Muslims and Christians have taken part in Friday prayers at a mosque in the northern Normandy region to pay tribute to an elderly priest who was recently killed by terrorists.

The service was held at the Yahya mosque in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, with a sign holding outside the house of worshipping hall reading “Mosque in mourning.”

Anouar Kbibech, the head of Franc’s main Muslim organization, the CFCM, attended Friday’s gathering, calling on Muslims to visit churches on Sunday to show solidarity with Christians as they pray.

On July 26, two knife-wielding assailants, identified as Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean, interrupted a service at the St. Etienne church.

They forced the 85-year-old parish priest, Father Jacques Hamel, to his knees and slit his throat. Two nuns and an elderly couple were also held hostage until the attackers were shot dead by police.

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Pope Francis expressed his “pain and horror” Tuesday after two knife-wielding men in northern France took a number of people hostage at a church and killed a priest.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the leader of the Roman Catholic Church had been particularly appalled by the “barbaric killing” that happened in a sacred place.

“The pope… participates in the pain and horror of this absurd violence,” media outlets quoted Lombardi as saying, adding that the attack created “immense pain and worry.”

The Tuesday attack hits particularly hard “because this horrific violence took place in a church, a sacred place in which the love of God is announced, and the barbaric murder of a priest and the involvement of the faithful,” the Vatican spokesman stated.

Lombardi described the attack “more terrible news that adds to a series of violence in these days that have left us upset, creating immense pain and worry.”

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An appeals court in Nigeria has ruled against a ban on Nigerian Muslim girls to wear the headscarf to schools in the southwestern state of Lagos. The appeals court in Lagos overturned an earlier ruling in 2013 that had banned the right to hijab in government schools in the state. The new ruling “has restored hope in the judiciary,” said Ishaq Akintola, the director of the Muslim Rights Concern group. Also, in the southwestern state of Osun, the High Court ruled last month that any harassment of girls exercising their choice of hijab constituted an infringement on their rights.

Nigeria has an estimated population of about 170 million people and is almost equally divided between a mainly-Muslim north and a predominantly-Christian south. Secretary-General Ishaq Oloyede of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria has suggested that the anti-hijab campaign in some parts of the country’s Christian-dominated areas is an effort by religious extremists to force Muslim girls into an unacceptable choice between schooling and religion.

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A Catholic priest in Canada has been legally charged with theft and gambling away more than 500,000 Canadian dollars (US$380,000) in donations for the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees arriving in the country.

The 51-year-old clergyman of the Iraq-based Chaldean Catholic church, identified as Amer Saka, had allegedly collected the funds from over 20 donors under the pretext of providing support for the refugees, Canadian police authorities said.

“This investigation spanned throughout the province of Ontario, the United States and other countries where refugees were attempting to come to Canada,” police in London, Ontario, said in a statement.

This is while the head of Canada’s Chaldean Catholic church Bishop Emanuel Shaleta told the local London Free Press that Saka had contacted him to confess he had indeed gambled and lost all of the collected funds.

According to the report, the Catholic priest had been involved in a sponsorship program for refugees for a number of years. He was reportedly sacked by the diocese of Hamilton, Ontario, after local police launched a probe into the case back in February.

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Muslims from across the world, including in Iran, are celebrating Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Shortly after sunrise on Wednesday, Iranian people turned out en masse throughout the country to take part in Eid al-Fitr mass prayers. Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei led the Eid al-Fitr prayers at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Prayer Grounds (Mossalla).

In his sermons after the prayers, the Leader referred to the International Quds Day rallies, which were held last Friday, and noted that Iranians took part in the demonstrations en masse despite scorching heat in some areas to assert that they continue to be devoted to the Palestinian cause. Ayatollah Khamenei said people from all ranks of the society engaged in self-sacrifice during the holy month of Ramadan, offering Iftar to the needy in various neighborhoods across cities.

The Leader said the auspicious occasion of Eid al-Fitr was turned into a time of mourning in some cities in the world, including in the Iraqi city of Baghdad and the Turkish city of Istanbul, as terrorist attacks killed large numbers of people. Ayatollah Khamenei said the conflicts in certain Muslim countries, including Yemen and Syria, were a result of meddling by super powers in the affairs of the countries.

The Leader noted that enemies seek to get Muslim countries busy with internal issues so the Palestinian cause is forgotten and the atrocities of the Israeli regime go unnoticed. Referring to the issue of high payments to certain executives in Iranian institutions, Ayatollah Khamenei said such disbursements constitute a “sin.”

The Leader said while certain shortcomings have occurred in the past resulting in the issue of salaries, the matter must now be seriously followed on. Ayatollah Khamenei said the president is fortunately involved in probing the issue. The Leader said returning the money that has illegally been taken from the state coffers should be put on the agenda of the administration so people’s trust is maintained.

Eid al-Fitr marks the new lunar month of Shawwal and the end of Ramadan — the ninth month on the Islamic calendar — when Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured from dawn to dusk. Muslims believe Ramadan to be an auspicious month for the revelations of God to humankind, given the belief that it was in Ramadan when the first verses of the Holy Qur’an were revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Eid al-Fitr was designated by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) after his migration from Mecca to Medina. Muslims all over the world celebrate Eid al-Fitr by paying Zakat al-Fitr and saying the Eid prayer in a congregation.

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His Eminence Cardinal Sarah recently opined that Poverty is a Christian value. In his book God or Nothing, the Cardinal stressed that ambiguities on doctrine can lead to dangerous opinions. The book as reviewed by Lifesitenews contains excellent teachings for our times. It is indeed a MUST READ!!

Clearly Cardinal Sarah’s comments here address the very misguided, heavily politicized and ideological efforts of many Catholic international aid agencies as well as government and other agencies that tend to emphasis elimination of the poor through contraception and destroying family cultures.

He says:

p.140 I remember being disgusted when I heard the advertising slogan of a Catholic charitable organization, which was almost insulting to the poor: ”Let us fight for zero poverty” .… not one saint – and God alone knows the tremendous number of saints of charity the church has brought forth in two thousand years – ever dared to speak that way about poverty and poor people.

– Jesus himself had no pretension of the sort. The slogan respects neither the gospel nor Christ. Ever since the Old Testament, God has been with the poor; and Sacred Scripture unceasingly claims “the poor of Yahweh”. A poor person feels dependent on God; this bond is the foundation of spirituality.

– Yes, poverty is a Christian value. The poor person is someone who knows that, by himself, he cannot live. He needs God and other people in order to be, flourish, and grow. On the contrary, rich people expect nothing of anyone. They can provide for their needs without calling either on their neighbors or on God. In this sense, wealth can lead to great sadness and true human loneliness or just terrible spiritual poverty. If in order to eat and care for himself, a man must turn to someone else, this necessarily results in a great enlargement of his heart. This is why the poor are closest to God and live great solidarity with one another;

p.141 The church must not fight against poverty but, rather, wage a battle against destitution, especially material and spiritual destitution. It is critical to make a commitment so that all men might have the minimum they require in order to live. “The spirit of poverty and charity is the glory and witness of the Church of Christ”

– But we do not have the right to confuse destitution and poverty, because in doing so we would seriously be going against the gospel. Recall what Christ told us: “The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me” (Jn 12:8) Those who want to eradicate poverty make the son of God a liar. They are mistaken and lying.

p.142 The language of the UN and of its agencies, who want to suppress poverty, which they confuse with destitution, is not that of the church of Christ. The Son of God did not come to speak to the poor in ideological slogans! The Church must banish these slogans from our language. For they stupefied and destroyed peoples who were trying to remain free in conscience

Truth is charity

Below he addresses the many influential or small-minded critics who insist that we must just pray and remain silent about the damaging programs and statements we see and hear and not speak out in order to protect life, family, faith and truth.

p.143 It is a lack of charity to shut one’s eyes. It is a lack of charity to remain silent in the face of confusing words and slogans!

The atheistic West is endangering the whole world

Cardinal Sarah is aware of the great dangers to the entire world of today’s situation in especially the European Union, the United States and Canada.

p.146 I think that the immense economic, military, technological, and media influence of a godless West could be a disaster for the world. If the West does not convert to Christ, it could end up making the whole world pagan; the philosophy of unbelief feverishly seeks followers in new parts of the globe. In this sense, we are facing an atheism that is proselytizing more and more. The pagan culture is determined to extend the domain of its struggle against God. In order to bring about their rebirth, the former countries of the old Christian tradition need to re-energize by embarking on a new evangelization.

P.148 Following Benedict XVI, I am convinced that one of the most important tasks of the church is to make the West rediscover the radiant face of Jesus. If the Old Continent cuts itself off from its roots definitively, I fear that it will cause a major crisis for all mankind, and I see some beginnings of it here and there.


The absolute need to defend the traditions and doctrines of Catholicism

p.147 we have an urgent obligation, says St. Athanasius, to study “the ancient tradition, teaching and faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles, and guarded by the Fathers. For upon this faith the church is built, and if anyone were to lapse from it, he would no longer be a Christian either in fact or name.”

Prayer is the tool to reform the world

p.150 Prayer is the greatest need of the contemporary world; it remains the tool with which to reform the world.

p.153 The start of the reform must concentrate on Catholic schools and seminaries.