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Gildan Named One of the World’s Most Sustainably Managed Companies
Scientology Volunteer Ministers continue helping the frontliners
Over the past 6 months, Over 1,608 clinics and hospitals across 5 provinces have been sanitized weekly for free, a contribution from the Scientology Volunteer Ministers who decided to participate during the lockdown by helping those who help others. They drove thousands of kilometers and spent thousands of hours paid just to serve others.
Since President Ramaphosa announced the lockdown in March this year, Scientology Volunteer Ministers did not wait for orders. Looking at all the technology they have to better understand their fellowman, they knew assistance would be needed and figured out how they could best assist in light of the circumstances. Sanitization and education on hygiene is what they decided to do.
“Little did we know how vital and big it would become and how many would reach for our assistance,” said Sandile Hlayisi, Public Affairs Director for the Scientology Volunteer Ministers. “We are empowered with the Volunteer Minister technology written by L. Ron Hubbard more than 50 years ago for South Africa. This comes with a big responsibility. And we use it at the service of our fellowman with pride and dignity,” Hlayisi added.
But the Scientologists are not the only ones happy with themselves. Others who benefit from the service are too. The regional director for Environmental Health for Sedibeng said: “We were sitting here with no solution and no idea and everyone was terrified, and you guys came like a white night out of the blue and you were there to help us. I believe you saved all of our lives! What you are doing is very important. I consider your actions to be extremely effective. I saw your teams working and I am totally impressed with their professionalism and their technical ability.”
At the Rensburg Clinic, one of the Sisters said, “You are doing wonderful work! I am surprised that you are volunteers and care for people so much. That is really great. I like these books, this is something that can really help us with our patients.”
Hlayisi says he is proud to be representing the Scientology Volunteer Ministers. He feels that with all the work they have done, they might be one of the reasons the spread of the virus in that province has been contained so far.
Disclaimer: The views of authors published on South Africa Today are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of South Africa Today. By viewing, visiting, using, or interacting with SouthAfricaToday.net, you are agreeing to all the provisions of the Terms of Use Policy and the Privacy Policy.
Cardinal Bo: “Fratelli tutti” talks to Asia at crucial crossroads – Vatican News
By Robin Gomes
Amid the numerous social pandemics that Covid-19 has exposed, the Catholic Church in Asia is called to develop the “vaccines of compassion, solidarity and justice” in the spirit of the encyclical of Pope Francis, Fratelli tutti, on fraternity and social friendship.
“May the call of our Holy Father to solidarity, encounter, and gratuitousness find an echo in your lives and communities. May you take up the insistent invitation of Pope Francis for dialogue, respect and generosity towards every human being.”
Myanmar Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, the president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), makes the appeal in a letter to his fellow bishops and their Churches in Asia.
Common good
“Our Asian realities are echoed in the urgent message Fratelli tutti”, the cardinal notes in his letter dated 12 October. Asia is at the crossroads, he says, adding that the path “we take will decide the inheritance we leave to our next generation”.
“Will it be wasted or saved? Will Asia choose individual greed or commit to the common good?” he asks Church leaders, politicians and governments. Much, he says, depends on how we rebuild society after Covid-19.
He laments that “many governments in Asia are attempting to return to tried and failed economic and social models”. He thus calls for a politics for the common and universal good; politics for and with the people; politics that seek human dignity; politics of women and men who practice political love; politics that integrate the economy and the social and cultural fabric into a consistent, life-giving human project.
Rising above the crisis
With Covid-19, the year 2020 has been a time of chaos, fear and loss for the people, Cardinal Bo points out. Yet, Pope Francis urges bishops never to stop being on mission, stressing: “If the Church is alive, it must always surprise.”
The 71-year old cardinal urges his fellow bishops not to let the joy of the Gospel diminish in their hearts, giving way to the culture of indifference. Despite all the pain surrounding us, he says, the Holy Father insists on the overwhelming, immense, surprising and unmerited gift of fraternity.
“Fraternity, which means care and respect for our sisters and brothers,” the Archbishop of Yangon says, “is the foundation and pathway to peace.” “Fraternity is solidarity and dialogue; it is true religion. Without fraternity, liberty and equality do not make sense.”
Many underlying pandemics
According to Pope Francis, Cardinal Bo says, Covid-19 has exposed underlying systemic pandemics in society such as racism, inequity, hate speech, disregard for the poor, the elderly and the unborn, trafficking of women and children, and the culture of death.
The death penalty, the cardinal notes, is legal in at least 18 Asian countries and the continent has some of the longest running wars in the world. Millions have no choice but to leave their families and go abroad to find work.
The Good Samaritan
Against all of this, the cardinal urges, “we must develop the vaccines of compassion, solidarity and justice,” as indicated by the Pope in the person of the Good Samaritan. In the parable, Pope Francis “charts a common course for humanity through a commitment to peace, the rejection of war and capital punishment, encouragement of forgiveness and reconciliation within societies and care for our common home.”
With the eyes of the Good Samaritan, the cardinal says, we are called to critique the culture of waste and to defend the human rights of people made vulnerable by society: women, children, racial minorities, refugees, the unborn, the aged and many others. Respect for persons and for the common good only grows from true fraternity, Cardinal Bo stresses.
Inter-religious relationships
In his message, the president of Asian bishops’ conferences also speaks about fraternal relationships between religions in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis and on the dangers and opportunities it creates.
In this regard, the Holy Father “urges us to look courageously and creatively for opportunities to build, here and now, the world that God desires. “The society that will rise again from Covid-19 is a society where fraternity is valued,” Cardinal Bo added.
Progress against tuberculosis ‘at risk’: WHO
According to the UN health agency, though TB cases fell by 9 per cent and deaths by 14 per cent between 2015 and 2019, access to TB services remains a challenge.
“Equitable access to quality and timely diagnosis, prevention, treatment and care remains a challenge”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, said in a news release announcing the findings.
“Accelerated action is urgently needed worldwide if we are to meet our targets by 2022,” he urged.
Caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis and most often affecting the lungs, TB spreads through the air when people with the disease cough, sneeze or spit. In spite of being a curable disease, many people die from TB and it is a leading cause of death of people living with HIV.
Approximately 90 percent of those who fall sick with the disease each year live in just 30 countries. Most people who develop the disease are adults, and there are more cases among men than women
Challenges
In 2019, approximately 1.4 million people died from TB-related illnesses, and of the estimated 10 million people who developed the disease that year, some 3 million were not diagnosed or were not officially reported to national authorities, according to WHO.
The situation is even more acute for people with drug-resistant TB. About 465,000 people were newly diagnosed with drug-resistant TB in 2019 and, of these, over 60 per cent were not able to access treatment.
There has also been limited progress in scaling up access to treatment to prevent TB, said WHO, adding that funding is a major challenge. In 2020, funding for TB prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care reached $6.5 billion, about half of the $13 billion target agreed by world leaders in 2018.
In addition, disruptions in services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to further setbacks, said the UN health agency.
In many countries, human, financial and other resources have been reallocated from TB to the COVID-19 response, while data collection and reporting systems have also been impacted.
COVID-19 and TB
In line with WHO guidance, countries have taken measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on essential TB services, including by strengthening infection control.
A total of 108 countries – including 21 with a high TB burden – have expanded the use of digital technologies to provide remote advice and support. Countries are also encouraging home-based treatment, providing all-oral treatment as well as preventive treatment, to reduce the need for patients to visit health facilities.
Countries, civil society and other partners have joined forces to ensure that essential services for both TB and COVID-19 are maintained for those in need, said Tereza Kaseva, Director of WHO’s Global TB Programme.
“These efforts are vital to strengthen health systems, ensure health for all, and save lives,” she added.
President Sassoli press conference on EU summit
When: Thursday 15 October at 15:30 – Where: Anna Politkovskaya pressroom and via Skype
EP President David Sassoli will hold a press conference at 15.30 tomorrow (15 October) following his address to heads of state or government at the EU summit. He will comment on the topics EU leaders will discuss during their meeting, like EU-UK relations, tackling COVID-19, climate change and relations between the EU and Africa.
President Sassoli will also reiterate Parliament’s position and expectations regarding the ongoing negotiations on the EU’s long-term budget (MFF) and on Own Resources.
Follow the press conference LIVE on Parliament’s webstreaming or EbS+.
The European Union and Myanmar hold 6th Human Rights Dialogue
The Sixth European Union-Myanmar Human Rights Dialogue was held on 14 October 2020.
The meeting, held by video-conference due to the COVID-19 related disruption, allowed the EU and Myanmar to discuss human rights issues. This discussion was also in the context of the ongoing enhanced engagement under the EU’s Everything But Arms (EBA) trade arrangement, which provided Myanmar preferential imports worth over €2.7 billion in 2019. Myanmar and the EU discussed a wide range of human rights matters, including the situation in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan States, humanitarian access and the situation of Internally Displaced Persons, accountability for alleged human rights violations, fundamental rights and freedoms, economic, labour and social rights, rights of women and human rights cooperation in multilateral fora. They also shared their respective experiences in preventing and combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EU reaffirmed its strong support for Myanmar’s democratic transition, notably in the context of Myanmar’s upcoming general election, as well as for its peace and reconciliation process and inclusive socio-economic development.
Myanmar and the EU agreed that sustainable peace could only be achieved by strengthening the rule of law and good governance, on the basis of shared values and applicable international human rights standards. The EU encouraged Myanmar to continue to implement the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, and took note Myanmar’s efforts in the implementation of its National Strategy for the Closure of internally displaced person (IDP) camps.
With regard to multilateral human rights issues, the EU encouraged Myanmar to sign or ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and welcomed the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict and of the International Labour Convention 138 on the minimum working age. The EU and Myanmar agreed to envisage further implementation on these conventions and other human and labour rights-related international obligations.
The EU also underlined the importance of continued efforts on the part of Myanmar to cooperate with relevant UN mandates and procedures, while inviting to follow the requests of the ILO supervisory mechanism.
It was agreed to continue discussions, including under the EBA enhanced engagement. The 7th Myanmar-EU Human Rights Dialogue will take place in 2021.
The Human Rights Dialogue was co-chaired by Mr Eamon Gilmore, EU Special Representative for Human Rights and U Kyaw Tin, Union Minister for International Cooperation of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
Nabila MASSRALI
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GOP Defends Amy Coney Barrett’s Religion But Stayed Silent When Muslims Were Under Attack
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Parliament’s proposal to reinforce flagship programmes is worth 39 billion euros | News | European Parliament
, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20201014IPR89323/
Pope appoints expert in Molecular Biophysics at Pontifical Academy of Sciences – Vatican News
By Vatican News staff writer
Pope Francis on Wednesday appointed Professor José Nelson Onuchic as a new member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Vatican’s international scientific academy, established by Pope Pius XI in 1936.
Curriculum vitae
Prof. José Nelson Onuchic was born on January 17, 1958, in São Paulo (Brazil), where he graduated in Electrical Engineering in 1980, in Physics in 1981 and in Applied Physics in 1982.
He completed his PhD in Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology (USA) in 1987. After a brief period of post-doctoral study in Santa Barbara, California, he taught at the University of São Paulo (Brazil) from 1987 to 1990, the year in which he returned to the United States, where he taught at the University of San Diego (California) until 2011. He then moved to Rice University in Houston, Texas, to teach Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry and Biosciences. Here he is co-director of the Centre for Theoretical Biological Physics.
He has received several awards for his studies, including the Beckman Young Investigator Award in 1992; he became a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1995 and was elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2006, and of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2009.
His current research interests centre on theoretical and computational methods on the borderline between physics and biology, with their effects on human biology and genomics.
The Academy
The work of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences comprises six major areas: Fundamental Science, Science and technology of global problems, Science for the problems of the developing world, Scientific policy, Bioethics and Epistemology.
Pope Francis names new Bishop for Springfield, Massachusetts, USA – Vatican News
By Vatican News staff writer
Pope Francis on Wednesday named Fr William D.Byrne as the new Bishop of Springfield, Massachusetts in the United States. Until now he has been parish priest of Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Potomac, Maryland.
He succeeds Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski who was appointed as the new Metropolitan Archbishop of Saint Louis by the Pope in June 2020.
Curriculum vitae of Fr. William D.Byrne
Bishop-elect Byrne was born on September 26, 1964 in Washington, D.C., and ordained to the priesthood on June 25, 1994 for the Archdiocese of Washington. Father Byrne attended Georgetown Preparatory School in Rockville, Maryland and received a bachelor’s degree in English from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He studied at the Pontifical North American College in Rome and received a Bachelor’s in Sacred Theology (STB) in 1992 and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) in 1994, both from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
After ordination, Father Byrne was assigned to the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Maryland as parochial vicar where he served until 1995 when he was assigned as parochial vicar at the Shrine of Saint Jude in Rockville, Maryland. From 1999 until 2007, he served as the chaplain for the University of Maryland’s Catholic Student Center in College Park, Maryland. He was named pastor of St. Peter’s parish in Washington, D.C. in 2007 where he served until 2015. From 2009 until 2015, while serving as pastor of St. Peter’s, Father Byrne was also Secretary for Pastoral Ministry and Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of Washington. In 2015, Father Byrne was named pastor of Our Lady of Mercy parish in Potomac, Maryland where he currently serves.
Bishop-elect Byrne’s ministry also includes service on the Archdiocese of Washington’s Vocations Team (1998), Formation Board (2002-present), Priest Council (2003-2006), Priest Personnel Board (2006-2009), and Archdiocesan Administrative Board (2009-2015), as well as membership on the board of directors of St. Ann’s Infant and Maternity Home, Catholic Youth Organization, and Redemptoris Mater Seminary, as well as the advisory board of the Lay Leadership Institute.
The Diocese of Springfield is comprised of 2,822 square miles in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and has a total population of 828,667 of which 199,289 are Catholic.
