Evariste Ndayishimiye, a practising Catholic who is known to bring the importance of God into politics, has been sworn as the president of Burundi. The president immediately promised to unite the people, promote peace and justice in the tiny East African country where majority are Catholics. He also swore to fight genocide ideology and discrimination.
Nine years have passed since the Syrian conflict began, since the optimism of the 2011 Arab Spring turned into tragedy. For Syria, it all began on March 15 of that year, when protesters took to the streets in Daraa, in the southwest of the country. Soon protests – mostly peaceful – spread throughout the country, demanding an end to the 40-year rule of the Assad family.
Sadly, and ironically, just last week, the abortion statistics for 2019 were released – and they broke my heart. For the second year running, we recorded the highest abortion figures ever experienced in England and Wales.
Cheer, clap, rattle our pots and pans to show how much we cherish our NHS staff and all who work on the front lines in care homes, pharmacies, stores, transport and delivery or one of the three-quarters-of-a-million volunteers. I am not alone in hearing in that glorious cacophony the sound of a people and a nation rediscovering their better selves.
This is what Pope Francis said in the Urbi et Orbi Easter Message, inviting Europe to give concrete proof of solidarity: “After the Second World War, this continent was able to rise again thanks to a concrete spirit of solidarity […]. It is more urgent than ever, especially in the present circumstances, that these rivalries do not regain force, but that all recognize themselves as part of a single family and support one another.” Today, the pope continued, “the European Union is presently facing an epochal challenge, on which will depend not only its own future but that of the whole world.”
Survival, isolation, community and love are explored in these plausible, prescient books. Jane Ciabattari on the novels that tell us ‘we’ve been through this before and we’ve survived’.
An interview on ‘the courage to look ahead’. The whole planet is experiencing a crisis. At this most serious moment there is a need for guidance to accompany us and help us understand the meaning of what we are living through.
“How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13). Before Covid-19, when I sang those words I used to think of my brothers and sisters in Iraq: how long will their suffering go on, decade after decade? Now they are the words in all our mouths. How long, O Lord, will this pandemic continue?
In a more recent book, the medical doctor and anthropologist Paul Farmer[3] states that in the time of cholera there is also a need to critically question all the social, cultural and political conditions that characterize people’s lives and so should be an integral part of any intervention aimed at promoting health on the ground.
The famines of ancient Egypt are well known, the one that occurred in Rome in 5 BCE, those that decimated Europe in the Middle Ages,.. Recently, North Korea found itself unable to feed its population. It appears we are facing an endless problem, an endemic evil. Will humanity be able to heal this plague that has reappeared throughout history? What are its causes?
Church leaders are condemning the second church attack in the province in three months. In November, a mob raided St. Dominic Catholic Church in Waqya Chak village of Arifwala subdistrict, destroying its boundary wall and gate. They also removed a cross from a wall.
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has written to Pope Francis to complain about China’s persecution of religion, saying that Beijing aims to threaten its democracy and freedom.
Nigeria has an estimated population of almost 200 million with roughly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims. Its interfaith relations have implications for the whole of Africa. Through terror Boko Haram, whose name meams "western education forbidden", has dominated the life of the states in the north-east, spilling over a porous border into Niger, Chad and Northern Cameroon.
Five hundred years after the death of Leonardo da Vinci (May 2, 1519), there are still many mysteries to be unveiled related to this protagonist of the Italian Renaissance and the history of humanity. He represents the emblem of “universal man,” a formula that echoes the universalis genius of the ancient Romans.
During the Cold War the dominant strategic doctrine was MAD—Mutually Assured Destruction. The irony of the English acronym was grimly acknowledged by proponents and critics alike. You would have to be crazy to initiate a nuclear war that would bring destruction on a global scale.
In today’s modern world overshadowed by extravagant globalization, materialism and consumerism, it is very common for people to forget about people who are less fortunate. These people with relative fortune and comfort might get a jolt if asked what they think about slavery and slaves. In most cases, the answer is likely to be simple: slavery was abolished in the 19th century.
But 12 December 2019 might also represent another historical way station of huge import. For it could be the last time MPs from Scotland are returned to the Westminster Parliament. The Scottish question was vividly put in The Guardian last month by Neal Ascherson when he claimed that “Brexit has delivered the United Kingdom to the hospice of history”. I hope it hasn’t – but I fear it has.
Pope Francis has revealed more about his lifelong passion for Japan, telling Emperor Naruhito how much his parents cried when he was nine years old in 1945 when they learned about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when more than 100,000 people were instantly killed.
Chernobyl is a television mini-series co-produced by HBO and Sky about the very serious nuclear accident at the V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant, located 18 kilometers northeast of the city of Chernobyl and 16 kilometers from the border between Ukraine and Belarus.
All these proposals are to be found in a broad and mature vision of the Church, alien to clericalism, aware of the fact that the laity already have in fact in many situations the task of teaching and supporting ecclesial communities.