Following the publication of an experts’ report on how sexual abuse was handled in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, the German Catholic news agency KNA spoke to Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors since its creation and president of the Institute of Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University. Father Zollner said, “Each one individually should take a concrete, perceptible and understandable position and signal that they understand. The lawyer (Marion) Westpfahl said some-thing that I also noticed in my discussions with theologians: Church representatives give the impression that they do not believe in the power of the sacra-ment of reconciliation – the confession – when they deal with the sins and failures of those in position of responsibility. Examination of conscience – in this case: the experts’ report – confession, repentance and an act of compensation: All these are, according to classic Catholic teaching, a condition for forgiveness. This is true for individuals, but also for dioceses and bishops’ conferences.”
The 50 Countries Where It’s Hardest to Follow Jesus in 2022
Afghanistan is the new No. 1, according to the 2022 World Watch List (WWL), the latest annual accounting from Open Doors of the top 50 countries where it is most dangerous and difficult to be a Christian.
“This year’s findings indicate seismic changes in the persecution landscape,” said David Curry, president of Open Doors USA.
Since Open Doors began its tally in 1992, North Korea has led the ranking. But since Afghanistan’s takeover by the Taliban last August, Afghan believers have had to leave their country or relocate internally. Many lost everything they had, notes the report, while house churches were closed in their wake. “Before the Taliban, it was not great, but it was good,” said one evacuated Afghan, requesting anonymity in hopes that he may one day return. “[Now] Christians are living in fear, in secret, totally underground.”
Overall, 360 million Christians live in nations with high levels of persecution or discrimination. That’s 1 in 7 Christians worldwide, including 1 in 5 believers in Africa, 2 in 5 in Asia, and 1 in 15 in Latin America.
Last year, for the first time in 29 years of tracking, all 50 nations scored high enough to register “very high” persecution levels on Open Doors’ 84-question matrix. This year, all 50 again qualified—as did 5 more nations that fell just outside the cut-off. overall, the top 10 nations only shuffled positions from last year. Somalia held steady at No. 3, as did Libya at No. 4, Eritrea at No. 6, and India at No. 10. Yemen rose two spots to No. 5, replacing Pakistan which fell three spots to No. 8. Iran fell one spot to No. 9, and Nigeria rose two spots to No. 7, completing the group.
Violations of religious freedom in Nigeria are tied to a rapidly growing Islamist presence in the African Sahel. Mali rose to No. 24 from No. 28, and Open Doors fears it may increase further next year. Burkina Faso held steady at No. 32, and Niger jumped to No. 33 from No. 54. Nearby, the Central African Republic (CAR) rose to No. 31 from No. 35.
“The epicenter of international jihadism is now [in] the Sahel area,” said Illia Djadi, Open Doors senior analyst for freedom of religion and belief for sub-Saharan Africa. “This terrorism is moving south … and predominantly Christian countries like Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast are now affected.” (None rank on the watch list.) Countries with Christian majorities rank relatively low in the top 50, and include Colombia (No. 30), Cuba (No. 37), Ethiopia (No. 38), the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DRC (No. 40), Mozambique (No. 41), Mexico (No. 43), and Cameroon (No. 44).
Of the top 50 nations:
11 have “extreme” levels of persecution and 39 have “very high” levels. Another five nations outside the top 50 also qualify as “very high”: Kenya, Sri Lanka, Comoros, United Arab Emirates, and Tanzania.
· 18 are in Africa (6 in North Africa), 29 are in Asia, 10 are in the Middle East, 4 are in Central Asia, and 3 are in Latin America.
· 34 have Islam as a main religion, 4 have Buddhism, 2 have Hinduism, 1 has atheism, 1 has agnosticism—and 10 have Christianity.
Dozens of Chinese warplanes fly near Taiwan after US-Japan show of naval might
Hong Kong (CNN) China sent 39 war-planes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on January 24, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said, the largest such incursion this year.
The flights by the People’s Liberation Army aircraft came a day after the United States and Japanese navies put on a massive show of force in the Philippine Sea, putting together a flotilla that included two US Navy aircraft carriers, two US amphibious assault ships and a Japanese helicopter destroyer, essentially a small aircraft carrier.
Two US guided-missile cruisers and five destroyers were also part of the exercise. The Philippine Sea is the area of the Pacific Ocean east of Taiwan, between the self-ruled island and the US territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. The Navy did not say how close the flotilla was to Taiwan.
Aircraft fly over a US-Japan naval flotilla that included two US aircraft carriers in the Philippine Sea on Saturday.
“Freedom at its finest! Nothing reaffirms our commitment to a #FreeandOpenIndo Pacific like 2 Carrier Strike Groups, 2 Amphibious Ready Groups sailing alongside our close friends from the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force,” Vice Adm. Karl Thomas, commander of the US 7th Fleet based in Japan, said in a tweet.
A US Navy statement said the mass of warships was “conducting training to preserve and protect a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”
Taiwan’s President: Threat from China is growing every day (October, 2021) 07:32
Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the defeated Nationalists retreated to the island at the end of the Chinese civil war more than 70 years ago.
But China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) views the self-ruled island as part of its territory — despite having never controlled it.
Bangladeshis of all creeds welcome Holy Cross school
A missionary-run school and college in Rajshahi city launched more than 30 years after the establishment of the Catholic diocese is committed to imparting human values as well as offering a solid academic education to Bangladeshi students.
Holy Cross Brothers, well known for their education apostolate, officially started their new ministry in Rajshahi on Jan. 18 with the aim of providing an inclusive education, welcoming new students at Holy Cross School and College in Rajsha-hi Diocese.
The educational institution started its journey with 106 students as the first Catholic missionary-run school and college in Rajshahi metropolitan city. Initially, it is admitting stu-dents at nursery, kindergarten, first, third, fourth and sixth gra-des but it will be gradually up-graded to 12th grade.
“Our first consideration is to ensure that pupils can learn in an open and student-friendly envi-ronment so that they can learn values. We want students to be 100% free from private depend-ence and attend class 100%,” said Brother Placid Rebeiro, principal of the institute.
“Students can learn leader-ship through humanitarian, moral development and extracurricular activities. In a word, we want to ensure an environment in which a fully fledged human child grows up, and we are committed to that.”
Laotian Catholics honour first lay martyr with new church
Catholic faithful in Laos joined clergy and religious to celebrate the dedication of a new church to the first layman from the ethnic Hmong community who was martyred for his faith six decades ago.
The church was dedicated to Blessed Paul Thoj Xyooj at Ban Nam Gnam village in Thulakhom district of Vientiane province, reported Fides new agency.
Born in 1941, Paul Thoj Xyooj was a Laotian teacher and catechist. He was killed by com-munist guerrillas in 1960 along with Italian Oblate missionary Father Mario Borzaga.
Pope Francis proclaimed them martyrs in 2015. Both were beatified on Dec. 11, 2016, along with 15 other martyrs by the pope’s special envoy, Oblate Cardinal Orlando Quevedo, archbishop of Cotabato in the Philippines, in Laotian capital Vientiane.
According to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) congre-gation, communist forces killed 17 Catholics between 1954 and 1970: a young Laotian priest, five priests of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP), six OMI priests (an Italian and five French) and five Laotian laymen.
Italian Oblate Father Angelo Pelis, who served in Laos for years as a missionary, told Fides that consecration of the new church was presided over by Cardinal Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, apostolic vicar of Vientiane. Catholic priests and Laotian Catholics also attended the ceremony.
Vietnam Catholics rush to feed poor during Tet festival
Catholics in Vietnam are speeding up provision of basic food to allow people badly affected by Covid-19 to celebrate the coming Lunar New Year holiday. On Jan. 19, Caritas workers and parish council members from the parishes of Nhan Hoa and Xom Moi provided gifts for some 400 families whose members had died or lost jobs because of the pandemic, disabled people and street vendors regardless of their backgrounds. They were given money, rice, cooking oil, fish sauce, sugar, cakes and other items worth 1 million dong (US$45). Those people could not afford to get food for the five-day traditional festival starting Feb. 1.
“We are really appreciative of the generous gift from local Catholics who sympathize with our family,” Mary Vu Thi Loi said, adding that all her family members had suffered Covid-19 and her daughter had been left with partial paralysis.
Singapore Catholic charged with sexual abuse of teenagers
A court in Singapore has charged a former Catholic officer of a church-run school with committing unlawful sexual acts with at least two teenage boys more than a decade ago.
District Judge Terence Tay at the State Courts of Singapore accepted the charges on Jan. 10 but issued a ban against media revealing the identity of the accused, victims and the school involved, local media reports said. Court documents showed that the accused in his 60s had unnatural sex with a boy aged 14-16 some time between 2005 and 2006. He also committed the same act some time between April 2007 and December 2007 with a younger boy aged 14-15.
The accused faces two charges of carnal intercourse against the order of nature under Singapore’s Penal Code. He was also charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a child or young person under the Children and Young Persons Act.
Under Singaporean Penal Code, a person convicted of each count of carnal intercourse against nature can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.
Myanmar bishops appeal for humanitarian assistance
The Catholic Bishops’ Con-ference of Myanmar has issued a statement last week calling for humanitarian assistance to thousands of people who have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in the country.
In a letter of appeal released on January 14, the Church leaders called on “all concerned” to facilitate “humanitarian access to suffering and internally displaced people.”
“Human dignity and the right to life can never be compromised,” the Church leaders said in the letter following their general assembly in Yangon last week.
The bishops also called for “respect for life, respect for the sanctity of sanctuary in places of worship, hospitals, and schools.”
The letter also expressed their appreciation to priests, nuns, and catechists who continue to take care of the people “in their flight from dangers of life.”
The bishops called on all Church workers, especially priests, religious men and women, and catechists, to continue the “mission of love and sacrifice for the people irrespective of the faith, race, and place.”
Covid kills Jesuit canonist
Jesuit canonist and lawyer and a former professor in Delhi’s Vidyajyoti theologate died of Covid-19 January 26 in Dindigul town in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was 69. Fr. Jeyaseelan Thomas Barnabas suffered a massive heart attack and died at 7:30 am as he was taken to a hospital for Covid-19 treatment. He had fever and cold for the past few days and was tested Covid positive.
Syro-Malabar Church elevates two auxiliary bishops
The Syro-Malabar Church on January 15 appointed new prelates for its Tellicherry archdiocese and Palghat diocese.
The Oriental Catholic Church’s bishops’ synod promoted, with the papal approval, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Pamplany of Tellicherry as the archdiocese’s new prelate. He replaces Archbishop George Njaralakatt, who has retired.
Similarly, the synod has appointed Palghat Auxiliary Bishop Peter Kochu-purackal as the diocese’s new bishop. He replaces Bishop Jacob Manathodath, who too has retired.