In the latest move against the Catholic Church and government opponents in Nicaragua, the government of President Daniel Ortega has reportedly banned the traditional public processions of the Way of the Cross in all parishes in the country.
During Lent, and also on Good Friday, the ritual will take place inside churches and not in public venues.
The move comes in the context of President Daniel Ortega’s escalating crackdown against the Nicaraguan Church, and follows the widespread outcry over the recent sentencing of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa to 26 years’ imprisonment and the deportation to the United States of 222 political opponents.
They have all been stripped off citizenship along with other 94 Nicaraguan citizens, including the exiled Auxiliary Bishop Silvo José Baez of Managua, and a priest from Matagalpa.
Tensions between the Sandinista regime and the Catholic Church reached its peak last week when, in a speech for the 89th anniversary of the killing of Nicaraguan national hero Augusto Sandino.
Iran: harassment against Iranian Christians increasing
Aside from the ruthless crack-down on protests over the death of Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini in police custody, 2022 was another year in which Iranian Christians continued to face harassment, arrests and imprisonment only for practicing their faith, a new report of four non-profit organi-zations advocating for persecuted Christians in the world says.
Christians along with other religious minorities in the Islamic Republic continued to be systematically deprived of their right to freely practice their religion, according to the 2023 Report on “Violations to the rights of Christians in Iran” released by Article18, a London-based ONG, dedicated to the protection and promotion of religious freedom in Iran, with its partners Open Doors International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and Middle East Concern.
The 25-page study, in its fifth edition, was issued in recent days to coincide with the 44th anniversary of the murder of Anglican pastor Arastoo Sayyah, the first Christian killed for his faith in the Islamic Republic, just eight days after Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution in February 1979.134 Christians arrested in 2022 for faith related issues.
“There is no contradiction for a Priest to Marry” Pope Francis in new interview
In a new interview, Pope Francis has discussed the possibility of revising the Western discipline of priestly celibacy.
“There is no contradiction for a priest to marry. Celibacy in the Western Church is a temporary prescription: I do not know if it is settled in one way or another, but it is temporary in this sense,” Pope Francis said in an interview published on March 10.
“It is not eternal like priestly ordination, which is forever, whether you like it or not. Whether you leave or not is another matter, but it is forever. On the other hand, celibacy is a discipline.”
When asked by the Argentine journalist Daniel Hadad if celibacy “could be review-ed,” Pope Francis responded: “Yes, yes. In fact, everyone in the Eastern Church is ma-rried. Or those who want to. There they make a choice. Before ordination there is the choice to marry or to be celibate,” according to a transcript provided by Infobae.
In response to the interviewer’s inquiry if the pope thought that making celibacy opt-ional would lead more people to join the priesthood, Pope Francis said: “I do not think so,” noting that there are already married priests in the Catholic Church in the Eastern rites.
The pope added that earlier that day he had met with an Eastern Catholic priest who works in the Roman Curia who has a wife and a son.
Pope Francis has spoken about the value of priestly celibacy before. In January 2019 he said: “Personally, I think that celibacy is a gift to the Church. I would say that I do not agree with allowing optional celibacy, no.”
The pope added at the time that he thinks there is room to consider some exceptions for married clergy in the Latin rite “when there is a pastoral necessity” in remote locations due to a lack of priests, such as in the Pacific islands.
The nearly one-hour-long interview published Friday with Infobae, a Miami-based Spanish-language online news outlet, also touched on Daniel Ortega’s dictatorship in Nicaragua, drug trafficking in Latin America, the war in Ukraine, and marriage annulments.
When speaking of annulments, Pope Francis advised to look to what his prede-cessor Benedict XVI had said on the subject and said that “a large part of church marriages are invalid for lack of faith.”
“And think about it: Sometimes [one] goes to a wedding and it seems more like it’s a social reception and not a sacrament,” Pope Francis said.
Catholic school principal arrested; priest, nun on the run
Leaders of the Jabalpur Catholic diocese have denied the allegation which they say is a conspiracy to tarnish the image of a Church institution that serves the poor.
The court in tribal dominated Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh state on March 7 remanded Nam Singh Yadav, principal of the diocesan higher secondary school. Dindori is some 140 km southeast of Jabalpur, the diocesan headquarters, and 460 km east of Bhopal, the state capital.
Catholic nuns among women awarded for post Covid works
Three Catholic nuns were among 33 outstanding women entrepreneurs awarded for successfully fighting Covid pandemic with business plans.
The awardees were selected from among 1,408 women supported by Functional Vocational Training and Research Society (FVTRS) through Child Fund and City Bank to rebuild people’s lives after the pandemic.
Plot suspected in sex claims against Indian school principal
Police in central India have re-arrested a lay Catholic school principal accused of sexually assaulting young girls, which local people say is part of a conspiracy to deny education to tribal people. Nam Singh Yadav was arrested and detained in judicial custody on March 7, three days after he and three others — a Catholic nun, priest and another lay male teacher — were accused of violating the rights of children.
American evangelist attracts thousands in Vietnam
An estimated 14,000 Christians in southern Vietnam attended a historic religious event organized by an American evangelist association in Ho Chi Minh City.
People including government officials from the city and neighbouring provinces attended the Spring Love Festival held by the US-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association at the Phu Tho Sports Facility on Mar. 4-5.
Reverend Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the association told the crowds that “God makes and creates you and loves you and Vietnam. Jesus is in the city tonight.”
Each day some 7,000 people attended public Bible talks and Gospel singing, local media said.
Graham said he was in the Southeast Asian country at the invitation of local churches.
More than 900 pastors and church leaders from 60 denominations worked together for the event. This was the first time “so many denominational leaders had been under one roof,” the association claimed on its website.
Before the event, Graham reportedly met with Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai and other officials to discuss the diversity of religions and support for religious freedom in the country.
No government can stop good works: Bangalore archbishop
Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore says the Church will continue to do its good works without fear.
“Even if a case is filed against me, accusing me of indulging in conversion, for providing education and healthcare to the Dalits and the marginalized, I would continue with those good works,” Archbishop Machado asserted.
The archbishop is the leader of the Catholic Church in the southern Indian state of Karnataka that has enacted anti-conversion law last year. He also heads the All Karnataka United Christian Forum for Human Rights, an ecumenical body.
“No government can stop us from doing good works; no one can challenge us,” the 68-year-old prelate asserted.
He challenged the government to come out with the data on the number of children converted in Christian educational institutions.
The archbishop was speaking at a function to felicitate Baselios Marthoma Mathews III, the Catholicos of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, in Bengaluru, the state capital.
With a few months left for the Assembly elections in Karnataka, the archbishop’s speech is seen as a sign of the community’s approach to the ruling party and the government’s policies against Christians.
Archbishop Machado slammed the fundamentalists for playing petty politics and spreading fake news that teaching the Bible has been made compulsory at Clarence school in Bengaluru.
Earlier, the archbishop had called the anti-conversion law “dangerous” and termed it a “sad chapter for the Christian community.”
He had also written to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai appealing not to promote the “undesirable and discriminatory” Bill.
According to the new law, any converted person, his parents, brother, sister, or any other person who is related to him by blood, marriage, adoption, or in any form associated, or colleague may lodge a complaint of illegal religious conversion. The offense is non-bailable.
The bill prohibits unlawful conversion of religion, providing protection to those who were forced to convert from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement, the promise of marriage, or by any fraudulent means and for the matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Ecolink awards outstanding women
An institute that trains addiction professionals globally has honored two of its alumna who have excelled in prevention and management of substance use disorder in Africa and India.
Ecolink Training Institute, which has trained more than 300 addiction professionals from 20 countries in the past three years, awarded Odireleng Kasale, a recovery professional from Botswana, and Devika Rani, prevention expert from India’s Hyderabad, in a virtual meeting held on March 9.
Kasale, a recovering person herself who was trained in the Ecolink Institute in the Universal Treatment Curriculum on Substance Use Disorder in 2020, said she could carry out a successful recovery program in her country by networking with several young men and women who was struggling with drugs.
Also, a consultative committee member of World Health Organization and a trainer in Recovery Coaching in her country, Kasale has contributed to the policy formation and professionalizing the addiction management in her country.
Kasale and Devika were awarded with a citation and certificate, besides a one-year free package on advanced training in various curricula related to addiction management from Ecolink Institute.
Ban demanded on play “insulting” Catholic monastic life
Catholic bishops of the southern Indian state of Kerala have demanded a ban on a stage show that they say insults Ca-tholic monastic life and Chri-stianity.
“The communist organiza-tions are giving huge publicity for the drama,” says a state-ment issued by the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC), referring to the Ma-layalam play, “Kakkukali” that describes the alleged trials and tribulations of a woman who becomes a nun despite her Co-mmunist father’s opposition.
However, those behind the drama term it as an expression of freedom. The drama is an adaptation of a short story written by Francis Norona. It was scripted by K B Ajayaku-mar and directed by Job Ma-dathil.
It was staged by Alappuzha-based Neythal Nataka San-gham.
KCBC president Cardinal Baselios Cleemis condemned the drama saying it was against the cultural fabric of Kerala and staging it was a blot on the culture of the state.
The statement issued by KCBC deputy secretary Jacob Palakkapilly says the play in-sults the self-respect and con-fidence of nuns, and has been included in the state govern-ment’s international drama fest.