News Briefing: global

Francis condemns abuse
Pope Francis has condemned clerical sex abuse as an “absolute monstrosity” and asked victims and their families for forgiveness on behalf of the Church. Francis’ comments were published as a preface to a new book by Daniel Pittet, a Swiss man who was sexually abused for four years by a priest when he was a child. “How can a priest in the service of Christ and his church cause so much evil?” the Pope said. “This is an absolute monstrosity, a horrendous sin, completely opposed to what Christ teaches.” The Pope met Mr Pittet, now a 57-year-old father of six, at the Vatican in 2015.

Crackdown on persecution
In a move tackling persecution of Pakistan’s religious minorities, the country’s parliament has passed a law penalising sectarianism, lynching, forced conversions and hate speech. The 6 February bill is now awaiting presidential approval. It seeks to protect religious minorities, including Christians, from mob lynchings, and prevent forced conversions to Islam and forced marriages of women to Muslim husbands. Samuel Payara, president of the Bright Future Society, which raises awareness of Christian persecution, welcomed the move, saying “mob justice has become a part of people’s mindset”. The law allows greater punishments for police who overlook sectarian bullying, and for forced marriages. Around 1,000 Christian and Hindu women per year are forced to convert and marry Muslim men.

Mutare Catholic Diocese Auxiliary Bishop, Patrick Mumbure Mutume, credited for initiating dialogue between Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, died on 8 February at the age of 74. Bishop Mutume together with Bishop Trevor Manhanga (of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe) and Anglican Bishop Sebastian Bakare brought the two political leaders to the negotiating table, culminating in the formation of a unity government in 2009.  

Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo (above), Archbishop of Yangon, has called for more international support for Myanmar “to strengthen its fragile path to democracy”. It follows a report published on 3 February by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which documents serious human rights violations by the Burmese security forces in Rakhine state against the Rohingya Muslims. The cardinal described it as “deeply disturbing” and “a wake-up call for all of us”. Escalating violence and the movement of more than 70,000 Rohingyas into Bangladesh have meant “Myanmar is going through one of the most harrowing moments of its history,” said Cardinal Bo.

Refugee complex stays open
A Kenyan judge halted the closure of Dadaab refugee complex, which the Government had ordered shut over Somalia’s Al-Shabaab terrorist group allegedly having bases there. Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Djibouti and the apostolic administrator of Mogadishu had warned against the abrupt closure of the camp which hosts 260,000 people, saying Somalia was not ready to receive the refugees.

Seoul Archdiocese has established the first Vatican Radio branch outside the Vatican in the South Korean capital. Currently, the Korean version of Vatican Radio translates about 30 per cent of the broadcast into Korean. The new service will raise that to 90 per cent. The archdiocese also announced that it intends to share its “abundance” of priests with the wider Church.  

Dom Justo Takayama Ukon (1552-1615), a samurai who converted to Catholicism at the age of 12, was beatified as a martyr in Osaka, Japan, on 7 February. Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided at the Mass of beatification. As a result of Takayama’s lay evangelising activity, Osaka at one point was over 80 per cent Catholic, according to Vatican Radio. Exiled from Japan at the end of his life, Takayama died shortly after arriving in the Philippines. “Rather than compromise, he renounced honours and comfort, accepting humiliation and exile,” Pope Francis said at his 8 February general audience.

The prefect of the Vatican Secret Archive, Bishop Sergio Pagano, has explained why it was necessary to postpone the release of the documents on Pope Pius XII’s papacy originally planned for 2015. In an interview with Kathpress in Rome, the bishop explained that it was not only a matter of going through the documents in the Secret Archive, but also the many other documents connected with Pius XII, including those in the 80 to 90 nunciatures around the world – documents in 20 to 30 of which still had to be gone through. Preparation for the release of the Pius XII archives was now in its tenth year, Pagano said, and around a dozen of his experts were working on them. He added that he could not spare more of his 50-60 experts as they were needed to work on the mediaeval and early modern archives most often requested by researchers.

Devastated church restored
The Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel, which was extensively damaged by a fire started by Jewish extremists in June 2015, has been restored and was reopened on 12 February in the presence of the president of Israel, Reuven Rivlin. It had been possible to restore the damage in only 20 months thanks to donations including those from a group of rabbis who started a crowdfunding campaign, Fr Nikodemus Schnabel OSB, prior of Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem which administers the church, told weltkirche.katholisch.de.

“People in power are fuelling nationalist ideas, giving them a religious framework that encourages hatred and violence,” Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne said at the reopening Mass. President Rivlin said: “I have come to say loudly and clearly that hatred cannot win. We are in favour of religious freedom as we know all too well what it means to suffer religious persecution.”

Talks began between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian Government on 7 February in Quito, Ecuador. The Catholic Church is participating as facilitator in the talks, at the behest of the ELN.