Calls have come from several quarters for priests to take advantage of a 2014 law allowing journalists, priests, lawyers, doctors, nurses, accountants and engineers to carry firearms outside their homes.

The calls come after three recent shooting incidents involving priests.

"Arming priests is not a solution to crimes against them," said Father Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the Public Affairs Committee of the bishops' conference.

He said there is no need for priests to arm themselves because, like any ordinary citizen, they are also entitled to protection from the government.

"If [priests] antagonise other people, killing them is unnecessarily excessive and brutal," said Father Secillano, adding that priests should never be considered as "enemies".

The country's Justice Secretary, meanwhile, said he intends to include in next year's proposed budget for his department funding for the purchase of firearms for prosecutors.

Menardo Guevarra said the move is in response to the killing of prosecutors in recent months, especially in the provinces.

He made the announcement following the killing of a prosecutor during a robbery incident in Quezon City on June 4.

At least seven prosecutors have been killed in the past two years, according to police.

Prior to the 2014 law, people like priests and prosecutors, like any other citizen, were required to prove they were "under actual threat" before being issued a special permit to carry firearms.

Now, all that is required is that they pass a drug and psychiatric test and prove they have no pending criminal case punishable by two or more years in jail and no prior convictions.

Source

• ucanews.com
• philstar.com
• Image: asianews.it

World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland said it planned the Feb. 28 ceremony months ago, well before last week's massacre at a Florida high school. Authorities say the alleged gunman used an AR-15 in the attack that killed 17. Continue reading

It is one 'petal' of a larger memorial for all those who died there - including German soldiers.

It's also a departure from the style of tributes in the 1920s to the 'glorious dead', with a century of perspective.

Passchendaele Society director Greg Hall argues those who died are no more heroes than those who survived and had to come back to pick up and carry on their lives.

"What's the difference between someone who performed bravely and came home, and the person who probably ran into a burst of German gunfire, and didn't [come home]? "

Words like 'sacrifice' and 'nationhood' also bother Hall. He argues the language of those war memorials - the "glorious dead", "honour" and "sacrifice" - is very much the language of the time.

"New Zealand sent 100,000 men away. We had 57,000 casualties, 18,000 killed.

"The population at the time was only one million. The impact was not only devastating but it also happened on the other side of the world.

"The chances of a mother visiting her son at a named grave were pretty remote."

On a single day in World War I - October 12, 1917 - 846 New Zealanders died in the Battle of Passchendaele in Flanders, Belgium.

Many more died later from wounds received on the day, with the total number of wounded, dead and missing in 24 hours a staggering 2740.

On the evening of October 11, a crew of 14 paddled a waka down a canal in the Belgian city of Ieper (Ypres in French) to the Menin Gate memorial.

Te Hono ki Aotearoa (The Link to New Zealand), was made by master waka builder Hekenukumai Busby of Doubtless Bay for a museum in the Dutch city of Leiden seven years ago.

It was crewed by eight Maori and six members of the Njord Royal Student Rowing Club from Leiden.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Newsroom
• Image: New Zealand Herald

The firearm's safety lock was apparently disengaged and the unidentified man's pants evidently activated the gun when the man stood up after the final hymn.

"Many people understandably have questions about what would prompt an individual to carry a gun into the Cathedral," said Bishop Bartchak in a statement released on Monday by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. Continue reading