The German archdiocese of Paderborn plans to involve the Catholic laity in future episcopal nominations. In a statement published on 11 February, the archdiocese explained that it was taking up a recommendation made at the recent plenary meeting of the German synodal procedure for church reform where the subject of lay involvement at episcopal nominations had been discussed. The plenary had suggested that each diocese should set up an advisory committee consisting of the same number of lay Catholics as priest members of the cathedral chapter. The committee and the chapter would then together draw up the list of possible episcopal candidates which is sent on to Rome, thus involving the laity in the nomination. “The recommendation is a good way of involving the People of God. It could enhance the acceptance and recognition of a future bishop”, Paderborn’s cathedral priest, Fr Joachim Göbel, said. A working group would be set up to discuss the selection process for such a lay committee, he said. Under the Prussian Concordat of 1929, the Paderborn cathedral chapter draws up a list of possible episcopal candidates, which the nuncio to Germany gives to the Pope. The Pope then normally chooses three names from the list – the so-called terna – and returns it to the chapter. The chapter chooses one of the three candidates as the future archbishop. Paderborn is one Germany’s oldest dioceses founded in 799 by Pope Leo III and Charlemagne. Its current archbishop is Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker.
Abune Antonios, the imprisoned Eritrean Orthodox Church patriarch, died in detention in the capital Asmara on 9 February at the age of 94. He was arrested in 2006 just two years after his installation as the third patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church. For 16 years, he was kept in solitary confinement on the orders of President Isaias Afwerki, for his opposition to government interference in the church. During the time he was imprisoned, the Government staged the election of successors. The Human Rights Council – Eritrea, based in London, expressed its concern that with his death “the Church will be very vulnerable to state interference and the government appointed yes-men will not defend its religious independence.”
The Archdiocese of Seoul’s sponsorship of single mothers was highlighted at a recent ceremony to deliver sponsorship certificates to 20 heads of single-parent families in the South Korean capital. Attending the ceremony, Archbishop Peter Chung Soon-Taick of Seoul, chairman of the Archdiocesan Committee for Life, said the Church will continue to support initiatives to protect life. Seoul Archdiocese has supported single mothers with a monthly subsidy since 2018.
Pope Francis will travel to Malta for an apostolic visit in April. A Holy See Press Office communiqué said the visit would be from 2 to 3 April, visiting the cities of Valletta, Rabat, Floriana and the island of Gozo. The Pope had been scheduled to visit Malta on 31 May 2020, but that trip was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A failed coup has shaken the majority-Catholic Democratic Republic of Congo. On Saturday 12 February elite forces deployed in key areas of the capital, Kinshasa, as the government said there was a serious threat to national security. The threat has been linked to Francios Beya, the presidential security adviser who has since been arrested. Reports of the failed coup came, as the bishops continued to demand that the Government restore the security of civilians in the east. Earlier this month, at least 59 people were killed in Plaine Savo displacement camp in the eastern province of Ituri. The deaths were blamed on an association of ethnic Lendu group militias known as CODECO (Cooperative for the Development of Congo).
The first Coptic Christian president of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court has been sworn in. Supreme court judge Bolis Fahmy, 65, was appointed head by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi last week, after his predecessor stood down for health-related reasons. Fahmy has been SCC vice president since 2014 of the Egyptian judicial authority tasked with overseeing the constitutionality of laws and interpretation of legislative texts. Christians comprise some 10 per cent of the population but under previous regimes have been underrepresented or persecuted.
An Anti-Religious Discrimination Bill that was strongly supported by conservative Christian groups in Australia failed to pass the lower house of parliament last week. The government ditched the bill due to amendments preventing religious schools discriminating on gender and sexuality. Mentioning his late gay nephew, Labor MP Stephen Jones said the bill “pleases no one”. Human rights and LGBT groups said it went too far in giving people the right to discriminate against others.
A French Catholic nun has marked her 118th birthday, making her the second oldest person in the world and the oldest living person in Europe, according to the Gerontology Research Group, which validates details of people believed to be 110 or older. Sr Andre Randon, a Daughter of Charity, was born in Ales, southern France, on 11 February 1904. Upon her 115th birthday, she received a card and a blessed rosary from Pope Francis. A Japanese woman, KaneTanaka, born on 2 January 1903, is regarded by the Group as the oldest person in the world.
Caritas Cambodia, the Catholic Church's social service arm in Cambodia, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the state-run National Committee for Disaster Management to jointly manage disasters in the country. The government committee's deputy chairman Hang Samoeun and Caritas Cambodia executive director Kim Rattana signed the agreement on 10 February in Phnom Penh.
The Colombian Bishops’ Conference has expressed concern for Bishop Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya of Buenaventura, whose denunciations of violence, drug trafficking, and organised crime have drawn death threats and warnings not to visit areas of his diocese. “He, as a good shepherd and carrying in his heart the suffering of his people, has condemned how armed gangs are acting viciously in this region against that population,” stated Fr Darío Echeverri, of the Bishops’ National Conciliation Commission. Bishop Jaramillo, who has four security guards, says, “I am at the head of a community that needs someone to speak, someone to raise his voice.”
The Catholic Diocese in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has denounced the worsening humanitarian situation after 15 months of conflict, reporting millions of children suffering from severe malnutrition. People are at high risk of chronic diseases and Covid-19, especially children and the elderly stated the Adigrat Diocese Catholic Secretariat, describing the situation as an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis”. Since November 2020, in the civil war between the government of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, civilians have faced ethnic-based attacks and massacres, gender-based violence, destruction of homes and displacement of millions of people.
Around 8,000 mainly Christian Chin refugees from Myanmar, including women and children, recently fled into India’s northeastern Mizoram state, the Chin Human Rights Organisation reported last week.
The European Union cannot declare abortion to be a fundamental right under EU law, Catholic bishops in the bloc have said, pushing back at French President Emmanuel Macron's call for it to do so. Comece, the bishops’ Brussels-based association, said on 8 February in a statement signed by its President Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich and four other bishops, that Macron’s proposal “goes against fundamental European beliefs and values” and would cause conflict among EU citizens.
The Laudato Si’ Movement, the Catholic climate change initiative headed by Tomas Insua, is urging the International Union of Conservation for Nature (IUCN) to help stop a massive oil and gas project in Uganda and Tanzania. The project involves the Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields in Uganda and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.
This week, a dozen Catholic associations in Italy were to launch a demand for an independent investigation into clerical sex abuse in the country under the banner “Oltre il Grande Silenzio” (Beyond the Great Silence). According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, they will pursue the campaign under the social media hashtag #ItalyChurchToo in an attempt to break through decades of “denial, obfuscation and omerta”. The code of silence known as omerta is commonly associated with the mafia. The initiative is being led by Francesco Zanardi, who was abused by a Catholic priest for years, from the age of 11. The local bishop in the northern port city of Savona reportedly knew that the abuse was going on, and even wrote to the Vatican to ask for advice as to how to handle the case, but nothing was done.
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