Masked supporters of Nicaragua’s government attacked a group of Roman Catholic priests led by Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes on July 9 as they arrived to help anti-government protesters trapped inside a church.

Managua auxiliary Bishop Silvio Jose Baez sustained cuts to his arm as the delegation made its way into the San Sebastian Basilica in Diriamba south of the capital. The Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua posted photos of Baez’s injured arm to its Twitter account with a message saying that pro-government “gangs awaited them, specifically to physically attack them.”

The message continued: “Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Dozens of government sympathizers chanting “Murderers!” and “We want peace!” and waving flags of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front roughed up the religious delegation. Some journalists covering the arrival were also attacked and had their equipment stolen.

The delegation succeeded in safely escorting out people who had been stuck in the church since police and armed pro-government allies violently put down a protest in the city. Human rights groups say at least eight civilians were killed and police said two of their own died in the clash.

After successfully landing her damaged plane and helping to calm frightened passengers, Southwest Airlines pilot Tammie Jo Shults texted a longtime friend: “God is good.” Passengers hailed the 56-year-old for her “nerves of steel,” but friends who go to church with Shults said they weren’t surprised. “Everybody is talking about Tammie Jo and how cool and calm she was in a crisis, and that’s just Tammie Jo,” Rachel Russo said. “That’s how she’s wired.” Shults and her husband, Dean, also a Southwest pilot, live in Boerne, Texas, about 30 miles northwest of San Antonio. After graduating from MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kan., in 1983, Shults joined the U.S. Navy in 1985. She was one of the first female fighter pilots in the Navy, which didn’t allow women to fly in combat until a few months after Shults left active duty, in 1993. But she participated in training missions during Operation Desert Storm, acting as an aggressor enemy pilot.

The daily bollettino from the Press Office of the Holy See on June 5 announced the nomination of a new Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication: the 62-year-old Neapolitan journalist and editor, Paolo Ruffini. The nomination is significant for several reasons, not the least of which is that Ruffini is a layman. Ruffini has decades of experience in both secular and ecclesiastical news media. The biographical sketch from the Press Office notes that he has been a professional journalist since 1979.

He also trained as a lawyer, graduating with a degree from the Faculty of Jurisprudence of Rome’s prestigious La Sapienza University — where he wrote his dissertation on freedom of the press.

Nigerian army says it has handed over 183 child “foot soldiers” freed from the Boko Haram terror group to a UN agency and the government.

The children aged between seven and 18 years old were released to the Borno State government and UNICEF in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, which has borne the brunt of Boko Haram’s decade-long insurgency. Army spokesman John Agim told CNN the children were being used as “foot soldiers” by the militants. “Boko Haram militants send them for different kinds of operations, but they are under-aged. So, they need to be rehabilitated before they are released to their families,” Agim said.

However, a UNICEF Nigeria spokeswoman said the group of eight girls and 175 boys were released after they were cleared of any affiliation with Boko Haram.

Eva Hinds said the agency “views the children as children,” and therefore they could not be classified as child soldiers or “being affiliated to violence without any judicial process. From our perspective, children are easily coerced into doing things to stay alive.”

“Their involvement is still an allegation,” she added. The children are being rehabilitated and given psychological support, Hinds said. Around 8,700 children released from armed groups have been rehabilitated in the country since 2017, according to UN figures.

Traditionalist priests now account for 20 per cent of ordinations in France. The number of new ordinations in France has fallen this year, from 133 in 2017 to 114. According to figures from La Croix, 82 of these new priests are diocesan, while the rest are members of various orders and societies of apostolic life. Paris and Bordeaux are the dioceses with most ordinations – six each – however, this still marks a considerable decline for Paris, which had 10 in 2017 and 11 in 2016. Lyon, Versailles and Fréjus-Toulon follow with five each, then Evry with four. However, a total of 58 dioceses had no ordinations at all. In contrast, the “traditionalist” communities, where priests primarily celebrate Mass in the Old Rite, are continuing to grow. La Croix calculates that 20%  of new priests this year come from communities classed as “traditional” or “classical.”

Hearts that are closed to welcoming migrants and refugees are similar to those of the Pharisees, who often would preach sacrifice and following God’s law without exercising mercy to those in need, Pope Francis said.

Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees’ “insidious murmuring” is “a finger pointed at the sterile hypocrisy of those who do not want to ‘dirty their hands,’ like the priest or the Levite in the parable of the good Samaritan,” the Pope said in his homily on July 6 during a Mass commemorating the fifth anniversary of his visit to the southern Mediterranean island of Lampedusa.

“This is a temptation powerfully present in our own day. It takes the form of closing our hearts to those who have the right — just as we do — to security and dignified living conditions. It builds walls, real or virtual, rather than bridges,” he said.

According to the Vatican, an estimated 200 migrants, refugees and rescue volunteers attended the Mass, which was celebrated at the altar of St Peter’s Basilica. Pope Francis greeted each person present after the Mass ended. In his homily, the Pope recalled his visit to Lampedusa and repeated “that timeless appeal to human responsibility, ‘Where is your brother? His blood cries out to me.’”

Sadly, he said, “the response to this appeal, even if at times generous, has not been enough, and we continue to grieve thousands of deaths.”

The Pope said that Jesus’ invitation to those “who labour” to find rest in Him is a promise of freedom for all who are oppressed. However, “He needs us to fulfil His promise.” “He needs our eyes to see the needs of our brothers and sisters. He needs our hands to offer them help. He needs our voice to protest the injustices committed thanks to the silence, often complicit, of so many,” he said.

Solidarity and mercy, the Pope continued, are the only components of a reasonable response to the migration crisis that is “less concerned with calculations than with the need for an equitable distribution of responsibilities, an honest and sincere assessment of the alternatives and a prudent management.”