POPE-SOUTH AMERICA
Pope Francis on home turf urges defense of poor and planet
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Pope Francis, Latin America’s first pope, has returned to Spanish-speaking South America for the first time as pontiff. Children in traditional dress greeted Francis at Mariscal Sucre airport outside Ecuador’s capital Sunday evening.
In a speech in front of President Rafael Correa, Francis signaled some of the key themes for the visit: the need to protect the poor and the environment from exploitation and to foster dialogue among all sectors of society.
During his trip to the continent, Francis will also visit Bolivia and Paraguay.
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POPE-SOUTH AMERICA-SCHEDULE
Pope Francis has several items on his agenda for trip
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Pope Francis’ schedule for Monday is relatively easy, to help the 78-year-old pontiff get acclimated to being in Ecuador. The pontiff will fly an hour south from Quito to Ecuador’s Pacific port city of Guayaquil, where more than a million people are expected to attend his first public Mass. Before returning to Quito, he’ll have lunch with two dozen Jesuits at a Jesuit school where he used to send his own Argentine seminarians to study.
The pope’s stops later in the week include a Bolivian prison, a Paraguayan shantytown and a meeting with grass-roots groups in Bolivia, the sort of people he ministered to in the slums of Buenos Aires.
Crowds are expected to be huge. While the countries themselves are small, they are fervently Catholic: 79 percent of the population is Catholic in Ecuador, 77 percent in Bolivia and 89 percent in Paraguay, according to the Pew Research Center.
GOP 2016-CRUZ-HUCKABEE
Cruz, Huckabee go head-to-head for evangelical votes
MILNER, Ga. (AP) — Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee are going head-to-head for evangelical votes.
The two men shared a stage yesterday at a Georgia megachurch, where they told hundreds of members that the U.S. favored by God and that the nation is on a perilous spiritual path. Both men cited the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage as proof.
Christian conservatives are an important bloc of the GOP’s presidential electorate. They have long held considerable influence in Iowa, which hosts the first caucus of the primary season, and in South Carolina, home of the South’s first primary a few weeks later.
But several other Southern states, including Georgia, are also now getting more attention.
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MORMOM LEADER-FUNERAL
Funeral for Mormon leader Boyd K. Packer slated for Friday
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Funeral services for Mormon leader Boyd K. Packer will be held next week. He was president of the church’s highest governing body.
Church officials say services will take place Friday at the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. A private burial will follow at the Brigham City Cemetery.
Packer died of natural causes at home in Salt Lake City on July 3. He was 90. Packer was next in line to become president of the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He had been a member of the church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles since 1970. He was known as a staunch advocate for a conservative form of Mormonism.
CHRISTIAN FLAG-POLICE DEPARTMENT
Alabama town removes Christian flag after legal threat
GLENCOE, Ala. (AP) — City officials in Glencoe, Alabama, say they’ve removed a banner described as a Christian flag from its long-time place in front of the city’s police department.
Glencoe Mayor Charles Gilchrist has said the flag was removed recently following a threat of legal action from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. He says city leaders were told that another town had to pay more than $500,000 in a lawsuit over a similar matter, which would “just about ruin us.”
A TV station (WBRC-TV) reports that the mostly white flag with a blue square and red cross in the upper left corner had flown over the police department since the 1990s.
CHURCH VANDALIZED
Police investigating vandalism at Providence church
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island church is planning more security measures after its first incident of vandalism in 129 years. The Rev. Joseph Escobar tells a TV state (WPRI-TV) he was shocked to find on Saturday that someone had gone into Our Lady of the Rosary church in Providence and smashed the hand-crafted pulpit and stole 15 rosary beads off statues in the Roman Catholic church.
He says he plans to address the security concerns by installing cameras and opening front doors later in the day.
Police are investigating the incident.
BOKO HARAM
Suicide bomber explodes at northeast Nigeria church, 5 dead
POTISKUM, Nigeria (AP) — A woman suicide bomber blew up in the midst of a crowded evangelical Christian church service in northeast Nigeria on Sunday and killed at least five people. It happened at the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Potiskum, the largest city in northeastern Yobe state. An Associated Press reporter counted five bodies from the blast in the morgue of the local hospital, where a wounded woman was being treated.
The incident is the latest bombing in a string of attacks blamed on Islamic extremist group Boko Haram that’s killed some 200 people in the past week.
Nearly 100 men and boys praying in mosques were gunned down on Wednesday, and a local official has said that 21 more bodies have been recovered from burnt-out houses since then.
On Friday, the military said six women suicide bombers caused explosions that killed scores of people including a soldier at a village outside Maiduguri, the biggest city in northeast Nigeria and the birthplace of Boko Haram.
MIGHTY OAKS-FAITH-BASED OUTREACH FOR VETERANS
TEMPLETON, Calif. (AP) — A faith-based organization using Christian principles to help troops and veterans make the transition from warrior back into society, and help heal those with post traumatic stress disorder.
The Mighty Oaks Warrior Programs’ slogan is “No man fights alone.” Founder Chad Robichaux says it’s a peer to peer, drug-free program where veterans with extreme PTSD issues are able to find hope and purpose. He says the program, which includes a six-day retreat, other sessions and biblically based counseling, has had 745 graduates, and no veteran suicides.
Robichaux did eight tours of duty as a Force Recon Marine in Afghanistan and Iraq. He says he founded Mighty Oaks Warrior Programs in 2010, after almost losing it all, including his marriage. Robichaux says after Christian mentoring saved his life he felt like he’d found the cure for cancer and he had to tell his “brothers.” Mighty Oaks Warrior Programs has active programs in three states, and 10 national “outposts” for weekly meetings across the country.
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ARYN MICHELLE-MINISTRY THROUGH MUSIC
Singer-songwriter Aryn Michelle on being a Christian performer
WYLIE, Texas (AP) — Singer-songwriter Aryn Michelle says her upcoming album has a focus on theological depth. And the album is called, “Depth.” Michelle was the Gospel Music Association IMMERSE conference Female Songwriter of the Year in 2014. She says at one point she wanted to be a pop-rock performer, but her faith is such a part of who she is she has to share that as an artist. She says she’s a Christian first and performer second.
Michelle says “Depth,” which will be released in August, is about how faith can be reflected in a person’s every day life, even when things get “messy and complicated.”.
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BRITAIN-ROYALS-CHRISTENING
Fans cheer as Princess Charlotte christened on royal estate
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Princess Charlotte has been christened. parents Prince William and his wife, Kate, marked a milestone for their new baby girl with a ceremony held on Queen Elizabeth II’s country estate.
Hundreds of fans were outside St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, a sprawling royal estate near England’s eastern coast. They cheered as William and Kate arrived with toddler Prince George and 9-week-old Charlotte.
It was only the second time Britain’s newborn princess, who is fourth in line to the throne, has been seen in public since she was born on May 2. A celebrity photographer took official photos of the royal family after the service.
