Emmanuel Macron says he wants to work together with French Muslims to “to fight the spreading fanaticism” of the Islamic State group’s ideology, and to counter those who want to turn mosques into “places that preach hatred and violence".
As we aid and shelter our brothers and sisters caught in our wars, the cup of suffering becomes a cup of solidarity. Suffering shared is mercy experienced. As St. John Paul II writes, “The Eucharist is not merely an expression of communion in the Church’s life; it is also a project of solidarity for all humanity. … The Christian who takes part in the Eucharist learns to become a promoter of communion, peace and solidarity in every situation” (Mane Nobiscum Domine, 2004). May we Muslims and Christians drink from the same cup of suffering, and in doing so, allow God Almighty to transform our cup of suffering into a cup of blessing.
Despite the Republic on the Move political party's success in the French National Assembly elections, President Macron does not have a blank check. He will need to work closely with civil society organizations in order to achieve his ambitions
The Indian church is looking at different ways of accommodating foreigners studying in major cities African Catholics and the problem of integration in India. Thousands of young people from Africa, many of them Catholics, migrate each year to major Indian cities, mainly to study, creating a new challenge for the Indian church.
'Terror wins when suspicion corrodes our common humanity,' says Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster in wake of London Bridge attack. There are no easy answers or quick fixes to the “outrageous blasphemy of terrorism,” but we each have a part to play in the action that is needed to find solutions.
Electing someone in the second round of the French presidential election who represents an open France with a large majority is important for those facing the same radicalization as we are.
Macron is proudly pro-European. He has taken the “risk” of a founding EU country of not just standing by its commitments to the EU, but proposing to strengthen them. Reform of the EU is needed. Macron is proposing to work with his European partners to strengthen and develop it.
The former Irish president shares her concerns about Brexit and Europe’s refugee crisis with Lorna Donlon. Mary McAleese, Ireland’s former president, knows what it’s like to flee her home, to be, as she once described it, “a refugee on my own island”. Growing up in the Catholic Ardoyne area of north Belfast in the 1960s and 1970s, she witnessed first-hand the violent sectarianism that ruptured the city, destroying lives and families, and buttressing hatreds and fears that had blighted Northern Ireland for generations.
