Middle East – Africa

Washington D.C., Apr 9, 2018 / 04:27 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- African Catholics remained concerned about a push from Western leaders to promote abortion and contraception in Africa in the name of economic development, especially as the United Nations Commission on Population and Development began its annual meeting Monday.

Pope Francis has repeatedly warned against Western “ideological colonization” of developing countries in which aid money comes tied to contraceptives, abortion, sterilization, and gender ideologies.

“‘Reproductive health’ is the phrase that is the battleground of every UN Commission meeting we attend,” said law professor Teresa Collett, who will be attending the 51st session of the UN Commission on Population and Development, from April 9 to 13.

“Now ‘reproductive health’ as a phrase doesn’t sound that bad,” continued Collett, “The problem is that is diplomat speak for abortion on demand. It’s diplomat speak for contraception” Collett explained last week at a conference at the Catholic University of America marking the 50th anniversary of Humanae vitae.

At last year’s UN population and development meeting in New York,  the debate over reproductive health was “so heated that we had no outcome document,” Collett explained. She partly accredits this to the fact that “African nations stood strong.”

The UN preparatory document implicitly recommends policies to reduce the birth rates in Africa:

“In much of Africa and parts of Asia, numbers of children and youth are rising rapidly. Policies … to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services are critical to achieve further reductions in maternal and child mortality. Typically, such policies lead also to a reduction in the birth rate.”

The document continued: “In countries where growth in the number of children and youth has slowed recently, there is an historic opportunity for more rapid economic growth. With a sustained reduction in the birth rate, the working-age population (ages 25-64) may continue to grow for a few more decades, temporarily raising the ratio of workers to dependents.”

Underlying  these UN debates are ‘neocolonialist’ Western assumptions about what African women want, according to Nigerian Catholic Obianuju Ekeocha, the author of a new book, “Target Africa.”

“For world leaders, the plan of action is very clear — a dedicated effort in population control in developing countries. But in their single-minded obsession to reduce the fertility rate of women in sub-Saharan Africa, the one important consideration the experts have omitted is the desired fertility rate of the women in question,” Ekeocha wrote.

Ekeocha cites a 2010 USAID report on the number of children desired by people in various parts of the world, which showed that “the desired number of children is highest among people in western and middle Africa, ranging from 4.8 in Ghana to 9.1 in Niger and 9.2 in Chad, with an average of 6.1 children for the region.”

“Unlike what we see in the developed Western world, there is actually very high compliance with Pope Paul VI’s Humanae vitae. For these African women, in all humility have heard, understood, and accepted the precious words of the prophetic pope,” Ekeocha wrote in a 2012 open letter to Melinda Gates.

Despite widespread moral opposition to birth control in many African countries, 77,225,741 units of unspecified birth control pills were donated to African countries in 2014 by Western governments and organizations, according to Ekeocha’s research.

“Populations-program donations to Africa used to be the lowest portion of social-sector foreign aid, much lower than aid for education, health, water, sanitation, and so on. But since 2009, population control funding has surged ahead of funding for everything else. In 2014, the United States and the United Kingdom targeted 31 percent and 43 percent respectively of their African aid to population control,” Ekeocha wrote.

Mary Eberstadt, senior research fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute, affirmed those findings at last week’s Humanae vitae conference.  

“In Africa, both Protestants and Catholics lean toward traditionalism in moral teaching … .It is in tradition-minded Africa that Christianity has grown explosively in the years since Humanae vitae,” Eberstadt said.

“As the Pew Research Center put it a few years ago, Africans are among the most morally opposed to contraception. Substantial numbers of people in Kenya, Uganda, and other Sub-Saharan countries, Catholic and otherwise agree with the proposition that contraception is unacceptable. In Ghana and Nigeria, it is more than half of the population,” continued Eberstadt.

In a paper presented at the same conference, Collet wrote that “during much of the past sixty years, Western intellectuals and philanthropists have aggressively promoted birth control as a moral response to a variety of real or perceived global problems. The West, and more particularly the United States, United Kingdom, and Scandinavian countries, have actively engaged in what might fairly be called “ideological colonization” through their worldwide promotion of a contraceptive mentality.”

In 1968, the same year that Humanae vitae was promulugated, “USAID began purchasing contraceptives to distribute in developing countries” and “Robert McNamara, as president of World Bank, announces that population control will be an element of review of loans,” Collett reported.

In the years that followed, governments began implementing mandatory population control policies, just as Pope Paul VI had predicted in his encyclical.

In India, 10 million sterilizations were performed within 20 months of a National Population Policy that went into effect in 1976. “All public employees were told that there jobs would be cut or their salaries eliminated if they would not be sterilized,” said Collett.

Two years later, China implemented its “Family Planning Policy,” better known as the “One Child Policy.”  

“This policy allowed (and incentivized) local government officials to monitor women’s menstrual periods and forcibly abort and sterilize women who were not compliant.  In 1983 the Chinese Ministry of Health reported 21 million births, 14.4 million abortions, 20.7 million (predominantly female) sterilizations, and 17.8 million IUD insertions were performed,” Collett explained.

“Not withstanding these horrific practices permitted under the Indian and Chinese Policies, in 1984 the first UN Population Award was given to Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, and Qian Xinzhong, Minister-in-Charge of the State Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China.”

At the next Population World Conference, President Ronald Reagan announced the Mexico City Policy, which states that the U.S. would not fund any international program involving coerced abortion, or abortion in general.

“Under every Republican President we have made the determination, consistent with federal law that the United Nations FPA is involved in programs that involve coercive abortion and therefore we will not fund UNFPA. Every Democrat president has restored that funding. This is the topic in part of the UN Population Commission annual meeting …next week,” Collett said at CUA on April 5.

In 2017, President Donald Trump expanded the Mexico City Policy and directed money that would go to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to the Department of State Global Health Initiative to “assist in helping African nations … training helping birth attendants … to ensure healthy pregnancy deliveries, to ensure the availability of clean blood supplies and clean water supplies are available to women in labor,” she added.

In “Target Africa,” Ekeocha wrote that “when President Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy in 2017, a number of Western leaders scrambled to make up for the $600 million that America was going to withhold from pro-abortion organizations. They raised about $190 million through the She Decides campaign launched in Brussels, where Sweden, Finland, and Canada each pledged $20 million for abortion provider.”

“An anonymous donor in the United States committed $50 million, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation promised $20 million, and hedge-fund manager and philanthropist Chris Hohn promised $10 million. On top of Canada’s commitment to She Decides, a few days after the Brussels fundraiser Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged $650 million toward worldwide women’s reproductive health programs, including abortion services,” Ekeocha continued.

Ekeocha’s research indicates that the countries most aggressively promoting worldwide abortion are the same countries facing low fertility rates. Canada, Finland, and Belgium all have fertility rates below the replacement rate.

“Without exceptions, these nations are facing the real and imminent threat of a demographic winter, yet they join forces to ensure that the unborn babies of Africa can be aborted without any impediments,” she wrote.

“In their attempts to legalize abortion across Africa, abortion advocates say that legalized abortion is a way to reduce high maternal mortality rates.”

“There is no telling how many lives could be saved if even a fraction of the billions of dollars being spent by Western donors on contraception and abortion in Africa were directed toward improving the quality of obstetric care.”

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Jerusalem, Apr 9, 2018 / 02:55 pm (CNA).- At least eight Palestinians were killed and hundreds more injured by Israeli military forces last week, during the second week of protests on the Gaza-Israel border.

“The loss of Palestinian lives here i… […]

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Apr 5, 2018 / 12:44 pm (CNA).- The bishop of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is urging the faithful to pray for a priest who was kidnapped on Easter Sunday and is being held for ransom.  

“We’re doing everything in our power to obtain the release of Fr. Célestin,” said Bishop Théophile Kaboy Ruboneka.

He appealed “to all the faithful throughout the world to pray for us. The kidnapping of Fr.  Père Célestin Ngango is just one of many incidents that take place here. Kidnappings happen daily. This is an ongoing tragedy caused by an inhuman business.”

Fr. Célestin was kidnapped by a group of unidentified men April 1 after celebrating Easter Sunday Mass, according to authorities.

The Center for the Study of the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights reported that Fr. Célestin was abducted near the village of Nyarukwangara in North Kivu Province.

The organization stated that “when he was returning to Karambi his vehicle was intercepted by criminals who forced him to get out and follow them into the bush.”

The kidnapping is not an isolated incident. Agence France Presse news stated that in January this year, another priest was kidnapped in North Kivu and freed 48 hours later.

Speaking to the Vatican news agency Fides, Bishop Ruboneka said that “The kidnappers immediately contacted Fr. Célestin Ngango’s parish asking for the absurd sum of $500,000. Now they are asking for $50,000, but where can we find such a sum? It’s impossible.”

“We are currently trying to negotiate with the kidnappers but it is not easy. In the last phone call to the parish they reiterated their demand for $50,000, saying they had no intention of discussing [the amount] and immediately put an end to the conversation. We have no other way of contacting them,” the bishop said.

“Our area is plagued by kidnappings, practically every day, but in general the ransoms demanded are a lot less that the one required for the release of Fr. Célestin Ngango. They range from $500 to $2,000. This is the first time that such a large sum is being asked,” he added.

The bishop said that both local and state authorities are working for the release of the priest, as well as UN forces and local search parties.

“We have contacted the Congolese national bishops’ conference, the governor and have asked the faithful to pray during Mass for Fr. Célestin Ngango.”

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Damascus, Syria, Apr 3, 2018 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- When Pope Saint John Paul II visited Syria in 2001, he called on Christians to remember Syria’s “magnificent contribution” to the history of Christianity. As the country reels from seven years of civil war, Christian communities in Damascus continue to struggle to protect that heritage.

“We remember that it was in fact in Syria that the Church of Christ discovered her truly catholic character and took on her universal mission. The Apostles Peter and Paul, each according to the grace received, worked here to gather together the one family of Christ, welcoming believers coming from different cultures and nations,” said Pope John Paul II in Damascus on May 6, 2001.

Within the walls of the Damascus’ Old City is the tomb of St. John the Baptist, the house where St. Ananias took in a blinded Saul, and the Gate of St. Thomas, known as Bab Touma, through which the apostle traveled on his way to evangelize India.

For John Paul II, it was primarily a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Saint Paul that brought him to Damascus. The pontiff spent three days in Syria in 2001 as a part of a six-day journey following Saint Paul’s evangelizing missions in the Mediterranean, including stops in Greece and Malta.

“At the gates of Damascus, when he met the Risen Christ, Saint Paul learned this truth and made it the content of his preaching. The wonderful reality of the Cross of Christ, upon which the work of the world’s Redemption was wrought, became present before him … Brothers and sisters, let us lift our eyes to the Cross of Christ to find the source of our hope!” proclaimed the pope during his trip.

The Holy Father also praised the great contributions of Syria’s saints throughout history.
“From the very beginning of Christianity, flourishing communities were to be found here. In the Syrian desert Christian monasticism flourished; and the names of Syrians such as Saint Ephraem and Saint John Damascene are etched for ever in Christian memory. Some of my predecessors were born in this area.”

One of the historic monasteries built in the fifth-century has been destroyed. St. Elias Monastery was bulldozed by the Islamic State in April 2016, during the jihadist group’s genocide of Christians in Syria and Iraq.

Today, the reality of the cross is vivid for the remaining Christians in Syria, who have seen their communities drop by 75 percent in cities like Aleppo, once home to the country’s largest Christian population.

On Easter, Pope Francis prayed for an end to the “carnage” in “the beloved and long-suffering land of Syria, whose people are worn down by an apparently endless war.”

Catholics who remain in Damascus walked through the Old City’s narrow streets on Holy Thursday to pray at seven historic churches, some of which had been damaged by mortar coming from the Eastern Ghouta suburb, only 12 kilometers away.

One of the churches visited during the Holy Week procession is the Syrian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint George, the same church in which St. John Paul II reflected ten years before the start of the Syrian civil war, “these will be the marks of our fidelity to God: to pray, to carry the Cross, to obey God’s will and to honour everyone as a brother or sister.”

John Paul II made history during his short visit in May 2001 by being the first pope to enter a mosque. The Umayyad Mosque was decorated with Vatican and Syrian flags for the occasion. In 715 AD, the mosque was built on top of a fourth-century Christian cathedral containing the head of John the Baptist, according to tradition.

The pope lamented that his short trip to Syria did not allow him to visit “all the Churches dedicated to the Mother of God in this great and noble city of Damascus.”

“I would also have liked my pilgrimage in the footsteps of Saint Paul to have included a visit to some of the venerable Shrines of the Virgin Mother of God, such as those at nearby Seidnaya, or in Homs, Aleppo, Tartus and elsewhere. I have not forgotten that according to a pious tradition it was near Tartus that the Apostle Peter, on a journey from Jerusalem to Antioch along the Mediterranean coast, dedicated a chapel to the Virgin Mary, the first Marian shrine in Syria,” continued the pontiff.

Homs and Aleppo, mentioned by the late pope, are among the cities most devastated by the Syrian conflict.

Between 5,000 to 13,000 people have been executed in the city of Seidnaya by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government during the conflict, according to Amnesty International. The 6th-century Seidnaya Monastery, containing a miraculous icon of the Theotokos, has also been damaged in the conflict.

The Syria encountered by Saint John Paul II in 2001, before the September 11th terrorist attacks, was vastly different from the war-torn Syria today, but Christians there still cling to words he spoke during his visit to the country:

“The joy of Easter flowered on the wood of the Cross … When God acts, the impossible becomes possible. It is our task to say ‘yes’ to God’s saving will and to accept his mysterious plan with our whole being.”

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Pretoria, South Africa, Apr 3, 2018 / 09:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The bishops of South Africa offered their sympathy Tuesday for the death of the controversial anti-apartheid activist and politician Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who was the former wife of … […]

Homs, Syria, Mar 30, 2018 / 12:11 pm (ACI Prensa).- Christians in Syria have suffered greatly in recent years. Between the Syrian civil war and ISIS occupation, many have lost their homes, their jobs, and many of their material possessions.

“But they have not lost their faith, despite everything,” said Josué Villalón, a journalist working for Aid to the Church in Need in Spain, who recently visited some of the projects supported by pontifical foundation in Syria.

“Each person and each family with whom we spoke expressed to us that right now what gives them hope and sustains them is to be able to celebrate the Eucharist – because even though they have lost everything material, they still have Jesus Christ,” he told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language sister agency.

Aid to the Church in Need is working to help thousands of those displaced by the war and persecution to return to their homes. The agency’s Spanish branch contributes more than 600,000 euros annually to help in reconstruction efforts and continuing education for young people.

One of the moments that most impressed Villalón was his visit to the Syrian Catholic cathedral in the city of Homs, where hundreds of Christians were praying the Way of the Cross.

“Praying the Way of the Cross is a very strong tradition in Syria and the Middle East. It’s always been a focal point for Christians for their Lenten and Holy Week [devotions], ” he said.

On Good Friday, a procession is planned through the streets of the old city of Homs with a cross and various icons of the Virgin Mary.

“Now more than ever, the Way of the Cross is a very important prayer,” said Villalón, because the Christian population of Syria, “with everything they have suffered during these years of war, and everything they are still suffering, embodies a way of the cross. And so this prayer has even more meaning for them.”

Many of those living in the country today have beautiful testimonies, he continued.

“What is so powerful is that Christians in Syria today are embodying in their own lives the Gospel and the mystery of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus,” he said, adding that he saw in them reflections of Christ carrying his cross, and of Veronica and Simon of Cyrene offering help.

Villalón pointed out some the first Christians were from Syria.

“Centuries before Islam came, there were Christians there, and it was in Antioch that the followers of Christ were first called Christians,” he said. “The amount of historical and documentary sources is enormous there. For example, it was in Damascus that Saint Paul received Jesus’ call to conversion.”

In addition to their 2,000-year presence in the region, Christians in Syria and the Middle East continue to “contribute a number of irreplaceable values” such as “charity, freedom, forgiveness, and hope,” said Villalón.

“Christians are the only ones that speak about all these things, and so their presence is very important here.”

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Vatican City, Mar 23, 2018 / 12:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday an ecumenical delegation from South Sudan met privately with Pope Francis and again invited him to visit the war-torn nation, which they said is in desperate need of hope as the situation becomes more dire.

“We are here as an ecumenical body…we came as Christians to show that the body of Christ is bleeding,” Bishop Paride Tabani told CNA March 23.

The people, he said, “[need] hope. They need healing, they are crying for peace, which cannot be brought by arms, but by love, by a sense of compassion, a spirit of love and forgiveness which God has shown to us, especially now.”

“We would like that this Easter would also be a resurrection of people from their suffering.”

Tabani, Bishop Emeritus of Torit in South Sudan, was part of a 9-person delegation from the Council of Churches of South Sudan (SSCC) who met the pope in a private March 23 audience at the Vatican.

Members of the delegation included bishops and leaders of different Christian denominations in South Sudan, including Catholics, Anglicans and Presbyterians, among others. They updated Pope Francis on several joint initiatives of the council to provide humanitarian aid and prompt international leaders to intervene in finding a solution to the conflict.

In a March 23 press briefing after the meeting, Rev. James Oyet Latansio, secretary of the SSCC, described the meeting as “familiar,” and said they sat and talked with each other about a variety of issues.

South Sudan has been plagued by civil war for more than four years. The conflict has split the young nation on several fronts, dividing those loyal to its President Salva Kiir and those loyal to former vice president Reik Machar. The conflict has also bred various divisions of militia and opposition groups.

Discussion at the Vatican meeting focused largely on the humanitarian crisis and the situation of the more than 2 million South Sudanese refugees who have fled to surrounding countries, as well as the need to fill the post of deceased bishops, some whose dioceses have been vacant for years.

They also touched on when a possible papal trip might take place. Francis had intended to visit the war-torn nation last year alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. However, the trip was postponed due to security concerns.

According to the delegation, the pope expressed a strong desire to go, but gave no specific date.

In his comments to CNA, Bishop Tabani said the pope “is willing to go, but there have been negative reports and even in the Vatican…they told him the situation is not so good.”

According to Tabani, the situation on the ground is so desperate that people are nearly begging the pope to come as a sign of hope and consolation. He said that during their meeting, he reminded Francis how St. John Paul II in 1993 visited Khartoum in the midst of a violent genocide.

“That gave hope to the people, and then people became very courageous,” Tabani said, adding that with more than 2 million people are living as refugees, now is the time for another papal visit.

“People are dying from hunger, the economic situation is really bad…the people are eager to have consolation, and they are asking ‘when will the Pope come?’” he said, explaining that in the meeting, Pope Francis told the delegation that “my heart is bleeding for the people in South Sudan,” and asked them to pray that the conditions would change, allowing him to come.

More than 2 million civilians have fled the country in the four years since violence broke out. Neighboring Uganda has so far taken in more than 1 million refugees from South Sudan, leaving resources strained.

In comments to CNA, Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Guru, Uganda, who was also part of the ecumenical delegation that met the Pope, said the situation is out of control. Many people had to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and the majority of refugees, who face a worsening humanitarian crisis, are women, children and elderly.

“You have the youth who don’t have enough food, they don’t have enough medical support. What they get is the minimum. Some have died of malaria, some have died from other things like cholera, and then they don’t have the facilities to prepare the children for the future, education,” he said.

Odama, whose diocese is home to some two million refugees, said the Ugandan government is willing to help and has pitched in with some NGOs, but lacks the resources to sustain the increasing influx of refugees while also supporting their own citizens who live in poverty.

In northern Uganda near the West Nile area, there are more than 300,000 people living in one camp, he said, explaining that this area “is the most difficult, because the government of Uganda has found itself in a certain level that it cannot afford, because its resources are also limited.”

“So to care for its own citizens and at the same time for refugees, it becomes very heavy. This is where the biggest challenge is.”

Both Bishop Tabani and Archbishop Odama voiced gratitude to Pope Francis for holding the Feb. 23 day of prayer and fasting for peace in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria.

They also asked that the pope appoint more bishops, because many bishops have died and none have been re-appointed. Tabani, who retired early to launch a project aimed at providing education to refugees and promoting peaceful coexistence, said his successor died five years ago and has not been replaced.

Tabini said that upon hearing their requests, Pope Francis did not immediately make any promises or guarantees. “He just listened,” the bishop said, adding that “it’s good to be a good listener…this is what I like.”

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Damascus, Syria, Mar 15, 2018 / 03:36 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Seven years ago, on March 15, 2011, the Syrian Civil War began. Since then, the conflict in Syria has forced more than 5.4 million people to flee their home country to neighboring nations, such as Turkey and Lebanon. An addition 6.1 million Syrians are believed to have been internally displaced. And more than 400,000 have lost their lives.

“More than 11 million Syrians – that is larger than the population of New York City – have had their lives torn apart and fled their homes due to this long, long war,” said Tom Price, communications officer at Catholic Relief Services, in an interview with CNA.

“Children, who make up more than half of Syrian refugees in the Middle East, are paying the heaviest price. Many have witnessed violence and the loss of homes or loved ones; the vast majority have been out of school for years,” Price continued.

The conflict began when demonstrations sprang up across Syria protesting the rule of Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president and leader the country’s Ba’ath Party. In April of that year, the Syrian army began to deploy to put down the uprisings, firing on protesters.

Russia and Iran have been supportive of the Syrian regime, while western nations have favored some rebel groups.

The civil war is being fought among the Syrian regime and a number of rebel groups. The rebels include moderates, such as the Free Syrian Army; Islamists such as Tahrir al-Sham and the Islamic State; and Kurdish separatists.

Neighboring countries surrounding Syria have absorbed most of the Syrians fleeing the constant threat of death and destruction – a number which has now skyrocketed to the biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis in the world.

“For years, countries in the Middle East have been hosting the largest number of Syrian refugees,” Price remarked, most of whom have landed in Turkey and Jordan, while others have fled to Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt.

Turkey has experienced the largest number of Syrian refugees over the years, mounting to around 3.3 million registered in total.

For those who have retreated to Lebanon, Syrians often struggle to make ends meet. An estimated 70 percent of refugees are now living below the poverty line and the country offers no formal refugee camps. There are nearly 1 million Syrian refugees in the country, whose population is little more than 6 million.

Refugees in Jordan are experiencing similar situations. Around 93 percent of Syrians are living below the poverty line outside of refugee camps in exile. Iraq is hosting around 246,000 Syrian refugees and Egypt has seen around 126,000.  

While life as a refugee is arduous, those who have decided to remain in their war-torn country are experiencing different hardships, under the constant threat of violence – mostly living in areas controlled by the government.

However, Price noted that CRS is advocating with the U.S. to continue its efforts in expanding humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees in the Middle East, adding that ending the civil war should be the ultimate goal.

“Most importantly, the United States should lead concerted diplomatic efforts to end the fighting in Syria,” Price said.

“Catholic Relief Services echoes the message of Pope Francis, who has pleaded for an end to the violence and the peaceful resolution of hostilities in Syria,” he continued.

UNHCR, together with other UN agencies, also noted that they have appealed the U.S. for $8 billion in funding for refugees in Syrian and surrounding locations.

Kim Pozniak, the director of communications at CRS, also said that their organization is working with “the bishops and Catholic Charities to assist those who’ve had to leave their homes and addresses root causes of migration in many countries, so more people do not have to migrate.”

As the years of conflict have passed, Syria is still seeing severe fighting, particularly in eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, and along the Turkish border, with no end in sight.

While the war rages on, Pozniak noted the importance of not letting the violence become normalized over time, and urged Catholics around the world to support refugees through prayer and action.

“We’ve been called by Pope Francis to ‘share the journey’ with our brothers and sisters on the move due to violence and other hardships,” Pozniak told CNA.

“As Catholics, we must strive to overcome indifference to cries for help, especially in a crisis that’s lasted this long.”

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Jerusalem, Mar 14, 2018 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Prominent Christian leaders in America co-signed a letter Tuesday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat asking them to reconsider a proposed plan to tax churc… […]

Abuja, Nigeria, Mar 12, 2018 / 10:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- With widespread violence plaguing Nigeria, Catholic religious sisters in the country have united in the name of peace to counter the mounting conflicts.

“The news of murders, massacres, … […]