In the latest attack by jihadists against Niger’s rural communities last week, a village with a longstanding Catholic community was attacked by armed men arriving in early morning on motorbikes. Five people were killed, two injured, the village sacked, and the church desecrated in the village of Fangio, about 190 miles from Niamey, reported Fr Mauro Armanino SMA. “They also burned the statue of Mary, the altar ornaments and various liturgical books," he added.
Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle announced the formation of a commission to study the “intercultural competency and the sin of racism.” The commission comes after a year of agitation for racial justice that was ignited by the murder of George Floyd by a policeman last summer. “As Catholics, we are called to transform our institutions and society into one that respects the dignity and rights of all people,’ Etienne said.
A civil court in Indiana tossed out a lawsuit brought by a gay man who was fired from his job as a diocesan high school teacher by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis after the diocese learned he had entered into a same-sex marriage. The court held that recent Supreme Court rulings made clear that teachers are ministers and the Constitution forbids government interference in a church’s choice of its own ministers. The archdiocese ordered a Jesuit high school to terminate the employment of a gay teacher there, but the school refused. The case has been referred to Rome.
A national conference “to address the ungovernability of the country” has been urged by Nigeria’s bishops. “It must be clearly stated to the Federal Government that if they continue to ignore the constructive criticisms and recommendations of Nigerians from every sector, the country will collapse and become ungovernable,” the bishops said in a statement signed by Archbishop Augustine Obiora Akubeze of Benin City, the Bishops’ Conference President. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that includes Catholic bishops on 12 May declared three days of national prayer from 28 to 30 May for what they describe as an end to the problems bedevilling the country including killings and banditry. The CAN statement, issued by its General Secretary, Joseph Bade Daramola, said the Christian faithful in the country will be expected “to gather in the evening of each day set aside for the prayers to pray to God in the attitude of mourning or soberness for the bloodshed of many innocent Nigerians most especially Christians.”
The Catholic Church in Tanzania has launched a campaign against child abuse and in defence of the rights of the child. TheDirector of the Bishops’ Pastoral Commission, Fr Florence Rutaihwa, said: ”The Church is working with the government through several seminars and cultural promotion work sponsored by the government and international community organisations such as UNICEF.” Harmful local traditions will be tackled, particularly female circumcision, forced marriage of children, child labour and the practice of flogging children as a means of disciplining them.
UNANIMA International, a coalition of women religious in 83 countries with UN representation, launched its report, The Intersections of Family Homelessness and Human Trafficking, online on 11 May. Sr Imelda Poole, IBVM, President of Renate (Religious in Europe Networking Against Trafficking and Exploitation), highlighted that, during the pandemic, the closure of homeless shelters, drop-in centres and police front-desks, meant more destitute people have fallen victim to predators. With increased unemployment, homeless people are recruited into slave labour from street corners and soup kitchens.
The Indian Bishops’ Office for Health has launched a parish-based home care programme for Covid-19 patients in seven states. Archbishop Prakash Mallavarapu of Visakhapatnam said this initiative, based on a network of volunteers and provision of medical kits, will reduce the patient load on hospitals and health professionals. Meanwhile, at least 120 Catholic priests have died from Covid-19 in India in the past month.
At least 34 Christian candidates will compete for the 325 seats in the Parliament in the next Iraq elections in October. The country’s electoral system reserves a minimum quota of five seats in Parliament for Christian minorities, assigned individually in the five provinces of Baghdad, Kirkuk, Erbil, Dohuk and Nineveh. Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has cancelled election participation for citizens abroad, disenfranchising nearly one million Iraqi citizens.
The Catholic Church inMozambique is helping homeless people in the troubled Northern province of Cabo Delgado with housing and humanitarian aid. The Archdiocese of Nampula is building 200 homes for thousands of displaced people currently living in tents. They fled an attack on Palma on 24 March, which prompted 30,000 people to flee. There are fears that the next target of jihadist militias may be the city of Pemba.
Pope Francis met with Argentine President Alberto Fernández at the Vatican on Thursday 13 May. During the meeting, they discussed Argentina’s economic and debt situation. It was the first meeting between the Pope and the president of his home country since January 2020. In the ensuing months, Argentina legalised abortion, despite opposition from the Catholic Church. Fernández was a champion of the law. After the visit Fernández tweeted: “I appreciate [the Pope’s] constant support in favour of Argentina’s recovery. His leadership in support of equality is a guide and commits us to a more humane world.”
Belgian houses of worship will soon be allowed to receive 100 people inside and 200 outside for weekly services, weddings and funerals, a welcome loosening of tight current ceilings on attendance. This relaxation for churches, mosques and synagogues under the government's "summer plan" from 9 June will depend on vaccination and hospitalisation rates There is currently a15-person limit at indoor services
A mayor’s plan to move a sixteenth-century reliquary from its home church to a new museum has divided the small Belgian city of Andenne and may have to be resolved in court. Socialist Mayor Claude Eerdekens stunned the Church of St Begga, founder of a convent there in the seventh century, with the plan for a new building meant to attract more tourists to the city just east of Namur. Eerdekens claimed the silver-and-gold casket adorned with figures of the Apostles belonged to the city thanks to the nationalisation of Church property in 1796 by invading French revolutionaries. But the church and Namur archdiocese argue the nuns took it when they left Andenne several years earlier and only brought it back around 1820. A court case would be “absurd”, they said. St Begga is venerated locally as an abbess, and was great-great-grandmother of Charlemagne.
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