A select group of distinguished leaders brought their experience to the table as they gathered at Catholic University on Feb. 8 to choose finalists for the Opus Prize for humanitarian work. In 2021, Catholic University was chosen to host the prize, an annual faith-based humanitarian award, recognizing leaders and organizations that develop creative, faith-filled solutions to some of the world s most pressing problems.
The Prosecutor General of Finland has undertaken criminal prosecutions that will compel Finland’s clergy and lay religious believers to choose between prison and abandoning teachings of their various faiths.
First, Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen has charged Dr. Päivi Räsänen, a Member of the Finland’s Parliament and former Finnish Minister of the Interior, with three counts of “ethnic agitation” for peacefully expressing her views on marriage and sexuality. The charges against Dr. Räsänen stem from her authorship of a 2004 booklet entitled,
Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity, published by the Luther Foundation. In the booklet, Dr. Räsänen argues that homosexual activity should be recognized by the church as sinful based on the teachings of the Hebrew Bible and Christian scripture.