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FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis coughs as he leads the weekly Angelus prayer in St Peter's Square at the Vatican, March 1, 2020. Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERS
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has canceled his main public appearances to avoid crowds gathering to see him and will stream them on the internet from inside the Vatican because of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy.
The Vatican said that on Sunday he would not address crowds from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square and would not hold his general audience there either on Wednesday.
They will be held without general public participation from inside the Vatican.
The 83-year-old pope canceled a Lent retreat for the first time in his papacy, but the Vatican has said he is suffering only from a cold that is “without symptoms related to other pathologies”.
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March 07, 2020
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Premium: Pope Francis bruised after hitting face on Popemobile
Pope Francis shows a bruise around his left eye and eyebrow caused by an accidental hit against the popemobile’s window glass while visiting the old sector of Cartagena, Colombia, on September 10, 2017.
Alberto Pizzoli | AFP | Getty Images
Pope Francis, who canceled a Lent retreat for the first time in his papacy because he is suffering from a cold, has tested negative for coronavirus, the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero reported on Tuesday.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said he had no immediate comment on the report. The 83-year-old Roman Catholic leader, who had part of one lung removed because of an illness decades ago, also canceled most audiences last week.
Francis was to have taken part in the week-long retreat with senior Vatican officials that began on Sunday night at a Church residence south of Rome.
But in a surprise announcement hours earlier, he said he would be following it from his residence in a Vatican guest house.
He has been taken ill at a time when Italy is battling a surging outbreak of the potentially deadly coronavirus.
The death toll in Italy jumped to 52 on Monday from 34 the day before and the total number of confirmed cases in Europe’s worst affected country climbed past the 2,000 mark.
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March 03, 2020
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MINSK -- A Minsk priest never thought that taking pictures of visiting Russian Orthodox head Patriarch Kirill and posting them on Facebook would get him banished from the church.

But that's exactly what happened to Alyaksandr Shramko on October 16 when he received an official letter from the head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Paval, saying he had been stripped of his duties at his St. Michael the Archangel Church parish and banned for one year from all church activities.

"I do not know really why [the photos were] such a big problem, but I was told that I have dishonored everyone -- Belarus, the [Orthodox] church, and the patriarch," Shramko told RFE/RL's Belarus Service.

His letter from Paval said he had lost the right "to serve, wear the cross, or [give] blessings" because of the "systematic publication in the media [of photos and text] that discredited the Orthodox Church and sowed enmity and hatred in the hearts [of its faithful]."

Kirill -- the head of the powerful Russian Orthodox Church, to which the Belarusian Orthodox Church belongs -- arrived in Minsk on October 13 for a Holy Synod meeting.

It was at the major religious gathering that Kirill officially made the decision to sever ties with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople due to its October 11 decision to grant independence to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which had been under Moscow's jurisdiction since 1686.

"I was at the meeting with the patriarch [on October 13], took pictures, and posted them with my comments on Facebook," said Shramko. "It seems to me their main objection is that I focused mainly on [Patriarch Kirill's] security guards, that there were too many of them, and that it is not allowed to take their pictures."

​Shramko added that he had also snapped photos of Kirill's Mercedes Benz escort to the church, including a shot of the special, red 0002 MI license plate.

"It turns out that it is not allowed to show that car's license plate in public," said Shramko.

He said security officials later came and spoke to him about the photos and then informed the patriarch about the issue.

Shramko said he was on his way to bless the opening of a new church on October 15 when he received a call from Metropolitan Paval and was told not to go and that he would be banned from carrying out church activities.

An official letter from the head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Paval, said that Shramko had "discredited the Orthodox Church and sowed enmity and hatred in the hearts [of its faithful]."
An official letter from the head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Paval, said that Shramko had "discredited the Orthodox Church and sowed enmity and hatred in the hearts [of its faithful]."

One Russian Orthodox Church official, Protodeacon Andrei Kurayev, told RFE/RL that he disagreed with the action taken against Shramko.

"It’s one of those decisions which we make and afterward we wonder, 'Why don't you like us?'" said Kurayev, a noted Orthodox theologian. "It was hysterical on the part of the rulers. Father Shramko did not violate any laws. There was no reason to punish him. [Kirill's] visit to Minsk will now be remembered exactly by this willfulness."

There was some hope for Shramko, however.

He was informed by Paval that his situation would be reviewed in one year and that he could be reinstated.
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October 17, 2018
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Duncan Hewitt
Photo above shows Tibetan monks praying in Gansu Province, China on February 21, 2012
Tibetan monks pray in China's Gansu province on Feb. 21, 2012. Photo: Reuters
SHANGHAI — A senior Chinese advisor on religious affairs has said the country should promote atheism throughout society, in remarks that appear to reflect a deepening campaign to reinforce traditional Marxist values in China — and could add to concern about official attitudes among believers in the country’s five officially recognized religions.
Zhu Weiqun, head of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee of the advisory body to China’s legislature, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, wrote in the official Global Times newspaper that the party should “unambiguously promote Marxist atheism to society,” and preserve "its leading position in the thinking of the masses of the people," describing it as “the nations’ mainstream ideology.” And he said it was particularly important to “strengthen propaganda education about a scientific worldview, including atheism, for young people." 
He said that while China protected the rights of religious believers, “as a nation led by the Communist Party, we cannot abandon atheism and turn to religion for spiritual support, nor take a neutral or conciliatory  attitude [when choosing ] between atheism and religion, and cannot not allow religion to spread without limits and become the mainstream ideology."
Zhu’s remarks appear to be in  line with an increasingly orthodox approach to ideology promoted by China’s president and Communist Party secretary general Xi Jinping.
Since the end of the ideologically hardline Cultural Revolution in the 1970s, China has officially said it allows freedom of belief, and in recent years has generally only overtly promoted atheism to Communist Party members, who are not supposed to believe in any religion. And despite controls on the five officially registered religions – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam and the Catholic and Protestant churches – and sporadic crackdowns on unregistered religious groups, the number of religious believers has grown rapidly. Official estimates put the figure at 100 million, while others say it is far higher, with many young people turning to religion – and some party members too.
But since President Xi took office more than three years ago, the leadership has increasingly sought to promote a more traditional socialist line, while criticizing Western cultural and liberal values and other “unhealthy” influences. And Zhu’s remarks come soon after a national religious work conference – the first for 15 years – at which Xi emphasized that Communist Party members must not believe in religion, and said China must reduce foreign influence on religion to prevent “infiltration.” Xi also called for the promotion of a "scientific outlook" among young people, while Zhu Weiqun said at the time that a number of party members had “found consolation in religions,” something that had “seriously damaged the party’s ideology, organization and work style.” 
And Zhu's latest remarks seem to go a stage further: in the Global Times article, he wrote that in recent years, even some “leading officials .. have sought to find values in religion, which has had a negative impact.” He also quoted China’s Communist founding father Chairman Mao Zedong, and said the Communist Party had not come to power by “guiding people to put their hope on heaven or future life. ” And in another phrase reminiscent of the ideological campaigns of previous decades, Zhu said it was necessary to guide people to “draw a clear line” between “atheism and religion, science and superstition, civilization and ignorance.”
Zhu said that if the Communist Party had been able to bring into play some “positive effects of religion,” (religious believers have been praised by some local officials as good citizens – and taxpayers, for example), and reduce its negative impacts, it was “not because we gave up atheism and compromised with religion in an unprincipled way, but because we stuck to Marxist atheism and correct policies.” And he criticized some scholars, who he said had sought to justify allowing religious believers to join the Communist Party, adding, “in promoting Marxist atheism education to society, the fields of education and religious research can’t be an exception – they should also research, publicize and promote atheism.”
Zhu, who took over his current role in 2013 after retiring as executive deputy head of the Communist Party’s United Front work department, which is in charge of promoting links the party and society at large, is known for previously expressing highly critical views of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
 But his latest remarks may alarm religious figures in China, in the context of what some have already said is increasingly strict control on the sector. This has been seen both in the mainly Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang, where the government has stepped up scrutiny of religious practice following several  terrorist attacks that the authorities say were linked to separatism and religious extremism, and in a campaign to demolish large crosses on churches in eastern Zhejiang province. One pastor was jailed, while a lawyer who defended him was  detained for seven months — and a priest at China’s largest official church in nearby Hangzhou was also detained  for opposing the crackdown on crosses.
And with Xi calling for more emphasis on Marxism both in the party and in China's education system – possibly in an attempt to boost the party's legitimacy in an increasingly diverse society – some observers have said that people with traditional 'leftist' socialist views are increasingly daring to speak out, in a society where they had previously been relatively isolated.
Some readers on Sina.com, China’s biggest web portal, expressed surprise at Zhu’s comments. 
"Is it appropriate for the head of the ethnic and religious affairs commission to make this kind of remarks," asked one reader in the comments section, below a copy of Zhu's article.
"Are we back to talking with only one voice?" asked another.
However, some comments expressed support for Zhu’s views, saying party members should not believe in religion –  though in China’s sometimes ironic internet culture, it was not clear if all of them were sincere:
“No-one’s talked like this for decades. Long time no see -- Well done!" wrote one reader. 
May 04, 2016
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Image result for Tennessee House fails to override governor's veto, make Bible official state book 
 (UPI) -- The Tennessee House of Representatives came up short in its attempt Wednesday to override a veto by Gov. Bill Haslam to make the Bible the state's official book.
The House and Senate passed the controversial legislation but Haslam rejected it last week, saying the designation would marginalize the holy book.
"If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we shouldn't be recognizing it only as a book of historical and economic significance," he said. "If we are recognizing the Bible as a sacred text, then we are violating the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee by designating it as the official state book."
After Haslam's refusal, the bill's proponents in the legislature said they would try and override his veto, requiring only a simple majority, which both chambers had to pass the bill in the first place.
As the House's override attempt on Wednesday failed by a vote of 50-43, it was clear that some who originally voted to pass the bill last year did not wish to supersede the governor.
In fact, five Democrats and six Republicans in the House voted for the measure but relented in the face of Haslam's veto.
Debate over the bill lasted for two hours in Nashville on Wednesday. Some lawmakers said it was an opportunity for Tennessee to send a message to the rest of the country, while others questioned whether it was all that important.
"What if we are the state that fans the flame and causes other states to pay attention and read our actions," Republican Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver said. "What if Tennessee was the state that started the revival that this nation so desperately needs?"
"You know what this legislative body ought to be doing if we really wanted to honor the Bible? We ought to make sure everybody in the state is covered health wise," Democratic Rep. Johnny Shaw said. "You're not going to see no difference in Tennessee whether you make it the state book or not."
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Jerry Sexton, said he was disappointed by Wednesday's vote but that he also understands it was a tough decision for many of his colleagues.
"There is so much oppression today of Christian beliefs and values it seems it is not the popular thing to do," he said. "I stand today to say that I'm a Christian and I'm proud that I am and I'm proud that I live in a country that I have the freedom to do that."
April 21, 2016
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Christopher Woody and Reuters

Pope Francis celebrates mass at Guadalupe's basilica in Mexico City, February 13, 2016. REUTERS/Max RossiThomson ReutersPope Francis celebrates mass at Guadalupe's basilica in Mexico City.
Pope Francis headed to one of the poorest, most dangerous cities in Mexico on Sunday to celebrate Mass before a crowd of hundreds of thousands that residents hope will give them strength to cope with drug-gang violence.
A gritty expanse of cinder-block homes north of the Mexican capital, Ecatepec, which is home to 1.6 million people, has seen a surge in crime in recent years as it expanded to cover surrounding hillsides and became infested with warring drug cartels.
Fueled by a weak economy and youth unemployment, gang violence has driven Ecatepec's murder rate to one of Mexico's highest.
It is also notorious for the unsolved murders of women, whose bodies have been found abandoned in garbage dumps and tossed in a canal only miles from where Francis will speak on Sunday.
"We are living through a period of great violence ... May (the pope) give us strength to continue to bear this, to keep struggling against it," said Maria Dolores Angeles Martinez, a 26-year-old housewife from Ecatepec, wearing a T-shirt welcoming Francis.
Ecatepec Mexico police crime arrestREUTERS/Daniel AguilarFederal police search men for drugs and weapons during an antinarcotics operation in Ecatepec, Mexico, November 13, 2009. The operation is part of an ongoing campaign aimed at reducing crime problems.
"The pope comes to Mexico at a very ugly moment," said Conchita Tellez, 65, who traveled 38 hours by bus from the northern border city of Mexicali to see the pontiff. "And he comes to pray for us and for all those who lost hope and have submerged the country in blood and violence," she told the AP.
Across the country, more than 100,000 people have been killed in drug violence over the last decade and some 26,000 are missing.
President Enrique Pena Nieto has failed to significantly curb the bloodshed, with murders rising last year after falling early in his term.
In 7 years of working in Mexico, the Papal visit to Ecatepec is perhaps the only time that city is being framed positively in news coverage

Before becoming president, Pena Nieto was governor of the State of Mexico that is the home to Ecatepec. In the second half of his 2005-2011 term as governor, the murders of women doubled. 
Since 2005, the state government figures indicate that more than 2,443 women have been murdered in the state, with a further 4,281 reported missing, according to Al Jazeera.
Enrique Pena NietoREUTERS/Henry RomeroMexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto attends an event at Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City July 17, 2015.
Corruption and incompetence are rampant in underfunded police forces across Mexico.
The vast majority of murders are never solved and family members complain authorities show little interest in the cases of the missing.
Unlike his predecessor Pope Benedict, who visited Mexico's conservative heartland in 2012, Francis is stopping in some of the country's most troubled corners on his first trip as pontiff.
On Saturday, he spoke out against endemic corruption in a speech before Pena Nieto and political elites.
"Experience teaches us that each time we seek the path of privileges or benefits for a few to the detriment of the good of all,” the pontiff said, according to the AP, “sooner or later the life of society becomes a fertile soil for corruption, drug trade, exclusion of different cultures, violence and also human trafficking, kidnapping and death, bringing suffering and slowing down development."
Ecatepec Mexico pope visitREUTERS/Edgard GarridoA woman takes photos of graffiti of Pope Francis with her mobile phone in Ecatepec, on the outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico, February 4, 2016. Pope Francis is scheduled to celebrate a mass in Ecatepec during his visit to Mexico City.
Pena Nieto's government has drawn criticism for failing to go after corrupt politicians, even those indicted in the US. He, his wife, and his finance minister have all been embroiled in conflict-of-interest scandals over houses purchased from government contractors.
Here's a newspaper headline repeating the call to combat corruption and denounce drug cartels.
Addressing Mexico's bishops on Saturday, Francis exhorted them to speak out more boldly against drug traffickers, calling the drug trade a social cancer eating away at the country.
“I urge you not to underestimate the moral and anti-social challenge, which the drug trade represents for young people and Mexican society as a whole,” Pope Francis said during a 40-minute address to Mexican bishops, according to Mexico-based reporter David Agren.
“The magnitude of this phenomenon … and the gravity of the violence … do not allow us as pastors of the church to hide behind anodyne denunciations,” the pontiff added. Mexico's drug violence is a problem his predecessor, Pope Benedict, avoided referencing during his trip to the country four years ago. 
Ecatepec mexicoReutersA working class housing sprawl is seen on the side of a hill in the Mexico State neighborhood of Ecatepec June 7, 2001.
Over the last five years, more than a dozen priests have been killed, a number that rises to 40 over the last decade, helping to make Mexico the most dangerous country in the Americas for priests, according to El Pais.
Pope Francis will continue south after his visit in Ecatepec. He will say Mass with indigenous communities in Mexico's poorest state, Chiapas, and speak with young people in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan state where drug gangs and armed vigilante groups have waged a bloody conflict.
The pope will end his trip in the notorious northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, where he will address the tide of illegal immigration into the US, meet relatives of victims of violence, and visit a prison.

February 14, 2016
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What is Ash Wednesday and how should I mark it?
Miercoles de Ceniza (Picture: Flickr/rpphotos)
Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent and a day of fasting for many Christians.
But what is the meaning of the celebration, and what should we do to mark it?
Ash Wednesday, which always follows Shrove Tuesday, aka pancake day, marks the first day of the Lenten season, which is the 40-day period of fasting and introspection, confession and penance for many Christians.
The 40-day period reflects the suffering endured by Jesus when he fasted in the wilderness of the desert before beginning his ministry.
During his time in the desert he was (according to the Bible) tempted three times by Satan, and each time he overcame the temptation.
When he was then crucified, his disciples fasted, giving us the final fasting period of Lent during Holy Week.

Many people, even non-churchgoers, will still seek to give something up that they enjoy during Lent. Frequently this takes the shape of alcohol, chocolate or other ‘treats’.
However, certain sectors of the Christian religion mark Lent in different ways.
While the Church of England has no fixed rules on how to approach the fasting of Lent, other areas of the Christian religion do.
Anglicans therefore are left to choose how to deprive themselves of something during Lent.
On Ash Wednesday, Catholics are supposed to fast, but rules allow one meal and two snacks during the day.
Orthodox Christians fast before and throughout the Lenten period in a strict fashion.
The week before Lent (Cheesefare week) they give up meat and other animal products, except dairy and eggs. The first week of Lent, from Ash Wednesday, they eat only two full meals during the first five days. Nothing is eaten from Monday morning until Wednesday evening. Then on all weekdays during Lent, meat and animal, fish, dairy, wine and oil are not eaten. On Saturdays and Sundays, wine and oil are allowed.
During Holy Week – the last week before Easter Sunday, which this year falls on March 27 – a strict fast is observed from Thursday to Saturday night.
The bible suggests that fasting should be done discreetly, so as not to draw attention to the person fasting. It is not supposed to be an outward gesture to be applauded – it is a personal sacrifice made between the person fasting and God.
How does Ash Wednesday get its name?
Ash Wednesday gets its name from the ritual of marking churchgoers heads with ash.
February 10, 2016
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Bogus priest arrested after duping church-goers for two decades
Erwin Mena, who allegedly impersonated a Catholic priest (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)
A particularly unholy fake priest allegedly swindled his flock out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Erwin Mena, 59, went by the name ‘Padre’ and did everything you’d expect of a man of the cloth – masses, weddings, funerals.
However, he’s now been accused of duping parishioners in LA with a string of money-making scams.
Among the allegations are that he sold them bogus tickets to see Pope Francis in New York and Philadelphia last year, and he flogged a CD he made – ‘Confessions of a Renegade Catholic Priest’.

Parishioners in Los Angeles were duped out of thousands (Picture: Getty Images)
Parishioners in Los Angeles were duped out of thousands (Picture: Getty Images)
But when church goers never actually got their trip to see the pope, they alerted the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Church officials say Mena had been operating as a bogus priest since the mid 1990s, and that his name was on a list of unauthorised priests operating in the area.
Authorities believe he managed to pocket around $53,000 (£36,544) from the elaborate scheme.

Jose H. Gomez, the Archbishop of Los Angeles (Picture: Getty Images)
Jose H. Gomez, the Archbishop of Los Angeles (Picture: Getty Images)
‘We are grateful to the Los Angeles Police Department for working to ensure that Erwin Mena was brought to justice,’ the archdiocese said in a statement. ‘Our prayers go out to all the victims of his scam.’

After appearing in court on Wednesday, Mena was ordered to be detained in lieu of $100,000 bail. His arraignment – when the charges will be formally put to him – is on February 24.
If convicted, Mena faces up to 21 years behind bars.
February 07, 2016
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Catholic priests in Nigeria have always captured the public imagination, some of them have served in government positions, some were prominent in the fight and struggle for democracy, some of them have proved their mettle as poets, teachers, musicians, social critics, and public affairs commentators, but Rev. Fr. Ejike Camillus Anthony Ebenezer Mbaka is a cut above the rest, not necessarily in terms of intellect or persona, but in terms of how he has been able to use the pulpit to acquire a rock star status.

It is therefore not surprising that everything about him is with a touch of the histrionic. This is exactly what happened when he was transferred, last week, from a parish where he had served for 20 years: from Christ the King Parish, GRA Enugu, to Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, Umuchigbo, Njinike, Enugu. Characteristically, this radical priest and social activist turned what should be a routine administrative posting by his Bishop into a melodrama and an assault on the authority of the Church. You would think he had been sentenced to a jail term, the way he whined and wept and appealed to sympathy.
“I’m going to suffer because I have no place to put my head. I am going to suffer because I have no place to keep the Adoration Ministry’s assets…The Adoration Ministry is passing through suffering right now even though I’ve accepted that it is the will of God. Is the will of God through suffering? It is a mega suffering. The quantum of the assets of the Adoration Ministry is the only thing I am bothered about for now. Where am I going to keep them? I am going to stay in one small room that has only one small bed, one small table, little toilet and bathroom. So where am I going to keep all the Adoration assets? “ I couldn’t believe that this was a Catholic Priest. 
His pain was so palpable. He even took a shot at the Church:
“I won’t fight anybody or even dream of battling anybody. If anybody allows the devil to use him, the same that advised you to make a mistake will laugh at you when you cry over the error.” This was a clear suggestion that the devil was using his boss, the Diocesan Bishop of Enugu, His Lordship Calistus Onaga, against him, Mbaka and the Adoration Ministry. Rev Fr. Mbaka further spoke with a touch of vanity about how he single-handedly built the Christ the King Parish, Enugu, with proceeds from the sale of his music albums. This priest is certainly special. He objects to suffering even if the Lord Jesus Christ, whose disciple he is, is the embodiment of sacrifice and suffering. He talks about assets in a capitalistic sense, and yet his reputation rests on his commitment to the poor. He finally says he accepts the “suffering”, sounding like a victim.
Mbaka’s melodrama was nothing short of an act of protest and incitement. It didn’t take long before a mob-like group trooped to the GRA, Enugu to help him move his things to the new church where it is said he will be an assistant priest. If his followers had laid their hands on the Diocesan Bishop, only God knows what they would have done to him for allegedly demoting their hero.

It also didn’t take long before the spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress (APC), South-East Caucus, Osita Okechukwu issued a statement alleging that Mbaka was being victimized because he is pro-Buhari and pro-APC.

Okechukwu‘s intervention was a needless busybody act. He only stopped short of asking the Diocesan Bishop to reverse himself or get labeled as an enemy of the government of the day. Nor did it take long before the Catholic Church also put its feet down, staing clearly that no priest is above the Church. Mbaka definitely needed that reality check. But he had succeeded in politicizing his transfer and dragging the Catholic Church into mainstream, partisan politics with the Church holding the short end of the stick.

It is perhaps for this reason that the Catholic Bishop of Abuja Metropolitan See, Cardinal John Onaiyekan once asked that Rev. Fr. Mbaka should be sanctioned. He actually accused him of talking “rubbish” when he openly condemned President Goodluck Jonathan and insisted that the electorate should vote for Muhammadu Buhari, then Presidential candidate of the APC, who according to him, was destined to win the 2015 Presidential election.
“I do not believe in my mind that the way things are in Nigeria, any Catholic priest has the mandate to decide which of the political contestants should be voted for… I don’t believe a priest should be doing that...If he was in my archdiocese, I will have sanctioned him long ago for the kind of utterances he makes.” Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama. President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), also similarly disowned him. Even with those protestations, Mbaka remained untouchable. He is on record as having declared in a secessionist mood, for example, that the sovereignty of Nigeria is not sacrosanct. “If we must be one Nigeria, let it be one Nigeria, but if it can’t be one Nigeria, let us divide…let us tell ourselves the truth.”
He has also since the 2015 elections, made a high profile visit to the Presidential Villa to see President Buhari. He was actually shown arriving in a private jet, waving to the crowd as if he was on a Papal visit to the seat of power! How did one priest, out of over 30 million Nigerian Catholics, become so powerful and untouchable?

Rev Fr. Mbaka’s seeming invincibility lies in his significance and relevance. His Ministry is a loud comment on the relationship between the Church and the congregation. Mbaka is the founder and Spiritual Director of a Ministry within the Catholic Church known as Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria (AMEN). Gifted, creative and clever; he is without any doubt a liberation theologian.

He runs a prophetic church, a church that believes strongly in the power of the Eucharist, and which in every sense is a church of the poor. His source of inspiration must be those liberation theologians and other radical priests who have proven that for the church to be relevant, it must be relevant to the interests, concerns and expectations of the congregation, particularly the underprivileged poor.

More than any other catholic priest in Nigeria, Mbaka has taken the Catholic Church beyond the confines of liberal conservatism to the ordinary man in the market place. He speaks the poor man’s language, he appeals to their imagination. He is the bridge between the Pentecostal churches and the Catholic Church in Nigeria.

He has mastered the tricks, the rhetoric, the antics and the persona of the former, and he applies this with a touch of sassiness that is original. He urges members of his ministry to “Pray Until Something Happens” (PUSH). In an overtly religious and superstitious country like Nigeria, there is never a shortage of persons who are ready to push until the impossible happens.

He organizes vigils titled “E no dey again”. That is precisely what the people want to hear. They want to hear that problems, disease, unemployment- “e no dey again!”. Mbaka also has a Foundation, the Multi-Life Savers Foundation. Note the emphasis on the saving of lives! He pays hospital bills, he gives out cars, he builds houses for people, he pays school fees, he sponsors events.

He sings. He dances. He is not your typical Catholic priest. He is rich. He talks about assets. Other priests go to him for financial assistance. He is an all-round entrepreneur in church garments. His Ministry performs miracles, signs and wonders. He makes the lame walk, he opens the eyes of the blind, he cures diseases; he spreads wealth and opportunities. He creates jobs. He provides hope. With all this, Fr. Mbaka is far ahead of his bosses within the Catholic hierarchy. Persons of other faiths and Christian denominations troop to his Ministry to seek spiritual counseling. Politicians seek his endorsement.

He controls the mind of multitudes. The Catholic Church is probably in need of reinvention, and the seeds of that process may well lie in the example and eclecticism of Mbaka and his likes in other parts of the Catholic world.

The plain truth is that the average church-goer today is looking for something different which the orthodox churches and their mode of worship do not offer. The poor who make up the congregation are as impatient as the politicians who have made them poor. They want immediate salvation, practical solutions to their problems; they want their blessings here and now, not in a world to come. Mbaka and the Pentecostal pastors understand this and so they bring the church closer to the people’s needs. But there is a flipside and it is hubris.

Hubris is risky and pernicious. It is what makes Fr. Mbaka appear so contradictory. It is what has distanced him from his original vows as a priest, making him talk of cash and assets as if he were an investor on Broad Street. It is what makes him complain of suffering and see his transfer as a punishment, rather than as an opportunity for further evangelism of The Word. He must have started out as a humble priest, but today, he has mastered the use of the media for self-projection and he is not contented with being a priest, he is now enjoying the life of a celebrity, hugging the limelight, seeking personal glory.

He runs a ministry of miracles, of wonders and signs and he sees visions of possible assassinations, either of himself or the politicians that he supports. No one should be surprised if this Pentecostal Catholic priest goes about with bodyguards. He shares this hubris with many other religious figures who seek to share power with politicians and co-govern Nigeria. They see visions about everything: from elections to diseases and foreign exchange rates. They have created a New Order under which they command the electorate, political parties and governments.

It is this hubris that has blinded Fr. Mbaka to the fact that the souls to be won for Christ are not only in GRA, Enugu, but in all places as well. His transfer to a smaller parish should remind him of the essence of his priestly vows: humility, simplicity, obedience, sacrifice, as well as commitment to the good of the church rather than individual heroism, values which can truly make him a priest in the Order of Melchizedek. Let him therefore, suffer if he must, and let his suffering be a blessing upon the poor and the Church, and if he as much as whimpers again, let him be posted post-haste to Sambisa forest, where the poor are in urgent need of miracles.
February 05, 2016
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Dozens of Muslim employees at a Wisconsin manufacturing company claim that they were forced to quit this week, after the company changed its prayer-on-the-job policy to one that prevents them from participating in their daily prayers to Mecca.
WBAY-TV reported that before Thursday, Somali Muslims employed by Ariens Manufacturing were allowed to leave the producing line twice a shift in order to participate in two of the five daily prayers required by the Islamic faith.

Ariens, which is based out of Brillion, WI, primarily manufactures snow blowers and riding mowers:
The new policy, as told to the station by a company spokesman, only allows the employees:
…to pray during scheduled breaks in designated prayer rooms. Our manufacturing environment does not allow for unscheduled breaks in production.”
The dozens of employees affected by the policy allege that praying only during a meal break goes against their religion. Masjid Imam Hasan Abdi, an employee from Green Bay, told the station:
“If someone tells you, ‘You pray on your break,’ and the break time is not the prayer time? It will be impossible to pray.”
Added former Ariens equipment painter, who held out his unemployment packet as he spoke to WBAY:
“We pray by the time. So they say, ‘If you don’t pray at the break time,’ they give us this [unemployment] paper to just leave.”
According to the company’s spokesman, the policy change impacts 53 of the company’s workers, with the majority of them opting to leave the company as a result of the new company.
The spokesman added that the company “put a considerable amount of effort” into finding a solution that would work for both sides, which included meeting with members of their Somalian employee group.
Dan Ariens, the company’s chairman and CEO, also wrote in an open letter posted to Twitter that reads, in part:
“We continue to be open to any of the employees returning to work under the new policy…
We respect their faith, we respect the work they have done at Ariens, and we respect their decision regardless of their choice to return to work or not.”
Per US law established by the the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission on religious tolerance in the workplace, “an employer does not have to accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs or practices if doing so would cause undue hardship to the employer.”
The Council for Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) is also calling on Ariens to reverse its policy, per a Tweet sent on Saturday.


Source: Ind Journal
January 19, 2016
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Anglican leaders on Thursday temporarily restricted the role of the U.S. Episcopal Church in their global fellowship as a sanction over the American church's acceptance of gay marriage.
Episcopalians have been barred for three years from any policy-setting positions in the Anglican Communion while a task force is formed that will try to reconcile conflicting views over sexuality in the 85-million-member family of churches. The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States.
The announcement came near the end of a weeklong meeting in Canterbury, England, called by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, to heal rifts over same-sex relationships and keep the Anglican Communion from splitting apart. Welby, the Anglican spiritual leader, has set a news conference Friday in Canterbury to explain the leaders' decision.

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, who was installed in office less than three months ago, has been attending the meeting. He told the other leaders their vote "will bring real pain" to gays and lesbians and to Episcopalians "committed to following Jesus in the way of love and being a church that lives that love." Still, he said he was committed to the Anglican family.



Source: AP
January 15, 2016
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The leaders of the Church of England have voted to condemn same-sex marriage and penalised the Anglican Church in the US for officially recognising it.

After all 37 Primates from around the world met in Canterbury, they issued a statement saying, according to traditional doctrine, marriage should be between “a man and a woman in faithful, lifelong union”.


According to a UK news website, independent.co.uk, the decision prompted outrage from liberal clergy with one prominent supporter of gay marriage saying he was “thoroughly ashamed to be Anglican” because of the decision.

The issue has divided the Church, with conservatives and many Anglicans in African countries opposed to same-sex weddings, while liberals and the Episcopal Church in the US support them.



The Primates’ meeting – called by the Archbishop of Canterbury in an attempt to sort out the conflict – appears to have come down firmly on the side of the conservatives.
January 15, 2016
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The turban is a hugely important religious symbol in Sikhism - and removing it for any reason is not an easy decision. But two Sikh men put aside their strict religious protocol to save four drowning teenagers, using their turbans as ropes to pull them to safety.
The four teenagers had got into trouble after they entered the water for the immersion of the Ganesha idols at Salur Ghat, India.

But moments after stepping into the water they had lost their footing and had been swept away by the strong current.

Inderpal Singh spotted the boys in trouble as he sat on a nearby embankment, watching the immersion.

After hearing their cries for help, he immediately tossed one end of his turban into the water for the boys to grab hold of.

He told New Delhi TV: "I had no time to think and quickly removed my turban and threw it at the drowning boys and pulled them in."

A second man, Kanwalijit sat close by on another bank and immediately followed suit.

He added: "My immediate reaction was to jump into the canal and try to save them, but I cannot swim .

"So I removed my turban and used it to save the boys."
September 30, 2015
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Pope Francis is making waves in the LGBT community again with his most recent comments where he compared transgender people to nuclear weapons, saying both do not 'recognize the order of creation.”

The National Catholic Reporter says the comments were made in a new book published called Pope Francis: This Economy Kills, which calls on Christians to preserve God’s order of creation.


In an interview with veteran Italian journalists Andrea Tornielli and Giacomo Galeazzi, the pope compares genetic manipulation and nuclear weapons with gender theory, a broad term for how people learn to identify themselves sexually and how it’s transmitted culturally.
“Let’s think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instance a very high number of human beings,” the pope says. 
“Let’s think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory, that does not recognize the order of creation.”
“With this attitude, man commits a new sin, that against God the Creator,” he continues. “The true custody of creation does not have anything to do with the ideologies that consider man like an accident, like a problem to eliminate.”
September 28, 2015
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The Christ Embassy Church on Friday said it had about 10,000 children under its care as a way of getting them off the streets.
Pastor Ciji Darah, the Warri zonal head of Christ Embassy made this known while briefing newsmen on the 2015 Reach Out Nigeria (RON) project of the church.
Darah, who was represented by Mr. Yemi Morakinyo also said that out of the 10,000 children, 57 were adopted in Warri, pointing out that the ministry would continue to impact on the lives of the people through the spread of the gospel of Christ and other positive avenues.
‘’We have 30 million copies of Rhapsody of Reality to be distributed this year and in Warri zone we are going to distribute 2.5 million copies within a period of three months,’’ he said.
Darah said the theme of this year programme was ‘’Dawning a new nation”, adding that the annual event which started in 2007 would also feature a football tournament, youth empowerment as well as medical services.
The pastor said the aim of the event was to further propagate the Word of God throughout the country and bring light to the nation.
September 27, 2015
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Two journalists are leaving Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French newspaper whose staff was attacked in a January terror massacre.
Artistic director Luz had said in May that he planned to end his career as a Charlie Hebdo cartoonist. In this week's issue, he made known that next week would be his last.

Writer Patrick Pelloux said in an interview on Saturday that he would also leave "probably" in January.
Luz was the one who drew the cover cartoon of a weeping Mohammed, saying "All is forgiven" in the issue following the Jan. 7 attack by Islamic extremists on the paper, which left 12 people dead. A second attack two days later on a Kosher grocery store in Paris killed five others. All three gunmen died in clashes with police.
"If I've decided to stop writing it's because ... something has ended," Pelloux told the student radio station Web7Radio. "You have to know how to turn the page one day."
He said those who escaped the massacre are not real survivors because "a part of us ended with these attacks."

Sales of the paper rose dramatically after the January attack. But staff member Zineb el-Rhazoui told the iTele TV channel Saturday the latest departures are a sign of a "malaise" at Charlie Hebdo.
September 26, 2015

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