Pope Francis names Chinese bishop who attended Synod on Synodality to Archdiocese of Hangzhou

Vatican City, May 28, 2017 / 04:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On the Feast of the Ascension, Pope Francis said that when Jesus rose into heaven, he entrusted his Church with the great and dignified responsibility of spreading his Word and making it accessibl… […]

Vatican City, Apr 6, 2020 / 08:30 am (CNA).- A cardinal has criticized the Vatican’s official yearbook after it listed the term Vicar of Christ to a section headed “historical titles” in its latest edition, published March 25. 

A Vatican spokesman said the change merely highlights the historical dimension of the title.

Under the heading “historical titles”, the yearbook lists the designations “Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Province of Rome, Sovereign of Vatican City State, Servant of the Servants of God.”

On Thursday, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the Vatican’s former doctrinal chief, described the change as an act of “theological barbarism.”

In a commentary for the German weekly Die Tagepost, the cardinal said that, while the Annuario is issued by the Vatican Secretariat of State via the Vatican Publishing House, it is “only an address book and lacks any teaching authority.”

As in the 2019 edition of the Annuario Pontificio, the new edition has a single page describing the pope as “Francis, bishop of Rome.” But instead of heading a subsequent page with the title “Vicar of Christ.” as it did in 2019, the 2020 edition has the pope’s baptismal name, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, followed by a brief biography.

Mueller argued that the next section, marked “historical titles”, mixed the term Vicar of Christ with designations that “have nothing to do with primacy and have only grown historically but [have] no dogmatic meaning, such as ‘Sovereign of Vatican City State’.”

“It is a theological barbarism to devalue the Pope’s titles ‘Successor of Peter, Vicar of Christ and visible head of the whole Church’ as a mere historical ballast,” he wrote.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See press office, told the Italian bishops’ newspaper Avvenire that the yearbook was not declaring that the title Vicar of Christ was merely of historical significance. 

If that were the case, Avvenire reported, the title would simply have been removed. Bruni cited Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to drop the title “Patriarch of the West” from the Annuario in 2006. This was widely understood to be an ecumenical gesture aimed at healing the centuries-long breach between Catholics and other Christians. 

Bruni said that the titles were classified as “historical” because they are tied historically to the title bishop of Rome. A new pope acquires them the moment he is elected in a conclave.  

The Annuario Pontificio, which contains more than 2,000 pages and has a distinctive red cloth binding, contains a directory of the Roman Curia, as well as the names and addresses of the world’s bishops and official Vatican statistics.

The Church has published a yearbook in various forms since 1716.

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Father Gabriel Ukeh was kidnapped from Nigeria’s Archdiocese of Kaduna on June 9, 2024. / Credit: Catholic Archdiocese of Kaduna

ACI Africa, Jun 10, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Kaduna is appealing for prayers for the “urgent and safe release” of Father Gabriel Ukeh, who was abducted from a parish rectory on June 9.

On Monday, June 10, the chancellor of the archdiocese, Father Emmanuel Faweh Kazakh, shared with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, information that indicates Ukeh was taken from the rectory of St. Thomas Zaman Dabo Parish in the Kaduna Archdiocese in the early hours of Sunday.

Kazakh appealed to the Nigerian government to act on the rampant abductions of priests in the country.

“While we solicit for fervent prayers for his urgent and safe release, we equally condemn this act of incessant kidnappings for ransom of innocent and defenseless citizens of our communities, and we call upon the government to horn its security intelligence as we approach the celebration of Sallah [marking the end of Ramadan],” the chancellor said.

“As we work with security operatives for his quick release, we wish to call on all to stay away from taking the laws into their hands,” he continued. “We will use every legitimate means to ensure that Father comes back to us safe and sound.” 

Kazakh offered this prayer: “Through the intercessions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Priests and Religious, may Jesus the crucified hearken to our prayers and hasten the unconditional release of his priest and every other abducted person.”

Nigeria has been battling a surge of violence orchestrated by gangs whose members carry out indiscriminate attacks, kidnapping for ransom and, in some cases, murdering people.

An insurgency by Boko Haram, a group that allegedly aims to turn Africa’s most populous nation into an Islamic nation, has been a major challenge in the country since 2009.

The latest abduction of Ukeh follows a series of other kidnappings that have targeted members of the clergy in Nigeria. Father Oliver Buba, a priest of the Diocese of Yola, was abducted on May 21 and later released.

On May 15, the Archdiocese of Onitsha announced the abduction of Father Basil Gbuzuo. He was later set free.

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

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