Northwoods Catholic Churches -- St. Anne, Boulder Junction; St. Mary, Sayner; St. Rita, Presque Isle

Archbishop Philip Anyolo of the Nairobi Archdiocese in Kenya. / Credit: Nairobi Archdiocese

ACI Africa, Nov 20, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

The archbishop of Kenya’s Archdiocese of Nairobi has turned down financial donations that the country’s president offered to a Catholic parish, stating that the Church will not be compromised by offers from politicians who seek to use church fundraising events for self gain.

In a Nov. 18 statement widely circulated on social media platforms, Archbishop Philip Anyolo Subira declined over 5 million Kenyan shillings ($38,500) that President William Samoei Ruto offered to Soweto Catholic Church on Nov. 17. The cash gift was meant for the construction of a new rectory at the parish.

The president further gave the parish choir and the Pontifical Missionary Childhood a 600,000 Kenyan shilling ($4,600) cash reward and promised to donate a bus to the parish, both of which the archbishop has also declined.

In the statement, the archbishop explained that the “political donations” to the Soweto Catholic Church are in violation of Kenya’s Public Fundraising Appeals Bill 2024, which requires fundraising appeals to have a permit.

“These funds will be refunded to the respective donors,” Anyolo said, adding in reference to the president’s pledge: “The promised additional 3 million [Kenyan shillings, $23,256] for the construction of the [pastor’s] house, as well as the donation of a parish bus by the president, are hereby declined.”

He said that members of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) have consistently maintained a firm stance on the matter of politicians donating money to churches, highlighting the ethical concerns and the need to safeguard the Church from being used for political purposes.

“The Catholic Church strongly discourages the use of church events such as fundraisers and gatherings as platforms for political self-promotion,” Anyolo said. “Politicians are urged to refrain from turning the pulpit into a stage for political rhetoric, as such actions undermine the sanctity of worship spaces.”

The archbishop said the Church is called to uphold her integrity by refusing contributions that may “inadvertently” compromise her independence or facilitate “unjust enrichment.”

Making reference to the letter that KCCB members issued on Nov. 14 calling out the government for ignoring “pertinent unresolved issues,” Anyolo said “political leaders are urged to demonstrate ethical leadership by addressing the pressing issues raised by the KCCB.”

He reiterated KCCB members’ message saying that politicians should address issues such as political wrangles, corruption, politics of self-interest, violations of human rights, and freedom of speech as well as “the culture of lies.”

Anyolo also recalled the KCCB’s call to Kenyan politicians to pay attention to issues surrounding the National Health Insurance Fund and what they described as “unfulfilled promises, misplaced priorities, selfish agendas to extend terms of elected leaders, and over-taxation of Kenyans.”

The archbishop said the Church must remain a neutral entity, free from political influence, to effectively serve as a space for spiritual growth and community guidance. He said that while politicians are welcome to attend church for their spiritual nourishment, they must do so as ordinary Christians, “without leveraging their positions for political gain.”

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA. 

Jimmy Lai’s wife, Teresa (left), and retired Chinese Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun arrive at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts to attend Hong Kong activist publisher Lai’s national security trial in Hong Kong on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. / Credit: AP Photo/Chan Long Hei

CNA Staff, Nov 20, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

Catholic human rights activist Jimmy Lai on Wednesday took the stand in his national security trial in Hong Kong, arguing in his own defense as he faces life in prison over allegations of sedition against the communist Chinese government. 

Lai, 76, was first arrested in August 2020 under China’s newly instituted Hong Kong national security law. He has faced multiple trials since his arrest and has been convicted on multiple charges of unlawful assembly and fraud. 

Advocates have argued that the charges are politically motivated. Lai, through several media enterprises including the long-running Apple Daily newspaper, has for years been a vocal pro-democracy voice in Hong Kong media, with Apple Daily itself encouraging citizens to participate in numerous pro-democracy demonstrations over the years. 

Chinese Communist Party officials, meanwhile, allege that Lai has engaged in what they claim is seditious activism, in part by allegedly advocating for Hong Kong’s independence from mainland China. 

At his trial on Wednesday, Lai denied allegations of sedition. “All I was doing was carrying a torch to the reality,” he told the court of his publishing activities. 

“The more information you have, the more you’re in the know, the more you are free,” he said. 

The publisher also denied that he had ordered the Apple Daily to continue as usual after his arrest. “I had written to them, asking them not to take risks,” he said. 

The activist further disputed that he had colluded with the U.S. government in 2019 when meeting with then-Vice President Mike Pence. 

“I would not dare to ask the vice president to do anything,” he said. “I would just relay to him what happened in Hong Kong when he asked me.”

Wednesday’s trial comes after the Tuesday sentencing of 45 other Hong Kong democracy activists, all of whom received stretches of up to 10 years in prison under the national security law.

Lai is a Catholic. He converted to Catholicism in 1997 and was received into the Church by Cardinal Joseph Zen. The cardinal was present at the trial on Wednesday, sitting with Lai’s family members, according to the Associated Press.

His yearslong imprisonment has drawn international rebuke, including from supporters in the United States. Last December the Congressional Executive Commission on China urged the U.S. government to sanction Hong Kong prosecutors and judges if they fail to release Lai.

The trial “is a political prosecution plain and simple and another sad example of the Hong Kong government’s increasingly repressive policies,” the commission said. 

Father Robert Sirico, a Catholic priest and founder of the Michigan-based Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, told CNA in December 2023 that he “[doesn’t] have any hope” that the Chinese Communist Party will let Lai walk free.

”I want to be hopeful. I love the man,” Sirico said. “I have a deep respect for him. I’m inspired by his bravery. But I know what he’s up against.”

More recently, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in a report that the Chinese government should “release Mr. Lai immediately.” 

The working group said the government should mount a “full and independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Mr. Lai and to take appropriate measures against those responsible for the violation of his rights.”

Senior fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center Joseph Meaney speaks to “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”

CNA Staff, Nov 20, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

Vietnam, a country with one of the highest abortion rates in the world, spearheaded a United Nations initiative this week on the health care needs of infants born prematurely.

While the event in honor of World Prematurity Day aimed to spotlight the need for better care for preterm infants, a bioethicist is pointing to the irony of a country grappling with widespread abortion leading the charge.

“It’s a completely mixed message,” Joseph Meaney, a senior fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told “EWTN News Nightly” on Tuesday.

Advances in neonatal intensive care have made possible the survival of smaller and younger infants. The world’s most premature surviving baby is Curtis Zy-Keith Means, who was born at 21 weeks and one day in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Vietnam’s laws allow unrestricted abortion procedures up to the 22nd week of pregnancy, but enforcement against later-term abortions remains lax. 

A 2023 report identified the Southeast Asian nation as having the second-highest abortion rate in the world. Hanoi’s Central Obstetrics Hospital reported in 2014 that 40% of all pregnancies in Vietnam were terminated each year.

Meaney pointed out to “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol that “in one part of the hospital, they are delivering babies … and trying to keep them alive in the neonatal intensive care units, and in other parts of the hospital, they’re killing those same babies at the same age of gestation.”

Meaney noted that studies have found that women who have undergone multiple abortions face a higher risk of premature birth and miscarriage in subsequent pregnancies. 

World Prematurity Day was established in 2008 to raise awareness about the challenges of premature births, which is the leading cause of death for children under 5. It is estimated that 13.4 million babies are born prematurely every year, according to UNICEF, which called for universal access to high-quality care for preterm babies in honor of the day.

“Of course, if they’re concerned about infant mortality, the highest rate of infant mortality is killing babies through abortion,” Meaney said.

Catholics in Vietnam help manage special cemeteries for victims of abortion, including one in the Archdiocese of Hanoi in which 46,000 unborn children are buried and another in Xuan Loc Diocese where more than 53,000 are buried, according to La Croix International. 

A Catholic charity called the Life Protection Group collects the remains of unborn children from state-run hospitals and private clinics, noting that the group used to gather 25-40 aborted fetuses each day to bury.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, more than 1.6 million abortions were performed in Vietnam between 2015 and 2019.

Asked by Sabol how premature births might be reduced in the U.S. and around the world, Meaney said: “One thing would be to have fewer abortions.”

As well, “actually having the hospitals help the mothers to continue their pregnancies” would help, he said.

“When they’re at risk of premature birth, the amount of days involved is very important. Just a few more days can really increase the likelihood the child will survive,” Meaney said.

“To actually have the hospitals willing to admit mothers who are in danger of premature birth” could help lower such incidences, he said.

Pope Francis greets pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Wednesday general audience on Nov. 20, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Nov 20, 2024 / 13:25 pm (CNA).

To mark 1,000 days since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, Pope Francis shared the “testimony of faith” of a Ukrainian student at his general audience on Wednesday, underscoring the power of faith, love, and hope amid the tragedy of violence.

In a letter to the Holy Father, the student, whose name was not announced, expressed the desire for the pope and all pilgrims at the Wednesday audience to know of the faith — and not just the sufferings — of the people of Ukraine.

“I thank God because, through this pain, I am learning greater love. Pain is not only a road to anger and despair; if based on faith, it is a good teacher of love,” the student wrote.

Describing the horrors of war that killed family members and thousands of other men, women, and children, the student said that if one suffers because of pain it “means that you love.”

“When you speak of our pain, when you remember our thousand days of suffering, speak of our thousand days of love, too, because only love, faith, and hope give a real meaning to our wounds,” the letter to the Holy Father read.

Visibly moved by the letter and the pope’s gesture to share the testimony of faith with hundreds of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, Olena Zelenska, wife of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, met and personally greeted the pope at the conclusion of the audience.

Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati canonizations

During the Wednesday audience, Pope Francis announced that Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, two young Italian Catholics popularly known for their vibrant faith and desire for holiness, will be canonized next year during the Church’s jubilee.  

The long-anticipated announcement was confirmed by Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni that the two blesseds will be canonized on separate dates. Acutis’ canonization is scheduled during the Church’s Jubilee of Teenagers from April 25–27, 2025, and Frassati’s canonization will take place during the Jubilee of Youth from July 28–Aug. 3, 2025.    

Pope announces 2025 children’s rights meeting in Vatican 

Choosing World Children’s Day, celebrated annually on Nov. 20, to make an additional surprise announcement, the pope shared that the Vatican will hold an international meeting to promote the dignity and rights of children on Feb. 3, 2025. 

“It will be an occasion on how we can better protect children, especially children who live without rights, who are abused and exploited and live also in situations of war,” he said on Wednesday.  

To celebrate the occasion and special announcement, the Holy Father invited several boys and girls from the Community of Sant’Egidio to come and receive his paternal blessing and take a group photo.

The Vatican has also released details of the new Pontifical Committee for the World Day of Children on Wednesday. Pope Francis has appointed Father Enzo Fortunato, OFM, the president of the newly-established committee tasked with promoting the Catholic Church’s mission to advocate for children’s rights.  

“Family, church, and state exist for children, not the other way around,” the pope said in a Nov. 20 chirograph. “From birth, every human being is the subject of inalienable, inviolable, and universal rights.”

Catechesis: Charisms are ‘jewels’ from the Holy Spirit

Speaking about the beauty of different personal and communal charisms found in the Church, Pope Francis stressed that Catholics need to “immediately dispel” the misunderstanding of identifying these “jewels” of the Holy Spirit as “spectacular and extraordinary gifts and capabilities.”

“Instead they are ordinary gifts that assume extraordinary value if inspired by the Holy Spirit and embodied with love in the situations of life,” he told those gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

“Such an interpretation of the charism is important,” the pope said.

Before the wooden coffin is closed, Pope Benedict XVI’s personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein and Monsignor Diego Giovanni Ravelli, the Vatican’s lead master of ceremonies for papal liturgies, place a white veil over the late pope’s face. The action on Jan. 4, 2023, is part of the funeral rites for popes. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Nov 20, 2024 / 12:55 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has updated the liturgical book regulating the funeral rite of popes, simplifying some of the rituals at Pope Francis’ request.

The second edition of the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis (“Order of Funerals for Roman Pontiffs”) is a revision of the version published in 2000 and used for the funerals of Pope John Paul II in 2005 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2023.

Among the changes in the new edition, according to Vatican News, is the elimination of the use of three coffins of cyprus, lead, and oak, and the possibility for a deceased pope to be buried outside of the Vatican basilica.

Another change is that the public viewing before the funeral will take place with the remains already in a simple, wooden coffin, not on a raised bier, as was previously done. The ascertainment of the pope’s death will also happen in the pope’s chapel, not his room.

Pope Francis “has stated on several occasions the need to simplify and adapt certain rites so that the celebration of the funeral of the bishop of Rome may better express the faith of the Church in the risen Christ,” the master of papal ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, told Vatican News. 

“The renewed rite,” Ravelli said, “also needed to emphasize even more that the funeral of the Roman pontiff is that of a pastor and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful person of this world.”

The Supreme Court of India. / Credit: Subhashish Panigrahi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bangalore, India, Nov 20, 2024 / 12:25 pm (CNA).

Catholic education officials and legal experts are vowing to appeal the Supreme Court of India’s recent ruling that ended a decades-old policy of zero income tax on the salaries of nuns and priests in government-aided Catholic educational institutions.

“This judgment without a detailed hearing of our plea is very disappointing. We have no option but to challenge this verdict,” Father Xavier Arulraj, the legal secretary of the Tamil Nadu Catholic Bishops’ Council, told CNA on Nov. 15.

The Nov. 7 ruling came after dozens of petitions, including more than 90 pleas by Catholic religious who sought to keep the policy in place in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

“I have been representing 78 congregations, institutions, and dioceses [from Tamil Nadu] before the Supreme Court,” Arulraj said. “We had hoped for a detailed hearing to explain our position but the court disposed of it without hearing us.”

Since 1944, Arulraj noted, the salaries of Catholic nuns and priests had been exempted from income tax as a recognition of their “service to the society.” The rule dates to the final years of colonial rule in India; the country gained independence from the British in 1947.

In 2015 in Tamil Nadu the exemption was removed and the salaries of religious were made taxable there.

Following an appeal by the Church, the Tamil Nadu High Court ruled in 2016 that priests and nuns should not be subject to income tax. The court argued that due to vows of poverty, the salaries could not be subject to income tax as the money is not accrued to them but only to the diocese or congregation.

Arulraj noted that in 2019 the high court reversed the order in favor of the government, forcing the Church to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.

Father Michael Pulickal, the secretary of the “Jagrata” (Vigilance) Commission of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council, told CNA that the income tax department “initiated the process first in Kerala in 2014 for tax deduction from the salaries of Catholic nuns and priests.”

“But, on appeal by the Church, the court stay prevailed until 2021 when the Kerala High Court gave a final verdict that income tax could be collected from the Catholic religious. Then, we also moved the Supreme Court, pleading in the case with the Tamil Nadu appeals,” Pulickal said.

“The dismissal of the Catholic appeals without a detailed hearing is disappointing for those involved,” Romy Chacko, a Catholic lawyer at the Supreme Court, told CNA. He also serves as a designated lawyer for the Kerala Forum of Catholic Religious.

“The higher judiciary may not always hear each appeal in detail. Since the Supreme Court has not given any reason for dismissal of the appeals, review petition is an option available before the Church now,” Chacko said.

“This is not a problem for Kerala and Tamil Nadu alone. Since the Supreme Court has given a verdict, taxation could be applied to any state in the country,” Father Teles Fernandes, the secretary of the Gujarat Board of Catholic Educational Institutions, told CNA.

“Everyone needs to be on the alert,” Fernandez said. 

“We have only 57 aided schools in Gujarat with less than 1% Christians among the population of 64 million of the state,” he continued. 

“But the government has already stayed our right to make appointments of staff and principals in the schools,” he added.

Argentine President Javier Milei walks past President-elect Donald Trump as they attend the America First Policy Institute Gala held at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 14, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. / Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 20, 2024 / 11:20 am (CNA).

The incoming administration of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States will have repercussions well beyond the nation’s borders, including in Latin America. How will the new administration in Washington impact issues in the region such as the defense of life, abortion, gender ideology, and migration?

‘Enormous’ and ‘positive’ impact on life, family issues

While several countries in the region have increased access to abortion through legislation — and policies based on gender ideology have also made some concerning advances — a Trump administration could help reverse the tide, according to analysts consulted by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

For Neydy Casillas, a jurist and vice president of International Affairs at the Global Center for Human Rights based in Washington, D.C., “the impact [of Trump’s election] is enormous.”

“Trump, among his first messages, already came out speaking about very important issues such as, for example, that he’s going to prohibit surgeries or so-called gender affirmation therapies ... which are actually the mutilation of children, and even go after doctors who carry out these surgeries,” she emphasized.

Casillas also said Trump could be expected to support policies that restrict abortion funding in other countries.

“In recent years, with the administration of [Joe] Biden and [Kamala] Harris, we had had tremendous pressure from international organizations and also from countries to promote these policies,” especially from the United States, she noted.

Marcial Padilla, director of the Mexican platform ConParticipación, shared a similar perspective. “The change of government in the United States is going to be positive for Latin America, and for Africa as well, on issues such as abortion and gender ideology,” he told ACI Prensa.

With the new government, he predicted, “the suffocating ideological pressure of the Biden-Harris administration to impose both abortion and gender ideology in Latin America and Africa will disappear.”

“If we add to that the fact that the incoming government will most likely have a pro-family foreign policy that is friendly to fundamental values, we could surely have a period of, first, not feeling hostility and pressure; and perhaps we could even find support” to promote pro-family policies, Padilla noted.

Gildardo López, professor at the School of Government and Economics at Pan American University in Mexico City, agreed and highlighted that those who supported the campaign of president-elect Trump “financially and politically” during his administration could end up supporting pro-life and pro-family initiatives “in the rest of Latin America.”

“Just as there is an agenda ... of the Sao Paulo Forum … in reference to the international group that emerged in Brazil and brings together left-leaning politicians in Latin America, there is also a cutting-edge agenda of a conservative political spectrum,” he pointed out.

Although there are several Latin American countries governed by left-leaning politicians, in which issues such as abortion and gender ideology continue to “advance,” he said, Trump’s election victory can be “an inspiration” for more politically conservative platforms.

Alfonso Aguilar, director of Hispanic Outreach at the American Principles Project, also expressed confidence that “the new administration will stop promoting abortion and gender ideology around the world and through multilateral organizations as President Biden has done.”

Emili J. Blasco, director of the Center for Global Affairs and Strategic Studies at the University of Navarra in Spain, told ACI Prensa that “specifically in relation to abortion during the election campaign, Trump didn’t give it a special emphasis.” He noted that during Trump’s first term, he made appointments to the country’s Supreme Court that led to decisions “that left the issue to the states.”

“Trump gives the impression that he isn’t going to change anything at the federal level or push anything from the White House,” he said. At the same time, however, Blasco noted that the more conservative wave that brought Trump to power has also turned into a majority in the Senate and House of Representatives that could lead to positive developments.

Trump and migrants

According to statistics from United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), between October 2023 and September 2024, there were more than 2.1 million encounters by authorities with undocumented migrants on the country’s border with Mexico.

More than 1.2 million were adults traveling alone, while 804,456 were people who crossed the border as part of a family group. Nearly 110,000 of those stopped by authorities were unaccompanied minors.

For Casillas, the issue of migration is “key” and “very sensitive, because we are talking about people and it’s always a very complex issue for both parties.” 

Although the Democrats, she said, “have had defending immigrants as their banner,” this is “a big lie, because at the time with [Barack] Obama, for example, they had the opportunity to pass legislation in which they could regulate the issue of migration and they didn’t do it.”

“We have to understand,” he added, that Americans “have the right, like any of our countries, to defend their borders and that no country is obliged to receive absolutely everyone, much less when these people have entered illegally.”

What the Trump administration will seek, she said, is for migrants to enter the United States “legally,” following the regulations, which also covers cases of asylum seekers and refugees.

Marcial Padilla pointed out that Trump’s election also points to “great discontent” among Americans “due to the laxity with which the Biden-Harris administration” addressed the immigration problem.

“Most likely, there will be first of all greater order and control in the way in which people not only enter the United States but also join its productive sector,” he said.

However, he emphasized that “I think that Latin American countries should ask and almost demand from the United States that if they have the dominant economy in the world and don’t like the existence of disorderly migration, they should also contribute to the existence of better international trade conditions that make mass migration to the United States unnecessary.”

Alonso Aguilar predicted that “the Trump administration’s policy will seek to discourage unregulated mass migration that puts at risk the safety of the migrants themselves who try to come to the United States.”

“Trump will continue with generous legal immigration policies, but he will close the door to illegal entry,” Aguilar said.

Gildardo López believes the region “must prepare for a more hostile environment toward migrants,” due to Trump’s messaging about possible punitive measures, especially for Mexico, as a transit country for many migrants who come from other countries in Latin America and the world.

Furthermore, mass deportations of undocumented migrants could be “a breeding ground for a social explosion” in their countries of origin.

In this regard, Blasco said that “Trump has made great progress in the campaign on measures against immigration, and he is going to implement them. I don’t know how effective they will be, because in his first term he also [promoted] the issue of the wall, in the end [building] the wall didn’t get that far either, although there were clearly policies against immigration.”

The fear among migrants is understandable, Blasco said, including among “people from Venezuela who continue to want to leave the country; countries like Haiti, who see no other opportunity for life than to leave Haiti, and therefore go to the United States; or in Central America; and no matter what Trump says, or whatever policies there are, they will continue trying to enter the United States illegally.”

“Those people, yes, it’s logical that they are afraid that the door will be closed, or they will not be able to enter, or if they enter, that they will be detained,” Blasco commented.

Possibility of congruence

Casillas believes that the election of Trump, with a trend that seems to be repeated with other presidents in the region, could lead to the emergence of more parties in Latin America with agendas more in line with each other. 

“People want things defined” and for politicians to forget about “all these agendas that have nothing to do with the main needs that people are facing.”

“It’s been shown, especially with this election of Trump and even with that of [Javier] Milei [in Argentina], that people don’t want this socialist plan where children are taken from their parents, where abortion is imposed without restrictions, where gender ideology is promoted left and right.”

Aguilar’s ​​opinion goes in the same direction: “I think Trump has already inspired many leaders in the region and will continue to do so.”

“Trump will continue to offer public support to conservative leaders in the region, and that support will have even more impact now that he is president,” he emphasized.

Padilla, however, is skeptical that Trump’s election will favor like-minded political parties in the region.

“It cannot be guaranteed or assured that the result in the United States will be replicated in other geographic realities, because ultimately the voters will have different factors for making decisions that must be adapted to their national realities,” he said.

When asked if he thinks Trump’s victory can inspire other politicians with similar profiles in Latin America, Blasco said: “I think so. Maybe not in a very strong way, but on the one hand, it does encourage people who are against gender ideology, for example, to see that there is someone in another country” who is taking that stand.

Latin America’s pro-Trump politicians 

Politicians who support Trump in the region, such as Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador; Milei; and former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro; have already reached out to the president-elect, who will take office on Jan. 20, 2025.

Bukele said on X Nov. 7 that he spoke by phone with Trump and congratulated him “on his sweeping victory.” The president of El Salvador said they spoke about “the strong mandate he received from the American people and the significance his election holds for the world.”

According to the Spanish news agency EFE, Bolsonaro — currently disqualified from holding public office by a court ruling — celebrated Trump’s election victory, which, added to congratulation from Milei’s and municipal victories of the center-right in Brazil, would mean that, “the whole world is turning to the right. They are fed up with the ‘woke’ agenda, they are fed up with the issue of diversity. They are fed up with family values ​​being attacked.”

After recalling his “excellent relationship” with Trump, Bolsonaro expressed his desire to become president again after losing in the 2022 elections to the current president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: “They know that if I am a candidate, I will win in 2026.”

Manuel Adorni, presidential spokesman for Milei, expressed his government’s congratulations to Trump on Nov. 6, calling him “an exponent of the free Western and capitalist world.”

“His leadership will find unconditional support from our country to defend life, liberty, and property,” he said.

Trump to Milei: ‘You are my favorite president’

On the morning of Nov. 12, Adorni wrote on X: “The president of the nation, Javier Milei, had a telephone conversation with the President-elect of the United States Donald Trump.” Minutes later, in a new post, he said: “Donald Trump to President Javier Milei: ‘You are my favorite president.’”

On Nov. 14, Milei arrived in the United States to meet with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, becoming the first president in the world to do so.

At dinner that evening, organized by the America First Policy Institute, Milei congratulated Trump “for the greatest political comeback in history, taking on the entire political establishment, even putting his own life at risk.”

It was “a true miracle and conclusive proof that the forces of heaven are on our side,” he added.

Trump then thanked Milei for his words and congratulated him for doing “a fantastic job in a very short period of time” and quipped “Make Argentina Great Again. You know MAGA. He’s a MAGA person. And you know he’s doing that.” 

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Memorial tree in Mayfouk, Lebanon, in remembrance of Christians killed in the Lebanese civil war. / Credit: Ambassador Alberto Fernández/EWTN News

Washington D.C., Nov 20, 2024 / 10:35 am (CNA).

Nov. 20 marks Red Wednesday, a growing effort to show solidarity with the suffering Church.  

Started in 2016 by the papal foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), this year more than 300 Red Wednesday events will be held in 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Austria, Ireland, Malta, the Philippines, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia. 

In 2016, Pope Francis spoke about two types of persecution: “the explicit kind” — to which he related to the martyrs killed that Easter in Pakistan — “and the sort of persecution that is polite, disguised as culture, modernity, and progress, and which ends up taking away man’s freedom and even the right to conscientious objection.”

Red Wednesday in the Middle East

In the Middle East, there is no need to have a special day, week, or month to remember the persecution of the Church. While Red Wednesday is becoming better known there, it is not a tradition yet. But the issue is palpable on a daily basis, touching Middle Eastern Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants alike. 

The persecution occurs in both countries that are bitter adversaries of the West and in countries allied with the West, states at peace and those experiencing war. 

With the commemoration of Red Wednesday approaching its first decade, here are some key milestones in the Red Wednesdays of the Church in the Middle East over the past 10 years. 

2014

The year marked the destruction of the ancient Christian community of Mosul in Iraq as the entire population was expelled from the city with only the clothes on their backs, while items such as cellphones and baby strollers were seized by Islamic State gunmen. Months later, ISIS overran many of the Christian villages on the nearby Nineveh Plains, destroying, looting, and vandalizing. Three years later ISIS was defeated, but Christian communities today are dispersed and survivors struggle to find safety and a secure future.

2015

On a beach in Sirte, 21 Christians were publicly beheaded by the Islamic State. Among them, 20 were Coptic Christians, and all of them are remembered as the martyrs of Libya. In 2023, Pope Francis added them to the Roman Martyrology, the Church’s formal list of officially recognized saints.

Also in 2015, forces belonging to the Islamic State in Syria overran several Assyrian villages on the Khabur River in that country’s northeast, taking 253 men, women, and children hostage. Most of the remaining Assyrian Christian population fled while ISIS blew up more than a dozen churches. Over the next two years ransom was paid to release most of the hostages alive. The community — direct descendants of survivors of the Ottoman Genocide of Assyrians in 1915 — is devastated to this day. Most will never return home.  

2020 (and ongoing)

Christian monuments in Turkey, including Aya Sofya — for 1,000 years the largest church in the world — were turned from museums into mosques by the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Anatolia’s precious Christian architectural and historic heritage is crumbling. 

2023

After enduring a yearlong punishing siege and malnutrition, the entire Armenian Christian population — more than 100,000 people — in the Nagorno-Karabakh region inside Azerbaijan is expelled. Today they are stateless and reduced to poverty in neighboring Armenia, which is itself threatened by more powerful neighbors. 

Ongoing in Iran

Christians in Iran, many of them converts worshipping in underground “house churches,” face persecution and long jail sentences at the hands of Iranian authorities. Hundreds are arrested and detained yearly.

Christians are also targeted as vulnerable, marginalized minorities in situations that affect to a greater or lesser extent their non-Christian neighbors.

Ongoing in Iraq

In Iraq, Christians and other non-Muslims are targeted by criminal networks having murky ties to powerful militias and government authorities. These networks steal Christian property — houses and land — and seek to monopolize ostensibly Christian political representation for their own purposes. 

Ongoing in Lebanon

In Lebanon, Christians not only face cycles of targeted intimidation — both virtual and physical — at the hands of the powerful Hezbollah militia and its allies, but many have been targeted for assassination over the past 20 years, including Christian politicians, journalists, and activists as well as Elias Hasrouni in 2023 and Pascal Suleiman in 2024. War today touches both Christians and non-Christians in a battered and desperate country. 

Ongoing in Egypt

In Egypt, the largest remaining Christian population in the region not only faces official discrimination by the state at different levels and in a variety of fields, but they are still the subject of extremist violence targeting their churches and their communities. 

Ongoing in the Holy Land

Christians in the Holy Land are affected by the violence and insecurity that affect their Muslim and Jewish neighbors but are often singled out by extremists from both of those communities, caught, as it were, between two fires. 

Despite such calamities, the Christians of the East endure, rooted in their land and faithful to their traditions, praying, as all do, that “in all things we may be defended by your protecting help.”

null / Credit: Denis Belitsky/Shutterstock

Washington D.C., Nov 20, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The unresolved question of whether life exists on other planets continues to spark curiosity from the public and the interest of scientists — but one Catholic physicist working on missions to search for potential life also recognizes it as an opportunity to see the glory of God.

Jonathan Lunine, a convert to the Catholic faith and the chief scientist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, spoke to roughly 100 Catholic scientists about the subject at an event in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Nov. 15.

The lecture followed a Gold Mass, celebrated for Catholic scientists, at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. A Gold Mass is held on the feast of St. Albertus Magnus — a Dominican friar, medieval scientist, patron saint of scientists, and mentor to St. Thomas Aquinas.

It was sponsored by The Catholic University of America and the local chapter of the Society of Catholic Scientists, which seeks to respond to St. John Paul II’s calling for Catholic scientists to “integrate the worlds of science and religion in their own intellectual and spiritual lives.”

“I’m not a theologian; I’m a scientist,” Lunine told the crowd as they finished eating brunch at the Beacon Hotel, which is a short walk from the cathedral, about a half-mile north of the White House.

Lunine — whose work at NASA has involved the search for the possibility of unintelligent microbial life on Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Titan — said that as a scientist, “this has been a wonderful journey, being able to participate in these missions.” 

As a Catholic scientist, he said he sees “the gift of the mind” as a gift that “God has given us to … understand the glory of God’s creation.”

Microbial life on other planets, if it were to be found, he said, would be a “manifestation of the order that is baked into the universal design that God created when he created the universe” and created so that “beauty might shine forth from that very order.”

Lunine said those three moons are the most likely locations to have the conditions to sustain life that we have the ability to reach, particularly due to the prevalence of water. The mission to Europa should conclude between 2030 and 2035, the mission to Titan should conclude in the 2030s, and the mission to Enceladus should conclude in the 2040s, he said.

If microbial life were to be discovered on any of those moons, Lunine told CNA, it would show us that there are “other places beyond the Earth where life began.”

Lunine said more theological questions would be raised if the search for life on other planets develops into a search for intelligent and self-aware life that developed on another planet. This would lead to questions like “Are they saved?” or “Are they fallen?”, he said.

If intelligent life exists on other planets, he said it would be “hard to imagine” that none had fallen from God’s grace, noting that it is easy to fall and “even the angels, some of them have fallen.” He said this would create questions such as “did Christ come to their world in a separate incarnation” to save them, and how would humanity would “be the central pivot point of cosmic history.” 

The Catholic Church holds no official position on whether intelligent life exists on other planets, but Pope Francis commented on the subject in 2015, saying: “Honestly I wouldn’t know how to answer,” adding: “Until America was discovered we thought it didn’t exist, and instead it existed.”

The pontiff, however, did affirmatively say that everything in the universe has been created through divine intelligence and “is not the result of chance or chaos.”

The historic Church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint-Omer, in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France, was ravaged by arson on the night of Sept. 2, 2024. / Credit: Courtesy of Father Sébastien Roussel

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 20, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A recently released report from a European watchdog group has found nearly 2,500 documented instances of hate crimes against Christians living in Europe. Approximately 1,000 of these attacks took place in France. 

According to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC) report, which drew on both police and civil society data, 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes and acts of discrimination and intolerance occurred across 35 European countries from 2023 to 2024.

Of these, 232 constituted personal attacks of harassment, threats, and physical assaults against Christians.

Most affected countries: France, England, and Germany

Nearly 1,000 of the anti-Christian hate crimes reported in Europe in 2023 took place in France, with 90% of the attacks waged against churches or cemeteries. The report also found there were about 84 personal attacks against individuals. 

Apart from physical assaults, the report cited data from the French Religious Heritage Observatory, which recorded eight confirmed cases of arson against churches in France in 2023 and 14 attacks in the first 10 months of 2024. Several reported cases were on account of “Molotov cocktails,” a makeshift handheld firebomb.

Religious communities also reported incidents of harassment. Two nuns cited in the report, for example, announced in 2023 that they would be leaving the northwestern city of Nantes on account of “constant hostility and insecurity.” The nuns reportedly experienced “beatings, spitting, and insults.”

The United Kingdom followed close behind France, according to the report, with 702 reported anti-Christian hate crimes, a 15% increase since 2023.

The report also included as anti-Christian acts incidents of Christians being prosecuted for praying silently in the country’s so-called “buffer zones,” such as the case of Adam Smith-Connor, who was convicted for praying in front of an abortion clinic.

The report stated that in Germany, the third most affected country, official government statistics reported 277 “politically motivated hate crimes” against Christians in 2023, a 105% increase from the previous year when there were 103 reported attacks. 

OIDAC Europe independently estimated that “at least 2,000 cases of property damage to Christian places of worship in 2023” took place. 

Motives and perpetrators of anti-Christian hate crimes

OIDAC Europe found that of the 69 documented cases where the motives and background of perpetrators could be accurately accounted for, 21 of them were provoked by a radical Islamist agenda, 14 were of a generally anti-religious nature, 13 were tied to far-left political motives, and 12 were “linked to the war in Ukraine.”

The report also noted that numbers in this respect remained unchanged compared with 2022, “except for cases with an Islamist background, which increased from 11 to 21.”

Pushed to the silent margins

In addition to overt attacks, the OIDAC report highlighted an increased phenomenon of discrimination in the workplace and public life, leading to a rise in self-censorship among those who practice their faith. 

According to a U.K.-based study from June cited in the report, 56% of 1,562 respondents stated they “had experienced hostility and ridicule when discussing their religious beliefs,” an overall 61% rise among those under 35. In addition, 18% of those who participated in the study reported experiencing discrimination, particularly among those in younger age groups.

More than 280 participants in the same survey stated “they felt that they had been disadvantaged because of their religion.”

“I was bullied at my workplace, made to feel less than, despite being very successful at my job in other settings, until I left,” one female respondent in her late 40s stated in the survey, while another respondent, a man in his mid- to late-50s, said: “Any mention of faith in a CV precludes one from an interview. My yearly assessment was lowered because I spoke of Christ.”

The report explained that the majority of discrimination occurs due to the “expression of religious beliefs about societal issues.” However, in the U.K., these instances have extended to private conversations and posts on private social media accounts, according to the report.

A case involving a mother of two children, Kristie Higgs, was cited in the report. Higgs was fired from her job as a pastoral assistant after sharing, in a private Facebook post, “concerns about the promotion of transgenderism in sex education lessons at her son’s primary school.”

“I am not alone to be treated this way — many of the others here to support me today have faced similar consequences,” Higgs stated after her hearing at the Court of Appeals in October.

“This is not just about me,” she added. “It cannot be right that so many Christians are losing their jobs or facing discipline for sharing biblical truth, our Christian beliefs.”

Government interference with the Catholic Church

Two instances of government interference in Catholic religious autonomy were cited. 

One instance occurred in France, in which a secular civil court “ruled against the Vatican’s internal canonical procedures” in a case regarding a French nun who was dismissed from her order. The Vatican sent a letter to the French embassy in response to the ruling, which it called “a serious violation of the fundamental rights of religious freedom and freedom of association of the Catholic faithful.”

In Belgium, the report also noted, two bishops were convicted and ordered to pay financial compensation after they refused to admit a woman to a diaconate training program, despite human rights law, which protects the rights of religious institutions such as the Catholic Church, to decide on matters such as the ordination of clergy without state-level interference.

Recommendations

“As freedom of thought, conscience, and religion is a cornerstone for free and democratic societies, we hope that states will not compromise on the protection of these fundamental rights, and thus ensure an open and peaceful climate in our societies,” the report stated in its conclusion.

OIDAC’s report includes various recommendations to governments of European countries, human rights institutions, the European Union, members of the media, and other “opinion leaders” as well as to Christian churches and individuals.

The watchdog organization’s recommendations include a call for safeguarding freedom of expression, more robust reporting on intolerance and discrimination against Christians, the abandonment of anti-Christian “hate speech” in the public sphere, and for people of faith to engage in public-facing discourse as a means of “dialogue between religion and secular society.”