In a stirring act of musical activism, rock superstars U2 united with a virtual Neil Finn for a special performance of the 1986 Crowded House hit “Don’t Dream It’s Over”. The artists were honouring the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia’s continued fight against Vladimir Putin’s regime. Song of Freedom and Read more
A Catholic defector granted asylum in New Zealand in 2018 says he wants New Zealanders to understand the importance of democratic freedom. When Dong Luobin, now 39, fled from Auckland’s Consulate for the People’s Republic of China nearly five years ago, he told NZ police he feared his Catholicism was putting his life in danger. Read more
An estimated 5,000 people, Tuesday, took to Wellington’s streets protesting their freedom, and distrust of the government and media. The vocally loud and unmasked protesters took over the Capital’s streets and pavements as they snaked their way from Wellington’s Civic Square, through Mercer and Willis Streets and down Lambton Quay to Parliament. At one point Read more
Christianity is a relic that no longer neither speaks to many people nor affects the way they live their lives, Pope Francis said on Tuesday. He made the comments to Catholic Church clergy and lay leaders in St Martin’s Cathedral, Bratislava during his pastoral visit to Slovakia. “The centre of the Church is not the Read more
On Friday submissions close for the Government’s proposed changes to the Human Rights Act 1993. The proposal, which the Government “agrees to in principle”, is to make illegal “hate speech” against a range of different groups of people. This is a very dangerous step for any society to make. It seems incongruous, doesn’t it? Surely Read more
On behalf of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, I call on Christians of all traditions and people of all faiths, throughout Asia and the world, to pray for Hong Kong, and indeed for China and all her people, with great insistence. The government of China has imposed a new national security law on Hong Read more
A team using computer modelling, Future of Religion and Secular Transitions (forest), has found that people tend to secularise when four factors are present: They are: Existential security (you have enough money and food) Personal freedom (you’re free to choose whether to believe or not) Pluralism (you have a welcoming attitude to diversity) Education (you’ve Read more
The Vatican’s Secretary of State has said that the need for solutions to shortages of priests does not justify scrapping celibacy. Speaking at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University last week, Cardinal Pietro Parolin stressed that celibacy is a gift that must be received and nurtured with “joyful perseverance”. He acknowledged that the lack of priests in Read more
A former top UK judge has likened efforts to oust expression of religion from the public square to Tudor-era persecutions. Sir Michael Tegendhat said soaring numbers of lawsuits involving religion pointed to an increasing denial of human rights. Sir Michael was the UK’s top libel and media judge until he retired last year. His comments Read more
In early April 2014, German author Gabriele Kuby visited the Czech Republic to give a number of public presentations promoting her new book, The Global Sexual Revolution: The Destruction of Freedom in the Name of Freedom, recently translated to Czech. During her visit to Brno, I had a chance to interview Kuby about her book Read more