Europa
Populism is pushing democracy to the brink, warns new cardinal
The Tablet

(Christopher Lamb) 'What is going on? The prime minister against parliament, losing a parliamentary majority... it’s very confusing.'  -- Democracy is under threat due to the rising tide of populism, according to a new Luxembourg cardinal who is urging the Church to stand against anti-democratic forces present in politics. Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich, who will be made a cardinal by Pope Francis on 5 October, said the simple answers offered by populist politics will not solve complex problems and end up leaving people even more disillusioned. (...)

Irlanda del Nord
Priest used international network to raise money for IRA
Irish Times

BBC documentary reveals Patrick Ryan helped secure weapons from Libya -- A Catholic priest maintained a network of Europe-wide contacts used to generate arms and money for the IRA, a documentary revealed. Patrick Ryan helped secure munitions from Libya which were intercepted by the Irish navy off the coast of Ireland, according to BBC Northern Ireland’s Spotlight programme. (...)

Regno Unito
Letters to Blessed John Henry Newman show his role as pastor, evangelist

Crux

(Jonathan Luxmoore) Thousands of documents relating to England’s 19th-century convert-cardinal, Blessed John Henry Newman, are being released ahead of his Oct. 13 canonization, highlighting his role as a pastor and evangelist, said church experts. Although 32 annotated volumes of the cardinal’s letters and diaries have been published over the past five decades, the new material includes letters and correspondence to the future saint. “Up to now, we’ve had only half his correspondence, with just fragments of letters he received, so this will greatly improve … understanding of the complex issues he dealt with,” said Paul Shrimpton, an Oxford-based expert on Newman’s educational theories. (...)

Regno Unito
Scottish Church says Catholics schools don't cause violence

CNA

A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said Wednesday the suggestion that Catholic schools in the country are a cause for bigotry is “staggeringly intolerant.” “Scotland’s peculiar obsession with religious intolerance has been in the spotlight again recently following the offensive and ill-informed comments of a former police chief, who claimed that the existence of denominational schools are at the root of the problem and suggested that sectarianism and bigotry can best be tackled by closing Catholic schools,” Peter Kearney, director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office, wrote in an op-ed Sept. 18. (...)

Regno Unito
Bishop urges Church to tackle 'recruitment crisis' among children and youth workers

Premier

(Tola Mbakwe) The Bishop of Leicester has called for Christian youth workers to be valued more after a new study has shown high turnover in the job. A study conducted earlier this year by a youth and children's ministry consultant interviewed 637 salaried children, families and youth workers in UK churches. The study revealed more than half of those surveyed were in their post for less than three years, even though 74 per cent of those surveyed see their vocation to the role as a life-long calling. The participants came from across the major denominations in the UK. Rt Rev Martyn Snow, Bishop of Leicester said (...)

Regno Unito
Cardinal Nichols welcomes annual report on safeguarding
Bishops' Conference of England and Wales

Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales, welcomed the annual report of the work of safeguarding in the Catholic Church in England & Wales. This report has been published every year since 2002. (...)

Regno Unito
Catholic refugee agency concerned over death of detainee in UK facility

Crux

(Charles Collins) Britain’s leading Catholic refugee agency is concerned after the death of a Nigerian man at an immigrant detention center last week. Authorities have launched an investigation into the death of Oscar Okwurime, who died on Sept. 12, reportedly soon after having received his plane ticket returning him to Nigeria. No official cause of death has been released. Harmondsworth Detention Centre near London’s Heathrow Airport is the largest such facility in Europe. “We are concerned and deeply saddened to hear the news of a further death in detention. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Okuremi’s family and friends at this awful time, and indeed with those who knew him in detention,” said Sarah Teather, the Director of Jesuit Refugee Service UK. (...)

Regno Unito
Imam’s son appointed UK envoy for religious freedom

thenews.pk

Britain will have a new envoy dedicated to overseeing efforts to bring faith communities together and promote religious tolerance, international media reported. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed Rehman Chisti to the position of envoy for Freedom of Religion Belief. He will replace Foreign Office minister Tariq Ahmad and is tasked to oversee foreign office support for persecuted Christians alongside wider issues of religious freedom. Rehman was previously Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party. “I’m delighted to appoint Rehman as my new Special Envoy and look forward to him building on the important (...)

Argentina
Gran Bretaña restituirá a la Argentina una imagen de la Virgen de Luján que estuvo en Malvinas

La Nación

(Mariano De Vedia) Una imagen de la Virgen de Luján que había sido llevada a Malvinas durante la guerra de 1982 -y de la que luego se perdieron rastros- será restituida por Gran Bretaña a la Argentina. En retribución, el obispado castrense entregará una réplica a los capellanes militares británicos y el intercambio se hará el mes próximo en el Vaticano, donde el papa Francisco bendecirá ambas imágenes. La increíble historia fue revelada a LA NACION por el obispo castrense, Santiago Olivera, quien compartirá con su par inglés, Paul James Mason, el encuentro con Francisco el próximo 30 de octubre, en una audiencia pública en la plaza San Pedro. (...)

Mauritius
Papal embrace for new director of the Anglican Centre in Rome during Mauritius visit
ACNS

The visit of Pope Francis to Mauritius on Monday brought fresh energy and confidence to Christians in the country, according to the Bishop of Mauritius, Ian Earnest, who leaves this month to take up his new role as Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome. Former Primate of the Anglican Church of the Indian Ocean, Archbishop Ian Ernest, attended the mass at the Mary Queen of Peace Monument at which the Pope presided during his day-long visit to the Island. The Archbishop said the timing of the Pope’s visit, (...)

Regno Unito
British Catholic Archbishop to become Cardinal

Premier

Archbishop Michael Louis Fitzgerald has been the Vatican's expert on Islam, the papal nuncio - the Pope's diplomat - in Egypt and headed the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue from 2002 to 2006. The 82 year old was born in Walsall in the West Midlands and is now based at the Church of St Vincent de Paul in Liverpool. Archbishop Michael told Premier: "It was a surprise, particularly the timing, I thought this would not happen now. I could have been made a Cardinal a long time before because I headed an office in the Vatican, but then I was not appointed and so I thought that this was over." He described the moment he was told he would be made Cardinal: (...)

Regno Unito
Islam expert brings red hat to multicultural ministry in Liverpool
CNS - Catholic Philly

(Carol Glatz) Once the top expert on Islam at the Vatican, Cardinal-designate Michael Fitzgerald is unsure whether a new top-ranking title will help or hamper his work ministering in a multicultural inner-city parish in Liverpool, England.“Ask me in a few years” to see how it goes, the 82-year-old former president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and papal nuncio to Egypt and the Arab League, told Catholic News Service Sept. 12. (...)

Regno Unito

Prince Charles to attend Cardinal Newman canonization

Crux

(Charles Collins) United Kingdom - Prince Charles will attend the Oct. 13 Canonization of Cardinal John Henry Newman at the Vatican. According to a statement from Clarence House, the official office of the Prince of Wales, Charles will attend a reception at the Pontifical Urban College following the Mass. Newman studied at the college while preparing to become a Catholic priest. Newman was a leading proponent of the Oxford Movement in the Anglican church, which advocated reintroducing older practices into worship. He eventually converted to Catholicism in 1845, becoming a priest soon (...)

India
Archbishop Of Canterbury Is One Of The Only Brits To Actually Say Sorry For Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
HuffPost India

(Akshita Jain) British leaders have always stopped short of a formal apology. Here's what Theresa May, David Cameron and the Queen have said in the past. While the United Kingdom has never formally apologised for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre that killed 300 and wounded 1,200 people, the Archbishop of Canterbury Reverend Justin Welby on Tuesday visited Jallianwala Bagh memorial in Amritsar and apologised in personal capacity. (...)

India
Archbishop of Canterbury apologizes for massacre in India
AP - Yahoo

The archbishop of Canterbury said Tuesday he regrets a massacre by British colonial forces of hundreds of Indians participating in a peaceful demonstration for independence 100 years ago. Archbishop Justin Welby spoke at a memorial for victims of the attack in northwest India.The massacre took place at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, when the British Indian Army opened fire at a crowd demonstrating for independence, killing more than 300 and injuring 1,200. (...)

Vaticano
The Guardian view on Pope Francis: a voice in the wilderness. Editorial
The Guardian

Pope Francis has been visiting two of the poorest countries in the world, but on the way he took a moment to attack his enemies in the richest. Handed a book by the French journalist Nicolas Senèze, which recounts the efforts of a rightwing American clique to force him out of office, he described it as “a bomb”, and said that it was “an honour when the Americans attack me”. There was no mistaking the depth of the split within the world’s largest and most important Christian church. In the developed world, and especially in Europe and North America, organised Christianity is collapsing, particularly among the young. This is as true of the Catholic church as of any other. In this country its numbers are maintained by immigration (...)

India

Archbishop of Canterbury underlines guarantees in statute

telegraph-india

(Mita Mukherjee) 'India has the incredible tradition of diversity of faiths within its history and in its ancient civilisation'. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, on Sunday sought to encourage Indian political and religious leaders to maintain the provisions of the Indian Constitution that guarantee freedom of religion and belief to all citizens. The global head of the Anglican Communion was responding to a specific question at a media conference. He added that the purpose of his visit was “prayer, pilgrimage and pastoral” and that he was not visiting India as a political leader. “India has the incredible tradition of diversity of faiths within its history and in its ancient civilisation. Section (Article) 25 of the Indian Constitution (...)

India
Archbishop of Canterbury underlines guarantees in statute
telegraphindia.com

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, on Sunday sought to encourage Indian political and religious leaders to maintain the provisions of the Indian Constitution that guarantee freedom of religion and belief to all citizens. The global head of the Anglican Communion was responding to a specific question at a media conference. He added that the purpose of his visit was “prayer, pilgrimage and pastoral” and that he was not visiting India as a political leader. (...) 

Archbishop of Canterbury to make a statement on 'dreadful' Jallianwala Bagh massacre (The Week)

Irlanda
Ireland and UK entering period of 'dangerous uncertainty' - Archbishop Eamon Martin
RTÉ

(Joe Little) The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland has warned that the ongoing absence of a Northern Assembly, increasing sectarianism and the looming presence of Brexit are causing Ireland and Britain to go through a period of dangerous political, social and economic uncertainty. Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin told a gathering in Co Wexford this evening that, (...)

Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's Catholic Church launches bid to make British missionary its first saint
The Telegraph

(Peta Thornycroft) A British lay missionary could be declared Zimbabwe's first ever saint, as the Catholic Church on Thursday began a three-day ceremony to determine whether John Bradburne qualifies for canonisation on the 40th anniversary of his death. Bradburne worked among lepers in what was then known as Rhodesia, and refused to leave his post even as the civil war intensified. (...) 

(it) Zimbabwe, canonizzato Bradburne?  (Rivista Africa)

(fr) L'Église catholique du Zimbabwe milite pour la canonisation d'un Britannique (AfricaNews)