Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is holding a six-month exhibition at Sharm El Sheikh Museum under the title “The Holy Family Journey”, which opened on 12 January. It includes three manuscripts from the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo, and nine rare icons highlighting the path of the Holy Family in Egypt, including Sinai. The exhibition has involved cooperation between the Coptic and Islamic Antiquities Sector and the Supreme Council of Antiquities. At the end of the exhibition in June, the entry of the Holy Family into Egypt will be celebrated.
A stampede at a Christian crusade event on 19 January in Liberia, which killed 29 people, started when thugs attacked worshippers and panic ensued. The event was being held at a venue in a suburb of Monrovia. When people in the gathering tried to leave they came under attack from a street gang and collided with others as they tried to run back inside. Many of the attackers were reportedly drug-addicted young men and women, some of whom were child soldiers during Liberia’s 14-year civil war that ended in 2005. President George Weah has declared three days of national mourning.
The humanitarian situation in the Ethiopian province of Tigray, where the Ethiopian government is fighting separatists and blocking aid, is worsening daily, with widespread starvation and severe malnutrition, according to the Diocesan Catholic Secretariat of Adigrat, Tigray. “We have not been able to continue reaching people affected by war,” diocesan director Fr Abba Abraha Hagos, said last week, warning that “the social fabric of an entire generation” is at risk.
Catholic bishops in Central African Republic have denounced the speed with which the country’s natural resources are being plundered. The bishops, in a statement at the end of their first plenary meeting this year, said: “The degradation and destruction of our environment are frightening … We hope and pray that transparency will be established around the agreements between our country and foreign partners and countries.” CAR’s natural resources, they point out, are being exploited by international interests in complicity with corrupt local elites. As well as gold, other metals, diamonds and timber, CAR is a source of “rare earth” components essential for the digital and “green” economy
The abbot of Esphigmenou, an Eastern Orthodox monastery on Mount Athos, reported last week that 40 unvaccinated monks in the closed community on northern Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula have died of Covid. Abbot Bartholomew lamented that there are still monks who call on the faithful not to be vaccinated. Some, he said, “have turned our faith into a religion dominated by terror towards Christians for a stern God who is punishing.” Nonetheless, he would not order them to be vaccinated: “in the name of obedience that exists in a monastery, I cannot impose myself on matters other than spiritual matters.” There are around 1,600 monks on Mt Athos, with many aged over 70.
Since Christmas 2020 Lahore Archdiocese in Pakistan has helped Christian prisoners who have been released reintegrate into the local community. Lately a further 20 people have been given material help to start a business to support their families. Archbishop Sebastian Francis Shaw of Lahore said last week, that “we have provided some with a rickshaw, others with building materials or items to run a grocery store and we thank our priests, catechists and faithful who have been at the side of these former prisoners and their families in their time of need”.
The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, which brings together the Bishops of Botswana, South Africa and eSwatini, have met for the first time in person since January 2020. Conference President Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Umtata told the gathering in Pretoria that parish programmes are gradually resuming, with rising attendance at Sunday Mass.
Tyler, Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland caused controversy by tweeting support for priests who are publicly fighting with their bishops. Fr Anthony Bus removed the altar of sacrifice from the sanctuary of his Chicago church without consulting the archbishop, Cardinal Blase Cupich. While in Vermont Fr Peter Williams informed Bishop Christopher Coyne that he denied the bishop’s authority to require vaccination or mask-wearing by all ministers in the diocese of Burlington. Strickland, without consulting either bishop, tweeted support for the priests.
The US Senate on 20 January confirmed one of their alumni, former Sen. Joe Donnelly, as the new US ambassador to the Holy See. Donnelly served one term in the Senate, losing his re-election bid in 2018 and working as a lawyer since. Donnelly also previously represented Indiana’s 2nd district which includes South Bend, home of his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame. The confirmation came on a unanimous voice vote and Donnelly is expected to take up his new office immediately.
The president of COMECE, the Brussels-based commission representing the EU’s Catholic bishops, has expressed support for married priests and a more open church attitude to sexuality, as part of efforts to adapt pastoral and mission methods to an “unprecedentedly strong civilisational change”. Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich will play a key role in the ongoing Synod on Synodality.
The Russian Orthodox Church’s No 2, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, has said Orthodox leaders are poised to recognise the remains of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, three decades after they were recovered from a Siberian mineshaft and reburied in St Petersburg’s Peter and Paul cathedral. Speaking at the weekend, the metropolitan said the Synod resolution would enable relics of the canonised family members to be venerated.
Pope Francis has officially declared St Irenaeus of Lyon a doctor of the church. In a decree released by the Vatican on 21 January, the Pope ordered that the second-century theologian be given the title of “doctor of unity” and said St Irenaeus’ life and teachings served as “a spiritual and theological bridge between Eastern and Western Christians.” St Irenaeus is the second doctor of the church named by Pope Francis after St. Gregory of Narek, and brings the total number of doctors of the church to 37.
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