Perhaps the poor can show the way out of consumerism

A 'culture of well-being' has anesthetized us to suffering.

By Cristian Martini Grimaldi
Seoul:  We live in a world made numb by the reality and consequences of violence and deprivation. A cursory look at the headlines in any news report this week would reveal a catalogue of attempts by one group of people to abuse and impoverish another.

The senseless murder of almost three hundred people on Malaysian Airlines MH17 over the Ukraine, the mounting death toll and devastation wrought by fighting in Gaza and the violence inflicted on Christians in Pakistan are merely a few examples of this.

The poignant sight of Christians in Mosul forced from their homes by Sunni militants, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, is a dramatic instance of something shared by the bereft across the world. Yet, if the poor are at the heart of the Gospel, as Pope Francis never tires of reminding us, perhaps they could also represent the hope we have to make some sense of the madness.

As these tragedies and atrocities strip bare their victims, the suffering leads those of us who observe the melancholy realities to the core of our humanity.

Addressing the same issue of dehumanization but beginning from a completely different starting point, Pope Francis sees the condition of unadorned humanity as the key to opening a door to something much more pervasive among us than instances of dramatic brutality.

In his first Encyclical, Evangelii Gaudium, he characterizes the financial crisis that engulfed the world from 2008 as having its origins in a perspective that reduces a human being to only one need – consumption. If such a focus prevails, the pope says, then the most valuable guide to a way out of the morass is in the hands of those who live in vulnerable material conditions.

Far from them are the lifestyles that characterize so-called welfare societies. If the market is an octopus that slowly wraps around us all, where the tentacles are the "temptations of pleasure" that distract us from the "real joy", then the only ones who do not fall into temptation are those who just cannot afford them.

The pope believes that the “culture of well-being” anesthetizes us to the point that we "lose our tempers if the market offers something that we have not yet bought". If so, then the poor are the ones to break this vicious circle. They are the ones who cannot afford the process of human modification that has not spared any other social category, especially when the poor are seen as those who are without any property to call their own.

This became sharply apparent to me when I recently viewed the film World War Z, an apocalyptic thriller in which a terrible virus transforms humans, turning them into something like zombies. Though the virus spreads rapidly throughout the world, its origin is unknown.

The hero, played by Brad Pitt, is the man destined to save humanity, the one who discovers the existence of an effective antivirus. He realizes that some people are not attacked by zombies and these are the people who are already suffering from the viral illness.

It is just the hero's hunch, but it is as simple as it is brilliant and is the basis of the immunization campaign: the zombies want to inflict their lethal disease only on healthy subjects, who in turn can proceed to infect others. Immunize the healthy and the zombie virus will be neutralized. In World War Z, Gerry experiments on himself, injecting himself with the serum of a deadly disease in order to survive the zombie outbreak.

The same principle of contagion is the way consumerism operates: market economies are based upon a conviction that for a product to be successful, it must create contagion, or as is often said, it must go “viral”.

Today, those who remain immune from the tentacles of global consumerism are the poor. Poor people, even if they wish to access the "big market" one day, do not have the means to be an effective part of it. So, they don’t become entangled in the market forces that can divide and alienate.

Maybe it is the poor who incubate the antivirus from which we can "extract" an effective and wise method to cope with this global human virus and the daily irrationalities that strip us bare.

As in the zombie apocalypse of World War Z, where the hero must expose himself to the deadly virus via a serum in order to survive, perhaps we also must experience a period of actual poverty, or at least a degree of abstinence from compulsive consumption, to remain safe from its contagion.

Such an experience can create the conditions under which we rediscover our true needs, those true joys that are often hidden from us in this day and age, because we indeed are disoriented and anesthetized by the fleeting temptations all around us.

Maybe the poor will die in poverty, but they may also be the only ones who can still nourish the hope to pass on to future generations a human condition by which we can start to rethink an entirely new model of development.

Cristian Martini Grimaldi is a freelance journalist based in South Korea

Source: ucanews.com

Legal prostitution won't stop HIV, says Philippines sex worker

Issue surfaces as HIV-AIDS conference in Australia pushes for legalization.

Davao City:  Carla Soledad says she is not happy being a prostitute. Two years ago, the high school graduate was invited by a neighbor to work in a restaurant. She thought it was her way out of poverty in her village in Davao Oriental province.

She, however, ended up working in a bar where women offered sex to clients. Carla, 23, says by the time she realized she was prostituting herself, there was no easy way out. Leaving was too complicated.

"I was there already," Carla says. "I could have simply walked out, but I was scared that I will never find another job. I am a high school graduate and I have a family to feed."

Her first client was a plump, mild-mannered man in his 50s. He gave her 350 pesos (US$8) for sex.

"It was my first time to do it for money, and I was scared and confused. At the same time, something in me was telling me to do it anyway. I was already there and I badly needed money," she says. "I didn't like it. I hated it."

At the convention of HIV-AIDS experts in Melbourne this week, women like Carla were placed in the spotlight after some sectors pushed for the legalization of prostitution as a prescription to stop the spread of HIV.

"How can it be the remedy?" says Carla.

Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, told the Melbourne conference that governments must decriminalize prostitution to allow sex workers to insist on the use of condoms.

Studies presented at the conference showed the correlation between the criminalization of prostitution and the continued spread of HIV infection.

Carla says her first client insisted on using a condom, but there were those who also insisted on not using it, with some men offering more money.

Carla believes that using a condom will protect her from sexual infections.

"Condoms are supposed to protect us, we know that already. But I don't know about legalizing prostitution as a way to protect us because we are not supposed to be here in the first place," she says.

If prostitution is legalized, will the government give sex workers the benefits and services being enjoyed by those who are employed in other industries?

"Will it give us more than the guarantee that our clients will use condoms?" Carla asks. "Whether legal or not, prostitution is immoral and it demoralizes women. No one likes it here. I do not like it," she says.

Jeanette Ampog, executive director of women's advocacy group Talikala, says the study that shows that women can demand condom use from their client once prostitution is legalized "lacks understanding and analysis of the profile of women in prostitution".

"It takes more than legalization to develop and enhance the self-confidence and power of the women in the sex industry," Ampog says.

She says curbing the rise of HIV infection and AIDS is an urgent task but "we should not forget that prostitution is an issue beyond HIV infection".

Carla, meanwhile, says she regrets not walking out the day when she had her first client.

"I am not sure how the world looks at us, but the recommendation [to legalize prostitution] is a blow to the women who have been forced into this trade," she says.

"Legal or illegal, women in prostitution will always be disadvantaged in an industry that is by nature abusive of women," Carla says.

Carla says the thought of the government legalizing prostitution to force people to use condom "is a flimsy excuse of how governments fail to curb HIV".

Representative Luz Ilagan of the women's party Gabriela says prostitution is not the cause of HIV and AIDS.

"Legalizing prostitution is not the solution to decreasing the infection," she says. "By legalizing prostitution, governments will only legalize exploitation of women, exploitation of children, sexual abuse, sex trafficking, pimping, and all other businesses associated with prostitution.

"It is an issue of being poor, being a woman or child with no access to basic services. It is an issue of treating women and children as commodities," she says.

"Are we sending the message to the future generation that selling your body for sex is one viable job?" Ilagan says.

For Carla, the answer for future generations lies with viable work opportunities.

"Ultimately, what we need is to get out and get away from this condition. Legalizing prostitution is not the answer," she says.

Source: ucanews.com

Two Christian aid workers shot dead in Afghanistan

Victims worked for International Assistance Mission in Herat.

Herat:  Two foreign female aid workers were shot dead by unknown gunmen while travelling in a taxi in the western Afghan city of Herat on Thursday, officials said.

"This morning at around 11:30am (0700 GMT) gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire at two foreigners riding in a taxi and killed them," Sayed Fazullah Wahidy, governor of Herat province told AFP.

Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi confirmed the attack and said the perpetrators had escaped.

"One person was detained at the scene but the two gunmen escaped and the police are searching the area," he said.

Wahidy said the women were working as psychiatrists for International Assistance Mission (IAM), an international Christian charity providing eye care and medical help in Afghanistan.

The charity confirmed the victims were employees but did not disclose their nationalities.

"Their bodies are now in the Central hospital and the police have launched an investigation to find out who is behind this attack," he added.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but criminal gangs as well as Taliban are active in Herat.

Source: AFP

Israel shells Gaza school used as UN refuge

UN chief 'appalled' by incident: 15 dead, 200 injured.

Palestinians inspect damage following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City

Gaza city:  There were signs of renewed efforts for a Gaza ceasefire on Friday as the death toll continued to climb after Israel shelled a UN shelter killing 15 Palestinians.

Israel's secretive security cabinet was expected to meet later in the day to discuss truce proposals passed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by US Secretary of State John Kerry at a meeting in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Israeli media said.

Those reports came after an Israeli shell slammed into a UN facility sheltering displaced Gazans on Thursday, prompting UN chief Ban Ki-moon to say he was "appalled" at the incident which "underscores the imperative for the killing to stop – and to stop now".

Fresh Israeli fire early Friday pushed the overall Palestinian death toll in Gaza to over 800, Palestinian emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

He said that an air strike on a house in the southern Gaza town of Deir-el-Balah killed a woman of 26 and another aged 23 who was pregnant, as Israel pressed on with its 18-day campaign to stamp out Gaza rocket fire.

The baby was saved, he said.

Two other people wounded earlier in shelling of the southern city of Khan Yunis, died of their injuries, Qudra said, bringing the total number of Gazans killed in the Israeli campaign to 804.

Thursday's strike hit a UN school sheltering some of the 100,000 Palestinians driven from their homes in search of a safe haven after weeks of deadly fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.

The shell crashed down in the middle of the courtyard where people were camped, leaving the ground covered in bloodstains.

Gaza's emergency services said at least 15 people were killed and more than 200 wounded.

UN chief Ban said: "Many have been killed, including women and children, as well as UN staff."

Washington said it was "deeply saddened and concerned about the tragic incident", without explicitly blaming its ally Israel for the shelling.

Kerry, in Cairo trying to negotiate a ceasefire, reached out to Hamas allies Turkey and Qatar on Thursday as he sought to further regional efforts to broker an end to the bloodshed.

His efforts are focused on a week-long humanitarian ceasefire, during which intensive negotiations will tackle the blockade of Gaza and other disputes, Western and Palestinian officials, said.

Hamas earlier rejected an Egyptian proposal. Its exiled leader Khaled Meshaal told the BBC in an interview Thursday that a truce must include a guaranteed end to Israel's eight-year blockade on the Gaza Strip.

"We want a ceasefire as soon as possible, that's parallel with the lifting of the siege of Gaza," he said.

Most of Thursday's 98 Gaza victims were killed in and around Khuzaa, a flashpoint area east of Khan Yunis, which has been the site of intensive fighting since Tuesday.

But the biggest single strike was at the school in the north, where the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said it had been trying to coordinate with the army over the evacuation of civilians, without success.

An AFP correspondent saw nine bodies, including that of a year-old baby and his mother at a nearby mortuary.

"We've spent much of the day trying to negotiate or to coordinate a window so that civilians, including our staff, could leave," spokesman Chris Gunness said.

"That was never granted... and the consequences of that appear to be tragic." Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner suggested militants firing rockets near the school could have caused the deaths.

He also took issue with the claim that Israel had rejected a humanitarian truce around the school, saying it had implemented a four-hour window for evacuations.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights has said more than 80 percent of the casualties so far have been civilians, and a quarter of them children, triggering growing international alarm over the civilian body count.

"As this campaign goes on and the civilian casualties in Gaza mount, Western public opinion is becoming more and more concerned and less and less sympathetic to Israel," warned British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos expressed deep concern about the mounting civilian casualties, saying it was "almost impossible" for Palestinians to shelter from Israeli air strikes in the densely populated territory.

Meanwhile, US airlines on Thursday lifted a two-day suspension of flights to Israel, but not all international airlines followed suit, with Germany's Lufthansa and Air France keeping their Tel Aviv flights grounded.

The ban was put in place on Tuesday after a rocket hit a house very close to the runways. So far, 32 Israeli soldiers and three civilians have died in the fighting.

In the West Bank, thousands of Palestinians protesting the Gaza toll clashed with Israeli forces outside Jerusalem.

One demonstrator was killed and over 150 injured by Israeli fire, five critically, Palestinian medical staff said.

Far-right hawk Reuven Rivlin was sworn in as Israel's 10th president on Thursday, replacing elder statesman Shimon Peres.

With the nation in mourning, the inauguration ceremony was scaled down, but Rivlin said it sent a "very clear message to our enemies: you have not overcome us and you will not do so".

Source: AFP

Christian woman escapes death in Sudan and meets Pope Francis

Pope welcomes Meriam Ibrahim, sentenced to death for apostasy.

Vatican City:  Meeting a Sudanese woman who risked execution for not renouncing her Catholic faith, Pope Francis thanked Meriam Ibrahim for her steadfast witness to Christ.

The pope spent 30 minutes with Ibrahim, her husband and two small children July 24, just hours after she had arrived safely in Italy following a brutal ordeal of imprisonment and a death sentence for apostasy in Sudan.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told journalists that the encounter in the pope's residence was marked by "affection" and "great serenity and joy."

They had "a beautiful conversation," during which the pope thanked Ibrahim for "her steadfast witness of faith," the priest said.

Ibrahim thanked the pope for the church's prayers and support during her plight, Father Lombardi said.

The Vatican spokesman said the meeting was a sign of the pope's "closeness, solidarity and presence with all those who suffer for their faith," adding that Ibrahim's ordeal has come to represent the serious challenges many people face in living out their faith.

The informal conversation also touched upon the family's plans now that Ibrahim is free, he said. The pope gave the family a few small gifts, including papal rosaries.

Ibrahim, a 26-year-old Catholic woman originally sentenced to death for marrying a Christian, had been released from prison in Sudan June 23 after intense international pressure. But she was apprehended again the next day at the Khartoum airport with her husband, who is a U.S. citizen, and their nearly 2-year-old son and 2-month-old daughter, who was born in prison just after Ibrahim's death sentence.

Charged with possessing fake travel documents, Ibrahim was not allowed to leave Sudan, but she was released into the custody of the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, where she then spent the following month.

Italy's foreign ministry led negotiations with Khartoum for her to be allowed to leave Sudan for Italy."

She arrived in Rome July 24 aboard an Italian government plane accompanied by her family and Italy's vice foreign minister, Lapo Pistelli, who led the talks that ended in her being allowed to leave Sudan.

Pistelli told reporters at Rome's Ciampino airport that they had left Khartoum at 3:30 a.m. and spent most of the flight sleeping. However, he said, when awake, Martin, the 2-year-old, "practically dismantled the plane."

The president of the group Italians for Darfur, Antonella Napoli, helped organize Ibrahim's visit with the pope.

"Meriam will achieve her dream and see the pope. I had promised her that when we met," Napoli tweeted before Ibrahim's encounter with the pontiff.

Ibrahim joined the Catholic Church shortly before she married Daniel Bicensio Wani in 2011.

She was later convicted of apostasy and sentenced to death by hanging. Sudan's penal code criminalizes the conversion of Muslims to other religions, which is punishable by death.

The Khartoum Archdiocese, which followed her case, had said Ibrahim had never been a Muslim because her Sudanese Muslim father abandoned the family when she was 5, and she was raised according to her mother's faith, Orthodox Christian.

Despite pressure to renounce Christianity in order to be freed, Ibrahim refused. The church in Sudan said the charges against Ibrahim were false and appealed to the Sudanese government to free her from prison.

Ibrahim was scheduled to be in Rome for a few days before heading to New York with her family.

Source: Catholic News Service

Vatican to clarify canon law on abuse and penalties

If bishops do not apply punishment they effectively give consent, warns cardinal.

Vatican City:  Church law has procedures and penalties for effectively dealing with allegations of clerical sexual abuse, but the Vatican is working to revise a section of the Code of Canon Law to make those norms and procedures clearer and, therefore, more effective, said the president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

"We want to make this delicate material more accessible, more understandable and easier for bishops to apply," Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, council president, told the Vatican newspaper.

In the interview published July 24 in L'Osservatore Romano, the cardinal said his office has been working since 2008 to revise "Book VI: Sanctions in the Church," a section of the Code of Canon Law.

The penalties and punishments offered by church law should be applied, he said.

"In the face of a negative action, which harms the good of a person and therefore the good of the church, penal law expects a reaction, that is the pastor inflicting a canonical penalty," the cardinal said.

If a bishop does not react by imposing a punishment on a priest guilty of the crime of sexual abuse, he said, "in some way that would be, or would seem to be, consenting to the evil committed. A negative act necessarily must be condemned; it requires a reaction."

At the same time, he said, the bishop must recognize that the infliction of a penalty is ultimately for the good of the abuser as well. Penalties in canon law are designed to "encourage the conversion of those who commit crimes."

In a May 2013 interview with Catholic News Service, Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, council secretary, also spoke of the work of revising that section of canon law.

Bishop Arrieta had said the current Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 1983, was written with such an emphasis on the role of the individual bishop in his local diocese that each bishop bore the full weight of deciding when and how to intervene and what sort of sanction or punishment to impose on the guilty.

The law ended up being too vague, and church sanctions were being applied so haphazardly, that the church appeared to be divided, he said.

The two chief concerns in the revised section, as in all church law, Bishop Arrieta said, are "to safeguard the truth and protect the dignity of persons."

At the same time, the rules are more stringent -- "if someone does this, he must be punished," the bishop said. While it withdraws the discretionary power of the bishop in certain cases, he said, "it is for the good of the bishop."

Source: Catholic News Service

New Delhi is northeasterners' favourite job destination

Over 200,000 people, of whom around 50 percent are females, from the eight northeastern states are in the capital.

New Delhi:  Abhijit K. Borah moved here from Guwahati in search of a better future. He says Delhi has a lot to offer and he has no plans to leave the capital, despite it being tagged as the country's "most racist city".

"I won't mind shifting base to another city, provided there are good opportunities. But Delhi always offers opportunities; so till now that thought has not crossed my mind," Borah told IANS.

Sagarika Dutta from Tinsukia, Assam, too calls the national capital her dream destination.

"After completing my 12th grade, I knew I would study here as the northeast isn't good for higher education. My cousins are also here, so I was excited," said the 25-year-old.

A study by the North East Support Centre & Helpline (NESCH) has revealed that 78 out of every 100 people from northeastern India living in Delhi face some sort of racial discrimination, with crimes against women, discrimination, verbal slurs and assault against people from the community emerging as major concerns.

Ever since a 30-year-old man from Manipur was thrashed to death during a brawl with a group of locals in the Kotla area of south Delhi, concerns have once again been raised about the safety of people from the region.

But there are always two sides to every story - if on one hand the capital spells fear and unease, on the other it offers hope and prosperity, northeasterners say.

Luckily for Dutta, she hasn't faced "any discrimination" so far and has no plans of turning her back on the city.

"It depends on your friends circle and the environment you are in. I am a career-oriented person and always wanted to settle down outside my hometown as there is less scope in the northeast for public relations professionals," she said.

Borah says the capital has worked as a magnet for people from the northeast as it offers a plethora of options for them.

If in the beginning BPO jobs worked as the biggest draw, now people from the northeast - Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura and Sikkim - are getting opportunities in industries like media, hospitality and advertising, among others because of their education, ability to speak in English, smart appearances and willingness to work hard.

"Gone are the days when it was believed that the BPO industry drove northeasterners to the metros. Nowadays, in most of the creative fields like media, advertising, marketing or entertainment, you can see people from the northeast," said Borah.

Over 200,000 people, of whom around 50 percent are females, from the eight northeastern states are in the capital, another NESCH report said.

Worthing Kasar from Nagaland, a partner in a law firm, shifted to the capital to study law. The fact that part of her family was in the city made things smoother for her, but she wouldn't mind living on her own.

"I got through law college and then started working. Even if my family were not here, I would've moved to the city as it has a lot of opportunities," said Kasar.

Kasar added that the preference for people from the northeast is greater in her field.

"I've heard many lawyers saying that they prefer people from the northeast as associates because they feel we are hardworking and honest. In my profession, people run away with clients. So, these qualities are required to avoid this from happening," said the 36-year-old.

Despite disturbing news from the capital, Jenny Thingshung, now a radio jockey and a travel writer, left Manipur and joined a private media institute in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, around five years back.

"Delhi gives great exposure and my sister was already here. But even if I didn't have anyone here, I would've chosen Delhi as it is the best for media," said Thingshung, who worked with a channel as a reporter and then joined a radio station.

For the time being, she wants to earn and build a successful career; so she has no plans of returning to Manipur. But she hasn't completely shut the door.

"There will be a time when I would like to go home, but not right now. When I retire or get settled I would love to go back," she said.

IANS

India tops in South Asia's human trafficking: UN official

Fifty percent trafficking are done for forced labour.

New Delhi:  India has emerged as the top destination for human trafficking in South Asia, a top UN official has said.

South Asia representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Cristina Albertine, said that a majority of the victims are from Bangladesh and Nepal.

"India is a top destination for human trafficking in South Asia. People are trafficked from Nepal, the Gulf, Bangladesh and so on." Albertine told IANS in an interview at the UNODC office.

Albertine said that there is no exact figure on human trafficking in India as only a few studies have been done.

"Even within India, there are a lot of human trafficking victims. They stay within India. Not everybody is trafficked in Gulf state and across international border," she said.

As per the UNODC, hundreds of Bengali-speaking Muslim women are being trafficked from Bangladesh.

"Usually what we use for South Asia is that every year at least 150,000 (0.15 million) people are trafficked across the international borders,"

Of the 150,000, Albertine said, 75 percent are women.

"Fifty percent trafficking are done for forced labour," said Albertine.

Almost in all South Asian countries, she said, the majority of the victims are from rural areas.

Asked about the comparison of the continent with other ones, Albertine said: "It is very big region because one-sixth of the world's population lives here. It ranks quit high."

Talking at the UN's India office here, Albertine informed that Nepal and Bangladesh are the source countries while India and Pakistan are source and destination for trafficking.

The UN official hails the effort by Non Government Organisations working to help the victims.

"There are very, very good NGO's who are working on that issue. But, they basically provide only shelter to the victims," she added.

There are some NGO's in Hyderabad and Delhi, who give shelter to the victims.

"They (NGOs) really take care of good number of rescued survivors."

Albertine said even after the victims are rescued many issues are to be taken care of.

"After the rescue, the victims need a safe place. Once they get a safe place, they need medical facility and psychological support. We also need the legal testimony of the survivors to submit the details of the traffickers to the court."

"Repatriate them in their home country is another issue. There are so many NGO's who are doing excellent work, but it is not enough. The need is much, much bigger," she said.

She said India has made some progress in tackling the human trafficking problem.

"Bangladesh has made very good progress on taking care of human trafficking," she said.

"India and Bangladesh are now working very closely on how to expedite and streamline the repatriation process of Bangladeshi survivors. For a long time nothing was happening on the issue. Now these things are slowly improving," she said.

IANS

Opposition, Church official in Goa slam "Hindu Nation" remark

Earlier, a Church official lashed out at the two ministers, saying those who refer to India as a "Hindu nation" had no place in the country.

Panaji:  The Opposition Saturday collectively demanded the dismissal of two cabinet ministers in the BJP-led coalition government in Goa, while a Church official said both Co-operation Minister Deepak Dhavalikar and Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza, who referred to India as a "Hindu nation", have no place in the country.

"We will be presenting a memorandum to the Goa governor demanding the dismissal of the two ministers over their comments. If that fails, we will also seek legal recourse to drop the two ministers, who have sworn to abide by the constitution," state Congress president Fernandes told a press conference at the party's state headquarters.

Fernandes' comments came after the two Goan ministers made national headlines with their remarks on India as a Hindu nation.

D'Souza on Friday had said, "India is a Hindu country. It is Hindustan. All Indians in Hindustan are Hindus, including I - I am a Christian Hindu."

D'Souza is one of the seniormost minority members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa.

Christians account for nearly 26 percent of the state's population.

On Thursday Dhavalikar while speaking during a congratulatory motion in the state legislature had said India could well be on the path to becoming a Hindu nation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Both comments had triggered an uproar at the national level as well as in the state's political and social circles, with the Congress legislature wing even staging a walkout in the assembly Friday against the remark.

Reacting to the comments, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state vice-president Trajano D'Mello accused D'Souza of committing "heresy" and demanded that the Goa Church seek an explanation from the deputy chief minister for calling himself a "Christian Hindu".

"D'Souza has committed heresy by claiming he is a Christian-Hindu. The Church should demand an explanation from him and if he fails to explain this term, then he should be ex-communicated from the religion," Nationalist Congress Party leader Trajano D'Mello told a press conference at the party's state headquarters Saturday.

D'Mello claimed that the deputy chief minister has been brainwashed by the BJP. "What he has said is nothing less than sacrilege and an insult to all Christians," D'Mello said.

Earlier, a Church official lashed out at the two ministers, saying those who refer to India as a "Hindu nation" had no place in the country.

"... if a minister has made such statements, he has to be taken to task by the government. Because he is going against the constitution of the country," Fr. Maverick Fernandes said.

"We have it very clearly mentioned in the preamble (of the Indian constitution) that we are a secular nation. Anybody dreaming of such desires should be taken to task because their place is not in this nation," he further said.

Maverick Fernandes further said the remarks only go on to expose the "ignorance of the person" who made them and that the ministers were straying from the oath they had sworn to protect the constitution of the country.

IANS

New archbishop named for Madurai

He was the auxiliary bishop of Madurai Archdiocese before becoming the bishop of Dindigul.

Bishop Anthony Pappusamy

Vatican City:  Pope Francis appointed on Saturday Bishop Anthony Pappusamy as the Archbishop of Madurai transferring, him from Dindigul.

His appointment comes after pope accepted the resignation of Archbishop Peter Fernando, who passed the canonical age of retirement, the Vatican Radio reported.

Bishop Antony Pappusamy was born on Oct. 1, 1949 in Marambady in Dindigul diocese. He was ordained a priest on July 7, 1976, and ordained Titular Bishop of Zaba on Feb. 4, 1999.

He was appointed the first Bishop of Dindigul on Nov. 10, 2003. He was the auxiliary bishop of Madurai Archdiocese before becoming the bishop of Dindigul.

He has been the chairman of Tamil Nadu Bishops' Council's commission for Clergy and Religious.

Source: Vatican Radio

Saint Martha Virgin († 84)

Saint Martha

Virgin
(† 84)

Saint Martha

Saint John tells us that Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus (John 11:5), but only a few glimpses are vouchsafed us of them in the Gospels. First, the sisters are set before us: Martha received Jesus into her house, and was busy in outward, loving, lavish service, while Mary sat in silence at the feet she had bathed with her tears. Then we learn that their brother is ill when they send word to Jesus concerning their brother Lazarus, Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick. (John 11:3) In His own time the Lord came, and they went out to meet Him; then follows that scene of unutterable tenderness and of sublimity unsurpassed: the silent mourning of Mary; Martha strong in faith, but realizing so vividly, with her practical turn of mind, the fact of death, and hesitating: Lord, by this time he is already decayed! He has been dead four days.

And then once again, on the eve of His Passion, we see Jesus at Bethany, with His resurrected disciple. Martha, true to her character, is serving; Mary, as at first, pours the precious ointment, in adoration and love, on His divine head, as a preliminary to His burial. (John 12:1-4) We do not hear of the beloved family again in the Scriptures, but tradition tells us that when the storm of persecution came, the family of Bethany, with a few companions, were put into a boat without oars or sail, and borne miraculously to the coast of France. Martha assembled a holy company of women, with whom she lived in great austerity of life and admirable sanctity at Tarascon where her tomb is venerated. Saint Mary's tomb is at La Sainte-Baume; Saint Lazarus is venerated as the founder of the Church of Marseilles. It is this family which brought to France the relics of Saint Anne.

New Auxiliary Bishop for Syro-Malabar Chicago Diocese

He is currently rector of the eparchial Cathedral in Bellwood, Illinois.

New Delhi:  Pope Francis has appointed Father Joy Alappat as auxiliary bishop for the Syro-Malabar diocese based in Chicago.

The diocese of St. Thomas the Apostle of Chicago, the only diocese meant for the migrant Catholics from Kerala, has some 87,000 Catholics, 53 priests, some 30 religious.

The new bishop was born in Parappukara, in Kerala in 1956 and was ordained a priest in 1981.

He holds a master's degree in theology from the St. Joseph's Pontifical Institute, Aluva, and the Adheva University, Wattair, and completed the Clinical Pastoral Education program at Georgetown University, U.S.A.

He has held a number of pastoral roles both in India – in the eparchial cathedral in Chalakudy and as chaplain of the Syro-Malabar community in Chennai – and in the U.S.A.

He was also chaplain of Georgetown University and parish priest in New Milford, Newark and Garfield.

He is currently rector of the eparchial Cathedral in Bellwood, Illinois.

Source: CBCI

Is Pope Francis at odds with the Holy See?

People who were 'in the loop' are now in the dark.

Vatican City:  It was possibly a watershed moment in Holy See media relations. The scene was the Sala Stampa of the Holy See [on July 9]. Australian Cardinal George Pell was presenting the New Economic Framework for the Holy See, a document which outlines proposed major reforms not only to IOR (the Vatican bank) and to APSA (the Vatican City treasury), but also to all the various Vatican-run media. Halfway through the press conference, a reporter from Milan newspaper Corriere Della Sera asked a question. She wanted to know why, among the six new lay members of the board of IOR, there was no Italian representative. For a brief moment, almost the entire press room started to laugh.

So, what do you want to do? Put the foxes in charge of the chickens again? Has not the recent traumatic history of IOR been besmirched by the nonchalant ease with which, thanks to a bit of blind eye and to a bit of maladministration, Italian high finance (Banco Ambrosiano, Enimont) and sometimes even organised crime used IOR for their own money-laundering purposes.

Cardinal Pell, of course, was much too polite to acknowledge any such thoughts but, rather, he assured us that there will soon be Italian bankers on the IOR board. The point, though, is there for all to see. One aspect of Pope Francis’s reform drive, but by no means the only aspect, involves changes in the all-too Italian ways of much of the Roman curia, which at times can still seem modelled on the court of a 16th-century Tuscan city republic.

Recently, Italian media reported the Pope’s alleged annoyance at the fact that the former secretary of state,Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, was having major reconstruction work done on a 700 sq m flat inside the Vatican. Francis, of course, continues to live in 70 sq m in the relatively modest surrounds of the Vatican’s Santa Marta residence, rather than in the Apostolic Palace. When questioned about his apartment, Cardinal Bertone pointed out that (a) the Pope was not annoyed about it, (b) it was 300 sq m, not 700, and (c) that all the reconstruction work was being done at his own expense. Curiously, in the middle of these polemics, the papal Twitter issued a tweet which read: “A sober lifestyle is good for us and enables us to share more fully with those in need.”

By the way, Cardinal Pell also confirmed at his Economic Framework press conference that an internal investigation is ongoing in relation to a €15 million loss by IOR in a company called Lux Vide, money loaned allegedly thanks to the intervention of Cardinal Bertone.

The contrast between Pope Francis and the seeming privileges of some of those around him, as well as his inclination to keep his own counsel, are clearly provoking a “nervous” moment in the Holy See. People who were “in the loop” are no longer informed; rather, they are left waiting and wondering just what the Pope has in mind. In such a climate, it would be mistaken to speak of “opposition” to Francis, but what is clear is that not everyone in the Holy See is on the same page as the Pope on the question of communion for divorcees, clerical celibacy, north-south divide, Vatican finances or clerical sex abuse. Recently, the members of one of Francis’s many new commissions were astonished to find that the wording of an agreed press release had been significantly changed. A mere mistake or the desire of someone in the secretariat of state to slow up the reform process.

When Pope Francis says that “the Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect” in Evangelii Gaudium, he would appear to be moving a debate (likely to dominate the next two vitally important Synods on the Family, in October 2014 and 2015) on the ban on divorcees and remarried receiving communion. Yet, almost as soon as he says this, German Cardinal Ludwig Muller, Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, gives interviews in which he says that allowing divorcees communion is against Church teaching from the time of the Council of Trent.

That “nervousness” may explain the “correction” offered by senior Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi to comments attributed to Pope Francis in an interview in last Sunday’s La Repubblica newspaper. In particular, when the Pope points out that clerical celibacy is a question of custom and practice, rather than Christ’s teaching, there are those in the Holy See who do not want to hear.

As we said, not all on the same page.


Source: Irish Times

Iraq jihadists pursue Christians who fled from Mosul

Mortar attack as Christians scramble for shelter.

Christians forced out of the town of Mosul take shelter in a church.

Iraq:  If anyone imagined that the militia of the self-proclaimed Islamic Caliphate would be satisfied when it pushed all the Christians and Shiites from the city of Mosul, think again.

According to the Fides news agency, Islamic State militants launched a mortar attack against the village of Tilkif in an attempt to break into one of the towns in the Nineveh Plain, where Mosul families found refuge.

"The attack started from a village controlled by jihadists,” Father Paul Thabit Mekko, a Chaldean priest, told Fides, “but was rejected by the Kurdish Peshmerga troops. In the night, panic had driven dozens of Christian families to flee to Dohuk, but the Kurdish soldiers who were controlling a checkpoint told them that the situation was under control and could return home."

Both towns lie north of Mosul, where an ultimatum from the Islamic State last wee--to convert to Islam or die--left the ancient city devoid of Christians.

The Peshmerga are known to be fierce troops, fighting for a Kurdish independence movement in the north of Iraq.

The episode highlights the uncertainty that hangs over the whole area, as the Fides report put it: on the one hand, the attack represents proof that the militia of the Islamic Caliphate are not content with controlling Mosul and would like to extend control over the Nineveh Plain.

But the reaction of the Peshmerga, notes Father Thabit Mekko, confirms that the Kurds are determined to protect this area from jihadist militants.

“Here, now, there are only Kurdish military forces that ensure the safety of the population," he said.

While the United Nations has expressed deep concern about a genocide of Christians in the region, Christians in the country cannot wait for help from the international community. Senior U.S. officials and lawmakers butted heads Wednesday over the American response to Iraq's expanding Sunni insurgency, with Republicans saying drone strikes should have been authorized months ago and even Democrats questioning the Obama administration's commitment to holding the fractured country together, AP reported today.

Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the State Department's Brett McGurk and Defense Department's Elissa Slotkin said the administration was focused on improving U.S. intelligence, securing American personnel and property, guiding Iraq toward a new, more inclusive government and helping its forces strike back against the al-Qaida offshoot that has seized much of the country.

The U.S. is now conducting about 50 intelligence sorties over Iraq a day, they said, from about one flight a month a few months ago. Both stressed they saw no military solution to patching up Iraq's political and ethnic divisions or to peeling off moderate Sunnis from the Islamic State. Republicans and Democrats accepted that point, but questioned why the administration wasn't doing more.

Source: Aleteia

Church needs less teaching and more listening

Upcoming family synod has much to think about.

By Fr Myron Pereria
Mumbai:  Last October, the Vatican disseminated a survey on family life in the Catholic Church, as a prelude to the forthcoming Synod on the Family, scheduled for October this year.

Every diocese was sent a copy of the questionnaire, with a request to circulate it as widely as possible, and to send in their results by December 2013.

Many bishops’ conferences did this, even though it was found that many questions posed were clumsy and sometimes unintelligible. Broadly speaking, the enquiries related to four main areas.

The first concerned relationships and modern pressures on the family, divorce and remarriage, premarital sex and sacramental life in families.

The second addressed birth control and contraception, and issues related to responsible parenthood.

Third were gender issues as well as sexuality between men and women and same-sex relationships.

Abuse and violence in the family also fell into this bracket. The last area was how the Church teaches and how it listens to the laity.

When the results came in, many in the hierarchy were astounded at the gulf that exists between Church theory and practice.

In many areas, especially in Europe and the United States, most Church teaching on premarital sex, contraception, divorce and remarriage, as well as same-sex relationships are simply ignored and flouted.

The crying need in the West is the admission of the divorced and remarried to the sacraments (which they are presently denied).

It’s not that the reactions to the survey were uniform everywhere. They varied dramatically with geography and culture, according to a poll by Univision.com.

For instance, 75 percent of Catholics in Europe disagreed with the current teaching on divorce, remarriage and Communion, and 19 percent agreed.

In Africa the statistics were exactly the opposite. Family life in India is not as fractured as it is in the West, or so we like to think.

So why the reluctance of bishops in India to publicize the Vatican survey on the family and its results? As far as this writer is aware, this has been done guardedly, almost secretively, and only by a few dioceses.

In fact, there has been no public discussion of this survey with the laity at all. Is the “Indian reality” so very different? Does the Vatican survey “make sense” in Indian society? Yes, these questions do make sense, even though they are not spoken of loudly.

One reason is probably hypocritical – Indians like to pretend that “these things don’t happen here”.

Another being that weddings are still a “religious showpiece” (no matter which religious community), and for the sake of family it must be ‘gone through,’ no matter what the man and woman involved actually think.

It’s also true that there is much more cohabitation between young people today than in an earlier generation.

Urban youth have access to sexual information through the media, and there’s the urge to “try everything at least once”.

But the real revolution is taking place not so much in metropolitan cities, as in ‘small town’ India, where ‘sexual wellness’ is big business and online marketing ensures both speed, privacy and wide access to appliances and medication meant to enhance sexual pleasure.

Only the na�ve would still hold that such technology has no impact on lifestyle and family values, whether on Christians or on those of other faiths.

In this respect, there is one problem that is particularly affecting Christians: interfaith marriages.

With access to better education and rising incomes, more and more Christian girls are seeking partners from other churches or of other faiths.

In North India, for instance, half of all Catholic marriages involve either a Protestant or someone from the Orthodox Church, or Christian rite; or of another faith. This is an area of discomfort and denial for many in the Church hierarchy.

The traditional attitude of the Church to interfaith marriage is still a quiet attempt at the conversion of the non-Catholic partner, and a refusal to respect the faith experience of the other.

This is part of an institutional mentality of “always being right”, and it will continue until the Church – clergy and laity – sees itself (in the words of Pope Francis) as a “field hospital”, whose primary mission is to heal those wounded by the vicissitudes of life.

The upcoming synod also highlights a need for change in the Church of today: the need to become ‘a listening Church’.

For centuries, the hierarchical Church has been a teacher, not a listener. Its teachings have not just been authoritative, but frequently authoritarian.

Today we realize that this just won’t work anymore, especially in an area where the laity has far more experience than the clergy – the family.

Today’s family is under pressure everywhere. It is the wisdom of our present pope to have realized this, and to have called for feedback from Catholic families across the globe.

It’s also time for the 'listening Church' to tell the 'teaching Church' many truths it probably doesn’t want to hear.

Jesuit Fr Myron Pereira is a media consultant based in Mumbai.

Source: ucanews.com

Saints Nazarius and Celsus Martyrs (First century)

Saints Nazarius and Celsus

Martyrs
(First century)

Saints Nazarius and Celsus

Saint Nazarius, born in Rome, was the son of a pagan military man who held an important post in the Roman army. His mother, honored by the Church as Saint Perpetua, was a zealous Christian, instructed by Saint Peter or his disciples in the most perfect maxims of Christianity. Nazarius at the age of nine embraced the Faith with so much ardor that he copied in his own young life all the great virtues he saw in his teachers. He was baptized by Saint Linus, who would later become Pope. His pagan father was touched by his son's virtue and seconded his project to go elsewhere to preach the Gospel. Out of zeal for the salvation of others, Nazarius therefore left Rome, his native city, and preached the Faith in many places with a fervor and disinterestedness fitting for a disciple of the Apostles.

Ten years later he is known to have been in Milan. He was driven from the city by the prefect after being whipped, and he left Italy to go to eastern Gaul or France. There a young boy by the name of Celsus was brought to him; his mother asked him to teach and baptize her son, and to take him for his disciple. The child was docile, and Nazarius did so; and they were never separated. When conversions multiplied, the local governor was alarmed and the apostle was again arrested, beaten and tortured. The wife of this governor was a Christian, however, and succeeded in obtaining liberty for the two young innocents. They were freed on condition they would not preach at this place any longer.

The two fervent Christians went to the Alpine villages where only a few solitary settlers braved the rigors of the climate and the altitude. They were not rebuffed and went as far as Embrun. There they built a chapel to the true God, and then continued on to Geneva, and to Treves where Saint Nazarius was arrested and imprisoned. Celsus followed him in tears, longing to share his captivity. When after a few days the prefect ordered them brought before him, they were treated cruelly but appeared before the magistrate, their faces shining with glory. The prodigies which followed caused fear in the pagans, and they were released and told to leave the region.

They returned to Milan, but were soon arrested there also. When they would not sacrifice to the gods of the empire, after several tortures in which God again preserved them, they were sentenced to be beheaded. They embraced one another in transports of joy and praise to God for this grace. It was during the reign of Nero, in about the year 56, that these generous Martyrs added their blood to the treasure of the Christians.

Their bodies were buried separately in a garden outside the city, where they were discovered and taken up by Saint Ambrose in 395. In the tomb of Saint Nazarius, whose decapitated body and head were perfectly conserved, a vial of the Saint's blood was found as fresh and red as if it had been spilt that same day. Saint Ambrose conveyed the bodies of the two martyrs into the new church of the Apostles which he had just built. A woman was delivered of an evil spirit in their presence. Saint Ambrose sent some of these relics to Saint Paulinus of Nola, who received them with great respect as a most valuable gift, as he himself testifies, and placed them in honor at Nola.

மன்னரின் மருத்துவர், மறைசாட்சியாக...

மன்னரின் மருத்துவர், மறைசாட்சியாக...

"இத்திருத்தலத்தின் புனிதர், இங்கு வரும் திருப்பயணிகளின் வாழ்வுப் பயணத்தில் உடன் நடந்து, அவர்கள் மனங்களில் இடம் பிடித்தவர்" என்று திருத்தந்தை பிரான்சிஸ் அவர்கள் ஒரு புனிதரைப் பற்றி அண்மையில் (ஜூலை 24) குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார். அர்ஜென்டீனாவின் Buenos Aires உயர்மறைமாவட்டத்தின் ஒரு பங்காக விளங்கும் இத்திருத்தலம், ஜூலை 27, வருகிற ஞாயிறன்று, தன் 50ம் ஆண்டைச் சிறப்பிக்கும் தருணத்தில், இத்திருத்தலத்திற்கு அனுப்பியுள்ள வாழ்த்துச் செய்தியில் திருத்தந்தை பிரான்சிஸ் அவர்கள் இவ்வாறு கூறியுள்ளார்.

Buenos Aires உயர்மறைமாவட்டத்தின் பேராயராக தான் பணியாற்றியபோது, இத்திருத்தலத்தில் ஒப்புரவு அருள்சாதனம் வழங்கச்சென்ற தருணங்களை தன் செய்தியில் நினைவுகூர்ந்துள்ள திருத்தந்தை, இத்திருத்தலத்திலிருந்து தான் திரும்பியபோதெல்லாம் ஆன்மீகப் புத்துணர்வும், விசுவாசத்தில் உறுதியும் பெற்றுத் திரும்பியுள்ளதாகக் கூறியுள்ளார். திருத்தந்தையின் வாழ்த்துக்களைப் பெற்று,  பொன்விழா காணும் இத்திருத்தலத்தின் நாயகர், புனித Pantaleon.

Nicomediaவில் 4ம் நூற்றாண்டு வாழ்ந்த திறமைமிக்க மருத்துவர் Pantaleon. இவரது மருத்துவத் திறமையை அறிந்த பேரரசர் Galerius Maximian, இவரை, தன் அரண்மனை மருத்துவராக நியமித்தார். கிறிஸ்தவரான Pantaleon, அரண்மனையில் வாழ்ந்த பிற மதத்தவரோடு சேர்ந்து,  சிறிது, சிறிதாக தன் கிறிஸ்தவ விசுவாசத்தை மறந்தார். Pantaleonஇடம் ஏற்பட்ட மாற்றத்தைப்பற்றி கேள்விப்பட்ட ஓர் உன்னத அருள் பணியாளர் Hermolaos என்பவர், Pantaleonஐச் சந்தித்து, அறிவுரை கூறினார். அருள் பணியாளரின் அறிவுரை, மருத்துவர் Pantaleonஐ மீண்டும் மனம் மாறச் செய்தது.

தான் கிறிஸ்துவை விட்டு விலகிச் சென்றதற்குப் பரிகாரமாக, மருத்துவர் Pantaleon, கிறிஸ்துவுக்காகத் துன்புற்று, இறக்க விரும்பினார். கிறிஸ்துவைப் பின்பற்றும் ஒரு முயற்சியாக, அவர் ஏழைகளுக்கு இலவசமாக மருத்துவப் பணிகள் புரிந்தார்.

அவ்வேளையில், பேரரசர் Diocletian கிறிஸ்தவர்களை வேட்டையாட ஆரம்பித்தார். மன்னர் வழியே தன் மரணம் உறுதி என்பதை உணர்ந்த மருத்துவர் Pantaleon, தனது சொத்துக்களையெல்லாம் விற்று, ஏழைகளுக்கு வழங்கினார். இதனால் அவரது புகழ் மேலும் பரவியது. இதனால் பொறாமை கொண்ட ஏனைய மருத்துவர்கள், அவரை கிறிஸ்தவர் என்று காட்டிக்கொடுத்ததால், அவர் மறைசாட்சியாக மரணம் அடைந்தார். புனித Pantaleon அவர்களின் திருநாள் ஜூலை 27ம் தேதி சிறப்பிக்கப்படுகிறது.

ஆதாரம் : வத்திக்கான் வானொலி

செய்திகள் - 26.07.14

செய்திகள் - 26.07.14

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1. மதுரை உயர்மறைமாவட்டத்தின் புதிய பேராயர் அந்தோணி பாப்புசாமி

2. ஈராக் முதுபெரும் தந்தையுடன் திருத்தந்தை தொலைபேசி உரையாடல்

3. மோசுல் நகரில் இடம்பெறும் அடக்குமுறைகளுக்கு பிரித்தானிய ஆயர்கள் கண்டனம் 

4. வத்திக்கான் தொழிலாளர்களுடன் திருத்தந்தை மதிய உணவு

5. மூதாதையர் வழிபாடும், வயதானவர்களை மதிப்பதும் கிழக்கத்திய கலாச்சாரத்தின் சிறப்பான பண்புகள், யாங்கூன் பேராயர்

6. இந்தோனேசியாவின் புதிய அரசுத்தலைவரை நம்பிக்கையோடு வரவேற்கின்றது தலத்திருஅவை

7. மனித வளர்ச்சி குறியீட்டில் இந்தியாவுக்கு 135வது இடம்

8. ஒரு வாரத்தில் மட்டும் நடந்துள்ள மூன்று பயணியர் விமான விபத்துக்கள்

9. பிறப்பிலேயே காது கேளாத சிறுவனுக்கு மீண்டும் கேட்கும் திறன்

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1. மதுரை உயர்மறைமாவட்டத்தின் புதிய பேராயர் அந்தோணி பாப்புசாமி

ஜூலை,26,2014. இந்தியாவின் மதுரை உயர்மறைமாவட்டத்தின் புதிய பேராயராக, ஆயர் அந்தோணி பாப்புசாமி அவர்களை இச்சனிக்கிழமையன்று நியமித்துள்ளார் திருத்தந்தை பிரான்சிஸ்.

மதுரை உயர்மறைமாவட்டத்தின் பேராயராகப் பணியாற்றிவந்த பேராயர் பீட்டர் ஃபெர்னான்டோ அவர்களின் பணி ஓய்வை, திருஅவைச் சட்டம் 401, பிரிவு 1ன்படி ஏற்றுக்கொண்ட திருத்தந்தை பிரான்சிஸ் அவர்கள், திண்டுக்கல் மறைமாவட்ட ஆயராகப் பணியாற்றிவந்த ஆயர் அந்தோணி பாப்புசாமி அவர்களை, மதுரை உயர்மறைமாவட்டத்தின் புதிய பேராயராக நியமித்துள்ளார்.

1949ம் ஆண்டு அக்டோபர் முதல் தேதியன்று மாரம்பாடியில் பிறந்த புதிய பேராயர் பாப்புசாமி அவர்கள், 1976ம் ஆண்டு குருவாகவும், 1998ம் ஆண்டு மதுரை உயர்மறைமாவட்டத் துணை ஆயராகவும் திருநிலைப்படுத்தப்பட்டார். 2003ம் ஆண்டு நவம்பர் 10ம் தேதியன்று திண்டுக்கல் மறைமாவட்ட ஆயராக நியமிக்கப்பட்டார்.

தற்போது, தமிழக ஆயர் பேரவையின் குருக்கள் மற்றும் துறவியர் பணிக்குழுவின் தலைவராக இருக்கிறார் மதுரை உயர்மறைமாவட்டத்தின் புதிய பேராயராக நியமனம் செய்யப்பட்டுள்ள ஆயர் அந்தோணி பாப்புசாமி அவர்கள்.

ஆதாரம் : வத்திக்கான் வானொலி

2. ஈராக் முதுபெரும் தந்தையுடன் திருத்தந்தை தொலைபேசி உரையாடல்

ஜூலை,26,2014. ஈராக்கில் கிறிஸ்தவர்கள் அநீதியான முறையில் தொடர்ந்து நடத்தப்பட்டுவரும்வேளை, திருத்தந்தை பிரான்சிஸ் அவர்கள், இவ்வெள்ளிக்கிழமையன்று ஈராக் கல்தேய வழிபாட்டுமுறை முதுபெரும் தந்தை லூயிஸ் இரஃபேல் சாக்கோ அவர்களுடன் தொலைபேசியில் உரையாடி தனது ஒருமைப்பாட்டுணர்வைத் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

மேலும், ஈராக்கில் முஸ்லிம் தீவிரவாதிகளால் தொடர்ந்து நடத்தப்படும் அட்டூழியங்களை, ஐ.நா. பாதுகாப்பு அவை சாதாரணப் பார்வையாளர்போல் பார்த்துக்கொண்டிருக்கக் கூடாது என்று அண்மை நாள்களாக முதுபெரும் தந்தை சாக்கோ அவர்கள் எச்சரித்து வருகிறார்.

அத்துடன், ISIS முஸ்லிம் தீவிரவாத அமைப்பு அறிவித்துள்ள இஸ்லாம் நாடு பற்றியும், மோசுல் நகரில் ஆயிரத்துக்கு மேற்பட்ட கிறிஸ்தவக் குடும்பங்கள் வெளியேறி இருப்பதையும், அப்பகுதியின் நிலைமை பற்றியும் ஐ.நா.வுக்கு விளக்கியுள்ளார் முதுபெரும் தந்தை சாக்கோ.

இதற்கிடையே, மோசுல் நகரிலும் அதைச் சுற்றியுள்ள இடங்களிலும் இஸ்லாமிய விதிமுறைப்படி சிறுமிகளும் பெண்களும், தங்களின் பிறப்புறுப்பைச் சிதைக்க வேண்டும் என்று ஐஎஸ்ஐஎஸ் தீவிரவாதிகள் உத்தரவிட்டுள்ளதாக ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் நிறுவனம் கவலை தெரிவித்துள்ளது

பெண்களின் பிறப்புறுப்பைச் சிதைக்கும் வழக்கம் ஈராக்கிய சமூகத்தில் பரவலாக இருந்ததில்லை என்பது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.

பெண் உறுப்பின் முக்கிய பாகங்களைச் சிதைக்கும் வழக்கத்தை உலகெங்கிலுமிருந்தும் ஒழிக்க வேண்டும் என இலண்டனில் இவ்வாரத்தில் நடந்த மாநாடு ஒன்றில் வலியுறுத்தப்பட்டிருந்தது.

ஆதாரம் : வத்திக்கான் வானொலி

3. மோசுல் நகரில் இடம்பெறும் அடக்குமுறைகளுக்கு பிரித்தானிய ஆயர்கள் கண்டனம் 

ஜூலை,26,2014. மோசுல் நகரில் புனித இடங்களை அவமானப்படுத்தி, அப்பகுதியிலிருந்து கிறிஸ்தவர்கள் வெளியேற வேண்டுமென இறுதி நிபந்தனைகளை அறிவித்துவரும் ISIS முஸ்லிம் தீவிரவாத அமைப்புக்கு எதிரான தங்களின் வன்மையான கண்டனத்தைத் தெரிவித்துள்ளனர் பிரித்தானிய ஆயர்கள்.

பிரித்தானிய அரசுக்கும், சமய மற்றும் சமயச்சார்பற்ற நிறுவனங்களுக்கும் அந்நாட்டு ஆயர்கள் சார்பில் வேண்டுகோளை முன்வைத்துள்ள, இங்கிலாந்து மற்றும் வேல்ஸ் ஆயர் பேரவையின் அனைத்துலகப் பணிக்குழுவின் தலைவர் ஆயர் Declan Lang அவர்கள், ஈராக்கில் நீண்ட காலமாகத் துன்புறும் மக்களின் துயர்துடைக்க நடவடிக்கைகள் எடுக்கப்படுமாறு கேட்டுள்ளார்.

ஈராக்கிய குடிமக்களுக்கு முன்வைக்கப்படும் இந்த அச்சுறுத்தல், இறைவனுக்கு எதிரான பாவம் என்றும், வாழ்வதற்கான உரிமையை மீறுவதாக உள்ளது என்றும் கூறியுள்ள ஆயர் Lang அவர்கள், ஏறத்தாழ இரண்டாயிரம் ஆண்டுகளாக ஈராக்கில் வாழ்ந்துவரும் கிறிஸ்தவர்களையும், அவர்களின் சாட்சிய வாழ்வையும் மறக்கக் கூடாது என்றும் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.

ஒவ்வொரு தனிமனிதரும் தங்களின் விருப்பம்போல் மதத்தைப் பின்பற்றுவதற்கு உரிமைவழங்கும் அனைத்துலக மனித உரிமைகள் அறிவிப்பின் எண் 18ஐயும் ஆயர் சுட்டிக்காட்டியுள்ளார்

உலகின் எண்ணற்ற கிறிஸ்தவ நிறுவனங்களும், இதே மாதிரியான வேண்டுகோள்களை அனைத்துலக சமுதாயத்துக்கு முன்வைத்துள்ளன. 

ஆதாரம் : வத்திக்கான் வானொலி

4. வத்திக்கான் தொழிலாளர்களுடன் திருத்தந்தை மதிய உணவு

ஜூலை,26,2014. வத்திக்கான் நாட்டில் பணிபுரியும் தொழிலாளர்கள் மதிய உணவருந்தும் உணவகத்துக்குத் திடீரென்று சென்று அவர்களுடன் உணவு மேஜையில் அமர்ந்து உணவருந்தி பணியாளர்கள் அனைவரையும் வியப்பில் ஆழ்த்தியுள்ளார் திருத்தந்தை பிரான்சிஸ்.  

எந்த முன்அறிவிப்பும் இன்றி, இவ்வெள்ளி பகல் ஒரு மணிக்கு வத்திக்கான் உணவகம் சென்ற திருத்தந்தை பிரான்சிஸ் அவர்கள், மற்றவர்கள் போன்று, சாப்பாட்டுத் தட்டுகள் வைக்கப்படும் ட்ரேயுடன் வரிசையில் நின்று தனக்கு வேண்டிய உணவைப் பெற்று அப்பணியாளர்கள் பத்துப் பேருடன் அமர்ந்து உணவருந்தியுள்ளார்.

ஏறக்குறைய நாற்பது நிமிடங்கள் அங்குச் செலவிட்டு அப்பணியாளர்களுடன் பல விடயங்கள் பற்றிப் பேசி, அனைவரையும் ஆசீர்வதித்து, அனைவருடன் புகைப்படமும் எடுத்துக்கொண்டு வத்திக்கான் சாந்தா மார்த்தா இல்லம் திரும்பியுள்ளார் திருத்தந்தை.

மேலும், இச்சனிக்கிழமை பிற்பகலில் இத்தாலியின் கசெர்த்தாவுக்குத் திருப்பயணம் மேற்கொண்டு இரவு 8 மணிக்கு மேல் வத்திக்கான் திரும்புவதற்குத் திட்டமிட்டுள்ளார்  திருத்தந்தை பிரான்சிஸ். மீண்டும் வருகிற திங்களன்று, திருத்தந்தை பிரான்சிஸ் அவர்கள் தனது நண்பர் இவாஞ்சலிக்கல் கிறிஸ்தவ சபை பாஸ்டர் Giovanni Traettino அவர்களுடன் கசெர்த்தா செல்வார். இப்பயணம் திருத்தந்தை பிரான்சிஸ் அவர்களின் தனிப்பட்ட பயணமாகும்.

ஆதாரம் : வத்திக்கான் வானொலி

5. மூதாதையர் வழிபாடும், வயதானவர்களை மதிப்பதும் கிழக்கத்திய கலாச்சாரத்தின் சிறப்பான பண்புகள், யாங்கூன் பேராயர்

ஜூலை,26,2014. மூதாதையர் வழிபாடும், வயதானவர்களை மதிப்பதும் கிழக்கத்திய கலாச்சாரத்தில் சிறப்பான பண்புகளாய் இருப்பதால், மியான்மார் சமுதாயத்தில் அனைத்துக் குழுவினரும் ஒரே குடும்பமாய் ஒன்றிணைக்கப்பட வேண்டிய அவசரத் தேவை ஏற்பட்டுள்ளது என்று யாங்கூன் பேராயர் சார்லஸ் போ கூறினார்.

இச்சனிக்கிழமையன்று சிறப்பிக்கப்பட்ட தூய மரியாளின் பெற்றோராகிய புனிதர்கள் சுவக்கீம், அன்னா விழாவுக்கென வெளியிட்டுள்ள செய்தியில் இவ்வாறு கூறியுள்ள பேராயர் சார்லஸ் போ அவர்கள், நம் அன்னைமரியிடமிருந்து நாம் பெற்றுள்ள பரம்பரை புண்ணியத்தின் எடுத்துக்காட்டு என்று கூறியுள்ளார்.

மியான்மார் சமுதாயம், ஏழு பெரிய இனக் குழுக்களிடமிருந்து பிறந்துள்ள ஏழு குழந்தைகள் போன்ற ஒரு வண்ணக் குடும்பம், இந்தப் பெரிய நாட்டின் பிள்ளைகளாகிய நம்மை இறைவன் ஏராளமான கொடைகளால் ஆசீர்வதித்துள்ளார் என்றும் பேராயரின் செய்தி கூறுகிறது.

மியான்மாரின் வரலாற்றைப் பார்க்கும்போது, இந்நாட்டின் அழகு, வியத்தகு இயற்கை வளங்கள், திறமையுள்ள மக்கள் என, நாடு பலவகைகளாலும் சிறந்துள்ளது என்றும், எனினும் நாடு தொடர் வெறுப்புணர்வுகளால் குத்தப்பட்டு வருகின்றது என்றும் யாங்கூன் பேராயரின் செய்தி கூறுகிறது.

ஆதாரம் : AsiaNews                               

6. இந்தோனேசியாவின் புதிய அரசுத்தலைவரை நம்பிக்கையோடு வரவேற்கின்றது தலத்திருஅவை

ஜூலை,26,2014. இந்தோனேசியாவில் Joko Widodo அவர்கள் புதிய அரசுத்தலைவராகத் தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளதை மகிழ்ச்சி மற்றும் நம்பிக்கையோடு வரவேற்பதாக, அந்நாட்டு ஆயர் பேரவைத் தலைவரும் ஜகார்த்தா பேராயருமான Ignatius Suharyo அவர்கள் அறிவித்துள்ளார்.

புதிய அரசுத்தலைவர் Joko Widodo அவர்கள் சாதாரண மக்களுடன் நெருக்கமாக இருந்து அவர்களின் பிரச்சனைகளைப் புரிந்து கொள்பவர், மேலும், அவரது எளிய வழிகளும், காரியங்களைச் செய்வதில் அவரது அணுகுமுறைகளும் நாட்டின் அரசியல் அமைப்பின் விழுமியங்களோடும், கத்தோலிக்க சமூகப் போதனைகளோடும் ஒத்திணங்கிச் செல்லுகின்றன என்று  பேராயர் Suharyo கூறியுள்ளார்.

Widodo அவர்கள் மாற மாட்டார் எனத் தான் நம்புவதாகவும், அவர் நாட்டை மாற்றுவதற்கு அவர் சரியான மனிதர் என்றும் தெரிவித்த பேராயர், புதிய அரசுத்தலைவர் அனைவருக்கும் தெரிந்தவர் என்றும் கூறினார்.

இம்மாதம் 9ம் தேதி நடந்த அரசுத்தலைவர் தேர்தலில் Joko Widodo அவர்கள் தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டார்.

ஆதாரம் : AsiaNews

7. மனித வளர்ச்சி குறியீட்டில் இந்தியாவுக்கு 135வது இடம்

ஜூலை,26,2014. UNDP என்ற ஐ.நா. வளர்ச்சித்திட்ட நிறுவனம் 187 நாடுகளில் மனித வளர்ச்சி குறித்து எடுத்த ஆய்வில் இந்தியா 135வது இடத்தைப் பெற்றுள்ளது.

மக்களின் சராசரி ஆயுள்காலம், கல்வி, வருவாய் ஆகியவற்றை வைத்து ஒரு நாட்டு மக்களின் வளர்ச்சி கணிக்கப்படுகிறது.

இதன்படி, மனித வளர்ச்சி குறித்து UNDP நிறுவனம் இவ்வாண்டில் வெளியிட்ட புதிய அறிக்கையில், பாலியல் சமத்துவ நிலையில் 152 நாடுகளில் 127வது இடத்தையும், பாலின முறையிலான வளர்ச்சியில் 148 நாடுகளில் 132வது இடத்தையும் இந்தியா பெற்றுள்ளது.

மேலும், எழுத்தறிவின்மை, நலவாழ்வு வசதிக்குறைவு போன்றவை உட்பட அதிகமான ஏழைகளைக் கொண்டுள்ள பகுதியாக தெற்கு ஆசியா சுட்டிக்காட்டப்பட்டுள்ளது. இம்மாதிரியான நிலையில் 80 கோடிப்பேர் வாழ்வதாகவும் அவ்வறிக்கையில்  கூறப்பட்டுள்ளது. 

ஆதாரம் : IANS                        

8. ஒரு வாரத்தில் மட்டும் நடந்துள்ள மூன்று பயணியர் விமான விபத்துக்கள்

ஜூலை,26,2014. இந்த 2014ம் ஆண்டில் ஒரு வாரத்தில் மட்டும் நடந்துள்ள மூன்று பயணியர் விமான விபத்துக்கள் ஏறக்குறைய கடந்த பத்தாண்டுகளில் நடந்த மிக மோசமான விமான விபத்துக்கள் என்று சொல்லப்படுகின்றது.

மோசமான வானிலையால் சகாரா பாலைவனத்தில் இவ்வியாழனன்று நடந்த அல்ஜிரீய நாட்டு பயணியர் விமான விபத்து, இப்புதனன்று தாய்வானில் நடந்த பயணியர் விமான விபத்து, கடந்த வாரத்தில் உக்ரேய்ன் வான் பகுதியில் நடந்த மலேசிய பயணியர் விமான விபத்து ஆகியவற்றில் 680 பேர் இறந்துள்ளனர். இவ்வெண்ணிக்கை கடந்த மூன்றாண்டுகளில் நடந்ததைவிட அதிகம் எனக் கூறப்பட்டுள்ளது. 

2005ம் ஆண்டில் நடந்த விமான பயணியர் விபத்துக்களில் 916 பேர் உயிரிழந்தனர். 

ஆதாரம் : AsiaNews                 

9. பிறப்பிலேயே காது கேளாத சிறுவனுக்கு மீண்டும் கேட்கும் திறன்

ஜூலை,26,2014. கானடாவில் பிறப்பிலேயே காது கேளாத சிறுவன் ஒருவனை அறுவை சிகிச்சை மூலம் கேட்க வைத்து மருத்துவர்கள் சாதனை படைத்துள்ளனர்.

கானடாவின் மொன்ட்ரியல் மாநிலத்தைச் சேர்ந்த Auguste Majkowski என்ற 3 வயது சிறுவன் பிறப்பில் இருந்தே காது கேளமால் பாதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளான்.

இச்சிறுவனுக்கு மருத்துவர்கள் மேற்கொண்ட அறுவை சிகிச்சையில், அவனது மூளைத்தண்டில் கேட்கும் சாதனம் ஒன்றை பொருத்தியுள்ளனர்.

இது குறித்து மருத்துவர் Laurie Eisenberg கூறுகையில், இவ்வாறு ஒரு சிறுவன் இருப்பது எனக்கு வியப்பளிக்கிறது என்றும், தனது பணிக்காலத்தில் இதுவரை நான் யாரையும் பார்த்ததில்லை எனவும் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

ஆதாரம் : தமிழ்வின்