A Rwandan national suspected of causing a major fire that ravaged the cathedral in the French city of Nantes last year murdered a Catholic priest in western France on Monday, the interior minister and a source close to the investigation said.

“All my support for the Catholics of our country after the dramatic murder of a priest in the Vendée region,” French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote on Twitter, saying he was heading to the scene.

A source close to the investigation, who asked not to be named, told the AFP that the suspect had earlier gone to police in the town of Mortagne-sur-Sevre and declared he had killed a priest.

The slain priest, 60, had been welcoming the man into his church for several months, according to the source.

The man, a Rwandan national named as Emmanuel A., has confessed to being behind the fire at the Gothic Nantes cathedral that horrified France on July 18, 2020.

He had initially been placed under arrest before being freed under judicial control.

Earlier Monday, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who accuses the government of being weak on immigration, sought to capitalise on the incident, saying that in France “you can be an illegal migrant, set fire to a cathedral, not be expelled and then reoffend by murdering a priest”.

Darmanin immediately accused her of “making a polemic without knowing the facts” saying the man could not be expelled from France while he was under judicial control.

Immigration is set to be a major issue when Le Pen challenges centrist President Emmanuel Macron for the presidency next year.

Senator Bruno Retailleau, a conservative who represents the Vendée region, identified the victim as Olivier Maire. He said the local Catholic church had been housing the man.

“Deeply shocked by the terrible murder of a priest who had taken in his murderer into his care,” Retailleau said on Twitter.

“What was this man still doing in France?” asked the lawmaker, who is among several Les Républicains members likely to seek that party’s nomination for the 2022 presidential election.

Priceless artefacts lost in 2020 blaze

The Nantes blaze came 15 months after the devastating 2019 fire at the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, which raised questions about the security risks for other historic churches across France.

While firefighters were able to contain the Nantes blaze after just two hours and save the main structure, its famed organ, which dated from 1621 and had survived the French revolution and World War II bombardment, was destroyed.

Also lost were priceless artefacts and paintings, including a work by the 19th-century artist Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin and stained glass windows that contained remnants of 16th-century glass. Repairs are due to take several years.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)

A financial scandal involving an opaque, loss-making Vatican property deal paid for with charity funds goes to trial Tuesday after a two-year probe that has implicated a once-powerful cardinal.

Vatican prosecutors allege that ten defendants, including high-rolling London financiers and church employees, engaged in various crimes such as embezzlement, fraud, and corruption.

It is unclear whether former cardinal Angelo Becciu, then number two at the powerful Secretariat of State, will appear in the makeshift courtroom held within the Vatican Museums on the trial’s opening day.

Becciu, 73, who says he is the innocent victim of a plot, is the highest-profile defendant embroiled in the Church’s ruinous purchase of a 17,000-sq metre London property in the upmarket neighbourhood of Chelsea under his watch.

The case against Becciu, which carries charges of embezzlement, abuse of office and witness tampering, also includes separate allegations over hundreds of thousands of euros of church funds paid to his brother’s charity.

The trial ensnaring the former right-hand man to Pope Francis — who was fired by the pontiff in September and stripped of his privileges as cardinal — represents the first time a cardinal has been indicted by Vatican criminal prosecutors in modern history.  

Bags of money

The complex case alleged by prosecutors paints a picture of dubious, risky investments involving millions of dollars of Vatican money, little or no oversight, and double-dealing by outside consultants and insiders trusted with the financial interests of the Secretariat of State, the Vatican’s most important department charged with general affairs and diplomacy.

A 487-page indictment released earlier this month sheds light on hefty bank transfers, text messages between collaborators from seized cellphones — even bags of money changing hands and secret meetings in luxury hotels.

The primary defendants are “actors in a rotten predatory and lucrative system, sometimes made possible thanks to limited, but very incisive, complicity and internal connivance,” wrote prosecutors.

Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has vowed to clean up the Church’s finances, dogged for decades by scandal. After a 2019 raid on the Secretariat’s offices by Vatican police, Francis stripped the body of oversight of its own funds, handing that responsibility to others.

The scandal is particularly embarrassing because funds used for risky ventures, including the disastrous 350-million-euro ($415 million) investment in Chelsea, came from the Peter’s Pence, an annual fund for the pope’s charities.

Risky ventures

The current case dates from 2013, when the Secretariat borrowed more than $200 million, mainly from Credit Suisse, to invest in a Luxembourg fund managed by an Italian-Swiss businessman, Raffaele Mincione. Half was intended for stock market purchases and the rest for part of the London building.

Mincione, prosecutors allege, used the money to invest in high-risk ventures over which the Church had no control. By 2018, the Secretariat had already lost millions and tried to pull out of the deal.

But another London-based financier, Gianluigi Torzi, brought in to broker the purchase of the rest of the building and cut ties with Mincione, instead joined forces with him, say prosecutors.

Torzi arranged for the Holy See to give Mincione £40 million to buy out the financier’s share of the London property, but allegedly inserted a clause into the deal that gave himself control of the building through voting rights.

Torzi is accused of demanding 15 million euros to relinquish control.

Mincione and Torzi were helped, prosecutors claim, by Enrico Crasso, a former financial consultant to the Secretariat, and employee Fabrizio Tirabassi, both of whom face charges including fraud.

Also implicated are two former top officials within the Vatican’s financial regulator, including its ex-president, Swiss lawyer Rene Bruelhart, whom prosecutors say did not do enough to protect the Secretariat’s interests.

In another twist, Becciu is accused of paying defendant Cecilia Marogna 575,000 euros in Vatican funds earmarked for freeing captive priests and nuns abroad that Marogna — dubbed “the Cardinal’s lady” by the Italian press — spent on luxury goods and hotels.

Prosecutors claim the Vatican’s top hierarchy, including Becciu’s boss and pope ally Cardinal Pietro Parolin, were in favour of the London venture, but unaware of its financial details.

Source: AFP

Thousands of Nigerians have been paying their last respects this week to Temitope Balogun Joshua, one of Africa’s most popular televangelists, known as T.B. Joshua.

The controversial Nigerian-born pastor died about a month ago at the age of 57.

A memorial service was held for him Thursday at the auditorium of the Lagos headquarters of the megachurch he founded, Synagogue Church Of All Nations. The ceremony was aired live by his Emmanuel Television Station.

Joshua’s body, dressed in a white suit and in a transparent casket, was displayed as mourners, many weeping, filed past, including people visiting from different parts of the world to pay their respects.

Joshua was noted for making predictions and for his claims to cure various ailments and to make people prosper through miracles. He was, however, controversial, with critics questioning his claims of cures and alleging that he profited from desperate people seeking hope.

More than 15,000 people from Nigeria and abroad attended Joshua’s Sunday services in the stadium-like church, including many African presidents, senior government officials, international soccer players, musicians and other high-profile celebrities. Joshua’s popularity reached across Africa and to South America where he held many religious crusades.

In September 2014, the guest house of the Lagos church collapsed, killing more than 100 people, most of them foreigners who were in Nigeria to attend his services.

While authorities say the building collapsed because of structural defects, T.B. Joshua insisted the building was blown up by a small plane that he claimed flew over it shortly before it tumbled down.

Tributes and services have been held all week. Joshua will be buried Friday. He is survived by his widow and three children.

Source: Africa News

Pope Francis expressed his “affection” for the American people as he met at length Monday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, with the latter declining to delve into “domestic politics” when later asked if the two discussed a campaign by U.S. bishops to deny Communion to Catholic politicians like the U.S. president who support abortion rights.

The Vatican said the two spoke for about 40 minutes, a long time considering that Blinken isn’t the top U.S. administration leader.

The closed-door meeting in the Apostolic Palace “played out in a cordial atmosphere,” a Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said. The meeting, “was, for the pope the occasion to recall his 2015 visit and to express his affection and his attention to the people of the United States of America.”

Bruni was referring to the pontiff’s U.S. pilgrimage, which included a meeting at the White House with then President Barack Obama. In recent years, the U.S. church hierarchy has been increasingly more polarized about U.S. politics and politicians.

Many of the more conservative U.S. bishops have been clamoring for a clear directive from their ranks against giving Communion to U.S. political figures who are Roman Catholics and support women’s right to abortion. Vatican teaching forbids abortion as a grave sin. This campaign puts the heat on President Joe Biden, a Catholic who has said that while he personally opposes abortion, he supports abortion rights.

Earlier this month, the U.S. churchmen decided to go ahead and craft a document about Communion. Only a month earlier, Francis’ top official on doctrinal orthodoxy had urged the bishops to think the matter through thoroughly and aim to keep divisions to the minimum.

Blinken declined to wade into the issue when he was asked at a news conference in Rome after his Vatican visit if he and Francis had discussed the divisive issue.

“One of the luxuries of my job is that I don’t do domestic politics,” said Blinken, who described his talks with the pope as ”extremely warm and very wide-ranging.”

Francis himself hasn’t weighed in publicly on the latest squabble in the long-running wrangling over the Communion issue within the U.S. Conference of Bishops.

Blinken had high praise for Francis and the opportunity to be the highest level official in the fledgling Biden administration to have a sit-down session with the pontiff.

“I was very gratified by the meeting and gratified as well by the strong leadership of His Holiness on the pandemic, on climate change, his leadership on the basic proposition that we have to stand for human dignity in whatever we do,” Blinken said.

Blinken’s spokesman, Ned Price, said the secretary had assured the pontiff about “the United States’ commitment to working closely with the Holy See to address global challengers and the needs of the world’s least fortunate and most vulnerable, including refugees and migrants.”

That would generally synch with Francis’ overarching agenda of putting those living on life’s margin at the center of attention.

Blinken also thanked Francis for “longstanding leadership” on the need to tackle climate change. Early in his papacy, Francis issued an encyclical, or formal teaching document, stressing the need to treasure and protect the environment.

Last year, when Blinken’s predecessor, Mike Pompeo, came to the Vatican, he wasn’t granted any private time with Francis. At the time, Vatican officials explained that the Holy See didn’t want to give any impression of favoritism only weeks before the U.S. presidential election.

Pompeo had blasted the Vatican for what he said was a lessening of its moral authority by signing an accord with Beijing over the nominations of Chinese bishops. Pompeo had insisted that the Holy See take a tougher stand against Chinese restrictions on religious freedom.

Biden, for his part, has criticized China for forced labor practices. Blinken’s spokesperson said the secretary and Francis discussed China as well as humanitarian crises in Lebanon, Syria, the Tigray region of Ethiopia and Venezuela, the latter nation’s economic and social plight often drawing attention by Francis, who is a South American native.

Human rights and religious freedom in China were also discussed in Blinken’s separate talks with the Holy See’s No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, and with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, its foreign minister.

Blinken stressed U.S. support for a return to democracy in Venezuela and “our desire to help the Venezuelan people rebuild their country,” Price said.

At the Vatican, Blinken on Monday was also given a guided, private tour of the Sistine Chapel, with its ceiling frescoed by Michelangelo and other Renaissance masterpieces. Price tweeted that he and Blinken toured the “breathtaking Sistine Chapel.”

Blinken visited Rome before flying to southern Italy for Tuesday’s Group of 20 meeting of foreign ministers, which is focused on improving collaboration among nations on climate change, health issues and development.

 Source: AP

Temitope Balogun Joshua popularly referred to as T. B. Joshua died on Saturday at the age of 57.

He died just seven days to his birthday.

Here are quick facts about the leader and founder of The Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN).

1. Joshua was born on 12 June 1963 after he spent 15 months in his mother’s womb and narrowly avoided death after a quarry explosion near his house sent rocks through its roof just seven days after his birth.

2. T.B Joshua was formerly called Balogun Francis.

3. He attended St. Stephen’s Anglican Primary School in Arigidi Akoko, Nigeria, between 1971 and 1977, but failed to complete one year of secondary school education.

4. He worked in various casual jobs after his schooling had ended, including carrying chicken waste at a poultry farm.

5. Joshua attempted to join the Nigerian military but was thwarted due to a train breakdown that left him stranded en route to the military academy.

6. He started his church in 1987.

7. According to The Guardian UK, his church attracts more weekly attendees than the combined number of visitors to Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London.

8. Joshua is “YouTube’s most popular Pastor with over 1,000,000 subscribers.

9. In 2008, he received the Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) by the Nigerian government.

10. He was also voted the Yoruba man of the decade by Pan-Yoruba media outlet Irohin-Odua in 2008.

11. He was called one of Africa’s 50 most influential people by Pan-African magazines The Africa Report and New African Magazine.

12. As of 2011, according to Forbes, Joshua was Nigeria’s third-richest pastor, although the claim was immediately denied in a statement by the church.

13. He was known to be controversial, and was even ‘blacklisted’ by the government of Cameroon in 2010.

Source: PMNews Nigeria

Pope Francis expressed his “pain” Sunday over the discovery of the remains of 215 children in a mass grave at a former indigenous boarding school in Canada run by the Church.

But he did not go so far as to offer the apology that many people have been calling for over the unfolding scandal.

“I follow with pain the news coming from Canada about the shocking discovery of the remains of 215 children,” he said, following Sunday prayers at Saint Peter’s Square.

The discovery of the remains of the children last month sent shockwaves through Canadian society.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday called on the Catholic Church to take responsibility for its role in the deaths at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia.

He has already promised “concrete action” from the government and urged his fellow Catholics in Canada to make it clear to the Church that they expected its full cooperation too.

“Before we have to start taking the Catholic Church to court, I am very hopeful that religious leaders will understand that this is something they need to participate in,” he added.

In his speech Sunday, Pope Francis said: “I unite with the Canadian bishops and the entire Catholic Church in Canada in expressing my solidarity with the Canadian people traumatised by this shocking news.

“The sad discovery further increases awareness of the pain and suffering of the past,” he added.

– ‘Reconciliation and healing’ –

The pope called for Canada’s political and religious leaders to work together to “shed light on this sad matter” and begin the process of “reconciliation and healing”.

But in his comments Friday, Trudeau stressed: “We need to have truth before we can talk about justice, healing and reconciliation.”

UN rights experts on Friday urged both Ottawa and the Vatican to hold swift and thorough investigations into the affair.

On Wednesday, Vancouver Archbishop J Michael Miller offered an apology on behalf of the Church in a statement.

But there have been growing calls for an apology from the pope himself — including from some Canadian government ministers.

The Kamloops Indian Residential School was the largest of 139 boarding schools set up in the late 19th century to assimilate Canada’s indigenous peoples, with up to 500 students registered and attending at any one time.

Only 50 deaths were ever officially recorded at the institution, where a principal once pleaded for more funds to properly feed students.

It was operated by the Catholic church on behalf of the Canadian government from 1890 to 1969, before Ottawa took over its administration and closed it a decade later.

Source: AFP