Mexico: Pope targets Trump in visit to US/Mexico border
The pontiff showed solidarity with migrants in a rebuttal to the GOP (Grand Old Party – Republican) front-runner. Without naming him, Pope Francis rebuked Donald Trump and GOP immigration hardliners during a visit to the US/Mexico border. He led Mass in a field just a few hundred feet away from the United States. He laid flowers at a nearby memorial honouring migrants who had died trying to cross the border. He said, ‘We cannot deny the humanitarian crisis which in recent years has meant migration for thousands by train, highway or foot, crossing hundreds of kilometres through mountains, deserts and other inhospitable zones. The human tragedy that forces migration is a global phenomenon. They are expelled by poverty, violence, drug trafficking and criminal organisations. No more death! No more exploitation! There is still time to change, there is still a way out and a chance, time to implore the mercy of God.’
Russia: Denies bombing Syrian hospitals and school
An estimated 50 people were killed in missile attacks on at least four hospitals and a school in rebel-held northern Syria on Monday. Russia has been accused of being responsible for the attacks. The UN said intentionally directing attacks at hospitals constitutes a war crime. In an article by President Putin’s press secretary Mr Peskov in a Russian newspaper, the Kremlin said, ‘accusations against the Russian Federation in the video-conferencing application of air strikes on hospitals in Syria were unacceptable. We categorically allot as deplorable those who make such statements and are unable to somehow prove their allegations’. Asked by journalists to comment on the information about the hospital bombardment in Syria’s Idlib province, as well as accusations of Russian air and space forces in this incident, Peskov called for people to go back to the source and noted that Syria's Ambassador to Russia, Riyad Haddad said that the hospital in Idlib province was destroyed by the Americans, not by the Russian for
Israel: Turning Jerusalem into a Christian Mecca
Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem have increased greatly within the last decade as Christians trace the footsteps of Jesus, meditate and pray for their families and churches. It is a potential life-transforming event. There is also a growing global phenomenon of governments financing pilgrimages to Jerusalem, as a place of intercession, to pray for their national troubles. Ghana’s government faced criticism for attempting to sponsor Pentecostal pastors for such a trip to ‘intercede for the nation’s many socio-economic difficulties. Over the years, various Christian and Church organisations have asked governments to sponsor pilgrimages, stating, ‘Christians are entitled to state sponsorship for pilgrimages to Israel just as Muslims receive sponsorship to go to Mecca.’ Is Jerusalem becoming ‘Meccanised’? Post-resurrection history of Christianity indicates no geographical centre as the focus of Christian encounters with God. ‘When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen’. (Mat.6:6)
Global prayer for stability
Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen are no longer viable nation-states. A number of nations are supporting fighters who have ruthlessly taken many innocent lives. Refugees are streaming into Western nations, with all the resulting challenges and dangers. IS is spreading and instigating intolerable situations. On Wednesday 28 people died and 61 were wounded by a car bomb in Ankara. Egypt has ordered the closure of the country's last remaining centre for the treatment of torture victims amid a surge in allegations of torture by Egyptian officials. North Korea is sabre-rattling while the poor starve. So many nations need to be soaked in prayer, all of them holding a real sense of tension and danger if one party makes the wrong decision. Pray for the leaders of these nations to be led by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. May they make decisions that God can bless.
