Bolivia’s opposition-controlled parliament approved a law to require new elections to be held by 2 August. The elections, previously scheduled for 3 May, will select a replacement for Evo Morales, who was forced out last autumn following a contested election. Interim president Jeanine Anez spoke out against the parliament’s vote, saying that holding the elections this summer could put the health of Bolivians at risk. The Bolivian Episcopal Conference made a statement backing the parliament’s vote, saying that new elections must go forward, while also ensuring the safety of voters.
On Sunday 3 May Venezuelan authorities thwarted an attempted maritime invasion. In the week since, more details have emerged of the mission composed of Venezuelans living in Colombia and led by a former US Green Beret living in Florida. Eight people were reportedly killed, and two Americans were detained. Jordan Goudreau, a former Green Beret, claimed responsibility for the attack. The Trump administration has denied knowledge of the mission.The two detained Americans were allegedly hired by Goudreau’s private security firm, Silvercorp. President Nicolás Maduro insists that the White House ordered the attack Archbishop José Luis Azuaje, President of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, said on 8 May that the conference would meet to discuss the situation.
Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cincinnati auxiliary Bishop Joseph Binzer last week, nine months after it was revealed he had failed to inform Archbishop Dennis Schnurr and the priest personnel board about an allegation of clergy sex abuse. It is believed that Binzer, 65, is the first US prelate to be removed under the terms of Vos estis lux mundi, the motu proprio Pope Francis issued last year setting forth standards for episcopal conduct regarding sex abuse. The announcement from the Vatican did not detail any reason for the resignation. Last year, a statement from the archdiocese said that Binzer had kept reports of inappropriate behavior by Fr. Geoff Drew to himself.
The desperation of India’s displaced people was highlighted on 8 May when a freight train ran over 16 migrant labourers sleeping on a track near Aurangabad in Maharashtra State. “It is shocking,” said Bishop Gerald Almeida of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. All were migrants from his diocese walking home because of the coronavirus lockdown.
Dozens of square cobble stones cut from Jewish gravestones have been found during redevelopment work in Prague’s tourist district, including the city’s landmark Wenceslas Square. It was long suspected that the communist authorities had taken stonework from derelict nineteenth-century Jewish burial sites to pave Wenceslas Square during the 1980s. The stone will be returned to a Jewish Cemetery. The Czech Republic is now thought to be home to fewer than 4,000 Jews.
More than 9,000 Catholic churches in the US have received loans from a relief fund that Congress created to help small businesses ravaged by the coronavirus crisis. Around 12,000 of the nation's 17,000 Catholic churches applied and 75 per cent had them approved. The federal government has paid out more than $550billion in loans to millions of businesses under the Paycheck Protection Program since early April. While most people don’t see religious institutions as small businesses, they have staff on the payroll and Congress included them in the guidelines.
The issue of mental health in South Africa’s Covid-19 pandemic is becoming increasingly important, according to Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg. He told The Tablet this week, “the issue of psycho-spiritual care and support is a critical need, and will be required for months ahead for those who have survived, all those who have suffered bereavement, as well as those who are on the front line in hospitals and care homes”. He reported that in his diocese undocumented asylum seekers, refugees and migrants – many of whom are Ethiopians and Eritreans – are suffering harassment, “and we are dealing with threatened suicides and severe depression”.
The after effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are, "even more complicated and more deadly than the impact of the virus itself, especially for the most vulnerable communities in the poorest countries," Caritas Internationalis warned in a statement on 6 May. The Vatican-based international network of Catholic charities highlighted the issues of economic stagnation, ongoing restrictions, and food shortages. It urged the international community and donor countries, "to take courageous and immediate action" or else millions of vulnerable people will face worsening malnutrition or starvation.
Archbishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore is among three Christians invited to join a new National Commission for Minorities. It was established by Pakistan’s cabineton 5 May, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, and aims to safeguard minorities’ rights. The Commission will also have three Hindu and two Sikh members. However, Pakistani activists have been critical, demanding an independent minority rights body, rather than a “toothless” government committee.
Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Stockholm has condemned his country's approach to the Covid-19 pandemic and the risk it poses to the vulnerable. Sweden has chosen less restrictive approach to preventing the spread of the coronavirus than its neighbours, and has a high death rate among elderly men and women living in retirement homes. "Not being an expert, it's difficult to judge, but I would say that the authorities have recognised that we have not been able to give elderly people the protection they needed," he said.
The controversy surrounding a phone call between Catholic leaders and President Donald Trump deepened last week when it was revealed that staff at the US bishops’ conference, including the General Counsel, had alerted state Catholic conference directors to warn their bishops that their email addresses, needed to join the call, would be captured by the White House and might be used by the Trump re-election campaign. US law forbids the use of information gathered for official government business from being shared with a political campaign. “It is crystal clear that this runs afoul of the fundamental American principle that we should render unto government what is government's and unto politics, what is political and the two should not be blended,” said Norman Eisen, who served as deputy White House counsel in the Obama administration. A US bishops’ conference spokesperson said, “A small part of a confidential briefing to bishops was a warning: because they would have to provide an email address to register for the call, they might later receive unwanted email messages from the White House, and possibly the campaign. This warning was based on cautious speculation, not on any communications with the White House. USCCB does not support or oppose any candidate for elective office.”
St John Vianney Hospital in the capital city of Dhaka has been on lockdown and all staff quarantined since 29 April after 22 medical staff tested positive for Covid-19. The hospital is a new one, located in a busy part of the city and close to Holy Rosary Catholic Church, which has a congregation of about 15,000 faithful and many migrants. The hospital is an initiative of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Bangladesh and is funded by Dhaka Archdiocese.
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