Pope Francis has revamped his advisory body of cardinals by appointing five new members, including Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, one of the leaders of the global synod process. The council of cardinals was established by the Pope soon after his election to assist him in governing the Church.
Besides Cardinal Hollerich, who is the Archbishop of Luxembourg and president of the bishops’ conferences in the European Union (Comece), Francis has chosen four new members: Cardinal Juan José Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona, Cardinal Gerald Lacroix, Archbishop of Quebec, Cardinal Sergio da Rocha, Archbishop of São Salvador da Bahia in Brazil and the Spanish Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, president of the governorate of Vatican City State.
The Vatican City Court held a hearing last week to try three climate activists for criminal damage to a famous statue in the Vatican Museums.
Two people superglued their hands to the marble base holding Laocoön and His Sons in August 2022, using “particularly tough and corrosive synthetic adhesive”. They also affixed QR codes linking to activist materials to the base of the statue with superglue. The third, who video-recorded the demonstration, was also charged.
The three are part of “Last Generation”, an Italian group that encourages nonviolent civil disobedience to “raise the alarm on the climate emergency”.
More than 70 per cent of US bishops have granted a dispensation from the Lenten requirement to abstain from meat on Fridays, so that the faithful can enjoy corned beef on St Patrick’s Day. Corned beef and cabbage dinners are staples of Irish parishes, and often are used as fundraisers for ministries.
Some of the edicts announcing the dispensation ask the faithful to undertake a work of mercy or other sacrifice, but most grant the dispensation freely. The Taoiseach traditionally attends Mass at St Patrick’s Church in Washington, DC before going to a reception at the White House.
Students at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio will no longer be able to celebrate the Tridentine Mass on campus after Bishop Jeffrey Montforton limited the celebration of the old rite to an off-campus church. He cited recent clarifications from Rome in announcing the decision.
Similarly, the diocese of Albany, New York announced that the celebration of the old rite at two parish churches was suspended, and the Tridentine rite could only be celebrated at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Martyrs. It is believed no more than one per cent of US Catholics were accustomed to celebrating the old rite.
Catholic bishops in Kenya are demanding the withdrawal of a supreme court ruling that allowed LGBTQ people to form an official association.
Archbishop Martin Kivuva Musonde, the chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement that the ruling contradicted the basic values of Kenyan people as enshrined in the constitution. He said Kenya was a God fearing nation and the people acknowledged that created humankind as man and female in his likeness.
“Human sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of body and soul. Everyone – man and woman – should…accept his sexual identity as a gift from God,” said Musonde.
Over a month after Pope Francis' ecumenical pilgrimage to South Sudan, the Vatican ambassador to the nation has said the Catholic Church must “step up its game” to help the people build peace. Archbishop Bert van Megen, apostolic nuncio to Kenya and South Sudan, was speaking to Catholic News Service after he met privately with Pope Francis at the Vatican.
At least ten people died as a tropical cyclone made landfall in Mozambique for the second time last weekend packing wind speeds exceeding 130mph that pounded north and central areas of the country.
Churches and schools acted as evacuation centres for displaced families as the southern African nation received more than a year's worth of rainfall in the past four weeks, breaking records for the duration and strength of tropical storms in the southern hemisphere.
The cyclone also caused deaths, floods and landslides in Malawi, where health authorities are tackling a cholera epidemic, and churches housed displaced people.
A petition was presented to the Korean parliament on 13 March for the abolition of the death penalty by the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of South Korea. It also called for the introduction of alternative sentences.
The petition was signed by all 25 Korean bishops, including Bishop Lee Yong-Hoon of Suwon, president of the bishops' conference. More than 75,843 Catholics signed.
South Korea has at least 60 people on death row, although there has been an unofficial moratorium on executions since 1998. The bishops said the country, “must go beyond the moratorium on executions to become a country that completely abolishes the death penalty”.
Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan of Hong Kong has accepted an invitation from Bishop Joseph Li Shan of Beijing to spend five days in Beijing during April. Chow, a Jesuit, said his visit “underscores the mission of the Diocese of Hong Kong to be a bridge Church and promote exchanges and interactions between the two sides”.
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha and vicar general Fr Peter Choy will accompany. They will participate in a mass at Beijing’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and meet clergy and laity. They will also visit Beijing’s Major Seminary and the tomb of Italian Jesuit missionary Fr Matteo Ricci.
Nearly 70 representatives from religious organisations took part in recent sessions of the week-long National People's Congress in Beijing, which ended on Monday.
Eleven were Catholic, including Bishop Joseph Li Shan of Beijing, President of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, and Bishops Joseph Shen Bin of Haimen and John Fang Xing Yao of Linyi.
During the annual meeting of China's top political advisory body, President Xi Jinping, now in his third term as president, told more than 2,000 participants that he wanted stability in Hong Kong and unification with Taiwan, which Beijing views as part of its territory.
Church leaders in Myanmar have complained about a huge rise in unregulated mining for rare earth elements by Chinese firms and others in mineral-rich and conflict-torn Kachin State, which borders China.
“We are concerned about the effects of environmental degradation, the livelihoods of local communities and the wellbeing of animals due to the extraction,” said Church leaders from Banmaw diocese, including Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam.
Rare earth minerals are widely used in the production of high-tech devices like smartphones, computers, electric vehicles and solar cells. “The operations are done one hill after another, affecting the villagers’ livelihoods, farming, drinking water and health,” said a diocesan representative.
The Catholic bishops of the Philippines are to increase their prison ministry following reports of drug trading inside jails in the Catholic-majority nation, involving both prisoners and staff.
“We will increase our presence by assigning more missionaries to prisons,” said Bishop Joel Baylon of Legazpi, chair of the bishops’ prison ministry, on 9 March. “Their programs would hopefully decrease the involvement of prisoners in illegal drugs.”
Bishop Baylon praised a Jesuit-run livelihood program in the country’s biggest prison in Muntinlupa City where prisoners are taught how to make crosses and soap. He said: “If they earn money from inside, they’d rather devote their time to it than to drugs.”
The latest church in central Chile to be destroyed in an arson attack was the chapel of Our Lady of the Rays in California, Araucanía, after masked and armed men set it alight on 4 March.
A message claiming responsibility was signed by the Malleco Mapuche Resistance, a guerrilla group that claims to defend the rights of Mapuche indigenous people and has carried out attacks in the past.
Church attacks are on the rise in Chile. Some radical groups see the Church as a symbol of colonisation and there is widespread criticism of coverups of Church sex abuse scandals.
Churches in Syria are helping to repair homes hit by last month’s earthquakes that killed more than 50,000. The ecumenical Joint Committee of Christian Churches in Lattakia, which includes Catholic Churches, will receive US$250,000 from Aid to the Church in Need to restore hundreds of damaged properties.
In Aleppo, under the auspices of the Aleppo bishops’ council, a committee of specialist engineers is assessing damaged houses to help survivors return. Meanwhile, a priest in the city, Fr Hugo Alaniz, has called for an end to economic sanctions which, he says, have prevented Syria recovering from the ravages of war and earthquakes. He reported that the Church is “close to families, especially Christians, but also Muslim families”.
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