Catholic bishops call for ‘inclusive dialogue’ as Chad’s president is buried after battlefield death

Khartoum, Sudan, Mar 10, 2017 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Christians who are criticizing government action against churches are facing pressure from Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services.

“They told me not to talk about the demolition of churches or the two church leaders who are in jail,” Rev. Mubarak Hamad, chairman of Sudan’s Council of Churches, told Radio Tamazuj, a broadcaster in Sudan and South Sudan.

The Sudanese government plans to demolish 25 church buildings in and near the capital of Khartoum, which it says were built on illegal lands which are zoned for other uses. The targeted churches include both Catholic and Protestant buildings.

The order to demolish the churches was made in June 2016. Government officials notified several congregations in September to vacate their property.

Christian officials have challenged the claims, saying the properties were legally obtained and have legal titles.

“This is not an isolated act but should be taken with wider perspective,” Yahia Abdelrahim Nalu, moderator of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church’s Sudan Evangelical Synod, told Morning Star News last month.

One Christian critic of the demolitions plan, Milad Musa, is allegedly facing retaliation. The security services have required him to report to their offices from 6 a.m. to midnight since Feb. 15. Sometimes he has food in his custody, sometimes he does not.

He is a member of the Sudanese Church of Christ.

Rev. Hamad faced similar requirements to report to the custody of the security services from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily after he held a press conference Feb. 11 calling on the government to reconsider  the demolitions. He noted at the press conference that mosques in the same area were not ordered to be demolished.

Security services lifted that requirement Feb. 26, but then ordered him not to speak publicly about the persecution of Christians and the demolition of church buildings unless he had authorization from security forces.

Since 2012 Sudan has bulldozed church buildings and harrassed and expelled foreign Christians, according to Morning Star News. It was announced in April 2013 that no licenses would be granted to build new churches.

Two Christian leaders in Sudan have been sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of espionage.

At least 90 percent of Sudan’s population is Muslim, and sharia is the source of the nation’s legislation. Apostasy from Islam is punishable by the death penalty.

Since 1999, the U.S. state department has listed Sudan as a country of particular concern due to religious freedom violations.

International Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need noted in its 2016 Religious Freedom Report that Sudan’s constitution was amended to “widen and increase” the power of the National Intelligence and Security Services, which has impacted “human resources issues and the prosecution of individuals, media outlets and organisations for alleged breaches of the law.”

Sudan scored a 12 out of 100 in Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking ahead of only Afghanistan, North Korea, and Somalia.

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Mosul, Iraq, Jan 24, 2018 / 12:59 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A newborn baby was sentenced to death after Iraqi tribal leaders discovered it had been conceived in rape committed by an ISIS terrorist.  With the help of some Catholic sisters, the child’s mother was able to make a plan for the baby to be adopted.

The young woman’s story was recently shared by Aid to the Church in Need, a pontifical foundation supporting Catholic ministries in the Middle East.

ACN reported that the young woman, whose name was not released, had been kidnapped and raped by jihadists. During the ISIS occupation of northern Iraq, Christian and minority women were routinely kidnapped by ISIS, and often were treated as sex slaves for militants.

When tribal elders learned a teenager had become pregnant while in ISIS captivity, “they made the decision to kill the baby as soon as it was born.”  

“They could not live a baby conceived by ISIS. For them it was practically the devil,” ACN stated.

ACN reported that the woman was put in contact with a group of religious sisters, and that she gave birth to the child with their help. The mother asked that the child be placed in an orphanage run by the sisters. A month later it, was adopted by a Christian family.

The pontifical foundation stated that the child’s adoptive family “will surely educate their new son in love and forgiveness.  This is contribution of Christians in Iraq and the entire Middle East today. Evil never has the last word.”

The mother is under protective care to avoid any risk of retributive violence.

ACN reported that an anonymous witness told the group that saving the mother and child “could only have happened thanks to the presence of the Church” and that it is “an example of life and why our presence and culture of life are so important here.”

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Bangui, Central African Republic, Sep 1, 2017 / 02:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Thousands of Muslim refugees have fled deadly militias in the Central African Republic thanks to Bangassou’s Bishop Juan José Aguirre Munoz.

“They would risk death if they venture out,” the Spanish-born Bishop Munoz told the BBC program Newsday. “For us, there’s no such thing as a Muslim person or a Christian person, everyone is a human being. We need to protect those who are vulnerable.”

The approximately 2,000 refugees sought help at the Catholic seminary in the southeastern city of Bangassou after the most recent outbreak of fighting in May.

In 2013, the largely Muslim Seleka rebels seized power and were accused of killing non-Muslim civilians. Since then, the Central African Republic has suffered sectarian violence. Self-defense groups called anti-Balaka formed, composed mainly of Christians. Those groups too have been accused of atrocities.

The refugees at the Bangassou seminary say they fear what is outside.

“Nearby, there are anti-Balaka militias who prevent them from going out to search for food, water or firewood,” said Bishop Munoz. “So they are completely confined inside the seminary.”

Both anti-Balaka and Seleka militias have attacked the Church’s properties, but the bishop says the Church is determined to protect the vulnerable on all sides.

Stephen O’Brien, the U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, warned that severe violence is possible.

“The early warning signs of genocide are there. We must act now,” O’Brien said. “Violence is intensifying, risking a repeat of the devastating destructive crisis that gripped the country four years ago.”

Some of the refugees at the seminary have been shot at, including a 10-year-old boy. He said one of his brothers was shot in the heart and another was shot in his chest.

Ernest Lualuali Ibongu, a doctor with Doctors without Borders, told the BBC that many refugees need medical care but cannot leave the seminary compound to go to the hospital.

According to Bishop Munoz, that appeals to the militia to allow aid workers into the seminary were not successful.
“The anti-Balaka are armed and very violent and capable of killing children,” he said, adding that it is “very difficult” to reason with them.

Since the conflict began, thousands of people have been killed and at least a million people have been displaced. At least half of Central Africans depend on humanitarian aid, the U.N. reports.

A tentative peace deal was signed in June. The government and 13 of 14 armed groups agreed to end fighting in return for political representation and integration of the militias into the military. Pope Francis visited the country in 2015.

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