Following the outbreak of Ebola in the north-west Diocese of Mbandaka-Bikoro, the Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has suspended the administration of sacraments requiring physical contact. Bishop Fridolin Ambongo Besungu (pictured), suspended baptism, anointing of the sick, the kiss of peace and communion on the tongue. Some 25 people have died with 54 infected in the past month.
First lay rector at Lateran
The Pontifical Lateran University in Rome is to have its first non-ordained rector. He is Professor Vincenzo Buonomo, 57, a married father of two, whom Pope Francis has appointed to lead a university that educates 3,000 students including priests, seminarians, religious and laity. Professor Buonomo’s new role was announced on 2 June. It is another step in the Pope’s attempts to include lay people – men and women – in leadership positions in the Church. The Lateran university, situated next to the Archbasilica of St John Lateran, the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, offers courses in theology, philosophy and law. It acts also as a headquarters for the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences.
The Russian Orthodox Church has rejected accusations by the US State Department that the government of President Vladimir Putin (above) is giving it special treatment while curbing the rights of religious minorities. “The State Department’s report is narrowly framed in political dogmas which, in today’s world, are rapidly becoming obsolete,” said Vakhtang Kipshidze, a director the Church’s Synodal Department on Church-Society Relations. “The observance of religious freedom … isn’t confined to the situation of religious minorities. The religious majority deserves at least the same attention when protecting religious freedoms.” The official was reacting to the State Department’s Report on Religious Freedom, which accused Russia of restricting minority rights to the benefit of the Orthodox Church.
A senior Indonesian official has called on an influential Catholic intellectual association to help to foster national unity, amid increasing insecurity caused by Islamist groups. Addressing a 30 May gathering to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Association of Indonesian Catholic Intellectuals (ISKA), Moeldoko, the presidential chief of staff, said: “I hope the ISKA, as an organisation with a strong commitment to national unity, can become this nation’s pillar of strength to continue national development”. He accused radical groups of undermining Indonesia’s principle of unity in diversity.
Police march for Mary
Police in The Philippines, under criticism for involvement in thousands of killings in its “war on drugs”, have been leading processions in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Tacloban city, 300 police staged a traditional “Santacruzan” to promote what they called the police’s core values – “pro-country, pro-people, pro-environment, and pro-God”.
The killing of a Catholic Dalit man, found dead in a stream only five days after marrying a woman from an affluent Christian family in the southern Indian state of Kerala, triggered street protests last week. Kevin Joseph, 23, was murdered on 28 May after being dragged from his house in Kottayam by a gang. His wife, Neenu Chacko, 21, from an upper-caste Syrian Christian family, named her brother and 11 other people as responsible. She had filed a police complaint after the abduction but accused police of failing to act.
At least 15 people were killed and more than 200 injured in Nicaragua on Wednesday 30 May in one of the worst days of violence since protests against President Daniel Ortega began in April. Witnesses said pro-government armed groups opened fire on the marchers. The Mother’s Day bloodshed was condemned by the bishops’ conference, which called it “organised and systematic aggression”. The local human rights organisation CENIDH on Wednesday said that 100 people had been killed since the protests began. (See page 9.)
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro last weekend released 58 jailed anti-government activists. Mr Maduro, who is presiding over a ruined economy, said the releases were a “conciliatory gesture”.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has spoken out against a new immigration policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month. Border control will now separate parents who enter the country illegally from their children. The parents will be sent to prison, while the children will be cared for by a social service agency. Families were sent previously to detention camps or to social service agencies as a family.
The faculty at the Catholic University of America overwhelmingly supported a vote of no confidence in both the university’s President, John Garvey (above), and in its Provost, Andrew Abela. The vote came on the eve of a board of trustees meeting at which a proposal for “Academic Renewal” from the administration, which includes shedding 35 full-time faculty staff, was to be discussed. Before becoming Provost, Mr Abela was the founding Dean of CUA’s controversial business school. Charles Koch, a climate change sceptic, gave the school $10 million last year.
The President of Ukraine has called for the formation of a national Orthodox church, independent of Moscow, after the Pope appeared to oppose this idea in talks with a Russian Orthodox delegation. “The Church should be separated from the state – especially from a neighbouring aggressor state,” Petro Poroshenko said on 31 May. However, addressing a Russian Orthodox delegation at the Vatican on 30 May, the Pope said that “Catholic Churches” should not “get involved in internal matters of the Russian Orthodox Church”. The Catholic Church in Ukraine has been accused of backing the push for an “autocephalous” or self-governing Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez to head the Argentinian Archdiocese of La Plata. Fernandez helped draft the Pope’s apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia.
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