Concerned for the future of Christians who today face a “different threat”, but one that is no “less serious” than the Islamic State. Embittered by the Holy See’s silence in the face of the mystifications of Rayan the Chaldean, the leader of a local militia calling itself Christian (but in the pay of Tehran) who openly disputes his legitimacy. But also aware of the support of a community, the Iraqi Christian community, and of the closeness of the Muslim world, for a struggle that embraces the very future of the country and its inhabitants.
This is the state of mind that the Patriarch of Baghdad of the Chaldeans, Card. Louis Raphael Sako, confides in this interview with AsiaNews in which he recounts the last few tumultuous weeks marked by calumnies, personal attacks, threats, court cases and the head-on clash with the President of the Republic. It was precisely because of the court hearings that are part of this campaign that he was unable to leave to take part in the meeting of the Mediterranean bishops in Marseilles, where Pope Francis will arrive Friday for a two day visit.
As will be recalled, in mid-July, the cardinal had temporarily transferred the patriarchal see from the capital to Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, in protest against the head of state’s annulment of the decree – which concerns “only the Chaldean Church, and this is the basic issue,” the patriarch explained – recognising its role and authority.
It was a surprising decision: Abdul Latif Rashid, in fact, has disavowed a centuries-old tradition by striking down the highest local Catholic authority, which is also responsible for managing the Church’s assets and property.
This is where the issue revolves: the control of the properties that are targeted by the self-styled Christian leader ’Rayan the Chaldean’ and the pro-Iranian militias that support him (a variegated galaxy that includes Shiites, Christians, Sunnis…), a threat to peace and coexistence for the nation. In response, the cardinal has not ruled out boycotting the upcoming elections. “In one second, the head of state wanted to erase 14 centuries of history and tradition, but I am not afraid and I have nothing to lose… maybe my life, but I am ready for that too. All this is being done to intimidate the Christians, to make them leave the country, and that is why I encourage them again, and more strongly, to stay and hope!”
“ The Holy See could have taken the floor, could have said that this gentleman’s propaganda is not true, could have tried to calm the people, the many Christians and Muslims in Iraq who are suffering from these new attacks, from these lies that hurt our community first of all.”
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Tashkent: war on beards and veils against Islamic radicalism
The authorities of Uzbekistan are intensifying the campaign to combat excessively explicit manifestations of the Muslim religion in public places and in social life. As Radio Ozodlik illustrates, those who profess Islam are forced to cut their beards, and women are prevented from wearing the khidžab, the local version of the Islamic veil.
There is a video circulating online in which some students from the Bankovskij college in the city of Andižan are forced in rather violent ways to weave their veils behind their heads, and those who refuse to do so are not admitted to the lessons.
Such cases are frequent in Uzbekistan, such as that of the third-year student of the Bukhara Technological Engineering Institute, Fatima Abdullokh, who appealed to the daughter of President Šavkat Mirziyoyev, Saida, with a request to defend the students forced to take off their khidžab.
Similar measures were also taken at the ir ik pedagogical institute, in the Tashkent region, where the management demanded that the Uzbek language and literature student Karomat Mukimova take off her khidžab if she wanted to keep her place in the student hostel.
There were also raids organized on the homes of inhabitants of the provinces of Zangiata and Yangiyol, where men in black masks carried out searches to take all the clothing deemed inappropriate, because it was considered a sign of Islamic radicalism.
Two bishops from mainland China at the Synod in the Vatican
Like in 2018, two bishops from mainland China will be present at the Synod of Bishops set to open on 4 October at the Vatican, the Secretariat of the Synod announced at a briefing that saw the release of the latest list of participants.
“The local Church, in agreement with the authorities, put forward two names and the Holy Father included them among the members he appointed,” said Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod.
The two bishops are 53-year-old Joseph Yang Yongqiang of Zhoucun (Shandong), appointed 10 years ago, and 58-year-old Anthony Yao Shun of Jining (Inner Mongolia).
Yao Shun is one of the first bishops ordained in 2019 after the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China reached a provisional agreement on episcopal appointments. The Vatican had, however, already approved his appointment in 2010.
The two are different from the two Chinese prelates – Bishop Joseph Guo Jincai of Chengde (Hebei) and Bishop John Baptist Yang Xiaoting of Ya’an (Shaanxi) – who participated in the 2018 Synod on young people.
Other prelates from the wider Chinese area will also be present, namely newly appointed Cardinal Stephen Chow, bishop of Hong Kong (who was already on the list), and Bishop Norbert Pu of Kiayi (Taiwan) from the Bishops’ Conference officially recognised by the Vatican (which includes only prelates from Taiwan).
Bangladesh promises minority panel ahead of national poll
The Bangladesh government has agreed to establish a commission to protect the interests of its religious minorities – Buddhists, Christians and Hindus – two days after the country’s largest forum of religious minorities launched a hunger strike.
Officials announced the government’s decision to establish a minority commission by October, on Sept. 23, two days after the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) began the indefinite hunger strike in Dhaka.
The council representatives ended the strike soon after the announcement came from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s political adviser Kabir Bin Anwar and co-chairman of the ruling Awami League party’s election committee.
The council has been planning a series of protests across the nation through September pressing for government systems and policies to protect the rights and interests of religious minorities in the country, ahead of the January general election.
The government agreed to establish a commission after seven council leaders, including two women, who were on hunger strike were hospitalized.
Rana Dasgupta, council general secretary told UCA News that the government decision was taken during a “special parliament session” and “we trust the word given to us will not be broken.”
The ruling AL, in its 2018 election manifesto promised to return the land the government confiscated from religious minorities such as Hindus and Christians in the 1960s when Bangladesh was part of Pakistan (as East Pakistan).
German bishops in tug of war over blessing same-sex unions
The German Bishops’ Conference convenes its plenary assembly on September 25, setting the stage for what promises to be a pivotal gathering amid a period of unprecedented tension within the Church in Germany – and with the wider Catholic Church.
On the official agenda for the gathering from Sept. 25–28 in the town of Wiesbaden are topics ranging from handling spiritual abuse to preparations for the upcoming Synod on Synodality in Rome.
However, overshadowing discussions are the profoundly divisive issues brought to the surface by the controversial German Synodal Way, particularly the blessing of same-sex unions – an issue that has seen acts of open defiance across Germany against clarifications from the Vatican.
At the centre of this maelstrom is Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, archbishop of Cologne, who faces mounting pressure from multiple fronts, including local media – and some clergy: In open defiance, several priests conducted an event blessing same-sex couples outside the iconic Cologne Cathedral September 21.
Thousands of Armenian Christians flee homes: ‘Mass exodus has begun,’ expert says
Thousands of Armenian Christians have fled their ancestral homeland in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh over the weekend and more are expected, the government of Armenia confirmed on September 25. “The mass exodus has begun,” Siobhan Nash-Marshall, a U.S. – based human rights advocate who has been speaking to witnesses on the ground, told CNA.
Nash-Marshall founded the Christians in Need Foundation (CINF) in 2011 to help Armenian Christians in the region, and in 2020 she started a school for children and adults in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Now, Nash-Marshall has received word from her school in Nagorno-Karabakh that “all is over” and that “people from all regions, all villages, are home-less” and without shelter, food, and water.
Hundreds of ethnic Armenians are sleeping in the streets and cannot even drink water because they claim it has been “poisoned by Azeris,” according to Nash-Marshall’s contacts.
Both former soviet territories, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh for decades. With the backing of Turkey, Azerbaijan asserted its military dominance over Armenia in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, which ended in November 2020.
Though Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, is inter-nationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, the region is almost entirely made up of ethnic Armenian Christians.
Until last week, Armenians in the region claimed self-sovereignty under the auspices of the “Republic of Artsakh.”
On Sept. 19, Azerbaijan launched a short but intense military offensive that included rocket and mortar fire. The offensive, labeled “antiterror measures” by the Azeri government, resulted in the deaths of more than 200 ethnic Armenians and over 10,000 dis-placed civilians, according to the Artsakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
‘It’s time to abolish celibacy,’ says president of Swiss Bishops’ Conference
The president of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference admits mistakes in dealing with abuse cases in the Catholic Church and advocates for the abolition of celibacy and the admission of women to the priesthood.
In an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) am Sonntag External link, Bishop Felix Gmür also said that the Catholic Church has been active in the topic of abuse cases for a long time. The prevailing conditions must be questioned, the Swiss Bishops’ Conference president explains. In his view, the time is ripe to abolish celibacy and to allow women access to the priesthood.
In general, power in the Church must be better distributed, Gmür said. “I will lobby in Rome for the Church to decentralise.” A new sexual morality is needed, together with the possibility to make regulations regionally. Part of coming to terms with the situation is questioning the prevailing conditions. “Celibacy means that I am available to God. But I believe that this sign is no longer understood by society today,” says Gmür. “The time is ripe to abolish celibacy. I have no problem at all imagining married priests.”
The exclusion of women from priestly ordination should also fall, he says. “The subordination of women in the Catholic Church is incomprehensible to me. Changes are needed there,” Gmür said.
Mozambique: Terrorists kill 11 Christians
On September 15th, at least 11 Christians were massacred by terrorists loyal to ISIS in northern Mozambique.
According to Friar Boaventura, a missionary in the region, the killings took place in the village of Naquitengue, in the province of Cabo Delgado.
Since 2017, the area has been under regular attack from Islamic fundamentalists.
Friar Boaventura told Aid to the Church in Need that a local terrorist group that claims allegiance to ISIS arrived in Naquitengue in the early afternoon and summoned everyone in the village. They then separated the Christians from the Muslims, based on names and ethnicity.
And then, the missionary says, “[they] opened fire on the Christians.” The terrorists’ statement claimed that they had killed 11 people in the operation, but there may be more victims, and others are seriously wounded.
The attack occurred as “many people were returning to their communities,” so there is now a great feeling of insecurity.
“We must pray for our brothers, who are in so much pain,” the friar says. This call is echoed by Sister Aparecida Ramos Queiroz, who works for the Diocese of Pemba, and who told ACN that “only prayer can sustain us, because there is no end in sight for this conflict.”
In France, Pope Francis denounces the “fanaticism of indifference” towards migrants
On the heights of Marseille, in the south of France, the sea stretches as far as the eye can see. The memorial dedicated to sailors and migrants lost at sea is there, at the foot of Notre-Dame de la Garde. The memorial stone is surmounted by a large Camargue cross – combining the traditional cross and an anchor.
It was in this striking landscape that Pope Francis came to launch another powerful appeal on the first day of his trip to Marseille on September 22, in front of the sun-soaked Mediterranean Sea in which migrants still drown every day.
“Too many people, fleeing conflict, poverty and environmental disasters in their search for a better future, find in the waves of the Mediterranean Sea the ultimate rejection,” lamented Francis, whose white robe was blown by the Mistral wind. “
“We are at a crossroads,” he said, “On the one hand, there is fraternity (…) on the other, indifference, which bloodies the Mediterranean.” He emphasized, “It’s either the culture of humanity and fraternity, or the culture of indifference – every man for himself.” And so this beautiful sea has become a huge cemetery.”
In the midst of religious leaders from Marseille of all religions and denominations, the Pope forcefully denounced both the “cruel trafficking” and the “fanaticism of indifference” towards those trying to reach Europe. “People who are at risk of drowning when abandoned on the waves must be rescued,” he thundered after a moment of silent reflection, visibly moved.
In this speech, the Pope echoed the feelings expressed at the very beginning of his pontificate. It was as if he wanted to renew the call made in Lampedusa in the summer of 2013. On the small island of Sicily, the newly elected Pope had criticized the world’s indifference to migrants. But this appeal, renewed twice in another Greek refugee camp on Lesbos in 2016 and 2021, has never really been heard.
Have China’s Christians Peaked? Pew Researches the Data Debate
Christianity’s growth in China has stalled since 2010.
That’s according to a new Pew Research Centre report measuring religion in China published today. In 2010, approximately 23.2 million adults in China self-identified as Christian. In 2018, 19.9 million adults did so, which Pew researchers say is not a “statistically significant gap.”
Among Chinese Christians, the percentages of zongjiao (Mandarin for “organized religion”) activity have also stagnated. Nearly 40 percent (38%) of Christians said they engaged in such activities once a week in 2010, but that figure dipped slightly to 35 percent in 2018.
“Some scholars have relied on a mix of fieldwork studies, claims by religious organizations, journalists’ observations and government statistics to suggest that China is experiencing a surge of religion and is perhaps even on a path to having a Christian majority by 2050,” the Pew report stated.