Angelus News | February 9, 2024 | Vol. 9 No

WORLD
■ Belgian officials order
destruction of baptismal record
Belgian bishops are fighting requests to erase baptism
records in a court case that could change precedent across
Europe.
The country’s Data Protection Authority ruled Dec. 19
that the Diocese of Ghent must comply with an unnamed
person’s request to have their baptismal record deleted. The
diocese has appealed the decision and said it would continue
its standard practice of noting requests for disaffiliation on a
person’s baptismal record, but would not destroy the entry.
The case follows a similar request to delete baptismal
records for disaffiliated Catholics in Ireland, but the Irish
Data Protection Commission ruled in favor of maintaining
baptismal records in February 2023.
The Church in Belgium received 5,237 requests for disaffiliation
in 2021, a significant increase from 2020 (1,261) and
2019 (1,800).
Flames engulf St. Jean Baptiste Church in Morinville, Alberta,
in 2021. | CNS/DIANE BURREL, SOCIAL MEDIA VIA REUTERS
■ As Canadian churches burn,
where are the mass graves?
Catholic leaders in Canada are connecting a rash of arson
and vandalism to unverified comments made by Canadian
public leaders, as excavations into purported mass graves at
former residential school sites come up empty.
At least 85 Catholic churches have been burned or vandalized
since May 27, 2021, when a news story alleged 215 unmarked
graves near the former Church-operated Kamloops
Indian Residential School. While no sanctioned excavations
have been conducted at Kamloops, excavations at three other
sites have failed to discover the reported mass gravesites.
“The reality is when we have a continued assertion of false
claims of mass graves and missing children or speculation in
the absence of better evidence, much of this criminal activity
is likely to continue,” Philip Horgan, president of the Catholic
Civil Rights League, told The Catholic Register.
Haitian National Police patrol in Port-au-Prince Jan. 22, days after the six nuns were
kidnapped. | OSV NEWS/RALPH TEDY EROL, REUTERS
■ Haitian nuns released on day of prayer
Six Haitian nuns who were kidnapped in Port-au-Prince Jan.
19 were set free Jan. 24, a day of prayer dedicated for their
release.
“God always hears the cries of the poor and frees the unfortunate
from all his distress (Psalm 33:6–7),” read a statement
from the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince to Aid to the Church
in Need. “We cried unto him, he made us strong in trial, and
he set our captives free.”
The abductions were suspected to be the work of a gang.
Eighty percent of the Caribbean nation’s capital is controlled
by gangs, and clergy kidnapping has grown in regularity.
Other passengers and the bus driver had also been abducted
with the sisters and were likewise released.
■ Why Indonesia is having Ash Thursday
Citizens in Indonesia have only a handful of hours — from
7 a.m. and 1 p.m. — to cast their ballots on Wednesday,
Feb. 14. To accommodate the timing, Catholic bishops are
moving Ash Wednesday.
Though Catholics make up just 3% of the electorate,
Church leaders expressed a concern that Catholic voters
attending liturgy might miss their chance at the polls, which
will determine a new president, vice president, and 711
members of the national assembly.
“Both the general election and Ash Wednesday are important
for us as Catholics and Indonesians,” said Bishop
Antonius Subianto Bunjamin of Bandung, president of the
Indonesian bishops’ conference. “The active involvement in
both events are the responsibility to fulfill our duty as citizens
and our call to repent as Christians.”
Dioceses are accommodating the liturgical shift differently.
Some will observe Ash Wednesday on Thursday, Feb. 15,
while at least one other will administer ashes on the first
Sunday of Lent, Feb. 19.
4 • ANGELUS • February 9, 2024