Lord Alton: The World Must Respond to Cry of Iraq’s Christians

Religious Cleansing Is Making a “Hateful Mockery” of International Law

The last Christian has now been expelled from Mosul. The light of religious freedom, along with the entire Christian presence, has been extinguished in the Bible’s “great city of Nineveh” — the centre of Christianity in Iraq for two millennia. This follows the uncompromising ultimatum by the jihadists of Isis to convert or die.

On Sunday Pope Francis expressed his profound anguish: “Our brothers are persecuted, they are cast out, they are forced to leave their homes without having the chance to take anything with them.” The UN Security Council has denounced these crimes but we desperately need to do more.

Before pitilessly exiling the Christians on foot, Isis stole everything they had — homes, businesses, cars, money and even wedding rings, sometimes with the ring fingers attached. Churches have all been destroyed, shuttered or turned into mosques.

St. John Paul II, Gianna Molla to be World Meeting of Families patrons

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia announced Sunday that St. John Paul II and St. Gianna Beretta Molla will be patron saints of the 2015 World Meeting of Families, being held in his cathedral city.

“Saint John Paul II and Saint Gianna have been chosen as the two worthy Patron Saints to guide all in preparation and participation of this international event as they fully embody the history, mission and theme of the World Meeting of Families 2015,” Archbishop Chaput stated July 20 during Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.

“Saints John Paul II and Gianna had a deep and abiding commitment to strengthening the family and sustaining it with love. This historic event will give thousands from around the globe the opportunity to share in the same commitment of our Patron Saints.”

During the Mass, Archbishop Chaput also unveiled and blessed a relic of St. John Paul II’s blood for the veneration of the faithful.

The Third Asian Voyage for Francis Will Be to Japan

An analysis by Sandro Magister

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Bergoglio has dreamed of this destination since his youth. And now he will go there as pope, at the invitation of the Japanese government. As revealed and explained by a former ambassador to the Holy See, Kagefumi Ueno

“I will go to Asia twice in six months. To Korea in August to meet with Asian young people. In January to Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The Church in Asia is a promise.”

Pope Francis said this in an interview published on the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul.

But after Korea, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines, another Asian nation is already preparing to receive a visit from the pope: Japan.

This has been revealed by an authoritative Japanese personality: Kagefumi Ueno, ambassador to the Holy See from 2006 to 2010, now a professor of civilization and culture at Kyorin University in Tokyo, and the author in 2011 of a book on the Vatican described through the eyes of an observer culturally far removed – of a Buddhist-Shintoist outlook – and yet highly interested.

Celestine V a Model Pope? The Myth and the Reality

A comment by Sandro Magister

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Together with Saint Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio has chosen as his guide Saint Pietro del Morrone, pope for a few months at the age of 85. But according to the historians that pontificate was a disaster

“These two saints have given the example. They knew that as clerics – one was a deacon and the other a bishop, the bishop of Rome – as clerics both of them had to give the example of poverty, of mercy, and of complete emptying of self.”

This is how Jorge Mario Bergoglio has indicated two saints as his models: not only the predictable Francis, from whom he has taken his name, but also the unexpected Pietro del Morrone, pope for a few months in 1294 with the name of Celestine V.

He did so on July 5 in Isernia, a city that claims to be the birthplace of Celestine V, on the anniversary date of this saint’s election as pope.

And this is precisely what is unusual. As pope, Celestine V was never particularly esteemed by his early and later successors. Instead they have remembered and admired him for his “humble” resignation of the pontificate and even more for his previous holy life as a hermit.

Why aren’t Pope Francis and his cardinals singing from the same hymn sheet?

An Anslysis by Paddy Agnew

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It was possibly a watershed moment in Holy See media relations. The scene was the Sala Stampa of the Holy See some 10 days ago. 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.

Pope Sends Message to Argentine Parish Priest in Gaza

Pope Francis has offered words of comfort to Gaza’s Christian Community as the massacre in the territory continues.

In a message to the parish priest of Gaza, Father Jorge Hernandez, a fellow Argentinian, Pope Francis said he is keeping the territory’s Christian community in his prayers.

The Holy Father offered words of comfort and assured them he was praying for all those living through this conflict.

The parish priest of Beit Jala in the West Bank, Father Mario Cornioli, had earlier informed the Pope of the extremely challenging situation facing the small Christian community in Gaza and all the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip which has been caused by Israeli bombardments aimed at trying to halt rocket attacks by militants.