Archbishop Matthew Man-oso Ndagoso of Nigeria’s Kaduna archdiocese. / Courtesy photo.
Kaduna, Nigeria, Jun 3, 2021 / 03:45 am (CNA).
As he presided at the burial ceremony of a murdered priest on Tuesday, a Nigerian archbishop urged Catholics to … […]
The Cathedral of St. Elias and St. Gregory the Illuminator in Beirut, Lebanon, the cathedra of the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate of Cilicia. / Jari Kurittu via Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0).
Beirut, Lebanon, May 26, 2021 / 17:00 pm (CNA).
Catholicos-Pa… […]
Fr. Joe Keke, left, remains missing. Fr. Alphonsus Bello, right, was killed at age 33. / Diocese of Sokoto.
Rome Newsroom, May 21, 2021 / 09:00 am (CNA).
Gunmen attacked a Catholic parish in northern Nigeria Thursday, killing one priest and kidn… […]
Nigerian flag / Labrador Photo Video / Shutterstock.
CNA Staff, May 19, 2021 / 04:30 am (CNA).
A Catholic priest serving in Nigeria’s northern Kaduna archdiocese is among 11 people reportedly kidnapped on Monday. ACI Africa, CNA’s African news … […]
Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa blesses the congregation at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on April 4, 2021. / Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
CNA Staff, May 18, 2021 / 04:00 am (CNA).
Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa has urge… […]
Theodosios (Atallah Hanna), the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia, delivers a speech during a demonstration in Beit Jala in the West Bank May 17, 2021 to express solidarity with Gaza and Sheikh Jarah. Credit: Hazem Bader/AFP via Getty Images…. […]
Pope Francis meets with Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, on May 17, 2021. / Vatican Media/CNA.
Vatican City, May 17, 2021 / 10:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis spoke Monday with Iran’s foreign minister and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan amid the ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the violence in the Israel-Gaza conflict.
The pope received Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s head diplomat since 2013, for a private audience on May 17 in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.
Zarif said that he and the pope “exchanged views” on Palestine, interfaith dialogue, and U.S. sanctions in a post on Twitter.
The Iranian government delegation also met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Secretary for Relations with States.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni confirmed that Pope Francis also spoke on the telephone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the morning of May 17.
According to a statement from the Turkish president’s office, Erdogan told Pope Francis “that Palestinians would continue to be subjected to massacre as long as the international community did not punish Israel – which is committing humanitarian crimes – with sanctions.”
The Vatican did not comment on the content of the discussions in either the phone call with Erdogan or the meeting with Zarif.
Israel’s Ambassador to Italy responded to the Iranian foreign minister’s visit to Rome with an open letter to Zarif accusing Iran of funding and supporting Hamas.
“Why don’t you recognize Israel’s right to exist? Stop spreading hatred,” Ambassador Dror Eydar wrote.
“The question is: when will the West realize that behind the elegant suits, ties and smiles lies a murderous ideology that seeks to erase all of Western civilization? It is necessary to wake up,” the Israeli ambassador said.
Pope Francis appealed for an end to violence in the Israel-Gaza conflict at the end of his Regina Caeli address on May 16.
“In these days, violent armed clashes between the Gaza Strip and Israel have taken hold, and risk degenerating into a spiral of death and destruction. Numerous people have been injured, and many innocents have died,” the pope said.
“Among them there are also children, and this is terrible and unacceptable. Their death is a sign that one does not want to build the future, but wants to destroy it.”
The pope also lamented intercommunal violence involving Jews and Arabs within Israel.
He said: “Furthermore, the crescendo of hatred and violence that is affecting various cities in Israel is a serious wound to fraternity and peaceful coexistence among citizens, which will be difficult to heal if there is not an immediate opening to dialogue.”
“I ask myself: where will hatred and revenge lead? Do we really think we will build peace by destroying the other?”
He appealed for calm in the region, urging local leaders and the international community to help secure peace.
“Let us pray unceasingly that Israelis and Palestinians may find the path of dialogue and forgiveness, to be patient builders of peace and justice, opening up, step by step, to a common hope, to a coexistence among brothers,” Pope Francis said.
The Old City of Jerusalem. / Aleksandar Todorovic / Shutterstock.
Rome Newsroom, May 11, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem is calling for justice and peace amid an escalation of violence in the city.“Our Church has been … […]
Saint Macarius Monastery in Egypt’s Beheira governorate, November 2010. / Berthold Werner via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Alexandria, Egypt, May 10, 2021 / 18:01 pm (CNA).
Wael Saad, a former monk of the Coptic Orthodox Church, was executed on Sunday for the 2018 murder of Bishop Epiphanius, the abbot of St. Macarius Monastery.
Saad’s brother told Reuters the family was told to receive his body from a morgue in Damanhour, 40 miles southeast of Alexandria, May 9.
Raymond Rasmi Mansour, another monk who assisted in the crime, has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Mansour had also been sentenced to death, but his sentence was reduced after winning an appeal.
Bishop Epiphanius’ body was found July 29, 2018, with injuries to his head and back that suggest that he had been hit by a sharp object.
Saad, whose monastic name was Isaiah al-Makary, was charged with the bishop’s murder Aug. 11, 2018, and confessed to the murder the following day. Saad said that Mansour, whose monastic name was Faltaous al-Makary, assisted in the crime. Mansour attempted suicide in August 2018.
Saad was expelled from the monastery Aug. 5, 2018 for “inappropriate actions which violate monastic behavior and way of life.” The Coptic Orthodox Church said that his dismissal had been decided on before the bishop’s death.
The bishop’s murder highlighted tension in the Coptic Orthodox Church over monasticism, ecumenism, and reform, and led to the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate issuing several decrees on monasticism.
The Coptic Orthodox Church is an Oriental Orthodox Church, meaning it rejected the 451 Council of Chalcedon, and its followers had historically been considered monophysites – those who believe Christ has only one nature – by Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox.
Tawadros II, Coptic Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria, announced Aug. 1, 2018 that the Church’s monasteries would stop accepting new brothers for one year. Those who established monasteries unapproved by the patriarchate were to be stripped of their priesthood and monastic state. No new monasteries could be founded except as a revival of old monasteries, and this was to be done under the care of a recognized monastery.
The Church also instructed its monks to close their social media accounts, and suspended the ordination of monks for three years. Permissions for monks to attend outside functions was also restricted.
Later that month the Church announced that unrecognized monasteries would have one month to submit to the supervision of the patriarchate.
Samuel Tadros, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told the New York Times that Bishop Epiphanius was “a senior figure in a reformist Coptic movement” that has been favored under Tawadros.
“His appointment, in May, to position in which he would work as a liaison with the Catholic Church was seen as a sign that conservatives were being sidelined, Mr. Tadros said.”
Pope Francis visited Egypt in 2017, and signed a joint declaration with Tawadros announcing that their Churches would recognize the validity of each other’s baptisms.
Previously, the Coptic Orthodox Church had repeated baptism if a Catholic had sought to join it.
Conservative members of the Coptic Orthodox Church have reportedly resisted such reforms under Tawadros. According to a commentary by Engy Magdy in the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn’s The Tablet, these conservatives are associated with Shenouda III, the immediate predecessor of Tawadros as Coptic Orthodox Patriarch.
The dispute goes back to tensions between Shenouda and Fr. Matta El Meskeen.
Fr. Matta was tasked by Cyril VI in 1969 with reviving monastic life at St. Macarius Monastery. The monk was focused on the spiritual life, openness to the thought of other Churches, and ressourcement.
While Shenouda was a disciple of Fr. Matta early on, after he was elected Pope of Alexandria in 1971 the two came into conflict. Shenouda restricted Fr. Matta to his monastery, and discouraged the reading of his books, according to an essay by Mina Thabet in Middle East Eye.
It was during this time, in 1984, that Epiphanius joined St. Macarius and became a monk. Epiphanius was a disciple of Fr. Matta, and was involved in ecumenism.
St. Macarius Monastery was long independent of the Coptic Orthodox hierarchy, but Shenouda restored it under the Church’s authority in 2009, and appointed some 70 conservative monks, among them Saad and Mansour.
In the year after Shenouda’s 2012 death, Epiphanius was elected abbot of St. Macarius, and consecrated a bishop.
Fr. Camillus Mbaka
Enugu, Nigeria, May 10, 2021 / 13:19 pm (CNA).
Fr. Camillus Mbaka, whose followers, believing him to be missing, vandalized the cathedral and episcopal residence in Enugu last week, apologized on Sunday to his bishop and to th… […]
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