Sight-Seeing: The fruit of the Spirit is not optional, despite what you might witness online

KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR, in an article first piublished on Religion News Service. says being filled with the Holy Spirit is not optional for Christians…
UN-mandated investigation into Ethiopia atrocities lapses

Geneva, Switzerland Reuters A United Nations-mandated inquiry into what investigators say are continuing atrocities in Ethiopia faces closure after a UN website on Wednesday showed that no motion has been received to renew it. Thousands died in a two-year conflict between the government and regional forces from Tigray, which formally came to an end in […]
Fate of historic Sofia church unclear as Bulgaria accuses abbot of spying for Russia

RNS After three high-ranking members of the Russian Orthodox Church were expelled from Bulgaria on charges of espionage last month, their former church is not only at the centre of a diplomatic rift between the Russian and Bulgarian governments but an ecclesiastical one between the two countries’ Orthodox churches. On 21st September, Bulgarian authorities arrived […]
Israeli police arrest suspects for spitting near Christian pilgrims and churches in Jerusalem

Jerusalem AP Israeli police said Wednesday they arrested several people suspected of spitting in the direction of Christian pilgrims and churches in Jerusalem this week as religious tensions flared anew in the contested capital that the three Abrahamic faiths consider holy. As Jews celebrate Sukkot – the weeklong Feast of Tabernacles that marks the fall […]
Driver may have fallen ill before fatal Venice bus crash

Venice, Italy Reuters Italian authorities were investigating on Wednesday the cause of the horrific crash of a bus carrying foreign tourists on the outskirts of Venice which killed 21 people including several children and injured 15 others. The electric bus crashed through the guardrail and off an overpass late on Tuesday in the Mestre district, […]
Pope Francis opens a big Vatican meeting on the church’s future and says ‘everyone’ is welcome

Vatican City AP Pope Francis said the Catholic Church needed to be rebuilt to make it a place of welcome for “everyone, everyone, everyone,” as he opened a divisive meeting on the future of the church that has sparked hope among progressives and alarm among conservatives. Francis presided over a solemn Mass in St Peter’s […]
Floods in India’s Sikkim state leave 10 dead, 82 missing

Guwahati/New Delhi Reuters At least 10 people were killed in India’s state of Sikkim and 82 others, including 23 army personnel, were missing after heavy rainfall caused the glacial Lhonak lake to overflow, spurring catastrophic flooding in the region on Wednesday, officials said. The north-eastern state received 40.9 mm of rainfall between Tuesday and Wednesday […]
Climate change and its human causes cannot be denied, papal document says

Vatican City Reuters Pope Francis on Wednesday appealed to climate change deniers and foot-dragging politicians to have a change of heart, saying they cannot gloss over its human causes or deride scientific facts while the planet “may be nearing the breaking point”. In the new document, released ahead of the COP28 conference starting next month […]
Australia to crack down on “significant abuse” of immigration system

Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australia will address significant abuses of its visa system, the government said on Thursday, in a bid to crack down on human trafficking and other forms of organised crime. The government will establish a division in the Department of Home Affairs to tackle abuses of the visa and migration system, funded with $A50 […]
Mexican border state: costs of ‘migrant crisis’ reach nearly $US1 billion

Mexico City, Mexico Reuters The costs of spiking migration for a key Mexican border state due to a sharp downturn in US-bound cargo trucks total nearly $US1 billion over about two weeks, state officials said Tuesday, as authorities in both countries struggle with the latest surge. The state government of Chihuahua announced in a statement […]