As I began preparing my heart for Easter and the 40 days of Lent, I came across many devotional books that are perfect resources to redirect our focus during this important season. Easter is one of my favorite holidays because it truly centers around family and God. As I tried to carve out some quiet time to reflect on the days that led up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, I found myself distracted with the multiple things going through my head. My phone is sitting within reach—maybe I should check my emails first.
Maybe I need to look to make sure I paid that bill. I should text my friend to see how she’s doing. All these things are begging for my attention. Then I realized, this may be similar to how Jesus was feeling with all the commotion surrounding him. He went to clear his mind for 40 days in the wilderness. Even Jesus needed to remove his distractions. We may be overwhelmed, preoccupied or tired—and that’s OK sometimes.
Try to take a few minutes each day during the Lenten season and focus on gratitude for the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross. Clear your mind with these heartfelt devotional books that will guide you by faith and connect you on a remarkable and personal Lenten journey.
Journey to the Cross: 40 Days to Prepare Your Heart For Easter Edited by Mary Carver
Prepare your heart for Easter with 40 days of encouragement. Scripture, short essays, stories, quotes, questions, reflections and prayers will kindle a spirit of gratitude to the Lord and remove whatever is standing between you and God so that you can fully experience His love. This beautiful coffee table-style book makes a wonderful gift.
Uncovering the Love of Jesus: A Lent Devotional By Asheritah Ciuciu
Prepare your family spiritually and emotionally to commemorate Jesus’ death and resurrection. Inviting you to reclaim the Lenten season, the 40 Scripture-based reflections help you contemplate, engage with and be transformed by Jesus’ love. It includes family celebrations and activities.
The Promise of Lent Devotional: A 40-day Journey Toward the Miracle of Easter By Chris Tiegreen
Though Lent is a time of remembering Christ’s sacrifice, it is not a season of sorrow. During this 40-day holy season, we reposition our hearts toward Jesus. Each of the 40 readings is based on a brief biblical passage and is followed by a prayer, reflection questions and thoughts. Learn to grow closer to God daily through each passage.
Daily Guideposts: 40 Devotions for Lent By Zondervan Publications
Lent is a time of preparation for Easter when we reflect on Jesus’ life and sacrifice, renewing our hearts in remembrance of His Resurrection. This year, experience the love of Christ in a personal new way with this Lenten book drawn from Daily Guideposts, America’s favorite annual devotional. In just five minutes a day, you’ll enjoy a Scripture verse, a personal story and a prayer.
Christianity has been in Iraq from its earliest times, as the Acts of the Apostles testify. Its origins go back to the preaching of St Thomas the Apostle and his disciples Addai and Mari in the first century A.D., which extended to East Asia. Iraq is therefore, biblically and historically, an important land for all Christians who have played an important role in its history.
The Iraqi Christian community, that is composed today of Chaldeans, Assyrians, Armenians, Latins, Melkites, Orthodox and Protestants, has been marked by persecution and discrimination since the arrival of Islam and even after Iraq’s independence. Under Saddam Hussein’s secular regime, Christians had found a modus vivendi that allowed the Church to carry out its activities, also in the charitable field. However, already at that time – especially after the succession of wars started in the Eighties – more and more Iraqi Christians began to emigrate establishing a number of communities abroad.
Plunging numbers. The exodus after 2003 and between 2014 and 2017
The most massive exodus occurred after the US-led military intervention in 2003, due to insecurity, violence and attacks and between 2014 and 2017, after the establishment of the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” (IS – DAESH) in the north of the Country.
On the eve of the second Gulf War, Christians in Iraq were estimated between 1 and 1.4 million (approximately 6% of the population). Since then, their numbers have plunged to barely 300-400.000, according to the most recent estimates of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
Between 2003 and March 2015, approximately 1,200 Christians were killed, including Archbishop Paulos Rahho of Mosul of the Chaldeans, who was murdered in 2008, 5 priests and the 48 victims of the jihadi attack against the Syrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Help in Baghdad on October 31 2010) and 62 churches were damaged or destroyed.
The IS occupation of the Nineveh Plain, which is the cradle of Mesopotamian Christianity, literally emptied this region of Christians. More than 100,000 were forced to flee their homes along with other persecuted minorities such as the Yazidis. Many of these families have found refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan, namely in Ankawa, the Christian quarter of Erbil, in refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Lebanon, or have sought asylum in Europe and other countries. In recent years, at least 55,000 Iraqi Christians have also expatriated from Iraqi Kurdistan. Many churches and Christian properties have also been destroyed or severely damaged. An important part of the Christian historical heritage was saved from destruction by Archbishop Najib Mikhael Moussa of Mosul of the Chaldeans, who managed to save over 800 historical manuscripts and for this, in 2020, was awarded the Sakharov Prize by the EU.
Insecurity and sectarianism an ongoing threat to Iraqi Christians
After the military defeat of the Caliphate in Iraq in 2017, Christians have gradually begun to return to the Nineveh Plain, with the help of the universal Church and, in particular, of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Today, almost 45% of Nineveh’s Christians have returned to their homes, while 80% of the churches in the Plain are undergoing reconstruction (with the exception of Mosul, due to red tape problems).
To date, about 57% of the damaged homes belonging to Christian families in the region and included in the reconstruction plan have been repaired, 35% of with the financial support of ACN, who has also facilitated the establishment of the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee (NRC) with the aim of encouraging Christians to return to their communities and ensuring them and to other minorities protection.
Yet the lack of security and ongoing harassment, intimidation and exactions by local militias and hostile groups continue to threat the Iraqi Christian community, especially in this area. This was confirmed by the Report “Life after Isis: New challenges to Christianity in Iraq”, released in autumn 2020 by ACN, and by “Open Doors”, a Christian organization which helps persecuted Christians around the world and has promoted the “Centres of Hope” initiative in Iraq.
The aspiration to full citizenship in a peaceful and pluralistic Iraq
Insecurity, political instability, sectarianism, but also corruption and the economic crisis, which has worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic, continue to discourage Christians from returning or staying in the Country. To ensure their future in a united and jihadi-free Iraq, they need above all recognition of their full citizenship. This is the reason why Christian Churches have long insisted for a secular Constitution and for a more active role in the Iraqi political and social life. The Constitutional Charter approved in 2005 formally guarantees respect for religious freedom, but Article 2 actually establishes Islam as the official State religion and a primary source of legislation. Islam continues to be a privileged religion in the Iraqi system to the detriment of minorities.
Chaldean Patriarch H.B. Louis Raphaël Sako has repeatedly brought up this issue, insisting on the importance of an open dialogue between all parties involved to build a strong and pluralist State that respects all citizens, regardless of their religion and ethnicity. This was also reiterated at the last Synod of the Chaldean Church in August 2019, which called for a State based on “equality, justice, law” which recognizes a fair representation for Christians in government institutions.
The Iraqi Churches have found support on these issues from the Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Since taking office on 7 May 2020, al-Kadhimi has expressed on several occasions the desire to stop the exodus of Christians and to involve them in rebuilding the Country, emphasizing that they represent an important component of Iraqi society. These words have been accompanied by action. One important gesture was the recent go-ahead from the Iraqi Parliament to the recognition of Christmas as a public holiday throughout the country on a permanent base. More recently, even the Shiite leader Muqtada al Sadr, head of the powerful Sadrist Party, has shown his willingness to dialogue with the Iraqi Christian community, by returning the properties stolen over past years by Shite groups to their legitimate owners.
The Holy See’s concerns for Christians in Iraq
The plight of Christians in Iraq has always been of great concern for the Holy See, especially since the second Gulf War of 2003, which Pope Saint John Paul II strenuously opposed, as he did in 1991, warning about “the tremendous consequences that an international military operation would have for the population of Iraq and for the balance of the Middle East region, and for the extremisms that could stem from it” (Angelus, March 16 2003). The Pontiff was fully aware of the repercussions that this second armed conflict would have had on Christian communities in Iraq and throughout the region.
The establishment of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in 2014 further precipitated their situation. In this context, Pope Francis too has constantly voiced his closeness “to the beloved Iraqi people”. This concern was reaffirmed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, on the occasion of his trip to the Country in December 2018. During his visit, Vatican Secretary of State insisted on the importance of overcoming hatred and expressed the Church’s gratitude for the Iraqi Christian witness which – he said – has become “a living example for all Christians in the world”.
Pope Francis The reiterated the hope that Iraq “can face the future through the peaceful and shared pursuit of the common good on the part of all elements of society, including the religious” on 10 June 2019, during the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (ROACO), when he expressed his desire to visit Iraq in 2020.
The importance of preserving the historical presence of Christians in the Country and the need to guarantee their security and a place in the future of Iraq was once again highlighted on the occasion of the second official visit to the Vatican by President Barham Salih, on January 25, 2020, which focused on the challenges facing the Country and on the importance of promoting stability and the reconstruction process.
Pope Francis insisted on the need to protect the “Christian presence” in Iraq and in the entire region during an online meeting on the Syrian and Iraqi humanitarian crisis organised by the Vatican Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development with dozens of Catholic NGOs, on 10 December 2020. “We must work to ensure that the Christian presence in these lands continues to be what it has always been: a sign of peace, progress, development, and reconciliation between peoples”, the Pontiff said in a video-message, calling on the international community to encourage the return of communities dispersed by war.
”In this context, the announcement on 7 December 2020 of Pope Francis’ pastoral journey has been welcomed with enthusiasm by the Iraqi Church. The papal trip takes place 21 years after Pope John Pauls II’s “dreamed visit” to the Country, on the occasion of his Jubilee pilgrimage in the footsteps of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Paul in year 2000, was cancelled due to the political situation in Iraq.
Points of Entry Analysis: January 27, 2021 – IOM Regional Office for the European Economic Area, the European Union and NATO
The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has affected global and regional human mobility in the form of various travel disruptions and restrictions.
The total number of COVID-19 cases reached 22,765,857 in the European Economic Area region (EEA) as of 31 January 2021 according to the World Health Organization (WHO). To better understand how the pandemic affects mobility at the Points of Entry (PoEs), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has developed an online tool and database which tracks changes in mobility at Points of Entry (airports, land and blue border crossing points). This includes preparedness and response measures to prevent, protect against, control and assist in line with the International Health Regulations (IHR). Among the mobility changes tracked by IOM are: 1) Movement restrictions on entry and/or exit, 2)
Changes in visa requirements, 3) Restrictions applied to certain nationalities to disembark at this location, 4) Changes in identification documents needed to disembark, 5) Medical measures in place such as Health Staffing/Medical Personnel, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE), Infection prevention and control (IPC) and Surveillance and Referral.
As of 27 January 2021, data was collected on 809 PoEs in 30 countries/territories/areas across the EEA region. These locations include: 480 land border crossings points, 190 airports, and 139 blue border crossing points (including sea, river and lake ports). This work is based on the information collected by or available to IOM Country Offices in the region. This PoEs brief analysis provides an overview of the changes of the operational status and mobility restrictions over the past year, between April 2020 and January 2021. Not all data on PoEs have been updated every month, meaning that the displayed trend does not necessarily represent the situation of all PoEs at any given month. A total of 809 PoEs have been assessed as of January 2021, which is 45 more than the 764 PoEs assessed in April last year when the global data collection exercise was rolled out
The national-conservative Danish People’s Party (DF) has called for the religion of people being granted citizenship to be stated in the public record as well as a ban on granting citizenship to people married to foreign nationals.
As opposed to the current rules, the Danish People’s Party wants the religion of all applicants to be stated on publicly accessible parliamentary bills. As of today, only names are listed, not religion. The party wants the lists to state whether the applicant is, say, Christian, Muslim, or atheist. Refusal to disclose one’s religion would result in rejection, the newspaper Jyllands-Postenreported.
The chief aim of the proposal is admittedly to clarify whether the new citizens are Muslims.
“For many people being Muslim raises some fundamental problems with living a Danish life. Whether that is views on women or views on law and democracy”, Danish People’s Party deputy leader Morten Messerschmidt told the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, calling for “extra vigilance”.
At the same time, Messerschmidt emphasised he doesn’t want Denmark to completely ban granting citizenship to Muslims. He named “good examples” like Danish politician and Conservative Party heavyweight Naser Khader, who “have a Muslim background and support democracy”.
“But it just cannot overshadow the violent problems that we have experienced with people with a Muslim background over the past 30 years, and therefore it must be the most important thing to get clarified”, Messerschmidt said.
Messerschmidt also said he wanted Denmark to block citizenship for people already married to foreign nationals, citing the negative impact on integration of “marrying your cousin from the same village your parents came from”.
“We don’t wish to target Gertrude and Hans from Germany or Svenne and Lotta from Sweden”, Messerschmidt said, suggesting he would be more keen to prevent citizenship from being given to a Swede with Somali heritage.
The minority Social Democrat government said it is prepared to consider both proposals, of listing the religion of new citizens and the ban on citizenship to foreign spouses, as its citizenship spokesperson, Lars Aslan Rasmussen, said the government wants “as much transparency as possible”.
However, the latter idea may face practical obstacles, as senior researcher Eva Ersbøll at the Danish Institute for Human Rights underscored the proposal to block citizenship based on the nationality of people’s partners would be in breach of the European Convention on Nationality.
“You can apply conditions but the convention states persons with legal and permanent residence in a state must have the possibility of gaining citizenship. And if you make this demand it would rule out so many people that it would in my assessment no longer be a general possibility”, Ersbøll told Jyllands-Posten.
Negotiations over new citizenship rules began earlier in February. Remarkably, none of the minority government’s regular left-of-centre allies are involved in the negotiations, which left the governing Social Democrats dealing with members of the opposing “blue” right-of-centre bloc. Among other things, the liberal-conservative Venstre party proposed interviews to test whether citizenship-hopefuls share “Danish values” as part of the application process.
MEPs will assess the situation on the Canary Islands, following the surge in migrants’ arrivals in the last months and the limited reception capacity.
The Civil Liberties Committee will discuss the latest developments with Commissioner Ylva Johansson, President of the Canary Islands Ángel Víctor Torres and a representative of the NGO Spanish Commission for Refugees (CEAR).
According to the Spanish Government, 23 023 migrants and asylum-seekers landed on the archipelago last year irregularly from Africa by boat (compared with 2 687 in 2019). Most of them arrived in the last few months of 2020, leaving reception centres overwhelmed. Combined with the public health restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this led to the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation and sparked some protests among the local population.
National and regional authorities are speeding up the construction of emergency accommodation, but in the meantime, people are being housed between makeshift camps and tourism resorts, mostly empty because of the pandemic.
According to UNHCR data, up to 81% of migrants arriving by boat on the Canary Islands are men, mostly from Morocco, Mali, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. The sea crossing from the African coast can be as short as around 100 km, but the strong currents make it a perilous journey. According to Missing Migrants, in November 2020 alone, the month with most arrivals, over 500 people lost their lives trying to make it to the Canary Islands.
JIND: Farmers on Sunday observed a ‘Sarv Dharma Sammelan’ (congregation of all religions) at Khatkar toll plaza in Jind district to send out the message that people from all faiths were together in the fight against the Centre’s three agro-market laws which have sparked widespread protests. Thousands of farmers took part in the congregation. Protesters said BJP had damaged the state’s social fabric and that of the nation as well during its six years of rule. “BJP did nothing, but playing politics of divide and rule,” said one of the speakers. Nawab Ali, one of the protestors at toll plaza, said, “Muslims are equally dedicated to the nation and always contributed to nation building, but BJP pushed the community back just to rule over people. But this fight to repeal the farm laws pertains to every section of society. If farmers are prosperous, the nation and every section of society would be happy automatically. We will support farmers until laws are repealed,” he added. sGurudev Singh, a Sikh from Durana village in Jind district, said they organised the congregation, so that the BJP government could come to know that all religions and communities were standing by it firmly. “A peaceful and disciplined movement is being defamed by the government. But, today, they will get the message as thousands of people from different communities gathered to show their solidarity,” he added.
BUCHAREST, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) — President of the European Council Charles Michel on Sunday reiterated the European Union (EU)’s support for Moldovan President Maia Sandu and her reform agenda.
“I am sending a clear message of support from the European Union for further reforms and the fight against corruption,” Michel said while meeting with Sandu during his visit to Moldova, according to the presidency’s press service.
“The EU is a reliable partner of the Republic of Moldova,” said Michel, who was visiting the capital of Moldova, the first leg of his journey to Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine between Feb. 28 and March 3.
“Fighting corruption and strengthening the rule of law are the only way forward. The president’s very ambitious agenda is the right direction to strengthen relations with the EU,” said Michel. “Our support goes hand in hand with reforms,” he said.
For her part, the Moldovan president thanked Michel for the EU’s sustained and sincere support for her country.
“Your decision to visit our country is a clear signal of support from the European Union for our citizens. Thank you for being with Moldova in this difficult period,” said Sandu after her talks with Michel.
“Reform and anti-corruption fight need the support of the parliament. The sooner we hold early parliamentary elections and confirm a government with full parliamentary support, the better for my citizens,” she said in a statement.
Moldova entered a political stalemate because of the conflict between the head of state and the majority of the parliament, as the country’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday declared unconstitutional a presidential decree, under which Sandu named again a prime-minister designate soon after the latter was rejected by the parliament in a vote of confidence, a move that will bring a snap general election in case of another veto by the parliament.
Under Moldova’s constitution, an early parliamentary election is triggered if parliament fails twice to vote in a new government.
We often discuss the deafening silence of professors and writers in the face of campaigns to cancel or censor conservative writers. Indeed, many have supported blacklisting and censorship.
That disturbing silence is evident this week after Amazon appeared to deplatform Ryan Anderson and his best-selling book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement.”
Now various conservative sites are objecting that a documentary on conservative Justice Clarence Thomas has been reportedly removed from Amazon’s streaming service — a glaring omission during Black History Month.
Amazon has not responded to inquiries as to why the Thomas documentary is no longer available, so it is not clear if this was an intentional or negligent act.
Given the controversy over the Anderson book, the sudden unavailability has triggered objections.
A search this morning still found no availability of the book. I have not read the book and I am unfamiliar with Anderson’s arguments. However, my concern is not with the merits of its arguments but the effort to prevent others from reading such arguments.
The intentional removal of the book would be another raw example of private censorship. This is the very danger that I discussed in my recent testimony before the House on efforts to use private companies to implement a system of viewpoint controls. There is a great divide on the issue of how to define gender and how legally to address different genders. This book is part of that national dialogue. However, instead of responding to such book with counterarguments, many want to silence the author to prevent others from reading or hearing his views.
The Thomas controversy is still unfolding but again there is a concern about Amazon’s manipulation of access to opposing views. It appears that you can find a DVD version if you put in the term “DVD” but critics have noted that it is difficult to find as opposed to documentaries on justices like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A search say that the video is unavailable for streaming. It is hard to judge the controversy at this early date. However, Thomas has been repeatedly snubbed by the Black History Museum and other groups due to his conservative ideology. He should be celebrated during Black History month. I strongly disagree with some of Thomas’ views but his life is a remarkable story of achievement.
Clarence Thomas was born on the Georgia coast in Pin Point, Georgia, on June 23, 1948. He grew up speaking Gullah, the creole dialect. His home was a one-room shack with dirt floors and no plumbing. He grew up without a Dad, who left him at two. As a result, at the age of seven he and his younger brother were sent to live with their grandfather, Myers Anderson, and his wife in Savannah, Georgia. He used his Catholic education to overcome segregation and prejudice to eventually go to Holy Cross and gained admission to Yale, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania law schools. After a series of legal positions, he became the chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1982 and later became just the second African American to join the Court.
That would seem an incredible life to highlight during Black History month.
What concerns me most is that members are sending letters demanding to know why cable companies are still allowing people to watch Fox News while they say nothing about removing books like Anderson’s. Indeed, as previously discussed, members in the recent House hearing repeatedly stated that they support free speech but not a single Democrat expressly opposed calls for Fox News to be taken off the air.
Yet, when it comes to censorship, members are neither silent nor subtle. When Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey came before the Senate to apologize for blocking the Hunter Biden story before the election as a mistake, senators pressed him and other Big Tech executive for more censorship. Rather than addressing the dangers of such censoring of news accounts, Senator Chris Coons pressed Dorsey to expand the categories of censored material to prevent people from sharing any views that he considers “climate denialism.” Likewise, Senator Richard Blumenthal seemed to take the opposite meaning from Twitter, admitting that it was wrong to censor the Biden story. Blumenthal said that he was “concerned that both of your companies are, in fact, backsliding or retrenching, that you are failing to take action against dangerous disinformation.” Accordingly, he demanded an answer to this question:
“Will you commit to the same kind of robust content modification playbook in this coming election, including fact checking, labeling, reducing the spread of misinformation, and other steps, even for politicians in the runoff elections ahead?”
“Robust content modification” has a certain appeal, like a type of software upgrade. It is not content modification. It is censorship. If our representatives are going to crackdown on free speech, they should admit to being advocates for censorship. Indeed, leading academics had the integrity recently to declare that they believe that “China is right” about censorship.
It now appears that Amazon “robustly” removed a best-selling book on gender because it objects to the conclusions reached by the author. The response from Blumenthal and other members? Crickets.
North Kivu, in the eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where on 22 February, the Italian ambassador to the DRC, Luca Attanasio; Italian carabiniere, Vittorio Iacovacci and Mustapha Milambo, the Congolese UN driver were killed, there have already been several more massacres of innocent civilians, reports the Catholic news service, Agenzia Fides.
A local based NGO, the Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO), in a message to Agenzia Fides, has detailed the massacres since the killing of the Italian Ambassador.
According to CEPADHO, at least 23 civilian victims have died in attacks in the areas of Beni (North Kivu) and Irumu (Ituri) within the last few days: 17 in Kisima in the Ruwenzori district, one in Oicha (capital of the Beni region), 2 in Kokola in the Beni-Mbau district and 3 in Kpolimumu, Irumu district.
Before that, five civilians were killed in a massacre in Musandba (5 km northwest of Oicha), Beni-Mbau district and in a series of ambushes carried out on the Beni to Kasindi road.
ADF/MTM -a major perpetrator of violence in eastern Congo
There are several militias, mercenaries and terrorist groups operating in the eastern province of the DRC. However, CEPADHO has attributed the recent attacks on civilians to a rebel group, originally from Uganda, the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces).
The group has been carrying out attacks in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since the 1990s, when the rebels arrived on the scene with a political agenda. They have since abandoned their political demands and degenerated into a terrorist militia group involved in trafficking minerals from the eastern DRC. In recent years, militias of the ADF have taken to calling themselves “Madinat Tawhid wa-l-Muwahidin (MTM).” Their alleged “affiliation” to the Islamic State (IS) is the subject of controversy and speculation.
