Church split over disputed poll
The Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is still divided in its reaction to the recent disputed presidential election.
Some of the bishops have endorsed Felix Tshisekedi as president. Others in the bishops’ conference of the DRC continue to criticise the conduct of the election, saying the results did not tally with those of the Church’s own 40,000 observers. Archbishop Marcel Utembi Tapa of Kisangani, president of the conference, did not attend Mr Tshisekedi’s inauguration on 24 January.
The eight-member provincial episcopal assembly of Kananga, covering DRC’s troubled Grand Kasai region, hailed the election of Mr Tshisekedi, who is from the region, as the “crowning moment of a long political fight” for “democracy and social progress for all”. They said it also would mean “an end to the war over minerals” in DRC’s eastern areas, including Grand Kasai.
Martin Fayulu, the principal challenger to Mr Tshisekedi, has continued to urge civil disobedience. The United Nations has reported several dozen deaths and more than 240 arrests since the election.
The ceremony for the opening of the cause for the beatification and canonisation of Pedro Arrupe SJ (above), the Father General of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983, took place at the Apostolic Palace of the Lateran, in Rome, on Tuesday.
Ninety-six days of round-the-clock sermons, prayers and vigils, held to halt the deportation of an Armenian family from The Netherlands, have ended with success at the Bethel church in The Hague.
Last week, the Dutch government agreed to make an exception to immigration rules for this family, and for others like them, including some 600 children, who had been refused permanent residence after living for years in the country.
Last October, the Tamrazyan family, including Hayarpi (pictured) and two other children, were offered refuge by the Protestant church, which invoked a medieval law saying police may not enter a church during a service. With the help of 450 volunteer pastors of all denominations and lay preachers, they held continuous services for more than 13 weeks.
Priest steps down from CDF
Austrian priest and theologian Fr Hermann Geissler, 53, has resigned from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), following charges that he made sexual advances towards a woman in the confessional several years ago.
Fr Geissler, who maintains his innocence, has been an official within the CDF since 1993. In 2009 he became head of the congregation’s teaching office. A CDF statement on 29 January said that Fr Geissler “affirms that the accusation made against him is untrue, and asks that the canonical process already initiated continue”.
Two people were killed and four others wounded in a grenade attack on a mosque in the city of Zamboanga, Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, on 30 January. It happened just three days after at least 21 people died and more than 100 were injured in twin blasts that rocked a Catholic cathedral on the island of Jolo, south-west of Zamboanga. The Muslim Ulama Council of Zamboanga Peninsula described the attack as “devilish ... and inhumane”.
A regional military spokesman, Colonel Leonel Nicolas, dismissed claims that the incident was “a retaliatory act”. The attacks came after a recent referendum in which the estimated 5 million inhabitants of mainly Muslim parts of Mindanao approved a plan for autonomy.
Aid for flood victims
Catholics in Indonesia are rushing aid to victims of flash floods and landslides in South Sulawesi province that killed at least 68 people and made homeless nearly 7,000 at the end of January. Martina Ella, coordinator of Caritas in Makassar Archdiocese, said it has distributed basic essentials such as food, hygiene kits and clothing. The disaster was triggered by heavy rains, made worse by deforestation.
The Catholic Church in Pakistan has praised the country’s legal system after the Supreme Court last month confirmed of the release of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who had spent eight years in prison under sentence of death, after being wrongly convicted of blasphemy. The Church described her acquittal as “a ray of hope for minorities”.
Fr Qaisar Feroz, Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Social Communications, said: “The decision of the Supreme Court on Asia Bibi’s acquittal is a milestone in the history of Pakistan to eradicate religious fundamentalism”.
He added: “Not only do we have to rejoice for the freedom of an innocent woman, but the efforts of the lawyers and the courage of the Supreme Court are to be appreciated, too.”
Asia Bibi is now free to leave the country. Her lawyer, Saiful Malook, has said her most likely destination is Canada.
Marches in Venezuela
Tens of thousands of people marched in Caracas on 2 February in opposition to President Nicolás Maduro. Juan Guaidó, leader of the National Assembly who has declared himself president, spoke at the march. Only three people were detained; the security forces have aggressively targeted other recent marches. Supporters of Mr Maduro gathered at another poorly-attended march, where the President denounced what he called “gringo” meddling in Venezuela. The US and other European and Latin American governments back Mr Guaidó.
Eight German theologians, five of them women, have written an open letter to the leader of the country’s Catholic bishops, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich (pictured), ahead of the forthcoming meeting of the presidents of episcopal conferences in the Vatican.
Ahead of this month’s “abuse summit”, the theologians call for a “new start in matters of sexual morality” with a “fair and just evaluation of homosexuality”, a system of “genuine” checks and balances in the Church, the ordination of women and the abolition of the celibacy rule for diocesan priests. They also want Marx to admit that clerical abuse “has systemic causes”.
Meanwhile, Fr Helmut Niehues, rector of the Münster seminary and chairman of the German rectors’ conference, told domradio.de on 30 January that German seminaries would admit homosexual candidates to the priesthood as long as they promised to abide by the rule of celibacy, like heterosexual candidates.
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