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“Leper priest” Belgian-born Blessed Damien De Veuster who died after contracting leprosy from patients to whom he ministered in Hawaii is on the way to sainthood after experts attributed a second miracle to his intervention.
Philippine Catholic bishops have backed a government decision to prohibit kidney transplants on foreign patients as part of a bid to regulate sales of kidneys and other human organs. GMA News reports the Catholic Church threw its full support behind the Department of Health’s decision to totally prohibit the transplants.
Pope Benedict will visit Australia from July 12 to 21 for World Youth Day, the Holy See has announced. The Vatican gave no further details of the trip. The Sydney Morning Herald reports the 81-year-old pope will make his first visit to the country as pontiff to take part in the July 15-20 event designed to bring young people from around the world together to learn about the Catholic faith. Organizers in Sydney say they expect 123,000 international visitors to come to Australia’s largest city. The pope will cruise Sydney’s famous harbor as part of his official welcome, they said last month.
A Burmese Catholic recounts how, behind the calm and the apparent freedom of movement, the most savage oppression, which prevents any step “outside of the lines,” is hidden. “We are like half statues, half human beings. We can feel and see the suffering of our people, but we cannot speak.” This is part of a testimony on the difficult situation of “religious freedom” in Burma – renamed Myanmar by the military junta – obtained by AsiaNews. The name of the source is not mentioned for security reasons.
“I believe we need to maintain this spirit of seeing whatever we do here in India as God’s mission and not our mission, or even the Society’s mission. This is important if we are to hope that God continue to bless our efforts here. And there seems to be a danger of losing this perspective,” said Fr. Antonio M. Pernia, the Superior General of the Society of the Divine Word, in the context of the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Society in India.
When considering the problem of poverty, instead of looking at why people are poor, we should consider what creates wealth, said a participant in a Rome conference.” Michael Miller, the director of programs for the Acton Institute, a Michigan and Rome-based think tank, affirmed it during a conference hosted by the Institute, with the theme “Has International Development Failed the Poor?” The event commemorated the 40th anniversary of the social encyclical Populorum Progressio issued by Pope Paul VI in 1967.
The drama of child trafficking is a plague for Yemen, where about 1.2 million children are sold every year to criminals in Saudi Arabia and in the rich Gulf countries. For millions of young Yemenis, beyond the borders of their country the gates of hell are opened: they end up begging on the streets, working as domestic servants in the homes of the more prosperous, exploited as factory workers, or as camel jockeys.
Benedict XVI’s personal commitment to safeguarding the planet, shown in part by his numerous public appeals, has inspired a change in lifestyles in favor of the environment, affirmed Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. “The ongoing debate on climate change has helped put into focus the inescapable responsibility of one and all to care for the environment, thereby building consensus around the common objective of promoting a healthy environment for present and future generations,” he noted.
As India develops economically, its citizens face the temptation of putting money-making too high on the priority list, says the president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. Cardinal Paul Cordes affirmed this during his five-day trip to India, which coincided with the plenary assembly of the bishops’ council.
Qatar has it first church in 14 centuries, and it opened just in time for Easter. Costing $15 million raised from donations from the Christian community, the Our Lady of the Rosary Church has been built on land donated by the Emir of the Gulf State, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
