Fifteen parishes in Tigray were occupied by armed forces on 16 April, as the Ethiopian Coptic Orthodox Church marked Easter Sunday.
Bishop Tesfaselassi Medhin of the Catholic eparchy of Adigrat described the situation in the north Ethiopian state as “unfortunately still very critical”. He asked for prayers for the rising number of inhabitants of Tigray fleeing their homes.
Approximately 47,000 newly displaced people have been registered in a refugee camp near Shire in north-western Tigray. In November 2022, Ethiopia’s government signed a peace agreement with separatist organisations in the region.
Religious orders in France have agreed to take part in a study to analyse the potential risks of sexual abuse in each community. The CORREF Association (the conference of French Religious) will also look at how communities can seek help from civil and Church authorities to shed light on specific cases of abuse.
Lay observers who attended a recent CORREF meeting in Paris deemed the association more flexible than the French bishops’ conference, which voted on just two of nine proposals for reform at their spring plenary meeting in Lourdes, saying all other suggestions required further study.
Catholic bishops in Washington say a new bill on reporting child abuse could force priests to break civil law in order to uphold the seal of the confessional. The bill, passed by a 75-member majority of the Washington State House of Representatives on 11 April, is to go before the Senate.
Approximately three-quarters of middle-aged and elderly people in Hong Kong whose children have migrated abroad experience loneliness and depression. According to a survey from Hong Kong Christian Services, people aged 50 and older run a “high risk of social isolation and worsening physical and mental health” after their children leave the island.
Waves of young people have migrated from Hong Kong since 2020 when China introduced the island’s national security law. Hong Kong Christian Services suggested the plight of the elderly might be relieved by setting up pre-emigration support services, a neighbour support network, and by teaching older people how to effectively use communications technology.
Three nuns have been expelled from Nicaragua on government orders. According to the local news outlet 100% Noticias, Sr Isabel and Sr Cecilia were given 72 hours to leave Nicaragua last week.
The twin sisters belong to the Dominican Congregation of the Anunciata and have since returned to their homeland, Costa Rica. A third, Sr Teresa, from Guatemala, was also expelled. The trio formerly ran the López Carazo nursing home for the elderly in the city of Rivas in Granada Diocese.
Their bishop, Jorge Solórzano Pérez was notified of the expulsion by the government of Daniel Ortega. He has not made any comment.
The leader of the Catholic bishops’ of Timor-Leste is urging politicians to support peace in the South-East Asian nation in the run-up to parliamentary elections.
Bishop Norberto do Amaral of the Diocese of Maliana said politicians should “take a role in maintaining peace and stability” rather than attacking each other or spreading “hatred”. He urged those vying for one of 65 seats in Timor-Leste’s parliament to tell the truth and keep their promises.
Tensions in the 1.3 million-strong nation are rising between former insurgents who fought for the country’s independence from Indonesia. Parliamentary elections will take place on 21 May.
Mexico is the most dangerous place in Latin America to be a priest. More than 50 have been murdered in the country over the past 30 years, according to Mexico’s Catholic Multimedia Center.
Since Andrés Manuel López Obrador became president in 2018, eight priests have been killed. Some clergy have been murdered for speaking out against cartel violence. Others were killed after being caught in the crossfire of rival criminal organisations.
The murders, whose killers are rarely found, mainly occurred in the western region known as Tierra Caliente, where rival drug gangs are fighting to control local territory.
The Indian president Droupadi Murmu has pledged to act over the spate of rising attacks on Christians. On 13 April she met the Archbishop Anil Joseph Couto of Delhi and other Christian leaders at her official residence in New Delhi. They briefed her on recent attacks against Christians, who form 2.3 per cent of India’s 1.4 billion population.
According to the United Christian Forum, 598 anti-Christian attacks including mob violence, intimidation and vandalism of places of worship took place in 21 out of 28 Indian states last year. After hearing the bishops’ briefing, Murmu voiced concern over the violence, attributing this to the acts of a few, describing India as a vibrant secular nation.
The US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has put on hold a ruling to restrict access to mifepristone, the drug used to perform chemical abortions. On 7 April, a judge in a lower court had reversed the Federal Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, first granted 23 years ago.
A panel of three judges suspended the ruling but retained recent regulations curtailing access to the drug. Justice Alito enacted the “stay” or suspension on the ruling while the High Court considers an emergency appeal filed by the Biden administration and the drugs’ manufacturer. In 2022, Justice Alito wrote the ruling which overturned the constitutional right to abortion in America.
Churches in the Middle East are to dedicate every 22 April to people who have been abducted. The “Ecumenical Day for the Abducted and the Forcibly Absented” will be launched on 24 April to mark the tenth anniversary of the kidnapping of two Archbishops of Aleppo.
The Greek Orthodox Archbishop Boulos Yazigi and the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim were kidnapped on 22 April 2013, when their car was ambushed near Syria’s border with Turkey. Their fate is unknown. The current Greek Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs of Antioch will lead next Monday’s seminar to launch the annual event.
The Sisters of St Joseph of Peace are calling on Citigroup to repent and change how it finances schemes involving fossil fuels. The order accuses the bank of trying to “minimise its role” in supplying cash to Enbridge, a company responsible for laying controversial oil pipelines in North America.
The UK- and US-based religious order has a small stake in the bank, whose AGM is to take place on 25 April. The nuns have filed a resolution challenging the Citigroup board to report on how it was protecting the rights of indigenous communities affected by the re-routing of pipelines carrying oil from the US to Canada.
The sisters allege Citigroup provided $5 billion to Enbridge between 2016 and 2020. The bank has urged shareholders to oppose the resolution, saying it is “untrue” that it has financed the Enbridge Line 3 and Line 5 projects, according to The Financial Times.
In Myanmar, priests, religious and lay Catholics have boycotted a state-sponsored water festival to mark the Burmese New Year in protest against recent junta airstrikes that reportedly killed 168 civilians.
Independent Catholics for Justice in Myanmar urged people to stay at home rather than attend the celebrations on 13 April, featuring pavilions specially built by the junta to splash water on the crowds. The streets of major cities including Mandalay and Yangon were deserted during the festival, regarded by pro-democracy activists as a bid to persuade the world life had returned to normal in Myanmar following the 2021 coup.
Loading ...
