Fides News - English

AFRICA/CHAD - First round of presidential elections completed

Tue, 07 May 2024 13:38:18 +0200

N'Djamena - The first round of presidential elections in Chad ended yesterday, May 6. This election was supposed to be the end of the provisional transitional regime installed after the death of President Idriss Déby Itno, who was killed by rebels on the front lines on April 20, 2021. His son, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, took power and became interim president.
The outgoing president was also one of the candidates in yesterday's elections, the results of which are due to be announced on May 21st. If none of the candidates meet the quorum to win in the first round, there will be a runoff election on June 22nd. The outgoing president's main challenger is Prime Minister Succès Masra, a former opposition figure who has joined the regime. Despite the opposition's call to boycott the election, the Archbishop of N'Djamena, Goetbé Edmond Djitangar, called on Chadians to go to the polls and "fulfill their civic duty with conscience and responsibility." "It is a civic act of great importance. We should therefore not give up exercising our right to freedom of expression at the ballot box under the pretext that everything has already been decided in advance," he stressed. "I reiterate our hope that citizens will express their opinions through a free election and a transparent announcement of the results," the archbishop said in a press release. "I ask all Catholic believers who are involved in any way in these elections to behave in an exemplary manner and to act as free citizens in the face of moral pressure, threats and corruption," said Archbishop Djitangar, who also called on the faithful on Sunday, May 5, to pray for the candidates in the presidential elections. "May the Lord give them the strength and courage to show a patriotism consistent with their ambitions. God Almighty bless Chad and all the people who work for the good of the country. May he encourage our leaders to speak and "Inspire deeds of peace and drive away from the hearts of Chadians any desire for violence." Meanwhile, on February 28, Yaya Dillo, opposition politician and leader of the Socialist Party Without Borders , was killed in an attack on his party's headquarters . The death of the main opponent was followed by a series of arrests and intimidation .

ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - Decline in birth rates: Catholic Church launches concrete initiatives and support for families

Tue, 07 May 2024 13:33:24 +0200

Seoul - The decline in birth rates is an issue of national importance and subject to public debate, and the issue also enjoys particular attention in the Korean Catholic community, because the faithful are deeply committed to the task of preserving human life since its conception. This results in a concrete commitment to support women who want to have a child and the families who care for the children, both at the family and school level. The Catholic Church in South Korea aims to spread a culture of respect for life from within, by making families with newborn children feel welcome and helping them through spiritual and material support. For example, the initiative of the so-called "Mass of the Crying Child" in Uijeongbu aroused sympathy and emotion, a celebration in which, having abandoned the traditional liturgical strictness, babies and small children are allowed to run around in an area of the church for a moment and their possible crying is not seen as a disturbance. In addition to enabling young couples to attend Sunday mass, measures to support childcare and education are seen as a means of overcoming the low birth rate: in Catholic communities this extends to childcare services, in a welfare system that means help with school fees, family allowances and incentives for families with children. For example, since 2018, the diocese of Cheongju has been providing a subsidy for the birth of every child, while a monthly Mass in defense of life is celebrated for parishioners, with special attention given to pregnant women. The Archdiocese of Gwangju offers the faithful maternity allowance and a monthly child benefit for every child under 20. In addition, 50 percent of the total school and university fees that every Catholic family pays for school and university is financed as educational subsidies. The Diocese of Suwon also provides a subsidy to families with children studying, and the dioceses of Incheon and Andong also provide subsidies for school fees, while in Daejeon and Jeonju, families with children under 18 receive a child allowance.
Father Park Eun-ho, dean of the Graduate School of Life at the Catholic University of Korea, emphasized: "Since the low birth rate is also closely linked to the declining number of marriages, efforts are needed to raise awareness among young people to convey the meaning of marriage and family. This is the fundamental direction in which the Church should work". The Auxiliary Bishop of Suwon and Chairman of the Bioethics Commission of the South Korean Bishops' Conference, John Moon Hee-jong, spoke in a message for the "Sunday of Life" on May 5th of the "common responsibility of the community for the birth of a child, for the upbringing a child and for the care of the elderly". Bishop Moon said: "Giving birth, raising children and caring for the elderly are not painful and meaningless actions. Caring for these people belongs to the family, to the economy, to society, to the entire community. The State and the church must share that ‘joy’ and see it as a shared responsibility," he said.
Regarding the phenomenon of declining birth rates, he also said: "There is no hope for a society that does not recognize the precious value of children." He pointed to difficult situations such as the "polarization of wealth", excessive child support costs, private education costs, rising property prices and inflation. In this regard, he recalled that "the family, born of love and unity between a man and a woman, is the cradle of life", quoting the saying: "It takes a village to raise a child" , and urged everyone to get involved and participate in the process of birth and growth. Finally, the bishop called for real help to couples with infertility problems and called on lawmakers to enact laws that always protect and promote unborn life.

AFRICA/UGANDA - Tensions in the Middle East: mass wine is becoming scarce

Tue, 07 May 2024 12:47:11 +0200

Kampala - The geopolitical tensions linked to the Gaza war also have unexpected consequences, such as the rationing of mass wine destined for Catholic churches in Uganda. According to Ugandan media reports, the company responsible for importing the wine from Spain announced that "due to the Middle-East wars, the ship’s usual passage through the Mediterranean and the Red Sea were suspended and cancelled. The ships have been diverted to take longer and safer routes through the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean which has caused a major crisis and delays of their arrival to Mombasa Port".
Father Asiku Alfred Tulu, head of J.W. Interservices Limited , the company established under the auspices of the Ugandan Episcopal Conference and responsible for importing the mass wine, added that "all of this has affected the arrival of mass wine which we had expected to be here at the beginning of April 2024. The information from our shippers indicates that wine will arrive in mid-May and we hope to clear it through Uganda customs by the end of the month of May".
Father Tulu apologizes for any inconveniences and asks priests to "regulate the use of wine as much as possible. In the meantime, we have limited stock of white mass wine, duly approved by the Uganda Episcopal Conference. Kindly note, it is also limited." Following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, Yemen's Houthi forces have threatened shipping in the Bab El Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea in support of the Palestinian formation. As a result, several shipping companies have decided to avoid the Suez Canal route and circumnavigate Africa, which increased the transport time and the cost of the goods transported.

ASIA/KUWAIT - The Coptic Catholic community in the Vicariate of Northern Arabia: “Simple people who work hard”

Tue, 07 May 2024 12:20:47 +0200

By Antonella Prenna

Kuwait City - The Coptic Catholic community in Kuwait, which belongs to the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia, has over 5,000 members. "Our community has more than a hundred families with 150 children. But for economic reasons, most of the Coptic Catholics are workers who have come to Kuwait without their families because it would entail enormous costs that are not affordable," said Father Yassa Ghobrial, at the head of the Coptic Catholic community in Kuwait, at a meeting at the Co-Cathedral of the Holy Family .

Participating in the long rites of the Coptic Catholic liturgy takes one back to the origins, to the first century AD. At Kuwait City Cathedral, Father Yassa's Coptic Catholic community has just celebrated Easter according to the Julian calendar . The hours of chanting, sung by everyone from the youngest children to adults, and the sprinkling of incense and holy water conveyed the intensity of every moment of the celebration. “I am very grateful to Bishop Aldo Berardi , our Vicar Apostolic for Northern Arabia, for all the support he gives to the entire community,” says Father Yassa. "Most Coptic Catholics here are very simple people who work hard and live a life of sacrifice to support their distant families. They often live with eight or ten people in a room and struggle every day for food, water and shelter.
The Church of the Holy Family is the only place where they can spend some time in a spirit of communion. Every year or two they return to their families to stay with them for a month or two."

The Coptic Catholic Church is a “sui iuris” Catholic Church of the Alexandrian Rite, bearing the title of Patriarch and in communion with the Church of Rome. The Christian community in Kuwait is largely composed of Asians from countries such as Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, as well as Arab Christians from Lebanon , Egypt , Jordan, Palestine and Syria . Maronite Christians, mostly Lebanese, also celebrate their services in the Catholic church in Kuwait City. A small group of Catholics come from Europe and America.

"In Egypt, of the 115 million inhabitants, there are more than a hundred million Muslims, around 13 million Orthodox Copts, 300,000 Protestant Copts and 300,000 Catholic Copts," explains the priest regarding the Church of origin. There are nine Coptic Catholic dioceses in Egypt. Among the Catholics in Egypt, after the Coptic Catholics, the most numerous are the Latin Rite Catholics, which also include groups of Sudanese refugees. In Maadi there is a Coptic Catholic seminary with 23 seminarians and many Catholic schools. In contrast, there are only a few Catholic hospitals. The Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria, Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak, sent Father Yassa to the Vicariate of Northern Arabia on August 15, 2022 to offer his service to the Coptic Catholic community at the Co-Cathedral of the Holy Family.

After his ordination on June 10, 2000, Father Ghobrial was assigned to the parish of the Cathedral of Divine Mercy in Upper Egypt, where he served as parish priest for 8 years. He then worked as a parish priest in the Church of the Virgin Mary, also in Upper Egypt, for ten years. After serving in Europe, first in Ireland and then in London, he returned to Egypt and served as parish priest at St. George's Church for a year and as parish priest at St. Theresa's Church for 5 years.

ASIA/CHINA - Marian Month in the port city of Changshu: Special initiative for young people

Mon, 06 May 2024 13:50:15 +0200

Changshu - "Young people of Christ, come and serve the Church!". Under this motto, the Changshugang Parish of the Diocese of Suzhou celebrated the day of the Marian Month dedicated to young people on Sunday, May 5th. Numerous boys and girls from the port city of Changshu joined the initiative and experienced a day of exchange that ended with a barbecue. Together with priests and religious sisters, the young people exchanged personal experiences with their faith and their lives as part of the initiative. Father Dai Xuefeng, the parish priest, encouraged the young laypeople to "take advantage of the opportunity to get closer to the Lord, accept God's love and dedicate themselves to the service of the Church." Young pastor Wang Zhihong spoke to his peers about the role of young people in today's society and the call to mission that challenges young Christians. In their reflections, the priests emphasized that the simplest and most direct way to bear witness to Jesus in the Chinese context is to share one's own experiences with other people and in this way also to integrate the church community into society to promote services for all. Since the beginning of May, the Changshu Catholic Community has launched an extensive program of initiatives and impulses to help all baptized Catholics experience gestures and opportunities for communal veneration of the Virgin Mary in the month dedicated to her, leaving the self-referential closure and participating in pilgrimages to Marian churches and shrines.

AFRICA/DR CONGO - International community remains silent: further atrocities in North Kivu

Mon, 06 May 2024 12:56:51 +0200

Kinshasa - At least 16 people were killed and 30 injured in a bomb attack on May 3 in two displaced persons camps in Lac Vert and Mugunga, near Goma, capital of North Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of the victims are women and children, according to a statement from the Southern African Development Community , which has its own military mission in the area. The government in Kinshasa blames the M23 movement and the armed forces of neighboring Rwanda for the bombing of the two refugee camps. The situation in North Kivu remains dramatic. According to the Civil Society Coordination Office in Bukavu, there are around 7 million displaced people in the neighboring province of South Kivu. "Women and girls suffer sexual violence in the displaced persons camps, malnutrition of children, pregnant women and nursing mothers is increasing," it says. "What amazes people here is the guilty silence of the international community, which is more concerned about what is happening in... Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, as if the life of a Congolese does not count," the statement, sent to Fides, continues. "Despite its strategic location and its integration into various regional structures, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo appears to be completely overwhelmed by events," said the Civil Society Coordination Office. The civil society organization also points out that there were other serious violations of humanitarian law before the May 3 massacre. On April 29, the central market in Minova was bombed while the Red Cross was distributing food and medicine to displaced people; on the same day another bomb fell in Bushishi, three kilometers from Minova, near a water source; On April 30, a bomb fell on the house of the director of the hospital in Minova. In this town alone there are 69 shelters for displaced people," reminds the Bukavu Civil Society, "who fled the atrocities of the M23 in the Masisi area and are now doubly affected, even though they have already been displaced". According to the Civil Society Coordination Office, the M23's goal is "to suffocate the towns of Goma by cutting off all food supplies from South Kivu. For this reason, boats on Lake Kivu are also bombed." The Civil Society Coordination of Bukavu therefore calls on the UN Security Council to appoint the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes against the civilian population in the region and to impose an embargo on the sale of arms to Rwanda and Uganda, which are accused of supporting the M23.

ASIA/INDONESIA - Visiting Catholic families: bearing witness to the beauty of consecrated life

Mon, 06 May 2024 12:49:05 +0200

Semarang - They want to proclaim the Gospel and bear witness to the beauty of a life entirely consecrated to the Lord: in this spirit, in some areas of Indonesia, members of the local clergy and religious men and women live a period of "live in ", i.e. they stay for a few days as guests at home in Catholic families and share a time there in which they show, especially to young people, the joy of their vocational choice of consecration.
Priests, religious and seminarians experience a more intense and profound dialogue with the laity, meet and make friends with local Catholics, says Francis Xavier Juli Pramana, a catechist and vocational school teacher in Solo, in the province of Central Java. The initiative aims to counteract the decline in vocations to the priesthood and religious life, which have traditionally flourished in Indonesia but have declined there in recent years. Sister Rustika of the Sisters of St. Francis says: "Our presence among local Catholics serves to introduce young people to consecrated life and to show them how consecrated people live their daily lives. The religious vocation is a special grace, that God grants, and this grace must be shared with children and young people and brought to them". In Solo, the families with the children, adolescents and young people also visited the local religious's residential homes as part of the initiative and thus also recognized their educational work in schools and orphanages. In anticipation of Pope Francis' visit next September, the Church in Indonesia is also addressing developments in the area of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. In the St. Peter Canisius Mertoyudan Minor Seminary in Magelang, Central Java, there are currently a total of 194 seminarians, reports Dean Fr. Mark Yumartana . At St. Paul's Major Seminary in Kentungan , the total number of candidates for priesthood is 68, explains dean Father Dwi Aryanto. Both seminaries belong to the Archdiocese of Semarang in Central Java and have always been a reference point in the country when it comes to understanding and evaluating trends in the field of priestly and religious vocations. Hundreds of Indonesian priests and dozens of Indonesian bishops are former students of these seminaries. Many will recall that even Pope Francis has acknowledged on several occasions that the Indonesian archipelago is a global source of religious vocations. In the last ten years, Indonesian orders and congregations have recorded a decline in vocations: compared to the 1980s, there are far fewer postulants and novices in the novitiates of women's and men's religious houses. The decline is worrying: "We have four novices, two postulants and two aspirants," notes Sister Theresianne, superior of the Daughters of Jesus and Mary, who worked as a missionary in the Netherlands for almost 12 years, while the Ursuline Sisters have the most novices , postulants and aspirants no longer come from Java, but from other islands, reports Sister Lita Hasanah, superior of the Indonesian Ursuline Order. An exception is the province of West Kalimantan in the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo: in 2021, at least 12 young women entered the congregation, says Sister Kresentia Yati of the Congregation of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Saint Anthony, while 10 girls became novices among the Korean Franciscan Sisterhood in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, and 24 have joined the Order of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God in the same province.
The initiative of sharing and exchange between consecrated women and families is appreciated in various dioceses and could be extended and proposed again in other places so that, in a path of mutual rapprochement, Indonesia can confirm itself as a "land of religious vocations".

AFRICA/NIGERIA - “Artificial intelligence should be made to service humanity and not replace humanity”

Mon, 06 May 2024 11:36:55 +0200

Abuja - "Artificial Intelligence systems are very good in themselves. They can help us do a lot, but if we do not care for them, they will take over humanity", says Paulinus Chukwuemeka Ezeokafor, Bishop of Awka, in his message for the 58th World Communications Day next Sunday, May 12th. On this occasion, the Diocese of Awka organized a week of reflection from 5 to 12 May on the Message of Pope Francis: "Artificial intelligence and wisdom of the heart: for truly human communication". "Artificial Intelligence should be made to service humanity and not control or replace humanity or make human beings redundant because if they take over, we are finished," warns Bishop Ezeokafor. The Bishop of Awka stressed that people should use modern and advanced technologies in such a way that they do not become objects of what they created. "It is sad that many of our youths use technology to perpetrate evil in society; they get involved in ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ or internet fraud or internet fraud", lamented Bishop Ezeokafor. Internet fraud gangs in Nigeria were until recently concentrated in the Lagos region. However, the phenomenon now appears to have spread to all major cities and universities in southern Nigeria. And it is not uncommon to see young men and women living luxurious lives thanks to internet fraud, so they can obviously make a good living from it. "Therefore, parents must give priority to the education and spiritual development of their children so that they can connect with God and control their impulses", concluded the Bishop.

AFRICA/KENYA - Appointment of coadjutor bishop of Isiolo

Mon, 06 May 2024 10:18:27 +0200

Vatican City - On May 4, the Holy Father appointed the Reverend Fr. Peter Munguti Makau, I.M.C., until now provincial superior of the Consolata Missionaries in Kenya and Uganda.
Msgr. Peter Munguti Makau, I.M.C., was born on 6 May 1975 in Nairobi, in the archdiocese of the same name. He began his religious formation as a Consolata Missionary in Nairobi at the Consolata Seminary where he carried out his postulate and completed his studies in philosophy. He carried out his novitiate in Sagana, Kenya, and gave his first vows on 6 August 1999. He completed his studies in theology in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, at the Institut Saint-Eugène de Mazenod and gave his perpetual vows on 5 December 2003.
He was ordained a priest on 20 November in the diocese of Machakos.
After ordination, he was awarded a diploma in canon law from the Universidad Monteávila in Caracas, Venezuela.
He has held the following offices: parish priest in Carapita, archdiocese of Caracas , and delegate superior for Venezuela for two mandates . Since 2019 he has served as provincial superior of the Consolata Missionaries in Kenya and Uganda.

ASIA - Franciscan Network for Peace and Integral Ecology: a synodal journey in the footsteps of ‘Laudato si'’

Sat, 04 May 2024 18:39:23 +0200

Manila - To place particular attention to peace and integral ecology in the various contexts of the Asian continent at the centre of pastoral and social action, according to the vision and spiritual perspective of Saint Francis of Assisi: with this aim, the "Franciscan Network for Peace and Integral Ecology in Asia" was created on the initiative of the Conferences of the Franciscan Friars Minor in Asia. A few days ago in Manila, the Provincials, Custodians and Presidents of the Foundations, together with the Secretaries for Formation, Missions and Evangelization and the staff of the Justice and Peace Commissions, met with the Minister General, Brother Massimo Fusarelli, and presented the initiative of a Franciscan Network for Peace in Asia: in the meetings of recent years, they said, awareness of the problems in Asia and Oceania has grown and it has been recognized that Franciscan commitment can be valuable and offer opportunities for evangelization in various societies. The religious present welcomed the project of the Franciscan Network for Peace in Asia and promoted it in concrete terms, enriching it and pointing out ways in which it can be put into practice: with the official approval, the process of articulating this network now begins.
There is a dynamic relationship between missionary activity and peacebuilding efforts in Asia and Oceania, said Brother Gregorio Lino Redoblado , Provincial in the Philippines: "As Franciscans, here in Asia, where there are evident cultural and religious differences, divisions, conflicts and violence due to economic inequality and environmental exploitation, we have the task of building peace and promoting reconciliation." The inspiration for the creation of the new network - which will help coordinate the work of the Franciscan communities in Asia in this area - comes from the impulses that Pope Francis has also addressed to the Franciscan religious family: the three documents "Evangelii gaudium" , "Laudato si'" and "Fratelli tutti" are a reference point to be "a truly fraternal presence among the various peoples of Asia". The horizon is that written in the first paragraph of Laudato si': "Our common home is also like a sister with whom we share life". In this sense, the network is also a synodal initiative, as it stresses the urgency of "a path of fraternity, love and trust", say the religious, which can expand and involve every man and woman of good will, according to a dynamic of synodality made up of "listening and discernment". The network will be able to provide advocacy and concrete interventions in all situations where peace is threatened, human rights are denied, the "common home" is violated, the poor are exploited or marginalized, and it will be able to benefit from the collaboration of international organizations such as the non-governmental organization "Franciscan International". In its creation, the Asian Network drew on the experience of already existing entities, such as the "Franciscan Network of the Mediterranean", known for its "Oikos" project, launched five years ago in Taranto , an ecologically and socially wounded city, with the specific aim of launching a path of integral ecology for the entire Mediterranean. The "Oikos" project involves universities, companies, monasteries, young people and cultural centers to make the Mediterranean truly a "common home". In the same spirit, the new network is now taking its first steps in the vast Asian continent.

EUROPE/FRANCE - A “small theology of mission” by Cardinal Aveline

Sat, 04 May 2024 18:30:11 +0200

By Marie-Lucile Kubacki*

We publish the contribution of the journalist Marie-Lucile Kubacki on the occasion of the presentation of the book "Il dialogo della salvezza. Piccola teologia della missione" by Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille. The volume, now published by the "Libreria Editrice Vaticana", is the Italian version of the French original "Dieu a tant aimé le monde - Petite théologie de la mission" and was presented in Rome on Thursday, 2 May in the conference room of the Community of Sant'Egidio in Rome.

Rome - When I began my journalistic career in France about fifteen years ago, the word "mission" was still somewhat taboo and difficult to use because it was suspected of being linked to a kind of justification for proselytism, sometimes with shadows linked to colonization, with the suspicion of a more or less hidden cultural imperialism and even with a kind of tacit criticism of the Second Vatican Council and its positions on dialogue with other religions. In fact, I have often been asked by readers about the purpose and meaning of mission. Why go to other countries, to other peoples, to other cultures? As I gradually met missionaries, I noticed that there was not one who did not ask the question "why", especially in the most distant countries. And this "why" was inseparable from a "how". Now this "why" is being asked more and more frequently in Europe too, and I was particularly interested in Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline's book, because it takes up this question.

I would like to start with the epilogue, the key that sheds light on the whole subject. To shed light on the dynamic that drives the missionary away from home, the Cardinal quotes the song by Belgian singer Jacques Brel "Quand on a que l'amour" - If one only has love - and interweaves it with the story of his sister Marie Jeanne, who, on her hospital bed, left these few words that summed up her whole life: "One only has to love". The reason for the mission is therefore, for the Christian and for the Church, the response to the call to imitate Christ, in the sense of imitating his love for the world, embodied in his plan of salvation for humanity, as Saint John, from whom the book takes its title in the French original, writes: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" .

But once this is recognized, the question of "how" immediately arises. Cardinal Aveline proposes three horizons for reflecting on the modalities of mission: "as a dialogue of salvation," "in the horizon of promise," and "in the dynamics of catholicity."

Before going into detail, I was struck by how much his theology of mission is rooted in experience, in the experience of his entire life. First of all, the fundamental experience, the wound of exile, of the uprooting of the "Pieds-noirs" from the land of Algeria. "They know from their own experience the suffering of every migration and feel first hand that love for their homeland can never be torn from a person's heart. They experienced the pain of not being accepted, the contempt for their origins, the incomprehension resulting from prejudice, the exclusion due to too many misunderstandings. But I can also show that fraternity between Jews, Christians and Muslims is possible, as when we lived together under the sun in Constantine, Oran or Algiers and little by little the threads of this cultural mix that shaped us were woven together by sharing kémias and mounas, before a perverse wind from elsewhere invaded the streets of our cities, instilling distrust, breaking friendships and distilling hatred. A poisonous wind that today unfortunately blows again on many shores of the Mediterranean."

This uprooting is followed by the hard experience of migration, made possible by the warmth of family and friends and the love of a new land. Pastoral and intellectual experiences also followed, which soon led him to focus on interreligious dialogue, through the creation and ten-year management of the “Institut de Science et de Théologie des Religions” in Marseille, a real crossroads of the theological and cultural ferment of the Mediterranean. Three fundamental crucibles that remind us that the missionary, even if called to move geographically, culturally and spiritually, must always be in touch with his history and that this history, when reread as in this case, is a source of living water from which one can draw a dynamic vision of missionary commitment.

The book begins with a reflection on mission as a dialogue of salvation. Comparing this definition with my own experience as a journalist, I have often encountered a certain tension in writing articles on this subject, between those who were afraid of the word dialogue because they saw in it a relativistic conception, and those who instead saw dialogue as a seductive method whose aim was to "convince" or mobilize people about values.

The Second Vatican Council's Declaration "Nostra Aetate" states: "The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She considers with sincere seriousness those ways of acting and living, those precepts and teachings which, although in some cases deviate from what she herself holds and teaches to be true, not infrequently reveal a ray of that truth which enlightens all men." But how should this text be understood? The cardinal starts from the testimony of the survivors of Tibhérine, Amédée and Jean-Pierre, a testimony of solidarity and friendship with their Muslim neighbours. Commitment: the word is important, because revelation in Hebrew means "word that is action". God wants to commit himself to man by making a covenant through dialogue, which is not only a means but a modality of this covenant. The missionary is in fact a man in constant dialogue; dialogue as a form of love for men, an experience of loving curiosity towards others and also of gratuitousness.

Some young Christian converts, catechumens or seekers of meaning, these so-called spiritual non-religious, in Europe or elsewhere, have sometimes confided to me that one of the obstacles to their journey to the Church was the fear of being rebuked. In some countries where Christianity is still little known, this fear is reinforced by a double ideological and political agenda of the Church, which is doubly called to this commandment of gratuitousness because it is part of her witness and she cannot give a counter-witness. The author warns: "The fact that freedom is both at the beginning and at the end of the human adventure saves us from succumbing to the temptation to reduce missionary action to a mechanical process, which would be equivalent to instrumentalizing the encounter: dialogue is much more than a condition of possibility for the proclamation that would be its goal. In fact, the offer of dialogue is already an implicit proclamation of the Good News of a Triune God, a God who is in himself a relationship, a relationship of love, and who reveals himself by offering each person a respectful closeness that opens the dialogue of salvation."

But however gratuitous this dialogue may be, it is not just any conversation. It is a question of entrusting the Gospel, which is the living Word. One can therefore ask what it means to entrust the Gospel. Here the cardinal quotes the Franciscan Eloi Leclerc: "To proclaim the Gospel to a person means to say to him: 'You too are loved by God in Christ'. It is not enough to say to him: you must be convinced. Nor is it enough to be convinced: we must behave towards this person in such a way that he feels and discovers something within himself that is saved." This sentence reminded me of a conversation about the mission with Sister Lucia Bortolomasi, the Superior General of the Consolata Missionary Sisters, who had quoted words that had inspired her: "If you make God vibrate in the heart of even one person, you will not have lived in vain."

The Church does not just offer or suggest, but is itself challenged by the encounter. Challenged not in a relativistic sense, but on the contrary, from the friction with the other arises the spark that calls for one's own conversion. Every missionary who comes into contact with non-Christians experiences being thrown back on his own questions and being driven to search more deeply for knowledge and faith. The Jesuit Michel de Certeau, whom the Cardinal quoted, expressed it well: "We discover God in the encounter that he brings about". By "we" he means the various partners in dialogue, because the conversion of the other goes hand in hand with that of the missionary himself. The encounter that the missionary brings about, that is, the encounter between people and God himself, is a mysterious equation with several unknowns.

Cardinal Aveline quotes at length the reflections of Joseph Ratzinger from 1971, set out in the book "The New People of God". The future Pope wrote at the time: "The way of God towards the peoples, which is fulfilled in mission, does not eliminate the promise of the way of the peoples to the salvation of God, who is the great light that shines before our eyes from the Old Testament; it only confirms it. For the salvation of the world is in the hand of God; it comes from the promise, not from the law. But it remains our duty to place ourselves humbly at the service of the promise, without wanting to be more than useless servants who do nothing more than what they must do."

These "useless servants" who are missionaries - and by this I mean Christians in general, not just religious - ask themselves, like Paul at the beginning of the Church, the question summed up by Cardinal Aveline: "Why proclaim the Gospel in a foreign land, to proclaim a message that even those close to us do not want to accept?" Paul, tormented by this question after the martyrdom of Stephen and the persecutions that followed, reports that he was praying in Jerusalem and received the words of the Spirit: "Go, for I am sending you far away to the Gentiles!". Likewise, today's missionaries, who ask themselves the question of why, can find the answer in Sacred Scripture, in following Christ and in the love of others that, as Dante wrote, moves the sun and the other stars. And in this motto there is a truly divine mystery, that of the action of the Spirit and of God's plan for every person.

And here we touch on a very interesting point for our Churches, which are concerned about the current de-Christianization of societies, about the fact that in some European countries the Church seems to be becoming a dying relic in the face of increasingly secularized politics and in the midst of other religions: the understanding of Catholicity in a minority situation. I like the definition of the "eucharistic leaven of unity" proposed by the Cardinal, which obviously recalls the imagery of leaven in dough. Catholicity not as a kind of tentacle with expansive aims, but as the promise of a God "who wants to reunite his scattered children and even the cosmos in a great mass over the world, as Teilhard de Chardin sings". Catholic means 'according to the whole'. Even if the disciples are only two or three gathered in his name, the whole of God is in their midst, not so that they are satisfied, but so that they do not shy away from revealing to people of all cultures, languages and religions that their deepest longing comes from the love of God for them, even before they know him. This is what the Church calls "catholicity".

A stimulating definition in the sense that it is a powerful antidote to the two dangers that threaten the Church in general and every Christian in particular: the pursuit of efficiency and what Bernanos meant when he wrote: "The demon of my heart is called 'à quoi bon'", which means 'what is the point' .

*Journalist, Rome correspondent for the weekly magazine "La Vie"

ASIA/SINGAPORE - Catholics prepare for Pope Francis' visit with faith and hope

Fri, 03 May 2024 13:22:21 +0200

Singapore - The presence of Pope Francis in Singapore - according to the announced program of the papal visit from September 11 to 13 - will be above all an experience of faith. It will be a moment "lived in the hope of reaffirming and revitalizing the faith among Singapore's Catholics," explains the Archbishop of Singapore, Cardinal William Goh. In a message to the Catholic community, the cardinal called on the faithful to pray together continually for the Pope's visit. “Let us pray as a community for the health and safety of the Holy Father; "Let us ask the Lord to grant us a truly meaningful and gracious visit," he wrote, hoping that the Pope's presence in Asia will bring "a renewal and strengthening of faith, a conversion of heart and a missionary spirit in the Catholic communities of Singapore". The Cardinal emphasizes: "It has been 38 years since the Vicar of Christ visited Singapore, when Pope John Paul II honored us with a visit on November 20, 1986. I hope that this visit of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, will bring new vigor to all Catholics in Singapore and unite them in faith and mission, especially in these difficult times." In order to give the faithful the opportunity to prepare spiritually for the encounter with Jesus through the visit of Pope Francis, the Archdiocese of Singapore recently launched the website www.popefrancis2024.sg, dedicated to the papal visit. The platform offers prayers, current information about the visit program and background information. The highlight of Pope Francis' visit is expected to be a Eucharistic celebration on September 12, 2024. The website also presents the theme chosen by the Archdiocese: "Unity, Hope and the Cross", illustrated by a logo that brings together these key elements of the faith with the colors yellow and red, the color of the flag of Singapore. "We pray that Pope Francis' visit to Singapore will unite our hearts and rekindle our faith in Jesus Christ, the Good News for the world," it said. The visit takes place ten years after the adoption of the pastoral plan drawn up by the Catholic Church in Singapore in 2014: At that time, Archbishop Goh emphasized in a gathering of around 750 representatives of parishes and church institutions that the church was faced with challenges such as the decline in religious practice, the indifference towards the sacred, the power of new technologies and the secularization of society. Today, around "half of all Catholics go to church regularly for Sunday mass,” and thanks to migrants, the churches are still full. Singapore's Catholic population, currently numbering approximately 395,000 people, is made up of people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In Singapore, liturgical celebrations are conducted primarily in English, but liturgies are also offered in Mandarin, Tamil and other Southeast Asian languages. In all churches in Singapore, the special prayer intention that will accompany the Pope's trip until September is heard in the Eucharistic celebrations: "For our Holy Father, Pope Francis, and for the universal Church, may the apostolic visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore inspire us to bring the joy of the Gospel to all peoples, to renew and strengthen our faith, to convert hearts, to promote unity and to bring hope to humanity".

AFRICA/NIGERIA - Appointment of bishop of Ahiara

Fri, 03 May 2024 12:40:46 +0200

Vatican City - The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Simeon Okezuo Nwobi, C.M.F., until now titular bishop of Rusgunie and auxiliary of the apostolic administrator sede vacante of Ahiara, as bishop of the diocese of Ahiara, Nigeria.
Bishop Simeon Okezuo Nwobi, C.M.F., was born on 25 March 1960 in Eziama Oparanadim Ekwereazu, in the diocese of Ahiara. After entering the Congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary , he carried out his studies in philosophy at the Claretian Institute of Philosophy Maryland, Nedeke, and subsequently in theology at the Bigard Memorial Seminary in Enugu. He gave his perpetual vows on 11 September 1988, and was ordained a priest on 21 July 1990 for his Congregation.
He was awarded a postgraduate diploma in public administration from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology in Enugu, a licentiate in missiology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and a master of public administration from the National Open University of Nigeria.
He has held the following offices: parish priest at Saint Anthony in Igbo-Ora , bursar at Claretian Theology, Enugu , director of the Department of Spirituality at the Claretian Institute of Philosophy Maryland, Nedeke , professor at the Bigard Memorial Seminary of Enugu , prefect of the Apostolate at the Claretian Provincial Curia of New Owerri , parish priest of Saint Paul in Nedeke , provincial of the East Province of Nigeria of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary .
He was appointed titular bishop of Rusgunie and auxiliary the apostolic administrator sede vacante of Ahiara, Nigeria, on 14 October 2023, receiving episcopal consecration the following 19 December.

AMERICA/DOMINICA - Appointment of bishop of Roseau

Fri, 03 May 2024 12:36:58 +0200

Vatican City - The Holy Father has appointed the Reverend Kendrick John Forbes, of the clergy of the metropolitan archdiocese of Nassau, Bahamas, until now vicar general, judicial vicar and parish priest of Saint Paul in Nassau, as bishop of Roseau, Dominica.
Msgr. Kendrick John Forbes was born on 20 August 1975 in Nassau, Bahamas, and was ordained a priest on 11 June 2002. He received his formation at Saint Meinrad College Seminary and School of Theology, Indiana, United States of America, obtaining a Master of Divinity and a master’s degree in theology. He was awarded a licentiate in canon law from the Catholic University of America.
He has held the following offices: assistant to the parish priest of the Cathedral , parish priest of the Holy Family parish, Nassau , judicial vicar , parish priest of Saint Paul the Apostle, Nassau , chairman of the Archdiocesan Review Board and vicar general of Nassau .

AFRICA/NIGER - Pay, convert or flee: the dilemma of Christian communities

Fri, 03 May 2024 12:22:34 +0200

by Mauro Armanino

Niamey - It happens about a hundred kilometers from the capital Niamey. They come with some motorcycles, armed, and offer to choose between the following options: either pay a tax of 50,000 CFA per male person aged 15 or over or convert to Islam. If both are rejected, the only thing left is to give the village and everything you own into their hands. They are described by locals as "bandits" and by observers as armed terrorist groups from the nebulous "jihadist" universe, which operate primarily in the 'Three Borders' area.

These are Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. All three countries are currently ruled by military regimes and have decided to merge into a new entity called the 'Alliance of Sahel States' . Since the kidnapping of Father Pierluigi Maccalli in 2018 , thelives of farmers in the border region with Burkina Faso have continued to deteriorate. Threats, kidnappings, targeted killings, abandoned and closed schools, intimidation and a climate of fear characterize the everyday life of the residents. The presence of the Nigerien military does nothing to stop these practices that have become established in the area. Complaints and cries for help seem to fall on deaf ears, or at least the rhetoric of the much-touted abolition of foreign military presence on Nigerien soil . All this does not deter the "bandits" or armed groups who, in the meantime, are occupying the country and, thanks to a scorched earth policy, are recruiting young people who are being driven into poverty with the promise of an easy income and a new social identity.

Since March last year, the demands have been the same from the village of Tiboandi to the villages of Kiloubiga, Torsé and Koutougou. Sometimes Christians are willing to pay and are often forced to flee to more sheltered places such as Makalondi and Torodi. The "bandits" give them a week to give an answer. It seems clear that if the "conversion" is refused, the only option left is to flee, since paying the requested sum this year means that it will be doubled next year. The mayor of the capital has been informed and the authorities are aware of the drama unfolding not far from the capital.

The impotence of the authorities, the inability, the difficulty in taking responsibility for the safety of the people and the occasional raids have not produced the hoped-for results.

Not only Christians are affected by the rackets of armed groups, but all residents of the Three Border area. They all have one characteristic in common. They are poor farmers who join the long list of "invisibles" who are neither economically nor geopolitically important. This last factor perhaps helps to better explain the reasons for the ongoing violence against civilians in this part of the Sahel.

AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - Funeral of the murdered Stigmatine missionary on May 11th: Confrere provides details of the crime

Fri, 03 May 2024 11:57:51 +0200

Johannesburg - "The funeral of Father Paul Tatu Mothobi will take place on May 11th at our mission in Pretoria," confirms Father Gianni Piccolboni to Fides on the death of the missionary from Lesotho of the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was murdered on April 27 in South Africa .
Father Piccolboni also provides further information about the circumstances under which his brother was murdered. "Father Paul had visited the sister of a diocesan priest in Pretoria, at his request. The woman was ill and the priest, a friend of Father Paul, had asked him if he could visit her to check on her health conditions", he reports. "When he arrived at the woman's house who knew Father Paul because they both worked for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Southern Africa , we don't know what happened next." "What is certain is that after murdering the woman, the murderers must have forced Father Paul into his car and drove several kilometers away from the crime scene, then made him stop on the side of the road and shot him in the back of the head.
It is suspected that "There were at least two murderers, because the one who killed him must necessarily have gotten into another vehicle, driven by an accomplice, to drive away from the scene of the second murder," said Fr. Piccolboni. According to Father Piccolboni, who lived in South Africa for 30 years and was himself the victim of a street robbery there, "it is difficult to imagine that the motive for the murder of Father Paul was robbery. Nothing was stolen from our brother, not even that car in which his body was found. The missionary adds that "the two murders were not initially linked, also because no one had reported Father Paul missing. In fact, in our mission, besides him, there were two other confreres who were abroad at the time. It was the police who discovered his body along the road from Cape Town via Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Polokwane to Beit Bridge, a border town with Zimbabwe." "There is another reason why the two murders were not initially linked: They occurred in two different jurisdictions. Two different police units investigated one case and the other. Only after a few days were the facts connected, also thanks to the testimony of the brother of the first victim," he concludes. A crime that is just as mysterious as that of Father William Banda of the St. Patrick's Society for Foreign Missions , who was shot dead on the morning of March 13th as he prepared to celebrate Holy Mass in the Tzaneen Cathedral . Like Father Paul Tatu, Father Banda also belonged to a religious community and originally came from another country .

EUROPE/UKRAINE - “Safeguarding”: Eastern European Churches and the protection of minors

Fri, 03 May 2024 11:44:05 +0200

Lviv - "We have been working on this course to show that the safety of children is a shared responsibility across borders and we have a common Eastern European context to understand", said Marta Titaniec, President of the St. Joseph Foundation of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, at the presentation of the international project "SAFEGUARDING. Child Safety in the Church Environment" on the safety of children in the church environment at the Ukrainian Catholic University of Lviv . The project carried out by the UCU Center for Child Dignity, presented in the second half of April, aims to promote the protection of minors in ecclesial environments. As part of the project, the exhibition “Recognize. Respond" will be shown at the Dzyga Art Center and a course will be put online aimed at religious and lay people involved in the education of minors. The course, which is free and available upon registration on the portal, was created by a team of experts representing several Eastern European churches and whose members come from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine. Among them is Ulyana Krekhovets, artist and iconographer, responsible for the artistic direction of the UCU Development Department and author of the visual component of the project, in which two colors stand out, as she herself said: green, the color of life, and orange, the color of security. The course, which consists of six videos of ten minutes each and working materials in PFD format, offers a comprehensive overview of the aspects of child protection: from the qualities that make an adult a good educator to the types of violence that can occur , to the profile of the perpetrator and the measures to be taken in the event of a violent incident. Presenting the project, Khrystyna Shabat, head of the UCU Center for the Dignity of the Child, said that the aim of the project was, above all, to talk about child protection "without preaching" but "in a way that would make people think about this problem and pay attention to it". And commenting on the exhibition on the theme, she added: " We wanted the project to sound universal and be understandable to everyone, so we chose the language of art, a language that has no borders and is understood by everyone". Ivanka Rudakevych, head of projects and programs at the UCU Center for the Dignity of the Child and co-author of the course, also spoke of the “therapeutic effect” of art: "The value of the project − she added − is that we have teamed up with experts from Eastern Europe and have a common voice and a similar context in addressing the problem of child abuse". In the near future, the organizers plan to present and implement the project in each of the participating countries. The origin of the Center for the Dignity of the Child at UCU dates back to the 2019 Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, where the issue of child protection was on the agenda. The center was founded in January 2021 and has since been used to train adults in learning the mechanisms for preventing child abuse and to raise awareness of organizations and institutions on this topic.

ASIA/CHINA - Solemn closing of the Year dedicated to the Catechism in Xiamen, looking towards the Jubilee

Fri, 03 May 2024 11:06:47 +0200

Xiamen – More than two thousand Catholic priests, religious and lay people took part in the solemn celebration of the closing of the Year of Catechism announced in the diocese of Xiamen. On Wednesday, May 1st, Labor Day, when the Church celebrates Saint Joseph the Craftsman, patron saint of workers, Mgr. Joseph Cai Bingrui invited all participants in the celebration to "persevere in the spirit of the Year of the Catechism, to promote the mission of proclaiming the Gospel and to respond to the call of the universal Church to intensify prayers and prepare to walk together towards the Jubilee of the year 2025". Before the mass, around the altar specially set up in the square in front of the church, many Catholics took part in a sort of question and answer quiz on the catechism, experienced as a final "check" of a year of catechetical training. In Xiamen, in the Chinese province of Fujian, the special year dedicated to Catechism was inaugurated by Bishop Joseph Cai Bingrui on May 1, 2023. On that day, as reported by Fides all the participants at the inaugural mass celebrated in the cathedral received as a gift a Chinese edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the great and rich official exposition of all Catholic catechesis and doctrine, collected under the supervision of the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and approved by John Paul II during the 1990s. Throughout the year, all parishes, priests, sisters and laity participated intensively in the program activities prepared by the diocesan commission for pastoral care and evangelization.

AFRICA/ETHIOPIA - Archbishop of Addis Ababa: "peace is the only way out of the problems for the Ethiopian people"

Thu, 02 May 2024 12:59:18 +0200

Addis Ababa - "Behold, the King of the world has risen, let us welcome him, honor and praise him as an instrument of peace for our country and our people in the light of his Resurrection". With these words Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, Metropolitan Archbishop of Addis Ababa, addresses the population in a message on the occasion of Easter, which will be celebrated in Ethiopia next Sunday, May 5th. The country follows the Julian calendar used by Orthodox Christians. In this context, Cardinal Souraphiel, who is also President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Ethiopia, also emphasizes that peace is the only way out of the problems of the Ethiopian people, who have been involved in ethnic conflicts for years . Referring to the words of the Apostle Matthew "Peace be with you" , the cardinal called on all believers to consider the cross as a source of peace. "The peace of the cross encompasses all values, the dignity of life, love, generosity, peace, justice and mercy," said the cardinal.
At the head of the Ethiopian Commission for Peace and Reconciliation, since 21 January 2019 for over two years, Cardinal Berhaneyesus called on people to pray for the peace in the country.

OCEANIA/KIRIBATI AND NAURU - Appointment of bishop of Tarawa and Nauru

Thu, 02 May 2024 12:45:43 +0200

Vatican City - The Holy Father has appointed the Reverend Father Simon Mani, M.S.C., until now rector of the Pacific Regional Seminary of Suva.
Msgr. Simone Mani, M.S.C., was born on 27 March 1969 in Labasa, on the island of Vanua Levu, Fiji. He studied philosophy at the Pacific Regional Seminary, for the religious congregation of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.
He gave his religious vows in 1991, and was ordained a priest on 30 November 1996.
He has held the following offices: deputy parish priest of Saint Agnes, Suva , teacher at the M.S.C. Professional Institute for disadvantaged youth – Chevalier Training Center , parish priest of Saint Agnes , M.S.C. provincial bursar for the Pacific , M.S.C. provincial superior , director of the Chevalier Training Center , and rector of the Pacific Regional Seminary of Suva .