Pope named Person of the Year by animal activists

POPE Francis has been chosen by the animal-rights activists People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) as their Person of the Year. PETA said that it was honouring the Pope because of his encyclical Laudato Si’, which urged Roman Catholics and others to respect the environment and treat animals with kindness. PETA said that it was interpreting this as a “call to turn towards a simple, plant-based diet”, which it also endorsed.

First bishop for RC Ordinariate in the United States

MGR STEVEN LOPES has been appointed as the first bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, created by Pope Benedict XVI for former Episcopalians/Anglicans wishing to enter into communion with Rome. Mgr Lopes has worked at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 2005. The Ordinariate has about 70 priests and deacons serving 42 parishes, and was created at the same time as its British counterpart, that of Our Lady of Walsingham (News, 19 January 2011).

Methodists in Rome celebrate diamond jubilee

THE English-speaking Methodist Church in Rome, Ponte Sant’ Angelo, welcomed the Secretary of the British Methodist Conference, the Revd Gareth Powell, in celebration of its 60th anniversary, on Sunday. Mr Powell cut a commemorative cake weighing 5.5kg. He later met the director of the Anglican Centre, Archbishop David Moxon, and visited new conference facilities for pilgrims and ecumenical students at Ponte Sant’ Angelo.

Suspected arson ‘classified as blasphemy’

THE Christian news channel Gawahi TV, in Karachi, Pakistan, whose offices were gutted after a suspected arson attack last week, is reported to have succeeded in registering the case under the blasphemy law, partly because a Bible and other religious books were destroyed. The owner of the channel, Sarfraz Williams, was also reported in the region as speaking of “threatening phone calls” to members of staff from objectors to the channel’s Christian content.