Category: Religion

{{Some two million pilgrims poured out of the Muslim holy city of Mecca on Sunday to begin the annual hajj, their numbers reduced on fears of the deadly MERS virus.}}

Saudi Health Minister Abdullah Al-Rabia told reporters late Saturday that authorities had so far detected no cases among the pilgrims of the virus which has killed 60 people worldwide, 51 of them in Saudi Arabia.

The pilgrims moved from Mecca to nearby Mina by road, by train or on foot, the men wearing the seamless two-piece white garment tradition requires, the women covered up except for their faces and hands.

In Mina, they will pray and rest before moving on to Mount Arafat on Monday for the climax of the pilgrimage rituals.

The recently constructed electric railway is scheduled to carry 400,000 of the pilgrims taking part in the world’s largest annual gathering.

Saudi Arabia has deployed more than 100,000 troops to ensure the safety of the pilgrims and has warned it will tolerate no demonstrations or disturbances.

The oil-rich kingdom has also mobilised huge medical and civil defence resources to ensure the smooth movement of the pilgrims, around 1.4 million of whom come from abroad.

That figure is sharply down on last year’s 1.75 million.

Riyadh has imposed a 20-percent cut this year on the quota for pilgrims coming from abroad.

It has also slashed the number of domestic pilgrims by half because of MERS virus fears and reduced capacity resulting from multi-billion-dollar construction work.

The fact that the kingdom accounts for the overwhelming majority of MERS cases reported around the world has raised concerns pilgrims could be infected and return to their homelands carrying the virus.

But the authorities have said they are optimistic the hajj will pass without incident, given Muslims also go on lesser pilgrimages at other times of the year and there has been no problem.

This year’s minor pilgrimage season, or umrah, during the fasting month of Ramadan in July-August, passed off without any MERS outbreak even though millions of Muslims took part.

Experts are struggling to understand the MERS coronavirus, for which there is still no vaccine.

It is considered a deadlier but less transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died, and sowed economic chaos.

Like SARS, its is believed to have jumped from animals to humans. It shares the former’s flu-like symptoms, but differs by also causing kidney failure.

AFP

The influential spiritual leader of Israel’s Sephardic Jewish community and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party has died at a Jerusalem hospital, a spokesman said.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, 93, underwent heart surgery at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital on September 23 where he had remained since then, with doctors saying just days ago his condition had improved.

But late on Sunday, the hospital said his condition had suddenly worsened, with medics confirming it as critical on Monday.

“After a long struggle, the rabbi died just a few moments ago,” the hospital spokesman told public radio on Monday.

Yosef, whose son Yitzhak Yosef was elected chief rabbi of Israel’s Sephardic Jews in June, a post he himself had previously held, had been in and out of hospital for months.

He wielded enormous influence among Israeli Jews of Middle Eastern and North African ancestry, and had frequently been a kingmaker in the country’s fickle coalition politics.

Shas was a member of successive governing coalitions before going into opposition after the last general election in January.

Source: Agencies

{{Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII will be declared saints on 27 April 2014, Pope Francis has announced.}}

The Pope said in July that he would canonise his two predecessors, after approving a second miracle attributed to John Paul.

Polish John Paul, the first non-Italian pope for more than 400 years, led the Catholic Church from 1978-2005.

Pope John was pontiff from 1958-1963, calling the Second Vatican Council that transformed the Church.

The decision to canonise the two at the same time appears designed to unify Catholics, correspondents say.

John Paul II is a favourite of conservative Catholics, while John XXIII is widely admired by the Church’s progressive wing.

‘The good pope’
John Paul stood out for his media-friendly, globetrotting style. He was a fierce critic of communism, and is credited with helping inspire opposition to communist rule in eastern Europe.

John Paul has been on a fast track to sainthood since his death, when crowds in St Peter’s Square chanted “santo subito” (“sainthood now”).

During his own papacy he simplified the process by which people are made saints, and created more of them than all previous popes combined.

John XXIII is remembered for introducing the vernacular to replace Latin in church masses and for creating warmer ties between the Catholic Church and the Jewish faith.

He has a big following in Italy, where he is known as Il Papa Buono, the good pope.

Two living popes are expected to be present at the canonisation ceremony: Francis, who will officiate, and Pope Benedict, who retired earlier this year.

The double canonisation will be the first in the Church’s history.

Pope Francis approved John XXIII’s canonisation despite the fact that no second miracle had been attributed to him – usually a requirement for sainthood.

BBC

{{The former Pope, Benedict XVI, has denied any role in covering up child sex abuse by priests, in his first public comments since retirement.}}

The emeritus Pope, as he is now known, addressed the issue in a detailed letter to a prominent atheist, which also covered many other matters.

It is thought to be the first time that Benedict has publicly rejected personal responsibility for covering up abuse.

Some critics say he must have known of efforts to protect abusive priests.

Benedict’s letter, to the professor of mathematics Piergiorgio Odifreddi, was published in La Repubblica newspaper after the professor sought the former Pope’s permission.

His comments are the first to be released publicly since he left office, saying he would retreat to a life of prayer. He was apparently concerned not to have a public role that might impinge on his successor, Pope Francis.

wirestory

{{Pope Francis said the Catholic Church must shake off an obsession with teachings on abortion, contraception and homosexuality and become more merciful or risk the collapse of its entire moral edifice “like a house of cards”. }}

In a dramatically blunt interview with an Italian Jesuit journal, Francis said the Church had “locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules” and should not be so prone to condemn.

Its priests should be more welcoming and not cold, dogmatic bureaucrats. The confessional, he said, “is not a torture chamber but the place in which the Lord’s mercy motivates us to do better.”

His comments were welcomed by liberal Catholics; but they are likely to be viewed with concern by conservatives who have already expressed concern over Francis’s failure to address publicly the issues stressed by his predecessor, Benedict.

Francis, the first non-European pope in 1,300 years, the first from Latin America and the first Jesuit pope, did not hold out the prospect of any changes soon to such moral teachings.

But, in the 12,000-word interview with Civilta Cattolica, he said the Church must find a new balance between upholding rules and demonstrating mercy. “Otherwise even the moral edifice of the Church is likely to fall like a house of cards.”

In the interview with the magazine’s director, Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, he also said he envisioned a greater role for women in the 1.2 billion member Church but suggested it would not include a change in the current ban on a female priesthood.

reuter