Obama: HHS Mandate is "Why We Passed" Obamacare, It's Staying | LifeNews.com

The following excerpts are from LifeNews.com:

• As the Obama administration faces dozens of lawsuits from Catholic and evangelical colleges, businesses and organizations forced to pay for abortion-causing drugs, President Barack Obama thumbed his nose at them.
• Obama said on Friday that his administration has no plans to get rid of the controversial HHS mandate and that the mandate was one of the reasons for approving Obamacare in the first place. According to a CNS report:

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Obama: HHS Mandate is "Why We Passed" Obamacare, It's Staying | LifeNews.com

Following Egyptian president’s visit, gunmen attack Christian home : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• Hours after Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi assured the Christians in the North Sinai city of Rafah that attacks on them “will not happen again,” gunmen opened fire on a Christian’s home.

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Following Egyptian president’s visit, gunmen attack Christian home : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Congressman Andrews Urged to Apologize for Insult to Christians, Other Religious Americans « Campus Notes

The following excerpts are from The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) Blog "Campus Notes":

• September 25, 2012, leaders of more than 20 religious and other organizations, many of them engaged in the defense of religious freedom, sent a letter urging Congressman Robert Andrews (N.J.-1st) to apologize for making insensitive and insulting remarks at a Congressional hearing on First Amendment concerns two weeks ago.
• At the hearing on September 12th, Congressman Andrews complained that the issues being considered by two House Education and the Workforce subcommittees were not “compelling questions” that deserved a hearing. This included discussion of the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) unconstitutional attempts to interfere with teaching faculty at religious colleges.
• Andrews offensively characterized the hearing as a “classic case of Nero fiddling while Rome burns,” prompting today’s letter, which describes the comment as “most unfortunate and a great insult to Christians”:

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Congressman Andrews Urged to Apologize for Insult to Christians, Other Religious Americans « Campus Notes

Pew: Religious Restrictions on the Rise « Campus Notes

The following excerpts are from The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) Blog "Campus Notes":

• The Pew Forum has released its annual report detailing the state of religious freedom in the United States. And the news isn’t good.
• The bad news is that The United States has been moved from Pew’s “low” to “moderate” category of restrictions on religious freedom.
• The worse news is that the report doesn’t even take into account the most recent year of activity from the federal government which includes the infringement of religious liberty that is the HHS Mandate.

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Pew: Religious Restrictions on the Rise « Campus Notes

Syria’s Suffering Christians Flood Neighboring Countries as Civil War Continues | Daily News | NCRegister.com

The following excerpts are from The National Catholic Register:

• Pope Benedict XVI’s mid-September visit to Lebanon reminded Christians in the turbulent Middle East that the Church has not forgotten them or the challenges they face.
• “I am not unaware of the often dramatic situation endured by the populations of this region, which has been torn for too long by incessant conflict,” Benedict said the week before the visit during his weekly Sunday address.
• Nowhere in the region are people suffering more right now than in Syria, where the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has been fighting rebel forces since April 2011, at the cost of thousands of lives.
• While in Lebanon, the Pope referred twice to the strife in Syria, which threatens to spill over into the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Israel, which captured the Golan Heights from Syria, is on high alert as well. “You know all too well the tragedy of the conflicts and the violence which generates so much suffering,” the Pope said Sept. 16 following an open-air Sunday Mass in Beirut attended by more than 350,000 people. He lamented that in Syria “the din of weapons” is now heard alongside “the cry of the widow and the orphan.”
• The war has created an enormous refugee crisis, according to the United Nations, which places the number of those who have left Syria at roughly 250,000 people. Although most have sought shelter in refugee camps or private homes in neighboring countries, some have traveled as far as Switzerland.

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Syria’s Suffering Christians Flood Neighboring Countries as Civil War Continues | Daily News | NCRegister.com

Christians in two Egyptian towns given ultimatum: leave or be killed : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• Christian families in two north Sinai towns found notices attached to their homes and businesses ordering them to leave or be killed.
• Pledging to remain, Father Gabriel Habib said that “even if we die, we are not better than the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the sake of their homeland and religion.”

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Christians in two Egyptian towns given ultimatum: leave or be killed : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Indonesia: Catholic school faces threat of closure if it doesn’t offer instruction in Islam : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• Civil authorities in central Java have threatened to close a Catholic school unless it begins to offer Islamic instruction to its Muslim students. Approximately 40 of the 1,400 students enrolled in St. Pius Catholic Schools in Tegal District are Muslims.

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Indonesia: Catholic school faces threat of closure if it doesn’t offer instruction in Islam : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Nigeria: suicide bombing targets Catholic cathedral : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• Three people were killed and 46 injured in a suicide bombing at the Catholic cathedral in Bauchi, a city of 500,000 in north-central Nigeria. Two policemen who had been guarding the cathedral in the largely Muslim city were among the injured.

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Nigeria: suicide bombing targets Catholic cathedral : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

‘Freedom cross’ campaign counters threatened lawsuit against city’s logo : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

‘Freedom cross’ campaign counters threatened lawsuit against city’s logo : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Tennessee diocese, other Catholic institutions file suit against HHS mandate : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• The Diocese of Nashville and seven area Catholic institutions have filed suit against the Department of Health and Human Services in an effort to prevent the implementation of the HHS mandate.
• “We believe that our Constitution and form of government [express] the right to religious freedom,” wrote Bishop David Choby. “Such a right is much deeper and of greater consequence than freedom to worship.”
• “We believe that the application of some provisions of the Affordable Health Care Act attack[s] this right,” he continued. “In seeking to force the Church to act or make provision to act against her moral principles, the government is asserting its interest over those appropriate and proper to the Church; and it is not competent to make such decisions or render judgments relative to moral principles long held and taught by any church, Catholic or otherwise.”

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Tennessee diocese, other Catholic institutions file suit against HHS mandate : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Aggressive secularism threatens Christians, Anglican bishop warns European court : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• A prominent Anglican prelate has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to protect Christians from militant secularists.
• Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali said that secularists have advanced their own “human-rights agenda” that now threatens to become “another inhuman ideology” that suppresses religious groups.

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Aggressive secularism threatens Christians, Anglican bishop warns European court : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Church leaders decry vandalism, 'teaching of contempt' for Christians in Israel : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• Catholic leaders in the Holy Land have condemned an attack by vandals on a monastery outside Jerusalem, and protested that a “teaching of contempt” is encouraging hatred for Christians in Israel.
• A fire was set at the door of the abbey of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows in Latrun, and anti-Christian slogans spray-painted on the outer walls, in the early hours of September 4. In a joint statement released the same day, Church leaders said that the incident was “only another in a long series of attacks against Christians and their places of worship."

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Church leaders decry vandalism, 'teaching of contempt' for Christians in Israel : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Orissa: 5,000 survivors mark anniversary of anti-Christian pogrom : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• An estimated 5,000 survivors, many with ribbons over their mouths, gathered in the Kandhamal district of the eastern Indian state of Orissa on August 30 to commemorate the fourth anniversary of attacks on Christians there.
• 
  
• The attacks left dozens dead and an estimated 50,000 homeless.

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Orissa: 5,000 survivors mark anniversary of anti-Christian pogrom : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Islamic terror driving Christians out of Mali : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• The Vatican newspaper has called attention to the flight of Christians escaping Islamic persecution in Mali.
• As many as 200,000 Christians from Mali have found their way to refugee camps in Algeria and Mauritania, L’Osservatore Romano reports.

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Islamic terror driving Christians out of Mali : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Pakistani Christian children under attack; rape, murder, kidnapping are common : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• The Fides news service has called attention to “a long trail of Christian children killed for different reasons” in Pakistan, as well as many incidents of young Christians kidnapped, raped, and enslaved.
• The common denominator in these horrible cases, Fides notes, is an attitude among Pakistan’s Muslims: “Christian children are considered ‘goods’ and deprived of their dignity.”

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Pakistani Christian children under attack; rape, murder, kidnapping are common : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Islamist terrorists attack Catholic parish in Nigeria : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpt is from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• After destroying part of a school, gunmen attacked a Catholic parish and police station in Yobe State in northeastern Nigeria but were repulsed.

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Islamist terrorists attack Catholic parish in Nigeria : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Spanish Catholic justice fends off calls to recuse himself in abortion case :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

The following excerpts are from CNA (Catholic News Agency):

• Justice Andres Ollero of Spain's Constitutional Court, who will write the ruling on a case challenging the country's 2010 abortion law, has warded off calls to recuse himself because he is Catholic.
• “It makes no sense to think that the justices come to the (court) with preconceived prescriptions,” Justice Ollero said in an Aug. 16 article published by the ABC newspaper.

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Spanish Catholic justice fends off calls to recuse himself in abortion case :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Survey reveals increasing hostility in US towards religion :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

The following excerpts are from CNA (Catholic News Agency):

• A report examining court cases from recent years has found that hostility towards religion has grown to unprecedented levels in the United States.
• The newly-updated Survey of Religious Hostility in America serves as “a testament to the radical shift in our culture’s worldview” on religion, said Kelly Shackelford, president of Liberty Institute, and Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council.
• On Aug. 20, Shackelford and Perkins announced the release of the updated analysis, describing “more than 600 recent examples of religious hostility” in the U.S., most occurring in the last decade.

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Survey reveals increasing hostility in US towards religion :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

LCWR assembly: some sisters disagree with panelist over response to Vatican : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• At the second day of the annual assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the publisher of the National Catholic Reporter called upon the sisters present to “just say no” to Vatican concerns—leading to “audible groans” from some of the sisters.

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LCWR assembly: some sisters disagree with panelist over response to Vatican : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Obama Pro-Abortion HHS Mandate Faces September Court Date | LifeNews.com

The following excerpts are from LifeNews.com:

• Before the November elections, pro-life advocates could have a result in one of the dozens of lawsuits taking on the Obama HHS mandate that forces religious employers to pay for abortion-causing drugs for their employees.
• Federal District Judge Robert H. Cleland of the Eastern District of Michigan has set the date of September 26 to hear oral arguments on whether the federal government should be enjoined from enforcing the HHS Mandate. The hearing will take place at the U.S. Courthouse in Detroit, Michigan.

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Obama Pro-Abortion HHS Mandate Faces September Court Date | LifeNews.com

Gingrich on Sebelius: 'She Is Waging War on The Catholic Church’ | CNSNews.com

The following excerpts are from CNSNews.com:

• Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Wednesday that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was “waging war on the Catholic Church”--an apparent reference to the Obamacare regulation she finalized earlier this year that requires nearly all health-care plans to offer sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs free of charge.
• “This secretary of HHS is a radical. She is waging war on the Catholic Church. She’s adopted radical positions on a range of issues,” Gingrich said during a conference call on Wednesday.
• Gingrich made his remarks while discussing the HHS decision to grant waivers to the work requirements for welfare.

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Gingrich on Sebelius: 'She Is Waging War on The Catholic Church’ | CNSNews.com

Pax Christi, Call to Action chapters plan to oppose diocese, back HHS mandate in court : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• Call to Action Pennsylvania, Catholics for Social Justice, Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi and the Association of Pittsburgh Priests are seeking permission from a judge to file a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of the HHS mandate.
• The four organizations criticized the Diocese of Erie, which has filed suit to overturn the mandate, for “join[ing] the attack on an important legislative effort to provide universal health care -- a vital human right that Church teaching has supported for decades as a natural right possessed by all people as a matter of social justice.”

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Pax Christi, Call to Action chapters plan to oppose diocese, back HHS mandate in court : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Continue the Fortnight for Freedom Spirit Against Obama's HHS Mandate | LifeNews.com

Continue the Fortnight for Freedom Spirit Against Obama's HHS Mandate | LifeNews.com

Chicago Values, Revisited: it’s not about chicken! - Cardinal's Network

The following excerpts are from Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago, on the Cardinal's Network:

• There are three contexts for discussing “gay marriage”: 1) the arena of individual rights and their protection in civil law, 2) the field of activities defined by nature and its laws, and 3) the realm of faith as a response to God’s self-revelation in history. Unfortunately, when the only permissible context for discussing public values is that of individual rights protected by civil law, then it is the government alone that determines how it is acceptable to act. Every public actor (including faith communities) then becomes the government’s agent. This is a formula for tyranny.

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Chicago Values, Revisited: it’s not about chicken! - Cardinal's Network

Boko Haram threatens Muslims too, archbishop says : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• A terrorist attack on a mosque in central Nigeria shows that “Boko Haram is a threat to everyone, not just Christians,” observed Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja.
• Four people were killed when gunmen assaulted the mosque in Okene on August 8. A day earlier, at least 20 people had been killed in a similar attack on the Deeper Life Church in the same town. (Early reports had set the death toll at 19, but at least one more victim has succumbed to wounds.)
• Archbishop Onaiyekan said that the attack on the mosque was not unprecedented, “but previous attacks against mosques have not had the same prominence of attacks against Christian churches, perhaps because when Islamic groups attack a mosque it is not news.” In fact, he said, Boko Haram has probably claimed more Muslim than Christian victims in its terrorist activities.

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Boko Haram threatens Muslims too, archbishop says : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Church faces defeat on family-planning bill in Philippines : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Church faces defeat on family-planning bill in Philippines : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Pope cites 'unprecedented gravity' of threat to religious freedom in US : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Pope cites 'unprecedented gravity' of threat to religious freedom in US : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Australia: dog receives communion at ‘Inclusive Catholics’ Mass : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Good grief. Thank goodness this "priest" had his faculties suspended.

Australia: dog receives communion at ‘Inclusive Catholics’ Mass : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Chick-fil-A and Chicago: A heads-up for the Church - By Joe Tremblay

The following excerpts are from the Catholic News Agency (CNA) column by Joe Trembley:

• Timing is everything. This maxim is especially the case if good is to prevail over evil. Whether it be personal sin or political tyranny, response to a crisis is most effective when it is done in the beginning stages.
• As the spiritual classic, the "Imitation of Christ," cautions: "(W)e must watch, especially in the beginning of temptation; for then the enemy is more easily overcome, if he be not suffered to enter the door of the mind, but is withstood upon the threshold the very moment he knocks. Whence a certain one has said 'Resist beginnings; all too late the cure.'"
• What applies to sin in the spiritual order also applies to injustice in the political order. And just as with personal sin, when government is a menace to liberty it must be met head-on at the outset.
• If history bears witness to the fact that secular-liberalism, when unleashed, runs roughshod over human rights, then the HHS contraceptive mandate is only a harbinger of things to come. This mandate bids us to resist the social and political intolerance while there is time to do so.
• We can anticipate the State not stopping at coercing Catholic agencies to provide abortifacients and contraceptives to her employees.
• No.
• There is another demand that is turning out to be--and will certainly prove to be–a more pressing matter. Indeed, the political will to advance same-sex marriage and criminalize its opposition are much more emotionally charged than the demand for contraception. Enter Chick-fil-A.

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Chick-fil-A and Chicago: A heads-up for the Church - By Joe Tremblay

Kenya’s bishops decry international push for contraception : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• The bishops of Kenya have decried renewed international efforts to promote contraception in Africa.
• Contraception, the bishops write, “is both dehumanizing and goes against the teaching of the Church, especially in a country like Kenya where a majority of the people are Christians and God fearing. It already threatens the moral fabric of the society and is an insult to the dignity and integrity of the human person.”
• “The drive by foreign agencies, whose motives we hardly comprehend, to target millions of girls and women in Africa for the artificial family planning program by the year 2020 is unimaginable, dangerous and could lead to destruction of the human society and by extension the human race,” the bishops said in a statement.
• “We cannot allow our country to be part of an international agenda, driven by foreign funds and by so doing, losing our independence and our African values of the family and society,” the bishops continued. “The same foreign forces are dedicating billions of shillings promoting same-sex unions while millions of women across are dying due to lack of proper maternal care facilities.”

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Kenya’s bishops decry international push for contraception : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

US report lists religious-freedom troubles worldwide : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpt is from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• An annual report on religious freedom throughout the world, released by the US State Department, "sends a signal to the worst offenders that the world is watching,” according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But a former State Department official charges that the Obama administration has done little to promote religious freedom.

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US report lists religious-freedom troubles worldwide : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Green council accused of 'vilifying' Christian over gay marriage stance - Telegraph

The following excerpt is from The Telegraph:

• Christina Summers, a member of Brighton and Hove City Council in Sussex, has been ordered to face a party disciplinary panel after voicing dissent over the issue.
• She was the only member of the council, which prides itself on its progressive values, to vote against a motion in support of the Government’s plans to allow homosexual couples to marry at a meeting last week.

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Green council accused of 'vilifying' Christian over gay marriage stance - Telegraph

British PM reiterates call for same-sex marriage, scolds churches that ‘lock out’ gay members : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpt is from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• Addressing a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender reception, Prime Minister David Cameron reaffirmed his commitment to legalizing same-sex marriage and said that “obviously there’ll be arguments within the churches as well.”

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British PM reiterates call for same-sex marriage, scolds churches that ‘lock out’ gay members : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

International Clamor for Asia Bibi’s Release Grows | Daily News | NCRegister.com

International Clamor for Asia Bibi’s Release Grows | Daily News | NCRegister.com

Ancient monastery in Turkey faces destruction in anti-Christian lawsuit : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpt is from Catholic World News:

• The world’s oldest functioning Christian monastery faces a clouded future, after an appeals court in Turkey ruled that the building sits on land not owned by the monks.
• The Mor Gabriel monastery, built near the Syrian border, was established in 397 by Syriac Orthodox monks, and has been in continuous use since that time, welcoming up to 20,000 pilgrims each year.

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Ancient monastery in Turkey faces destruction in anti-Christian lawsuit : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Some catechists object to profession of faith : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Some catechists object to profession of faith : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Chinese authorities 'investigating' bishop who renounced Patriotic Association membership : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpt is from Catholic World News:

• Chinese authorities have announced an investigation into the conduct of Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin, who is being held in custody after announcing his resignation from the government-backed Catholic Patriotic Association.
• Both the Patriotic Association and the Chinese bishops’ conference (which is recognized by the government, but not by the Vatican) have announced that they are looking into reports that Bishop Ma violated the rules of the bishops’ conference “with regard to bishops’ election and ordination.”

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Chinese authorities 'investigating' bishop who renounced Patriotic Association membership : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

VIETNAM Vinh: Catholics targeted by thugs and authorities. Dozens of faithful injured during - Asia News

The following excerpt is from AsiaNews.it:

• Hanoi (AsiaNews) - A group of thugs linked to the Vietnam Patriotic Front, instigated by local authorities, targeted the faithful gathered in a house of prayer in Con Cuong district - Nghe An province, Vinh Diocese- as they gathered to celebrate Mass Sunday. The attack against the Catholic community took place on the evening of July 1 and is just the latest in a series of incidents of persecution that have targeted Christian communities in the area since November of last year (see AsiaNews 29/12 / Young Vinh Catholic kidnapped by police on Christmas Eve). Anonymous sources interviewed by AsiaNews also reported that the so-called "local authority" gave up to 25 dollars "compensation" to the thugs who beat priests and lay people who only wanted to gather to celebrate the Eucharist.

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VIETNAM Vinh: Catholics targeted by thugs and authorities. Dozens of faithful injured during - Asia News

Kenyan Christians killed in terror attack on church : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

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

• At least 17 people were killed, and many others seriously wounded, in an armed assault on a Christian church in Garissa, Kenya, on July 1.
• Armed men killed two guards, then threw grenades into the African Inland Church. When worshippers ran outside they were hit with a salvo of automatic gunfire.

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Kenyan Christians killed in terror attack on church : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Gay-ministry group refuses to affirm Catholic teaching : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpt is from Catholic World News:

• Leaders of the Catholic Association for Lesbian and Gay Ministry (CALGM) have refused to sign an oath promising to uphold Catholic teaching, casting doubt on the group’s continued existence as an approved Catholic ministry.

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Gay-ministry group refuses to affirm Catholic teaching : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

POPE BENEDICT XVI APPEALS FOR AN END TO ATTACKS IN NIGERIA

Vatican City, 20 June 2012 (VIS) - At the end of today's general audience, after having delivered greetings in various languages, Benedict XVI launched an appeal for an end to attacks which have taken place recently in Nigeria, and which have been particularly aimed against the Christian community there. "I appeal to leaders for an immediate end to the killing of so many innocents", he said. "It is my hope that the various components of Nigerian society will collaborate so as not to start down the path of revenge, and that all citizens will cooperate in building a peaceful and reconciled society, in which everyone's right freely to profess their faith is fully protected".

You can find more information at: www.visnews.org

The news items contained in the Vatican Information Service may be used, in part or in their entirety, by quoting the source:

V.I.S. -Vatican Information Service.

Copyright © Vatican Information Service 00120 Vatican City

Nigeria: Islamist terrorists attack 3 churches, killing dozens : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpt is from Catholic World News:

• Bomb attacks on three Christian churches, including the cathedral of the Diocese of Zaria, have left dozens of worshippers dead in Nigeria.

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Nigeria: Islamist terrorists attack 3 churches, killing dozens : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

ASIA/INDIA - Mass Attack against Christians in Orissa

The following excerpt is from News.VA:

• Nightmare for Christians in Orissa, eastern India is back. A Pastor and the entire community of a Christian village, about 12 families, were violently attacked and injured by an organized group of about 50 Hindu extremists. The local Churches remember with serious concern the incidents of mass violence that broke out in the Kandhamal district in 2008 and which resulted in a real anti-Christian massacres.

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ASIA/INDIA - Mass Attack against Christians in Orissa

HHS mandate 'ominous' threat to religious liberty, priest says :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

The following excerpts are from Catholic News Agency:

• As the battle to defend religious freedom continues, a Capitol Hill priest said the contraception mandate should be a cause for concern for all Americans.
• “The trend set by the current administration has ominous overtones which recent history shows should be taken very seriously from the beginning – before further liberties are taken away,” Fr. Gonzales told CNA June 1.  
• In his native Cuba, Fr. Gonzales said that Catholics faced similar restrictions before the start of an all-out persecution.
• “In 1960 after the takeover of Fidel Castro in Cuba,” Fr. Gonzales said, “the Catholic Church began to feel the sting of anti-Catholic policies which reduced the right to religious freedom to the freedom to worship in private temples.”
• Fr. Gonzales said the rhetoric behind such persecutions is similar to that which is found in the federal contraception mandate.
• “This smacks of the present language used by the current administration that seeks to redefine religious freedom to the freedom to worship,” as in private houses of worship.

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HHS mandate 'ominous' threat to religious liberty, priest says :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)