World Church Press Conference

Bishop Fikremariam Hagos Tsalim and Father Mehereteab Stefanos were released after Christmas after being detained without trial in Eritrea for more than two months. The 52-year-old bishop is head of the Eritrean Catholic diocese of Segniti, where Father Stefanos is the diocesan priest. They were greeted by a crowd including Menghesteab Tesfamariam, Archbishop of Asmara, head of the Eritrean Catholic Church. Although the government did not give a reason for the arrest, observers believe Bishop Chalim was detained for criticizing the forced recruitment of youths in the Tigray war and the government’s confiscation of church-owned schools and clinics. The news comes as African Union and East African officials arrived in Tigray last week to launch a joint monitoring and verification mechanism for a peace deal signed in November to end a two-year war between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front . Eritrea is allied with Ethiopia. The agreement calls for the restoration of all services, adequate aid to people impoverished by the two-year war, the disarming of rebel groups and the withdrawal of foreign troops and other militias from the area. Ethiopian Airlines flights to Mekele have resumed to allow families to be reunited.

A federal bankruptcy judge has approved a $121.5 million restructuring plan for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, as it deals with economic damage from decades-old clergy abuse claims. In a statement, Archbishop John C. West thanked the group of abuse survivors who filed claims against the archdiocese on behalf of other survivors. He expressed his “deepest sorrow and remorse for those who have been sexually abused by clergymen” and said the archdiocese had safeguards in place to prevent future abuse. The terms of the settlement call for the creation of an “unprecedented” archive of public documents showing how widespread abuse occurred over decades. Bankruptcy proceedings are increasingly common, with some 30 Catholic dioceses and three religious groups filing for bankruptcy in the United States since 2004. Victims have been awarded compensation through bankruptcy court, but critics say that under U.S. bankruptcy law, plaintiffs negotiate a lump-sum settlement of abuse claims for all, providing greater protections for agencies that oversee employees or volunteers accused of abuse. However, others have suggested that seeking compensation through bankruptcy would allow victims to file their claims in private, avoiding reliving their trauma in open court.

The Pope has sanctioned the martyrs of the Catholic faith of a Polish farming family of nine who were summarily shot by the Gestapo 79 years later for sheltering Jews in their home. The honor of Jozef and Maria Ulm, betrayed by neighbors in March 1944, and their seven young children will include the first beatification of the unborn child.

Caritas Philippines and the Archdiocese of Ozamis in northern Mindanao are providing relief to victims of floods in Mindanao, where at least 50 people were killed and more than 80,000 displaced over Christmas. The city of Kinguguge in Misamis West and Misamis East provinces is in a “state of disaster” after heavy rains triggered floods and landslides. Archbishop of Ozamis, Martin Jumoad, appealed for prayer and practical help for those affected. The diocese provided shelter to more than 10,000 people whose homes were destroyed or damaged. Caritas distributed food packs, drinking water, hygiene kits and clothing.

A pro-democracy group that used to organize an annual vigil in Hong Kong to commemorate the Chinese Communist government’s 1989 Tiananmen crackdown is facing trial for alleged “foreign agents”. The trial against the now-defunct group began on December 22, with the appearance of three members of the Hong Kong Alliance for Patriotic Democratic Movements in Support of China. Under the National Security Law, which came into force in 2020, they are accused of failing to comply with a circular requesting information on standing committee members and staff dating back 30 years.

Japan’s Catholic bishops have asked Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to withdraw plans to increase military spending. The bishop’s justice and peace commission described the proposal to increase the state’s defense budget as “unconstitutional and dangerous”. A Dec. 21 statement said the decision “effectively abandons the traditional fundamental policy of being entirely defense-oriented under Article 9 of Japan’s constitution and marks a radical shift in Japan’s transformation into a military superpower”. The bishops criticized the government’s decision as undemocratic because it was made by decree bypassing parliament. In addition, it is planned to use civilian ports and airfields for military purposes, and to channel technological resources to produce new weapons.

On December 28, the day the Church commemorates the Holy Child, Catholics commemorate abandoned girl babies in India. “This is a serious crisis, a tragedy, the cry of a poor baby; real change is needed,” said Dr Pascole Carvalho, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. In the past three months, newborn babies have been found on the streets of Mumbai, trash bins in Delhi and down a well in Karnataka. Many foundlings are never found, some are picked up but not reported, and others are killed by animals.

The Archdiocese of Beijing opened all churches in Beijing on New Year’s Day, despite fears that the latest wave of the coronavirus sweeping the country will keep them closed. “All churches and places of worship in Beijing will reopen in an orderly manner from January 1, 2023,” the archdiocese said in a statement, adding that “mass and sacraments should be given priority”. It added that “Bishop Joseph Lee Shan began distributing from Sunday Mass to the elderly, the seriously ill and those infected with the coronavirus” and that “all health regulations are in place to protect the faithful”.

In a recent book, the country’s first cardinal and collaborator with the current saint, Archbishop Oscar Romero, focuses on his five years working in the Church of El Salvador and tells the story of his love for Romero. Mero and his own slanders, including one bishop saying in a note to the Vatican that ambassadors don’t even want to “give me a diocese.” “For 20 years, Romero has been misled about Romero,” he said. A Conversation with Cardinal Rosa Chavez Recorded interview, compiled into a book by Fr. Ariel Beramendi, a Bolivian priest who works as a Spanish-speaking communicator in the Vatican. Salvadoran Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez, 80, an auxiliary archbishop of San Salvador who retired last October, said he believed his account should be on record because of confusion and attempts to erase or offer different versions of it. What happened when it happened spoke of the conversion of St Romero, the assassination of him and Fr Rutilio Grande, and the role of the Catholic Church in the El Salvador peace agreements, the meetings of which he attended. Cardinal Chavez has described the past four decades as a time of persecution for members of the Catholic Church who stood up for the poor and stood up to injustice. He described the night of the “red martyrdom” of March 24, 1980, when San Romero was assassinated, and the saint’s “white martyrdom,” a campaign of smear within the Church against the future saint. After Romero was killed, he recalled, “I saw Archbishop Romero lying on a stretcher in purple priestly vestments, lifeless, with a calm face, but as I walked out into the street, I heard the city The sound of fireworks celebrating in affluent areas”.

Pelé, the world’s most successful footballer, whose full name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, died last week at the age of 82. Pele, a devout Catholic, met all three popes and declared “in fact, I consider myself a very lucky man in that I was able to meet Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.” He never met Pope Francis, but in 2014 gave him an autographed Brazilian national team jersey as a gift, which read: “To Pope Francis, with respect and admiration”. In 2009, Bailey told the Vatican newspaper roman observatory “God gave me the talent to play football”.

Pele spent most of his career at the Santos Stadium on Monday.Landmarks lit up in his honor include Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, tweeted that “few Brazilians have been named after our country like Pele.”

Christian leaders in the Holy Land have expressed concern about Israel’s new hardline government. Last week, Archbishop Pizabela, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, said a “veil of silence” had hung over deaths related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2022, at least 200 Palestinians, including more than 50 children, will be killed by Israel in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip. On December 31, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem condemned illegal Israeli attacks On December 27, an Israeli militant group seized its territory in Wadi Hilweh, south of Jerusalem’s Old City. “This militant group has no right or judicial support to enter or occupy this land,” the patriarchate said in a statement. It also condemned attacks carried out under the protection of Israeli armed police and border guards. The parish priest of Gaza’s only diocese has reported that Christmas celebrations have been marred by fears of an uncertain future. Fr Gabriel Romanelli reflects that escape attempts, especially by young people, are “an open wound” in “broken” Palestinian families, adding that “if Israel’s policy Without change, the community is “doomed to perish”.

Patriarch of Moscow and head of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill sends Christmas greetings to Pope Francis, Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Welby, Praeses Nikolaus Schneider, President of the German Council of Evangelical Churches and heads of other non-Orthodox Christian churches. “In addition to political and economic tribulations… modern society is suffering a profound moral crisis,” Patriarch Kirill said, “and that is why the Church should raise her voice and call people to follow Christ”. The news comes at the end of a year in which the Pope and other Christian leaders criticized the Patriarch Kirill for supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.