Australia’s bishops have appointed an experienced Catholic educator, Louise Zavone (above), to serve as executive secretary of three commissions of the bishops’ conference in a restructuring that comes into effect in November. Mrs Zavone, who has spent more than three decades in Catholic education, said she was delighted to be providing support to the Commissions for Doctrine and Morals, for Ecumenism and Inter-religious Relations, and for Family, Youth and Life.
Summit raises peace hopes
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in an historic summit in Singapore on Tuesday. The pair shook hands (above) at a luxury hotel on Singapore's Sentosa island before proceeding to talks. After the summit the leaders signed a “comprehensive” document, promising a new relationship between the nations. The document commits North Korea to work towards “the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.
Pope Francis prayed on Sunday for the success of the summit, saying he hoped it would lead to lasting peace. After praying the Angelus with an estimated 20,000 people in St Peter’s Square, the Pope said he wanted to convey “a special thought to the beloved Korean people”, and he asked the crowd to pray the “Hail Mary” so that “Our Lady, Queen of Korea, may accompany these talks”.
Poland’s bishops have released new guidelines on Pope Francis’ marriage and family life document, calling for compassion, healing and encouragement for divorced and remarried Catholics.
The document, which aims at putting Amoris Laetitia into practice, avoids the question of whether the remarried can receive communion but calls for the key words of Francis’ text – acceptance, accompaniment, discernment and integration – to be incorporated into family ministry. This marks a shift from an earlier draft of the Polish bishops’ document which stated that divorced and remarried Catholics could not receive the sacraments because their “condition of life objectively contradicts that union of love between Christ and the Church signified and effected by the Eucharist”.
A Cameroonian archbishop has demanded answers concerning the alleged murder of Bishop Jean Marie Benoît Bala of Bafia Diocese a year ago.
Archbishop Samuel Kleda of Douala, President of the Bishops’ Conference, was speaking on 2 June on the first anniversary of the death of Bishop Bala, whose body was discovered in a river. Bishop Bala’s death is widely believed to be a murder and not a suicide as was claimed at the time. Archbishop Kleda reported there is no update on the civil suit the Church filed in the Cameroonian courts after the death of Bishop Bala.
The death toll after Volcan de Fuego, the Fire Volcano, outside Guatemala City, erupted on Sunday currently stands at 110, with the Government reporting that 197 people are still missing. The Bishop of Escuintla, Víctor Hugo Palma Paul, said the isolation of many communities near the volcano will have increased the death toll because, “many of the inhabitants were physically isolated from any form of support”. Caritas in Guatemala has helped victims by housing them in parishes and providing food and clothing.
Thousands of young Christians from around the world will gather from 8-12 August in Hong Kong for the Taizé “Pilgrimage of Trust and Reconciliation”. The five-day programme has been organised at the invitation of the Catholic and Anglican Churches in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Christian Council.
The Nicaraguan bishops met President Daniel Ortega on 7 June, to try to move forward with dialogue after renewed waves of violence against anti-government protesters that have left at least 127 people dead. In a statement the bishops said: “The dialogue with the president took place in an atmosphere of calm, frankness and sincerity, in which we presented to the president the nation’s pain and anguish amid the violence suffered in recent weeks.”
The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favour of a Christian baker, Jack Phillips, who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The court found the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, that first ruled against the baker, exhibited anti-religious bias in their hearing. The US bishops’ conference said the decision “confirms that people of faith should not suffer discrimination on account of their deeply held religious beliefs”.
In the run-up to Mexico’s general elections on 1 July, candidates for local and state offices have appealed to the Church for protection.
The National Mayor’s Association of Mexico has counted 105 murders of candidates, current local politicians, or former politicians since the campaign began.
The Bishop of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, Guerrero, Salvador Rangel, said that candidates had asked him, “to speak with the drug traffickers to allow them to carry out their campaigns”. The diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa organised a march against the violence through Chilpancingo on 10 June.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has told a meeting of the Conference of European Churches in Serbia that “Brexit is only one of a number of challenges that Europe is facing and may well not be the most serious”. Addressing the CEC General Assembly in Novi Sad on 6 June, he said Europe was “in a fragile phase” with growing hostility to migrants but Brexit would not derail the European project. “The EU has been the greatest dream realised for human beings since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It has brought peace, prosperity, compassion for the poor and weak, purpose for the aspirational and hope for all its people,” he said.
Clifford Longley: "The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has emerged as the leading exponent in British society of Catholic Social Teaching, which he has no hesitation in describing as such."
Diplomat to stand trial
Mgr Carlo Alberto Capella, a former diplomat at the Vatican’s embassy in Washington, has been ordered to stand trial in the Vatican on 22 June. A Vatican statement said an investigation found that Mgr Capella, who was arrested in the Vatican in April after he had been recalled, had allegedly possessed and exchanged “a large quantity” of child pornography.
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