Dear friends of AMI, As you may have read, a group of 62 conservative Catholic theologians have accused Pope Francis of heresy. Therefore a countermovement was started. Already more than 23.000 theologians, priests and parishioners have signed. As you know, I am not a barricade fighter, but I signed this one!. If you want to support this initiative, sign and spread the good news: http://www.pro-pope-francis.com/

Dear AMI friends, the link you find in this message shows you the way of working in the different denominations in the Dutch Armed Forces https://www.dgv.nl/nl/film

Dear friends, it is almost a month ago, we were gathered in Rome for our 2017 AMI General Assembly and Annual Conference. I did put some pictures on our FB page

Dear Friends, it is almost a month that we were gathered in Rome for our AMI General Assembly and Annual Conference. Here you will find some pictures of our conference 2017

2017 AMI Conference in Rome, September 17 till 22. The AMI Conference and General Assembly will discuss under the overall topic of AMI 2015 - 2018: We serve Catholic. “To live authentically according to the Word of God and to spread the gospel” Theme AMI 2017: “Searching for roots” Based on a document written by the president of AMI Genmaj (ret) Norbert Sinn; Let us find the “ Ten Commandments”, guidelines for soldiers, working for peace at home or on missions abroad, by researching the roots of our believe and faith. I really do hope that, we will be able to welcome many delegations of the member countries and friends of AMI and also from countries that are not yet represented in our association up to now.

Dear friends of AMI, The weekend of May 19 till 22, 2017 the military pilgrimage to Lourdes will take place. Of course I want to invite cordially, all delegates gathered in Lourdes, to join us on Friday evening in the hotel “ La Solitude”, 3 Passage Saint-Louis in Lourdes. We can share some thoughts and drinks! Most welcome!

Dear friends of AMI. I received a request of our Philippine friends to pray for bishop Leopoldo Tumulak who is severely ill. So please think of the bishop in your prayers and in Holy Mass. Blessings.

Group picture 2016 AMI Conference in The Netherlands!

From a friend of Facebook: Tha Scribbler Bah BUILDING THE NEW GAMBIA! RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE - A PREREQUISITE OF PEACE We live in a multiracial and multi religious society. We live in a secular country where, although the majority of the inhabitants are Muslims, there is a sizable portion of the community who are Christians and others belong to different religious leanings. We therefore need to be tolerant of divergent views so as to continue to live in peace and harmony. In the Holy Quran, Allah, the Glorious has forbidden believers from insulting the idols of the disbelievers lest they should also unknowingly insult Allah. Now, if you consider that the teaching of Tawheed (the Unity of Allah) is the most fundamental of Islamic teachings yet Allah is ordering us not to insult idols, you will see that He desires us to live in peace and harmony. The word Islam itself means Peace. Peace is a concept which has requirements in order for it to be sustained: one such requirement is tolerance. The Holy Prophet ص drew an agreement with the people of Madinah after the migration. In this, he guaranteed the safety and sanctity of divergent religious belief. In fact, at one time he instructed Muslims to help Christians when they build their churches. At another time he guaranteed the Christians of St. Catherine that if Islam conquers their land, they would be allowed to worship their God in their own way without being molested. Also, Muslims should remember that when the Holy Prophet and his companions were being persecuted in Makkah, it was a Christian king, the Negus who offered them refuge in Abyssinia. For that reason, early Muslims battled in several fronts but left Abyssinia intact. Once a funeral procession was passing and the Holy Prophet stood up in respect. Someone observed that it was the funeral of a Jew. The Holy Prophet responded by saying, 'Is he not part of Allah's creation? ' In order to avoid hurting the religious feelings of Jews, he said that no one should declare his superiority over Moses. Furthermore, the Holy Quran has declared the Christians the closest to the Muslims. This is why early Muslims lived with Christians in peace and harmony. It is on record that one of the early Caliphs of Islam appointed a Christian as his personal physician in spite of the fact that there were Muslim doctors in the land. Now we see people saying that even to tell a Christian friend, Merry Christmas is a major sin and should be avoided. What a contrast with the tolerance of the Acme of Creation and his holy companions! More ridiculous is the claim that saying Jumuah Mubarak is an innovation and a major sin. The Holy Prophet ص has repeatedly instructed Muslims to pray for each other and to wish each other well. What is Jumuah Mubarak if not a prayer? Intolerance is an enemy of peace and justice. We have seen countries plunge into hatred and killing due to religious intolerance. Therefore, in our effort to build a new and better Gambia, we must be weary of those who cannot accept any form of divergent views. We must, of course, be righteous and practising our religion but we must allow others to also worship in peace just like the Holy Prophet ص did. Truth is: Isn't he our exemplar? Peace

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