At least nine Catholic bishops have died from the coronavirus worldwide as the pandemic continues to spread across the Americas. Bishop Henrique Soares da Costa of Palmares, Brazil, became the latest bishop to die of COVID-19 on July 18. He died at the age of 57. Archbishop Emeritus Pedro Ercílio Simon of Passo Fundo died at the age of 78 on June 1 of COVID-19, and Archbishop Emeritus Aldo Pagotto of Paraiba, who was already suffering from cancer, died of respiratory failure on April 14 in an intensive care unit for coronavirus patients at the age of 70.
Sixty-six-year-old Bishop Eugenio Scarpellini of El Alto, Bolivia, died on July 15 after contracting the coronavirus. In the United States, Boston auxiliary Bishop Emilio Allue died on April 26 at the age of 85 of complications from COVID-19. At least two African bishops have died from the coronavirus. Bishop emeritus Gérard Mulumba Kalemba of Mweka, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, died on April 15 at the age of 82 in a clinic in Kinshasa.

Humanity’s cultural land- marks should be preserved for their value and function, and must “neither be misused nor altered” for personal purposes, said Noura Al Kaabi, the United Arab Emi-rates (UAE) Minister of Culture and Youth.

For Al Kaabi, the decision of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoðan to turn the Basilica of Saint Sophia, now a museum, into a mosque deeply “touches the human essence” because the Unesco heritage site has “exce-ptional international value” for “all peoples and cultures.”

The UAE’s reaction is one of the most critical in the Arab world. UAE leaders committed their country to the document on human brotherhood signed by Pope Francis and Grand Imam of al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyeb.

With respect to Saint Sophia, the UAE Minister for Culture slams the change in status, regardless of its historical and human value, noting how it served “as a bridge connecting different peoples and cementing their bonds.” Saint Sophia, she explained, “is a unique witness to the interaction between Asia and Europe across centuries. It is a symbol of dialogue.”

Nantes’ 600-year-old Gothic Church, the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, one of France’s most cherished landmarks, was intention-ally set ablaze by arsonists on July 18. During the conflagration, some 16th century stained glass windows were blown out and shattered, while a priceless 17th century church organ was entirely consumed in the inferno. Repairs to the structure will take several years. In the meantime, myriad questions have been reignited concerning religious persecution against France’s Christian and Jewish communities. A spate of thefts and vandalism in French churches has led to calls for the government to act.

France’s 475,000 Jews represent less than 1 percent of the country’s population. Yet …according to the French Interior Ministry, 51 percent of all racist attacks targeted Jews.

Anne-Elisabeth Moutet also noted, “Since the 1990s, as satellite Arab channels and later the internet, started spreading the anti-Semitic propaganda that’s the norm in the Middle East, the French State was slow in acknowledging the existence of a problem, and even slower in responding.”

Communist progressives, neo-Nazis and gilets jaunes can be violent. But most vicious of all are Islamist radicals who rage in their hatred for Jews and Israel. And as for Christians? ISIS has made its intentions clear: “The Christian community …will not have safety, even in your dreams, until you embrace Islam. We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women.”

The first Global Assembly for the Amazon closed with a final declaration which states that ecocide, ethnocide and terricide are worse than the Coronavirus.
The assembly was held on July 18-19 and was promoted by the Coordination of indigenous organizations of the Amazon Basin (Coica), the Pan-American Social Forum (Fospa) and the Pan-American Church Network (REPAM).

The event took place virtually because of the pandemic and included several countries: Ecua-dor, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Guyana, Vene-zuela, Brazil, French Guiana and Suriname. “Ecocide, ethnocide and terricide” are “worse than the virus,” because they carry “a colonial and capitalist system which does not understand life care.” “There is no more time,” the document continues, “we must unite in the diversity of peoples’ knowledge and in the culture of care.” “Amazonize yourselves,” is, therefore, the invitation of the assembly: “Now or never.”

The Pontifical Academy for Life released a paper on the eff-ects of the pandemic. Titled Hu-mana Communitas in the age of pandemic: untimely meditations on life’s rebirth, it starts from the realisation that human “fragility” has been made worse by the pandemic.

The document notes that “all of us may succumb to the wounds of disease, the killing of wars, the overwhelming threats of disasters.” However, there are “very specific ethical and poli-tical responsibilities toward the vulnerability of individuals who are at greater risk for their health, their life, their dignity.”

For the Academy, this calls for a “conversion” towards a sense of responsibility and inter-national solidarity, regardless of borders and political systems. specifically, “COVID-19 is the most recent manifestation of globalization,” and sparing no one, it “has made us all equally vulnerable, all equally exposed. Such a realization has come at a high cost.”

The “lesson of fragility” touches everyone, especially hospital patients, prison inmates, and refugees. “COVID-19 is not just the result of natural occu-rrences. What happens in nature is already the result of a complex intermediation with the human world of economical choices and models of development.”

The pandemic “is the result, more than the cause, of financial greed, the self-indulgence of life styles defined by consumption indulgence and excess.”

The Vatican said on July 20 that in very exceptional circum-stances and with special permission, lay Catholics can be allowed to perform marriage rites.

In a document issued by the Holy See office for clergy, the Vatican said that could only happen if there are no priests or deacons available, the nation’s bishops sign off on the exception and the Holy See OKs it too.

The same document stresses that lay faithful can preach at liturgy services, but never can give homilies at Masses.

The Vatican document said that the local bishop, using his “prudent judgment,” may entrust to lay faithful in “exceptional circumstances” such duties including celebrating funeral rites, administering baptism, assisting at marriages – with the Holy See”s permission – and preaching in a church in case of need.

It noted that “where there is a lack of priests and deacons, the diocesan bishop can delegate lay persons to assist at marriages” after the nation’s bishops conference signs off on the decision and the Vatican gives its permission, too.

“Under no circumstances, however, may lay people give the homily during the celebration of the Eucharist,” said the Congregation for the Clergy.

The Holy Synod of the Ru-ssian Orthodox Church “expre-sses its profound regret over the decision of the state leader-ship of Turkey to revoke the museum status of Hagia Sophia and to give it to the Muslim community for public worship.” The Orthodox clergy of Mos-cow wrote in a statement approved after a session of the Synod, which took place between 16 and 17 July. The decision, reads the text, “was taken with no regard for the petitions and explicit position of the Primates and hierarchs of the Orthodox Local Churches, representatives of foreign states, numer-ous international non-governmental and human rights organisations, and clerics of various confe-ssions and religious traditions.”

This choice, it continues, “has hurt religious feelings of millions of Christians all over the world, which can cause disturbance of interfaith balance and impair mutual understand-ing between Christians and Muslims both in and beyond Turkey.” “The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America is inviting all Christians and people of goodwill to join in a Day of Mourning on July 24 for Hagia Sophia,” the US Conference of Catholic Bishops tweeted. “They have asked that every Church toll its bells, every flag be raised to half-mast and that the Akathist Hymn is chanted or the rosary recited in the evening.”

A Catholic bishop has deplored the world’s indifference to escalating extremist violence in northern Mozambique, where multiple churches have been burnt, people beheaded, young girls kidnapped, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the violence.

Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa of Mozam-bique’s Pemba diocese has been an outspoken advocate for the needs of the more than 200,000 people who have been displaced by the violent insurgency.

In June there were reports that insurgents had beheaded 15 people in a week. Yet the bishop said that the crisis in Mozambique has largely been met with “indifference” from the rest of the world.  “The world has no idea yet what is happening because of indifference,” Bishop Lisboa said in an interview with Portuguese media on June 21.

“We do not yet have the solidarity that there should be,” he told LUSA news agency.

During Holy Week this year insurgents perpetrated attacks on seven towns and villages in Cabo Delgado province, burning down a church on Good Friday, and killing 52 young people who refused to join the terrorist group, the bishop told Aid to the Church in Need. More than 1,000 people have been killed in attacks in northern Mozambique since 2017, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Some of these attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State, while others have been carried out by the homegrown Ahlu Sunna Wal extremist militant group, which has been kidnapping men and women.

Islamic law does not contain any legal objection to the possi-bility of building churches using money belonging to Muslims. This relevant observation, full of possible applications with respect to situations of potential sectarian conflict in many coun-tries with a Muslim majority, also deserves attention for the authoritativeness of the source: this is what Sheikh Shawki Ibra-him Abdel-Karim Allam, current Gran Mufti of Egypt, said during his speech on a television pro-gram conducted by the journalist Hamdi Rizk.

The Egyptian Grand Mufti, in his speech, indicated Egypt as the Country with a Muslim majo-rity where more public resources are used in the construction of Christian places of worship, indi-cating this figure as a manifesta-tion of strong national social cohesion. Shawki Allam (in the photo together with Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros) referred to the teachings of Mohammad who, even when he justifies military self-defense campaigns, commands not to destroy places of worship and not to kill monks. The Egyptian Grand Mufti also intervened on the reconversion of the ancient Hagia Sofia Basilica in Istanbul ordered by Turkish authorities. In this regard, Sheikh Shawki Allam said it was illegal to convert a church into a mosque, declaring that in the history of Egypt no Christian place of worship has been transformed into a Muslim place of worship.