German bishops have approved the formation of a Synodal Committee, a step toward the permanent Synodal Council with clergy-laity equality that the Vatican has warned would break canon law. Four bishops decided not to participate “in harmony with the universal Church”.
The bishops’ conference removed discussion of the committee from its plenary agenda in February after the Vatican warning, but have since worked on a compromise under which final decisions of its reformist “Synodal Path” agenda would first be submitted to Rome for approval.
The Central Committee of German Catholics, the lay organisation due to have equal decision-making powers with the bishops in the future council, had already agreed to the formation of the committee last November. The compromise could neuter the Synodal Path because the Vatican could still reject its central demand of clergy-laity parity in decision making.
Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne, Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstätt, Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau and Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg said the council would not be “compatible with the sacramental constitution of the Church”.
They believed the bishops could not join the committee without them and said they would wait until after this autumn’s synod in Rome to decide how “steps towards a more synodal Church can be taken in harmony with the universal Church”.
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said it was “sacrilege” to call the Russian invasion a “holy war” after Patriarch Kirill of Moscow sanctioned a statement describing the war in those terms.
Referring to the statement on “The Present and Future of the Russian World”, which presented the war as a crusade against “Satanism”, Shevchuk said that “the one who presents himself as the last defender of the Church and traditional Christian values has become a blasphemer”.
He also said that “Christians, Jews and Muslims of Ukraine” had been “appalled by the words of some American congressmen who believe that the Russian leader is defending Christian values in the modern world”.
During debates in Washington earlier this month on the provision of military aid to Ukraine, Georgia’s Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed Kyiv was waging “a war against Christianity” and “executing priests”.
Satellite images of Nagorno-Karabakh, the contested region of Azerbaijan seized from Armenia last year, suggest that the authorities demolished an Armenian-built church in early 2024.
Reports from the Caucasus Heritage Watch said that between December last year and last week, the Church of St John the Baptist in Shusha disappeared from pictures, as did an Armenian cemetery in the town. Around 80 per cent of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian majority fled after Azerbaijani forces seized the territory in September last year.
The church, built in 18478 and known as the “green chapel”, appeared to have been demolished despite an order by the International Court of Justice in December 2021 that Azerbaijan “prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage” in its territory.
Melkite Greek Catholics in Syria celebrated the feast of St George last week by rededicating the Church of St George in Aleppo. It had been restored following earthquake damage in February 2023.
The Melkite Greek Patriarch of Antioch Youssef Absi presided at the liturgy in the church on the evening of 23 April. The day began with a procession through the surrounding streets headed with the insignia of Syria and the Vatican followed by a portrait of St George.
Archbishop Anthony Muheria of Nyeri appealed for humanitarian support to thousands of people affected by severe floods in Kenya after weeks of heavy rainfall. Muheria spoke as the death toll from the floods continued to rise and more people were displaced from their homes.
On 29 April, at least 42 people including 17 children died when a dam in Maai Mahiu in central Kenya burst, sending its waters cutting across the villages. They added to the nearly 100 people who had died in the floods since they started two weeks ago.
“It is our duty to help our brothers and sisters at this time,” said Muheria. “Let’s pray for them, so that they can find ways to continue with their lives. Let us help, not only now, but let us have the spirit of compassion, love and charity in our churches.”
The floods have swept away roads, broken bridges and uprooted sewage lines in towns, and in rural areas they have submerged villages and swept away swathes of farmland. On Monday, the government postponed the opening of schools in hope that the floods would subside.
A coalition of evangelical Churches in Botswana has voiced opposition to the parliament’s latest effort to amend the constitution to include gay rights.
The Apostolic Faith Mission voiced “grave concerns” that “these provisions portend grave threat for our Christian way of life, our democracy and, indeed, our republic as we have known it over the many decades”, according to its pastor Abraham Kedisang.
Botswana’s high court decriminalised same-sex relations in 2019, a measure supported by the Botswana Council of Churches, including the Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist leadership.
The chief executive of the group Lesbians, Gay and Bisexuals of Botswana, Thato Moruti, said last week that the constitutional amendments are about protecting human rights and are not a religious issue. “It is an issue that is concerned with reducing systematic disadvantages on other people,” he said.
The UK branch of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) called for international attention to extreme poverty in Liberia, as it took on responsibility for funding the charity’s projects there.
Over the next two years, it said it would help Liberia “to make peace with its past years of turmoil” and promote “agriculture, the health and education system, and combat corruption and gender inequality”.
Last week, a leader of Monrovia-based Christian Grace Outreach Ministries, Archbishop Ola W.B. Jallah, urged Liberian President Joseph Boakai to tackle poverty, a month after the World Bank highlighted that more than 3.5 million Liberians live in poverty, even after two decades of relative peace following a civil war.
Archbishop Jallah called for the government to ensure that foreign companies are prevented from exporting raw materials from the country without supporting Liberian manufacturing.
Argentina’s bishops’ conference renewed its criticisms of President Javier Milei, blaming his austerity policies for economic hardship that “affect human dignity”.
In a statement issued on 19 April, they said that without support “senior citizens having to choose between eating or buying their medicine” while the closure of soup kitchens for want of funding was “taking away people’s chance to get a daily meal”.
They complained of worsening drug trafficking and child poverty while Argentine society “seems to be living in constant confrontation, ruled by individualism and a loveless kind of freedom”.
Nicaraguan Catholics have accused President Daniel Ortega’s regime of escalating its repression of the Church by staging public events outside places of worship.
On 19 April, authorities in the city of León set up a boxing ring and staged prize fights in the courtyard of the cathedral. Largescale events have disrupted activities inside churches, impeded access or forced Masses to be cancelled and left a mess on church property.
Martha Patrica Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who documents threats to the Catholic Church, said the authorities were “doing this to offend the Catholic faith”.
Around 34 clergy have been expelled or exiled from Nicaragua in 2024. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has called for the immediate cessation of judicial persecution, repression, and intimidation against Nicaragua’s civil society, including members of religious communities and the Catholic Church.
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, chair of the US bishops’ Committee on Migration, urged members of Congress to increase funding for migration-related government programmes.
He warned against anti-migrant rhetoric, saying that “the border only shows symptoms” but solutions to the migration issue will be found in two “extremely important” areas: “One in the sending countries – and our nation can be a support in the re-establishment of healthy communities and governments there. And, secondly, in a more Christian and charitable response on behalf of people in our own country towards immigrants.”
Bishop Robert Gruss of Saginaw, Michigan apologised for calling the US president a “stupid” Catholic because of the president’s support for abortion rights during a talk at his cathedral 5 April.
“I used the word ‘stupid’ in reference to President Biden, recognising that it was poor judgment in my choice of words,” Gruss said in a statement posted on the diocesan website. “It was not meant to be disparaging, and I apologise.”
He said his comment had been taken out of context, suggesting he was encouraging Catholics to be “forgiving the president and any people in government who offend us by their words and actions”.
He added: “I will continue to pray for the president and all political leaders, that they may seek and be guided by the Spirit of Truth. I encourage people of all faiths and goodwill to pray for our great nation.”
Police officers in Louisiana executed a search warrant in the offices of the Archdiocese of New Orleans on 25 April, as part of an on-going investigation into the Catholic Church’s mishandling of clergy sex abuse allegations.
Previously, a court ordered the archdiocese to turn over all records related to sex abuse allegations and the search took place as part of a meeting between archdiocesan officials and investigators from the special victims unit of the state police.
In addition to specific records of allegations of sex abuse, the court-approved warrant ordered the archdiocese to turn over all communications between Archbishop Gregory Aymond and his aides “as well as their superiors at the Vatican” pertaining to sex abuse allegations and the archdiocese’s handling of them.
Aymond has been Archbishop of New Orleans since 2009, and will turn 75 in November when he will submit his resignation as required by canon law.
Officer Jacob Pucheu, public information officer for the state police, said in a statement: “The archdiocese is actively cooperating with investigators and the terms of the search warrant” but warrants are usually only needed when police suspect information is being withheld.
Church leaders and climate activists criticised international lending agencies, including the World Bank, for funding fossil fuel and coal projects in the Philippines.
“We stand in solidarity with the communities which are hit by coal power projects,” said Fr Warren Puno, director of the ministry of ecology in south-central Luzon, linked to Caritas Philippines. “We are seeking compensation for damages, health care support, and a just transition to clean energy.”
The International Finance Corporation, a subsidiary of the World Bank, is reported to be financing 10 coal projects in the Philippines. “We have filed a complaint with the World Bank because we believe that it has a responsibility to ensure that its investments do not harm local communities,” said Fr Puno.
Catholic bishops in Papua New Guinea have opposed amendments to the country’s constitution proposed by evangelical groups to assert its Christian identity.
They described the proposals as “anachronistic and disruptive” in a letter to the Constitutional Law and Reform Commission signed by Cardinal John Ribat of Port Moresby and Bishop Otto Separy of Bereina, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
The amendments would assert the “social obligations” of the people of the “Independent and Christian State of Papua New Guinea” to “respect, observe and protect Christian principles”.
Papua New Guinea’s population is largely Christian, but with many denominations and a complex relationship with Melanesian traditions and cultures. The bishops’ said the constitution “provides the protection for such diversity”. They are preparing to welcome Pope Francis during his visit to the Asia Pacific region in September.
Myanmar’s military government has increased restrictions on religious activities, including Sunday services, in the capital of the Christian-majority Chin state. The local administration issued an order on 22 April banning the assembly of more than five people for religious services in Hakha.
“In Chin state, every family has more than five family members, so, gathering and praying can be affected under the new order,” said a Church source.
Locals say the order, valid for two months, will affect at least 14 churches of various denominations in Hakha, particularly Catholic, Baptist, and Anglican. A Church source said that “except for funerals, Church officials need to inform local authorities at least five days before holding prayer meetings and weddings”.
The ban follows an attack on a convoy by the local Chin Defence Force militia, which injured serval officials. The mountainous and underdeveloped Chin state, where 85 per cent of its 478,000 people are Christians, has been at the centre of resistance to the junta.
The government announced last month that detained former leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest. General Zaw Min Tun said the move was “for all those who need necessary precautions, especially elderly prisoners, not only for Aung San Suu Kyi”, because “the weather is extremely hot, but we are working to protect them from heatstroke”.
The World Food Programme’s “Global Report on Food Crises” published last week said that 2023 saw a further increase of 24 million people experiencing an acute lack of food from 2022.
In 2023, nearly 282 million people across 59 countries or territories faced high levels of acute food insecurity requiring urgent assistance, with war-torn Gaza and Sudan the areas with the largest number of people facing famine.
The report, which Vatican outlets promoted, found armed conflicts and extreme weather were key factors behind food insecurity.
At the United Nations in Geneva, the Holy See’s permanent observer Archbishop Gabriele Caccia called for debt restructuring for poor nations, saying that a “significant shift in the approach to debt is necessary to promote integral human development, social inclusion, and equity”.
He added that “through debt forgiveness and debt restructuring, developing countries are released from unsustainable debt, enabling them to make critical investments in healthcare, education, job creation, and social protection”.
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