During a Zenit news agency interview with Sweden’s recently named first cardinal, Cardinal-designate Anders Arborelius said: “We are not just a little minority of second-class foreigners, we belong to society. And I think for many Catholics, and for many Christians, it was a very important sign that the Pope was received by all officials, the King, government, and so forth.
“Sweden is regarded as the most secular part of Europe and still it is possible to build the Church, and to live as Christians, Catholics together with other Christians, and I think maybe there are some ideas that we can show the Pope that Europe is not lost for Christianity.
“Even in our part of the world, it is possible to live as a Christian and to attract interest from non-believers to listen to our voices, and for Christian voices in Sweden to work together on many issues, migration, refugees and so forth.”
Pope writes preface of new book on corruption
In the preface of the book Corrosion, Pope Francis describes corruption as a curse on society, depriving the poor and providing fertile ground for organised crime, drug trafficking, and exploitation of both man and the environment.
The book, which has just been published, consists of a book-length interview that Cardinal Turkson, prefect of the Vatican’s new dicastery for Intergral Human Development, gave to journalist Vittorio Alberti.
The Pope says that bribery “contaminates every general perspective”, fosters the growth of special interests, and harms the common good. Cardinal Peter Turkson’s interview focuses on the human costs of political corruption.
Christian population of Iraq, Syria has halved since 2011
A report penned by the organisation Open Doors and Middle East Concern said that today the number of Christians living in Syria and Iraq is less than half it was since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
Only one million Christians still live in Syria, a 50 per cent reduction of the Christian population at the beginning of the war.
The Christian population suffered a lot at the hands of the advance by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq. At least 100,000 Christians have been expelled out of the Nineveh Valley. After the Iraqi government regained control of the region many Christians are contemplating going back.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)