International News

Global South issue communiqué from Singapore

TAP — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:44:32 +0000

"We need a new way forward" says Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini (Rwanda)

Distribute morning-after pill in Mexico or go to prison

TAP — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:43:12 +0000

The Supreme Court of Mexico has ruled that the abortifacient 'morning-after pill' must be distributed by all hospitals in Mexico, public and private. A Supreme Court Minister stated that officials who refuse to comply with the ruling may be removed from their positions, prosecuted, and imprisoned.

New Primates for Rwanda & Papua New Guinea

TAP — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:41:50 +0000

The principal of Kigali Anglican Theological College, Louis Muvunyi, has been elected by his fellow bishops as the next Primate of Rwanda. He succeeds Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini who has reached 65, the mandatory retirement age for Rwandan bishops.

Monasteries open their doors to prisoners

TAP — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:27:10 +0000

(Staff) What do monks and prisoners have in common? Both live in cells. And now in the nation of Georgia some prisoners are being given the opportunity to swap their prison uniforms for cassocks and serve at least some of their sentence in monastic cells.

The prisons in this mountainous ex-Soviet republic, squeezed between Russia and Turkey, are severely overcrowded. So this new church-state arrangement is a welcome one. Only ten convicts have begun community service in monasteries but if successful, hundreds more could follow.

Primates Critical of Communion Structures

TAP — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:24:52 +0000

(Staff) A Primates Council representing over thirty-four million Anglicans -- more than half of the active membership of the Anglican Communion -- issued a strongly worded communiqué arguing that “the current structures” of the worldwide body “have lost integrity and relevance.”

Vatican to introduce “zero tolerance” rules on clerical sexual abuse

TAP — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:23:30 +0000

THE VATICAN’S Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) will produce a new set of protocols to be applied globally in dealing with sexual abuse of minors by clerics, according to a report from the Italian daily La Stampa. The paper said that the new rules will be modeled on the “zero tolerance” policy instituted by the U.S. bishops in 2002. Individual bishops must implement the new unified rules or resign.

Gendercide: 100 million girls missing

TAP — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:22:37 +0000

Although a pro-abortion publication, The Economist has published a cover story entitled “Gendercide: What happened to 100 million baby girls?” It examines the disproportionate number of baby girls aborted – especially in countries like China and India – saying “the cumulative consequence for societies of such individual actions is catastrophic.” In some Chinese provinces the ratio is an “unprecedented” 130 boys to 100 girls. Other populations with distorted sex ratios include Taiwan, Singapore, former Communist states in the western Balkans and the Caucasus, and even Chinese and Japanese Americans.

Moroccan authorities close Christian orphanage

TAP — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:20:45 +0000

ON MARCH 8, Moroccan authorities raided Village of Hope (VoH), a private children’s home in Ain Leuh located in the Middle Atlas Mountains, south of Fez. It was founded as a home for children abandoned by their parents. The authorities arrived during the school day, entered the classrooms and told the adopted children their foster parents would be leaving the country with no guarantee of ever seeing their Moroccan children again.

Saving Iraq's Christians

TAP — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:19:08 +0000

THIS NEW DECADE has gotten off to a rough start for Christians living in the Islamic world. Just this week, hundreds of Nigerian Christians were killed by Muslims, though the religious dimension of that event is disputed. On March 10, in Manshera, Pakistan, suspected Islamists attacked the World Vision office, killing six people and injuring five, using bombs, hand grenades and guns. World Vision is the world's largest Christian overseas relief and development agency, and its employees murdered in Manshera -- all Pakistanis -- were assisting those still suffering from the Kashmir earthquake of 2005.

Archbishop denounces massacre in Nigeria; 500 dead

TAP — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:17:09 +0000

Archbishop KwashiON MARCH 7 Muslims launched deadly nighttime attacks on Christians in the three farming villages of Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Rastat in Plateau State near the city of Jos, Nigeria. Sources estimate that around 500 people were killed and 200 injured in the violence.