“It definitely will save lives, especially in countries where there is active persecution of L.G.B.T.Q. people.”
Africa
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Nigeria’s Catholic leaders call for an end to crackdown on #EndSARS protestors
The demands of the demonstrators have quickly expanded into a broad critique of government corruption, incompetence and impunity as human rights abuses and economic malaise continues in Nigeria.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Why is Zimbabwe conscripting its doctors? It’s all about control.
The latest move to militarize Zimbabwean society appears an attempt not to reward career military officers who remain loyal to the ruling ZANU-PF party but to exert control over a different group of professionals who have been pressing for reform.
Posted inFaith, News
A kidnapped Catholic priest was released after two years. Now he’s praying for his captors.
Father Maccalli was serving in a parish in Bomoanga, Niger, when militant extremists from Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, a branch of al-Qaida in Mali, kidnapped him in September 2018.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Is Nigeria’s new business reform law a threat to religious freedom?
President Buhari’s push to corporatize religious houses is causing tension with religious leaders who accuse him of bias against Christians.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
World Food Program wins Nobel Peace Prize as hunger surges
The committee also said it hopes the prize will highlight the need to strengthen global solidarity and cooperation in an era of go-it-alone nationalism.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Town rejoices as Italian missionary, other hostages freed in Mali
Archbishop Protase Rugambwa, secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said the release of Father Maccalli as the church is preparing to celebrate World Mission Sunday Oct. 18 “is a great sign of hope for us, for Africa and for the universal church.”
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
CRS report says poverty, not religious conflict, causes Sahel violence
Although Catholics comprise a small percentage of the total population in Sahel, the church is respected by the population “regardless of their faith and is seen as a neutral, objective and nonpolitical actor across the region,” said the CRS report, titled “Steps Towards Peace.”
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Conference takes stock of progress in AIDS fight during COVID-19 pandemic
Cardinal Michael Czerny, undersecretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told the conference Sept. 24 that the world had made great progress in responding to HIV.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Bishops hail new declaration eliminating state religion in Sudan
Sudanese people can now “worship and practice their various religious beliefs without fear,” said the general secretary of the Sudanese bishops’ conference.