News Briefing: Church in the World

The Syro-Malabar Church was due to announce a compromise formula for liturgical rubrics to end a protracted dispute which threatened schism in the eastern-rite Church’s south India heartlands. 

Fr Kuriakose Mundadan, the secretary of the presbyterial council for the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly where many clergy have opposed a “uniform” rite, told The Tablet that the Church’s synod – its supreme decision-making body – and the prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti had approved the formula. 

Ernakulam-Angamaly, in the state of Kerala, is the Church’s primatial see and the only one of its 35 diocese worldwide not to have implemented reforms to the rubrics of the Holy Qurbana, the Syro-Malabar Mass. While the synod-approved reforms directed the celebration of the Liturgy of the Eucharist ad orientem, clergy and laity in Ernakulam-Angamaly insisted on continuing versus populum celebrations. 

The Syro-Malabar primate Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil and his vicar for the diocese Archbishop Joseph Pamplany met 315 dissident priests on 19 June, at an assembly held under police protection, to approve a compromise formula agreed by parties at a meeting on 5 June. Both parties approved the synod’s decision to require parishes to celebrate one Mass in the uniform rite on Sundays and holy days of obligation. 

“Other demands were also discussed and mutual agreement arrived at. I cannot disclose details now. There will be an official announcement by the primate by 29 June,” Fr Mundadan said. “All I can say for now is that we have resolved our differences. The resolution of the meeting will come into effect by 3 July, the feast of St Thomas.”

There are more than two attacks on Christians in India every day, according to a report recording 313 incidents of hate crime in just the first five months of 2025. 

The United Christian Forum (UCF), an ecumenical persecution watchdog, said that of the 313 incidents it recorded up to May, the central state of Chhattisgarh saw the most with 64 followed by northern Uttar Pradesh with 58.  UCF recorded 834 incidents in 2024, following 734 in 2023. 

“If this trend is not stopped immediately, it will threaten the identity and existence of the Indian Christian community in its motherland,” said A. C. Michael, the UCF’s national convenor. He said Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have become the centres of viral hate, brutal mob violence and concerted ostracisation in which elements of the law and justice apparatus are “complicit”. Many attacks go unreported for fear of retribution due to the environment of “impunity and political patronage”, he added. 

The incidents of violence against Christians have increased over the past decade, especially since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014. Last year’s violence marked a seven-fold increase in the 127 reported incidents in 2014.

The area around Mandalay in north-central Myanmar suffered weeks of heavy rains and thunderstorms, worsening conditions which had yet to recover from March’s devastating earthquake. Some buildings already damaged by the earthquake collapsed.  

The Emergency Rescue Team of the Archdiocese of Mandalay said that “many people are still spending the night outdoors or in makeshift shelters … using tarpaulins, tents, or bamboo structures to protect themselves from the weather”. The diocese was providing church buildings and rooms to the displaced, both Catholic and Buddhist, and emergency relief.  

Fr Peter Kyi Maung, secretary of the archdiocese, said “all the volunteers and faithful are working hard every day to improve the situation bit by bit – the Lord gives us the strength to continue”. 

The Diocese of Myitkyina in Kachin State issued an emergency appeal for people displaced by natural disasters and violence. “After four years of civil conflict since the military coup in 2021, people are exhausted,” said Fr Don Bosco Nlam Hkun Seng, the diocesan secretary. 

On 19 June, rights groups marked the eightieth birthday of the democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains in junta detention.

In a message marking the anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Japan’s bishops’ conference renewed its call for a worldwide ban on nuclear weapons.

As the only national episcopal conference from a country that has suffered nuclear attack, the bishops emphasised their moral responsibility to bear witness and advocate for a world free of nuclear arms, criticising the notion of deterrence. “Having experienced the destructive power of nuclear weapons, we have a responsibility as valuable witnesses,” they said, echoing their 1995 resolution for peace.

The statement, titled “Declaration on the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons 2025”, commemorated the devastation endured by Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, where tens of thousands perished and many continue to suffer from the aftereffects. They reaffirmed the pacifist ideals of Japan’s constitution, which renounces war and the threat of force in resolving international disputes.

Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David criticised the proliferation of online gambling in the Philippines, as companies recycle the equipment of now-outlawed Chinese gaming operators. 

David, the Bishop of Kalookan and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, wrote on social media that online gambling has caused “a new mental health crisis” in the country and was “wrecking the lives of poor people who get addicted to it”.

The 66-year-old cardinal opposed former president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody campaign against drug dealers and addicts. “Jesus once warned those who cause the ‘little ones’ in society to stumble: ‘It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea’ (Luke 17:2),” David said. 

He was echoing his message during this year’s Chrism Mass, when he urged priests “to bring liberation to those who are languishing in the dark prison cells of addiction”. Preaching on Maundy Thursday, David said: “Do you know that so many Filipinos are now getting addicted to gambling, because it has been made easy? There was a time when you had to go to the casino. Now, it’s the casino that goes to your pockets. It will empty your pockets.”

A Filipino diocese urged Catholics “to take seriously the call to ecological conversion” as the province of Albay – designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2016 – faces an environmental crisis.  

The Diocese of Legazpi said “alarming signs” include “irresponsible forms of quarrying” that scar the slopes of Mount Mayon, an iconic cone-shaped volcano that is a declared protected area. In addition, “forest covers are being cleared” and “waterways are being altered or clogged”. Infrastructure projects are also “being built in geologically sensitive and heritage zones”. 

The message from the Bishop of Legazpi Joel Baylon and his clergy said: “Creation is not just scenery; it is sacred. It sustains life, reveals the Creator, and deserves protection. Let us not be numbed by familiarity or paralyzed by fear. Let us care while there is still something to care for.”  

They also appealed to public officials to “please exercise your duties with integrity”, demanding: “Do not allow development to become an excuse for destruction. When public projects ignore environmental safeguards, override communities, or enrich only the few, they betray the common good.” 

The diocese made the statement on the tenth anniversary of Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical on the environment.

In Papua New Guinea’s Simbu Province, accusations of witchcraft are “a form of violence against individuals or families” according to Judy Gelua, Caritas’ diocesan coordinator in the Diocese of Kundiawa. She said Church agencies were developing a broad network of contacts to promote change in the three main sources of violence: witchcraft, gender-based violence and tribal conflicts.  

Bishop Paul Sundu of Kundiawa said that “due to jealousy or greed, people are accused of witchcraft to get rid of enemies or block their success in business, education, or politics”. 

Caritas in Simbu handled 25 witchcraft cases in 2024, 15 of which were reported to the legal office of the Diocese of Kundiawa which offers free legal assistance. Many victims of related torture and murder were women. According to Gelua, the knowledge that one can be prosecuted for attacking someone accused of witchcraft acts as a deterrent.

The San Francisco chapel in Curacautin, in the central Chilean region of La Araucania, burned down in an incendiary attack on 12 June.  The chapel had been rebuilt after destruction two years ago in a similar arson incident.  

The Diocese of Temuco expressed its “deep sorrow” to the Catholic community of Curacautín. Bishop Jorge Concha Cayuqueo of Temuco invited prayers for peace and “for the mutual respect that allows us to live together in fraternity”. He described the fire as “a serious blow to the life of the Christian community and the local people, because it is a place of worship for Catholics for many years and because the chapel has also served the entire community in many ways, regardless of religious beliefs”.  

Curacautín’s parish priest Fr Víctor Núñez said: “This is a very hard-working community that had united in recent months to rebuild its chapel. Today, once again, they suffer a total loss. But we trust in faith.” 

Temuco is at the centre of the “Mapuche conflict”, a struggle between rebels of the Mapuche indigenous and the Chilean state driven by historical grievances over inequality, land ownership, cultural recognition and discrimination.

A 6.1-magnitide earthquake interrupted Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Lima on Sunday. The quake struck Peru’s central coast, shaking the capital and the nearby port province of Callao.  

The Archbishop of Lima Cardinal Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio was receiving Offertory gifts when the tremor struck. Many in the congregation remained seated, visibly alarmed, while others rushed out of the church in panic. No injuries or structural damage were reported at the cathedral. 

The choir continued singing as the cathedral trembled, and one of the readers urged calm from the pulpit: “Please remain calm, dear brothers and sisters.  Stay in your seats, the cathedral is a safe space.” Cardinal Castillo resumed the Mass once the immediate tension had eased.

Elsewhere, one person was reported dead and five others injured due to the earthquake, which also caused damage to buildings and infrastructure.

Bishop-elect Michael Pham of San Diego led a Mass at St Joseph’s Cathedral for World Refugee Day and then proceeded to the federal court where United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents have been arresting immigrants attending court-ordered appointments. Some have been deported from the United States even though they were following the legal process to regularise their status. 

Pham, who will be installed as the ordinary in San Diego next month and who is himself an immigrant from Vietnam, said when he arrived, Ice agents were “standing there covered with masks as we walked toward the courtroom”. The agents “kind of scattered and went away. No wonder people come in fear,” the bishop said. Those accompanying him said the Ice agents were nowhere to be found when he arrived at the court. Two immigrants had their cases heard and there were no arrests.  

On a typical day, between two and four immigrants would have been detained by Ice agents. Immigrant supporters passed out information pamphlets at the courthouse, advising immigrants on their rights and encouraging those who “fear returning to your home country [to] say it clearly and out loud to the Ice officers [and] request a credible fear interview.”

A lawyer for bondholders in Louisiana said the Archdiocese of New Orleans might have committed “securities fraud” in announcing it may not be able to meet a scheduled interest payment on $41 million of bonds issued in 2017.  

The archdiocese is in bankruptcy proceedings, pending a final settlement with victims of clergy sex abuse which has not been reached. Victims seek $300 million from the archdiocese, which has so far offered $180 million. Attorneys for the bondholders indicated that on several occasions, officials of the archdiocese, including Archbishop Gregory Aymond, have assured the investors that the bonds would be paid in full.  

Attorney Colleen Murphy, representing the bondholders, said making such assurances while knowing the bonds would not be paid is illegal: “I’m here to tell you that’s the definition of securities fraud.” The archdiocese issued a statement saying it disagreed sharply with “the inflammatory statements made by the [bondholders’] attorneys in court”.

Advocates of the old rite criticised a leaked draft of liturgical directives issued by Bishop Michael Martin of Charlotte, North Carolina.

The directives aimed, in part, to continue the implementation of Traditionis Custodes, the motu proprio mandating restrictions on the use of the pre-conciliar rite, such as limiting its celebration to one centrally located shrine. A diocesan spokesperson said that the directives were still being discussed by the bishop, the liturgy office and the diocesan presbyteral council.  

About 1,000 people attend Mass in the old rite in the diocese, which has a Catholic population of 565,000. The leaked copy of the directives was published online by the traditionalist website Rorate Caeli which has been highly critical of Traditionis Custodes.  

Some bishops in the United States have hesitated to implement its norms and Bishop Martin, who was installed on 29 May last year, said he sought to bring the diocese into conformity with the document. In addition to restrictions on the old rite, the draft letter instructs priests not to celebrate the Mass ad orientem and warns against liturgical experimentations in which priests change the words found in the sacramentary.

Bishop Jacques Habert of Bayeux-Lisieux warned the faithful in his northern French diocese against believing purported “mystical” meetings organised in the area “under the guise of a prayer fraternity”. 

A lay woman in a village east of Bayeux holds regular prayer meetings to spread messages she claims to have received from Jesus and Mary. She appears to have links to the Italy-based Marian Movement of Priests. 

“I forbid priests from participating in these gatherings and celebrations,” Bishop Habert said in a letter on 16 June. “Any Christian who approaches an illicit sanctuary or a fraternity without recognition from the Church may be put in danger.” He said that “the influence and sectarian deviations” unit of the bishops’ conference had conducted a probe into these “cenacles”, as the meetings are called. 

The Movement, which claims to have about 20,000 faithful and 400 priests in France, distributes at its “cenacles” an official book with “numerous catastrophic revelations coming directly from the Virgin Mary”. It denies any link with the woman’s meetings, but the daily La Croix said they were included on “cenacle” locations on its website until recently. 

The woman has long been linked to “movements advocating the return of royalty before the Apocalypse, the end of the world and the second coming of the Lord”, La Croix reported.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne announced that his German archdiocese will celebrate the 750th anniversary of the world’s earliest recorded Corpus Christi procession in 1279. He said the anniversary of the procession where the Eucharist was carried onto the streets of Cologne from the Cathedral (now Basilica) of St Gereon would be marked in 2029.  

“For centuries, the feast of Corpus Christi has symbolised the fact that the Lord shares our lives with us and lives. He goes out from the churches to the people – especially to those who do not yet know Him and offers them His friendship,” he said in a pastoral message issued last weekend for the feast of Corpus Christi.  

The feast was first instituted in the thirteenth century in the Belgian Diocese of Liège by the local bishop Robert de Torote, after the prioress of a local monastery, St Juliana, received visions of the Moon with a dark stripe running across it and God revealed the Moon represented the Eucharist and the stripe, the lack of a feast. The celebration became universal after the archdeacon of Liège, Jacques Pantaléon, became Pope Urban IV.

The number of men being ordained priests in Austria rose this year to 26, according to a survey of local dioceses and seminaries by the Catholic news agency Kathpress. Over the past 10 years, an average of 22 men a year have been ordained priests for the Austrian Church.  

The research found that the average age of new priests was decreasing slightly from 35 to 34, as “half of the prospective priests are only between 27 and 31 years,” reported the outlet. Five were ordained on 14 June for the Archdiocese of Vienna.  

Fourteen of this year’s ordinands were born Austria, a higher number than previous years. Six of those ordained in 2024 were born in the country. The remainder of those ordained this year include five Germans, three Nigerians, a Slovakian, a Pole, a Spaniard and an Indian.

Pope Leo XIV said the Renaissance composter Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) was “one of the musicians who contributed most to the promotion of sacred music”. 

Speaking at a ceremony on 18 June to mark the five-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Palestrina, the Pope said his compositions were “solemn and austere, inspired by Gregorian chant”, and “fuse music and liturgy in a way that elevates the soul and gives voice to the mystery of the divine”.  

The Vatican launched a special stamp to mark the birth of Palestrina, the composer of more than 105 Mass settings and 250 motets and a master of contrapuntal composition. A CD of Palestrina’s music sung by the choir of the Domenico Bartolucci Foundation was also produced to mark the anniversary.

Leading economists called for urgent action and reforms to tackle the debt and development crises in a new report marking the 2025 Jubilee, published by the Vatican on 20 June.  

In the report, the Jubilee Commission – a group of more than 30 economists assembled by the late Pope Francis, led by the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and former Minister of the Economy of Argentina Martín Guzmán – called for “urgent relief, restructuring and reform to make the international financial system, fairer, more just and more aligned with human dignity”. 

Pope Leo praised the commission’s efforts to “contribute positively to the ongoing global discussions on debt relief and provide tangible and innovative options that offer mutual benefit, thus inviting a broader coalition of support from the international community”. 

Writing on the Tablet website, the former Archbishop of Abuja Cardinal John Onaiyekan said the report “offers practical solutions our world desperately needs, bringing together sound economic wisdom with the moral imperative to ‘heed the cry of the poor’”.

The Laudato Si’ Movement in Africa led calls for all governments to support the international Fossil Fuels Non-Proliferation Treaty, a global plan to phase out fossil fuels and address the climate crisis. It said fossil fuels “are failing Africa” where around 600 million people still lack power.  

The movement reported that the Maasai became the first indigenous people in Africa officially to endorse the treaty, joining 11 Amazonian indigenous nations. Across Kenya, faith leaders reaffirmed that “care for creation is a sacred responsibility”. 

Meanwhile, members of the Jesuits for Climate Justice campaign attended the UN Climate Conference in Bonn (16-26 June), joining the lobbying for climate finance for developing countries before COP30 later in the year. On 24 June, a Jesuit side event focused on issues around climate migration. 

Caritas Internationalis and Sciaf held a side event on “Holistic Climate Action” which highlighted examples of agroecological agriculture making life better for small-scale farmers and building resilience and adaptability in the face of a changing climate.

Catholic bishops in Ghana joined the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) to urge the nation’s legislators to prioritise the swift passage of the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, commonly referred to as the anti-LGBTQI+ Bill, which would introduce widespread restrictions on LGBT rights. 

In a joint statement released on 17 June, both organisations expressed their support for the bill and urged parliament to treat its deliberation as a matter of urgency. 

The statement, co-signed by Bishop Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi of Sunyani, president of the bishops’ conference, and Dr Hilliard Dela Dogbe, chairman of the CCG, claimed Ghana was threatened by foreign moral ideologies contrary to its legal framework and cultural practices. “We believe this will contribute to addressing corruption and unethical conduct that impede national development,” they said. 

In response, the former US Ambassador to Ghana Virginia Palmer cautioned against the legislation, arguing that it would contradict the nation’s reputation as a “welcoming, tolerant society”. As of March 2023, there were 64 countries that criminalise homosexuality, nearly half of them in Africa.

The Catholic-inspired International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, known as Intersociety, unusually praised the conduct of Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu as he responded to the security failures that led to the massacre of more than 200 Christians in Benue State earlier this month. 

A statement from Intersociety on 19 June noted his challenge to the heads of Nigeria’s security agencies about why they had not arrested the culprits. “How come no arrest has been made?” the president asked defence chiefs during his visit to Benue on 18 June. “I expect there should be an arrest of those criminals,” he added.  

“The president’s million dollar question, unanswered by his appointed security and intelligence chiefs, till date, has therefore gladdened our heart for the first time since the president’s emergence as sixth civilian president of Nigeria,” said the statement signed by Intersociety’s director Emeka Umeagbalasi.

A South African bishop said the country’s G20 presidency offered a valuable opportunity to address Africa’s many challenges. The presidency term, which ends in November this year, offers a chance to fulfil the late Pope Francis’ call to build “a better kind of politics” and address Africa’s debt burden, according to Bishop Thulani Mbuyisa of Kokstad. 

“Our continent stands at a crossroads. On one hand, Africa is home to the youngest population on Earth, to vibrant movements of renewal, and to communities rich in resilience and faith,” Bishop Mbuyisa said. “On the other hand, we remain burdened by unjust financial systems, debilitating debt, ecological degradation, and global neglect.” 

He said Pope Francis’ message of “social love” and “a sense of belonging to one another” must drive Africa’s debt relief under G20 discussions. “Let South Africa’s G20 presidency not be remembered for polite communiqués and photo opportunities. Let it be remembered as the moment when Africa stood tall – not just to ask, but to lead,” Mbuyisa added.

Church groups in South Africa marked 16 June, recognised across the continent as the Day of the African Child, as the anniversary of protests in 1976 against the apartheid regime’s discriminatory education system. 

Black school pupils and students took to the streets on 16 June 1976 to protest against teaching in Afrikaans, the language associated with the apartheid government. The authorities ruthlessly suppressed the protests, killing hundreds, and it was in their memory that the African Union declared 16 June the Day of the African Child in 1991. 

“The Church remembers the children and youth who faced brutality and death with courage and conviction, affirming their sacrifice as a profound witness to the Gospel’s call for justice and love,” writes James Katende in The Southern Cross last week. 

“These young heroes embodied the prophetic spirit of Christ who sided with the oppressed and challenged the powers of injustice. The Church’s commemoration is, therefore, an act of sacred memory – a way to keep alive the hope of a just society where every person is honoured as created in the image of God.” 

Fr Russell Pollitt, parish priest of Holy Trinity Parish Johannesburg, told The Tablet that the struggle of young people still continues even today, because “millions of young South Africans have still not been liberated from poverty and are still disenfranchised under corrupt ANC rule”.

The head of the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) said border controls fail to address the root causes of migration. 

Stéphane Jaquemet, the ICMC’s Chief Operating Officer, Director of Policy and Director of ICMC Europe, told The Tablet that “people do not leave their homes unless they feel they have no other choice”. He identified “global inequalities” as constituting one of the root triggers of migration, and explained that people will continue to seek safety and opportunity abroad “until this imbalance is addressed”. 

He said deaths at borders highlight the flawed approach of countries – particularly western nations – that build fences instead of seeking to address the reasons people leave their countries of origin. “Migration should not be treated as a threat to be repelled, but as a human reality to be managed with justice and compassion,” he said. 

Around 80 per cent of Africa’s migrants stay within their region of origin, according to the International Organisation for Migration. Jaquemet noted that migrants play a key role in the economic development of their home countries through remittances. According to the World Bank, remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa alone were estimated at over US$49 billion in 2022, far exceeding foreign direct investment and aid.

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