RELIGION - The African Mirror

Jan

03

2021

Vatican City plans swift COVID-19 vaccination drive for residents

RELIGION

VATICAN City, the world's smallest sovereign state, expects to receive enough COVID-19 vaccine doses in the coming days to inoculate all of its workers and residents, it has announced in a statement said. The Vatican is home to about 450 people, including Pope Francis, while several hundred of its employees live in Rome, which surrounds the city-state. "It is likely that the vaccines could arrive in the state in the second week of January in sufficient quantity to cover the needs of the Holy See and the Vatican City State," the statement said. The Holy See is the Roman Catholic…

Jan

02

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope reappears after pain flare-up, calls for peace in New Year message

RELIGION

POPE Francis has reappeared after chronic sciatic pain forced him to miss the Church's New Year services, and made no mention of his ailment as he delivered his traditional appeal for world peace. The pope was unable to attend services on Thursday and again on Friday morning because of the sciatica - a relatively common problem that causes pain along the sciatic nerve down the lower back and legs. It was believed to be the first time since he became pope in 2013 that Francis, who turned 84 last month, has been prevented by health reasons from leading a major…

Jan

12

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope, in new decree, formally allows more roles for women in Church

RELIGION

PHILLIP PULLELLA POPE Francis, in another step towards greater equality for women in the Roman Catholic Church, has changed its law to formally codify their roles as altar servers, distributors of communion and readers at liturgies. The pope's decree formalised practices already common in many countries. But the change in the Code of Canon Law means conservative bishops will not be able to block women in their dioceses from taking those roles. The Vatican stressed that the roles were "essentially distinct from the ordained ministry", and so not an automatic precursor to women one day being allowed to become priests.…

Jan

10

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope Francis to have COVID-19 vaccine as early as next week

RELIGION

POPE Francis plans to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as early as next week and urged everyone to get a shot, to protect not only their own lives but those of others. "I believe that ethically everyone should take the vaccine," the Pope said in an interview with TV station Canale 5. "It is an ethical choice because you are gambling with your health, with your life, but you are also gambling with the lives of others." Vatican City, the smallest independent county in the world, home to about 450 people including Pope Francis, has said it will shortly launch its own…

Jan

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Mine-free River Jordan shrine ends 50 year wait for Epiphany

RELIGION

A shrine near the traditional site of Jesus' baptism on the River Jordan has hosted an Epiphany procession for the first time in more than 50 years after it was declared free of landmines. Father Francesco Patton, the custodian of the Holy Land for the Roman Catholic church, led Franciscan friars towards a shrine in what was once a war zone between Israel and Jordan. Although the two countries have been at peace since 1994, seven churches laid abandoned for more than 50 years in the area of de-mining operations. The area lies about a kilometre from the Qasr al-Yahud…

Jul

03

2020

By The African Mirror

How religions can help to combat the COVID-19 pandemic

RELIGION

HAKIMUL IKHWAN, Lecturer, Universitas Gadjah Mada VISSIA ITA YULIANTO, Socio-cultural anthropologist, Center for Southeast Asian Social Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada MANY have attacked religions as a part of the problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was initially in South Korea where nearly 5,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were traced back to “patient 31”, an infected individual who worshipped in Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu. In the US, a California megachurch of a Slavic congregation was an epicentre of the virus after public health officials connected it with 71 cases. In Malaysia, 513 people tested positive with COVID-19 after attending…

Mar

17

2021

By The African Mirror

Timeline – Pope Francis’ LGBT+ views, as Vatican opposes same-sex blessings

RELIGION

RACHEL SAVAGE THE Vatican said on Monday that priests cannot bless same-sex unions, disappointing LGBT+ Catholics who had hoped that the Church was becoming more open under Pope Francis, who has previously said he could not judge gay people. The ruling was issued by the Vatican's doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in response to questions from a number of dioceses as to whether ministers were allowed to bless same-sex unions. In some countries, including the United States and Germany, parishes and ministers had begun giving blessings, in lieu of marriage, which had alarmed conservatives in…

Mar

16

2021

By The African Mirror

Dismay greets Vatican’s decree on same-sex unions

RELIGION

PHILLIP PULLELLA THE Vatican has decreed that priests cannot bless same-sex unions and that such blessings are not valid, in a ruling that greatly disappointed gay Catholics who had hoped their Church was becoming more welcoming under Pope Francis. In some countries, such as the United States and Germany, parishes and ministers have begun blessing same-sex unions in lieu of marriage, and there have been calls for bishops to de facto institutionalise these. But conservatives in the 1.3 billion-member Church have expressed alarm over these practices, particularly those in Germany where at least two bishops, including Cardinal Reinhard Marx of…

Mar

09

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope defends Iraqi trip despite COVID-19 risk, says God will provide

RELIGION

PHILLIP PULLELLA POPE Francis said that he decided to visit Iraq despite a rise in COVID-19 cases after much prayer and contemplation and suggested God would protect those who came to see him from the virus. Speaking to reporters on the plane returning from his trip, Francis also said he realised that some conservative Catholics would see his meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, as "one step from heresy" but that sometimes it was necessary to take a risk in inter-religious relations. The 84-year-old Francis, speaking while standing for about 50 minutes, said the trip, his first foreign visit in…

Mar

08

2021

By The African Mirror

Peace more powerful than war – Pope Francis

RELIGION

PHILIP PULLELLA and MICHAEL GEORGY POPE Francis heard Muslim and Christian residents in the ruined Iraqi city of Mosul tell of their lives under brutal Islamic State rule on Sunday, blessing their vow to rise up from ashes and promising them "fraternity is more durable than fratricide." Francis, on a historic first visit by a pope to Iraq, visited the northern city to encourage the healing of sectarian wounds and to pray for the dead of any religion. The 84-year-old pope saw ruins of houses and churches in a square that was the old town's thriving centre before Mosul was…