The three-day meetings of the 11th General Assembly of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) have been a source of pride for every Jordanian due to the fact that dear Jordan hosts for the first time official delegations comprising all parties to the Middle East and all Churches. It, undoubtedly, indicates the state of security and stability that Jordan enjoys. We all pray that the status quo will always prevail.
On this “Mercy Friday” marking the Year of Mercy, Francis paid a visit to the neonatal intensive care unit at Rome’s San Giovanni hospital. After this, he made his way to the Hospice Hope Villa at the city’s Gemelli Hospital.
They saw him approaching, wearing a surgical mask - a standard precaution in aseptic environments such as the one the Pope was entering. Just days after the canonization of Mother Teresa, who did so much to safeguard and promote life, this afternoon Pope Francis paid his customary “Mercy Friday” visit to a structure which shares this very same mission.
Legal discrepancies regarding baptisms and marriages arose after an increase in the number of faithful from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The issue of the “irregularities” concerning candidates to the priesthood has also been resolved.
Pope Francis celebrated Mass at St. Martha House on Wednesday, September 14, with members of the community of Rouen, in honour of the French priest who was slain in his church on 26 July: “He is a martyr and was lucid enough to say to his assassin: “Away with you Satan!”
Marking Independence Day in 2012, His Majesty King Abdullah bestowed on “the House of Peace for the Elderly” (Dar es Salam for the Elderly), located in Tla’ Al ‘Ali, Amman, the Order of Al Hussein for Distinguished Contributions of the Second Class, marking its noble humanitarian efforts being carried out since its establishment in 1976. This accredited House is the brainchild of a girl born in Albania and named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She was later known in Calcutta, India, by the name of “Mother Teresa”.
A year on, the monk talks about the liturgies celebrated in the areas that are in the hands of the jihadists, adding that today “Russia could welcome the displaced and refugees fleeing Syria, to show its love for the Syrian people”
Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael I stated this in a document analysing Iraq’s political situation: “political hunters” are trying to use them “to gain political benefits”.
We Christians where to?
We Christians and Muslims, where to?
On 12 June 1991, a UN- charted aeroplane landed at Habbanyia air base (55 miles west of Baghdad), it was the first traveller by air to Iraq after the first Gulf war. On board, was Mother Teresa who had permission to fly to Iraq due to her old age and the nature of her humanitarian mission. Many Iraqis rushed to the usual hotels to find out where she was staying but they were met with the same reply: despite reserving their best suite for her, Mother Teresa wished to stay at the convent in al- Za’afarania district of Baghdad.
Francis praises Missionaries of Charity founder for putting mercy into action and after canonisation ceremony gives lunch to 1,500 poor in Vatican.
Pope Francis has held up Mother Teresa as a model for the Church’s service to the marginalised while praising her political interventions for revealing the guilt world leaders bear for the “crime of poverty.”
