Pope on homosexuality: ‘Who am I to judge?’; UK Refugee charities call on Government to help resettle Syrian refugees; Faith leaders promote protection of displaced people; Israeli citizens wary of peace talks; New employment laws ‘great day for Britain’s worst bosses’, says TUC
Pope on homosexuality: ‘Who am I to judge?’
Irish Examiner – Pope Francis has said he will not judge priests for their sexual orientation. “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” he asked.
His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests. Francis was much more conciliatory, saying gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten.
Francis’ remarks came during a plane journey back to the Vatican from his first foreign trip in Brazil.
Francis was asked about Italian media reports suggesting that a group within the church tried to blackmail fellow church officials with evidence of their homosexual activities. Italian media reported this year that the allegations contributed to Benedict’s decision to resign.
Stressing that Catholic social teaching that calls for homosexuals to be treated with dignity and not marginalised, Francis said it was something else entirely to conspire to use private information for blackmail or to exert pressure.
Francis was responding to reports that a trusted aide was involved in an alleged gay tryst a decade ago. He said he investigated the allegations according to canon law and found nothing to back them up. But he took journalists to task for reporting on the matter, saying the allegations concerned matters of sin, not crimes like sexually abusing children.
And when someone sins and confesses, he said, God not only forgives but forgets. “We don’t have the right to not forget,” he said.
The directness of his comments suggested that he wanted to put the matter of the monsignor behind him as he sets about overhauling the Vatican bank and reforming the Holy See bureaucracy.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/world/pope-on-homosexuality-who-am-i-to-judge-602036.html
Refugee charities call on Government to help resettle Syrian refugees
Leading UK refugee charities have called on the Government to work with European Union member states to establish a resettlement programme in the UK and Europe for Syrian refugees.
The Refugee Council, Refugee Action, the Scottish Refugee Council and the Welsh Refugee Council are calling for a co-ordinated effort across Europe to relieve some of the pressure on the burgeoning refugee camps on the Syrian border.
As the civil war in Syria continues, latest reports from the UNHCR and others indicate that the numbers of refugees fleeing the country in fear of their lives has reached a level that is likely to overwhelm efforts to cope in neighbouring countries.
The charities say that although the UK Government can be commended for the provision of nearly £350 million in humanitarian aid to assist the millions displaced by the deepening crisis, the establishment of a programme to resettle people beyond the region will ease the strain being felt by Syria’s neighbouring states.
Faith leaders promote protection of displaced people
Along with other faith-based groups, the World Council of Churches (WCC) has helped develop a declaration, launched by the United Nations refugee agency. It aims to strengthen protection for the world’s refugees as well as internally displaced and stateless people, who account for more than 40 million people in the world.
“A core value of my faith is to welcome the stranger, the refugee, the internally displaced, the other. I shall treat him or her as I would like to be treated. I will challenge others, even leaders in my faith community, to do the same,” reads the declaration.
Based on common values of welcome found in all religions, including Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, the declaration is titled Welcoming the Stranger: Affirmation for Faith Leaders. It was launched on 12 June in Geneva, Switzerland.
The development of such a declaration was recommended last year in a Geneva meeting called by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The meeting engaged faith leaders, faith-based humanitarian organisations and government representatives in addressing the theme ‘Faith and Protection’.
Organisations that developed the declaration along with the WCC include the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Jesuit Refugee Service, the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, the University of Vienna Faculty of Roman Catholic Theology, the Lutheran World Federation, the Islamic Relief Worldwide, the World Evangelical Alliance and World Vision International.
Israeli citizens wary of peace talks
USA Today – After six decades of conflict, Israelis did not appear confident Monday that a resumption of direct negotiations over disputed territory will result in peace.
“I have very low expectations,” said Rivkah Moriah, an American immigrant who lives with her family in the settlement of Efrat, south of Jerusalem.
Israeli and Palestinian teams arrived in Washington on Monday to end years of diplomatic stalemate and prepare for a new round of Mideast peace talks.
The resumption of talks was preceded by a decision by Israel’s Cabinet to free 104 long-held Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism. The release was part of an agreement brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to bring the sides back to the negotiating table.
Moriah’s son, Avraham David Moses, a high school student, was one of eight Israeli youths killed in a Palestinian shooting attack at a religious seminary in Jerusalem in 2008.
“It’s really hard for me to trust the good will of the negotiators who want a treaty and call it peace,” she said.
New employment laws ‘great day for Britain’s worst bosses’, says TUC
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has today (29 July) strongly criticised new laws that will force employees to pay upfront fees if they want to pursue a sexual harassment or race discrimination complaint against their employer.
From today it will cost someone £1,200 if they want to take their boss to an employment tribunal hearing for sexually harassing them. Workers facing racist abuse will also face the same barriers to justice, says the TUC.
Employees will also have to pay fees for all other employment tribunal claims such as unfair dismissal, discrimination or non-payment of the minimum wage.
The TUC believes these reforms will deter victims from coming forward and force them to suffer in silence.
The TUC says the measures are part of a wider campaign by the government to reduce people’s basic rights at work and stop bad bosses from being held to account. Other measures introduced today include ‘settlement agreements’ that will make it easier and cheaper for an employer to get rid of someone.
The government has already raised the qualifying period for an employee to take an unfair dismissal claim to two years. This means that nearly three million employees can be sacked on a whim if they have been employed for less than two years.
While the government’s plans for tribunal fees include a ‘remission scheme’ which will make some of the lowest paid exempt from the proposed costs, the TUC believes that a substantial proportion of workers who are on the minimum wage will still be required to pay fees to take a case to an employment tribunal.
This is because the test for the ability to pay will be based on household income rather than an individual’s earnings. This assumes that all household income is shared equally between a couple. The TUC does not agree that a woman’s capacity to enforce her individual rights should depend on her partner’s income.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Today is a great day for Britain’s worst bosses. By charging up-front fees for harassment and abuse claims the government is making it easier for employers to get away with the most appalling behaviour.
“These reforms are part of a wider campaign to get rid of workers’ basic rights at work. Its only achievement will be to price vulnerable people out of justice.”