Shigemi Fukahori, Catholic atomic bomb survivor and peace advocate, dies at 93

A worshiper waves the flag of China as Pope Francis leaves following the weekly general audience on June 12, 2019, at St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. / Credit: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images

Vatican City, Oct 22, 2024 / 08:53 am (CNA).

The Vatican announced Tuesday that it has renewed its agreement with China on the appointment of Catholic bishops for an additional four years.

The renewal comes days after a report from the Hudson Institute detailed how seven Catholic bishops in China have been detained without due process, while other bishops have experienced intense pressure, surveillance, and police investigations since the Sino-Vatican agreement was initially signed six years ago.

With the extension, the Sino-Vatican agreement will now remain in effect until Oct. 22, 2028.

The English translation of the official statement from the Holy See said that “the Vatican party remains dedicated to furthering the respectful and constructive dialogue with the Chinese party, in view of the further development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the Catholic Church in China and the Chinese people as a whole.”

The statement added that both sides agreed to extend the provisional agreement after “appropriate consultation and assessment.”

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian also confirmed the extension, saying that the two sides would maintain “contact and dialogue following a constructive spirit,” according to the Associated Press.

Originally signed in September 2018, the provisional agreement was previously renewed for a two-year period in 2020 and again in October 2022. 

The terms of the agreement have not been made public, though Pope Francis has said it includes a joint commission between the Chinese government and the Vatican on the appointment of Catholic bishops, overseen by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The Vatican’s dialogue with China has not always been smooth. The Holy See has acknowledged that China violated the terms of the agreement by unilaterally appointing Catholic bishops in Shanghai and the “diocese of Jiangxi,” a large diocese created by the Chinese government that is not recognized by the Vatican.

Pope Francis expressed satisfaction with the ongoing dialogue with China during a press conference in September. However, the Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, has been more cautious, calling the agreement “not the best deal possible” and noting ongoing efforts to improve its implementation.

Since 2018, “about 10 bishops” have been appointed and consecrated under the terms of the Sino-Vatican agreement, according to Vatican News. 

A new coadjutor bishop of Beijing is expected to be installed this Friday in agreement with the Vatican, according to Asia News. The coadjutor bishop would be just five years younger than Beijing’s current Archbishop Joseph Li Shan, who is still more than a decade away from the typical retirement age for Catholic bishops.

In August, the Chinese government officially recognized 95-year-old Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen, a former underground bishop. The Vatican called this recognition a “positive fruit of the dialogue” with Beijing.

Human rights advocates have criticized the Vatican’s silence on China’s religious freedom violations during its negotiations, including the internment of Uyghur Muslims and the imprisonment of democracy advocates like Catholic Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong.

Chinese officials have reportedly ordered the removal of crosses from churches and have replaced images of Christ and the Virgin Mary with images of President Xi Jinping, according to a recent report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). 

USCIRF also reports that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “sinicization of religion” campaign has led to censored religious texts, forced clergy to preach CCP ideology, and required the display of CCP slogans in churches.

“While some Catholics choose to worship legally within the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, they are certainly not free as they must comply with the CCP’s harsh mechanisms of control and interference,” USCIRF Commissioner Asif Mahmood told CNA earlier this month.

“Ultimately, the Chinese government is solely interested in instilling unwavering obedience and devotion to the CCP, its political agenda, and its vision for religion, not protecting the religious freedom rights of Catholics,” he said.

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Manila, Philippines, Jan 9, 2019 / 10:42 am (CNA).- Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila told pilgrims at a popular annual procession in the Philippines to take caution against becoming “fanatics,” stressing that true devotion is about how one lives one’s whole life, not a single day.

“A fanatic does not love,” the cardinal told thousands gathered at midnight Mass on Wednesday. “Fanatics hold on to who gives importance to them. But a devotee … is devoted because of love, and that is what Jesus showed us.”

“Devotion is a daily act…. In every kind of love, loyalty, and union, it must be daily,” he said, according to UCA News.

The cardinal gave a homily at a Mass to kick off the annual Black Nazarene procession. Known as the traslacion, the 19-hour procession through the streets of Manila takes place each year on Jan. 9. Millions of pilgrims take part in the 7-kilometer procession; this year’s crowds were expected to top 5 million.

The statue of the Black Nazarene is a kneeling Christ cloaked in a maroon robe and crowned with thorns. The life-sized statue bears a cross.

It was brought to the Philippines by Augustinian missionary priests in 1606. The statue is believed to have acquired its black color after being partially burnt when the ship carrying it caught fire on a voyage from Mexico.

Since then it has survived fires that destroyed its host church twice, two earthquakes, floods from numerous typhoons and bombings during World War II. The image is normally enshrined in Manila’s famous Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, popularly known as the Quiapo Church. Many miracles have been reported in connection with veneration of the statue.

The traslacion tradition is deeply beloved in the country, where some 80 percent of the population is Catholic. However, it is also controversial. Barefoot pilgrims eager to touch the Black Nazarene statue shove and climb over one another, resulting each year in injuries and sometimes deaths.

By midmorning Jan. 9, the Philippine Red Cross said they had treated more than 600 people for bruises, fainting, breathing problems, and other conditions. At least three people had been hospitalized, the BBC reported.

In 2012, Msgr. Clemente Ignacio, rector of the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, acknowledged the problem of fanaticism among pilgrims.

“We admit that there were elements or excess of fanaticism that needs to be corrected,” he said, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“It’s our task to slowly form and educate the faithful about their devotion and the right way of expressing such devotion that will not harm themselves and others.”

Local priest Fr. Danichi Hui told UCA News he expected this year’s procession to be more orderly than normal, as participants were asked to take a “Devotee’s Pledge” that promised to follow the rules of the event.

Some 7,000 police officers were deployed to secure the procession, and soldiers were on stand-by, local news outlets reported.

[…]

Colombo, Sri Lanka, Apr 21, 2019 / 01:45 am (CNA).- At least 100 people were killed in explosions Easter morning, detonated in churches and hotels across Sri Lanka. Hundreds more are reportedly injured.

At 8:45 a.m., explosions were detonated during Easter Mass at churches in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, and in Negombo, a city 20 miles to its north. At the same time, a bomb exploded at a service at the evangelical Zion Church in Batticaolo, on Sri Lanka’s east coast.

 St. Anthony’s Shrine was the Catholic church targeted in Colombo, and St. Sebastian’s is the Catholic parish in Negombo.

Pews were shattered by the blast at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, and floors and ceilings were covered in blood. The shrine is the most well-known Church in Sri Lanka, and is designated the country’s national shrine. The first chapel on the Church property was built during Sri Lanka’s Dutch colonial period, when Catholicism was mostly forbidden on the island.

There were also explosions Sunday morning at three luxury hotels in Colombo.

Sri Lanka’s prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, called on Sri Lankans to remain “united and strong” in the face of “cowardly attacks on our people today.”

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. In recent weeks, there has been concern that Sri Lankans who had been part of the Islamic State could become a threat, as they have begun returning to the country from the Middle East, according to the BBC.

The country has been plagued with periodic violence since its 26-year civil war concluded in 2009.  

Sri Lanka is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal; its population is more than 21 million. More than 70% of Sri Lankans are Buddhists, roughly 13% are Hindus, almost 10% are Muslims, and fewer than 8% are Christians. There are 1.5 million Catholics in the country, constituting the overwhelming majority of the Sri Lanka’s Christians.

In a January 2015 visit to the country, Pope Francis urged peace and reconciliation among the country’s rival factions.

“In this difficult effort to forgive and find peace, Mary is always here to encourage us, to guide us, to lead us,” the pope said Jan. 14, 2015, at the Our Lady of Madhu shrine in Sri Lanka’s Mannar district.

“Just as she forgave her son’s killers at the foot of his cross, then held his lifeless body in her hands, so now she wants to guide Sri Lankans to greater reconciliation, so that the balm of God’s pardon and mercy may bring true healing to all.”

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