News Briefing: Church in the World

A federal judge ordered the United States Department of Homeland Security to grant a Christian advocacy group access to the Broadview detention centre near Chicago to minister to immigrant detainees on Ash Wednesday. 

“The court finds that the government has substantially burdened plaintiffs’ exercise of religion,” US District Judge Robert Gettleman wrote in his preliminary injunction on 12 February. The Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, a Catholic advocacy group based in Illinois, brought the lawsuit against the Trump administration.  

The group said immigration authorities unlawfully blocked its members for months from providing pastoral care at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. 

“As plaintiffs note, Broadview allowed plaintiffs’ religious visitation to Broadview for years before reversing course relatively recently,” Gettleman wrote in this ruling. “With reasonable notice and communication, addressing legitimate security and safety concerns, allowing plaintiffs to provide pastoral care to migrants and detainees does not pose any undue hardship on the government.” 

Priests in the Archdiocese of Chicago have been stopped by federal agents and asked to prove their immigration status “because of their colour”, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago alleged. 

He first made the claim in an interview with WTTW, a Chicago PBS affiliate, on 17 January, and repeated it in an interview published on 6 February in the US edition of the Spanish daily El País. 

“I’ve had some priests who are of a different colour being targeted and arrested – stopped – because of their colour and asking them to prove that they’re citizens. That’s not America,” Cupich told WTTW.  “We should not have to live in a country where people have to carry around their documents all the time.” 

He told El País that federal immigration authorities’ tactics bring “terror into a city where not just immigrants, but the population, feel as though they’re being terrorised by the ways that these roundups are going”.

The Ignatian Solidarity Network issued a statement of concern after the US Environmental Protection Agency repealed the Endangerment Finding, a longstanding scientific determination that greenhouse gas pollution threatens human health and welfare.

The network said the decision “disregards well-established science and weakens essential protections for the health of our communities and our common home”. 

The statement on 11 February said that “young people are inheriting a world marked by increasing environmental instability, extreme weather and growing inequities caused by climate change, and decisions that weaken environmental protections place an unjust burden on future generations and disproportionately harm communities already on the margins”.  

It urged policymakers, “to listen to the voices of young people, respect scientific evidence and uphold their responsibility to protect both people and the planet”.

Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, expressed “dismay” and “strong opposition” to the University of Notre Dame’s recent appointment of an academic who supports abortion rights to a leadership position. 

Rhoades said on 11 February that the university’s decision in January to promote Associate Professor Susan Ostermann to director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies had caused “much news coverage, controversy and outcry”. 

Reading articles written by Ostermann prompted Rhoades to speak out on an appointment that he said was causing “scandal to the faithful of our diocese and beyond”. Ostermann has criticised the pro-life movement in the United States, linking it to white supremacist and misogynistic ideologies. 

“Professor Ostermann’s extensive public advocacy of abortion rights and her disparaging and inflammatory remarks about those who uphold the dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death go against a core principle of justice that is central to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and mission,” Rhoades said. 

The bishop urged the university “rectify the situation” by rescinding the appointment, which is not scheduled to take effect until 1 July. “There is still time to make things right,” Rhoades said.

In the Diocese of Prince George, Bishop Stephen Jensen called Canadians to prayer and penance after nine people died in a mass shooting at a school in the town of Tumbler Ridge in northern British Columbia on 10 February. The suspected shooter was among the dead, while dozens of others were injured. 

In a statement on 11 February, Bishop Jensen said the start of Lent could be “a time for more intense prayer, penance and personal sacrifice, to beg God’s healing grace for our lives and for the world”. 

Other Catholic leaders offered solidarity.  Archbishop Richard W. Smith of Vancouver said that “together with everyone in the Archdiocese of Vancouver, I offer my prayers for all who have lost loved ones and for the entire community in mourning”. On 13 February, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney attended a vigil for victims in Tumbler Ridge.

A Filipino activist priest challenged President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr to atone for the sins of his father, the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, by eliminating the political dynasties that dominate the country’s politics. 

Fr Robert Reyes, a priest of the Diocese of Cubao, made this appeal in a press conference on the fortieth anniversary of the Church-backed People Power Revolution that ousted the elder Marcos. Reyes was among the organisers of the anniversary events, which will culminate on 25 February. 

“We got rid of a dictator, but the dictatorship spawned a more complex system of dictatorship. It’s the dynasties,” Reyes said on 16 February. 

The Marcos patriarch ruled the Philippines for the most part under martial law from 1965 until 1986, when the People Power uprising forced his family into exile in Hawaii. The dictatorship was accused of committing human rights abuses against thousands of Filipinos and stealing billions of dollars from public coffers. 

The Marcos family, however, gradually crept back into Philippine politics until the dictator’s son was elected president in 2022. 

“Bongbong, right the wrongs that your father did,” said Reyes in his appeal to President Marcos. “What if the Marcos legacy is to have created the monster that martial law was, but then a son becomes president and makes amends, admits to what his father and his minions have done, and finds a way of correcting it?”

A group of Indonesian lay Catholics demanded an explanation from the Vatican after the recent resignation of Bishop Paskalis Bruno Syukur of Bogor, amid allegations of mismanagement in the diocese. On 10 February around 70 people held a candlelight vigil in front of the apostolic nunciature in Jakarta, expressing support for him. 

Bishop Syukur, 63, a Franciscan who previously declined to become a cardinal, announced his resignation before the diocesan curia council on 19 January, and the Vatican accepted it. It followed an investigation by a Vatican-appointed team after two diocesan priests published an open letter accusing the bishop of authoritarian leadership, abuse of power and financial mismanagement, as well as of maintaining personal relationships that they claimed influenced diocesan policy.  

“Yet to this day, these allegations have never been publicly substantiated or conclusively proven,” said the bishop’s supporters. The lay group issued a statement calling on the Vatican to conduct a thorough investigation. It said Indonesian Catholics “have a right to know what truly happened to our shepherd, how the decision was made, and how justice is upheld within the body of the Church”.

Archbishop Joseph Arshad of Rawalpindi-Islamabad condemned a bomb attack on a mosque in the Pakistani capital.

He said “attacks on places of worship are an attack on interreligious harmony and efforts toward peace: this cannot be tolerated under any circumstances”. He said “elements that aim to divide society must be stopped”.

On 6 February a suicide bomber attacked a Shiite mosque in Islamabad, full for Friday prayers, killing at least 32 people and injuring 169 others. 

Archbishop Arshad described the attack as “a heinous crime against humanity”, saying that “all believers in Pakistan, regardless of their religion, must remain united to protect religious values and social harmony”.  

He offered condolences and prayers to the victims’ families and assured them that “the Christian community in Pakistan stands with them”. He called for those responsible to be brought to justice as quickly as possible. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pax Christi International issued a statement of solidarity with the Iranian people, condemning all forms of abuse of power, arbitrary arrests and torture.  

They also rejected, “any form of foreign military intervention or externally imposed regime change”, insisting that “experience has shown that violence and external coercion only deepen suffering, reinforce repression and destabilise the wider region”.

The future of Iran “must be determined by Iranians themselves, through inclusive, peaceful, and credible processes”, the peace movement said. Pax Christi urged European institutions and governments to support the Iranian people, suggesting the international community has a responsibility “to strengthen international accountability for human rights violations”. 

Last weekend US President Donald Trump said regime change in Iran would be “the best thing that could happen”. Street protests broke out across the country on 28 December, initially sparked by economic turmoil and fuelled by long-running discontent with the clerical regime. At least 6,000 protestors have been killed since then.  

Last weekend hundreds of thousands of people took part in demonstrations around the world against the Iranian government, with the largest crowds were in Munich, Los Angeles and Toronto.

Armenian authorities banned six bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church from leaving the country to attend a Church meeting in St Pölten in Austria planned for this week. The Church said the meeting would not be possible in Armenia itself.  

Last week the state prosecutor’s office opened criminal proceedings against Catholicos Karekin II. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he would do anything to prevent the bishops’ meeting in St Pölten. Four Armenian bishops are imprisoned and exit bans were imposed on six bishops and a further high-ranking clergy member of the church’s high spiritual council. 

Catholicos Karekin has repeatedly challenged state intervention in church affairs. Armenia, which in the third century became the first nation to accept Christianity, recognises the Armenian Apostolic Church in its constitution as the national church with an exclusive mission in its spiritual and cultural life. The constitution also guarantees the church’s right to regulate its own internal affairs.  

Peter Fuchs from Christian Solidarity International warned about an escalation of the conflict between the church leaders and Pashinyan who had accused the Catholicos of treason. “Currently, the situation is escalating because Pashinyan’s government is deliberately escalating it,” he said.

Religious and civil society leaders in Ethiopia demanded an end to violence in Tigray. The Tigray Orthodox Tewahedo Church denounced “the killing of brothers by brothers” which threatens to reignite war in the region. 

The Tigray Public Diplomacy Forum called for an immediate ceasefire and for religious leaders and all stakeholders to intensify mediation efforts. It also emphasised the need for unimpeded humanitarian access.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres and African Union chair Mahmoud Ali Youssouf have both expressed deep concern over the “potential impact on civilians” and the risk of a wider regional conflict that could involve neighbouring Eritrea.

Humanitarian organisations warn that the region is ill-equipped for a return to war, suffering the effects of past wars and recent huge cuts to international aid. Fighting escalated in January, threatening a 2022 peace deal that ended a civil war in Tigray, while elections are scheduled for June. 

The federal army and Tigray fighters have clashed in a contested area of western Tigray, while troops have reportedly mobilised in southern Tigray.

At least 6,000 people died in the first three days of the Rapid Support Forces offensive on the city of El-Fasher in western Sudan, according to a UN report. The attack in October followed a months-long siege, in which paramilitary forces killed thousands more including Fr Luka Jomo, the city’s last remaining Catholic priest.  

The UN report described incidents including mass shootings killing 500 in a university dormitory where 1,000 people were sheltering, while elsewhere young boys and men under 50 were executed over allegation that they collaborated with the army. Survivors’ accounts tell of rape and gang rape, abductions for ransom using sexual violence and sexual assaults against women and girls. The UN said the acts of violence committed in the attacks amount to crimes against humanity. 

Soon after the capture of the city, Bishop Christian Carlassare of Bentiu in neighbouring South Sudan described the war in Sudan as a “tragedy” and the killings in El-Fasher city as a “genocidal slaughter”.

A Ugandan priest arrested in December during violent political campaigning has been released on bail. Fr Duesdedit Ssekabira reportedly broke down in court after his bail was denied in December, but it was granted on 10 February.  

He was arrested for allegedly taking part in “violent activities against the state”, according to an announcement by the Ugandan Ministry of National Defence on 14 December explaining the priest’s detention, almost two weeks after he was reported missing. 

Ssbekabira spent two months in prison as rights activists including the Uganda Catholic Lawyers Society (UCLS) demanded his release. Last week the high court granted the priest a €3,600 bail and a guarantee of €12,000. 

Long-serving President Yoweri Museveni claimed victory in disputed polls last month amid allegations of state-sponsored violence against his opponents.

Pope Leo appointed Fr John Tata Berinyuy as an auxillary bishop in the Archdiocese of Bamenda. He said he received the appointment “with a lot of humility and surprise” and thanked God almighty for entrusting him with the mission. He pledged to work together with Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda, who announced the appointment to applause on 13 February. 

Berinyuy was one of six priests kidnapped by separatists on 15 November. While the others were released the next day, he was held until December. At the announcement, he again expressed gratitude for those who prayed for his release: “I thank the whole world, and I thank the Holy Father for praying for me during the time of my captivity.” 

Clergy in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions have faced a series of attacks, with numerous priests kidnapped by armed groups, others assaulted and several killed. “Even Amba could not dim his light,” said one of those celebrating Berinyuy’s appointment, using the name for separatist rebels that has become synonymous with the region’s turmoil. 

“We have many more challenges ahead,” Berinyuy said, “but we know the Lord Jesus can never abandon his flock.” Ordained in 2005, Berinyuy is a doctor of theology who has served in various academic and pastoral roles, most recently as rector of the Catholic University of Cameroon in Bamenda.

Cameroon’s Catholic University partnered with a Polish university to promote “knowledge production” and spiritual formation. 

The agreement signed last week between the Catholic University of Central Africa in Cameroon (UCAC) and the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) will expand collaboration between African and European centres of Catholic education in scientific, cultural, and social studies. 

Fr Thomas Bienvenu Tchoungui signed on behalf of UCAC, while Fr Mirosław Kalinowski signed on behalf of KUL. “The priority is not only knowledge, but also spiritual formation, which responds to the challenges of the contemporary world,” said Fr Kalinowski.

African church leaders said interreligious dialogue is the most effective path to resolving the continent’s crises, including conflict and terrorism. 

At a four-day colloquium in Guinea themed “Muslims and Christians in building peaceful and fraternal societies in Africa”, religious leaders emphasised the need to forge a united front against instability. Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui, in the Central African Republic (CAR) was among those present.

“Conflicts and radicalism are major challenges to social peace and national cohesion in several African countries,” Cardinal Nzapalainga said in a presentation on 10 February. He argued that while conflicts are often erroneously labelled as religious, they are in reality rooted in “more complex dynamics involving political, economic, identity and symbolic factors”. 

However, the cardinal warned that religion can be weaponised and “instrumentalised, derailed from its primary vocation and transformed into a vector of radicalisation”. The solution, he said, is to embrace the true meaning of faith. “True faith constitutes an antidote to radicalism rather than a vector of violence,” he continued.  

As an example, he cited a 2014 incident where Muslim and Christian children united to raise funds for earthquake victims in Assisi, Italy. “This is an example of solidarity that goes beyond borders, that allows us to reunite,” the cardinal said.

After Cyclone Gezani caused widespread destruction across Madagascar, Archbishop Benjamin Marc Balthason Ramaroson of Antsiranana called for national and international support.

The cyclone made landfall on 10 February, and killed at least 35 people and while forcing over 250,000 from their homes. The storm slammed into the island’s main port of Toamasina, where the majority of the fatalities occurred, plunging neighbourhoods into darkness, uprooting trees and ripping off roofs. 

The disaster followed Tropical Cyclone Fytia just ten days prior, which killed 14 people and displaced over 31,000, creating a compounding humanitarian crisis that has stretched national resources to their limits. The archbishop promised to “walk alongside” affected populations, “so that this wound may heal quickly”. 

Speaking after the Angelus in Rome on Sunday, Pope Leo said: “I express my closeness to the people of Madagascar who have been impacted by two cyclones, flooding and landslides within a short period of time. I pray for the victims, their families and for all who have suffered serious damage.”

The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) its Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union “aimed at strengthening cooperation in key areas of Africa’s development, peace and social cohesion”. 

The MoU was signed on 13 February at the African Union Commission in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. SECAM’s president Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu thanked the African Union for recognising the role of civil society and faith-based organisations in building “the Africa we want”.

The MoU is expected to promote human rights, good governance, peacebuilding, economic justice, environmental protection and integral human development across the continent. Meanwhile, SECAM organised a “peacebuilding and social cohesion” programme in Northern Ghana in response to a recent outbreak of violence.

The heads of the Catholic bishops’ conferences from France, Italy, Poland and Germany issued a joint statement calling on Catholics to renew their support for the European project. 

“We live in a world torn apart and polarised by wars and violence. Many of our fellow citizens are frightened and disoriented. The international order is being undermined,” said Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda of Białystok and Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg on 13 February. 

“The world needs Europe. This is the urgency which Christians must take in,” they said. “One international framework dies, but a new one has not yet been born.” Recalling the Christian contribution to post-war European unity – notably by figures like Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer – they said Europeans should seek alliances that foster cross-border solidarity. 

“Despite the many Eurosceptic movements in individual European countries, Europeans have actually grown closer together, particularly since the outbreak of the war against Ukraine,” they wrote. “In the name of their faith, Christians are invited to share their hope for universal fraternity with all inhabitants of the European continent.”

Severe weather caused destruction in Portugal, especially in central regions of the country including the district of Leiria, home to the shrine of Fátima. 

Hundreds of thousands of people were affected by the weather, with floods and strong winds destroying houses, ripping off roofs and knocking over trees and electricity polls, leaving many without light or heating for weeks. At least 16 people lost their lives. 

According to the National Secretariat for the Church’s Cultural Assets, at least 185 Church-owned buildings were heavily damaged, including cathedrals, churches, convents and monasteries. In the case of the Diocese of Leiria-Fátima, around half of all religious heritage sites sustained damage. 

Local delegations of Caritas have been distributing aid and raising money to help those most seriously affected, while the Portuguese national office of Aid to the Church in Need launched a special fundraiser. 

Many bishops announced that their Lenten collections will go towards helping the people who lost their homes or jobs because of the storms. Pope Leo offered solidarity and prayers during his Angelus address on 8 February.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva joined mourning for Br Sérgio Görgen OFM, who died on 3 February after suffering a heart attack. 

The president, a longstanding friend of the Franciscan brother, wrote on social media that he dedicated his life to fulfilling Christ’s teaching. “‘Give food to those who are hungry.’ He fought to nourish both body and soul,” Lula said of Görgen, a prominent figure in popular movements and a leading advocate of small farmers. 

A founding member of the Landless Workers’ Movement and of the Small Farmers’ Movement, Görgen served as Secretary of Agrarian Reform from 1999 to 2002 in his native Rio Grande do Sul and later as a state lawmaker from 2003 to 2006.

A transsexual couple married in a church in northern Argentina after being reportedly told by the parish priest there was no “canonical” obstacle to their union. Solange Ayala, an LGBT activist born a man, married her partner Isaias, who was born a woman, on 28 January.

“We were able to marry because we are opposite genders,” Ayala explained. The couple were married by a Capuchin friar, Fernando Luis Gómez, who said he consulted the Archbishop of Corrientes, telling the couple there was “nothing to object to” given they are of opposite genders, as registered on their civil identity documents.  

The archdiocese denied this version of events. In a statement it claimed that the wedding at the parish of Our Lady of Pompeii did not fulfil the canonical requirements for the valid celebration of marriage. It said the necessary Church documents had never been given for review to the episcopal curia.

The Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) – the Vatican Bank – launched two new equity indexes for stocks aligned with Catholic values. The bank launched the index in partnership with the US financial services firm Morningstar.  

The IOR said both Morningstar IOR Eurozone Catholic Principles index and Morningstar IOR US Catholic Principles would include 50 medium-sized and large companies whose values are consistent with Catholic teachings on life issues, social responsibility and protecting the environment.  

Top holdings in the Morningstar IOR Eurozone Catholic Principles index include Deutsche Telekom and software company SAP. Ave Maria ‌Mutual Funds, a US fund family that makes investments according to Catholic principles, said it ‌had $3.8 billion in assets under management in 2025.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) endorsed a Green Investment Declaration, supporting faith institutions to increase their investments in climate solutions “to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, fossil-fuel-free economy”.

Dr Jerry Pillay, WCC General Secretary, said it “strongly encourages churches to become signatories to the declaration as a tangible expression of their commitment to addressing the climate emergency.”

Registrations are now open for the 2026 Laudato Si’ Animators course, which starts on 15 April. The training – organised by the Laudato Si’ Movement – is a free, online formation experience for Catholics who want to respond to the ecological crisis from a faith perspective.

Participants come from different countries and cultures, but “share a common desire to care for God’s creation with love and responsibility”.

They explore the message of Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum, how faith speaks to today’s ecological challenges, what personal ecological conversion looks like in everyday life, and how small, faithful actions can create real change in communities. More than 1,500 new Laudato Si’ Animators around the world underwent the training last year.

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