Sister Deirdre Byrne, of the Community of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, endorsed Donald Trump’s re-election in a controversial speech at the Republican National Convention last week, writes Michael Sean Winters. She broke a decades-long precedent that limited the participation of Catholic clergy or Religious at national political conventions to offering a non-partisan opening or closing prayer. “Donald Trump is the most pro-life president this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages,” Sr Byrne said. “His belief in the sanctity of life transcends politics. President Trump will stand up against Biden-Harris, who are the most anti-life presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late-term abortion and infanticide.” Neither Democrat candidate Joe Biden nor Senator Kamala Harris has ever advocated infanticide, though they do support allowing late-term abortion in certain circumstances.
At the Democratic convention the previous week, Social Service Sr Simone Campbell offered an opening prayer that was non-partisan. Fr James Martin SJ offered a closing prayer that called for protecting the unborn as well as other marginalised persons. At the Republican convention, New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan offered an opening prayer that could be construed as an endorsement.
Pope Francis named Mgr Giambattista Diquattro as the new nuncio to Brazil on Saturday. Diquattro, Archbishop of Giromonte, was previously nuncio in India, Nepal, Panama, and Bolivia. The Brazilian Bishops’ Conference (CNBB) published a statement welcoming the new nuncio “with joy and unity”. A letter signed by about a third of the country’s bishops in July criticised the government of President Jair Bolsonaro over his approach to the coronavirus pandemic. Other members of the clergy disapproved of the letter.
On 28 August the Costa Rican Episcopal Conference (CECR) sent a letter to the Board of Directors of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Costa Rica, expressing concern at criteria for treating coronavirus patients if hospitals reach capacity. The bishops wrote that all patients must receive treatment and there cannot be prioritisation of certain cases based on the age, sex, social or economic status, or medical condition of the patient.
Cardinal Maurice Piat, Bishop of Port-Louis in Mauritius, has expressed concern about the long-term impacts of the recent oil spill. “Numerous families are afflicted by a pestilential and persistent odour,” he reported last week, and “fishermen and all those living from the sea are suffering particularly, while ecological treasures in our coastal bays and islets are gravely damaged.” Alarm over more than 40 dead dolphins washing ashore after a Japanese ship ran aground last month and its cargo of oil polluted the coast led to a 100,000-strong march through Port Louis last Saturday.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Liberia has released a statement lamenting increasing violence in their country, particularly the crime of rape against women and children. However, they said the death sentence for perpetrators is not a solution, despite popular calls for it. Conference president, Bishop Anthony Fallah Borwah of Gbarnga, said that while rape is a “diabolical act of violence,” the threat of the death penalty is not the solution because violence cannot drive out violence.
Zimbabwe’s Anglican bishops have supported the country’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference, whose recent pastoral letter, “The March Is Not Ended”, was denounced by Zimbabwe’s government. The Anglican Council of Zimbabwe, in a letter published on 26 August and signed by all five Anglican bishops, said that they wanted to echo the concerns the bishops raisedand urged the government to end its “unprecedented crackdown on dissent”. They said it was the duty of the Church to speak out against injustices and to challenge “our political leaders on their conduct of affairs”.
Young Thai Catholics have been among thousands of young people on the streets of Thailand demanding reform of the country’s governing systems because of alleged dictatorship, corruption and injustice. They have called for the Church authorities to support them, despite being a vulnerable minority community. “I would like the Church to make a concrete commitment and join us,” said a young Catholic interviewed by UCA News. “The government has no dignity and that is exhibited in the series of unexplained disappearances, threats and arrests of pro-democracy activists.”
A survey into sexual abuse within religious orders in Germany has found that around 1,400 people made allegations of being sexually abused when they were children in claims dating back to the 1960s and 70s when many schools in Germany were run by monks and nuns. The research was conducted by the Umbrella Organisation of the German Conference of the Heads of Religious Orders. At least 654 monks, nuns and other members of the orders were accused of abuse. Almost all the alleged perpetrators were male, and around 80 per cent of the victims were male.
Last weekend, the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland voted in favour of same-sex marriage. The Church, which has around 12,000 members, is an offshoot of Catholicism that rejects papal infallibility. Marriages between two men or two women will be conducted in the same manner as heterosexual marriages, said the Church, which also allows women priests. In June, Switzerland’s Catholic Church criticised a parliamentary vote permitting same-sex marriage.
A Catholic bishop has said he received news of the recent attack by Islamist terrorists in the predominantly Muslim southern Philippines province of Sulu with “deep grief and sorrow.” The Abu Sayyaf jihadist group has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings near a cathedral in the town of Jolo on 24 August that killed at least 15 people and injured dozens of others. Bishop Charlie Inzon of the Vicariate Apostolic of Jolo said: “They have died as martyrs witnessing to their Christian faith as they bravely stayed on Jolo Island despite constant intimidation and risks.”
Following the launching of rockets into Israel from Gaza, Israel blocked the transportation of diesel fuel into Gaza, forcing the closure of the territory’s lone power plant on 18 August. Among the adverse effects on the population this is jeopardising the plans for distance learning put in place because of the Covid pandemic by the Rosary Sisters Convent School in Gaza. Principal Sr Nabila Saleh said, “now we don't know what we will do, for without electricity, students won’t have internet access”.
Belgian Cardinal Jozef De Kesel, who delegated his responsibilities as head of the Mechelen-Brussels archdiocese and the Belgian episcopal conference to his three auxiliary bishops in April, underwent an operation on 24 August and will now have chemotherapy treatment. A statement by the archdiocese said the cardinal, whose illness was not specified, was operated on in Leuven. When the cardinal, 73, stepped aside in April, a bishops’ conference statement stressed he was not suffering from the coronavirus. De Kesel took over the Brussels archdiocese in 2015 and the bishops’ conference the following year, when he was also created a cardinal.
The University of Notre Dame in the US is attempting in-person classes this week after it shut them down and switched to virtual classrooms when an outbreak of Covid-19 occurred during the first week of the semester. Notre Dame started classes early this year, cancelled an autumn break, and plans to end the semester before the Thanksgiving holiday, in its efforts to resume in-person learning while protecting the health of students, faculty and the community. It is believed the previous outbreak grew out of fraternity and sorority parties at which public health measures were ignored.
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