IGIHE

Category: Religion

  • Libya frees S. Korean man held for Spreading Christianity

    {{Libya has released a South Korean man two months after he was detained for allegedly being involved in Christian missionary work in the Libyan city of Benghazi, a Seoul official said Friday.}}

    The man, who is only identified by his surname Lee, was arrested on Feb. 10, along with three other foreign nationals, on suspicion of being a Christian missionary and distributing books about Christianity.

    “Lee was released on April 11,” the foreign ministry official said on the condition of anonymity.

    South Korea’s foreign ministry had been in close consultations with Libyan authorities to release Lee, the official said.

    Libya, a conservative Muslim country, imposes tough restrictions on religious practice.

    {Yonhap News}

  • Egypt’s Pope Criticizes President Morsi

    {{Egypt’s Coptic Christian pope delivered an unprecedented direct criticism of the Islamist president Tuesday after a mob attack on the church’s main cathedral, saying he had failed to protect the building and warning that the country is collapsing.}}

    The comments by Pope Tawadros II and the cathedral attack itself illustrate a new reality in Egypt, where institutions long seen as above the fray are being dragged into the country’s intense polarization and political violence.

    Egypt has become increasingly divided between two camps, with President Mohammed Morsi and Islamist allies on one side and an opposition made up of moderate Muslims, Christians and liberals on the other, a schism essentially over the country’s political future after decades of dictatorship.

    Opponents accuse Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood of seeking to monopolize power, while Morsi’s allies say the opposition is trying to destabilize the country to derail the elected leadership.

    Traditionally, a number of state icons were considered untouchable politically — nationalist pillars vital for the state’s stability and so too important to be criticized or mired in disputes.

    But one by one, they have been sucked into the country’s divisions, whether under pressure to take sides or outright plunged into controversy.

    The military was pulled into politics early on when it took power following the February 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak and ruled for nearly 17 months.

    The courts became the center of controversy last year, with repeated confrontations between Morsi’s administration and members of the judiciary.

    Now, not only the Coptic Church but also the country’s most eminent Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, are getting caught up in the turmoil.

    Tawadros’ remarks Tuesday in a telephone interview with the private ONTV network were his first direct criticism of Morsi since he was enthroned in November as the spiritual leader of Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic Christians.

    Christians make up an estimated 10 percent of Egypt’s 90 million people.

    Tawadros said Morsi had promised him in a telephone conversation to do everything to protect the St Mark Cathedral, which also serves as the papal seat.

    “But in reality he did not,” Tawadros said. When asked to explain, he said: It “comes under the category of negligence and poor assessment of events.”

    He did not make clear whether he was accusing Morsi himself of negligence or whether he was addressing the president’s government.

    In violence Sunday, an angry mob of Muslims threw firebombs and rocks at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo, leaving two people dead. One of the two was identified as a Christian.

    The attack followed a funeral service for four Christians killed in sectarian clashes in a town north of Cairo, which also left a Muslim dead, the deadliest sectarian violence since Morsi came to office as Egypt’s first freely elected president.

    Tawadros warned, “This is a society that is collapsing. Society is collapsing every day.”

    “The church has been a national symbol for 2,000 years,” he said. “It has not been subjected to anything like this even during the darkest ages … There has been no positive and clear action from the state, but there is a God. The church does not ask for anyone’s protection, only from God.”

    Morsi strongly condemned the recent violence and said that he considered any attack on the cathedral to be an attack on him personally.

    He also ordered an investigation into the violence and revived a state body called the National Council for Justice and Equality mandated to promote equality between Egyptians regardless of their religious and ethnic background.

    On Tuesday, four of his top aides visited the cathedral to offer their condolences for the victims of the violence.

    A presidential statement issued late Tuesday reasserted Morsi’s commitment to protect the Coptic church and to bring to justice those behind the violence.

    It described the president’s order to revive the council as a “serious initial step.”

    Also in an earlier statement, the office of Morsi’s assistant for foreign relations underlined that the presidency rejects violence “in all forms and under any pretext” and that “all Egyptians are citizens who should enjoy all rights and are equal before the law.”

    It said the presidency has ordered authorities to “to exert their utmost efforts to contain the situation and protect the lives and property of citizens.”

    Speaking to reporters in Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell urged Morsi to make good on his promise of a full investigation and to make public the findings.

    “The failure to prosecute perpetrators of sectarian crimes has contributed to an environment of impunity in Egypt, and so we are concerned,” he said.

    Still, Tawadros was critical of the promises of investigation and the revival of the justice and equality body. “Enough already of formations, committees and groups and whatever else,” he said.

    “We want action not words and, let me say this, there are many names and committees but there is no action on the ground.”

    Long before the weekend’s deadly sectarian violence, Tawadros has gone on record saying he was unhappy with the Islamist-backed constitution that was rushed to passage in a referendum in December.

    But his criticism Tuesday was a powerful departure from the church’s longstanding policy of avoiding confrontations with the government of the day.

    Pointedly, Tawadros added his praise of the sheik of Al-Azhar — another institution struggling to stay immune from the country’s political battles — saying the sheik was the first to call him and express support amid Sunday’s violence.

    Al-Azhar, the centuries-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning, was hit by the turmoil last week. Students from Al-Azhar University stormed the office of the sheik of Al-Azhar, Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb, angry over a case of food poisoning in the university that sickened dozens.

    El-Tayeb was forced to remove the university’s president.

    Associated Press

  • Pope Cautions Against Child Sex Abuse

    {{Pope Francis has called on the Catholic Church to “act decisively” to root out sexual abuse of children by priests and ensure the perpetrators are punished, the Vatican has said.}}

    The pope asked Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, the head of the Vatican department that deals with sexual abuse, to “act with determination” in those cases, the Vatican said in a statement on Friday.

    The pontiff asked for “stepped-up measures to protect minors and help those who were subjected to such violence in the past”.

    In a meeting with Mueller, Francis said that combating the abuse was important “for the Church and its credibility”, the statement said.

    It was the first official word on the issue from the pope, who was elected on March 13 to succeed Benedict XVI, whose papacy was marred by relentless paedophilia scandals with tens of thousands of victims over several decades.

    The statement noted that the policy followed “the line established” by Benedict XVI, who was the first pope to apologise to victims and called for zero tolerance against sexual abuse by priests.

    Francis inherited a Church mired in problems and a major scandal over priestly abuse of children.

    {agencies}

  • One in four Americans think Obama is antichrist, survey says

    {{Poll asking voters about conspiracy theories reveals alarming beliefs – including 37% believing global warming to be a hoax.}}

    About one in four Americans suspect that President Barack Obama might be the antichrist, more than a third believe that global warming is a hoax and more than half suspect that a secretive global elite is trying to set up a New World Order, according to a poll released on Tuesday.

    The survey, which was conducted by Public Policy Polling, asked a sample of American voters about a number of conspiracy theories, phrasing the questions in eye-catching language that will have the country’s educators banging their heads on their desks.

    The study revealed that 13% of respondents thought Obama was “the antichrist”, while another 13% were “not sure” – and so were at least appeared to be open to the possibility that he might be.

    Some 73% of people were able to say outright that they did not think Obama was “the antichrist”.

    The survey also showed that 37% of Americans thought that global warming was a hoax, while 12% were not sure and a slim majority – 51% – agreed with the overwhelming majority view of the scientific establishment and thought that it was not.

    The survey also revealed that 28% of people believed in a sinister global New World Order conspiracy, aimed at ruling the whole world through authoritarian government.

    Another 25% were “not sure” and only a minority of American voters – 46% – thought such a conspiracy theory was not true.

    At least some of the insane theories suggested by the poll were dismissed by large majorities.

    For example, only 7% of Americans in the survey believed the moon landing was faked, 14% believed in Bigfoot and 4% accepted that “shape-shifting alien reptilian people control our world by taking on human form”.

    In other good news, Paul McCartney will be relieved that a mere 5% of respondents believed that he died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a double so the Beatles could continue their careers, and just 11% embraced the concept that the US government knowingly allowed the terror attacks of 11 September 2001 to take place.

    The survey was carried out in order to explore how voters’ political beliefs impact on their willingness to embrace conspiracy theories – it did indeed find that the partisan divide that is blamed for many problems in Washington DC also extends to the world of paranoia, aliens and Sasquatch.

    For example, when it comes to thinking global warming is a hoax some 58% of Republicans agreed and 77% of Democratsdisagreed.

    While 20% of Republicans believed Obama is the antichrist heralding the End Times, only 13% of independents did and just 6% of Democrats.

    “Even crazy conspiracy theories are subject to partisan polarization, especially when there are political overtones involved.

    But most Americans reject the wackier ideas out there about fake moon landings and shape-shifting lizards,” said PPP president Dean Debnam.

  • Religious Leaders Challenge NURC’s ‘One-way Communication’

    {{Religious leaders in the Northern Province have challenged the way officials from the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission teach them about Unity and Reconciliation process.}}

    They noted that NURC uses “One-way communication” while disseminating messages of unity and reconciliation.

    However, Religious Leaders said as they are the ones who meet a big number of people on daily basis they should also be given chance to share information with NURC towards effective reconciliation among Rwandans.

    They added that reconciliation teaching method should be Vice-Versa.
    One of the leaders of Adventist Church in North, Ayingoma Barnabas said that officials invite church leaders to teach them about unity and reconciliation forgetting that also church leaders can teach officials.

    Dr. Habyarimana Jean Baptiste, the Coordinator of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission agrees with Religious leaders saying as the later are the ones who meet many people, they should also play a key role in developing effective and sustainable unity and reconciliation among the society.

    NURC plans to meet all religious leaders countrywide to discuss about Unity and reconciliation process.

  • Kikwete Denies Government is Taking Sides On Religious Tensions

    {{Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete has dismissed allegations that the government is taking sides in dealing with religious tensions in the country, appealing for calm and wisdom to avert further escalation of the precarious situation.}}

    At least one Catholic priest in Zanzibar and a Protestant pastor in Geita Region have been killed in separate incidents, while churches were torched in recent months in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam.

    Furthermore, in Zanzibar, another Catholic priest was shot and wounded and a Muslim leader was splashed with acid in incidents that are still under police investigations.

    A suspect on the February 17 killing of Rev Evaristus Mushi was apprehended in Zanzibar last Friday and he is due to appear in court upon completion of investigations.

    About 17 people were arrested for allegedly causing the death of Pastor Mathayo Kachila in Buseresere, Geita. Some have been charged with murder and a manhunt continues to look for other perpetrators.

    There is a growing trend of some religious leaders blaming the government and counterpart religions for these tragedies, making it appear that one religious group was plotting to persecute the other, President Kikwete observed in his end-of-the-month speech he delivered on Sunday.

    Trading blame, he cautioned, would only serve to infuriate differing faiths rather than resolving any problems the people might be having.

    “In fact we have now reached a stage where Christians accuse the government of favouring Muslims while Muslims, for their part, accuse the government of acting in favour of Christians,” Mr Kikwete said.

    “Muslims are alleging that there is too much Christian dominance in government, that the government did nothing when a boy urinated on the Quran. They also charging that I ignore Islamic functions including burials of Muslim leaders”

    At the same time, noted Mr Kikwete, Christians complain that the government is not showing concern over the killings of their leaders and burning of their churches.

    “But the government has been doing what it can, including enlisting the help of international police and investigators to pursue the killings of Fr Mushi, for example,” Mr Kikwete said in defence of his government’s performance.

    He noted that it was dangerous to suggest that some criminal acts are coordinated by groups of people or leaders of one religion against another.

    So far, noted the President, investigations have shown that most of the crimes targeting religious leaders or houses of worship are uncoordinated.

    There was no connection between the burning of churches in Mbagala last year and the violence that erupted in Geita this year as a result of a dispute on who has the right to slaughter animals that are sold in village butcheries, he said.

    “Churches were invaded in Mbagala after a group of angry Muslim fanatics marched to a police station demanding that the boy who urinated on the Quran be handled to them.

    When the police said No, the group went on a rampage,” Mr Kikwete noted, adding that a few months later a separate incident took place in Geita after a dispute on slaughtering animals.

    The only incidents that could be connected are those that took place in Zanzibar that include the burning of various churches, the killing of Fr Mushi, the shooting of Fr Ambrose Mkenda on Christmas day last year and the splashing with acid of Sheikh Fadhili Soroga, the deputy mufti of Zanzibar, he noted.

    “But we are yet to establish any connection because security organs haven’t yet concluded investigations,” Mr Kikwete said.

    He warned that there are some people using these incidents to cause further problems by inciting leaders and followers of both religions.

    “We must not listen to these people if we are to avoid plunging our country into a civil war. These people do not wish our country well,” Mr Kikwete said without giving details.

    The President’s appeal for calm on the face of religious violence seem to have partly been a response to various Easter messages issued by some Chrisitian leaders.

    Earlier last week, Polycarp Cardinal Pengo blamed the police for laxity and failing to conclude investigations on the death of Fr Mushi.

    On Good Friday, leaders of various churches read out what they called “Waraka wa Jukwaa la Makanisa” loosely translated as “Letter from the Churches Forum” which blatantly accused the government of failing to protect Christians.

    The Citizen

  • Pope Francis to Lead First Easter Celebrations

    {{Pope Francis prepared to lead his first Easter Sunday celebrations with tens of thousands of people expected in St Peter’s Square for a mass marking the holiest day in the Christian calendar.}}

    The ceremony will be followed by a special “Urbi et Orbi” blessing for Rome and the world that the pope will deliver from the same balcony where he made his first public appearance after his election this month.

    At an Easter Vigil in St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, the first pontiff from outside Europe in nearly 1,300 years of Church history reached out to non-believers and lapsed Catholics, urging them to “step forward” towards God.

    “He will receive you with open arms,” said the 76-year-old Argentine pope, formerly the archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who has called for the Roman Catholic Church to be closer to ordinary people and the needy.

    “Let us not close our hearts,” he appealed to the congregation in a mass in which he also baptised four converts.

    He added: “Let us not lose confidence, let us never give up: there are no situations which God cannot change.”

    Easter Sunday celebrates the Christian belief in Jesus’s death and resurrection and is marked around the world, often with a variety of not strictly religious local traditions like painted eggs or Easter Bunnies.

  • Ex-Anglican Leader says Cameron Alienating Christians

    {{Prime Minister David Cameron is alienating Christians by promoting gay marriage, an influential former leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans said on Saturday.}}

    In a strongly worded article, former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey said Cameron’s plan to legalise gay unions hid an “aggressive secularist” approach that threatened the link between church and state.

    The comments echoed widespread concern about the policy among some Christians – and also highlighted the challenge facing Cameron whose efforts to modernise his Conservative Party have antagonised some traditional party voters.

    “The danger I believe that the government is courting with its approach both to marriage and religious freedom, is the alienation of a large minority of people who only a few years ago would have been considered pillars of society,” Carey wrote in the Daily Mail.

    Carey’s comments come at a bad time for Cameron, who as the economy flounders is attempting to woo right-leaning voters with tough talk on immigration and the European Union.

    The former Anglican leader also condemned what he saw as a lack of government support for Christians who choose to wear a cross at work, a practice that has been challenged in the past due to rules on religious expression at the workplace.

    He cited a survey by pollster ComRes saying more than two thirds of Christians in Britain felt they were a “persecuted minority” and that more than half who voted Conservative in 2010 would not do so in 2015.

    “It was a bit rich to hear that the prime minister has told religious leaders that they should ‘stand up and oppose aggressive secularisation’ when it seems that his government is aiding and abetting this aggression every step of the way,” Carey said.

    Cameron’s Downing Street office rejected Carey’s accusations, and praised the church’s role in charities and education, but did not address the issue of gay marriage.

    “This government strongly backs faith and Christianity in particular, including backing the rights of people wanting to wear crosses at work and hold prayers at council meetings,” Downing Street said in a statement.

    “The prime minister values the profound contribution that Christianity has made and continues to make to the country, which is why he strongly backs it,” the statement continued.

    Carey was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002. Current Archbishop Justin Welby this month said some gay relationships were “stunning” in quality, but he is also opposed to gay marriage.

    As elsewhere in Europe, the number of regular churchgoers in Britain has been declining in recent decades.

  • Pope to preside over first Good Friday

    {{Pope Francis was to preside over his first Good Friday after washing the feet of 12 young prisoners, updating an ancient Easter ritual as part of his efforts to bring the Catholic Church closer to the needy.}}

    The new pontiff is due to recite the Passion of Christ — the story of the last hours of Jesus’s life — in St Peter’s Basilica on Friday, before leading the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) ceremony by the Colosseum, where thousands of Christians are believed to have been killed in Roman times.

    Francis, whose first days as pope have set a markedly different tone from his predecessor Benedict XVI, is expected to take part in the procession and even carry the wooden cross on his shoulder part of the way.

    Last year a frail Benedict, now 85, oversaw celebrations from under a canopy next to the Colosseum.

    The new pope also held an unprecedented ceremony to mark Holy Thursday, washing and kissing inmates’ feet at a prison in Rome — the first time a pontiff had performed the ritual in a prison, and the first time it included women and Muslims.

    “Whoever is the most high up must be at the service of others,” said Francis, 76, at the mass in the Casal del Marmo youth prison, a fortnight after being elected Latin America’s first pope.

    “I do this with all my heart because it is my duty as a priest, as a bishop. I have to be at your service.”

    Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said many of the participants broke down in tears at the ceremony, which was open only to Vatican media.

    Video footage from the ceremony showed the pope pouring water over the feet — one of them with tattoos — bending down to kiss them and looking each of the 12 prisoners in the eye before moving on.

    wirestory

  • Pope Francis criticized church at conclave

    {{Pope Francis issued a strong critique of the church before the College of Cardinals just hours before it selected him as the new pontiff, according to comments published Tuesday by a Roman Catholic magazine in Cuba.}}

    According to Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio urged the Vatican to eschew self-absorption and refocus its energies outward.

    “The church is called on to emerge from itself and move toward the peripheries, not only geographic but also existential (ones): those of sin, suffering, injustice, ignorance and religious abstention, thought and all misery,” Bergoglio said.

    Ortega said Bergoglio’s comments were made to cardinals as they gathered to select Benedict XVI’s replacement, and reflect his vision of the contemporary Catholic Church. He said Bergoglio later gave him a handwritten version and permission to divulge its contents.

    “Cardinal Bergoglio made a speech that I thought was masterful, insightful, engaging and true,” Ortega said.

    Ortega added that the remarks offer insight about the direction in which the new pope could take the church following his March 13 election.

    In his statements, the future pontiff also warned of the dangers of stagnation.

    “When the church does not emerge from itself to evangelize, it becomes self-referential and therefore becomes sick. … The evils that, over time, occur in ecclesiastical institutions have their root in self-referentiality, a kind of theological narcissism.” Bergoglio said.

    He also criticized “a mundane church that lives within itself, of itself and for itself.”

    Finally Bergoglio said that whoever became the new pope should be “a man who … helps the church to emerge from itself toward the existential outskirts.”

    Orgeta first revealed Bergoglio’s comments in a weekend Mass, and they were published Tuesday on the website of Palabra Nueva magazine, along with a photo of the two men embracing after Bergoglio had donned the papal white robes and rechristened himself Francis.

    {Associated Press}