News Briefing: Church in the World

The President of the Bishops’ Conference of Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe called on African leaders to “stop serving the interests of global policies that discriminate against us and continually impoverish us”.  

In a New Year’s Day homily, Archbishop José Manuel Imbamba of Saurimo said the continent needs “leadership that seeks justice, not the kind that perpetuates crises, misery, and poverty”, and called on all Africans to value their land. He urged African leaders to reject harmful policies promoted by international bodies. He said that in permitting “ugly politics of exclusion” in Africa, they were “selling” the dignity of Africans. 

“We need to free our nations so that we can stop labelling each other, looking at one another through the lenses of political affiliations, regional divisions, ethnicity, or language, and instead focus on the common good we are called to cultivate,” he said.

A South African bishop said the Church must be open to young people suffering from the social problems driven by economic crisis, record unemployment and high crime rates.  

“A lot of our people, especially the youth, are broken in their hearts. They face a lot of difficulties. They have drug problems, alcohol, early pregnancy, and a lot of abuse,” said Bishop Joseph Mary Kizito of Aliwal. Marking the start of the Jubilee Year, he said young people could be “ambassadors of hope” in the Church. 

“If the youth feel that the church is not their place, then we are losing them. Let this hope be visible in the synodal church.  Pope Francis has called the young people to contribute to the synodal renewal of the church,” Bishop Kizito said.

A Catholic priest was murdered by “unidentified assailants” while travelling in south-east Nigeria on 26 December. The 40-year-old Fr Tobias Chukwujekwu Okonkwo, a trained pharmacist ordained in 2015, was manager of the schools of nursing and midwifery and the medical laboratory at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Ihiala, Anambra State. The chancellor of the Diocese of Nnewi, Fr Raphael Ezeogu, said the late priest “was shot dead at lhiala, along the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway”. 

In a separate incident in neighbouring Imo State, police arrested parish priest Fr Joseph Enyinaya in connection with the death of a young man and the wounding of another in a church on New Year’s Eve. The man was reportedly killed after setting off fireworks inside St Columbus Catholic Church in Amaimo. 

Archbishop Lucius Ugorji of Owerri has offered condolences to the bereaved family and called for calm while “the police investigate the incident”. According to a witness, the priest attempted to disperse youths who were setting off fireworks inside the church by firing gunshots into the air, but then lost control of the weapon and hit two of them.

Four in ten Nigerian priests in danger of abduction

Report accuses Nigerian military of civilian ‘massacres’

Cardinal Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan warned citizens not to succumb to Ivory Coast’s history of electoral violence during its presidential election in October this year. In a homily on 27 December ahead of the World Day of Peace on 1 January, the cardinal said: “Electoral violence, with its tragedies and killings, has become recurrent in our country.” 

Unrest following the 2010 election saw 3,000 people die in violent clashes, while in 2020 there were protests against President Allassane Ouattara’s decision to run for a third term, having served his constitutional limit of two terms, which resulted in the deaths of 83 people. 

“This fatality can be broken if we choose communion, justice, and respect for the law,” Cardinal Dogbo said. He called on the country’s political class to oppose discrimination based on ethnicity, region, or religion, and warned that nurturing such hostility would make a peaceful election an elusive dream. 

President Ouattara has yet to declare whether he will seek a fourth term after winning the controversial 2020 election. The other contenders will include the former Ivorian Prime Minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan, who will run on the ticket of the Popular Ivorian Front (FPI), as will former President Laurent Gbagbo who led the country from 2000 to 2011.  His former wife Simone Ehivet Gbagbo has also declared her candidacy.

Religious leaders in Sierra Leone urged parliamentarians to vote against the “Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Care Act 2024”, which would legalise abortion. 

Proponents have argued that the new legislation would “provide for the right to make decisions regarding safe motherhood and reproductive health and to provide for other related matters”. It would legalise abortion up to 14 weeks for any reason, and up to birth for additional reasons. According to reports, the US government has encouraged Sierra Leone to adopt the legislation as a condition for continued foreign aid, while the MSI Reproductive Choices was involved in its drafting. 

In a statement, the Africa Christian Professionals Forum called on the government to “withdraw or amend” the bill, arguing that in its current form it would violate the Constitution of Sierra Leone and international conventions to which it is a signatory by undermining the sanctity of life, “a fundamental principle of our shared moral and cultural values”. 

Bishop Bob John Hassan Koroma of Makeni urged legislators to vote against the proposed legislation, describing it as “a subtle way of legalising the unspeakable crime of abortion in this country – an act diametrically opposed to the very essence of what we celebrate at this time, namely, the birth of the Baby Jesus.”

The abortion debate – taking a stance for life

Relaxing abortion legislation ‘a tragic mistake for both mother and child’ says bishop.

Br Matthew, the Prior of Taizé, published a letter for 2025 titled “Hope Beyond All Hope” during the groups forty-seventh European Youth Meeting in Tallinn. More than 3,000 young people from across Europe met in the Estonian capital from 28 December 2024 to 1 January 2025. 

Br Matthew’s letter urged Christians to “do what we can, even when it may not seem much, to express signs of solidarity with people in distress around us, or who are caught up in war or forced to leave their country”, and asked: “Is it not this that will enable us to hope beyond all hope?” He added that “out of situations that seem hopeless, God can create something new; God can bring life out of death and even reconciliation out of conflict.” 

On 30 December, he announced that Paris would host the next European Youth Meeting from 28 December 2025 to 1 January 2026, with support from Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox leaders in the Paris region. Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris joined the meeting in Tallinn to invite young people there.

Cardinal Américo Aguiar of Setúbal asked the Portuguese parliament to adopt a general amnesty in 2025 to mark the Jubilee Year of Hope. In a letter to parliamentarians, the cardinal said he would like to see an amnesty similar to the one enacted in 2023 for the Pope’s World Youth Day visit, but covering all ages, not just young offenders. 

He told the Catholic news outlet Renascença that the amnesty would give convicts “more confidence in themselves and in society”, but should also “respect the victims”. He said that particularly violent crimes, or those related to drug trafficking, would not normally be included in an amnesty, adding thar “if any compensation is owed, or an act of reparation was ordered, then this still has to be complied with”. 

The cardinal’s letter lent weight to an earlier petition from a Catholic charity involved in prison ministry, though political parties remained divided on the issue. Cardinal Américo began the Jubilee by decreeing an amnesty for all individual debts owed to the Diocese of Setúbal. Although he did not say how much this amounted to, a source told The Tablet the sum was “quite significant”.

Jubilee 2025 – a cry for global economic justice

Bring hope with a ‘yes to life’ in Jubilee Year, says Francis

The Spanish Bishops’ Conference condemned a New Year’s Eve television broadcast where a guest displayed a print of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with the face of Christ replaced by a picture of a young bull. The actress Laura Yustres showed the card on live television during the countdown to the New Year in central Madrid.  

“With the excuse of freedom of expression and the excesses of the festivities, TVE [Spanish public television] makes fun of the symbol of the heart so dear to all Catholics,” said Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid, president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference. “The saddest thing is that those responsible are not aware of what they’re doing.  Once again banality surrounds us,” he added.  

Spain’s justice minister Félix Bolaños described a complaint from a Catholic association of lawyers that the incident was a hate crime as “an ultra [right-wing] attempt to intimidate”. He said the Socialist-led government would abolish a law prohibiting offending religious feelings in the coming year. The Christian Lawyers’ Association also accused Yustres and the president of RTVE (Spanish Radio and Television) of violating the law against offending religious sentiments.

Two Catholics high schools in Louisiana mourned the death of former pupils killed in the New Year’s Eve terrorist attack in New Orleans. Martin “Tiger” Bech Jr, 27, and Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, were among 15 people killed when an Islamist extremist drove a truck through a crowd of people celebrating in the city’s French Quarter.

The assailant was later killed in a gunfight with police. St Thomas More School, which Bech attended, held a rosary on New Year’s Day to pray for Bech and his family, while Gauthreaux’s Archbishop Shaw High School in the Marrero neighbourhood of New Orleans set up a “Go Fund Me” page to support his family pay for funeral expenses. 

In a statement on New Year’s Day, Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans said: “Our prayers go out to those killed and injured in this morning’s horrific attack on Bourbon Street”. He called it “a sign of utter disrespect for human life”.

New Orleans Catholics mourn victims of New Year terror attack

School shootings – slaughter of the innocents

Attorney-generals from across Australia met last week to discuss urgent legal reforms after the country’s High Court ruled the Catholic Church was not “vicariously liable” for abuser priests. In November, it found that a priest who had abused a child of five in 1971 was not an “employee” of the Church.

Fr Bryan Coffey, who was convicted of other accounts of child abuse in the 1990s, died in 2013. Initially, a court in the state of Victoria found the Diocese of Ballarat had vicarious liability for the abuse perpetrated by Coffey, a diocesan priest, but the High Court subsequently ruled Fr Coffey was not an employee of the Church as priests are holders of religious office. It said vicarious liability was restricted to employees.  

The Australian Lawyers’ Association (ALA) challenged the ruling. “I am shocked because amongst the common law world, Australia is now on its own in not recognising activities akin to employment as giving rise to vicarious liability,” said the ALA’s Dr Andrew Morrison. He said Coffey had been “doing the work of the bishop and the diocese”, and “in those circumstances, why shouldn’t there be vicarious liability?  And why should the Church escape responsibility on a highly technical argument?”

The Archbishop of Yangon Cardinal Charles Maung Bo called for an immediate end to violence in Myanmar in his New Year message. “The cycle of violence must cease,” Cardinal Bo said, urging leaders in the Buddhist-majority country to commit to healing and reconciliation.  

“We must unite to shield civilians – especially innocent children – from harm,” he said, and “broken families must be made whole, and the voiceless must be heard.” Bo said Myanmar “groans under the weight of immense suffering”. He voiced hope that for 2025 to be “the year when peace blossoms in every heart and every corner of Myanmar”, allowing young people “to claim the future they deserve”.

The Archbishop of Goa Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão succeeded Cardinal Charles Maung Bo as president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences. The Indian prelate, who is also president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), will represent the bishops of south, south-east, east and central Asia. They include 15 Asian bishops’ conferences and 277 Indian bishops from Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara-rite Churches.  He was elected to the role at a meeting in Bangkok last February.

Indian rights campaigners object to bishops’ reception for Modi

Pope Francis will meet ‘vibrant’ Church in Asia

Cardinal Stephen Chow SJ of Hong Kong said it was important to stop wasting food as part of respecting human rights and caring for God’s creation. “Irresponsible consumption of anything, and food in particular, will eventually hurt ourselves and the sustainability of our ecosystem,” he said. Such disregard will, “further damage the already troubled relationships between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’, between humanity and the rest of God’s creation.” 

Writing on 3 January in his diocese’s weekly Sunday Examiner, Chow said: “I was invited to a couple of large-scale banquets in the past weeks and what I have seen was certainly regrettable.” He complained that after the first or second course, most diners started moving around, leaving the food, or eating it randomly, saying “much food was wasted as the servers were seen removing the untouched dishes round after round”.

Fr Joseph Guo Fude, China’s oldest priest, died on 30 December in Jining, Shandong province, aged 104. His death left just 25 priests remaining in the country ordained before the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.  

Born in 1920 into a Catholic family, Guo entered minor seminary in Yanzhou aged 13 and lived there through the years of the Japanese invasion. In 1941 he moved to major seminary in Daizhuang and was ordained a priest of the Society of the Divine Word in 1947. Under Communist rule, Fr Guo spent 25 years in detention before he was allowed to return to pastoral ministry in Jining in the late 1980s.  

“I did not agree to report on other members of the clergy and refused to cooperate with the authorities,” he explained in his memoirs. At Fr Guo’s funeral, Bishop John Lu Peisen of Yanzhou praised his fidelity to the Gospel through the “ups and downs” of his long life.

The enduring church – Catholicism in China

Talking to the dragon – Francesco Sisci untangles China-Vatican relations

The Pontifical Missions Societies reported that 13 Catholic missionaries were killed worldwide in 2024, eight priests and five lay people. Africa saw six deaths (two in Burkina Faso, two in South Africa, one in Cameroon and one in Democratic Republic of Congo) and five were killed in the Americas (one each in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Honduras and Brazil). Two missionaries were killed in Europe (one in Poland and one in Spain). 

In Burkina Faso, catechist François Kabore was murdered in February in Essakane by a jihadist group while leading a prayer meeting with local people, while another catechist, Edouard Zoetyenga Yougbare, was kidnapped and killed in April near Saatenga in the Diocese of Fada N’Gourma. 

Colombia saw the murder of Fr Ramón Arturo Montejo Peinado, the parish priest of San José in Buenavista, during a robbery in June. In September in Honduras, Juan Antonio López, coordinator of social pastoral care in the Diocese of Truijllo and founding member of Integral Ecology Pastoral Care, was shot dead just hours after a press conference denouncing alleged links between members of the Tocoa municipal government and organised crime.

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