Category: Religion

{{A well-known Kuwaiti preacher, Tareq al-Suwaidan, has been sacked from his job as the director of a Saudi religious TV channel because of his links to the Muslim Brotherhood.}}

Channel owner Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said there was no place for Muslim Brotherhood members in his business.

Mr Suwaidan has been a fierce critic of Egypt’s military-backed government.

Saudi King Abdullah has, however, given strong backing to the new Egyptian administration.

Prince Alwaleed wrote on his Twitter account that he had dismissed Mr Suwaidan “for admitting he belongs to the Brotherhood terrorist movement”.

The preacher had reportedly identified himself as “one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood” during a lecture in Yemen, according to Reuters news agency.

The king’s nephew, Prince Alwaleed, wrote in Mr Suwaidan’s dismissal letter – which he tweeted a copy of – that the preacher had been warned several times against publicly declaring his political affiliations.

Mr Suwaidan, who is known across the Arab world for his lectures on self-improvement from an Islamic perspective, was the director-general of the Al Risala (The Message) religious channel.

It belongs to Prince Alwaleed’s Rotana Group, which is a large pan-Arab media conglomerate based in Riyadh and serves the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

wirestory

{{The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has condemned the legalization of same-sex marriages as a sign of “the coming of the apocalypse.”}}

Patriarch Kirill made the statement during his Sunday service at the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square.

By legalizing gay marriages, governments in mostly Western countries justify “a choice in favor of sin,” Kirill said, Interfax reported.

He criticized governments that prevent people who oppose same-sex marriage from showing their opposition.

“Those who are true to their conscience in fighting these minority-imposed laws are subject to repression,” he said. “It’s a very dangerous sign of the apocalypse.”

“And we must do everything so that the law never endorses sin in Holy Russia because that would mean that the people are on the path of self-destruction.”

Kirill also spoke in support of a ban promoting homosexuality that President Vladimir Putin signed into law on June 30.

The bill comes into force six months before Russia hosts the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and allows police to levy fines and arrest foreign tourists if they have reason to suspect them of being “pro-gay.”

Authorities routinely ban gay-rights parades and activists have often come under attack.

{The Moscow Times }

{{Pope Francis has arrived in Brazil on his first trip abroad since becoming head of the Catholic Church in March.}}

The first Latin American Pope touched down at Rio de Janeiro airport on Monday afternoon and was greeted by President Dilma Rousseff.

The Argentina-born pontiff has travelled to Brazil to attend the Roman Catholic World Youth Day festival.

En route, the Pope told reporters that the global crisis risked creating a lost generation of jobless youth.

As he left the Alitalia plane, he was welcomed by President Rousseff to cheers and applause from the waiting crowd. A choir sang and he was presented with a bouquet of flowers.

The Pope waved before being taken by motorcade to the centre of Rio, where large numbers of pilgrims have gathered.

The authorities have increased security during the Pope’s visit, following weeks of nationwide protests against corruption and bad governance.

Pope Francis has refused to use an armoured Popemobile, despite requests from Brazilian officials. Some 22,000 security staff will be on duty during his visit.

More than a million young Catholics are expected to gather in Rio for World Youth Day, which takes place every two years, and is a celebration of the Catholic faith.

The Pope is due to lead a service on Copacabana beach, and visit a shanty town.

Speaking to reporters on his flight from Rome, the Pope said “we run the risk of having a generation that hasn’t worked,” even though work confers dignity.

He also criticised what he said was a “culture” of socially rejecting the elderly who were “thrown away” as if they had nothing to offer.

BBC

{{Pope Francis has said Mass for migrants on Italy’s tiny island of Lampedusa, condemning the “global indifference” to their plight.}}

On arrival, he threw a wreath in the sea in memory of the many people who have drowned trying to reach Europe.

A small boat carrying 166 Africans – reportedly Eritreans – arrived at Lampedusa’s port just hours before the Pope’s plane touched down.

The island is struggling to cope with thousands of illegal migrants.

Lampedusa, about 80 miles (120km) from Tunisia, is one of the nearest gateways to Europe for Africans fleeing poverty and conflict.

Tens of thousands of migrants have made the dangerous crossing in recent years, usually packed into rickety wooden boats exposed to the elements.

As Francis arrived on a coast guard ship, dozens of Lampedusan fishing boats sailed in nearby.

The Pope is on his first pastoral visit outside Rome since his election in March.

{agencies}

{{The late Pope John Paul II will be made a saint, the Vatican has said, announcing that Pope Francis had approved a second miracle attributed to the Polish pontiff, who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005.}}

The Vatican said on Friday that Pope John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963 and called the Second Vatican Council – which enacted sweeping reforms to modernise the Church – would also be made a saint.

No dates for the canonisation ceremonies were immediately given but the Vatican said they were expected by the end of the year.

John Paul had already been credited with asking God to cure French nun Marie Simon-Pierre Normand of Parkinson’s disease, which helped lead to his beatification in 2011, when he was declared a “blessed” of the Church.

Two confirmed miracles are usually required under Vatican rules for the declaration of a saint.

The second miracle attributed to John Paul’s intercession is the inexplicable curing of a woman from Costa Rica who prayed to him for help with her medical condition on the day of his beatification.

Details of that miracle were due to be announced in Costa Rica on Friday.

{wirestory}

{{Pope Francis waded diplomatically into the gay marriage debate Friday, telling the Archbishop of Canterbury he wants to work together to promote family values “based on marriage.”}}

Francis, who vigorously opposed gay marriage in his native Argentina, and Archbishop Justin Welby chatted, prayed and had lunch together at the Vatican in their first encounter since both were installed in March.

Welby, the spiritual leader of the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion, has opposed proposed legislation in Britain that would legalize gay marriage, saying it seeks to abolish and redefine the institution and would weaken one of the cornerstones of society.

He delivered a speech last week before the House of Lords before it moved the gay marriage bill one step closer to becoming law. The legislation would enable gay couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies in England and Wales.

In his remarks to Welby, Francis said he hoped they could collaborate in promoting the sacredness of life “and the stability of families founded on marriage.” He noted that Welby had recently spoken out on the issue, a reference to his House of Lords speech.

Significantly, though, Francis didn’t specify that marriage should be based on a union between a man and woman, which is how Benedict XVI and John Paul II routinely defined it in a way that made clear their opposition to same-sex marriage.

Vatican officials said Francis’ phrasing was a diplomatic attempt to make his point without making a provocative pronouncement, particularly during an inaugural meeting with Welby that was aimed at getting to know one another.

Francis though has steered clear of the gay marriage debate as it has recently roiled France and Britain, and in general has refrained from making headline-grabbing public comments on hot-button current issues.

Welby said the pope’s remarks, both in the public speech he delivered and their 30-minute private meeting, showed that “we were absolutely at one on the issues, and equally at one in our condemnation of homophobic behavior and our sense that the essential dignity of the human being is where you start.”

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio didn’t shy away from voicing strong opposition to gay marriage, though he was pragmatic in sensing Argentina was heading in that direction.

Realizing the church couldn’t win the fight outright, Bergoglio urged his fellow Argentine bishops to lobby for gay civil unions instead, according to the then-cardinal’s authorized biographer.

The bishops shot down the proposal and the church lost the issue altogether when the South American nation legalized gay marriage in 2010 — the first country in the region to do so.

Bergoglio once called gay marriage an “anthropological step backward.”
“If there’s a private union, then third parties and society aren’t affected,” he wrote.

“But if they’re granted marriage rights and can adopt, there could be children affected. Every person needs a masculine father and a feminine mother to help them settle their identity.”

Anglicans split from Rome in 1534 when English King Henry VIII was refused a marriage annulment. For decades, the two churches have held theological discussions on trying to reunite, part of the Vatican’s broader, long-term ecumenical effort to unify all Christians who have separated from Rome over the centuries.

{agencies}

{{Pope Francis has acknowledged the existence of a “gay lobby” and a “stream of corruption” in the Vatican, according to reports in Catholic media not denied by the Vatican.}}

The pope made the remarks last week in Spanish during a private meeting with representatives of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious (CLAR), according to the Chilean Catholic website “Reflection and Liberation”.

On Tuesday it published what it said was a summary of the conversation written by participants after the June 6 meeting in the Vatican.

CLAR, which is based in Colombia, confirmed that a summary had been written but regretted that it had been published.

In the conversation, the pope is quoted as talking about various subjects of concern, including the problems of the Curia, the Church’s central administration which was at the centre of a corruption scandal last year.

“In the Curia, there are also holy people, really, there are holy people. But there also is a stream of corruption, there is that as well, it is true… The ‘gay lobby’ is mentioned, and it is true, it is there… We need to see what we can do,” the synthesis by CLAR officials said.

In its own statement, the presidency of CLAR said it “deeply regretted the publication of a text which refers to the conversation with the Holy Father”.

It did not confirm the precise quotes attributed to the pope but acknowledged the summary reflected the “general feeling” of the meeting.

After the initial report was picked up and translated by a number of other Catholic websites, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said: “It was a private meeting, therefore I have no comment to make on the contents of the conversation”.

Earlier this year, in the period immediately after Pope Benedict announced his resignation, Italian media published unsourced reports of a powerful “gay lobby” in the Vatican that left the Holy See open to blackmail.

Before resigning on February 28, Benedict left Francis a top secret report about the leaks scandal that rocked the Catholic Church last year.

The report concerned the so-called Vatileaks affair in which internal documents alleging corruption, mismanagement and infighting in the Curia were leaked to the media.

The report was prepared for Benedict, who is now “Pope Emeritus”, by three elderly cardinals who investigated the leaks.

Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s butler, was convicted last year of stealing personal papal documents and leaking them to the media. He was pardoned by Benedict after being briefly jailed.

The documents alleged corruption and rivalry between different factions inside the Curia and was one of the major concerns of cardinals choosing a new pope to run the Church at a time of crisis.

Anger over the dysfunctional state of the Vatican bureaucracy, which includes many Italians, is said to have been one factor in the cardinal electors’ decision to choose a non-European pope for the first time in nearly 1,300 years.

{wirestory}