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Bible, It is not one book but a whole library of books

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ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw== Bible, It is not one book but a whole library of books
Fr. Emeterio Barcelon, SJ

The Holy Bible is the word of God speaking to us.  It is not one book but a whole library of books.  There are two main parts the Old Testament and the New Testament.  For Christians, the Old Testament was the preparation for the coming of the Redeemer. It predicted the coming of the Messiah who would redeem the world from its sins. We also learn a lot from its stories. The books of the Bible are of different genre. They must be read according to their genre; otherwise they would be possibly misunderstood. The Old Testament was put down in writing about 500 years before Christ.  Before that it was all recited from memory.  The New Testament was written about fifty to a hundred years after the Ascension of Our Lord to heaven. Our oldest Bible now dates to about the year 400 AD until the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls. These were probably hidden about a hundred years before Christ.

Before the coming of Martin Luther in the 15th century, there was no problem about the books that were accepted as canonical or inspired books.  Luther rejected some of the books in the Old Testament books that did not agree with his doctrines.  But with the Dead Sea scrolls this controversy has been corrected. Martin Luther was a young man who was caught in frightening storm where he vowed to become a priest.  He was an excellent theologian and wrote convincingly about abuses in the Church in a time when many leaders of their countries in northern Europe wanted to revolt against the Catholic Church.  In the ensuing polemics and wars the solution was to consider that in every country the citizens of a country would have the religion of its leader. Many northern European states followed Luther out of the Catholic Church.  The followers of Luther and other theologians against the Catholic Church were called Protestants. They did away with the Sacrifice of the Mass and concentrated on the pulpit. So we have the Protestants having no altars but only a podium in their churches.  Another problem that they encountered since rejecting the teachings of the Church was they had no one to define for them what the meaning of the passages of the Bible was. Each one therefor interpreted the Bible as he saw it. This has resulted in having thirty thousand Protestant churches.

At Mass the first part is the reading of the Bible.  On Sunday Masses the first reading is from the Old Testament and the second reading from the New Testament.  On other days there is only one reading from the Gospels. Then there is the offering that represents the people. This is followed by the Consecration and Communion.  After the Mass and the rosary the reading of the Bible is important. After these three are confession and fasting.  These are the five important duties of the Christian. The problem with the reading the Bible is the possibility of misreading it. It is therefore important to read the Bible with the Church. People who made it a habit to read the Bible daily find it very consoling and enlightening. The reading of the Bible allows God to speak to us. The four Gospels are especially important since they tell us of the teachings and life of Our Lord. They also tell us of the miracles Jesus performed to show the people that He was from the Father who loves all of us.  And all He is asking of us is to love Him with all our heart and all our strength and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

2-2020 Call for Contributions European Union Capacity Building M

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European External Action Service
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2-2020 Call for Contributions European Union Capacity Building M

2-2020 Call for Contributions European Union Capacity Building Mission in Somalia (EUCAP Somalia)- Deadline for applications: Tuesday, 29 September 2020 at 17:00 (Brussels time)

Ireland regulator asks Facebook to stop sending EU users’ data to the US

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Juan Sanchez Gil
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Ireland regulator asks Facebook to stop sending EU users’ data to the US

The Irish Data Protection Commission has sent a preliminary order to Facebook requesting suspension of data transfers of European Union users’ data to the US, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Nick Clegg Facebook V-P, Global Affairs and Communications confirmed that the privacy regulator had suggested Facebook halt its EU-US data transfers using a widely used type of contract.

“A lack of safe, secure and legal international data transfers would damage the economy and prevent the emergence of data-driven businesses from the EU, just as we seek recovery from Covid-19,” Clegg said as quoted by WSJ.

The order comes along the heels of a recent ruling by an EU Court to strike down the EU Commissions’ flagship EU-US data flow arrangement called Privacy Shield.

The court, in July, suggested limiting data transfers to the US stating that the EU has no control over the US’ surveillance systems. It struck down the Privacy Shield stating that the US does not have enough safety and privacy measures in place as required under the General Data Protection Regulation.

The measures “are not circumscribed in a way that satisfies requirements that are essentially equivalent to those required under EU law, by the principle of proportionality, in so far as the surveillance programmes based on those provisions are not limited to what is strictly necessary,” the Court said in an official release.

“ In respect of certain surveillance programmes, those provisions do not indicate any limitations on the power they confer to implement those programmes or the existence of guarantees for potentially targeted non-US persons,” it said.

The decision was criticised by the US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross who said that he was “deeply disappointed” with the ruling.

Aung San Suu Kyi suspended from the Sakharov Prize Community | News | European Parliament

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officialinstitutions
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Aung San Suu Kyi suspended from the Sakharov Prize Community | News | European Parliament

, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20200907IPR86516/

International Democracy Week 2020: how democracy is dealing with COVID-19 | News | European Parliament

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officialinstitutions
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Aung San Suu Kyi suspended from the Sakharov Prize Community | News | European Parliament

, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20200904IPR86426/

Cardinal calls for resettlement of asylum-seekers from Greek island

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Newsroom
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Cardinal calls for resettlement of asylum-seekers from Greek island

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — By Barbe Fraze – Hours after a fire or fires sent thousands of migrants and refugees fleeing their tents and makeshift container homes at the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, a close aide to Pope Francis called for the permanent resettlement of all the residents.

“Since the time of the visit of the Holy Father (in 2016), we have been asking them to empty these concentration camps, but they let us take only the small groups that we have brought to Italy at the Vatican’s expense in collaboration with the Community of Sant’Egidio,” said Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner.

Asked about the fire, the cardinal, who has visited the Moria camp several times and accompanied small groups of asylum-seekers to Rome, told Catholic News Service that “sooner or later it was bound to happen.”

“The refugees who entered Europe” by arriving in Greece, but have been stuck in overcrowded camps there, “are at the limit of supporting such an inhuman situation,” the cardinal said. “It’s like their hope is being killed.”

While government officials said they were investigating the cause of the fire, the Greek news agency ANA said it broke out “at 2 a.m. after clashes began when some of the 35 refugees who tested positive for COVID-19 refused to move into isolation with their families.”

The Moria camp was built to house just over 2,000 asylum-seekers, but according to the U.N. Refugee Agency, when the fire broke out, the camp housed more than 12,000 asylum-seekers, “including more than 4,000 children as well as other vulnerable groups, including 407 unaccompanied children, pregnant women and elderly people.”

While many were given shelter in portable containers, thousands of others lived in tents on a hillside olive grove.

Daniela Pompei, who coordinates the refugee-resettlement program of the Sant’Egidio Community, told CNS Sept. 9 that she had been in contact that morning with many of the asylum-seekers at the camp.

“The situation is dramatic,” she said. “Our refugee friends in Moria are desperate” as most of the 12,000 people who were in the camp are now on the road leading to the sea. Local media were reporting that the Greek police and nearby residents were preventing the asylum seekers from moving into town.

Pompei said it is necessary to find immediate housing at least for the families with children and other vulnerable people and to feed all of them.

“They must set up structures quickly with military tents or use hotels if possible,” she said. “But even more importantly, they must transfer people to the mainland.”

As Pope Francis has said repeatedly, as part of the European Union, Greece — and Italy and Malta as well — cannot be expected to enforce Europe’s borders and its refugee policies alone.

Other nations must “accept the transfer of family groups and unaccompanied minors,” Pompei said. “It is necessary to help Greece and, particularly, to help the asylum seekers who are mainly Syrians, Afghans, Congolese and Cameroonians.”

Copyright ©2020 Catholic News Service / U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Send questions about this site to [email protected]

Global missionary efforts have taken a hit in the time of coronavirus

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Newsdesk
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Global missionary efforts have taken a hit in the time of coronavirus

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — In a world marked by religious persecution and mounting secularism, being a missionary priest has never been easy.

Add closed frontiers and social distancing caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and the already tough job may seem impossible. But according to one missionary, Salesian priest Martin Lasarte, there is opportunity beyond the challenges.

“Being a missionary priest has always been hard, and it will forever be,” Lasarte told reporters during an online meeting Monday (Sept. 7).

“But in the various dark moments in history, the Lord always found a way,” he added.

Lasarte, who has been working as a missionary in Angola since the 1990s, is a member of the Department for Missions at the Salesian General House in Rome. He trains and prepares Catholic missionaries to travel all over the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw a “large reduction” in the realm of missionary work, aggravating an ongoing decline in the number of vocations and priests seeking to become missionaries. But while Catholicism may be waning in many Western countries, new communities are emerging in other parts of the world, especially in the Eastern Hemisphere, Lasarte said.

ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw== Global missionary efforts have taken a hit in the time of coronavirus

The Rev. Martin Lasarte. Photo via Salesians.org

“When it seems that the light is about to fade in some places, faith emerges once again somewhere else,” he said.

Korea, India and Vietnam have witnessed a significant surge in the number of Catholic faithful, the missionary said. But even in Asia, missionary work faces mounting challenges; he noted China’s authoritarian hold on the life of the faithful within its borders.

“In the past few years the situation in China has gotten much worse,” Lasarte said, adding that Beijing “looks at Catholicism and human rights with a certain preoccupation.”

China has been facing consistent criticism and outcry due to its treatment of religious minorities. Starting in 2009, the country forced over a million Uighur Muslims into mass detention camps, where there have been numerous reports of human rights violations.

Lasarte’s comments on religious persecution in China come at a time when Pope Francis and the Vatican are attempting to broker a deal with the up-and-coming superpower in an attempt to reconcile decade-long tensions.

The upcoming deal has come under fire from those who fear that the Catholic Church will, in the name of diplomacy, be unwilling to hold China accountable for its actions.

RELATED: Vatican’s China deal may protect Chinese Catholics, keep Pope Francis silent

In his experience as a missionary in Angola, Lasarte pointed out “the new colonization of China in Africa,” which has been occurring economically and politically in the country amid what he called “the silence of the world, the silence of Europe especially.”

It’s in Europe that Lasarte finds “the most preoccupying areas.” Once the home of missionary zeal and hot-blooded Catholics, the Old Continent has become residence to a tepid and secularized faith, with dwindling vocations and empty pews, said the missionary.

With more than 2 million cases of the coronavirus and almost 200,000 COVID-19 related deaths, Europe has been dealt a heavy blow by the pandemic — and so has its faith. Churches, confessionals and many sacraments were banned during the months of lockdown in many European countries.

Speaking to the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich said the pandemic set the Catholic Church back a decade in terms of faithful numbers and religious culture. The archbishop of Luxembourg said that Catholics in his own country “will be reduced in number” once they find that “life is very comfortable” without having to go to church.

According to Lasarte, the COVID-19 pandemic “has purified the church,” separating those who were “culture Catholics” attending Mass out of inertia from those who cannot live without it. The answer, according to the missionary, is not in demographics.

“We don’t have to seek large numbers,” he said, “but the authenticity of the gospel.”

Like many priests coming to terms with the declining state of religion in the west, Lasarte finds comfort in the “few, but good” approach.

This is the not the first time the Catholic priest attempted to switch the narrative amid a global crisis. In 2017, he wrote a letter to The New York Times that, while commending the publication for shedding light on the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, asked that reporters also take an interest in the positive work done by priests and laypeople.

He was also invited by Pope Francis to attend the 2019 summit of bishops on the Amazon region at the Vatican, focused on promoting the sustainable development of its inhabitants and their habitat, where he experienced the profound divisions underscoring the Catholic Church firsthand.

At the time, Lasarte accused bishops of clericalism and losing sight of the real needs of the faithful. Today, Salesian missionaries are hard at work trying to cure and prevent the spread of COVID-19 among Indigenous peoples.

Despite challenges from within and without, the missionary continues to have faith that even in reduced numbers “Catholics can be a significant minority.”

“Christianity still has a future,” he said.

Serious knowledge gaps must be bridged to battle deadly sepsis infections

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United Nations News
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Serious knowledge gaps must be bridged to battle deadly sepsis infections

Citing “recent studies”, WHO revealed that sepsis kills 11 million people each year, many of them children, and disables millions of others.

“The world must urgently step up efforts to improve data about sepsis so all countries can detect and treat this terrible condition in time,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. 

Improved data needed

Against the backdrop that most studies had been conducted in the hospitals and intensive care units of high-income countries – with little evidence from the rest of the world – WHO underscored the “urgent need” for better data.

Furthermore, different definitions of sepsis, diagnostic criteria and hospital discharge coding, compound the difficultly in developing a clear understanding of the true global burden of this life-threatening infection.

“This means strengthening health information systems and ensuring access to rapid diagnostic tools, and quality care including safe and affordable medicines and vaccine”, the top WHO official spelled out.

What is sepsis?

Sepsis occurs in response to an infection. When it is not recognized early and managed promptly, it can lead to septic shock, multiple organ failure and death, according to the UN health agency. 

And patients who are critically ill with severe COVID-19 and other infectious diseases are at higher risk of developing and dying from it.
WHO pointed out that only half of sepsis survivors will completely recover, the rest will either die within one year or be burdened by long-term disabilities.

Hardest hit

The deadly infection disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, including newborns, pregnant women and people living without means, where WHO says approximately 85 per cent of sepsis cases and sepsis-related deaths occur.

Moreover, children account for almost half of the 49 million cases each year, most of which could have been prevented through early diagnosis and appropriate clinical management. 

Obstetric infections, including complications following abortion or infections following caesarean section, are the third most common cause of maternal mortality, the UN report revealed.

Global estimates show that for every 1,000 women giving birth, 11 women experience infection-related, severe organ dysfunction or death.
Healthcare sepsis

Sepsis frequently results from infections acquired in healthcare settings. 

The report finds that almost half of sepsis patients in intensive care units acquired the infection in the hospital while noting that an estimated 27 per cent of those with sepsis in hospitals and 42 per cent in intensive care units, will die. 

The world must urgently step up efforts to improve data about sepsis — WHO chief

WHO identified antimicrobial resistance as a major challenge in treating sepsis as it complicates the ability to combat infections, especially in healthcare facilities.

Changing the odds

The UN health agency elaborated on interventions to prevent as many as 84 per cent of newborn sepsis-related deaths, which include improved sanitation, water quality and infection prevention methods – such as hand hygiene – but stressed that these be coupled with early diagnosis, appropriate clinical management and access to safe and affordable medicines and vaccines.

At the same time, WHO called on the global community to improve high-quality data collection; scale-up global advocacy, and funding research; develop rapid, affordable diagnostic tools; and educate health workers and communities to infection risks and the need to promptly seek care.

‘Essential lessons’ from HIV fight can help coronavirus response, says UNAIDS

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United Nations News
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‘Essential lessons’ from HIV fight can help coronavirus response, says UNAIDS

HIV fight – The study by UNAIDS, the UN agency working to stamp out HIV and AIDS, outlines how the world can leverage and build resilient health systems that address both pandemics. 

 

“Our decades-long fight against HIV offers essential lessons. By heeding those lessons and working together, we can ensure that national health responses deliver on the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the health and well-being of all”, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. 

Seize the moment 

The report is entitled COVID-19 and HIV: 1 moment, 2 epidemics, 3 opportunities—how to seize the moment to learn, leverage and build a new way forward for everyone’s health and rights. 

It reveals how key lessons learned in combating HIV can support accelerated action against COVID-19 without jeopardizing ongoing response to HIV and other health emergencies, thus providing a “unique opportunity” to reimagine systems for health, according to UNAIDS chief Winnie Byanyima. 

 “All eyes are on health, health systems and health care, with countries wanting to be better equipped to deal not only with COVID-19 but also to create healthier, more resilient societies,” she said.  

“We can seize this opportunity by learning from HIV and from COVID-19 to make important changes to develop rights-based, equitable, people-centred systems for health.”  

Leveraging innovative delivery 

It highlights examples of how infrastructure for HIV response is being leveraged during the pandemic, including through innovative and community-led service delivery. 

For example, some 280,000 new health-care workers trained by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, are currently serving as first responders to COVID-19 in several low- and middle-income countries. 

Additionally, 17 HIV treatment reference centres in Morocco, are being used in the first line of response for treating disease caused by the virus.  

Increase investments 

The report was released at the start of the two-day Virtual Fast-Track Cities 2020 conference on urban HIV and COVID-19 responses, which concludes on Thursday. 

As countries continue to grapple with the new coronavirus, UNAIDS stressed that they must take steps to limit any interruption to HIV-related services. At the same time, supply chains providing essential commodities and technologies for HIV and other global health priorities must also be able to function. 

“COVID-19 has caused significant loss of life in many communities, but notably in those where inequities make people more vulnerable to ill health. Leveraging of the HIV infrastructure and workforce has helped to mitigate what might have been a far worse situation”, said José M. Zuniga, President/Chief Executive Officer of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, co-organizers of the conference.  

“However, with current HIV spending substantially off-track, the world urgently needs to increase investments in the responses to both HIV and COVID-19 and not siphon off one to respond to the other.”

Science, solidarity and solutions needed against climate change: Guterres 

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officialinstitutions
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Science, solidarity and solutions needed against climate change: Guterres 

United in Science 2020, released on Wednesday, highlights the increasing and irreversible impacts of climate change on glaciers, oceans, nature, economies and it’s cost on people across the globe; manifest more and more often through disasters such as record heatwaves, wildfires, droughts and floods.

Speaking at the launch of the report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that there is “no time to delay” if the world is to slow the trend of the devastating impacts of climate change, and limit temperate rise to 1.5 degree-Celsius. 

“Whether we are tackling a pandemic or the climate crisis, it is clear that we need science, solidarity and decisive solutions,” said Mr. Guterres. 

“We have a choice: business as usual, leading to further calamity; or we can use the recovery from COVID-19 to provide a real opportunity to put the world on a sustainable path,” he added. 

The Secretary-General outlined six climate-related actions to shape the recovery from COVD-19, to ensure a sustainable future for coming generations. 

The six actions include: delivering new jobs and businesses through a clean, green transition; making public bailouts contingent upon green jobs and sustainable growth; shifting away from grey and towards green economy, making societies and people more resilient; channelling public fund investments into sustainable sectors and projects that help the environment and the climate; factoring in climate risks and opportunities into the financial system as well as in public policymaking and infrastructure; and lastly – working together as an international community. 

“As we work to tackle both the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis, I urge leaders to heed the facts in this report, unite behind the science and take urgent climate action,” added Mr. Guterres, urging governments to prepare new and ambitious national climate plans, the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), in advance of COP26. 

“That is how we will build a safer, more sustainable future.” 

Climate change continues unabated 

In one of its key findings, the report states that atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations showed “no signs of peaking” and continued to increase to new records. 

Benchmark stations in the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch network reported CO2 concentrations above 410 parts per million (ppm) during the first half of 2020, with Mauna Loa (Hawaii) and Cape Grim (Tasmania) at 414.38 ppm and 410.04 ppm, respectively, in July 2020, up from 411.74 ppm and 407.83 ppm the same month last year. 

“Greenhouse gas concentrations – which are already at their highest levels in 3 million years – have continued to rise,” said Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), in the foreword to the report. 

Meanwhile, large swathes of Siberia have seen a prolonged and remarkable heatwave during the first half of 2020, which would have been very unlikely without anthropogenic climate change. And now 2016-2020 is set to be the warmest five-year period on record, he continued. 

“Whilst many aspects of our lives have been disrupted in 2020, climate change has continued unabated,” added Mr. Taalas. 

Findings 

According to the report, CO2 emissions in 2020 will fall by an estimated 4 to 7 per cent in 2020 due to COVID-19 confinement policies. The exact decline will depend on the continued trajectory of the pandemic and government responses to address it.  

In April 2020, at the height of COVID-related lockdowns, daily global fossil CO2 emissions dropped by an unprecedented 17 per cent compared to the year prior. However, by early June, the emissions had mostly returned to within 5 per cent below 2019 levels. 

It notes that though the emissions gap – the difference between what we need to do and what we are actually doing to tackle climate change – is wide, it can still be bridged with urgent and concerted action by all countries and across all sectors. 

On the state of the global climate, the report indicates that the average global temperature for 2016-2020 is expected to be the warmest on record, about 1.1 degree Celsius above 1850-1900 (a reference period for temperature change since pre-industrial times) and 0.24 degree Celsius warmer than the global average temperature for 2011-2015. 

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services

Two firefighters in Queensland, Australia, where the worst wildfires seen in decades are devastating large swathes of the country.

Impact of COVID-19 on Earth system observations 

 The report also documents how the COVID-19 pandemic has impeded the ability to monitor changes in climate through the global observing system, which in turn has affected the quality of forecasts and other weather, climate and ocean-related services. 

 Aircraft-based observations have seen major reductions, manual measurements at weather stations and of rivers have been badly affected and nearly all oceanographic research vessels are in ports, owing to direct or secondary impact of the pandemic. 

The impacts on climate change monitoring are long-term, according to the report. They are likely to prevent or restrict measurement campaigns for the mass balance of glaciers or the thickness of permafrost, usually conducted at the end of the thawing period.  

The report 

The United in Science 2020 report, the second in a series, is coordinated by the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with input from the Global Carbon Project, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UK Met Office.  

The report brings together the latest climate science related updates from a group of key global partner organizations. It presents the very latest scientific data and findings related to climate change to inform global policy and action. 

UNSOM

Flooding in Belet Weyne, Somalia

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