Primate of Norway apologises to LGBTQ+ community
THE Church of Norway has apologised for causing LGBTQ+ people “shame, great harm and pain”, the Presiding Bishop of Norway, Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has said. Dr Fykse Tveit was speaking on Thursday of last week at the London Pub in Oslo, a gay bar that, in 2022, was the target of a mass shooting in which two people were killed and 21 wounded, the Guardian reports. “The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm, and pain. This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today. . . Some have renounced their church membership, and some say they have lost their faith. It has been a great strain for those affected and their family and friends. . . God creates us all in his image, with the value and worth that entails,” he said. “The Bible tells of people who met Jesus. He raised them up and showed us all what community is.”
Renewed call for Sri Lanka bombing investigation
MORE than six years after the Easter Day bombings that killed 261 people in three churches and three hotels in Colombo, the Roman Catholic Church is still demanding an investigation to ensure justice for the victims (News, 13 April 2023). The Sri Lankan Church is urging the government to appoint a “special prosecutor”. The executive director of the Centre for Society and Religion in Colombo, Fr Rohan Silva, told Vatican News on Tuesday: “We have been constantly demanding this appointment, because the Attorney-General’s Department, which currently handles the case, has not moved with sufficient speed. A special prosecutor would help ensure that charges are filed and justice is not delayed indefinitely.”
WCC demands radical debt-reform
THE World Council of Churches (WCC) joined policy experts and representatives from the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, Islamic Relief Worldwide, and other regional development organisations at the Civil Society Policy Forum panel meetings last week in demanding debt reform. The WCC called for “cancelling illegitimate colonial-era debts, establishing catastrophe clauses in debt instruments, and delivering climate finance as grants rather than loans”. They insisted that these reforms should be implemented within the next two years. The meetings were held during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings.
Syrian Archbishop wins Vatican peace and reconciliation award
THE Syrian Catholic Metropolitan of Homs, the Most Revd Jacques Mourad, received the St. John Paul II Award in the Vatican on Saturday for his “dedication to peace and reconciliation”, Vatican News reports. In 2015, Metropolitan Mourad was kidnapped by ISIS terrorists and tortured in an attempt to make him renounce his faith. He was held in captivity for five months. During the ceremony, the chair of the award committee, Cardinal Kurt Koch, who is the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, said that the award was “in recognition of his lifetime of service, his witness of faith, Christian love, interreligious dialogue, and his dedication to peace and reconciliation.”