Places of worship are being targeted for forced recruitment of Eritrean teenagers to serve as soldiers. A Catholic priest of Eritrean origin who works with migrants reports that Eritrea has resumed confiscation of Catholic schools and roundups of young boys and girls for compulsory military service. Fr Mussie Zerai reported on 7 September that on the previous Sunday in Segheneity Eparchy soldiers abducted teens from a parish Mass, including all the choirboys in their vestments. He said, "these young people end up in military training camps and then be sent as slaughter fodder in the wars under way in the region, particularly in neighbouring Ethiopia."
Archbishop Joseph Arshad of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, has thanked Pope Francis and "those who, in all parts of the world, bring aid to the victims of this flooding disaster, showing love and solidarity to the destitute, marginalised and displaced." The country's seven bishops and one cardinal have called for on-going support in the aftermath of the floods that have sent 634,000 displaced people to camps, and put more than 6.4 million people in urgent need of humanitarian aid. “This is like we are living in prophet Noah’s times and everything is ruined; I pray to God to show us a rainbow now,” said Fr Khalid Rasheed Asi, a priest in Faisalabad.
Singapore’s first cardinal vowed to spread Singapore’s peace and harmony at a thanksgiving Mass on 8 September attended by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, religious leaders and more than 3,500 Catholics. Cardinal William Goh was celebrating his recent elevation as a cardinal by Pope Francis. “Singapore is an icon for religious harmony in the world, where religious leaders and government work hand in hand for the good of the society,” he said in his homily. He wants, “to spread such peace and unity to the rest of Asia by fostering dialogue between different religions.”
China’s diocese of Zhouzhi in Shaanxi Province celebrated its 90th anniversary on 22 August. At a Mass Bishop Joseph Wu Qinjing of Zhouzhi said, it was “an opportunity to renew our missionary commitment". He urged Catholics to "undertake pastoral care with love and concrete initiatives”. The diocese of Zhouzhi was created an Apostolic Prefecture on 22 August 1932 and elevated to a diocese in 1951. It has more than 200 churches, hundreds of places of prayer and two Marian shrines.
A diocese in Newfoundland, Canada, has faced criticism for selling off churches to raise millions for compensating abuse victims. Archbishop Peter Hundt of Saint John’s met with around 50 people at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in St Mary's Bay on 8 September to explain the restructuring, with six out of eight churches in the area sold. Selling of assets is seen as inevitable because of a court ruling that the archdiocese is liable for abuse at an orphanage. There is also a decline in churchgoing in an area with a long Catholic history.
Catholic and human rights groups are calling for the withdrawal of charges against the organisation Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), which comprises missionaries and religious. It has been accused of financing terrorist groups. The RMP denies the accusations, calling them "an attack on their apostolate that has often documented abuses and violations of human rights across the country, to the detriment of indigenous peoples". Fr Wilfredo Dulay of the Congregation of the Missionary Disciples of Jesus and representing a religious group defending the RMP has called for “the absurd accusations” to be withdrawn.
Archbishop Thomas D'Souza of Calcutta celebrated Mass with St Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity at their Mother House on 5 September, the 25th anniversary of her death. He also prayed at her tomb in the Mother House and opened a new centre for street children. “We thank St Teresa of Calcutta for her unique example of love to the end for the poor and those rejected by our society,” adding, “we thank Sr Mary Joseph and her Missionaries of Charity for keeping the fire of charity burning through service to the poorest of the poor.”
South Korean and Japanese clergy, religious, laypeople, and civil society activists participated in a three-day pilgrimage in late August to urge the governments of South Korea and Japan to reject nuclear power. The 28-member pilgrimage team was led by Fr Blasio Park Hyun-dong, Apostolic Administrator of Tokwon and chairman of the Korean Catholic Bishops’ Ecology and Environment Committee. It visited several South Korean cities and power plant sites, ending at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul. A statement urged that the South Korean and Japanese governments, “stop extending the lifespan of old nuclear power plants” and “revoke construction plans for new nuclear power plants.”
Independent Catholics for Justice in Myanmar - a national group of priests, religious and laypeople and supported by Auxiliary Bishop John Saw Yaw Han of Yangon - launched a nine-day novena prayer campaign in early September, urging Catholics across the country to pray for peace, justice and democracy. Catholics, a minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, sought Marian intervention to help a country devastated by humanitarian and political crises since the February 2021 military coup. Thousands of Catholics joined the campaign, held in various parishes including those in Yangon and Mandalay.
One hundred non-diocesan groups filed synodal reports with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, representing such diverse Catholic populations as prison inmates, college students, LGBT organisations, and survivors of clergy sex abuse. The reports largely mirrored many of the concerns raised by the diocesan reports, for example, calling for greater lay involvement in decision-making. Some, however, focused on concerns particular to the group. A person recently released from prison told his group, “I would like to see the church create its own innocence project to help exonerate innocent Catholics.”
The Jesuits of Latin America and the Caribbean used the words of St Oscar Romero when they told the Nicaraguan authorities, “In the name of God, stop the repression!” The message, dated 3 September, signed by the president of the regional conference of provincials, Fr Robert Jaramillo, said: “We are constantly receiving news and images from Nicaragua of people arbitrarily detained, tortured and murdered, of … Christian communities whose pastors are prevented from doing their work or are harassed as if they were criminals … We are deeply grieved at the repression and restriction of the rights of people and institutions that only seek the good of the country.”
Pope Francis asked for prayers to accompany him this week on what he calls his “pilgrimage of peace” in Kazakhstan for a meeting of religious leaders. In remarks to those assembled in St Peter’s Square, Francis noted that on Tuesday he was to begin a three-day visit to the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan, to participate in a gathering of heads of world and traditional religions. “It will be an occasion to meet so many religious representatives and to dialogue as brothers, animated by the common desire for peace, the peace for which our world is thirsting,” Francis said. “I ask everyone to accompany with prayer this pilgrimage of peace.” He had been hoping during his trip to meet the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Kirill, who has sought to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on spiritual and ideological grounds, in a confrontation with the secular values of the West. But, earlier this summer, Kirill bowed out of the gathering.
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