The Buddhist community in Bangladesh has announced it will downsize an upcoming religious feast to express solidarity with Rohingya Muslim refugees. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled ethnic violence in majority-Buddhist Myanmar during recent weeks. There are fears that, as in the past, the small Buddhist population of majority-Muslim Bangladesh could be subjected to…
The inclusion of the leader of a breakaway group among the signatories of a letter accusing Pope Francis of “promoting heretical interpretations” of Amores Laetitia, his exhortation on marriage and the family, has been described as “a tactical error” by a prominent papal biographer. Billed as the first ‘filial correction’ of a Pope since 1333,…
Holy See signs and ratifies anti-nuclear weapon treaty The Holy See has ratified and signed the new UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The high-level Vatican diplomat who signed the treaty told a UN conference that the Catholic Church supports efforts “to move progressively toward a world free of nuclear weapons”. Archbishop Paul…
Church officials fear that newly revised religious affairs regulations released by the Chinese government, supposedly aimed at protecting national security, will be used to further suppress religious activities. Earlier in September, Premier Li Keqiang announced that a state council order on the new regulations would take effect on February 1. Anthony Lam, executive secretary of…
A Kenyan cardinal has called on politicians to restrain their supporters in the lead up to Kenya’s second election after the previous vote tally was annulled. Cardinal John Njue, the current Archbishop of Nairobi, called for dialogue instead of violence. As tensions grow between the current Jubilee government and its main opposition the National Super…
Inés San Martín After statements from several Australian bishops reaffirming Church teaching to Catholics in the country ahead of an upcoming vote on same-sex marriage, two bishops are singing outside the chorus, with one of them saying it’s a “decision each person is free to make”. Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen, appointed by Pope Francis…
Junno Arocho Esteves Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil was sitting in a room in an unknown location, one of several he had been relocated to during his 18-month imprisonment, when he received some unexpected news. “Those who kept me came to where I slept and said, ‘I bring you good news. We are sending you home.…
Despite goals to end global hunger by 2030, the latest report from the UN shows the number of undernourished people has increased rapidly. The number of people lacking adequate food on the planet increased from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations’…
Vatican diplomat embroiled in child pornography case A member of the Vatican diplomatic corps serving in Washington has been recalled to the Vatican as he is involved in a criminal investigation regarding child pornography, the Vatican said. The Vatican was informed by the US State Department “of a possible violation of laws relating to child…
Belgium’s Brothers of Charity Group, which runs 15 centres for psychiatric patients, has rejected a Vatican order to stop offering euthanasia. The organisation said that it “always took into account shifts and evolutions within society”, and “emphatically believed” its euthanasia program was consistent with the doctrine of the Catholic Church. “We take unbearable and hopeless…
