The head of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, underscored the fact that millions of doses had been received by higher-income countries, while many of the world's poorest countries go without - resulting in overwhelming sickness and death among the poorest.

A tragic and preventable example is that "Only 1 percent of the 1.3 billion vaccines injected around the world have been administered in Africa".

In India, which in April broke the world record for new COVID cases in a single day - surpassing 330,000 - only 3 percent of the population has been vaccinated.

The editor of Indian Catholic Matters, Verghese V. Joseph, told me that while the number of new COVID cases is now declining, Indians are still very vulnerable since the supply of vaccinations is nowhere near matching the demand.

But the hardest-hit country is Peru. According to Johns Hopkins University data, Peru has the highest death rate per capita from COVID in the world.

St. Michael Catholic Church in Prior Lake, Minnesota, where I serve as pastoral care minister, has a sister parish relationship with Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Chimbote, Peru.

In an email to me, Friends of Chimbote Executive Director Todd Mickelson wrote, "The deadlier Brazilian COVID variant is spreading through Peru. Medical systems have collapsed with no hospital beds available and severe shortages of oxygen and treatments.

"The economy is in failure with no government funds reaching the poor we serve who do not have bank accounts to receive assistance.

"Education for the children of the poor cannot occur with no access to electronics or the internet.

"It is essential to humanity and the health and prosperity of the world that global leaders of the wealthiest nations immediately provide vaccines, funding, logistical support and leadership to developing countries.

"Dedicating resources and expertise to vaccinate the world expeditiously is not only the just and humane thing to do but the only way to stop this pandemic and the risk of continuous mutations and devastation."

U.S. President Biden's decision to send 500 million COVID vaccinations to poor nations and the offer from the other G-7 nations to send an additional 500 million doses is certainly a good step in the right direction.

But buying these doses from a very small group of patent holders like Pfizer-BioNTech will take far too long - into 2024 - to safely reach the nearly 6 billion remaining unvaccinated brothers and sisters whose lives are unnecessarily on the line.

Over 170 former world leaders and Nobel laureates have urged President Biden to support a waiver of profit-motivated intellectual property rules for COVID vaccines and related treatments, thus allowing many other companies around the world to produce the life-saving vaccines.

Weighing in on this, Pope Francis said we need "a spirit of justice that mobilises us to ensure universal access to the vaccine and a temporary suspension of intellectual property rights".

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.

Christian groups and those supporting other religious groups who have been brutally attacked by the Islamic State, are calling on the Iraqi community in New Zealand and others to take part in the peaceful march.

Auckland's Catholic Bishop Patrick Dunn, and Anglican Bishop Ross Bay, as well as other Iraqi Christian leaders, will take part.

The Parish Priest of St Addai Chaldean Catholic Church, Father Fawzi Hanna, says people in Auckland are very concerned.

"There is a big Iraqi community in New Zealand, especially in Auckland, and we are all terrified for our friends and family in Iraq."

The march will follow a meeting that will take place from 2-4pm at St Patrick's Cathedral, 43 Wyndham St.

The event also happens to coincide with a similar march organised by Assyrian youths, from Civic Square to Parliament in Wellington.

For those who cannot attend but would still like to show their support, donations can be made to the "Hope for Iraq Fund" - ASB 12-3026-0469396-51.

Source

• Scoop.co.nz
• Image: CatholicSun.org

Additional information: Confirmed with Bishop of Auckland's office that the march is on Saturday 30 August.

TED — short for Technology, Entertainment and Design — offers a worldwide platform for what it calls "ideas worth spreading".

Its conferences feature imaginative and entertaining speeches lasting precisely 18 minutes on developments in the sciences, computing, media and the arts.

The Vatican conference, with a theme of religious freedom, was held under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Courtyard of the Gentiles project.

"We wanted to listen to stories from every walk of life," said curator Giovanna Abbiati, who, along with a group of lay academics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, came up with the idea of holding the event.

"We want to reaffirm that religious freedom is a fundamental human right," she said.

"First of all, it is an aspiration of the soul. Religious freedom consists in the protection of all men and women from coercion of conscience.

"Second, through religion we discover who we are. We discover values and the respect of these values. Genuine religion has a full role to play in society to make our world one of justice and peace."

The event was hosted by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

He said there is a "tragic and painful lack of religious liberty in different parts of the world today. There are many areas in the world where religious liberty is suppressed, impeded or restricted in different ways and for various reasons."

Cardinal Ravasi said restrictions on religion have increased not only in countries known for their lack of religious freedom, but also in many countries with a good record.

According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, he said, no less than 75 per cent of the world's population "lives in countries where governments, social groups or individuals restrict people's ability to freely practise their faith".

Sources:

Catholic Herald

The Guardian

TEDx ViaDellaConciliazione

Image: Gloria Estefan (Facebook)

Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican's Secretary for Relations with States, said recent attempts to reinterpret certain terms in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to introduce "ambiguous expressions and ideological positions" ignore the foundations of human rights and threaten their universality.

He did not specify what "new rights" he was referring to, but the Vatican has previously criticised a 2011 resolution on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Continue reading

Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu, the incoming president of the Church, is opposed to any move to legalise prostitution while Reverend Tevita Nawadra, who replaces him as general secretary, says he is in favour

"Personally and, I think, the position of the church that we do not support the legalisation of prostitution is simply because it contradicts with the laws of the Ten Commandments that 'thou shall not commit adultery'," Waqairatu said.

Nawadra says he supports any move to legalise prostitution "because it will be overwhelming for those who suffer from HIV/AIDS".

Vijendra Prakas, the the national secretary of Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha, the largest Hindu organisation in the country, is opposed to any call to legalise prostitution.

Prakash said the Sabha taught its followers moral values based on religious texts for balanced behaviour and the idea of legalising sex work contradicted the teachings.

Fiji's Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says there are no plans to legalise prostitution in Fiji.

He said a statement by Acting Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor Joe Koroivueta that a change to the Crimes Decree was being contemplated is incorrect.

Previously, in a World AIDS Day press conference at Government House Koroivueta had said that they were looking legalise prostitution.

"For many years sex work has been regarded as illegal in the country," he said.

"We need to address this so that sex workers do not face discrimination."

Koroivueta said Fiji was working towards a human rights-based approach and discrimination against sex workers contravenes human rights.

"We have a HIV/AIDS Decree that is human rights based and does not discriminate."

Koroivueta said the new legislation for sex workers would be in compliance with the HIV/AIDS Decree and totally based on human rights principles and should be ready by next year.

Last year a report by Australian researchers claimed the Fiji Government was concerned about the growth of the sex industry, and had rounded up sex workers, taken them to a military barracks and forced them to squat and do duck-walks and roll in mud.

The report said some practices "amount to torture", including publicly shaming the women and subjecting them to sleep deprivation. One of the women said the abuse made her feel she was "somewhere like Hotel Rwanda".

Source

• The Fiji Times
• The Fiji Times
• The Fiji Times
• Fiji Village
• The Telegraph
• Image: Pacific Scoop