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Two Catholic nuns killed in South Sudan: Pope mourns
The killing of two Catholic nuns along a South Sudan highway Aug. 16 has shocked sisters and supporters throughout several African nations, Rome and the United States.
Srs. Mary Daniel Abut and Regina Roba were South Sudanese members of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in the Juba Archdiocese. They were in a bus returning to Juba with seven sisters and five men Aug. 16 after attending centenary celebrations at Loa Catholic parish in the eastern Diocese of Torit, according to a statement by Sr. Alice Jurugo Drajea, superior general of the congregation.
According to the statement, the bus left at 7:30 a.m. and was barely an hour into the trip when armed men ambushed the bus and started shooting at it. The driver ordered the men on the bus to flee, thinking that the gunmen would spare the sisters. Four of the sisters left the bus with the men. The gunmen followed and shot Abut and Roba, the statement said.
“Three elderly sisters remained in the bus, and the gunmen intended to burn them in the bus as they did with a small car in front of the bus,” Drajea said in the statement. “Thank God, they did have neither a lighter nor petrol to start off the fire.”
Fr. Samuel Abe of the Juba Archdiocese announced a four-day mourning period Aug. 17. The sisters will be buried Aug. 20 at the St. Theresa Cathedral in Juba.
At the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, sent a telegram to the chargés d’affaires at the Vatican Embassy to South Sudan, saying Pope Francis was “deeply saddened to learn of the brutal attack.” The pope offered condolences to the victims’ families and religious community and offered his prayers and blessing.
Abut had served as the superior general of the order from 2006 to 2018. She was head of the order’s Usratuna Primary School, which has more than 1,000 students in Juba.
Roba was from the Yei Diocese in Central Equatoria and was a nurse who served for many years in Loa Parish in the Torit Diocese, Juba Sacred Heart Health Centre and Alshaba Children’s hospital in Juba. She was at tutor at the Catholic Health Training Institute in Wau.
“In the two sisters the Congregation has lost great resource persons with excelling leadership qualities,” Drajea said in the statement. “May their innocent blood unite us in our Congregation more and bring peace to this country of South Sudan which has never known true peace. May their souls rest in God’s eternal Peace!”
Sr. Joan Mumaw, president and chief administrative officer for the Maryland-based Friends in Solidarity, the U.S. partner to Solidarity with South Sudan, a collaborative ministry of religious congregations of men and women, recalled meeting Abut once when Abut was cleaning the local chapel.
“A humble soul,” Mumaw, who is a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe, Michigan, wrote in an email to Global Sisters Report. “Certainly she was well known to Solidarity as we work closely with the sisters and have helped to build the capacity of several sisters. I am very disheartened by this event.”
“Sister Regina will be greatly missed by the staff and students at the Catholic Health Training Institute in Wau where she was part of the staff training nurses and midwives,” Mumaw added. The killings, she said, are “a tragedy for the whole church.”
The Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Juba is an indigenous diocesan congregation founded the late Bishop Sixtus Mazzoldi, a Comboni missionary to the Sudan, in 1954. The congregation works in Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda and Kenya and has a community in Phoenix.
The congregation’s original mission was to educate children and run schools. Their service has since expanded to care for orphans and to minister to those who are vulnerable and abandoned, including those in refugee settlements and prisons, according to a history of the congregation. The congregation’s charism is: “To serve the vulnerable and most abandoned with love and compassion drawn from the virtues of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”
South Sudan marked its 10th anniversary in July as the world’s youngest country after a decades-long war for independence. But the commemoration has been overshadowed by uncertainty, violence and ongoing humanitarian challenges.
The deaths of the sisters threaten to scuttle ongoing peace talks led by the Sant’Egidio Community in Rome. South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit said his government could reconsider its position on the initiative; he blamed the ambush on armed factions that have not signed the 2018 revitalized peace agreement.
“The responsibility for death lies squarely on the hold-out groups,” and the government “condemns this act of terror in the strongest terms possible,” Kiir said in a statement conveying his condolences to Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla of Juba. He warned the government’s pursuit of inclusive peace should never be taken for weakness and exploited to kill innocent citizens.
സ്ഥിര താമസക്കാരായി കുടിയേറ്റക്കാരെ ആവശ്യമില്ലെന്ന് സൂചിപ്പിച്ച് യുകെ. സ്ഥിര താമസത്തിനായി അപേക്ഷിക്കുന്നവരുടെ കാത്തിരിപ്പ് സമയം 5 വർഷത്തിൽ നിന്ന് 10 വർഷമായി ഇരട്ടിയാക്കുന്നത് ഉൾപ്പെടെയുള്ള കർശനമായ പുതിയ നയ നടപടികൾ ബ്രിട്ടീഷ് പ്രധാനമന്ത്രി കെയർ സ്റ്റാർമർ തിങ്കളാഴ്ച പുറത്തിറക്കി. ഇപ്പോൾ, 10 വർഷമായി യുകെയിൽ താമസിക്കുന്നവർക്ക് മാത്രമേ സ്ഥിര താമസത്തിനായി അപേക്ഷിക്കാൻ കഴിയൂ. എല്ലാ വർഷവും യുകെയിൽ എത്തുന്ന ഏറ്റവും വലിയ പ്രൊഫഷണലുകളുടെയും വിദ്യാർത്ഥികളുടെയും കൂട്ടമായ ഇന്ത്യൻ പൗരന്മാരിൽ ഈ നീക്കം കാര്യമായ സ്വാധീനം ചെലുത്തുമെന്ന് പ്രതീക്ഷിക്കുന്നു .
ഓഫീസ് ഫോർ നാഷണൽ സ്റ്റാറ്റിസ്റ്റിക്സിന്റെ കണക്കനുസരിച്ച്, 2023-ൽ യുകെയിലേക്കുള്ള ഏറ്റവും വലിയ കുടിയേറ്റക്കാരായിരുന്നു ഇന്ത്യക്കാർ, ഏകദേശം 250,000 പേർ പ്രധാനമായും ജോലിക്കും വിദ്യാഭ്യാസ അവസരങ്ങൾക്കുമായി എത്തി.
ബിബിസിയുടെ റിപ്പോർട്ട് പ്രകാരം, കുടിയേറ്റക്കാർ അനിശ്ചിതമായി യുകെയിൽ താമസിക്കാനുള്ള അവകാശത്തിനോ സാങ്കേതികമായി ഇൻഡെഫിനിറ്റ് ലീവ് ടു റിമെയിൻ (ILR) എന്നറിയപ്പെടുന്നതിനോ അപേക്ഷിക്കുന്നതിന് മുമ്പ് 10 വർഷം യുകെയിൽ താമസിക്കേണ്ടിവരും.
Sources:azchavattomonline.com
Migrants in the UK may soon face longer waiting periods before they can apply for permanent residency, as the Labour government plans to tighten regulations for foreign workers in Britain. If the rule extending the waiting period does come into force, Indians are likely to be hit as a large number of professionals and students from India reach the UK every year.
In 2023, Indians made up the largest group of immigrants to the UK, with around 250,000 arriving primarily for work and education, according to the Office for National Statistics. This was despite a 10% overall decline in net annual immigration to the UK.
The British government is planning to extend the waiting period for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) to as long as 10 years from the current 5 years for some migrants.
Bloomberg cited a person familiar with the matter as the source of the information, adding that the change would be included in a package of reforms soon to be published by the UK Home Office.
The ILR is a form of permanent residency. Holding ILR status in Britain means a person can stay in the country without any time limit.
It provides access to public services and freedom to work or study, mirroring many rights of British citizens. This status often serves as a precursor to applying for British citizenship. This is in a way similar to the American Green Card.
Around 85% of the people who migrated to the UK were from outside the European Union.
HOW POLITICS IN UK CHANGED WITH STANCE ON IMMIGRATION
The UK’s political landscape has been shaken by the growing popularity of Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist Reform UK party. In recent local elections, Reform UK dealt significant blows to both the ruling Labour Party and the Conservative opposition in England.
Taking a tougher stance on immigration has become a priority for UK PM Keir Starmer as he tries to respond to the electoral threat.
In November last year, Keir Starmer stated that he wanted to see immigration “come down significantly”, criticising the previous Conservative government for having “failed” on the issue.
His remarks came after the UK recorded net migration of a record 906,000 people in the 12 months to June 2023, followed by 728,000 in the year to June 2024.
Some academics have argued that making it harder to achieve settlement rights would leave more people in insecure immigration status, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation without necessarily bringing down the net migration figures.
A Home Office spokesperson declined to comment on proposed changes to the conditions for indefinite leave to remain but said the forthcoming immigration White Paper would “set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system”,reported.
http://theendtimeradio.com
A New York City pastor is on a mission to help people see that “God still heals.”
Mike Signorelli of V1 Church in New York City joined Billy Hallowell to explain how facets of the secular medical community are now “open to the spiritual realm.”
While some doctors and hospitals are looking for help in the wrong places, he said there is an opportunity for Christians to step into the fold and divert attention toward biblical truth.
“What we have to do is believe that God is going to do what only He can do and let me awaken people to the reality that He still heals,” Signorelli said.
In his own ministry, the popular preacher said he has to remind himself to “pray for even incurable things,” as he puts full trust in the Lord. He said he’s seen and experienced incredible miracles as a result of this trust. Signorelli even shared the example of a woman who was healed of Multiple sclerosis (MS).
“I received an email with all of these PDF attachments of a medical diagnosis of MS, and then as I begin to read the documents,” he said, noting he had prayed for the woman. “It was multiple confirmations that all the lesions were gone. It was completely undetectable and they cleared her and even said, ‘You’re done with medication and any medical intervention.’”
Signorelli continued, “And I wept knowing my own unbelief in that moment.”
These are the very issues CBN tackles in our new documentary “Investigating the Supernatural: Miracles,” as we travel the nation diving into claims of miraculous healing.
“Your film is so important,” Signorelli said of the project. “And I hope many people listening watch it right now because it’s like, listen, I don’t want to serve a God that never heals. … But we also don’t want to distract people from the fact that salvation is the greatest healing and we’re all going to die of something. So it’s like living in that both and is healthy doctrine, healthy theology.”
Signorelli is also on a mission to launch a new effort to inspire faith — the Mission 11:59.
Sources:faithwire
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has released a new edition of the New International Version (NIV) Bible, two decades after the previous edition was released in 2005.
The launch ceremony took place on March 13 at Russell Offices, the ADF’s administrative headquarters in Canberra, according to an ADF press release. Tina King of Bible Society Australia presented the new Bible to Maj. Gen. Sue Graham, who represented the chief of the Defence Force at the event.
“We acknowledge in the Defence Force how we are continually supported by the public, and the sacrifice from Bible Society volunteers brought forward today is another embodiment of that,” Graham said. “It’s particularly important to have a Bible that is available and relevant to all our soldiers, sailors and aviators.”
The new edition includes content tailored specifically to ADF personnel, such as contextually relevant prayers for those serving in the Navy, Army and Air Force.
“This is not a book for a bookshelf, it is a book to be near. We hope it will be dog-eared, underlined, searched and cherished,” said King.
Bible Society Australia also hosted a historical display at the event, showcasing military Bibles dating back to the Boer War. Among them was a Bible that saved the life of LCpl. Phillip Davies during World War I. Davies was digging for telephone cables at Messines Ridge, near Ypres in Belgium, when two bomb shells exploded nearby. Shrapnel struck his arms and legs, killing one colleague and injuring two others.
The location is known to have seen fierce fighting between British and German soldiers vying to control the ridge, considered important at the time for military advancement as it allowed a strategic viewpoint over the Ypres Salient.
The next morning, Davies discovered a piece of shrapnel stuck in the back cover of his Soldier’s Bible, which he had kept in his breast pocket. The shrapnel had been stopped just inches from his heart. The Bible was one of a million donated at the time by Bible Society Australia.
Director General Chaplaincy—Army, Principal Chaplain Kerry Larwill, spoke at the ceremony, noting the continued relevance of spiritual resources in military life.
“About 44 percent of Australians identified as Christian, and more are interested in spirituality of different varieties,” Larwill said. “For people who serve in Defence, which we know has demands on individuals and their families, it’s a source of light and hope to those who derive their meaning from a Christian perspective or value its wisdom.”
Representatives from the Military Christian Fellowship of Australia (MCF-A) and other chaplaincy networks, such as the Forum of Christian Military Ministries, also attended the launch. The new Bible includes a foreword written by former MCF-A patron and former Gov.-Gen. of Australia, General (retired) David Hurley.
Sources:Christianpost
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