Provision made for Ash Wednesday voting in Indonesia

THE Roman Catholic Bishops of Indonesia are making special provisions to ensure that the minority RC population can participate in the elections due to take place on 14 February, Ash Wednesday. Some dioceses have been given permission to hold services for the beginning of Lent on other days. “The active involvement in both events are the responsibility to fulfill our duty as citizens and our call to repent as Christians,” the President of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Antonius Subianto Bunjamin of Bandung, told the American online agency Crux. “We believe that we have to live as 100 per cent Catholic and 100 per cent Indonesian.”

Bishop Curry recovering after procedure

THE Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Most Revd Michael Curry, is recovering at home after a successful medical procedure, on Thursday of last week, to alleviate the underlying condition that has caused his recurrences of subdural haematoma, the Church’s Office of Public Affairs has said. Bishop Curry had surgery last month after he fell while visiting New York and suffered a brain bleed (News, 8 December 2023). Aged 70, he is in the final year of his nine-year term as Presiding Bishop.

Nuns abducted amid violence in Haiti

SIX religious of the Sisters of Sainte-Anne congregation were abducted in daylight in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, last Friday, Vatican News has reported. “Armed gunmen stopped and boarded the minibus as it was heading to the university taking all passengers hostage,” it said. The Bishop of Anse-à-Veau & Miragoâne, Mgr Pierre-André Dumas, called on “all of Haitian society to join hands to form a true circle of solidarity around all the country’s hostages, in order to obtain their release and grant them a swift, safe return to their families and communities”. He also declared his willingness to take their place as a hostage. Demonstrations against the lack of security have been organised around the country, amid clashes between rival gangs, and kidnappings.