The humanitarian organisation, Save the Children, has reported close to two million children in sub-Saharan Africa were displaced in their own countries last year due to climate change-related disasters, nearly doubling the number of the previous year.
Ecological injustice ‘has robbed food from the plates of millions of children in poor countries and snatched water from their thirsty mouths’, says Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo.
Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi (pictured) has been to China as a papal ambassador to support humanitarian initiatives and search for ways that can lead to a just peace in Ukraine.
The Nicaraguan Government has removed the legal status of the Society of Jesus in the country and said it will confiscate its assets. The Government announced that it had cancelled the official registration of the ‘Association Society of Jesus’ and that its property would pass to the state.
Last month Pope Francis, aged 86, made the first-ever visit of a pontiff to Mongolia, a country with a tiny Catholic population, sandwiched between Russia and China. The country has just 1,500 Catholics in the entire country. The Pope ended his five-day mission with a stop to inaugurate the House of Mercy, which provides health care to the most needy in the Mongolian capital as well as to the homeless, victims of domestic abuse and migrants.
The Institut Catholique of Paris (ICP), the largest French-speaking faculty of theology in the world, has appointed the first-ever layperson to be dean of its famed Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies. Anne-Sophie Vivier-Muresan, a 45-year-old theology professor and mother of two, was elected by her peers to the three-year post.
The Most Reverend John Lewis Adams was ordained and installed as the third Bishop of Palmerston North in a vibrant and prayerful, 130-minute Mass on Saturday, 30 September 2023. Around 700 people attended the Mass in a crowded Cathedral of the Holy Spirit. Over a thousand more tuned in remotely to watch the livestream.
He hōnore he kōroria ki te Atua, he maungarongo ki te whenua, he whakaaro pai ki ngā tāngata kātoa. Tihei mauri ora! Honour and glory to God, peace upon the land, and goodwill to all people. Ki a tātou, ngā mokopuna o te Atua, ngā ākonga o te Ariki, to all the children of God, followers of Christ. Tēnā ano tātou kātoa kei Aotearoa. He mihi tautoko tēnēi. Greetings to all the people of this land.
The 2023 New Zealand general election will be held on 14 October 2023 to determine the composition of the 54th Parliament of New Zealand. In preparation for the upcoming election Ian Munro, a member of the Archdiocese of Wellington’s Ecology, Justice and Peace (EJP) Commission, encourages us to reflect on which policies can deliver for the common good.
The first Vatican assembly for the global Synod on Synodality will begin in October bringing together clerics and laity alike for nearly one month of discussions. Here is what you need to know writes Courtney Mares, Catholic News Agency, Rome, September 2023.