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Tag: Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday

  • Palm Sunday: Raise your voices against corrupt elders’ Pope tells youth

    Pope Francis on Palm Sunday urged young people not to be silent and let their voices be heard, even in the face of corrupt or silent elders.

    The pope’s message comes on the heels of a meeting of young Catholics who told the Vatican they want a more transparent and authentic church, and a day after hundreds of thousands marched in youth-led rallies across the United States to demand greater gun control.

    “The temptation to silence young people has always existed,” Francis said. “There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. … There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive. ”

    But he told youths in his homily that “you have it in you to shout,” even if “we older people and leaders, very often corrupt, keep quiet.”

    As the Roman Catholic Church enters Holy Week, retracing the story of the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection three days later on Easter Sunday, Francis urged youth to join those who offer praise, and not the masses calling for crucifixion.

    “Dear young people, the joy that Jesus awakens in you is a source of anger and irritation to some, since a joyful person is hard to manipulate,” the pontiff said.

    Some 300 youths meeting at the Vatican this week prepared a document for next October’s synod of bishops at the Vatican focusing on to help youths better find their way in the church. The document, which was presented to Francis on Sunday, asked church leaders to address the unequal roles of women in the church and how technology is abused.

    Before his traditional Sunday prayer at the end of Mass, the pope recalled the importance World Youth Day, marked this year on Palm Sunday at a diocesan level rather than as a big international gathering.

    The pope’s message also resonated with the Saturday protests across the United States for tougher laws to fight gun violence, a movement galvanized by the school shooting last month in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead.

    At the end of Mass, the pope and cardinals in red robes led a solemn procession clutching elaborately braided palm fronds as they walked through the throngs, followed by the papal blessing of palm fronds and olive branches.

    The processions recalls the bittersweet nature of Holy Week, with the faithful clutching simple palm fronds and olive branches to commemorate Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem only to be followed later by his death on a wooden cross.

    The pope concluded by greeting the faithful in St. Peter’s Square, getting out of the popemobile to shake hands as many cheered and took pictures.

  • Palm Sunday: Priest urges Christians to trust God for victory

    Palm Sunday: Priest urges Christians to trust God for victory

    A Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. Mathew Onyilo, has urged Christians and Nigerians to trust God for victory in whatever challenges they are passing through in life.

    Onyilo, a Priest of the Abuja Archdiocese, made the call in his homily on Palm Sunday at the St Charles Lwanga Parish, Apo, Abuja.

    The priest, who spoke on the theme “I shall never be put to shame’’ urged Christians to learn from Jesus Christ who suffered and was victorious.

    “Whatever difficulty you are going through, whatever challenge you are going through, whatever is making you shed tears because you have put your trust in God; you will never be put to shame.

    “No one who places his trust in God can be forsaken; no matter the challenge you go through if only you remain committed to God, you will have the last laugh.

    “If you go through fire, you will not be burnt; God will be with you, according to the Book of Isaiah 43 verses one to five.

    “ God has not promised us that there will not be challenges.

    “ What God has promised us is that those things will not bring us down, those things will not ridicule us and those things will not put us in shame,’’ he said.

    The priest, however, urged Christians to keep faith in God saying “God will always keep to His promises”.

    “ He cannot lie to us; He will fulfil His promises if we keep faith in Him. So, see your challenges as a means for God to glorify Himself.’’

    Lwanga, however urged Christians to obey God in face of difficulties and challenges.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Christians celebrate Palm Sunda every Sunday preceding Easter in remembrance of Jesus Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem.

    Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, which is the beginning of the most holy of the sublime week of the Christendom because it contains the three most important days in the life of the Church.

    The three important days are Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, according to the catholic faith.

    Holy Thursday commemorates the institution of priesthood and institution of the Eucharist, the body of Christ while Good Friday commemorates the passion and the death of Christ.

    Easter Sunday commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the death.

     

  • Egypt identifies Alexandria church bomber as fugitive with militant ties

    Egypt identifies Alexandria church bomber as fugitive with militant ties

    Egyptian authorities have named the suicide bomber who attacked a cathedral in Alexandria as 31-year-old Mahmoud Abdullah, describing him as a fugitive with links to militant cells that carried out previous strikes in the country.

    Abdullah detonated his explosives at the entrance to Saint Mark’s Cathedral, the historic seat of the Coptic Pope, killing 17 people as mass was being conducted.

    Hours earlier, another bomb tore through a church in Tanta, a city in the Nile Delta.

    Egypt’s government imposed a three-month state of emergency in the wake of the attacks.

    The interior ministry said in a statement that Abdullah had been a resident of Suez province and used to work for a petroleum company.

    It posted a photograph on its Facebook page of a man it said was Abdullah, placing the image alongside a picture taken by a surveillance camera outside the church.

    Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Palm Sunday attacks, which killed 44 people in total and wounded scores more a week before the Coptic Easter.

    The interior ministry said Abdullah had links with the Islamist militant cell behind the December suicide bombing on Cairo’s main Coptic cathedral, an attack also claimed by Islamic State.

    Authorities are still trying to identify the Tanta attacker, the ministry said.

    It added that security forces killed seven suspected militants in a shootout on Monday as they met to plan attacks on minority Christians.

    The statement named 19 other suspected militants believed to belong to the same cells and offered a 100 thousand Egyptian pound (5,515.72 dollars) reward for any information on them.

    Sunday’s attacks were the latest against a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants, and a challenge to President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who has pledged to protect them as part of his campaign against extremism.

  • ‘Palm Sunday: Double Church explosion kill 37 congregants…’

    ‘Palm Sunday: Double Church explosion kill 37 congregants…’

    Two blasts targeting Egyptian churches have killed at least 37 people and wounded more than a 100, Health Ministry officials said.

    “The first attack hit a church packed with Palm Sunday worshipers in the Nile Delta town of Tanta, north of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 26 people and wounding 78 others, authorities confirmed.” NBC News reports.

    Hours later a second blast went off in front of a church in Alexandria, killing some 11 people and injuring 35.

    Palm Sunday is one of the holiest days of the Christian calendar, marking the triumphant entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem. “The explosion took place in the front rows, near the altar, during the mass,” General Tarek Atiya, the deputy to Egypt’s interior minister in charge of relations with the media, told AFP.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s blast. Copts, who make up about one tenth of Egypt’s population of more than 92 million and who celebrate Easter next weekend, have been targeted by several attacks in recent months.

    Pope Francis is due to visit Cairo on April 28-29 to show solidarity with Egypt’s Christian community. Jihadists and Islamists accuse Copts of supporting the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, which ushered in a deadly crackdown on his supporters. In December, a suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group killed 29 worshippers during Sunday mass in Cairo.

    The bombing of the church within a compound that also holds the seat of the Coptic papacy was the deadliest attack against the minority in recent memory. A spate of jihadist-linked attacks in Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula, including the murder of a Copt in the city of El Arish whose house was also burned, have led some Coptic families to flee their homes.

    About 250 Christians took refuge in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya after IS released a video in February calling for attacks on the religious minority. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid called Sunday’s bombing “a failed attempt against our unity”. “Terrorism hits Egypt again, this time on Palm Sunday,” he tweeted. – String of attacks – Prime Minister Sherif Ismail also condemned Sunday’s apparent attack, stressing Egypt’s determination to “eliminate terrorism”.

    The Cairo-based Al-Azhar, an influential Sunni Muslim authority, said Sunday’s bombing aimed to “destabilise security and… the unity of Egyptians”. Egypt’s Copts have endured successive attacks since Morsi’s ouster in July 2013. More than 40 churches were attacked nationwide in the two weeks after the deadly dispersal by security forces of two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo on August 14, 2013, Human Rights Watch said. Amnesty International later said more than 200 Christian-owned properties were attacked and 43 churches seriously damaged, adding that at least four people were killed. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as then army chief helped remove Morsi, has defended his security forces and accused jihadists of attacking Copts in order to divide the country.

    In October 2011, almost 30 people — mostly Coptic Christians — were killed after the army charged at a protest outside the state television building in Cairo to denounce the torching of a church in southern Egypt. In May that year, clashes between Muslims and Copts left 15 dead in the working-class Cairo neighbourhood of Imbaba where two churches were attacked. A few months earlier, the unclaimed bombing of a Coptic church killed more than 20 people in Egypt’s second city of Alexandria on New Year’s Day. Pope Francis will visit the site of the December church attack next to Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral — the seat of Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II.