News Briefing: Church in the World

The apostolic nuncio to Angola Archbishop Kryspin Dubiel said Pope Leo will visit the country in 2026 on the invitation of its bishops’ conference and President João Lourenço. 

“The timeline for the visit is still being finalised,” Archbishop Dubiel told reporters on 13 January. “I hope that the Holy Father’s visit can be an occasion to rediscover the values that guide the Angolan people, and that those values can be shared with the diverse communities that live and work throughout the world.” 

Archbishop José Manuel Imbamba of Saurimo, the president of the Bishops’ Conference of Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe called upon Angolans to participate in committees that will be established to prepare for the papal visit. “Each of these committees should give their best in the preparation, promotion, and realisation of all tasks assigned,” he said. 

Archbishop Filomeno do Nascimento Vieira Dias of Luanda described the planned visit as a “moment of great human and spiritual comfort”, emphasising its special timing for the city, which celebrates its “grand jubilee” in 2026 marking 450 since the foundation of Luanda.

Pope Leo prayed for dialogue and peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo as he remembered those affected by the violence blighting it eastern regions. Speaking after the Angelus on Sunday, he remembered in particular the refugees from the fighting sheltering in Burundi where they face an “extreme humanitarian crisis” worsened by severe weather. Last week, a landslide triggered by heavy rains killed around 20 people in eastern DR Congo. 

The Pope also prayed for flood victims across southern Africa. Aid agencies estimated that more than 100 people had died in floods by 18 January, with thousands more displaced. Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa were among the countries worst affected by heavy rains that washed away bridges, killed livestock and destroyed homes.

A South African bishop threatened parishioners with excommunication for fomenting protests against church leadership. A group of “disgruntled” parishioners held a public demonstration and disrupted Mass in Pretoria last month to express their opposition to the appointment of a pastor to serve at its cathedral, reportedly inciting others to join them. 

In a decree on 11 January, Archbishop Dabula Mpako of Pretoria said the protests were an “illegitimate and harmful expression of opinions contrary to reverence toward pastors and the common good of the Church”, and that the protesters’ actions “seriously harmed ecclesiastical communion and the good name of the Church”. 

The archbishop said that more than 40 parishioners involved faced excommunication, noting that the demonstrators had previously been cautioned but persisted “in the schismatic behaviour of inciting revolt against the lawful authority of the bishop”.

Seminary rectors should prioritise liturgical formation to prevent abuses, a Ghanaian bishop said at the opening of the twelfth Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa Rectors’ Conference in Accra.

Bishop Joseph Kwaku Afrifah-Agyekum of Koforidua warned that celebration without proper preparation “becomes mere performance”. He called for the correction of practices that resemble concerts and cautioned against the use of commercialised sacramental items.

“The seminary is a special place of formation where seminarians are equipped academically and spiritually for service in the Church,” the bishop said. “We see priests performing liturgy in ways that resemble concerts or theatrical performances. These practices must be corrected, and the proper guidelines must be taught from the seminary.” 

Speaking at the same conference, Archbishop John Bonaventure Kwofie of Accra condemned the alleged the rise of “homosexuality” and “gay culture” among seminarians in West Africa, urging rectors “to weed out people of such orientation”.

Religious leaders in Nigeria mourned the death of Imam Abdullahi Abubakar, who won international acclaim for sheltering 300 Christians during communal strife in 2018 in which Fulani militants killed hundreds of Christians. 

Abubakar was chief imam of Nghar village in the Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State and sheltered Christians in his mosque during the violence, denying their presence to militants who demanded entry. 

Asked why he risked his life, he said that the Prophet Muhammed worked with many people with different backgrounds: “He had a cordial and peaceful relationship with everybody regardless of their religions.” 

Abubakar said that during the Fulani attack most of those who fled to the mosque were Christians. “I accommodated them in the Mosque. We gave them cover. The attackers came in large numbers and started shooting indiscriminately,” he said. “I was threatened. I gambled with my life. My life was in danger. I even fell down. But because I am an old man, they looked at me, they left me and went elsewhere.” 

Following Abubakar’s death on 16 January aged 92, the Christian Association of Nigeria praised the imam’s “exceptional display of humanity”, while a statement from President Bola Tinubu commemorated his testament to faith, courage and a staunch belief in the sacredness of human life. 

“At such a time when tribal and religious tendencies seemed to overwhelm reason, Imam Abubakar stood firmly on the side of peace, benevolence and conscience,” President Tinubu said. 

Pope Leo XIV expressed “heartfelt sorrow” in a telegram to relatives of victims of a high-speed rail crash in Spain near the southern city of Córdoba. At least 39 people died and around 100 passengers were injured in the crash on 18 January. 

Following the accident at 7:45 p.m. local time, local Spaniards rushed to bring survivors blankets, food and hot drinks in a parish “field hospital”. Parishioners of the Church of San Andrés in Adamuz, the site of the collision, sheltered survivors in parish buildings, bringing them food and blankets from their own homes. 

The parish priest Fr Rafael Prados Godoy kept church buildings open all Sunday night and met the first survivors to arrive by bus from the accident scene at the municipal centre in Adamuz.  

The Bishop of Córdoba Jesús Fernández entrusted the victims and the injured to God, saying: “May they unceasingly perceive his help, fortitude and consolation at this time of uncertainty and sorrow.” He visited the survivors in Adamuz early on Monday morning. “At this time, we need faith to keep going,” said Fernández.

President Emmanuel Macron told French religious leaders that anti-religious acts were increasing and he would hold a national conference on them in the spring. 

In his traditional New Year’s greetings to the heads of France’s main religions, he particularly “expressed concern about anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim acts, radicalisation and the exploitation of Islam”, according to Pastor Christian Krieger, head of the French Protestant Federation. 

In 2024, the last full year for official statistics, 62 per cent of anti-religious acts in France were anti-Semitic, 31 percent anti-Christian and seven per cent anti-Islam. There were 322 anti-Christian incidents recorded between January and May 2025, a 13 per cent increase on the same period in 2024. Most were property crimes, but attacks against persons almost doubled. 

Macron, who gave no any other details about the national conference, called for a “respectful debate” about a bill allowing assisted suicide.

The National Assembly passed it last year, but the Senate will only vote on its first reading next week on 28 January. The religious leaders warned before the National Assembly vote that legalisation of assisted suicide would be an “ethical, social and medical regression”.

The Church in Austria began a scheme for “late vocations” to allow men between 45 and 60 to undertake an individually tailored and flexible training programme while continuing to work in their profession.  

The pathway is aimed at “men who have already borne responsibility” and who are “invited to invest their gifts in the church”. Candidates will study theology at undergraduate or postgraduate level at a university or college or by distance learning alongside practical and spiritual training in a seminary.  

Some professions are fully compatible with the exercise of priestly ministry, but candidates in others – such as political offices – will have to give them up. A similar model already exists in Germany, while Austria, Germany and France have traditions of “worker priests”.  

The model seeks to combine the realities of modern life with important elements of classic models of seminary training, said Richard Tatzreiter, Regens of the seminaries for Vienna, St Pōlten and Eisenstadt.

He maintained that the new pathway does not encourage a “church for loners”, as some parishes had alleged, nor did it allow candidates to bypass the regular seminary. The number of interested candidates is expected to grow.

The Diocese of Regensburg will sell the world’s oldest monastic brewery, in Weltenburg in Lower Bavaria, to the family firm Schneider Weisse.

Weltenburg is part of the brewery Bischofshof, owned by the diocese, that will close its Regensburg site at the end of 2026. The Weltenburg site, with more than 1,000 years of monastic brewing history and 21 staff, will be maintained.  

The German beer market has declined by a quarter over the last 15 years and there are only ten monastic breweries remaining in Germany.  

The abbot of Weltenburg Thomas Maria Freihart said: “We are pleased that … with the ‘Bavarian solution’ that has now been found, the continued operation of the oldest monastery brewery in the world is also well secured for the future.”

Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of Moscow, president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia, did not sign a statement published by the Christian inter-confessional consultative committee on 15 January. 

In the document, the representatives of Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical and other Churches in Russia expressed their “concern regarding the ongoing oppression and violations of the rights of Christians in a number of countries”.  

The statement specified Ukraine, Moldova, Estonia and Armenia – some of which have taken measures to curb the activity of the Russian Orthodox Church as potential supporter of war in Ukraine – but did not mention Belarus, China, Iran or Syria, according to the Religious Information Service of Ukraine.

Kuwait issued a joint statement with the Holy See affirming its commitment to peaceful coexistence among religions. It was released last week during a visit to Kuwait by the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, which aimed to strengthen bonds of friendship and cooperation maintained since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1968.  

The cardinal held talks with Kuwait’s prime minister, Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al Sabah, and presided at celebrations marking the proclamation of the Church of Our Lady of Arabia in Ahmadi as a Minor Basilica. The first chapel was built on the site in 1948, and the church received this title from Pope Leo last June in recognition of its historical significance in the Gulf.

The Palliative Care Day Centre at St Elizabeth Catholic Hospital in Hyderabad, in Pakistan’s Sindh Province – providing cancer patients and the terminally ill with a place to receive care, pain relief and support – is the first facility of its kind in the country.

The apostolic nuncio to Pakistan Archbishop Germano Penemote and the President of the Pakistani bishops’ conference Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad led the centre’s inauguration and blessing ceremony on 12 January. 

Fr Robert McCulloch, an Australian Columban missionary and a member of the hospital’s board of directors, said: “This centre represents a fundamental turning point in healthcare in Pakistan. Care is free of charge, just like our home-based palliative care service. Patients of all cultures, ethnicities, and religions will be welcome, and this service will therefore also have a positive impact on promoting interfaith harmony in the region.” 

Funding for the facility and equipment was made possible through support from the Hungarian government, and the Hungarian Ambassador to Pakistan attended the inauguration. The hospital, named after Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, opened in Hyderabad in 1958.

The Catholic Church “is making a significant contribution to rekindling hope” in Sri Lanka after the destruction of Cyclone Ditwah, according to Fr Basil Rohan Fernando, the national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Colombo. The cyclone killed at least 600 Sri Lankans in November and December and displaced one million more.  

Fr Fernando expressed gratitude “to countries and organisations around the world, such as Caritas in various countries, for the financial support we are receiving – we do not feel abandoned”. 

Bishop Jude Nishantha Silva of Badulla, whose diocese is in one of the worst affected areas, urged the Sri Lankan authorities to improve its support for survivors. In a social media post on 19 January, he said many were struggling to access state assistance due to excessive paperwork and the absence of clear government procedures.

South Korea intends “to leave behind the era of confrontation and inaugurate a new stage of peaceful coexistence and shared growth, promoting a sustainable peace that guarantees a prosperous future for all the peoples of the Korean Peninsula”, its ambassador the Holy See said,

Hyung Sik Shin, who is a Catholic, said last week that World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul would be “a milestone” for South Korea. “More than an event, it is a universal message of peace emanating from the Korean Peninsula to the world,” he said, describing a nuclear-free world as “a moral imperative”.   

He promised to dedicate “my utmost diplomatic efforts to bridging the Holy See’s vision with the administrative excellence of the Korean government”. He hoped Pope Leo’s presence “will provide the momentum needed to open a new chapter of peace in East Asia”. 

In South Korea, a documentary about seven Irish Columban missionaries killed during the Korean War (1950-53) was re-released with Korean subtitles. 

“Remembering the Seven: Irish Priests Lost in the Korean War” was first released on YouTube in December. “I hope this documentary becomes widely known among Korean Church believers and greatly helps raise awareness of the Columban martyrs,” said Rachel Collier, a niece of Fr Anthony Collier, one of the seven. 

He and Francis Cannavan, Thomas Cusack, James McGinn, Patrick Riley, John O’Brien, and Mgr Patrick Brennan remained in their parishes despite the outbreak of war. Six were killed by North Korean troops while one died in prison, and the Church has declared seven “Servants of God”.

The Philippines’ biggest council of Protestant churches denounced aerial attacks conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on the coastal town of Abra de Ilog on New Year’s Day.  

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) also demanded the immediate release of Chantal Anicoche, a 24-year-old Filipina-American activist who went missing after the 1 January attack. Anicoche is now in military custody after government troops detained her on 8 January. 

In a statement dated 13 January, the NCCP described the bombing as “a clear and forceful violation” of International Humanitarian Law which requires parties in an armed conflict “to distinguish between combatants and civilians”. The attack led to the death of an independent researcher who had already been sick beforehand and the killing of at least three indigenous children, the NCCP said, though local officials denied that children had been killed. 

“We strongly condemn all forms of violence that gravely undermine the rights, security and human dignity of the people,” the NCCP said. It urged the government and communist insurgents to resume peace talks “because this will resolve the roots of deeply rooted socioeconomic and political grievances”.  

The military denied any violations. “The AFP categorically rejects accusations and misleading narratives regarding this incident. These claims distort the facts and seek to undermine legitimate security operations carried out in defence of peace and public safety,” said Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla, spokesperson of the AFP.

A Filipino bishop rejected plans to renew a coal mining contract on Semirara Island, south of Manila, which hosts the largest open-pit coal mine in the country. The contract of Semirara Mining and Power Corporation is set to expire in 2027 unless otherwise decided by the Department of Energy.  

In a pastoral statement on 18 January, the Bishop of San Carlos Gerardo Alminaza said that coal mining destroyed the island’s traditional livelihoods such as seaweed farming.

The 66-year-old said the result was not development but “dispossession over time”, leading to poverty, and that any extension, reissuance, or rebranding of the coal operating contract “violates the spirit of ecological responsibility and the rights of affected communities”. 

He continued: “The Church cannot bless an economy that survives by wounding the poor and exhausting creation.”

The Archbishop of Barquisimeto Polito Rodríguez called for peace in Venezuela last week. On 14 January, feast of La Divina Pastora, a Marian devotion depicting Mary as mother of Jesus the Good Shepherd, he said: “We are called to rebuild a society in which we all participate. The Jubilee Year has ended, but hope has not – on the contrary, it remains alive in our hearts.” 

Speaking at a Mass for the feast day, he said: “We cannot resign ourselves to evil, neither as human beings nor as Christians, nor to anything that threatens dignity and destroys fundamental human rights.”

Rodriguez continued: “Let us invoke a prayer for peace in Venezuela under the protection of our mother, the Divine Shepherdess, who with her infinite love gathers her entire flock.” He invited those present at the Mass in the town of Santa Rosa to overcome current “wounds” of indifference, fear, and pessimism, and to live with hope. 

“This commitment calls us to be authentic members of the Church, acting as missionaries of peace for Venezuela and builders of a new society founded on love,” he emphasised. “Let us pray for all those deprived of their freedom. We are grateful for the release of some, without forgetting that many others are still prisoners, and we cannot ignore their cries or those of their families.”  

By Monday, the Venezuelan government had freed 143 of the country’s more than 800 political prisoners since it announced on 8 January it would release “an important” number of prisoners at the apparent behest of the United States.

Faith groups were among the 115 organisations to sign a statement demanding the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba. The appeal to the US administration last week marked 24 years since the opening of the facility. 

Signatories included Pax Christi USA, the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, the Iowa Sisters of the Presentation and the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church. 

Guantánamo Bay is a US military prison in Cuba, established in 2002 during the “war on terror” following the 11 September attacks. The statement noted that “nearly 800 men have been detained at Guantánamo’s military detention facility, all of them Muslim, and the majority having never been charged with a crime”.  

Today, 15 men remain indefinitely detained. Since February 2025, more than 700 immigrants – most deported from the US – have been temporarily detained at Guantánamo.

The US-based Catholic Climate Covenant and the international Laudato Si’ Movement criticised the United States’ withdrawal from 67 international organisations, include 31 United Nations-linked bodies focused on the climate crisis and environmental protection. 

In a joint statement titled “Turning Away from Our Common Home”, they said President Donald Trump’s single executive action on 7 January meant the US stopped supporting “many of the world’s leading institutions dedicated to climate science, environmental protection, biodiversity, renewable energy and sustainable development”. These include the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the International Renewable Energy Agency and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. 

“As Catholic organisations committed to caring for God’s creation and protecting human dignity, we are deeply alarmed by this withdrawal from the very forums where nations confront shared global challenges that no country alone can solve,” the statement said, arguing that the withdrawal contradicts the Gospel call to solidarity, cooperation and responsibility for creation.

A new study published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reported that its three-year initiative to renew belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist had helped to rekindle faith and outreach among Mass-attending Catholics. 

“The bishops decided to take time to hear from Catholics in the United States about their experiences of the fruits of the Eucharistic Revival, to recognise ongoing needs within the Church, and to identify areas for potential growth in the future,” said Archbishop Charles C. Thompson of Indianapolis, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Evangelisation and Catechesis, wrote in a letter accompanying the study’s publication on 15 January. 

The report said that the National Eucharist Revival, which ran from 2022 to 2025, helped foster personal and parish renewal, and that “the evidence suggests that a future Revival could bear similar fruit and, with clear support and capacity, potentially expand its reach further”.

The Catholic University of America (CUA) will launch an investigation to find out why young priests leave ministry. The Catholic Project, an initiative of the CUA, hopes to obtain tangible figures for the number of men leaving the priesthood and offer insights as to why, as well as to provide recommendations on how to foster better retention rates. It is funded by a grant of nearly $500,000 from the Knights of Columbus.  

“The goal here is to produce something that is helpful to bishops, priests, seminary formators … to help bishops, seminarians and priests with the new challenges they’re facing,” said Stephen White, executive director of The Catholic Project. He said the research is at a preparatory and planning stage. Data collection is likely to begin in 2027. 

A national study of Catholic priests conducted last year by the Catholic Project found that burnout was more common among diocesan clergy than male Religious. The study reported that “44 per cent of diocesan priests showed at least one symptom of burnout compared to only 31 per cent of Religious priests”. Overall, 82 per cent of priests reported “high levels of personal flourishing” but gave less positive answers when asked whether their own diocese or religious order was flourishing.

Virginia’s Catholic bishops spoke out against a proposed amendment to the state constitution that they warned would remove most legal protections for unborn children. 

Calling the measure “extreme” and “a shock to the conscience”, Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington and Bishop Barry Knestout of Richmond said the amendment would go “far beyond even what Roe v. Wade previously allowed” in a statement on 16 January. 

“It would enshrine virtually unlimited abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no age restriction,” the bishops said, adding that the measure would “severely jeopardise Virginia’s parental consent law, health and safety standards for women, conscience protections for health care providers and restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortions”. 

If approved by voters in November, the amendment would seemingly guarantee a fundamental right to abortion in Virginia’s constitution. As written, the amendment would protect the “fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including the ability to make and carry out decisions relating to one’s own prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management and fertility care”.

Catholic universities in the US pledged cooperation with federal authorities after more than two-dozen individuals were charged in a large-scale gambling scheme to fix NCAA Division 1 men’s and Chinese Basketball Association men’s basketball games. 

“The criminal charges we have filed allege the criminal corruption of collegiate athletics through an international conspiracy of NCAA players, alumni and professional bettors,” US Attorney David Metcalf of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said on 15 January. 

In all, 26 individuals were charged in the alleged bribery and point-shaving scheme. Several of those charged played for teams at Catholic universities such as DePaul University, St Louis University, and Fordham University.

A spokesperson for Depaul University told OSV News that the institution was “deeply disappointed” and pledged to “cooperate fully with any investigation”. OSV News also reported that other Catholic university teams whose games may have been compromised by the alleged conspiracy include Georgetown University, Duquesne University, La Salle University and St John’s University.

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