Myanmar’s cardinal has refused to rebuke State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (above) for her silence over the escalating war in the state of Kachin against its Christian minority.
Cardinal Charles Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, said last week that Aung San Suu Kyi “has suffered with her people” and since she assumed office in 2016 the military has still controlled key government functions. In Kachin, armed conflict has intensified between the Myanmar army and the Kachin Independence Army and 10,000 people have been displaced since January.
A request this week by Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for a parliamentary session to consider extending the legal protections for former presidents is being viewed as a sign that he may stand down before a long-awaited presidential vote. The Church in the DRC has been calling on Mr Kabila to step down ever since he refused to relinquish power when his mandate expired in December 2016.
Argentina’s bishops have said that a parliamentary vote approving the legalisation of abortion until 14 weeks of pregnancy has revealed the shortcomings of both the Church and society in accompanying women and educating people. The bishops pledged to review their social ministries to attend better to youth and women.
The country’s House of Representatives voted 129-123 on 13 June to approve the bill, which now goes to the Senate. Abortion is illegal in Argentina except when the mother’s life is at risk, or in cases of rape.
Karadima’s brother meets Pope
Óscar Karadima, brother of the disgraced Chilean paedophile priest Fernando Karadima, has said that he met the Pope at the Vatican on 1 June. He was one of nine people, who were the third group from Chile to come to the Vatican in 45 days to discuss the crisis facing the local Church.
The crisis escalated in 2015 when the Pope appointed Bishop Juan Barros to the southern diocese of Osorno. Barros – whose resignation has now been accepted by the Pope – is accused by victims of witnessing abuse by Karadima, who the Vatican has sentenced to a life of penitence and prayer.
He has never publicly apologised and still protests his innocence. After he talked with the Pope, Mr Karadima re-joined the group he had travelled with, and wept profusely for his family. He was holding a picture with Francis’ signature and a message that read: “To the family of Óscar Karadima, with my blessing and pain over so much suffering you carry. In the name of Fernando, mute and incapable of realising [the hurt he has caused], I ask for your forgiveness.”
Columbus letter returned
A fifteenth-century copy of a letter Christopher Columbus sent to his royal patrons, describing the riches of the New World, has been returned to the Vatican library. The rare eight-page document, estimated to be worth $1.2 million, had been stolen and secretly replaced with a forged copy,. It eventually ended up in the hands of a US collector from Atlanta. When investigators informed the late collector’s widow of the crime, she agreed to relinquish all rights to the letter, as long as it was returned to the Vatican.
The Vatican and China have held new talks on the appointment of bishops as the Holy See also raised concerns about the tightening of restrictions on religious practice in the country, Vatican and diplomatic sources have reported. The talks between the two delegations, the first since a meeting held in Beijing last December, took place “quietly in Rome” in recent days, the sources said. The most contentious issue in the talks concerns who has primary authority over the appointment of bishops, Rome or Beijing.
President Emmanuel Macron, who has sought to mend ties with the Catholic Church in France, meeting resistance from the defenders of France’s tradition of laiceté, separating Church and state, is to travel to the Vatican on 26 June to meet Pope Francis. Following Mr Macron’s election victory last year, Francis sent a telegram that urged him to strengthen France’s Christian roots.
Cafod warns on Yemen
The Catholic aid agency, Cafod, has warned that the Saudi-led coalition’s assault on Yemen’s main port city of Hodeida, which began on 13 June, will have a “catastrophic impact” on the ability of relief groups to get food, medicine and other aid to vulnerable Yemeni families.
Cafod made the comments ahead of a United Nations emergency meeting on Yemen. “With 90 per cent of all Yemen’s food imports passing through Hodeida, any disruption to the port’s operation will affect the entire country,” said Giovanna Reda, Cafod’s head of humanitarian programmes for the Middle East.
The right-wing candidate, Ivan Duque, won the second and final round of Colombia’s presidential election on 17 June, with 54 per cent of the vote. His left-wing opponent, Gustavo Petro, won 42 per cent. Mr Duque has been mentored by the former president, Alvaro Uribe. In an online video on election day, the president of the Colombian bishops’ conference and Archbishop of Villavicencio, Oscar Urbina, said: “Achieving peace in Colombia is a task for which there is no truce, and it is a commitment that we all share.” Mr Duque intends to roll back some parts of the peace accords reached with the FARC rebels. Mr Petro is a former FARC guerrilla who later served as mayor of the capital, Bogotá.
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