Three Egyptian Coptic monks have been “brutally killed” inside a monastery in South Africa, the Church has said.
“Three monks were subjected to a criminal assault inside our Coptic monastery,” a spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Church said in statement posted on Facebook on March 11, without elaborating.
South African police said they were investigating the triple murder. The three were killed at the Sts Mark and Samuel the Confessor monastery located in Cullinan, a town 30 km east of Pretoria the capital of South Africa.
The victims were identified as Fathers Takla Moussa, Minah ava Marcus and Youstos ava Marcus.
An Egyptian member of the Church has been arrested as a possible suspect. The murder has sent shockwaves throughout the Coptic Orthodox community in South Africa and beyond.
All three victims were found with stab wounds while a fourth who survived alleged that he was hit by an iron rod before fleeing and hiding, said police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi in a statement.
“The motive (for the) murders is unknown at this stage,” he said, adding that the suspects “reportedly left the scene without taking any valuable item(s)”.
South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and armed robbery is common.
Cuban priest: ‘Communism won’t survive’ and ‘the Church will remain’
In an interview with EWTN Noticias, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Cuban priest Alberto Reyes spoke about his apostolic ministry in Camagüey province, located in the central area of the island, and about how his defense of religious freedom on the island has earned him friends and enemies alike.
Reyes did not hesitate to say that in Cuba “communism will not survive” and “the Church will remain.”
The Cuban priest works in Esmeralda, a small town “that was once flourishing,” according to EWTN Noticias correspondent Rachel Diez. Today, the daily life of the people is the same as that of many others in Cuba, one of “sadness, migration, and deprivation,” he commented.
Since his ordination, Reyes has always been involved with the peripheries of society, in areas that have been very poor, but with a community of faithful always willing to serve just as they are in Esmeralda.
The diocesan priest has been a critical voice against the extreme poverty and the repressive actions of the police state, since he himself has experienced both and has seen them in the lives of fellow Cubans.
Reyes shared that although he grew up in an environment close to the Church, he never thought about consecrating his life to Jesus. “There are people who say that I’m very brave, but that’s not true,” he said.
“I think I’ve learned to flee forward [instead of running away from a problem to face it head on]. I have learned not to be taken captive by fear,” he added, noting that he has seen for himself the extreme poverty that exists in Cuba. “In Maisí [Guantánamo province] I saw children sleeping in cardboard boxes, something I had never seen before.”
The priest explained that he felt the need to let the outside world know about the suffering of the Cuban people in order to contrast that terrible reality with what the state propaganda apparatus presents to the world.
“This is a Cuba that’s going hungry and that’s a reality: People are hungry. That Cuban paradise of television and international propaganda doesn’t exist. What hurts me most about this Cuba is the hopelessness. People feel like they can’t do anything; they’re afraid,” Reyes said.
Indian army works to befriend Naga Christian village
The Naga Baptist Christians of Oting village in India’s Nagaland state, not far from the international border with Myanmar, are now trying to come out of the worst period of darkness in their life.
Their village had courted ill fate and controversy on Dec. 4, 2021, when a botched-up military operation killed 14 coal mine workers, mistaking them for militants.
Consecrated persons rejuvenate Church: Cardinal Ferrao
Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao, archbishop of Goa and Daman, has hailed the Catholic religious men and women as a blessing since they rejuvenate the Church.
“You render service to the holiness of the Church. We need your prophetic voice and action. You can teach the entire church to walk the synodal path,” the cardinal told the general body meeting of the Goa unit of the Conference of Religious India.
Veteran woman journalist wins Examiner weekly’s golden pen award
Nirmala Carvalho, a veteran journalist who contributes regularly to Church publications in India and overseas, has won the prestigious Golden Pen Award for excellence in journalism, given by The Examiner, a 175-year-old weekly published from Mumbai.
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, presented her the 21st award on March 10 during a function in the western Indian city to mark the 175th anniversary of the weekly.
Odisha Catholics thank Mother Mary for Kandhamal martyrs
More than 25,000 people, who attended the annual feast of a Marian shrine associated with a Hindu woman in Odisha, have credited Mother Mary for the Vatican recognition of the Kandhamal martyrs.
Saraj Nayak, the secretary of the development committee of Partamaha Marian Shrine, says the Vatican approval for the Kandhamal martyrs was “a joyful and proud moment for us.”
Power plant spells misery for Sri Lankan fisherfolk
Fisherman S.K. Cruz has been facing hard times looking after his four-member family since the government opened a 103.5 megawatts wind power plant on the coast of the Gulf of Mannar in northern Sri Lanka four years ago.
Earlier, he used to take his plastic boat out five nautical miles to sea in the morning and return home with a decent catch by the evening. This is now a thing of the past.
Now, the 58-year-old father of two needs to travel at least 15 nautical miles and spend three times more on fuel to get a decent catch to put food on the table. He blames the noise from dozens of wind turbines for driving the once-rich fish stocks further away from the coastline, causing misery for thousands of local fishermen like him. “There’s no fish near the coast anymore,” Cruz told.
Christians and Confucianism: Vatican and local experts discuss guidelines for dialogue
Two important initiatives to encounter East Asian religious tradition and thought see the Taiwan-Hong Kong Interreligious Dialogue Dicastros engaged in these days.
An international seminar entitled “Christians promoting dialogue with Confucians: guidelines and perspectives” was held March 8 and 9 in New Taipei, Taiwan. The initiative-promoted in collaboration with the Department of Religious Studies at Fu Jen Catholic University-is part of a track that aims to formulate official guidelines for Catholics engaging in dialogue with followers of Confucianism.
Already last January 15, the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue had convened an online study group, animated by Prof. Umberto Bresciani, an Italian for more than 50 years in Taiwan who has been pursuing this reflection at Fu Jen Catholic University for some time. That first discussion was attended by scholars and practitioners of interreligious dialogue who live or have roots, in addition to Taiwan, in the People’s Republic of China, In Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, Italy and the United States.
Msgr. Indunil Kodithwakuu Kankanamalage, secretary of the dicastery, opening that meeting had explained that this study group is part of a tradition carried on by the Vatican body, which has already developed guidelines for dialogue with Buddhists, Hindus and traditional Asian religions. Now,” he had added, “a new need has emerged to develop an official dialogue with Confucians. “And as we work to build on the ‘seed’ that has been planted,” he had concluded, “let us always keep in mind that ‘God is the One who makes it grow.
The meeting held these days in New Taipei was a significant step forward in this journey, involving a wider audience interested in promoting Confucian-Christian dialogue.
The drafting of the guidelines,” the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue explains in a statement, “will be followed by a final review process and is expected to serve as a valuable resource for individuals, organizations and communities both inside and outside the Catholic Church seeking to engage in dialogue with followers of Confucianism.
Fr. Curtois’ legacy in dialogue between Christians and Muslims in India
A great pioneer of Islamic-Christian dialogue who still inspires the path of the Church in India today. Thus in Delhi the figure of Fr. was remembered in recent days. Victor Curtois, a Belgian Jesuit who explored Islamic identity in depth in Calcutta in the mid-20th century.
The occasion to celebrate him in recent days was the seventh edition of the Victor Courtois Memorial Lecture organized by the Association of Islamic Studies in Delhi. This year’s conference was held on February 25th with the intervention of prof. Michael Calabria, Franciscan friar minor, who spoke on the topic: “From Morocco to the Mughal Empire: Franciscan meetings with Muslims and their meaning for today’s interreligious dialogue”.
The Islamologist Fr. Victor Courtois, who died in Kolkata in 1960 at the age of 53, is considered an apostle of Islamic-Christian dialogue in Calcutta. His brother Fr. Victor Edwin, secretary of the Association for Islamic Studies based in New Delhi, explained to AsiaNews: “Fr. Courtois spent much of his life in India and played a fundamental role in transforming relations between Christians and Muslims in this country.
He inaugurated an era of relationships and respect”. The Belgian missionary taught that Christians and Muslims are brothers, since God is the Father of all men. “Fr. Courtois – added Fr. Edwin – he encouraged Christians and Muslims not to hesitate in bearing witness to each other’s faith.”
Bengaluru: Six female congregations together for young people at risk
Religious Sisters from different institutes have joined forces to offer a new opportunity to hundreds of youths in difficult situations in Bengaluru (Bangalore), in the Indian state of Karnataka, with particular focus on the future of girls and their rights.
The Sisters Led Youth Initiatives (SLDY) programme began some months ago, which Sr Nirmalini, Superior General of the Congregation of the Apostolic Carmel and President of the Conference of Women Religious of India (CRWI), has decided to share with AsiaNews on International Women’s Day.
“By 2025, we envisage to empower 1,200 youths in the Bengaluru region, bringing changes to their families by improving their living conditions,” Sr Nirmalini explained.
The activity promoted by CRWI brings together the Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesian Sisters), the congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians (MSMHC), the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate (SMMI), the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ (PHJC), and the Sisters of St Joseph of Tarbes (SJT).
“The Synodal journey invites us to walk together,” Sister Nirmalini explained.