News Briefing: Church in the World

Manipur’s Catholics demand “a clear orientation towards peace”, reported Archbishop Linus Neli of Imphal, the north-eastern Indian state’s capital. “We are in the Jubilee Holy Year and the theme is hope: our hope is that a concrete step of reconciliation can take place this year,” he said.  

Archbishop Neli was speaking after President’s Rule – the suspension of state government – was imposed last week, 21 months after the outbreak of ethnic violence in the state between the Meitei and Kuki communities. Four days earlier, the state’s chief minister had resigned.  

“The Bharatiya Janata Party, which governs Manipur, will have to find another politician to appoint as prime minister,” said Archbishop Neli, “and in the meantime, the administration is temporarily subordinate to the central government in Delhi.” He cautioned that “we have to wait and see, and the situation will become even more complicated.”

A Catholic woman was the only Christian appointed to a seven-member committee (of five men and two women) tasked with beginning to draft a statement forming the basis of a constitutional declaration for Syria.

Hind Aboud Kabawat, a university professor who has worked for interfaith tolerance and women’s empowerment, was chosen by self-proclaimed “interim” President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led an Islamist group that played a leading role in forces that overthrew the Assad regime last December. Her appointment was considered an indication from Syria’s rulers that they are open to an inclusive attitude towards the country’s Christian communities. 

Last week, Aid to the Church in Need UK launched a special appeal for Syria and Lebanon to support Christians affected by years of conflict. Projects include hot meals to displaced families, medicine to the elderly, and trauma counselling for children.

Syrian Christians face ‘new era full of mysteries’, says archbishop

Rebuilding Damascus – the liberation of Syria

The chairman of the Anglican Interfaith Commission met the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed El-Tayeb, the leading religious authority for Sunni Muslims, in Egypt on 5 February. At a meeting in Cairo, they reaffirmed the shared commitment of Christian and Muslim leaders to fostering interfaith understanding and cooperation.  

The Bishop of Kuching Danald Jute, of the Province of South East Asia, said afterwards he was “especially touched” by the grand imam’s concern for “strengthening relations between people of different religious affiliations”. He gave assurances that Anglicans share in the mission for peace and justice.

The director of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria’s Department of Mission and Dialogue urged “caution in the application of Sharia in religiously mixed areas”.  

Speaking on 13 February, Fr Lawrence Chukwunweike Emehel said that “the constitution allows the application of Sharia in personal matters, but its implementation must be handled with caution to avoid the exclusion of other religious groups”.  The priest warned that favouring one religious group over another could have a destabilising effect, especially in the southwest, where families often have members of different faiths living together. 

Sharia law is currently applied in 12 states in northern Nigeria. However, late last year a Muslim group in south-western Oyo State announced its intention to establish a Sharia committee in Oyo City. It said that Sharia committees are not Sharia courts, and simply regulate civil matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and disputes over contractual agreements between Muslims.

A report from Christian Aid said climate change is affecting cocoa production in Africa, raising concerns in the global chocolate market. The report “Cocoa crisis: How chocolate is feeling the bite of climate change”, found that a combination of drought and unprecedented levels of rain has wreaked havoc on African countries responsible for up to 50 percent of global cocoa production. 

“Growing cocoa is a vital livelihood for many of the poorest people around the world and human caused climate change is putting that under serious threat,” said the Nigerian lawyer Osai Ojigho, Director of Policy and Public Campaigns at Christian Aid.

“Chocolate is one of the many products that connects consumers in the global north with growers in the global south.  Climate change, driven largely by the greenhouse gas emissions of the global north, is causing havoc around the world with cocoa farmers bearing the brunt,” she added.

The bishops’ conference of Ivory Coast (CECCI) launched a three-year initiative to integrate mental health care into community interventions across the nation. The project aims to give hope to individuals living with mental disorders and restore their dignity.  

Fr Arnaud Ameledji, the CECCI’s national executive secretary for Health Pastoral Care, emphasised the Church’s commitment to mental health. “We are called to be artisans of human dignity,” he said, calling for action to support mental health patients and for the Church to become a refuge, offering listening, support, and a path to recovery for those affected. “It’s time to take concrete action to restore hope and dignity to our brothers and sisters suffering from mental disorders,” he said. 

The priest said the initiative will focus on three key pillars: raising awareness and education, community mobilisation for better identification and care, and fostering reintegration opportunities for recovering patients. 

According to the World Health Organisation’s Mental Health Atlas 2020, 4.5 per cent of the population of in Ivory Coast suffers from mental health disorders. This includes conditions such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. The country has fewer than 100 mental health specialists, including psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses and midwives, for a population estimated at more than 29 million.

The Catholic Church in Angola signalled willingness to welcome refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo as deadly violence forced more people from their homes. Decades of violence have displaced over seven million people. 

The UN reported over 700 people were killed on 26-30 January as M23 rebels seized the town of Goma. More than 400,000 people have been displaced in Goma within three weeks. The Rwanda-backed rebels have extended their campaign to South Kivu Province, attacking the capital Bukavu, while thousands of people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. 

Sr Carla Luísa Frei Bamberg, the executive secretary of Angola’s Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants (CEPAMI), said the Church was on alert to welcome refugees. “We are prepared at the borders, especially in the dioceses bordering Congo, to ensure that any arrivals are met with care and support,” she said. “Our animators in the [CEPAMI] are ready to receive these individuals not as intruders, but as brothers seeking relief from dire situations.”

East Congo rebels continue advance despite Church talks

Goma ‘cries to the world’ as humanitarian disaster looms

The Catholic Church in Kenya has developed its anti-corruption mission in response to a raft of economic challenges including abuse of public funds by government officials. These motivated last year’s mass street protests, where young people complained about government corruption amid worsening economic conditions. 

The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops led a workshop on the corruption crisis, citing Catholic Social Teaching as vital towards good governance. “The Catholic Church should help counties implement stronger policies to enforce anti-corruption laws, prioritise budgetary transparency, and adhere to public procurement guidelines,” said Kevin Osido, the executive director of the County Governance Watch during the 10-12 February workshop. 

He said citizen participation and access to information was crucial to addressing Kenya’s challenges. The workshop formed part of Catholic-led efforts in a campaign dubbed “The Kenya we Desire”.

Zambia’s Bishop Charles Kasonde of Solwezi, who chairs the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa, told the launch of the Jubilee 2025 Debt Cancellation Campaign that debt forgiveness was a moral responsibility that went beyond “economic calculus”. 

The campaign launched in Nairobi on 12 February to target Africa’s debt crisis, now standing at over US$1 trillion. “When debt burdens entrench poverty, amplify inequality and stifle economic growth, we are compelled to act – especially as we approach the Jubilee Year themed ‘Pilgrims of hope’,” said Kasonde. “This moment in time challenges us to reshape our financial systems, prioritizing human dignity over corporate profits and the dominance of lender nations.” 

The campaign is led by the Jubilee 2025 Africa Coalition, which has united to demand cancellations of the debts. The coalition is also calling for reforms in the global financial architecture and accountability from both lenders and borrowers.

More than 150 white Christian leaders, including Catholic representatives, signed a statement accusing US President Donald Trump of lying about the supposed persecution of white South Africans.

In a recent executive order, Trump withdrew aid from South Africa and offered asylum to minority South Africans, citing a land expropriation law which he called a racist measure to persecute white Afrikaners by seizing their farms without compensation. The signatories said Trump was lying about the intent of the law, which South African authorities maintained was meant to address deep inequalities resulting from apartheid and colonial legislation.  

The white minority, making up just seven per cent the population, still owns more than 70 per cent of agricultural land more than three decades after the end of the apartheid. “As white South Africans in active leadership within the Christian community, representing diverse political and theological perspectives, we unanimously reject these claims,” the Church leaders said in a statement on 13 February. 

“The narrative presented by the US government is founded on fabrications, distortions, and outright lies. It does not reflect the reality of our country and, if anything, serves to heighten existing tensions in South Africa,” it said. They dismissed Trump’s claims that white South Africans suffer “disproportionate violence”, citing a Genocide Watch report which found that white South Africans make up just two per cent of murder victims.

Bishops seek healing for South Africa’s democracy anniversary

The dangerous fallacies of Donald Trump

Jesuits in Canada have launched an urgent appeal for donations for two Jesuit partner organisations forced to suspend vital projects after the US government’s freeze on foreign aid last month.

JRS (Jesuit Refugee Service) and the Fe y Alegria (Faith and Joy) network of schools, which also provides psychosocial support programmes said in a joint letter: “Chad, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, India, Iraq, Paraguay, South Africa, South Sudan, Thailand, and Uganda are the countries where we have been forced to suspend essential activities. The impact has been devastating.”  

They added: “How can we explain to a distressed mother in South Sudan that we can no longer provide psychological support in the midst of a war? How can we halt school meal programs in Paraguayan schools?”

JRS and Fe y Alegria have applied for a waiver, following the State Department’s announcement that, during a 90-day review period, it would temporarily allow spending on “life-saving humanitarian assistance” including medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence.

A group of 27 religious organisations in the United States sued the Trump administration for rescinding a policy that barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from entering church properties. 

Under previous administration, churches, schools and hospitals were considered “sensitive locations” and ICE agents were not permitted to conduct raids in them. Churches enjoy particular First Amendment protections, and hospitals were deemed off-limits lest migrant patients in need of help fail to seek it because they feared immigration officials could track them there. Schools could not function if pupils were afraid of attending classes for fear of raids. 

The plaintiffs in the suit include the Episcopal Church, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Mennonite Church USA, and various other denominations. The US bishops’ conference, which has in the past acted legally to assert its religious liberty claims, did not join the lawsuit.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco offered some moral guidance to Elon Musk, the world’s richest man working in US President Donald Trump’s administration. In a video of himself with one of his children, posted on his social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), Musk wrote: “Of anything in my life, I would say kids by far make me the happiest.”  

Cordileone commented on the post: “This is lovely. But marry first and love your babies’ mom too.” Musk is the father of 12 children by three different women. One of his children died as an infant.

Caritas president warns of peril for charities after US funding freeze

In the court of King Donald

Life in Haiti has become “a living hell for the kids”, the secretary general of the country’s Conference of Religious said. “Minors are especially vulnerable to joining gangs, something that psychologically tortures us, given that those kids have a dark future ahead of them – if they have any kind of future,” said Fr Gilbert Peltrop last week.  

More than one million children live in areas influenced by gangs and in fear of violence. Half a million minors have been displaced, with 300,000 out of school. Fr Peltrop reported that missionaries face extremely dangerous situations to accompany children. 

One haven is offered by the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “We couldn’t leave them in the moment they most need us to stay,” Sr Helia Sange Moreira, a Brazilian sister said last week. She is one of nine sisters at her congregation’s school in the Santo 9 neighbourhood, attended by 270 children, some of whom have lost their parents. The school offers education, food and emotional support.

The Bishop of San Rafael, in western Argentina, resigned after less than two years in the post for “reasons of a personal nature”. In a message, Bishop Carlos María Domínguez said: “I want to ask for forgiveness for what I did wrong, for what I didn’t do and for what I didn’t know how to do.” 

A spokesman for the 59-year-old bishop said Domínguez’s request for forgiveness was something “anyone who leaves his place” would offer as a matter of course. However, Domínguez acknowledged he could “sense the perplexity that this news may cause” among the faithful, saying: “Believe me, this decision causes me deep pain.” 

In 2022, Domínguez succeeded Bishop Eduardo María Taussig, who resigned from San Rafael aged 67 after an 18-year tenure marked latterly by controversy around his closure of the diocesan seminary, for refusing to adhere to Vatican guidance on receiving communion in the hand to prevent the spread of coronavirus. At one point, Taussig was physically attacked by a priest enraged by the stricture.

The Pope accepted the resignation of Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos of Trujillo, who in January resigned as president of the Peruvian bishops’ conference after 12 years in the post. The 76-year-old faced criticism last year for failing to act against abuses in the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, the popular lay movement founded in Peru in the 1970s which the Vatican dissolved last month. Campaigners accused Cabrejos of being “indifferent to survivors”.

Sodalitium Christianae Vitae confirms Vatican dissolution order

‘Half monks, half soldiers’

The Spanish Church faced further allegations of allowing illegal conversion therapy – designed to change the sexual orientation of homosexual people – to take place under its auspices.  

In Valencia, a 28-yea-old nurse, Javier Martínez Cal, has brought a case against Mater Misericordiae, a “family guidance centre” which he accused of subjecting him over ten years to a regime of prayer, physical labour and drugs designed to suppress sexual desire. He was forced to complete detailed questionnaires about his sexual feelings and activities.  

His legal action also challenged “Hope is Possible”, the national umbrella organisation for such programmes. Part of this programme ended with a private mass celebrated by the then Archbishop of Alcalá de Henares Juan Antonio Reig Pla.

Martínez finally rejected the process and told the newspaper El País: “I am trying to become myself again.”  The archdiocese has now suspended the activities the Mater Misericordiae centre. 

On 13 February, opposition parties in the Madrid regional assembly claimed that conversion therapy was being carried out in three dioceses of the region, Getafe, Alcalá de Henares and Madrid. The government said this was impossible since such practices were already illegal. Conversion therapy has been illegal in Spain since 2023, but the law is not always enforced.

The Pope appointed a female religious to the highest leadership role in the Vatican’s administration. Sr Raffaella Petrini will become president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and president of the Governorate of Vatican City State on 1 March.  

A member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, Sr Petrini been secretary general of the Governorate since 2021. She will be responsible for the governance of Vatican City, tasked with running its daily operations and applying policies in accordance with Vatican directives. The Governorate is responsible for the administration, security and infrastructure and anything pertaining to cultural heritage in Vatican City.

Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, the president of the German bishops’ conference, signed a statement with other Christian leaders urging voters to “defend our democracy” in this month’s election. They said Germany “needs hope and confidence in the future” and should strengthen Europe “as a common space of freedom, justice, security, and prosperity”. 

Their statement followed an attack on a demonstration in Munich on 13 February, when a 24-year-old Afghan drove a car into a crowd injuring more than 30 people, reportedly with “religious motivation”. 

Amid growing support for far-right parties, the Church leaders’ statement acknowledged that such events “have shaken many certainties” but insisted that Germans “must be willing to listen, to seek mutual understanding, and to engage constructively in finding fair solutions” to social problems. “Democratic parties must defend the fundamental values and principles of our society,” they said.

Far-right supporters barred from roles in German Church

Catholics cannot support far-right AfD, say German bishops

The Diocese of Tallinn has announced that the beatification of Archbishop Eduard Profittlich SJ (1890-1942) will take place on 17 May 2025, with Cardinal Christoph Schönborn attending as the Pope’s representative. This will be the first beatification in the history of the Estonian Catholic Church and one of the first in the Nordic countries since the sixteenth century.  

The German-born Profittlich arrived in Estonia in 1930, where he became a distinguished pastor of the Estonian Catholics and a patriot of the local culture and people. Refusing the opportunity to leave for his native Germany during the Second World War, he stayed faithful to his vocation till the end. The Soviets arrested Profittlich in June 1941 and sent him to Kirov prison, where he was sentenced to death. He died in Kirov on 22 February 1942, before the execution.  

The beatification will not only be a highlight of the Jubilee Year, but also serve as a reminder of Russia’s looming military threat.

The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments authorised the inclusion of the feast of St Teresa of Calcutta in the General Roman Calendar. Her feast day on 5 September is an optional memorial worldwide.  

The change was announced on 11 February following requests from bishops, religious communities and the faithful. The dicastery’s prefect Cardinal Arthur Roche described St Teresa as “a beacon of hope, small in stature yet great in love”.  

The cardinal, who signed the decree authorising the change, said St Teresa had been “a witness to the dignity and privilege of humble service in the defence of all human life and of all those who have been abandoned, discarded and despised even in the hiddenness of the womb”.

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