Pope Francis is to release a new encyclical which is expected to focus on what the world should look like following the Covid-19 pandemic. The 83-year-old Roman Pontiff will travel to Assisi to sign the document, in what will be his first trip outside of Rome since the Coronavirus struck Italy.
His visit to the small Umbrian town is highly symbolic as it is taking place on the feast of his namesake, St Francis of Assisi, the saint of poverty, peace and care for creation. The Vatican said on 5 September that the encyclical will be titled Fratelli tutti, or Brothers all, and will be on “fraternity and social friendship”. The Pope will sign it after saying Mass at the tomb of St Francis, but due to the virus, he will celebrate the liturgy privately, and without anyone present.
Although the encyclical will offer a framework for a more just post-pandemic world, The Tablet understands it has been in preparation since before the emergence of Covid-19.
The encyclical is expected to build on the themes of human fraternity found in the joint declaration signed in Abu Dhabi by the Pope and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, which calls on religions to work more closely together.
The Pope has made dialogue with other religions a hallmark of his pontificate and has sought to build up relations within the Muslim world.
By travelling to the United Arab Emirates in 2019, he became the first Pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula and has made efforts to channel the spirit of St Francis, who 800 years ago sought to broker a peace with the Sultan of Egypt during the Crusades.
The encyclical, the highest form of papal writing, is likely to cover a broad canvas of issues such as war, globalisation, populism and economics. At a time of growing polarisation in politics, the document could well examine how to tackle fragmentation and inequality.

Mark Galli will stand before Bishop Richard Pates in the Cathedral of St. Raymond Nonnatus in Joliet, Illinois, to hear these words:
“Francis, be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Pates will then dab Galli’s forehead with anointing oil (using a cotton ball instead of his thumb due to COVID-19).  And with that, Galli — who has chosen his confirmation name after St. Francis of Assisi— will become a Roman Catholic.
Galli’s journey to Catholicism is notable, in part because of the nation’s political climate.  A former Presbyterian pastor, Galli spent seven years as editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, the premier publication for evangelicals whose founder was the legendary evangelist Billy Graham.
But for a few days last December, Galli was perhaps the most well-known evangelical in the country – after penning an editorial calling for Donald Trump’s impeachment and removal from office and arguing he was “profoundly immoral.”
It went viral, earning a rebuke from Trump on Twitter, and bringing Galli — who retired from the magazine in January — a tsunami of publicity. Some of his fellow evangelicals praised the editorial as courageous, given their movement’s overwhelming support for the president.
Trump’s evangelical supporters labeled it misguided and out of touch.
Now, two months before the election, with evangelical allegiance to Trump polling as strong as before, Galli is leaving the fold.
As with most conversions, however, Galli insists his is personal, not political.
Now 68, he had already decided by the time he wrote the 2019 editorial that he would quit the Anglican Church he had attended alongside his wife, Barbara, for 20 years.
“I’m not joining this holy institution that has it all right. I want to be one with these Christians who I think represent the true church in some sense.”

Women are to take to pulpits in a German diocese, saying “it is not enough to give testimony only in the family or at work.”
– The time has come “to broaden the framework so that women, with their charisms, can be seen and heard more strongly in liturgy and preaching”
– Building on the success of May’s “Day of the Women Preachers”
Sermons are usually given by priests, but that’s about to change in the Diocese of Osnabrück, where for a week at least – from September 13 to 20 – women will proclaim and interpret the word of God in a series of special church services.
It all started with an invitation from the Office for Women’s Pastoral Care of the German Bishops’ Conference for Catholic women to celebrate the International Year of the Word of God by sharing their perspectives on the Bible in their respective communities and by sending in their sermons and catecheses, a selection of which will be published in a book.

A Catholic bishop has sharply criticized a text produced by the German Church’s “Synodal Way” forum on the role of women. In an open letter published Sept. 2, Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer said that a draft text prepared by the forum on “Women and Offices,” also known as Forum III, “lacks any theological level.”
The bishop of Regensburg was referring to a document produced by a working group on the “Participation of women in leadership under the current conditions of canon law.”
Voderholzer, a professor of dogmatics, expressed concern about the document’s presentation of the establishment of the sacraments, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
“The fact that the sacraments of the time pertain to the post-Paschal Church is obscured. That there is, however, in theology a very differentiated reflection on the question of the institution of the sacraments is ignored,” the bishop said.

The German Bishops’ Conference is facing backlash for a post about Karl Marx. There was backlash to the post on social media, with many Catholics slamming the German bishops for calling Karl Marx a “great thinker.” One of the comments, from a German conservative, asked rhetorically, “And Karl Marx is a role model, huh? So is socialism, that has cost millions of people worldwide?”
“A mockery to all victims of socialism!” said one commenter in German.” Mr. Cardinal Marx should be ashamed of himself!”

Only a small minority of British Catholics said they would not return to worship in church when the coronavirus pandemic is fully over, according to a new survey. Just 4% of people interviewed in the study, conducted between May 19 and July 26, said they would abandon going to church when restrictions are finally lifted. The findings of the poll of 2,500 people by Catholic Voices, a group set up in the U.K. in 2010 to improve communications between the church and the media, contradict the predictions of some Catholics that the COVID-19 crisis would irrevocably accelerate the decline of collective worship among the faithful. Brenden Thompson, CEO of Catholic Voices, said he was “pleasantly surprised by many of the findings.”
“Catholics miss their parishes and church buildings and seem eager to return, not just content with ‘virtual church,’” he said in a statement.

In signing successive peace deals with entrenched rebel movements, Sudan drew upon the legacy of Thomas Jefferson.
“The constitution should be based on the principle of ‘separation of religion and state,’” read the text of an agreement between the North African nation’s joint military-civilian transitional council and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM–N).
“The state shall not establish an official religion.”
The declaration of principles further cements Sudan’s efforts to undo the 30-year system of strict sharia law under President Omar al-Bashir, during which Islam was the religion of the state.
The agreement was signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, four days after a more inclusive peace deal was signed with a coalition of rebel groups in the Sudan Revolutionary Front in Juba, South Sudan.
The Juba agreement established a national commission for religious freedom, which guarantees the rights of Christian communities in Sudan’s southern regions. Sudan’s population of 45 million is roughly 91% Muslim and 6% Christian. Open Doors ranks Sudan at No.7 among the 50 nations where it is hardest to be a Christian.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) interpreted the agreement even more widely: to protect the rights of all Sudanese people to practice their religion of choice. With a stronghold in the southern Nuba Mountains within the South Kordofan region, an area with a significant Christian population, the SPLM–N held out of the initial peace deal specifically because it did not guarantee the separation of religion and state.

Parts of Syria’s north where Kurds, Christians and Yazidis have practiced religious freedom in recent years are reportedly again under attack by mainly Turkish military and their allied Syrian Islamist fighters.
The Syrian Democratic Council, which oversees the autonomous northeast of Syria, condemned Turkey’s cutting off the water supply to the area’s main city, Hassakeh, for nearly four straight weeks. Humanitarian groups have repeatedly accused Turkey of “weaponizing water” since its military takeover of the region in October 2019.
The council warned that Turkey is risking hundreds of thousands of lives in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and soaring temperatures.
“Turkey has cut off water from reaching the city of Hassakeh and the surrounding country side, which is home to more than a million people. This is a crime against humanity,” Gabriel Shamoun, the council’s vice pre-sident, told Catholic News Ser-vice. A Syriac Christian, Shamo-un is also Syriac Union Party official.
One resident, who only provided his first name, George, said wells on the outskirts of the city required about 12 days to fill up the reservoir, and only then could water be distributed. The man said he had already lost several relatives to COVID-19.
Withholding water is a similar tactic used by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq, when they cut water supplies to Qaraqosh and other towns of the Ninevah Plain before their 2014 invasion.
The Al-Himme pumping station nearer to the city only covers less than one-third of people’s needs, according to UNICEF.

Just two words – but they say everything about the direction of the reforms of the Francis era.
The words are contained in the new Italian translation of the Mass texts, approved by Pope Francis, and will be used from Easter Sunday 2021.
In the prayers said over the bread and wine, the priest says – as he always has – that Jesus’ blood was poured out per tutti (“for all”) and not per molti (“for many”).
The Italian bishops have, in reality, changed nothing, simply keeping the translation of the Latin phrase pro multis that has been widely used since the liturgical reforms mandated by the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.
But that is what is so significant. The translation of pro multis has been the subject of intense debate over recent decades.
Following the Council, many countries used the equivalent of “for all” in their translations, although this began to change in 2001, after the Liturgiam Authenticam instruction called for a more literal translation of Latin texts.
In 2006, Rome ruled that pro multis should be translated as “for many” with Benedict XVI insistent on this point.

The Syrian government has announced that it will build a replica of the Hagia Sophia, according to Lebanon’s Al-Modon media.
This in opposition to the Turkish regime’s conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.
A leader of the pro-Syrian government National Defence Forces militia, Nabeul Al-Abdullah, obtained the approval of Bishop Nicola Baalbaki, the Metropolitan of Hama and its dependencies to build a new church in the city of Suqaylabiyah in Hama province. More than 17,000 residents of Suqaylabiyah are overwhelmingly Greek Orthodox. Al-Modon said that the funding for the construction of the church is the first practical and indirect response from Russia to express its anger against Turkey for converting Hagia Sophia.
Russian MP Vitaly Milonov stated that “unlike Turkey, [Syria] is a country that clearly shows the possibility of peaceful and positive interfaith dialogue,” adding that “Orthodox Christians in Russia can help Syria with construction.”
The talk of creating a replica of Hagia Sophia in northern Hama had started in mid-July when Abdullah announced his donation of a plot of land for the implementation of the project.
He presented the idea to the commander of the Russian controlled Hmeimim military base in Latakia province, and there he got the initial support for the project. This was followed by visits of Russian leaders and officials to the headquarters of the Abd Allah militia in northern Hama, who have been on the front line fighting against Turkish-backed jihadists.
Russian support for the construction of a Syrian Hagia Sophia was confirmed by the visit of a large military delegation from the Hmeimim base to the city of Suqaylabiyah, where they were received by a number of “national defence” leaders north of Hama, bishops and church officials, according to the Lebanese newspaper.
The delegation visited a number of religious sites and schools in the city, examined the project site and promised to help in setting detailed urban plans and secure the necessary support to start work.