Church shelters rail-crash victims in Spain

A CHURCH in southern Spain became a refuge for people caught up in a rail crash near Adamuz on Sunday evening. At least 43 people died, and 170 were injured, when a high-speed train from Malaga to Madrid was derailed and fell into another train from Madrid to Huelva. San Andrés Parish Church became a refuge for survivors and families when its parish priest, Fr Rafael Prados, kept its doors open overnight, Vatican News reported. “Immediately after we learned about the accident, we knew the passengers who had survived would come here,” he told the agency. “Some people simply emptied their refrigerators to help feed those who arrived.” The Pope was “deeply saddened” and sent his “heartfelt condolences”. The website of St George’s Anglican Church, Malaga, posted a message of sympathy and a prayer written by the Bishop of Olympia, in the United States, after the Amtrak Cascades derailment in Washington in 2017. On Tuesday night, a commuter train was derailed near Barcelona. The driver was killed, and 37 people were injured.

Nigerian authorities deny worshippers were abducted

SENIOR officials in northern Nigeria have denied that “dozens” of worshippers were abducted on Sunday from churches in Kaduna state. Reports by Reuters and other news outlets, referring to police statements, said that armed bandits abducted the worshippers from two churches; a church leader put the missing at more than 160. Kaduna state police said that gunmen armed with “sophisticated weapons” attacked the two churches in Kurmin Wali, a forest community in the Afogo ward, at about 11.25 a.m. on Sunday. In a joint statement with local government officials on Monday, the Kaduna state police commissioner, Alhaji Muhammad Rabiu, described the information as “mere falsehood which is being peddled by conflict entrepreneurs who want to cause chaos”. A local official in Kurmin Wali had also told the BBC that gunmen had kidnapped dozens of people attending different churches.
 

Washington mission allowed to pursue employment policy

A MISSION to homeless to people in the United States cannot be forced to employ people who do not agree with its beliefs concerning sexual ethics, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled. It affirmed that the Yakima Union Gospel Mission, in Washington, has the constitutional right to employ only people who “agree with and live out” the belief that sex belongs only within a heterosexual marriage, the Christian Institute reported. Judges upheld a lower-court injunction prohibiting Washington State officials from interfering with the mission’s appointment policy, in a unanimous decision.