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Last Updated: 20 January 2015

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Last Updated: 20 January 2015

CWN - A Catholic convent in the Crimean capital city of Simferopol has been closed, after the three sister who lived there were denied extensions of their residence permits, the Forum 18 news service reports.

The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary had worked with the poor in Simferopol for 18 years. But the sisters living in the convent were natives of Poland or Ukraine, and after the Russian takeover of the Crimea, authorities have declined to renew their residence permits.

Operating under Russian law, Crimean officials now require that religious communities be formally registered with the state in order to qualify for admission of foreign-born pastoral workers. No religious organization in Crimea has been granted official registration.

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Last Updated: 20 January 2015

CWN - A coalition of Green and Socialist party politicians attempted to block a European Parliament resolution calling for the protection of Christians and other religious minorities in Libya, according to German media reports.

The attempt failed following “boos that overcame partisanship,” according to one report, and the resolution passed on a voice vote.

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Last Updated: 19 January 2015

CWN - Pope Francis has established a new Eastern Catholic church for Eritrea-- the first Eastern Catholic church formally erected since the early 20th century.

According to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, there are four kinds of Eastern Catholic churches: patriarchal (led by a patriarch), major archepiscopal (led by a major archbishop), metropolitan sui iuris (led by a metropolitan archbishop), and other sui iuris churches. (The term sui iuris means “of its own right” or “of its own law.”)

According to a January 19 announcement from the Holy See Press Office, Pope Francis has separated the four Eritrean eparchies (dioceses) from the Ethiopian Catholic Church and has created a new metropolitan sui iuris church for Eritrea. The Pontiff has named Bishop Menghesteab Tesfamariam of Asmara, Eritrea’s capital, as the church’s first metropolitan archbishop. The metropolitan archbishop of Asmara will henceforth be head of the church.

Located in the Horn of Africa, Eritrea has been criticized by human rights organizations for government repression and systemic violations of religious freedom.

Relations with neighboring Ethiopia have been tense for decades. Eritrea was the less powerful partner in the short-lived Federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea (1952-62), with Ethiopia formally annexing Eritrea in 1962. The Eritrean War of Independence lasted until 1991, and Eritrea became independent in 1993. The two nations were again at war from 1998 to 2000.

Eritrea, a, nation of 6.5 million, has 155,000 Catholics, all of them in Eastern-rite jurisdictions. The Eritrean Orthodox Church, an Oriental Orthodox church that separated from the Coptic Orthodox Church (with Coptic consent) in 1998, has 1.5 million members. The majority of Eritreans are Muslims.

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Last Updated: 19 January 2015

CWN - Iraq’s leading Catholic prelate has issued a plea for responsible Islamic leaders to join in the task of “dismantling” radical jihadist ideology.

Patriarch Raphael Louis I Sako of the Chaldean Catholic Church told an audience in Baghdad that the religious minorities of Iraq, “are today marginalize, and have been dealt with harshly and in a brutal way.” Christians especially have suffered under the Islamic State, he said—reporting that in Mosul and the Nineveh Plains, “not a single one” is left.

The Chaldean Patriarch invited Islamic leaders to confront “this immoral and uncivilized phenomenon” and to “spread the civilized culture of respecting diversity.”

Toward that end, Patriarch Sako said, Islamic leaders should review and amend the texts used by Muslim teachers, “closing the door to those who are influencing the mentality of young people to use violence in the name of religion.” He challenged them to “promote a civilize culture of acceptance and acknowledging others as brothers, co-citizens, and full partners.”

“At this point, there is no other future for us than living together in peace,” the Patriarch said.

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Last Updated: 19 January 2015

CWN - Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako has challenged a Vatican decision overruling his order for Chaldean priests to return to Iraq, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

The Iraqi Patriarch had announced last year that Chaldean priests who fled Iraq without episcopal permission were required to return, or face suspension from ministry. But earlier this month the Vatican reportedly accepted the appeal of Father Noel Gorgis, a Chaldean priest who is now serving a parish in California.

The Chaldean Patriarch has said that the Vatican does not have authority to overturn his order, the Los Angeles Times says. The report, if accurate, points to a test of the lines of authority between the Vatican and the Eastern churches which, while in full communion with Rome, maintain their own independent episcopal authority.