A Catholic delegation has hit out at being stopped at an airport in Eritrea and forced to return to Ethiopia.
“We condemn the gesture” said the Catholic Secretariat of Ethiopia on February 28, who claimed they were “illegally detained without reason”.
“We also express our solidarity with the Catholic Church in Eritrea, which lives in a very complex context.”
The delegation consisting of Cardinal Bérhaneyesus Demerew, Msgr Musie Ghebregiorghis and Abba Teshome Fikre left Addis Ababa for Asmara on February 22.
They were traveling to the jubilee of the Archbishop’s Church of Asmara, which celebrates 50 years and the annual feast of its patron Kidane Méhret.
Bishops told Nigerian Catholics to wear black on Ash Wednesday
The bishops of Nigeria told the nation’s Catholics to wear black on Ash Wednesday to protest the ongoing persecution of Christians in the country.
In a letter on February 26, Archbishop Augustine Obiora Akubeze said black clothing would be a show of mourning and solidarity with the victims of kidnappings and terror attacks by Boko Haram.
Mr Akubeze, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, also called for support from the international community in the fight for security and religious freedom.
“The number of killings is just mind boggling,” he said. “The government is certainly not doing enough.”
Kazakhstan priest rejects Mass ban after branding Pope a ‘heretic’
A retired archbishop in Poland has rejected a directive barring him from public appearances and vowed to go on denouncing “heresy and sectarianism”.
“Christ gave me authority through the Church to proclaim the truth, and I’ll do so as long as I live,” said retired Archbishop Jan Lenga, 69, on February 25.
Ukraine born Dr Lenga, who served in Kazakhstan, was ordered to stop preaching, celebrating Mass or speaking to the media, after he accused the Pope of “spreading untruths”.
The clergyman said he still recognised Pope Benedict XVI as Pope and dropped Pope Francis from his prayer intentions for “leading the world astray”.
Clergy in Philippines oppose construction of dam
Catholic bishops in the Philippines are being praised for their call to stop the construction of a dam that will reportedly displace hundreds of tribal people. The Catholic Bishops Conference, in a statement titled ‘I Look Up to the Mountains’, spoke out against building the €205.5m Kaliwa Dam project in Quezon province. “For the sake of the common good, we strong recommend that ecologically sustainable alternatives be carefully considered,” read their statement issued on February 26.
“The ongoing Kaliwa Dam project of the government, in the guise of providing water to Metro Manila, is to our mind against inclusive development.”
German Catholics resist bishops’ plans to ‘Protestantise’ Church
Prominent Catholics in Germany have publicly opposed the German bishops’ “synodal path” in a statement released last week.
The statement, titled ‘Call to Resistance Against the Synodal Path’, issued on February 26 condemns the German bishops on topics like celibacy, clerical authority and gender theory to name a few.
The representatives in the document claim the synodal path is pushing the Catholic Church in Germany “on the way to a division”.
“We oppose this synodal path. We remain Catholic,” wrote the signers in the document.
Among the 20 signatories were professors, pro-life activists and organisations like the Forum of German Catholics and Circle of Catholics.