Caritas Bangladesh, Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) and Catholic Relief Services have launched a joint project to support young Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh. A workshop held in Cox’s Bazar on 15 November kicked off the new project focusing on the psychological development of children, counselling, skills development for adolescents, care for expectant mothers, and care for children with special needs.
Catholic leaders in the European Union have urged tougher policies to protect the Arctic. As exploration, mining, investment and military activities increase, destructive environmental practices, which harm local communities and the environment, can also rise, warned the Brussels-based Commission of Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union and Justice and Peace Europe.
Catholic Church leaders in Bosnia-Herzegovina have commemorated the 1995 Dayton Peace Accord, which ended a bloody four-year Balkan war, with warnings that its aims of justice and equality are still not realised. A statement signed in Sarajevo by Cardinal Vinko Puljic, president of Bosnia-Herzegovina's five-member Bishops’ Conference, said Catholics had seen it as a duty to maintain dialogue with Orthodox and other Christians, and “ties of understanding” with Muslims. However, while the agreement stopped the war, it did not create a “stable and just peace”, nor did it provide “equality in practice” for the three peoples.
Cardinal Christian Tumi, the Archbishop Emeritus of Douala, has called for amnesty and withdrawal of the army to ease the secessionist conflict surging in both the Anglophone Southwest and Northwest regions of Cameroon. “I think it is now up to the Head of State to do something,” he said, urging “an amnesty so that there will be peace and children can go to school”. The 90-year-old cardinal spoke just days after his release, following a brief kidnapping by Anglophone separatists in the northwest on 5 November.
A road in Karachi has been named after an Irish nun to recognise her services to education. Sr Berchmans Conway taught in Convent of Jesus and Mary schools in Karachi, Lahore and Murree for six decades from 1953. Her students included former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and famous human rights activist Asma Jahangir. “Berchmans Road” was inaugurated on 16 November by government officials.
The ceremony of the lighting of the Christmas tree in Manger Square, Bethlehem, was held at the start of Advent. There are more than 1,200 active cases of coronavirus in Bethlehem Governorate. Yet, as Usama Nicola of Bethlehem’s Wiam Centre told The Tablet: “Despite all the challenges, Bethlehem Municipality proceeds with the preparations to receive Christmas: Christmas decorations adorn the town of Bethlehem.”
Pro-life organisations worldwide have backed a controversial ruling by Poland's Constitutional Court, effectively banning all abortions, and urged the country's parliament and government to implement the judgment in law.
“Respecting the principle of non-discrimination against handicapped people is a fundamental pillar of human rights in the twenty-first century,” said the appeal by Europe's Federation of Catholic Family Associations and 109 other mostly Catholic groups from Europe, North America and Latin America. “The state would deny itself if it asserted the disabled had the same rights as others, while allowing their elimination before birth because of illness or disability. This would mean the life of a sick or disabled person was worth less than the life of a healthy person.” A 22 October judgment ruled unconstitutional a clause in Poland's 1993 abortion law, allowing pregnancy terminations in cases of “severe and irreparable foetal damage”.
Mozambique’s bishops have called for “paths of dialogue” out of the three-year conflict in Cabo Delgado, saying “it is everyone's responsibility to work to get out of the current crises”. They lamented that conflict in the northern resource-rich province has seen massacres and around 400,000 displaced people, as well as kidnappings and human rights violations. Journalists from a Catholic radio station were forced to hide in forests for nearly two weeks to escape jihadists after fleeing an attack in Muidumbe district on 31 October. The radio station has been destroyed.
The Passionist Fathers commemorated the 300th anniversary of their founding last Sunday with the opening of the Holy Door at Rome’s Basilica of Sts John and Paul, followed by a Mass presided by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State. In a message, Pope Francis urged Passionists to minister “above all, to the crucified of our time: the poor, the weak, the oppressed and those rejected as a result of the many forms of injustice.”
A typhoon-hit Philippines diocese has appealed for safe water following Typhoon Vamco. Floods submerged huge areas of Ilagan Diocese in Cagayan province, raising health fears for residents and people in evacuation centres. Fr Carlito Sarte, director of the Social Action Centre of Ilagan, reported health issues due to a lack of access to clean and safe water. Caritas Philippines has launched a global appeal for aid after six typhoons hit the Philippines in just four weeks.
Vietnamese bishops were due to hold a charity concert on 27 November in Ho Chi Minh City to raise money for victims of tropical storms that have recently ravaged the country. Participants were asked for a contribution of around 100 euros. In October, central provinces were battered by seven typhoons which caused floods and landslides, leaving 130 dead and 214 injured, damaging buildings and crops.
Online theology courses have jumped in popularity in France during the current pandemic. Overall figures are modest, but study centres are impressed with the new demand. The Institut Catholique of Paris said demand for its 109 online courses had risen by about 50 per cent. There were now 30 students online for its theology diploma course, twice as many as last year. A course on Judaism, Christianity, Islam and laïcitéhas 15 students, three times as many as before. At 15 students, online demand for Biblical studies has doubled. At the University of Strasbourg, which thanks to a loophole in the laïcité law can offer theology studies, demand for them online has gone up 20 per cent. The Collège des Bernardins study centre of the Paris archdiocese, has put 25 of its courses online this academic year and now has up to 22 per cent cyberstudents for its most popular classes The Institut Catholique of Toulouse saw increased demand for its online Bible and ancient language studies.
The Bishop of Erfurt, Ulrich Neymeyr, lost in a quiz show against a 10-year-old Swiss girl. In an ARD (German TV) quiz called “Little against Big” competitors had to guess which bells – worldwide - were being rung. Candidates were sent 50 bell sounds to practise on. The bishop lost 4 to 1. “I spent every free minute I had practising, listening to famous bells. It’s more difficult than you think,” he said afterwards. He invited the winner and her family to Erfurt to see the famous “Gloriosa” bell there and the 10-year-old – who is from a bell founder family – immediately accepted.
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