At least 750 people are reported dead after an attack on an Oriental Orthodox church in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, according to a European watchgroup.
On Jan. 9, the Europe External Programme with Africa reported that the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum, about 80 miles west of Adigrat, had been attacked, and that hundreds of people who hid inside were brought out to the front square and shot to death.
According to Church Times UK, the attack was carried out by Ethiopian government troops and Amhara militia from central Ethiopia. At least 1,000 people were estimated to be hiding in the church at the time of the attack.
Locals have said they believe the church was targeted by raiders of the lost ark. The church is thought to contain the original Ark of the Covenant, a sacred golden chest first mentioned in the book of Exodus that carried the 10 commandments, parts of sacred scripture, Aaron’s rod, and a pot of manna. They believed the attackers wanted to steal the Ark of the Covenant and take it to the capital city of Addis Ababa, the Church Times reported. This ark is guided by a single priest who never leaves the compound, and it is not allowed to be seen by anyone else, so whether it is really the true Ark has been debated by historians for centuries.
The church belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, an Oriental Orthodox Church that is estimated to have about 36 million members. Tigray has been the site of the Tigray War since November of last year. In the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray, the regional government is run by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The group once dominated the ruling coalition of Ethiopia but felt marginalized by Prime Minister Abiy’s political changes after he took office in 2018. He dissolved the ruling coalition and merged its ethnicity-based re-gional parties into a single party, the Prospe-rity Party, which the TPLF refused to join.

More than a third of U.S. Catholics say their own personal faith has become stronger during the coronavirus pandemic, and 3 in 10 Catholics believe the virus has strengthened the religious faith of other people in the country, according to a study released Jan. 27 by the Pew Research Centre.
Overall, 28% of Americans said their own faith had become stronger during the pandemic, with 49% of white evangelical Protestants, 21% of white non-evangelical Protestants, and 35% of Catholics agreeing.
The majority of Americans  — 68% — said the pandemic has not changed their personal faith much, but despite the cancellation of religious activities and in-person services, few Americans — only 4% — say their religious faith has weakened as a result of the outbreak.
The study, conducted last summer, found that Americans are more likely than people in 14 other countries surveyed to say that their religious faith has strengthened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The U.S. has by far the highest share of respondents who say their faith has strengthened, with about three-in-ten holding this view,” the study reports.
In Spain and Italy, the countries with the second- and third-highest percentages, only 16% and 15%, respectively, said their faith had grown stronger. (10% was the 14-country median.)
As the study points out, Americans are more likely than people in the other surveyed countries to be religious in the first place — in Italy, for example, 25% say religion is “very important” in their lives. That number is 49% in the U.S. — and people who are religious are more likely to say the pandemic has strengthened their faith.
In countries hit by large waves of infections and deaths in the spring of 2020, the pandemic also strengthened family ties, the study found. Spain, Italy, the U.S. and the U.K. had the highest proportions of respondents who said their relationships with their immediate family members had become stronger because of the pandemic. With college and university campuses closed throughout the U.S., more young people than older people said their family connections had grown closer: Half of Americans aged 18 to 29 said so, whereas only 38% of Americans older than 50 said the same.
In nine of the 14 countries, personal religious faith grew more among lower-income people than among higher-income people. In five of the countries surveyed, the study says, those with less education are also more likely to say their faith has become stronger.

As this new year begins, it’s obvious that America is facing many challenges—some old, some new. And they most certainly cannot be taken lightly. However, those of us who focus on international religious freedom also concentrate on concerns beyond our shores, and a look at Africa’s recent history in the rear-view mirror reflects terrifying images. As one deadly assault after another fades out of sight, encroaching assailants are rushing forward at terrifying speed.
The largest country in Africa and the most commercially significant, Nigeria is the site of what has been described as a slow-motion genocide in which tens of thousands of Nigerian Christians have been massacred in recent years. A Family Research Council report published in July 2020 documents horrifying statistics of mass murders there, almost entirely at the hands of three Islamist terrorist groups: Boko Haram, Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWA-P), and Fulani jihadis.
Nigeria may be the worst example of violence against African Christi-ans, but it is far from the only one. Violent incidents across the African continent are increasing. One notorious example in November 2020 was the reported beheading of 50 civilians in Mozambique—many of them Catholic Christians.
Fighters linked to Islamic State attacked several villages in Mozambique, killing civilians, abducting women and children, and burning down homes. The gruesome description of innocent people “herded” to their death on a soccer field, where they were systematically decapitated and dismembered, was nightmarish. That wasn’t the only such incident in 2020, and it certainly won’t be the last. Due to a hapless government response, ISIS continues its assaults, most recently on January 2, 2021.

A cardinal said on Jan 22 that a proposed law in Denmark requiring the translation of all homilies into Danish is a threat to religious freedom.
In a Jan. 22 statement, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), objected to the bill demanding that all addresses in a liturgical setting are either given in Danish or made accessible in the language.
“De facto, the impact would be of imposing undue hindrance on the fundamental right to freedom of religion,” he said.
The Catholic Church in Denmark has also expressed concern about the bill, which is thought to be directed primarily at the country’s Muslim congregations where sermons are often preached in Arabic.
Catholics comprise 1.3% of the 5.8 million population of Denmark, a historically Lutheran country neighbouring Germany, Norway, and Sweden.
Roughly a third of Catholics in Denmark are born outside the country, according to the Catholics & Cultures website. Masses in Metropolitan Copenhagen, the area surrounding the capital city, are conducted in Polish, English, Ukrainian, Croatian, Chaldean, French, Spanish, and Italian, as well as Danish.

President Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords have been singular in focus—build Middle East peace upon Arab states establishing full relations with Israel.
And although not officially linked, three of the four nations to normalize with the Jewish state this year received something from the United States in return. The first, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was cleared to purchase American F-35 fighter jets. (The second, Bahrain, which already hosts a US naval base, is understood to be part of a gradual Gulf alignment with Israel.)
The third, Sudan, was re-moved from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
This month, the fourth, Morocco, was granted US recognition of its longstanding claim to the Western Sahara, a mostly desert region on the northwest coast of Africa, which seeks independence.
But absent from the accords is any emphasis on religious freedom, despite the Trump ad-ministration making it a central feature of its foreign policy. And in relation to Christians, each nation has a unique situation.
The Emirates is officially 100 percent Muslim, though it facilitates the worship of its majority population of migrant workers. And following normalization, the UAE relaxed its sharia-based laws.

Most religious men and women who professed their perpetual vows in 2020 are highly educated, come from a Catholic family background, and have first considered vocation at a relatively young age.
This is according to new research conducted by the Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).
The research was commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations (CCLV) ahead of the annual World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, to be marked on 2 February.
CARA received a response from 549 of 747 major superiors for an overall response rate of 73% among religious institutes. Of the 172 identified men and women religious who professed perpetual vows in 2020, 55 sisters and nuns and 57 brothers and priests responded to the survey for an overall response rate of 65%. According to the survey, the average age of responding religious of the Profession Class of 2020 is 38. Half of them were 34 or younger. On average they were 19 years old when they first considered a vocation to religious life.  Three-quarters of the respondents come from families in which both parents are Catholic and 84% have been Catholic since birth.

The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacra-ments asked priests to take special anti-COVID-19 precautions this year when distributing ashes on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, inclu-ding sprinkling ashes on the top of people’s heads rather than using them to make a cross on people’s foreheads.
The congregation’s note on the “distribution of ashes in time of pandemic” was published on the congregation’s website Jan. 12 and directs priests to say “the prayer for blessing the ashes” and then sprinkle “the ashes with holy water, without saying anything.”
“Then he addresses all those present and only once says the formula as it appears in the Roman Missal, applying it to all in general: ‘Repent and believe in the Gospel’ or ‘Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.’”
“The priest then cleanses his hands, puts on a face mask and distributes the ashes to those who come to him or, if appropriate, he goes to those who are standing in their places,” it said. “The priest takes the ashes and sprink-les them on the head of each one without saying anything.”

Most Catholics, who grew up seeing women at the altar reading from the Bible and serving at Mass, wondered what was improved when Pope Francis changed canon law this month, purportedly to allow women to participate in such services.
Although women have been taking care of these ministries at local bishops’ discretion, they were barred from being instituted as lectors or acolytes because church law did not allow it. These minor orders were reserved only for men until now, touted as preparation for priestly ordina-tion.
On Jan. 11, The Pope chang-ed one word in Canon 230. The law originally said: “Laymen who have the age and skills, determined by decree by the Episcopal Conference, can be permanently employed, through the established liturgical rite, for the ministries of readers and acolytes; however, this confer-ment does not give them the right to sustenance or remuneration by the Church.” Pope Francis changed the opening word, making it “laypeople” to include women.  Pope Francis is pushing the Church to be more open to women, but slowly and carefully. These orders had been part of the all-male priesthood in the Catholic Church since the Coun-cil of Trent in the 16th century.

Pope Francis has rejected an appeal to reinstate expelled Augustinian monk Martin Luther on the 500th anniversary of his excommunication, which falls on Jan. 3, 2021. The pontiff’s highly significant overtures towards Lutherans over the last five years had raised hopes in ecumenical circles for the withdrawal of the bull of excommunication, Decet Romanum Pontificem, issued by Pope Leo X on Jan. 3, 1521. Church Militant has learned that Francis will not revoke Luther’s excommunication to mark the anniversary but instead use the occasion to intensify dialogue with Lutherans. “There will be a special press release on Jan. 4 from both the Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican on the steps being taken that lead us further on the path from conflict to communion,” Professor Dr. Dirk G. Lange told Church Militant.

On Jan. 11, Pope Francis published an apostolic letter issued motu proprio (which means “on his own impulse” in Latin), modifying canon law regarding women’s access to the ministries of lector and acolyte. He also released a letter to Vatican doctrinal chief Cardinal Luis Ladaria explaining his reasoning for the decision.
In the document, Spiritus Domini, the Pope changed Church Law so that women can be formally instituted to the lay ministries of lector and acolyte.
The Pope modified the wording Canon 230§1 of the Code of Canon Law, which previously limited the ministries to lay men.
He changed the phrase “lay men” to “lay persons,” so that the canon now reads: “Lay persons of suitable age and with the gifts determined by decree of the Episcopal Conference may be permanently assigned, by means of the established liturgical rite, to the ministries of lectors and acolytes; however, the conferment of such a role does not entitle them to support or remuneration from the Church.” Yes, in many parts of the world women serve and read at Mass. But until now they were not officially established in the role with the liturgical rites associated with the ministry of an acolyte or lector. They per-formed the role “by temporary designation,” under Canon 230§2 of the Code of Canon Law.
The ministries were traditionally reserved to men because they were associated with what were known as the “minor orders” of priesthood: stages on the way to priestly ordination.
But in 1972, Pope Paul VI intended to abolish the minor orders in the motu proprio Ministeria quaedam. From then on, he said, lector and acolyte should be regarded as ministries, rather than minor orders. When they are conferred, he wrote, it should not be called “ordination,” but rather “institu-tion.” A lector is a person who reads Scripture to the congregation at Mass (other than the Gospel, which is only proclaimed by deacons and priests).
After abolishing the minor orders, Pope Paul VI wrote that an acolyte was a ministry in the Church with the “duty to take care of the service of the altar, to help the deacon and the priest in liturgical actions, especially in the celebration of the Holy Mass.”
In Pope Francis’s letter to Cardinal Ladaria, he said that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments would be responsible for guiding the changes, amending parts of the Roman Missal and the rite of institution of lectors and acolytes where necessary.