Category: News

African bishops warn second-largest continent has few vaccines

In parts of Africa, mass vaccination against Covid-19 is so far off that it is not even mentioned, warned bishops across the African continent. The malnourished people in the Nuba Mountains, South Sudan are “moving skeletons,” and their compromised immune systems expose them “to all kinds of diseases, not just Covid-19,” Bishop Macram Max Gassis,…

Catholic missionary priest nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

A Catholic missionary priest in Madagascar known for serving the poor living on a landfill has been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Madagascar Fr Pedro Opeka, 72, is a Vincentian priest from Argentina who has worked with the poor in Madagascar for more than three decades. He founded the Akamasoa humanitarian association in…

Assisted suicide a ‘failure to care for the terminally-ill’ bishops warn

Assisted suicide reflects a “failure of compassion on the part of society” the Catholic bishops have warned in their submission to the Oireachtas committee reviewing legislation that, if passed, would legalise euthanasia. Good palliative care not assisted suicide “offers terminally-ill people the best possibility of achieving ‘a dignified and peaceful end of life’,” the Church leaders said…

Jesuit targeted by Argentine military junta dies in Budapest

Fr Franz Jalics, a Hungarian Jesuit whose 1976 detainment by Argentina’s military dictatorship raised questions about Pope Francis’ role during his country’s Dirty War, has died at age 93. The priest died on February 13 in Budapest. Jalics found himself reluctantly at the centre of a controversy in March 2013 when Jorge Bergoglio, his former…

Supreme Court rebukes California’s strict lockdown rules for churches

California’s strict coronavirus rules banning indoor worship were blocked and revised by a US Supreme Court injunction late February 5 night, drawing praise from figures like Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. He emphasised the importance of in-person religious gatherings and stressed that the Catholic Church is following “reasonable measures” to limit the epidemic. “This is a very…