US diocese supports Honduran immigrant

EPISCOPALIANS in the diocese of Massachusetts, in the United States, joined a gathering on Tuesday in support of Blanca Martinez, an immigrant from Honduras, before she met federal immigration officials, the Episcopal News Service reports. Ms Martinez, who fears deportation, attends St Peter’s-San Pedro, Salem, and has lived and worked as a domestic cleaner in the area for the past decade after fleeing violence in her home country. After the appointment, federal authorities released Ms Martinez and allowed her to stay in the US for at least another year. Immigrants made “incredible contributions and are at an incredible risk because of the indignities of our government”, the Bishop, the Rt Revd Julia Whitworth, said.

Militant rebels massacre DRC funeralgoers

REBELS linked to Islamic State killed at least 61 people at a funeral on Monday of last week in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, officials have said, Reuters reported last week. The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militants claimed responsibility for the attack and said that they had killed nearly 100 Christians, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant activities. Open Doors reports that hundreds more were kidnapped. More than 40 people, including nine children, were killed in an attack by ADF fighters in the country in July, the UN and the military said at the time. Most of them were worshippers taking part in a night vigil at a Roman Catholic church (News, 1 August).

Nuns on the run from home in Austria

THREE Austrian nuns in their eighties have run away from a retirement home and returned to their former convent, according to media reports. Sisters Bernadette, Regina and Rita, 82, were the last three at the Kloster Goldenstein convent in Elsbethen and said that they had been made to leave against their will in December 2023. “We had the right to stay here until the end of our lives and that was broken,” Sister Bernadette told the BBC. The community — which operated alongside a girls’ school — was officially dissolved at the beginning of 2024 after numbers dwindled. They were helped to return to the convent by a group of former students. The nuns’ Superior, Provost Markus Grasl, described their actions as “completely incomprehensible” and “an escalation”, citing their “precarious health conditions”.

Recovery begins after huge Afghan earthquake

CHRISTIAN groups are supporting the recovery effort after a huge earthquake in eastern Afghanistan that killed more than 1400 people and damaged almost 7000 houses (News, 5 September). The World Council of Churches reports that “severe sanitation shortfalls have increased the risk of cholera and other diarrheal disease outbreaks. There are also imminent winter risks for high-altitude communities, where blankets, heating, and warm clothing remain insufficient.” The head of Christian Aid’s humanitarian division, Michael Mosselman, said: “Entire villages have been flattened, leaving survivors without shelter or essential supplies.” The charity’s local partner, the Organization for Coordination of Humanitarian Relief, is supporting the most vulnerable groups, including pregnant women.