Washington D.C., Aug 15, 2014 / 02:00 am (CNA).- Local Virginia representatives are asking the Supreme Court to uphold the definition of marriage as existing between a man and a woman following a federal Appeals Court’s decision not to postpone s... Read more

Minneapolis, Minn., Aug 15, 2014 / 12:00 am (CNA).- An undercover video showing a Planned Parenthood facility giving instruction in dangerous sexual practices to an apparently underage girl shows that the abortion provider should not be receiving taxpa... Read more

Washington D.C., Aug 14, 2014 / 05:14 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Both academic and religious leaders, in the U.S. and abroad, have urged greater U.S. military action in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State, which had displaced hundreds of thousands of religious minorities from their homes under threat of death. “Before the harsh and heartbreaking realities further afflict these families, the United States of America, also due to their prior involvement in Iraq, the European Union, and the league of Arab countries have the responsibility to act rapidly for a solution,” the Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon, Louis Raphael Sako, wrote in an Aug. 13 open letter. “They must clear the Nineveh Plain from all the elements of Jihadist Warriors and help these displaced families return to their ancestral villages and reconstitute their lives.” More than 100,000 Christians have fled their homes in northern Iraq due to the advance of the newly established caliphate in Iraq and Syria, the patriarch said. According to the UN, there are more than 1.2 million internally displaced persons in Iraq, as well as at least 10,000 Iraqi refugees in Syria. He called the current international response to the situation “insufficient” and warned that the Islamic State will not stop eradicating Christianity from Iraq, with the world being responsible for a “slow genocide” if it doesn’t act. “If the situation does not change,” he wrote, “the whole world should take the responsibility of a slow genocide of a genuine and entire component of the Iraqi society and of losing its heritage and age-old culture. ISIS tries to erase all traces!” A group of more than 50 American academics and professionals joined the patriarch in calling for military action, stating in a Aug. 13 letter that non-military actions “will not be capable of protecting the victims of the genocide already unfolding” at the hands of the Islamic State. Among the signatories were Princeton law professor Robert George; Providence College English professor Anthony Esolen; Notre Dame law professor Gerard Bradley; Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention; and the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Ed Whelan. “It is imperative that the United States and the international community act immediately and decisively to stop the ISIS/ISIL genocide and prevent the further victimization of religious minorities,” the letter stated. “This goal cannot be achieved apart from the use of military force to degrade and disable ISIS/ISIL forces.” “We call upon the United States and the international community to do everything necessary to empower local forces fighting ISIS/ISIL in Iraq to protect their people,” the letter continued. “No options that are consistent with the principles of just war doctrine should be off the table.” And on Aug. 14, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, head of the U.S. bishops' conference, thanked President Obama for humanitarian aid given to Iraqi Christians and other minorities, while also insisting that “more must be done” to help them. “Pope Francis called upon ‘the international community, particularly through the norms and mechanisms of international law, to do all that it can to stop and to prevent further systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities,'” he noted. “I urge the United States to answer this call in concert with the international community,” Archbishop Kurtz said. “We know too well that attacks on religious and ethnic minorities are attacks on the health of an entire society. Violence may begin against minorities, but it does not end there. The rights of all Iraqis are at risk from the current situation.” Read more

Washington D.C., Aug 14, 2014 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Saeed Abedini, a pastor who holds American citizenship and has been captive in Iran for nearly two years, faces new dangers and death threats from fellow prisoners, say his family’s representatives. “Not only is Pastor Saeed facing threats from Iranian militants who have imprisoned him because of his Christian faith,” Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, said Aug. 13; “he now faces new and perhaps even more dangerous threats from Iraqi ISIS prisoners who want to murder Pastor Saeed because of his faith.” Sept. 26 will mark the second year of Abedini's imprisonment. A Protestant pastor who had formerly worked with house churches in Iran, he was ostensibly arrested for threatening Iranian national security. Now held in Rajai Shahr Prison, Abedini has received death threats from incoming prisoners associated with the Islamic State because of his Christian faith. The Islamic State is a Sunni Muslim caliphate established June 29 in portions of Syria and Iraq; earlier this week it gained control over the Iraqi city of Jalawla, located fewer than 25 miles from Iran. The Islamic State has persecuted all non-Sunnis in its territory, including Christians, Yazidis, and Shia Muslims. Iran, which is holding Abedini, is Shia Muslim theocracy which in turn persecutes all non-Shias, including Sunnis. According to the U.S. state department, in 2013 Iranian Sunnis can be imprisoned and face religious discrimination; they were barred from building new schools or mosques, and faced due process violations. Last year, 20 Sunni inmates in Rajai Shahr – where Abedini is being detained – were convicted of a capital offense. According to reports from his family members relayed through the ACLJ, Abedini is currently in a separate section of the ward, but is “concerned that he will be subjected to the general prison population – including the ISIS terrorists – during a brief, daily exercise period in the prison yard.” Fellow inmates are helping to protect Abedini and help him hide in his prison cell, separated from the prisoners giving the death threats, although some prisoners associated with the Islamic State have been able to enter into Abedini’s ward section. “This is an extremely dangerous development that puts Pastor Saeed’s life at grave risk,” said Sekulow. “We call on President Obama and Secretary Kerry to intervene immediately to secure Pastor Saeed’s release and to ensure that he is protected during this transfer to freedom. Pastor Saeed, who is approaching his second year of imprisonment in Iran, must be returned to his family without delay.” Abedini, who was born and raised Muslim in Iran, converted to Christianity in 2000. He became a U.S. citizen in 2010 after marrying his wife, Naghmeh, who settled in Idaho and had two children. She is represented by Sekulow. Traveling frequently to Iran to work with house churches in  the country, Abedini received the attention of the Iranian government. Although the churches were legal, the government’s objection led him to strike a deal with the Iranian government in which he was still able to travel freely in the country, so long as he stopped working with house churches. Following this agreement, Abedini switched his focus to working with non-religious orphanages. Abedini was arrested in 2012 while visiting one of these orphanages and sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment in Iran for unspecified charges of threatening national security. According to his family’s reports, his treatment in prison has been harsh, sustaining a number of beatings and injuries, receiving poor medical care and neglect following his injuries, and physical and psychological abuse over the past two years. Read more