Pope Benedict Holy See/university thaw is welcomed
The restoration of friendly relations between the Holy See and the Islamic University of al Azhar has been welcomed by the Coptic Catholic Patriarch.
Expressing a hope that the friendly encounter between Pope Francis and Imam Ahmed al Tayyib “will give new vigour to the processes of collaboration and integration that Christian and Muslim Egyptian leaders already put in practice in many local situations, in daily life,” Patriarch Isaac Sidrak said difficult relations in recent years were caused by Muslim misunderstanding of comments by Pope Benedict XVI.
Nonetheless, he said, people should not expect things to change for the better overnight. “Some people perceive all the judgments and opinions expressed in freedom, in legitimate pluralism a threat and an attack on Islam,” he said, continuing, “we must respect this path within the Islamic world, favouring it with patience and sensitivity, encouraging our Muslim brothers, even as a local Church, encouraging collaboration in social life, in front of real problems, without limiting ourselves to the discussion on strictly religious matters.”
Fears for safety of albinos in Malawi
Albinos in a large Malawi refugee camp should not walk alone outside the camp, a prominent Church official has warned, following the May 24 murder of a 38-year-old farmer with albinism. Fletcher Masina was killed on the same day as a march on parliament to urge the government to introduce stronger laws to protect albinos.
Albinism is a genetic condition in which pigment is partially or completely absent from the skin;18 people with the condition have been killed in Malawi in the past two years so their body parts could be sold for use in magical rituals. The Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in 2009 that hunters could sell the body of a person with albinism for as much as $75,000 (€67,500).
“We warn albinos to stay away from certain areas and sometimes not to leave the camp at all,” Rufino Seva, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Malawi country director said.
US immigration policy judged a failure as raids intensify
Planned increases in anti-immigration raids testify to the failures of US immigration policy, American bishops have said. Reacting to a statement that federal immigration raids are scheduled to increase in number, Los Angeles’ Archbishop Jose Gomez said this plan is “yet another depressing sign of the failed state of American immigration policy”.
His comment was echoed by the chair of the US bishops’ Committee on Migration, of which Dr Gomez is chairman-elect. Seattle’s Bishop Eusebio Elizondo said “These operations spark panic among our parishes,” continuing, “no person, migrant or otherwise, should have to fear leaving their home to attend church or school. No person should have to fear being torn away from their family.”
Adding that he appreciates the government has a duty to uphold immigration laws, Dr Elizondo said deportations are not “an effective deterrent”.
“Children and families should not be used as pawns in a politics of deportation aimed more at maintaining the illusion that we have a viable immigration policy in this country than at actually addressing the issue,” said Brownsville, Texas’s Bishop Daniel Flores.
Polish saint’s call for mercy is recalled
True freedom comes from obedience to God, Poland’s bishops have said, celebrating how a soon-to-be canonised saint calls people to contemplate God’s mercy.
In a pastoral letter read in churches over the last weekend in May, bishops said Blessed Stanislaus Papczynski, 17th-Century founder of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, showed “the path to salvation is not closed to any sinner who is open to repentance”.
The saint, who will be canonised on June 5, founded the order when his country was “sunk in endless war, famine and disease”, the bishops said, showing “that love is the spirit, light and life of every order and social community, that no needy person should be left to die without support”.