Rights activist mourned
Hundreds of people attended the funeral in Faisalabad, Pakistan, last week of a Catholic woman and human rights activist, who ran a shelter for abused women and lobbied tirelessly on women’s issues.
Razia Joseph (pictured), 60, was founder and director of the Woman Shelter Organisation, a refuge for abandoned women and victims of mistreatment and abuse, forced marriage or acid attacks. “We thank God for giving her to us,” said Fr Emmanuel Parvez, a Faisalabad priest and co-worker. “We need this commitment in Pakistan.”
The Bishop of Macau Stephen Lee Bun Sang has spoken out against assisted reproductive technology, describing it as “Pandora’s box”. Macau’s Diocesan Commission of the Family, Marriage and Life submitted 1,500 Catholics’ signatures and a written submission to the regional government, opposing new legislation on artificial conception and any technologies that create life. Last November, the Macau Health Bureau announced that a public consultation on the legislation would take place for 40 days from 4 December. There are around 30,000 Catholics in Macau, around 5 per cent of the total population.
Binding guidelines for blessing same-sex partnerships and remarried divorcees were needed to prevent such blessings from being mistaken for church weddings, Johannes zu Eltz, Dean of Frankfurt in Limburg diocese, told the “Stadtforum II” (“City Forum II”) on 20 January.
Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück, vice-president of the German Catholic bishops’ conference, said in an interview on 10 January that the Church should consider blessing homosexual couples in a ceremony “which cannot be mistaken for a marriage celebration”. There was a great deal that was “morally good” in partnerships that were excluded from the Sacrament of Marriage, Zu Eltz insisted, which meant that “when faith comes into play, they are worthy of receiving a blessing.”
Corruption condemned
On 19 January, the Guatemalan Episcopal Conference issued a statement condemning “the dictatorship of corruption” in the country and the lack of accountability of politicians.
Protests took place throughout January in Guatemala City and in rural areas, calling for the resignation of President Jimmy Morales, and of congress members who it is claimed have protected him from prosecution.
After meeting on 14 January the Catholic bishops of the Central African Republic published a message saying they fear “a dark future for our children … our country continues to sink into the abyss”. They highlighted governance and security concerns, with armed groups “imposing their laws on exhausted civilians who no longer know where their help will come from”. Pope Francis visited CAR in November 2015.
The expert panel established by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to examine the status of religious freedom in Australia following the passage of same-sex marriage legislation in December has set a deadline of 14 February for submissions.
Chaired by Australia’s former Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, and including the Jesuit priest Fr Frank Brennan, the five-member panel is to report by 31 March. Mr Turnbull announced the creation of the expert panel on 22 November last year – a week after the results of a national postal survey showed that 62 per cent of Australians who responded approved of allowing same-sex couples to marry .
The Catholic Church in Kosovo has condemned the killing last week of a prominent Kosovo Serb politician, Oliver Ivanovic, which occurred as talks on Kosovo’s future were due to resume under EU supervision. “Tensions have been easing, and people are rejecting violence and hatred,” said Mgr Lush Gjergji, vicar-general of Kosovo’s Prizren-Pristina diocese. “This event challenges justice and the rule of law.” Mr Ivanovic, a former Serbian government state secretary, was shot dead from a speeding car on 16 January, prompting Serbia’s delegation to withdraw from the EU-brokered Brussels talks.
Ecumenical consultations headed by the President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity Cardinal Kurt Koch and Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, the Patriarchate of Moscow’s head of foreign relations, will take place in Vienna on 12 February on the invitation of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. They follow the Pope’s meeting with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow two years ago.
State-church separation
Luxembourg has completed a major Church-State separation programme, scrapping a two centuries-old requirement for local communities to help maintain places of worship.
Under the law, tabled in 2016 by the centre-left coalition government led by Xavier Bettel, maintenance of around 500 Catholic churches and chapels in the Grand Duchy will no longer be the responsibility of town and village councils but will fall to a new fund operated by Luxembourg’s Catholic Archdiocese. The reform also ends state salary payments to clergy and replaces religious teaching in schools with classes in “Life and Society”.
A former Muslim who is now a parishioner of St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral in Adelaide fears he may be killed for his religious beliefs if he is forced to return to Afghanistan.
Mohammad Mahdi Rafee, 31, fled from Afghanistan after the Taliban forced him to abandon his university course and reached Australia by boat in 2012. He was granted a bridging visa but not a permanent visa. He became a Catholic last year and Archbishop Philip Wilson baptised him at Easter. But he was detained on 13 December, and now risks being deported. Archbishop Wilson has written to the Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, expressing “grave fears” for Rafee’s safety if he has to return to Afghanistan.
Smart money
Paris archdiocese parishioners can now place their debit or credit cards on a panel connected to a smartphone in the church collection basket and use a touchscreen to donate two, three, five or 10 euros. “Cash is dying out. In bakeries, some people now pay for their baguettes with contactless cards,” Christophe Rousselot, a financial director for the archdiocese, said.
Loading ...
