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World news in brief

by
17 January 2025

Alamy

The flagship of the Italian Navy, Amerigo Vespucci, in Old Dohar Port, Qatar, last month. The Archbishop of the Italian Forces has designated the three-masted sailing ship, which is making a three-year world tour, a “Jubilee site for sacred pilgrimages and for pious visits”, where pilgrims can obtain a plenary indulgence, throughout 2025 (News, 3 January)

The flagship of the Italian Navy, Amerigo Vespucci, in Old Dohar Port, Qatar, last month. The Archbishop of the Italian Forces has designated the three-masted sailing ship, which is making a three-year world tour, a “Jubilee site for sacred pilgrimages and for pious visits”, where pilgrims can obtain a plenary indulgence, throughout 2025 (News, 3 January)

 

Pontiff’s memoirs appear for Jubilee Year

THE Pope’s autobiography, Hope, was released in 80 countries on Tuesday to coincide with the Jubilee Year, the Vatican reports. The book, a collaboration with the Italian writer Carlo Musso, includes narrated memories, anecdotes, and photos. It is published by Viking in the UK, and by Random House in the United States. In a press release, Random House said that publication was originally going to be posthumous, but had been brought forward to 2025 because of the Jubilee Year of Hope. Written over six years, the narrative begins in the early years of the 20th century, with the Pope’s Italian roots and his ancestors’ migration to Latin America. It continues through his childhood, youth, and ministry up to the present day.

 

Faith groups oppose Commandments Bill

A GROUP of 20 religious organisations in the United States, led by the National Council of Jewish Women, have filed an amicus brief opposing a new Bill that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every school classroom in the state of Louisiana. The Bill, signed into law by the Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, last June (News, 5 July 2024), is now the subject of a legal battle, after it was blocked by a federal judge in November (News, 22 November 2024). Louisiana is appealing against the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The law has been backed by the President-elect, Donald Trump. The amicus brief, filed on 6 January, argues that the legislation privileges a Protestant Christian interpretation of the Commandments at the expense of other faiths, and pressures schoolchildren to venerate a text that may be distinctly different from that of their own religious communities. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled to be heard later this month.

 

AlamyArtefacts from the largest and most significant monastery complex in the region, uncovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority. The site near Kiryat Gat, which dates to the first century CE, includes a church with a colourful mosaic floor and an inscription in Greek from Deuteronomy 28.6

 

Biden awards Pope Francis highest civilian honour

PRESIDENT Joe Biden has awarded the Pope the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction — the highest civilian honour in the US — in recognition of his dedication to peace, human rights, care for the poor, and environmental protection. President Biden phoned Pope Francis on Saturday in one of his final acts as President before his successor, Donald Trump, is inaugurated on Monday. President Biden had been due to present the honour in person, at the Vatican, but the visit was cancelled owing to the wildfires in California. A White House statement said: “As a young man, Jorge Bergoglio sought a career in science before faith led him to a life with the Jesuits. For decades, he served the voiceless and vulnerable across Argentina. As Pope Francis, his mission of serving the poor has never ceased.” The honour has been awarded to 19 other individuals this year.

 

Arizona church arsonist sentenced to 36 years

A 60-YEAR-OLD man in the United States, Eric Ridenour, who last July was convicted by a federal jury of setting the fires in May 2023 that destroyed St Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Douglas, in Arizona, and damaged the neighbouring First Presbyterian Church (News, 19 July 2024), was sentenced to 36-and-a-half years in federal prison, last week. The indictment, which accused Ridenour of hate crimes, said that he intentionally started the fires “because of his hostility toward their progressive doctrines, particularly their practice of having women and members of the LGBTQ community serve as church leaders”.

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