Catholic News
- Pope to visit war-torn African countries soon (Vatican News)
Pope Francis will travel to Africa in January, spending a week in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in South Sudan—making a trip that he had been forced to postpone in July because of his health problems. The Pope will leave Rome on January 31, flying to Kinshasa, and remain there for three days before continuing on to Juba in South Sudan. There he will join the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland in an ecumenical pilgrimage for peace. - Ukrainian Catholic leader pleads for release of captured priests (CNA)
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Catholic Church has issued an appeal to international leaders to seek the release of two priests who are being held by Russian troops. The archbishop said that reports indicated the priests, Father Ivan Levytskyi and Father Bohdan Heleta, have been “tortured without mercy.” He rejected reports that the priests had been hiding weapons in their church, and said: “According to classic Stalinist methods of repression, confessions to crimes they did not commit are being extracted from them.” - Ukraine imposing restriction on Moscow-allied Orthodox churches (Pillar)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced restrictions on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC-MP) that remains allied—although tenuously—with the Patriarchate of Moscow. The Ukrainian leader said that the policy was justified by a series of raids on Orthodox parishes and diocesan headquarters, which he said had turned up Russian propaganda. - Vatican 'foreign minister' urges greater European cooperation (CWN)
In a December 2 address to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, said that “we all have to admit that our infidelity to Helsinki began long before last February.” - German Synodal Path founder says goal is 'pressure' on Church to change teachings (CNA)
One of the primary instigators of the German Synodal Path has revealed that the effort was designed to put “pressure” on the Catholic Church, to bring about changes in moral teaching, and it has advanced “much more successfully than I thought.” Thomas Sternberg, the former president of the Central Committee of German Catholics—who worked alongside Cardinal Reinhard Marx to launch the Synodal Path—said that the initiative was intended to produce change in Church teachings on marriage, homosexuality, and the ordination of women. The organizers planned to steer just barely clear of statements or actions that would prompt Vatican disciplinary action, he said. - Former Colombian guerrilla leader convicted in archbishop's assassination (CNA)
Luciano Marin Arango--- also known as Ivan Marquez—a former leader of FARC rebel forces, was sentenced to a 25-year prison term after being found guilty of ordering the murder of Archbishop Isaias Duarte Cancino of Cali in 2002. The archbishop was gunned down as he left a parish church after a wedding ceremony. Investigators eventually learned that his assassins were paid by the FARC leadership. Marquez was sentenced in abstentia. After accepting a peace accord with the government in 2016, he announced in 2019 that he was resuming armed resistance, and is now at large, believed to be working in alliance with drug traffickers. - Pope Francis praises Benedict's 'hermeneutic of reform' (Vatican News)
Pope Francis praised his predecessor Benedict XVI for his theological contributions, as he met with the winners of the 2022 Ratzinger Prize for excellence in theology. Pope Francis said that Benedict, along with Pope John Paul II, helped to realize the vision of Vatican II. In particular, he said, the German Pontiff “helped us to read the conciliar documents in-depth, proposing a “hermeneutic of reform and continuity.” This year’s Ratzinger Prize winners are Father Michel Fédou, a Jesuit expert on the Church Fathers; and Joseph Halevi Horowitz Weiler, the first Jewish recipient of the international award. - Former Anglican cleric withdraws request for Catholic ordination, to continue speaking out (Christian Today)
Dr. Gavin Ashenden, the former chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II who was received into the Catholic Church in 2017, has explained that he withdrew his request for ordination as a Catholic priest “when I was told that to move forward… would require being silenced.” The former Anglican cleric said that he felt an obligation to continue speaking out: The Church in our day was surrounded by a deep, corrosive and dangerous intellectual and moral heresy, which I thought I understood and knew needed public repudiation. And the public platforms that were being given to me day after day allowed me to do just that. He also observed that since he left the Church of England, “One of the surprising developments recently has been the number of Catholic priests who have been cancelled by their bishops.” - England and Wales: no longer a Christian majority (CNA)
Christians no longer constitute a majority of the residents of England and Wales, the latest census data show. Just 46.2% of the population, or 27.5 million people, identified themselves as Christians in the 2021 census. That figure has dropped dramatically, from 59.3% in 2011, and 71.7% in 2001. The country’s Muslim (6.5%) and Hindu (1.7%) populations have grown, but the largest increase has been in the number of people who report that they have no religion: 37.2% of the population. - Retired priest, pastoral assistant slain in Louisiana (Crux)
Police in Covington, Louisiana, have confirmed the identities of two murder victims whose burned bodies were discovered last week: Father Otis Young, a retired pastor, and Ruth Prats, a parish associate. A man who had recently been released from prison was arrested, driving Prats’ car, and charged with the crimes. Police say that his choice of victims “appears random.” Father Young had been forced to curtail his activities after suffering a stroke. Prats had been driving him to and from engagements. - Pope prays for peace in 'dear and martyred' Ukraine (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
“Brothers and sisters, we have entered the time of Advent full of hope, and with fervor we implore the Prince of Peace to bring consolation to our wounded hearts, as well as to nations tried by wars and crises of all kinds, for a dignified and serene life,” Pope Francis said during his November 30 general audience, following his remarks on a daily examination of conscience. “May the intercession of the holy brother apostles Peter and Andrew soon grant the Church to fully enjoy her unity and peace to the whole world, especially at this moment in dear and martyred Ukraine, always in our hearts and in our prayers,” he added. - No information on whereabouts of 2 Ukrainian Catholic priests detained by Russian forces (Fides)
Two Redemptorists priests at a Ukrainian Greek Catholic parish in Berdiansk were detained by Russian security forces on November 16. Russian forces occupied the city of 100,000 on February 27, shortly after the invasion began. Father Ivan Levytskyy and Father Bohdan Heleta are accused of hiding weapons and explosives in their church. The Redemptorist order said that two weeks after their detention, there is no information on their whereabouts. - Déjà vu in Vatican as 'Vatileaks' defendant cited at trial (AP)
“The Vatican tribunal hearing a financial crimes case had something of a déjà vu [on November 29] when a high-profile defendant in a previous trial over leaked documents emerged as a key figure in advising the prime prosecution witness to cooperate with prosecutors,” the report begins. “Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi announced he had received a series of 126 text messages over the weekend that explained how key prosecution witness Msgr. Alberto Perlasca decided to change his story and cooperate with the investigation into the Vatican’s bungled investment in a London property.” - Sunday Mass attendance in Belgium falls to 2.5% (Pillar)
Average Sunday Mass attendance fell from in Belgium fell from 241,029 in 2019 to 166,785 in 2021, according to a report released by the nation’s episcopal conference on November 30. The Sunday Mass attendance rate has fallen from 42.9% in 1967 to 2.5% in 2021. In 2021, there were 36,834 baptisms (162 of them adult baptisms), 41,751 First Communions, and eight priestly ordinations. 5,237 Catholics requested that their names be removed from baptismal registries. - 'Perversion': Russia condemns Pope's remarks on cruelty of soldiers in Ukraine (BBC)
In an interview with the Jesuit periodical America, Pope Francis said that he has received “much information about the cruelty of the troops” in Ukraine, and that “generally, the cruelest are perhaps those who are of Russia but are not of the Russian tradition, such as the Chechens, the Buryats and so on.” Maria Zakharova, director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, said that “this is no longer Russophobia, it’s a perversion on a level I can’t even name. We are one family with Buryats, Chechens, and other representatives of our multinational and multi-confessional country.” - 'Love gives birth to heroes,' Ukrainian Catholic leader says (Columbia)
In an interview with Columbia (the magazine of the Knights of Columbus), Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said that his “most important pastoral duty” is “to cultivate love, because we are conscious that hatred gives birth to criminals, but love gives birth to heroes. Ukraine is revealing itself to be a nation of heroes.” He added, “People are looking for meaning: ‘How are we supposed to live when my house is destroyed, when my dearest ones are killed?’ The response to such existential questions can only come from the eternal perspective, from God’s Word and wisdom.” - Male fertility crash accelerating worldwide: study (The Hill)
“While reasons for the decline are unclear, one major factor could be endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in thousands of everyday items,” according to the report on a study that appeared in the journal Human Reproduction Update. “These compounds — found in everything from personal care products to food packaging — have particularly dire impacts on reproductive function.” - 'Amid scandals and politics, Poland's youths lose faith in Catholic Church' (New York Times)
“Only about a quarter of young Poles now regularly go to church, less than half the level of three decades ago,” according to the report, which focuses on Bydgoszcz, a city of 350,000. - CCHD awards 'strategic national grant' to environmental advocacy network (USCCB)
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the US bishops’ controversial anti-poverty program, has awarded a strategic national grant to the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC), a network of eight organizations engaging in environmental advocacy. The typical size of such grants was $500,000 in 2016, the most recent list on the CCHD website. CCHD “chose WORC to receive a five-year Strategic National Grant to build resilient and prosperous communities, support economic diversification, and grow green economies,” CCHD director Ralph McCloud said in a newsletter released November 28. “WORC is working to heal the scars from decades of fossil fuel extraction and industrialization, to support economic diversification, and to expand environmentally sustainable practices.” - USCCB committee chairman hopes violation of Vatican-China agreement will not be repeated (USCCB)
Without Vatican consent, the Chinese government recently transferred Bishop Peng Weizhao, by Pope Francis’s appointment the underground bishop of Yujiang, to Jiangxi, where he will serve officially as an auxiliary bishop. A statement from the Vatican press office expressed “surprise and regret” at the event. “It is unusual for the Holy See to issue a public statement on what they note to be an event that ‘has not taken place in conformity with the spirit of dialogue that exists between the Vatican parties and the Chinese parties and what has been stipulated in the Provisional Agreement on the Appointment of Bishops,’” said Bishop David Malloy of Rockford (IL), chairman of the US bishop’s Committee on International Justice and Peace. He added, “I share in the hope conveyed by the Holy See that such actions will not be repeated as well as the recent call of Pope Francis for a deep and on-going dialogue with Chinese authorities so as to continue to engage and seek the good of the Church and the people of China.” - More...