The amazing story of Antonio Arellano, shoemaker to popes

You have to lose yourself in the narrow streets that crisscross the Borgo, a neighborhood close to the Vatican, to come across this little shop. 

At first glance, it's a shoemaker like dozens of others in Rome. You walk in, the bell rings, the woody scent of leather fills your nostrils. 

One detail catches your eye: Framed above the counter are countless photos of the owner, Antonio Arellano, with the last three popes.

In his shop, where dozens of colorful shoes, belts, and wallets are stored, the man welcomes all customers warmly, with a smile on his face. 

Now 58, the man who holds the unofficial title of “shoemaker to the popes” started from nothing, or almost nothing.

From Peru to Rome

“I arrived in Italy in 1990 and opened this shop in 1998,” explains the native of Trujillo, Peru. His native region is renowned for the quality of its artisan shoemakers. 

He started working at a very early age and showed extraordinary talent. 

At 14, he was already earning “a master's salary,” in his own words.

Driven by the economic crisis affecting his country, he decided to try his luck on the other side of the world, in Italy, home to a large Peruvian community. 

His smile gives way to emotion as he recalls his early years in Rome. 

“I started here, repairing shoes in this workshop,” he explains, pointing to the back of the shop. 

Over his shoulder, we can see the tools, scraps of leather, and pairs of shoes in progress scattered under the benevolent gaze of paintings of the Virgin Mary and Padre Pio.

His shoes, handmade to fit, quickly gained a good reputation on the left bank of the Tiber. The proximity to the beating heart of the Church opened the doors to a rather special clientele ...

“At first, it was the nuns who came, then the priests, and so on. They would say to me, ‘Sister So-and-so sent me, Father So-and-so recommended that I come.’” 

Word of mouth was his best ally: very quickly, even bishops and cardinals were flocking to his little shop to order their own pair of Arellanos.

A customer like no other

One of these princes of the Church made a particular impression on the Peruvian shoemaker: Cardinal Ratzinger. 

“He was a very calm, very discreet person. He would come in and sit there,” he says, pointing to an armchair tucked away in a corner of the small shop. 

He developed a genuine friendship with the German prelate until that famous day on April 19, 2005. 

“My customer had become pope!”

It was great publicity and a real joy for the Peruvian, who soon met Benedict XVI and gave him the famous red shoes that the German Pope wore so often. 

Even today, they’re one of the most popular items in his collection.

During Benedict XVI’s pontificate, Arellano supplied him with shoes — both red and black — on several occasions. 

After his resignation, they continued to maintain this close relationship, with the Pope not forgetting to celebrate his 50th birthday.

His face becomes more serious when he talks about the death of the German pope. 

Deeply moved, he shows a photo of the Pope's body lying in state after his death and points out a detail: Benedict XVI was wearing a pair of Arellano shoes, which he took with him into eternity. 

This final gesture of friendship particularly touched the Peruvian craftsman.

The story continues with Francis and Pope Leo XIV

Antonio Arellano admits that he was less close to Pope Francis. The Argentine pontiff wore orthopedic shoes. “He was loyal to the shoemaker who had been making his shoes for 40 years, which is something I respect enormously,” he explains with no bitterness. 

Pope Francis also gave him a gift by blessing his and his wife’s wedding rings on their 25th wedding anniversary.

Above his head, more recent photos show that his history with the popes continues: He and his son, with whom he now works, were received by their compatriot Pope Leo XIV shortly after his election. “He's a wonderful man. We spoke Spanish and discussed Peru,” he says.

But more importantly, the new Pope ordered shoes from them. Reaching under his counter, the man pulls out a yellow cardboard folder. 

Making sure we wouldn't take a photo, he carefully removes an A4 sheet of paper. 

In his calloused hands are the measurements of the feet of Peter's Successor. 

With a pen, the shoemaker has scribbled a few numbers and traced the outline of the Pope's foot.

“I offered him different colors, but he insisted on black,” said the shoemaker. 

Twenty days after that meeting, two pairs of custom-made shoes were delivered. 

Mission accomplished for the shoemaker, who was keen to ensure that Peter's Successor was comfortable in his shoes.

Anglican Communion presidency could be shared by members of a new Primatial Council, committee proposes

THE face of the Anglican Communion should not always be the face of the Church of England, and the position of President is “no longer helpful” within its life, a supplementary paper from the Anglican Standing Committee on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) suggests.

The committee’s 2024 report Nairobi-Cairo Proposals recommended changes to the structure and leadership of the Communion. One was that the Communion have a “rotating presidency” among the Primates.

Feedback on this, however, raised questions about “potential rivalry with the Archbishop of Canterbury, inconsistent geographical and/or theological diversity in the ‘face’ of the president, and potentially irregular funding and staffing of the office”. 

Dependency on the discernment of one archbishop was, it was suggested, outmoded in the light of increasingly collaborative and collegial patterns of ministry.

Instead of this, the new paper suggests, leadership could be shared by the Archbishop of Canter­­bury: “A preferable approach will be simply for the Archbishop of Canterbury to invite the regional primates (who comprise the Primates’ Standing Committee) to share his or her ministry in the Communion in a collegial way and to begin to think about formalising such an arrangement in a kind of council. This might take place over a period of 3-6 years.”

Among the advantages of this arrangement, it suggests, is that each Primate on the proposed Primatial Council “could represent the Communion (as the Archbishop of Canterbury does) in different settings, such as at the inauguration of a new province or the installation of a new primate”. 

The Primate would not be functioning as a delegate of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

“The Archbishop of Canterbury could continue to serve as the presumptive representative of the Communion in most ecumenical settings, even as the option of calling upon others could prove helpful.”

The practical shape of this shared ministry would need to be discerned over time by the Archbishop of Canterbury and his or her colleagues, as they grew further into cooperating with one another in this way. 

This might also include a review of the current configuration of the five regions.

Under the new proposals, presented at a media briefing on Monday, and which acknowledge fractures in the Communion on issues such as marriage, sexuality, and governance, the 42 Churches would no longer be “in communion with the See of Canterbury” but have a “historic connection” with it.

The leadership of the Communion “should look like the Communion”, the original report suggested (News, 6 December 2024). The paper confirms that this is an argument that “raises questions of fairness, justice, contextuality and mission, as well as questions of Anglican identity. . .

“In this way, the Communion as a whole, including the Church of England, might also continue to grow beyond its former colonial mindset and reckon with the polycentric character of global Christianity.”

The committee remains confident about its original proposal of a revised description of the Anglican Communion. Full communion, in the sense of “one holy, catholic and apostolic church” cannot be assumed by all Anglican Churches, but should be sought, the Supplement says. “Full communion with Canterbury may not always be possible for every member church. . . The Church of England cannot carry the faith of the Anglican family, nor should it be asked to do so.”

The committee reiterates that these proposals would “enable us to shed some of the baggage of colonialism while celebrating a shared theological and sacramental inheritance, to which the ministry of the Archbishop of Canterbury bears witness. And it will encourage all Anglican churches, even amid serious disagreements, to speak and embody a word of hope and healing in a world riven by violence and despair.”

The chair of IASCUFO, the former Bishop of Kensington, Dr Graham Tomlin, described the proposals as “a new way of trying to address issues that have been part of a long, ongoing conversation . . . hopefully keeping us together as a Communion and avoiding damaging divisions . . . while at the same time acknowledging the depth of the disagreements amongst us.

“I think the history of the Church tells us that when we do any kind of radical walking away, it’s very hard to mend those walls.”

The proposals are to be put to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) at its June-July meeting in Belfast.

The Archbishop of Canterbury said that she was looking forward to this meeting and that, “In a fractured world, and an often divided church, the Anglican Communion is such a profound gift. As I begin my ministry as Archbishop of Canterbury, I am so grateful for this global community of Anglicans, all bound by our shared faith in Jesus Christ.”

Man abused at popular NI ‘Christian nightclub’ accuses Presbyterian Church and PSNI of failing him and ‘other victims’

A man who was abused as a child by a youth leader at a ‘Chris­tian nightclub’ has slammed the Pres­by­terian Church in Ire­land and the PSNI for fail­ing him when he first repor­ted it more than two dec­ades ago — and when he respon­ded to an appeal for vic­tims to come for­ward.

Ross Hunter (39) was preyed upon by his cousin when he was aged between 12 and 16. The per­pet­rator was a youth leader in First Dun­boe Pres­by­terian Church in the 1990s.

While none of the incid­ents took place in the Art­iclave-based church, the vic­tim was tar­geted at Exodus — a sep­ar­ate Chris­tian youth organ­isa­tion — where he said his older rel­at­ive served as the “right-hand man” to its chief exec­ut­ive.

“I feel let down, but I’m mainly angry that every­one is still try­ing to keep it bur­ied, because it’s not going to reflect well on the Pres­by­terian Church or Exodus,” Mr Hunter told the Bel­fast Tele­graph.

“They would rather cover it up and keep it secret, because it might impact their busi­ness.

“I have no con­fid­ence in the PCI invest­ig­a­tion or even the police probe.

“They are doing it to be seen to be doing it, but it’s a pub­lic front. No one is look­ing for answers.”

Mr Hunter says he first repor­ted the abuse in Novem­ber 2009 to the then min­is­ter of his fam­ily church, Rev James Mccaughan, but that the now retired cler­gy­man took no action other than prom­ising to pray for his dis­tressed parish­ioner.

The then 22-year-old, who broke his silence after his life “spir­alled” as a res­ult of keep­ing the dark secret, also noti­fied the PSNI and repor­ted the alleged per­pet­rator, who was by this time a serving police officer.

Jonathan Hyndman was sus­pen­ded from duty after a crim­inal invest­ig­a­tion was launched, but took his own life days later on Novem­ber 19, 2009.

Mr Hunter said he “couldn’t believe” that the probe ended with “no con­cern about other poten­tial vic­tims.”

In 2011, Mr Hunter emailed the co-founder of Exodus — a pop­u­lar youth club, which attrac­ted hun­dreds of young people through its doors when it opened in 1997.

He said some of the abuse took place on premises where a “Chris­tian night­base” was set up to offer “altern­at­ive parties” for teens and young adults. The registered char­ity has strong links to churches across NI, includ­ing PCI.

“[Exodus chief exec­ut­ive] Jim Brown wrote back say­ing he was ‘deeply saddened’ by what I had exper­i­enced and was will­ing to talk about it — but said he would be abroad for two months,” Mr Hunter explained.

“I was really angered by his response, so I didn’t fol­low it up. I was mak­ing a massive alleg­a­tion and he brushed it off.”

In cor­res­pond­ence seen by this news­pa­per, Mr Hunter con­tac­ted Mr Brown again on Janu­ary 21 this year, seek­ing clar­ity over whether he took the ini­tial com­plaint any fur­ther and ask­ing how he intends to now in light of the PCI safe­guard­ing scan­dal.

The vic­tim stressed it’s “never too late” to identify oth­ers who may be affected.

However, the sender did not receive a response until after this news­pa­per con­tac­ted Mr Brown three weeks later.

“It bounced back imme­di­ately, which makes me won­der did he block me after my first email 15 years ago? When I sent it from a dif­fer­ent email address, it went through straight away,” Mr Hunter said.

“My cous­in­ was Jim­ Brown’s right-hand man and a prom­in­ent youth leader in Exodus when I was a young teen­ager.

“He led sum­mer camps with under-18s, tak­ing them all around the globe.

“I believe there are other vic­tims, but no one is even check­ing.”

Mr Brown emailed the vic­tim a day after the Bel­fast Tele­graph posed a series of ques­tions to him.

He told Mr Hunter that the cor­res­pond­ence went to his spam folder and stressed that the organ­isa­tion has robust safe­guard­ing meas­ures in place.

The per­tin­ent ques­tion was not addressed and Mr Brown did not reply to this news­pa­per.

Act­ing on the advice of the cur­rent min­is­ter of Dun­boe, Mr Hunter also con­tac­ted a ded­ic­ated helpline set up by the PCI to identify poten­tial vic­tims and the scale of safe­guard­ing fail­ings, which led to a Zoom meet­ing.

The vic­tim says the safe­guard­ing team were “very empath­etic” until they found out Hyndman was dead.

“They said words to the effect of ‘there’s not much we can do’,” Mr Hunter said.

“It was so deflat­ing — this was the second chance as I saw it for them to cor­rect the error of their ways.

“I know my abuser is dead, that wasn’t why I was report­ing it.

“It’s because I believe there may be other vic­tims.”

“But there was no curi­os­ity about that and no one asked any ques­tions.”

Mr Hunter has had no more con­tact with the safe­guard­ing team and said he has no reason to expect fur­ther com­mu­nic­a­tion.

“There isn’t even a ref­er­ence num­ber — noth­ing,” he said.

“And because it was online, there isn’t even a paper trail of the con­ver­sa­tion.”

The vic­tim also re-repor­ted the abuse to the PSNI in dir­ect response to the crim­inal invest­ig­a­tion it launched into PCI days after former mod­er­ator Rev Tre­vor Grib­ben announced his resig­na­tion over “ser­i­ous and sig­ni­fic­ant fail­ings”, which res­ul­ted in people being “harmed” and “put at risk” between 2009 and 2022.

Assist­ant Chief Con­stable Davy Beck pre­vi­ously vowed to make sure per­pet­rat­ors are “held to account” and determ­ine if any offences have been com­mit­ted by those respons­ible for safe­guard­ing.

The senior officer prom­ised vic­tims would be treated with “sens­it­iv­ity, respect and pro­fes­sion­al­ism.”

Mr Hunter said, des­pite a des­ig­nated officer being assigned to his case and com­ing in “all guns blaz­ing”, that was not his exper­i­ence.

“They talked me through best prac­tice... then, two days later, they came back and said it didn’t meet the threshold to pro­sec­ute any­one.”

Mr Hunter has been left won­der­ing “what is the threshold?”

He’s con­cerned by the lack of effort to determ­ine if there are other vic­tims.

“I do not believe I am the only one, no way,” he said.

“It’s really frus­trat­ing that des­pite the pub­lic appeal, those in author­ity still can’t deal with this, which doesn’t sug­gest they will ever be able to.” 

The PSNI con­firmed that a crim­inal report was made on Novem­ber 6, 2009, and given the sus­pect’s death “there was never a like­li­hood of a pro­sec­u­tion”.

Con­firm­ing that the case was reviewed last month, the PSNI refused to respond to ques­tions seek­ing to estab­lish if action was taken in 2009 to find out if there were other vic­tims.

This news­pa­per also asked if the PSNI aler­ted PCI or Exodus that a youth leader had been accused of child sex abuse, but did not get an answer.

A spokes­per­son said there were no other sus­pects or lines of inquiry at the time and that the broader ongo­ing crim­inal invest­ig­a­tion into PCI safe­guard­ing con­cerns remains ongo­ing.

“PSNI are not able to com­ment fur­ther on spe­cific churches or indi­vidu­als,” they added.

A state­ment issued by PCI, and on behalf of Rev Mccaughan, said “we are genu­inely and deeply con­cerned to hear of what allegedly has taken place”.

“As these dis­tress­ing events are part of an ongo­ing invest­ig­a­tion by the PSNI, we are unable to make any spe­cific com­ment, except to say that as a church, we have com­mit­ted pub­licly to co-oper­at­ing fully with any police invest­ig­a­tion, and to assist them in every way we can,” it added.

PCI reit­er­ated its pre­vi­ous appeals encour­aging vic­tims and sur­viv­ors who wish to make a report to con­tact the police or its own safe­guard­ing team.

In full: unpublished letter reveals Benedict XVI’s final reflections on prayer and the future of faith

An unpublished letter by Pope Benedict XVI, written little more than a year before his death, has been released in a new Italian book, offering an insight into the late pontiff’s theology and view of the future of the Faith at the end of his life.

The text appears in La fede del futuro, the fourth instalment in a collection of previously unpublished and hard-to-find writings by Joseph Ratzinger, issued by the Siena-based publishing house Edizioni Cantagalli. The series is introduced by a preface from the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Cardinal Parolin writes that “the theme of the future is increasingly becoming the subject of theological reflection on faith, because it is by no means certain that humanity will continue to believe in God”. 

He notes that Ratzinger’s concerns in the essay are not limited to the fate of faith alone, but also embrace “the uncertainty and confusion prevailing in the world, which are causes of the loss of hope and of widespread fear”. 

The question of what lies ahead, he observes, is not confined to believers but touches all humanity.

Referring to the unprecedented acceleration of historical development in recent years, the cardinal says that humanity has been confronted with “extreme possibilities but also with extreme dangers”. 

The future, he says, “is no longer awaited with hope but with apprehension; it has even become a nightmare for many”. 

Against this backdrop he asks if “faith still has a role to play in shaping the world of tomorrow? Will the Church continue to exist?”

The unpublished letter by Benedict, dated Vatican City, 27 April 2021, is titled “Introduction: Thoughts on Christian Prayer” and sets out a concise yet theologically dense meditation on the nature of prayer as the fundamental religious act. Written in the final period of his life, the text returns to themes that characterised his theological work over decades, including Christ as mediator, the centrality of the Eucharist and the purification of human desire.

Pope Benedict XVI begins by defining prayer in general terms as “the fundamental religious act” and “the attempt to enter concretely into contact with God”. 

He immediately distinguishes Christian prayer from other forms by stating that it is conducted “together with Jesus Christ and, at the same time, prays to Him”. 

Christ, he writes, is both man and God and therefore “can thus be the bridge, the pontifex, who makes it possible to overcome the infinite abyss between God and man”.

In this sense, he continues, Christ is “the ontological possibility of prayer” and also its “practical guide”. Benedict recalls the Gospel scene in which the disciples, having seen Jesus at prayer, ask: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk 11:1). He notes that they were aware that even John the Baptist had instructed his followers in prayer, but that Jesus was “infinitely closer to God than even the greatest religious figure: John the Baptist”. 

From this he draws out what he calls the two fundamental characteristics of prayer, that which relates to being and that which relates to awareness, intertwined in a profound bond with God that consists in abiding with Him.

Turning to what he describes as mistaken or insufficient forms of prayer, Benedict recalls the prophetic words of Samuel: “To obey is better than sacrifice, to heed is better than the fat of rams” (1 Sam 15:22). 

He writes that the juxtaposition with the Cross is evident throughout Christ’s proclamation and that Christian prayer, united to Jesus, is inseparable from His self-offering.

He states that Christian prayer, insofar as it is prayer together with Christ, “is always anchored in the Eucharist, leads to it, and takes place within it”. 

The Eucharist, he writes, is “prayer fulfilled with one’s whole being” and represents the “critical synthesis of cult and true worship”. 

In it, Jesus has pronounced His definitive “no” to mere words and to animal sacrifices, placing in their stead “the great ‘yes’ of His life and death”.

For this reason, Benedict describes the Eucharist as both “the definitive critique of cult” and “the cult in the broadest sense of the term”. 

He notes that the Fathers of the Church characterised it on the one hand as the end of pagan custom and on the other as that which defines Christianity itself as prayer. He adds: “I believe we ought to reflect much more deeply on this fundamental opposition.”

The letter proceeds to emphasise the realism of Jesus’s teaching on prayer. Citing the parable of the friend who refuses to rise from his bed to give bread, Benedict writes that prayer is “always also an overcoming of our inertia, which inspires so many excuses for not rising”. 

To pray, he says, “means to push against this inertia of the heart” and involves the humility of bringing even “the small things of our daily life” before God and asking for His help.

In a concluding reflection, he addresses what he calls objections to petitionary prayer, namely the view that true prayer should consist solely of praise rather than repeated requests. 

Such a position, he writes, would be foolish if it assumes that God should not be troubled with human needs. On the contrary, “we need God precisely in order to be able to live our everyday life starting from Him and oriented toward Him”.

He points to the structure of the Lord’s Prayer, which consists of seven petitions, as evidence that asking is intrinsic to Christian prayer. 

“Asking God also and above all means purifying our desires so that we can place them before God and so that they may be inserted into the ‘we’ of the family of Christ,” he writes.

The publication of the letter in La fede del futuro offers a final glimpse into the spiritual mind of Pope Benedict XVI in the closing phase of his life, when, in retirement and physical frailty, he remained intellectually precise. 

The full letter is reproduced below with kind permission of Edizioni Cantagalli: 

—

INTRODUCTION THOUGHTS ON CHRISTIAN PRAYER by Benedict XVI 

In general terms, prayer is the fundamental religious act: it is, in some way, the attempt to enter concretely into contact with God. 

The peculiarity of Christian prayer lies in the fact that one prays together with Jesus Christ and, at the same time, prays to Him. Jesus is at once man and God and can thus be the bridge, the pontifex, who makes it possible to overcome the infinite abyss between God and man. 

In this sense, Christ is also, generally speaking, the ontological possibility of prayer. For this reason, He is also the practical guide to prayer. That is why His disciples, who had seen Him pray, addressed this request to Him: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk 11:1). 

They recalled that John the Baptist had taught his disciples to pray, knowing well that He is infinitely closer to God than even the greatest religious figure: John the Baptist. 

Thus emerge the two fundamental characteristics of prayer: that relative to being and that relative to awareness. They are intertwined with one another. 

The profound bond with God, in general terms, consists in abiding with Him. In Jesus’ school of prayer, our knowledge of Him grows, as does our closeness to Him. In this regard, we must also keep in mind Jesus’ criticism of mistaken or insufficient ways of praying. 

The juxtaposition with the Cross, evident throughout His proclamation and even in the prophetic words that had marked the tenor of prophecy up to Jesus—“To obey is better than sacrifice, to heed is better than the fat of rams” (1 Sam 15:22)—is already clear. Moreover, Christian prayer, insofar as it is prayer together with Jesus Christ, is always anchored in the Eucharist, leads to it, and takes place within it. The Eucharist is prayer fulfilled with one’s whole being. 

It is the critical synthesis of cult and true worship. In it, Jesus has said His definitive “no” to mere words and His “no” to animal sacrifices, and He has placed in their stead the great “yes” of His life and death. Thus the Eucharist represents the definitive critique of cult and, at the same time, the cult in the broadest sense of the term. 

The Fathers of the Church rightly characterized it on the one hand as the end of paganism, as consuetudo [custom], and on the other as characterizing Christianity itself as prayer. I believe we ought to reflect much more deeply on this fundamental opposition. 

This fundamental orientation of Jesus’ dramatic history of prayer enables us to understand the whole realism with which He went about His proclamation. The parable of the man who did not want to get up to give bread to his friend clearly says that prayer is always also an overcoming of our inertia, which inspires so many excuses for not rising. 

To pray means to push against this inertia of the heart and therefore also means the humility of bringing before God even the small things of our daily life, asking for His help. One final point. Often, the realistic and humble way of praying is presented as an objection to petitionary prayer as such: that adequate prayer should always and only be praise of God, not continual begging. 

This would already be foolish, since God could not and should not be bothered with our small things. In our daily life, however, we must think of ourselves. Yet in reality we need God precisely in order to be able to live our everyday life starting from Him and oriented toward Him. 

Precisely in not forgetting that our Father is the one in whom we trust, the Lord’s Prayer consists of seven petitions. Asking God also and above all means purifying our desires so that we can place them before God and so that they may be inserted into the “we” of the family of Christ.

How Czech Catholics are crowdfunding their priests’ salaries

More than 6,100 donors in the Archdiocese of Olomouc in the Czech Republic have contributed to priests’ salaries through an online crowdfunding platform as the Catholic Church prepares for the end of decades of financial support from the Czech state.

The platform, called Donátor, originally launched in the Diocese of Brno to finance various parish projects. 

After one year of operation in the Olomouc Archdiocese, it has become a key tool in the Church’s push for financial self-sufficiency, according to data published by the archbishopric.

Father Jan Berka, a parish priest in Valašské Meziříčí and member of the archdiocesan pastoral and priest councils, described the platform in an email conversation with EWTN News as “a simple and effective way” to contribute to priests’ salaries.

“I was surprised how quickly a relatively large part of people got involved,” Berka said. “I feel support from parishioners for my ministry and I am grateful.”

Priests who actively promoted the project attracted more donors, while those who did not ended up with fewer, he observed. Most of the priests he speaks with see it as “a good project that leads to greater co-responsibility of parishioners in the running of a parish,” Berka said.

Although the system in its current form does not make parishes more cohesive, it could make a difference in the future, he said. If a given community “reaches the target amount, everything above can be used by the parish,” he continued.

Berka said he does not see a risk of marginalizing those who prefer not to contribute, since participation is anonymous.

“To be honest, I am not sure who contributes and who does not. I do not check it in any way.”

The Diocese of Ostrava-Opava is now preparing a similar fund drawing on Olomouc’s best practices, the press office of the Archdiocese of Olomouc told EWTN News.

‘It would be a shock if we had fallen asleep’

The crowdfunding initiative is part of a broader effort by Czech dioceses to prepare for the end of state contributions to churches, which will be phased out entirely by 2030 under a landmark law passed in 2012.

Financial independence is about “freedom and responsibility,” Martin Pirkl, economist of the Archdiocese of Olomouc, said in an interview with the Czech Catholic weekly Katolický týdeník.

“It would be a shock if we had fallen asleep in the last 10 years,” he said.

After years of debate following the fall of communism in 1989, the Czech Parliament passed the Act on Property Settlement with Churches and Religious Societies in 2012. 

The law provided for the return of property historically belonging to churches, lump-sum financial compensation, and transitional state contributions. The process took effect in 2013.

Seventeen religious communities, including the Federation of Jewish Communities, are covered by the act. 

The Catholic Church, the country’s largest religious body, gave up a significant portion of its claims so that smaller communities could also benefit, streamlining the negotiations.

Under the law, churches will receive a total of 59 billion Czech crowns (about $2.5 billion) by 2043 to compensate for property confiscated by the communist regime between 1948 and 1989 that cannot be returned. 

State contributions to churches are decreasing annually and will end entirely in 2030.

Critics at the time argued that the restitutions were overvalued or would increase public debt, and some called for a referendum on the issue. Others questioned whether Church authorities could manage large sums responsibly.

Former Culture Minister Daniel Herman said in 2017 that the state and religious communities would continue to cooperate on preserving the country’s cultural heritage, much of which — chapels, monasteries, churches — is sacral property.

“This means that they will always be platforms for cooperation,” Herman said, describing “a cooperative model” that would persist even after formal financial separation.

Preparing for full independence

To prepare for full financial independence, the Olomouc Archdiocese is building “a portfolio of investments in agriculture, forestry, financial investments, and real estate,” Pirkl explained. But the transition will be challenging because of the necessary “review of all expenses,” which he described as “a test of maturity.”

Pirkl said it will not be possible “to maintain every single dilapidated church in the countryside.” If the Church “rationally prioritizes and cooperates with the state and municipalities to save cultural heritage,” it can “fulfill its main mission,” he said.

He noted that wealthier dioceses are already contributing to those with fewer resources, such as those in the borderlands, through the Czech Bishops’ Conference.

‘A revolutionary change’

Jakub Kříž, a lawyer who teaches at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague, told EWTN News that the end of state funding would have no immediate impact but that the Church will have to find new ways to cover costs in the long term.

“This is a revolutionary change,” he said, noting the assumption that greater financial independence will bring the Church more freedom.

However, the declining number of believers in one of Europe’s most secular countries will also affect the Church’s economic stability, Kříž warned.

He pointed to a deeper tension between two ways of thinking within the Czech Church: one focused on “business plans” — investing to generate profits — and another centered on people.

“Money will always be found, even if the investment is unsuccessful, and when there are no people, money is not needed,” Kříž said, characterizing the second perspective.

While disputes over the property settlement are largely concluded, Kříž said he foresees new tensions ahead — not over finances but over ethical questions.

“Criticism from the woke side will certainly come, but it will not concern property issues but rather ethical issues,” he said.

Brazilian priest convicted of embezzling nearly 700 smart devices donated to his institute

A Brazilian priest has been convicted of aggravated embezzlement involving nearly 700 electronic devices, including smartphones and tablets, donated by Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service to the healthcare institute he headed.

A court found that Father Egídio de Carvalho Neto, then president of Instituto São José (Saint Joseph Institute), the sponsoring organization of Hospital Padre Zé in João Pessoa, Paraíba state, misappropriated 676 smartphones and tablets donated by the Federal Revenue Service.

Instead of auctioning the devices and transferring the proceeds to the institute, he sold them and kept the money, according to the verdict.

Carvalho Neto was convicted alongside Samuel Cunha Segundo, former head of the institute’s technology department. 

The priest was sentenced to five years and six months in a semi-open prison regime, while Segundo received a sentence of four years and seven months under the same regime.

Both were also ordered to pay US$ 102,500 in material damages and US$ 97,452 in collective moral damages.

According to a report published by Brazilian news portal UOL, Carvalho Neto and Segundo traveled to Foz do Iguaçu, in Paraná state, in May 2023 to receive the donation of hundreds of electronic devices from the Federal Revenue Service.

The plan was to auction the items and use the proceeds to purchase at least one ambulance for Hospital Padre Zé. The total value of the donation was estimated at R$ 807,000 (US$ 157,310).

Fifteen boxes containing the most valuable items were taken to the institute’s presidential office without being inspected, allegedly on Carvalho Neto’s orders.

Nearly two months later, when employees checked the contents, they discovered that 12 of the 15 boxes were empty. Carvalho Neto himself informed police that 676 devices were missing, but did not provide their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers.

Investigators were able to obtain the smartphones’ IMEIs from the Federal Revenue Service and launched an inquiry. They soon identified a man who was selling the missing devices. He told authorities that he had purchased them from Segundo.

The police investigation also found that the institute’s CCTV cameras stopped functioning on June 26 and were only reactivated three days later. Segundo was responsible for overseeing the system.

Luciano Santoro, Carvalho Neto’s attorney, described the conviction as a “great injustice.”

“The evidence was clear that he had no involvement whatsoever in those acts and that he was, in fact, the one who reported the theft to the authorities. More than that, we proved that there is not a single financial transaction suggesting that he took part in the theft,” Santoro told Crux Now.

He added that “cases are no longer judged based on facts, but on people – or on the image constructed of them.”

“I am convinced that he was not convicted for having committed the crime, but for being Father Egídio, since the evidence of his innocence is compelling,” Santoro said, adding that he “fully trusts that the Honorable Court of Justice of Paraíba will correct this manifest injustice.”

Samuel Segundo’s attorney argued that his client merely followed the priest’s orders.

Indeed, Carvalho Neto’s case has drawn national attention in recent years. The disappearance of the electronic devices is just one of 11 criminal charges he faces.

In total, prosecutors accuse the priest of diverting R$ 140 million (approximately US$ 27 million) intended for Instituto São José and for the social works of the Archdiocese of Paraíba.

The funds reportedly came from João Pessoa’s municipal government and from the Paraíba state government through partnership agreements and were meant to finance social services, including the distribution of food kits to homeless individuals.

Instead, prosecutors allege that a criminal organization led by Carvalho Neto diverted the funds to purchase luxury assets, including real estate in upscale neighborhoods, vehicles, and works of art. 

At least 19 apartments and houses have already been identified by prosecutors as properties linked to Carvalho Neto. They were either registered in his name or in the name of people he knew.

He stepped down as president of the institute in October 2023, shortly after the alleged embezzlement was uncovered.

Carvalho Neto has been removed from all ecclesiastical activities since then. 

Arrested in 2023, he remained in custody for several months before being released in 2024 to undergo cancer treatment. 

He still appears in the Archdiocese of Paraíba’s yearbook as a resident priest.

Wakes should be at home, not in a church, but bishops must compromise on eulogies (Opinion)

Bishop Paul Connell’s directive against wakes in parish churches in the diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise has sparked debate, but it is not the first such edict in the Irish Catholic Church.

Back in 2018, Bishop William Crean issued similar guidelines for the diocese of Cloyne. In these, he said: “The church, as the place where the blessed sacrament is reserved, and where other services must take place, is not a suitable place for the wake.”

Elsewhere in his guidelines, Dr Crean said expressions of sympathy to the bereaved family in the church must be conducted in “an atmosphere of prayerful silence befitting the house of God” and that the coffin must remain closed at all times while in the church.

Lamenting that “some mistaken ‘novelties’” had crept into funeral customs, the bishop said his guidelines were an “aid” to celebrating a funeral liturgy with the “dignity both the deceased and bereaved deserve”.

One priest told the Irish Independent of concern about some instances where church wakes have “got out of hand” and were turned into social events. The debate is sure to continue and it has raised a number of issues around funerals, the role of a church, and how to accommodate a grieving family’s faith needs with social expectations.

The divide over funeral customs also extends to eulogies, a topic covered in a survey by RIP.ie this week.

While the 3,400 people who took part in the survey were not asked about wakes, their views were sought on the issue of a eulogy at the funeral mass. A number of dioceses in Ireland do not permit eulogies during the funeral mass. Yet 95pc of respondents in Munster said they believed a eulogy should be part of the funeral service.

There is always a risk of a badly prepared eulogy becoming uncomfortable or dragging on or revealing inappropriate information. But without a eulogy, the funeral can seem impersonal and perfunctory.

I recall one particular funeral presided over by a priest who stuck closely to the rules. There was no eulogy, nor any real personal touches, despite the priest having known the deceased and their grieving family for decades. He might as well have never met them, for all the difference it made.

Surely it is insensitive to so starkly put rules above pastoral needs.

Perhaps concern over the possibility of an impersonal liturgy is the reason why the vast majority in the RIP.ie survey expressed support for the right of the bereaved to deliver a short tribute about their loved ones and to say goodbye to them in their own words.

Fr Tim Hazelwood is a spokesman for the Association of Catholic Priests and a parish priest in the Cloyne diocese. In his experience, wakes are held in the family home or at the funeral home, not in the church. He has attended a wake in a church and says he did not find it very reverent.

“It was like a marketplace with people standing around and talking. It was a social gathering, and I didn’t feel it was very respectful in the church,” he said. “I love the idea that at a wake you have stories and jokes about the deceased but laughing and shouting out loud in the church – it is a place of worship. I don’t think it is appropriate.”

If every family decided to hold a wake in a church and make it an overnight vigil, that would be a huge logistical challenge to churches in relation to oversight by personnel and insurance.

Perhaps the best way forward is for those who wish to have a wake to do so in the family home or at a funeral home, where there are no church constraints.

For those who opt for a removal, they do so on the basis that it’s a religious service and therefore a more sedate affair.

As for eulogies, bishops and priests need to compromise and allow grieving families to express their love and loss in their own words.

Scotland introduces ‘boil in a bag’ funerals in huge ritual change

Scotland has introduced a massive change to its burial ritual rules after bringing in ‘boil in a bag’ funerals.

The alternative technique is being seen as the biggest change to the UK’s body disposal scene since cremation was introduced in 1885.

Described by advocates as ‘water cremations’, the technique is viewed as an eco–friendly alternative to traditional cremation, which uses large amounts of natural gas.

Known as alkaline hydrolysis, a ‘boil in a bag’ funeral sees bodies dissolved into a sterile slurry and flushed down the drains.

The body is wrapped in a biodegradable sheet that is usually made of silk or wool and placed in a pressurised steel chamber.

The tank is filled with liquid that is 95% water and 5% of an alkaline chemical such as potassium hydroxide.

While in the tank, the body is heated up to 150C under pressure, which ensures that it does not actually ‘boil’.

The process takes up to three or four hours and replicates the natural steps of decomposition that typically take decades to happen inside a coffin.

To finish the process, the liquid is cooled, treated and poured into the drains. It is then processed alongside normal wastewater.

Kindly Earth has the exclusive rights to produce alkaline hydrolysis equipment in Scotland.

The group has stated that when the process ends, the waste liquid is sterile and contains no solids or DNA.

Natural compounds such as proteins, peptides, sugars and salts are what’s left after processing.

The water will eventually rejoin the hydrological cycle.

Meanwhile, the skeletal remains are left behind and dried, cooled and reduced to a fine white powder.

The powder is returned to the family in an urn, like ashes following a cremation.

According to the Farewell Guide, the price of the process typically ranges between €1,300 to €4,300 in countries that have legalised it.

It is legal in over half of the United States, including California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington.

It is also already legal in Ireland, which became the first country in Europe to offer the process in 2023.

Royal Assent on Mother and Baby Homes Bill expected to be granted this summer

Royal Assent is expected to be granted on the Mother and Baby Homes Bill this summer.

The passing of the legislation will allow the opening of a public inquiry into the former institutions in Northern Ireland, as well as a redress scheme for victims and survivors.

More than 14,000 women and girls are thought to have passed through institutions, which were run by the Catholic Church, religious orders, some Protestant denominations, and the state.

Many were found to have been mistreated, held against their will and forced to give up their children for adoption.

The Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill has reached the consideration stage in the Northern Ireland Assembly process.

A payment of £10,000 (€11,449) is proposed to be made to eligible claimants and a £2,000 (€2,290) payment to eligible family members on behalf of a loved one who has died since September 29th, 2011.

There have been calls for it to be doubled to £20,000 (€22,896).

There has also been criticism of the timeframes for eligibility to apply for redress, with a call to extend the timescale to include those admitted from 1922 onwards.

Asked for an update during Executive Office questions, Junior Minister Joanne Bunting said they aim to complete all the stages before the summer recess, and anticipate Royal Assent “during the summer months”.

She also said that preparatory work on the necessary secondary legislation is “progressing well”.

“We plan to consult on these shortly after the final vote, with the intention of opening the redress scheme before the end of the year, and this will represent another important set of milestones to provide victims and survivors with truth and acknowledgement,” she said.

Bunting said the inquiry will open “as soon as possible” after the relevant primary and secondary legislation comes into force.

“Victims and survivors have been at the heart of this process from the very beginning,” she said.

“There will be consultation following the final passage of this Bill on the next steps and around the statutory the rules of the inquiry, to ensure that the concerns that victims and survivors have will be addressed and also that they are heard and listened to by the consultative forums.”

Asked about progress on the redress scheme, Bunting said the intention is to launch the redress service later this year, subject to the passage of the legislation.

“In the interim, a shadow redress service has been established within the Department of Justice,” she said.

“This team includes officials with experience from other redress schemes who bring valuable expertise and working in a trauma-informed way.

“The current work is centred on developing the IT system, progressing staff recruitment and developing the support model so that everything is ready to go.”

She said work is also ongoing in terms of access to records.

“We’re aware that many have faced real obstacles and difficulties in trying to understand or trace their family history,” she said.

“Work has been ongoing to improve that experience and make those processes as straightforward and actually supportive as possible.

“Applicants to the scheme will have practical support from the Victims and Survivors Service, Wave and Adopt NI, to help them navigate what can be a difficult and emotional process.

“We’re also working closely with the Public Records Office in Northern Ireland on digitising records, and with the trusts and Department of Health on managing any resourcing pressures so that resources can be created and provided as efficiently as possible.”

Burke family say Enoch has been moved to Castlerea Prison

Jailed schoolteacher Enoch Burke, his family has said, has been moved from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin to Castlerea Prison in Roscommon.

The teacher, who has spent over 600 days in separate spells in jail, was moved, according to his family, to the medium security prison in Roscommon on Sunday morning, just over 70km from the Burke home in Castlebar.

In the High Court on Monday, his brother Isaac Burke sought the release of Enoch Burke. He said Enoch Burke was given no reason whatsoever for the move from Mountjoy Prison.

He said a High Court order of January this year specified the teacher be detained at Mountjoy Prison.

Isaac Burke, addressing the court by videolink said Enoch Burke had always made clear he should not be detained at all, but he has now been moved to Castlerea and this was a serious matter.

He said Enoch Burke on Sunday “without warning or notice was told to gather his belongings, put in a prison van and not told where he was going .” 

When he got to Castlerea Prison at around lunch time, he said Enoch Burke was told where he was.

He said Enoch Burke was “given no reason whatsoever for the move.”

He said he was asking for Enoch Burke’s release and said it was a matter “in relation to the deprivation of liberty.”

Justice Brian Cregan said all he could to was note that the matter had been mentioned before him. 

The judge said there was no evidence before him that Burke had been moved to Castlerea Prison though he didn’t doubt that Isaac Burke was telling the truth, but there was no evidence before the court.

He said Burke could bring an application before the court on Tuesday morning grounded on a short affidavit in relation to the matter.

Burke replied that he could tell the judge his brother was in Castlerea Prison and he said it should be of concern that an order of the court had been allegedly breached by the prison authorities.

Justice Cregan said he will hear an application on the matter which is brought before the court. 

The judge said it was a matter of a short affidavit to the court outlining the facts to the court and he could hear the application on Tuesday.

Isaac Burke said there is a concern “right now” in relation to an unlawful detention.

At one stage on Monday, Justice Cregan said he would make a production order for Enoch Burke to be allowed join the High Court on Wednesday by video link when a judgement will be given in relation to the Burke case.

Enoch Burke was dismissed from his position at Wilson’s Hospital School, Co Westmeath, over his conduct towards the then principal at a school religious event in June 2022. 

She had earlier requested teachers to address a student by a new name and the pronouns “they” and “them”.

Burke has repeatedly breached the court order to stay away from the school and was up until now incarcerated at Mountjoy Prison over this contempt of court. He has spent over 600 days in separate spells in jail.

He has repeatedly claimed he has been jailed over his religious beliefs and views on transgender issues, a claim rejected by several High Court judges.

Last Friday, Justice Cregan told Burke’s mother Martina and sister Ammi that he was invoking the court’s contempt jurisdiction against them arising from disturbances in his courtroom including shouting.

The judge reserved judgment to Wednesday this week on that matter.

Justice Cregan also said he would give a decision on Enoch Burke’s claim of perjury in an affidavit sworn by the former chairman of the DAP hearing his appeal against his dismissal from the Wilson’s Hospital School.

Separately, Burke is seeking permission from the Court of Appeal to challenge the High Court judgment handed down almost three years ago, banning him from the Co Westmeath school.

Bishop's statement in relation to St. Augustine's Church, Cork

Statement of Bishop Fintan Gavin in relation to the announcement by the Augustinian community of the decision to withdraw from St Augustine’s Church in summer 2026

It is with great sadness that I, along with so many people across Cork City and beyond, have learned of the decision of the Augustinian community to withdraw from St Augustine’s Church this coming summer. For generations, the Augustinian community at St Augustine’s has been an important and cherished part of the cultural, spiritual and faith life of our city. Many people have found there a place of prayer, welcome, and belonging.

With the declining number of religious vocations within the Augustinian Order, and the advancing age profile of many of its members, I fully understand and respect the reasons behind this decision, which has clearly been made after careful discernment about their future mission and resources.

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the Augustinian friars, past and present, for their faithful ministry, their preaching of the Gospel, and their generous service to the people of Cork over so many generations. Their contribution to the spiritual life of the city will long be remembered with gratitude and affection.

I will have an opportunity in the coming months to thank the Augustinians more publicly for their immense contribution to the faith life of our city.

I am particularly mindful that this news will come as a sadness to many who have found in St Augustine’s a spiritual home over the years. I want to reassure all of you that I will endeavour, as your Bishop, to respond pastorally to that need, even as the Holy Spirit may now be inviting us to live and express that faith in new ways and in new places.

Cork’s city centre has been blessed to have so many churches, many of which were provided by religious orders, and most of them continue their ministry, including the Franciscans, Capuchins, and Dominicans.

St Peter’s and St Paul’s Parish Church — which is also near St Augustine’s — has seen significant investment in recent years in upgrading and renewing this beautiful church. Today it is home to 24-hour Eucharistic Adoration, a full Mass schedule, and various pastoral activities which connect with the life of the Cathedral Family of Parishes. 

We have also recently introduced a Mass on the second Sunday of each month, animated by young adults, which is proving very popular. Our new St Peter and St Paul’s young adult residential community is a real sign of new life and hope, together with the recently opened Emmaus Café, offering a place of welcome, encounter, and hospitality in the heart of the city.

As we look ahead, and especially as we prepare for the 100th anniversary of the Cork Eucharistic Procession in our city, I look forward to supporting all those who feel the loss of St Augustine’s as a spiritual home, together with the wider faith community in the city centre, as we continue to find new ways of placing Christ, his Church, and a spirit of welcome and worship at the heart of our city.

The faith that was nurtured for generations within the walls of St Augustine’s will continue to live on and bear fruit in the hearts of its people and in the life of our city.

Church agrees deal with Catalonian government to loan properties for social housing

The Catholic Church in Catalonia concluded a major agreement with the regional government to loan Church-owned properties and land to house vulnerable families.

On 16 February, the Archbishop of Tarragona Joan Planellas and Salvador Illa, president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, signed a four-year-agreement whereby the Church will retain ownership of the properties but loan them for fixed periods.

The Generalitat will provide finance and infrastructure to build social housing on ecclesial properties including decaying rectories, dilapidated seminaries and plots of land. 

Archbishop Planellas said: “Lack of housing is one of the chief issues in Catalan society, where 25 per cent of the populace has some kind of social exclusion problem in terms of housing.”

The Church owns some properties whose alternative use has been obstructed by a lack of funds or by complex urban planning rules, he explained. The agreement will allow the Generalitat to establish suitable conditions for building properties.

A working group composed of five members of the 10 Catalan dioceses and five members of the Generalitat will oversee the implementation of the agreement. The group’s mandate is to study the viability of building projects, propose any necessary changes in regulations and to guarantee the new housing is given to vulnerable groups, according to standards of transparency and equality.

The four-year initial term of the agreement may be prolonged. Each year a special commission will monitor the fulfilment of the aims of the agreement and analyse the results.

Illa said the idea arose from a similar agreement in Malta, whose government agreed last summer to loan land to a Church foundation so it could develop housing costing on average 30 per cent less than those on the free market.

The working group’s first task is to make an inventory of the properties and land offered by the Church across Catalonia.

One problem is that some of the land concerned cannot be used to build homes straightaway because it is classified as being for religious use only. Before any building work may take place, it must go through a process to obtain the correct permits for building in urban areas.

China intent on ‘persecution’ say campaigners, after latest house church arrests

The Chinese government’s policy towards religion “is not about indigenisation” but persecution, according to the daughter of an imprisoned church leader.

“It’s about persecution of religion,” said Grace Jin Drexel, whose father Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri led the Zion Church network until his arrest on 10 October in Beihai, Gungxi Province.

The authorities detained nearly 30 other Zion Church leaders across China in the same operation, effectively dissolving what was one of the largest unofficial house church networks in the country.

Ms Drexel told The Tablet that the arrests were conducted by a centralised taskforce rather than regional authorities, and followed a renewed political emphasis on religious control following a study session on “sinicisation” by the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in September.

Benedict Rogers, senior director of the advocacy group Fortify Rights, told The Tablet that the arrests were “part of a wider and more intense crackdown” on religion in China over the past year, arguing that it reflected the CCP’s “absolute intent to control religion”.

In January, the authorities arrested leaders of the prominent Early Rain Covenant Church in southwest China.

Pastor Jin and his fellow church members were reportedly arrested under the “Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals” published in September, for alleged “illegal use of information online”.

Since it was subject to an official ban in 2018 for refusing to install facial recognition technology in its main church building, the Zion Church has adopted a “hybrid model” of online and house-church meetings, which helped its rapid expansion during the Covid pandemic.

However, Ms Drexel insisted her father did not pursue any political agenda or use his position in the church to criticise the CCP.

“He would not join the government church because that would no longer be serving one master,” she said, adding that “it would be naïve” to think that he could work independently within a state-approved church. 

Nevertheless, Jin “worked relatively well with the local government” even after the ban on the Zion Church in 2018, Ms Drexel continued. “I don’t think he felt it was his mission to bring down the leadership.”

The Chinese government recognises Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism as distinct religions, though 90 per cent of the population professes no religious affiliation.

Official Protestant churches are permitted within the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, under the CCP’s United Work Front, and are subject to official requirements including the promotion of “sinicisation”.

Within the same structure, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) governs the state-approved Catholic Church. Its “election” of bishops without papal approval created an historic division between an official and an “underground” Church, with the latter periodically subject to repression by the Chinese authorities.

Since 2018, a provisional agreement between the Vatican and Beijing has governed episcopal appointments with both parties approving new bishops and each authority expected to recognise both official and formerly “underground” bishops.

However, critics of the agreement say that the Chinese authorities have repeatedly broken its terms – though these remain secret – and that it restricts the Church’s voice on human rights while abandoning clergy who still refuse to join the CCPA.

While the Vatican hoped the agreement would promote religious freedom in China, said Rogers, “the opposite has happened” because “underground” clergy face increased restrictions amid the wider measures against religion such as Pastor Jin’s arrest.

Proponents of the agreement emphasise the importance of ensuring that all Catholics in China are under the care of bishops recognised by Rome, observing that protests against the authorities’ conduct were largely ineffectual even before 2018.

Speaking at an event in Tallinn last week, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Gallagher acknowledged that “many people are critical of the Holy See for talking to the authorities in Beijing”.

In response to a question about Cardinal Agostini Casaroli, a diplomat who led the Church’s “Ostpolitik” negotiations with communist states in the 1960s and ‘70s, Archbishop Gallagher compared the “martyrdom of patience” Casaroli endured from his critics to the attacks on the provisional agreement.

“People are criticised for it, the previous popes, and also [Secretary of State] Cardinal [Pietro] Parolin, and people like myself,” he said, adding that he was glad not to be “exposed to the snipers as they are”.

Benedict Rogers told The Tablet that while there were limits to what protests could achieve for religious freedom in China, “international pressure can help in terms of improving the conditions people are held in”. Meanwhile, “silence definitely doesn’t help”.

Grace Jin Drexel, who is a US citizen, said that protests at her father’s arrest could show the CCP that it was “in China’s interest” to release him if it wishes to be considered “a respectable country”.

In his remarks in Tallinn, Archbishop Gallagher observed that Cardinal Casaroli felt “unfairly criticised” for his diplomatic work.

“Today, you don’t have to go very far to find some church historians who will ridicule [Ostpolitik] as the wrong way to have gone in the 1960s and 1970s, up to the collapse of the Soviet Union,” Gallagher said.  “But it did allow, I think, the Church a degree of freedom.”

He continued: “It did allow in some parts of the former Soviet Union [and the] communist world for the Church to lay, perhaps, the foundations for a new beginning when those regimes collapsed completely.”

Brazilian archbishop declares schism, excommunicates Catholics attending TLM

The Archbishop of Maceió in Brazil has declared that any Catholic in the diocese who attends a unauthorized Traditional Latin Mass will incur an excommunication, for the canonical crime of schism.

In a Feb.11 statement posted on the archdiocesan Facebook page, Archbishop Carlos Alberto Breis Pereira, OFM, declared that in his diocese, participation in an “old rite Mass in another location [to the single approved location and time] will be considered an act of public schism, resulting in automatic excommunication.”

The bishop’s decree is the most assertive episcopal action aimed at enforcing the norms of Traditionis custodes, Pope Francis’ 2023 motu proprio restricting use of the Extraordinary Form, to be reported so far.

Breis Pereira’s decision is an application of canon law previously unseen in contemporary diocesan governance, and is likely to be challenged for validity at the level of the Holy See.

The archbishop’s decree reminded local Catholics that, if they wish to attend a Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, they may do so at the authorized diocesan location, the Chapel of St. Vincent de Paul in the city of Maceió, where the Mass is celebrated every Sunday.

The statement describes the authorized liturgy as a “concession” granted by Breis Pereira “with the approval of the Holy See,” in line with the provisions of Traditiones custodis.

“This liturgy is not authorized anywhere else, whether religious or not, nor in any civil law association,” the archbishop stated.

In the decree, the archbishop noted that canon 751 defines schism as “the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him,” and that canon 1364 §1 states that “a schismatic incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.”

The document also noted that, for clerics, additional penalties may be applied under the norms of canon 1336 §§2–4.

While speculation on social media has suggested that the archbishop’s measure was issued in response to the presence in the archdiocese of the Society of Saint Pius X, a traditionalist group with an irregular canonical status, the statement makes no mention of the SSPX, and is instead intended to apply to all Catholics attending Masses offered according to older liturgical rubrics.

The Archdiocese of Maceió has a history of concerted episcopal action against the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite in recent times.

Following the publication of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007, which permitted widely the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass and instructed pastors to make reasonable accommodations for the liturgy to be celebrated for stable communities of the faithful who requested it, Archbishop Antônio Muniz Fernandes, the predecessor of Breis Pereira, reportedly declined to implement the motu proprio and banned all Extraordinary Form Masses in Maceió.

In 2023, Muniz read a document during a Mass which declared that it is “permanently prohibited in the territory of the Archdiocese to frequent or invite heretical priests that are not in communion with the Church and want to follow the old rite… these Masses, wherever they are celebrated in the territory of the archdiocese, are canonically prohibited, as the law commands.”

“Anyone who knows of the celebration of these ‘Tridentine Masses’ in parishes, not in communion with the pope, doesn’t deserve the name of Christians or Catholics. They can say they are traditionalists and so on, but none of them has an authorization. And the families who celebrate these Masses in their apartments are also barred from communion with our Holy Catholic Church. Therefore, again, all these so-called traditionalist celebrations are banned in the territory of Maceió.”

While many bishops moved to tighter restrictions on the celebration of the Extraordinary Form after the promulgation of Traditionis Custodes in 2021, the Archdiocese of Maceió appears to be the first case in which a bishop has declared that those who attend or celebrate an unauthorized Extraordinary Form Mass are schismatics and therefore incur latae sententiae excommunication.

Some dioceses have previously decreed excommunication for participation in Masses celebrated by the Society of Saint Pius X, such as the Diocese of Lincoln, though this particular law was issued related to prohibited societies in canon law, and the irregularity of the SSPX and the status of its leadership in relation to the Holy See.

The closest precedent occurred in 1991 when Bishop Joseph Ferrario of the Diocese of Honolulu declared the excommunication of six Catholics in the diocese for seeking an illicitly consecrated SSPX bishop to administer the sacrament of confirmation.

However, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reviewed the case a year later and concluded that the event did not constitute the canonical crime of schism, rendering the excommunications invalid.

Vatican sources told The Pillar Friday that a recourse against the decision to the Dicastery for Legislative Texts would, if made, likely be considered on several fronts: The decree’s broadly construed criteria for schism, and the scope of the bishop’s authority to regulate liturgies offered within religious houses among them.

German bishops to ask Rome to permit lay homilies

The German bishops will formally ask the Vatican to permit lay preaching at Masses, new conference chairman Bishop Heiner Wilmer announced Thursday.

According to Church law, homilies at Mass are “reserved to a priest or deacon,” but lay people can receive permission to preach in a church or oratory, “if necessity requires it in certain circumstances or it seems advantageous in particular cases.”

In a report issued at the end of the bishops’ Feb. 23-26 plenary meeting in Würzburg, Wilmer said the request to Rome to permit lay homilies originated in a resolution approved by participants in Germany’s controversial “synodal way” on March 10, 2023.

The document called on Germany’s bishops to “draw up a particular norm and obtain permission for this from the Holy See, according to which the homily can also be taken over in Eucharistic celebrations on Sundays and feast days by theologically and spiritually qualified faithful commissioned by the bishop.”

The resolution noted that it was already a “long-standing practice” in German dioceses for “persons who have qualified themselves through studies in theology and have been sent by the bishop into the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel” to preach at Masses.

It suggested the practice could be expanded to include religious education teachers, “trained people for leading liturgies of the word,” and “spiritual leaders of associations.”

Wilmer, who was elected bishops’ conference chairman Feb. 24, said the bishops had discussed the synodal way resolution on lay preaching at Masses in detail and adopted a regulation that would govern the practice.

“We now want to ask for approval for this regulation in Rome. We have agreed that I will take this with me on my next visit to Rome and explain and promote it once again in discussions there,” he said.

The German bishops’ request seems likely to be rejected not only because it is inconsistent with canon law, but also because the Vatican responded negatively to the synodal way resolution shortly after it was passed.

German Catholic media reported at the end of March 2023 that Cardinal Arthur Roche, the prefect for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship, had written to the then-bishops’ conference chairman Bishop Georg Bätzing, rejecting arguments in favor of lay preaching at Masses.

Roche suggested that “misunderstandings about the figure and identity of the priest” could “arise in the consciousness of the Christian community” if lay people preached in place of clergy.

“Word and sacrament are inseparable realities, and since they are not merely formal expressions of the exercise of sacra potestas [sacred power], they are neither separable nor can they be separable,” he said.

The cardinal also highlighted Pope Francis’ opening in 2021 of the ministries of lector and acolyte to women.

“This openness offers lay people the opportunity to engage in meaningful liturgical ministry in the exercise of the ministry of lector and acolyte,” he wrote, expressing interest in “how this possibility was received in the dioceses in Germany.”

Five years later, there is little evidence that German dioceses have seized the opportunities for instituted ministries of lector and acolyte offered by Pope Francis.

Widespread lay preaching at Masses does not appear to take place in any other country than Germany, even in neighboring German-speaking nations.

A draft proposal circulated at Australia’s plenary council in 2022 called for the local Church to petition the Vatican to approve lay homilies. But ultimately, the assembly rejected a motion seeking to amend canon law to permit lay homilies.

In Germany, the practice dates back decades. The German bishops’ conference approved a document in 1988 that set out norms for commissioning qualified lay men and women to preach in specific contexts.

It said: “In cases where the diocesan bishop deems it necessary, Catholic lay people (men and women) may be entrusted with the ministry of preaching during the celebration of the Eucharist, in the form of a statio [introductory address] at the beginning of the service, provided that the celebrant is unable to give the homily and no other priest or deacon is available to do so.”

The document was implemented in dioceses such as Rottenburg-Stuttgart. In 1999, the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese issued its own document regulating lay preaching at Masses. The diocese was led at the time by Bishop Walter Kasper, who later served as prefect of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

The document said lay people could preach at Mass when priests or deacons could not deliver the homily due to extraordinary circumstances. As examples of exceptional circumstances, it cited “physical and psychological impairments, e.g. age, illness,” “communication problems, e.g. language difficulties, specific target groups,” “overload due to a high number of sermons,” “the need for special thematic expertise,” and the “need for special pedagogical competence, e.g. children’s, youth, family church services.”

Church law says that “a homily must be given at all Masses on Sundays and holy days of obligation which are celebrated with a congregation, and it cannot be omitted except for a grave cause.”

The 1999 text presented lay preaching at Masses as a responsible way to meet the requirements of canon law when a priest or deacon was unable to preach.

At their spring plenary meeting, the German bishops also approved the statutes of a new permanent body of bishops and lay people known as the synodal conference.

The Catholic website communio.de reported Feb. 27 that the statutes “only very narrowly” secured the approval of the necessary two-thirds majority of the 56 bishops present at the meeting. The bishops’ conference has not confirmed this account of the vote.

Bishop Wilmer said at a Feb. 26 press conference that he would apply for recognitio (approval) for the statutes in Rome.

He argued that the synodal conference “represents the development of a format that takes the concerns of the global synodal process seriously and implements them in our cultural sphere, including the impetus for greater transparency, accountability, and evaluation.”

He added: “The worldwide synodal events have taught us how valuable it is to listen to one another. Synodality remains a spiritual attitude. Walking together, sharing responsibility, making decisions together — and keeping Christ at the center.”

“Trust grows from this center, and trust creates a future. It will be a matter of proclaiming the Gospel with all our strength, with words if necessary.”

St John of God gets €18M bailout from taxpayers

A TAXPAYER-FUNDED bailout of €18million has been provided to the scandal-plagued St John of God group, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.

According to its latest accounts, St John of God Community Services Ltd (SJOGCS) received €229million from the HSE in 2024.

However, the Section 38 charity was unable to make any headway in clearing a historical deficit of €31million.

In all, SJOGCS has been given more than €1.6billion in State funding in the ten years up to 2024.

Now the Department of Children, Disability and Equality has agreed a debt write-off involving €18million paid in advance supplementary funding that the charity would otherwise have had to repay.

SJOGCS is a full subsidiary of St John of God Hospitaller Services Group, which is controlled by the St John of God order.

‘The order has just 14 members in Ireland’

But in a historic move last year, all remaining members of the religious order stood aside from direct management and governance positions in the group’s companies, charities and schools.

The order has just 14 remaining members in Ireland, 12 of whom are aged over 80.

Day-to-day management is now carried out by lay managers who are loyal to the order, by means of a corporate structure approved by the Vatican.

The switch to lay management had long been planned to allow the order’s work to continue even in the absence of religious brothers.

However, it was hastened by the conviction of child abuser Br Aidan Clohessy last year.

Clohessy was jailed in June 2025 after a near decade-long MoS investigation exposed an international cover-up that allowed him to continue abusing children in Malawi as secret settlements were made to his previous victims in Ireland.

After the prosecution, leading figures such as former Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay and One In Four founder Colm O’Gorman called for the Provincial of the order, Br Donatus Forkan, to step down and demanded he be investigated for the reckless endangerment of children.

Gardaí are currently considering a criminal complaint of reckless endangerment made by the MoS against Br Forkan.

Details of the Department of Children, Disability and Equality’s bailout of SJOGCS are contained in the charity’s latest publicly filed accounts for 2024. 

According to the accounts, the board of SJOGCS received a formal offer from the department of €18million to ‘partially resolve legacy accumulated deficits.’

The offer was received on June 30 last year and accepted by the board the following month. 

However, as of late last year, the precise mechanism of the bailout had not been fully ironed out.

‘Uncertainty remains regarding the mechanism for grant provision and timing of receipt of the proposed financial support in full,’ the accounts, which were signed in mid-November 2025, state.

This uncertainty related to discussions between the department and SJOGCS about debt forgiveness being sought by the charity. However, this week both the department and SJOGCS confirmed the matter had been settled.

‘The matter was resolved in 2025 and the HSE continues to work closely with St John of God Community Services to ensure the delivery of sustainable high-quality services and supports for people with intellectual disabilities aligned to the HSE National Service Plan,’ a SJOGCS spokesman said.

Meanwhile, a department spokesman confirmed that ‘onceoff supplementary funding’ had been ‘provided to meet verified costs incurred… in the provision of services to people with intellectual disabilities on behalf of the State’.

The MoS has confirmed that the precise nature of the once-off funding agreed by the department involves an €18million sum in supplementary allocations already provided to SJOGCS by the HSE. 

The agreement now means this €18million will not have to be repaid or cut from this year’s allocation to the charity.

The bailout move is a bid to stabilise services for the 8,000 clients who rely on SJOGCS for mental health and intellectual disability help throughout the country.

‘HSE critical of historical spending scandals’

In recent years, SJOGCS has been engaged in a standoff with the HSE about its funding allocation, which the charity says is insufficient. 

The HSE has been critical of historical spending scandals at the wider St John of God group, including 2016 revelations in this newspaper about millions of euros in secret top-ups that were paid to managers.

The impasse has not been helped by a Government legacy of chronic underfunding of the Section 38 charities.

The consequences of this legacy were addressed in confidential HSE memos, published by the MoS in collaboration with HSE whistleblower Shane Corr.

These show the HSE has been warning the Government since at least 2018 that the entire disability sector is ‘facing systematic breakdown’ with many Section 38 entities ‘technically trading recklessly’.

St John of God has twice threatened to walk away from providing services to the State completely – most recently in February 2024.

Amid this brinkmanship, thousands of vulnerable service users, as well as 3,000 staff and volunteers, have continued to face worrying cutbacks and uncertainty.

According to the latest SJOGCS accounts, funding constraints are even potentially dangerous and pose ‘threats to safe and effective service delivery’.

‘Significant risks’ identified by the charity include ‘staffing shortages, ongoing funding constraints, and ageing infrastructure, including vehicles and buildings’.

According to SJOGCS, funding constraints mean required maintenance, upgrades and replacements to buildings, equipment and vehicles cannot be carried out.

‘In 2024, while some funding was secured, many high-risk areas remain unresolved, such as fire safety and electrical compliance, particularly in premises not covered by HIQA [Health Information and Quality Authority] regulations,’ the accounts warn.

Another risk identified is the inability of the charity to secure an internal auditor.

According to the accounts, a Director of Audit Risk and Compliance was appointed in December 2024 – but an internal auditor cannot be found even though funding for the post is available.

Even if an internal auditor were found, the accounts warn, this still would not be enough to cover a charity as large and complex as SJOGCS.

‘A singular post for Internal Audit falls well short of and is insufficient of the requirements for the completion of a comprehensive programme of Internal Audit,’ the accounts state.

‘This is a very significant gap and poses a risk to the organisation. Despite extensive efforts, the recruitment of the singular Internal Auditor through specialised financial recruitment agencies remains difficult and this has been a legacy issue for Community Services for some time.’

While the State-funded SJOGCS continues to struggle, other parts of the wider St John of God group earn millions from the money the HSE pays.

For example, SJOGCS pays the group’s profit-making private hospital in Stillorgan, Dublin, in the region of €6million to €7million annually for providing in-patient beds and other services.

In 2024, this jumped significantly to €8.3million.

In a further boost to the St John of God order’s finances, the private hospital pays annual rent of €2million back to the order for the use of its main building on the Stillorgan site.