The report on the handling of clerical sexual abuse in the archdiocese of Munich between 1949 and 2019 has been delayed for the third time. It was originally due out in the spring of this year, but was delayed “until the summer”. When summer came, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the archbishops of Munich and Freising, announced that it had again been delayed but would definitely be out in the course of the year. On 2 November, however, the Munich law firm of Westpfahl Spilker Wastl, who were commissioned by Cardinal Marx to draw up the report, announced that “due to new findings that have only very recently turned up and require intensive investigations” the report would be “slightly delayed” until the third week of January 2022. Neither the law firm nor the archdiocese was prepared to comment further. The archdiocese emphasised that it would not receive the report until it was actually published and not before. Three cardinals of worldwide renown were cardinal archbishops of Munich and Freising during the period under investigation, namely the first president of the German bishops’ conference, Cardinal Julius Döpfner (1961-1976), who was one of the most important cardinals at the Second Vatican Council, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (1977-82) who went on to become Pope Benedict XVI and the present archbishop, Cardinal Reinhard Marx.
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez delivered a strident criticism of contemporary social movements, calling them “pseudo-religions” that were inspired by Marxism. “The new social movements and ideologies that we are talking about today, were being seeded and prepared for many years in our universities and cultural institutions,” Gomez said in a videotaped address to the Congress of Catholics in Public Life in Madrid, Spain. “But with the tension and fear caused by the pandemic and social isolation, and with the killing of an unarmed black man by a white policeman and the protests that followed in our cities, these movements were fully unleashed in our society.” The criticism comes only weeks after Pope Francis praised those protesting the videotaped murder of George Floyd by a white police officer as an example of the “Collective Samaritan.”
Both students and alumni of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles are asking the school’s president to cancel a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood that is being planned by the student group LMU Women in Politics. Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading provider of abortion and contraceptive services. The petition, addressed to LMU president Timothy Snyder, asks the student group “to select a more worthy recipient of funds, one that more effectively supports women’s dignity and whose primary purposes are not at odds with the Catholic Church.” LMU Women in Politics issued a statement thanking their supporters and pledging to proceed with the event. “There has been backlash from conservatives on and off campus,” the statement read. “These small groups will not stop us from creating change and celebrating making history with all of you.”
With all the opposition leaders jailed and their parties banned, Daniel Ortega and his running mate – and wife – Rosario Murillo claimed victory in the Nicaraguan presidential elections held on Sunday. The Supreme Electoral Council announced on Monday that with roughly half the ballots counted, Ortega had won with about 75 per cent of votes, securing his fourth consecutive term, not including the time he ruled the in the 1980s. Washington and the EU dubbed the elections a sham. Just one of Nicaragua’s 13 bishops voted.
Aid to the Church in Need, the papal foundation that supports persecuted Christians across the world, has approved two new projects for displaced Christians. They will help those fleeing Islamist attacks in Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique, and in Nigeria's Borno state.
In Cabo Delgado an estimated 730,000 people have been displaced since 2017, when the Islamist insurgency began. In Nigeria local communities have been exposed for more than 10 years to terrorist attacks and kidnappings by Islamist militias. Violence escalated dramatically in 2014, with more than 10,000 killed, while the Islamists have since drastically expanded their territories.
The German archdiocese of Freiburg is the first German diocese to react to Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis custodes. The present rulings concerning the celebration of the Mass according to the Roman Missal of 1962 are to remain in place until a new statute for celebration of Old Mass are worked out, the Archbishop of Freiburg, Stephan Burger, has announced. The Old Mass, which will be known as the Ordo vetus from now on, will, for the moment, continue to be celebrated in the five parishes in the archdiocese where it has been celebrated up to now. He was taking this step to prevent traditional Catholics from joining the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) because they were so disappointed by Traditionis custodes, Burger said.
Myanmar’s ruling military is targeting religious and ethnic minorities, as well as the humanitarian sector, a regional analyst has said.
Last month seven Caritas aid workers were kidnapped as they delivered food and medicine to internally displaced people in south-east Kayah state, which is “in keeping” with an assault Myanmar’s military is waging on the humanitarian sector, Benedict Rogers, Senior Analyst, East Asia at Christian Solidarity Worldwide, told The Tablet. He said some doctors who had opposed February’s coup had also been arrested, or barred from working in public hospitals.
On 29 October government troops shelled a largely deserted town in western Chin State, Thantlang, destroying one Baptist and one Presbyterian church and around 160 homes. Save the Children said their local office was destroyed. Thousands of residents had already fled the town after earlier shelling in September in which a Baptist pastor, Cung Biak Hum, was shot dead by soldiers.
“The military is definitely driven by a Buddhist nationalist agenda, which makes them particularly intolerant of religious minorities – Christian and Muslim,” said Mr Rogers. They were also trying to crack down on pro-democracy politicians and ethnic minorities such as the Chin, he added. Baptists, he said, are “Christian and Chin, and … the largest denomination” in Myanmar.
Seventeen Salesian priests, including their provincial, were arrested on Sunday by Ethiopian government forces during a large demonstration in support of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, according to the missionary news service Fides. The arrests came on the same day that Pope Francis appealed for peace in Ethiopia, where fighting has intensified between government troops and rebel groups allied to the northern Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. Speaking at the end of the Angelus, Francis said: "I invite everyone to pray for those peoples so sorely tried, and I renew my appeal for fraternal harmony and the peaceful path of dialogue to prevail.” Fides reported that Sunday’s demonstration “led to many arrests among Tigrayans in the city”.
On Saturday morning, Pope Francis met with members of the Retrouvaille association, a worldwide group that helps married couples in crisis find ways to address the root problems in their relationships. The Pope expressed his gratitude for their commitment and encouraged them to persevere in this important outreach. He stressed that we should not be scared of a crisis, since we can learn and grow from it,
A proposed law in Ghana to toughen curbs on LGBT people has triggered a rift between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the local Anglican church, which strongly supports the bill. Gay sex is illegal in Ghana, but the proposed law will criminalise even LGBTQ advocacy while imposing longer jail terms for same-sex relations. The "Promotion of proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values" bill currently being debated in parliament, is widely supported in Ghana, where President Nana Akufo-Addo has said gay marriage will never be allowed while he is in power. Ghana's Anglican bishops have endorsed the bill saying LGBT beliefs are "unbiblical and ungodly", while Welby has said he is “gravely concerned”. Nearly 90 percent of Ghanaians said they would approve of a decision by the government to criminalise same-sex relationships, according to research group Afrobarometer based on 2014 data. When activists tried to open a LGBT rights advocacy centre on the outskirts of Accra earlier this year, the Catholic Church publicly demanded the centre be shut down. It was closed by the police.
Loading ...
