World

27, November 2025

The Holy Father arrives in Turkey on first foreign trip of papacy ⁰

Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Turkey at the start of the first foreign trip of his papacy, where he will mark an historic Christian anniversary, before heading to Lebanon days after Israeli airstrikes on its capital, Beirut.

As he travelled to Ankara, the Pope summed up the message of his trip by saying that “all men, women can truly be brothers and sisters, in spite of differences, in spite of different religions, in spite of different beliefs”.

Visits to both countries had originally been planned by the late Pope Francis, but the overarching theme – building bridges – is one Pope Leo has made his own from the moment he stepped on to the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica after his election in May.

Since he became pontiff six months ago, he has conveyed a sense of being extremely measured, even cautious. But on this trip, his powers of diplomacy will be closely scrutinised.

A key moment of the trip will take place in the Turkish town of Iznik, the site of the ancient city of Nicaea. Pope Leo and leaders of other Christian traditions will gather to mark the anniversary of an ancient council that took place there 1,700 years ago. In 325 AD, among other key decisions, more than 200 bishops at the council affirmed the belief that Jesus was the son of God, eventually leading to what is known as the Nicene Creed.

Eastern and Western branches of Christianity later dramatically split, but during this trip there will be messages of togetherness and healing divisions.

In Turkey the Pope will also visit the Blue Mosque, as both his immediate predecessors Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI had done. He will have meetings with other religious leaders in a gesture of inter-religious dialogue before flying on to the second leg of the trip.

Source: BBC

16, October 2025

The Holy Father slams millions facing hunger worldwide as ‘collective failure’ ⁰

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday slammed the world’s failure to stop millions of people going hungry, blaming a “soulless economy” and calling on people to rethink their lifestyles and priorities.

“Allowing millions of human beings to live — and die — victims of hunger is a collective failure, an ethical aberration, a historical sin”, Leo said in a speech at the Rome-based UN agricultural agency.

“The scourge of hunger… continues to atrociously plague a significant portion of humanity,” he said, a day after the UN warned global hunger “is at record levels”.

The crisis was “a clear sign of a prevailing insensitivity, a soulless economy,” Leo told the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) at an event to mark its 80th anniversary.

Leo highlighted the “outrageous paradoxes” by which enormous amounts of food go wasted in the world “while multitudes of people scramble to find something in the garbage to put in their mouths”.

“How can we explain the inequalities that allow a few to have everything and many to have nothing?” he asked.

He cited in particular “Ukraine, Gaza, Haiti, Afghanistan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Yemen, and South Sudan,” among other countries “where poverty has become the daily bread”.

He also lambasted the fact that people seem “to have forgotten” that using starvation as a weapon is a war crime.

The US pontiff urged the world to rouse itself from “the fatal lethargy in which we are immersed”.

“The hungry faces of so many people who still suffer challenge us and invite us to reexamine our lifestyles, our priorities, and our way of living in today’s world in general,” he said.

The World Food Agency (WFP) said Wednesday that 319 million people are facing acute food insecurity, including 44 million in emergency levels of hunger, and “staggering” cuts to its funding mean it has had to drastically cut aid packages to millions in need.

Source: AFP

21, August 2025

Pope Leo XIV ‘seems to be enjoying’ the papacy ⁰

As Pope Leo XIV passed the 100-day mark in his pontificate, one native Chicagoan – Leo’s own older brother, John Prevost — said the new pontiff is having a good time of it in the job so far.

“He seems to be perfectly at ease,” the 71-year-old John Prevost told Chicago local NBC affiliate 5 Chicago television in an exclusive interview that aired this week. “He seems to be enjoying it,” the middle brother of the three boys – Louis Jr., John, and Robert – born to Louis and Mildred Prevost said, “this is a natural.”

John Prevost, a retired school principal, told 5 Chicago life has been busy for him since his baby brother’s election on May 8th.

“It’s non-stop,” Prevost said. “People know who I am when they see me. They seem to think I look like him,” he said, admitting “there might be a family resemblance.”

Prevost told 5 Chicago much of the attention has been good, and some of it – like constant prayer requests – sometimes difficult. “It’s been – some of it – good,” he said. “Some of it’s been kind of sad, a lot of it unexpected,” he continued.

“I get letters almost daily,” Prevost said, “to ‘please, have your brother pray for my son, who has got a debilitating disease, we’ve tried – we’re looking for a miracle.’ Those things are sad.”

The election of John Prevost’s brother, Robert Francis Prevost, has also been an occasion for discovery of the family’s history.

Prevost said it was news to him when the family tree compiled by the eminent Harvard historian and genealogist, Henry Louis Gates Jr. Henry, American Ancestors, and the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, discovered his family’s Creole roots.

“We knew nothing of that,” Prevost said, quickly adding, “let me change that – I knew nothing of that. When we talk about, that this is a pope of the people, boy, is he a pope of the people!”

Leo still makes time for his brother, too.

“We do the Wordle and we do the Words With Friends, and now I usually ask him, ‘Who did you meet [who is] famous?’”

Asked whether he has any inside knowledge of Leo’s plans to visit his native city, John said, “The only thing we know for sure is, he’s going to be here for my funeral,” making sure to add that he isn’t sick.

To hear John Prevost tell it, his baby brother responded playfully.

“They may have to keep the body on ice for a while,” John recalled his brother the pope telling him, “but I’ll get there.”

The brothers’ sense of humor was on display in the interview, with John – the middle brother – giving Leo, the youngest, as good as he got.

“The oldest is an experiment,” Prevost said. “The youngest gets spoiled,” he continued. “The middle,” he concluded, “comes out right.”

John Prevost also said he is more careful of his privacy these days.

“I no longer answer the phone unless I know who it is,” he said. “I try to behave a bit better, maybe,” he also said.

Prevost did tell a story about a call he placed to a kind Chicagoan who had Aurelio’s pizza – his famous brother’s favorite – sent to Rome, with the phone number in the order. “Let’s call him,” Prevost recalled Leo suggesting.

“So, we did dial that number, and the man answered the phone, and I said, ‘Is this Mr. —–? Because I don’t remember the name, and he said, ‘Who’s calling?’ and I said, ‘John Prevost.’ ‘Who?’ ‘John Prevost.’ ‘Are you, by any chance, the brother of the pope?’ And I said, ‘Yes, sir, I am.’ He said, ‘Oh, my gosh!’ [And I said,] ‘On the line to talk to you is the pope’.”

John Prevost also showed he could have the sort of keen eye that makes for a good Vatican analyst.

“Pope Francis gave him another title just before his death,” Prevost said, remembering how Francis raised his brother to the rank of cardinal bishop mere months before he passed. “He’s signaling something here,” Prevost said.

Prevost also recalled a particular of the 2023 consistory in which Francis created his brother a cardinal. “Why was my brother named first?” Prevost wondered. “What was the pope saying by calling him up first? It wasn’t alphabetically, it was – so, those things signaled to me.”

“[They were] very close,” Prevost also said of the relationship between his brother – now Pope Leo XIV – and Pope Francis. “They were very good friends,” he said.

Having a brother become pope may well be the archetypical “hometown boy makes good” story, but John Prevost suspects the brothers’ parents would be quietly proud of their son, were they alive.

“I don’t know that they would go around bragging, because they weren’t bragging people, you know? I don’t think you’d see my mom saying, ‘Well, my son is the pope.’ I don’t think that would happen,” Prevost said.

Prevost said he thinks his brother is doing a good job so far.

“Oh, I definitely think the Church is in good hands,” he said. “I think, what people don’t know is, he’s taking this very seriously.”

“It may not look look [like it] when you see him enjoying himself,” Prevost said, “but this is quite a burden on his shoulders and he’s praying for the world.”

Source: Crux

18, June 2025

Kenya’s Bishop Deya dies in road crash ⁰

Controversial Kenyan televangelist Gilbert Deya, who claimed he created miraculous pregnancies, has died in a road crash.

Police told local media that Deya died on the spot on Tuesday evening after his vehicle was involved in an accident with a university bus and another vehicle near the town of Kisumu in western Kenya.

At least 30 other people were reportedly injured, including a person identified as his wife and a passenger in his vehicle, and 15 students in the bus.

Deya, who ran a church in London, rose to infamy in the early 2000s, following his claim that he could help infertile couples conceive “miracle” babies through prayer.

Investigations later linked his church to an alleged child-trafficking ring, leading to his arrest and extradition from the UK eight years ago after a decade-long legal battle.

He was acquitted of the charges in 2023 due to insufficient evidence.

On Wednesday, Siaya County Governor James Orengo said he had learnt with “deep sorrow and regret of the passing on of Bishop Gilbert Deya”.

He confirmed that the “horrific” road accident had involved a vehicle belonging to the county.

Photos shared online showed the mangled wreckage of one of the vehicles, which was completely shattered in the accident.

A former stonemason-turned evangelist, Deya moved from Kenya to London in the mid-1990s, where he founded Gilbert Deya Ministries, a registered charity with branches across the UK and Africa.

He was known for his charismatic preaching style and claimed to have been consecrated as an archbishop by a US evangelist in 1992.

His ministries later faced multiple investigations by the UK authorities for alleged mismanagement and legal violations, including selling olive oil which were falsely claiming to have healing properties.

He was once described by UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, then an MP, as a “modern-day snake-oil salesman who has conned and betrayed his vulnerable congregation”.

At his church, desperate women, some past their menopause and others who were unable to conceive, would be convinced that they would become pregnant through prayer.

But the babies were always “delivered” in backstreet clinics in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. The prosecution said the babies were stolen from poor Kenyan families.

In 2011, his then wife Mary Deya was jailed after being found guilty of stealing a baby from the main referral hospital in Kenya’s capital Nairobi and falsely stating she had given birth to the baby.

When Deya was asked in a BBC investigation in 2014 how the alleged “miracle” children had different DNA to that of their alleged parents, he said it was “beyond human imagination”.

“It is not something I can say. I can explain because they are of God and things of God cannot be explained by a human being,” he said.

After his acquittal in 2023, Deya maintained his innocence and continued his religious outreach until his death, reportedly at 72.

Source: BBC

10, May 2025

Serious questions of credibility surround coverup allegations against new pope ⁰

After the historic election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as history’s first American pope, old allegations of coverup and mishandling of abuse cases have bubbled up, but which contain serious doubts in terms of their credibility.

The cases in question, published by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), involve a group of women in Chiclayo who say they were sexually abused by two priests and who have said that Prevost mishandled the investigation into their claims, and the transfer of an accused priest to an Augustinian community house near a school.

Chiclayo allegations

In the case of the Chiclayo victims, the allegations in question were crafted in part by a former priest and canon lawyer who briefly represented the women, but who last December was defrocked for sexual abuse and barred from practicing canon law, and who had a historic axe to grind with Prevost.

Ricardo Coronado, the former priest in question, also has close ties to a Peruvian group, the Sodalitium Christiane Vitae, that Pope Francis formally suppressed prior to his death, after having expelled a prominent archbishop belonging to the society along with 14 other members last fall.

The women claim to have experienced sexually inappropriate conduct on the part of two priests in the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru prior to Prevost’s arrival, but they did not make a formal complaint to church authorities until 2022, during his tenure.

Among other things, these women allege that after coming forward, Prevost failed to open a preliminary investigation and did not inform civil authorities about their complaints, and they also claimed they were not offered counseling services. They later filed a civil complaint.

The Diocese of Chiclayo has denied these accusations, issuing a 10-point statement Sept. 10, 2023, saying Prevost had launched an inquiry, prohibited the priest from ministry, and had sent the results of the investigation to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) in Rome.

The DDF and civil authorities ultimately opted to close the case in 2023, with civil authorities citing a statute of limitations and the DDF a lack of evidence, but it was later reopened by the apostolic administrator of Chiclayo, who took over leadership when Prevost left, when one of the victims went public with her complaint. The case is still pending in the DDF.

Last year a Vatican official told Crux on background that, “the matter was examined, and Prevost was not found to have covered up. He acted in accordance with the regulations in force at the time.”

Other sources in Peru familiar with the case said the women were, in fact, offered counseling when they were referred to the diocesan listening center after lodging their complaint, and one of them took advantage of the counseling services.

The source also said Prevost had mentioned the possibility of a civil complaint to the women, but had warned that it likely would not be carried forward due to the statue of limitations, as was later the case.

The assertions against Prevost in the Chiclayo case were emerged only after Coronado stepped on as the women’s canon lawyer. A former Augustinian, he represented the women from May until August 2024, when he was barred by the Peruvian bishops from practicing canon law due to allegations of sexual misconduct.

Coronado publicized his defrocking himself on his Facebook page just before Christmas 2024, stating that he had been forcibly expelled from the priesthood. Though he didn’t explain why, he was accused last year of an unspecified “crime against the sixth commandment” by his Diocese of Cajamarca in Peru.

In Catholic legal jargon, a “crime against the sixth commandment” implies some form of sexual misconduct.

Coronado said he was also barred in the same decree from acting as a lawyer, asserting that the aim was to “shield some very eminent prelates.” In a subsequent Facebook post, Coronado said, “please, do not consider the dismissal promoted by a cardinal who covered up is a matter of disgrace. It is a distinction. I feel very honored.”

The references were taken by most observers as alluding to Prevost, with whom Coronado is said to have political and personal differences dating back to Coronado’s own time in the Augustinians.

Various sources familiar with both men told Crux last year on background that Coronado harbored resentment against Prevost in the past, in part over the growth of liberation theology in Peru and Coronado’s belief that the Augustinian order had become too progressive, accusing Prevost of being part of a progressive camp that needed to be reformed.

Three individuals with firsthand knowledge of Coronado dating back to the early 1990s, when he led the Augustinian formation house in Lurín, Peru, told Crux about his personal resentment of Prevost and his historic ties to the SCV, as well as what they said was rampant sexual misconduct on the part of Coronado.

Each of the men spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from Coronado.

“He [Coronado] despised Prevost very, very strongly, because he said that Prevost embodied progressivism in the Church, and this is modernism and such. There was always a lot of attention against Prevost, [Coronado] openly despised him,” one of the men said.

Two of the individuals who were in formation under Coronado recounted an extremely competitive attitude with regard to the formation house in Trujillo, which at the time was led by Prevost.

Coronado, the men said, saw Prevost and the Trujillo house as overly progressive, calling the seminarians there “homosexuals.”

These two individuals described a formation house environment under Coronado as being dominated by strict rules, favoritism, and constant sexual innuendo, with Coronado doling out humiliating punishments and normalizing sexual connotations such as nudity and dirty jokes. They alleged a pattern of sexually inappropriate and aggressive behavior by Coronado, directed towards adult seminarians under his supervision.

A separate individual who was not in the formation house with Coronado, but who visited often and observed the same behaviors, said he had contact with Coronado some 20 years later, and that Coronado’s conduct had not changed.

One individual who was in formation under Coronado also underscored his links with the now-suppressed SCV, saying he was personal friends of many members, and that while he led the Lurín formation house, for at least a year he went monthly to serve as a confessor at the SCV formation house in San Bartolo, where various alleged physical abuses occurred, reportedly with the approval of the SCV’s founder, Luis Fernando Figari.

Coronado wanted to turn the Lurín house into “another San Bartolo,” he said.

The other individual who was in formation with Coronado voiced his belief that Coronado’s decision to accuse Prevost publicly of coverup is likely due to the presumption that Prevost had acted against a prominent SCV archbishop, who was ousted from leadership as part of the Vatican’s investigation of the group, which was conducted by a Special Mission assigned by the pope, and composed of two officials of the DDF.

No mention had been made of Prevost until Coronado stepped in as the women’s lawyer, he said, saying, “The victims are not accusing Prevost, they are asking for help. The way of smearing, dirtying Prevost,” is something that came from Coronado, he said.

Coronado has filed multiple lawsuits against individuals he has accused of defamation, including one for remarks made during a group sharing session as part of an internal healing process. He has also sued Bishop James Golka of Colorado Springs.

After leaving the Augustinians in 2001, following complaints to his superiors about his conduct, Coronado received permission from Bishop Michael Sheridan in Colorado Springs to come work as a canonist, serving there as judicial vicar for nearly 20 years.

He left this post in 2022, apparently over differences with Golka, but with the understanding that he was still a priest in good standing and could thus celebrate the sacraments while visiting.

However, last year Coronado filed a lawsuit against Golka and his former vicar general, Monsignor Robert Jaeger, for allegedly breaking a memorandum of understanding in which the parties had agreed not to go public, after Jaeger issued a June 2023 statement saying he had been made aware of “certain allegations” regarding Coronado’s conduct, and that Coronado was no longer a priest in good standing.

That lawsuit was subsequently dismissed by the District Court of El Paso County. Coronado has appealed that decision.

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Colorado Springs declined a Crux request for comment when Coronado was defrocked, citing ongoing litigation.

Coronado declined a Crux interview request, however, his canonical lawyer, Lucia Musso, said they were both “surprised by the decision to remove him from the clerical state because there was no evidence of a crime.”

“The decision signed by the Holy Father cannot be modified and my client does not consider it appropriate to make any kind of statement,” Musso said, saying Coronado is preparing a book that will offer a “detailed account of the events in which he was involved, and until it is published there will be no further statements.”

Some observers believe that given Coronado’s apparent historic distain for Prevost and his close ties to the SCV, which Pope Francis suppressed earlier this year and while Prevost would have been familiar with given his many years in Peru, were possible motives for fabricating the allegations.

Chicago case

One involves claims of endangerment of children over the placing of a priest accused of abuse and removed from ministry by the Archdiocese of Chiclayo, at a friary located near a school, during the time when Prevost was the provincial superior.

Prevost served as Prior General of the Augustinian order from 2001-2013, before being appointed to Chicago in 2014. He was named prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops by Pope Francis in January 2023.

An Augustinian from Chicago told Crux on background earlier this year that the archdiocese had asked the order for permission for Father James Ray to be placed in that house after being removed from ministry because its superior was a licensed counselor who served as supervisor of a safety plan imposed on Ray, and therefore Ray would be under a more watchful eye.

The Augustinian said the location of a school two blocks away was not considered a risk at the time, given that a safety plan was in place, and the criteria of not placing accused priests near schools was a product of the 2002 Dallas Charter, which had not yet been issued when the decision on Ray was made.

This decision, they said, was an agreement between the archdiocese and the superior of the friary, but which Prevost had to formally sign off on, since it was an Augustinian community house.

In a statement to Crux with supporting documentation, Michael Airdo, lawyer for the Augustinian province of the Midwest, said that the decision to place Ray in St. John Stone Friary from 2000 until 2002 “was an accommodation to the late Cardinal Francis George” as archbishop of Chicago.

When Ray moved into the friary, “he was subject to restrictions stemming from his previous allegations of abuse,” and while staying at the friary, he was overseen by its prior, who ensured that Ray complied with the restrictions on his ministry.

The prior of the friary, Father James Thompson, was a professional counselor, Airdo said, who had served as Coordinator of Continuing Care at Southdown Institute in Ontario, Canada, a mental health treatment center that assists the church in treating ministers and fostering safe environments.

Thompson “was especially qualified to supervise individuals like Ray who were subject to restrictions. There have been no allegations that Ray committed any acts of abuse while residing at St. John Stone Friary,” Airdo said.

According to Ray’s personnel file, published by the Archdiocese of Chicago, the approval for his residence at the friary was granted by the Archdiocese of Chicago, and the initial placement of Ray there was done before the 2002 Dallas Charter of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which stipulates that proximity to a school is a prohibition for placement of accused clergy.

However, Airdo said an archdiocesan Professional Fitness Review Administrator determined that there was “no school in the vicinity,” and therefore recommended Ray’s placement, which Cardinal George subsequently approved as archbishop.

Airdo also provided a list of Prevost’s efforts in child protection during his time leading the Augustinians, noting that as provincial prior from 1999-2001, “in cases where established accusations against an Augustinian were brought to him, he applied precautionary measures to remove the accused friar from active ministry, placing him in a setting where there would be no risk to minors.”

After his election as prior general in 2001, then-Father Prevost helped the Augustinian order put into place a requirement that a set of protocols be established for every circumscription of the order to guide members in child protection and responding to cases, “years before it became the general law of the Church.”

Prevost, Airdo said, as prior general also organized a course for all major superiors of the Augustinians during the Intermediate General Chapter of 2010 addressing the issue of safeguarding and best practices for responding to victims.

In 2012, Prevost participated in the inauguration of the Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and he also participated in the first safeguarding course offered to the superiors general of religious orders and congregations.

Despite it being the responsibility of major and provincial superiors, Prevost as prior general, Airdo said, “became directly involved in several cases…when victims reached out to the Prior General for whatever reason.”

“He has taken steps to protect minors and vulnerable adults in numerous countries, always seeking to protect the innocent and offer healing to victims, while removing offenders from ministry,” Airdo said.

As bishop of Chiclayo, an appointment he received in 2014, Prevost took an active role in both the diocesan and national bishops’ conference’s child protection policies, helping draft protocols “that had never been completed or published in Peru.”

Prevost, Airdo said, formed the first national commission within the bishops’ conference for the protection of minors and vulnerable adults and served as its first coordinator, organizing training courses for church personnel and personally accompanying victims.

Source: Crux

9, May 2025

Pope Leo says Church must illuminate ‘dark nights of this world’ in first Mass ⁰

Pope Leo XIV is celebrating his first Mass, the day after being elected pontiff.

He tells the cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel that he hopes his election can help the Catholic Church bring light to the “dark nights of this world”

The Pope has said the church must do more work in places where there is a “lack of faith” as part of its mission.

“Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent,” he tells the Cardinals.

He adds that areas where “technology, money, success, power or pleasure” are preferred are “where our missionary outreach is desperately needed”.

“I know I can rely on each and every one of you to walk with me as we continue as a Church, as a community of friends of Jesus, as believers, to announce the good news, to announce the Gospel,” he says.

Source: BBC

8, May 2025

Vatican: Cardinal Robert Prevost is now Pope Leo XIV ⁰

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been announced as the new Pope. Here’s a brief overview of his background and history:

Early Life and Education

– Born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1955

– Holds degrees from Villanova University in Pennsylvania, Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome

Career Highlights

– Joined the Augustinian mission in Peru in 1985, serving as a priest and later as bishop of Chiclayo in northern Peru

– Elected as the head of the Augustinians’ Chicago-based province in 1999

– Served as prior general of the worldwide Augustinian order from 2001 to 2013

– Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Francis, advising on bishop appointments worldwide

Notable Qualities

– Languages: Speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese, with reading proficiency in Latin and German

– Pastoral Experience: Served in various roles, including teaching in the diocesan seminary, leading a parish, and working with the Roman Curia

– Synodality: A vocal proponent of Pope Francis’ emphasis on synodality, promoting inclusivity and participation in church structures

Papal Election

– Elected as the new Pope after a conclave of 133 cardinals in Rome’s Sistine Chapel

– Chose the papal name Pope Leo XIV.

– Emerged onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to greet spectators after his identity was confirmed

8, May 2025

Canticum Africae – The Case for the First Black Pope ⁰

On Saturday, April 26, 2025, the earth reclaimed a humble servant of God. Pope Francis, the great bridge-builder, the pilgrim of mercy, now rests with the Apostles. His passing leaves the Throne of Peter vacant at a moment when the Church stands, once again, at the crossroads of history. In the hush of the great cathedral, beneath the vaulted frescoed ceilings of the Sistine Chapel; incense rising like a prayer, a silent yearning stirs the Body of Christ. It is a yearning not for novelty, nor for mere symbolism, but for the full consummation of the Church’s universality – a universality long proclaimed, yet never fully embodied. The question before the College of Cardinals now in conclave, is not simply who shall wear the white vestments, but what kind of Church shall rise from this hour of reckoning. And to that sacred inquiry, Providence itself seems to whisper: it is time, it is fitting, it is just; that the next Vicar of Christ be chosen from Africa. The Church must be universal not only in name, but in soul. A pontificate rooted in African soil would remind a weary world that the Gospel is not a relic of the past but the beating heart of humanity’s future. The time has come; indeed, it is long overdue, for a Black Pope, an African Pontiff, to ascend the Throne of Peter. Not as an act of tokenism, nor as a sop to modern sensibilities, but as a recognition of a truth that has stood shimmering, quietly undeniable, across the ages: that Africa, cradle of faith, cradle of humanity, must now, too, be the cradle of leadership.

The Forgotten Cradle of the Faith

Africa is no stranger to the early light of Christianity. Long before the faith crossed the forests of Germania or the icy fields of Britain, the faith that built Rome once flourished in Alexandria, in Carthage, in Hippo and along the Nile. When Peter was yet securing the infant Church in Jerusalem, African theologians were already carving the foundations of Christian thought. Was it not in Africa that Saint Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, penned his Confessions and the City of God, shaping forever the heart of Christian philosophy? Was it not in Alexandria that the Catechetical School first taught the mysteries of faith and reason side by side? It was on African soil that saints like Augustine, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Athanasius – giants of orthodoxy -shaped the very doctrines that the Universal Church holds sacred today. Africa, ancient and enduring, is not a newcomer to the faith, but one of its first and noblest stewards. The Church’s early councils bore African blood and breath; her creeds, her understanding of Christ’s dual nature, were hammered on African anvils. Thus, the notion that Africa is a periphery to Catholicism is a fiction – a calumny against history itself.

Demographics as Destiny

Today, the face of Catholicism is no longer exclusively European. It is brown, and black, and golden. It beats with the drums of Lagos and the hymns of Nairobi.The largest Catholic seminary in the world is Bigard Memorial Seminary in Enugu, Nigeria, with a capacity of over 1,000 seminarians. According to the latest Vatican statistics, Africa is experiencing the most significant growth in the number of priests, although Europe maintains the highest total number, amid a continuing decline. The global distribution of Catholic priests, shows Europe with 157,577 (- 2,745 from 2022). The Americas -119,145, (-164); Asia – 72,911 (+1,160); Oceania – 4,438 (-69). With 53,659 priests, an increase of 1, 676, Africa now produces the highest number of priests in terms of growth rate. By 2050, according to Pew Research projections, Africa will house over 40% of the world’s Catholics. Priestly vocations are booming in Africa, while they wane across Europe and North America. The seminaries of Abidjan are full; the seminaries of Brussels and Milan are echoingly empty. Shall the mother church ignore where her lifeblood flows most freely? No organization, divine or human, can survive if it refuses to recognize where its heart beats strongest. In ecclesial terms, demography is not just destiny; it is revelation, a sacred whisper of the Holy Spirit, beckoning toward renewal.

The Gifts of the African Church

Today, while secularism nibbles at the roots of faith elsewhere, the African Church blooms with astonishing vitality. It is in the crowded cathedrals of Kinshasa, the vibrant parishes of Nairobi, and the humble chapels of rural Nigeria that the fervor of early Christianity finds its modern echo. Vocations are rising, pews are filled, and hope is alive. Africa offers the Church not merely numbers, but conviction -the deep, muscular faith that the Gospel demands in every age. African Catholicism is not merely growing; it is flourishing with a vibrancy, a sacramentality, and a communal spirituality that many Western parishes have lost. Where Western secularism advances like a cold, sterile tide, African Catholicism remains rich in ritual, in song, in the thick texture of life lived with God. Moreover, African theologians are offering the Church fresh wisdom – voices who understand suffering and resurrection not as abstractions, but as lived realities. Consider the profound witness of Nigerian Catholics who attend mass even under threat of terrorist bombs. Consider the Congolese priests who walk barefoot into villages abandoned by governments but not by grace. Is it not fitting, is it not providential, that from a land so intimately acquainted with the cross should come he who must wear the Fisherman’s Ring?

Obstacles, Real and Perceived

Yes, there are challenges. Skeptics will whisper about “inexperience,” about “cultural divides,” about Africa’s supposed “unreadiness” for the burdens of Peter’s Chair. But these are the same tired arguments once raised against non-Italian Popes, against John Paul II from Poland, against Francis from Argentina. Each time, the Spirit confounded the cautious. Moreover, African cardinals are among the most learned, multilingual, and diplomatically seasoned leaders within the College. Cardinal Peter Turkson (Ghana), Cardinal Robert Sarah (Guinea), Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besengu (DR Congo),and others have long been voices of theological depth and global perspective. If anything, it is precisely an African Pope who knows both suffering and hope, who could speak most authentically to a fractured world. He would understand migration not as a policy debate, but as a brother’s burden. He would see climate change not as an abstract theory, but as a personal lament for the fields and rivers of his youth.

The soul of the Church hangs now in a delicate balance, between a weary past and the fierce winds of an uncertain future. And so, we plead: Lift your eyes toward the rising sun. Look to Africa. Africa – that ancient land baptized by the blood of martyrs long before many parts of Europe knew His name. Africa – where the faith blooms not from nostalgia, but from living waters that spring from the thirsty earth. Africa – where the Gospel is not a weary ritual but a blazing fire that ignites hearts from Lagos to Luanda, from Yaoundé to Dar es Salaam. The Church in Africa sings while others grow silent. She multiplies while others dwindle. She weeps with the poor, wrestles with injustice, dreams new dreams beneath suffering skies. In Africa, the Church is young and vibrant, as the Christ she serves is forever young, forever alive.

The Poetic Fulfillment of Catholic Universality

Imagine then, and Picture it: white smoke curls into the Roman sky. Saint Peter’s Square holds its breath as the announcement is made:”Habemus Papam!”And from the Loggia of Blessings steps forth a Shepherd with skin kissed by the African sun, eyes burning with the fire of Pentecost. Imagine the millions of black boys and girls across the world, from Harlem to Harare, from Soweto to São Paulo, who would see themselves, perhaps for the first time, in the Vicar of Christ. Imagine the world seeing, not a rupture, but the beautiful continuity of a Church finally, fully Catholic: universal, whole, complete. This is not about politics. It is about providence. The Holy Spirit, ever restless, is moving again across the waters. Will the Church, ancient and ever new, listen?

The Throne of Peter cries out for a shepherd who understands both Calvary and Pentecost. A Pope who knows exile and hope, scars and resurrection. A Pope whose very life tells the story of a Church not retreating, but marching forward with joy. Africa offers you such men: Wise as the desert fathers, joyful as the first believers, tested as gold in the furnace of trial. Electing a Pope from Africa would not be a novelty; it would be a return – a return to the universal heart of the Church that beats in every language, every tribe, and every nation under heaven. And it would be a prophecy: that the Church is not dying; she is moving. That the Spirit has not abandoned us; He has gone ahead to Galilee, to Nairobi, to Kinshasa, to Abidjan, to Kampala. Therefore, O Princes of the Church do not seek merely to preserve what was. Dare to proclaim what can be. Breathe deep the Spirit that once shattered the barriers of Babel. Follow not the compass of caution, but the bright and burning star of Providence. The time for a Black Pope is not a political slogan. It is the flowering of history’s long-buried seed. It is time to let Africa give back to Rome the gift she once so freely gave: faith, resilience, and a leadership born not of conquest, but of the Cross.

The hour has come. The call is clear. Africa awaits. Christ awaits.

In filial hope,

By Valerian Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

7, May 2025

World awaits white smoke as cardinals begin conclave to elect new pope ⁰

Roman Catholic cardinals begin the task of electing a successor to Pope Francis on Wednesday, locking themselves away from the world until they choose the man they hope can unite the 1.4 billion-strong Church. Follow our live coverage for the latest developments.

The “princes” of the Catholic Church sequester themselves Wednesday behind the Vatican’s medieval walls for the start of a conclave to elect the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, a successor to Pope Francis who died last month at the age of 88.

The 133 cardinals from 70 countries will be locked inside the Sistine Chapel, where they will vote in secret and silence, having first surrendered their cellphones to be free from outside interference, until they find a new leader for the 1.4 billion-member church.

Source: France 24

5, May 2025

Francis’s popemobile converted into clinic for Gazan children ⁰

The iconic open-sided vehicle, designed to allow the pontiff to greet crowds of well-wishers, has been transferred to Caritas Jerusalem and will head to Gaza if and when Israel opens a humanitarian corridor.

The car, a converted Mitsubishi, was used by the pope during a 2014 visit to Bethlehem and had since been on display, gathering dust and rust. It has now been repaired and refurbished as a mobile clinic.

“With the vehicle, we will be able to reach children who today have no access to healthcare — children who are injured and malnourished,” said Peter Brune, secretary general of Caritas Sweden.

Brune told AFP that Sweden’s Cardinal Anders Arborelius had asked the late pope, who died on April 21 aged 88, that the spare vehicle be put to use providing essential frontline healthcare to Palestinian children.

It will be fitted with medical equipment and a fridge for medicines and be assigned a driver and a team of doctors.

The popemobile will be fitted with medical equipment and a fridge for medicines

“This vehicle represents the love, care and closeness shown by His Holiness for the most vulnerable, which he expressed throughout the crisis,” said Anton Asfar, secretary general of Caritas Jerusalem.

It was not clear, however, if or when the aid agency’s hoped-for humanitarian corridor would open.

Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid political deadlock over how to build on a two-month ceasefire in its war against Hamas, which was sparked by the militants’ October 2023 attack.

On Monday, Israel’s security cabinet approved an expansion of military operations that would lead to what an official described as the “conquest” of the Palestinian territory.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Sunday that at least 2,436 people had been killed since Israel resumed its campaign on March 18, bringing the overall death toll from the war to 52,535.

Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Source: AFP