By Catholic bishops around the world condemn the Iran war, a German cathedral defends its display of a 50-foot whale carcass in its sanctuary, and an Angola priest survives an attempt on his life.
Here is a roundup of Catholic world news you might have missed this week:
Catholic bishops’ conferences around the world call for end to Iran war
Catholic bishops in Europe and Asia are calling for de-escalation of the Iran war as the conflict broadens across the Middle East.
“No political leader has the authority to unleash war at will,” the Irish bishops said in a March 4 statement.
The Australian bishops’ conference said in a statement: “The loss of life and the fear and uncertainty experienced by ordinary people and the destabilization of an already fragile region weigh heavily on our hearts.”
The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences joined in, calling for “immediate cessation of hostilities and for all parties to exercise moral responsibility, resisting the spiral of escalation that leads only to deeper suffering and irreversible loss.”
The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) also released a letter assuring the people of Iran of the bishops’ spiritual solidarity and continued prayers, calling for “diplomacy to regain its central role and for the well-being of peoples seeking peaceful lives founded on justice to be safeguarded,” according to a report in ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa.
Indonesian court convicts 7 tribal men over death threats to priest
The Sikka District Court in Indonesia has sentenced seven members of the Goban Runut and Soge Natarmage communities to six months in prison for threatening to murder a Catholic priest.
The March 4 conviction comes after Father Aloysius Ndate said in March 2025 that he had been threatened by 15 men in December 2023 while he was serving as leader of a local mission station, according to a UCA News report on Thursday. The threats were made in relation to land dispute between tribal groups and the Diocese of Maumere.
Iraqi Christian woman arrested for sharing video related to Iran war
An Iraqi Christian woman, Rana Hikmat Korkis, 46, has been detained in Baghdad over a widely shared video that security officials described as “offensive” and potentially inflammatory.
According to ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, Korkis was detained on March 2 and transferred to al-Saadoun police station, but no detailed judicial statement has yet clarified the final charge. Rights groups and local voices are urging due process and protection of her legal rights, warning against online incitement and the spread of her personal information; one watchdog also alleged she faced mistreatment in custody and called on authorities to ensure her safety.
According to ACI MENA, Korkis appeared in the video clip scattering candy and expressing joy after the announcement of the killing of Iranian leader Ali Khamenei.
Sudan bishops call latest attacks ‘fresh descent into the abyss of human depravity’
Catholic bishops in Sudan and South Sudan have condemned the reported killing of at least 170 people in two separate incidents in South Sudan, ACI Africa reported Wednesday.
In a statement issued by members of the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference and shared with ACI Africa on March 4, the Church leaders described the attacks as a “fresh descent into the abyss of human depravity” and called for urgent action to end cycles of violence and impunity in the world’s youngest nation.
UN Security Council removes sanctions from militant group founded by Syria’s president
A unanimous U.N. Security Council decision has removed militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) from international sanctions, lifting measures in place since 2014, an outcome that closes one era internationally but stirs fresh anxiety inside Syria, ACI MENA reported Sunday.
The article points to recent tensions in the Christian-majority town of Saydnaya and a string of incidents, from a killing in Homs to a disappearance and other reported attacks, which have intensified fears of insecurity. Amid conflicting social media claims, many Christians were left asking what real protection and belonging will look like as Syria’s new political landscape takes shape.
Angola priest survives attempted murder at parish office
An Angolan Catholic priest narrowly escaped death after a knife-wielding assailant attacked him inside his parish office at St. Joseph Pastoral Center of Angola’s Catholic Archdiocese of Luanda, ACI Africa reported Wednesday.
The incident occurred at about 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 28 at the pastoral center located within the Immaculate Heart of Mary Morro Bento Parish. Father Inácio Kahamba told ACI Africa on Tuesday: “After the morning Mass, the young man entered the office with his mouth covered by a hat. I asked him to identify himself, but he refused. When I invited him to step outside, he closed the door. He then drew a knife and said: ‘Today I will kill you.’” However, after an “intense” struggle, the assailant, Alcides Piluka, was detained, the priest said.
German cathedral defends near 50-foot ‘art installation’ of humpback whale in sanctuary
St. Viktor’s Cathedral in Xanten, a historic German town in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, is defending its decision to house a more than 45-foot cast of a dead humpback whale in its sanctuary, CNA Deutsch, the German-language sister service of EWTN News, reported Thursday.
Organizers responsible for the installation, titled “The Cast Whale Project,” said the whale fits “aesthetically and dignified into the room,” according to CNA Deutsch. It has been in the cathedral since Feb. 22 and will remain till March 22.
The project is organized by educational institutions sponsored by the Provost Church of St. Viktor, the Youth Ministry Department of the Diocese of Münster, and the Provost community itself. Münster Auxiliary Bishop Rolf Lohmann is a patron of the installation.
Update: This story was updated at 3:50 p.m. ET on March 6, 2026, with information about the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conferenceʼs statement on the Iran war.
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About the bishops’ conferences, from the back bleachers yours truly wonders whether Iran was ticking to unleash its own violence— while stalling in negotiations— such that we are now witnessing a peremptory strike against an averted peremptory strike (?). Not quite the same as a first strike(?); and a military action not quite the same as a “war”(?). we’re totally in the dark about possible insider information. And all of this is real time, not as ever before.
While the situations are not equivalent, we might be reminded of the weapons standoff in Eastern Europe during the 1980s. In that case, three episcopal conferences produced non-doctrinal pastoral letters on the possible spiral into the use of nuclear weapons. An oversimplifying, but major difference was in framing of the problem itself: (a) the risk of collateral damage or the “slippery slope” into Armageddon (American pastoral), (b) the strategic imbalance of armaments on the eastern front (German pastoral, noting the 3:1 advantage claimed by Soviet tanks versus tactical cruise missiles in the West), or (c) the intrinsic threat of state-sponsored Marxist ideology spreading from the Soviet Union (French pastoral).
See “The Challenge to Peace” (“Pastoral Letter” of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1983; but also James Schall, S.J., who supplied “Out of Justice, Peace” (Joint Pastoral Letter of the West German Bishops) and “Winning the Peace” (Joint Pastoral Letter of the French Bishops), published in one volume by Ignatius Press, 1984.
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Now we have the White House verbalizing (a) limited and defensive goals against military targets (ballistic missiles, nuclear weapons facilities, navy; and/or (b) total regime change. A contradiction of both at the same time?
But, are these goals still separable, in a world where the new twist is the alternative universe (?) of expansive Islamic sectarians— transplanted straight from the tribal 7th Century and armed no longer with camels and scimitars, but now with ballistic missiles and within close reach of atomic weapons?
Just remembering, here, the tinderbox of the 1980s, prior to a stalled start at nuclear de-escalation during the earlier Cold War.