News Briefing: Church in the World

Marking International Women’s Day on 8 March, African bishops condemned violence against women across the continent, calling for more access to education and opportunities for women. The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) said women’s contributions to development were not fully valued nor adequately supported. 

“Women are the backbone of our communities. They are mothers, educators, caregivers, leaders, and peacemakers. They embody resilience, wisdom, and love, often sacrificing their own needs for the sake of others,” said the statement, signed by SECAM’s president Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of Kinshasa. 

“Despite their immense contributions, many women and girls continue to face challenges such as discrimination, barriers to decision-making, violence, and limited access to education and opportunities.” 

It condemned the exclusion of women from positions of authority.  “As we celebrate this day, let us recommit ourselves to advocating for the rights, equality, and empowerment of all women and girls, ensuring that they are given the respect, support, and opportunities they deserve,” it said.

Catholic bishops in Sudan and South Sudan committed to work for peace and for environmental protection in their first official Lenten campaign. After decades of conflict and damage from climate change, they called on Christians to foster a culture of life. 

In South Sudan, the civil war that began in 2013 has caused as estimated 400,000 deaths, with millions more displaced, while Sudan has faced worsening violence in recent years with chronic instability making it hard to verify casualty figures. 

“We commit ourselves to sustaining life and promoting sustainable livelihoods under the guiding theme: ‘Holiness of life, Reconciliation and Healing, Social Justice, Livelihood, and Environmental Care’,” the bishops said in a message on 5 March. “Our call is to care for one another, care for creation, and work for justice and peace in our troubled lands of the Sudan and South Sudan.” 

They also called for reconciliation, urging Christians to open their hearts to forgiveness in order to “heal broken relationships, and work for lasting peace in our nations”.

Church seeks tax exemptions in Sudan and South Sudan

We cannot ignore Sudan’s humanitarian crisis

The northern Nigerian states of Bauchi, Katsina, Kano and Kebbi announced the suspension of schools for at least three weeks during the period of Ramadan. 

The Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria (SCSN) said the measure was appropriate, to protect students amid extreme heat conditions during the fasting period. However, Church groups including Catholic bishops, Open Doors UK and International Christian Concern voiced concerns about the measures, arguing that the closures pose a threat to education and are particularly unfair to Christian students. They said such measures could jeopardise national unity. 

“This decision, which affects not only Muslim students but also Christian students and Christian-owned schools, raises serious questions about the secular nature of our country and the rights of all citizens,” said a statement from the Nigerian bishops’ conference. They called on the federal government to defend the rights of all Nigerians, irrespective of their faith or cultural heritage.

Divisions along tribal and ethnic lines have stalled Liberia’s progress and reconciliation, the nation’s bishops said in their 2025 Lent message. Emphasising the taint of the 1989-2003 civil war which claimed “the lives of a quarter of a million of our people”, they said Liberia faced a reckoning with its past, with political and social divisions marked by a “propensity of not only undermining our democratic gains but even derailing all that we have achieved thus far if care is not taken”. 

“For decades, we have been battling the ‘old age demons of division’, hampering our progress towards reconciliation,” the bishops said. “We forget to know that all of us are created in the image and likeness of God and endowed with certain inalienable rights among which are life, liberty, freedom of speech and religion, in pursuit of happiness.”

Church leaders warned that the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo could escalate beyond its borders. “The sub-region is on the brink of implosion, risking the generalisation of deadly wars,” said the Association of Episcopal Conferences of Central Africa (ACEAC) in a statement following the rapid advance of the Rwanda-backed M23 Movement rebels in recent months. 

Their forces captured the North Kivu state capital Goma on 27 January and seized Bukavu, capital of neighbouring South Kivu on 16 February. At least 7,000 people have been killed since the fall of Goma, and over 600,000 displaced. 

Caritas Internationalis also issued a warning, saying in a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council that it was deeply concerned about the worsening situation “which risks spreading to the entire country and region if no action is taken”. The ACEAC called on multinational companies, neighbouring countries and foreign interests to “hands off the Congo” – echoing the words of Pope Francis when he visited the country in January 2023.

Charities report ‘apocalyptic’ violence in eastern DR Congo

Hands off Africa!

Responding to cuts to the World Food Programme (WFP) support for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, which will see their support halved from next month, Phil Talman of Cafod said: “It’s pretty straightforward: removing aid from food programmes serving the world’s poorest, means people will starve.”

Visiting Bangladesh last week, he reported that, “what we’re seeing here is the impact of reduced funding for essential aid that preserves life at its most basic level”. He said the UK is one of the top aid donors to the Rohingya refugee crisis and any cut in funding, “could be catastrophic” for the region. “Current rations of less than £10 a month is already barely enough to maintain life,” he added, “and if the WFP has to cut that in half, it may result in dire food shortages and malnutrition.” 

More than one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar live in camps in Bangladesh. Daniel Sullivan, the WFP director for Africa, Asia, and the Middle East at Refugees International, said last week the reduction to aid for Rohingya refugees was a result of “indefensible harm” caused by aid cuts by the US, the UK and others.

The Myanmar military bombed a Catholic pastoral centre in Kachin State on 3 March. The centre at St Michael’s Catholic Church in Nan Hlaing, a rural area of the Diocese of Banmaw in northern Myanmar, was destroyed, but no one was injured. 

Fr Wilbert Mireh SJ, the parish priest, reported that five artillery shells and two aerial bombs hit the church grounds.  “I thank God that we are safe, though people here are struggling to survive, and there are no schools, clinics, or shops,” he said. 

Parishioners now celebrate Mass under the trees for “it is too dangerous to be inside the church, which has already been damaged”, he said. Fr Mireh expressed concern about children, saying: “Today, the fact that children have no access to school is one of the most serious consequences of this civil war.” 

The region has suffered from fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic militia fighting for self-determination.

An Indonesian Muslim group disrupted an Ash Wednesday liturgy, saying it should not have taken place in a hall in Arcamanic, in the city of Bandung in the West Java province. Bishop Antonius Subianto Bunjamin of Bandug and president of the Indonesian bishops’ conference said the multi-purpose hall belonged to the Catholic Church and was part of the parish of St Odilia in Cicadas, Bandung.

He told the Crux outlet: “We have used the hall for Sunday Mass every week for many years. The neighbourhood, whose majority is Islam, allows us to have the Eucharist. However, some Islamic fundamentalists from outside the area have come and wanted to forbid us to do religious activities.” He added that thanks to “local authorities, police officers and our Islamic friends”, the parish was able to “finish” the Ash Wednesday service.

A nun who has fasted for Ramadan for more than 30 years reflected on this year’s rare coincidence of the Islamic holy month with Lent. 

Sr Gerardette Philips has been fasting during Ramadan besides making her Lenten observance since 1991, and continues to do so at age 59. She observed her first Ramadan fast when she witnessed Muslim children, her students, doing so. Just to get to know “how it feels”, she fasted alongside with them, and 34 years on Sister Gera, as she is popularly known, is still savouring the taste of “communal living” to the delight of her Islamic friends. 

“Fasting is not about giving up food. It is about creating a space and strength to receive God’s mercy and love – more than we give, we receive from the Lord,” she told The Tablet. 

An Indian-born member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sr Gera has a postgraduate degree in Islamic philosophy and mysticism and a doctorate in philosophy of religion and teaches in Catholic and Islam universities in Indonesia. She is engaged in dialogue among people of different religions, particularly between Muslims and Catholics in Indonesia, where she is posted. 

In 2005 she was appointed as a consultor to Pope Benedict XVI in the Pontifical Council of Interreligious Dialogue, Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims. Sr Gera was also a speaker at the United Nations 62nd General Assembly on Best Practices and Strategies for Interreligious and Intercultural Cooperation for Peace: Going Forward.

A sign of hope: Ramadan and Lent

Where Christianity and Islam met at the altar

The social action arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) opposed a government corporation’s $76.4-million investment in a large-scale mining company. Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo of Kidapawan, president of Caritas Philippines, said the decision of the Maharlika Investment Corporation to invest in Makilala Mining Company Incorporated threatens communities and undermines “responsible stewardship” of the environment. 

“This move by the Maharlika Fund betrays the Filipino people’s trust.  Instead of supporting industries that promote development and sustainability, the government is channelling resources into extractive projects linked to displacement, deforestation, and human rights abuses,” Bagaforo said in a statement on 3 March.  “How can we claim to work for progress when we fund an industry that destroys the resources God has entrusted to us?” added Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos, vice president of Caritas Philippines. 

Other bishops have made similar statements against mining in recent weeks. In the resource-rich province of Palawan, Bishop Socrates Mesiona MSP called for vigilance after the local government imposed a 50-year moratorium on mining, according to a CBCP report on 7 March. In Zamboanga del Sur, Archbishop Martin Jumoad of Ozamis pushed for “a moratorium on all forms of mining in our province”. In a pastoral letter, he urged Catholics to “remain vigilant to avoid facing the same disastrous effects of mining that have occurred in other locations”.

The Women’s World Day of Prayer on 7 March took the theme “I Made You Wonderful”, inspired by Psalm 139:14.  It offered prayers, music, and reflections prepared by women in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. 

More than 200 women, men and children belonging to the Cook Islands’ Catholic Church, Christian Church, Assemblies of God Church, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the Apostolic Church held an ecumenical prayer service at the country’s National Auditorium in Rarotonga. The theme song “Wonderfully Made” was composed by Cook Islands woman Ruru Maeva.  

“Thank you to all our women who came together tonight and sang from their hearts our song of praise to our God,” said a message from the Diocese of Rarotonga. The event was livestreamed online, while women’s groups internationally hosted their own events using resources provided. Women from more than 180 countries are part of the network.

The office of the attorney general of Mexico City arrested a man suspected of extorting money from a priest with threats to set fire to his parish church. In a statement, the attorney general said on 23 February the suspect “had intercepted the priest on a public thoroughfare, and declared himself to be a member of a criminal cell originating in Mexico City, and had appeared to demand money from him in exchange for not harming him or setting his church ablaze”. The victim identified the suspect, who had been arrested several days earlier for a violent robbery.

Various bishops from across the United States were to lead an online Novena for Migrants and Immigrants from 14 March. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, Archbishops John Wester of Santa Fe and Archbishop Nelson Perez of Philadelphia, Archbishop-elect Joe Vasquez of Galveston-Houston, Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville and Chicago auxiliary Bishop Robert Lombardo were to lead the prayers, beginning at noon Central time each day with information about ministries that aid migrants and refugees available at the end of each prayer service.  

Many bishops faced funding suspensions and immigration enforcement raids in their dioceses. Organised by the Catholic Theological Union’s Bernardin Centre in Chicago, the Novena includes two saint’s days close to immigrant communities: the Feast of St Patrick, patron of Ireland, and the Feast of St Joseph, to whom Italian- and Polish-Americans have a particular devotion.  Joseph led the refugee Holy Family to Egypt, while Patrick was trafficked as a slave to Ireland.  

“They are stories that help us think about the situation of migrants and immigrants today,” said Stephen Millies, executive director of the Bernardin Centre. “In this climate, we want to remind people about the dignity of migrants and immigrants and the Christian duty to welcome the stranger.”

US bishops’ lawsuit fails to halt cuts to refugee support funding

The assault on solidarity

Pax Christi’s eightieth anniversary launched at the Chapel for Europe in Brussels on 13 March with the theme: “The importance of Faith in the Path to Just Peace”. Martha Inés Romero, secretary general of Pax Christi International, was to chair the event with speakers including Josianne Gauthier, Secretary General of CIDSE, and Nicolás Paz, Director of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. 

Pax Christi International has been a vehicle for peace-making in the Catholic Church for eight decades, with a mission to transform conflicts and foster peace, human rights, and justice globally. The anniversary will highlight its history – on 13 March 1945 Bishop Pierre Marie Théas of Montauban in Southern France gave Marthe Dortel Claudot his support to start a Christian movement for reconciliation and peace.

The Catholic school at the centre of a sexual abuse scandal that has reached France’s Prime Minister François Bayrou has admitted its responsibility and pledged to open an independent inquiry. 

Fr Laurent Bacho, speaking for Notre Dame de Bétharram boarding school near Lourdes in southwest France, said priests there had made children suffer. “They were destroyed,” he told the AFP agency. Bacho, a former regional vicar of the Bétharram community that runs the school, promised the group would finance an independent inquiry into the scandal and sell some land to pay reparations. 

A National Assembly commission already studying Church sexual abuse cases has appointed two researchers for Bétharram. One said they would probably question the prime minister, who was education minister in the 1990s when the scandal first came to light and has insisted he never heard of it. 

The current education minister, former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, said recently that education officials had not inspected Notre Dame de Bétharram for three decades. “The state did not do its job,” she said. Bayrou seems likely to weather the scandal, but it joined the catalogue of sexual abuse cases that continue to weigh on the French Church.

French churches, now usually the preserve of older worshippers, saw an unexpected wave of young people attending Ash Wednesday Mass and receiving ashes. Surprised priests wondered what made them turn out in such numbers. 

“We saw this all across the diocese,” said Fr Benoist de Sinety, pastor of Saint Eubert parish in central Lille. “Attendance at the Ash Wednesday Mass exploded.  At the 7:30pm Mass, we went from 400 people to almost a thousand!”  n Irish priest just arrived from Dublin said seeing so many young people receiving ashes in Notre Dame de Paris cathedral that evening was “very encouraging”. 

Similar crowds were reported from other cities across France. Some thought a growing emphasis here on the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan had prompted a Catholic reaction – Lent is often explained as le ramadan catholique. Some young Mass-goers mentioned this, but others noted that social media influencers were very active speaking about Lent. 

Sinety said some priests were taken aback but he hoped this new wave might revive an ailing Church. “In the Church in the West, we have fallen so low,” he told La Croix. “Perhaps the time when we again find signs of hope has returned.”

France sees jump in new baptisms at Easter

Out of the flames, into the light – Notre-Dame restored

The Vatican declared that the writings of the Italian mystic Maria Valtorta (1897-1961) are not “of supernatural origin”. Valtorta was bedridden for more than 30 years and claimed to have received visions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary and revelations she related in writings about the life of Christ, including details absent from the gospels.  

In a note, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said the alleged “visions”, “revelations” and “messages” contained in or attributed to the writing of Valtorta should “should be considered simply as literary forms that the author used to narrate the life of Jesus Christ in her own way”.  

The dicastery added: “The Holy See frequently receives requests from both clergy and laity for a clarification about the Church’s position on the writings of Maria Valtorta.” Her longest work, The Poem of the Man-God (“Il poema dell’Uomo Dio”) runs to 13,000 pages.

The Pope made a €1 million donation to transform a house once used by Roman clergy into 20 flats for people afflicted by the city’s housing crisis. The donation was announced on 30 January at a meeting in the Roman parish of San Policarpo, although the exact sum was not disclosed at the time.  

The vicar general of the Diocese of Rome Cardinal Baldassare Reina later revealed the size of the donation in letter to diocesan clergy. He wrote that the donation would “help families who lack the necessary guarantees to secure a rental contract or those struggling to pay ever-increasing rents”. The cardinal invited the clergy to contribute by donating one month’s worth of their financial support or a portion of it.

Stay updated — add us as a preferred news source on Google: