Pope begins program in peru

adminonDecember 7, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Pope Francis has ended his three-day visit to Chile and departed for neighboring Peru. In addition to a large service on the beach, the head of the church visits victims of a neighborhood devastated by flooding.

Pope Francis today begins his program of visits to Peru, the second stop on his Latin American tour. The head of the church arrived late Thursday afternoon (local time) for his three-day stay; Francis was greeted at the airport in Lima by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Afterwards he went to the Papal Embassy. On Friday morning, the head of the Catholic Church will fly to Puerto Maldonado in the Peruvian Amazon, near the border with Bolivia. There he meets with representatives of Amazon peoples. In the afternoon (local time) is scheduled to return to Lima.

Talks with victims of the Pinochet regime

After the grand closing service in Iquique, even before he left for Peru, Pope Francis met with a victim of the Pinochet regime in Chile. He spoke with Hector Marin Rossel, whose brother was abducted and killed shortly after the coup led by General Augusto Pinochet in September 1973. According to Vatican sources, Marin called on the pope to work hard to clarify the fate of the disappeared during the military dictatorship of 1973 to 1990. Marin, who now heads an association of victims' relatives, was 17 years old at the time; his murdered brother Jorge was 19.

Marin reportedly handed the pope a letter asking him to lobby the military and the Chilean government to cooperate with the bereaved families. They wanted to find inner peace, Marin wrote.

Open ear nurtures hope

Francis listened openly and accepted the letter, the Vatican press office quoted the man as saying after the meeting. Accordingly, Marin praised the Catholic Church in Chile for its defense of human rights. In pope's hand is hope to see missing relatives again, Marin says.

In Puerto Maldonado, a meeting with representatives of the Amazonian peoples is scheduled for today. The extraction of raw materials and the threat to cultural identity, as well as the rights of indigenous peoples, are likely to be topics of discussion. The meeting is seen as a prelude to a Vatican Amazon synod that Francis plans to convene in 2019. Only in the evening the formal welcome in Peru takes place in the presidential palace in Lima.

Other items on the program in Peru

On Saturday, the pope will celebrate a large Mass on the beach near Trujillo. He then visits a residential neighborhood that was hit by severe flooding in April 2017 in the wake of the El Nino climate phenomenon. After meetings with women religious and Peruvian bishops in Lima and a Mass, Francis flies back to Rome on Sunday.

Previously, the pope had visited the neighboring country of Chile for three days. In addition to religious services and meetings with leading politicians, the program included meetings with victims of abuse and members of the Mapuche minority, as well as a conversation with a victim of the military dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

Critical tones and flash wedding

Concluding his visit to Chile, Francis urged unity in Iquique and called for solidarity with migrants. The first part of his Latin American trip to Chile was accompanied by debates about Bishop Juan Barros, who was criticized for an abuse scandal. He is accused of covering up sexual misconduct by a priest. There is no reliable evidence of this so far. The pope stood protectively in front of him.

A flash wedding officiated by the pope on his domestic flight to Iquique caused a stir on Thursday. Two flight attendants said "I do" once again in front of Francis. In civilian clothes, the couple has been married for eight years. They had told the pope that their church wedding planned in 2010 had to be cancelled because their church was destroyed by an earthquake. In response, Francis asked, "Do you want to marry? Let's do this then."

Erdogan supporters give military salute © Sedat Suna

They make up as much as a quarter of the Turkish population – but they do not feel that they have equal rights. The Alevis have always belonged to Turkey. And lived dangerously again and again.

Every year on 28. May thousands of Alevis set out to visit shrine of St. Apaziz. The grave is located in Adiyaman province, in southeastern Turkey in a small village, between the cities of Gaziantep and Diyarbakir. There they eat "lokma," a traditional sweet dough dish, sing songs and pray. Apaziz is a saint of the Alevis, the second largest religious community in Turkey. Number 12 million to 20 million believers, or up to a quarter of the country's otherwise Sunni population.

This year, however, the government banned the celebration. The legal basis for the ban was Turkey's state of emergency, which has been in effect for nearly a year now. Authorities in Ankara argued that the sketch of an Alevi cultural institution was found on two IS members who were killed on 21. May were shot dead. The terrorists had planned an attack. Security could no longer be guaranteed.

Escalation possible at any time

In the Alevi community people have long been alarmed. People fear IS could exacerbate tensions between Sunnis and Alevis in Turkey. Gani Kaplan, chairman of the Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association, told the Turkish press this week, "The authorities keep saying that we are under threat and should take security measures." According to Kaplan, tensions between Sunnis and Alevis are now so great that they could escalate at any time.

Many Alevis distrust Turkish security authorities. On the one hand, because they do not trust them to provide sufficient protection. On the other hand, because the state itself repeatedly discriminates against the Alevi community. Many Alevis have complained in recent years of increasing "Sunnification".

Fear for safety

The Alevi religious community in Turkey is considered secular and moderate – which in turn puts it at odds with the ruling AKP party, which recruits its core constituency from the devout Sunni majority.

Many Alevis still remember the 2. July 1993, when a mob in Sivas set fire to a hotel where an Alevi cultural festival was being held. 37 people died – while mob hooted outside building. Why the fire department did not intervene earlier at the time remains unexplained to this day. Even after the failed coup of 16. July 2016, many Alevis feared for their safety. In the first days after the court ruling, there were riots against Alevis in Istanbul.

Violation of religious freedom

As recently as April 2016, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkey was violating the religious freedom of Alevis. According to the judges, there is a "glaring imbalance" between them and the Sunni majority. The discrimination already begins with the fact that the Alevis are not recognized as an independent religion, but are simply considered Muslims. They receive no funding, and their clergy are not recognized as civil servants. Alevi representatives have been demanding both for a long time.

The denomination has its origin with Turkmen tribes, which were founded in the 13th century. and 14. The Alevis immigrated to Anatolia in the sixteenth century. Alevism has similarities with Shiite Islam, as its first Imam Ali is highly revered. But there are also clear differences. Alevis do not pray in mosques, but in so-called "Cemevleri" ("Cem houses"), mostly private meeting houses. Moreover, they do not interpret the Koran literally. Their women are not veiled; in general, there is more equality between the sexes.

Provocations

Under the Ottomans, Alevis were persecuted as heretics; there were repeated pogroms. Many Alevis found it alarming when the third Bosphorus Bridge, completed in 2016, was named after Sultan Yavuz Selim, who in 16. Century more than 40.is said to have murdered 000 Alevis. – In Germany, the Alevi community among Turkish immigrants is larger than average. According to estimates, 400 Alevis live in the region.000 and 700.000 Alevis.

A Vatican Bible expert has opposed simplistic applications of biblical statements on sexuality. A study examining statements on homosexuality and marriage has been published on the subject by the Vatican Publishing House.

The development of the image of man within the writings of the Bible cannot be read according to a "naive evolutionary model" as straightforward progress or else as a softening, the Catholic Italian daily "Avvenire" (Thursday) quoted the secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, Pietro Bovati. Even a biblical anthropology recently published by the commission is "not a moral theological treatise, nor is it a manual for pastoral care," the Jesuit said.

The volume "What is the human being?" recently published in Italian by the Vatican Publishing House? A walk through biblical anthropology" illuminates, among other things, statements on homosexuality and divorce in their respective cultural-historical context. Commentators interpreted this in part as an opening of Catholic moral teaching.

Study examines statements on homosexuality and marriage

The 336-page study is the result of five years of work by some 20 international biblical experts. It examines, among other things, the Old and New Testament scriptures' understanding of polygamy, mixed marriages, divorce, adultery and homosexuality. The impetus for this was given by Pope Francis. Cardinal Luis Ladaria, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Chairman of the Biblical Commission, emphasized in his presentation of the volume that biblical anthropology represents an "authoritative basis for developments in the philosophical and theological disciplines".

The contributions trace a complex, sometimes contradictory development of moral concepts in the world and the history of the Bible. In part, the views are explained from certain historical contexts, and in part they also point out interpretive leeway that is already inherent in the biblical texts. Bovati summed it up as "an invitation to hope in the accepting mercy of God.".

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