AP News

Female suicide bombers kill at least 18 in coordinated attack in Nigeria, authorities say

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(AP News).

Female suicide bombers targeted a wedding, a funeral and a hospital in coordinated attacks in northern Nigeria that killed at least 18 people, local authorities said Sunday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the the attacks in Borno state, which has been heavily affected by the insurgency launched in 2009 by Boko Haram. The extremist group previously has used women and girls in suicide bombings, prompting suspicions that some attackers come from the many thousands of people the militants have kidnapped over the years, including schoolchildren. The first suicide bomber detonated a device during a marriage celebration in the northeastern town of Gwoza, Barkindo Saidu, director-general of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, told reporters.

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Bulgaria’s Orthodox Church elects a new patriarch with pro-Russian views

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(AP News).

Bulgaria’s Orthodox Church on Sunday elected Daniil, a 52-year-old metropolitan considered to be pro-Russian, as its new leader in a vote that reflected the divisions in the church and wider society since Russia invaded Ukraine more than two years ago. Growing divisions between pro-Russian and anti-Russian factions within the senior clergy began after some of them attempted to warm relations with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople in 2019. Russian and most other Orthodox patriarchs refused to accept the designation that formalized a split with the Russian church.mUnlike his late predecessor, who in his last prayers criticized Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, Daniil has taken the side of the Moscow Patriarchy in its dispute with the Ecumenical Patriarch over the independence of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church.

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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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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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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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President Joe Biden ‘appalled’ by violence during pro-Palestinian protest at Los Angeles synagogue

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(AP News).

Opponents of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza staged a protest that evolved into brawling and one arrest outside a Los Angeles synagogue over the weekend in violence condemned by President Joe Biden and the city’s mayor, who called for more police patrols. Fighting between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and counterprotesters erupted Sunday outside the Adas Torah synagogue in the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood and police were called in to break it up. “I’m appalled by the scenes outside of Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles,” Biden said in post on social media site X. “Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American.” In a statement, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the violence was “abhorrent” and that blocking access to a place of worship was unacceptable. Bass said she asked the Los Angeles Police Department to provide additional patrols in Pico-Robertson and outside houses of worship citywide.

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Peace must be a priority, say Catholic leaders on anniversary of priests’ violent deaths in Mexico

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(AP. María Teresa Hernández).

Two years have passed since a leader of one of Mexico’s organized crime gangs stormed into a Catholic church in the remote Tarahumara mountains and fatally shot two Jesuit priests. Among many faith leaders nationwide, the pain unleashed on June 20, 2022 — when the Revs. Javier Campos Morales, 79, and Joaquín César Mora Salazar, 80, were murdered by a local gang leader — has not faded. Nor their quest for peace. “The murders of Fathers Javier and Joaquín has allowed us to redefine the pain that lives in the hearts of many corners of the country,” the Catholic bishops conference of Mexico said in a news release Thursday. “To build a shared movement that has peace as its horizon and the victims of violence as its starting point.” The bells at Jesuit churches and neighboring Catholic parishes tolled for the slain priests on Thursday afternoon. Later, dozens gathered at a church in Mexico City for a Mass in their honor. It was followed by the inauguration of a nearby mural depicting Campos and Mora called “Cerocahui Memory.”

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