Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Manjiya County MP John Baptist Nambeshe has withdrawn his motion seeking leave to introduce a Private Member’s that aims at regulating religious organizations. The Religious Organizations’ Bill seeks among others to harmonize the governing structures for all religious organizations by having all religious …
Read More »MPs dissent on Bill to regulate religious organisations
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Members of Parliament have rejected a move by Manjiya County MP, John Baptist Nambeshe, to introduce a Private Member’s Bill that aims to regulate religious organisations. Nambeshe said the bill titled the Religious Organisations Bill, 2019, seeks to have all religious organisations registered and …
Read More »Now, Kasai bishops endorse election of DR Congo’s Tshisekedi
Kananga, DR Congo | AFP | Some Catholic bishops in the Kasai region of DR Congo on Sunday endorsed the election of Felix Tshisekedi as the new president, splitting with bishops in the rest of the country. A statement issued by six of the eight bishops in Kasai, Tshisekedi’s home …
Read More »Pope touts ‘Click to Pray’ app ahead of World Youth Day
Accompany Pope Francis in his Click To Pray profile. Download the app ? pic.twitter.com/m3Wt6jWwoK — Click To Pray (@clicktoprayapp) January 20, 2019 Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis on Sunday recommended a praying app called “Click to Pray” ahead of a World Youth Day festival in Panama …
Read More »Bahati asks pastors to support FBO policy
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The State Minister of Finance for Planning, David Bahati has asked pastors to support the draft Faith-Based Organization policy because it is aimed at creating a better working relationship between the government and church. FBO’s policy, a legal framework designed to monitor and …
Read More »US ex-priest sentenced to up to 14 years in prison for child sex abuse
New York, United States | AFP | A former Catholic priest who had admitted to sexually abusing children in the US state of Pennsylvania was sentenced Friday to up to 14 years in prison — the second clergyman to be jailed in the wake of a damning statewide grand jury …
Read More »Hundreds mark Jesus baptism at historic Jordan site
Wadi al-Kharrar, Jordan | AFP | Hundreds of Catholic worshippers attended a special mass Friday on the banks of the Jordan River in an annual pilgrimage to the site where many believe Jesus was baptised. Before the ceremony started on the Jordanian side of the river, dozens of priests filled …
Read More »Pope says nationalist leaders undermine global diplomacy
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Nationalist leaders are weakening the world’s system of multilateral diplomacy, Pope Francis warned on Monday in his annual address to ambassadors to the Holy See. The pope decried “the resurgence of nationalistic tendencies at odds with the vocation of international organisations to be …
Read More »S.Africa worshippers make annual pilgrimage to holy mountain
Ndwedwe, South Africa | AFP | Thousands of white-robed devotees of the Shembe Church in South Africa greeted the New Year last week by climbing the mountain of Nhlangakazi, sacred to them for more than a century. Every New Year, people mostly from Inanda township, near the coastal city of …
Read More »Ukraine’s newly independent church holds ‘historic’ first service
Kiev, Ukraine | AFP | Ukraine’s newly created independent Orthodox Church held its first service in Kiev on Monday after a historic break with the Russian Orthodox Church that has enraged Moscow. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko attended the service in Kiev’s most ancient church, the 11th-century Saint Sophia’s Cathedral, as …
Read More »