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2 weeks ago | 
thetablet.co.uk | Patrick Hudson |Ellen Teague |Michael Sean Winters
The French Church’s fund to compensate sexual abuse of minors has recognised 1,235 cases since its founding in 2022 and paid 765 of them so far with sums of up to €60,000 euros, its president said in a report. The Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation (INIRR) began hearing individual claims after the Ciase study in late 2021 estimated 330,000 cases of abuse in the Church – two-thirds by clergy – since 1950.
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3 weeks ago | 
thetablet.co.uk | Patrick Hudson |Ellen Teague
A bishop warned that Nigeria’s neighbours could not handle the number of refugees should war break out in the country. The Bishop of Makurdi Wilfred Anagbe was speaking 12 March at a Congressional hearing at the US Senate on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, and the need to designate the African nation as a Country of Particular Concern. Anagbe said Christians in Nigeria have for decades been under assault from terrorist groups who have perpetrated massacres of Christian communities.
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1 month ago | 
thetablet.co.uk | Patrick Hudson |Ellen Teague |Michael Sean Winters
Abbot Jean Scarcella’s return to the Swiss Abbey of Saint Maurice, after the Vatican dropped an investigation of allegations that he covered up sexual abuse, met a lukewarm reaction from the Swiss bishops’ conference and protests from victims’ groups. The Dicastery for Bishops said this month that Scarcella, who stepped aside 17 months ago when he was accused of sexually harassing a young man, could resume his role because the case was beyond the statute of limitations.
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1 month ago | 
thetablet.co.uk | Patrick Hudson |Ellen Teague |Michael Sean Winters
Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne said proposed changes to assisted suicide and euthanasia legislation in Victoria were “deeply distressing” and “marginalised” protection for the vulnerable. Victoria was the first Australian state to pass assisted suicide legislation in 2017.
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1 month ago | 
thetablet.co.uk | Patrick Hudson |Ellen Teague |Tom Heneghan
South Africa’s Catholic bishops responded to US President Donald Trump’s controversial claims that the Pretoria government was repossessing property from white people. The bishops called for “racial reconciliation” to address longstanding tensions over vast tracts of land owned by white farmers, with some political parties demanding that they be allocated to black families.
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2 months ago | 
thetablet.co.uk | Patrick Hudson |Ellen Teague
The Archdiocese of Luxembourg ended its nine-year collaboration with the Mexico-based Verbum Spei Fraternity after learning that Pope Francis had laicised a member priest who had fathered two children with a woman follower. The archdiocese reported that after inquiries it found that the fraternity had split from the Brothers of Saint John and still supported the “harmful” teachings of the order’s sexually abusive founder, the late Fr Marie-Dominique Philippe, whom the order renounced in 2019.
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Jan 23, 2025 | 
thetablet.co.uk | Patrick Hudson |Ellen Teague |Tom Heneghan
The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) confirmed that the Vatican was to dissolve it. The SCV, the largest Catholic lay movement in Peru, issued a statement on Monday confirming reports that Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda had read a decree of dissolution at its general assembly. According to the reports, the decree cited abuse by the SCV’s founder Luis Fernando Figari and its lack of a founding charism.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
thetablet.co.uk | Patrick Hudson |Ellen Teague
The President of the Bishops’ Conference of Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe called on African leaders to “stop serving the interests of global policies that discriminate against us and continually impoverish us”. In a New Year’s Day homily, Archbishop José Manuel Imbamba of Saurimo said the continent needs “leadership that seeks justice, not the kind that perpetuates crises, misery, and poverty”, and called on all Africans to value their land.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
thetablet.co.uk | Patrick Hudson |Ellen Teague
Armed militias including jihadist groups launched an attack on Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, the first such rebel offensive in eight years. “After three days of attacks, the so-called opposition militias have taken over the city,” reported Maronite Archbishop Joseph Tobji of Aleppo last weekend. “We do not know what will happen. It is as if the whole city is living in limbo,” he said.
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Dec 1, 2024 | 
thetablet.co.uk | Patrick Hudson |Ellen Teague |Francis McDonagh
The Nicaraguan national assembly unanimously approved constitutional reforms proposed by President Daniel Ortega at their first reading. These would modify 100 articles of the constitution, extending the presidential term from five to six years and introduce the role of “co-president”, effectively confirming the position of Ortega’s wife and vice-president Rosario Murillo.
