A leading Nigerian human rights organization has published a report with sobering statistics on summary executions, maiming, forced disappearances and illegal detentions in Imo state of southeast Nigeria.
Presenting the report during a press conference May 21, Emeka Umeagbalasi, a Catholic human rights activist and chairman of the Intersociety organization, said that in just 29 months, from January 2021-May 2023, “security forces and allied militias killed 900 unarmed citizens, wounded 700, arrested 3,500, extorted 1,400, disappeared 300.”
In addition, the report said 1,200 civilian houses were burned down, displacing 30,000 owners and their families and forcing 500,000 citizens to flee.

According to the report, non-state actors, such as Fulani jihadists and other militias were responsible for most of the deaths — 700 — and for an additional 900 kidnappings that occurred during the same time period.
Most of those killed in Imo state and elsewhere in southeast Nigeria might have been targeted because of their Christian faith, the report’s authors stressed.
Umeagbalasi said that people are slain based on their ethnicity and religion, and he criticized the Nigerian police for rarely looking into the crimes.
“We are not against the police and security agencies performing their jobs,” Umeagbalasi told journalists, “but they have to do that within the confines of the law.”
“You don’t leave the fighting parties” and “turn a blind eye” on civilians, he said.

A leading Asian theologian says Pope Francis’ decision to include non-ordained women and men as voting members of October’s synod assembly is a “giant step” that will irreversibly change the Church’s decision-making processes.
Last month, the synod secretariat announced the Pope had authorised a reform to allow at least 70 non-bishops to be members of the 4-29 October synod assembly in the Vatican. This move will see women given a vote in a synod for the first time.
Fr Vimal Tirimanna is one of the theological advisers to the synod and a professor of moral theology who teaches in Sri Lanka and Rome.
“Things will never be reversed again. It’s a giant step, not a small step,” he told a webinar organised by The Tablet on the synod process on 17 May 2023.
“Even if nothing happens in the rest of the synodal process, this particular fact that 70 non-bishops are going to be there, is a big change. I don’t think it can be changed. At last, what Vatican II wanted has been realised – the process has begun.”
Fr Tirimanna, a Redemptorist priest who was involved in helping to draft the ”Enlarge the Space of Your Tent” synod document, explained that Francis’ reforms are a recovery of what took place in synods during the first millennium of Christianity.
He pointed out that when Paul VI established the synod of bishops in 1965, he never ruled out that synods would evolve, with the possibility of them becoming “synods of the People of God”.
The Pope’s changes, he said, are an attempt to “walk the talk” of Vatican II.
But Fr Tirimanna said there is still a lot of resistance to the synod among bishops, and from those who erroneously think the Pope is trying to take the Catholic Church in a “Protestant” direction.
“I am a little taken aback when I hear some voices, even here in Rome, which say, ‘Well this Pope has come from nowhere, and he’s trying to make the Catholic Church a Protestant Church’,” he said.

A court in military-ruled Myanmar has dismissed an appeal by a prominent ethnic Christian leader four weeks after he was imprisoned and a day before thousands of political prisoners were freed.
Myitkyina Prison Court in Kachin state rejected an appeal from Dr. Hkalam Samson on May 2, according to media reports, quoting the defendant’s lawyer.
His lawyer told reporters that Samson, a former leader of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) who was sentenced by the same court on April 7 to six years in prison for unlawful association, defaming the state and terrorism, will appeal to higher courts.
The prison court rejected his appeal a day before 2,135 political prisoners were freed from various prisons across the country on May 3, the day Myanmar marked Vesak, an auspicious day in the Buddhist majority nation.
Most of those who benefited had been sentenced under Section 505(a) of the penal code for inciting opposition to the military regime, which carries a maximum jail term of three years.
More than 21,000 people have been arrested since the military seized power after toppling Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi-led civilian government on Feb.1, 2021, according to a local monitoring group.

Amnesty International said in a report that it is deeply concerned about thousands of individuals still unjustly languishing in prisons across Myanmar, including Samson.

“This long overdue release should mark the first step towards the immediate release of all individuals who have been arbitrarily detained for exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly or other human rights,” Ming Ye Hah, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for campaigns, said in a statement on May 3.

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.