Wednesday 9 March 2022
1 – Ukraine church leaders call for West to toughen up
2 – Spanish Congress rejects commission on Church abuse requested by electoral coalition
3 – The Catholic Church in Nicaragua saw the “expulsion” of the Apostolic Nuncio coming
4 – 29-year-old Christian and “untouchable” elected mayor of Chennai, India
5 – Rome’s famed pine trees may face extinction. What will the Vatican do to save theirs?
Ukraine church leaders call for West to toughen up
In light of the war that has hit their country, the various representatives of the Ukrainian Churches have deplored the fact that despite the efforts and declarations of goodwill coming from Europe, the situation in their country is not improving, particularly in terms of humanitarian corridors. The president of the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ukraine, Archbishop Mieczyskaw Mokrzycki of Lviv, also supports President Zelinsky’s request to close Ukrainian airspace. For its part, the Vatican has dispatched cardinals to Ukraine to bring the pope’s support to the Ukrainian people. The World Council of Churches has asked Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Church, to mediate with Putin to ask for peace. Kirill for the moment seems to justify the conflict as a “metaphysical” struggle against the decadent values of the West.
The Tablet, English
Unidas Podemos, a Spanish electoral coalition founded in 2016 during the general elections at the time, had proposed to create a commission of inquiry into the abuse of minors in the Catholic Church. This proposal was rejected by Congress, meaning it has stopped the parliamentary commission of inquiry that had raised many doubts among various political forces, including the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party), under the pretext that such a sensitive issue could become a spectacle or that it does not adequately protect the privacy of the victims. At the same time, a law proposal from the PSOE and the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party) is being debated to promote an independent expert investigation into the abuses in the Church, which would be presided over by the Defensor del Pueblo (“Defender of the People,” in Spanish) and which could last for a year. Still, nothing of what was proposed today in the amendment will be accepted in Congress for now.
Heraldo, Spanish
The Catholic Church in Nicaragua saw the “expulsion” of the Apostolic Nuncio coming
The apostolic nuncio to Nicaragua, Polish Archbishop Waldemar Stalislaw Sommertag, abruptly left the country on March 6 without saying goodbye to the diplomatic corps, the national episcopal conference, or the Catholic community. According to sources within the Catholic Church, consulted by the Nicaraguan news site Confidencial, the departure was expected due to the deterioration of relations between the current government, lead by Daniel Ortega, and the representative of the Holy See. Last November, after controversial general elections, the government annulled the figure of the apsotolic nuncio as the Vatican representative in Nicaragua, passing a law that stated that the Pope is the head of the diplomatic corps in the country and in his absence it is the most senior ambassador. Archbishop Sommertag had been a mediator in the demand for release of political opponents allegedly kidnapped under Ortega’s rule.
Confidencial, Spanish
29-year-old Christian and “untouchable” elected mayor of Chennai, India
Priya Rajan is the third woman to be elected to the prestigious position of mayor of Chennai (formerly Madras), the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu in India. She is an evangelical Christian and comes from the “Dalit” caste, formerly called the “untouchables” as the lowest rank of the Indian caste system and who were ostracized from society before the abolition of this social order. Today they still face difficulties, as the cultural influence of the hierarchical system has remained very strong. The election of Priya Rajan has in fact not gone unnoticed. For Capuchin Father Kulandai Swamy, interviewed by UCA News, “it is an important milestone in Tamil Nadu’s political history that a Dalit woman is being placed as mayor of this big city. It is a sign of empowerment of a marginalized community.”
UCA News, English
Rome’s famed pine trees may face extinction. What will the Vatican do to save theirs?
Rome is known to have several hundred thousand pine trees, often nicknamed umbrella pines. The Vatican has more than 150 of them on its territory. Since 2019, these trees have been attacked by a parasite commonly known as the turtle mealybug or the pine tortoise scale. This insect was first spotted in the Italian region of Campania in 2014 , most likely arriving through a seaport, and finally reached the Italian capital three years ago. “This is an insect that settles on the branches of pine trees and has a truly impressive reproductive capacity,” said Rafael Tornini, head of the garden and environmental services at Vatican City, explaining that the parasite feeds on the sap of the young branches of the tree. Today, it is estimated that 70% of these trees have been infested. The Vatican gardeners have been trying various ecological techniques to save the trees, such as using natural oils or injecting them with nutrients. Will they succeed in saving these hundred-year-old trees and ensure them a salvation worthy of their status as the Pope’s trees?
National Catholic Reporter, English.
And today we celebrate...