Nigeria’s Catholic bishops say the present constitution of the country “has put Christians and adherents of other religions at a disadvantage in any place with a Muslim majority”. They highlighted in a statement last week that “while Islam is mentioned many times in the constitution, there is not a single mention of Christianity or any other religion”. They want “one law as one people in one nation”. They feel, in particular, the authorisation of Sharia Courts of Appeal in the current constitution is divisive and should be “expunged”. Cardinal John Onaiyekan, 77, the former archbishop of Abuja, has criticised the “docile nature of most Nigerians” urging them to take seriously their role as citizens. Speaking during a conference in Abuja last week, the Cardinal challenged his compatriots to “put the elected people on their toes” and to change their attitude and concept of politics. Meanwhile church leaders, in a statement issued under the Christian Association of Nigeria, condemned the “killing of innocent youths” and the arbitrary detention of civilians in the country’s Imo State.
The head of the Order of Malta’s Africa department, Roland Hansen, has warned of a possible extensive spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Africa. “Up to now, many African states have been spared and have not experienced massive outbreaks but it looks as if the surge of cases we are seeing in Uganda at the moment is larger than anything we have seen up to now. It is very possible that the pandemic is only just beginning to spread in Africa,” Hansen said in Cologne. In recent weeks, the number of cases in Uganda had risen by 370 per cent. “Our partners in Kampala say the oxygen supply is running out, all the intensive care beds are full and there is only enough vaccine for 1 per cent of the population,” Hansen said.
In a report published on Wednesday last week Moneyval encouraged the Holy See to further strengthen measures to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism. The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body stated that the Vatican authorities have a good, generally high-level, understanding of their money laundering and financing of terrorism threats and vulnerabilities. However, domestic cases which have raised a red flag for potential abuse of the internal system by mid-level and senior figures (insiders) for personal or other benefits were not addressed within the national risk assessment. In a statement the Holy See welcomed the report and renewed its commitment to working towards full compliance with the “best international parameters”.
Pope Francis prayed for the victims of violence in Ethiopia's Tigray region at last Sunday’s Angelus, as UN and aid agencies warned that 350,000 people in the region are facing famine with a further 5.5 million needing food aid. They blamed conflict for the worst food crisis in a decade. The World Food Programme said last week that to stop hunger from killing millions in Tigray there needs to be a ceasefire, unimpeded aid access and more money to expand aid operations.
The resignation of Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier OFM, Archbishop of Durban, has been accepted by Pope Francis. The cardinal, 80, tendered his resignation in 2016 on his 75th birthday but was asked to stay on by Pope Francis. Bishop Mandla Siegfried Jwara, CMM, will succeed him. In welcoming Bishop Jwara, the Denis Hurley Centre said: “In following in the footsteps of Archbishop Hurley and Cardinal Napier, he inherits not only a huge diocese, but also a long and positive tradition of leading Catholics.”
A London panel investigating the plight of Uyghursin China has heard witness testimonies from exiles about torture, gang rapes and killings in detention camps. The tribunal has no official status and has angered the Chinese Communist Party. The nine UK-based jurors of the “Uyghur Tribunal”, including lawyers and human rights experts, convened the first of two evidence sessions on 4-8 June ahead of a report due in December.
Teacher and union leader Pedro Castillo appeared to have won Peru's presidential election over Keiko Fujimori. As of Sunday night, he was leading by 50,000 votes, at 50.14 per cent, with 99.9 per cent of votes counted. The vote showed the deep rural-urban divide in Peru, with Fujimori’s strongest support coming in the capital of Lima. Castillo won resoundingly in rural, Indigenous communities. Fujimori is contesting the results. If she loses, she will no longer hold political immunity and could face pre-trial detention for corruption charges. In the lead-up to the election, Catholic clergy in Peru warned against the threat of “communism” and “Marxism”, alluding to Castillo’s candidacy. However, on Sunday 14 June, Carlos Castillo, the Archbishop of Lima, said in a TV interview that “neither priests, nor bishops can engage in partisan politics” and that “the Christian faith is to unite people”.
The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has urged people to get vaccinated against Covid, as the country enters a “third wave” of the disease with only around one per cent of the population fully vaccinated. In a 5 June pastoral letter the SACB President, Bishop Sithembele Sipuka, blamed the low uptake of the vaccine on safety and ethical concerns, and a belief in a section of the Christian community that the vaccine is part of a “new world order” governed by the devil. South Africa is the worst-hit country on the African continent with more than 1.65 million cases and 56,363 deaths.
Patrick Kelly was installed as the new Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus in a ceremony held at St. Mary’s church in New Haven, Connecticut. Bl Fr Michael McGivney, who founded the Knights, is buried at the church. The ceremony began with Mass celebrated by the order’s chaplain, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore. Kelly replaces Carl Anderson who had served as Supreme Knight since 2000. Like Anderson, Kelly was a Republican Party political operative before becoming Anderson’s deputy in 2017. Kelly said he was dedicating his administration of the order to St Joseph.
The National Commission for Justice and Peace of the Argentine Episcopal Conference has expressed concern about a bill being presented by the ruling Justicialist party, which they feel is "a clear setback in Argentina's environmental policy". In the bill, the percentage of biofuels used, in line with the energy transition away from fossil fuels, will be reduced.
As Bangladesh’s government inaugurated 50 new mosques across the country on 10 June, Catholic officials called for state funding to build churches on the basis of religious equality. Bishop Gervas Rozarioof Rajshahi, chair of the bishops' Peace and Justice Commission, said that, “the government is also a government of minorities” and asked for minorities to receive places of worship.
Catholic leaders in Cape Verde, the archipelago whose nearest land mass is Senegal, have denounced as an impostor a man claiming to be a bishop and heading a delegation lobbying for the release of Venezuelan businessman, Álex Saab. Mr Saab, who was indicted in July 2019 in a US federal court in Miami for alleged participation in an illegal bribery scheme, was arrested on the island of Sal last year when his private plane stopped to refuel en route to Iran from Venezuela. The US immediately ordered Saab’s extradition. “The delegation headed by Filipe Teixeira, a citizen of Cape Verde who claims to be a Catholic bishop, has nothing to do with the Roman Catholic Church,” Bishop Ildo Lopes Fortes of Cape Verde’s Mindelo Diocese said in a statement on 7 June.