The Council of European Bishops’ Conferences has backed the Pope’s call for a negotiated solution in Nagorno-Karabakh and urged the international community to alleviate the “humanitarian emergency” of more than 100,000 displaced people.
The bishops fear the exodus of the enclave’s Armenian population to Armenia “is also endangering the Christian heritage of the region”. In recent decades, they said, “irreversible destruction of religious and cultural heritage has been carried out by Azerbaijan,” including the destruction of at least 89 Armenian churches.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Juston Welby, visited Armenia last week, and told Catholicos Karekin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church: “I come here to say you are not forgotten.” Archbishop Welby was in the region as part of a five-day “pilgrimage of listening”. He also visited Azerbaijan and Georgia, meeting with civil and religious leaders, including the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Last week, the UN’s World Food Program warned of looming crisis on South Sudan’s northern border with Sudan, where it says “of the nearly 300,000 people who have arrived in South Sudan in the past five months, one in five children suffer from malnutrition and 90 percent of families say they go several days without eating”.
Caritas South Sudan is transporting and supporting families returning from war-struck Sudan to the north, where fighting continues between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. Many are South Sudanese who fled conflict in their own nation but are now returning in a vast repatriation movement.
Based in the Archdiocese of Juba, Caritas reports that “most of the people transported are vulnerable like women with children, elderly people, and sick people” who cannot reach families in Juba and elsewhere without help. Caritas also offers shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene promotion and nutrition across South Sudan.
The Church in Benin has opened the process to canonise Vivian Ogu, a 14-year-old girl shot dead in 2009 by armed men after resisting their attempts to rape her.
A spokesman for Ogu’s cause said the Archdiocese of Benin was pursuing it “not just” because of the manner of Ogu’s death “but because of the great impact she made in the life of so many youths as well as her zeal for the Lord before her death.” As a nine-year-old, she had raised money to pay for the fees of poor children at the Central Hospital in Benin City.
The president of both the Bishops’ Conference of Chad said there was growing impatience with the French military presence in the country. Archbishop Goetbe Edmond Djitangar of N’Djamena said last week that “many perceive France as a forceful power seeking to impose itself in order to exploit local resources”.
He said that “Chad exports oil but in its own capital, N’Djamena, there are neighbourhoods that have electricity only two or three days a week.” He suggested that if France were to support community development by building roads, schools and hospitals to benefit local people, “we will respect it again.”
The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has issued new guidelines for its pastoral mission to migrants. “The SACBC migrants and refugees office have prepared a Liturgy kit with some suggestions that may help dioceses and parishes to pray together for all people on the move and for the reality of our countries,” said the regional bishops’ in a statement signed by Bishop Joseph Kizito, who heads the office.
The International Union of Superiors General (UISG), which represents over 600,000 Catholic religious sisters worldwide, has issued ten recommendations to address the challenges of migration trends.
Sr Carmen Elisa Bandeo, coordinator of the International Migrants and Refugees Network at UISG, said: “UISG believes the international community has a responsibility to provide assistance to all migrants and refugees, guaranteeing the full respect of their rights, and facilitating their integration within host communities.”
Recommendations include supporting internally displaced people and international migrants through language education, skills training and capacity-building projects. Also, engaging immigrant and host communities in shared intercultural endeavours that can help to bridge social and cultural differences and advocating “for a linguistic shift from discourses of fear, threat, emergency and war towards conversations about inclusion, integration, development and mutual enrichment.”
A UISG Advocacy Forum will take place Rome on 23-24 October to identify priority areas for national, regional and international advocacy.
The Catholic bishops of Sri Lanka have criticised President Ranil Wickremesinghe for suggesting a rift in Church leadership over an international investigation of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that claimed 269 lives.
During an interview with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle on 3 October, Wickremesinghe ruled out an international investigation into attacks at two Catholic churches and three hotels. He said he was “only dealing with the bishops’ conference” and not with Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, who has demanded the inquiry.
Conference president Bishop Harold Anthony Perera of Kurunegala said the bishops share Cardinal Ranjith’s position. “The recommendations made by the two commissions and a parliamentary special committee have not been implemented so far,” he said. He urged that further inquiry be “under the supervision of an independent international investigation team”.
A Syro-Malabar priest in the central Indian state of Kerala has been temporarily suspended from parish ministry for joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Syro-Malabar Church announced it was removing Fr Kuriakose Mattam from the role of parish priest of St Thomas Church in Mankuva, Idukki in Kerala, after the circulation of a video clip posted online by the president of the BJP in Indukki, in which Fr Mattam was filmed saying: “I don’t see the BJP as a party unfit to be a part of. I am here since I have friendly relationships with several BJP people. But I have never been a member of any party so far.”
Two churches in central Chile were set ablaze in early October. The Chapel of St Alberto Hurtado in Curanilahue, in the Archdiocese of Concepción, was destroyed while St Joseph’s Church in Constitución in the Diocese of Linares was badly damaged.
Bishop Tomislav Koljatic Maroevic of Linares expressed his “profound pain” at the attack on St Joseph’s. He welcomed “the timely response to the fire by parishioners and city firefighters” and noted “there are no victims”. He said such vandalism undermines freedom of worship, “a fundamental right that must be protected.”
More than 60 churches in Chile have suffered arson attacks in the last seven years. Groups responsible claim to defend the Mapuche indigenous and say Christianity is a symbol of colonisation.
The Mexican Bishops’ Conference, together with the Jesuits and the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious of Mexico, have launched a Citizen Accord for Peace, which aims to “overcome the dynamics of violence and destruction of the social fabric” in the country. They will also present a National Peace Agenda to all candidates for public office running in the 2024 elections.
“Peace is a joint effort at different levels and with all social sectors,” said a joint statement. It warned against “the fear that affects us due to the indolence and ineffectiveness of the authorities, who have not attended to their main task of seeking unity, security, justice, and peace in the country”.
Archbishop Carlos Garfias Merlos of Morelia and Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar Martínez of San Cristóbal de las Casas are among the Church leaders supporting peace and mediation education, trying to tackle insecurity, terror and gang violence raging in many parts of Mexico.
The Diocese of Davenport in Iowa issued “Guidelines for Pastoral Accompaniment of Sexual and Gender Minorities” which were praised for their sensitivity and their rejection of a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
The document set forth five guiding principles, including recognising the fundamental dignity of each human person, “a commitment to loving people first and listening for deeper understanding” and a “basic willingness to make reasonable and appropriate accommodations when possible”.
The document states “our first response should be one of welcome, love, and respect. We also should give them the benefit of the doubt in regard to their experiences and motivations.”
Thousands of pro-life activists gathered outside the state capitol building in Columbus, Ohio, urging voters in next month’s elections to oppose a referendum on a constitutional amendment known as “Issue 1”, which would effectively remove all restrictions on access to abortion.
If approved “it would make Ohio one of the most pro-abortion states in the nation by allowing abortion through all nine months – among other harmful consequences,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life.
Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and the issue of abortion rights was returned to the states, the pro-life movement has failed to defeat a single referendum on expanding access to abortion.
The proportion of people in Poland identifying as Roman Catholic has fallen to 71 per cent in the latest national census, down from 88 per cent a decade earlier. The new data, released by Statistics Poland (GUS), a state agency, show that in the 2021 census, 27.1 million people said they were Catholics, down from 33.7 million in 2011.
Among young Poles, the decline was even more dramatic, with 23 per cent practising regularly in 2021. Last year, Archbishop Wojciech Polak of Poznan called the decline in religious practice among young Poles “devastating”.
The apostolic nuncio to Belgium, Archbishop Franco Coppola, has said he “doesn’t blame” Bishop Johann Bonny of Antwerp for his criticism of the Vatican’s handling of abuse allegations against the retired Bishop of Bruges Roger Vangheluwe, which the television series Gotvergeten has brought to public attention.
Archbishop Coppola said the Vangheluwe case was “an important and worrying file for us” and would not be “placed somewhere at the bottom of the pile”, but said that he understood Bishop Bonny’s frustration. “He has been leading the fight against abuse in the church in Belgium for years and is now confronted with a lot of criticism and pressure,” said Coppola. “Maybe that also made him a little angry. Sometimes you say something you don't mean.”
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