Camilo Daza airport in the city of Cúcuta, Venezuela. / EEIM
Cucuta, Colombia, Dec 15, 2021 / 15:34 pm (CNA).
Bishop Víctor Manuel Ochoa Cadavid of the Military Ordinariate of Colombia expressed his sorrow and solidarity following the Dec. 14 t… […]
The Emmaus Center is housed in a former opera house in Brooklyn, New York. / Courtesy of The Emmaus Center
Denver Newsroom, Dec 15, 2021 / 14:51 pm (CNA).
A new performing and visual arts center dedicated to Catholic evangelization opened in Br… […]
Charles, a 33-year-old father of a family who is a refugee at Pulka in Nigeria’s Borno State. / Credit: Aid to the Church in Need
Nairobi, Kenya, Dec 15, 2021 / 13:48 pm (CNA).
Not every Catholic priest risks mortal danger every time he visits his people. But a priest identified only as Father Christopher, who ministers in the Diocese of Maiduguri in Nigeria, risks his life daily to serve hundreds of refugees who have been displaced by terrorism.
The priest told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) United States, a Catholic Pontifical charity foundation, last week that thousands of people who have been displaced by the Boko Haram terrorist group in Northern Nigeria are forced to live as refugees in tents, scattered around the small town of Pulka.
The priest noted that the refugees cannot stray far from the camps because of security concerns, and because of the difficulties in moving around during the rainy season. The town is located close to the border with Cameroon and some 75 miles from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in Northeast Nigeria.
“There are continuing attacks, and some people get killed. It is by no means easy, and it is not easy for me either, simply getting here,” Father Christopher told ACN.
“Coming and going is always a risk, but it is important to me to do everything I can to help these people.”
Father Christopher himself is currently living in an abandoned house, since Boko Haram destroyed his church and the rectory in Pulka in 2014, ACN reports.
ACN reports that many of the victims of Boko Haram’s campaigns of violence are still refugees in their own country, and face daily trauma and anxiety. There are some 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pulka alone.
“The danger has not passed, but the Church is bringing them consolation and hope,” the foundation says.
The foundation recounts the story of Naomi, a Nigerian woman who watched as her mother was killed and at one point was forced to “marry” a terrorist after being abducted. The image of Boko Haram’s brutality, Naomi told ACN, is still fresh in her mind and it causes her to experience nightmares.
“I don’t want there to be any night-time. I wish it was always daytime. My nights are full of fear, anxiety, nightmare,” Naomi says, and adds, “I get frightened as soon as night falls.”
Similarly, Charles, a young father of a family who is 33 and a refugee in the same place, also admits to having recurrent nightmares.
He told ACN in the December 13 report, “I relive the time when we were living in hiding. Since the terrorists used to attack by night, we would get out of the town as soon as night began to fall and hide in the bush. Many nights I still dream that I’m in hiding.”
ACN reports that Charles and Naomi are now living in one of the 20 refugee camps in Borno State.
“Muslims are a majority in Borno State… but Naomi and Charles are Christians. Without their faith, many people would have not been able to endure so much suffering,” Father Christopher said.
He explained that the Islamic militants first tried to frighten and threaten the Christians, trying to force them to convert. When that failed, they began to get more violent, he said, and added, “The priests had to hide in the mountains, but the insurgents of Boko Haram continued to harass and persecute the people.”
“Eventually, the situation became so difficult that between 2015 and 2016 many people decided to pack up their belongings and leave the country, crossing the frontier and seeking refuge in Cameroon.”
Naomi recounted fleeing to Cameroon and leaving everything behind.
“It was by no means easy,” she told ACN, and added, “Our feet were swollen and blistered, and it was too much for us. My sister was captured by Boko Haram, but she had a baby in her arms and that was the only reason they let her go. It wasn’t her baby, as it happens, she was only carrying it at that moment, but it saved her life. Many other people, like my mother, were murdered.”
In Minawao, Cameroon, alone, there were at one point more than 60,000 Nigerian refugees, the charity foundation reports, and adds, “They stayed there for several years, until the Nigerian army succeeded in recapturing the towns and villages … and persuaded them to return.”
However, the situation back home in Nigeria is still very precarious, Charles tells ACN, and explains, “We were refugees in Cameroon, then we returned and have been living here for two years now, but the situation is still unsafe.”
“We are once again living in our own country, in our own area, in our beloved Pulka, but we are living as refugees. We are nearer to our home than when we were living in Cameroon, but once again we are living in danger,” Charles says.
Naomi praised Father Christopher for working selflessly to restore hope among the refugees who had lost everything in the Boko Haram attacks.
“Life in Cameroon was so difficult that we thought we would never hope again,” she said, and added, “Father Christopher is a source of inspiration for us. When we are down, he gives us courage. He is a true father to all of us and is trying to fill the gaps in our lives left by our missing family members, because many of them were murdered. He cares for us as if we were his own family.”
Naomi continues, “God is providing and helping us, thanks to so many people around the world who have not forgotten us. We pray that God may give strength to all these benefactors and that you may be able to continue doing your work and supporting us.”
According to Naomi, Christmas is a particularly difficult time for the Catholic community in Pulka.
She says, “Before the crisis, Christmas was a time of great joy, because our relatives used to come from a long way away and celebrate together with us. When the attacks began, Christmas stopped being what it had been before; we couldn’t sing Christmas carols in the community or visit other people’s houses; we couldn’t even go out of our houses at night-time. The situation was so dangerous that Christmas stopped being a festival, and we couldn’t celebrate it.”
Charles, a father of four, adds, “Celebrating Christmas is hard in our situation. Most of us who once lived in Pulka, have lost everything.”
He continues, “The Gospel gives me the strength to face all this suffering and to endure everything we confront each day. Jesus Christ foretold the suffering that we are going through. Suffering is part of being Christian. Our lives are in His hands. I am filled with hope when I remember the words of Jesus, that He will reward us at the end of our lives. Jesus Christ is my salvation, and that is what I celebrate at Christmas.”
According to Naomi, what the refugees need most, as the rest of the world celebrates Christmas, are basic necessities such as food and medication.
“What we most need here is food, tents and clothing. We are even seeing some cases of cholera now and we don’t have any place to go for medical treatment. It would also be a gift to get help with our academic studies; some of us were students before the extremist attacks, and we had to give it up because we had no money to continue,” she says.
Father Christopher says his wish for Christmas is for many people to feel the desire to help the refugees in Pulka, and for them to regain their physical, spiritual and mental health.
He says, in reference to the refugees, “They long for peace in their lives, for peace to return to their homes. Our desire is a very simple one; we simply want to live a normal life and return to the life we had before.”
ACN reports that the foundation is seeking help for a range of projects to help the “uprooted” people of Pulka, who include around 14,000 Catholics.
The envisioned ACN projects include a borehole to provide water for the refugees, the rebuilding of the St. Paul’s Parish house in Pulka, so that Father Christopher can return to live there, and help 23 Catechists who are working among the refugees from Pulka, both in Nigeria and in Cameroon.
This article first appeared on ACI Africa, CNA’s sister news agency based in Kenya.
Forty-five priests and four bishops in Venezuela have died from COVID-19 as of December 2021, the Venezuela bishops’ conference has reported. / Unsplash
Caracas, Venezuela, Dec 15, 2021 / 13:45 pm (CNA).
The Venezuelan bishops’ conference published new statistics showing that since the beginning of the pandemic 45 priests and four bishops have died from COVID-19.
The conference noted that “in the midst of the global crisis caused by the pandemic, priests are not exempt from the risks of contracting COVID-19,” as they carry out their ministry.
“At a time when people more earnestly seek the comfort of the spirit and closeness to the faith … priests offer their service to the Church,” the conference said.
The conference published current figures on the priests who were infected and died from the deadly virus. In the report, they noted that between March 2020 and Dec. 13, 2021, 439 priests were infected with COVID-19, a figure that represents 20.77% of the total clergy in the country.
During this period, 45 priests have died, or 10.25% of all priests infected with the virus, and 2.13% of all Venezuelan clergy.
Of those infected, 26 were bishops and of these 22 prelates recovered; the other four died in 2021.
The four bishops who died were Archbishop Cástor Oswaldo Azuaje, who served as the bishop of the Diocese of Trujillo until his death on January 8; Bishop César Ortega, who died on April 9; Archbishop Tulio Chirivella, Archbishop Emeritus of Barquisimeto, who died on April 11; and Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, Archbishop Emeritus of Caracas, who died on Sept. 23.
The bishops’ conference said that the Church in Venezuela currently has 2,068 priests. Siixty are bishops and of these 41 are titular bishops, three are auxiliary bishops, and 16 are bishops emeritus.
The dioceses with the greatest number of priests are San Cristóbal (208), Trujillo (154), Barquisimeto (148), Mérida (127), Caracas (121), the conference reported.
The bishops’ conference said that since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic “it has urged the entire population to comply with the guidelines and recommendations in the field of biosafety” to prevent contracting the virus.
The conference also stressed that taking proper care of oneself, the family and the community “is the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
Finally, the bishops’ conference exhorted the faithful to “increase their trust in God in times of a health emergency” and encouraged them to continue praying from the Word of God, “especially in the family, the Domestic Church,” since prayer “is an expression of the faith and hope that we need to strengthen.”
A photo of a scene from "Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers," a Christmas special released in December 2021. / Courtesy of "The Chosen"
Boston, Mass., Dec 15, 2021 / 13:30 pm (CNA).
Filming for season three of the pop… […]
The Archbishop’s Curia at St. Calcidonius Square in Floriana, Malta. / Frank Vincentz via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Floriana, Malta, Dec 15, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
The Catholic archdiocese of Malta said on Monday that it could not have foreseen… […]
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone meets with people experiencing homeless at St. Anthony’s Dining Hall in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood on November 6, 2021. / Dennis Callahan
Boston, Mass., Dec 15, 2021 / 09:29 am (CNA).
After disclosing that he has not had a COVID-19 vaccination, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco has agreed to reschedule a parish visit at the pastor’s request, due to parishioners’ health concerns.
Cordileone, who shared his vaccination status on a Dec. 1 podcast, was scheduled to visit St. Agnes Catholic Church in San Francisco on Dec. 19. According to the parish’s policy, however, only priests who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 may celebrate Mass there.
For that reason, and because parishioners shared their uneasiness about Cordileone not being vaccinated, Father George Williams, S.J., the pastor, called the archbishop and asked him to postpone his visit.
“These are stressful times enough and I felt his pastoral visit to us would be overshadowed by concerns about the pandemic,” Williams wrote in the parish’s Dec. 5 bulletin.
“When I explained this to his Excellency, he graciously understood,” Williams later told ABC7 news. “We look forward to his visit when the circumstances permit.”
Williams said in the bulletin that he feels it is important that “everyone feels safe,” adding that “we all” must “do our part” in preventing the spread of the virus, especially in light of the new Omicron variant.
CNA asked Williams in an email if the archdiocese gives pastors the option to require vaccination, but received no response. That same question was posed to the archdiocese, to which they responded: “health care decisions are a very personal matter.”
“Archbishop Cordileone has every confidence in Father Williams’ ability to know his people well, and respond to their sensitivities with compassion,” the archdiocese added.
Cordileone, 65, first revealed he had not received the vaccine on the San Francisco Chronicle’s “It’s All Political Podcast,” when he responded “Not yet, no,” to the hosts inquiry of his vaccination against COVID-19.
There were “a number of reasons” Cordileone listed for not being vaccinated on the podcast. He said that because of his particular health situation, noting his “good immune system,” his primary care physician told him “it’s probably not necessary” to get vaccinated.
“He didn’t dissuade me from being vaccinated,” Cordileone said. “But he said he was fine if I decided not to be because of my own particular health situation.”
In the interview, which was mostly about abortion, Cordileone talked about equitable distribution of the vaccines, immunity versus protection, vaccine mandates, and his own encounters with an infected person and crowds.
In March, 2021, Cordileone encouraged parishioners of the archdiocese to get vaccinated “in consultation with their physician.”
Both the Vatican and the U.S. bishops’ conference have said that reception of the vaccines is morally permissible when recipients have no other ethical option due to the gravity of the pandemic. Pope Francis has encouraged COVID-19 vaccination, calling it an “act of love.” In December 2020, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a note stating that reception of the vaccines is morally permissible but “must be voluntary.” The note recognized “reasons of conscience” for refusing vaccines.
Pope Francis prays before the Salus Populi Romani icon in Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major Dec. 8, 2020. Credit: Vatican Media. / null
Vatican City, Dec 15, 2021 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has appointed a Vatican priest to take over the fi… […]
St. Peter’s Basilica, seen through the Vatican’s Christmas tree. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
Vatican City, Dec 15, 2021 / 05:20 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has approved the creation of a new foundation promoting spirituality, art, formation, and dialogue i… […]
Pope Francis’ general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Dec. 15, 2021. / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Dec 15, 2021 / 03:35 am (CNA).
Pope Francis invited Catholics on Wednesday to learn from St. Joseph how to cultivate silence in the… […]
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