Author: Catholic Radar An

Kenyan bishops condemn killing of anti-tax protesters

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(Crux. Ngala Killian Chimtom).

Catholic bishops in Kenya have expressed disgust at the heavy-handed response of the police to anti-tax protesters that has resulted in several deaths. The Kenyan parliament on Tuesday voted for the controversial 2024/25 Finance Bill that sparked nationwide protests. The proposed law raises taxes on essential items like bread, vegetable oil, and sugar, raises an eco-levy that would apply to most manufactured goods (including items like sanitary towels and diapers), increases banking charges, and imposes higher annual charges on car owners. The tax bill seeks to raise an additional $2.7 billion in taxes, in order to decrease the country’s budget deficit without incurring additional debts.

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Cardinal Pizzaballa: We stand by those working for good in this dark night

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(Vatican News. Andrea Tornielli).

“The moment is very painful, we are living through a very long night. But we also know that nights end. It is the time when the Church must work with all those who are willing to do something beautiful and good for everyone…”. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, passing through Rome, spoke to Vatican Media about the situation in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. What is the situation these days in Israel and especially in Gaza? The situation has not changed much compared to the recent past of these last months, with ups and downs. Gaza is now divided between the north and the south, Rafah, and the city of Gaza. There was a period when more humanitarian aid, especially in the north, was coming in. Now it has become a bit complicated again. Meat, for example, is missing. Water is problematic, and let’s say that, in general, the situation remains very deteriorated and it is very difficult to see ways out. It doesn’t seem to me that negotiations are leading to anything and that there is a real desire on the part of the parties to reach a conclusion. And this is what is perceived, also keeping in mind the Lebanon front which is heating up more and more. The prospects are not very encouraging.

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A statement the US bishops should issue – but likely won’t

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(National Catholic Reporter. Mark Rondeau).

It’s time for the Catholic bishops of the United States to begin regaining their lost credibility by taking a courageous stand for democracy before the 2024 election. As former NCR editor Tom Roberts writes in the March 29 issue, “Here in the US, Catholicism is for sale.” The bishops have ceded their teaching authority to a host of well-funded right-wing political groups who have embraced the “Catholic” brand to advance their economic and partisan goals. “Mirroring the civic reality of the moment, extremists have taken over much of the public square in the name of Catholicism,” Roberts writes. “They preach a crimped and narrow church, one that is retributive and rule-bound, willing to contort teachings and tradition in the interest of money and political power.” Let’s take a step back. The bishops last fall again issued their quadrennial election guide, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” The document closely follows those that have gone before, especially since the guide was last approved in 2015. Abortion remains the bishops “preeminent” concern, though this was not always the case in these documents. Democracy is mentioned once in the text, in passing.

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Rising Anti-Semitism in the Anglosphere

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(First Thinks. Melisa Langsam Braunstein).

Growing up Jewish in 1980s New York, I started learning about the Holocaust in kindergarten. But along with those loaded lessons came constant reassurances from Jewish day school teachers and communal leaders that it would happen “never again.” With the help of the global community, it seemed Jews had finally triumphed over the repeated horrors of Jewish history. That was a comforting message for children. Now, though, it looks like wishful thinking. History will likely frame the early twenty-first century as a hinge moment. After the Holocaust, overt anti-Semitism was stigmatized by democratic societies worldwide. Jews were optimistic that this represented a permanent, positive change. However, October 7 and its aftermath have proven otherwise. For global Jewry, this means confronting ugly truths, like the durability of Jew-hatred. But reality is quickly shifting around our non-Jewish neighbors, too.

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Disability shouldn’t be a ‘boutique interest’ for the Church, experts say

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(Crux. Elise An Allen). ç

Experts who participated in a recent conference on Safeguarding and Disability have said that a broader inclusion and recognition of the belonging of disabled individuals in church life would make abuse prevention easier and is something all faithful must work towards. Speaking to Crux, Anne Masters, who holds a doctorate in disability theology and who gave a presentation during the conference, said “what was interesting was, by bringing in folks with the experience on disability and practice and theology, it opened their eyes.”

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Another 400,000 people left Germany’s Catholic Church last year, but the pace slowed from 2022

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(AP News).

Another 400,000 people formally left the Catholic Church in Germany last year, though the number was down from a record set in 2022 as church leaders struggle to put a long-running scandal over abuse by clergy behind them and tackle calls for reform, official figures showed Thursday. The German Bishops’ Conference said that 402,694 people left the church in 2023. That was down from 522,821 the previous year, but still the second-highest figure so far. At the same time, 1,559 people joined the church and another 4,127 rejoined — in both cases, broadly similar to the numbers from 2022. In Germany, people who are formally members of a church pay a so-called church tax that helps finance it in addition to the regular taxes the rest of the population pays. If they register their departure with local authorities, they no longer have to pay that. There are some exemptions for low earners, jobless, retirees, students and others.

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With storms affecting Bangladeshis, Catholic nuns offer shelter, support

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(Global Sisters Report. Sumon Corraya).

After the severe cyclonic storm Remal made landfall in Bangladesh, May 26-27, more than a dozen people died, with the heavy rain and strong winds affecting about 3.7 million. During this natural disaster — as well as another severe storm that struck in April — the Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions Sisters arranged shelter and provided food in their school for people in the southern Bangladeshi village of Bagerhat, one of the areas most prone to such calamities. “For three days, my wife and I, along with our two children, took shelter at St. Joseph’s Primary School in Basabari, Bagerhat. The nuns and priests welcomed us warmly,” said Raton Banerjee, a 48-year-old cobbler and member of Our Lady of Fatima Church, Bagerhat. Like Banerjee, more than 400 Catholics took shelter in the nuns’ school in Bagerhat due to flash floods that affected their homes. The monthly income for people in this area is typically less than $100 USD.

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Belarus human rights group denounces detention of priest who posted Ukrainian flag on social medi

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(AP News).

The prominent Belarusian human rights group Viasna on Tuesday denounced an extension to the detention of a Roman Catholic priest who was jailed after displaying the Ukrainian flag in a social media post. Andrzej Jukhniewicz was arrested in early May and charged with conducting an unauthorized picket for displaying the flag. Belarus is a close ally of Russia and although it has not sent troops into Ukraine, it has hosted Russian troops and missiles that have been deployed in Ukraine.

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U.S. Theology Conferences This June Mark Turning Point on LGBTQ+ Issues—Here’s Why

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(New Ways Ministry. Brian Flanagan).

For many theologians, June, in addition to being Pride Month, is a month of conferences. As the academic year ends, we take trains, planes, and automobiles to the meetings of the College Theology Society (CTS), the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS), the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), and others. You can spot us in airports, dragging a carry-on full of books and muttering to ourselves about not getting enough work done, or on trains finishing our last PowerPoint slides for the meeting. Part of my work at New Ways Ministry has been connecting and supporting the work of fellow LGBTQ+ Catholic theologians, and this year’s conference season has felt like a watershed moment for our presence and our voice in the church and academy in the United States. Discussions of LGBTQ+ issues and gatherings of LGBTQ+ theologians have happened at such meetings before, including an important CTSA panel on the important perspectives of LGBTQ+ theologians of color in 2023, and the establishment of an LGBTQ+ caucus at CTS that same year.

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On Juneteenth, a noted DC Catholic church asks forgiveness for its racist past

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(National Catholic Reporter. Rhina Guidos).

Not far from a plaque marking it as a place where the nation’s first Catholic president worshiped, there’s now a less auspicious marker outside Holy Trinity Catholic Church, in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood, recalling its past in the dark history of the country. “Hundreds of Black parishioners left Holy Trinity,” one of its four painful paragraphs explains, “because of the ongoing segregation and discrimination they found here.” On June 19, a descendant of one of those families helped unveil the marker, which also asks for forgiveness “for these sins of racism and the pain they have caused.” “This truth is ugly and painful,” said Linda Gray, whose ancestors were among those who became part of Epiphany Catholic Church, the new parish Black families founded, also in Georgetown, after they left Trinity in the 1920s because of the racism they experienced there. “The truth hurts, it does, but the truth also has the power to heal.” On the steps of Trinity, Gray talked about how those who left did so “with no place to go,” but with the promise that God would help.

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Christians in Egypt embark on construction of churches as persecution ebbs

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(CNA. Oleg Shihskov).

Church projects that had been halted in Egypt when the northern African nation was dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood are being resumed as Christians in the country begin to enjoy some measure of freedom. According to Catholic pontifical and charity foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, Egypt’s Christians have more freedom of worship today than they did a few years ago, when the country was dominated by the radical Islamist group that ruled from 2012 until the beginning of July 2013. The patriarch of Alexandria, Archbishop Ibrahim Sidrak, told ACN that even though Christians in Egypt still experience different kinds of persecution, Coptic Catholics in the country — who number some 300,000 faithful — have seen it necessary to embark on the construction of churches to provide pastoral care to their members. “Now that the government has lifted the obstacles to building new churches, all the dioceses have building projects,” Sidrak said.

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Rupture by stealth?

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(The Catholic World Report. George Weigel).

According to a source well-positioned to know, one of the behind-the-scenes dramas of the present pontificate involved Pope Francis’s determination to amend the Catechism of the Catholic Church and declare capital punishment an intrinsically evil act: something that can never be countenanced. After a lengthy and bruising argument over whether that was doctrinally possible, a compromise was reached and CCC 2267 now declares the death penalty “inadmissible” – a strong term, but one with no technical theological or doctrinal meaning. Has the papal campaign against capital punishment now achieved its objective through the recent declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dignitas Infinita(Infinite Dignity)?

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Pope orders construction of solar farm for Vatican City State

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(Reuters. Yara Nardi).

Pope Francis, a vocal campaigner for action against climate change and on environmental protection, on Wednesday ordered the construction of a solar farm to cover the energy needs of the Vatican City State. The mini-state, based in Rome, hosts the headquarters of the global Catholic Church and comprises St Peter’s Basilica. It is the world’s smallest country, measuring just 0.44 square kilometres. Expressing his wishes in a Motu Proprio, a personal papal edict, the 87-year-old pontiff said the solar farm should be built outside Vatican walls, in Santa Maria Galeria in the northwestern outskirts of Rome.

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Nepalese spiritual leader ‘Buddha Boy’ convicted of sexual assault on minor

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(AP News. Binaj Gurbacharya).

A court in southern Nepal convicted a controversial spiritual leader known as “Buddha Boy” on charges of sexually assaulting a minor. Ram Bahadur Bamjan, who’s believed by some to be the reincarnation of the founder of Buddhism, was arrested by police in January on charges of sexual assault and suspicion of involvement in the disappearance of at least four of followers from his camps. A judge at the Sarlahi District Court on Monday found him guilty of sexually assaulting an underage girl, and said sentencing will be on July 1. The charges related to the disappearances of his followers are still pending trial. He could face at least 12 years in jail, but can still appeal his conviction. Bamjan is believed by many Nepalese to be the reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, who was born in southwestern Nepal some 2,600 years ago and became revered as the Buddha. Buddhist scholars have been skeptical of Bamjan’s claims.

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Supreme Court Agrees to Hear SAFE Act Case

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(The Washington Stand. Joshua Arnold).

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to the 2023 Tennessee law protecting minors from gender transition procedures. After a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit struck down a preliminary injunction against Tennessee’s law in September, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation’s highest court has now agreed to hear the appeal in United States v. Skrmetti. “As a practical necessity, the Supreme Court needed to take up the case,” Family Action Council of Tennessee president David Fowler told The Washington Stand. The Supreme Court is more likely to consider a case on which the circuit courts are split — that is, where federal appellate courts have issued contradictory precedents over how to handle the constitutional questions at issue. Justice Neil Gorsuch recently noted “an apparent circuit split” on such laws. (Gorsuch noted this in a concurring opinion accompanying an unsigned order that granted Idaho an emergency stay, narrowing a preliminary injunction issued against its law protecting minors from gender transition procedures, in Labrador v. Poe.)

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El papa Francisco se reúne con el embajador ruso en el Vaticano

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(CN. Jonah McKeown).

El Papa Francisco se reunió el 22 de junio con Ivan Soltanovsky, embajador de Rusia ante la Santa Sede, en su primer encuentro desde que Soltanovsky presentó sus cartas diplomáticas al pontífice . Soltanovsky, un diplomático de carrera de 69 años, fue nombrado para su actual cargo en mayo de 2023. Aún no se han dado a conocer detalles de la reunión más reciente. Soltanovsky dijo a la agencia oficial de noticias Tass a principios de este mes que la Santa Sede sigue siendo uno de los pocos actores globales que favorecen la diplomacia, la paz y el diálogo basados en el respeto mutuo y la consideración de los intereses.

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Pope Francis meets with leaders of Institute of Christ the King, a Latin Mass group

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(Tyler Arnold. CNA).

Pope Francis on Monday met with three leaders of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP) — an institute whose priests celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass and live according to the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales.

The June 24 meeting comes at a time when celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass are restricted by the pontiff’s motu proprio Traditionis Custodes. 

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New media-training project empowers Kenya’s sisters to tell their own stories

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(Global Sisters Report. Doreen Ajiambo).

Dozens of religious sisters under the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (or AOSK) gathered on June 14 at the Radix Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, for the official launch of the Communication Network for Catholic Sisters. The project, CNCS, empowers sisters working in their ministries to tell their own stories through media such as print, broadcast and digital. Sponsored by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Catholic Sisters Initiative, the project organized a two-day workshop before the launch to train 13 sisters who are already involved in communication and media. After completing the program, they can also teach other sisters to tell their own stories as well. Sr. Jane Wakahiu of the Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi lauded the project, saying it’s important to religious sisters in their evangelization, especially in an age where media plays a vital role in shaping public opinion and influencing people’s lives.

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I’m a Notre Dame peace studies student. I was arrested calling for peace in Gaza

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(National Catholic Reporter. Joryán Hernández).

What does it mean to be a premier Catholic university? One that cultivates “a disciplined sensibility to the poverty, injustice, and oppression that burden the lives of so many” and aims “to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice”? One that contains one of the leading peace studies programs in the world? And what does it mean when that university refuses to discuss whether its investments support the killing of nearly 38,000 people in Gaza? To an unaware outsider, it may have appeared like a splendid picnic on the campus lawn. On May 2, several students hunched over laptops, class notes spread out on fuzzy blankets, everyone preparing for finals. To the side of the lawn, a custom-made banner depicted two women, with lettering below that read “Nahida & Samar Lawn,” in honor of a Catholic Palestinian mother and daughter killed in Gaza.

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