LGBTQ+ pilgrimage to Rome marks Jubilee Year
ABOUT 1400 LGBTQ+ pilgrims travelled from around the world to hold a Holy Year prayer vigil at the Church of the Gesù in Rome, last week. They attended mass at St Peter’s and walked through the basilica’s Holy Door on Saturday. The first LGBTQ+ jubilee pilgrimage to be recognised by the Vatican, it was “a big deal” and “met the needs of a lot of Christian people”, Alessandro Ferraccioli, a member of the congregation at the US Episcopal church St Paul’s Within the Walls, in Rome, told the Episcopal News Service. Last year, St Paul’s was the first church community in Rome to be represented at Roma Pride. It describes itself as a hub for the LGBTQ+ community.
Hold corporations to account, UN body is urged
AS THE United Nations’ General Assembly opened in New York this week, global religious leaders and NGOs, including Christian Aid, called for an enforceable international agreement to hold corporations to account for global human-rights abuses and environmental destruction. The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, who chairs Christian Aid, said: “A binding treaty at the United Nations would ensure that profits cannot be pursued at the expense of people and planet and give affected communities economic security and hope for the future.”
Filipino priest to receive ‘Asian Nobel Prize’
THE Ramon Magsaysay Award — known as the Nobel Prize of Asia — has been awarded to Fr Flavie Villanueva, a Filipino Roman Catholic priest who has taken a strong stand against Rodrigo Duterte, the President of the Philippines between 2016 and 2022, Crux reports. Mr Duterte was an authoritarian and divisive figure under whose regime there were unexplained deaths. Fr Villanueva, who campaigns for the homeless and the unlawfully killed, is set to receive the award on 7 November, and will do so, he says, “on behalf of the thousands of homeless and those victims of social injustice”. Former recipients include Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama.
Evicted Texan congregation finds new berth
ALL SAINTS’, Fort Worth, in the United States. has found a new home. It is one of six Episcopalian congregations evicted from their premises in 2021 after the Episcopal diocese of Texas, North Region, as it is now known, lost a 12-year legal battle with the Anglican Church in North America. The congregation has raised $11 million to buy and renovate a former Methodist church in the city, which it intends to occupy by the end of 2026. The Texas church has more than 1600 members and has been worshipping in a school (News, 27 August 2021).
South Korean meetings tackle AI and social justice
THE World Council of Churches (WCC) convened two meetings in South Korea last month to consider economic justice and artificial intelligence. The events, in Pocheon-si, brought together theologians, academics, and faith leaders from across Asia “to study how the Fourth Industrial Revolution affects global inequality and to create faith-rooted responses”. The ecumenical events “positioned faith communities as key voices in tackling challenges from child exploitation to environmental destruction in our connected world”, the WCC said.