null / ShutterstockWashington D.C., May 26, 2023 / 16:15 pm (CNA).A freelance journalist who has reported on a surge of violent attacks by radicalized Muslims in Nigeria for CNA recently found himself caught in the middle of a firefight between government soldiers and armed militiamen."With hundreds of bullets flying over my head, and the whizzing gunfire whipping past my ears, lying flat on the ground and crawling on we were swarmed by more than 200 armed terrorists who were dressed in black," Masara Kim, an independent reporter based in Jos, recounted in text messages to CNA.The exchange of gunfire, which lasted about an hour, took place on May 16 in Mangu City in Central Nigeria s Plateau State. The region in and around Plateau has seen a series of deadly attacks by armed Muslim militia in recent weeks, a sign of worsening instability in Nigeria."The terrorists were shooting and advancing forward in a suicide fashion, despite a fierce resistance by a team of 100-200 a
A young man touches a religious statue to the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, OSB, on May 25, 2023, at the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles monastery in Gower, Missouri. / Used with permission.CNA Newsroom, May 26, 2023 / 13:45 pm (CNA).Expert morticians are scratching their heads at the recently exhumed body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, a Benedictine nun who died in 2019 and now appears to be in an unexpected state of preservation.The reactions come a week after the abbess and sisters of the community that she founded, the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, unearthed the 95-year-old African American religious sister s simple wooden coffin on May 18 from the cemetery on the monastery grounds in rural Gower, Missouri, to relocate her remains to a final resting place inside their chapel.The local ordinary, Bishop Vann Johnston of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, visited the monastery Monday to see Sister Wilhelmina s remains. Johnston, w.
A statue of St. Junipero Serra, which was defaced and torn down by protesters Oct. 12, 2020, at Mission San Rafael Arcangel in San Rafael, California. Courtesy photo.Denver, Colo., May 26, 2023 / 13:15 pm (CNA).Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said Thursday that prosecutors decision to reduce the charge against activists who destroyed a parish s statue of a saint from felony to misdemeanor sends the signal that attacks against the Catholic Church can continue with impunity."It is clear to me that this course of action would not have been taken with anyone else. In fact, if the same kind of offense had been committed against another religious congregation or group, it would almost certainly have been prosecuted as a hate crime," Cordileone said.Cordileone s statement follows a decision by the the Marin County District Attorney s Office to reduce charges against five protesters who, on Oct. 12, 2020, defaced and tore down the statue of St. Junipero Se
Photos of the man who allegedly set a fire at St. Mary's Cathedral and charged at two staff members on May 19, 2023. / Calgary Police DepartmentBoston, Mass., May 26, 2023 / 14:15 pm (CNA).Local police in Canada are asking for the public s assistance in identifying a man who allegedly set a fire and assaulted two men at St. Mary s Cathedral in Calgary, located in the western province of Alberta.Police responded early in the morning to reports of a "deliberately set fire" at the cathedral on May 19, the Calgary Police Department said in a May 25 statement.Two staff members at the cathedral heard a "commotion" outside and opened the back door to see what it was, the statement said. When they opened the door, a man "aggressively charged at them," according to police. The two staff members, both men, closed the doors before the man could reach them, police said. The man continued to attempt to enter the church, the statement said. Law enforcemen
The Vatican on April 2, 2022, announced that Pope Francis had appointed Father Earl K. Fernandes to be the next bishop of the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio. / Courtesy of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.Denver Newsroom, May 26, 2023 / 15:40 pm (CNA).Ohio s Catholic Diocese of Columbus will close 15 churches as part of a parish reorganization and merger plan, but Bishop Earl K. Fernandes emphasized new possibilities for growth, especially if lay Catholics take on more responsibility for the Church s future."When I arrived, I said I m not interested in presiding over 25 years of decline in the diocese," the bishop said in a May 25 video series at the diocese s YouTube channel. "I want to grow the church, not for my glory, but for God s glory," he said.Fernandes said the reorganization plan was an effort to "try to come up with the best possible solution for the whole Diocese of Columbus."The bishop stressed the need for "an engaged lay faithful" who take