The leaders of the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Germany, Cardinal Reinhard Marx (above right) and Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm (above left), celebrated an ecumenical service of Repentance and Reconciliation at Hildesheim on 11 March with German political leaders.
The service is seen as one of the most important joint celebrations in the Reformation Year, marking its 500th anniversary, and a milestone in ecumenical relations.
The celebration at St Michael’s Church marked the end of the “Healing of Memories” process of recent years. Both Church leaders spoke of the “burden of our divisions and separation” and the “present signs of a reconciled togetherness”. The service was attended by Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Joachim Gauck, and Bundestag President Norbert Lammert. The celebration at Hildesheim was “almost a miracle”, Mr Gauck said.
Death penalty reimposed
The Catholic Church in The Philippines said it was “in mourning” after the country’s House of Representatives approved a plan to reimpose capital punishment for drug-related and other crimes. The bishops had led opposition to the move, which was supported by President Rodrigo Duterte. The bill still requires Senate approval before the President can sign it into law.
Bishops issue chaos warning
The bishops of the Democratic Republic of Congo are warning that rising violence and political unrest are threatening the nation with “unravelling and chaos”. In a statement, they lamented the “thousands” who had lost their lives in recent months, including many children enlisted by various militias, and expressed concern that the crisis might trigger a famine. An accord signed on 31 December 2016, brokered by the bishops’ conference, paved the way for presidential elections later this year, with President Joseph Kabila due to end his 16-year rule and not pursue an unconstitutional third term in office. The bishops fear that the growing number of violent attacks on church property and personnel reflect resentment at the Church’s role in brokering the accord.
‘Obamacare’ plea
Four committee chairmen at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops published a letter sent to all members of Congress, urging the legislators to consider “moral criteria” as they begin debating legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. The bishops called for legislation that demonstrates “respect for life and dignity”, protects conscience rights, provides “access to all” and makes health care truly affordable, comprehensive and high-quality. The placing of conscience rights above universal access in the list of concerns reflects the USCCB’s long fight with the Obama administration about a mandate rule requiring all employers, including Catholic institutions, to provide insurance coverage for contraception. The Trump administration has not rescinded that rule so far. The current proposal in Congress prohibits “direct spending” of federal money on any “prohibited entity”, including those that provide abortions for anything other than a risk to the life of the mother, incest, or rape. This prohibition would seem to include major abortion provider Planned Parenthood. The bill, the American Health Care Act, replaces federal insurance subsidies with a new form of individual tax credits and monetary grants to help states shape their own policies.
Bishops in South Korea have urged their country to strive for harmony and stability following the news last week that scandal-hit President Park Geun-hye (pictured) had been forced from office after judges unanimously upheld the decision of parliament to impeach her. Bishops’ conference president Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-jong said: “We should now build a stable country through harmony and we need to overcome the confrontation and tension among Koreans.”
Josef Mayr-Nusser will today be beatified in Bolzano Cathedral, Italy. Mayr-Nusser, (pictured with his wife, Hildegard), was killed as a consequence of his refusal to swear the military oath of loyalty to Hitler when he was forcibly conscripted into the German army in 1944. He was ordered to be transported to Dachau, where he was to be shot, but, much weakened by prison starvation and feverish with dysentery, he died on 24 February at Erlangen, in the cattle wagon taking him there. His feast day will be 3 October. Pax Christi Italy and the Bolzano Centro per la Pace are involved in various events to celebrate the beatification.
A top Polish Church leader has criticised his country’s centre-right Government for opposing last week’s re-election of Donald Tusk as European Council president, and urged it to uphold its European Union commitments. “His re-election expresses the trust felt for him by EU heads of state,” said Archbishop Henryk Muszynski, Poland’s former Catholic primate. “During the voting, we observed Europe standing in solidarity against the Polish Government’s stance – if our Government is isolated today, this shouldn’t mean Poland and the Poles are isolated.” The Eurosceptic Government of Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has threatened to disrupt EU business after failing to gain support against Mr Tusk.
Mining ban urged
On 9 March the Catholic Church held a demonstration in San Salvador calling on the Legislative Assembly to support a government bill to ban metallic mining in El Salvador. San Salvador Archbishop Jose Escobar Alas spoke at the march and warned that the country’s mining law was obsolete and El Salvador was vulnerable to exploitation.
European Church leaders have condemned a vote by Hungarian MPs to tighten their country’s asylum law, forcing all asylum seekers into detention camps. Cardinal Rainer Woelki of Cologne said: “After the distressing expulsions of the Second World War, I didn’t expect something so inhuman to happen in Europe”. The German cardinal was reacting to the law, overwhelmingly adopted in the Budapest parliament, under which all refugees will be held in a border transit zone while their asylum requests are processed. Hungary’s Bishops’ Conference declined to discuss the new law at its 7-8 March plenary.
Girls die in children’s home protest
The Pope has expressed his “closeness to the people of Guatemala” after a fire in a youth shelter run by the Guatemalan Government claimed the lives of at least 40 teenage girls and left many others critically ill in hospital on 8 March.
There had been allegations of sexual abuse at the overcrowded shelter and there was concern over poor conditions.
The federal welfare ministry operated the Virgin of Assumption “Safe Home” in the town of San José Pinula, outside Guatemala City, for children aged between 14 and 17 who have suffered abuse or been abandoned. The shelter, that also reportedly operated as a juvenile detention centre, was built to house 400, but many hundreds more teenagers were said to be living there. The home has been closed temporarily. Police say a group that had been isolated as a punishment protested by setting fire to mattresses, starting the blaze.
Collins rebukes Cardinal Müller
A clerical sexual abuse survivor has launched a stinging rebuke to a cardinal who denied his department resisted the work of a papal child protection commission. Marie Collins resigned from Pope Francis’ safeguarding body in frustration at what she described as resistance from inside the Vatican, with opposition coming mainly from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the CDF prefect, hit back in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera saying that he “couldn’t understand” the claim about his department not co-operating. But in a letter published this week by the National Catholic Reporter, Ms Collins states that it took more than a year before the CDF started to engage with the commission. She also criticised the cardinal’s assertion that a structure for the CDF to hold bishops who cover up abuse accountable was only a “project”, pointing to a June 2015 statement from the Pope authorising the establishment of a new panel.