Short reports with links
Christchurch NZ – one year on – report & photogallery
Fraser Coast Chronicle – A little further on I found St Mary’s Anglican Church looking like some ancient ruin or a bomb-blasted relic from the First World War blitz on London. Still stunned by the site, I noticed some children in hard hats carrying boxes out from a side building. Young Thomas O’Neill wheeled a large golden cross out in a wheelbarrow, followed by the vicar, Brenda Bonnett, and his friend, Henrietta Ullrich. “This is the first chance we’ve had to collect our stuff,” the Vicar said. “The church has been deemed unsafe and is to be demolished. It’s very sad.” The church was built in 1926. “With every aftershock the people’s confidence takes another blow,” Rev Bonnett said. “It’s starting to wear them down.”
Read more – http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/story/2012/02/18/city-still-in-aftershock/
Photo gallery – http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/photos/galleries/christchurch-one-year-on/#/15
Barnabas Fund launches crisis appeal for Christians in Syria
Christian Today – Christians in Syria are “hungry and helpless” in the midst of fierce fighting between government forces and rebels.The city of Homs continues to experience the worst of the fighting in spite of a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly on Thursday demanding an immediate halt to the violence.The resolution also calls upon President Bashar al-Assad to resign and condemns human rights violations.
Barnabas Fund warned that around 100,000 Christians in Homs and the surrounding area were “trapped” by the fighting.The cost of food and fuel has soared, while supplies are low. The charity said it was often too dangerous for people to go out in search of food.
Syria is home to around two million Christians, many of them Iraqi Christian refugees forced to flee their homeland because of attacks by militant Islamists. Barnabas Fund said that more than 200 Christians had been killed in the conflict so far and that the Christian community had been beset by a series of kidnappings. Barnabas Fund is working with Christian partners in Syria to deliver urgent supplies to families in need. The charity’s director, Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, has just returned from a visit to the Middle East where he met Syrian pastors and church leaders.
Read more – http://www.christiantoday.com/article/barnabas.fund.launches.crisis.appeal.for.christians.in.syria/29335.htm
Pope to create 22 new cardinals
BBC & NPR – Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday brought 22 new Catholic churchmen into the elite club of cardinals who will elect his successor, in a greatly simplified ceremony that took account of evidence the 84-year-old pontiff is slowing down. Benedict presided over a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica to formally create the 22 cardinals, who include the archbishops of New York, Prague, Hong Kong and Toronto as well as the heads of several Vatican offices. Preparations for the ceremony have been clouded by embarrassing leaks of internal documents alleging financial mismanagement in Vatican affairs, and reports in the Italian media of political jockeying among church officials who, sensing an increasingly weak pontiff, are already preparing for a conclave.None of that was on display Saturday, however, amid the pomp of the consistory that brought to 125 the number of cardinals under age 80 who are thus eligible to vote in a papal election.
Read more – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17081964
Vatican facing tax bill of €720m
Insideireland.ie – According to a report today, the Vatican is facing a new annual tax bill of €720 million.The report from the Irish Independent has revealed the European Commission is currently in the process of re-examining the controversial tax breaks allowed to the church. The EC is planning on condemning the fiscal perks, and forcing the Vatican to pay up their taxes, which total at least €720 million per year.
Read more – http://insideireland.ie/2012/02/17/vatican-facing-tax-bill-of-e720m-56349/
Leaked documents scandal casts shadow over Vatican ceremony
Herald.ie – A scandal over leaked Vatican documents and reports of political infighting, financial mismanagement and administrative chaos in its frescoed halls have cast a cloud over this weekend’s ceremony to create 22 new cardinals. With Pope Benedict XVI slowing down as he nears his 85th birthday, today’s ceremony has taken on the aura of a pre-conclave summit. Reports abound in the Italian media of cardinals and their supporters jockeying for prominence ahead of a future papal election, and of a Vatican bureaucracy in disarray as Benedict focuses his waning strength on other matters.
Read more – http://www.herald.ie/news/leaked-documents-scandal-casts-shadow-over-vatican-ceremony-3024078.html