Praise for bishops
Visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo last week, the US ambassador to the United Nations praised the Catholic bishops for their efforts to promote peace and democracy in the country. During a trip to the bishops’ conference headquarters in Kinshasa on 27 October, Nikki Haley (pictured) thanked the bishops for mediating peace talks between the Government and opposition following political violence last December.
When she met President Joseph Kabila, whose term in office was due to expire last year, she demanded that national elections be held in 2018.
Low key on Luther
The head of the Augustinians has urged all members to commemorate but not celebrate the life of the order’s best-known rebel, Martin Luther.
Fr Alejandro Moral Antón OSA, the Prior General, has written a strongly worded letter to the brothers and sisters of the mendicant order, formally founded in the thirteenth century, marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Luther’s public exposition of his 95 theses on indulgences in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517 marks the commonly accepted start of the Reformation.
“The damage done to the Order and to religious life in Germany was enormous. Luther … not only abandoned the order but abhorred religious life, rejected ascetic practices and piety, rejected praying the breviary and other obligations, radically altered sacramental theology, condemned the vows and promoted the abandonment and the mass exodus of vowed religious,” Fr Anton noted. “Luther used biting expressions against those who opposed him, becoming abusive and rude.” Yet he was “surprisingly servile” to Protestant princes as well as being anti-Semitic; in his 65,000-word treatise of 1543, “On the Jews and their Lies”, Luther wrote: “These poisonous envenomed worms” should be drafted into forced labour or expelled for all time … [We] are at fault in not slaying them”. Fr Anton’s letter was sent to the order’s 2,576 friars in 420 communities in 45 countries and to 834 sisters in 77 monasteries.
The decision to celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation as a Feast for Jesus Christ had turned out to be “groundbreaking”, the leaders of the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Germany, Cardinal Reinhard Marx and Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, wrote in their joint letter for Reformation Day (31 October), which was published in full in the German weekly Die Zeit. This year was therefore “not a full stop but a colon linked to great expectations”, the letter underlined. “A new and dynamic rapprochement is taking place in Germany and in Rome, the two places where the Reformation schism began.”
A plan to lift a ban on open-pit mining in the Philippines has drawn strong opposition from environmental activists, including the social action department of the country’s Catholic bishops. Fr Edwin Gariguez, executive secretary of Caritas Philippines, said on 25 October that lifting the ban was a “backward step in government policy”. There are also fears that anti-mining activists may be injured or killed.
The ban on open-pit mining was put in place by Regina Lopez, who was briefly environment minister. She banned it during her 10 months in office, and closed or suspended 26 of the country’s 41 mines. She appeared to have the support of President Rodrigo Duterte, who condemned “destructive mining”, and of the country’s Catholic bishops. But Mr Duterte has allowed Ms Lopez’s replacement, former armed forces chief Roy Cimatu, to allow mines to reopen. At least 19 environmental activists have been killed in the Philippines this year alone.
Dukas regrets poll result
The head of the Czech Church, Cardinal Dominik Duka of Prague, has said he “deeply regretted” the results of his country’s latest election, which was won by a populist, anti-establishment party. Its leader is set now to become premier despite facing fraud charges.
“Victory has gone to parties and movements who played no part in creating our freedom over the last 25 years – I’m not even sure whether it’s the left or the right who won,” Cardinal Duka, 74, said. He made his comments after the Association of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) won 78 out of 200 seats in parliament in the late October election under its millionaire leader, Andrej Babis, on a promise of tax cuts and reduced bureaucracy. Mr Babis has denied any wrongdoing and has said that the fraud case against him is politically motivated. He said also that he had failed to secure coalition partners, and would therefore seek to create a “minority government made up of experts”.
State governor rejects oath
One of the opposition candidates who won a governor’s race in Venezuela will not take office, forcing a re-vote. In the state of Zulia, the opposition candidate, Juan Pablo Guanipa, won the governor’s race on 15 October. However, on 26 October, he refused to take an oath to the Constituent Assembly, a condition President Nicolás Maduro had placed on governors-elect before they could take office. Mr Guanipa says he does not recognise the Constituent Assembly as a legal entity, but continues to insist on his right to enter office. The four other opposition candidates who won governors’ seats took the oath. The Episcopal Conference of Venezuela has said that cases of fraud in the state-level elections were ignored.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn joined several thousand faithful in St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna for the tenth Medjugorje Prayer for Peace last week. This year’s guest of honour was Cardinal Ernest Simoni, 89, who survived communist persecution in Albania and became the country’s first cardinal last year. Maria Pavlovic-Lunetti, one of the six people who say they saw the alleged Medjugorje visions, was present, and repeated the Virgin Mary’s Medjugorje Message to pray for peace.
‘Rights’ bishop dies at 67
Kenyan bishop Cornelius Kipng’eno Arap Korir, of Eldoret Diocese, has died after a short illness, aged 67. Ordained Bishop of Eldoret in 1990, he was known nationally as a human rights defender. He played a key role in uniting communities after the 2007-2008 post-election violence.
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