Rapid reading summary with web links including reports on – Bono’s charity supports people power in Tanzania; Thousands of Syrian Christians flee to Lebanon; Obama mandate may cause Catholic hospitals to close; Ambassadors walk-out of UN meeting over new sexual rights agenda
Bono’s charity supports people power in Tanzania
Cin – Concern and U2 lead singer Bono’s ONE Foundation have backed marchers in Tanzania who delivered a petition to President Jakaya Kikwete that was signed by more than 16,000 people, and asking African leaders to invest more in agriculture for smallholder farmers. Isla Gilmore of Concern was at the State House with Tanzania’s President Kilwete, members of the Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF) and Bono’s ONE Foundation. She wrote that President Kikwete has already increased investment, showing commitment to improve agriculture in Tanzania through the Kilimo Kwanza (agriculture first) initiative, but representatives of those participating in the march asked him to take the lead and set an example to other African leaders by increasing investment to 10% of GDP, as promised in the 2003 Maputo Declaration on Agriculture. Speeches in the State House echoed Concern Worldwide’s aim to reduce hunger across the globe by working with smallholder farmers to increase production.
http://www.cinews.ie/article.php?artid=9835
Thousands of Syrian Christians flee to Lebanon
More than 2,000 new Christian refugees have fled from Syria to the Lebanon in the past two days, the UN reports. They are being welcomed and supported by the local Christian community.
Fr Paul Karam, Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Lebanon said: “We know a number of Christian families who have fled to Syria from the violence or the oppression of the regime. There are families who have relatives in Lebanon who have fled here and want to change their lives, looking for work. The Church’s response in Lebanon is to offer them hospitality and care. We host them in parishes, provide food and clothing, we assist them at an economic level and hep them to settle. The Syrian Christian families are divided into several parishes and dioceses.
“We know there are many non-Christian refugees from Syria in the north and the Lebanese government has asked the population to help them”.
With regards to the Syrian crisis, Fr Karam said: “As a Church we reiterate that we are against violence. We want to promote peace and encourage dialogue. As for the Christians, the danger that looms is a scenario like Iraq, where Christians are forced to flee the country. The risk is that a dictatorial regime could be replaced with an Islamist type which imposes sharia law”.
Obama mandate may cause Catholic hospitals to close, warns Cardinal
ICN – Catholic hospitals and universities may be forced to close in two years because of President Obama’s controversial health mandate, a leading US Cardinal has warned.
The mandate in question will force religious institutions to put their employees in insurance schemes that cover abortion-causing drugs, contraception and sterilisation. Writing in his diocesan newsletter, Cardinal Francis George (pictured), Archbishop of Chicago said, “the Catholic Church in the United States is being told she must “give up” her health care institutions, her universities and many of her social service organisations.”
Unless the mandate is change, Cardinal George said, institutions might be forced to choose between dropping their religious identity, or abandoning their work.
If Catholic hospitals were to close, it could add major costs to the US taxpayer. According to the Catholic Health Association of the US, the Church operates 12.6 per cent of hospitals in the US accounting for 15.6 per cent of all admissions and 14.5 per cent of all hospital expenses, a total for Catholic hospitals in 2010 of $98.6 billion.
http://www.cinews.ie/article.php?artid=9831
Ambassadors walk-out of UN meeting over new sexual rights agenda
SPUC – A large group of ambassadors walked out of a United Nations (UN) meeting yesterday in protests at a concerted attempt to create new sexual rights, reports the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), a UN-recognised non-governmental organisation (NGO) present at yesterday’s meeting. SPUC upholds the family based on natural (i.e. heterosexual) marriage because of its protective effect for both unborn and born children.
Patrick Buckley, who represented SPUC in Geneva, reports: “The panel discussion had been arranged by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The discussion was entitled “Ending violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity”. The panel chosen for the discussion was unanimous in its support for expanding universally-accepted human rights norms to include the novel concepts of ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’.
“The ambassadors of the Arab Group and of the Organisation of Islamic States (OIC) walked out once the discussion began. Delegates chosen by the Arab Group and the OIC also walked out after delivering strongly-worded statements.
Anonymous claims responsibility for attack on Vatican website
TheJournal.ie – The website of the Holy See was inaccessible for hours this week, with Anonymous demanding a revision to the Lateran Treaty.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2012/03/08/hackers-target-vatican-website/
South Sudanese face deadline to leave the north
ENInews – Sudanese Christians who have barely a month to leave the north or risk being treated as foreigners are starting to move, but Christian leaders are concerned that the 8 April deadline set by Islamic-majority Sudan is unrealistic.
”We are very concerned. Moving is not easy … people have children in school. They have homes … It is almost impossible,” Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Adwok, the Khartoum archdiocese auxiliary told ENInews in a telephone interview on 7 March.
http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5521
Iranian Christians swept up in countrywide arrests
The Iranian authorities are rounding up Christians across the country in a wave of arrests targeting ordinary church members – including a 78-year-old woman – and leaders. Since Christmas, security agents have conducted sweeps of house churches in Ahwaz, Shiraz, Esfahan, Tehran and Kermanshah. Some officially registered churches have been targeted too. Christians have also been seized in their homes and workplaces.
http://www.barnabasfund.org/UK/News/Latest-emergencies/Iranian-Christians-rounded-up-in-sweep-of-arrests-across-the-country.html
Gender equality crucial to alleviating poverty
Christian Today – A new report from an international alliance of Christian aid agencies has pointed to the importance of gender equality in tackling poverty. The report from the ACT Alliance, published to mark International Women’s Day today, says that men and women must work together to make gender equality a reality.
It describes gender equality as central to meeting the needs of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, including men.
The report cites examples of women and men leading innovative programmes in 13 countries that have enhanced the voice of women in workplaces, government and wider society.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/gender.equality.crucial.to.alleviating.poverty/29436.htm
Breakaway Anglicans reject Pope’s offer
CatholicHerald – The Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), the world’s largest breakaway group of Anglicans, has announced that it will not be joining a Personal Ordinariate. The move represents an remarkable turnaround. Five years ago the group sent a letter to Rome asking for “full, corporate and sacramental union”.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2012/03/07/breakaway-anglicans-reject-popes-offer/
Cult-like LRA militia launches new attacks
RNB – The Lord’s Resistance Army, a cultish militia that has terrorized parts of Africa for decades, has launched a new spate of attacks in Democratic Republic of Congo this year after a lull in the second half of 2011, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday.