Auteur/autrice : Mathilde Daniel

Despite the Sudanese civil war that’s devastated the region, the All Saints Anglican Cathedral in Khartoum is still standing. But its compound is now a graveyard, with a vandalized altar and missing pews, which have been chopped by soldiers for firewood, according to Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo.

At the start of the war in April 2023, the cathedral was the seat of Kondo, the 67-year-old primate of the Episcopal (Anglican) Church of Sudan. On April 15, 2023, fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces quickly seized the compound, flipping it into an operation base while Kondo and his family remained inside.

« It happened very abruptly. Nobody expected it, » Kondo recalled, speaking to RNS from Port Sudan, a city on the Red Sea where he has sought refuge since June of last year. « It was Saturday when we were in the office preparing for the Sunday service, after the first week of Easter Sunday. We heard a very heavy sound of gunfire, only to get out and find heavy smoke billowing nearby. »

The war for control over northeast Africa is being fought between two rival factions of the military government of Sudan: the Sudanese Armed Forces, under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and its allies, under the Janjaweed leader Hemedti. The factions turned on each other after jointly wresting control of the civilian government.

Restrictions on media and aid access have made precise statistics on the scale of devastation hard to obtain. The United Nations estimates that 750,000 people are at threat of starvation, while U.S. envoy Tom Perriello has estimated that the war has killed as many as 150,000 people. Other estimates are much lower, at about 15,000 confirmed deaths. The war has also displaced more than 10 million people, making it the largest global displacement crisis, and left an additional 25 million in urgent need of humanitarian aid, over half of the country’s population.

For some, this is the second civil war they’ve fled in recent years. In South Sudan, nearly 400,000 people were killed in clashes from 2013 to 2018.

The cathedral is close to the army headquarters and the airport, where the full-scale war broke out during Ramadan last year. With the armed confrontation intensifying, the Rapid Support Forces had rushed its soldiers to surround the church compound, hoping the place of worship would not be bombed and would guarantee them some protection.

« They were there at the gate and we were unable to do anything. We were unable to get out, » Kondo said. « All the families that were there gathered in the church hall. Other people also ran and joined us. We spent three nights there. »

After three days in the cathedral’s basement without water or food, Kondo and other leaders decided to leave. After interrogations at gunpoint, the soldiers finally allowed them to go. The church leaders and their families then walked for an hour and a half to find transport to take them to the south of Khartoum with less violence. Kondo’s family remained there for two months, only to move again after the bombardment became more intense and closer.

« One of the shells fell near where we were, » Kondo said. He then decided to move with his family to Port Sudan. « It was very difficult, but we thank God. He has been our protector. »

In Port Sudan, Kondo continues to call for peace as he ministers in the diocese there, while staying in touch with Anglicans still in Khartoum.

« There are pastors who are still with the people there and I tell them to be strong and not be afraid, » Kondo said.

Out of 33 Anglican churches in the greater Khartoum area, only five are no longer functioning.

The archbishop is angry that many people have died in what he calls a needless and senseless war.

« I would like to urge parachurch organizations to join in the effort to send relief food to the people of Sudan. If food is not given, many people are going to die, » Kondo said.

Less than 3% of Sudan’s population is Christian, while 91% is Muslim, according to 2020 Pew Research Center data. So far, the fighting armies have attacked or destroyed 165 churches, according to Open Doors.

The war has also emptied most of the senior church leaders and missionary organizations from Khartoum.

Kondo wants the two fighting factions to end the war and agree to give peace to Sudan’s people, but for that to happen, the countries supplying weapons to the two parties must stop, he said.

The international community has been attempting to bring the fighting factions to the negotiating table. Last month’s U.S.-led peace talks in Switzerland ended without a deal, just like two previous ones in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

As the war continues, many Sudanese are dying from diseases, hunger and natural disasters such as floods. The U.N. has warned that the violence could turn into or be recognized as a genocide, with reports of civilians being targeted based on their ethnicity. But Kondo said he still hopes in God.

« Yes, we are in trouble, the country is in trouble, but we know God is our refuge, » he said.

Only about 4 in 10 American voters say global warming will be « very important » when they vote for president in November, according to the Yale Center for Climate Change Communication. But while polls show voters are concerned with other issues, such as inflation and immigration, the environment continues to be a top concern for voters, especially younger ones, and crosses lines of faith and politics in ways that other issues don’t.

« I think young people just want the issues that we care about, like our communities, our economy and jobs and God’s creation, to be taken seriously, » said Tori Goebel, former spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, founded in 2012. (Goebel is now chief operating officer of the Evangelical Environmental Network.)

Goebel’s organization doesn’t endorse candidates and instead works to provoke more candid discussion on the topic. « We just want young people to be informed and to make meaningful decisions for the sake of God’s creation. And I don’t think we could do that unless the candidates are honestly talking about the issues. »

It’s a misconception to think that climate change is only a concern on the left, said Katharine Hayhoe, an evangelical Christian, scientist and author of « Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. » Hayhoe, who has a record of fostering conversations across theological and ideological differences, said that climate is a bipartisan issue. The majority of Americans, including many Republicans, support action to address climate change, she said. « That is really something that we should always highlight and point out. It’s almost like a public service to all of us who are concerned: There’s actually more of you than you think there are. »

Climate has become a political football, she added, because stakeholders, such as CEOs of fossil fuel companies, feel that the solutions threaten their bottom line.

Hayhoe, who teaches in the political science department at Texas Tech University, blames Christians who see the environment entirely in political terms, and not as a matter of biblical values such as love of neighbor. « All too many people in the United States who self-identify as Christian (have a) statement of faith written first by their political ideology and only a distant second by their theology, » she said. « And if the two come into conflict, they will go with ideology over theology. And my question is, are they even Christian? »

Dekila Chungyalpa, founder and director of the Loka Initiative at the University of Wisconsin, has spent more than two decades creating partnerships between faith groups and conservationists. She said there are economic aspects to the question of climate change — not least, how people will farm and eat in changed conditions. But, she said, « there’s also a conversation in which there’s a sense of trying to find a better way to live in relationship to each other, to build meaningful communities.

« There’s a longing for a sense of belonging, of community, of connection, of meaning and value that is really healthy and being touched on from different directions by different parts of the political spectrum, » Chungyalpa said.

She suggested that one way to build partnerships across partisan lines may be to focus on disaster preparedness and on building resilience in the face of change, rather than on the issue in the abstract.

Describing the moment as « exciting and scary, » Karenna Gore, founder and executive director of the Center for Earth Ethics in New York City, said that Republican nominee former President Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again movement pose « a very big challenge » to the democratic tradition of American self-government. But concerned Americans, including people of faith, are capable of meeting that challenge — and of confronting the psychological toll of environmental devastation in a constructive way, she said.

« I have been in church spaces in the past year, » said Gore, daughter of former vice president and environmental crusader Al Gore Jr., « where I have been moved to tears by the integrity and the depth that people are bringing to this exact conversation, sitting with the uncertainty. Instead of approaching dialogue with a strident self-confidence, they are saying, « I can’t do this all alone. I want to hear what other people have to say, so that we can actually pull it together.' »

Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has yet to put forth a detailed climate policy, but secular activists and climate groups seem to be giving her credit for casting the tie-breaking vote in 2022 for the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, a history-making investment in climate mitigation efforts.

Trump, who ran on eliminating environmental regulations as a candidate in 2016 and 2020 and was partly successful in doing so while president, has said in his current campaign that he would roll back rules governing greenhouse gas pollution if reelected. In late August, he promised to rescind a rule governing power plant pollution.

In addition, though fossil fuel production is already at record levels under President Joe Biden, Trump has promoted the slogan « Drill, baby, drill » as a way in which a future administration would bring down inflation.

But Rabbi Devorah Lynn, co-chair of the Jewish Earth Alliance, an organization that helps Jewish « green » groups network with their representatives in Congress, said that down-ballot voting, for senators and representatives and lesser offices, is as important as votes for president. Climate « underlies immigration, the farm bill, conflict in the world, and health, » said Lynn. Many decisions on these issues are made by those in « Congress and all of the positions that we vote for below Congress, so state and local. »

Rationalist environmental advocates and traditional faith communities aren’t natural allies. Baptist Pastor Ambrose Carroll, founder of Green the Church, an Oakland, California, nonprofit, said that for decades he has been « trying to get environmental justice people on the social justice bus. »

In doing so, Carroll, who serves on the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council of the Environmental Protection Agency, has worked to build bridges between often largely white environmental organizations and people of color, who are often the most affected by problems such as air pollution, toxic waste and lack of tree cover.

Carroll said the Black community is skeptical whether, whoever is president, things will actually change for the better. Nonetheless, for his organization, which helps Black congregations act and build sustainably, « it’s not what we are against, but what we are for. » The Black church « may not own a lot of skyscrapers downtown, but we do own a lot of church buildings. They are the largest asset of the African American community. So, we’re standing up. »

Faith leaders, whether in houses of worship or working full time for climate solutions, encounter a lot of people, young and old, faithful and not, and hear how worried average Americans are about climate change. They say the most critical converts in this fight are not voters, but those running for office, who seem to underestimate the level of concern. »Our elected officials, at the city level, at the state level, at the county level, and, of course, at the national level, » said Hayhoe, « need to hear from their constituents about how they care about this issue and how they support action on this issue. »

The only way that’s going to happen, she added, is if constituents speak out.

The Supreme Court of Maryland heard arguments on Tuesday about the constitutionality of a 2023 law that ended the state’s statute of limitations for child sexual abuse lawsuits following a report that exposed widespread wrongdoing within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

The arguments, which lasted several hours and often veered into highly technical legalese, largely focused on the intent of the Maryland legislature when it passed a preceding law in 2017 that said people in Maryland who were sexually abused as children could bring lawsuits up until they turned 38.

Teresa Lancaster, an abuse survivor and an advocate for others, said she was optimistic after what she heard in the courtroom.

“These crimes have harmed many, many people. We deserve our day in court. We deserve justice, and I’m very, very enthusiastic from what I heard today,” Lancaster said outside the courthouse.

A ruling from the state’s highest court is expected in the coming months.

Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, signed the Child Victims Act into law last year — less than a week after the state’s attorney general released a report that documented rampant abuse committed by Baltimore clergy spanning 80 years and accused church leaders of decades of coverups.

The report, which is nearly 500 pages, included details about more than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore abusing over 600 children. State investigators began their work in 2019.

Days before the new law was to take effect Oct. 1, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy to protect its assets ahead of an anticipated deluge of litigation. That means claims filed against the archdiocese will be relegated to bankruptcy court, but other institutions such as Catholic schools and individual parishes can still be sued directly.

While the court’s ruling will have wide-reaching effects on child sex abuse cases in Maryland, the oral arguments Tuesday centered on a technical issue involving the earlier 2017 law change that established the cutoff at age 38.

The question at hand is whether a provision in the 2017 legislation was written in such a way that permanently protected certain defendants from liability. Answering that question likely requires the court to decide whether the provision should be considered a statute of limitations or a so-called statute of repose.

Attorneys for defendants facing liability claims under the new law contend it’s a statute of repose, which they say can’t be modified because it includes a “vested right to be free from liability.”

“As a general matter, of course, a legislature may repeal existing laws and substitute new ones. But it may not do so in a manner that destroys substantive rights that have vested under the terms of existing law,” the Archdiocese of Washington wrote in a brief filed ahead of oral arguments.

David Lorenz, the Maryland director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the archdiocese should be ashamed for “treating survivors like some product that has some limited liability.”

“And that’s what they’re doing hiding behind the statute of repose, » Lorenz said after court. “They should absolutely be ashamed of that, and then in the next minute they say, ‘We will do whatever we can for survivors and help them through this.’ They are doing nothing, nothing, but driving survivors harder and harder underground, and it’s time for the survivors to come forward and start to heal.”

Attorneys representing businesses, insurance companies and Maryland civil defense lawyers raised concerns in a brief about issues surrounding witness testimony and record retention in cases being filed decades after the fact.

But the most substantive arguments before the court Tuesday focused on legislative intent.

Attorneys for abuse survivors asserted that when the Maryland General Assembly passed the 2017 law, legislators did not intend to prevent future lawmakers from reconsidering the issue and altering the time limits on civil lawsuits. The law may have included the term “repose,” but that doesn’t mean the legislature wanted to make it permanent, attorneys argued.

“There is a debate between that label — statute of repose — and the actual operational function of the act,” attorney Catherine Stetson told the court’s seven justices, arguing that it should consider the statute’s structure, operation and full text rather than looking at “a word in a vacuum.”

“Child sexual abuse is a scourge on society, and it often takes survivors decades to come to terms with what they suffered,” victims’ attorneys wrote in a brief. “It is hard to imagine a law more rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest than this one.”

Some justices expressed skepticism about whether state legislators in 2017 knowingly chose language with the intention of limiting the powers of their successors.

“If it had that significance, wouldn’t you expect that there would be more explanation in the legislative record?” Chief Justice Matthew Fader asked. “Wouldn’t that have popped up somewhere?”

Attorneys for the Archdiocese of Washington and the Key School, a small private school in Annapolis, asserted that the legislature was unambiguous in its language.

“The General Assembly meant exactly what it said,” attorney Sean Gugerty told the court. “The plain language of the statute is what controls the analysis.”

Justice Brynja Booth pointed out that interpreting the law isn’t always cut and dry.

“Don’t we often look beyond a label … to look at the characteristics to determine what it actually means,” she said.

A Christian school at the center of a Supreme Court decision that required Maine to include religious schools in a state tuition program is appealing a ruling upholding a requirement that all participating facilities abide by a state antidiscrimination law.

An attorney for Crosspoint Church in Bangor accused Maine lawmakers of applying the antidiscrimination law to create a barrier for religious schools after the hard-fought Supreme Court victory.

« The Maine Legislature largely deprived the client of the fruits of their victory by amending the law, » said David Hacker from First Liberty Institute, which filed the appeal this week to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. « It’s engineered to target a specific religious group. That’s unconstitutional. »

The lawsuit is one of two in Maine that focus on the collision between the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling and the state law requiring that schools participating in the tuition program abide by the Maine Human Rights Act, which includes protections for LGBTQ students and faculty.

Another lawsuit raising the same issues was brought on behalf of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland; a Roman Catholic-affiliated school, St. Dominic’s Academy in Auburn, Maine; and parents who want to use state tuition funds to send their children to St. Dominic’s. That case is also being appealed to the 1st Circuit.

Both cases involved the same federal judge in Maine, who acknowledged that his opinions served as a prelude to a « more authoritative ruling » by the appeals court.

The lawsuits were filed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot discriminate between secular and religious schools when providing tuition assistance to students in rural communities that don’t have a public high school. Before that ruling — in a case brought on behalf of three families seeking tuition for students to attend a Crosspoint-affiliated school — religious schools were excluded from the program.

The high court’s decision was hailed as a victory for school choice proponents but the impact in Maine has been small. Since the ruling, only one religious school, Cheverus High School, a Jesuit college preparatory school in Portland, has participated in the state’s tuition reimbursement plan, a state spokesperson said.

In the remote coastal town of Vanimo on the northwest edge of Papua New Guinea, Catholics often wait weeks or months for a priest to visit.

Except on Sunday, Sept. 8, when Pope Francis, carried by an Australian Air Force plane, landed on the edge of the jungle to go where no pope has ever visited to convey a heartfelt message to its nascent Catholic community: « You are doing something beautiful, and it is important that you are not left alone. »

Catholicism first arrived here in Papua New Guinea in the middle of the 19th century but only reached this pocket of the country some 50 years ago. As the pope took in the sight of thousands of Catholics — many wearing colorful feather headdresses and grass skirts and surrounded by the tropical flora — he remarked that evoked images of the Garden of Eden.

For years, Francis has wanted to visit this distant region after learning about it from his fellow Argentine, the missionary priest Fr. Miguel De Lacalle of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, which has served the area for nearly three decades. Now, after years of correspondence with the community and a two hour flight from the capital of Port Moresby, Francis managed to pull off what many considered the most challenging visit of an already audacious 12-day trip through Asia and Oceania for the 87-year-old pontiff.

With a population of just over 11,000, some Catholics reported walking for several days to reach the meeting with the pope. While there was much jubilation at both their own arrival and that of the pope’s, no one tried to mask the difficulties they face.

Steven Abala, a catechist, told the pope of the challenges of ministering in an area where Catholics wait weeks or months to see a priest or receive the sacraments.

« Most of us are missionary catechists who leave our homes to serve Catholics in other villages where there is no other catechist present, » he said, before asking the pope for his continued prayers and blessing.

When he finished his testimonial, Abala presented the pope with a local feathered headdress, which Francis immediately donned. 

Up next was 12-year-old Maria Joseph who fought back tears as she recounted her experience of living with the Institute Servants of the Lord Sisters at their Lujan Home for Girls. The sisters took her in at age two and supported her through multiple operations to correct a severe deformation in her legs.

« Now I can stand up straight and tall, » she told the pope. « Even though I do not know my parents, the sisters have become my mothers and the other girls have become my sisters, and we live as a true family. »

During his own remarks, Francis spoke candidly about the heartaches and hardships faced by the people there and the efforts by the country’s Catholics to « put an end to destructive behaviors such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol and drug abuse, evils which imprison and take away the happiness of so many of our brothers and sisters. »

« Let us remember that love is stronger than all this and its beauty can heal the world, because it has its roots in God, » he told the crowd of an estimated 20,000 locals.   

Despite being home to tremendous natural resources, some 40% of the country lives in poverty, fueled by government instability, natural disasters and ongoing tribal infighting.

Throughout his three-day visit here, the pope acknowledged those difficulties, but repeatedly praised the country’s diversity — home to over 600 tribes and more than 800 languages — and appealed to their shared Christian roots (while only 26% of the population identifies as Catholic, some 98% identify as Christian) to encourage them to work together for the common good.

« Love each other, » was the pope’s simple and direct message as he concluded his remarks in Vanimo.

While the effusive crowd reveled in Francis’ presence, the missionary pope who has consistently emphasized that the church’s peripheries are more important than its institutional center, took great delight at seeing the universality of the Catholic Church on full display in Papua New Guinea.

At a Mass earlier in the day at Port Moresby’s Sir John Guise Stadium, the liturgy began not with the sound of bells, with the beating of drums and a tribal dance.

« We see Jesus going to territories on the peripheries, » Francis told the crowd of 35,000 who turned out for the occasion. « This is the nearness of Jesus, who comes to touch our lives and remove every distance … by his coming Jesus announced peace to those who were far away. »

Despite his brief stay and his looming departure on Sept. 9 for nearby Timor Leste, according to some of those on hand for the Mass, the pope’s presence here was reminder of that closeness that will not soon be forgotten.

« It’s the most exciting and significant moment in my life as a Catholic, » said 48-year-old Dorothy Talia, who waited eight hours for the papal Mass to begin.

« When I saw him, it was full of grace, » she added. « It was like Jesus had come. » 

One of my dear friends was an elementary teacher for some 45 years. She loved to march her second graders around the neighborhood like a pied piper. She knew how to calm the wildest child, attend to the frightened and help the dyslexic read.

One day, a little guy in third grade had gone wild — to the point of trying to throw a desk. The teacher brought him to the office and called for Sister Mary Kay. When she appeared at the office door, the little fellow looked at her with wide eyes and started imploring, « Please, Sister, NO! Don’t do it! PLEASE! »

In spite of his tearful pleading, she looked him straight in the eyes and slowly walked toward him. She took his head firmly in both hands and kissed him on the forehead. With that, the child began to weep, and she held him until he calmed down. He had known that the minute she reminded him of how much he was loved, his fury would fizzle.

Today, Isaiah tells us that God comes with vindication. What a word! It sounds like God will smite the evildoers and trounce the oppressors. 

But, no, Isaiah tells us that God the vindicator looks more like Sister Mary Kay than like a warrior. God’s recompense heals rather than being destructive. When God is reigning, the blind will see, the deaf hear, the lame will dance and the mute will sing (probably in four-part harmony). Drought will be history and deserts will flower.

Today’s Gospel lets us watch Jesus attend to a deaf man. How did this man’s friends let him know that they wanted to bring him to Jesus? Their own language was useless because the man could neither hear nor speak.

Over time, he and his friends must have worked out a system of signs, ways to turn their thoughts into gestures that both sides could understand. In essence, when faced with very significant differences, they had to invent a new language that both could understand. The deaf man had to enter the world of symbolic communication and the hearing had to go beyond their accustomed ways of relating to others.

Seeing all that had already happened among them, Jesus took the man aside and finished the job. He opened the man’s ears. Now that he could hear others, he could imitate their pronunciation and communicate like they did. The man and his friends were now bilingual, able to connect in different ways.

Our reading from the Letter of St. James reflects on this process. Knowing that his community could be impressed by showiness, he warns them not to fall for the apparent value of glitz and power lest they lose touch with God and their divine mission. 

God is thoroughly unimpressed by academic degrees, bank accounts or any other kind of stardom. Those who overvalue those things have planted their feet at the very edges of the circle of God’s love — a love no one can earn. Unlike the deaf man’s friends who stood in solidarity, they are likely to thank God for not being frail without realizing that their distorted value system is a more debilitating impairment than that of those from whom they stand apart (Luke 18:9-14).

These readings are uniquely appropriate right now. We are living amid divisions in our country unlike anything our society has seen during the past 150 years. At the same time, our church is moving toward the second session of the synod on synodality. If we are looking for divine recompense, our responsibility to bring it about could hardly be more obvious.

The synodal way offers a difficult and effective antidote to our divisiveness. Imitating the deaf man and his friends, synodality invites us to learn new ways of communicating — ways that allow everyone to have their say.

The synod invites us to escape our deafness through contemplative dialogue — a way of listening that genuinely expects to learn something new, listening that opens us to broader ways of thinking. It’s a way of listening that avoids debate and the false belief that there is only one way to understand the truth.

Synodality would delight St. James for its respect for each point of view, realizing that the woman who cleans the office, the monsignor, the plumber, the academic and the executive all have much to offer one another.

Our world is in desperate need of listeners, of people who can approach the violent with a kiss and who can receive revelation from very different points of view. God has instigated a plan to open our ears and to form us as agents of divine recompense. Are we willing, like Jesus and the deaf man’s friends, to lead our world toward the healing we need? 

On a recent Sunday morning, a dozen people congregated in a home in the Nyabisindu neighborhood of Rwanda’s capital to ponder their next steps after the government shuttered numerous churches for noncompliance with health and safety regulations.

« We are appalled by the government’s denial of our freedom to worship our God, » said a woman whose small Pentecostal church was among the nearly 10,000 closed in late July and early August. « We are compelled to hold our services in secret and in silence. Our inability to pray aloud, sing, and express our devotion to God is a result of our fear of arrest. »

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from security officials, accused Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, who ordered the closures, of displaying dictatorial tendencies, warning that « God will punish him for opposing the spread of the gospel. »

The closures were carried out in accordance with a 2018 law that mandates that places of worship meet safety and hygiene standards, including proper infrastructure, parking, fire hazard equipment and soundproofing systems, and that they are safe to occupy. The law also requires pastors to hold university degrees in theology, and churches to obtain legal registration and provide clear statements of their doctrine.

Human Rights Watch has cited Kagame as one of the world’s worst offenders against freedom of expression and other basic human freedoms, reporting that those who criticize his government face repression, including killings, kidnappings, beatings, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention.

But the government has said that the crackdown is not aimed at restricting religion, but part of an ongoing effort to protect Rwandans from corruption and fraud. Kagame, who has proposed taxing churches, said after winning a fourth term in July that he opposed the « mushrooming churches » that « squeeze even the last penny from poor Rwandans. »

« This nationwide operation is dedicated to upholding the rule of law within churches, » said Usta Kaitesi, CEO of the Rwanda Governance Board, which oversees the delivery of services in the East African nation. « We are steadfast in our pursuit of proper standards for places of worship. It is essential for people to comprehend that these guidelines are designed to promote healthy and safe practices in worship. »

A church elder representing the Association of Pentecostal Churches in Rwanda, who also spoke to RNS on condition of anonymity, claimed that the authorities had targeted Pentecostal churches, closing hundreds without prior notice, because pastors did not have academic degrees or certificates in theology. « It’s God who calls people to serve him, » the elder said, « and not the level of education or intelligence someone has. »

The elder said the government has effectively forced the association’s churches underground. « The closures have left us with no option but to gather in our houses and worship secretly, » he said, noting that security agencies were on the lookout for such gatherings. « The fear of arrest has forced congregants to be very careful while gathering, to ensure they do it secretly, and pray in low tones, so that no one hears, even their neighbor, because anyone can report you to the authorities. »

The elder urged the government to reconsider its abrupt action and instead find a practicable solution with religious leaders. « There’s no way a church can fully comply with the required standards set by the government in less than six years. We need more time. We want the government to understand us and know that what we are doing is the work of God, and we are not doing it for ourselves, » he said.

Christianity is the dominant religion in Rwanda, with Catholics comprising about 45% of the population and Protestants 35%. The country, approximately the size of the state of Maryland, had 15,000 churches in 2019, according to official figures. Only 700 were legally registered at the time.

Leaders of several Christian denominations have approved the closures, claiming that the restrictions will protect the poor from exploitation by untrained pastors. « It’s crucial to adhere to the law and support the government’s efforts to ensure compliance within churches, » said Esron Maniragaba, president of the Evangelical Free Church of Rwanda. « Implementing regulations is essential to prevent individuals with minimal theological knowledge from establishing churches arbitrarily. »

But other religious leaders say the government’s move encroaches on religious freedom by applying occupancy and noise standards unequally.

Pastor Patrick Iyakaremye, founder and president of Africa Bright Future Ministries and senior pastor of the Calvary Temple Church in Kigali, said the government’s demand for soundproofing in churches is unfair when noise from bars and entertainment venues goes unregulated. He also pointed to unequal demands for adequate parking spaces, which is not applied to nonprofits such as hospitals and clinics.

« It’s unfair for the government to treat churches like this. We have been forced to conduct our worship services secretly and sometimes do it online to ensure our congregants can continue to receive the teachings of the word of God, » said Iyakaremye.

The pastor also criticized the focus on small Pentecostal prayer houses run by charismatic preachers, who often draw followers with promises of miracles. « It’s also shameful for the government to condemn the performance of miracles and prophecies by pastors without recognizing that these are spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. The leaders of the government lack knowledge of the word of God, » he said.

The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, houses a fascinating artifact: a massive cloth shroud that bears the shadowy image of a man who appears to have been crucified. Millions of Christians around the world believe that this shroud — commonly called the Shroud of Turin — is the cloth that was used to bury Jesus after his crucifixion and that the image on the shroud was produced miraculously when he was resurrected.

The evidence, however, tells a different story.

Scientists have questioned the validity of the claims about the shroud being a first-century object. Evidence from carbon-14 dating points to the shroud being a creation from the Middle Ages. Skeptics, however, dismiss these tests as flawed. The shroud remains an object of faith, intrigue and controversy that reappears periodically in the public sphere, as it has in recent weeks.

As a scholar of early Christianity, I have long been interested in why people are motivated to create objects like the shroud and also why people are drawn to revere them as authentic.

The shroud and its history

The first public appearance of the shroud was in 1354, when it was displayed publicly in Lirey, a small commune in central France. Christian pilgrims traveled from all over to gaze upon the image of the crucified Jesus.

Pilgrimages like this were common during the Middle Ages, when relics of holy people began to appear throughout Europe. The relic trade was big business at the time; relics were bought and sold, and pilgrims often paid a fee to visit them.

Many believed that these relics were genuine. In addition to the shroud, pilgrims visited Jesus’ crib, splinters from the cross and Jesus’ foreskin, just to name a few.

But even in the 14th century, when the relic trade in Europe was flourishing, some were suspicious.

In 1390, only a few decades after the shroud was displayed in Lirey, a French bishop named Pierre d’Arcis claimed in a letter to Pope Clement VII not only that the shroud was a fake but that the artist responsible for its creation had already confessed to creating it. Clement VII agreed with the assessment of the shroud, although he permitted its continued display as a piece of religious art.

The shroud and science

The shroud has been the subject of much scientific investigation in the past several decades. Data from scientific tests matches what scholars know about the shroud from historical records.

In 1988, a team of scientists used carbon-14 dating to determine when the fabric of the shroud was manufactured. The tests were performed at three labs, all working independently. Based on data from these labs, scientists said there was « conclusive evidence » that the shroud originated between the years 1260 and 1390.

Results from another scientific study over 30 years later appeared to debunk these findings. Using an advanced X-ray technique to study the structure of materials, the scientists concluded that the fabric of the shroud was much older and could likely be from the first century. They also noted, however, that their results could be considered conclusive only if the shroud had been stored at a relatively constant temperature and humidity — between 68-72.5 degrees Fahrenheit and 55% to 75% — for the entirety of two millennia.

This would be highly unlikely for any artifact from that period. And when it comes to the shroud, the conditions under which it has survived have been less than ideal.

In 1532, while the shroud was being kept in Chambéry in southern France, the building it was housed in caught fire. The silver case that held the shroud melted; despite intricate repair attempts, the burn marks in the fabric remain visible to this day. It was saved from another fire in Turin as recently as 1997.

Despite the ongoing debate, the carbon-14 dating results have continued to provide the most compelling scientific evidence that the shroud is a product of the Middle Ages and not an ancient relic.

The shroud as religious art

The shroud is undeniably a masterful work of art, crafted with remarkable skill and using methods that were complicated and ahead of their time. For centuries, many experts struggled to understand how the image was imprinted onto the fabric, and it wasn’t until 2009 that scientists were successfully able to reproduce the technique using medieval methods and materials.

Pope Francis once referred to the shroud as an « icon, » a type of religious art that can be used for a variety of purposes, including teaching, theological expression and even worship. Without addressing the authenticity of the shroud, the pope suggested that by prompting reflection on the face and body of the crucified Jesus, the shroud encouraged people to also consider those around them who may be suffering.

It is at least possible that the shroud was created as a tool that would encourage viewers to meditate on the death of Jesus in a tangible way.

Ultimately, the shroud of Turin will continue to intrigue and draw both believers and skeptics into a debate that has spanned centuries. But I believe that the shroud encourages viewers to think about how history, art and belief come together and influence how we see the past.