Middle East – Africa

Lome, Togo, Sep 19, 2017 / 08:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Following Togo’s largest protests in over a decade, the bishops of the small African country urged political leaders toward a constitutional reform aimed at lasting peace.

The time is “right to organize prayers in each diocese for peace, or more specifically, for institutional and constitutional reforms,” said Archbishop Denis Amuzu-Dzakpah of Lomé, according to La Croix International.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through Togo’s cities during the week of Sept. 6, demanding for the end of the Gnassingbé regime – a 50-year long father-son dynasty.

Directed towards an audience of political leaders, priests, religious, and lay people gathered on Sept. 17, Archbishop Amuzu-Dzakpah urged the government to revisit a limit for the presidential term, which was removed in 2002.

Additionally, the bishops prayed for light of the Holy Spirit to inspire the country’s leaders “that they may urgently carry out the reforms requested by the people in accordance with the 1992 Constitution.”

Having first claimed power in a 1967 coup, Gnassingbé Eyadema responded to protests in the 1990s by instituting an apparent multi-party democracy and ostensibly limiting the presidential term to two periods of five years. The limit was then scrapped 10 years later by lawmakers to allow for Eyadema to run again.

He died in 2005 shortly after his re-election. While an election was supposed to be held within 60 days, the military removed a clause which would have temporarily placed the President of Parliament into power. Faure Gnassingbé was then installed to finish his father’s term.   

Since Faure’s rise to power, opposition leaders have called for protests to reinstitute a presidential limit as well as two round voting system. Recent protests incited the government to restrict internet and phone access to the public, and demonstrations were met with violence by security forces.

The bishops challenged the Togolese army to keep a neutral position. They also urged political leaders to refrain from opposing “demonstrations on the same day to avoid clashes resulting from these rallies.”

According to Agenzia Fides, Togo’s Conference of Catholic Bishops also issued a recent pastoral letter condemning the army’s “excessive use of force against their fellow citizens.”

In the letter, the bishops emphasized the importance of constitutional reform, stating that without it, “peace and social cohesion” would be impossible.

On Sept. 19, Togo’s parliament failed to agree on a reform. According to Reuters, opposition parties boycotted the reform because no clause was included which would prevent Faure from being re-elected for an additional two terms, potentially leaving him in power until 2030. A referendum will be held by popular vote in the next few days.

While Togo’s bishops have openly called for reform, the clergy has also urged for non-violence on both sides and encouraged social media to be used only for building peace, instead of spreading hatred.

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Khartoum, Sudan, Sep 19, 2017 / 12:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Christian children in Sudanese refugee camps are reportedly being given food only after they recite Muslim prayers, a papal aid group says.

According to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a papa… […]

Orlu, Nigeria, Sep 5, 2017 / 03:32 pm (CNA).- A Catholic priest was kidnapped and found murdered in Nigeria, local sources have confirmed.

According to local news source Vanguard, Fr. Cyriacus Onunkwo was kidnapped from his car by gunmen on Sept. 1 in… […]

Bacolod, Philippines, Sep 2, 2017 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The grave of Bishop Jean Marie Benoît Bala of Bafia, whom the Cameroonian bishops’ conference claims was murdered, was found desecrated with traces of blood on Monday, prompting the temporary closing of the cathedral where his body rests.

Bishop Bala disappeared in late May, and his body was found a few days later in the Sanga River. The Cameroonian bishops’ conference has asserted he was murdered, based on autopsy results, though civil authorities do not share the bishops’ conclusion.

Local sources have now reported that Bishop Bala’s grave in Bafia’s San Sebastian Cathedral was desecrated sometime between the night of Aug. 27 and the morning of Aug. 28.

“There was a clear act of desecration in the cathedral of Bafia in the night…Traces of blood were found in the cathedral” on the grave of Bishop Bala, said Bishop Sosthène Léopold Bayemi Matjei of Obala, according to Agenzia Fides, a news service of the Pontifical Mission Societies.

“The cathedral is closed to public worship until a penitential rite will be celebrated as prescribed by the Code and the liturgical rite” because of the nature of the desecration, Bishop Bayemi added.

Bishop Bala, who was 58, disappeared the evening of May 30 after being seen leaving his residence alone. His body was found in the Sanga River June 2, about 10 miles from his car, in which was found a note that reportedly read: “Do not look for me! I am in the water.”

The note gave rise to the suspicion that Bishop Bala had committed suicide, but the Cameroonian bishops later determined that he had been murdered, based an autopsy report that showed he had not died by drowning, and that there were signs of torture on his body.

While local government authorities ordered investigations into the death, they have maintained that Bishop Bala committed suicide. The results of two autopsies conducted by Cameroon’s bishops were never made public. An investigation commissioned by the intergovernmental organization Interpol concluded Bishop Bala had died by drowning.

The bishops of Cameroon have called on local authorities to further investigate the case and to make clear the true cause of Bishop Bala’s death. They have also noted there have been a number of clerics and consecrated persons whose murders in the country have never been solved, including: Fr. Joseph Mbassi, killed in 1988; Fr. Antony Fontegh, 1990; Archbishop Yves-Joseph-Marie Plumey, 1991; a group of religious sisters in Djoum, 1992; and Fr. Engelbert Mveng, 1995.

In a June statement, the bishops asked the government “to shed complete light on the circumstances and the motives” for Bishop Bala’s murder and that those responsible be identified and handed over to the authorities.

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Bangui, Central African Republic, Sep 1, 2017 / 02:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Thousands of Muslim refugees have fled deadly militias in the Central African Republic thanks to Bangassou’s Bishop Juan José Aguirre Munoz.

“They would risk death if they venture out,” the Spanish-born Bishop Munoz told the BBC program Newsday. “For us, there’s no such thing as a Muslim person or a Christian person, everyone is a human being. We need to protect those who are vulnerable.”

The approximately 2,000 refugees sought help at the Catholic seminary in the southeastern city of Bangassou after the most recent outbreak of fighting in May.

In 2013, the largely Muslim Seleka rebels seized power and were accused of killing non-Muslim civilians. Since then, the Central African Republic has suffered sectarian violence. Self-defense groups called anti-Balaka formed, composed mainly of Christians. Those groups too have been accused of atrocities.

The refugees at the Bangassou seminary say they fear what is outside.

“Nearby, there are anti-Balaka militias who prevent them from going out to search for food, water or firewood,” said Bishop Munoz. “So they are completely confined inside the seminary.”

Both anti-Balaka and Seleka militias have attacked the Church’s properties, but the bishop says the Church is determined to protect the vulnerable on all sides.

Stephen O’Brien, the U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, warned that severe violence is possible.

“The early warning signs of genocide are there. We must act now,” O’Brien said. “Violence is intensifying, risking a repeat of the devastating destructive crisis that gripped the country four years ago.”

Some of the refugees at the seminary have been shot at, including a 10-year-old boy. He said one of his brothers was shot in the heart and another was shot in his chest.

Ernest Lualuali Ibongu, a doctor with Doctors without Borders, told the BBC that many refugees need medical care but cannot leave the seminary compound to go to the hospital.

According to Bishop Munoz, that appeals to the militia to allow aid workers into the seminary were not successful.
“The anti-Balaka are armed and very violent and capable of killing children,” he said, adding that it is “very difficult” to reason with them.

Since the conflict began, thousands of people have been killed and at least a million people have been displaced. At least half of Central Africans depend on humanitarian aid, the U.N. reports.

A tentative peace deal was signed in June. The government and 13 of 14 armed groups agreed to end fighting in return for political representation and integration of the militias into the military. Pope Francis visited the country in 2015.

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Mosul, Iraq, Aug 30, 2017 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Following the liberation of Mosul, Iraq, from the hands of the Islamic State, Christians are cautiously returning to the city. And as they return, so does the Mass.

Fr. Luis Montes, a priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, celebrated Mass earlier this month at Saint George Monastery. The priest traveled to Mosul to record part of a documentary entitled Guardianes de la Fe (Guardians of the Faith), which seeks to show the reality of life for Christians in Iraq and Syria.

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In a video posted on the Amigos de Irak (Friends of Iraq) Facebook page, Fr. Montes said that the Mass was celebrated Aug. 9 – a month after Mosul’s liberation – on the feast day of St. Edith Stein, who died a martyr in a Nazi concentration camp.

The priest said it was “a great gift of God” to be able to celebrate the feast day of a martyr in the monastery, which “surely gave many martyrs to the Church.”

Pointing to the damage to the monastery entrance, he said that he believes the lower level may have been “used as a prison at some time, (as) the Christians left their names there written on the walls as a witness.”

Located in the eastern part of the city, the monastery was badly damaged by ISIS militants.

“Rubble everywhere, the stone facing on walls knocked off, all the religious statues destroyed,” Fr. Montes said. “The grotto of the Virgin Mary destroyed…Crosses set into the walls were chopped off with sledgehammers so no trace would remain of anything that is Christian, of anything that is Jesus Christ.”

In the chapel where they celebrated Mass, the altar was stripped of its marble adornments, and the walls had been damaged.

The experience of celebrating the Eucharist amidst so much devastation was awe-inspiring, Fr. Montes said.

“In this place, which has been attacked for being Christian, the contemplation of the Mystery of the Cross, which is renewed in Holy Mass, had so much power,” he reflected.

“Some priests later told the young people that accompanied me that they believed that this was the first Mass” celebrated within the city of Mosul – which was among the areas hardest hit by ISIS – in the last three years, he added. “It’s really a gift from God.”

The priest said that he offered the Mass for Europe, “which suffers from having turned away from Our Lord God, so that the blood of the martyrs here in the Middle East may stir Europe, touch it, so that it awakens.”

The sight of so much desecration is painful, Fr. Montes acknowledged, and it is even more painful to think of the hatred for Christ that motivated the attacks.

But at the same time, he said, “there is such a beautiful satisfaction in knowing that one is serving a persecuted people.”

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Wau, South Sudan, Aug 20, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As the civil war in South Sudan heightens, millions are fleeing their homes for safer ground, which many have found at St. Mary Help of Christian’s Cathedral in Wau, the country’s second largest city.

“Those who flee believe that even rebels still fear God and would not slaughter civilians in the backyard of a church,” said Fr. Moses Peter, a priest at St. Mary’s, according to IRIN News.

“Many other churches have also taken in hundreds of people,” he said.
 
South Sudan has been in the middle of a brutal civil war for the past three-and-a-half years, which has divided the young country between those loyal to its President Salva Kiir and those loyal to former vice president Reik Machar. The conflict has also bred various divisions of militia and opposition groups.

Since the beginning of the war, around 4 million citizens have left the violence-stricken country, in hopes of finding peace, food and work. This week, neighboring Uganda received the one-millionth South Sudanese refugee, highlighting the crisis as the world’s fastest growing refugee epidemic.

For those who have not fled the nation, many internally displaced persons (IDPs) are seeking refuge in churches – including St. Mary’s Cathedral, which is the country’s largest church and is located Wau. Over 10,000 people now seek shelter there.

The city of Wau, in the northern part of the country, had gone years without being touched by the brutality of the war, which originally drew IDPs to the area. But that changed this spring, when the conflict widened its reach to the area.

Among the IDPs are usually women, children and those who have lost most of their families in the war. Many are too fearful to stay in their homes because they know they could be killed, tortured, raped or even forced into fighting.

“Soldiers burned our houses, took our cattle, and almost murdered my whole village,” said Maria, a disabled, elderly woman who has been living at St. Marys for the past year.

“I don’t know why I was spared, but I was left alone and helpless,” Maria said.

A blind man named Juda, who is also staying at St. Mary’s, said that he “has nothing to return to, so I will wait here in the church.”

While the 61-year-old church welcomes those seeking refuge, it is running low on food supplies. It has been four months since the last food distribution from the World Food Programme.

Local bishops have also called for food aid and peace negotiations in the country, voicing their frustrations that their pleas have not been heard.

“Those who have the ability to make changes for the good of our people have not taken heed of our previous pastoral messages,” stated a Fed. 23 message from the South Sudanese bishops.

Despite successful partnerships between the local church, aid agencies and government, the refugees are still in need of a proper supply of food. However, the church has made recent upgrades, including water pumps, toilets, classrooms, and health offices, which were set up by international aid agencies.

While St. Mary’s may feel like a safe haven for many, the war rages on only 20 miles from the city. Local relief workers have faced various threats, and security at the church consists of only one guard.

“Between hunger and insecurity, people face a lot of pressure here,” Fr. Peter said.

One local businessman, Hasan, said that the famine in the country is not due to food shortage, but rather a result of corruption, inflation and lootings.

“There could be enough for all,” he told IRIN, saying, “if people had money, food would be available to them.”

The refugee crisis will persist as long as the bloodshed and violence in the country continues. However, international peacemaking efforts have stalled and neither side of the conflict have made advances towards a truce.

“I am not confident about peace,” said Juda, the blind man at St. Mary’s. “If it doesn’t come, I don’t know if I’ll ever have a place to call home again besides this church.”

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Nairobi, Kenya, Aug 19, 2017 / 04:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- With violent protests and several deaths in the wake of Kenya’s Aug. 8 presidential election, the nation’s bishops have lamented the  violence and called for respect for the democratic process.

The re-election of Uhuru Kenyatta was announced Aug. 11, and international observers called the vote free and fair. Kenyatta’s challenger, Raila Odinga, claims the election was rigged.

At least 24 persons have been killed during violent protests in the wake of the vote, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. Anti-riot police shot protesters, and some children are reported to have been struck and killed by stray bullets.

“Dear Kenyans, to lose even one life because of elections is abominable,” the Kenyan bishops wrote in their Aug. 17 statement signed by Bishop Philip Anyolo of Homa Bay, chairman of the bishops’ conference.

“To injure and maim anybody is unacceptable. This must never be allowed in any civilized society like Kenya.”

The bishops castigated the riot police who confronted protesters, saying their actions resulted in “painful loss of life, the barricading of roads and the destruction of property.”

They said the violence was a reminder “of the post-election violence of 2007/2008 that we, as a Nation, had vowed never again to experience.”

Kenya’s 2007 elections resulted in nationwide ethnic violence that killed 1,300 people and displaced as many as 700,000. Odinga was also the challenger in that election.

Odinga has called for peaceful protest and strikes, and has said he will mount a legal challenge to the results in the courts. He claims computer fraud had given extra votes to Kenyatta.

The choice was welcomed by Kenya’s bishops, who said, “All the aggrieved parties should use the legal means as provided in the Constitution to seek redress. It is only by respecting and having recourse to the established Constitutional institutions that we, as Kenyans, are able to enhance and strengthen the rule of law and the democratic process in our country.”

“As we await the determination of the disputed Presidential elections by the Supreme Court, we call upon our Government leaders, beginning with the President to take the lead in uniting the country.”

They urged “all Kenyans to avoid anything that incites others to violent protests.”

At a press conference presenting the bishops’ message, Bishop John Oballa Owaa of Ngong stressed the need for the courts not to rubber stamp automatically the election outcome, saying: “We call upon the judiciary and other constitutional institutions to jealously protect their independence and discharge their mandate justly, in a fair and impartial manner, to act without any favour and not to give in to any form of coercion or intimidation.”

This, he said, “is the only way these institutions will earn the trust and confidence of all Kenyans.”

Bishop Anyola added that the “ugly divisions that we witness every election year, the tribal voting pattern that emerges, the hatred that is triggered by the winners and losers syndrome, and the win-it-all mentality that characterizes Kenyan politics are pointers to an electoral system that needs to be reviewed.”

The bishops’ statement commended citizens’ participation in the election, saying it reflected a “sense of patriotism and love for our nation.”

“We commend this country to prayer for peace, justice and prosperity,” they concluded.

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Kampala, Uganda, Aug 18, 2017 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The tally of South Sudanese refugees entering Uganda for shelter and safety marked 1 million this week, in what is now the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis.

“Families are esc… […]

Freetown, Sierra Leone, Aug 16, 2017 / 11:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A massive mudslide in Sierra Leone’s capital city has left hundreds dead and thousands homeless, with relief agencies hurrying to respond.

“There are people whose entire fam… […]