Journalists at France’s leading gloss-and-gossip weekly have overwhelmingly voted no confidence in their management after a senior editor quit over a flattering cover story about Cardinal Robert Sarah, imposed by superiors. The staff union said Paris Match was “in danger” after its owner was bought last year by Vivendi, a major business group headed by the billionaire conservative Catholic Vincent Bolloré. Senior editor Bruno Jeudy resigned in mid-August following the laudatory feature about the Guinean prelate in July. Paris Match regularly portrays celebrities. Journalists argued that Sarah, former Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and occasional critic of Pope Francis, was too little known in France to deserve a cover photo and story. “Editors are concerned by the increasingly frequent management interference in editorial decisions and choice of subjects,” the no-confidence resolution said.
The Order of Malta is on the verge of breaking asunder, the president of the Order’s German branch, Prince Erich von Lobkowicz, has warned. “Bitter controversies” over reform plans for the Order had broken out, he pointed out in a four-page interview on Deutsche Welle on 25 August. Already in mid-August, leading members of the Order from 15 countries had appealed to Pope Francis to stop the reform plans in an open letter, von Lobkowicz recalled. The key issue concerned sovereignty. “The Church is moving from clerical to lay structures. And yet in our Order of all places, a small group is trying hard to turn the clock back so that only 36 knights who have taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and of whom only 17 are under the age of 70 are to have sole responsibility for the Order. Such plans will lead to chaos,” he predicted. The national associations whose presidents had signed the open letter to Francis made up 90 per cent of the Order’s humanitarian aid, amounting to 2.5 billion euros a year, von Lobkowicz added. “I hope that the Holy Father will hear our call and … that all the different parts of the Order are listened to.”
Serbia’s Orthodox Church has welcomed the government’s cancellation of a planned EuroPride rally in Belgrade, saying that it would have provoked “tensions and divisions”. “The very LGBT issue is, we believe, out of place, especially when, for Serbs in Serbia and everywhere in the world, one issue ranks above all others – that of Kosovo,” the Church’s governing Holy Synod noted in a weekend statement. “Holding this ‘parade’ to promote LGBT ideology, which seeks to impose itself on Europe, the so-called Western world and, unfortunately, on the people of Serbia, would cause additional tensions and new divisions.” The Synod was reacting to President Aleksandar Vucic’s cancellation of the week-long rally, due to open on 12 September. EuroPride organisers said the rally represented a milestone “for the LGBTI+ community in the whole region”, which faced “deep inequality and discrimination”, and would pressure governments to adopt new laws allowing same-sex partnerships and other reforms. However, the Synod said Vucic and his government had taken a “responsible decision” to cancel the event at a time of “honourable and holy struggle” to preserve endangered Serbian Orthodox communities in Kosovo, and could count on the Orthodox Church’s “unceasing prayer” and its “undivided moral and patriotic support”.
A US church has apologised to the creator of the musical “Hamilton”, Lin Manuel Miranda, for its unauthorised, Bible-themed rewrite of the popular musical which tells the story of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. The Door Christian Fellowship McAllen Church in Texas changed lyrics to include references to Jesus and Christianity and a scene was added inviting those "struggling" with substance abuse and homosexuality to turn to God for help. The team behind the original production lodged a protest and filed a cease-and-desist letter, saying that the production team, "stands for tolerance, compassion, inclusivity and certainly LGBTQ rights". The church has promised never to perform the show again, to destroy any recordings and images, and pay unspecified damages.
The Apostolic Administrator of Makeni Diocese, Bishop Natale Paganelli, has urged Sierra Leoneans to put the common good of the country first and to embrace peaceful dialogue after anti-government protests in mid-August led to deaths. Bishop Pagaganelli told Vatican Radio of the need to address rifts in the country - particularly the divide between the north and the western area, and the south and east - and for the government to lift its ban on protests. At least six police officers and 21 civilians were killed as protesters took to the streets in frustration at a perceived failure by the government of President Julius Bio, who is Catholic, to cushion the impact of economic hardship.
Summer excavations at a fifth-sixth century Byzantine basilica at the el Araj archaeological site by the Sea of Galilee have revealed a large Greek mosaic, pointing to the church being built over the home of Ss. Peter and Andrew. The mosaic, which is over 1,500 years old, is inscribed with a petition that asks for the intercession of St Peter, who is referred to as “the chief and commander of the heavenly apostles.”
Pope Francis has asked Pyongyang to invite him to North Korea, saying in a televised interview last week that he would not turn down a chance to visit and work for peace. Pope Francis told South Korean broadcaster KBS that: "I will go there as soon as they invite me. I'm saying they should invite me. I will not refuse." Such a visit would be the first by a pope to the reclusive state, which does not allow priests to be permanently stationed there. Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is Catholic, has urged Francis to visit North Korea, saying a papal visit to Pyongyang would help build peace on the Korean peninsula. When he met the pope in 2018, Moon relayed a verbal invitation to Francis from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The Vatican is still waiting for a written invitation.
A Catholic bishop in Kerala has left his position to become a hermit. This is the first such case for the Catholic Church in India. Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Jacob Muricken of Palai, 59, said God inspired him to pursue a life of solitude and it has been approved by the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church. He reported looking forward to spending the rest of his life, "more in prayer and meditation and leading an eco-friendly life … my attempt as a hermit is to live in the world according to the will of the creator.”
Four Nigerian nuns of the Congregation of Sisters of Jesus the Saviour, who were kidnapped on 21 August, have been released unconditionally and safely. The news was announced by Sr Zita Ihedoro, secretary-general of the order, several days later. The sisters had been taken by gunmen on a highway in Nigeria's oil-producing Imo state in the southeast.
Catholic media tycoon Jimmy Lai – in prison in Hong Kong for 20 months – said at a hearing on 22 August that he intends to plead not guilty to charges of sedition and collusion with foreign forces. The judgment will be entrusted to a panel of three judges appointed by the Hong Kong Government rather than Hong Kong’s long-established jury trial system. Lai, 74, is among the prominent pro-democracy leaders targeted by Beijing in a bid to quell dissent in Hong Kong by using the draconian National Security Law. He was among the financial backers of retired Cardinal Joseph Zen’s efforts to bring legal aid to pro-democracy activists.
Thousands of Rohingya refugees rallied in Bangladesh camps and chanted slogans last week, carrying placards to demand repatriation to their Myanmar homeland. They were marking the fifth anniversary of a brutal military crackdown on their villages in Rakhine State. About 750,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to neighbouring Bangladesh where they still live in the squalid camps of Cox’s Bazar. The United Nations says conditions are not yet right for a return to Myanmar. Some 100,000 of them are being taken care of by Caritas Bangladesh.
The government of Thailand has officially recognised three Catholic churches, after a 93-year wait for legal status, in a bid to foster religious harmony in the Buddhist-majority nation. The Ministry of Culture officially approved nine religious places of worship on 23 August, which included three Catholic Churches and six Buddhist temples. Itthiphol Khunpluem, Minister of Culture, said the certification “ instil morals that are correct according to religious principles.” The kingdom now recognises 60 Catholic churches, although hundreds more do not have official certification.
A French court has fined a French Catholic association 1.1 million euros for having about 50 foreign women work illegally for years as restaurant servers in nine pilgrimage sites including Lourdes. It said the Missionary Family Donum Dei (FMDD), associated with the Lay Carmelites, exploited the servers from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Vietnam, Peru and the Philippines. The defence argued the lay association had Vatican recognition, but the prosecution said it made the women “work in conditions contrary to human dignity”, especially those from Burkina Faso.
Archbishop Joseph Arshad of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, President of Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, has appealed for the nation to join in supporting communities who are suffering the “calamity” of devastating floods. “May God support the efforts of those who are bringing relief to the flood victims,” he said. Caritas Pakistan has called for tents, shelter kits, food, hygienic and sanitary materials, non-perishable food products, and clothes Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, on a tour of the north to oversee relief operations, said the monsoon rains were "unprecedented in the last 30 years".
Archbishop Rembert Weakland, a Benedictine who served as archbishop of Milwaukee from 1977 to 2002, died overnight on Monday August 21–22 at Clement Manor in Greenfield, a Milwaukee suburb, at the age of 95. His resignation as Milwaukee’s archbishop came after revelations that the archdiocese had paid $450,000 to silence Paul J. Marcoux, an adult male seminarian with whom he had a sexual relationship.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Taize on Saturday, August 27, and is set to give a public lecture on current European affairs. The prior, Brother Alois called the visit “an important moment” for the Taize community.
The Vatican said on Thursday 18 August that it will not hold a trial against Cardinal Marc Ouellet over allegations he sexually assaulted a woman. Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, was accused of sexual assault in a civil suit filed that week against the Archdiocese of Quebec. A Vatican spokesman said that the conclusion of a preliminary investigation by Fr Jacques Servais, SJ, found “that there are no elements to initiate a trial against Cardinal Ouellet for sexual assault.” AFP news agency reported that a class action suit, filed on 16 August, included the testimony of 101 people who say they were sexually assaulted by clerics or Church staff from 1940 to the present. Eighty-eight clerics face accusations in the suit.
The “special operation in Ukraine” is seen as a “war against Western decadence” and the stance of the Siberian population is “quite definitely pro-Russia”, according to a German priest who has been working in Siberia for over 20 years. Asked in a Kathpress interview while he was on home leave how his parishioners saw the conflict in Ukraine, Fr Dietmar Seiffert, who for 20 years has served as a priest in the western Siberian Diocese of Kuybyshev in Novosibirsk, one of the largest dioceses in the world, replied: “One will hardly understand this in the West but it is a fact that the majority of the population supports Vladimir Putin. Russians follow the traditional line as far as the family is concerned. They completely reject the different family models that exist in the West and see gender ideology as a threat to their own identity.” According to Moscow, the aim of “the special military operation in the Ukraine” – as the Ukraine war is called in Russia – is to liberate Ukraine, which has been “suppressed by enemy powers”. In the meantime, the “special military operation in the Ukraine” had become less noticeable in Siberia. Inflation was very high and there were fewer and less choice of goods in the shops.Otherwise, the Ukraine crisis had had little impact on Siberia. He at first made critical comments when speaking about what was happening in Ukraine but realised that was counterproductive. “If one tries to go against the prevailing political opinion of the majority, one soon loses access to people,” Fr Seiffert said. He now concentrated on getting people to pray for peace.
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