Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Los Angeles auxiliary bishop Alexander Salazar over his “misconduct” with a minor, the Vatican said Wednesday. The case is the latest in a litany of child sexual abuse scandals to have rocked the Roman Catholic Church …
Read More »Jesuits release list of 89 US priests accused of sex abuse
Chicago, United States | AFP | Jesuit authorities for 20 US states on Monday released the names of 89 priests with credible allegations of child sexual abuse dating as far back as 1950. The disclosures by the Jesuit provinces of Maryland and USA Midwest are the latest chapter in the …
Read More »Ethiopian police arrest ‘doomsday prophet’ for sowing panic
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Police in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara regional state have arrested a “doomsday prophet” who caused widespread panic over claims his village would be wiped out on Monday, state media reported. The state-owned Amhara Mass Media Agency (AMMA) reported that the prophet had told his followers …
Read More »FDC urges religious leaders to preach against bad governance during Xmas
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has said religious leaders should not shy from preaching about critical issues of governance during Christmas festival summons. Harold Kaija, the party deputy secretary general told journalists during a weekly party press conference at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi …
Read More »Fact-check: have 60,000 Christians been killed in central Nigeria since 2001?
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | A video uploaded to Facebook by one of US president Donald Trump’s lawyers claims that 60,000 Christians have been killed by nomadic Muslim herdsmen in central Nigeria since 2001. The claim has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook but AFP has found …
Read More »Israel top court grants Netanyahu government more time to pass key law
Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israel’s supreme court on Sunday extended a deadline for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to pass a law related to military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews, a measure that could potentially provoke early elections. The court agreed to extend the deadline, which was on Sunday, until January …
Read More »Museveni asks religious leaders to include HIV messages in sermons
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Museveni has asked religious leaders to include HIV/AIDs Messages in their sermons. He said this in a message delivered for him by the Vice President, Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi during the commemoration of the International World Aids day held at Bugobero Sub County headquarters in …
Read More »Influential church on election stump in DR Congo
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The influential Catholic Church joined the electoral fray Sunday as the Democratic Republic of Congo gears up for next month’s watershed presidential election to chose a successor to veteran leader Joseph Kabila. Addressing several thousand attending mass, new archbishop of Kinshasa, Fridolin Ambongo, made …
Read More »US Muslim lawmaker-elect in proposal to end head-covering ban in Congress
Washington, United States | AFP | A Muslim congresswoman-elect has co-authored changes to a longstanding rule banning the wearing of head coverings on the US House floor, an effort supported Monday by the nation’s largest Muslim rights group. Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee who was one of the first two …
Read More »German priest blows parish cash in online lottery scam
Berlin, Germany | AFP | A Catholic priest in Germany, lured by a get-rich-quick Internet scam, has admitted to embezzling a small fortune from his parish, a diocese spokeswoman said Monday. The preacher in the central Harz Mountains region confessed to his congregants at this week’s Sunday mass that he …
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