News Briefing: global

The US Supreme Court, unable to reach a majority verdict, has effectively let stand a lower court ruling that barred President Barack Obama (above) from implementing his plan to defer the deportation of undocumented immigrant parents with children who are citizens. The ruling, which was tied, does not affect an earlier programme, which deferred the deportation of undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children, but could affect 5 million immigrants. “Our nation’s ongoing failure to address the immigration crisis is a humanitarian tragedy,” Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles said in a statement. “In the wake of today’s US Supreme Court decision, I call on President Obama and Congress to agree to halt deportations pending the outcome of the national elections [in November]. This would provide temporary relief and peace of mind to millions of our brothers and sisters, including millions of children.”

Peace accord welcomed
The Colombian Government’s peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has been welcomed by the country’s Catholic bishops as an “historic event”. Agreed on 23 June after four years of negotiations, the accord calls for a mutual ceasefire,for the surrender of FARC weapons, and for implementation monitored by the UN Security Council. The Colombian bishops say the agreement should be “the first step to building peace, long awaited by Colombians, with the guarantee of human rights and the promotion of justice in every corner of the country”. The news was greeted by street celebrations in the capital, Bogota. A final peace accord is expected to be signed by the end of July.

Two new auxiliary bishops have been appointed to Sydney archdiocese, including the first Opus Dei priest named to the episcopate in Australia.

New Zealand-born Fr Richard Umbers, 45, and Brisbane-based Mgr Anthony Randazzo, 49, will be ordained in St Mary’s Cathedral on 24 August. They join Bishop Terry Brady, 69, as auxiliary bishops to Archbishop Anthony Fisher, who is slowly recovering from Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Bishop-elect Umbers moved to Sydney in 1992 to study for an economics degree and receive formation at an Opus Dei centre. Four years later, he entered the Opus Dei Seminary of Cavabianca in Rome, then studied at the University of Navarre in Spain, receiving a Doctorate in Philosophy.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Patriarch Fouad Twal (above), the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem who reached the age of 75 last October. He has elevated to archbishop the Italian Franciscan Father, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, 51, former Custos of the Holy Land, and appointed him as Apostolic Administrator of the Jerusalem Patriarchate until the appointment of a new Patriarch. “Traditionally, the election of a patriarch can take 12 to 18 months,” Wadie Abunassar, spokesman for the Assembly of Catholic Bishops in the Holy Land, said last week.

A delegation of bishops to the diocese of Maiduguri in north-east Nigeria has praised the church there for steadfastness in the face of Islamist terror. “In spite of the challenges you have suffered and continue to suffer due to activities of Boko Haram, I say to you, never relent for there is always light at the end of the tunnel,” said Archbishop Gabriel ‘Leke Abegunrin of Ibadan. He thanked the faithful for remaining Christian despite fierce persecution, which has reduced the number of Catholics in the diocese from 125,000 to fewer than 70,000 in the past seven years. Bishop Oliver Doeme of Maiduguri expressed gratitude to the delegation: “Maiduguri is reckoned as the deadliest place to be in Nigeria and, despite this, the bishops, priests and sisters have spared time to come and feel what we are feeling and to encourage us on our Christian journey.”

Refugees baptised
Sixty North Korean refugees of all ages were baptised Catholics at a church in Seoul on 18 June. “You came a long way and now you are newly born in God who cares and loves you endlessly,” said Fr Raymond Lee Jong-nam of Banpo 4-dong Catholic Church, who had prepared them over preceding months. “Everyone here has wounds and pain,” he added, “and I wish you all a new, happy life”. There are over 29,000 North Korean refugees in South Korea.

Sufi killing condemned
The assassination of a popular Sufi singer by suspected Islamist terrorists has been condemned by the National Justice and Peace Commission of Pakistan’s Catholic Church. “We demand that those responsible be held accountable, and this is a great loss to the music industry and Pakistani artists,” said director Cecil Chaudhry. “There are already no concerts around the country by pop singers since fundamentalists label them immoral,” he added. “Now spiritual singers face an equal threat.” Amjad Farid Sabri, 45, was shot dead in Karachi on 22 June. He sang Qawwali, a devotional style of music rooted in Sufism – a branch of Islam the Taliban and other Sunni groups consider heretical.

Child protection plan
Citing recent disturbing cases of sexual abuse, Archbishop Christian Lépine of Montreal unveiled a plan designed to protect children and the vulnerable by banning priests and “anyone in the orbit of the Church” from being alone with a child. A new diocesan agency, the Service of Responsible Pastoral Ministry, will implement the new policy.

The congregation founded by Australia’s first saint, Mary of the Cross MacKillop (above), and Englishman Fr Julian Tenison Woods 150 years ago has remembered one of its own, who was killed by Shining Path rebels in Peru 25 years ago. Sr Irene McCormack, a farmer’s daughter from Western Australia, was executed in the village of Huasahuasi with four local men on 21 May 1991 for distributing food parcels to the poor. She was remembered at a Mass at St Columba’s church, South Perth, celebrated by her cousin, Fr Des Dwyer SJ.

In Canada, a coalition of Christian and Catholic medical associations, representing 5,000 physicians and 100 health care facilities, has launched a court challenge to Ontario’s new regulatory regime governing assisted suicide. They oppose the regulatory Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons requirement that a physician refusing to assist in a patient’s decision to end their life must make an “effective referral” to a physician willing to do so.