The retired Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz (pictured), has said he plans to launch a beatification process for Emilia and Karol Wojtyla, the parents of Pope St John Paul II, in view of their contribution to his spiritual growth. “There isn’t the slightest doubt that the spiritual stature of this future Pope and saint was formed in his family, thanks to the faith of his parents,” said Cardinal Dziwisz, who was the pontiff’s personal secretary from 1966 until his death in 2005.
A Venezuelan veteran of the Vatican diplomatic corps is to be the third-ranking official in the Vatican Secretariat of State. Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, current nuncio to Mozambique, will take up his new position as “substitute secretary for general affairs” on 15 October, the Vatican announced on 15 August. Archbishop Peña, 58, succeeds Italian Cardinal Giovanni Becciu, the new prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes. He has served Vatican missions in Kenya, South Africa, Yugoslavia, at the United Nations, and in Honduras and Mexico.
The Catholic Church in Mexico is to participate in a series of “dialogue forums” launched by President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador to listen to citizens’ ideas to reduce violence and achieve justice for family members of murdered and disappeared people.
Since the start of the militarised Drug War in 2011, rates of violence in Mexico have risen, with homicides reaching their highest level in 2017. Monsignor Carlos Garfias Merlos, director of the Justice, Peace, Reconciliation, Faith and Policy group of the Mexican episcopal conference, said that the Church is “willing to participate [in the forums] and propose what we consider appropriate, so that the means and tools are found to create a path of pacification and reconciliation in Mexico”.
Rights activist gets 20 years
A court in central Vietnam has given a 20-year jail sentence to a Catholic rights activist for allegedly conducting activities seeking “to overthrow the people’s government”.
Le Dinh Luong, aged 53, was found guilty of being a member of the US-based Viet Tan, which Vietnam treats as a terrorist group. During the trial, 17 priests concelebrated a special Mass attended by hundreds of Catholics in his home parish of Vinh Hoa.
The collapse of the Morandi motorway bridge in Genoa on 14 August, killing 43 and injuring 15, “has wounded the city”, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa has said. In what were described as “apocalyptic” scenes, several cars and a lorry travelling on the bridge in the northern Italian city fell about 45 metres to the ground when a section of the bridge collapsed during a violent storm last Tuesday morning. Speaking to pilgrims during his Angelus address on 15 August, Pope Francis expressed “spiritual closeness” to the victims’ families.
German Church still strong
The head of the Catholic Church in Germany has welcomed new data confirming that Catholics still exert a strong presence in national life, and pledged to continue to make the Church’s mission credible. In the introduction to the German Church’s latest statistics yearbook, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich-Freising, the bishops’ conference president, said the figures “make clear the Church remains in public demand – whichever problems and crises we face, we as a Church are still passing on the faith”. Figures in the yearbook show that Catholics make up 28.2 per cent of a total population of 82.7 million.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyivan Patriarchate has accused the Russian authorities in Crimea of trying to erase its existence there. It said it was being persecuted and slowly whittled away; only eight churches and four priests remain on the Black Sea peninsula.
“The Russian occupation authorities have done everything so the religious atmosphere on the peninsula is similar to theirs [in Russia]; that is, loyal and controllable,” said Archbishop Yevstratiy of Chernihiv and Nizhyn. He said all religious organisations were ordered to pledge allegiance to Russia when it annexed Crimea.
The American evangelical pastor at the centre of a diplomatic row between the United States and Turkey has launched a fresh bid for freedom, 22 months after he was detained on terror-related charges.
Andrew Brunson’s lawyer lodged an official appeal on 14 August. Mr Brunson was placed under house arrest last month after serving 21 months in pre-trial detention in a Turkish prison on charges related to the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey. Washington is demanding that he be fully exonerated and allowed to return to the US. The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, remains adamant that he will not be released, which has resulted in US sanctions.
Bishop in xenophobia plea
A Nicaraguan bishop has called on the President of Costa Rica to fight rising xenophobia, after people gathered on 18 August in San José, the capital, to protest at the presence of Nicaraguan refugees in their country.
Many Nicaraguans have fled south to Costa Rica, where the authorities are said to be overwhelmed by asylum requests. The auxiliary Bishop of Managua, Silvio José Báez, wrote on Twitter: “Mr President, Carlos Alvarado, do not allow xenophobia and irrationality to sully the dignity of the people of Costa Rica.”
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