Pope Francis tells Communion and Liberation leader: ‘Do not look at your navel’

(CNA. Jonah McKeown).

Pope Francis in an audience last week with the president of Communion and Liberation (CL) reportedly told the leader not to “look at your navel” but to share their movement with the whole Church.

Communion and Liberation is an ecclesial movement founded in the 1950s by Italian priest Father Luigi Giussani, a theologian and public intellectual. It received papal recognition in 1982 and today is present in 90 countries worldwide, with its members — clerical and lay — primarily focusing on community, culture, and Catholic education and faith formation. Its members meet weekly in small discussion groups that they call the “School of Community.”

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China jails woman for teaching Quran to Uyghur children

(UCANews reporter).

A Uyghur Muslim woman has been sentenced to an additional 14-year prison term for allegedly teaching the Quran to teenagers following a decade in jail, says a report.

Heyrinisa Memet was sentenced on June 11 for imparting religious instructions to the youths in 2014, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on June 18.

Memet had provided religious instructions to the children at the request of her neighbors, the director of security of Zulkum village in Kashgar prefecture, who wished to be unidentified over fears of reprisals, said.

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Breakthrough seems to be here – Years-long liturgical dispute likely to be settled

(Katholisch).

liturgical dispute that has lasted for years in the Syro-Malabar Church, which is linked to Rome, could now possibly be ended after concessions from both sides. “Subject to the approval of the Vatican, the conflict has been resolved,” an unnamed bishop told the Asian news portal “Ucanews” (Thursday). An official announcement will be made in a day or two. The compromise states that priests in the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly can continue to celebrate Mass as traditional, said the clergyman, who wished to remain anonymous. “But they must celebrate a uniform Mass in their parishes on Sundays, as approved by the Synod.”

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Mecca, oltre mille morti per il caldo: la minaccia del clima sull’Hajj

(asianews).

Più dei timori della guerra a Gaza e dei rischi legati alla calca nei luoghi santi, in passato fonte di incidenti mortali dal bilancio (a volte) pesantissimo, quest’anno il nemico numero uno per i fedeli alla Mecca per l’Hajj è il caldo. Un bilancio diffuso questa mattina dall’Afp, che tiene conto dei dati forniti dai rispettivi Paesi, finora sono morte oltre mille persone che stanno partecipando, in questi giorni, al pellegrinaggio maggiore ai luoghi santi dell’islam. Ad oggi Riyadh non ha fornito un numero ufficiale dei morti – con l’Egitto che paga il prezzo maggiore con 658 deceduti per afa e colpi di calore – ma sottolinea che la grande maggioranza (almeno 630) erano irregolari che non si erano registrati e non avrebbero titolo per partecipare. 

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Söding to absent bishops: Door to Synodal Committee is open

(Katholisch).

The Vice President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Thomas Söding, has appealed to the bishops of Eichstätt, Cologne, Regensburg and Passau to still take part in the Synodal Committee. “The door is still open, but they have to go through it,” said Söding on Monday in an interview with domradio.de . The absence of the four bishops creates an unpleasant situation. However, he hopes that through the “further constructive work of the Synodal Committee and through coordination with the World Synod” this gap in the Bishops’ Conference can ultimately be bridged.

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Analisi e commenti dei media libanesi sulla imminente visita del Cardinale Parolin

(Agenzia Fides).

Una visita dal profilo pastorale, in un Paese segnato da una stagnante crisi istituzionale e economica e minacciato dal crescente rischio di allargamento del conflitto che dilania il Medio Oriente. Sono questi i termini con cui i media libanesi hanno diffuso la notizia dell’imminente trasferta nel Paese dei Cedri del Cardinale Pietro Parolin Segretario di Stato di Sua Santità.

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Cardinal supports pro-Hindu coalition govt in southern Indian state

(UCA News Reporter).

Indian Cardinal Anthony Poola has pledged the Christian community’s support for the new government in southern Andhra Pradesh state that unseated a Christian-led government in the recently concluded polls.

N. Chandrababu Naidu was sworn in as state chief minister on June 12 for the fourth time. He heads a coalition government comprising his Telugu Desam Party (TDP), regional Jana Sena party, and the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In a letter to the new chief minister, Cardinal Poola assured “support of the Catholic Church and the Christian community” to make the state “inclusive and sustainable.” 

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Armenian Church leader, Pope Francis meet at Vatican

(Almudena Martínez-Bordiú. CNA).

For the first time in 10 years, Pope Francis met Wednesday with His Holiness Aram I, the leader of the Armenian Church of Cilicia with jurisdiction over some 800,000 Armenian Christians in Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, Iran, and Greece.

The meeting took place behind closed doors in the Holy Father’s personal office and the Vatican has not offered any further details. Pope Francis last met with Aram I at the Vatican in June 2014. On that occasion, the Holy Father thanked him for his commitment to achieving Christian unity and affirmed that the suffering of the Armenian martyrs must be venerated “like the wounds of the very body of Christ.”

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 Delegazione belga guidata dal Cardinale Jozef De Kesel in visita pastorale nella Cina continentale

(Agenzia Fides).

Continua la visita pastorale di una delegazione della Chiesa cattolica del Belgio in Cina continentale. La delegazione, composta da 5 membri, è guidata dal Cardinale Jozef De Kesel, Arcivescovo emerito di Malines-Bruxelles e Presidente della Fondazione Ferdinand Verbiest di Lovanio. Della delegazione fanno parte anche padre Charles Phukuta, Superiore generale della Congregazione del Cuore Immacolato di Maria (missionari di Scheut, CICM) e padre Jeroom Heyndrickx CICM, grande amico della Chiesa cattolica in Cina.

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Every third primary school student in Vienna is Muslim

(Kath).

Around a third of Viennese primary school students at public schools are Muslims, according to a survey by the Education Directorate.

Vienna (kath.net) One in three primary school students in Vienna is Muslim. This was the result of a survey by the Education Directorate at public primary schools, reported by OE24. This does not include the approximately ten percent of private schools.

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Cardinals Müller and Schönborn: Ordination of women is impossible

(CNA. AC Wimmer).

Shortly after Pope Francis opposed the possibility of an ordained female diaconate, two German-speaking cardinals publicly have said that only men can be ordained to the priesthood.

“Women cannot be called to this office,” Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller told Swiss portal kath.ch on June 7. “The priest represents Christ in his manhood.”

The German cardinal, who held the role of prefect of the Congregation — now Dicastery — for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017, stressed the theological and doctrinal underpinnings of this view, saying the prohibition of women from priestly ordination is deeply ingrained in the sacrament itself.

Müller, who taught dogmatic theology at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University, emphasized “the fundamental equality of all people in their personal relationship with God,” be they man or woman.

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Archbishop warns of religious freedom erosion in Australia, calls for ‘saints for our time’

(CNA. AC Wimmer).

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney has raised the alarm over Australia’s incremental erosion of religious freedom in health care, education, and broader society.

In a written interview with CNA, the Dominican friar described the situation as a “house of human rights built on sand,” calling on Catholics “to be serious about being saints for our time.”

Fisher, a member of several Vatican bodies, pointed to “lawfare” and “many more examples of legislative or policy moves in our federal and state governments that are hostile to religion.”

He warned of the consequences of legislative and bureaucratic actions, which, he argued, can shred the very fabric of religious liberty.

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Lo sciamanesimo fa presa sui giovani coreani, tramite i social media

(Agenzia Fides).

– In un paese noto nel mondo per il progresso tecnologico, lo sciamanesimo vive una rinascita tra le giovani generazioni, facilitato dai social media. Sebbene oltre la metà dei 51 milioni di abitanti del paese si dichiarino “non religiosi”, lo sciamanesimo resta in corea un riferimento religioso-spirituale piuttosto popolare. Come riferisce un rapporto dell’agenzia coreana Yonhap,  la 29enne sciamana Lee, nota come “Aegi Seonnyue” (“Piccolo angelo”), ha centinaia di migliaia di follower sui social media e, dal suo  santuario decorato con varie statue, divinità e candele, si connette con i clienti attraverso metodi moderni come i social media. Da quando ha aperto il suo canale YouTube nel 2019, riscuotendo successo e numerosi seguaci, molti altri sciamani coreani hanno pubblicato video spirituali online.

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Turchia, Corte costituzionale: espulsione di leader protestanti non viola libertà fede

(asianews).

 L’espulsione da parte delle autorità governative di leader protestanti e pastori a capo di Chiese sulla base di rapporti dei servizi segreti “non costituisce una violazione della libertà di religione”. È quanto ha stabilito la Corte costituzionale con una decisione a maggioranza presa nei giorni scorsi e che riapre più di un interrogativo sulla pratica del culto. Nel mirino la comunità protestante, con oltre 170 comunità sparse sul territorio e che, da anni, segnalano criticità e abusi: richieste negate, permessi di soggiorno revocati e deportazioni a forza sono solo alcuni esempi. Ciononostante, per i giudici governo e amministrazioni hanno agito secondo giustizia e non vi sarebbe stata alcuna “violazione” nel vietare l’ingresso o la permanenza a leader religiosi che, in risposta, hanno promosso una protesta ricorrendo in tribunale.

Il direttorato per la Gestione dell’immigrazione ha applicato il codice restrittivo N-82 contro protestanti già residenti che comporta una “autorizzazione preventiva” all’ingresso. L’applicazione della norma è stata presa per motivi di ordine pubblico, sicurezza o salute, in linea con i rapporti dell’Organizzazione nazionale di intelligence (Mit) che descrivevano “attività missionarie”. Revocati i permessi di soggiorno, emessi ordini di deportazione contro alcuni e quanti sono andati all’estero per le vacanze non hanno potuto rientrare in Turchia. I funzionari religiosi hanno quindi portato la questione davanti alla magistratura ma già in primo e secondo grado non erano emersi estremi per rilevare violazioni e le decisioni erano “conformi alla legge e alla procedura”. Secondo i giudici all’ingresso era possibile richiedere un permesso speciale o un visto adatto allo scopo. 

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Christians join global calls for repeal of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws

(UCAnews reporter).

Some 300 Christians marched on the legislature in Pakistan’s Punjab province at the weekend, joining global calls for the repeal of the country’s draconian blasphemy laws days after a specChristian lynching victim died in hospital.

During the protest on June 8 in Lahore, the provincial capital, the protesters condemned the government for failing to stop recurrent Muslim mob attacks based on false allegations of blasphemy.

The demonstrators placed lit candles on a table around a picture of Nazir Masih, the 74-year-old Christian who died on June 3 days after a Muslim mob attacked and injured him in  Punjab’s Sargodha district.

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Abuse investigation into German Franciscan Minorites presented

(Katholisch).

On Monday, the Franciscan Minorites were the first order in Germany to present an externally supervised, independent investigation into sexual violence . In it, two lawyers document and evaluate 152 pages of allegations against nine known members of the order since the 1960s. One brother describes assaults on 20 different people.

“One special feature was that a number of those affected had joined the order or had already been there, and there are still affected brothers,” say the authors Petra Ladenburger and Martina Lörsch. Many of those affected reported serious consequences, some of which still affect them today. Some of the accused brothers were charismatic personalities and highly respected. One had built up real “power enclaves” where he was “little or not at all controlled.”

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A 10 anni dall’inizio dell’occupazione jihadista, a Mosul sono tornate meno di 50 famiglie cristiane

(Agenzia Fides. Gianni Valente).

Mosul, 10 anni dopo. Era il 10 giugno del 2014 quando i miliziani jihadisti dello Stato Islamico riuscirono a fra sventolare le loro bandiere nere su tutta la seconda città irachena, mentre le truppe governative si ritiravano dalla metropoli.
Prima dell’arrivo dei jihadisti, a Mosul vivevano almeno 1200 famiglie cristiane.
Mosul è stata sottratta allo Stato Islamico dal 2017. Da allora, i cristiani fuggiti che hanno fatto stabile ritorno alle loro case sono pochissimi. “Sono circa 30-40 famiglie, spesso non complete. Molti sono anziani. Diverse famiglie vanno e vengono da altri posti, non rappresentano una presenza stabile e che si riesce a notare” conferma all’Agenzia Fides Paolo Thabit Mekko, Vescovo caldeo di Alqosh.
I giorni della conquista jihadista di Mosul vengono ricordati come l’inizio di un tempo pieno di traumi e dolore, che sembra aver mutato profondamente il profilo di una città un tempo descritta come luogo di convivenza tra diverse comunità di fede, compresa quella che viene riconosciuta come una delle più antiche comunità cristiane del mondo

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Indian bishops tell Modi to make his new term ‘inclusive’

(UCANews. Bijay Kumar Minj And Nirendra Dev).

Catholic bishops have appealed to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make his new term “inclusive” by treating all citizens equally and upholding the country’s constitutional values.

Modi was sworn in for another five-year term on June 9 after his pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with the help of allies, secured 293 seats in the Indian parliament.  

The coalition government was formed after the BJP, accused of following a Hindu-first policy, failed to win the required simple majority of 272 seats in the 543-seat Lok Sabha (lower house).

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Bishop Marek Marczak is the new Secretary General of the Polish Episcopal Conference

(Polish Episcopal Conference).

In the Polish Episcopal Conference, Bishop Marczak serves as a member of the Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith, a member of the Council for Youth Pastoral Care and a delegate of the Polish Bishops’ Conference for Academic Pastoral Care. As Secretary General, he is a member of the Presidium of the Polish Episcopate. The Secretary General of the Polish Episcopate is also an ex officio member of the Permanent Council and a member of the Council of the St. Foundation. Józefa KEP, a member of the Council of the Joy of Love Foundation and a member of the Mixed Commission of Bishops – Higher Superiors of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

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Vatican wants to propose new type of papal office

(Kath).

 The Vatican wants to present a document on Thursday that could have far-reaching consequences for relations between the Christian churches. The text was prepared by the Pope’s ecumenical authority, the Vatican press office announced.

The paper is entitled “The Bishop of Rome – Primacy and Synodality in the Ecumenical Discussions and the Responses to the Encyclical Ut Unum Sint”. It takes up an encyclical from 1995 by Pope John Paul II. The doctrinal text, which was groundbreaking for Christian unity at the time, had promised a new self-understanding and a different way of exercising the papal office, especially with regard to the churches of the East.

At the time, the Pope had invited the other Christian churches to seek, in a “brotherly, patient dialogue” with Rome, ways in which the papal office could be understood as a “service of mercy” to all churches. The Vatican’s ecumenical department then set up its own dialogue forums with several churches, which consulted for decades. The results are now available.

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