VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Saturday called on church leaders for a “change in mentality,” saying the Christian faith is less heeded — even ignored — in the modern world.
New methods were needed to help “reposition our ways of thinking and our attitudes,” the pope warned in his traditional Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s top administrative body.
“We are no longer the only ones today to produce culture, neither the first nor the most listened to,” the Argentinian pontiff said.
“We are no longer in a regime of Christianity because faith — especially in Europe, but also in a large part of the West — is no longer an obvious presupposition of living together; worse, it is often denied, mocked, marginalized and ridiculed.”
The change requires “a change in pastoral mentality,” said the Jesuit pope, the first from Latin America in the history of the Catholic Church.
Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has sought to shake up the powerful and conservative Curia. But he has continued to be met by resistance from many members of the body who reject greater control over their freedom and finances.
In previous Christmas greetings, Francis has taken a harsher tone against the cardinals and bishops within the Curia, calling out “cliques” and “traitors” within the bureaucracy.
Francis has created new “dicasteries,” or ministries, such as in communication, to better respond to a more digitized culture and try to break down the silos between different departments.
In his speech on Saturday, Francis also warned against “the temptation to fall back on the past” instead of “engaging in significant changes.”
Such “rigidity,” he said, “arises from the fear of change that ends up spreading stakes and obstacles in the land of common good, transforming it into a land mine of incommunicability and hate.”
Catholic Church is losing influence, Pope Francis warns
https://arab.news/42hz3
Catholic Church is losing influence, Pope Francis warns
- ‘We are no longer the only ones today to produce culture, neither the first nor the most listened to’
- Pope Francis: Change requires ‘a change in pastoral mentality’
Nigeria mosque bombing kills at least seven
- The bomb went off inside a crowded mosque in the city’s Gamboru market during early evening prayers
- Maiduguri is the capital of Borno state, home to a years-long insurgency by Boko Haram jihadis
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: An explosion ripped through a mosque in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri and killed at least seven worshippers Wednesday, witnesses and security sources told AFP.
No armed groups immediately claimed responsibility for what anti-jihadist militia leader Babakura Kolo said was a suspected bombing.
Maiduguri is the capital of Borno state, home to a years-long insurgency by jihadist groups Boko Haram and an offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province, though the city itself has not seen a major attack in years.
The bomb went off inside a crowded mosque in the city’s Gamboru market, as Muslim faithful gathered for evening prayers around 6 p.m. (1700 GMT), according to witnesses.
One of the leaders of the mosque, Malam Abuna Yusuf, put the toll at eight dead, though officials have not yet released a casualty count.
“We can confirm there has been an explosion,” police spokesman Nahum Daso told AFP, adding that an explosive ordnance disposal team was already on-site.
Kolo said that seven were killed.
He said it was suspected that the bomb was placed inside the mosque and exploded midway through prayers, while some witnesses described a suicide bombing.
It was not immediately clear how many people were injured, though witness Isa Musa Yusha’u told AFP: “I saw many victims being taken away for medical treatment.”
Videos taken in the aftermath and seen by AFP showed a person covered in blood writhing on the ground, and what appeared to be bodies covered by a sheet.
A security alert sent by an international NGO to its staff in Maiduguri, seen by AFP, advised its workers to stay away from the Gamboru market area.
Deadly insurgency
Nigeria has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2009 in a conflict that has killed at least 40,000 and displaced around two million from their homes in the northeast, according to the UN.
Though the violence has waned since its peak a decade ago, it has spilt into neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
And concerns are growing about a resurgence of violence in parts of the northeast, where insurgent groups remain capable of mounting deadly attacks despite years of sustained military operations.
Maiduguri itself — once the scene of nightly gunbattles and bombings — has been calm in recent years, with the last major attack recorded in 2021.
But reminders of the conflict are never far off in the state capital, where major military operations are headquartered.
Military pick-ups lumber through town daily, their beds filled with soldiers whose helmets shield them from the hot afternoon sun.
Evening checkpoints are still in effect, even as markets that once closed in the early afternoon throng into the night.
Meanwhile, in the countryside, the insurgency continues to rage, with analysts warning of an uptick in jihadist violence this year.
