Archbishop Paul Coakley, chair of the US bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, praised the US Senate for passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes significant spending to combat climate change. “Climate change is a global challenge that requires courageous, long-term action from Congress,” Archbishop Coakley said. The act was passed on a straight party-line vote, with no Republicans supporting it. A court in Hong Kong has announced a five-day trial on 19-23 September for Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, and four other defendants who face charges of failing to properly register a now-defunct charitable fund to help anti-government protesters. If convicted, each defendant could incur a fine of about $1,300.
Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, condemned the murders of four Muslim men in Albuquerque. “We in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe are appalled at these hateful and horrific crimes and utterly condemn them,” Wester said at a Mass on 9 August. His sentiments were echoed by Cardinal Blase Cupich head of the Catholic delegation in the US Catholic-Muslim dialogue.
The Polish Church is to tighten its rules on pilgrimages, after 12 Catholics were killed and dozens injured when a coach bound for the Bosnia and Herzegovina shrine of Medjugorje crashed in Croatia. “There’s pressure to make pilgrimages as cheap as possible – sometimes you get the impression this can have fatal consequences,” said Bishop Krzysztof Zadarko, chairman of the Polish Church’s Council for Migration, Tourism and Pilgrimage. Investigations continued into the 6 August accident, in which a coach carrying Polish pilgrims, including nine priests and nuns, crashed on Croatia’s A4 highway near Varazdin, a day after leaving the sanctuary of Jasna Gora. Victims included Sr Janina Mateusiak from the Holy Family of Nazareth order.
Connecticut pro-life State Representative Trenee´ McGee won renomination as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the 116th District, despite being the only Democrat in the state legislature to oppose a law expanding access to abortion in Connecticut. McGee, the first black woman to represent that district, was challenged by an opponent who ran specifically on his support for abortion rights. McGee has spoken forcefully about the racism of early abortion rights supporters like Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, and the concern that young black women see abortion as a form of birth control.
Missio, one of Germany’s Pontifical Mission Societies, marked the World Day Against Witch Hunts on 10 August by warning that the phenomenon is on the increase worldwide. In at least 43 countries, women, but also men and children, are in danger of injury or death because they are persecuted as alleged witches, according to the 2022 World Map of Witch Hunts, published by Missio.
Authorities in Seoul, South Korea, collaborating with Seoul Archdiocese, have installed a new plaque and planted 5,000 trees as part of the renovation process of Gwanghwamun Square where Pope Francis beatified 124 martyrs on his 2014 visit.
A Polish diocesan bishop has reacted angrily to media accusations that he sexually molested a future seminarian. Bishop Marek Mendyk, 61, of Swidnica told Poland’s Catholic Information Agency, KAI: “I’m referring this crime of slander to the competent state authorities as soon as possible.” He was reacting to claims in Poland’s Newsweek by a former Catholic seminarian, Andrzej Pogorzelski, that he was molested while receiving hospital treatment in the 1990s, aged eight, by the then Fr Mendyk.
Cardinal Jozef Tomko, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, died in his apartment in Rome on 8 August, aged 98. The Slovak-born Cardinal, given his red hat in 1985 by Pope John Paul II, was the oldest member of the College of Cardinals.
Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ visited Auschwitz on 9 August to celebrate Mass at the convent of the Carmelite Sisters on the 80th anniversary of the death of Edith Stein (pictured), the German-Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism, joined the order of Carmelite sisters, and died in Auschwitz on 9 August 1942. Pope John Paul II canonised her in 1998. At the Mass Cardinal Czerny said: “With Edith Stein, I share Jewish origins, the Catholic faith, a vocation to religious life, and coincidences with my maternal grandmother, Anna Hayek ne´e Lo¨w (1893-1945).” Edith Stein and Anna Hayek “were about the same age and came to a similar end,” he said.
Bishop Timothe´e Bodika Mansiyai of Kikwit in DR Congo was “deeply saddened” last week by the murder of one of his diocesan priests. Diocesan radio announced that Fr Godefroid Pembele Mandon was shot dead by gunmen during a raid on the parish of St Joseph Mukasa in Kikwit, Kwilu Province, on 6 August.
About 150 representatives from eight Catholic dioceses and four pro-life organisations in India gathered for the first National March for Life in New Delhi on 10 August. The day also marked the 51st anniversary of the Act that legalised abortion in India. Marchers highlighted India’s 15 million abortions annually. The march concluded with prayers at Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Russia’s Orthodox Church has called for a ban on the adoption of Russian children by people in “unfriendly countries”, including those supporting LGBT rights and failing to adhere to Russian values. “While the political views of some friendly countries suit us, the attitude shown in others towards marriage as a union of man and woman, and the official approval of gay parades and aggressive LGBT communities, make it impossible to raise an adopted child there,” Metropolitan Leonid Gorbachev of Klin said on social media. “There may be good people there, but they don’t decide things, while the very notion of rights is relativised. It is now only possible to send someone for education in a foreign country if it adheres to the same spiritual and moral values as Russia.”
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