Illinois Bishop Blocks Pro-Abortion Legislators from Receiving Communion

Illinois Bishop Blocks Pro-Abortion Legislators from Receiving Communion



The Catholic bishop of the capital of Illinois has barred legislators who support a sweeping pro-choice bill from receiving communion. 


The action from Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., prevents state legislators who voted for S.B. 25, the so-called Reproductive Health Act, from receiving the sacrament. 


The bill declares abortion a “fundamental right” and says the fetus “does not have independent rights,” as Christian Headlines previously reported. It also forces insurance companies to cover abortion and requires parents to pay for their daughter’s abortion, even if they objected to the procedure. The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House and Senate. 


LifeSiteNews reported Paprocki’s action.  


“In accord with canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law … Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and Speaker of the House Michael J. Madigan, who facilitated the passage of the Act Concerning Abortion of 2017 (House Bill 40) as well as the Reproductive Health Act of 2019 (Senate Bill 25), are not to be admitted to Holy Communion in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois because they have obstinately persisted in promoting the abominable crime and very grave sin of abortion as evidenced by the influence they exerted in their leadership roles and their repeated votes and obdurate public support for abortion rights over an…

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Priest promises place in heaven for Trump family

Father Joe Haugh, the parish priest in Doonbeg where Mr Trump’s golf resort is based, handed Eric and Donald Trump Jnr a framed photograph of Doonbeg Castle.

The photograph, often found in local gift shops and on postcards, shows the remaining fortifications of the castle, which was built in the 16th century, and overlooks the Doonbeg River which flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Father Haugh, who previously said he had saved a space in heaven for Mr Trump, told his two sons that their entire family’s space in the afterlife is secure.

The gift was handed over in Igoe’s bar, during Eric and Donald Jnr’s pub crawl around Doonbeg, and was received happily by the pair who embraced and thanked the priest repeatedly, before Eric was reassured that Father Haugh’s previous statement still stood, and that the Trump family were getting into heaven.

Speaking to the Press Association, Father Haugh said he wanted to present the first family with a gift on behalf of the village to thank them for their contribution to the area.

“Well, the castle has been there for around 400 years, and it’s still standing, it’s a testament to the work and the strength of Clare,” he said.

“I wanted to give them a gift to thank them very much for all they do for the area.

“They provide around 300 jobs here, no one else is doing that for us.

“Students work there in the summer and are going back to…

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30 Pentecostal Christians Arrested for Praying in Northeast African Nation

30 Pentecostal Christians Arrested for Praying in Northeast African Nation



Over 30 Pentecostal Christians were reportedly recently arrested in the northeast African nation of Eritrea.


According to the BBC, more than two dozen Christians were praying in three locations around the nation’s capital when they were rounded up and taken into custody by security forces.


Reportedly, this is only one instance of a growing trend of persecution against nondenominational Christians in Eritrea.


On May 10, 141 Christians were arrested in the nation’s capital of Asmara after gathering for a meeting, persecution watchdog Open Doors USA reports.


Of the 141 arrested last month, 104 were women, 43 were men and 14 were minors.


According to the Christian Post, since the nation declared its independence from Ethiopia in 1993, only four religions are officially recognized by the Eritrea government: Orthodox Christianity, Sunni Islami, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea and the Catholic Church.


According to Catholic nonprofit news website Zenit, 50 percent of Eritrea’s population belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea and 48 percent of the nation’s population subscribe to Sunni Islam. Outside of the four above mentioned religions and religious denominations, all other groups, Zenit reports, are considered “illegal.”


According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, religious practices are so highly…

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Is Shagufta Kauser the next Asia Bibi?

Shagufta Kauser and her disabled husband Shafqat Emmanuel (pictured above) were sentenced to death in 2014 for allegedly sending blasphemous text messages in English. 

They were thought to have sent them to a local Imam and other Muslims, according to the British Pakistani Christian Association. 

Mr Emmanuel said at the time that he was tortured, forcing him to confess to the crime. 

Lord Alton raised this previously with Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the government’s special envoy for freedom of religion and belief, in May and was told that the government is monitoring the case.

This week David Alton, a crossbench peer, returned to the issue asking Baroness Sugg, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development, how much aid the UK was sending to Pakistan and whether that was being used to support persecuted minorities at all.

 

 

Baroness Sugg replied: “My Lords, in the past 10 years, the UK has given £2.6 billion in aid to Pakistan, targeted towards the poorest and most excluded, who are often from minorities. We promote minority rights from grass roots to the highest levels of government. UK aid to Pakistan is declining but continues to focus on the poorest.

“Since 2011, UK aid has supported primary education for 10 million children, skills training for almost 250,000 people, and microfinance loans for 6.6 million people.”

Lord Alton thanked…

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Five Sworn Gang Enemies Are Baptized Together in Texas Maximum-Security Prison

Five Sworn Gang Enemies Are Baptized Together in Texas Maximum-Security Prison



Five sworn gang enemies have risked their lives to get baptized together at a Texas prison. 


Members of the rival factions housed at Coffield Prison made public declarations of faith just six months after Dallas megachurch Gateway opened up a campus within the walls of the penitentiary.


“Yesterday at our Coffield campus, we were able to do something that no church has ever been able to do in the history of this prison,” said Niles Holsinger, Gateway Coffield Prison campus pastor, in a Facebook video. “And that is water baptize men from what’s called administrative segregation, a section of the prison that has the most violent felons, violent inmates of the whole prison.”


Over 4,000 extremely dangerous inmates are housed at Coffield, with a proportion of them spending 23 hours a day confined to their cells. “These guys cannot be around other people, Holsinger explained. “They cannot be around friends, they cannot be around family.”


But on Sunday, it was a very different atmosphere to usual. Instead of violence and hate, there was joy and freedom at Coffield, as a group of these hardened criminals came to be baptized.


“Five men were escorted into the gymnasium, each one shackled hand and foot and around the waist, and escorted by a guard that would not remove their hands from their arm until they were placed, picked up and put shackled in…

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Call for more Catholics to join police in Northern Ireland

Currently 3 per cent of police officers in Northern Ireland are from the Catholic community, according to figures from the PSNI.

Mr Hamilton says the application rate and success rate falls well below what it should be.

Chief Constable, George Hamilton was on BBC News NI’s The View programme, and said it was up to leaders, both civic and political to get behind “advocating for a career in policing.

“That’s where the big gap is, that is where the big void is, we need people to be encouraged to take on the honourable profession of policing and that needs to come from leadership within the Catholic nationalist community.”

He continued by saying, changes the PSNI have already made to address the issue have had some impact but do not go far enough.

The PSNI replaced the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in November 2001, and a 50-50 recruitment policy ran for its first ten years until 2011.

This meant that 50 per cent of all recruits had to be from a Catholic background, and 50 per cent from a Protestant or other background.

When the policy began, about 8 per cent of police officers were Catholics.

Mr Hamilton is retiring as chief constable later in June.

 

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Washington State Supreme Court Rules against Florist Who Refused to Provide Flowers for Same-Sex Wedding

Washington State Supreme Court Rules against Florist Who Refused to Provide Flowers for Same-Sex Wedding



The Washington Supreme Court has ruled against a Christian florist after she refused to provide floral arrangements for a same-sex wedding. 


Barronelle Stutzman, a 74-year-old grandma, now faces the penalty of having to pay sky-rocketing legal fees as a result of violating the state’s non-discrimination laws. Her legal team have said that this enormous financial burden has put Stutzman’s “life savings at risk.” 


This is the second time that the highest court in the state has ruled against Stutzman after the case was vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court last year and sent back to Washington for a second consideration.


On Thursday, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that neither the state supreme court or the lower state court in Benton County had acted with religious animus – Barronelle had not been discriminated against, the court insisted. 


“They did not act with religious animus when they ruled that such discrimination is not privileged or excused by the United States Constitution or the Washington Constitution,” read the ruling. Instead, the court ruled that the same-sex couple, who were regular customers seeking after Stutzman’s flower arranging service, were the ones who were treated unfairly.


“Discrimination based on same-sex marriage constitutes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,” the…

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Reverend helps fight church member’s deportation

Nancy Motsamai collapsed last year after the authorities ignored claims she was too ill to travel.

She passed away five days later from undiagnosed ovarian cancer, deep vein thrombosis and a pulmonary embolism.

Nancy and her husband Fusi Motsamai were due to be deported to South Africa last March.

 

 

The authorities have since made a further attempt to deport Mr Motsamai, who claimed he’s had numerous problems with immigration.

Mr Motsamai has lived in the UK for 15 years and has argued he should be allowed to remain in the country after the grave injustices he has faced.

His minister Rev Lucy Brierley of Woking United Reformed Church is assisting him in his appeal and gave evidence on his behalf in a tribunal hearing in Harmondsworth on Wednesday.

The appeal is being made on the grounds that Mr Motsami has a right to a private life as Rev Brierley claims he has built a life in the UK.

Speaking to Premier, she said Mr Motsami has become part of their church family: “He has formed a life and a connection here, in the church family and with the community. We have become his family.

“He’s given so much to the life of the church, the life of our community, it’s become home for him.”

Reverend Lucy is praying that the judge will act with discretion and compassion in his ruling.

The court’s ruling is expected to be heard within the next fortnight.

 

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Vatican Radio to do news bulletins in Latin

The five minute programme is entitled “Hebdomada Papae”, which can be translated at “This week with the Pope”. It will cover news about Pope Francis – the people he meets, issues he speaks about and any trips to foreign countries.

The first edition this Saturday will include coverage of the Pope’s visit to Romania and an obituary for Cardinal Elio Sgreccia who died this week at the age of 90.

Vatican Radio currently broadcasts in 35 languages to different audiences around the world. With the launch of “Hebdomada Papae” that increases to 36.

  

 

The station’s editorial director, Andrea Tornielli, admits broadcasting in Latin has posed challenges for his team of journalists.

“We are not able to write in Latin or to speak in Latin. But we can get the help from the Vatican office that translates the speeches of the Pope into Latin.”

 

 

Mr Tornielli says his journalists are studying the Latin script in preparation for the launch of the new programme. “There is help from the (Vatican’s Latin experts) not only in the translation but also in the pronunciation.”

Vatican Radio can’t predict how many people will listen to the new programme but they’re encouraged by the popularity of the Twitter account where Pope Francis tweets in Latin. That account has over 900,000 followers around the world.

Mr Tornielli is optimistic that some of those Latin enthusiasts will want to…

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Middle Schools across the U.S. Display LGBT Flags for National Pride Month

Middle Schools across the U.S. Display LGBT Flags for National Pride Month



Two California middle schools raised gay pride flags Monday to little fanfare, while a similar action at a Virginia middle school stirred controversy.


Sylvandale Middle School in San Jose, Calif., raised the gay pride flag in recognition of June as being LGBT Pride Month, placing it just below the American flag atop the pole.


Juan Cruz, the superintendent of Franklin-McKinley School District, participated in the ceremony.


“We try to make a safe, inclusive environment – regardless of their sexual orientation – for all youth. That’s why we’re here today,” Cruz said, according to the East Bay Times. 


Antioch Middle School in Antioch, Calif., also raised the gay pride flag. The Antioch School Board had voted 3-2 on May 29 to officially recognize LGBT Pride Month. Antioch Middle School was the only school to raise the flag, according to EastCountyToday.net.


Meanwhile, an indoor LGBT Pride display at Powhatan Middle School in Powhatan, Va., has resulted in some pushback from parents. The display was sponsored by the Multicultural Student Association and included the more well-known gay pride flag along with the asexual flag, the transgender flag, the bisexual flag and the equality symbol. 


“We were promoting the idea that while people may have personal beliefs about the LGBTQ community, they cannot judge, attack and bully people for who they…

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