Kim Jong-un's call for self-sufficiency comes after the country was brought to its knees by the pandemic and a series of floods. The policy is a veiled attack on China. About 40 per cent of the population is malnourished, but the regime is wasting resources on new ballistic missiles.
“The world, without mothers, has no future: profits and profits, alone, do not give a future, on the contrary at times they increase inequality and injustice. Mothers, on the other hand, make every child feel at home and give hope”.
The Apostolic Penitentiary makes public a decree extending the period of indulgence for people who cannot leave home and in order to prevent large gatherings in places where they are banned. The guidelines are also for those who are in isolation or sick. Priests are asked to be more available under the circumstances.
The declaration of the bishops of Kerala. "The Pope has taught in the past that LGBT people are children of God and deserve special care and love." "The official position of the Pope is in complete accordance with the doctrine of the apostolic exhortation "Amoris Laetitia" issued in 2016".
The Holy See and Beijing have announced the extension of the agreement for another two years. China’s apparent dissatisfaction at continued relations with Taiwan. The Vatican is content with the fruits: no illegitimate bishops. But there are no new bishops and the repression of the official and underground communities has continued and worsened. How to avoid "declarationist nominalism" and work for full religious freedom.
Unofficial voices (from the Vatican side) say that the renewal of the agreement will be signed tomorrow. But a wall of silence remains from China, or quotations from the Vatican only. The hypothesis is that the dialogue with China has reached an impasse: China wants the Holy See to break relations with Taiwan and the Vatican wants the recognition of unofficial bishops. The second elegy of Rainer Maria Rilke.
The missionary month of October "represents an urgent invitation for Christians to all feel responsible in furthering the Kingdom of God". The Psalms a "school of encounter with God and of responsibility alongside the poor and the weak".
“All too many conflicts are presently in course. To leaders of nations we say: let us work together to create a new architecture of peace. Let us join forces to promote life, health, education and peace." Francis: "God will ask for an account, from those who have not sought peace or have fomented tensions and conflicts".
The international meeting ‘No One Is Saved Alone – Peace and Fraternity’ began in Rome today with separate prayers by representatives of different religions. “Thinking only of ourselves: this is the father of all evils,” said Francis. “This is a great temptation. It spares no one, including us Christians. The temptation to think only of saving ourselves and our own circle. To focus only on our own problems and interests, as if nothing else mattered. It is a very human instinct, but wrong.”
At the international meeting ‘No one is saved alone. Peace and Fraternity’, the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople calls upon the world to overcome fundamentalisms and ideologies to rediscover the world as a "common home" as well as humans and reality as a "mirror" of God. This represent real "subversion,” ending the “absolute domination of human beings over the entire universe,” signalling the birth of "ecology as a sign of the presence of the divine in creation.”
This afternoon an interreligious meeting will be held in Rome, at Santa Maria in Ara Coeli and then in Piazza del Campidoglio, on the theme “No-one is saved alone. Peace and Fraternity". Pope Francis, Bartholomew I, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist representatives will be present. The scepticism of a part of the Christian world, which fears the birth of a "universal religion". The scepticism of the technocratic world, for which God has become useless.
The hatred shown in the beheading of Prof. Samuel Paty is cultivated in Islamic schools and in French mosques by self-proclaimed imams. A reform of Islam is urgently needed: real elections for the French Council of Muslim worship: elimination of hadiths; erode the Islamist ghettos in the peripheries; launch a conference of all Muslims to fight terrorism. Islam is used as a political tool to put pressure on the country
During the Angelus, Pope Francis spoke of missionaries as "weavers of fraternity". He encouraged and expressed his support for Italian fishermen detained for more than a month in Libya and their families. A long prayerful moment silence expressed support for dialogue and peace in Libya. In differentiating between God and Caesar, Jesus cites " criterion for the distinction between the political sphere and the religious sphere; clear guidelines emerge for the mission of all believers of all times.” the baptism calls on everyone “to be a living presence in society, inspiring it with the Gospel and with the lifeblood of the Holy Spirit.” Believers are the protagonists “in a service of love for the common good.”
On the 75th anniversary of the UN body, Pope Francis addresses world leaders noting that the number of people starving is growing due to the pandemic. He calls for facts beyond ideologies. He proposes to redirect military spending to set up a “Global Fund" to overcome hunger and underdevelopment.
