Cardinal Kevin Farrell, (above) Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life, has pulled out of giving the keynote address at the Knights of Columbus Supreme Convention, which takes place in Baltimore from 7 to 9 August. The Knights announced that Cardinal Farrell had informed them that he had to change his travel plans owing to his responsibilities related to the 21-26 August World Meeting of Families in Dublin. The keynote speaker will now be Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Ukraine.
US Vice President Mike Pence last week announced the establishment of a Genocide Recovery and Persecution Response Program, which is intended “to rapidly deliver aid to persecuted communities, beginning with Iraq”.
Speaking on 26 July at the State Department’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, Mr Pence said that he hoped the programme would “deliver additional support to the most vulnerable communities”, and “embolden civil society to help stop violence in the future”. The new initiative will be funded by the US government and by “the vast network of American philanthropists and believers”, Mr Pence said. “America will help the victims of Islamic State reclaim their lands, rebuild their lives, and replant their roots in their ancient homelands so that all religions can flourish, once again, across the Middle East and the ancient world.”
A Nicaraguan priest, Fr Raul Zamora, whose church was attacked by pro-government militias last month, was at the event. Addressing him directly, Mr Pence said: “Let me say to you, Father: Our prayers are with you, and the people of America stand with you for freedom of religion and freedom in Nicaragua.”
Mexican bishops have expressed the hope that the president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador will confront the rising violence in the country. The Secretary of the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), Alfonso Gerardo Miranda Guardiola, Auxiliary Bishop of Monterrey, said it was the most serious problem that the bishops will present to the president-elect. In the first six months of 2018, almost 16,000 homicides were recorded in Mexico, an increase of 14 per cent from the same period in 2017. Mr López Obrador has called for dramatic changes in Mexico’s drug war strategy, and has proposed the creation of truth and reconciliation councils for victims of the war.
Warning on priest shortage
A Polish archbishop has warned that Poland faces a “dramatic shortage” of vocations, and has urged Catholics to “beg God for priests”. “There’s a heavy toll today, as the Christian spirit becomes laicised and frozen in a spiritual winter,” said Archbishop Stanislaw Nowak, the retired head of the Archdiocese of Czestochowa said. “After so many years as a bishop, I’ve never experienced such a development. We must now beg God for priests.” Poland’s 83 seminaries have reported a fall in applications of a quarter in the last two years. The Bishops’ Conference admits that it now has too few clergy to meet the needs of Polish Catholics living abroad.
On Saturday 28, July thousands of Nicaraguans marched in Managua in support of the bishops’ conference, decrying President Daniel Ortega’s attacks against the Church. “To all of the brothers who protested here in Managua and in other dioceses, our thanks, and especially we seek your prayers because that is what strengthens us,” the Archbishop of Managua, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, wrote on the Facebook page of the archdiocese on Sunday.
Lourdes hopes for tour boost
The French pilgrimage town of Lourdes hopes that the fact the Tour de France bicycle race began one of its stages there this year will help counter the fall in the number of pilgrims visiting it in recent years. The world-famous race began one of its final stages at the site in south-western France, with special visits for the small number of practising Catholic cyclists in the peleton and special events for visiting sick pilgrims to witness. “We hope to attract more people to come here by offering the world a more modern image,” Lourdes Mayor Josette Bourdeu said.
Bishop Nicolas Brouwet of Tarbes and Lourdes blessed cycling fans as they walked their bicycles in the evening Marian procession. “I’m very happy the ill and handicapped were in the first rows. It’s a wonderful moment of popular piety and a sports event,” he said.
The president of Greece’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference has voiced shock at the human and material losses in last week’s wildfires, while adding that the disaster was worsened by unauthorised building. “These events must make us question ourselves about our respect for the environment, which also involves following the rules”, said Archbishop Sevastianos Rossolatos of Athens. “There can be no uncontrolled, unauthorised sprawl; and the sources of such catastrophes can also be found in indiscriminate actions by people.”
The archbishop, 74, spoke as rescue crews continued to search ashes and rubble on the outskirts of Athens, after multiple fires, fanned by high winds, left more than 90 dead and 200 injured, as well as hundreds of homes and properties destroyed. The Pope expressed solidarity with those affected in a telegram. A leader of Greece’s predominant Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Arsenios Kardamakis, said his Church would give “support and help in prayer and active deeds”, at a time when social services were ill prepared to cope.
Bosnia-Herzegovina’s bishops urged Catholics to vote in the autumn elections, to ensure justice and fairer representation for them. “Regardless of the many reasons for dissatisfaction and frustration with the long-lasting poor state in Bosnia-Herzegovina, we know, as believers in Christ, that we are still witnesses to hope,” the six-member Bishops’ Conference said in a message co-signed by Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo.
The message was issued amid campaigning for the 7 October elections, in which 3.4 million voters will elect a new state parliament and tripartite presidency, as well as presidents and legislatures for the country’s Serbian and Muslim-Croat entities. The Church has often complained that the guarantees of equal rights and freedoms contained in the 1995 Dayton peace accord have been routinely ignored.
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