March for the Martyrs raises awareness of persecuted Armenian Christians and more
Gia Chacón (right), founder of March for the Martyrs, said the plight of the tens of thousands of Christian Armenians pushed out of their homes in the disputed Artsakh or Nagorno-Karabakh region hash been "completely overlooked by the mainstream media.” / Credit: EWTN News Nightly / Screenshot
CNA Staff, Apr 27, 2024 / 09:20 am (CNA).
Marchers are setting out in the nation’s capital on Saturday to call attention to the plight of persecuted Christians throughout the world.
Gia Chacón, founder of For the Martyrs and the March for the Martyrs, said the event aims to highlight often “overlooked” victims of persecution. This year’s march will focus on the persecution suffered by Armenian Christians as well as those in Nigeria and Iran.
In an interview with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol, Chacón said she started the initiative to both increase awareness and provide aid for persecuted Christian communities throughout the world.
Chacón explained that the decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted anew last September, when Azerbaijan unleashed military strikes against an enclave of about 120,000 Armenian Christians in the disputed Artsakh or Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Chacón told EWTN called the situation a “genocide.”
“As a result of this invasion, over 120,000 Christian Armenians were pushed out of their homes,” she said. “Their history was destroyed. This was an attempt at an ethnic cleansing of the Armenia Christians who have been in this region for hundreds of years.”
“It is completely overlooked by the mainstream media,” she added. “It’s also gone under the radar or supposedly under the radar of the Biden administration. They’re not doing enough to protect Christians in Armenia.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria and Iran are both ranked in the top 10 in the Open Doors organization’s 2024 World Watch List, which ranks the top 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution.
Between April and June 2023 there were more than 1,600 recorded deaths of Christians in Nigeria, more than 600 Christians abducted, and more than 100 attacks on communities with fatalities, according to the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA).
Nigerian Catholic priests are frequently kidnapped and in some cases, murdered. One Nigerian bishop has described the situation in Nigeria as a Christian “genocide.”
Chacón also highlighted “ongoing human rights abuses … particularly for the Church” in Iran.
There were 166 documented arrests of Christians in Iran in 2023, according to a 2024 report by Article18. The report found that “many Christians report severe mistreatment during arrest and detention,” while others were not given a reason for their arrest.
But Christians of all traditions “come together as one voice for the persecuted,” Chacón said, adding: “We’ve seen this movement grow every single year.”
Chacón highlighted how not only Catholics and Protestants have joined the cause but also Assyrian, Orthodox, Armenian, Nigerian, and Ethiopian Christians.
“It’s beautiful to see just the diversity in the crowd,” she said. “It really is a picture and a reflection of the global body of Christ.”
The annual march is taking place in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, starting at 3 p.m. It will feature a kickoff rally on the National Mall with actor Jim Caviziel as a keynote speaker.
Survivors of persecution and other experts will also speak at the event. The March for Martyrs Procession will start at 4 p.m. and the evening will conclude with a Night of Prayer for the Persecuted at the Museum of the Bible.
For more details on the march, visit the For the Martyrs website.
Regnum Christi: ‘It would have been easy to run and hide,’ but the Church is ‘purifiying’ us
The members of the general board of directors of the Regnum Christi Federation, before its first general convention from April 29 to May 4, 2024, in Rome. / Credit: Regnum Christi
ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 27, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).
The Regnum Christi Federation will hold its first general convention in Rome from April 29 to May 4, the first such assembly since its statutes were approved in 2019 after a long process of listening, purification, and a hopeful look toward its future.
The ecclesial movement was shaken to the core by the revelation of numerous cases of sexual abuse and abuses of power primarily involving Father Marcial Maciel, the deceased founder of the Legionaries of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement.
The Regnum Christi Federation is comprised of four vocations: the Legionaries of Christ (priests), Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi, and lay members.
Regnum Christi is now defined as an apostolic body and spiritual family led by a general board of directors, consisting of the directors general of the Legionaries of Christ and the Consecrated Men and Women of Regnum Christi, with the assistance of two laypeople who both have an advisory voice and vote.
Since 2019, ‘we’re walking without crutches’
Layman Álvaro Abellán-García explained to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that the institution has spent “many years in the intensive care unit, with the healing presence of the Holy See” and that, “although it would have been easy to run and hide, the Lord, through the mediation of the Church and thanks to the testimony of many whom we didn’t know how to listen to in time, led us to the light and in the light is purifying us.”
Since 2019, with the new statutes, “we are already walking without crutches,” a time in which “collegial government, the growing co-responsibility of the laity, and the greater participation of all in apostolic discernment” have been fundamental, he noted.
“We still have a way to go and we’re not all at the same point,” Abellán-García acknowledged. However, he is convinced that the federation “is today more prepared than 15 years ago to make the kingdom of Christ present.”
‘Taking responsibility for the past without being paralyzed by it’
Nancy Nohrden, director general of the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, said that an important path of renewal has been followed “full of experiences and learning, taking responsibility for the past without being paralyzed by it, seeking to respond to the needs of the world and of the Church.”
The general convention, which opens Monday, begins with some progress already being made and with the conviction that “hope for the future and trust in what God wants for us are ever more present.”
The convention represents, Nohrden said, a hope “that remains fresh, even when we realize that we are fragile, because God is more powerful. And a hope that is not frightened in the face of apparent human failure, because God has other criteria, another logic, other plans.”
A discernment ‘that reaches out’
Francisco Gámez, the other layman who is a member of the board of directors as an assistant, explained that between 2013 and 2019 when the new statutes were approved, the federation experienced “a process of discernment from within” in which institutional renewal went hand in hand with spiritual renewal.
Since 2019, the task has been to “implement both dimensions,” which are the canonical organization and the spiritual aspect. “Now that 2024 is here, the Holy Spirit asks us for a discernment that goes out, that looks outward, apostolic discernment,” Gámez explained.
This means that “God asks us to go out, carrying in our traveling bags our lived experience, the sufferings and the joys we have gone through, to give a testimony of hope and of a God who is all mercy and love.”
Finding a way to have that presence in a world “that is full of distractions,” Gámez pointed out, is demanding, even more so when “with all humility, we see what God is calling us to do,” he commented. However, the lay leader is confident because “for God nothing is impossible.”
“Putting all this into prayer and communion will be precisely the discernment we hope to have,” he said, adding that one of the main fruits of the convention would be to determine what God wants for Regnum Christi.
Beyond the difficulties
As is evident, the road traveled by those who make up the new federation has not been without difficulties.
Félix Gómez Rueda, director general of the Consecrated Laity of Regnum Christi, shared that “facing the difficulties of implementing a new form of government is not easy, taking into account the complexity of the extension of the presence of Regnum Christi in the world [present in nearly 40 countries on five continents] and a large number of practical and operational issues.”
For Gómez, the general convention “is a very important way to face these difficulties” and will analyze the limitations, progress, and challenges.
However, he emphasized, “we don’t want to stop there.” The objective is to find “ways to better serve the evangelization of society” aided by “the contributions of the different places where Regnum Christi is present and always open to the action of the Holy Spirit.”
Promoting the co-responsibility of the laity
Father John Connor, LC, director general of the Legionaries of Christ, told ACI Prensa that the members of the religious congregation are approaching the first general convention “out of a commitment to be apostles for the Church and for the world, but not alone, but in Regnum Christi, as a single apostolic body and spiritual family.”
Furthermore, they will do so by “promoting and participating generously in collegiality, mission, discernment, prayer; together with all the vocations of Regnum Christi and promoting the growing co-responsibility of the laity.”
For Connor, the specific way in which the Legionaries of Christ are going to take part in the general convention also involves participating “as a community of apostles together with all the members, making contributions and complementing each other.”
“We are constantly praying to God to be able to continue being docile to his Spirit that renews, refreshes, and brings newness,” he said.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Analysis: Jesuit sex abuse scandal in Bolivia could be used politically to repress Church
Facade of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly of Bolivia. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons / EEJCC
ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 27, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).
One year after the Spanish newspaper El País published the report “Diary of a Pedophile Priest,” which recounted the sexual abuse of minors committed in Bolivia by the deceased Jesuit priest Alfonso Pedrajas, journalists from ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, went to the South American country to look into the political implications of the case, how the scandal has affected the Church’s image in Bolivia, and the response of the civil justice system.
Pedrajas, better known as “Padre Pica,” arrived in South America in the early 1960s as part of his formation process with the Jesuits. For 10 years he lived in Peru and Ecuador, where he allegedly committed his first abuses while still a seminarian, and in 1971 he settled permanently in Bolivia.
There the Society of Jesus appointed him assistant principal of the John XXIII Institute, a boarding school whose mission was to form the most prepared students in the country, with a special predilection for those immersed in poverty.
Three years later, Padre Pica would become the school’s principal, where he reportedly sexually abused more than 80 minors over a period of almost 30 years.
Since the scandal broke, both the Jesuits in Bolivia and the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference have worked to cooperate with the justice system and elicit complaints from victims. Several initiatives were also launched to guarantee that victims would be heard and support provided to them.
In this context, lawsuits began to be filed implicating several Jesuit priests for abuses committed decades ago, and even a class-action complaint was filed by a group of former students of the John XXIII Institute against the current provincial of the Society of Jesus in the country, Father Bernardo Mercado, who is currently under investigation by the justice system.
A Senate truth commission to respond to the abuses
Regarding the Bolivian Senate’s move to pursue the abuse cases by creating a Special Truth Commission, the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference charged that the Senate’s work “has been very biased” due to attempts to politically instrumentalize it and because of pressure from the majority ruling party.
One of the senators on the commission, Nelly Gallo Soruco, a member of the opposition-leaning Citizen’s Community party, spoke with ACI Prensa about the work they have carried out in recent months and the steps to follow in the future.
The main objective of the Special Truth Commission is to conduct an investigation and then submit a report that will be made available to the president of the Senate. Gallo strongly emphasized that the commission has no power to impose criminal penalties or administer justice.
“The special commission,” Gallo explained, “was formed as a result of the concern that arose after the publication in Spain of the El País report.” The commission began operating in June 2023, she said.
The Citizen’s Community party member began to be part of the commission due to the fears that her party had about the “possible manipulation for political purposes” of abuse cases in the Church. In total there are six senators on the commission, three of whom belong to the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party, historically related to former Bolivian president Evo Morales.
“There was a susceptibility that the majority could [manipulate] the objective that the commission has. By the time I joined, several interviews had already been conducted with those involved, among them the former students of the John XXIII school and the ombudsman,” Gallo said.
The senator noted that while she was present the commission also interviewed Pedro Lima, a controversial and well-known media figure in Bolivia, a MAS sympathizer, and a former Jesuit.
Lima has repeatedly charged that he was expelled from the Jesuits when he decided to report cases of abuse. For Gallo, Lima is a person who has “a very strong feeling against the Church.” ACI Prensa contacted Lima to get his take on the case and the senator’s statements, but he declined to comment.
Abuse issue in Bolivia is ‘very common’
Gallo also stressed the importance of realizing that the issue of abuse is “sensitive and must be treated carefully”; “unfortunately it’s very common” in Bolivian society, she said, and “the authorities aren’t paying much attention to it.”
Furthermore, she added that many of the laws protecting minors “are not fully complied with or are not functional.”
“We need this commission to fulfill that role, that of enforcing legislative regulations and not manipulating them in a political-partisan way. It should proceed with the respect that the victims and the religious institution deserve, within which these very painful situations of abusing children arose,” Gallo said.
The legislator pointed out: “We have seen that the Church and the Society of Jesus have been very open and have had no intention of hiding anything; that has been a great help in being able to remove any thoughts of complicity.”
Gallo categorically stated that “the Church is not guilty of the individual actions of its members.”
The importance of religious freedom in Bolivia
“We are firm defenders of freedoms and human rights, especially religious freedom. We need churches to be a center of trust for the free exercise of faith,” the senator said.
The truth is that religious freedom in the South American country is increasingly threatened and many commentators are beginning to express their concern.
The “Pedrajas Case” and the various complaints that followed could be the perfect excuse for the government to openly and definitively attack the Bolivian Catholic Church.
“We are concerned that these deplorable cases may be used to politically persecute the Church,” Gallo reiterated.
The abuse crisis in Bolivia continues to cast a shadow on the Catholic Church in the country, especially regarding the victims, who seemed to have sought answers and justice in vain. As the investigations progress, and despite the efforts of the Church, everything seems to indicate that the road ahead will be very long.
In a panorama where faith is faltering, Bolivia faces a painful crossroads in which the search for solutions seems to be trapped in a vicious circle of mistrust, legal loopholes, economic interests, and political pressures.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Franciscans file petition to stop cable cars from passing over Holy Land Catholic cemetery
A view of the modern area of the Catholic cemetery located on the southern hillside of Mount Zion in April 2024. In the background are the buildings of the Arabic neighborhood of Abu Tor. / Credit: Marinella Bandini
Jerusalem, Apr 27, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).
This past February, the Custody of the Holy Land filed a petition in the Jerusalem District Court against the confiscation of a piece of land inside the Catholic cemetery, which is located on the southern hillside of Mount Zion and serves as a parish cemetery.
The affair is part of a project to build a cable car running from First Station (the shopping and entertainment area in West Jerusalem) to the Old City’s Dung Gate (the main access to the Western Wall and close to the City of David archaeological site), passing over the Hinnom Valley (or Geenna). The cable cars would be strung over some 15 pylons, from about 30 to 85 feet high, and would ferry up to 3,000 people per hour in up to 72 cars that can each hold 10 people.
The Jerusalem Development Authority (a joint agency of the government and the Jerusalem Municipality), which is responsible for the project, is exploring the opportunity to use the piece of land in the cemetery to place a cable car support pylon.
The Custody of the Holy Land fears that the cable car may pass over the cemetery, a detail that had been ruled out during a preliminary meeting in 2017, as evidenced by a protocol that CNA was able to view. Relying on that premise and promise at that time, the custody did not exercise its right to object to the project.
However, on Christmas Eve 2023, everything changed. A planning notice by the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee of the Jerusalem Municipality was found on a pylon close to the cemetery announcing that that piece of land was going to be temporarily confiscated (for at least eight years).
According to Eliana Touma, an attorney and legal adviser of the Custody of the Holy Land, who was contacted by CNA, “the custody didn’t receive any kind of formal notice from the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee.”
The area subject to confiscation (not yet effective) is situated on the northeast side of the cemetery. It is the oldest part of the cemetery, where there are some graves of British soldiers from the time of the British Mandate in Palestine. These graves would need to be removed and relocated if the construction of the cable car pylon were to proceed. This risks turning a local dispute into an international case.
Also in this area is the sarcophagus of Francesca Barluzzi, sister of architect Antonio Barluzzi, who designed some of the famous holy sites in the Holy Land cared for by the custody. This year marks the centenary of two of them: the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor and the Basilica of Agony in Gethsemane.
In this same cemetery, in the more modern section, is the burial place of Oskar Schindler, one of “righteous among the nations,” who is credited with saving the lives of more than 1,000 Jews during the Holocaust. The grave is visited by many Jews and is almost completely covered by stones.
According to Touma, “the lawyers of the custody met the representative of the Jerusalem Development Authority at least three times in January and February before submitting the petition,” and “a tour at the cemetery was done in February, to show them that in that area there are the graves of the British soldiers.”
After nothing came of these meetings, the Custody of the Holy Land filed a petition in the Jerusalem District Court, a legal action that must be undertaken when a decision from the state or any other governmental office is believed to have damaged the subject in any way.
“It’s no longer possible to oppose the plan because the deadlines for doing so have expired, and we have relinquished our opposition based on what was promised to us,” Touma explained to CNA. “At the moment, the only option we have is to oppose the confiscation, and that’s what we’re doing with this petition.”
The petition was filed against the Jerusalem Development Authority, the Municipality of Jerusalem, and the Local Planning and Building Committee of the Jerusalem Municipality. The court gave the respondents until June to respond to the petition (and reach an agreement). A first hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16.
According to Touma, the petition’s main arguments are threefold.
First, the Custody of the Holy Land claims that authorities have broken the promise made in 2017 not to run the cable car over the Franciscan cemetery on Mount Zion.
“Discrimination” is another important argument: “Lands owned by the state and used for public purposes that have been leased by the Israel Land Authority cannot be confiscated, while the land owned by the Church is going to be confiscated even though it is used for public purposes [cemetery].”
The accusation of discrimination is particularly loaded with meaning in a social and religious context like this one. In using this argument, there’s a growing sense among Christian churches that they are being targeted by Israeli institutions. The attack on properties would ultimately be nothing but a threat to their existence, carried out with different arguments whenever the opportunity arises.
The third argument concerns the nonnecessity of the land confiscation itself.
“According to previous judicial decisions,” Touma told CNA, “in order to confiscate land, it is necessary to demonstrate that the specific part of land is really needed and essential for the project. This justification was not provided.”
A land confiscation is the toughest and most extreme action of an administration and the Custody of the Holy Land considers it “not proportionate, not reasonable, and not just at all.”
“We must stop it, especially when we have the legal right and opportunity to do so,” Touma said. “We must take proactive steps to prevent any interventions that could dramatically affect the churches. It’s essential to establish clear boundaries and to make it unequivocally clear that we will not remain silent.”
Speaking to CNA, the custos of the Holy Land, Father Francesco Patton, lamented “the continuous assault on the Holy City by constructions and changes to the landscape, which sometimes even damage or expropriate Church properties.”
The fact that the confiscation of a cemetery area is at issue “aggravates the situation because traditionally, these areas are the most respected in the Holy Land,” he continued. “The issue of cemetery areas deeply touches the sensitivities of Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. Wherever there are cemetery areas, they should be protected as much as possible.”
There is also another cemetery, belonging to the small Karaite community, a Jewish religious denomination, considered by some a sect, originating in Mesopotamia in the early eighth century, that is affected by the project. Its cemetery is located on the opposite side of the Hinnom Valley from the Catholic cemetery, on the slope beneath the Abu Tor neighborhood, opposite Mount Zion. The cable car would pass directly over it, and the community has objected to the project.
However, the high court dismissed the objections by the Karaite community, saying that if the Jerusalem authorities moved it, it would pass over the Catholic cemetery, which wasn’t possible due to their agreement with the Custody of the Holy Land. The fact that the promise to the custody is mentioned in a court ruling may strengthen the custody’s position.
‘Little miracle of Lille’: How a candlelight Mass gathers hundreds of young people every week in France
Every Tuesday evening at 10 p.m., between 800 and 900 students converge on the historic St. Joseph’s Chapel at Lille Catholic University for a candlelight Mass. / Credit: Courtesy of Prudence Cuypers
National Catholic Register, Apr 27, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
“The good makes no noise,” St. Francis de Sales would say of Lille’s candlelight Mass.
Indeed, while France regularly shows itself to be at the forefront of the de-Christianization of the West and recently made headlines for its constitutionalization of abortion, the embers of Christian renewal are already igniting — quietly yet powerfully — on the country’s northern horizon.
Every Tuesday evening at 10 p.m., between 800 and 900 students converge on the historic St. Joseph’s Chapel at Lille Catholic University for a candlelight Mass. This number has been growing month after month since the initiative was launched in 2016 and has significantly increased the number of new catechumens there journeying toward baptism.
For its initiators, this unexpectedly successful formula is a universal model to be exported to touch the souls of the vast number of young people who thirst for interiority in a world profoundly atomized by the expansion of the virtual world into all spheres of daily life.
‘Simplicity of beauty’
Launched on the initiative of a group of six students in a small chapel under the chaplaincy of the prestigious Lille university (France’s largest private not-for-profit university, also known as “La Catho”), the candlelight Mass quickly surpassed the 300-participant mark, forcing the organizers to relocate in order to continue to welcome the growing flow of students, whether believers or simply curious.
To this end, in 2019, the large St. Joseph’s Chapel adjoining the school, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year and was long used as a room for students to take exams, was restored. The following year, the building’s capacity of some 600 seats was met at the Mass, forcing students to arrive early to avoid standing or sitting on the floor.
During Lent this year, the security service had to turn away hundreds of faithful, as current regulations forbid the reception of more than 900 people in the building.
How to explain the craze for a Mass in the middle of the week when Europe’s churches are tending to empty out at a worrying rate?
While traditionalist and charismatic movements within the Church have had a rare ability to galvanize crowds in France in recent years, as demonstrated by the incredible success of pilgrimages to Chartres and Paray-le-Monial, this Mass in Lille makes no claim to any particular identity or sensibility, other than an attachment to the beauty of the liturgy and the quality of its preachers. The chants are usually sung by a polyphonic choir, whose depth and musicality the participants praise.
“Over and above the various movements developing within the Church today, I think that what is most likely to attract young people is the simplicity of beauty,” said Joséphine Auberger, a student at La Catho and head of communications at the chaplaincy.
She added: “I have a friend who usually only attends the Traditional Latin Mass, precisely because of his quest for beauty, and who finds himself completely in this celebration, and I think he’s far from alone.”
For Louis Tranié, a physiotherapy student and vice president of the chaplaincy office, the “WYD Lisbon” effect (referring to the World Youth Day that attracted hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to the Portuguese capital in August 2023) has also added to the fervor surrounding this weekly gathering.
“People attract people; word of mouth has played a big part in this unexpected triumph, not to mention the fact that immersion in the dark also attracts many young people estranged from the Church, who are thus no longer afraid of being judged by their neighbors,” Tranié noted.
“The time — 10 p.m. — also represents free time for these students, who have finished their day and generally have nothing planned for that time,” evoking an ideal moment to “give something to God and receive something in return,” added Father Charles-Marie Rigail, chaplain at the Catholic university.
Anchor in a changing world
Placed mainly in the choir and central aisle, so that only Christ on the crucifix is illuminated, the candles are there to help the young participants raise their gaze to heaven in an authentic heart-to-heart with God, stripped of all worldly artifice.
“Everything is focused on the Word of God, of his Church, which goes so much further than what men are capable of creating, and which is part of a long history and tradition that goes back a long way, offering a solid anchor for all those who are thinking about their future and feel they are living in a very changeable world, very liquid and filled with uncertainties,” Rigail said.
He added with a smile that the world’s Instagram and other social networks, on which young people spend a lot of their time, will never be able to quench this thirst to belong to something beyond fashions and ephemeral electronic devices.
“This is how to touch people’s hearts, break down current prejudices about the Church, and raise awareness of its usefulness and relevance, trying to offer something that is good and as right as possible.”
The young chaplain also pointed out that, alongside the community dimension instilled by the crowd, this darkness penetrated by candlelight alone makes for a very personal experience, a necessary condition for the interiority that this Mass aims to foster.
Creating torchbearers
Apart from the triumph of the initiative, revealed by figures directly at odds with the general trend in the country, other fruits are already visible, made manifest by the doubling of new catechumens every year for the past four years.
“I make it a point to stay and chat with people after Mass, and I meet all kinds of people, from classic practicing Catholics to avowed atheists, some of whom, moved by what they saw, end up wanting to know more, while some nonpracticing believers decide to go further in their faith,” Rigail said.
This evangelizing mission is reinforced throughout the rest of the week by the various activities promoted by the eight young members of the chaplaincy office and the many volunteers who assist them.
The ultimate mission of this initiative, as Rigail recalled, is in fact not to turn those who approach it into “consumers of beautiful liturgy” but rather into Catholics capable of being actors of their own faith and exporting this model once they’ve left university.
“We’d be missing the point if, on arriving in their local parishes, these young people were discouraged by far less engaging celebrations and decided to travel 50 kilometers to find a liturgy that suited them,” he concluded. “On the contrary, our aim is to increase their appreciation of the liturgy to the point of encouraging them to roll up their sleeves and get more involved in their parishes to enhance the beauty of the celebrations and thus reproduce locally the ‘little miracle of Lille.’”
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and is reprinted here on CNA with permission.
109 years after genocide, Armenia faces another existential threat
Attendees lay flowers at the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan to mark the 109th anniversary of World War I-era mass killings on April 24, 2024. / Credit: KAREN MINASYAN/AFP via Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).
As historians and human-rights activists mark the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide this week, some are warning that Armenia is once again facing another existential threat.
Speaking on “EWTN News Nightly” on Wednesday, Simone Rizkallah, an Armenian activist with the Philos Project, said that “this feels less like a remembrance and more like a truly historical event that we are in the midst of.”
The Armenian Genocide was carried out by Ottoman Turks in 1915 and resulted in the deaths of some 1.5 million Armenian Christians, according to historians. Though recognized as a genocide by the U.S. and more than 30 other countries, Turkey denies that characterization.
The massacre took place over a hundred years ago. But it has been less than a year since Azerbaijan, another Muslim neighbor of Armenia and an ally of Turkey, unleashed a violent takeover of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, resulting in more than 100,000 Armenian Christians fleeing their homes. The mass exodus of ethnic Armenians has been called a case of “ethnic cleansing” by some leaders in the international community.
Rizkallah fears that rather than marking the end of Azerbaijan’s aggression, Nagorno-Karabakh was just the beginning.
“Azerbaijan and Turkey are now continuing to threaten Armenia proper and have made it very clear that they will not stop at taking Artsakh and Nagorno Karabakh, which they have already done, but they will take all of Armenia eventually,” she said.
Why does it matter?
Armenia is a small country in the South Caucasus that has a population of approximately 2.9 million. It is a deeply religious country and one of the few Christian nations in the Near East.
According to Rizkallah, Armenia is the oldest Christian nation in the world, having officially converted to Christianity in the year 301. Since then, the people of Armenia have clung to Christianity, maintaining the light of the faith in the region throughout the centuries.
But now, sandwiched between Turkey and Azerbaijan, two Muslim nations with much larger populations, economies, and militaries, Armenia’s very existence appears to be threatened.
Last October the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNA that there were “real chances” of peace with Armenia “in a short time.”
On April 23 Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan agreed to cede four border villages to Azerbaijani control. Despite protestations from many Armenian citizens, Pashinyan said that the concessions were the only way to avoid direct war with Azerbaijan.
Nagorno-Karabakh a warning of what is to come?
Lara Setrakian, an Armenian reporter and human rights activist, told CNA that though Armenia has attempted to integrate and shelter the Nagorno-Karabakh refugees, seven months after fleeing, they are largely living in poverty with “very little hope of seeing their homes again.”
“Some of these people have horrific injuries, many have lost family members,” she said. “They’ve been through quite a lot, some of them came in showing signs of malnutrition. So, the rehabilitation of these people has been a massive task.”
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan continues to imprison members of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnically Armenian former leadership.
Ruben Vardanyan, former state minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, is one such prisoner who is being kept in complete isolation in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital. According to an April 25 statement by his family, Vardanyan has been kept in “worsening prison conditions” with very little contact with the outside world.
Setrakian believes that all of Armenia is similarly “in a very tough spot.”
She explained that there has been a “significant” military buildup by Azerbaijan in strategic places along the two countries’ border and said that Pashinyan’s concession would likely not be the last.
“Armenia is being squeezed by the threat of force and the continual use of force on its borders,” she said.
What’s next?
Until recently, nearby Russia had helped to maintain the balance of power in the region. But on April 17, a Russian peacekeeping force stationed near the Azerbaijan-Armenia border since 2020 withdrew in what was seen as a concession to Azerbaijan.
Setrakian believes that Russia has grown more reliant on Azerbaijani oil after it invaded Ukraine, prompting it to be more permissive of Azerbaijani aggression, with disastrous results for Armenia.
“Armenia has stepped into a phase of making concessions and Azerbaijan has been asking for more and more,” she said.
It has gotten to the point that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has begun referring to Armenia as “western Azerbaijan” and is claiming that Armenia has “always” been a part of Azerbaijan.
“This is really very disturbing,” Setrakian said, adding that “it’s exactly what Putin did in Ukraine” and that “it legitimizes going for any swath of modern-day Armenia that they consider to be their historical claim.”
Activists urge U.S. intervention
While the U.S. has expressed solidarity with the Armenian people and sent some aid during the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis, many activists feel there is more that could be done to help the Armenian Christians.
One way activists feel the U.S. could do more is by sanctioning Azerbaijan and cutting off all delivery of military aid. According to the Government Accountability Office, the U.S. Department of Defense sent $164 million worth of “security aid” to Azerbaijan.
Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, believes that assistance needs to end.
He led a rally in front of the White House on Wednesday in which he called on President Joe Biden and Congress to stop sending weapons to Azerbaijan, saying: “We can’t let a repeat of 1915 happen again on our watch.”
Meanwhile, Alexis Wilkins, a political commentator for PragerU and granddaughter of Armenian immigrants, also told CNA that the U.S. should intervene to help the Armenians.
Wilkins said that to her the Armenian Genocide is personal, explaining that while the world calls it a “genocide,” she calls it “the reason my Papa didn’t know any of his aunts or uncles.”
She admitted that while there are many factors at play in global politics, she believes that “strong leadership and intervention will be necessary” to avoid a similar disaster.
“The continuation of not delineating right from wrong is not a victimless crime,” she said. “Not 109 years ago, and not now today. True peace is through strength, and exhibiting weakness in this regard is essentially to look evil in the face and say: ‘Go ahead.’”
Franciscan University rejects Biden administration’s transgender policies in Title IX
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, chapel and statue. / Credit: Joseph Antoniello, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).
Franciscan University of Steubenville will continue to separate its housing, restrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams on the basis of biological sex — rather than self-asserted “gender identity” — despite recent federal changes to Title IX guidelines.
The announcement comes after President Joe Biden’s Department of Education issued a new interpretation of Title IX, which states that all prohibitions on sex discrimination will now apply to discrimination based on a person’s self-asserted “gender identity.”
Religious schools, such as the Catholic Franciscan University, are exempt from Title IX provisions that violate their faith.
Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, the president of Franciscan University, sent a letter to students that stated that the new interpretation of Title IX does not apply to the university because it is inconsistent with the Catholic Church’s teaching on sex. The university president referenced Franciscan’s compendium on human sexuality, which states that a person’s “sexual identity” is based on his or her biology.
“We believe in the inherent dignity of every human person,” Pivonka wrote in the email. “And as a passionately Catholic institution, we believe in and follow the teachings of the Catholic Church that consider ‘sex’ to refer to the objective reality of a human person as a man (male) or as a woman (female), grounded in and determined by a person’s biology.”
Per the university’s policy, neither employees nor students will be forced to refer to a person with pronouns that are inconsistent with the person’s biological sex. They will also not face any discipline for “holding views and beliefs” consistent with the university’s position on human sexuality, which is based on Catholic teaching.
In his letter, Pivonka noted that there is a difference between “behaviors that may be judged by our current cultural norms to be discriminatory,” such as explaining the Catholic teaching on sexuality, and “behaviors that, in fact, violate the dignity of a person,” such as harassment or violence.
“Violations of the dignity of a person will not be tolerated on this campus,” he said. “Presenting authentic Catholic teachings, which convey truth, beauty, liberty, and healing, uplift the human person in every respect. Teaching what the Church teaches is an act of charity and our duty as a Catholic university.”
The Biden administration implemented the new regulations late last week. According to the executive summary, the changes are meant to “clarify that sex discrimination includes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”
The new interpretation of Title IX has already created tension with states that have passed laws restricting women’s and girls’ athletic competitions and other private spaces to only biological women and girls. Public officials in at least two states, Oklahoma and Florida, have already said they would not comply with the new rules.
U.S. birth and fertility rates drop to record lows, according to CDC report
null / Credit: KieferPix/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).
Provisional data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week showed that the fertility rate in the United States hit a record low and the total number of births in the country was the lowest it’s been in decades.
According to the report, slightly fewer than 3.6 million babies were born in 2023, or 54.4 births per 1,000 women aged 15 through 44. This was a 2% decline in total births and a 3% decline in births per 1,000 women when compared with the previous year.
The total fertility rate, which estimates how many children an average woman would have over the course of her life based on the yearly data, was just over 1.6 births per woman, which was a 2% decline from the previous year. This is well below the replacement rate needed to sustain a population, which is about 2.1 births per woman over her life.
This was the fewest number of babies born in the United States in a year since 1979 and the lowest fertility rate recorded in American history — just under the previous record lows set in 2020.
The 2023 decline reverses a minor fertility rate bump for the calendar years of 2021 and 2022, which was the first increase since 2014. The 2023 numbers continue a wider trend in fertility declines since the 1960s when contraception became widely available in the United States and the women’s liberation movement began to emerge. Abortion became widely available in the 1970s after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision — which was overturned in 2022.
Fertility rates by age group
The birth rate dropped for teenagers and women in their 20s and 30s — but the decline was sharper for teenagers and women in their 20s than it was for women in their 30s. The birth rate for women in their 40s did not show significant changes.
According to the data, the 2023 birth rate for teenagers aged 15 through 19 was 13.2 per 1,000 women, which was a 3% decline from the previous year. The birth rate for women aged 20 to 24 was 55.4 births for 1,000 women, which is a 4% decline from the previous year. The birth rate for women aged 25 through 29 was 91 births per 1,000 women, which was a 3% decline from the previous year.
The 2023 birth rate for women aged 30 through 34 was 95.1 births per 1,000 women, which was a 2% decline from the previous year. For women aged 35 through 39, there were 54.7 births per 1,000 women, which was a decrease of less than 1%.
Fertility rates by ethnic group
According to the report, most ethnic groups saw a decline in total births and a decrease in fertility rates from 2022 to 2023 — but this reduction affected some ethnic groups at different rates.
The total number of births was down 5% for American Indian and Alaska Native women, 4% for Black women, 3% for white women, and 2% for Asian women. For Hispanic women, the total number of births went up by 1%. There was not much change for Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander women.
No ethnic group saw an increased general fertility rate from 2022 to 2023. It decreased by 5% among American Indian and Alaska Native women and Black women, by 3% for Asian and white women, and by 1% for Hispanic women. The rate was virtually unchanged for Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander women.
Most priests in Sierra Leone are sons of Muslims, bishop says
There are now more than 100 priests in the four dioceses of Sierra Leone. / Credit: Shutterstock
ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 26, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).
Bishop Natale Paganelli, 66, arrived as a Xaverian missionary in 2005 in Sierra Leone. In an interview with the Catholic magazine Omnes posted April 25, he noted that the majority of Catholic priests in that African country are sons of Muslims.
“Most priests are sons of Muslims. Why? Because of the schools,” explained the prelate of Italian origin, who also spent 22 years in Mexico and who was apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Makeni in Sierra Leone from 2012–2023.
“When the Xaverians arrived they used a very interesting strategy. Since there were almost no schools in the country’s north, they began to establish them, first primary schools, then secondary schools. Evangelization came through the schools,” he continued.
Regarding Muslims who study in Catholic schools, Paganelli explained that “the majority of them, attending our schools, which have a lot of prestige, thanks be to God, come into contact with Christianity, with priests, and at a certain point they ask for baptism and take a catechumenal course at the same school. Generally, there is no opposition from parents.”
In fact, he noted, “we say that there is very good religious tolerance in Sierra Leone. This is one of the most beautiful things that we can export to the world, not only diamonds, gold, other minerals.”
The “only serious problem” he has had, the prelate explained, has been with the Muslim tribal chiefs, “because they wanted Catholic schools in each village, but I could not build a Catholic school in each village, it was impossible; there were already 400, a very large number.”
One of the priests who is the son of Muslims is the current bishop of Makeni, Bob John Hassan Koroma, who took over the diocese that was administered by Paganelli until May 2023.
The Italian prelate said there are now more than 100 priests in the four dioceses of Sierra Leone. “The number of priests is growing but religious vocations, especially women’s vocations, are a little less because that’s more complicated, because in their culture women are not highly regarded, so it’s more difficult for them to think about consecrated life.”
Paganelli also explained that at Easter Muslims, like Catholics, also ask their houses to be blessed; and just as Muslims share Christmas dinner with Christians, they also invite those who believe in Christ to share food on the last day of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting and purification.
In general, the bishop said, “there is a good relationship” between Muslims and Christians. “The majority of marriages in our diocese are mixed, between Catholics and Muslims. They say that love solves many problems and creates a lot of unity, and it’s true,” the prelate concluded.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Four German bishops resist push to install permanent ‘Synodal Council’
Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne attends a German Synodal Way assembly on March 9, 2023. / Credit: Synodaler Weg/Maximilian von Lachner
CNA Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 13:57 pm (CNA).
Four German bishops on Wednesday distanced themselves from the controversial Synodal Way’s plans for a permanent body to oversee the Church in Germany, instead appealing for unity with the universal Church.
The four bishops are the same who have previously blocked funding for this body: Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne and three prelates from Bavaria: Gregor Maria Hanke, OSB, of Eichstätt; Stefan Oster, SDB, of Passau; and Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg.
In a joint statement, the prelates confirmed on April 24 that they would not be parties to a committee charged with setting up a German “Synodal Council, as this would conflict with the sacramental constitution of the Church.”
The four bishops also rejected the view that the German Bishops’ Conference could legally establish a “synodal committee” if four of its members did not support the committee.
Given the Vatican’s repeated interventions against the German process, the bishops said on Wednesday they would instead look to the Synod of Bishops in Rome to point the way for “a more synodal Church [in Germany] in unity with the universal Church.
Warning of a threat of a new schism from Germany, the Vatican intervened as early as July 2022 against plans for a German synodal council.
In January 2023, Rome asserted “that neither the Synodal Way, nor any body established by it, nor any bishops’ conference has the competence to establish the ‘synodal council’ at the national, diocesan, or parish level.” German Bishops’ Conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing immediately dismissed the warning.
In the meantime, Synodal Way organizers have continued with plans to establish a synodal committee: On Monday, April 22, German diocesan bishops approved the statutes for a synodal committee.
The move is a significant development: The German prelates were initially expected to vote on the statutes for a preparatory committee during their February plenary assembly.
However, that vote was suspended following another Vatican intervention.
Following a March meeting where “differences and points of agreement were identified,” the Vatican and Synodal Way supporters announced they would work together to resolve the issues.
Given that the bishops have now adopted the statutes for a synodal committee and the lay organization ZdK already approved these on Nov. 25, 2023 — despite earlier warnings from Rome of the risk of a new German schism — it is unclear how, or if, the Vatican will respond.
According to an earlier report on the official portal of the Church in Germany, katholisch.de, the synodal committee will still meet again in June to discuss plans.
The Synodal Way — “Synodaler Weg,” sometimes translated as Synodal Path — is not a synod but a highly controversial event designed to create “pressure” on the Church, as one founder has admitted.
The German process, which cost several million dollars, not only aims to establish a permanent synodal council: Delegates also passed several resolutions to change Church practices based on transgender ideology and have called for the priestly ordination of women, same-sex blessings, as well as changes to Church teaching on sexual acts.