1. 사우디의 그리스도교 기도금지
 
 사우디 아라비아에서는 이스람 이외의 기도장소나 교회나 성당이 금지될 뿐 아니라 사람들이 보는데서 그리스도교 성경이나 십자가나 묵주를 들고 다니거나 기도하는 것이 금지되어 있다. 이에 따라 최근 4 사람의 그리스챤이 집에서 기도하였다고 해서 구속되었다.
 (2006. 6. 26 가톨릭 통신사)
 
 FOUR CHRISTIANS ARRESTED IN SAUDI ARABIA FOR PRAYING AT HOME
 
 JEDDAH, June 26 (CNA) - Two Ethiopian and two Eritrean Christians have been arrested and incarcerated in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for conducting prayers in their home.
 
 The Compass Direct news agency reported that the religious police, called Muttawa, armed with wooden clubs, broke into a private residence in Jeddah two weeks ago and arrested the four Christians - the four remain in prison.
 
 More than 100 Eritrean, Ethiophian and Filipino Christians were gathered in the house when the Muttawa arrested the four group leaders: Mekbeb Telahun, Fekre Gebremedhin, Dawit Uqbay and Masai Wendewesen. The few Christians in Saudi Arabia are mostly migrant workers.
 
 The government of Saudi Arabia forbids the practice of any religion other than the fundamentalist Wahhabite version of Islam. It prohibits building places of worship, churches, or chapels. Any public expressions of faith, such as carrying a Bible, a crucifix, or rosary beads, and praying in public are forbidden.
 
 
 2.국제앰네스티위원회의 낙태합법화운동에 대하여 경고
 
  교황청 정의평화위원회의 레나토 마르티노 추기경은 국제앰네스티
  위원회가 낙태합법화를 위한 운동을 하지 말도록 경고하였다.
  (2006. 6. 21 가톨릭세계뉴스)
 
 CARDINAL WARNS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ON ABORTION STANCE
 
 Jun. 21 (CWNews.com) - Cardinal Renato Martino has warned that Amnesty International will lose credibility if it undertakes a lobbying campaign in favor of legal abortion.
 
 "I hope they don't do this, because if they do they are disqualified as defenders of human rights," the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace told the Reuters news service.
 
 Cardinal Martino, who is in Singapore for ceremonies marking the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Singapore and the Holy See, said that he has great respect for the work done by Amnesty International in the field of human rights. But he said that if the group abandons its neutrality on the abortion issue, it would undermine its own principles.
 
 
 3. 교황청, 현 세계의 인권상황을 우려
 
  교황청 국가관계 장관 죠반니 라홀로 대주교는 새로 출범하는 유엔
  인권회의에 대한 성명서에서 현세계의 인권사항을 우려하면서 모든
  국가는 개별적으로 또는 함께 인권을 보호하고 증진할 책임이 있다고
  언명하였다.
  ( 2006. 6.21 가톨릭통신사)
 
 ARCHBISHOP TELLS UN TO DEFEND RIGHT TO LIFE, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
 
 Vatican City, June 21, 2006 (CNA) - Yesterday afternoon, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, secretary for Relations with States, delivered a statement before the first session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, the Vatican Information Service reported.
 
 "The new Human Rights Council represents an important step in the struggle to place human beings at the center of all political activity, both national and international," said Archbishop Lajolo.
 
 After describing the situation of human rights in the world as "worrying," the Holy See secretary for Relations with States pointed out how in many countries those rights suffer "grave violations," and that there are governments which continue to believe that, "in the final instance, power determines the content of human rights and, consequently, they feel justified in using aberrant practices."
 
 "All States, members of the council, must assume their individual and collective responsibility in the defense and promotion of these rights," he added.
 
 Going on to refer to the most fundamental human right, the right to life, Archbishop Lajolo said that "never must a government, a group or an individual take upon themselves the right to decide on the life of a human being as if he were not a person, reducing him to the condition of an object that serves other aims, however grand or noble such aims may be."
 
 "A corollary of this concerns the right to freedom of belief and to religious freedom, because humans have an interior and transcendent dimension which is an integral part of their very being. To deny this dimension to is to make a serious attack against human dignity."
 
 "Religious freedom must be harmoniously inserted into the context of all human freedoms," said the secretary for Relations with States. "It cannot become merely arbitrary."
 
 "The response of the Human Rights Council to the challenges of freedom in many countries of the world, beginning with the council's own member States," Archbishop Lajolo concluded, "is a test of the credibility of the United Nations and of the entire international judicial system.”
 
 
 4. 미국 낙태반대운동가들의 승소소식
 
 죠세프 샤이들러를 위시한 미국의 낙태 반대활동가들이 20년간의
 소송을 당해 온 고통에서 승소할 것으로 보인다.
 
 미국의 전국여성회의가,조직에 의한 범법을 방지할 입법취지의 법률인 RICO법을 원용하여, 샤이들러 등의 낙태반대행동연맹이 여성들의 낙태를 하려는 업무를 방해하였다고 소송하여, 1심에서 낙태반대행동연맹회원들이 전국여성회의에게 막대한 배상을 물라는 판결을 받았으나, 항소를 하여 결국 최고법원까지 가서 승소하게 되었다.
 ( 2006. 6. 9 가톨릭세계뉴스 )
 
 US PRO-LIFE ACTIVIST TO BE VINDICATED AFTER 20-YEAR LEGAL BATTLE
 
 Jun. 09 (CWNews.com) - A 20-year legal siege has nearly ended for Joseph Scheidler on June 8, with a judge's order expected soon to dismiss a lawsuit against the American pro-life activist and several co-defendants.
 
 On June 9, 1986, the National Organization for Women (NOW) brought suit against Scheidler, the head of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, and other leading pro-lifers, under the federal RICO law designed to curb organized crime. NOW alleged that the defendants had engaged in a criminal conspiracy to restrain trade by attempting to discourage women from procuring abortions.
 
 NOW v. Scheidler became a landmark legal case, in which abortion supporters sought to set new precedents discouraging pro-life activism. After an early court decision against them, the defendants were ordered to pay enormous legal damages to NOW. Facing the loss of their homes and personal possessions, the pro-lifers appealed, and the case eventually reached the US Supreme Court.
 
 Before it was settled, NOW v. Scheidler had become the only case the history of the US legal system in which appeals were heard by the US Supreme Court on three different occasions. In 2003 the pro-life activists won an 8-1 victory in the high court, and again in February 2006, after NOW raised a new appeal, the Supreme Court ordered the charges dismissed.
 
 Just one day short of its 20th anniversary, the lawsuit was finally scheduled to end. Following the US Supreme Court directive, Judge David Coar was to enter a judgment in favor of the defendants. But on a last-minute request from NOW, the judge agreed to postpone the final resolution of the case for two weeks. So, Scheidler observed, the case "slides into its 21st year."
 
 "Judge Coar's action tomorrow will be a great weight off of me," said Scheidler on June 7 in anticipation of a final judgment. "It has taken all this time to vindicate the pro-life movement and declare that our peaceful protests are not criminal acts."