Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, Texas, dismissed Carmelite Mother Teresa Gerlach from religious life after his investigation found her “guilty of having violated the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue and her vow of chastity with a priest from outside the Diocese of Fort Worth”.
The decision comes after Mother Teresa monastery filed a suit against the bishop in civil court. The nuns’ lawyer called Olson’s decision “unjust and unconscionable”. The Vatican endorsed Olson’s authority to deal with the monastery, but Mother Gerlach has 30 days to appeal his decision to the Vatican dicastery for religious orders.
The Catholic bishops of Florida have called on Governor Ron DeSantis to spare the life Duane Owen, a 62-year-old convicted murderer scheduled for execution on 15 June.
“His senseless and horrific acts tragically ended the lives of these young women and have caused immeasurable grief and suffering to the victims’ families, loved ones, and communities,” said Michael Sheedy, executive director of the Flordia bishops’ conference in a letter to the governor.
“However, taking Mr Owen’s life will not restore the lives of the victims. Intentionally ending his life will do nothing but perpetuate violence in a society steeped in it.”
The French bishops have published a book outlining the historic arguments of Christian anti-Judaism and how they can be refuted. The 155-page book Deconstructing Christian Anti-Judaism results from an episcopal declaration in February 2021 that a resurgence of anti-Semitism across Europe required a response from Christians.
“We cannot allow this to develop among today’s Christians,” said Fr Christophe Le Sourt, head of the French Church’s office for relations with Judaism. The book, which refutes what it calls 20 myths about Christian hostility toward Jews, has a preface by France’s Grand Rabbi Haïm Korsia.
On 29 May a Hong Kong court rejected an application to halt the landmark national security trial of the Catholic newspaper publisher and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai. He has been in custody for the past two years and could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.
Lai, 75, founded the now-closed pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and has been a prominent Hong Kong critic of the Chinese Communist Party leadership.
Last week, it was made public that UN experts have expressed “grave concern” to the Chinese government regarding the arrest, detention and multiple prosecutions against Lai. In a formal communication they urged the Chinese “to halt the alleged violations and prevent their re-occurrence”.
Chad’s Catholic bishops wrote to the acting head of state, General Mahamat Idriss Déby, on 30 May, urging his transitional government to address problems of violence and insecurity, alongside shortages of basic necessities. “The blood and tears of Chadians have flowed enough and must stop,” they said.
The bishops said recent killings are a result of poor governance and accused the government of keeping the Chadian people in a state of poverty, citing various shortages of food, medicines and fuel – which, they say, is “simply incomprehensible for an oil-producing country.”
Local Caritas organisations mobilised to assist the victims of a train crash in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on 3 June, which killed at least 275 people and injured around 1,200 others.
Fr Lijo George, social work director of the Balasore diocese, reported on Monday that “our priests and nuns along with Church volunteers are helping the wounded passengers in the hospital to contact their family members and relatives.” Volunteers were also “arranging food, cloth, masks, gloves and other assistance to the rescue teams and medical teams working in the hospital,” he said.
A statement from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India offered “prayers and sympathies” and called on the government “to take steps to see that in future such massive tragedies are avoided.”
Pope Francis offered his condolences in a telegram to India’s apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, and prayed for victims at the Sunday Angelus on 4 June. “I am close to the injured and their families. May our heavenly Father welcome the souls of the deceased into his kingdom,” he said.
Signalling failure is the likely cause of the crash of two packed passenger trains and a freight train.
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the 59-year-old Bishop of Jalandhar, Franco Mulakkal, who was cleared last year of charges of raping a religious sister in his diocese. The resignation comes 16 months after his acquittal by a court in India’s Kerala state in January 2022, where the judge found that “the prosecution failed to prove all the charges against the accused”.
The Vatican did not indicate whether it carried out its own investigation into the accusations against Mulakkal, who denied the claims and contends he was falsely accused after he investigated financial irregularities at his accuser’s convent. In 2018, religious sister with the Missionaries of Jesus accused the bishop of raping her in May 2014, during a visit to her convent in Kuravilangad, Kerala.
Catholic bishops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have condemned a recent attack on a political demonstration staged by the country’s opposition parties. Police were accused of using excessive force and firing live rounds to disperse the protest. The demonstrators were reported to have included children.
The bishops’ statement, issued on 26 May and under the umbrella of the Episcopal Conference of Congo, said: “We greatly need the forces of law and order on the front lines to secure the country and not to harass the population in the cities.” The DRC’s general elections are scheduled for 20 December.
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s secretary for relations with states, travelled to Mongolia on 4 June following the confirmation that Pope Francis would visit the country this summer.
Archbishop Gallagher arrived in the capital Ulaanbaatar the day after the Vatican announced that the apostolic visitation previously mooted by the Pope would take place from 31 August to 4 September, following an invitation from the Mongolian president.
There are fewer than 1,500 Catholics in Mongolia, but Francis made Giorgio Marengo, the apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, a cardinal in last year’s consistory.
Catholic aid agencies, including the Brussels-based alliance CIDSE, have welcomed the European Parliament's approval of a Due Diligence Directive, which will require companies headquartered in the EU to observe human rights and environmental standards in their business dealings in the global south, as well as lifting barriers to justice for those seeking redress.
The head of CIDSE, an assembly of Catholic organisations from Europe and North America, said approval of the directive, due to be finalised by the end of 2023, represented a milestone on “the path to corporate accountability and justice” and would help protect women, indigenous peoples, peasants and workers all over the world “who are living the devastating impacts of irresponsible business activities”.
Pope Francis has instructed Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the former private secretary to Benedict XVI, to leave the Vatican by 1 July and move to his home diocese in Germany. The archbishop’s future has been subject to wide speculation since the death of the Pope Emeritus, and he will not have any formal role on his return to the Archdiocese of Freiburg. On 4 June he made his first public appearance in Germany in recent times, saying Mass in the western city of Bochum.
The archpriest of St Peter’s, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, conducted a penitential service at the basilica’s high altar on 3 June, after a man stood on top of it naked.
The unidentified Polish national approached the Altar of Confession shortly before the basilica closed on Thursday evening, stripped and climbed onto it, displaying the words “Save the children of Ukraina” written in English on his back. He was arrested and cooperated with the Vatican gendarmerie, who handed him over to the Italian police.
During Saturday’s penitential liturgy, Cardinal Gambetti said that “it is the structure of sin that conditions the hearts and minds of people”.
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