President Obama forgot to salute when he boarded Marine One. He later realized his mistake and went back to the Marine.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np7lObaDiBk[/youtube]
Humility ! – a good virtue
– Credit: youtube/cnn
Al Qaeda says France is Now Their Top Enemy
Christian Today report– An al-Qaeda leader in Yemen announced last week that France has replaced the United States as their top enemy.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader Ibrahim al-Rubaish said the change is due to the “weakening” of the US in the “war on Islam.”
AQAP also took responsibility for the January 7 Charlie Hebdo attacks in a video featuring another AQAP leader, Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi. The Paris assault by Saïd and Chérif Kouachi left 12 people dead.
While it is unclear whether AQAP ordered the attack at Charlie Hebdo, at least one of the brothers allegedly met with senior al-Qaeda recruiter and cleric Anwar al-Awlaki before he was killed in an airstrike in 2011.
Al-Rubaish’s video, published on YouTube on Friday, called for attacks on the West, and specifically named France as a target. The militants also encouraged attacks on anyone who mocked the Prophet Muhammad, and said those assaults could be carried out “without consulting anyone.”
Charlie Hebdo editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier was targeted in a previous propaganda campaign, and was among those killed last month.
AQAP was formed in 2009 after militants in Saudi Arabia joined those in Yemen.
The organisation was behind an attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines plane in December 2009, the attempted bombing of two US cargo planes in October 2010, and another failed airline bomb plot on May 2012.
US officials consider AQAP the most dangerous branch of Al-Qaeda.
Source: Christian Today
MPs vote yes to three-parent baby law
Catholic Herald report– MPs have today voted in favour of changes to the law that will see Britain become the first country in the world to permit the creation of IVF babies with DNA from three different people.
After a debate in the House of Commons, MPs voted by in favour of the amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act by votes 382 to 128.
If approved by the House of Lords, where the change in legislation will next be debated, it will mean that IVF clinics will be able to replace an egg’s defective mitochondrial DNA with healthy DNA from a female donor, which would result in babies having DNA from three people.
Speaking in favour of changing the law, Public Health Minister Jane Ellison told the Commons: “This is a bold step for parliament to take, but it is a considered and informed step. This is world leading science within a highly respected regulatory regime.
“And for the many families affected, this is light at the end of a very dark tunnel.”
However, Fiona Bruce MP, who voted against the amendment, said that “highly legitimate concerns” had been ignored.
“Today’s vote shows that, despite the Government pushing this through at breakneck speed and the multi-million pound pro-research lobby pouring resources into passing this, a significant number of MPs raised highly legitimate concerns about proceeding, on many counts, including ethics, safety, science and legality and Parliamentary procedure,” she said.
“These MPs reflect the views of the nation, only 10% of whom, according to the latest polling by Comres, thought MPs should have voted on the regulations today. I hope this will be recognised in the House of Lords when there will be an opportunity to vote on giving more Parliamentary time to these extremely significant regulations.”
During the debate, Mrs Bruce said: ““One thing is for sure, once this alteration has taken place, as someone has said, once the genie is out of the bottle, once these procedures that we’re asked to authorise today go ahead, there will be no going back for society.”
Source: Catholic Herald
Mexico, a dangerous place for Catholic priests
Christian Today report- More Catholic priests and leaders were killed in Mexico last year than any other country in the world.
According to the latest report on freedom violations in Mexico by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), religious discrimination is a pervasive problem in many parts of the country. The government is accused of failing to uphold constitutional freedoms, as well as not holding to account those responsible for violations.
Statistics gathered by the Mexican Episcopal Conference reveal that five Catholic pastoral workers were killed in Mexico in 2014, out of a total of 14 across the world. A number of Catholic priests and Protestant pastors have also been kidnapped.
Christian leaders from other denominations are also facing threats from criminal groups, CSW reports.
“The rise of powerful criminal groups in many parts of the country has had a chilling effect on religious freedom,” the organisation said in a statement.
“They often consider churches an attractive target for extortion and as fronts for money laundering, and believe that church leaders pose a threat to their influence and aims.”
Another factor contributing to the situation is that parts of some Mexican states are governed under the Law of Uses of Customs, which gives significant autonomy to indigenous communities. Though the constitution guarantees freedom of religion or belief, it is not uncommon for local leaders to force members of their communities to follow certain religious practices and the rights of minority groups are “routinely violated”.
Some minorities are deprived of basic services such as water and electricity, are refused the right to vote and minority children are barred from attending school.
“In addition, religious minorities are often banned from burying their deceased in public cemeteries and face prohibitions on worship, the destruction of property, violence and forced displacement. The government rarely takes action to address these violations, leading to a culture of impunity and a sense that the majority religious group has the right to enforce religious beliefs in the community,” CSW said.
Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas has condemned the violations. “This report demonstrates that in spite of the Mexican government’s public statements that it is working to uphold religious freedom in Mexico, little concrete action has been taken,” he said.
“The rights of religious minorities are violated on an almost daily basis in many parts of the country with no response from the government officials responsible for upholding the constitution. The fact that so many of these cases have been left unresolved for years, with victims living in precarious situations, shows an ingrained lack of will on the part of state and federal government officials to effectively address these abuses and to ensure that religious freedom is upheld for all.
“The culture of impunity leads to even more violations of religious freedom. If anything is to change, the government must take strong measures to ensure that those responsible for these serious violations, whether a local government official or a criminal group, be held to account through the legal system.”
Over 80 per cent of the Mexican population are Catholic.
Source: Christian Today
Archbishop Oscar Romero called a martyr by Pope Francis
Catholic Herald report– Archbishop Oscar Romero has been declared a martyr by the Pope.
A statement released by the Vatican today confirmed a previous ruling that the archbishop from San Salvador was “killed in hatred of the Faith”.
Pope Francis met with Cardinal Angelo Amato SDB, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, at the Vatican today and during this meeting the Pontiff authorised the Congregation to promote the decree regarding Archbishop Romero.
The statement confirmed that Pope Francis recognised the “martyrdom of the Servant of God Oscar Arnolfo Galdámez Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador; born August 15, 1917 in Ciudad Barrios (El Salvador) and killed in hatred of the Faith, March 24, 1980, in San Salvador (El Salvador)”.
Plans for Archbishop Romero’s beatification will be discussed in a media briefing at the Vatican tomorrow, according to reports.
Archbishop Romero was assassinated while serving Mass in El Salvador in 1980 by Right-wing death squads. His murder came a day after he had said in a homily that soldiers should obey God’s commands and put down their guns.
Archbishop Romero’s Cause was opened at the Vatican two decades ago but was delayed for years as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith studied his writings, amid debate over whether he had been killed for his faith or for political reasons. In 2013 Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family and official promoter of Archbishop Romero’s Cause, said the process had been “unblocked”.
In January a panel of theologians at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints ruled that Archbishop Romero was murdered “in hatred of the faith”.
Source: Catholic Herald
Black History Month opens with Large Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Catholic News Service report– Hundreds of men, women and children, many in the traditional, colorful clothing of their African and Caribbean ancestral homelands, opened Black History Month at St. Patrick’s Cathedral with an exuberant Mass Feb. 1.
“It was a form of family reunion” that reflected the diversity of the black Catholic community in New York, said Christian Brother Tyrone A. Davis, director of the Office of Black Ministry for the Archdiocese of New York.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York was the main celebrant of the Mass, which also marked the 26th National Day of Prayer for the African American and African Family and the Year of Consecrated Life.
As he processed up the main aisle, accompanied by joyful music and rhythmic bass drumming, Cardinal Dolan was followed by a man who twirled an open, fringed umbrella over his head, in the manner reserved for chiefs and kings in West Africa.
“For a moment there, I was worried the roof was leaking, but thank God, it’s just a magnificent African custom,” Cardinal Dolan said. St. Patrick’s Cathedral is undergoing an extensive renovation. Scaffolding blocks many pews and obscures familiar details of the soaring interior.
In his homily, Cardinal Dolan asked, “Is it any wonder at all that Moses and the Exodus was the favored image of black American preachers, like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?”
The cardinal said faith inspired the liberated slave and sainthood candidate Pierre Toussaint, whose remains are buried in the cathedral’s crypt. “And Jesus, the new Moses, rescued the African slave Josephine Bakhita from tortured servitude to the freedom of the children of God and she is now a jewel in the crown we call the communion of saints,” Cardinal Dolan said.
The Sudanese-born St. Josephine was kidnapped into slavery as a child. She won her freedom in Italy in 1889, became a Canossian sister and served for 45 years until her death in 1947. She was canonized in 2000.
Cardinal Dolan said Moses, Jesus, Toussaint and St. Josephine “urge us now to embrace the immigrants who arrive today, embarrassingly scarred by some nativists within our country — immigrants who only want to ‘pass over’ into new life.”
Cardinal Dolan started the call-and-response prayer, “God is good/All the time/All the time/God is good.” When the congregation responded, he said, “So we must be good to those immigrants who come to us today. We must be good to those in Africa who probably suffer at this very moment a threat of assassination or seeing their churches burned down, or their women sold into trafficking and servitude simply because they believe in Jesus Christ.”
Brother Davis told Catholic News Service that Cardinal Dolan’s comments on immigration resonated with the congregation because “black Catholics, even those people born here, have experienced challenges with hospitality and welcome and some more serious than that. This is an ideal community to speak about the importance of welcoming the stranger.”
Black Catholics in the archdiocese have backgrounds in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, Brother Davis said.
The annual Mass to open Black History Month and celebrate the national day of prayer for African-Americans “is a critical part of our ministry. It’s not some sense of performance, but a moment in time for people on a pilgrim journey. We need to have a moment to refresh ourselves and come together with fellow travelers to prepare for the next leg of the journey, which for us is the next 364 days,” he said.
The Mass included prayers in several African and Caribbean languages and music from a choir comprised of people from various schools and parishes in the archdiocese.
W. Mark Howell, director of music at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Harlem, organized the music for the Mass. “Music is such a rich part of our heritage and lends itself to our whole cultural and worship experience,” he said.
The congregation sang along and kept the beat by waving special white handkerchiefs printed to commemorate the Mass and its celebrant, “Timothy Kojo Cardinal Dolan.” Brother Davis said Kojo is a Ghanaian name that Ghanaian Catholics in New York gave to the cardinal to acknowledge he was born on a Monday.
One of the Mass concelebrants, Conventual Fransciscan Father James E. Goode, founded the national day of prayer in 1989. He told CNS that he got the idea during a meeting in Atlanta of the former National Office of Black Catholics. “Everyone was talking about drugs and broken homes and I said, ‘No one has talked about God and prayer. Why don’t we get together and pray as families?'”
“Now we celebrate the day as a country and a blessing and we make a commitment to be ‘family.’ We have to invite people to become a part of our experience,” Father Goode said.
Source: Catholic News Service
Episcopalian Minister and Family found beaten to death
Christian Today report– An episcopalian minister, his wife and their five-year-old son have been found apparently beaten to death in their apartment in Houston, police say.
The bodies of Israel Ahimbisibwe, vicar of Redeemer Episcopal Church in Houston, his wife, Dorcus and their son Israel Ahimbisibwe Jr were found by firefighters on Monday after concerned parishioners raised the alarm when they did not attend church on Sunday.
Police say that there was no sign of a forced entry.
The couple had two older children, one of them a 19-year-old who had just enlisted in the US Marines.
They came to the US from Uganda, where Ahimbisibwe was ordained in the Church of Uganda and held master’s degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and Harvard Divinity School, specialising in Old Testament study. He earned another master’s and doctorate from Rice University after completing graduate research at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Church member Keever Wallace said: “This is just a shock. I don’t know how to make any sense of this at all.”
“This is a horrific and awful tragedy,” said the Bishop of Texas, Rt Rev Andrew Doyle, in a statement. “We are in touch with the police and Israel’s family here in Houston. Please keep the Ahimbisibwe and Redeemer families in your prayers.”
Source: Christian Today
Bishop Heather Cook suspected of being drunk at her consecration
Christian Today report– Bishop Heather Cook, who has been charged in connection with the death of a cyclist, was suspected of being drunk at her own consecration, according to an official Church timeline of events.
Cook hit 41-year-old cyclist Tom Palermo after driving her SUV into a bicycle lane in Baltimore on December 27 last year. She then left the scene of the accident, but returned around 20 minutes later.
Testing showed that the bishop was three times over the alcohol limit for drivers in Maryland at the time of the incident and she later confessed in court that she has an alcohol problem.
Now a timeline posted on the website of the Diocese of Maryland shows that a bishop at the lunch before her consecration in September reported her for being drunk. The entry reads: “Bishop Sutton suspects that Cook is inebriated during pre-consecration dinner and conveys concern to Presiding Bishop. Presiding Bishop indicates she will discuss with Cook. Cook consecrated a bishop.”
The Presiding Bishop was Rt Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori. The entry for October reads: “Bishop Clay Matthews from the Office of Pastoral Development for the Episcopal Church, meets with Cook. Details confidential to only the Presiding Bishop’s office.”
Cook had a previous conviction for drunk-driving in 2010, of which the Church’s authorities were aware.
She has been released on bail of $2.5 million and was asked to resign from her position, with the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland saying they “agreed unanimously that you are no longer able to function effectively in the position of Bishop Suffragan given recent events”.
Source: Christian Today
Pro Life Campaigners ‘fear the worst’ as MPs prepare to vote on three-parent babies
Catholic Herald report– A leading pro-life charity has said it “fears the worst” as MPs prepare to vote on whether to change the law to allow three-parent babies.
MPs will vote later today on an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act that would allow IVF clinics to replace an egg’s defective mitochondrial DNA with healthy DNA from a female donor, which would result in babies having DNA from three people
Life, Britain’s biggest pro-life charity, has been asking people to lobby their MPs to vote against the proposed change to the law, however a spokesman said in a statement that he was not optimistic about the outcome of the debate.
“We fear the worst. The Department of Health, led by Health Minister Jane Ellison, who was educated in a Catholic convent school, is bent on getting its way,” the statement said.
“It tried to smuggle legislation through Parliament but was forced to bring its proposals onto the floor of the House to be voted on by all MPs, but it is still insisting that what it proposes, so-called mitochondrial donation, is not genetic modification and there’s nothing to worry about. That is simply nonsense.”
SPUC, a pro-life campaign group, has also raised its concerns ahead of the vote in the House of Commons. In a statement, the campaign group described Britain as “the pioneers of abuses of unborn children”.
Paul Tully, SPUC’s general secretary, said: “The 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act was not intended to permit human cloning, and so the alteration of germ-line genetic material was forbidden.
“However, the proponents of the 1990 Act held out promises of cures and medical advances for children with inherited diseases if they were allowed to use some embryos as guinea-pigs. These benefits failed to materialise.”
Mr Tully added that if the MPs vote in favour of the amendment then it would “sets a precedent for wider cloning of human beings, not in a sinister dictatorship or science fiction world, but here in the UK”.
“We are the pioneers of abuses of unborn children like legalised abortion, IVF and genetic screening, and we are in danger of losing all feeling for the victims of such medicalised exploitation,” he added.
“MPs have been consistently misled in the past about the prospects of success and the future intentions of those who want to use the tiniest humans – human embryos – for experiments. They should reject today’s proposals,”
Meanwhile, Andrea Minichiello Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, has also called on MPs to vote against the law changes.
Changing the law would be crossing “an ethical, legal and scientific line” and would make the UK a “rogue state amongst the international community of ethical scientific endeavour,” she said.
In a letter to MPs, she wrote: “The Government is effectively seeking a licence to allow experiments on human beings – not only on human embryos but a life-long experiment on the children who are born as a result, and their children and their children.”
A petition has also been launched by the ProLife Alliance against the proposed amendment to the law.
Last week, Bishop John Sherrington, of the bishops’ conference department for Christian Responsibility and Citizenship, urged MPs to vote against proposed legislative change.
Source: Catholic Herald
GracePointe Church comes out in Support of Gay Marriage
Christian Today report– In a drastic turn from evangelical tradition, the GracePointe Church in Franklin, Tennessee has voted to support gay marriage.
According to The Tennessean, Pastor Stan Mitchell revealed on Friday that the church held two years of intense and “at, times, devastating” discussions before coming to thedecision to support gay marriage when other evangelical churches are sticking to tradition.
Pastor Stan Mitchell, who heads the church, spoke about these discussions during a sermon in a January 11 service. The pastor described hearing stories of “joy” and “unspeakable pain” from the participants. Pastor Mitchell also spoke of close friends in the evangelical community who accused him of betrayal for deciding to bring his congregation in support of gay marriage.
Other people, Mitchell told The Tennessean, found themselves gravitating towards GracePointe because they feel “grateful to have found a place like ours, willing to engage in vital conversations in spite of their difficulty.”
With the change in policy, Mitchell posted on the church’s website that they will now honour and extend full privileges to gay members of the congregation. These privileges include child dedication, leadership opportunities and marriage services, which were previously withheld from them as the church did not yet support gay marriage or relationships.
Mitchell said the privileges will be extended “with the same expectations of faithfulness, sobriety, holiness, fidelity … and willingness as expected of all.”
The GracePointe Church is the second evangelical church in a row in Tennessee to come out in support of gay marriage. The Presbytery of Middle Tennessee also recently voted in favour of supporting gay marriage in the congregation.
According to Ellen T Armour, rector of the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality, the GracePointe Church’s reversal of its stance towards gay marriage is indicative “(of) the larger transformation that’s been happening in the US” as the American population shows a growing acceptance of gay marriage.
“It’s been happening for a while with Christians in general,” she said.
Source: Christian Today
