Following the Pope’s call for a universal day of prayer and fasting for Lebanon on on 4 September, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, visited Beirut for two days last week. At a Mass celebrated at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, Cardinal Parolin encouraged all Lebanese, “to continue to hope and to find the strength and energy to set out again”, despite the economic, social and political crisis which has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the “apocalyptic” explosion in Beirut on 4 August.
Minorities make up more than half of India's prisoners, partly because “they are easy prey for the authorities”, according to the secretary of the Indian Catholic bishops’ office for Dalits and lower classes. Fr Vijay Kumar Nayak said last week that “there is prejudice that crime is always committed by minorities, but it is obvious that their number is more because of their illiteracy, financial crises and lack of means to engage lawyers, plus police bias to file charges against them freely without fearing a backlash.”
The Catholic University of Portugal (UCP) recently announced that it had been licensed to open a degree in medicine, signifying a major triumph for the university, which had been trying to get the project off the ground for several years and had seen previous proposals rejected.The UCP will become Portugal’s only non-state-owned university to offer a degree in medicine.
The drop in the number of pilgrims visiting Fátima, Portugal, due to the pandemic, and the subsequent drop in revenue, has led the shrine to announce the need to reduce the number of employees. Job protection laws are quite rigid in Portugal, making it difficult to fire people, so the shrine has announced its intention to negotiate severance packages with those willing to leave. The shrine hopes to reduce its staff by about 50.
Fr Rafael Gerardo Rojas Ríos, of the Santa María del Monte Church in San Luis, Bogota, was arrested on 4 September, for allegedly sexually abusing two minors. On 20 August, Rojas Ríos was injured after attempting to sexually abuse a 19-year-old woman in her home. After the incident, she alleged that the priest had abused her and her sister for several years. He is charged with aggravated sexual act with a minor under 14 years old. The Archdiocese of Bogota said Rojas Ríos has been suspended from his parochial duties.
The Archbishop of San Juan de Puerto Rico, Roberto Octavio González Nieves, published a letter on 31 August, ahead of elections for governor in November, denouncing the “pandemic of corruption” that has affected the US territory for decades. Governor Ricky Roselló resigned in August 2019 after widespread protests. His successor, Wanda Vázquez lost in the primary race for the New Progressive Party on 16 August.
The Episcopal Conference of Haiti released a statement denouncing recent violence in the capital of Port-Au-Prince. “Why do the authorities and the police remain indifferent?” the bishops wrote. “The peaceful population is tired.” Monferrier Dorval, head of the bar association in the capital, was killed on 28 August. Then on 31 August, 12 people were killed in a shootout in the Bel Air neighbourhood. The violence is attributed to gangs tied to former police officer Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier. President Jovenel Moïse condemned the violence, but critics say he has done little to reign in Cherizier and other gang leaders.
The European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups and Global Interfaith Network for People of All Sexes, Sexual Orientations, Gender Identities and Expression accused the Polish Bishops’ Conference of backing, in a document released late last month, the creation of “clinics to help people seeking to restore their […] natural sexual orientation.” The bishops’ document calls for respect for the LGBT+ community while opposing gender ideology and gender-based activism. Conference bioethics spokesman Bishop Jozef Wrobel said the therapy proposal applies to people who ask for it.
Religious leaders, state officials, medical workers and several of Indonesia’s cabinet members held a virtual, livestreamed memorial service on 2 September to pray for at least 170 doctors and nurses who have died fighting Covid-19in the Muslim-majority country. Felix Gunawan, director of the Association of Voluntary Health Services of Indonesia, a Catholic group, lamented that the disease has killed so many health workers. A Catholic priest prayed, “you have sacrificed yourselves for us and given us the hope that many still care for each other.”
Clergy in El Salvador have called on the country’s bishops to conduct their own investigation into the murder of a Salvadoran seminary rector. In a 17 August statement, a group of priests urged the Salvadoran bishops’ conference to demand justice after the slaying of Fr Ricardo Antonio Cortéz, 45, of the Diocese of Zacatecoluca. He was found close to his car on 7 August, with a bullet wound in his head.
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi met with the bishop of the northern city of Pemba, Luis Fernando Lisboa, on 31 August to discuss the humanitarian situation in Cabo Delgado province. Attacks by Islamist fundamentalists over the past three years have traumatised the population and displaced more than 200,000 people. The hour-long meeting, at the bishop's Pemba residence, was described as “constructive dialogue” by Nyusi and "very rich and very fruitful" by Bishop Lisboa. Nyusi said Mozambicans need to engage in dialogue.
Catholic agencies and women religious are confronting the problem of “child brides” in Asia. Early marriage is widespread but it has been worsened by the pandemic which has caused job losses and left families in debt. Among orders responding to the crisis are the Little Sisters of St Teresa in Jalandhar diocese, India, who educate families to abandon the practice, in return for education and professional training for young people and especially girls.
Cardinal Adrianus Johannes Simonis, retired archbishop of Utrecht, Netherlands, has died at the age of 88. He was created a cardinal by St John Paul II in 1985 and served as archbishop of Utrecht from 1983 until his retirement in April 2007. According to the Vatican, Cardinal Simonis was known “for his commitment in defending Catholic doctrine relating to marriage, the family and the inviolable value of human life.”
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