News Briefing: The Church in the World

Nuns refuse to abandon city
Sr Annie Demerjian of the Sisters of Jesus and Mary (above) in Aleppo, Syria, is among Religious staying in the city despite bombardment and water and food shortages. Several Carmelite nuns are also refusing to leave and have appealed for urgent aid and prayers.

A French Discalced Carmelite, Sr Anne-Françoise told Aid to the Church in Need last week: “It is only the poorest of the people who are still left here in Aleppo … We have no water, no electricity, and the fighting is continuing incessantly. How can we abandon these people in their suffering?” she asked. The Carmelite nuns, four Syrian and two French, have taken in a number of displaced families and are supporting others. The five-year civil war has reached a critical point in Aleppo, with fierce clashes between government troops and rebels. More than 250,000 civilians have been under siege since mid July, 40,000 of them Christian.


The Pope could open the cardinalate for women and thus make it possible for them to elect a new Pope according to Fr Karl-Heinz Menke, a member of the newly appointed Study Commission on the Women’s Diaconate. “If the Pope so wishes he can, for instance, decide to open the cardinalate, which includes the right to elect a new Pope, for women”, Fr Menke told the German daily Die Welt on 4 August.

Fr Menke, a retired professor of dogmatic theology at the University of Bonn and member of the International Theological Commission, said the exact task of the commission had not yet been set down in writing, but he assumed that the Pope wanted the body to examine whether the reintroduction of the female diaconate would serve the Church’s mission and help to further involve women in church decision-making. It would not be discussing the opening of the priesthood to women, but the Pope could decide to open the cardinalate for women, he said. (See page 8.)

Nigeria terror threat
Soon after the Islamic State militant group announced last week that its West African affiliate Boko Haram has a new leader, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, al-Barnawi declared that the group will launch more attacks on Christian churches in Nigeria in the coming months. Al-Barnawi warned that the Islamist terrorists will be “booby-trapping and blowing up every church that we are able to reach, and killing all of those [Christians] whom we find”.


The influential priest Hugo Valdemar Romero said in an interview that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has “betrayed” the Church by advocating the legalisation of gay marriage nationwide. Same-sex marriage is currently legal in some half dozen of Mexico’s 31 states, and the move is seen as politically motivated.  


Biden in gay wedding row
Three bishops exercising leadership roles at the US Bishops’ Conference (USCCB) issued a joint statement chastising Vice-President Joe Biden, without naming him, because the first Catholic vice-president in the nation’s history had presided at the civil wedding of two gay staff members, Brian Mosteller and Joe Mahshie. “When a prominent Catholic politician publicly and voluntarily officiates at a ceremony to solemnise the relationship of two people of the same sex, confusion arises regarding Catholic teaching on marriage and the corresponding moral obligations of Catholics,” said the statement, signed by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the USCCB, Archbishop Thomas Wenski, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop Richard Malone, chairman of the Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth committee.

Chilean church razed
A Catholic church at Pidima, in Chile’s Araucanía region, was burned to the ground on 4 August. Militants from the indigenous Mapuche people, who have set fire to 15 Catholic and Protestant churches in southern Chile over the past year, are suspected in the attack. Activists demand the recovery of traditional lands. Bishop Héctor Eduardo Vargas of Temuco, who has been a dialogue facilitator, pointed out that members of the Mapuche who embraced Christianity built the churches now in ashes.


In Australia, the New South Wales Diocese of Wollongong urged Australian religious believers to ensure they recorded their faith in Tuesday’s Australian Census, which for the first time had “No religion” as an option – a change likely to lead to an increase in recorded non-believers. Wollongong Catholics produced an online resource, “Stand up and be counted”, urging believers to identify their faith.
 
Francis ‘unpredictable’
The Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, delivered the keynote address to the annual convention of the Knights of Columbus, in Toronto, on the pontificate of Pope Francis. He described Francis as being “unpredictable, like the Holy Spirit”. Moments before the end of his talk he asked for permission to digress and went on to say: “In all honesty, I think that controversies around [Francis’ apostolic exhortation] Amoris Laetitia are understandable, but, in all confidence, I believe they might even be fruitful in the end.” He described the entire work as “worth reading and rereading, slowly, enjoying the marvellous chapter four on love and entrusting chapter eight to careful and open-minded discernment of priests and bishops towards people in need of charity and mercy.” Elements of chapter eight have been criticised for seemingly ambiguous positions on Communion for the divorced and remarried. Cardinal Ouellet insisted that Francis was not proposing a doctrinal change but a new pastoral approach, “more patient and respectful, more dialogical and merciful”.

Cardinal blesses Olympic torch
Standing at the base of the iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Cardinal Orani Tempesta (above) blessed the Olympic torch just hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on 5 August.
“This is the moment for us to surpass our difficulties and work together as a team, making our country and our world safer, less unequal, and putting love in the hearts of all,” he said. The torch was then carried on the final stage of its 95-day Brazilian journey towards the Maracanã Stadium. Fr Omar Raposo, rector of Christ the Redeemer Sanctuary, said the blessing was requested by Rio’s Catholic mayor, Eduardo Paes. (See page 4.)