It is neither strange nor unusual to see Jordanian Ramadan banquets in Christian homes, in churches or rather in their affiliated schools. This is not a message intended to be conveyed to Jordanians, for we Jordanians know ourselves well and do know the good fruits yielded from the Jordanian soil which have over the years been exuding peace and cordiality. This is merely a message intended to be disseminated to the whole world.
In 1999, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah launched an initiative titled, "Together, Towards a Safe schooling Environment," which aimed at "defusing violence" in schools. This initiative came on the heels of increased teachers' violence against children, which was accompanied by physical and psychological torture, as well as by disciplinary beatings and intimidation.
The Pope refused a one million euro donation from the Argentinian government to Scholas Ocurrentes. In a letter explaining the reasons for refusing the cheque, the Pope invited the foundation not to “slip” into corruption. The curious case of the figure 666, the number of the Beast.
Today,June 13, marked the first ever visit by a Pope to the World Food Programme headquarters: Even hunger is used as a weapon. Pain must not be “bureaucratised”, it is important to remember people’s stories and faces.
Interview with the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches: “The Pope’s visit to this country will be a pilgrimage in the name of mercy and peace”.
Ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to Armenia from 24 to 26 June, we met Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, who knows the country very well and will be accompanying the Pope on his trip.
Your Eminence, what is the essence of the Pope’s visit to Armenia?
The decision was announced on the evening of 13 June, after the Patriarchates of Antioch, Bulgaria and Georgia pulled out: Moscow has now made the same request as these Churches. The Russians are refusing to attend if the Council is not postponed as requested. But the assembly is to go ahead as scheduled.
Eastern Orthodox Churches are gathering shortly in Crete for a highly significant 'Holy and Great Council' aimed at ironing out knotty problems that have accumulated over the last few centuries. It begins on Saturday, June 18, and supporters hope it will be something like the Second Vatican Council that blew away the cobwebs from the Roman Catholic Church and brought it into the 20th century (it started in 1962). However, the 'Pan-Orthodox Council' – it means all the Orthodox Churches – has run into problems.
More than nine million pilgrims have passed through the holy doors of four major basilicas in Rome; the Holy Year of Mercy has defeated the fear of terrorism, although security remains high since the Paris attacks. This is a global Holy Year that has been celebrated in every local Church. Organisational problems have been resolved in time for Mother Teresa’s canonisation ceremony in September.
In the Roman missal the saint is commemorated with an obligatory memorial, now Francis has raised the celebration to the dignity of a feast day that celebrates the apostles, in order to underline the importance of the first testimony of the resurrection and the role of women in evangelisation. The feast day will still be celebrated on 22 July.
"Together before God, and for humanity" is the term used by Dutch Jesuit Fr. Christian Van Niaspan who spent long years in Egypt, in its churches and in its mosques. He maintained friendship with Al-Azhar, which has lofty universal, religious and cultural merits on the one hand, and with the local Coptic Church, which has great contributions to the Egyptian history, on the other. Christian Van Niaspan passed away a few days ago and left behind a great legacy of Arabic books and above this, he left behind a model of goodness that exudes mutual cordiality.
