Video From Egypt Shows Muslim Mob Attacking Christian Church, Taking Down Cross

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• Newly-surfaced video from Egypt shows a Muslim mob storming a Coptic church, setting cars on fire and then toppling a cross atop the steeple, in a shocking attack that Christians say has been played out dozens of times since the ouster of Mohammad Morsi.
• The video, obtained by MidEast Christian News, was shot Aug. 14 from a nearby building overlooking the diocese in the southern Egyptian city of Sohag. In the six-minute video, a crowd, incensed by the eviction of pro-Morsi supporters from camps in Cairo, masses outside the church. Several members of the group scale a wall and attack vehicles in a courtyard, setting several ablaze. The video culminates in the crown exhorting a man high up on the steeple to take down a cross, which he does.
• Dozens of Coptic churches were attacked by members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the wake of the military's move against Morsi, who critics say was turning Egypt into an Islamist state. Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 80 million, but Morsi supporters blamed them for his ouster, according to Coptic leaders.
• Bishop Makarious, a Coptic leader from Minya, accused Muslim Brotherhood leaders of planning attacks on Christian churches, homes and businesses in an effort to divide the embattled nation.

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Video From Egypt Shows Muslim Mob Attacking Christian Church, Taking Down Cross

Coptic Catholic Leader: Egyptian Government is Not Stopping Hate Speech Against Christians

The following excerpts are from AINA:

• Egypt's new interim government is doing nothing to prevent hate speech, which is inciting violence against Christians, a prominent Egyptian Catholic leader has said.
• "The state is paying no attention to sermons coming out of the mosques, which are inciting Muslims against Christians," said Coptic Catholic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sedrak.
• In a statement he said perpetrators involved in a wave of attacks on Christian institutions across the country since early July were not being apprehended, and those involved in the burning and destruction of churches should have been forced to repair them at their own expense and not at the cost of the state.
• He said southern parts of the Minya governorate had seen some of the most severe anti-Christian violence so far, and that "people there are so extreme that they are threatening the Copts with expulsion from their homes".

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Coptic Catholic Leader: Egyptian Government is Not Stopping Hate Speech Against Christians

Middle East, Holy Land Christians Are Suffering Most

The following excerpts are from AINA:

• Minority religious groups face the reality of targeted violence against them in the region
• The leader of the Maronite Catholic Church has said that Christians are suffering the most from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
• Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï said that the situation in the Middle East is worsening, and that 'whenever a conflict breaks out in the Middle East, whenever chaos ensues, Muslim groups attack the minority Christian community, as if they were always the scapegoat.'
• The patriarch, whose church is in full communion with the Vatican, said Christians were 'paying the price' of outside interference in both Egypt and Syria.
• "I have written to the Holy Father twice to describe what is happening. I appeal again to the Holy Father, who only talks about peace and reconciliation," said the Maronite leader, who was made a cardinal in 2012.
• He also accused the international community of 'total silence' over Iraq, where he said 1.5 million Christians had fled in the wake of Saddam Hussein's fall.

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Middle East, Holy Land Christians Are Suffering Most

Egypt's Coptic Christians face unprecedented reprisals from the Muslim Brotherhood - Washington Times

The following excerpts are from The Washington Times:

• Islamist mobs have torched schools and businesses owned by Christians, looted churches and even paraded captive nuns through the streets of a city south of Cairo in a display of rage unseen in Egypt’s recent history.
• The campaign of killing and arson is retaliation for the tiny Christian community’s support of the military coup that ousted President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government.
• “The Muslim Brotherhood were the ones who called for aggression [against Christians]. They are responsible,” said the Rev. Khalil Fawzi, a pastor at Kasr El Dubarrah Evangelical Church, the largest evangelical congregation in the Middle East. “Either they are in control or they burn Egypt.”

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Egypt's Coptic Christians face unprecedented reprisals from the Muslim Brotherhood - Washington Times

Egypt: 2nd day of attacks on churches : News Headlines

The following excerpts are from CWN:

Photo: Nervana Mahmoud

• By the end of a second day of attacks on Christian institutions, homes, and businesses in Egypt, Islamists had burned down over 50 churches, a Coptic Orthodox bishop told CNN.
• The Muslim Brotherhood had declared a "Friday of Anger" to protest the actions, and Islamic militants took to the streets after gathering in mosques for Friday prayers. Their attacks on Christian targets followed police and military action against Muslim Brotherhood protestors who support ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

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Egypt: 2nd day of attacks on churches : News Headlines

AFRICA/EGYPT - The Bishop of Minya: with the lie of the "Coptic plot" Islamists will justify other terror against Christians - Fides News Agency

The following excerpts are from Fides News Agency:

• Western chanceries "have overestimated the real roots of political Islam in the Egyptian people" and now "remain floored and ambiguous before the scenarios opened by the revolution of 30 June", while the Islamists " emphasize the role of Christians in that uprising also to justify the terrorist attacks being prepared against them". This is what the Egyptian bishop Botros Fahim Awad Hanna reports to Fides Agency with regards to two dynamics he understood during the serious moment experienced by the North African country. In past days, blogs close to the Muslim Brotherhood have labeled the new structure found by the country after the overthrow of President Morsi as the "Military Republic of Tawadros", indicating Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II and his Church as the true architects of the popular uprising which led to the end of the Islamist government. "It is obvious" Anba Botros explains to Fides "that the Muslim Brotherhood wants to explain their political failure by resorting to the theory of 'Christian conspiracy'.
• To emphasize the role Christians had in the collapse of the Islamist regime will also serve to justify future terrorism against them. 

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AFRICA/EGYPT - The Bishop of Minya: with the lie of the "Coptic plot" Islamists will justify other terror against Christians - Fides News Agency

Sen. Ted Cruz: Gay ‘marriage’ could lead to Christian beliefs being punished as ‘hate speech’ | LifeSiteNews.com

The following excerpts are from LifeSiteNews.com:

• In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he believes the legalization of same-sex “marriage” may lead to those who express religious objections to homosexuality being prosecuted for hate speech.
• “If you look at other nations that have gone down the road towards gay marriage, that’s the next step of where it gets enforced,” Cruz told CBN host David Brody. “It gets enforced against Christian pastors who decline to perform gay marriages, who speak out and preach biblical truths on marriage, that has been defined elsewhere as hate speech, as inconsistent with the enlightened view of government.”
• In Canada, where gay ‘marriage’ was legalized in 2005, Christian pastors, public officials, educators and business owners have all faced heavy fines and lengthy court battles after speaking critically of the homosexual lifestyle. In one case a pastor was fined $7000 and ordered never again to speak publicly about the issue of homosexuality after he wrote a letter to the editor of a local newspaper criticizing the homosexual agenda in schools.

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Sen. Ted Cruz: Gay ‘marriage’ could lead to Christian beliefs being punished as ‘hate speech’ | LifeSiteNews.com

Cardinal decries rape of Orissa nun, low status of women in India : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai (Bombay), the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, has condemned the recent rape of a nun in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.
• “I condemn this gang rape of this young nun in the strongest possible terms,” he said. “This gang rape is physical and emotional terrorism.”

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Cardinal decries rape of Orissa nun, low status of women in India : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Homosexuality an area of ‘special protection’ to UK govt’, police: UK barrister | LifeSiteNews.com

The following excerpts are from LifeSiteNews.com:

• For hundreds of years, Evangelical street preachers have been a normal part of the English cultural scene, but in recent years, a new feature of the political and legal scene has been their frequent arrests whenever they have dared to contradict the sexual zeitgeist and reiterate the Biblical and moral injunctions against homosexuality. British barrister and chairman of the Catholic Union of Great Britain, James Bogle spoke with LifeSiteNews.com this week, saying that the phenomenon is a sign of a deeper problem with British authorities undermining the rule of law and civil liberties.
• Bogle said that it is more a matter of policy “at all levels of government” that homosexuality is “a special area” deserving of special protections and treatment. 
• “But why this particular area, and not other areas?” he said. “Why don’t pro-lifers rate this special protection? Why don’t Evangelical Christians get the same protection?” 
• In response to the large number of arrests in recent years of Christians under the notorious Section 5 of the Public Order Act, Bogle said, “Particularly in relation to homosexuality, where anybody who criticises homosexual acts or homosexual ‘marriage’ or relationships, there appears to be a police policy to treat this as what is called a ‘hate crime,’ but there isn’t such a thing in English law as a hate crime. There are crimes that might come under a very broad umbrella, but it’s the use of that very broad umbrella that is causing people to have fears about civil liberties.” 

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Homosexuality an area of ‘special protection’ to UK govt’, police: UK barrister | LifeSiteNews.com

Nearly 80% of Italian doctors refuse abortion; MPs attack conscience rights | LifeSiteNews.com

The following excerpts are from LifeSiteNews.com:

• A report by the Italian government has found that more than 80 per cent of gynecologists – in some areas it is believed to be as much as 91 per cent – and over 50 per cent of anesthesiologists and nurses refuse to participate in abortions, and the number is growing.
• In response, a group of parliamentarians on the left from various parties have attacked the right to conscientious objection, saying that the government must put quotas into place for recruiting doctors willing to abort babies. One deputy alleged that the refusal of so many doctors and other staff to participate has resulted in an increase in the number of “clandestine” illegal abortions and in the number of Italian women going overseas to abort their children. 
• Monsignore Igancio Barreiro, head of the Rome office of Human Life International said pro-life activists “have to be ready to defend the rights of conscience and we know that the proponents of the Culture of Death are ready to attack the right to refuse to do abortions.” 
• “We must be vigilant and concerned because this is not something new,” he added. “We have to reaffirm it. It’s a basic human right.” 

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Nearly 80% of Italian doctors refuse abortion; MPs attack conscience rights | LifeSiteNews.com

Nigerian churches burned; Boko Haram suspected : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic World News:

• Four Christian churches in northern Nigeria were bombed and burned over the weekend, in attacks attributed to the terrorist group Boko Haram.

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Nigerian churches burned; Boko Haram suspected : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Syria: Aleppo priest advises Christians to leave : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• Following the kidnapping and (reported) release of two Orthodox prelates, a parish priest in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, discussed his ministry there.
• “Car bombs have been found near churches,” said the anonymous priest. “Divine Providence has permitted our fellow citizens to notice the danger and so the bombs were disabled before their explosion.”
• “I think that all agree on this point: should we leave the country or stay and keep the Christian presence in the Levant?” he continued. “I, and I say it with sincerity, advise those who can, to go away even if momentarily.”

[As shared earlier here the Syrian Orthodox bishops were erroneously reported as released. They are still being held captive. Please pray for their safety and release.]

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Syria: Aleppo priest advises Christians to leave : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Feminist protest disrupts archbishop's talk in Brussels : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• Four bare-breasted feminist demonstrators interrupted a lecture by Archbishop André-Marie Leonard of Brussels on April 23, and soaked the prelate with water.
• The topless protesters, members of the radical group Femen, wore jeans and boots, and had slogans painted across their chests. They carried water bottles, with which they soaked the archbishop before being removed.
• Ironically, Archbishop Leonard was speaking at a conference on blasphemy and the limits of religious freedom.

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Feminist protest disrupts archbishop's talk in Brussels : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Violence against Christians in India following allegations of proselytizing children : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• Armed with stones and sticks, a group of men in Srinagar, a largely Muslim city of 1.3 million in northern India, attacked and attempted to set fire to a Christian children’s home. The men beat residents of the home before police arrived.

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Violence against Christians in India following allegations of proselytizing children : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Coptic leader raps Egyptian president for failure to contain anti-Christian violence : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II has berated Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi for his government’s failure to protect the country’s Christian minority.
• The Coptic leader said that Morsi had promised to protect St. Mark’s cathedral in Cairo, “but in reality he did not.” The cathedral was attacked by Islamic radicals, in which 80 people were injured, during the past weekend.

[Meanwhile, the Obama administration keeps sending money to a government that allows attacks on Christians. But it's OK. They are attacked by adherents to the "religion of peace".]

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Coptic leader raps Egyptian president for failure to contain anti-Christian violence : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Pakistan: mob burns shops, cars in Christian neighborhood : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• A Muslim mob burned shops and cars and threw stones at a church in a Christian neighborhood in Gujranwala, a city of 2.7 million in northeastern Pakistan that was the site of anti-Christian violence in 2011. Six were wounded in the latest incident; calm was restored following police intervention.
• “The spark that ignited the violence was a dispute between young Muslims and Christians which degenerated into a fight,” said Samson Salamat, director of the Centre for Human Rights Education, who told the Fides news agency that “an imam of the mosque instigated the Muslims to attack Christians.”

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Pakistan: mob burns shops, cars in Christian neighborhood : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Students try to banish Catholic chaplain from campus for anti-gay stance | The Daily Caller

The following excerpts are from The Daily Caller:

• Two gay seniors at George Washington University say they feel alienated because the chaplain at George Washington’s Newman Center rejects homosexuality, and they aren’t going to take it anymore.
• The seniors, Damian Legacy and Blake Bergen, have announced a coordinated campaign to rid the campus of the Roman Catholic priest, reports The GW Hatchet, the school’s independent student newspaper.
• They also assert that 12 or more students have quit the Newman Center in recent years because they can’t tolerate Father Greg Shaffer’s ardent anti-gay – and, for the record, anti-abortion — beliefs.
• Shaffer has worked for five years at George Washington’s Newman Center. He told the Hatchet that religion and unrestricted speech “play a vital role at a diverse university like GW.”
• Legacy and Bergen say they are primarily upset about the counseling Shaffer offers. They say he urges students who have homosexual feelings to lead a life of celibacy.

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Students try to banish Catholic chaplain from campus for anti-gay stance | The Daily Caller

Boko Haram has destroyed 50 Catholic churches in one Nigerian state, priest reports : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• The Boko Haram terrorist group has destroyed 50 of the 52 Catholic churches in Nigeria’s Borno state, according to a priest there.

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Boko Haram has destroyed 50 Catholic churches in one Nigerian state, priest reports : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Archbishop Chaput: new 'compromise' on HHS mandate still 'gravely flawed' : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• A new proposal by the Obama administration to apply the HHS contraceptive mandate to religious institutions “remains unnecessary, coercive, and gravely flawed,” according to Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia.
• The latest “compromise” offered by the White House “may actually make things worse,” the archbishop said.

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Archbishop Chaput: new 'compromise' on HHS mandate still 'gravely flawed' : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

String of attacks against Armenian Christians in Istanbul : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Cultures "Catholic World News":

• Five Armenian Christians have been attacked recently in an Istanbul neighborhood. One 85-year-old murder victim was stabbed repeatedly and had a cross carved on her corpse.

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String of attacks against Armenian Christians in Istanbul : News Headlines - Catholic Culture