Mainstream celebrities Master P, born Percy Robert Miller, and his son, Romeo Miller, attended the 28th annual Movieguide Awards where they told The Christian Post that they’ve veered away from their past hip-hop messages to create content that reflects their Christian faith.

While on the red carpet, Master P acknowledged the importance of being at an awards show that celebrates faith and family films.

“Romeo has started a brand, Romeo Land, and it’s all about having great content,” he told CP.

Along with his roster of businesses, the hip-hop and sports mogul said his movie company, Genius Minds Pictures, and his son’s new company, Romeo Land, are gearing up to release a Christian film.

“We have our first faith-based movie coming out, it’s called, ‘God Is Real.’ So people are going to see this everywhere,” he said.

“Don’t be afraid to grow and change,” Master P maintained. “Where I come from, I come from the streets, I come from the struggle and pain. Without God, I wouldn’t be here. So why not change and grow up and do right?”

Along with “God Is Real,” Romeo is starring in the faith-based movie, “Can You Hear the Lamb.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Jeannie Law

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Suspected Islamist militants hacked to death over 30 people, including an Anglican pastor, in overnight attacks on villages in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

On Tuesday, four villages were raided by the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamist group, in the west of Beni territory, Reuters reports. The rebel group has its origins in Uganda but is now based in DR Congo’s Beni region.

Beni Governor Donat Kibwana told AFP that members of the terrorist group hacked all victims to death with machetes. In total, 36 individuals were killed, including an Anglican pastor.

The main attack took place in Manzingi, a village northwest from Oicha, while the pastor was killed in the village of Eringeti.

“The victim had the misfortune to pass them on his way to the field with his wife,” Omar Kavota from rights group CEPADHO said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Launched in the mid-1990s by Ugandan Muslim rebels forced out of Uganda, the ADF has become the conflict-stricken DRC’s most active and violent rebel group over the past two years. Led by Musa Baluku, the group is known for committing crimes such as murder, rape and abduction of women and children, as well as slavery and indoctrination.

The Beni region has seen a surge of violence since Oct. 30 when Congolese troops launched an offensive against the rebels. In total, 265 people have been killed by the ADF since November, according to the Kivu Security Tracker, a research initiative that maps unrest in Congo’s east.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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Our public discourse and politics feel like they are about to explode, don’t they?

With the fallout from President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial coinciding with the beginning of the 2020 election cycle, the outlook for the future looks positively frightening.

But looks can be deceiving. While Congress, the Twitterati and talking heads on cable news are at each other’s throats, the idea that the general public is polarized is, to say the least, overstated.

As I’ve highlighted in other contexts, Pew finds that a whopping 44% of Americans now identify as independent — the highest percentage in the 75 years Pew has been tracking this number. By contrast, Pew found that only 27% identify as Democrats and 26% as Republicans.

A major 2018 study of political affiliation in the U.S. titled “Hidden Tribes” found, as The New York Times put it, that most people “do not see their lives through a political lens, and when they have political views the views are far less rigid than those of the highly politically engaged, ideologically orthodox tribes.” Indeed, two-thirds of U.S. residents belong to what the study described as an “exhausted majority” whose members “share a sense of fatigue with our polarized national conversation, a willingness to be flexible in their political viewpoints.”

While the gatekeepers of our public discourse have a financial interest in keeping us anxious and antagonistic, the actual data show that dialogue across difference is possible. Even hopeful.

We must, however, take care in how we go about doing it.

Back in 2012 I published a piece with five suggestions for civil discourse, including humility, solidarity, avoiding binary thinking and dismissive name-calling and, finally, leading with what you are for, not what you are against.

But I left out something really important, and I (re)discovered it again when I recently attended a conference put on by the Catholic lay group Focolare a couple weeks ago titled “A Hearth for the Human Family.”

The Focolare, which by statute must be led by a woman, came to be during the bombing of Trent, Italy, during World War II when the group’s founder, Chiara Lubich, and her friends huddled by the fire (Focolare means “hearth” in Italian) and opened the Bible to Jesus’ prayer “that all may be one.”

From then on, the Focolare would focus on unity, and especially on dialogue across difference, aimed at working toward that unity.

And, boy, has the group been successful. Focolare has brought a wide range of Catholic, Protestant, non-Christian and secular folks from all over the world into dialogue on many different kinds of issues, all the while keeping its members’ faith in Jesus, his blessed mother and the church at the forefront of their spiritual life.

The group’s outreach has been wide-ranging. In 1982, Lubich founded a School for Oriental Religions in the Philippines to foster understanding between Christians and followers of Hinduism, Buddhism and other Eastern religions. A long-standing relationship between Focolare and American Muslims began with her visit to the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque in Harlem in 1997.

Source: Religion News Service

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John Fea teaches American history at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.  He is the author of “Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1.

Do the current Democratic candidates for president have any chance of winning evangelicals in November 2020?

Probably not.

Of the candidates left in the Democratic primary race, Pete Buttigieg has made the most of his Christian faith. Buttigieg regularly quotes the Bible on the campaign trail and is always ready to remind us that the Christian right does not have a monopoly on the language of faith.

But for many evangelicals, Buttigieg’s Bible-infused sermonettes seem indistinguishable from the usual Democratic talking points. One wonders if there is anything about his understanding of Christianity that would put him at odds with party orthodoxy.

Over the last couple of years, I have talked with a lot of Trump-voting evangelicals. Some go to my church. Some are in my family. We have exchanged emails and social media messages. I met many of them during the tour for my book “Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump.”

Based on this anecdotal evidence, I know that a lot of evangelicals will vote for Trump again. I’ve even met a few evangelicals who voted for a third-party candidate in 2016 but plan to vote for Trump in 2020 because he appoints conservative Supreme Court justices, fights for religious liberty (as defined by conservative evangelicals) and defends the interests of Israel.

But I have also met people who voted for Trump in 2016 and are looking for a justification — any justification — to vote for a Democrat in 2020.

These evangelicals might vote for a Democratic candidate who speaks in genuine and sincere ways about reducing the number of abortions in America. Ideally, this candidate would support the Hyde Amendment, the legislative provision that prevents the government from using federal funds to pay for most abortions.

Evangelicals might also consider voting for a Democratic candidate who recognizes legitimate threats to religious liberty. Such a candidate might be willing to endorse the Fairness for All Act, a bill that both outlaws discrimination against the LGBTQ community and protects the convictions of faith-based institutions.

Perhaps this candidate might embrace something akin to what Washington University law professor John Inazu calls “confident pluralism.” Inazu calls both the left and the right to think more deeply about how Americans can live together amid their deepest differences and, in the process, forge a healthy republic defined by “tolerance, humility, and patience.”

If a candidate will speak proactively on these issues, he or she just might steal a small number of evangelical votes away from Trump. In another close election, such votes may be all that is needed to defeat the president in 2020.

Unfortunately, no such candidate exists in the Democratic field.

Source: Religion News Service

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The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest, is a Senior Analyst at RNS. Previously he was a columnist at the National Catholic Reporter (2015-17) and an associate editor (1978-85) and editor in chief (1998-2005) at America magazine. He was also a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University (1985-98 & 2006-15) where he wrote Archbishop, A Flock of Shepherds, and Inside the Vatican. Earlier he worked as a lobbyist for tax reform. He has a doctorate in political science from the University of California Berkeley. He entered the Jesuits in 1962 and was ordained a priest in 1974 after receiving a M.Div from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of BCNN1.

As archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput was not afraid to take a different line from the pope on issues facing the church. In 2016, after Pope Francis opened the possibility of Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, Chaput added a stipulation: In his diocese, such couples who wanted to receive the Eucharist would have to abstain from sex.

More recently, he criticized the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest whom the pope has met with and encouraged in his ministry to LGBTQ Catholics.

A Catholic bishop, even one who disagrees with a new pope, cannot just be fired and replaced. The pope must wait until the bishop reaches retirement at 75 years of age before appointing a successor.

But if change is slow, the direction is clear, and Francis, like popes before him, is slowly filling the American hierarchy with bishops who reflect his values and priorities.

That’s what happened last week when Francis accepted the resignation of Chaput, the conservative culture warrior who turned 75 in September, and appointed Nelson Perez to be the next archbishop of Philadelphia. Since 2017, Perez has been bishop of Cleveland, where he had succeeded an unpopular bishop who had been tainted by his association with disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston.

But don’t think that Perez is a liberal who will lead his flock to the barricades calling for a change in church teaching on the ordination of women, gay marriage or birth control. That is not going to happen, any more than Francis would change such teaching. But neither sees any point in obsessively repeating arguments when everyone knows what the church teaches.

Rather, the most noticeable change between Perez and Chaput will be one of style. Chaput saw himself as an intellectual who had to take on American culture and politics when he thought it was out of line with church teaching. If he had not been a priest, he would have been happy as a conservative academic, commentator or talk radio host.

With Chaput’s retirement, the conservative bishops in the U.S. have lost their intellectual leader and the American church has reached a turning point. Chaput and Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who died in 2015, had been the most forceful conservative voices in the American hierarchy for a generation. With both of them gone, we will see a more pastoral vision of Catholicism promoted by the bishops.

Source: Religion News Service

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Jay Sekulow, one of President Donald Trump’s lead attorneys during the impeachment trial, is being paid for his legal work through a rented $80-a-month mailbox a block away from the White House.

The Pennsylvania Avenue box appears to be the sole physical location of the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, a for-profit corporation co-owned by Sekulow. The firm has no website and is not listed in national legal directories. The District of Columbia Bar has no record of it, and no attorneys list it as their employer.

But Sekulow, 63, is registered as chief counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice, a non-profit Christian legal advocacy group based in an expansive Capitol Hill row house a short walk from the Senate chamber.

A half dozen lawyers employed by the non-profit ACLJ are named in recent Senate legal briefs as members of Trump’s defense team — including one of Sekulow’s sons. The ACLJ, as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, is barred under IRS rules from engaging in partisan political activities.

The Republican National Committee has paid more than $250,000 to Sekulow’s for-profit CLA Group since 2017, when he was first named to Trump’s legal team as special counsel Robert Mueller was leading the Russia investigation, according to campaign disclosures.

Sekulow has been one of Trump’s most visible defenders, enduring as a trusted attorney for the president even as other of his lawyers have been sidelined or entangled in controversy.

In the impeachment trial, he has sought to present Trump as unfairly hounded by investigations, seizing on surveillance errors the FBI acknowledged making in the Russia probe and accusing Democrats of investigating the president over Ukraine simply because they couldn’t bring him down after the Mueller investigation.

Charity watchdogs for years have raised concerns about the blurred lines between for-profit businesses tied to Sekulow and the complex web of non-profit entities he and his family control.

The Associated Press reviewed 10 years of tax returns for the ACLJ and other charities tied to Sekulow, which are released to the public under federal law. The records from 2008 to 2017, the most recent year available, show that more than $65 million in charitable funds were paid to Sekulow, his wife, his sons, his brother, his sister-in-law, his nephew and corporations they own.

Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, said Sekulow appears to be mixing his defense of Trump with his charitable endeavors. The group has issued a “Donor Alert” about ACLJ on its CharityWatch website.

“Charities are not supposed to be taking sides in partisan political activities, such as providing legal services to benefit a politician in an impeachment trial,” Borochoff said. “Regulators should investigate whether or not charitable resources, such as office, labor, equipment, etc., are being wrongly utilized to benefit Sekulow’s for-profit law firm.”

The address for CLA Group listed in recent court filings matches Carr Workplaces, a flex-space provider that rents out mini offices, individual desks and conference rooms for periods as brief as one hour. According to its website, the company also offers its customers “virtual offices” that include a mailbox and mail forwarding.

A receptionist at the Carr Workplaces office confirmed the law firm’s mail is delivered to a mail slot in a secure room before being forwarded to another location, which she declined to disclose.

A call to Carr last week asking to be connected to CLA Group was forwarded. After a few rings, the call was answered by a receptionist at the non-profit ACLJ.

Inquiries about Sekulow’s for-profit law firm were referred to Gene Kapp, a Virginia public relations contractor paid through the charity.

“Jay Sekulow is serving as a member of the President’s legal team in his personal capacity,” Kapp said in an email. “His work with the President is separate and distinct and is not connected with his work as Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. The ACLJ’s work is separate and distinct from the legal work being done for the President.”

Kapp declined to say whether CLA Group has any support staff or whether Sekulow was doing his legal work for Trump in the non-profit group’s office. Kapp would also not comment on whether CLA Group was reimbursing ACLJ for any resources being utilized for Trump’s legal defense.

A 2005 investigation by the publication Legal Times reported about questionable spending at ACLJ, quoting former employees describing millions in charity funds being spent to support the Sekulows’ lavish lifestyle, which included multiple homes, golf junkets, chauffeur-driven cars and a private jet used to ferry then-Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. A 2011 investigation by the Tennessean newspaper found more than $33 million in charitable funds paid to Sekulow and his family. The Guardian and The Washington Post reported additional details in 2017, shortly after Sekulow was named as Trump’s lawyer.

Over the 10-year-period examined by AP, the tax returns show nearly $37 million in charitable funds were paid by ACLJ to the CLA Group, the phantom law firm listed on court filings as defending Trump.

Incorporation filings and tax records show Sekulow co-owns CLA Group with his law school classmate and longtime business partner Stuart J. Roth. Roth is also listed as senior counsel at ACLJ and named in recent legal briefs as one of Trump’s defense lawyers.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, is investigating the potential abuse of charitable funds raised by the organizations tied to Sekulow. Spokeswoman Laura Brewer said it was unclear when that probe, begun in 2017, would be complete.

Trump, Sekulow’s star client, has faced similar legal questions. Trump agreed to pay $2 million as part of a settlement with the state of New York in which he was forced to admit he misused charitable funds from the Donald J. Trump Foundation to promote his 2016 presidential campaign, pay off business debts and buy a $10,000 portrait of himself hung at one of his Florida resorts. Trump’s charity also cut an illegal $25,000 check to support the reelection of then-Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who now works with Sekulow as a member of the president’s defense team.

A Brooklyn native, Sekulow graduated from Mercer Law School in Georgia and briefly worked for the Internal Revenue Service before going into private practice in Atlanta with his former classmate Roth in the early 1980s. The pair specialized in buying and selling historic properties as tax shelters, but the business collapsed after disgruntled investors sued them over alleged fraud and securities violations. Court records show both Sekulow and Roth filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1987.

Sekulow quickly remade himself as general counsel for the group Jews for Jesus. A self-described Messianic Jew, Sekulow won a religious liberties case before the U.S. Supreme Court after members of the group were barred from passing out pamphlets at the Los Angeles International Airport.

The following year, records show Sekulow founded the non-profit Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (CASE), a charity “dedicated to the ideal that religious freedom and freedom of speech are inalienable, god given rights.”

In 1992, he was named chief counsel at the ACLJ, which was founded by televangelist Pat Robertson as a conservative counterweight to the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union. It is affiliated with the law school at Regent University, the Christian college founded by Robertson and located next to the studios of his Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Tax records show ACLJ now receives the bulk of its $23 million annual budget from CASE. All six of the charity’s paid board members share the last name Sekulow, including Jay’s wife, Pam, and their sons, Jordon and Logan.

That tight-knit family control runs afoul of standards issued by multiple watchdog groups to help stem the likelihood of self-dealing and graft.

The Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance recommends at least five independent board members and not more than one who receives direct financial benefits. Bennett Weiner, who heads the BBB alliance, said it issued an advisory about ACLJ after the organization didn’t respond to requests for more information about its finances.

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, founded 40 years ago by Billy Graham and other evangelical leaders to accredit Christian non-profits, requires independent boards of directors made up of people “not related by blood or marriage to staff members.” CASE and ACLJ are not listed among the council’s 2,400 members.

As Sekulow has positioned himself among Trump’s chief defenders in both the courtroom and as a legal analyst on Fox News, CASE has continued to raise more than $50 million annually through an aggressive mix of telemarketing and direct mail soliciting the conservative faithful to support ACLJ’s courtroom advocacy.

But tax records show much of that money is routed to Sekulow and his family. Over the 10-year period examined by AP, more than $12 million was paid in direct salary and benefits to Sekulow and his family members.

Gary Sekulow, Jay’s 61-year-old brother, was paid a total of $985,947 in salary and benefits in 2017 as the chief operating and financial officer at both ACLJ and CASE — two full-time positions that tax documents indicate would require him to work 80 hours each week.

Adam Sekulow, Gary’s 31-year-old son, was paid $229,227 as the director of development at CASE and $65,052 as the director of major donors at ACLJ the same year.

Records show millions more each year going to for-profit companies controlled by the family. In addition to the $5.8 million ACLJ paid to CLA Group in 2017, $1.4 million was paid to Regency Productions, a company owned by Jay Sekulow that receives his fees for appearing on the radio show “Jay Sekulow Live!” and his television show “ACLJ This Week with Jay Sekulow,” which airs on the same Christian network as Pat Robertson’s “The 700 Club.”

Over the 10-year period reviewed by AP, CLA Group and Regency were paid a combined $46 million in charitable funds by ACLJ and CASE. Millions more were paid by the charities for “airtime,” though the recipients of that money were not detailed in the tax records.

Sekulow’s show is often recorded at a studio located at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of ACLJ. Tax records show the office building, with a current assessed value of $3.8 million, is owned by CASE. The charity controlled by the Sekulow family also owns the spacious four-bedroom, four-bath row house next door, which has a current assessed value of $1.8 million.

This week, an AP photographer saw Jay’s son Jordan Sekulow, 37, entering the residence. A graduate of Regent law school, Jordan Sekulow is the executive director of ACLJ, a member of Trump’s defense team, and also hosts his father’s radio show. ACLJ’s website and affiliated YouTube channel have been posting daily updates about the impeachment trial, reiterating GOP arguments and hammering Democratic House managers.

Jordan’s wife, Anna Sekulow, 36, also works at the charity as a digital media adviser, according to its website. The public tax records do not indicate how much they are paid.

About $6.8 million went to the company PFMS of Georgia for producing Sekulow’s shows. That company’s website lists Gary Sekulow’s wife, Kimberly Sekulow, 60, as president and CEO. The address for that business is in the same suburban Atlanta building listed on tax returns as the offices for CASE, the charity that pays it.

In addition to his two paid jobs at the non-profits, the couple’s son Adam Sekulow is listed as the acquisition manager at PFMS. His sister Jennifer Sekulow, 27, is the head of market research.

The records show at least $1.2 million was spent by the charities on private jets, including an unusual arrangement where CASE was paying to lease a plane co-owned by the for-profit companies controlled by Jay Sekulow and his sister-in-law.

The tax records show millions more were routed into numerous non-profit and for-profit entities, which makes it challenging to determine who is really getting the money.

For example, ACLJ and CASE made payments to the Law & Justice Institute, a non-profit entity created by Sekulow and Roth. Tax records show that charity’s only activity was to make annual payments to two for-profit companies, Advocacy Services Inc. and Educational Resources Associates.

Virginia incorporation records list “M.G. Robertson” of Virginia Beach as the president and director of Advocacy Services, which received $4 million in payments. Marion Gordon Robertson, 89, is better known to TV viewers by his nickname, Pat.

Incorporation filings for Education Resources Associates in Washington, D.C, list its CEO as John Ashcroft, who served as U.S. attorney general in the administration of President George W. Bush. That company got $2.2 million in consulting fees from the charitable Law & Justice Institute. Ashcroft, 77, is listed as a distinguished professor at Regent University and has appeared with Sekulow at ACLJ events.

Marc Owens, who served for 10 years as the director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the Internal Revenue Service, said the structure of the charities and corporations controlled by the Sekulow family appeared designed to obscure just who is getting paid and how much.

Federal law forbids charities from excessively benefiting those who have “substantial influence over the organization.” Owens said both the IRS and state attorneys general should investigate.

“This is an apparent web of organizations that seem to exist to pay compensation to Sekulow and his family members,” said Owens, who is now in private practice. “That pattern clearly raises questions for those entities that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) as to whether they’re operating for a public benefit or the private benefit of Jay Sekulow and his family members.”

Sekulow’s spokesman denied any wrongdoing.

“The financial arrangements between ACLJ, CASE and other entities have been reviewed by outside independent experts and are in compliance with all tax laws,” Kapp said.

Asked who those outside experts are and whether AP could speak with them, Kapp responded that he didn’t have anything to add.

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Associated Press reporter Ashraf Khalil contributed to this report.

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Follow AP Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck

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Contact AP’s global investigative team at [email protected]

Source: Associated Press via Religion News Service

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A New Jersey megachurch is opening a cafe staffed by adults with special needs to better reflect the “Kingdom of God in 3D Technicolor,” pastor Tim Lucas has revealed. 

This year, Liquid Church in Parsippany, New Jersey, will transform the Clean Water Café at its Broadcast Campus into a full-service coffeehouse operating Monday-Friday that “will serve delicious breakfast, lunch, and specialty coffee creations in a warm, work-friendly environment.”

The coffee shop will provide over 30 jobs for those with Asperger’s, autism and Down syndrome who have aged out of the education system.

“I think special needs ministry is singular in its ability to show the Kingdom of God in 3D Technicolor,” Lucas told The Christian Post. “When Jesus says, ‘The last shall be first,’ He means that the way we love and care for the weakest members of His family will contribute to the strength of the community. It’s lavishing the love of the King on His most vulnerable children.”

According to statistics, about 80% of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities are unemployed. Through the Clean Water Café, Liquid hopes to “create a path for our special friends to be accepted, included, and valued in the workplace.”

In addition to supporting the local community, the café will have a global impact: Any profits from the shop will be added to the donations that Liquid is already giving to support the Clean Water Cause in Africa and Central America.

According to Lucas, the 5,000-member church seeks to “saturate our state with the Gospel of Jesus Christ without watering down the Gospel.” And the rate of autism among children in New Jersey, he revealed, is the highest ever documented for a state.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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The French appeals court has acquitted Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon of charges that he failed to report sexual abuse cases.

In 2017, Barbarin was charged and later convicted for not reporting the abuse of a minor, which resulted in a six-month prison sentence. His was the most high-profile case of a member of the Catholic hierarchy to be tried and sentenced for sexual abuse coverup.

The prosecutors accused Barbarin of not reporting the notorious pedophile Bernard Preynat, who was convicted in July for sexually abusing up to 45 young Boy Scouts under his care in the diocese of Lyon. The Catholic Church removed him from the clerical state, meaning Preynat is no longer a priest.

On Thursday (Jan. 30), an appeals court acquitted Barbarin.

Lyon is an important diocese in France, overseeing more than 1.2 million Catholics, and traditionally a stepping stone for becoming a cardinal and occupying other prestigious positions.

The victims who accused Barbarin of covering up abuse plan to appeal the matter to France’s highest court, the Court de Cassation. Victims may also present the case before the European Court of Human Rights. In either case, a final decision over Barbarin’s guilt or innocence may not be made for several years.

At the time of his conviction, the 69-year-old Barbarin presented his resignation to Pope Francis even though the cardinal hadn’t reached the retirement age of 75. Francis refused the resignation due to the “presumption of innocence,” but in June he appointed Bishop Emeritus Michel Dubost of Evry-Corbeil-Essonnes to oversee the diocese while Barbarin maintained the title of Archbishop of Lyon.

Despite being acquitted, Barbarin said he presented his resignation once more to the pope, who has the last word in these cases.

“For the Church in Lyon, it’s time to open a new chapter,” the cardinal told French reporters after his court hearing. “Once again I will present my resignation as archbishop of Lyon in the hands of Pope Francis.”

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni stated on Thursday that the Vatican and the French bishops “reaffirm their closeness to all the victims of abuse, in their suffering, and to their families and communities.”

“The Holy Father, who continues to follow closely the unfolding of these painful events, will communicate his decision at the appropriate time,” he said.

In a tweet, Cardinal Robert Sarah, who heads the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship, said that he greeted the news of Barbarin’s acquittal with “emotion.”

“We have long awaited this important day with him. Our friendship never wavered. He has always been a great servant (of God),” he wrote.

Source: Religion News Service

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