Pope defied by, and excommunicates, Lefebvrists

THE Society of St Pius X, founded by Archbishop Lefebvre, consecrated four new bishops this week, two days after the Pope pleaded with it not to do so. The bishops — two French, one American, and one Swiss — will be excommunicated. “I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!” Pope Leo wrote on Monday in a letter to the group — which says that it has a presence in more than 75 countries across six continents, with more than 750 priests — warning that the consecrations would be a “schismatic act”. He continued: “To tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity.” The Superior General of the society, Fr Davide Pagliarani, said: “Are we breaking with the Church in order to keep the faith? That is a false dilemma. We belong to the Church first through faith, through the integral profession of the Church’s faith.” The ceremony, at Ecône in Switzerland, was attended by more than 1,000 priests, religious men and women, and about 15,000 others. The society is against reforms introduced by Vatican II in the 1960s.

Archbishop of Brisbane warns of Sydney’s dominance

HOW does a national Church maintain genuine communion when one theological tradition increasingly dominates its representative structures, the Archbishop of Brisbane, the Most Revd Jeremy Greaves, asked in an address to the Brisbane diocesan synod on Saturday, writes Muriel Porter. Archbishop Greaves was referring to the dominance of the diocese of Sydney, whose representatives will occupy one third of the places on the General Synod when it meets in August. Brisbane diocese will have 18 representatives, and Sydney will have 68. The number of representatives is calculated on the number of licensed clergy in a diocese. Archbishop Greaves referred to the recent purchase by Anglicare Sydney of an aged-care provider with facilities across Queensland, Victoria, and South Australia, as well as New South Wales. This broke a long-held agreement among Australian bishops, he said, “about how agencies might operate across diocesan boundaries”. The challenge , he continued, was not simply “Sydney versus everyone else”, but “whether the Anglican Church of Australia can continue to cultivate a culture in which influence is exercised with humility, disagreement is conducted charitably, and all dioceses understand themselves as participants in a shared mission rather than competitors for control”.

Christians massacred by Fulani in Nigeria

TWENTY-EIGHT Christians, including a pastor, Markus Nyam of the Church of Christ in Nations, were last week killed in central Nigeria by Fulani herdsmen. The attack began at 2am on 22 June, in the Kawel village in Bokkos County, media outlets report. One eyewitness and survivor, Jesse Peter Dukut, reportedly described gunmen as moving through the village shooting anyone who appeared in doorways. “A sound from any of the houses attracted shooting from the terrorists,” he said. Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List says that 3,490 of the 4,849 Christians killed globally for their faith between October 2024 and September 2025 were Nigerian. A radical faction of Fulani has adopted tactics comparable to Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, and the attackers showed “a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity”, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Belief has said.

Polish Church faces £4m claim over child abuse

A COURT in Katowice, in Polan, last week began hearing what is being reported as the largest compensation claim ever brought against the Roman Catholic Church in Poland by a victim of clerical sexual abuse, it is reported. Janusz Szymik is seeking 20 million zlotys (£4 million) in damages from the archdiocese of Katowice, in south-west Poland. Mr Szymik, who is in his fifties, said that, as a child in the 1980s, he was sexually abused and raped hundreds of times by a Roman Catholic priest. The alleged abuser, the late Jan Wodniak, was never convicted, reports said, although church investigations have acknowledged that abuse took place.