Christianity - Page 25

ROME — Iraqi Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako has reiterated his call for the creation of non-confessional states in the Middle East that give equal standing to all citizens, regardless of their religion.

ROME — The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue has extended well-wishes to “dear Muslim brothers and sisters,” wishing them a fruitful month of Ramadan.

Over 1,200 Christian church leaders in Britain have called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to abandon any notion of introducing a domestic vaccine passport, which they said represents an existential threat to liberal democracy itself.

Over a thousand Christian leaders in the UK have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson protesting proposed coronavirus vaccine passports as an illicit “form of coercion.”

Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez warned Thursday that as U.S. politics and culture become more “aggressively secular,” America risks losing its soul.

The Church’s essential task is praying and teaching others to pray, Pope Francis declared during his weekly General Audience Wednesday.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has initiated a new spate of persecution against house churches and underground Christian communities, True North reported Saturday.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer made a grovelling apology for attending a church on Good Friday after leftist activists within his own party accused the church of being “homophobic”. On Friday, Starmer attended a service at the Jesus House

Swedish public broadcaster SVT has been criticised after inviting an imam from a controversial school onto a programme to explain the Christian holiday of Easter.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Christianity’s most joyous feast day was celebrated worldwide with faithful sitting far apart in pews and singing choruses of “Hallelujah” through face coverings on a second Easter Sunday conditioned by pandemic precautions.

VATICAN CITY — Christianity’s most joyous feast day was celebrated worldwide with faithful sitting far apart in pews and singing choruses of “Hallelujah” through face coverings on a second Easter Sunday conditioned by pandemic precautions.

Police were volubly expelled from a Polish church in Alberta, Canada after disrupting an Easter service, with the pastor denouncing them as “Gestapo Nazi communist fascists” and “psychopaths”.

Labour’s Shadow Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary David Lammy listed heavyweight boxing legend Smokin’ Joe Frazier alongside Judas Iscariot and the KKK in a bizarre Good Friday message.

Eyewitnesses told Radio Free Asia (RFA) in a report published Thursday that Chinese Communist Party officials imprisoned them in mobile “brainwashing” centers designed to make them renounce Christianity, where they faced routine beatings, indoctrination, and solitary confinement designed to induce self-harm.

The Polish national football team refused to take a knee for Black Lives Matter ahead of their match with England this week, while the English players knelt as usual.

Christians in San Pedro Cutud — a neighborhood in Pampanga, Philippines — canceled its annual Good Friday crucifixions for the second year in a row in response to federal limits on gatherings to curb the spread of Chinese coronavirus.

CESKE BUDEJOVICE, Czech Republic (AP) — A revival of an old Easter tradition has gone ahead in southern Czech Republic amid tight coronavirus restrictions.

JERUSALEM — Christians in the Holy Land are marking Good Friday this year amid signs the coronavirus crisis is winding down, with religious sites open to limited numbers of faithful but none of the mass pilgrimages usually seen in the Holy Week leading up to Easter.

A professor of Theology and Baptist Studies at Duke University Divinity School says that a social media post in which he called evangelical Christianity “the greatest threat to human existence” was “taken out of context.”

The bishop of Innsbruck, Austria, apologized this week to those who feel offended by the Vatican’s declaration that Church ministers cannot bless same-sex couples.

ROME — Pope Francis has reaffirmed the Christian conviction that Jesus Christ is the sole redeemer of all mankind and does not share that role with the Virgin Mary or anyone else.

Wheaton College, a Christian college in Wheaton, Illinois, has announced that it will edit a plaque honoring five missionaries who were murdered in Ecuador by a native tribe in 1956. The college has folded under pressure to remove the “dehumanizing” word “savage” to describe the brutal murder of the missionaries.

Pope Francis warned against the double temptation of living in the past or in the future, telling seminarians Monday the present is all we have.

Top Church of Sweden theologian Jakob Wirén has claimed that Christians could view Islam’s Mohammed as a prophet.

Christian students have won a legal challenge against the University of Iowa after school administrators banned the Business Leaders in Christ (BLinC) student group from campus for requiring its student leaders to affirm the Christian faith.

Police in the southwestern Chinese city of Guiyang raided a Christian bible study session held at a private residence this week, detaining at least ten participants, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Thursday.

The archbishop of Aleppo lamented Wednesday that the Syrian people have been forgotten on the global scale and now feel completely on their own.

South Africa’s Chief Justice, Mogoeng Mogoeng, is refusing to apologize for comments last year supporting Israel — even after a judicial body ordered him to do so, and even wrote out the words of the apology that he was ordered to offer.

The former spokesman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India said this week that a new anti-conversion law in India is a “ready-made tool” for those who wish to persecute Christians.

Pope Francis celebrated the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity to the Philippines Sunday, urging his hearers to preach the gospel without proselytizing.

The Malaysian High Court ruled Wednesday the nation’s Christians can use the word “Allah” for God in their prayers, texts, and religious services.

Pope Francis urged Iraqi Christians in the beleaguered town of Qaraqosh Sunday to hold on to their hope in the ultimate triumph of Jesus Christ.

The Orthodox Church of Cyprus has denounced “El Diablo” (The Devil), its country’s entry into the 2021 Eurovision song contest, calling for the song to be withdrawn due to its Satanic references.

The life of a Christian, like the life of Jesus, is a constant struggle against the seductions of Satan, Pope Francis told pilgrims Sunday.

A Christian pastor from Edmonton, Canada, has been jailed for breaking Alberta’s Public Health Act by continuing to hold church services when ordered to stop.

Valparaiso University in Indiana has decided to retire its politically incorrect “Crusader” mascot since the Christian symbol fails to promote “a welcoming and inclusive community.”