Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the longest-serving justice on the United States Supreme Court, died of apparent natural causes at a Texas resort on February 13.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott called the 79-year-old Catholic “a man of God, a patriot and an unwavering defender of the written Constitution and the rule of law”, praising him as “the solid rock who turned away so many attempts to depart from and distort the Constitution”.
In 1992, Scalia told a group of high school students that, as Catholics, they should learn to accept and take pride in the fact that they might feel out of step with the world. He said he had been raised a Catholic when Catholicism was outside the American mainstream, he said such practices as meatless Fridays and Sunday morning fasts were “obtrusive reminders that we were different”. This sense of “differentness”, he said, should have enabled Catholics “to be strong on bigger issues”.
Indian survivors reach out to Syria
Survivors of anti-Christian massacres in India have sent a message of solidarity to the beleaguered Christians of the Middle East, particularly Syria.
“Targeted violence and ethnic and religious cleansing is a crime against humanity and there is no parallel in recent history,” according to a statement from survivors of the 2008 Orissa massacres in which about 100 Christians were killed and over 75,000 driven from their homes.
“We understand the unimaginable suffering of millions of people just because they follow different religious traditions and faith.
“We feel distressed about the unspeakable crimes against the followers of Christ in the world. Religious fundamentalists are the scourge of humanity and do not spare women and children.”
