Catholic diocese in Vietnam builds new seminary amid rising vocations

Moscow, Russia, Apr 21, 2017 / 08:01 pm (Aid to the Church in Need).- The Jehovah’s Witnesses have been banned as an extremist group in a Thursday Supreme Court decision that observers feared signaled a further step back for religious liberty.

“For Jehovah’s Witnesses, this is going to be a frightening time,” Lorcan Price, ADF International legal counsel in Strasbourg, told CNA April 21.

“It effectively means that holding their beliefs and manifesting them is tantamount to a criminal act in Russia. They risk new levels of persecution by the Russian authorities.”

Price saw the move as continuing the reversal of positive trends in post-Soviet Russia.

“What we’re seeing really is the slide back into the type of attitude that characterized the worst of oppression in the 20th century by the Soviet regime in Russia,” he added. “It’s obviously very sad and disheartening to see that happening again.”

Russia’s Justice Ministry in March ordered that the Jehovah’s Witnesses denomination be liquidated and disbanded. Judges ordered the closure of the denomination’s Russian headquarters and almost 400 local chapters. The denomination’s property would also be seized.

The denomination’s lawyer, Viktor Zhenkov, said the group would appeal the court ruling upholding the order.

“We consider this decision an act of political repression that is impermissible in contemporary Russia,” Zhenkov told the New York Times.

Russia has duties under the European Court of Human Rights to protect freedom of worship and belief.

The Russian Orthodox Church is predominant in Russia, and some of its members have pushed to outlaw or curb the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, also holds the denomination under deep suspicion.

Svetlana Borisova, who represented the Justice Ministry in the Supreme Court, charged that the denomination’s members had shown “signs of extremist activity that represent a threat to the rights of citizens, social order and the security of society.”

Price said the ruling was “very disappointing and shocking,” but not surprising given negative trends.

“Last year in particular the government adopted some very draconian and far-reaching legislation that has severely disrupted the right of worship and freedom of belief in Russia,” he said.
 
Anti-terrorism measures have given Russian police powers to disrupt private worship services, to arrest and detain individuals handing out unapproved religious materials, and to outlay any publish preaching without prior approval from Russian authorities.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses suffered intense persecution under the Soviet era until the fall of communism in 1991. A 2002 anti-extremism law and a broader definition of extremism in 2006 once again put legal pressure on the denomination

Price said an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights could produce a positive response, but Russia has “a long history of ignoring decisions” from that court, which relies on diplomatic pressure to enforce its decisions.

“For Christians and minority faiths in Russia this is a frightening time,” he said. “Obviously we hope that people will pray for them.”

“What we hope is ultimately the Russian government will take notice of international condemnation and reverse these policies.”

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Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Nov 6, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Police in Papua New Guinea are moving sick refugees and migrants out of the capital city in preparation for a major economic conference, drawing ongoing criticism from the country’s Catholic leaders.

The refugees and migrants are being sent back to Manus Island off the northern coast of the country, where asylum seekers trying to reach Australia are being housed in poor conditions.

The Australian government has sent hundreds of asylum seekers to the island for processing since 2012, and around 70 men had been taken to Port Moresby, the capital, for medical treatment.

As many as 10 of the men being moved had not finished their treatment, but were told they would return in a month to complete it, Guardian Australia reported. One man reportedly attempted suicide after he was told he would be sent back to Manus Island without treatment.

Authorities are justifying the move by saying that the city’s hospital is needed for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference delegates and conference employees who may need medical treatment. APEC is scheduled to begin meetings in Port Moresby Nov. 12.

The Papua New Guinea Bishop’s Conference recently called for all the refugees and asylum seekers to be brought to Australia by Dec. 25, saying that their country cannot continue to provide adequate care.

“We are deeply concerned that the human rights of the refugees and asylum seekers have been breached as they were forcibly sent to [Papua New Guinea]; and Australia’s policies has caused us reputational damage,” a panel convened by the bishops wrote Nov. 1.

“We, the participants are speaking on behalf of the women and children on Manus who are the victims of Australia’s policies. The men have suffered enough from prolonged detention. Enough is enough. The time has come to let them go.”

About 650 migrant and refugee men are currently living on Manus Island, according to The Guardian. Conditions are bad, according to Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish Iranian journalist, who said the men are suffering widely from mental and physical illness. The conditions at the camps have been condemned by Church leaders and human rights groups.

Australia has had a system of “third country processing” since 2012 for asylum seekers who come to Australia by boat without a valid visa. The system transfers the asylum seekers to other countries, where they are processed based on that country’s laws.

Many of those seeking asylum in Australia come from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, and Iran, travelling by boat from Indonesia. They are typically intercepted by the Australian navy before reaching land, and are then sent to detention camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, a small Micronesian nation.

The government of Australia made an agreement with the government of Papua New Guinea in 2013, providing that migrants sent to Papua New Guinea from Australia would be settled there if they are found to be refugees. Otherwise they would be sent back to their country of origin or another country where they have legal residence.

Papua New Guinea is facing a medication shortage, an outbreak of polio, increased rates of tuberculosis, and funding crises in health and education, according to The Guardian.

[…]

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 22, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- China is using advanced technology to monitor both public and private religious gatherings, witnesses told a federal hearing on Wednesday.

“As low-cost processors, sensors, and cameras h… […]