Nuns reach out to sex workers in fight against prostitution in the Philippines

In a red-light district in Cebu, central Philippines, the taxi stopped when its passenger called out, “There, that girl,” pointing to one of the women standing in the line along the road in Camagayan community. His choice of sex partner, however, is a nun.

“No, she’s not one of us,” the pimp answered the man in the taxi. The chosen woman is a member of Mary Queen of Heaven Missionaries (MQHM), who was with a few other nuns and volunteers talking to women sex workers in the street while they waited for customers.

These “rescue operations,” teams of two to six nuns and volunteer lay people, are part of the apostolate to reach out to prostituted women and girls in Philippine cities and towns and to establish contact with them by distributing rosaries, scapulars and missionaries’ phone numbers so those who want help can contact them.

The group’s foundress, Corazon Salazar, started the apostolate in Cebu in 1996 as a laywoman. In 2000, now retired Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, then archbishop of Cebu, formally established the Institute of Mary Queen of Heaven Missionaries as a Catholic Association of the faithful. Three years later, he canonically erected it as a Public Association of the Faithful with Salazar, a professed sister by then, as founding superior. Its work has since expanded to other cities and towns, including this city of Marikina, northeast of Manila. MQHM nuns are also based in California.

What’s next in the ongoing struggle between the bishops and Obama?

A viewpoint by Thomas Reese

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Watching the U.S. Catholic bishops and the Obama administration fight each other has been a depressing experience. The two should have been natural allies on universal health care, immigration reform, and helping low-income families. Instead, we have had to watch fights over abortion, birth control, and gay marriage.
The fight over birth control made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case. The court endorsed the accommodation whereby an objecting employer would not have to pay for birth control, but the insurance company would still have to provide it to the employees.

This decision was quickly followed by an order in the Wheaton College case, which supported the college’s refusal to file EBSA Form 700 with its insurance company. Wheaton College and the U.S. bishops object to Form 700 because they feel it involves them in immoral cooperation by forcing them to give a “permission slip” to the insurance company to provide the objectionable birth control.

The Obama administration’s response to these cases has been telling.

On the legal front, in a brief filed with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, the administration said it is developing an alternate plan for those religious organizations that object to Form 700. What this alternate plan will be and whether it will be acceptable to the bishops remains to be seen, but administration lawyers appear to be making a good-faith effort to resolve the issue.

Archpriest Emeritus of St. Peter’s Basilica Dies

Cardinal Marchisano’s Funeral on Wednesday, Pope to Give Final Rites

Cardinal Francesco Marchisano has died at the age of 85.

The long-serving prelate passed away at around 10 a.m. Sunday in Urbe, northern Italy.

His funeral will be this Wednesday at 8 a.m. in the Vatican basilica. It will be presided by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, and the Holy Father will give the final rites of testimony and farewell.

Pope Surprises on Private Visit to Caserta

After Anticipated Private Meeting With Friend, Speaks to Pentecostal Church

Pope Francis has met privately with Evangelical pastor and friend Rev. Giovanni Traettino in Caserta, southern Italy.

After the private visit this morning with the friend he’s known since early ministry in Buenos Aires, the Pope surprisingly met with the Community of the Pentecostal Church of Reconciliation — which is under construction — and gave a speech. The Vatican has said the text of the talk is being transcribed and will be published soon.

World War I at 100: New books examine the battle of beliefs behind the ‘Great War’

Some called it “The Great War.” Others called it “The War to End All Wars.” History proves it was neither.

As the world marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, a conflict that left 37 million dead or wounded and reshaped the global map, a number of scholars and authors are examining a facet of the war they say has been overlooked: the religious framework they say led to the conflict, affected its outcome and continues to impact global events today.

More than that, they argue, today’s religious and political realities — ongoing wars, disputed borders and hostile relationships — have their roots in the global conflict that began when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.

“You can’t understand the war fully without investigating the religious dimensions of the war,” said Jonathan Ebel, an associate professor of religion at the University of Illinois whose Faith in the Fight: The American Soldier and the Great War has just been issued in paperback.

“I would be the first to tell you the Great War was not a war of religion, but I think a big part of people’s understanding of what they were doing in the war, or why the war made sense to them, comes from religion.”

2 Christian Brothers Face Jihadist Threat in Iraq: Will They Stay or Flee?

There is no doubt in the mind of 23-year-old Haram. With his second child on the way, he is prepared to rush his family out of town at a moment’s notice: “My tank is always full,” he says. “If the situation escalates I’ll grab my wife and child and flee,” he adds with determination. Haram’s older brother has also made his choice—to stay, no matter what. Mohand’s certainty reflects an even bigger decision he made many years ago: to become a Chaldean Catholic priest.

Along with some 5,000 fellow believers—most of whom have fled there from overrun Christian communities—the brothers are trapped in the Iraqi town of Kirkuk, the capital of an oil-rich region that has been fought over for years already. Today, not even 20 miles away, murderous militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)—who have already conquered huge swaths of northern Iraq—are poised to attack the Kurdish forces protecting the town.

The odds are not in favor of Kirkuk’s fearful inhabitants, Christian and Muslim alike. As Bishop Yousif Mirkis puts it, “the jihadists don’t only hate [Christians], but also all those who do not agree with their worldview.”

Pope Francis to meet with evangelical pastor

Pope Francis’ upcoming encounter with the evangelical Christian pastor Giovanni Traettino continues the path of dialogue he has walked with evangelical denominations since his time in Buenos Aires.

Pope Francis met Traettino in 2006, while he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, at the third fraternal meeting of the Renewed Communion of Evangelicals and Catholics in the Spirit.

On that occasion, Cardinal Bergoglio gave a speech on themes such as God’s embrace and the wounds of Christ. Kneeling down, he received the blessing of pastors, priests, and lay people who attended the meeting.

In his intervention, Bergoglio prayed that “the Father close our mouth with an embrace and unite us more and more.”

Other participants at the meeting included Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the Pontifical Household and a member of Renewal in the Spirit, the most widespread Catholic charismatic movement; Matteo Calisi, the then-president of the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowships; and Giovanni Traettino, a leader of the Evangelical Church of the Reconciliation in Italy.

Before he supported the Charismatic movement, Cardinal Bergoglio was indeed very sceptical of it.