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Associated Press

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Associated Press

Philippines: Troops rescue Catholic priest amid battle
- Associated Press, Global Church
- September 17, 2017
Father Teresito Soganub was last seen in May in a video, apparently taken under duress by the militants, where he said he was with about 200 other hostages and that his captors wanted the military to withdraw its forces from Marawi. About 600 militants seized commercial buildings, mosques and houses in the city’s central business district on May 23 after an army-led assault failed to get Hapilon and other militant leaders in a safe house in the mosque-studded city. The priest was rescued on Saturday.
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Indian priest says Yemeni captors did him no physical harm
- Associated Press, Global Church
- September 16, 2017
Father Tom Uzhunnalil,a Salesian, was kidnapped from a home for senior citizens in Aden, southern Yemen, established by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in March 2016. Four nuns were killed during the attack. On Saturday in Rome, following his release earlier this week, Uzhunnalil said that his captors never harmed him, even if in some videos they made it appear that way in an effort to get a speedy response in negotiations.
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Pennsylvania priest jailed over child porn
- Associated Press, Church in the US
- September 16, 2017
Monsignor John S. Mraz pleaded guilty in June to possessing child pornography and related offenses. Court records say authorities began investigating Mraz last year, after a member of his church discovered a file link named “naked little boys.”
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Defense chief: Philippine-wide martial law ‘very remote’
- Associated Press, Global Church
- September 15, 2017
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines declared martial law in Mindanao in May to deal with a deadly siege by Islamic State group-aligned militants in southern Marawi city and help prevent similar uprisings elsewhere in the country’s volatile south. At least 860 people, including more than 600 militants, have been killed in Marawi, a center of Islamic faith in the largely Catholic nation. The president is now considering expanding martial law across the country.
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Catholic leaders trying to correct sins of Poland’s leaders
- Associated Press, Global Church
- September 15, 2017
Poland’s Law and Justice party came to power in 2015 thanks in part to the support of the Catholic Church. Parish priests in small towns and villages used their sermons to help the party in its campaign by praising the values it advocated. Now the bishops are questioning some of the government’s policies, especially its view towards immigrants and a proposed overhaul of the judicial system.
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Latin Mass fans celebrate 10-year anniversary, without pope
- Associated Press, Vatican
- September 14, 2017
At a conference Thursday marking the 10th anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s decree liberalizing use of the Latin Mass, the meeting organizer, Father Vincenzo Nuara, didn’t even mention Francis in his opening remarks. The current pope was mentioned in passing by the second speaker, and ignored entirely by the third.
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