If you subscribe to the caricature of devout religious believers as mostly sanctimonious hypocrites, the kind who rake in cash and care about human life only when it is unborn, come visit the doctor here. Dr. Tom Catena, 51, a Catholic missionary from Amsterdam, New York, is the only doctor at the 435-bed Mother of Read more
Sobbing and shaking, Mohamed Abdallah tries to explain why he still wants to risk crossing the Mediterranean Sea in an inflatable boat. He sits in a migrant detention centre in Zawya, Libya, surrounded by hundreds of fellow asylum seekers who nearly died this week at sea. They survived only after being intercepted, detained and brought Read more
Pope Francis has met Meriam Ibrahim and her family at the Vatican after they fled Sudan, where she recently faced a death sentence. Pope Francis praised Mrs Ibrahim for her steadfast witness to Christ, in refusing to renounce her faith, despite facing a death sentence for apostasy against Islam. The Pontiff spent 30 minutes with Ibrahim, her husband Read more
American and South Sudanese diplomats have been summoned to Khartoum after Christian Meriam Ibrahim and her family were detained. On June 24, an appeals court overturned Ms Ibrahim’s death sentence and she was freed from prison. But Ms Ibrahim and her family were apprehended at Khartoum Airport and detained, reportedly over issues with travel documents. Her husband had Read more
A Sudanese Christian mother sentenced to death for apostasy is to be released from prison, a Sudan foreign ministry official says. Meriam Ibrahim would be “freed within days in line with legal procedure that will be undertaken by the judiciary and the ministry of justice”, said Abdullah Alazreg. But Mrs Ibrahim’s lawyer, Mohanned Mustapha, told Read more
A Sudanese Christian mother sentenced to hang for apostasy has given birth to a baby girl in a Khartoum prison. Meriam Yehya Ibrahim was last month sentenced to death after refusing to renounce her faith. Mrs Ibrahim was raised as an Orthodox Christian by her mother, but her absent father was Muslim. The Public Order Read more
An international relief agency plans to airlift some 3,400 Christians out of Sudan, where they face increasing persecution from the Islamist government. Reports said many Christian women and children in Northern Sudan are separated from their families and endure increased persecution from an increasing Mulslim population. The Barnabas Fund, an international aid agency, said it Read more
The state of religious freedom around the world is “increasingly dire”, according to the chairperson of a United States agency that monitors threats to this human right. The reasons include the rise of violent religious extremism and the actions and inactions of governments, according to Dr Katrina Lantos Swett of the US Commission for International Read more
Sudanese president Omar al Bashir says the only way to negotiate with the South Sudanese is “with bullets and rifles.” Bashir’s rhetoric and the attitude of the United Nations has Caritas Internationalis warning that Sudan and South Sudan are just a step away from the brink of full-scale war. Caritas is urging the Sudanese leaders Read more
Sudan’s Catholic bishops have issued a formal warning about the threat of a return to full-scale civil war and appealed for urgent food and medicine, stating that thousands of people are being terrorised by aerial bombardment.
Referring to spreading violence in different regions in central and eastern Sudan, and newly created South Sudan, the bishops’ statement urges the international community to intervene to stop the fighting.
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