News Briefing: Church in the World

South Africa’s Catholic bishops responded to US President Donald Trump’s controversial claims that the Pretoria government was repossessing property from white people. 

The bishops called for “racial reconciliation” to address longstanding tensions over vast tracts of land owned by white farmers, with some political parties demanding that they be allocated to black families. In early February, President Trump claimed that South Africa was already confiscating white-owned land, charges denied by President Cyril Ramophosa. 

Last week, the Justice and Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) said the land question remains a complicated issue requiring “genuine reconciliation”. 

“Racial reconciliation in South Africa cannot be comprehensive if the land matter is not handled properly,” said Fr Stan Muyebe, director of the commission, in a statement issued by the SACBC. “Although the government has introduced new legislation to accelerate land redistribution, controversy remains regarding the extent and manner of compensation.” 

South Africa approved the Expropriation Act early this month which critics alleged will allow the government to repossess white-owned land without compensation as part of efforts to address historical injustices against blacks. The act met with swift condemnation from President Trump and his South African-born aide Elon Musk, who went on to claim there was a genocide against white people in South Africa. 

“Hearing what has been presented by the United States, but also in the media, there are some aspects that are facts, but there’s also manufacturing of facts, misrepresentation,” Muyebe said. “We are confident that this matter will be addressed when the legislation is taken for review at the constitutional court, which will most likely happen.”

Catholic bishops in Malawi launched a training programme in mass media evangelisation training for seminarians, with the aim of harnessing digital platforms to reach out to the faithful. 

“The training underscores that the internet is not merely a tool but a vast mission field because most of the Christians, especially youths, are on the internet in large numbers,” said Fr Chris Sichinga, a member of the bishops’ conference’s Communications and Research Commission. 

According to estimates, around six million Malawians have access to the internet. Fr Sichinga, who will lead the training, said this “offers global reach” while “creating vibrant online communities that support spiritual growth”. The programme covers online pastoral ministry, data protection and access to information.

Archbishop Zeferino Zeca Martins of Huambo expressed outrage at robberies in parishes in his diocese in central Angola. The first took place at the Good Shepherd Parish on 17 February and the second at the Capuchin Missionary Chapel two days later. 

Speaking on 19 February, Archbishop Zeca said the robberies had a spiritual significance. “We really find ourselves quite upset, because two churches were broken into in a short space of time, in just under 48 hours,” he said. “This is disheartening in every way, because, by robbing the House of God, they have shown that these are people who lack any spiritual sensitivity, any sense of transcendence that leads the human person to trust, not merely in material goods, but in other imperishable and invisible goods.” 

The archbishop blamed the robberies on worsening poverty, explaining that the thieves thought the Church had the kind of valuables they could steal and sell and make money. “They were mistaken,” he said, noting that all they found to steal were altar clothes in one Parish and some microphones in another.

The Archbishop of Bangui Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, told Aid to the Church in Need that despite sectarian attacks on both Christian and Muslim communities by militia groups, interfaith work could lay foundations for lasting peace in the Central African Republic.  

He said last week that “religion does not divide us – religion connects us to one another”, adding that “by taking on this leadership we are fulfilling our prophetic role, saying no to violence, yes to love, yes to peace, yes to reconciliation”. 

Cardinal Nzapalainga has worked with an interfaith platform since 2013 to respond to religious tensions triggered by militia violence. Representatives have travelled to areas experiencing violence to foster dialogue between armed groups and local officials. The cardinal said that “hope is being reborn, allowing children to go to school, parents to go to the fields, traders to carry on their work, and the sick to receive medicine”.

Charities report ‘apocalyptic’ violence in eastern DR Congo

Pleas for ‘dialogue’ as Rwanda-backed forces advance into Congolese territory

Jihadists in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo murdered 70 people and left their bodies in a church in North Kivu province. Violence in the region escalated dramatically over the past month with an offensive by the rebel M23 Movement, which captured the provincial capital Goma at the end of January. 

A source told Aid to the Church in Need that the corpses found in the Evangelical church in Kasanga, near Maiba, included women, children and elderly people. “Many of them had been bound and some beheaded,” the source said. “It is likely that these victims were unable to resist or endure the forced march, because when the rebels take hostages, they make them travel with them, either as reinforcements for their group or as forced labour for the war effort.” 

In Bukavu, the capital of neighbouring South Kivu province which fell to the M23 without resistance on 15 February, a Church source told Agenzia Fides people felt “gratitude after having escaped danger”, with limited violence in the city. Reports said the city’s prison was set on fire during looting as government troops fled the city, but the prison chaplain and a group of nuns rescued the building from complete destruction.

A Nigerian priest who was kidnapped on 12 February was released four days later. Fr Livinus Maurice, parish priest of St Patrick’s Church in Isiokpo, Rivers State, was released on Sunday 16 February along with two other people abducted with him. 

Their release was confirmed in a statement Sunday by the spokesperson for the state police command, Grace Iringe-Koko.  “The victims have been reunited with their families for medical attention, while efforts are ongoing to arrest the culprits,” she said. It was not clear if any ransom was paid, but the police said he was released as a result of pressure on the abductors from several quarters. 

Elsewhere, the chancellor of the Archdiocese of Onitsha Fr Prudentus Aroh asked for prayers for the release of another priest, Fr Jude Onyeka, formerly of St Edmund Catholic Church ib Nkpor. He was kidnapped on 16 February along the Building Materials Section in Ugwunwasike Bypass, Ogidi, Idemili North. 

In a sermon the same day, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja warned that hardship was driving many young Nigerians to crime. He called on the authorities to serve the needs of the people, as the cries of the most vulnerable people were getting louder and louder. 

“It is imperative to respond to the needs of the poor, which are usually very basic such as good drinking water, accessible roads, little houses, basic healthcare, and affordable schools for children, and good and stable electricity,” Archbishop Kaigama said. He urged those with political and economic power to discard narrow interests to help the vast majority of Nigerians.  

In 2024, the International Monetary Fund ranked Nigeria the fourth largest economy in Africa, after South Africa, Egypt and Algeria, but said it was also home to some of the poorest people on the continent.

Ghana’s Catholic bishops complained that the government had excluded the Church from an education planning conference.  Stakeholders attended the National Education Forum on 18-19 February, but the government did not extend the invitation to Church leaders. 

“As key stakeholders in the educational sector, particularly in the provision of quality education through our schools, we are perplexed by the omission of our contributions to discussions that are pivotal to the future of education in Ghana,” the bishops said in a statement on 17 February. “Our exclusion from this vital forum undermines the collaborative spirit that is essential to the success of any educational policy. The absence of the Ghana Bishops’ Conference at this forum is a disservice to the broader educational community and to the inclusivity and shared responsibility in national development.” 

According to the latest data, there are 16 Catholic schools in Ghana providing education to thousands of pupils. President John Mahama subsequently said the bishops “deserve an unqualified apology for this oversight.” His statement on 20 February continued: “Since you are the purveyors of God’s mercy on earth, I’m sure that you are forgiving us for this.”

The Vatican’s Secretary of State Pietro Cardinal Parolin said military action must respect human rights during a visit to Burkina Faso, where the government has intensified its operations against terrorism. 

Speaking on 17 February shortly after meeting the transitional president Ibrahim Traoré, a captain in the Burkinabe army who led a coup in 2022, Parolin said it was “very important to combine military action with development initiatives”. He explained: “It is important for people to be able to enjoy their fundamental rights to food, education, health and everything that makes life possible – a dignified life for the population.”

Military action must protect human rights, Parolin tells Burkina Faso

The forgotten crisis in Africa

The African Christian Professionals Forum (ACPF) said it would work alongside the newly-elected leadership of the African Union (AU), which was installed at its headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on 16 February. Djibouti’s Mahmoud Ali Youssouf replaced the Chadian Moussa Faki Mahamat as chair of the AU, while Malika Salma Haddadi of Algeria was installed as his deputy. Both will serve for a term of four years.  

In a congratulatory note, the ACPF said the new leadership marked “a new chapter” in Africa’s journey towards unity progress, and sustainable development. “As the continent advances towards the aspirations of [the Agenda 2063 development plan], ACPF looks forward to working closely with the African Union leadership in driving meaningful reforms that strengthen African states in all spheres – governance, economic development, peace and security, and social transformation,” it said.

The directors of CIDSE, an alliance of 18 Catholic aid and development agencies in Europe and Canada, urged political, economic, and social leaders to confront “the interconnected crises that affect our common home and the most vulnerable among us” in a message on 20 February, the United Nations World Day for Social Justice.

Signatories to the statement, marking 60 years since CIDSE’s foundation, included Christine Allen of Cafod, Lorraine Currie of SCIAF, and Caoimhe de Barra of Trócaire in Ireland. 

“As we celebrate our sixtieth anniversary in this Jubilee year of hope, we are reminded of the Gospel values and Catholic Social Teaching that have guided our work so far,” it said. “They continue to inspire a deeper commitment to justice and solidarity, supporting our mission to stand with those most affected by the current interconnected crises.”

The Vatican and New York’s Columbia University established a commission to find solutions to ease sovereign debt burdens on countries in the global south.  

A joint initiative between the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS) and Columbia University’s Initiative for Policy Dialogue, the commission will produce a Jubilee report proposing reforms to the international financial system. Besides measures to relieve unsustainable sovereign debt burdens, it will also suggest ideas to facilitate more investments in healthcare, education, clean energy and climate adaptation in the developing world.  

Led by Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in in Economics, the commission includes international experts on sovereign debt from the world of academic, civil society and religious communities. Sr Helen Alford OP, the president of PASS, said earlier this month that tax reform was “crucial” given the international taxation system was more than 100 years old and “really isn’t able to deal” with the hyper-globalised world.

Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, visited Lebanon last week to convey the Pope’s closeness to its people. 

He met with the country’s patriarchs and Catholic bishops, visited the tombs of Jesuit Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach in Jamhour and of St Charbel in Annaya where he received a relic of the saint as a gift from the monks. He prayed at the port of Beirut in memory of the 2020 explosion that claimed 218 lives, and for peace in the Middle East at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa. During a visit with Caritas to the Kfardlakos refugee camp in Tripoli, Czerny met Syrian refugee families.  

In Beirut, he met internally displaced persons and migrants supported by the Jesuit Refugee Service.  “We weep for your suffering,” he told them. The cardinal also held talks with 30 Catholic organisations and met young people participating in peacebuilding and citizenship training.

A prominent Orthodox priest in Georgia issued an open letter to the head of a government security body urging him to stop its brutality against protesters. “Zviad, you commit sin by being cruel to the protesters,” Fr Georg Tserodze wrote in a social media post on 3 February, addressing by his first name Zviad Kharazishvili, head of the Special Tasks Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 

“Everyone around you who behaves like this is also a grave sinner. Repent, amend your actions, and bring them at least within the framework of law or even divine righteousness. This letter will be a testimony, that you knew that you were sinned and if you do not repent, it will be harder to justify yourself,” Fr Tserodze wrote. 

Daily protests began across Georgia after botched parliamentary elections last October, when the pro-Russian party “Georgian Dream” claimed victory and effectively blocked the country’s aspirations to join the European Union.

Orthodox priest warns Georgian officials against ‘sinful’ cruelty to protesters

Churches plea for peace amid Georgia protests

The Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart in south-west Germany warned priests against tracing crosses with ashes on the foreheads of believers this Ash Wednesday, saying the holy water usually sprinkled on the ashes could cause chemical burns.  “Contact with a mixture of ash and water can cause serious injuries to human skin,” the diocese official journal said. When preparing and using the ash, care must be taken “to ensure that an alkaline reaction through mixing with water is excluded”. 

Cases of severe burns were reported in a parish in nearby Archdiocese of Freiburg in 2018, according to the German Church’s website katholisch.de. “A laboratory investigation by the Baden-Württemberg State Office of Criminal Investigation had shown that an alkaline reaction had occurred in the ash-water mixture used,” it said. 

“The use of such a mixture is expressly prohibited,” the diocese’s official prohibition said. “Distributing ashes is a penitential rite and is performed by sprinkling the head with a small amount of ashes, not by marking the forehead with ashes.”

The Archdiocese of Cologne object to a float planned for the city’s famed parade for the pre-Lenten Karneval season. 

The Shrove Monday parade through the Rhine-side city is one of Germany’s biggest and is known for its satirical floats mocking topical people and subjects, but the archdiocese there said joking went too far when it saw that a float showed an altar boy being called into a confessional under the sign “Jesus loves you”. It posted a drawing of the scene on its website under the headline “Is this funny or is really everything allowed in carnival time?”  

It issued an open letter protesting that the float mixed up Christ with the clerical abuse scandal. “If one assumes that the Son of God is partly to blame for the terrible acts of abuse that have occurred, especially in the Catholic Church, a line has been crossed that cannot be justified by any reason in the world,” it said. 

Several local politicians from the Christian Democratic Union, which won the federal elections last Sunday, also protested. But parade chief Marc Michelske said the float would appear. “It is not the depiction of the abuse that is tasteless and embarrassing, but rather the abuse itself and the way it is dealt with,” he said.

The official inquiry into sexual abuse that has rocked the Belgian Catholic Church since the first revelations appeared in 2010 will apparently not have any legal consequences. A Brussels tribunal has decided not to pursue the case.  

Known as Operation Chalice, it involved 68 clergy, forced Bishop Roger Vangheluwe of Bruges to resign and tarnished the reputation of the late Cardinal Godfried Danneels, once considered papabile. The Brussels Council Chamber said on 17 February that the case was not strong enough, because many accusations were beyond the statute of limitations and extensive legal inquiries were inconclusive. 

The Belgian bishops welcomed the decision and reaffirmed “their commitment to zero tolerance for sexual abuse occurring in a pastoral context”. Victims’ groups said they would appeal but seemed to have little chance of success.

Operation Chalice was a police raid in June 2010 that included searches of Brussels archdiocesan offices and the cathedral tombs of two dead prelates for evidence of abuse’, and interviews with stunned bishops gathered for a monthly meeting with the primate of Belgium. Cardinal Danneels, who had just retired as Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels at the time, was among those suspected of hiding or destroying compromising documents on clerical abuse that could damage the then-close relationship between the Belgian Church and the state.

Belgian bishops face bruising questions at abuse inquiry

Pope Francis warns over scandal of abuse and cover-up

A 59-year-old Argentine bishop who resigned last week “for reasons of a personal nature” is the subject of legal complaints involving “improper acts” with young adults, his former diocese confirmed. 

On 3 February Bishop Carlos María Domínguez resigned from the Diocese of San Rafael, in the province of Mendoza, western Argentina, and in a statement asked for “forgiveness for what I did wrong, for what I failed to do and for what I did not know how to do”. A spokesman initially described Domínguez’s request for forgiveness as something “anyone who leaves his place would offer as a matter of course”.  

This week the diocese issued a statement announcing that due to the “gravity” of the allegations, it had begun an investigation to explore “the relevant canonical actions … in line with current Church protocols”. According to local reports, the accusations involve at least three men aged between aged 18-20. Domínguez was appointed Bishop of San Rafael in 2022.

Catholic universities in the United States scrambled to respond to executive orders from the Trump administration seeking to end vaccine mandates as well as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes. 

The University of San Francisco and Mount St Mary’s University Los Angeles are two of only 15 institutions that still require students be vaccinated against Covid to attend in-person classes. An executive order issued on 15 February threatened to cut all federal funding to schools that require vaccinations. 

A different set of orders targeted DEI programmes at colleges and universities. Many Catholic universities have implemented diversity programmes in the past few decades, aiming to recruit minority students and arguing that such diversity is consistent with their Catholic identity. The University of Notre Dame defended its DEI initiatives in the face of the executive orders, raising the spectre of a religious liberty challenge to Trump. 

But Trump campaigned against DEI programmes, arguing that merit should be the only criterion in college hiring and admissions, and that such programmes discriminate against white and Asian students. A document released by Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s office warned schools to avoid using DEI language in grant applications. The words it said were likely to raise red flags included “unjust”, “socio-economic” and “Hispanic cultures”.

The Catholic Health Association (CHA) urged the US Congress and the Trump administration to avoid making significant cuts in Medicaid, the joint federal-state programme that provides health insurance to the poor. Congress began work on a budget proposal and, in order to fund the massive tax cuts Trump promised for corporations and wealthy Americans, it will need to cut the budget elsewhere.  ‘

Mercy Sister Mary Haddad, president and chief executive of the CHA, said: “These cuts would have devastating consequences, particularly for those in small towns and rural communities, where Medicaid is often the primary source of health care coverage.” 

Significant cuts in Medicaid would also wreak havoc on nursing homes. Medicare, which provides health insurance to the elderly, only covers nursing home care for six months before patients must apply for Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, expanded Medicaid to help more people qualify for its coverage.

US bishops criticise Trump executive orders threatening ‘most vulnerable’

In the court of King Donald

Seven churches were targeted in a suspected arson attack last weekend in New Zealand. Four churches in the town of Masterton, 62 miles from Wellington, sustained “moderate to significant” damage, while there were also arson attempts at two other churches and a funeral home chapel.  

St Patrick’s Catholic Church, the Anglican Church of the Epiphany, the Baptist Church and the Equippers Church were all set alight, but no-one was injured. St Patrick’s parish praised the efforts of a local policeman who noticed flames as he drove past and tackled them with an outside hose until firefighters arrived.  

Masterton’s Mayor Gary Caffell said “these churches are not just buildings – they are vital gathering places for our community members”. He praised the “outpouring of community support”, reporting that buildings have been offered for churches to continue their services. Police opened investigations after a man claimed on social media that he started the fires.

Indonesia’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Union of Churches in Indonesia and other religious organisations reiterated their rejection of plans to give mining permits to religious groups.

Religious organisations, through a business unit under their control, can be granted permits for managing coal and mineral mines, according to the country’s amended Mineral and Coal Mining Law. Parliament agreed to the revision on 18 February, despite strong criticism from environmental groups and the Catholic Church.  

Fr Marthen Jenarut, executive secretary of the bishops’ conference’s Commission for Justice, Peace and Pastoral Affairs for Migrants, said “we remain consistent in not accepting the offer”. Mining campaigning groups have called the move “a trick” to implicate religious groups in mining, involving them in the industry to calm public protests against environmental destruction and social conflicts.  

The Mining Advocacy Network alleged that the revision of the law was not carried out transparently because “it did not involve public participation”. The Indonesian archipelago has rich deposits of nickel, coal, tin, copper and bauxite. A government source said the change “is in line with the government’s desire to improve the governance of mineral and coal mining”.

An archbishop officiating at the funeral of a murdered priest called for an end to the climate of violence in Myanmar. “Violence only brings death and destruction, it is always a defeat,” Archbishop Marco Tin Win of Mandalay said on 17 February at the funeral Mass of Fr Donald Martin Ye Naing Win, held at the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Pyin Oo Lwin village, around 22 miles east of Mandalay. More than 5,000 people attended. 

The archbishop appealed “to all armed groups and actors involved in the conflict to lay down their weapons and take a path of peace and reconciliation”. The 44-year-old diocesan priest was stabbed to death at his parish presbytery by an armed gang – thought to belong to a local militia – in a village in Sagaing on 14 February.

The bishops described him as “a victim of war like countless innocent people”. The Apostolic Nunciature in Yangon expressed solidarity with the local population. The Archbishop of Yangon Cardinal Charles Maung Bo urged the Myanmar authorities to “take appropriate action and ensure justice is served.”.

The Archbishop of Tokyo Cardinal Isao Kikuchi delivered a rosary and a message from Pope Francis to Paul Iwao Hakamada, the world’s longest-serving death row inmate. Convicted and sentenced to death by a Japanese court for a quadruple murder in 1968, Hakamada maintained he did not commit the crime and was cleared aged 88 at a retrial in 2024. He was baptised a Catholic while in prison in 1984.

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