The League’s general secretary made the announcement yesterday. The organisation, which promotes "pan-Islamism", wants the meeting open to all Islamic and Christian confessions. The “dark page” in Sunni-Shia relations must be turned. Iran’s extremist confessional policies are criticised. What is needed is a return to an Islam that is open to the world and other religions.
Marriage and family are “ordered for the good of humanity". Singaporeans are discussing whether to abolish the section in the Penal Code that criminalises same-sex relations. Laws “must be rooted in truth and the common good.”
Starting tomorrow until 25 September, the pontiff will visit Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Pope John Paul II visited the three Baltic states in 1993. In Vilnius, Francis will visit the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights and remember the martyrs at the Hill of Crosses. Local Churches are strongly committed to ecumenism. Mercy is the main theme.
The statement slams the destruction of churches and crosses, the ban on religious education for children, and the pressures to join Party-controlled bodies. One scholar notes that “Some suggest that because Christians’ allegiance is first and foremost to God and not the Communist Party, there is a conflict of interests that the party believes can potentially hinder the process of unification.”
The possible agreement between Beijing and the Vatican will be signed without the presence of any Chinese Catholics. Not only, the members of the Church in China are being kept totally in the dark about what is being discussed, even if those involved claim to speak of "ecclesial matters". The analysis of a priest-blogger in an article immediately taken down by the police who censor the internet in China.
