(ZENIT News – BitterWinter / Brasilia, 04.30.2024).- The Brazilian government should allow “the use of clothing or accessories related to belief or religion in photos of official documents.. as long as they do not prevent proper individual identification and the face remains visible.”

This is the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal, STF) that ruled on April 17 on the case of a Paraná Catholic nun from the Sisters of Santa Marcelina who was refused renewal of her driver’s license since she insisted on providing her picture dressed in religious clothing and wearing a veil.

The nun sued the Traffic Department in a case that had implications for other official documents and for Muslims and members of other religions. The decision of the Supreme Court was somewhat expected. The government itself and the Traffic Department had decided at the beginning of April, shortly before the Court’s decision, to amend their policies and allow the use of religious clothing in pictures used for official documents, including driver’s licenses.

The decision of the Supreme Court will now prevent future governments from altering the regulations again in a more restrictive sense.

The Brazilian Supreme Court’s verdict comes one week after French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal created controversies in Canada by publicly expressing his support to the controversial Quebec secularism law that prohibits many public sector employees from wearing religious symbol at work. While Attal used a visit to Canada to support the law, Canada’s federal government is considering joining the religious and educational organizations that have challenged the Quebec law at the Supreme Court.

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(ZENIT News – Asia News / Jerusalem, 04.22.2024).- Layan Nasir, a young Palestinian Christian woman, was arrested last week. “There are no reasons and no basis [for her arrest] other than the fact that we live under a colonial-settler occupation that has enjoyed impunity for so long and feels entitled to destroy the lives of millions,” said Rev Munther Isaac speaking to AsiaNews.

For the clergyman, who serves as pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bethlehem, “Layan has been placed under ‘administrative detention’, just like close to 4000 other Palestinians. This is the term the Israelis use to justify detention of people” when they “have no charges against them.”

At night on 6 April in Birzeit, a Palestinian town, a patrol of about 15 Israeli soldiers showed up at her family’s home looking for the 23-year-old woman, without an arrest warrant or charge against her.

As the family told The Guardian newspaper, which reported the arrest, Israeli soldiers forced their way into the family home and pointed guns at Layan’s mother, Lulu Aranki, and her father, Sami, a Catholic-Anglican couple.

After searching for several minutes, the soldiers took Layan, not before blindfolding and handcuffing her, placing her under administrative detention, the only Christian woman in this situation.

For Rev Isaac, “Layan’s detention serves as a reminder of our life as Christians under Israeli occupation. Palestinian Christians are not just an integral part of the Palestinian people but have suffered just as the rest of the people.”

The young woman was arrested as a “preventive” measure but her family has not been notified why.

Her story, which risked going unnoticed like many others involving Palestinians, became front-page news after the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, expressed deep concern about her fate and called for her release on X (formerly Twitter).

“We should put all the pressure possible,” said the Lutheran clergyman, “not just to free her, but to free all our people from the occupation jails, to end the occupation and to achieve justice for everyone.”

Rev Isaac serves as pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour. He teaches at Bethlehem Bible College and is the director of the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference.

Now in its seventh year, the conference this year will be held between 21 and 26 May, centred on “Do Justice, Love Mercy: Christian Witness in Contexts of Oppression.”

“Our situation as Christians in Palestine is critical as we are at the lowest of our points since 1948, but we are not losing hope and most importantly. We believe in the justice of our cause.

“We see how our lands are stolen and our people attacked. Israel enjoys impunity and the western world seems not to care much about us. But we also know that our cause is just.

“This is the key. We will continue to exist and to spread our message not just because it is a duty as Palestinians but also because it is our duty as Christians.

Administrative detention allows Israel to hold a suspect for long periods without charges or trial. This measure, once enforced only to Palestinians, now applies to Israelis as well, although critics are sceptical about how it is applied.

A source of controversy and protests because it violates human rights, the measure is usually used when the authorities have information linking a suspect to a crime, but do not have enough evidence to support their claim in a court of law.

Detentions can be unilaterally renewed by a military court every six months and prisoners can remain in prison for years.

While some Palestinians have been detained without known charges, the most common reasons for administrative detention range from the promotion of violence online to (alleged) terrorist activities.

Layan is one of thousands of Palestinians held without charge, at least 85 are women, but she is the only one who is Christian.

Critics, activists, and human rights NGOs note that the law is part of the apartheid system enforced by the Jewish state against Palestinians.

“Israel routinely uses administrative detention,” says Btselem, an Israeli human rights NGO, “and has, over the years, placed thousands of Palestinians behind bars for periods ranging from several months to several years, without charging them, without telling them what they are accused of, and without disclosing the alleged evidence to them or to their lawyers.”

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(ZENIT News – Bitter Winter / Rome, 04.22.2024).- If some believe that the attack against religious liberty in France only targets “cults” and Islam, they are wrong. On April 13, a religious organization in an official statement lamented that it is a victim in France of “a serious violation of the fundamental rights to religious freedom and freedom of association.” The name of this religious organization is the Roman Catholic Church, and the statement came from the Holy See Press Office.

In short, a religious order called the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Spirit asked the Vatican to investigate the behavior of one of its nuns, Sabine de la Valette, who had taken the religious name of Sister Marie Ferréol. As usual in these cases, the Vatican ordered an apostolic visitation of the convent, under the authority of Cardinal Marc Ouellet. Following the visitation’s report, the Vatican decided in 2020 that Sister Marie should be dismissed from the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Spirit.

Unhappy with the decision, Sister Marie sued and asked the Tribunal of Lorient to declare that she had been wrongfully dismissed from her order. On April 3, the Tribunal found in favor of the ex-nun and ordered the religious order, Cardinal Ouellet, and the two Vatican envoys who conducted the apostolic visitation to pay more than Euro 200,000 to her as damages. According to media reports, the Tribunal found the visitation biased as Cardinal Ouellet was “friendly” with another nun known as an opponent of Sister Marie.

On April 13, the Vatican stated that it had learned of the case only from the media, Cardinal Ouellet “never received any summons from the Lorient Tribunal,” and neither the Cardinal nor the Holy See have been served with a copy of the verdict.

Assuming that what the media reported about the decision is true, the Vatican stated that what it still calls an “alleged” ruling (since it has not seen an official copy of it) “could raise not only significant issues concerning immunity, but if it ruled on internal discipline and membership in a religious institute, it might have constituted a serious violation of the fundamental rights to religious freedom and freedom of association of Catholic faithful.”

The Vatican is, of course, right. The decision has been appealed and may well go to Strasbourg to be examined by the European Court of Human Rights. The latter, as did courts in the United States and Canada, has constantly ruled that the decisions of expelling members from a religious body are based on theological and not only on legal reasons, on which secular courts cannot interfere without seriously violating religious liberty—just as the Vatican said. But it seeems that violating religious liberty is now a daily occurrence in France.

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In a message on X (formerly Twitter) The Archbishop wrote: “I’m shocked and deeply concerned by this news. Together with our Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters, I pray for Layan and her family – and for the congregation of St Peter’s Anglican Church in the Occupied West Bank. Please pray for Layan’s safety and swift release.”

Richard Sewell, Dean of St George’s College, Jerusalem wrote on X: “Deeply disturbed and shocked that a member of our church in Birzeit in Occupied West Bank has been arrested by Israeli forces. Layan Nasir is a 23 year old Palestinian Christian. Family don’t know where she is being held. Great concern and prayers for Layan and her family.”

In July 2021 Layan was arrested and held for six before being freed. At that time she was studying studying nutrition and dietetics at Birzeit University. The 5.30am raid on her family home in 2021 involved seven soldiers and 12 military vehicles.

Richard Sewell tweeted: “Layan was detained for six months in 2001 and released. Now three years later, detained again. Armed soldiers cuffed and blindfolded her. Whereabouts still unknown.”

Al Jazeera report that the number of Palestinians held in prison has doubled since last October to more than 10,000. Most are being held on ‘administrative detention’ – without any charge. Conditions in prison are grim. The Defence for Children International charity, said in January that each year Israel detains between 500 – 700 children, some as young as 12.

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Hong Kong has its own regime, which is different from the rest of the Republic of China. On March 19, 2024, its lawmakers approved by unanimity the National Security Law, which introduced penalties such as life imprisonment for crimes related to treason, sedition and insurrection, and up to 20 years in prison for the theft of State secrets.

The United States, Great Britain and the European Union commented that the new Law can restrict liberties even more in Hong Kong. And they opine that the legislative process was accelerated. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, also described the “speedy” writing of the law and criticized it for being “ a regressive step in the protection of human rights.”

The approval of this National Security Law of Hong Gong, of more than 200 pages, happened in just one session, after a second and third reading  in the Legislative Council, as the city’s Congress  is called. It seems that its urgency seeks to “protect” Hong Kong  from “outside interference” and avoid what happened in 2003, when open debate in the civil society ended in protests with hundreds of thousands of people, and obliged the government to withdraw a  disposition that, in practice, impeded dissidence, according to the model in the rest of China.

Article 23 of the Basic Law establishes that Hong Gong has its own national security legislation, which was approved by 89 votes in favour and none against. Moreover, the judicial power was not convoked in the hearings of the Legislative Council as is usual.

A speedy approval of the Law was urgent. The Council’s 88 members intervened in the debate to support the Law. And Andrew Leung, President of the Assembly, added his vote  although he does not usually vote.

John Lee, the city’s Director, said that the approval of the Law, which came into force on March 23, was “an historic moment for Hong Kong.”

The new Law punishes dozens of crimes in five categories: treason, insurrection, theft of State secrets, espionage and sabotage that endangers national security, as well as outside interference.

John Lee sees the Law as “an effective padlock to avoid thieves, although it seems, rather, that the Authorities want to avoid “threats posed by outside forces.”

David Cameron, Britain’s Foreign Affairs Minister, pointed out that the new Law “harms even more the rights and liberties that are enjoyed” in Hong Kong and will have “implications of great reach” for the State of Law and institutions’ independence.

Vedant Patel, spokesman of the U.S. State Department, said to journalists on March 19 that the United States was “alarmed by the broad dispositions and what we interpret as vaguely defined dispositions” in the Law.

Given that Chinese Catholics can commit crimes during protests or actions related to the Hong Kong Authority and confess them in the Sacrament of Penance, priests could be accused of crimes against the Law of sedition, if they don’t reveal knowledge of these actions, which the secrecy of the Sacrament impedes them from violating. Under the banner of “National Security,” henceforth the Hong Kong police will be able to carry out any intervention against a priest.

Lee’s reference, on March 19, was that the Law “will enable Hong Kong  to prevent, suppress and punish effectively espionage activities, conspiracies and traps of foreign intelligence agencies, and the infiltration and sabotage carried out by hostile forces.” Is this opening the door to coerce or condemn Catholic priests who refuse to reveal deeds of the faithful made known in Confession?

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The gunmen destroyed or stole anything they could find at the Minor Seminary of Saint-Martial – run by the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (the Spiritans) – after overpowering the guards.

Staff members and religious were in the building during the attack but managed to find shelter, according to a statement sent to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) by Father Reynold Joseph, the provincial of the Spiritans.

Father Joseph wrote: “For over six hours the bandits continued to plunder, burn and steal.

“Finally, the religious and the staff members managed to escape.

“Some of them took refuge in the formation house, a 30-minute walk from the seminary, and others in the streets, or in the cathedral, beside the school.”

He added that “there were no physical victims of the attack, but the material damage is considerable…

“Four cars were burned, others were vandalised, the school’s offices were set ablaze – the principal’s office was looted, as was the residence of the community and the school itself”, with items such as “refrigerators, solar panels, batteries, a water purification system, mattresses and IT equipment” being stolen.

Father Joseph explained that the Spiritan library, part of the “national heritage”, was left untouched – but he expressed fears that the gang might return to cause more damage.

He said: “It is likely that there will be more intrusions in the next hours or days unless the school is somehow protected.

“We are devastated and remain very concerned with the continued worsening of the situation in our country.”

He concluded: “We appreciate your fraternal support through thoughts and prayers.”

Local contacts have told ACN about their concerns regarding the increasingly volatile security situation in Haiti after armed gangs took control of most of Port-au-Prince.

The Church has also been affected by the violence – despite its efforts to provide essential services for those in need –, with a number of priests and religious kidnapped since the beginning of the year.

Pope Francis also expressed concern for Haiti during his Easter Sunday message, calling for “international solidarity” with the Caribbean nation.

ACN’s help in Haiti includes Mass stipends for priests, support for seminarians and aid for religious Sisters.

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(ZENIT News – Asia News / Imphal, 04.02.2024).- Easter this year could have been another working day in Manipur, the northeastern Indian state torn for months by ethnic violence between ethnic Meitei and Kuki, this, even though Christians make up more than 40 per cent of the population.

Yesterday, the state had issued in fact an order that read: “The Governor of Manipur is pleased to declare 30th (Saturday) and 31st (Sunday) March 2024, as working days for all Government Offices including Public Sector Undertakings/Corporations/Autonomous Bodies/Societies under the State Government of Manipur for smooth functioning of Offices in the last few days of the Financial Year (2023-2024).”

No sooner had the order been made public that it was countermanded, following protests from local Christian communities.

In India, public offices are closed on Saturday and Sunday, so Easter has always been a public holiday. States with large Christian communities also treat Good Friday as a public holiday.

Last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a show of goodwill towards Christians, visited Delhi cathedral on Easter Sunday as show of respect.

Yet, in Manipur this year, public servants were supposed to report to work on the day Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus.

Such an unnecessarily provocative measure was arguably justified by the fact that this year, Easter Sunday falls on the last day of the fiscal year, 31 March. In a state that is ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), this seems particularly suspicious, to say the least.

In fact, since interethnic violence broke out between the mostly Hindu Meitei and overwhelmingly Christian Kuki, many in the state have played the confessional card over the past eleven months.

When violent clashes erupted in May, churches were among the first targets. Overall, the official death toll now stands at around 200.

Despite this, the Archdiocese of Imphal, in its courageous pursuit of reconciliation, has tried to avoid confrontation, reminding Christians that they have co-religionists among the Meitei.

Upon learning of the government’s Easter decision, reaction in the population was largely one of bewilderment.

“With Christians from the Naga, Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities representing 41.29 per cent of the [state] population, Manipur chose to undermine their presence and disrespect their feelings by blatantly stating that it is ‘pleased to declare 30th (Holy Saturday) and 31st (Easter Sunday) March 2024, as working days,” said Fr Varghese Velickakam, vicar general of the Diocese of Imphal, speaking to AsiaNews.

The government ought to know that Easter is “the holiest of Christian festivals,” a day when “Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which is the cornerstone of the Christian faith.”

Yet, “From a government that has allowed the conflict and the suffering of its people to continue for almost 11 months, what else can be expected? Let us pray that India and its citizens see what is happening in the New India,” Fr Velickakam noted.

In the evening, the government made its U-turn, declaring Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 March public holidays, reneging what it had announced just 24 hours earlier.

It is likely that the Union government in New Delhi gave state authorities their marching orders, and told them to avoid unnecessary tensions with Christians during the ongoing election campaign. Voting is set to start on 19 April.

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(ZENIT News – La Bussola Quotidiana / Otawwa, 18.03.2024).-With two law proposals backed by the Trudeau Government, Canada marks the record of the totalitarian and Orwellian absolutism of a contemporary State, giving the Government the absolute power of recognition, concession, control and limitation of the  inalienable human rights and fundamental liberties of all the citizens. In the first place, with law proposal C-367 — whose process began in November 2023 –, the idea to do away with the exemption clause that protects Priests, Pastors, Churches, Christian organizations and simple believers, who affirm the truth with love in the public square, from criminal complaints.

Up to now, accusations against Christians for so-called “hate crimes” have been very difficult to prove due to the “religious exemption” contained in Section 319 of the Criminal Code, which states: “No person can be condemned for a crime [hate crime] . . .  if, in good faith, the person has expressed or intended to establish with an argument, an opinion on a religious subject  or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text.”

The elimination of such a clause would mean the prohibition to share the Christian message publicly, and Christians could be accused  of discriminating against other religions by affirming — according to the Gospel –, that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). The excuse used by the promoters of the changes is that of protecting the Jewish communities in the light of the recent increase in anti-Semitic protests in Canada . . .  However, in reality, this attacks the religious freedom of all.

Added to this is yet another law proposal, presented by the Canadian Government last February 26, to fight hatred online: the proposal would allow Judges to imprison adults for life if they promote genocide through online statements. The Government’s law proposal, the Law of Online Damages (Draft Law C-63), intends “to defend the child and adolescent public” from online contents, according to Minister of Justice Arif Virani, in recent days, but instead of punishing serial haters for their crimes, it censures freedom of expression, thought and religion.

According to the Government’s Website, the new rules “will create more solid protections for children when they use online platforms and will protect all in Canada from online hatred. The draft law establishes a more secure and inclusive vision.” The  Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), one of the country’s main institutes of defense of Constitutional rights, has described the Online Damages Law as a dangerous “attack” on freedom of expression, “the most aggressive attack against freedom of expression in Canada’s modern history,” which could be used to do away with “fundamental rights.”

The ambiguity of the text and the generality of the definitions open the possibility for every citizen to be persecuted by the Canadian Commission of Human Rights. Anyone could be obliged to pay the Federal Government 50,000 dollars and up to 20,000 dollars to an alleged “victim” who feels offended by what has been written, inverting the principle of the burden of proof.

The Trudeau Government will establish three new national bureaucracies: a Commission for Digital Security, a Civil Defender for Digital Security and an Office for Digital Security, which will spell millions of dollars in new expenses. The Bible, including the Gospel and Saint Paul’s Letters, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Encyclicals , official Vatican documents, Supreme Pontiffs’ homilies: all could be considered censurable, “odious” and punishable. Not sufficient for the perfect Orwellian style, Minister Virani defended the new power (Section 810.012) provided by the Online Damages Law to “impose house arrests on someone that it’s feared might commit a hate crime in the future, even if he/she has not yet done so.” In other words, we are before presumption of culpability, the totalitarian State, the Communist Soviet of the people that hanged the people . . .

Hell is being paved with the “good intentions” of many liberal Governments, which believe they are fighting anti-Semitism and hatred by fighting Christianity and the virtues it embodies. Once again, under Trudeau, Canada is at the vanguard of an illiberal transformation of the State and consolidates a new totalitarianism that, unfortunately, infects the whole West and is increasingly like Communist authoritarianism.

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ADF attorneys filed their brief in support of Christopher and Kimberly Garnier, two southern California parents who were censored and ultimately blocked by two school board members who used Facebook and Twitter to communicate government information to the public. The parents sued over the violation of their First Amendment rights. The brief proposed a fact-specific test that would examine the purpose and appearance of government officials’ posts to examine whether each post was public or personal.

“Social media is the modern public square, and government officials need to be held responsible when they act in their public capacity to suppress speech,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch. “Government officials cannot hide behind technology to pick and choose which viewpoints are allowed on issues of public concern. At the same time, government officials retain their own free speech rights to voice their personal views. The U.S. Supreme Court rightly recognized that government actors can be held responsible when the content and function of their social media interactions reflect government action, while protecting those officials’ freedom of speech when using social media for private purposes.”

In its decision in Freed, the court ruled that a social media post qualifies as state action when the official “(1) possessed actual authority to speak on the State’s behalf, and (2) purported to exercise that authority when he spoke on social media.” That ruling prevents state officials from avoiding First Amendment scrutiny by engaging in government censorship on their personal accounts. At the same time, its nuanced approach reflects the fact that “these officials too have the right to speak about public affairs in their personal capacities.” The court explained, “Lest any official lose that right, it is crucial for the plaintiff to show that the official is purporting to exercise state authority in specific posts.” As a result of that ruling, the court sent Garnier back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to rule under the newly established test.

“This is a major win for the free and open exchange of ideas,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Corporate Engagement Jeremy Tedesco. “Social media gives Americans the ability to access the public square anywhere, at any time, from the palm of their hand. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the freedom of government officials to use social media for personal purposes and the responsibility of those same officials when acting in an official capacity.”

“I’m gratified that the Court unanimously adopted the kind of framework we advocated in our brief,” added Ilya Shapiro of the Manhattan Institute. “This is precisely the standard judges need for evaluating public officials’ use of social media.”

“Brown Fox is pleased with the Court’s unanimous decision and particularly its adoption of a framework that protects ordinary citizens against arbitrary government censorship while also protecting the rights of government workers to speak freely when they do so in their personal capacities,” said Cort Thomas of Brown Fox PLLC. “We are proud to have partnered with ADF and the Manhattan Institute in advocating for a standard that ultimately tracks closely with the framework the Court adopted.”

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This is the story of the 84-year-old Chaldean Christian Hanna Saka, which ended tragically in recent days on a Turkish Airlines plane forced to make an emergency landing in Warsaw, Poland, due to the death of the exile.

According to reports from Syriac Press, an information agency specializing in news on the Assyro-Chaldeans of Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and the Middle East, the managers of the immigration center in Stockholm rejected him with immediate deportation measures.

Adil Saka, brother of the deceased, spoke of Hanna’s condition worsening upon arrival at the airport, during the repatriation phase, which quickly worsened on board the plane. Despite the request for help and the urgent care provided by the flight attendants and medical staff present, the efforts were in vain and the man died. A doctor on board confirmed the death of Hanna Saka, advising the pilot to initiate procedures for an emergency landing in the Polish capital airport.

Upon landing, the Warsaw police arrived quickly and questioned his brother Adil Saka, communicating the decision to perform an autopsy to determine the exact causes that led to his death. The Polish authorities then formalized Hanna’s transfer to Iraq, through the Baghdad embassy in Poland.

Hanna Saka was struggling with heart disease and health problems in his lower limbs. His mental and physical health further deteriorated due to the stress following the rejection of his asylum application and the subsequent deportation order issued by the Swedish Migration Service.

Recently the Chaldean patriarch, card. Louis Raphael Sako returned to the topic of emigration, relaunching the danger of a progressive reduction of the Christian component in Iraq in the face of a massive exodus, to stem which the cardinal proposed a “crisis unit”.

“There is no strategy, security or economic stability”, there is a lack of “sovereignty” and there is a “double” application of the concepts of democracy, freedom, constitution, law and citizenship by those who should be at the service of the nation and of its inhabitants.

In this way, the institutions have been “weakened” and there has been a “decline” in morals and values, services, healthcare and education have worsened, as well as “widespread corruption” and “growing unemployment” combined with returning illiteracy. .

In this context, the Christian component, already on the margins, has become even more fragile and has been the subject of kidnappings, killings that began in 2003 with the US invasion and culminated in the years of domination of the Islamic State (ISIS), with the great escape from Mosul and the Nineveh Plain.

The emergency is confirmed by the numbers, as revealed by the patriarch himself: in the last 20 years over one million Christians (out of a total of less than 1.5 million) have fled. In the last few weeks alone, “over 100 families have left Qaraqosh and emigrated”, joining “dozens of families from other cities” who have fled due to an uncertain future and months of unpaid wages.

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