The man charged with murdering Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell on 18 February pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in court last week.
Carlos Medina, 61, the husband of the bishop’s housekeeper, was arrested two days after the shooting and charged on 22 February. Los Angeles district attorney George Gascón said at the time that Medina had admitted to the murder, but legal colleagues have criticised this disclosure as irregular in an open criminal case.
The 69-year-old Bishop O’Connell died after being shot multiple times in his home. Thousands gathered on 3 March at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles for his funeral, presided over by the Archbishop of Los Angeles, José Gomez.
An Italian charity held a “penitential celebration of reparation” at the citadel of Assisi with the theme of “You did it to me” on 24 March after up to 89 migrants died on 26 February when their boat hits rocks near the coast of Calabria.
It was organised by Pro Civitate Christiana of Assisi and its president, Fr Tonio Dell’Olio, said the liturgy was “to ask for forgiveness of a communal sin and further to urge acceptance and to put welcoming policies in place”. He called for greater public awareness “of the choices that are made at the expense of the poorest”.
The head of a religious order has lamented the violence sweeping Haiti after one of his priests was released by kidnappers.
In a message to Archbishop Max Leroy Mésidor of Port-au-Prince, Fr Dudley Pierre, provincial of the Clerics of Saint Viator, highlighted the “violence” and “anarchy” in Haiti. He described the abduction as “painful and outrageous” and felt the country was passing through a “dark hour”.
Fr Jean-Yves Médidor CSV was freed on 23 March, after being missing for 12 days. A month earlier another priest was kidnapped and held for 10 days.
The Vatican returned three marble fragments from the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis in Athens to Greece last week, two centuries after they came into its possession.
Bishop Brian Farrell, the secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, said the move was “an ecclesial, cultural and social gesture of friendship and solidarity with the people of Greece”, at a ceremony in the Athens Acropolis Museum. The fragments depict the head of a horse, a bearded male head, and the head of a young boy.
The head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Britain, Archbishop Nikitas, last week wrote to the prime minister to request the return of the Parthenon marbles in the British Museum.
The doctrine committee of the US bishops’ conference issued a statement forbidding Catholic healthcare institutions from performing sex change operations, because such surgeries “do not respect the fundamental order of the human person as an intrinsic unity of body and soul, with a body that is sexually differentiated”.
The document also stated that Catholic healthcare providers “must employ all appropriate resources to mitigate the suffering of those who struggle with gender incongruence”. The issue of transgender surgery, especially for young people, is under debate in many state legislatures at present, but the bishops said they had been discussing their document for several years.
Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, speaking at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, called for the US to embrace a more humane and welcoming immigration policy.
“As a nation of immigrants, we should seek a sense of identification with other immigrants trying to enter the country,” O’Malley said. “Our immigrant population contributes mightily to the economy and the well-being of this country.”
He added: “States have an obligation to provide reasonable responses to immigration. 280 million migrants [worldwide] conveys the scope of the problem.” He said that Catholic social teaching embodies a better way – “A shared dignity is the basis of the equality of persons.”
New research shows the help that members of the Polish Church gave to Jews during the Holocaust. About 100 Catholic religious orders in more than 500 properties and over 700 diocesan priests in 600 localities in provided aid during the Nazi occupation of Poland.
The findings are detailed in “Wartime Rescue of Jews by the Polish Catholic Clergy”, presented at the Catholic University of Lublin on 23 March, on the eve of the National Day of Remembrance of Poles who rescued Jews under German occupation. It is “based on the testimonies of Jewish survivors and the Poles who saved them, supplemented by the Church sources” said author Ryszard Tyndorf.
A study in Canada has found that in 2021 hate crimes targeting Jewish people increased by 47 per cent increase, violence against Muslims by 71 per cent, and against Catholics by 260 per cent.
Statistics Canada documented 3,360 reports to police where there was discrimination against religions, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity. Men and boys were more likely to be victims of hate crimes targeting a specific religion and less than half involved physical assault.
Over 70 Catholic churches across Canada have been vandalised or burned in a “suspicious manner” since 2020, in attacks thought to be in protest against the Church’s role in Canada’s residential school system.
Three civilians were killed last week after Myanmar’s military bombed several villages in predominantly Christian Kayah state.
“There was no fighting taking place in the area when the deadly aerial bombing happened,” the Karenni Human Rights Group said on 24 March. A Church source from Loikaw, the state capital, reported that “hundreds of people have taken refuge in churches”.
More than 3,000 civilians have been killed since the military coup in February 2021, and more than 1.3 million have been displaced. A report published on 20 March by the special rapporteur on Myanmar to the UN’s Human Rights Council said that 17.6 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance.
Kenyan government officials and opposition leaders have rebuffed calls from the country’s Catholic bishops for dialogue to end mass protests.
The bishops last week called for talks between President William Samoei Ruto and opposition leader Raila Amollo Odinga, as a demonstration on March 20 descended into fighting between the police and protesters. Several people were injured, as protesters attacked, destroyed or looted several properties.
“We wish to once more make a passionate appeal to the people of Kenya to refrain from the continued demonstrations as announced by the leaders of the opposition,” said Archbishop Martin Kivuva Musonde, the chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops.
But deputy president Rigathi Gachagua rejected the appeal for dialogue. “How can you ask us to fall into the trap of blackmail, threats and intimidation?” he said.
Ghana’s president has said his country looks forward to cooperation with the Vatican to address the tough issues of climate crisis, human trafficking and promoting health and human dignity.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo highlighted last week that Ghana and the Vatican share the same principles of freedom of religion, adherence to the principles of human rights, democracy and the promotion of equality for all.
He was speaking at a celebration in Accra to mark the tenth anniversary of the pontificate of Pope Francis, noting that it was also the tenth anniversary of Ghana establishing a diplomatic mission at the Vatican and commissioning its first ambassador to the Holy See.
“Ghanaians are looking forward to hosting Pope Francis’s visit in the near future on his round of visits to Africa”, he said, adding that “our present global situation challenges all of us to look to his vision and conviction as a man of peace”.
A Catholic school in Hong Kong has announced it will close by 2028 due to a decline in pupil admissions caused by a falling birth rate and a staff shortage resulting from emigration.
The Tak Nga Primary School in Kowloon notified parents and students on 21 March. “We have no choice, and are reluctant, to bid farewell to fellow residents after more than 60 years,” said a notice from the Sisters of the Announcers of the Lord, the school’s sponsoring body.
In Hong Kong’s 2021-22 academic year around 5,000 pupils left kindergartens, while around 10,000 and 15,000 quit primary and secondary schools respectively. More than 4,000 teachers left their jobs in the past academic year.
The opening of visa schemes to obtain citizenship in countries such as Britain, Canada, and Australia following Beijing’s imposition of its national security law in 2020 has proved a catalyst for an exodus of Hong Kongers.
Brazil’s bishops have highlighted that in the state of Piauí, 80 per cent of the population is suffering hunger. Information from a national survey on food insecurity, published by the episcopal conference, revealed that more than one million people in the semi-arid north-eastern state do not have regular access to food.
The local Church’s children’s ministry offers pastoral support to families. Hunger and malnutrition cause high infant mortality and have cognitive, social and emotional impacts on all children. “Those in charge of the pastoral care of children, when they make home visits, encounter this sad reality in most homes,” said pastoral worker Viviane Medeiro.
Columban missionaries internationally are prioritising “migrant and refugee issues, climate change and the coexistence of various cultures” according to the superior general of the Missionary Society of St Columba, based in Hong Kong.
Fr Timothy Mulroy was speaking at the society’s “International Leadership Conference” in South Korea, held 19-31 March and attended by heads and representatives of Columban missionaries from 16 countries. At the opening Mass on 19 March, celebrant Bishop Job Koo Yobi, auxiliary in Seoul Archdiocese, thanked the Columbans for 90 years of “dedicated service” in Korea.
A new study reported last week that fewer young Korean Catholics are attending Sunday Mass. The survey by the Korean Catholic Research Institute of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference found that 36.1 per cent of Catholic youth in their twenties join Sunday Mass in 2023 compared to 53.2 per cent before the pandemic.
The online survey was conducted during a week in January with 1,063 Catholics over the age of 19. Among the respondents in their twenties, one out of four said they only attend Mass on special occasions or do not go at all.
Declining vocations in Belgium may imperil the future of Trappist beer, as the famous label can only be used for products made inside and abbey overseen by members of the order. Only five Trappist breweries survive in Belgium, largely run by secular staff but governed by monastic communities which receive the profits from the considerable sales.
The abbot of Westmalle Abbey, Br Benedikt, told The Observer that “the state of most monastic communities is precarious”. Westmalle, where the monks rise each morning at 3:45am, is the oldest Trappist brewery in Belgium. Its secular managing director, Philippe Van Assche, said that monasteries with more severe regimes attracted more vocations.
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