Two Syrian prelates have spoken in very positive terms about Russia’s involvement in Syria.
Archbishop Jacques Hindo of Hassake-Nisibis said US policies in Syria contributed to the growth of Islamic State, while Russian air attacks have forced IS to retreat. He said US air strikes have been mostly cosmetic, with no real impact on IS.
Meanwhile, the Melkite Greek Catholic archbishop of Aleppo, Jean-Clément Jeanbart, welcomed Russia’s military intervention. He said the airstrikes have helped bring about a “renewal of confidence” among Syrian Christians and that President Vladimir Putin, though seeking Russia’s national interest, also “serves the Christians’ cause”.
More persecution of Christians in China
UCA News reports that President Xi Jinping is aiming to intensify controls over the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations at the Communist Party’s upcoming summit on religion.
“It’s obvious that control on religions is to be tightened,” a priest, who identified himself as Fr Peter, told UCANews.com. “It was theory and slogans in the past. Now it becomes a real game to play.”
Citing Xi’s speech at the central United Front Work Department meeting in May, the article said the President has stated that all religions must adapt to socialist policy. It is “a common principle for all religions to comply with” since Communist China was founded in 1949, it said.
‘Combat drug trade, human traffiking’
Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Vatican’s representative at the United Nations, emphasised the need to fight illegal drug trade and human trafficking.
The Vatican representative said that “illicit drug abuse destroys the social fabric of individual families, which metastasises to the community, and leads ultimately to the destabilisation of civil society”. Quoting Pope Francis, Auza said “drugs are evil, and with evil there can be neither surrender nor compromise”.
The archbishop went on to say the Holy See “cannot express strongly enough its grief and concern regarding the abomination of trafficking in persons”.
Nuns stop offering adoption services
The Missionaries of Charity will no longer provide adoption services in India because of a new law that would allow for adoption by single people and divorced couples.
“We have voluntarily given up our recognised status to run adoption centres,” announced the religious order founded by Mother Teresa.
Archbishop’s plea not to restart executions
In a letter to Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, Vatican nuncio to the US, said: “Capital punishment is unacceptable, however serious the crimes of the condemned may have been.” He wrote the letter after it was announced that the first death sentences in the state for over 10 years will be executed next week. Eight people will be executed. The nuncio “earnestly requested” the Governor to commute the sentences.
“As part of the Church’s ancient teaching on the dignity of the human person,” Vigano wrote, “the Holy Father has advocated for ‘the establishment of the universal moratorium on executions throughout the world, in order to abolish capital punishment’.
“While never wishing to minimise the pain suffered by victims and their families,” he said, Pope Francis “nonetheless, recognises [that] capital punishment is unacceptable, however serious the crimes of the condemned may have been’”.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)