign interference and threatened “further steps” if the violence does not stop.

The United Nations has warned that Yemen is collapsing. Shi’ite Muslim Houthi fighters have sidelined the central government after seizing the capital Sanaa in September and expanding across Yemen, which borders oil giant Saudi Arabia.

Al Qaeda and other Sunni Muslim militants have since stepped up attacks. Yemen is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, one of the global network’s most active arms, which has carried out attacks abroad.

The 15-nation Security Council unanimously adopted a British- and Jordanian-drafted resolution on the crisis on Sunday.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-nation bloc comprising energy-rich Gulf states, had urged the Security Council to adopt a resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows decisions to be enforced with economic sanctions or force. The approved U.N. resolution is not under Chapter 7.

The council declared its readiness to take “further steps” if the resolution is not implemented by parties in Yemen. In November, the council imposed sanctions on Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and two Houthi leaders.

It “deplores actions taken by the Houthis to dissolve parliament and take over Yemen’s government institutions, including acts of violence.”

DEMAND FOR NEGOTIATIONS

It demands the Houthis engage in good faith in UN-brokered negotiations on a political settlement, withdraw their forces from government institutions, releaseYemen’s president, prime minister and other cabinet members from house arrest and stop undermining the political transition and the security of Yemen.

The Houthis started off as a revivalist group for Yemen’s Zaydi Shi’ite Muslim sect in the north of the country, before morphing over the past decade into a revolutionary movement with national ambitions, and an ally of Iran.

The resolution “calls on all member states to refrain from external interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability and instead to support the political transition.”

It “demands that all parties in Yemen, cease all armed hostilities against the people and the legitimate authorities of Yemen and relinquish the arms seized fromYemen’s military and security institutions.”

Tens of thousands of Yemenis demonstrated in several cities on Saturday against the rule of the Houthi movement as clashes between Houthis and Sunnis in a southern mountainous region left 26 dead.

The Security Council called on all parties to ensure the security of diplomats and diplomatic premises. Saudi Arabia, the United States and other western countries have closed embassies due to fears of worsening violence.

Source: Christian Today

 

Pope Francis Urges New Cardinals to Always Show Love

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Pope Francis Urges New Cardinals to Always Show Love

Catholic Herald report– In a Valentine’s Day ceremony to create 20 new cardinals, Pope Francis offered a meditation on Christian love and, especially, what it means for those who guide and minister in the Church.

“The greater our responsibility in serving the Church, the more our hearts must expand according to the measure of the heart of Christ,” he said during the consistory, a prayer service during which he personally welcomed 19 churchmen into the College of Cardinals.

The 20th new cardinal, 95-year-old Colombian Cardinal José Pimiento Rodríguez, retired Bishop of Manizales, was unable to attend the ceremony and was to receive his red biretta – a three-cornered hat – and his cardinal’s ring in his homeland.

Retired pope Benedict XVI attended the ceremony, sitting in the front row of St Peter’s Basilica alongside the already existing members of the College of Cardinals.

Pope Francis’s meditation at the ceremony focused on the famous passage about love from St Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (13:4-7), which begins: “Love is patient, love is kind.”

“All of us, myself first,” should be guided by St Paul’s words, he said, because every Christian ministry “flows from charity, must be exercised in charity and is ordered toward charity.”

The patience Christian love calls for, he said, is a call to catholicity. “It means being able to love without limits, but also to be faithful in particular situations and with practical gestures. It means loving what is great without neglecting what is small.”

St Paul says love is “not jealous or boastful” and truly being neither, the Pope said, “is surely a miracle of love since we humans – all of us, at every stage of our lives – are inclined to jealousy and pride since our nature is wounded by sin.”

Not being “irritable or resentful” can be a challenge for a pastor, especially when dealing with other clerics, Pope Francis told the new cardinals.

“Charity alone frees us” from the temptation of snapping at others and, especially, from “the mortal danger of pent-up anger, of that smoldering anger which makes us brood over wrongs we have received,” he said. “This is unacceptable in a man of the Church.”

St Paul’s statement that love rejoices over what is right, the Pope said, means “those called to the service of governance in the Church need to have a strong sense of justice, so that any form of injustice becomes unacceptable, even those which might bring gain to himself or to the Church”.

The new cardinals and all Christians, he said, can find a synopsis of their calling in St Paul’s affirmation that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things”.

Christians, the Pope said, should be “persons always ready to forgive; always ready to trust, because we are full of faith in God; always ready to inspire hope, because we ourselves are full of hope in God; persons ready to bear patiently every situation and each of our brothers and sisters, in union with Christ, who bore with love the burden of our sins.”

The 20 new cardinals come from 18 nations, including three – Cape Verde, Burma and Tonga – that had never had a cardinal before. Only one of the cardinals works in the Roman Curia: French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, head of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest court.

With the creation of the 20 new cardinals, the College of Cardinals expanded to 227 members, 125 of whom are under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope.

After the new cardinals professed their faith by reciting the Creed and formally swore fidelity and obedience to the pope and his successors, they approached Pope Francis one by one to receive their biretta, their cardinal’s ring and the assignment of a titular church in Rome, which makes them part of the Roman clergy.

In their first official act as cardinals, the new members of the college along with their confreres attested to their support for Pope Francis to proceed with the canonisation of three women:

– Blessed Jeanne Emilie De Villeneuve, the French founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.

– Blessed Mary Alphonsine Danil Ghattas, the Jerusalem-born founder of the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Rosary of Jerusalem, the first Palestinian religious order.

– Blessed Mariam Baouardy, a Melkite Catholic member of the Discalced Carmelites. She was born in 1846 in Ibillin, in the Galilee region of what is now Israel, and died in Bethlehem in 1878.

The Pope announced that the canonisation ceremony will be held on May 17 and also will include the canonisation of Italian Blessed Maria Cristina Brando, founder of the Oblation Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.

Source: Catholic Herald

 

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