The auxiliary bishop of Bombay talks about his days in intensive care. “Every time I breathed in, I would say in my mind 'Jesus in me' and when I exhaled 'and I in Him'. This made me aware of God’s presence in my life and around me.”
A first comment arrives from China on the Agreement’s renewal. The ambiguities over civil unions and the similarity with expectations over the Agreement. The author is a blogger priest, a member of the official Church.
“Jesus establishes two essential hinges for believers of all times. The first is that moral and religious life cannot be reduced to anxious and forced obedience, but must have love as its principle. The second is that love must strive together and inseparably towards God and neighbor ".
“The world, without mothers, has no future: profits and profits, alone, do not give a future, on the contrary at times they increase inequality and injustice. Mothers, on the other hand, make every child feel at home and give hope”.
The Apostolic Penitentiary makes public a decree extending the period of indulgence for people who cannot leave home and in order to prevent large gatherings in places where they are banned. The guidelines are also for those who are in isolation or sick. Priests are asked to be more available under the circumstances.
The declaration of the bishops of Kerala. "The Pope has taught in the past that LGBT people are children of God and deserve special care and love." "The official position of the Pope is in complete accordance with the doctrine of the apostolic exhortation "Amoris Laetitia" issued in 2016".
The Holy See and Beijing have announced the extension of the agreement for another two years. China’s apparent dissatisfaction at continued relations with Taiwan. The Vatican is content with the fruits: no illegitimate bishops. But there are no new bishops and the repression of the official and underground communities has continued and worsened. How to avoid "declarationist nominalism" and work for full religious freedom.
The bishops went on a hunger strike yesterday, whilst teachers start today until the hiring issue is settled. Independent schools can choose their teachers, but must wait for state approval. For four years now, approval has been delayed. With COVID-19, schools’ financial woes have worsened.
In the night between 17 and 18 October, 40 tombstones, crosses and statues of Our Lady were destroyed in the city of Tirunelveli. Catholics have received the solidarity of the population and political parties, except from the BJP, the ruling Hindu nationalist party.
Unofficial voices (from the Vatican side) say that the renewal of the agreement will be signed tomorrow. But a wall of silence remains from China, or quotations from the Vatican only. The hypothesis is that the dialogue with China has reached an impasse: China wants the Holy See to break relations with Taiwan and the Vatican wants the recognition of unofficial bishops. The second elegy of Rainer Maria Rilke.
The missionary month of October "represents an urgent invitation for Christians to all feel responsible in furthering the Kingdom of God". The Psalms a "school of encounter with God and of responsibility alongside the poor and the weak".
“All too many conflicts are presently in course. To leaders of nations we say: let us work together to create a new architecture of peace. Let us join forces to promote life, health, education and peace." Francis: "God will ask for an account, from those who have not sought peace or have fomented tensions and conflicts".
The international meeting ‘No One Is Saved Alone – Peace and Fraternity’ began in Rome today with separate prayers by representatives of different religions. “Thinking only of ourselves: this is the father of all evils,” said Francis. “This is a great temptation. It spares no one, including us Christians. The temptation to think only of saving ourselves and our own circle. To focus only on our own problems and interests, as if nothing else mattered. It is a very human instinct, but wrong.”
Sri Lanka’s former intelligence chief reveals that the services had prior knowledge of the attacks of 21 April 2019 against churches and hotels, which left about 280 people dead and almost 600 more wounded. Foreign embassies and intelligence services had also been informed. The then president Sirisena was warned of the danger of the Islamist group blamed for the attacks.
At the international meeting ‘No one is saved alone. Peace and Fraternity’, the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople calls upon the world to overcome fundamentalisms and ideologies to rediscover the world as a "common home" as well as humans and reality as a "mirror" of God. This represent real "subversion,” ending the “absolute domination of human beings over the entire universe,” signalling the birth of "ecology as a sign of the presence of the divine in creation.”
