A Nicaraguan human rights organisation has challenged the archbishop of Managua to explain what substance there is to the “dialogue” he has called for with the government of Daniel Ortega, which is holding a number of Church personnel in detention. The archbishop, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, had a private audience with Pope Francis on Thursday 3 November. “We must always keep on with the dialogue,” the cardinal said. “The Pope always gives us this advice: the dialogue cannot stop.” The Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights (Cenidh) said: “A dialogue doesn’t mean I have to keep waiting until the government decides to reply; either there is a dialogue or there isn’t.” Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, head of the bishops’ communications office, has been under house arrest since 4 August, in Matagalpa then in Managua. Three priests, a deacon, two seminarians and a cameraman who were with Bishop Álvarez in his residence have been held in Managua’s El Chipote prison since 19 August and are due to face trial on 1 December.
Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto in northern Nigeria has told an international meeting of religious leaders that “hatred feeds on the weaponisation of identity, marginalises the other, creates the conditions for their dehumanisation, and inevitably takes us down the dark road to the justification of violence, and ultimately murder”. Bishop Kukah was speaking on 2 November during the first International Summit of Religious Leaders (R20) ahead of the upcoming G20 conference in Bali, Indonesia. He said this was of particular relevance to Nigeria - a country where religion has been effectively weaponized through the “manipulation of historical narratives between Christians and Muslims and setting ethnic groups against one another.” He said that narrative draws its origins from the Sokoto Caliphate which was a Sunni Muslim kingdom in West Africa.“Most Muslims in northern Nigeria have continued to re-echo sentiments of the old caliphate which views Christianity as a foreign religion,” Kukah said, pretending Islam is an African religion, even though it originated on the Arabian peninsula.
A group of liberal Christian leaders asked the US House Select Committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 to specifically examine the role Christian nationalism played in motivating the insurrection. Among those signing the letter was Bishop Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the US arm of the Anglican communion.
US National Public Radio aired audio of a woman undergoing an abortion at a Michigan abortion clinic. The segment included the voices of clinic workers and the vacuum aspirator machine used in the procedure. Pro-life activists said they were horrified by the segment. March for Life president Jeanne Mancini tweeted: “My prayer is often that the truth about abortion is ‘brought into the light’ but nothing prepared me for what this audio recording of an abortion would sound like. What’s happening here is the taking of an innocent human life. Heartbreaking. No words.”
Pope Francis has apparently made retired Ghent Bishop Luc Van Looy a cardinal despite the Belgian’s decision not to accept the honour in August because of accusations of covering up a case of clerical sexual abuse in the past. Van Looy, 81, wore a cardinal’s ring during a recent Vatican audience at which the Pope, an old friend, kissed his hand. This prompted speculation that he was a cardinal in pectore. “It is a decision, a gift from the Pope, personally,” Van Looy told Flemish television VRT. “The ring has no ecclesiastical effect, nothing changes in influence or title or anything.”
An oil sketch of the Crucifixion long believed to have been made by followers of the Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn has been declared an opus by the seventeenth-century artist himself. The Bredius Museum in The Hague, which has displayed The Raising of the Cross since buying it in 1921, said infrared and X-ray scans proved it was by Rembrandt. The picture, which modern techniques showed was probably a study for another painting, shows men struggling to raise a cross with Jesus nailed to it. Experts said the brush strokes were unmistakably by Rembrandt.
The autumn general assembly of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops will find the bishops voting on a new president and vice president and how to proceed in disseminating their quadrennial document on Catholic participation in public life. The agenda for the 14-17 November gathering also incorporates more time for prayer and reflection with opportunities for interaction with each other to build fraternity.
A ceasefire deal struck last week between representatives of Ethiopia’s federal government and their rivals in the northern Tigray region has kindled hopes of an end to a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people over two years. Negotiators from the two sides signed the agreement on Wednesday last week after 10 days of negotiations in South Africa, mediated by the African Union and supported by the UN, the United States, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) – an East African regional bloc. The parties agreed to observe an immediate cessation of hostilities, and to allow the restoration of humanitarian aid and telecommunication services to Tigray, where millions are in need of immediate relief. Key stumbling blocks remain, most notably the withdrawal of Eritrean troops and the shape of Tigray’s future borders – issues the deal leaves unresolved.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has abandoned moves initiated by his predecessor Liz Truss to relocate Britain’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Downing Street confirmed. Truss ordered a review into whether the UK should follow the US Trump administration in moving the embassy from Tel Aviv. Asked whether the UK government was still considering a move, a No 10 spokesperson said: “It has been looked at. There are no plans to move the British embassy.” The statement was welcomed by the Palestinian mission in the UK.
Catholic leaders in Albania last week expressed profound concern about the phenomenon of depopulation as a result of increasing emigration. Albanian Daily News reported that Archbishop Angelo Massafra of Shkodër -Pult, president of the Albanian bishops’ conference, sisters priests and laypersons closely involved in pastoral work “dramatically tell us how whole families prefer to emigrate for fear that they cannot guarantee a safe future for their children. There has been a “total emptying” of school structures in rural areas, and the lack of the “most valuable” professions such as in health as well as education. “Behind every person or family that tries to emigrate there is a risk of human trafficking by various structures criminal groups and their use for criminals purposes abroad,” Archbishop Massafra said.
The death toll of a terrorist attack in Mogadishu, Somalia on 29 October by Al-Shabaab jihadists is still increasing as bodies are found in the rubble. The jihadists detonated a first bomb which attracted the population, as well as police and emergency vehicles, then detonated another which resulted in an unknown number of victims among civilians, police forces and government officials. Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Djibouti and Apostolic Administrator of Mogadishu said following the attack “all hope of positive evolution seems to have vanished”, destroying what “the population with the government are trying to rebuild”. “I hope the people will unite with political institutions to defeat this evil”, he said. Pope Francis, after the Angelus prayer on 30 October, said: “Let us pray for the victims of the terrorist attack in Mogadishu which killed more than 100 people, including many children. May God convert the hearts of the violent.”
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