HBO host Bill Maher panned Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s religion during a Friday night segment on “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
Maher made the jokes about Barrett, who is Catholic, during a segment titled “24 Things You Don’t Know.”
“She is making it almost a completely Catholic court,” Maher told his guests before diving into the segment. “And she’s not just Catholic, she’s a Mel Gibson’s dad Catholic … This is a court that looks like ‘The Da Vinci Code’ now.”
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Maher’s jokes included:
When my family plays Scrabble, we take out the letters l, g, b, t, and q.
I won’t eat Chinese food because fortune cookies look like vaginas.
When I’m stressed out I’ll eat a whole box of Eucharist.
I’m a classically trained liar.
My volleyball team was 10 and 3 against the other cults in our division.
I believe the Spanish Inquisition had fine people on both sides.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin addressed COMECE’s 2020 Autumn Assembly inviting the European Bishops to put the Church in the frontline for a fairer and more solidary Europe during the long and difficult process of recovery from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking to the gathering on Wednesday, the first day of the Assembly, the Vatican Secretary of State also focused on the promotion of the common good through person-centred policies in the fields of sustainable human development, migration and environment.
The Cardinal’s discourse came in the wake of Pope Francis’ “Letter on Europe” in which he encourages the Church in the EU not to restrict her mission to the private sphere while respecting the autonomy of political life.
Quoting the Pope’s encyclical letter Fratelli tutti, he said “[the Church] cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the building of a better world.”
Inviting all EU institutions, to “rediscover the path of fraternity that inspired and guided the founders of modern Europe”, Cardinal Parolin said the Church would be in the frontline of the long and arduous recovery process from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He described the effort as “an occasion to build a fairer and more solidary Europe that shares scientific research and investments for the production of vaccines and the care for the most vulnerable.”
Care for creation and migration policies
Cardinal Parolin also participated in a dialogue with the EU bishops during which they touched on a series of topics including the need to rethink the European identity and its values, the ongoing EU environmental initiatives such as the “Green Deal” and the “Next Generation EU”, both of which aim to promote solidarity among member states and foster an ecological conversion.
Another crucial topic that was discussed regards the new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum that Parolin said: “marks a step forward, but also raises many doubts”. He also supported the idea of reviewing the “Dublin Regulation” for asylum seekers that, he said, needs to be honed towards policies that “welcome, protect, promote and integrate” migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
In compliance with the health protocol established by the authorities of the Brussels Region, the COMECE Assembly was held exclusively in a digital format.
Video footage from the region posted online showed collapsed buildings and vehicles destroyed by falling debris.
In a statement, the US Geological Survey said the shallow tremor measured 7.0 on the Richter Scale. Turkey lies on several of fault lines and is prone to earthquakes.
Search and rescue operations are ongoing in the ruins of eight buildings, despite a total of 470 aftershocks having occurred since the main tremor.
According to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority of Turkey, the death toll in the western province of Izmir increased to 25.
A total of 804 people were wounded by the tremor. Some 100 survivors have been pulled out alive from the debris so far.
Up to 5,000 emergency service workers and 20 search and rescue dogs have been taking part in the rescue effort.
The quake also shook Greece‘s Island of Samos where two high school students died and at least eight people were injured.
October 25 will forever be etched in Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory’s personal history as well as that of 13 other clerics, prelates and other local Churches.
It would have been just past 7 am in Washington, D.C., when the Holy Father announced his intention to elevate that city’s Archbishop to the College of Cardinals.
Cardinal-designate Gregory spoke with Vatican News about how he heard the news, what his first thoughts were, how he hopes to represent his fellow African-Americans and how the various places in which he has lived and work have shaped his pastoral ministry.
Archbishop Gregory told us it was one of his close friends who first broke the news to him that Pope Francis had chosen him to be a cardinal.
“About five minutes after the Angelus concluded, I got a telephone call from Cardinal Kevin Farrell who said, ‘I want to be the first to congratulate you on being named to the College of Cardinals’.”
The Archbishop continued saying he had no prior knowledge of Pope Francis’s decision. On hearing the news, the first thought that went through his head was:
“I thought that God is good and how grateful I was to the Holy Father for this appointment and how I look forward to working closely with him in his ministry to the universal Church.”
Bearer of the African-American legacy
With this appointment, Archbishop Gregory will become the first Cardinal in the Church in the United States of African-American descent. He hopes his appointment is received, not only by his fellow African-Americans but also by all U.S. Catholics, as a “sign of the love and the respect that the Church universal has for us in our culture, our language, our traditions.”
Specifically, regarding his fellow African-Americans, his hope is that they see in his appointment a call for them to “be more deeply invested in their local parishes and their local dioceses.”
Legacy of faith a “proven treasure”
The Cardinal-elect describes the “wonderful legacy of faith” to which he belongs as one that “stretches back from the earliest days of our arrival on these shores – in chains,” but also a legacy containing “some bright and wonderful examples of faith and holiness in the lives of a number of people whose causes for canonization are already at the Holy See.”
Archbishop Gregory mentioned three of these people in particular: Pierre Toussaint, a slave who, after gaining his freedom in New York, performed numerous works of charity for those less fortunate than he; Father Augustus Tolton, a former slave and convert to Catholicism who, after his ordination, served in the Chicago area as well; Sr Thea Bowman, whom Archbishop describes as a “wonderful, wonderful, woman religious, whose presence and enthusiasm and whose vibrancy still resonate throughout the Church in the United States.”
“We’ve produced holy, generous, zealous Catholics from our cultural and racial tradition. And I hope they get more attention in many respects than I do because their contribution to the life of the church is already a proven treasure.”
Listen to our interview with Cardinal-elect Wilton D. Gregory, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.
Formed by people and places
Cardinal-elect Gregory’s pastoral ministry has been honed in varied places: the sprawling Midwest metropolis of Chicago; the rural diocese of Belleville, Illinois; the southern Archdiocese of Atlanta, home to one of the fastest-growing centers of Catholicism in the U.S.; and the nation’s capital.
He has “been blessed”, he says, “in each of those environments”. He is proud of his Chicago heritage that blessed him with his “entrance into the Church.” Serving in Southern Illinois for almost eleven years introduced him “into the wonderful world and faith traditions of rural Catholics, small-town Catholic communities.” In Atlanta, he “learned much about the heritage of the Church in the South and the great contributions that the people in Atlanta and the environs made to the Civil Rights Movement, the wonderful heritage of Dr King and so many of his colleagues whose lives enriched the Church in Atlanta.”
Since his appointment to the nation’s capital in April 2019, Archbishop Gregory is “finding out more about the wonderful legacy of faith of the people who have made Washington and its territory rich with their fidelity, their love, their generosity, and their endurance.”
Cardinal-elect Gregory wholeheartedly states that in all these places in which has had the “privilege” of serving, he has “found wonderful, loving people.”
Notwithstanding all the positive aspects each place with its people has presented, he has also been exposed and shaped by what he calls “the unseemly issues of racism and exclusion and inequity that are also a part of the legacy that I found in those variety of pastoral services.”
Looking forward to the new ministry
“I’m looking forward to finding out how the Holy Father intends to celebrate this consistory,” given the current health crisis, the Cardinal-delegate said in concluding his interview. “And I will do whatever the Holy Father asks not only at this moment but throughout my ministry as one of his cardinals.”
Father Michael J. McGivney is set to be beatified in a special Mass celebrated by Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, on Saturday.
The celebration takes place at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Hartford, in the US state of Connecticut.
Though the beatification occurs on American soil, Catholics around the world have reason to be grateful for the life and witness of Fr. McGivney.
He founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882, at his parish in New Haven, Connecticut. The fraternal charitable organization now counts over two million members organized into some 16,000 local chapters spread throughout the world.
In an interview with Vatican News, Supreme Knight Sir Carl Anderson expressed Catholics’ gratitude to Pope Francis for recognizing the Christian witness of Fr. McGivney.
“I think this is precisely the type of event that’s so important to happen in America today,” he said, adding that during Fr. McGivney’s time, the US was missionary territory.
“Fr. McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus because he was very concerned that Catholics were leaving the faith. Men were leaving to join secret societies, which often in the US were anti-Catholic, and families were being broken up on the death of the bread-winner—the father—because of poverty.”
Fraternity and mutual support
So, he set up the organization to provide fraternal support for men and financial aid to their families in case of their death, through life-insurance policies. This provided a life-line for working class and immigrant Catholics, who had weak support networks.
“Fr. McGivney wanted to keep his parishioners and parish families strong in the faith.”
In 19th century America, added Mr. Anderson, anti-Catholic sentiment was very strong, so there was a risk that Catholics would withdraw from society and form ghettos.
“But instead, Fr. McGivney’s idea was, ‘No, we’re going to go into society. We’re going to make a difference. And we’re going to do it in terms of charity and unity, under the idea of brotherhood.’”
Similar circumstances
Mr. Anderson drew a parallel between the challenges facing the American Church today and back then.
“The crisis now,” he pointed out, “is the lockdown of parishes, the reduced number of parishioners who attend Mass. Church services are drastically reduced. When those restrictions are lifted, we’re going to have to bring people back.”
Getting Catholics to return to Mass, he said, will likely prove somewhat difficult. “We’re going to need a way of renewing parish life.”
Missionary example of parish renewal
Mr. Anderson said Fr. McGivney has already laid out a path, by making every parish missionary, “evangelizing his parishioners, finding ways to keep his parishioners active in his parish.”
That’s why, said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, Fr. McGivney’s idea of “Christian and missionary witness of the ordinary believer is so important today.”
In the wake of the brutal murders of several school children in southwestern Cameroon on Saturday, Bishop Agapitus Nfon of Kumba reflects on the nation’s socio-political crisis, and thanks Pope Francis for his words of consolation and support.
The World Cities Report 2020, released on Saturday, showcases the value of sustainable urbanization and how it can contribute to global efforts to build back better after the crisis.
“The World Cities Report 2020 convincingly affirms that well-planned, managed, and financed cities and towns create economic, social, environmental and other unquantifiable value that can vastly improve the quality of life of all”, said Maimunah Mohd Sharif, the UN-Habitat Executive Director.
“Urbanization can be leveraged for the fight against poverty, inequality, unemployment, climate change and other pressing global challenges”,
Globally, around 55 per cent of all people live in urban areas: a figure that is expected to rise to nearly 70 per cent by 2050, according to the United Nations.
Cities have been at the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic, UN-Habitat said, with 95 per cent of cases found in urban areas.
The report emphasizes the role of the New Urban Agenda, the UN’s 20-year plan for sustainable urbanization, as a road map to achieving sustainable development and combating climate change.
It analyzes the value of urbanization from an economic, social and environmental perspective, as well as what the authors called “the unquantifiable value” that gives cities their unique character.
When combined, they can drive transformative change, the report argues.
The value of urbanization
UN-Habitat explained that cities generate economic value when they function efficiently, for example by providing transport options that reduce traffic congestion and shorten travel times, thus allowing for more productive employment.
Environmental value is generated in the case of compact cities that have walkable urban centres, thus leading to a reduction in their overall carbon footprint, the agency added.
Meanwhile, urban policies can reduce social inequalities. Providing housing for low-income residents, or creating safe spaces for marginalized groups such as migrants and LGBTQ+ individuals (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer), are just two examples.
Furthermore, when cities are well-planned and managed, they also create intangible value by instilling civic pride and serving as centres of cultural traditions, the report added.
Empowering the cities of the future
The UN-Habitat report was launched on World Cities Day, commemorated annually on 31 October.
“When urban communities are engaged in policy and decision making, and empowered with financial resources, the results are more inclusive and durable”, he said.
UN Habitat underscored that the value of sustainable urbanization can only be unlocked provided that various planning, finance and governance conditions are in place.
The report calls on Governments to create an environment that empowers local authorities to raise revenue, regulate land use, plan for urban growth, limit urban sprawl and relieve overcrowded housing.
Similarly, local governments also should collect revenue to improve municipal services and public spaces.
UNHCR appreciates the European Union’s continuous support of Rohingya refugees and host communities in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh [EN/BN]
President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigeria will not relent until the goal of the country’s candidate emerging director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is achieved.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s candidate for WTO DG, was named the most preferred candidate on Wednesday.
In a tweet on Friday, Buhari said he had a video conference with Charles Michel, president of the European Council, during which he thanked the latter for the EU’s support for Okonjo-Iweala.
“Today, I held a video conference with the President of the European Council, Mr Charles Michel. I thanked the Council for its support for @NOIweala, Nigeria’s candidate for position of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation. We will not relent until the goal is achieved,” Buhari wrote.
Today I held a video conference with the President of the European Council, Mr Charles Michel. I thanked the Council for its support for @NOIweala, Nigeria’s candidate for position of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation. We will not relent until the goal is achieved.
Also, according to a statement signed by Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, Michel assured Buhari of the EU’s support.
“Charles Michel reiterated Europe’s support for Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the next director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO),” the statement read.
“Buhari is leading Nigeria’s charge for Okonjo-Iweala, the country’s former minister of finance, to emerge as the first black and female WTO DG.”
Meanwhile, the WTO general council will reconvene on November 9, 2020 for a final decision on who becomes the next DG of the organisation
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, yesterday reiterated Europe’s support for the bid of Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to become the next Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
On the same day, the Nigerian government announced that it was reaching out to the United States and other members of the WTO to clear all bottlenecks to the emergence of Okonjo-Iweala as DG.
The President of the European Council gave the re-assurance to ensure that the Nigerian candidate emerges DG during a video conference with President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday.
Buhari, who is leading Nigeria’s charge for Okonjo-Iweala to emerge the first black and female DG of the WTO, thanked the European Council for its support for Nigeria’s candidate.
According to the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, “Also discussed during the conference were issues bordering on debt relief for Africa, EU-African relations and recharge of the Lake Chad, which has currently shrunk to less than one-third of its usual size, and throwing about 130 million people who depend on the Lake into dire straits. Recharge of the Lake Chad is an issue the Nigerian President had vigorously canvassed at diverse global fora in recent time.
“President Buhari expressed appreciation to Mr. Michel for expected positive developments on the issues.” Okonjo-Iweala was poised to become WTO’s first female leader by consensus on Wednesday after gaining the support of most WTO member states. But her nomination was moved forward after the U.S voiced opposition to her appointment.
Dozens of governments swiftly spoke out against the U.S, saying Washington was trying to obstruct and weaken the global-trade regulator.
Okonjo-Iweala, who is also a U.S. citizen, is running against South Korea’s first female trade minister, Yoo Myung-hee, who Washington is backing.
WTO spokesman, Keith Rockwell said the organisation would go ahead with a meeting November 9 to pick a new leader. If necessary, as a last resort, a vote could be held to pick a leader although that would break the precedent of selecting the WTO chief by consensus.
He said consultations with the U.S and other members would continue. South Korea declined to withdraw Yoo’s candidacy.
Okonjo-Iweala won the votes on Tuesday by a wide margin, Rockwell said.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the U.S was the first country to dial in, over a videoconference line, saying Okonjo-Iweala lacked the experience to do the job, according to a Western ambassador who was present.
The US complained that the WTO’s election rules were flawed because they did not allow governments to register a negative view of a particular candidate, the ambassador and another person briefed on the exchange said.
The American objection prompted an uproar from the delegates of more than two dozen governments and international organisations seated in the room, with European allies, China, Canada, Latin American and African states all rallying against the US.
An EU representative complained that if the U.S had issues with the process, it could and should have raised them far earlier.
Other countries with delegates in the chamber raised flags, including some that backed Yoo, to join the EU in its objections to the American objection.
Delegates accused the U.S. of trying to bully them and said that if the U.S. didn’t rescind its objections, they would force a vote next month on Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy.
“Given that it will come down to a vote, the likelihood of Nigeria winning is 99 per cent,” the ambassador said.
Okonjo-Iweala had pitched herself as a champion of developing countries. She touted her managerial experience and work as a former senior World Bank official and board chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation as ideal preparation to steer the WTO’s focus on the serious trade challenges of a global health crisis.
In a statement after the selection meeting on Wednesday, Okonjo-Iweala sounded a note of victory, saying she was “immensely humbled to receive the backing of the WTO’s selection committee today.
“A swift conclusion to the process will allow members to begin again to work together, on the urgent challenges and priorities,” she said.
The race for the job, in which eight candidates initially competed, was triggered when Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo said in May that he was stepping down a year early, partly to allow for new leadership ahead of important WTO meetings next year.
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday reached out to the European Council as part of the diplomatic effort to get Nigeria’s Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, confirmed as the next Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Okonjo-Iweala was a step from emerging as the WTO DG until the United States mounted an opposition to her bid on Wednesday.
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Washington said it could not support the consensus decision that had gone in favour of the Nigerian.
However, Buhari yesterday spoke with the President of the European Council, Mr. Charles Michel, during a video conference to make a fresh case for the former minister of finance.
The virtual meeting also stretched to debt relief for African countries and others, according to Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina.
He said the European Council reiterated Europe’s support for Okonjo-Iweala .
He said: “The President is leading Nigeria’s charge for Okonjo-Iweala, the country’s former Minister of Finance, to emerge as the first black and female WTO DG.
“President Buhari thanked the European Council for its support for Nigeria’s candidate.
“Also discussed during the conference were issues bordering on debt relief for Africa, EU-African relations and recharge of the Lake Chad, which has currently shrunk to less than one-third of its usual size, and throwing about 130 million people who depend on the lake into dire straits.
“Recharge of the Lake Chad is an issue the Nigerian President had vigorously canvassed at diverse global fora in recent time.
“President Buhari expressed appreciation to Mr Michel for expected positive developments on the issues.”
The event will comprise an address by the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief, a Memorial Lecture on the continuing work of Khalra and the UK launch of the highly anticipated book on Khalra’s life “The Valiant”.
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday held a video conference with Mr. Charles Michel, President of the European Council, during which the latter reiterated Europe’s support for Nigeria’s Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the next Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). According to a statement made available to newsmen yesterday by his spokesman, Buhari was leading Nigeria’s charge for Okonjo-Iweala, the country’s former Minister of Finance, to emerge as the first Black and female WTO DG.
The President thanked the European Council for its support for Nigeria’s candidate. Buhari also discussed during the issues bordering on debt relief for Africa, EU-African relations and recharge of the Lake Chad, which has currently shrunk to less than one-third of its usual size, and throwing about 130 million people who depend on the Lake into dire straits.
Recharge of the Lake Chad was an issue the Nigerian President had vigorously canvassed at diverse global fora in recent time. The President expressed appreciation to Michel for expected positive developments on the issues.
