The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has named 15 nations as guilty of severe violations of religious liberty. Eight of these nations already had this status.

These are Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan. The seven nations that have been newly nominated are Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

USCIRF is appealing to the US State Department to designate these nations as “countries of particular concern” because of the severe violations of religious freedom they are perpetrating.

Catholics on the rise

In 2012 the number of Catholics in the world rose over the previous year. There was also an increase in the number of priests and deacons but a decrease in the number of women religious and seminarians. The drop in women religious has been a trend for a number of years but the fall in the number of seminarians is contrary to recent years.

This information was given in the latest Statistical Yearbook of the Church. The yearbook records for 2012 gives a Catholic population of 1.228 billion. The number of Catho­lics is larger than the figure officially given as this figure does not include a precise estimate of Catholics in nations where the Church is being persecution, as, for example, happens in China and North Korea.

Death penalty slammed

Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, the US, said the failed execution of convicted killer Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma “highlights the brutality of the death penalty”. He appealed to the nation to consider placing a moratorium on the death penalty or even its total abolition from the US.

Mgr Coakley said society’s treatment of criminals says a lot about society. “We need to administer justice with due consideration for the victims of crime, but we must find a way of doing so that does not contribute to the culture of death, which threatens to completely erode our sense of the innate dignity of the human person and of the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.”

Bishops of Mexico criticise government

In a statement questioning the validity of educational reforms, tax policy, energy and telecommunications reforms recently approved by the Mexican government, the country’s Catholic bishops said: “Reforms are necessary to adapt to the present in search of a better future. But we should not delude ourselves. If the mind and the heart are not reformed, and the conscience to create values and fraternal solidarity are not carried out, there will be no reform that can help us overcome the inequalities and social injustices, we will continue to hear news about kidnapping, human trafficking, organised crime which go unpunished, violence and decapitated bodies found in clandestine moats.”

Polygamy is legalised in Kenya

Polygamy is now legal in Kenya after President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya signed legislation which was op­posed by the nation’s Catholic bishops as well as the evangelical and mainline Protestant leaders.

Polygamy is legal in over 40 nations, most of them predominantly Muslim. However, Kenya’s population is made up of 72 per cent Christians, 10 per cent Muslims and others holding indigenous beliefs.

Cardinal John Njue had urged the President to refuse to sign the Bill. The Rev. Peter Karanja, general secretary the Kenyan Church Council, said the Bill demeans women and fails to respect the principle of spouses’ equality in marriage.

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)

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