Japan and Korea’s Catholic bishops are decrying the Japanese government’s plans to clean-up Fukushima by releasing millions of litres of radioactive water into the sea. “We oppose the release of water containing the radioactive substance tritium into the ocean after purifying the contaminated water from Tepco’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant,” they said this week Read more
The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences is concerned about China’s new security law in Hong Kong. In a statement, Cardinal Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon in Myanmar and president of the Asian Bishops’ Conferences says the bishops are calling for Christians to pray for the people of Hong Kong and China. China’s President Xi Jinping Read more
Bishops in Nazi Germany have been criticised by the Catholic bishops in their commemoration of the upcoming 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. In a statement, they said the Catholic bishops under the Nazi regime did not oppose the war of annihilation started by Germany or the crimes the regime committed. They Read more
A lot has been written about Pope Francis’s goal of making the church more democratic, with less control by the Vatican and more power to individual bishops. In an ideal world, not only would the Vatican have less say in choosing bishops, but priests and laity would have a larger role in the selection of Read more
Immensely significant celebrations marking 50 years since an Anglican Centre was founded in Rome to “promote Christian unity in a divided world” will take place in Rome next week. A week-long summit which the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Pope Francis will attend in Rome will climax with a service in the monastery from which Read more
Catholic Bishops in the US support the Comprehensive [Nuclear Weapons] Test Ban Treaty. Their stance echoes Vatican statements about North Korea’s nuclear capabilities and Pope Francis’s concerns. The U.S. bishops’ conference “welcomes the action of the U.N. Security Council …,” Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces, N.M. said. He says the Conference encourages “this important Read more
“Teach your children that it is not possible to be Christian outside the Church, and it is not possible to follow Christ outside the Church, as the Church is our mother, and lets us grow in the love of Jesus Christ” (Pope Francis, 11 January 2015). It must then follow that the Catholic Church is the true Read more
A newly appointed bishop in England says he believes Pope Francis was right to “rattle the cage” of bishops. Bishop-elect John Arnold of Salford said he believes the Pope has made some bishops rethink their priorities. A former barrister who was auxiliary bishop in Westminster, Bishop Arnold has pledged to follow the Pope’s exhortation to Read more
Ghislain de Rasilly, the Bishop of Wallis and Futuna was taken to Noumea in New Caledonia on 27 September after suffering from a heart problem. Attempts to remedy the problem in Noumea were unsuccessful. Bishop Ghislain was then flown to Sydney where he is to have further treatment. Bishop Ghislain was ordained Bishop of Wallis Read more
Pope Francis has sacked a Paraguayan bishop affiliated to Opus Dei in order to try to mend divisions in the Church in that nation. On September 25, Bishop Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano of Ciudad del Este diocese was removed to preserve the “unity of both the bishops and of the faithful”, according to a Vatican Read more