The aim is to share Anglican calls for action with governments attending, demonstrate Anglican commitment in tackling nature loss and emphasize the power of faith groups in achieving change.

The delegation is led by the Rt Rev Graham Usher, bishop of Norwich and the Anglican Communion's lead on biodiversity. It also includes youth and indigenous representation from three other continents.

With plant and animal species disappearing at an ever-faster rate, the aim of COP16 is for leaders and non-state actors to agree on implementing a joint action plan on biodiversity restoration.

The gathering builds on the agreements made in December 2022, where more than 190 countries under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity adopted an agreement to reverse nature loss by 2030.

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Before he began the mass exorcism, Monsignor Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya, the bishop of Buenaventura, said he would say a prayer intended to purge the area of demonic infestation.

He decided to carry out the ancient rite shortly after a 10-year-old girl was tortured and murdered.

"We have to drive the devil out of Buenaventura, to see if we can restore the peace and tranquility that our city has lost due to so many crimes, acts of corruption and with so much evil and drug trafficking that invades our port," Montoya told a local radio station.

"We want to go around the whole of Buenaventura, from the air, and pour holy water on to it to see if we exorcise and get out all those demons that are destroying our port, so that God's blessing comes and gets rid of all the wickedness that is in our streets."

A helicopter for the aerial exorcism, was provided by Colombia's army.

Buenaventura was named Colombia's most violent place in 2014.

Human Rights Watch says "many of the city's neighbourhoods are dominated by powerful criminal groups that commit widespread abuses, including abducting and dismembering people, sometimes while still alive, then dumping them in the sea.

"The groups maintain ‘chop-up houses' where they slaughter victims, according to witnesses, residents, the local Catholic church and some officials."

Fifty-one homicides were reported in Buenaventura in the first five months of this year: 20 more than the same period last year.

Although exorcisms are usually carried out on individuals, in 1890 Pope Leo XIII added a prayer, "Exorcism against Satan and the Fallen Angels", for resolving demonic infestation.

Last year, the Vatican held an exorcism training course for priests, saying demands for deliverance from demonic possession had greatly increased across the world.

The increase represents a "pastoral emergency", according to the Vatican-backed International Association of Exorcists, which represents more than 200 Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox priests.

Source

• The Guardian
• Ancient Origins
• Image: Times Now

Colombia's mainly Catholic population is known for its macho culture and high levels of gender violence.

During his homily that was repeatedly interrupted by applause, Francis asked the 400,000-strong crowd "How many women, in silence, have persevered alone?

"In communities where we are still weighed down with patriarchal and chauvinistic customs, it is good to note that the Gospel begins by highlighting women who were influential and made history."

About 20,000 Colombians, most of them women and girls, were victims of rape and sexual violence during the five decade-war that killed 200,000 people.

Sexual violence is a weapon all sides used in Colombia's war, government data shows.

In addition, women disproportionately have borne the brunt of displacement, with seven million Colombians forced from their homes.

Furthermore, one woman is killed every four days in Colombia, often at the hands of a former or current partner.

Francis urged reconciliation and forgiveness in Colombia.

The United Nations has hailed the 2016 peace accord between the government and rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia as "putting an unprecedented focus on women's rights by recognising how they suffered in the conflict".

Emphasising his point, Francis incorporated St Joseph into his homily.

"... today, in this world where psychological, verbal and physical violence towards women is so evident, Joseph [husband of Our Lady] is presented as a figure of the respectful and sensitive man."

Source

• BBC
• ABS CBN
• Image: Houston Chronicle

After a five-decade war between the nation's government and rebel guerilla forces, the country has been divided by a peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels. (The FARC are the Revlutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).

Many victims of the bloodshed are wary of the healing process the peace deal offers and are critical of it for treating the FARC too kindly.

Francis is expected to give the agreement a strong push, however.

Organisers have given this trip the theme "Let's take the first step". The official image for the visit shows the pope walking forward in a symbol of the path ahead for peace.

Francis says he thinks this trip is "a bit special because it is being made to help Colombia go forward on its path to peace."

His visit is being received with joy by well-wishers. When he arrived at Bogota airport, they flooded the road taking that would take him 15 kilometers to the Vatican representative's residence.

Francis will be in Colombia from Wednesday until this Sunday. Although he will spend each night in Bogota (the Colombian capital) he will travel each day to different cities.

Source

• New York Times
• The Washington Post
• Crux
• NCR
• Reuters
• Image: The Southern Cross

The game consists of a pair of pencils or pens, a piece of paper and the invocation of a demonic spirit named "Charlie".

The demon supposedly answers "yes" or "no" to questions put to him.

The Catholic News Agency described local reports of the plight of 22 young women aged between 12 and 15, who started convulsing and behaving strangely.

Caracol News reported that the girls may have been "possessed" due to playing the game.

One of the affected youths, whose identity has been withheld, told the outlet: "You can end up dying from those games because you know this is something from the devil, and you don't play around with the devil."

Claudia Patricia Asprilla, the mother of one of the girls involved, said that her daughter "said she doesn't want to go to school because she's afraid . . . ".

The young people were taken to a local health centre.

Local authorities are visiting the affected girls' homes, bringing psychological, social and spiritual help.

Fr Wilson Tamayo, pastor of Divine Child Church in Istmina said: "All this happens precisely because we have closed the door of our hearts to God, and so I invite you to welcome God's message which is salvation, mercy and freedom."

Last year, "Charlie Charlie" became popular among young people worldwide.

Social media posts of the invocation went viral, prompting a wave of concern over the potential risk of being exposed to demonic possession.

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Catholic News Agency

The 29-year-old had survived by eating fish and gulls.

He was one of four sailors who left Colombia in a skiff two months ago.

At some point their engine failed and they were left adrift.

The survivor was spotted and rescued by the Panamanian-flagged Nikkei Verde, a merchant ship, more than 3000 kms south-east of Hawaii.

The bodies of his companion were not found with him. He said they died at sea.

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In a conference at a Colombian university, Bishop Juan Vicente Córdoba of Fontibón said there is no explicit rejection of homosexuality in the Bible.

"We don't know if one of Jesus' disciples" had a same-sex orientation, he said.

"We don't know either if Mary Magdalene was a lesbian."

Bishop Córdoba said parts of the New Testament might suggest otherwise, as far as Mary Magdalene is concerned, but "we don't know".

According to a report in Crux, Colombia is currently debating same-sex marriage and adoption rights.

Bishop Cordoba, who heads the Colombian Episcopal Conference's Commission on Life, told the conference the Catholic Church does not oppose same-sex couples making a life together.

He also said that: "No one chooses to be gay or straight - one simply feels, loves, experiments, is attracted, and no attraction is bad".

During the conference, he reportedly also used a pejorative term in Spanish for a gay man, which some in the audience found offensive.

The next day he apologised for his "unfortunate colloquial expressions".

Bishop Córdoba stated that his words were not intended to modify the "solid and unchangeable moral position of the Church".

Rather, they were to express respect in a gathering which, according to the prelate, was mostly composed of leaders and members of the LGBT community.

He said in a clarification published by the Colombian Bishops' Conference: "Even if homosexuality as an inclination doesn't constitute a sin, it's regarded as a disordered conduct."

The bishop stated he only used colloquial expressions because of the academic and dialogic context of the encounter, adding that they had no theological or moral value.

At the conference, Bishop Córdoba reiterated Church teaching that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, permanent, and open to children.

He also said that children have the right to be raised by a mother and a father.

Sources

• Crux
• Crux
• Daily Mail
• Image: Imagejuicy

Samuel Jaramillo, an orphan who lives with his grandmother and aunt in the city of Medellin, Colombia, has become an Internet hit since family members posted YouTube videos showing him pretending to celebrate Mass.

Garbed in child-size priestly vestments for his YouTube Mass, the youngster uses the words, intonations and gestures of an experienced priest.

According to his relatives, last Christmas Jaramillo did not ask for toys like most children his age. Instead, it wanted "priest's clothes" and the objects necessary to "celebrate" Mass.

"This isn't something we taught him, and we don't even attend church," said Jaramillo's aunt, Elizabeth Rojas Arango.

Jaramillo goes to Mass every Sunday and on Tuesdays with his grandmother, Rosa Eva Arango.

Rojas Arango said the decision to post videos of Samuel's YouTube Mass was not "to try to make him popular, but because they are moving".

A local priest, Father Daniel Monsalve, noted Jaramillo's "passion for what he says and the tenderness that inspires him" in the videos.

"Amid a changing world that is at times indifferent to religious matters, this child appears as a testimony of love for God and fascination for sacred celebrations, most certainly fostered by those who care for him and by the priest of his parish," Father Monsalve said.

Cases like that of Jaramillo "should not only awaken religious fervor but also serve as an example for the promotion of priestly and religious vocations, supported always by the encouragement of parishes, seminaries and houses of formation", he added.

Faather Monsalve said that when people see Jaramillo, "They will be amazed and will be unable to resist clicking on ‘Like' or ‘Share'. However, it will be God who continues speaking to humanity through the nobility and humility of his littlest children, the favourites of the Kingdom of Heaven."

In an interview with RCN television, Jaramillo said he wants to be a priest when he grows up.

Source:

Catholic News Agency

Image: UCA News