Are we star-gazing?
Many may think that some Christians, this January, have decided to go star-gazing. This is because the theme of this year’s Christian
Mgr Hector Scerri writes:
The demise of Fr Nicholas, on July 28, was an unexpected blow to many who knew him. Fr Nicholas’s life and mission was inextric
Over 5.2 billion people suffer religious freedom violations every day. This is one of the harrowing details that are revealed in the 2021 edition of the Religious Freedom in the World Report (RFR), the main research project of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
From a small booklet first published about 22 years ago, today the RFR has become a publication of about 800 researched pages produced by a worldwide team. This evolution reflects the fact that discrimination and persecution on grounds of religious belief is a growing global phenomenon that passes under the radar of most media organisations.
With the participation of international speakers who themselves are experiencing discrimination and persecution in Iraq, Syria and Nigeria, the Malta office of ACN held a national conference to launch the RFR’s executive summary on the island.
The Church has again dissociated itself from the Ġesù Salvatur Christian community after an investigation confirmed reports that it was giving a confused and wrong interpretation of Church teachings.
In a statement, the Maltese Episcopal Conference said the five-month probe was led by Mgr Hector Scerri, theologian and President of the Doctrinal Commission within the conference.
The probe began last July when the media published interviews with three former members of the Catholic group, who claimed it had discouraged them from dating non-members. Another woman claimed she had been told not to keep her lesbian daughter at home in case she was under some form of curse.