(João Vissesse. ACI Africa).
The situation of refugees and asylum seekers in Angola is better than before, the Director of the Jesuits Refugee Service (JRS) has said.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Angola is currently home to 55,764 refugees and asylum seekers. Of this number, 25,283 (46%) are refugees, and 30,279 (54%) are asylum seekers.
(Sina Hartert. ACN).
After new massacres in North-Kivu, Mgr Sikuli Paluku, Bishop of Butembo-Beni, in a message sent to ACN, denounces the atrocities committed by the ADF since the beginning of June 2024. The bishop insists that there cannot be a separation between faith and the defence of human dignity.
Following massacres by the rebel group known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the Baswagha-Madiwe group of villages in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which have cost the lives of some 150 people since the beginning of June, Mgr Melchisédech Sikuli Paluku, the Bishop of the Diocese of Butembo-Beni in North-Kivu, published a “message of denunciation, compassion and proclamation” on Tuesday 18 June 2024.
(Agnes Aineah. ACI Africa).
La famille est confrontée à la “crise la plus importante et la plus grave” dans le monde d’aujourd’hui, a déclaré le cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, qui a averti que les attaques contre la famille cherchaient à décimer la procréation.
Dans sa présentation lors d’une récente conversation en ligne sur le Synode sur la synodalité, le Cardinal Napier a observé que la famille souffre le plus lorsque des attaques sont menées contre l’institution du mariage.
(Françoise Niamien. Vatican News).
Un Conseil interreligieux pour la paix vient de voir le jour au Sénégal. Regroupant des représentants de l’Islam, de l’Église catholique, de l’Église protestante et des religions traditionnelles, il a pour mission d’anticiper les conflits, d’agir en faveur de la paix et de la cohésion sociale, de la réconciliation et du développement au Sénégal et en Afrique de l’Ouest.
(Silas Isenjia. ACI Africa).
Members of the Sisters’ Led Youth Empowerment Initiative (SLYI), a program of the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (AOSK), have belatedly marked World Environment Day 2024 by engaging young people in the country’s Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN) in activities that foster “environmental stewardship”.
The activities that included garbage collection and general cleaning at St. Charles Lwanga Vocational Training, Kibera on Friday, June 14 was done in partnership with Kenya’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Creative Economy and Catholic Technical and Vocational institutions, community promoters, and volunteers drawn from ADN.
(Jonah McKeown. ACI Africa).
For over a year, the people of Sudan — one of the largest countries in Africa — have suffered under a brutal civil war that has reduced the capital, Khartoum, to a war zone.
Amid the chaos and a complex set of competing political interests, children and the poor have been hit hardest.
Just last week, the United Nations confirmed that 35 children were among those killed in one of the war’s deadliest attacks to date. All told, at least 15,550 people have reportedly been killed in the fighting and some 10 million people have been displaced, many internally.
(Agnes Aineah. ACI Africa).
Catholic Bishops and religious communities in Africa have been urged to harness the potential of the diasporic communities in growing the continent.
Speaking during an online conversation that was organized by African theologians who seek to deepen the understanding of the Synthesis Report of the ongoing Synod on Synodality, Fr. Paulinus Odozor who teaches moral theology at the University of Notre Dame said Africa can benefit immensely from diaspora communities that he said already seem to be well organized.
(Stefano Fontana. La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana).
L’intervento sull’Intellgenza Artificiale è stato ricco di inutili tecnicismi e povero di fondamenti per le auspicate scelte etiche. Nessun riferimento a Dio e a Gesù, né alla legge naturale. Ma la persona, la morale e la politica non reggono senza Dio.
(Rédaction. Zenit).
” Depuis 30 ans, nous sommes dans un cycle de violence et dans un éternel recommencement. On sait quand la guerre commence, mais on ne sait pas quand elle va se terminer », déclare l’abbé Floribert Bashimbe, vicaire général de l’archidiocèse de Bukavu en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC) lors de sa visite au siège international de l’AED « Cela fait 30 ans que nous évangélisons dans la guerre, que nous essayons de donner ce message d’espérance aux gens : ‘Dieu a créé l’homme pour la vie, non pour la mort !’ Il ne faut pas baisser les bras.”
(Rédaction. Alliance VITA).
La Cour Européenne des Droits de l’Homme (CEDH) a jugé que la Hongrie ne contrevenait pas à la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme en interdisant le suicide assisté ou l’euthanasie, ainsi que l’assistance pour le faire dans un pays étranger.
(Luis Rivas. Ecclesia).
El papa Francisco firma el prólogo al libro Juegos de paz. El alma de las Olimpíadas y de las Paralimpíadas, a cargo de Vincenzo Parrinello, antiguo deportista y miembro del Comité Olímpico Italiano. En su reflexión, el Pontífice destaca que «en el momento histórico especialmente oscuro que vivimos», esta celebración deportiva a nivel mundial es «una oportunidad para la paz», cuyo lenguaje popular y común es «comprensible para todos» y «en todas las latitudes». Y recuerda que «la Carta Olímpica enuncia el principio de la centralidad de la persona en su dignidad y se compromete a contribuir a la construcción de un mundo mejor».
(L.M. Agenzia Fides).
“Viviamo una fase di nuovo slancio nel nostro apostolato” dice Juan Domingo-Beka Esono Ayang, Vescovo di Mongomo e Presidente della Conferenza Episcopale della Guinea Equatoriale, che ha concesso un’intervista all’Agenzia Fides.
(Silas Isenjia. ACI Africa).
The Synod on Synodality is a call to move from one model of the Church to another, Archbishop Dabula Mpako of South Africa’s Pretoria Archdiocese who participated in the first session of the ongoing synod has observed.
Speaking to Catholic communicators in a webinar last week, Archbishop Dabula Mpako shared that he had had “continued engagement and reflection on the Synod process” since the October 4-29 meeting in Rome last year.
(Anne Van Merris. Zenit).
Le Séminaire supérieur de théologie Saint-Paul de Kipalapala, en Tanzanie, se prépare activement aux célébrations de son centenaire. Créé en 1925, il accueille une augmentation continue de séminaristes. 290 actuellement y poursuivent leur formation, et viennent d’au moins 30 diocèses d’Afrique de l’Est.
(Silas Isenjia. ACI Africa).
Archdiocese of Gulu in Uganda has urged Christian men still practicing polygamy to emulate St. Matthias Mulumba, one of the Uganda Martyrs who denounced his polygamous life and embraced monogamy after he converted to Christianity.
(AP. Agence Fides).
Tabora (Agence Fides) – “Nous sommes reconnaissants à Dieu pour la croissance continue des vocations au Grand Séminaire Saint-Paul de Kipalapala, où environ 290 séminaristes poursuivent actuellement leurs études théologiques. Avec leurs formateurs, les enseignants et le personnel non enseignant, c’est un honneur pour nous de vivre cette année, alors que nous nous préparons à célébrer son centenaire”. Ce sont les mots que le Cardinal Protase Rugambwa, Archevêque de Tabora, a adressés à l’Agence Fides à l’occasion de la remise des diplômes à 40 séminaristes qui ont achevé leurs études théologiques et leur formation aux ordres sacrés.
(Wesley Omondi. CISA).
In light of the Child Protection Week, the Catholic Institute of Education (CIE) in South Africa has emphasized the importance of safeguarding and protecting children in educational settings.
Since 2012, CIE has supported Catholic schools in adopting and implementing a National Child Safeguarding Policy to ensure the safety of children. This policy, revised in 2018, emphasizes training schools to protect children, provide support when incidents of harm occur, and ensure legal reporting.
“CIE continues to be deeply concerned about the high levels of violence in South Africa and the impact this has not only on learners but teachers and communities as well,” the organization stated.
(Filipe d’Avillez and Amy Balog. ACN International).
The parish priest at St Francis Xavier’s Catholic Church, Owo, where over 40 worshippers were murdered during Pentecost Sunday in 2022, told the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that two years after the massacre, the suspects are in police custody but have not yet been brought before a court.
(Jude Atemanke. ACI Africa).
Catholic communicators in Africa have been urged to “work and protect the image of the Church” as they cover the ongoing Synod on Synodality.
Speaking during a Friday, June 7 webinar, Fr. Rafael Simbine Junior Secretary General of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) reminded communicators of their role to evangelize “amid forces seeking to destroy the Church”.
(Agnes Aineah. ACI Africa).
Catholic priests in West Africa who are meeting in Guinea-Bissau for their general assembly have been urged to propose ways to address ethnic and religious divisions in the region.
In his goodwill message to the 10th Conference of the Regional Union of West African Priests, Archbishop Edward Tamba Charles of Sierra Leone’s Archdiocese of Freetown expressed regret that many countries in West Africa are experiencing divisions on tribal lines and that some of these divisions are manifest in the Church.