Faith – Winnipeg Free Press

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, archbishop of Colombo, speaks during a media briefing in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, Jan. 13, 2023. Sri Lanka’s Catholic church wants the country’s former President Maithripala Sirisena be criminally prosecuted for negligence, a day after the country’s top court ordered him pay compensation to the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed nearly 270 people. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Sri Lanka church seeks criminal justice for Easter bombings

Colombo,Sri Lanka, The Associated Press 3 minute read Friday, Jan. 13, 2023

Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church urged the country Friday to criminally prosecute its former leader for negligence, a day after the top court ordered him to pay compensation to the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed nearly 270 people.

Two local Muslim groups that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group were accused of carrying out six near-simultaneous suicide bomb attacks, targeting worshippers at Easter services in three churches and tourists having breakfast at three popular hotels. The attacks killed 269 and wounded some 500 more.

Duthika Perera, an attorney representing Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, said the church expects the attorney general to file criminal charges against former President Maithripala Sirisena and four others whom the court found to have neglected their duties to protect the people.

In its decision Thursday on a fundamental rights petition — filed by families of victims, religious leaders and well-wishers — the court said two top intelligence officials, a former secretary to the ministry of defense and Sirisena, who was also defense minister and commander in chief of the armed forces, failed to act on near-specific foreign intelligence that was received prior to the attacks.

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Vatican to hear from PR expert with grudge against cardinal

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Vatican to hear from PR expert with grudge against cardinal

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 3 minute read Friday, Jan. 13, 2023

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican’s big financial fraud and corruption trial took a soap opera turn Friday with court-ordered testimony from a public relations specialist who has long harbored a grudge against one of the prime defendants, Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

Francesca Chaouqui was called to answer questions after text messages entered into the court record indicated that she helped coach Becciu’s key accuser into turning on the cardinal. Chaouqui has never hidden her fantasy of taking revenge on Becciu, whom she accused of being behind her 2015-2016 prosecution for passing confidential documents to journalists.

She apparently found the chance to settle scores when Vatican police in 2019 began investigating the secretariat of state’s 350 million-euro investment in a London property. Prosecutors charged 10 people, including Becciu, with a host of financial crimes, alleging Vatican monsignors and external brokers fleeced the Holy See of tens of millions of euros in fees and commissions.

Becciu is accused in two deals that are tangential to the London case and emerged after his onetime deputy, Archbishop Alberto Perlasca, flipped and started cooperating with prosecutors in August 2020. Perlasca revealed last month that he changed his story after a friend started passing advice to him from someone she identified as a “retired magistrate.”

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Friday, Jan. 13, 2023

Public relations specialist Francesca Chaouqui arrives for testimony in a trial in the city-state's criminal tribunal at the Vatican, Friday, Jan. 13, 2023. Prosecutors have accused 10 people, including a once-powerful cardinal and papal contender, on charges related to the Holy See's 350 million-euro investment in a luxury London real estate venture causing the Vatican the loss of millions of euros in fees to brokers, bad investments and other questionable expenses. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A year later, Texas synagogue hostages cope, carry on

Bobby Ross Jr., The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

A year later, Texas synagogue hostages cope, carry on

Bobby Ross Jr., The Associated Press 7 minute read Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023

COLLEYVILLE, Texas (AP) — A year ago, Jeff Cohen and three others survived a hostage standoff at their Reform Jewish synagogue in this Fort Worth suburb.

Their trauma did not disappear, though, with the FBI’s killing of the pistol-wielding captor, 44-year-old British national Malik Faisal Akram.

Healing from the Jan. 15, 2022, ordeal remains an ongoing process.

“Let’s be blunt: We’re healing. We’re not healed,” said Cohen, 58, a Lockheed Martin engineer who serves as president of Congregation Beth Israel and its 140-family membership.

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Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023

In this Dec. 22, 2022, photo, Lawrence Schwartz poses for a photo inside of Congregation Beth Israel, in Colleyville, Texas. A year ago, a rabbi and three others survived a hostage standoff at their synagogue in Colleyville, Texas. Their trauma did not disappear, though, with the FBI's killing of the pistol-wielding captor. Healing from the Jan. 15, 2022, ordeal is ongoing. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

‘Catastrophe’: Cardinal Pell’s secret memo blasts Francis

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

‘Catastrophe’: Cardinal Pell’s secret memo blasts Francis

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 5 minute read Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis will deliver a final send-off for Cardinal George Pell during a funeral Mass on Saturday, the Vatican said, as revelations emerge of the Australian prelate’s growing concern about what he considered the “disaster” and “catastrophe” of the papacy under Francis.

The Vatican on Thursday said the dean of the college of cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, would celebrate Pell's funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. As is custom for cardinal funerals, Francis will deliver a final commendation and salute.

Pell, who had served as Francis’ first finance minister for three years before returning to Australia to face child sex abuse charges, died on Tuesday at a Rome hospital of heart complications following hip surgery. He was 81.

He had been dividing his time between Rome and Sydney after he was exonerated in 2020 of allegations he molested two choirboys while he was archbishop of Melbourne. Australia’s High Court overturned an earlier court conviction, and Pell was freed after serving 404 days in solitary confinement.

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Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023

FILE - Cardinal George Pell answers a journalist's question during an interview with The Associated Press inside his residence near the Vatican in Rome, Nov. 30, 2020. Pell, who was the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sex abuse before his convictions were later overturned, has died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, in Rome at age 81. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

Polish officials say WWII trove of Jewish objects rare find

The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Polish officials say WWII trove of Jewish objects rare find

The Associated Press 2 minute read Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023

LODZ, Poland (AP) — A recent discovery of objects that were most likely hidden by their Jewish owners during World War II is a rare and precious discovery, officials in central Poland said Wednesday.

Lodz city authorities were showing to The Associated Press and commenting about around 400 items, including silver-plated menorahs, hanukkiahs, tableware and daily use items, which were uncovered there last month during house and yard renovation works.

“Those residents who buried these items did so most likely thinking that they would one day return for them, that they would be able to retrieve them," said Lodz deputy mayor, Adam Pustelnik.

“Most likely, these people lost their lives” in the Holocaust, Pustelnik said. “Such stories are truly rare and precious and also are a great lesson for us all.”

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Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023

Krzysztof Hejmanowski, left, building inspector of the Warbud construction company and archaeologist Bartlomiej Gwozdz, right, pose for a photograph with objects that were most probably hidden by their Jewish owners during World War II, in Lodz, Poland, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023. Lodz city authorities were showing to The Associated Press and commenting about some 400 items - including silver-plated menorahs, hanukkiahs, tableware and daily use items, that were uncovered there last month during house and yard renovation works. (AP Photo/Rafal Niedzielski)

Pope honors Cardinal George Pell, divisive Australian cleric

Rod Mcguirk, Nicole Winfield And Nick Perry, The Associated Press 10 minute read Preview

Pope honors Cardinal George Pell, divisive Australian cleric

Rod Mcguirk, Nicole Winfield And Nick Perry, The Associated Press 10 minute read Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Wednesday paid tribute to Cardinal George Pell, who spent 404 days in solitary confinement in his native Australia before his child sex convictions were overturned, praising his diligence in reforming the Vatican’s finances and his faith “even in the hour of trial.”

Francis sent a telegram of condolences to the head of the College of Cardinals, expressing his “sadness” over Pell's death and relaying his prayers and sympathy to the Australian prelate's family.

Pell died Tuesday in Rome, where he had attended the funeral last week of Pope Benedict XVI. Pell suffered fatal heart complications following hip surgery, said Archbishop Peter Comensoli, Pell’s successor as archbishop of Melbourne. He was 81.

He was a divisive figure. He lived to see Vatican rivals charged with financial crimes after he worked to reform the Holy See's finances. In Australia, he was a lightning rod for disagreements over whether the Catholic Church had been properly held to account for historic child sex abuse.

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Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023

FILE - Cardinal George Pell, center, the most senior Catholic cleric to face sex charges, leaves court in Melbourne, Australia, May 2, 2018. Pell, who was the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sex abuse before his convictions were later overturned, has died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, in Rome at age 81. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake, File)

Retired Missouri priest sentenced for possessing child porn

The Associated Press 2 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A retired Catholic priest in St. Louis who used thousands of images of child pornography to make PowerPoint presentations for several years was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison.

James T. Beighlie, 72, pleaded guilty in October to two counts of possession of child pornography. He was also ordered to pay $4,750 to one of this victims, and another $22,000 for a fund that will go toward other child victims of crimes.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Lang said Beighlie had thousands of images and videos that he used for the PowerPoint presentations, which he revised several times. He had been using child pornography since at least 2008, she said. The prosecutor’s office has not indicated that Beighlie showed the presentations to anyone.

“All I can say is that I am ashamed and deeply remorseful,” Beighlie told the judge.

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Nicaraguan bishop to stand trial on conspiracy charge

The Associated Press 2 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Roman Catholic bishop who has criticized the Nicaraguan government will stand trial on charges of conspiracy and spreading false information, a court ruled Tuesday.

Matagalpa Bishop Rolando Álvarez, shown seated and dressed as a civilian at Tuesday’s hearing, will remain under house arrest, according to the government outlet El 19 Digital.

Álvarez was arrested along with several other clergy last August in a pre-dawn raid at his church residence.

President Daniel Ortega’s government has moved systematically to silence voices of dissent, arresting dozens of opposition leaders in 2021, including seven potential challengers for the presidency. The crackdown continued last year after he won a fourth consecutive term.

Italy’s Meloni makes first state visit to meet with Francis

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Italy’s Meloni makes first state visit to meet with Francis

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 3 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who came to power on a campaign motto of “God, Family, Fatherland” made her first official visit to see Pope Francis on Tuesday, fulfilling what she said was a hoped-for opportunity to better understand the Argentine pontiff.

Meloni spent 35 minutes with Francis alone, before she met with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister. The Holy See said the talks with Parolin focused on the fight against poverty, family issues and Italy’s demographic problems — a big concern for both Meloni and Francis who have lamented Italy’s low birth rate. The war in Ukraine and migration were also discussed, according to a press statement.

Meloni, whose far-right-led coalition won September national elections, has spoken at length about her Catholic faith and has been a high-profile participant in Italy’s conservative Family Day rallies aimed at promoting “traditional” family values. During the 2016 edition she announced she was pregnant with her first child, Ginevra, who accompanied her to the audience with Francis Tuesday, along with her partner.

Meloni has assured Italians she won’t roll back abortion rights but she has vowed to pass initiatives to provide alternatives and to better support families to help reverse what Francis has called Italy's “demographic winter.”

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Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, center, talks to Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, left, as she arrives with her partner Andrea Giambruno, second from left, and her sister Arianna (partially hidden) at The Vatican, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023 for an audience with Pope Francis. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

Lebanese Hezbollah condemns Charlie Hebdo cartoons in France

The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Lebanese Hezbollah condemns Charlie Hebdo cartoons in France

The Associated Press 2 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group on Tuesday condemned the cartoons published recently by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that mocked Iran's ruling clerics and urged France to punish the publication.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah said the offensive caricatures were an “ugly act by the magazine” that targeted Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, revered as the spiritual leader for tens of millions of pious Shiites throughout the world, including in Lebanon.

There was no immediate comment from France.

Charlie Hebdo has a long history of publishing vulgar cartoons mocking Islamists, which critics say are deeply insulting to Muslims. Two French-born al-Qaida extremists attacked the newspaper’s office in 2015, killing 12 cartoonists, and it has been the target of other attacks over the years.

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Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023

FILE - A Hezbollah supporter holds up a picture of the leader of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, during a ceremony to mark the third anniversary of the assassination of Iran's Quds force General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad, in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon, on Jan. 3, 2023. Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023 condemned the cartoons published recently by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that mocked Iran's ruling clerics and urged France to punish the publication. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

Saudi Arabia: Hajj pilgrimage returning to pre-COVID levels

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Saudi Arabia: Hajj pilgrimage returning to pre-COVID levels

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press 4 minute read Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Islam's annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia will return to pre-pandemic levels this year after restrictions saw the annual religious commemoration curtailed over concerns about the coronavirus, authorities say.

The hajj, required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their life, represents one of the world's largest gatherings of people. Before the pandemic, the pilgrimage drew millions each year to Islam's holy city of Mecca, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that observant Muslims pray toward five times a day.

In 2019, over 2.4 million people took part in the pilgrimage. But in 2020, amid the lockdowns sparked by the pandemic, Saudi Arabia drastically curtailed the hajj with as as few as 1,000 residents of Saudi Arabia permitted to take part. It was an unprecedented move unseen even during the 1918 flu epidemic that killed tens of millions worldwide.

In 2021, some 60,000 residents of Saudi Arabia attended. Last year saw 1 million faithful perform the pilgrimage.

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Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

FILE - An aerial view shows the clock tower over the Grand mosque as Muslim pilgrims walk around the Kaaba, the black cube seen at center inside the grand mosque, during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on July 10, 2022. Islam's annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia will return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, after restrictions saw the annual religious commemoration curtailed over concerns about the coronavirus, authorities say. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

B.C. pastor accused of sexual charges involving children

The Canadian Press 1 minute read Preview

B.C. pastor accused of sexual charges involving children

The Canadian Press 1 minute read Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - A pastor who was servicing a Metro Vancouver church has been charged with sexual assault and sexual interference against children.

Police in New Westminster say they began an investigation after multiple reports came to them.

A police news release says the offences are alleged to have taken place between 2017 and 2021.

It says after a lengthy investigation by the department's major crime unit, three charges each of sexual assault and sexual interference have been laid against Pastor Edwin Alvarez.

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Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

A Philadelphia police car with flashing lights is shown in Philadelphia, Monday, Jan. 17, 2022. A pastor who was servicing a Metro Vancouver church has been charged with sexual assault and sexual interference against children.THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Matt Rourke

Vatican reopens investigation into teen’s 1983 disappearance

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Vatican reopens investigation into teen’s 1983 disappearance

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 2 minute read Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

ROME (AP) — The Vatican said Monday it has reopened the investigation into the 1983 disappearance of the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee, months after a new Netflix documentary purported to shed new light on the case and weeks after her family asked the Italian Parliament to take up the cause.

The Vatican prosecutor, Alessandro Diddi, opened a file on Emanuela Orlandi’s disappearance, based in part “on the requests made by the family in various places,” said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.

A lawyer for the Orlandi family, Laura Sgro, said she had no independent confirmation of the development, which was first reported by Italian agencies Adnkronos, LaPresse and ANSA. She noted that her last Vatican filing on the case came in 2019.

Orlandi vanished June 22, 1983 after leaving her family’s Vatican City apartment to go to a music lesson in Rome. Her father was a lay employee of the Holy See.

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Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

FILE - Pietro Orlandi, right, brother of Manuela, a 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee disappeared in 1983, is flanked by his lawyer Laura Sgro, left, as he attends a press conference on the establishing of a parliamentary investigative commission on Manuela Orlandi and other cold cases, in Rome, Dec. 20, 2022. The Vatican has reopened the investigation into the 1983 disappearance of the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee, months after a new Netflix documentary purported to shed new light on the case and weeks after her family asked the Italian Parliament to take up the cause. On Monday, Jan. 9, 2023, Pietro Orlandi called the prosecutor's decision a “positive step” that the Vatican has apparently changed its mind, gotten over its resistance and now will go over the case from the start. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

Pope meets with Benedict’s aide amid revelations in new book

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Pope meets with Benedict’s aide amid revelations in new book

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 5 minute read Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis met on Monday with Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, the longtime secretary of Pope Benedict XVI who was a key figure in his recent funeral but who has raised eyebrows with an extraordinary memoir in which he settles old scores, reveals palace intrigues and casts Francis in a deeply unfavorable light.

The Vatican provided no details about the content of the private audience, other than to say that it happened.

Speculation about Gaenswein’s future has swirled now that his main job tending to Benedict has come to an end following his Dec. 31 death. But questions have also been raised about what Francis will do with Gaenswein following this week’s publication of his tell-all book, “Nothing But the Truth: My Life Beside Pope Benedict XVI.”

Some Vatican watchers see the book as the first salvo in a new era of anti-Francis attacks from the conservative right, for whom Benedict remained a nostalgic point of reference in retirement. Benedict’s death, and Gaenswein’s postmortem revelations, have removed the façade of a happy cohabitation of two popes.

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Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

In this image released on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, by the Vatican Media news service, Bishops Georg Gaenswein signs the

In polar night, Norway-Russia kids event lights up Christmas

Giovanna Dell'orto, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

In polar night, Norway-Russia kids event lights up Christmas

Giovanna Dell'orto, The Associated Press 6 minute read Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

BARENTSBURG, Norway (AP) — A 15-year-old boy in a polar bear hoodie took turns reading the Gospel passage about Jesus’s birth in Russian with three girls in dresses and bows who proclaimed it in Norwegian, in a shared celebration of Orthodox Christmas deep in the Arctic undimmed by war and the round-the-clock polar night.

The girls and a dozen of their fellow members of Polargospel, the children’s choir at the only church in Svalbard – an archipelago closer to the North Pole than to either Oslo or Moscow – traveled three hours by boat Saturday to mark the holiday with the 40 children in Barentsburg.

At midday in the snow-covered square of this village owned by Russia’s Arctic mining company, a full moon illuminated a bust of Lenin standing in front of a big, twinkling Christmas tree and an even larger old monument reading “Our goal is Communism” in Cyrillic script.

This far north, the sun never rises in winter.

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Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

Maria Kharcheva, a school teacher who recently moved from Russia, looks at icons in the Orthodox chapel during Orthodox Christmas in Barentsburg, Norway, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023.

Pope denounces Iran death penalty following protests

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Pope denounces Iran death penalty following protests

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 5 minute read Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Monday broke his silence on the nationwide protests convulsing Iran, denouncing the recourse to the death penalty there and seemingly legitimizing the rallies as demonstrations “demanding greater respect for the dignity of women.”

Francis made the comments in an annual speech to ambassadors accredited to the Vatican, a foreign policy speech the pope delivers at the start of each year outlining the areas of greatest concern for the Holy See.

In his remarks, Francis linked the Vatican’s opposition to abortion to its opposition to the death penalty, saying both are a violation of the fundamental right to life. Francis has changed church teaching on the death penalty, ruling it is “inadmissible” in all circumstances.

“The right to life is also threatened in those places where the death penalty continues to be imposed, as is the case in these days in Iran, following the recent demonstrations demanding greater respect for the dignity of women,” Francis said. “The death penalty cannot be employed for a purported state justice, since it does not constitute a deterrent nor render justice to victims, but only fuels the thirst for vengeance.”

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Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

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