Priest says Egypt’s Christians feel they could be martyrs at any time
CAIRO (CNS) — Christians in Egypt “are getting to this idea that we could be a martyr at any moment,” the spokesman for the nation’s Catholic bishops told Catholic News Service. The spokesman, Father Rafic Greiche, also lamented the number of children killed in an attack on a bus carrying Coptic Orthodox Christians to St. Samuel Monastery in southern Egypt May 26. At least 26 people, many of them children, were killed when masked assailants attacked the bus. Dozens of others were injured. “It is too early to say who is behind it, but certainly terrorists, and the security forces are now scanning the area” to find the culprits, Tarek Attia, Interior Ministry official, told Sky News Arabia, an Arabic-language television station, May 26. He said three cars carrying the masked gunmen had attacked the bus at roughly 10:30 a.m. in the southern governorate of Minya, a traditional stronghold of Egypt’s Christian community, which accounts for a tiny percent of the country’s mostly Sunni Muslim population. At the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, sent a message to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, expressing Pope Francis’ prayers and solidarity after the “barbaric attack.”
Federal appeals court upholds injunction against Trump’s travel ban
RICHMOND, Va. (CNS) — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, issued a 10-3 ruling May 25 to uphold a Maryland federal court’s injunction against President Donald Trump’s temporary travel ban. Writing for the majority, Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory said: “Congress granted the president broad power to deny entry to aliens, but that power is not absolute. It cannot go unchecked when, as here, the president wields it through an executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Trump administration will file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. “President Trump’s executive order is well within his lawful authority to keep the nation safe,” Sessions said in a statement. “The Department of Justice strongly disagrees with the decision of the divided court, which blocks the president’s efforts to strengthen this country’s national security. As the dissenting judges explained, the executive order is a constitutional exercise of the president’s duty to protect our communities from terrorism.” He added that the president “is not required to admit people from countries that sponsor or shelter terrorism, until he determines that they can be properly vetted and do not pose a security risk to the United States.”