News Briefing: Church in the World

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem celebrated the Easter Triduum in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre despite security restrictions on religious gatherings in the Holy Land. 

“Easter is universal because it is born in a specific, concrete, real place – here – and for this very reason it can truly reach the whole world,” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said during the Mass on Easter Sunday, attended by a small number of clergy and Franciscans based at the Holy Sepulchre. 

Hours earlier, preaching at the Easter Vigil, he said: “If the tomb is empty, the nothing is truly said and done. No land is forever in dispute, no wound is forever incurable, no memory is forever captive to hatred.”

Pope Leo spoke to Israel’s President Isaac Herzog on Good Friday, emphasising the need “to put an end to the serious ongoing conflict, with a view to achieving a just and lasting peace throughout the Middle East”. 

A statement from the Holy See Press Office after the call said: “The conversation also focused on the importance of protecting the civilian population and promoting respect for international and humanitarian law.” 

Last week an organisation of Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families working for reconciliation was nominated for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. Peace activist Sharon Dolev, founder of the Middle East Treaty Organisation and the Israeli Disarmament Movement, nominated the Parents Circle-Families Forum (PCFF) with the support of the International Peace Bureau. 

“PCFF shows that our shared pain can be a bridge, not a barrier,” Dolev said.  “It is precisely through bereavement that a genuine human connection can be created – one that leads to understanding, solidarity and meaningful dialogue, even between those on opposing sides of the conflict.” 

Founded in 1995, PCFF is made up of more than 850 Palestinians and Israelis who have lost immediate family members in the conflict.

Police in Armenia arrested three people on Palm Sunday following violence during Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to the St Anna Church in Yerevan. The incident began when a man refused to step aside as Pashinyan and his security detail were leaving the packed church before the end of the service.  

Three people were arrested and charged with rowdyism and interference with the political activities of an official, with a potential sentence of up to five years. Critics suggested the incident may have been provoked by Pashinyan’s appearance.  

The clergy of the St Anna Church apologised to worshippers who had witnessed this “regrettable and uncomfortable incident” and appealed to the congregation to refrain from any attempts to pursue political conflicts inside the church. 

The prime minister has escalated his conflict with the leadership of the Armenian Apostolic Church ahead of elections in June. Several bishops are imprisoned, under house arrest or subject to criminal investigation and exit bans.  

The head of the Church, Catholicos Karekin II, is accused of treason, collaboration with Russia and unjustified interference in politics, while Karekin holds Pashinyan responsible for the displacement of more than 100,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh after the war with Azerbaijan.

The newly-installed Archbishop of Lahore Khalid Rehmot OFM Cap visited the family of a young Catholic who died in police custody. Christian communities in Pakistan expressed outrage after Iftkhar Masihi was found hanged in a police station in Lahore’s Kahna district on 26 March. Authorities opened a homicide investigation and arrest warrants for police officers suspected of disguising Masihi’s killing as suicide, but Christian leaders warned that the case would nevertheless undermine minorities’ trust in law enforcement.

In southern Indian, the Kerala High Court set aside a judge’s order for the state to confiscate six disputed churches of the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church. It ruled that civil administration cannot be directed to take over places of worship in disputes between religious factions. 

The confiscation order originated in a contempt petition filed by the rival Malankara Orthodox Church which claims control of the churches in Ernakulam and Palakkad districts. The Jacobite Church appealed against the order in the Indian Supreme Court, which set aside the directive and redirected the case to the Kerala High Court for fresh consideration, prompting the ruling on 24 March. 

The Jacobite Church’s Catholicos Baselios Joseph said that while he was eager for a peaceful resolution, he was not in favour of surrendering any church. “We want a peaceful resolution to the issue, one that ensures a peaceful coexistence as sister churches,” he said. 

However, the Malankara Church said it would continue with its legal efforts to claim the churches. The Supreme Court previously affirmed its rights to them under the Churches’ common 1934 constitution. 

The medical commission of the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints approved the recognition of a miracle attributed to the intercession of Thomas Choi Yang-up, a nineteenth-century priest remembered as “St Paul of Korea”. 

Ordained in Shanghai in 1849, his decade of arduous and largely rural ministry until his death in 1861 also won him the moniker of the “Martyr of Sweat”. While he was not persecuted like many of his contemporaries he is considered a founding figure of the Korean Church and was declared “Venerable” by Pope Francis in 2016. 

The recognition of the miracle may progress his cause to beatification in time for World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul.

The Bishop of Kalookan Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David called on Americans to prevent President Donald Trump from using weapons of mass destruction in the same way that their country bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War. 

“Only you have the power now to stop what must not be unleashed. Refuse what must never be justified,” the Filipino cardinal wrote in an open letter on Easter Monday. David, 67, vice president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, is one of the most powerful Asian Catholic voices who have condemned the Iran war. 

On Good Friday, David criticised Israel for seeking to conquer Palestine in their quest for a warrior-type Messiah. Referring to the Jews in the New Testament, David said in his homily: “They expect a powerful one, a leader who wages war like the warrior Netanyahu, who puts more trust in the emperor of America instead of the Lord, his God.” 

On Palm Sunday, David condemned Americans who elected Trump, saying their choice was like choosing Barabbas over Jesus.

Missouri’s Catholics bishops backed a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution that would limit access to abortion and certain types of medical interventions for minors who identify as transgender. 

In a statement issued on 26 March through the Missouri Catholic Conference, the bishops said they are “committed to protecting the sanctity and dignity of all human life, including the poor and needy, refugees and immigrants, prisoners on death row, and mothers and children”. 

However, the bishops said, human dignity is threatened by an amendment the state’s voters approved in 2024 that placed the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution. That amendment overturned a previous state ban on most abortions that took effect in 2022. 

The 2024 amendment, the bishops said, “enshrined a sweeping right to abortion in the State Constitution and eliminated the legislature’s ability to set common-sense safeguards for the abortion industry, including the requirement that only doctors perform abortions”. 

The bishops began a prayer campaign, including a day of prayer and fasting on 25 April, asking the faithful to pray for the passage of Amendment Three which would overturn the 2024 ballot measure.  

The Diocese of Albany, New York agreed to pay $148 million to settle claims from 440 people who reported being sexually abused by priests and diocesan employees and volunteers. 

Bishop Mark O’Connell of Albany said in a statement that while the settlement is substantial, “it cannot adequately compensate the survivors for the horrors they experienced … [but] it will hopefully provide some solace to all those affected by the pain caused by the perpetrators and the failings of those who could have intervened but did not”. 

The settlement, agreed on 27 March, comes after abuse survivors were allowed to file sexual abuse lawsuits as part of a look-back window created by the 2019 New York Child Victims Act. While the settlement amount remains subject to a creditor vote and court approval, the dollar figure of the settlement has been accepted by the Tort Committee, which is comprised of individuals who survived childhood sexual abuse by clergy and employees of the diocese. 

“This settlement marks a significant step towards the conclusion of this bankruptcy case and closure for all survivors who have lived with this pain throughout their lives,” said John Ciota and Rick Salamone, co-chairs of the Tort Committee, in a prepared statement.

Bishop Francisco Javier Acero OAR, an auxiliary in the Archdiocese of Mexico, said the Church needs to “create spaces” to listen to victims of abuse. Bishop Acero told ACI Prensa: “We cannot engage in prevention if we are not capable of listening with empathy and without prejudice.”  

He said that “when we listen, we are directing all our faculties toward grasping, attending to and interpreting the verbal messages and other expressions such as body language and tone of voice of that victim who has been scarred for life.”  

The bishop, who belongs to the Latin American Council for the Centre for the Protection of Minors, said this meant finding the meaning behind the sound of victims’ voices “within the deep wound they carry, and putting ourselves in their shoes”. He added that a “hidden clericalism among the laity” did “great harm”.  

Acero, a former major superior of the Augustinian Recollects for Mexico and Costa Rica, added: “There is also an exacerbated clericalism caused by formation systems outwardly embellished with a profound spirituality that at their core revert to a nostalgia for the past.”

More than 2,000 prisoners were due to be released in Cuba’s latest amnesty, which began on Good Friday. The Havana authorities called it a “sovereign and humanitarian” gesture, although it was not clear how many of those released were considered political prisoners by international observers. The official announcement did not refer to relations with the US, which has applied intense economic pressure to the regime, nor to any involvement from the Holy See which has negotiated previous amnesties including the release of 51 prisoners in March.

The Universal Church should learn from Africa during Pope Leo’s visit to countries such as Cameroon and Angola blighted by severe political and linguistic divides, Sr Jane Kimathi said. 

The Director of Programmes at the Pan Africa Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN) said the African Church can offer the global Church indigenous conflict-resolution methods like the “palaver” meeting custom and elder councils, methods which demonstrate how inculturation can achieve reconciliation and social cohesion in ways that adversarial Western diplomatic models often cannot. 

The Church in Africa, she said, has embraced its own cultural identity, and so the traditional one-way flow of theology from Europe to Africa is transforming into a vibrant exchange. 

“African theological research and publications are increasingly contributing to a more balanced exchange of ideas, not merely receiving from the global Church,” she told The Tablet. “Rather than simply reversing the flow, this new approach embraces a fresh way of understanding evangelisation, one that emerges from the lived experiences of African theologians within their local contexts.” 

According to Kimathi, this “Africanised” expression of faith – rooted in the philosophy of Ubuntu, vibrant liturgical inculturation and everyday realities – is enriching the global Church. She said Pope Leo should recognise a definitive paradigm shift: Africa is no longer a passive recipient of missionary instruction, but a prophetic source of leadership, theological vision and renewal that is essential for the future of the Church.

Delegates from Caritas Africa pledged to protect the organisation’s ecclesial identity against “institutional drift and ideological colonisation” at a meeting in the Ivorian capital Abidjan. Representatives from 46 African nations attended the week-long assembly in Abidjan marking the twentieth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est.

They emphasised that while professional competence is necessary, it is insufficient without the “formation of the heart”. They warned against the tendency to reduce the Church’s charitable mission to technical project management.  

“We will adopt appropriate constitutive texts, appoint competent and capable persons, integrate lay expertise into governance bodies, carry out periodic assessments of organisational health and ensure transparent management of resources that belong first and foremost to the poor,” they said.  

The delegates reaffirmed that Caritas acts in nomine Ecclesiae, emphasising the personal responsibility of bishops to guide this mission and advocating for greater financial autonomy to ensure the organisation remains free to serve as a prophetic voice for the poor.  

The delegates affirmed the need for inclusive decision-making processes and the need for the poor to find expression in the organisation’s work. “Nothing for us without us. People living in poverty must have formal mechanisms, consultative structures and participatory project cycles that give them real authority and a voice in decisions that concern them,” they said.

Bishops in the Sahel region appealed for peace to end widespread insecurity and religious intolerance that has claimed hundreds of lives in recent weeks. 

The plea came during a Sahel Peace Initiative meeting in late March which called for religious and traditional collaboration and the mobilisation of resources towards bringing peace to the region. The Sahel comprises Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan and Eritrea, countries marred by violence and military coups. 

“May we mobilise together to contribute to the harmonious building of our societies in the face of violence, in view of the resurrection of a new West Africa, a true tree of justice and peace, of integral development and of a renewed universal fraternity,” said Bishop Jonas Dembélé of Kayes, president of the Episcopal Conference of Mali, at the opening of the meeting organised by the Catholic Relief Services.

South African bishops demanded an urgent meeting with the country’s home affairs minister to address growing xenophobia, following the burning of shops belonging to foreigners and the denial of pregnant immigrant women access to antenatal care.

“The meeting with the home affairs minister meeting is overdue,” says Bishop Joseph Kizito who heads the office for migrants, refugees and human trafficking at the bishops’ conference. South Africa has seen many violent xenophobic attacks, with rights groups accusing the government of failing to protect foreigners as well as barring them from education. 

“This is very painful for young people. They work hard, they succeed in school, but their future is blocked because they lack the proper documents,” Bishop Kizito added, noting that “people do not want to live illegally. They want to follow the law, but the system is often slow and difficult to navigate.”

The Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church in Germany jointly published an “Ecumenical Framework for Pastoral Care and Acute Intervention in Cases of Tension, Alliance and Defence”.  

Starting from the ethic of peace at the heart of the Christian message, the working paper outlines how Germany’s two largest churches are preparing for a situation in which all efforts for peace have failed.  

“Not least the Russian attack on Ukraine has shown that such a situation can indeed occur,” it said. “All relevant agencies, from the military, news media and science are warning that Russia may be able to attack Nato territory before the end of this decade.”  

The paper considers how church structures can be prepared for crisis, how contacts with state authorities can be established and aims “thus to lay the foundation for helpful church action even in an emergency”.  

Building on existing church structures, support for military and civilian populations needs to be developed, including military chaplaincy, funerals for those who have died in combat and support for their families, pastoral support for prisoners of war and refugees, it suggests.  

Preparation in good time, through training opportunities, would enable professionals and volunteers to activate and develop resources in an emergency.

The Archabbot of Pannonhalma Cirill Hortobágyi appealed for unity ahead of Hungary’s elections on 12 April.  “In Hungary we look to the future with tension and anxiety.  

“It is increasingly difficult to live together and easier to reject each other … we judge easily … the language of public life heightens polarisation and social unity is lost in the process,” he said, warning that “Hungarians are … full of uncertainty where we belong”.  

Hortobágyi said he was appalled that “almost every means is now permitted to discredit the other side, to destroy and morally annihilate”. He continued: “However we decide, the next day we will wake up in the same country … the next day will not be the start of a new community. We must continue in the existing one and improve it. Together.”  

He said the growing tensions were all the more reason for the church to pause self-critically and to prove itself as a peacemaker: “Peace does not happen by itself.  We have to seek it and work for it – every day.”

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