Sudanese Christian woman released again

Khartoum, Sudan, Jun 27, 2014 / 04:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Meriam Ibrahim – a Christian woman who had previously been sentenced to death in Sudan for her faith – has been released after another detention for accusations of forging travel documents.

“The State Department has received confirmation that Meriam Ibrahim Ishag has been released on bail and is no longer being detained at a Sudanese police station,” said Marie Harf, deputy department spokesperson for the Department of State in a June 26 statement.

“She and her family are in a safe location and the Government of Sudan has assured us of the family’s continued safety,” she added.

In May, the 27-year-old woman was arrested and charged with abandoning Islam. Under Sudanese law, she was considered a Muslim due to her father’s Muslim faith, despite the fact that she was raised as a Christian by her mother after her father left the family when she was 6 years old.

Despite being sentenced to death, Ibrahim refused to renounce her Christian faith. She was released on June 23 after an appeals court dismissed her sentence, but was re-arrested on June 24 while at the Khartoum, Sudan airport for what Sudanese authorities claimed were forged travel documents.

Daniel Wani, Ibrahim’s husband, was granted U.S. citizenship when he fled Sudan to the United States as a child. He also holds South Sudanese citizenship.

The couple's young son Martin has lived in prison with his mother since February. Ibrahim gave birth to their second child, a baby girl, while in prison in May.

Besides the crime of apostasy – or the abandoning of the Islamic faith – Ibrahim was also charged with adultery. Her marriage to her Christian husband was not considered valid since she was legally considered a Muslim.

She was to receive 100 lashes for the adultery charge and was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy.

More than 140,000 people have signed a petition calling for Ibrahim’s freedom. Numerous members of Congress and religious freedom advocates have asked the U.S. to intervene and ensure her safety, as well as that of her family.

Harf explained in an earlier press conference, before Ibrahim’s release, that while it is a “fluid situation,” the United States and Sudanese governments were communicating “to ensure that she and her family will be free to travel as quickly as possible.”

She added that “from our perspective, Meriam has all of the documents she needs to travel to and enter the United States.”

“It’s up to the Government of Sudan to allow her to exit the country,” Harf said. “As I said, we’re working with them on that right now.”

Feast of Peter and Paul celebrates God's mercy, Pope says

Vatican City, Jun 29, 2014 / 09:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During his Sunday Angelus on the Feast of Peter and Paul, Pope Francis called the faithful to open themselves to the transforming power of God’s grace and mercy in their own lives.

“Since ancient times the Roman Church celebrates the Apostles Peter and Paul in one unique feast on the same day, June 29,” the Pope observed.

He explained that “this feast inspires in us a great joy, because it confronts us with God's work of mercy in the hearts of two men, and God's work of mercy in these two men, that were great sinners.”

Noting Peter’s denial of Christ during the Passion and Paul’s persecution of Christians, the pontiff stressed that it was grace that “has accomplished great things, has transformed them.”

“But together they both receive the love of God and are left transformed by his mercy; so they became friends and apostles of Christ,” he said. “Thus they continue to speak to the Church and still today show us the way of salvation.”

Similarly, the pontiff explained, even if we “fall into the greatest sin and into the darkest night,” God always wishes to transform our hearts and forgive our sins, bringing us from darkness into light.

He noted the radical transformation of St. Paul after encountering Christ on the road to Damascus: going from “a bitter enemy of the Church” to putting “his whole existence to the service of the Gospel.”

“Also for us the encounter with the Word of Christ is able to transform our entire life,” he continued. “It's not possible to hear his Word and remain firmly in one's place, getting stuck in one's habits. It pushes us to overcome the selfishness that we have in our hearts in order to decisively follow the Teacher that has given his life for his friends.”

Encountering Christ in our lives is what changes us and leads us to ask for forgiveness, he reflected.

On this feast day, the faithful can learn from St. Peter and St. Paul, two very different men who were both chosen by Christ and “responded to the call offering their entire lives,” the Pope said. “Faith in Jesus Christ has made them brothers and martyrdom has made them become one.”

“And God also wants to fill us with his grace, as he did with Peter and with Paul,” Pope Francis added. “May the Virgin Mary help us to welcome it with open hearts, as they did, and not to receive it in vain! And may she sustain us in the time of trial, to give testimony to Jesus Christ and his Gospel.”

The Pope prayed especially for the new Metropolitan Archbishops who received their pallium earlier in the day at St. Peter’s.  

“We greet them all with affection together with their faithful and friends, and we pray for them!” he said.

After the Angelus, Pope Francis commented on the news of continued violence in Iraq, saying that it is “unfortunately very painful.”

“I join the bishops of the country in appealing the governments because, through dialogue, you can preserve national unity and avoid war,” he said.

“I am close to the thousands of families, especially Christians, that have had to leave their homes and that are in great danger,” the Pope continued. “Violence begets violence; dialogue is the only way to peace. We pray to the Madonna, because she watches over the people of Iraq.”

Pope Francis stops car to bless young disabled woman

Rome, Italy, Jun 23, 2014 / 10:19 am (CNA).- During his June 21 pastoral visit to the region of Calabria in southern Italy, Pope Francis stopped the car that was transporting him to see a young disabled woman and her family on the side of the road.

A video posted online by a family in the southern Italian region of Calabria depicts the encounter with the Holy Father.

The Pope passed by the highway near the family’s house as he returned from Cassano allo Jonio, where he spoke out against the mafia.

The Vatican’s news.va website reported that family members waited with banners reading, 'Please Pope stop here to see an angel who has been waiting for you', and 'Please come and bless little Roberta'.

When the Pope saw their signs, he asked for his car to stop, and immediately went to greet and bless the people.

Once the vehicle stopped, the Holy Father descended, approached the woman, who was laying on a moving stretcher, blessed her, kissed her and greeted her family and the children around her.

The young woman – Roberta – is disabled and cannot travel far from her home, because she is dependent upon a machine to breathe, according to news.va.

Her family voiced their gratitude to the Holy Father on Facebook.

“I still can't believe it, thank you Holy Father...I thank the Pope for having given us a moment of great joy,” her sister, Pamela, wrote.

“Today we can say that Christ stopped in Sibari in the vestments of Pope Francis,” added Ivan Vania, a friend who helped make the posters calling the Pope’s attention.

He added that “it was very emotional to see how Pope Francis greeted Roberta...there are gestures in life that are worth more than speeches, much more than you would think...Pope Francis is unique.”