Cuba: Church leader released
A respected Cuban church leader who was unexpectedly arrested and tried in court last week has been cleared of all charges after his accusers gave contradictory evidence against him. According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Reverend Roberto Rodriguez, was allowed to return to his family and is recuperating at home after being found not guilty of ‘threatening behaviour.’ The pastor was forced to hitchhike from Cardenas to Santa Clara. They arrived at 1am and the following day travelled to the town of Placetas, in Central Cuba, where Rodriguez stood trial on 2 Sept. Prosecutors recommended that Rodriguez be given a one-year prison sentence, following what CSW called the contradictory evidence given by his accusers, the tribunal had no choice but to find him not guilty, although the court handed down a fine to the church leader. Praise: God for justice and the release of Rodriguez. (Am.5:24)
Cuba: Church leader released
A respected Cuban church leader who was unexpectedly arrested and tried in court last week has been cleared of all charges after his accusers gave contradictory evidence against him. According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Reverend Roberto Rodriguez, was allowed to return to his family and is recuperating at home after being found not guilty of ‘threatening behaviour.’ The pastor was forced to hitchhike from Cardenas to Santa Clara. They arrived at 1am and the following day travelled to the town of Placetas, in Central Cuba, where Rodriguez stood trial on 2 Sept. Prosecutors recommended that Rodriguez be given a one-year prison sentence, following what CSW called the contradictory evidence given by his accusers, the tribunal had no choice but to find him not guilty, although the court handed down a fine to the church leader. Praise: God for justice and the release of Rodriguez. (Am.5:24)
Atheist doctors
Doctors who are atheist or agnostic are twice as likely to take decisions that might shorten the life of somebody who is terminally ill as doctors who are deeply religious. Doctors with strong religious convictions are less likely to discuss such decisions with the patient, according to Professor Clive Seale, from the Centre for Health Sciences at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Doctors are influenced by their beliefs just as other people are, said Seale. ‘It is easy for clinicians to present themselves as neutral appliers of science, but values do come into it,’ he said. That is accepted in abortion care, but the issue has not yet been widely discussed in the care of the dying. Seale's study, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, was based on a survey of doctors specialising in care for people at the end of life, such as neurology, elderly and palliative care as well as general practice. Pray: for doctors, carers, patients and close family as they work together to care for the terminally ill. (3Jn:8) More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/aug/26/doctors-religious-beliefs-terminally-ill
Britain 'selfish and hedonistic'
Edmund Adamus, an adviser to the Archbishop of Westminster, said five decades of liberalising abortion and gay rights laws had made Britain more anti-Catholic than countries where Christians can be subjected to violent persecution. The director of pastoral affairs in the diocese of Westminster blamed Parliament for allowing the country to become ‘the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death’. His remarks are likely to cause tension ahead of the Pope's state visit to Britain later this month. He said ‘ Britain, and in particular London, has been and is the epicentre.’ The expression ‘culture of death’ is often used to refer to liberal policies on abortion and euthanasia. He added that Parliament over the last 50 years had been ‘the most permissively anti-life and progressively anti-family and marriage, in essence one of the most anti-Catholic landscapes, culturally speaking, more even than those places where Catholics suffer open persecution.’ Pray: for God’s guidance as we weigh these cautionary comments. (1Co.14:29)
