More Catholic organisations have voiced their opposition to the government’s illegal immigration bill, which the Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN) has said would amount to “an asylum ban”. The bill would disqualify all arrivals via illegal routes from refugee protections under UK law.
“As bishop it is my job to preserve [Church] unity. This can be exceedingly challenging and I cannot and don’t want to deny that in recent months it has caused me sleepless nights,” Wilmer wrote in his resumée of the synodal path initiative’s meetings which he sent out to all the members of his diocese.
Cardinal Omella made the statement after the Spanish government announced last week a significant relaxation of the 2010 abortion laws. These abolish the current three-day “reflection” period obligatory for women contemplating an abortion. The Spanish bishops have signed an inter-religious statement protesting the reforms.
The presence of the monks, once considered Ampleforth’s greatest asset, has become its greatest handicap, says a former head boy. The irony is that the college’s disastrous response to its abuse crisis was rooted in a distortion of the merits that in other ways made the place so special.
Among the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance), the only one currently under philosophical investigation is justice, thanks mainly to its being proposed by a new contractualism. This is an attempt to present it without using a metaphysical and religious perspective, but identifying evaluation criteria that allow each person to decide as “a free and equal rational being.” It is a proposal for our complex society, where a shared vision of life is lacking.
As a young man, I was in a supermarket with my family on one occasion. A very concerned lady came up to my parents and said what a shame it was that the poor boy was blind. “What does he do all day?” she asked. “He practices law,” I answered. We in the Church have, unfortunately, often been in that position, unwilling to recognize the lives of disabled members as exactly that – the lives of equal children of God, laboring together according to a multitude of gifts and talents in the vineyard of the Lord. There is still widespread discrimination with regard to the disabled within the Church.
Today in Turkana, two million children are already acutely malnourished. More than ever here, Mary’s Meals is a lifeline in communities where thousands of pre-school and primary school children eat our precious daily meals.It is the promise of these meals that draws them in and – along with the education they receive – keeps hope alive of a better future.
Caritas Salford has launched an Advent appeal to support local people facing acute crisis. Caritas Salford, a member of Caritas Social Action Network – the bishops’ agency promoting domestic social action – has made alleviating the impacts of the cost of living crisis a priority.
Two Jesuit priests, Father Javier Campos Morales and Father Joaquín César Mora Salazar, were killed on Monday, June 20, in Mexico, in the church of Cerocahui, a remote village in the Sierra Tarahumara in the northern state of Chihuahua. The two religious are said to have attempted to give refuge in the local community church to a parishioner being pursued by a gunman, who then opened fire in the sacred place, killing all three people.
Proclaiming the Christian faith in China is becoming more and more difficult, even on the internet, according to Bishop Bertram Meier, responsible for World Church affairs in the German bishops’ conference.“Already in 2020, under the pretext of fighting the Covid pandemic, proclaiming the faith was made noticeably more difficult, but in the past year, the dynamic of oppression of religion in China has again increased perceptibly,” he said.
Amid the darkness, Pope Francis may offer a glimmer of hope. Last Sunday, speaking to the crowds in St Peter’s Square, he said the Holy See is “ready to do everything” to bring about peace. The Pope’s offer is being taken seriously. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, spoke by phone.
It seems paradoxical that at a time of pandemic, when the collective commitment is largely aimed at protecting the health of citizens, there are discussions about making it legal to help people take their own lives. This paradox highlights an issue gripping the medical world. If the biomedical enterprise has the task of dominating biological processes and responding to the desire of health for everyone, then it seems plausible to ask it – when it fails in its objective and suffering is deemed intolerable – to shorten life. It is the last step in the exercise of control.
A young Dominican priest who was devoted to serving ethnic groups in Vietnam’s Central Highlands has been killed in a knife attack. An informed source from Kontum Diocese said Dominican Father Joseph Tran Ngoc Thanh, who provided pastoral care for Sa Loong Subparish in Kon Tum province, was stabbed many times while he was hearing confessions in the church on Jan. 29.
Catholic Bishops' Conference of India urged to take up the issue of Christian persecution with PM Modi. A group of progressive Catholic religious in India have questioned the silence of the official Catholic Church over the continued violent attacks on Christians and other minority communities across the country. They want the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) to take up the issue with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to ensure immediate action against the perpetrators of hate crimes against minorities.
An appeal court in China has upheld a seven-year jail term for a Christian online bookstore owner who was sentenced in 2020 on charges of selling Christian religious books illegally. Linhai City Court in Taizhou in Zhejiang province of eastern China dismissed the appeal and confirmed the sentence against Chen Yu, the head of Wheat Bookstore in Taizhou, Bitter Winter reported on Jan. 11.
The Vatican’s foreign minister has paid tribute to Sir David Amess describing him as a “public servant of the highest principles” who worked with “devotion and enthusiasm” for UK-Holy See relations. Following the news that Sir David had been stabbed to death while meeting his constituents on 15 October, Archbishop Paul Gallagher wrote to Sir Edward Leigh, the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Holy See, to express his “profound shock” at the killing.
The Vademecum on some points of procedure in the treatment of cases of sexual abuse of minors committed by clerics was long overdue. Many bishops and religious superiors in past years had found themselves in great difficulty when faced with the emergence of allegations and subsequent scandals involving sexual abuse by members of the clergy, and were unable to act decisively and clearly.
It is inevitable; however; that we all forget the events of the distant past, and then we find ourselves in situations which appear unusual; exceptional; and without parallel; their presumed abnormality becomes a source of anxiety. Among such surprising and unnerving events, we can include that of the waves of migration from Africa; the Near East; and Eastern Europe in recent years, which flow like an unstoppable tide towards the shores of a land of hope – our own.
Zara Alvarez, a church worker from Negros province in the central Philippines, signs a manifesto signifying her commitment to work for human rights on Aug. 22, 2019. Alvarez was shot dead in Bacolod City on Aug. 17.
Police and revenue officials have removed a statue of Jesus Christ and 14 crosses from a Christian burial place in southern India's Karnataka state following allegations of Christians encroaching on government land.