Let 10 see papal Mass,
S. Korea asks North
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean Catholic officials have renewed a request for North Korea to send about 10 Catholics to a Mass to be celebrated by Pope Francis during his August visit to Seoul, a Catholic official said Tuesday.
The Aug. 14-18 trip will be the first visit by a pope to the Korean Peninsula in 25 years. During the visit, he is to participate in a Catholic youth festival, preside over a beatification ceremony for 124 Korean martyrs and bring a message of peace to the war-divided peninsula, according to Catholic officials.
South Korean Catholic officials first asked North Korea to send Catholic believers to Seoul for the pope’s visit about six months ago and later repeated the request as the North hasn’t responded, according to the Archdiocese of Seoul. Spokesman Father Hur Young-yup said the North is expected to respond by early August.
North Korea’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the government. Defectors from the country have said that the distribution of Bibles and secret prayer services can mean banishment to a labor camp or execution.
Hur said there were about 50,000 Catholics in North Korea before the 1950-53 Korean War. The Korean Peninsula remains divided along the world’s heavily fortified border following the war that ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
— The Associated Press
Atheist gives invocation
in town that won case
GREECE, N.Y. — An atheist has delivered the invocation before a town meeting in the New York community whose leaders won a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the right to start their gatherings with a prayer.
Dan Courtney invoked the signers of the Declaration of Independence on Tuesday and urged members of the Greece town board to “seek the wisdom of all citizens, and to honor the enlightened wisdom and profound courage of those 56 men.”
The court ruled 5-4 in May that the prayers were in line with national traditions and said the content is not significant as long as the prayers don’t denigrate others or try to win converts. The town said people of any faith were welcome to give the invocation.
— The Associated Press
At White House, Obama
hosts Ramadan dinner
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama welcomed Muslims to the White House on Monday for the annual Ramadan iftar dinner.
Among the audience in the State Dining Room were dozens of American Muslims and diplomats from predominantly Muslim countries who gathered for the White House’s annual iftar, or Ramadan evening meal. The first Muslim elected to Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, were also on the guest list.
Some attendees at the event were angry about a magazine’s report that the National Security Agency and the FBI scanned the emails of five prominent American Muslims under a secret surveillance program aimed at foreign terrorists and other national security threats.
The Obama administration has not confirmed the report in The Intercept. But the president said “no one should ever be targeted or disparaged because of their faith.”
— The Associated Press