Catholics reacted strongly to the news that Frank Pavone, the founder of “Priests for Life” and EWTN television host, had been laicised after a canonical process found him guilty of “blasphemous communications on social media” and “persistent disobedience” to his bishop, writes Michael Sean Winters. Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, tweeted: “The blasphemy is that this holy priest is cancelled while an evil president promotes the denial of truth & the murder of the unborn at every turn, Vatican officials promote immorality & denial of the deposit of faith & priests promote gender confusion devastating lives...evil.” In 2016, Pavone posted a video of himself placing the body of an aborted foetus on an altar.
South Sudan Catholic bishop Stephen Nyodho Ador Majwok of Malakal has urged an unconditional ceasefire, as fighting in three states displaced thousands of people. Church sources said the heavy fighting that started in Upper Nile state on 15 August has since spread to Jonglei and Unity States further north. The fighting comes weeks before Pope Francis travels to the country from 3-5 February in the company of Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury and Revd. Iain Greenshields of the Church of Scotland, coming from DRC where he is due to arrive on 31 January. “Let’s work for peace, for reconciliation, for a brighter future for our country, for our sons, our daughters,” the bishop was quoted by the Eye Radio as appealing. A coalition of Churches, the Upper Nile Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation urged President Salva Kiir and his deputy Reik Machar to act to stop the violence and open their hearts to “sincere dialogue.”
In DR Congo, where several regions are blighted by fighting among rebel groups, flooding is reported to have caused more than 100 deaths, with many others reportedly missing. Local Catholic bishops have sent out a humanitarian assistance appeal for the victims of the floods tragedy.
The replacement of impeached President Pedro Castillo by his vice-president, Dina Boluarte, has not solved Peru’s political crisis, writes Francis McDonagh. Demonstrations continued last week in protest against the removal of Castillo, particularly in the southern Andes. On Wednesday 14 December President Boluarte decreed a national state of emergency, and the following day a night-time curfew in the southern Andes. By Sunday the authorities estimated that 20 people had been killed in protests. President Boluarte has been trying to get Congress to agree to new elections, but a motion to that effect failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority. Two of Boluarte’s recently appointed ministers resigned in protest at the deaths. There is an increasing sense of an unbridgeable gulf between Lima’s political elite and the Andean communities who voted for Castillo. The bishops’ conference called on Catholics to make Sunday 18 December a day of prayer for peace.
Bethlehem is welcoming Christmas pilgrims again after numbers plummeted during the pandemic. About 15,000 people attended the recent lighting of the Christmas tree in Manger Square, and international delegations are expected to participate in celebrations. In an Advent message released last week, Catholic Church leaders in the Holy Land expressed concern over political and social challenges facing the region. Highlighting threats to coexistence between communities in Israel and increasing violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, they said: “We raise our voice for the needs of the poorest and the weakest.”
In his Christmas message, the President of the Bishops' Conference of the Dominican Republic, Archbishop Freddy Bretón of Santiago de los Caballeros, lamented that “Christmas is often no longer called by its name.” People are more likely to say, “Happy Holidays”. The Archbishop called for preserving the authentic values of the Dominican people, which also includes the true spirit of Christmas.
Soldiers attacking Catholic villages in Myanmar's central Sagaing region, burned down more than 300 homes on 14 December in the historic Catholic village of Chan Thar. The village in Mandalay archdiocese, whose inhabitants claim Portuguese heritage dating back several centuries, has produced many clergy and religious. The junta claims to be tackling resistance to military rule. The latest assault came nearly three weeks after more than 110 houses were destroyed in Mon Hla, the home village of Cardinal Charles Bo.
Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet has announced that he is suing a woman who accused him of sexual assault more than a decade ago when he was the archbishop of Quebec. In August, Cardinal Ouellet, now Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, was one of the names in a lawsuit against the Quebec Catholic archdiocese. He has denied, “slanderous and defamatory accusations unfairly made against me” and says he is taking legal action, “to restore my reputation and honour."
Cardinal Joseph Zen has filed an appeal with Hong Kong’s High Court following his conviction last month for failing to register a fund that helped pay for legal fees and medical treatments of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters. The 90-year-old cardinal and former bishop of Hong Kong is appealing alongside four other trustees. The magistrate at the trial ruled that the fund was obliged to register as it, “had political objectives and thus it was not established solely for charitable purposes.”
Police have registered 168 cases against around 50 Catholic clergy, including Archbishop Thomas J Netto of Trivandrum and Auxiliary Bishop Christudas Rajappan, following a 140-day protest against a multi-billion-dollar port in Kerala, which turned violent in late November. Many fishermen, whose homes and livelihoods are threatened, are Catholic and are being supported by the archdiocese. Protestors demand an environmental and human impact study and assurances regarding the well-being of the fishermen.
The “Faiths at COP15” Coalition has committed to mobilise faith communities internationally to implement agreements made at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Canada which ended on 19 December. The coalition shared its six key priorities for the framework, including a rights-based approach that respects and empowers Indigenous communities, consideration of biodiversity alongside other issues like climate change and pollution, and greater ambition from nations to set a course where by 2030 biodiversity loss is halted and reversed.
Catholic bishops from four dioceses in the southern Philippines have called for a ban on mining across the entire Mindanao region. In a joint statement, the Archdiocese of Davao and the Dioceses of Digos, Tagum, and Mati urged lawmakers to revoke 39 mining licences in the region to protect the environment, lands of indigenous people and public health.Meanwhile, three homemade bombs found on the premises of two Catholic churches in Jolo island, off Mindanao, were defused on 15 December. The government is unsure of whether the explosive devices were planted to detonate or “merely frighten Christians”.
The French Church launched its annual fund-raising drive hoping to see a 20 per cent rise in contributions to help pay for increased heating costs. "We have to find 100 million euros more for our treasury," said bishops’ conference deputy secretary general Ambroise Laurent. This challenge has emerged despite the fact that annual church income from all sources rose by 10 per cent in 2021 to 537 million euros.
The diocese of Versailles, west of Paris, has stopped cooperating with Fr Marko Rupnik, a Slovenian Jesuit artist whose artistic centre in Rome was to provide interior and exterior mosaics for a new church there. Construction of the modernist church began a few months ago and would be completed, the diocese said. It was not clear if the decision affected only Fr Rupnik or also the Aletti Centre he directs. The centre, known for decorating churches around the world, belongs to the Pontifical Oriental Institute. Fr Rupnik was restricted in his ministry after it emerged this month he was under Vatican investigation for sexual and spiritual abuse.
Rome Pope Francis celebrated his 86th birthday on 17 December by visiting a homeless shelter run by the Missionaries of Charity to honour those who care for “the poorest of the poor”. Also on the Pope’s birthday the Vatican announced that the Pope has authorised Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints, to promulgate a degree recognising “the heroic virtues of the Servant of God, Matteo Ricci SJ (1552-1610). Last May Pope Francis described Fr Ricci as a “champion” of the “culture of dialogue … who went beyond being a foreigner and became a citizen of the world.”
Pope Francis announced on Friday last week that the Vatican will return to Greece three fragments of the Parthenon Marbles that have been held in the Vatican Museums for centuries. The announcement is likely to pile pressure on the British Museum in London to return to Athens the sculptures that it holds.
The Vatican confirmed on Thursday last week that it had apologised to Russia after Pope Francis made comments in which he singled out the role of Russian ethnic minorities in the Ukraine conflict. Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said: “I can now confirm there were diplomatic contacts to that effect”. Pope Francis said in an interview in November that some of the “cruellest” actors among Russia's ranks in Ukraine were “not of the Russian tradition” but rather ethnic minorities such as “the Chechens, the Buryats, and so on”.
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