Shanghai’s newly installed Bishop Joseph Shen Bin welcomed three officials of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in the diocese. They also jointly unveiled a studio the diocese built, a report on the Shanghai diocesan website said.
The three-member team included the conference’s vice chair, Qian Feng, its director for the regional working committee, Yu Xiufen, and Xu Mei, the conference’s deputy director of the Ethnic and Religious Committee.
Shen briefed the officials on the current situation of Shanghai diocese and efforts to implement the CCP’s sinicization policy, the report said.
Sinicization is a political ideology promoted by the CCP that aims to impose strict rules on societies and institutions based on the core values of socialism, autonomy, and supporting the leadership of the party, across ethnic and religious communities in China.
Shen was appointed bishop of Haimen, with both government recognition and a papal mandate in 2010. The state-controlled Church appointed him bishop of Shanghai on April 4, apparently violating the Vatican-China agreement of 2018 on the appointment of bishops.
Shen is reportedly the head of the state-run Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China, which the Vatican does not recognize. In 2017 he was also the vice president of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, the state-initiated organization administering the Church in China.
During the meeting with the officials, Shen was accompanied by senior clergy, including Father Ignatius Wu Jianlin, a CPPCC political advisor, and Father Gu Zhangjun, vicar-general of the diocese that covers China’s largest city and major economic hub. Feng urged Catholics to adhere to the direction of the sinicization of religion, and actively guide religion to adopt socialism.

An excited crowd of friends and co-workers welcomed home the Shafaq family as they pulled up to their new house in Owensboro the evening of April 2.
It had been a journey of two long years, but at last Khaibar Shafaq — a case manager and paralegal for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Owensboro — was reunited with his wife and three children, who had flown into Chicago earlier that day.
“I feel really happy, blessed, grateful, so thankful,” said Shafaq, who offered both hugs of gratitude and introductions of his family to those gathered at his home.
Back in August 2021, Shafaq had travelled with his wife, Zuhal, daughter Farangis and sons Ahmad Belal and Ahmad Khetab out of Afghanistan to a safe location in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan that year after the departure of United States troops meant danger for many Afghan citizens — especially Shafaq, who had worked with and supported the U.S. government while aiding those displaced by the Islamic State group.
In order to cherish his quality time with his family, Shafaq had turned off his phone and did not check his email during his final day in Istanbul.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb, have received an official invitation from the United Nations Security Council to each deliver a historic speech during its meeting in June in New York, Al-Monitor has learned.
An Egyptian clerical source told Al-Monitor that the speeches of the prominent religious leaders will be delivered before a high-level session of the council dubbed, “The Importance of Human Fraternity Values in Promoting and Sustaining Peace,” due in mid-June at the UN’s headquarters.
“The United Arab Emirates [which will be holding the Security Council’s presidency] will highlight pressing and urgent humanitarian issues and try to take serious steps toward establishing security and ending conflicts around the world,” the invitation states.
The two religious leaders will confirm their attendance this month, the source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.
“They [the two leaders] are used to supporting any step that can promote peace in the world, so their attendance could help solve crises and stop wars around us,” the source added.
The historic speeches will come at a time the world is witnessing unending quarrels, fights and wars. The war in Ukraine has entered its second year and the latest fighting in Sudan could destabilize the fragile situation in Central, North and West Africa.
Moncef Slimi, a political analyst on Arab and European affairs and head of the German-Maghreb Institute for Culture and Media, told Al-Monitor that it would be the first time the Security Council hosts two religious leaders as prominent as Pope Francis and Sheikh Tayeb.
“That would be an important political and moral message at a difficult time for the world, both in the Arab world where wars are raging, most recently in Sudan, as well as in the West, where Ukraine’s war continues unabated,” he said.

Pope Francis kicked off his three-day visit to Hungary on April 28 praising the country for its traditional values and making a forceful appeal for European unity, decrying the rise of nationalist populism he faulted for a breakdown in multilateralism.
He also advocated on behalf of migrants in a country with a strict closed-door policy, saying the Christian attitude is one of acceptance and welcome.
Shortly after landing in the Hungarian capital of Budapest Friday morning for his April 28-30 visit to the city, the pope held private meetings with Hungarian President Katalin Novák and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, with whom he has often butted heads over the migration issue.
There has been a thaw between the two over Hungary’s willingness to welcome Ukrainian refugees, however, there is still tension of Hungary’s broad anti-migration policy, which some have argued has opened the door to traffickers while authorities look the other way.
Speaking to Hungarian authorities and members of the diplomatic corps after his arrival Friday morning, Pope Francis noted that this year Budapest is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding in 1873 through the unification of three former cities, Buda, Obuda, and Pest.
“The birth of this great capital in the heart of the continent invites us to reflect on the process of unification undertaken by Europe, in which Hungary plays a vital role,” he said, noting that in the post-war era, Europe along with the United Nations committed to forging stronger international ties so as to avoid further conflict.
However, Francis lamented that in modern times, “that passionate quest of a politics of community and the strengthening of multilateral relations seems a wistful memory from a distant past” in which the chorus of peace is dying out and “the soloists of war now take over.”
Francis lamented the rise in nationalism within Europe and the use of “harsher judgements and language” among those who disagree.
In this context, he said “it seems that politics serves more to stir up emotions rather than to resolve problems, as the maturity attained after the horrors of the war give way to regression towards a kind of adolescent belligerence,” he said.

Around 50 Christians, including 10 pastors, were attacked in an Indian village in Chhattisgarh State on Sunday following accusations of religious conversion by a radical Hindu party.
The community had gathered to pray in a private home when an armed mob, reportedly belonging to the militant Hindu nationalist organization, Bajrang Dal, surrounded the home, barged in, and stopped them.
Fearing for their safety, the Christians locked themselves inside the house and called the police.
But when the police arrived, they reportedly arrested the house’s owner, the pastors, and a few other Christians for “disturbing the peace.”
Although they were released in the evening that same day, Ankush Barayiekar, an attendee of the prayer meeting, accused the police of beating up some of the pastors who then required treatment at the local hospital.
The house’s owner, local dentist Dr. Vinay Sahu, said that they did not use microphones and loudspeakers and did not cause noise pollution. “We cannot understand the reason for these attacks,” he added.

CARA sought survey respon-ses from the 458 seminarians to be ordained this year. It received 334 responses, a response rate of 73%. Responses came from ordi-nands at 116 U.S. dioceses and 24 different religious institutions.
More than 450 men are set to be ordained priests this year, and the survey of their ordination class shows that the overwhelm-ing majority of priests-to-be were raised Catholic in intact families and individually showed habits of frequent church service and regular prayer life.
“On this day, let us thank God for continuing to call men and women to serve him and his Church as priests, religious, and consecrated persons,” Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing, Michigan, said April 25. “We pray that all families, teachers, and priests will continue their essential work of instilling the faith and love of Jesus in our children.”
Bishop Boyea chairs the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations. The committee released the “Ordination Class of 2023 Study” from the Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).
CARA sought survey responses from the 458 seminarians to be ordained this year. It received 334 responses, a response rate of 73%. Responses came from ordinands at 116 U.S. dioceses and 24 different religious institutions.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols is to become the first Catholic bishop to play a formal role in the Coronation of a British monarch since the Reformation, when he blesses King Charles III during the ceremony in Westminster Abbey on 6 May.
It will be witnessed by a papal delegation led by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See Secretary of State, the first papal representative to participate in a British Coronation for almost 500 years.
Cardinal Nichols told The Tablet that the Coronation is a “remarkable moment” for ecumenical relations, pointing out that as a young boy in 1953 he “would never have dreamt of stepping inside” a non-Catholic church.
This Saturday, the Archbishop of Westminster won’t only be inside the Abbey but will impart a blessing on the newly-crowned King. It makes him the first Catholic bishop to take an active part in the Coronation of a British monarch since Bishop Stephen Gardiner placed the crown on Queen Mary’s head in 1553.

A leading umbrella group of women religious has thanked Pope Francis for his recent decision allowing women to have voting rights in his upcoming Synod of Bishops on Synodality, saying the move is a step toward helping the church be more inclusive.
In a statement on May 3, Sister Nadia Coppa, president of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) said they welcomed the pope’s decision “with great joy and gratitude.”
“This decision, promulgated by Pope Francis, to enlarge participation in the Synodal Assembly, is the outcome of our ongoing rich reflection, as the People of God, and it is a concrete response to the discernment and desire for inclusiveness that is emerging at various levels,” Coppa said.
Her statement comes a week after the Vatican office of the Synod of Bishops announced a handful of changes to the rules governing the papally-convened summits, including the decision to allow laypeople and consecrated women to serve as full members with voting rights.
Under the previous norms, a synod was composed largely of bishops appointed to attend either by their national bishops’ conference, their religious institutes, or the pope himself, and Vatican dicastery heads who held at least the rank of archbishop. The norms also foresaw the participation of 10 clerics belonging to Institutes of Consecrated Life who were tapped by their respective communities.
A selection of auditors was also invited to attend the synod gatherings, meaning they were able to listen and participate in group discussions, but were unable to vote on the synod’s final document. While women have traditionally taken part in synods as observers, advisers, auditors and experts, until now none have ever been full members with the right to vote. This changed when last Wednesday the Synod of Bishops announced modifications to the rules, among other things omitting the membership of the 10 clerics appointed by their communities.

The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life has said that the Church might accept the decriminalization of assisted suicide, in the latest clear sign that the body established by Pope John Paul II to defend the dignity of human life has radically changed its stance.
In an April 19 speech, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, which was published in Italy by the leftist journal Il Reformista, the archbishop said that a change in Italian law to allow for assisted suicide “could not be ruled out,” and in fact “is feasible in our society.”
Using an argument that will be familiar to pro-life Americans, Archbishop Paglia said that he was personally opposed to assisted suicide, but that in a pluralist society, “legal mediation may be the greatest common good concretely possible under the conditions we find ourselves in.”
Reacting to the furor caused by the archbishop’s statement, the Pontifical Academy for Life issued a clarification, underling Archbishop Paglia’s personal opposition to assisted suicide and stressing that he said “legal mediation (certainly not moral) is possible.” The statement went on to say that “Archbishop Paglia has always supported the need for accompaniment towards the sick in the terminal phase of life.”

The COVID-19 pandemic touched nearly every aspect of American life. Schools, offices, grocery stores, and churches faced daunting challenges in the early days of the pandemic in their efforts to operate while keeping their employees, members, and the broader community safe. For churches and religious organizations, concerns over COVID-19 led many to pause traditional in-person worship services. A recent Pew Research Center study found that nearly one in three churches or religious organizations were completely closed in summer 2020, while others moved outside or online. By March 2022, most were offering some type of regular service, but only 43 percent of religious Americans reported that services currently being offered by their place of worship were back to their pre-pandemic operations.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted religious participation for millions of Americans. In summer 2020, only 13 % of Americans reported attending in-person worship services. This rebounded to 27% by March 2022, but rates of worship attendance were still lower than they were before the pandemic. However, the pandemic did not appear to affect one’s faith, with most adults reporting that their religious affiliation today was no different than it was pre-pandemic.
To better understand how COVID-19 and church closures influenced patterns of religious attendance and identity, the Survey Center on American Life at AEI teamed up with researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago to measure religious affiliation and attendance both before the pandemic (2018 to March 2020) and again in spring 2022. For the 2022 American Religious Benchmark Survey, interviews were conducted with the same people to enable us to measure actual changes in religious behavior or identity.
The results show that religious identity remained stable through the pandemic. White mainline Christians and white evangelical Christians were the two largest religious groups both pre-pandemic and in spring 2022. Unaffiliated adults also made up a quarter (25%) of adults in both periods.