A number of conservative Church of England figures have signed a letter which defends the former Archbishop of Canterbury against any criminal probe, calling the idea “bizarre”.

The note, which appeared in Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph, says: “The notion that a criminal case could be brought against Lord Carey is so bizarre that we can only surmise that the object of the persistent pressure that brings these public attacks is not only Lord Carey but what he represents of biblically faithful Christianity.”

“An attack on him is an attack on us all.”

The signatories – which include former Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali and the founder of Christian Concern, Andrea Williams – said similar high-profile cases have all been dropped without prosecutions.

They also wrote: “No one has been charged with any offence in relation to the misdemeanours of Jimmy Savile.

“The cases against Lord Bramall, Leon Brittan, Edward Heath and Cliff Richard were all dropped.

“Why is Lord Carey being targeted at this time? Certain public leaders appear to be being attacked by insinuation without due process.”

The Daily Telegraph reported on Monday that police and prosecutors were considering whether to bring a criminal investigation against the 82-year-old, following the publication of a report last June which heavily criticised him.

The document, produced by Dame Moira Gibb, concluded…

The Vatican announced on Wednesday that during Tuesday’s meeting with the head of the Vatican’s saint-making office, Francis had approved a decree confirming a miracle attributed to Mr Romero’s intercession.

Also approved was the miracle attributed to Pope Paul VI, paving the way for his canonisation as well.

No date has been set for either ceremony, which Francis would be expected to celebrate.

Mr Romero was gunned down by right-wing death squads on March 24 1980, as he celebrated mass in a hospital chapel.

The country’s military dictatorship had vehemently opposed his preaching against the repression of the poor by the army at the start of the country’s 1980-1992 civil war.

Francis unblocked Mr Romero’s stalled sainthood case at the start of his pontificate and declared him a martyr in 2015.

The case had been held up for years by the Vatican, primarily due to opposition from conservative Latin American churchmen who feared Mr Romero’s perceived association with liberation theology would embolden the movement that holds that Jesus’ teachings require followers to fight for social and economic justice.

It was also delayed over related questions about whether Mr Romero was killed out of hatred for his faith or his politics.

If killed for his politics, it was argued, he could not be declared a martyr of the faith.

In the end, Pope Francis decreed in 2015 that Mr Romero…

According to World Watch Monitor, five members of a family in the northeast of the country were beaten on 4th March as they helped build a boundary wall around their church.

The pastor of the Pakistan Gospel Assemblies church in Yousufwala village, on the outskirts of the Punjabi city of Sahiwal, told the news source that around 20 armed men violently attacked the church members as they built the wall ahead of the Sunday morning service.

“Our church elder, George Masih, who is 70, was overseeing masons and labourers who were constructing the wall,” said the pastor, who cannot be named for security reasons.

“We were praying [inside the church] when we heard shouting and yelling, and, when we rushed outside, we saw about 20 men, armed with clubs and axes, [who] were beating Masih and others.”

While authorities have not confirmed who the suspects are, the pastor said he believes the men were linked to a local landlord.

The Christians were taken to hospital and the wall later completed under police supervision

He added that although the land was originally specified for communal purposes, he got permission to build the church on the land three years ago.

“That legal agreement is documented and we have a copy of it,” he told World Watch Monitor, adding that the agreement included church-related…

The typed document, signed by the Indian Hindu activist and dated 6th April 1926, was written to Milton Newberry Frantz, a Christian elder in the US at the time.

Replying to a letter Frantz had sent him about his faith, Gandhi wrote: “Dear Friend, I have your letter. I am afraid it is not possible for me to subscribe to the creed you have sent me.

“The subscriber is made to believe that the highest manifestation of the unseen reality was Jesus Christ. In spite of all my efforts, I have not been able to feel the truth of that statement. I have not been able to move beyond the belief that Jesus was one of the great teachers of mankind.”

Gandhi went on to state the importance of respecting all people’s faiths as all religions are based on a “common thread of love and mutual esteem”.

The letter from Mahatma Gandhi to Milton Newberry Frantz, dated April 6, 1926.

The iconic independence leader is revered in India and known as the ‘father of the nation’. He wrote extensively about Hinduism’s philosophy and teachings.

The letter had been in a private collection for decades and was sold by the Pennsylvania-based Raab Collection.

The Raab Collection said in a statement that their “research discloses no other letter of Gandhi mentioning Jesus to have ever reached the public market.”

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