Page 4 - Paschal Norbert News Today

The Catholic Diocese of Manzini, the only diocese in the Kingdom of Eswatini, has launched the Diocesan Jubilee Year, celebrating 110 years of the arrival of the first Catholic Missionaries to Africa’s absolute monarchy.

20 bishops from the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) and the Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE) gathered in Nairobi for a three-day seminar from January 23 to 26, 2024, to deliberate on their shared responsibilities in evangelization, mission, and pastoral care in light of the current developments in the universal Church; the Apostolic Constitution "Praedicate Evangelium" and the Synodality.

The Catholic bishops noted with concern that the failure of the government to live up to its responsibility of providing welfare to the people in the face of hard economic times and initiating sound policies that could revive the economy of the country, thereby creating a thriving business environment is leading young people and professionals to give up everything to emigrate in search of jobs and better living conditions.  

A select number of Catholic bishops from the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) and the Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE) are set to hold a three-day seminar from January 23 to 26, 2024, in Nairobi to deliberate on Synodality and the shared commitments and solidarity between the Churches of Africa and Europe.

With a continued and overwhelming opposition to the Vatican declaration Fiducia Supplicans (On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings) by African bishops, which admittedly allowed the blessing of individuals in same-sex unions, Catholic bishops of the Owerri Ecclesiastical Province in Nigeria have reiterated their rejection to the document approved by Pope Francis.

In an emotional encounter but one that was spiritly lived as a witness of God’s mercy and the power of unrelenting prayers, members of the Missionary of Africa (White Fathers) gathered in Rome at their generalate both in person and online for a thanksgiving and testimony conference, heard the touching and inspiring testimonies of the Lord’s grace from their confreres: Seminarian Dominic Merikiori Mahinini and Frs Hans-Joachim Lohre (Ha-Jo) MAfr and Paul Sanogo MAfr who were kidnapped between...

Ahead of President Felix Tshisekedi's inauguration on January 20, 2024, and with presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) still contested, Catholic bishop's condemned the December elections as fraudulent and warned that it could undermine the unity of the fragile country.

The Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (AOSK) has launched the second phase of the Sisters Led Youth Empowerment Initiative (SLYI) program, which focuses on expanding provisions of quality technical skills and services to disadvantaged and vulnerable youth across the country in an elaborate ceremony held at the Savelberg Retreat Center, Nairobi, on January 14, 2023.

Irish-born Fr Gabriel Dolan, a member of the St. Patrick’s Missionary Society (Kiltegans), founder and Executive Director of Haki Yetu Organization, which advocates for the rights of the marginalized communities living in informal settlements in Mombasa and an activist against land and historical land injustices in the region will be presented with the 2023 Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad at an awards ceremony in Ireland on January 16, 2024.

Friends, family and confreres of the late Fr Josiah Asa K’Okal, IMC have eulogized the late priest as a man of the people and a jovial priest who never shied away from living his missionary life as a Consolata, especially in his mission of evangelizing the people on the margin of society.