The Jesuits in Mexico have said two of their priests were murdered while trying to defend a man who was seeking refuge in a church while being being pursued by an armed person.
A statement from Jesuit provincial of Mexico Father Luis Gerardo Moro Madrid June 21 informed “with deep sorrow and a sense of anguish” about the murder of Fathers Fathers Javier Campos and Joaquín Mora in the afternoon of June 20 in Cerocahui, Tarahumara, a remote mountainous area of northern Mexico.
The murders took place in the context of the violence that Mexico has been experiencing for years, the message further explained.
The provincial said they are working with the federal and state authorities to ensure the safety of their other members – Esteban Cornejo, Jesús Reyes, and Jesús Zaglul along with the parish’s pastoral team.
“We publicly condemn this tragedy and demand a prompt investigation and safety for the community,” he further said. We will keep you informed about the next actions that we, as the Mexican Jesuit Province, will be taking.
Jesuit superior general Father Arturo Sosa said he was “shocked and saddened by this news” and that his thoughts and prayers are with the Jesuits in Mexico and the families of the men.
“We have to stop violence in our world and so much unnecessary suffering,” asserted the leader of the largest religious congregation for men in the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis plans to remain pope ‘for as long as God allows it,’ bishops say
While concerns regarding Pope Francis’ health have fuelled rumours he might soon resign, Brazilian bishops told Vatican media outlets on monday 20th June that the pope intends to continue in his role as head of the Catholic Church “for as long as God allows it.”
Archbishop Roque Paloschi of Porto Velho said the pope reassured him during a visit at the Vatican on Monday that despite the many challenges the pope faces, resigning “does not cross his mind,” according to an article published by Vatican News.
Seventeen bishops from Brazil will meet with the pope this month for traditional “ad limina” visits, obligatory consultations that bishops from around the world make on a rotating five-year schedule.
“I want to live my mission as long as God allows me and that’s it,” Francis said when asked about his health by the bishops, according to Roque.
In the same Vatican article, Monsignor Lúcio Nicoletto, the administrator of Brazil’s Diocese of Roraima, said he was impressed by the “great strength” displayed by the aging pontiff, who during the meeting reinforced his commitment to protecting the Amazon rainforest and the Indigenous people who inhabit it.
In early June, Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, one of the pope’s cardinal advisers, said the resignation rumors amounted to nothing more than “fake news” and compared media reports on the subject to “a cheap soap opera.”
Pope Francis greets the faithful as he leaves St. Mary Major Basilica after participating in a rosary prayer for peace, in Rome, May 31, 2022. Pope Francis canceled a planned July trip to Africa on doctors’ orders because of ongoing knee problems, the Vatican said June 10, 2022, raising further questions about the health and mobility problems of the 85-year-old pontiff.
Rumors of Pope Francis’ resignation have increased after the Vatican announced the cancellation of his planned July papal visit to Congo and South Sudan, citing knee pain. It’s unclear whether the pope will make his expected journey to Canada later next month.
Vatican accepts court decision on Mulakkal case: Nuncio
Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal, on June 11 said the Vatican has accepted the Indian court decision about Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar.
The nuncio, who was on a two-day pastoral visit to Jalandhar, said this June 11 while addressing the priests of the diocese of Jalandhar.
The nuncio said Bishop Mulakkal is an Indian citizen and the Vatican goes by the decision of the local court.
“Accordingly, Bishop Franco [Mulakkal] is innocent and free of all charges. With regards to the future, it is not in my hands but with Rome. Let us wait for it patiently,” Archbishop Girelli told the priests.
The Vatican on September 20, 2018, accepted Bishop Mulakkal’s request to relieve him from his duties until the case was over. It then appointed Bishop Agnelo Gracias as the diocesan administrator. Meanwhile a report in the Indian Express said the nuncio was told that all was not well in Jalandhar diocese. A delegation of the Catholic Union, senior citizens and members of the Diocesan Pastoral Council reportedly met the nuncio June 11 at the Bishop’s House and submitted a memorandum stating their grievances against local officials of the diocese.
Christians welcome Delhi High Court’s questions on forced conversion
Christian groups in India have welcomed the Delhi High Court questioning the basis for filing petitions on forced conversion.
The bench of Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Tushar Rao Gedela on June 3 pointed out that conversion is not prohibited in India.
“It’s a right of an individual to profess any religion, religion of his birth, or religion that he chooses to profess. That’s the freedom our Constitution grants,” the court said while hearing a petition by a lawyer seeking direction to the federal and Delhi governments to prohibit religious conversion by intimidating, threatening, and deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits and by using black magic and superstition.
“An excellent move by the Delhi High Court,” says Sister Manju Devarapalli, secretary of the National Dalit Christian Watch.
The Carmelite Missionaries nun says the court’s stand co-mes at a time one was losing faith in the judiciary. “The High Court ruling comes as a soothing balm on seeming wounds, enforcing the sacredness of Indian Constitution,” she told.
Rise in violence against churches alarms Christian forum
The United Christian Forum (UCF), an ecumenical group, has demanded urgent judicial and government intervention to check what it says is the rapid rise in incide-nts of violence, coercion and false arrests that traumatize the community.
The persecution is most acute in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka; the UCF said June 13, citing data collected from its National Helpline Number 1800-208-4545 and human rights groups.
Although 2022 is not even halfway over, the helpline has received 207 cases of violence. Just in May, it recorded 57 cases. In 2021, the forum documented 505 cases, with Christ-mas seeing 16 acts of violence, including desecration and breaking of statues of Jesus Christ at a historic church in Haryana.
“This data flies in the face of statements by government functionaries and leaders of the ruling parties at the center and in the states that there is no persecution, and that there are only a few stray incidents by fringe elements,” the forum’s national president Michael Williams said.
Diocesan Synod renews Church in Tripura
Nine months of the in-tense synodal meetings at different levels ended June 11 with the diocesan pre-Synodal meeting in Agartala, capital of the northeastern Indian state.
As many as 92 representatives of laity, catechists, women’s groups, youth religious and priests attended the day-long prayer, reflection, discernment and planning for the future of the Church in Tripura.
The participants have resolved to make the spirit of Synodality, “Journeying together” beyond the diocesan synod meeting into their daily lives. “The meeting provided an opportunity for diverse members of the diocese to come together for a liturgical celebration, pray together, and reflect on their experience of the Synodal process,” said Jesuit Father Irudhaya Jothi, the contact person for the Synodal preparation in the diocese of Agartala.
Nuns in Kochi bring light into ‘Enclave of Darkness’
A slum in this southwestern Indian city was once known as the “Enclave of Darkness” be-cause it was the den of thugs, alcoholics, drug runners and psychopaths.
It is now called Udaya Colony (Sunrise Enclave) after Catholic nuns dared to enter it 33 years ago as part of their mission to reach people in the peripheries.
What now welcomes visitors to the enclave in the middle of Kochi, the commercial capital of Kerala state, are buildings of two and three floors, paint-ed with attractive colors, that were once one-room, cramped tenements.
“The sisters faced stiff resistance in the beginning but people relented when they realized the sisters meant them good,” Anil Kumar, vice president of the Udaya Colony Residents Welfare Association, told Global Sisters Report.
Sister Anisha Arackal, who led the Sisters of the Destitute to turn the place into an upmarket residential area, recalls the slum’s notoriety.
Her congregation’s 1979 general chapter decided to help impoverished people and the marginalized on the peripheries, but it took 10 years for the first nuns to enter the Kochi slum. Sisters Redempta Alapp-at and Naveena Pulickal, the pioneers, started living in the slum in 1989, the year the congregation received pontifical status.
Alappat, 83, recalls reading an article in a magazine asking who will spread light in the enclave of darkness.
The rise of priestly vocations in Southeast Asia
An average of one priest ministering to 8,000 souls is a sad picture of the priestly vocation unable to cope with the growing population. The 2021 Catholic Directory of the Philippines counted more than 120 active bishops and 10,470 priests serving 85 million Catholics. It’s the same number of clergy as 10 years ago while the Catholic population has grown since then.
Recent international conferences about the clergy and religious vocation, particularly in the West, have identified the priest shortage as the most urgent problems facing the Church. Priestless parishes, empty altars and empty pews are sad realities in some parts of North America and Europe — a crisis caused by retiring senior clergy, added to those leaving the priesthood and the ever-decreasing sacerdotal vocation.
Sexual abuse scandals, coupled with the not-so-good examples set by bi-shops along the corridors of power in the Vatican and elsewhere, were not unlike a tsunami wiping out the Church’s credibility for more than decade or so until Pope Francis assumed the Chair of Peter in 2013 and began the radical reform of the Roman Curia.
Change has come and the Church in Asia is gradually overcoming the crisis of priestly vocations. In Bangladesh, Catholics saw 12 young men ordained as deacons in 2022. In this predominantly Muslim country with 500,000 Catholics or about 0.4% of the total population, the Church celebrates with the gift of new laborers in the vineyard of the Lord.
Anger in Islamic world after India prophet row
Muslims took to the streets in huge protests around Asia after Friday on June 10 prayers, sparked by remarks about the Prophet Mohammed by an Indian ruling party official that embroiled the country in a diplomatic storm.
Anger has engulfed the Islamic world since last week when a spokes-woman for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party commented on the relationship between the prophet and his youngest wife on a TV debate show.
Arunachal youth cycle for peace and environment
A group of young people from Tezu town in Arunachal Pradesh marked the World Bicycle Day by promoting the cause of peace and environment. The 10-memeber youth group, cycled from Krick and Bourry Memorial School in Tezu to Demwe in Lohit district and back, 20 kilo-meters, to campaign for peace in the world, and to spread awareness on the need to protect and preserve environment.