News Briefing: Church in the World

The Gospel calls Christians “to recognise the equal dignity of man and woman”, Pope Leo said in his Angelus address on 8 March, International Women’s Day. He offered particular prayers for the “many women, from childhood onwards, [who] are still discriminated against and suffer various forms of violence”. 

In a message to a reader of the Piazza San Pietro monthly published the same day, the Pope suggested that men commit domestic violence and femicide because women “are a sign of contradiction in this confused, uncertain and violent society”. He emphasised: “Violence, any violence, is the frontier that divides civilisation from barbarism.”

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, welcomed the appointment of Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia as the next apostolic nuncio to the United States on 7 March. 

“On behalf of my brother bishops, I wish to extend our warmest welcome and our prayerful support to him as he carries out his responsibilities across the United States, and we look forward to working with him,” Coakley said. 

Pope Leo XIV chose Caccia, titular Archbishop of Sepino, to succeed the 80-year-old Cardinal Christophe Pierre, appointed in 2016. Caccia, 68, has served as Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations since 2019. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1983 and has served in the Holy See’s diplomatic service since 1991.  

Coakley expressed his “sincere and prayerful appreciation” to the outgoing Pierre. “I have had many opportunities to work with Cardinal Pierre over the years, particularly over the last four months through the US Conference of Catholic Bishops,” Coakley said.  

“Thank you, Your Eminence, for your tireless service to the Church in the United States, and on behalf of my brother bishops, I offer our heartfelt prayers and best wishes in your retirement.”

Police in California arrested bishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church on financial crime charges. 

Bishop Emanuel Shaleta, who heads the Diocese of St Peter the Apostle in San Diego, was detained on 5 March at the city’s airport “while attempting to leave the country”, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office. 

He faces charges on eight counts of embezzlement, eight of money laundering and a further count of “aggravated white collar crime enhancement”, applicable in state law to financial crimes exceeding $100,000. 

The Chaldean Patriarchate issued a statement acknowledging the arrest, saying it was aware of complaints against the bishop which were also subject to investigation by the Holy See.

Caritas Colombia published a guide to encourage citizens to vote after the state ombudsmen identified 35 incidents of “social unrest” in the capital Bogotá and elsewhere linked to political polarisation and voting restrictions.  

Caritas said the guide, titled “Let’s live out the Gospel by conscientiously participating in Politics in 2026”, was a pastoral tool to “promote free, informed and peaceful voting”.

The document was the fruit of a “process of reflection” where “communities, pastoral agents and diocesan teams had contributed their experience and knowledge” in response to “every kind of electoral situation”, Caritas explained. “The document uses the See-Judge-Act method to foster free, informed and responsible voting.”

“It appeals for [people to] reject vote-buying, misinformation and political violence and is a reminder that peace in elections begins with every single individual,” Caritas said. Colombia held parliamentary elections last Sunday, with presidential elections due on 31 May.

Catholic organisations said a new bill prohibiting political dynasties in the Philippines is “designed to leave dynastic power mostly untouched”.

The bill, approved on 3 March by a 32-member committee at the House of Representatives and now up for deliberation by the 318-member House plenary, bans political dynasties only up to the second degree of consanguinity and affinity. Reform advocates argue that the ban should cover up to the fourth degree. The bill also allows family members to hold government posts simultaneously, provided they run at different levels or in different localities. 

The Jesuit-run Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (Church at the Nation’s Service), the anti-corruption group Clergy for Good Governance and the sociopolitical affairs ministry of the Archdiocese of Manila joined 10 other groups opposing the bill. 

They said Filipinos “do not need a watered-down bill that can be sold as ‘anti-dynasty’ while dynasties simply adjust their line-up and continue monopolising public office and public funds”. They continued: “The country cannot afford fake reform that legitimises dynasty rule.” 

A 2022 study by the Ateneo School of Government said about 80 per cent of lawmakers belong to political dynasties. The country’s two highest leaders, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Vice President Sara Duterte, are themselves heirs to political clans.

Two church buildings suffered attacks in different districts of India’s eastern state of Odisha. 

A crowd in Dengaswargi village in Rayagada district vandalised the St Paula Montal Chapel on 3 March, desecrating the altar, destroyed the Stations of the Cross, furniture and electrical fittings, and burned vestments and Bibles. The dome of the church was also damaged in the attack. 

According to church sources, the group of tribal Hindus had attacked the church after coming to the village in search of three Catholic families, who hid inside their homes and refused to come out.  

On 5 March, tribal Hindu villagers vandalised a Pentecostal church in Rengalguda village in Koraput district, breaking furniture and destroying the roof.

Bishops in India called on Catholics to observe a week of prayer and fasting for peace in the Middle East. 

The Archbishop of Goa and Daman Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, president of the Latin-rite Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), asked them to observe Sunday 8 March as a day of “Prayer for Peace”, with special intentions offered during Masses, and to pray the Rosary daily on 8-14 March invoking the intercession of Our Lady, Queen of Peace, for reconciliation, dialogue and a just resolution to the tensions in Iran and neighbouring countries. 

He also asked Catholics to observe a day of fasting and prayer on 13 March for world peace and for the safety of all those affected, especially the millions of Indians working in the Middle East who also contribute significantly to both the Church and the nation. “In this hour of uncertainty, we commend them in a special way to the Lord’s protection,” Cardinal Ferrão said. 

Mourning the loss of innocent lives, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) urged global leaders to pursue peace through dialogue. In a statement, the bishops extended heartfelt prayers to families grieving the loss of loved ones and prayed for the swift recovery of the injured. 

CBCI president Cardinal Anthony Poola urgently appealed to the leaders of all nations involved to engage in constructive dialogue to resolve the crisis and “consciously [to] choose peace over violence”.

An interreligious meeting in Lahore brought Christians and Muslims together during the seasons of Lent and Ramadan to pray for an end to the border violence between Pakistan and Afghanistan and renew their commitment to peace.  

The meeting on 5 March was organised by Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora, Minister for Minorities in the provincial government of Punjab, and participants celebrated the Ramadan fast-breaking iftar meal together. Archbishop Benny Mario Travas of Karachi and other leading religious figures attended. 

“It was a great expression of harmony and respect between believers of different religions and also a moment to pray together for peace and reconciliation,” reported Fr James Channan OP, director of the Peace Centre in Lahore. Attendees thanked Pope Leo for his concern for Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as for those suffering violence across the Middle East.

Israeli police closed the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion to the public for safety reasons. Abbot Nikodemus Schnabel OSB said that due to heightened security tensions the monastery is no longer “a place which one can enter freely to take a deep breath”. The abbey remains open for the monks, house guests and students undertaking the “Theological Year”. 

A state of emergency is in force in Israel, including a ban on gatherings which also applies to religious celebrations. The abbey initially tried to keep their church open for pilgrims but the authorities obliged it to abide by the rules. “It is war and the nervousness is tangible,” said Schnabel.  

In a video message, he said that he was appalled that people outside the region treated the war “like a football match, full of excitement”. The abbot said that he was shaken by the development, “because I experience how it is really all people who suffer – be it in Iran, in Israel, in Palestine or Kuwait. We are all part of the one human family.” 

He told Domradio: “Before I became abbot, I was a patriarchal vicar in charge of all Catholic migrants and asylum seekers here in the Holy Land. These are exactly the ones who are now trembling again. Iran has attacked exactly where many Catholic migrant workers work, for example in Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait. In the last attack on Israel, a Catholic migrant was killed.

“Be it in Iran, Israel, Palestine or the Arab states – the victims with the highest death toll are the vulnerable whose names are not known. These are the ones that are so cynically called ‘collateral damage’.”

Pastoral care coordinators working with the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) called for a stronger response to stateless and undocumented people.

More than 40 diocesan coordinators, Church leaders and partners gathered online on 4 March for a high-level workshop addressing the issue. It concluded with an appeal for deeper coordination between dioceses, Caritas structures and partner organisations. 

Organised by the SACBC’s Migrants, Refugees and Human Trafficking Office, in collaboration with Caritas South Africa, the webinar formed part of the Caritas Africa Project on Migration and Statelessness in the region, which has a substantial stateless population. 

Bishop Joseph Mary Kizito of Aliwal, the SACBC liaison bishop for Migrants, Refugees and Human Trafficking, said: “Christ is present in those stateless children and in those people without identity, without a future, without a home.” He urged dioceses and partners to take concrete pastoral action.  

The Archdiocese of Johannesburg’s Pastoral Care Department included work on parish accompaniment and legal orientation, language classes, microcredit for women, leadership training in over 30 parishes and food distribution reaching approximately 5,000 people monthly. 

The Holy See’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development sent a message reaffirming its support for local Churches accompanying migrants and stateless persons.

A bishop urged unemployed young people in Malawi to consider vocations to the religious life to respond to a shortage of priests. Bishop Montfort Stima of Mangochi, in the south of the country, said young people leaving secondary school should consider religious life, not just marriage, as their vocation. 

“Priesthood is a serious vocation, not for those with nothing to do. I hope young people will reflect, listen to God and respond generously,” Bishop Stima said last week during World Day of Prayer for Vocations preparations, adding that “doors for priesthood remain open for all young people”. 

The Malawian bishops have appealed for international support for the training of young men for the priesthood due to rising costs for seminary education.

The traditional regulatory society of the Nso people in Cameroon’s North West region outlawed the collection of burial fees by churches and mosques on all cemeteries across Nso land. 

The Nwerong secret society declared that no religious institution has the right to charge families for burial spaces in a directive, known as “Sa-Nwerong”, issued on 4 March. “Every church, without exception, should not dig a grave for anyone in any cemetery on Nso land and ask for a dime,” it said. 

Spaces in cemeteries have become prized assets due to crises including the separatist war in the Anglophone region. Churches and mosques reportedly charge as much as US$200 for a grave – a sum out of reach for most people in the impoverished community. 

The Nwerong argued that religious institutions have no right to charge a fee for grave sites freely given to them by the traditional rulers of Nso land.

A group of Anglican church leaders gathered in Nigeria to elect a new leadership breaking away from the Anglican Communion, despite a series of meetings attempting to resolve their differences. 

The Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) met in Abuja on 3-6 March, hosted by the Primate of the Church of Nigeria Archbishop Henry Ndakuba, with 347 bishops and 121 lay and clerical Anglican leaders from 27 provinces present. Gafcon elected Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda as chair of its Global Anglican Council and issued a statement rejecting the “Instruments of Communion” that govern the mainstream Anglican Communion. 

“The Canterbury Instruments have compromised the authority of the Scriptures by normalising hermeneutical pluralism, elevating cultural capitulation, and reframing the rejection of Scripture’s authority and clarity as ‘good disagreement’, and not what it really is – false teaching,” said a statement signed by Archbishop Mbanda.

Catholic leaders in Guinea-Bissau called for interreligious dialogue to resolve national challenges during a meeting with members of the junta that seized power in November, and called for a greater role for the Church in solving political disputes. 

“It is essential to strengthen dialogue between religions, because peace in the country largely depends on our ability to live together and respect our differences,” Bishop Víctor Luís Quematcha of Bafatá after he met the transitional president General Horta N’Tam. “The current context requires greater closeness between religious leaders and political authorities.” 

The country has faced a series of outbreaks of religious and tribal violence between Muslims and Christians in recent years, which has continued despite the November coup which the military justified as a means to stabilise the country. Last year, the bishops called for prayers for the end of the country’s troubles amid clashes that claimed scores of lives.

The Vatican post office has issued a stamp to honour the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). Launched on 26 February, it depicts the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv.  

Vatican City State’s Office of Postal and Philately said the stamp also commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the restoration of the Catholic Diocese of Kyiv after the fall of the Soviet Union.  

Fr Felice Bruno, head of the Vatican’s postal and philately service, added that the stamp expressed “closeness and affection” toward a Church that “for centuries has suffered persecutions and trials” and in the last four years has endured “the very grave consequences of a cruel and dehumanising war”.  

The UGCC primate Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said the stamp recalled “the history of martyrdom of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church”. The stamp marks the first joint philatelic initiative between the Vatican City Governorate and the UGCC secretariat in Rome.

The Holy See declared a year of Jubilee at the Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Pontevedra, northern Spain. 

The Jubilee began on 10 December last year, the centenary of a vision received by the Venerable Sr Lucia dos Santos, the seer of Fatima. She said Mary and the child Jesus had asked for prayers of reparation on the First Saturday of every month. 

The First Saturday devotion comprises attending the Sacrament of Confession, receiving Holy Communion in reparation for offenses against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, praying five mysteries of the Rosary and meditating for 15 minutes on the Rosary.  

Lucia and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto saw visions of the Virgin Mary on several occasions in Fatima, Portugal in 1917. “Mary kept all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:19) is the theme of the Jubilee, which will end on 10 December 2026.  

The Vatican has granted pilgrims to the shrine who fulfil requirements including confession, receiving communion, prayers and special prayers for the Pope a plenary indulgence during the Jubilee.

Two French Trappist monasteries dating back about 900 years face contrasting futures. One is leaving its ancestral home because of falling vocations while the other has welcomed three new postulants. 

Notre Dame of La Trappe Abbey, ancestral home of the Trappist order, announced it would leave its premises in Le Perche region of Normandy in 2028 because of “the lack of vocations and the increasingly heavy burden of the land holdings”.  The dozen monks left look back on a history that began in 1140.  

The monastery was sacked several times and saw the founding of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Obedience – the Trappists – in 1664. 

On the other side of France, in the Savoie Alps east of Albertville, Notre Dame de Tamié Abbey is enjoying a revival with three new postulants recently joining about 25 ageing monks there. “Their presence is a great source of hope for Tamié,” one monk said. “The three postulants we now have were baptised or confirmed very recently.” 

Tamié Abbey also has a turbulent history and adopted the Trappist reforms in 1677. About 15 years ago, it opened the monastery to short “discovery internships” that eventually led the three to ask to join the community.

Bishop Franz Overbeck of Essen, who is responsible for pastoral care of the German military, said that US and Israeli attacks on Iran applied the concept of “might makes right”. 

He told KNA: “In my view this contravenes international law and further hollows out the already weakened rule-based order.” He acknowledged the brutality of the Iranian regime but said that to oppose it with weapons is problematic. 

“On the one hand, I am shocked by the terrible deeds of this unjust regime, and on the other hand, there is the insight that legal binding is crucial, especially in the event of conflict,” Overbeck said. If everyone claimed exceptions, he said, international law would become weaker.  

Talking at a secondary school in Essen, he said that as a school pupil in the 1980s he had decided that “if we are attacked, I would defend freedom”, but this could only happen in a rule-based use of weapons which serves the protection and the restitution of peace and freedom. 

Speaking to KNA at the Munich security conference last month, he said: “A sense of security that has existed since the end of the Second World War is dwindling. President Trump’s daily announcements … are depleting confidence in the USA … there is a way of dealing with lies and truth that many people would never have thought possible for the United States.”

The Bishop Emeritus of Würzburg Friedhelm Hofmann gave up his title of honorary canon (Ehrendomherr) at Würzburg Cathedral in response to criticisms of his handling of abuse cases.  

Hoffman has faced allegations of failing to respond to the case of a priest who died in 2017 and had abused two teenage girls in the parish of Höchberg in Lower Franconia, Bavaria. The diocese had been aware of the case since 2010, but only a verbal report had been made to Rome, while the priest continued in office and had contact with young people.  

Hoffman’s critics include his successor Bishop Franz Jung. Hofmann announced that he would establish a foundation for victims of sexual violence in the diocese. 

In a statement read out in Höchberg, Hofmann said: “As a bishop, I should have asked more questions, looked more closely and acted more consistently. Many of you feel that you are not sufficiently informed and not taken seriously.”

Pope Leo sent a message of congratulations to mark the 110th birthday of the world’s oldest priest. Fr Bruno Kant of the Diocese of Fulda is the oldest man in Germany. Born near Danzig in modern-day Poland on 26 February 1916, his theological studies were interrupted by the Second World War when he was conscripted for forced labour, served as a solider and was taken prisoner. He was eventually ordained in 1950. Pope Leo thanked for his “long, fruitful and devoted priestly service”.

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