Father James Mulford, publisher of Zenit News Agency, told NewsMax that the violence in the Middle East has become "a major concern" for the Church.

"It's a major concern and Pope Francis and the Catholic Church always has been in favor of religious freedom," said Mulford.

He made a point of highlighting recent comments by Catholic Coptic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak, who said there were no real divisions between Christians and Muslims in Egypt, and summarized the position that the violence and destruction of churches is being carried out by "fanatical groups" based on a perception that they represent the West.

At the same time, he said, the Church does not seek to support any particular political regime or crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the group widely seen as instigating the violence against Egyptian Christians.

Mulford also reflected on the style of Pope Francis' leadership so far, and his approach to a number of social issues.

"The people in the Vatican that I know, my friends that work there, they're saying that he has an open ear.... That's one of the reasons he doesn't live in the Apostolic Palace like many of the popes before him," he said.

He added that Francis had also been quite clear during his speeches at World Youth Day about encouraging young people to "shake things up" in the Church.

Sources

NewsMax

Image: 2.bp.blogspot.com/

Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco is the chairman of the US bishops' Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage. As the Supreme Court on Tuesday and Wednesday heard arguments in two cases regarding same-sex "marriage," the archbishop is at the forefront of the Church's battle to defend marriage against this latest, and more "extreme" assault.

The archbishop was in Washington on Tuesday to lead the prayer for the first national March for Marriage, which ended precisely at the Supreme Court.

ZENIT spoke with the archbishop by phone on the vigil of the march.

ZENIT: Recent polls report that a slight majority of Americans favor same-sex "marriage," but of course polls are only worth so much. What is your view? Is this battle lost at the level of culture, both here at home and internationally?

Archbishop Cordileone: We've been hearing for 10 years that public opinion has shifted and that the majority of Americans favor legalizing same-sex "marriage," but until the last election the traditional concept of marriage has won out every time the people have been able to vote on it. And even now, this last election may indicate some shifting of opinion, but there was another poll that was done the day of, or the day after the election, which indicated that 60% of Americans still favor the traditional concept of marriage. It always depends on how the question is phrased. So, I think that when people understand what marriage really is, what its true purposes are — and that it's not something that's discriminatory, that they come around to appreciate it more. Continue reading

Sources

• Zenit
• Image: San Francisco Chronicle

The six foreign language news editors, Karna Swanson, English; Gisele Plantec, French; Inma Alvarez, Spanish; Mirko Testa, Italian; Alexandre Ribeiro, Portuguese; Tony Assaf, Arabic, announced "… with deep regret our decision to leave the agency after many years of service to the Church and to all the agency's readers."

"After years of fruitful collaboration with the Legionaries of Christ, we disagree with the decision of the congregation to underline the institutional dependence of the agency on the Legion. The initial vision of Zenit was never to make it a service of a particular congregation, but rather of the universal Church. This has been the spirit with which we have worked throughout the years, and we could not betray this spirit now. We warmly thank all our readers for their loyalty and support throughout the years, and we hope to be able to continue to work for the Church and for all those who seek the truth, in another manner, but always with the same spirit."

Last week, Zenit's founder, Jesús Colina resigned citing the disagreement on "administrative transparency" with the Legion of Christ and the affair involving the founder of the Legion of Christ, the late Mexican priest, Marcial Maciel - who the Vatican established to be a paedophile, a drug addict and who had fathered a number of children with various women.

"Father Marcial Maciel's conduct and the way in which the congregation informed us of this, concealing important facts, has often led to us not carrying out our duty of providing information that is in line with the Pope and the Holy See's vision, fully."

Established 14 years ago as an independent agency seeking to report on "the world seen from Rome," Zenit has established a strong presence on the Internet, with daily editions in seven languages.

Colina was appointed a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications by Pope Benedict XVI, and has received the Path to Peace Award from the Path to Peace Foundation, which works in close collaboration with the Holy See's Permanent Observer to the United Nations.

In an exclusive interview from Rome with Catholic News Agency, Colina explained the details behind his departure.

What are the reasons for your resignation?

The current chairman of the board at Zenit, Legionary priest Father Oscar Nader, requested I take this step based on the view that as a person linked to various Catholic communications initiatives, I do not offer the clear idea of the institutional identity of Zenit that the Legionaries of Christ wish to communicate from now on.

How do you explain this decision?

Well, in reality I think this decision is the culmination of a gradual mutual loss of trust which began several years ago. The manner in which the Legion of Christ hid the information about Fr. Marcial Maciel, which was discovered bit by bit by the press, caused a breakdown of trust in this institution on the part of the director of the news agency.

I understand the difficult situation in which the superiors of the Legionaries of Christ found themselves. Now in public statements they have said they already had proof of Fr. Maciel's different lives for years before his death. Nevertheless, despite the statement issued by the Holy See in 2006, they continued to present him as a role model, even at his death and after his death.

Read Full Story: CNA