Latest news with #renunciation
National Post
25-05-2025
- Politics
- National Post
The pontiff's passport: Can the U.S. strip Pope Leo XIV of his citizenship?
Article content 'The State Department never assumes that you intend to lose your citizenship unless you specifically say so through the renunciation process,' Spiro said. Article content He said it would be hard to argue that Leo, by becoming pope, demonstrated an intent to give up being a U.S. citizen. Article content 'I think it's highly unlikely that the U.S. moves to terminate the pope's citizenship,' Spiro said. Article content Peruvian law has no conflict with Pope Leo remaining a citizen, said Jorge Puch, deputy director of registry archives at Peru's National Registry of Identification and Civil Status. Article content Leo was granted Peruvian citizenship in August 2015, the month before Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Chiclayo in the South American country's northern region. To qualify, he had to live in Peru for at least two years and pass a civics test. Article content Article content 'It is the most praiseworthy thing our beloved supreme pontiff could have done: Wanting to have Peruvian nationality without having been Peruvian by birth,' Puch said. Article content Article content All adult Peruvians, including naturalized citizens, are required to vote in elections through age 69. Voting in Peru's presidential election next April won't be mandatory for Leo. He turns 70 in September. Article content It's not clear what happened to the citizenship status of Leo's predecessors once they became pope. That's not information the Vatican discloses. Article content Pope Francis renewed his passport in his home country of Argentina in 2014, the year after he became pope. German-born Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II, a native of Poland, never publicly relinquished citizenship in their home countries. Article content Article content Margaret Susan Thompson, a Syracuse University history professor and expert on American Catholicism, said she doubts Leo would renounce his U.S. citizenship. But she believes the new pope was sending a message when he delivered his first speech in Italian and Spanish without using English. Article content 'I think he wants to stress that he is the pope of the universal Catholic Church,' Thompson said, 'and not an American holding that position.' Article content Yes. Here are a few notable examples. Article content Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was born in New York to British parents in 1964. He left the U.S. as a young boy and renounced his American citizenship in 2016 while serving as the U.K.'s foreign secretary. Johnson became prime minister three years later. Article content Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed was an American citizen when he was elected president of Somalia in 2017. Born in Somalia, he moved to the U.S. in 1985 and became a citizen in the 1990s. Mohamed gave up his U.S. citizenship two years into his presidency. Article content Valdas Adamkus became a U.S. citizen after his family fled Lithuania to escape Soviet occupation. He returned to win Lithuania's presidency in 1998, years after the Soviet Union collapsed. He relinquished his American citizenship after being elected. Article content
Free Malaysia Today
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Muslim convert fails in bid to return to Christianity
The Court of Appeal today reaffirmed that shariah courts have exclusive jurisdiction in cases involving the renunciation of Islam, and the civil courts cannot interfere. PUTRAJAYA : The Court of Appeal here has dismissed a Muslim convert's attempt to renounce Islam and revert to his original faith of Christianity. Justice M Nantha Balan, who chaired a three-judge panel, held that the man's appeal had no merit. Sitting with him were Justices Nazlan Ghazali and Azmi Ariffin. The 47-year-old man married a Muslim woman in 2010. However, they divorced five years later. In 2016, he filed an application in the shariah court to renounce Islam, but was ordered to attend 'counselling sessions' instead. The shariah court subsequently dismissed his renunciation application and ordered that he undergo further counselling sessions. The man's appeal to the shariah appeals court was also rejected. He then turned to the civil courts seeking to nullify the shariah court's decision, and sought a declaration that he is entitled to profess his original faith. His legal challenge was dismissed by the High Court in 2023. Nazlan, who read out the judgment today, said the civil court had no jurisdiction to hear cases from the shariah courts. 'This is not a case of him never being a Muslim but a renunciation (of Islam). 'We affirm that shariah courts have the exclusive jurisdiction to hear these cases and civil courts cannot interfere,' he added. The court also noted that the shariah court had dismissed the man's application to renounce Islam on grounds that the evidence presented was 'insufficient'. 'He can apply again before the shariah court,' Nazlan said, noting that there had been cases of successful renunciations. The court made no order as to costs. The man was represented by lawyers Iqbal Harith Liang and Firdaus Danial Tan, while senior federal counsel Idayu Amir appeared for the federal government.
