Call for week of prayer and fasting for peace in Venezuela
Venezuelan evangelical leaders are calling for a week of fasting and prayer after the US military action in their country and the seizing of President Maduro. A statement issued by the Evangelical Council of Venezuela, says: “The Church is called to be a community and a space of hope, comfort, and spiritual strength…May each community .. join in a cry for peace, justice, and the healing of our nation.” Meanwhile, The Christian Post reports that the exiled Christian leader Aristóteles López, founder of March for Jesus in Venezuela, described the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his transfer to the US as “divine intervention and the fulfilment of justice for a nation that has suffered for so long”. Evangelical leaders in the country met on Monday evening for shared reflection and prayer. They had earlier issued a prayer for peace and the honouring of “justice, truth and dignity of every citizen”. They urged members not to be dominated by fear or anxiety, saying it was vital to act with Christian solidarity and cultivate hope. Estimates suggest the number of evangelicals in Venezuela is 10-12 per cent. The Council of Evangelical Methodist Churches of Latin America said they condemned “any military intervention that does not respect the sovereignty of peoples and that fosters ideologies of death”, and the Alliance of Presbyterian Churches also condemned “all military and political interference against the sovereignty of Venezuela.” Report by Evangelicals Now here
‘The only person who can stop Donald Trump now is Pope Leo’
Commentator Catherine Pepinster writes in The Independent that Pope Leo can be the West’s most important ally, as it considers its future after the US action in Venezuela and President Trump’s talk of annexing Greenland. She suggests “the defining moment of (the Pope’s) pontificate – and of his relationship with his American homeland – is now likely to be Venezuela. Calling out Donald Trump on the legality and morality of a US military incursion will take courage. The signs so far are encouraging – but the moment has come for Leo’s voice to be louder, stronger and angrier.” His public address at the Vatican last Sunday concerned the need of respect for human rights, national sovereignty and justice in Venezuela, but he also said he has a “soul full of concern” for Venezuelans. The article says: “what happens in Latin America is personal for this pope”, an American from Chicago who is also a Peruvian citizen. Article is here
Worldwide Catholic Cardinals meet in Rome for over the next two days
Pope Leo’s first Consistory of Cardinals will take place in Rome today and tomorrow, a formal meeting of prayer and discussion. Vatican News says the encounter will seek to foster discernment and offer “support and counsel to the Holy Father in the exercise of his lofty and weighty responsibility in the governance of the universal Church. The Consistory is set within the context of the life and mission of the Church, and it intends to strengthen communion between the Bishop of Rome and the Cardinals, who are called to collaborate in a particular way in solicitude for the good of the universal Church.” The last time they met together was to elect Pope Leo, in May last year.
Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe on his life, calling, theology and Pope Leo
One of the Cardinals taking part in the Rome Consistory is Timothy Radcliffe, at the age of 80, England’s newest cardinal, a Dominican friar and former master of the global Dominican order. He has been speaking to The Telegraph about his life, calling and overriding conviction that “All are Welcome”. He also gave an insight into the election of Pope Leo, saying the new pope was chosen partly “to bring in the people who had been alienated by Francis”, and partly to continue his predecessor’s work. “We chose Leo because he could do both – he could move it on but gather people in.” He also said he wanted to move quickly to allow women to be deacons in the church, said “I’m not worried about somebody being gay”, and that trans people must be welcomed, adding: “I don’t think anybody can simply say ‘I have the right to say I’m a woman’, because our biology is fundamental”. The article is here
Police deny political pressure led to ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans
The West Midlands Chief Constable, Craig Guildford, has denied claims that political pressure lay behind a recommendation to ban supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv from travelling to Birmingham, for a match against Aston Villa last October. In an unusual step, he and other senior officers were recalled to give more evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee yesterday, on the reasons for the ban. The decision was taken by a public safety committee acting on police advice which included conversations with senior Dutch police officers who had dealt with trouble after a fixture between Ajax and Maccabi in 2024. Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara told MPs that they had intelligence to suggest that vigilantes were going to actively seek out Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and be violent towards them. He said that as a result of the impact of the decision, the police were working more closely and strategically with the local Jewish community in the West Midlands. The Chief Constable promised to send the committee more details of what police knew. ITV report here. Jewish News report here
Prayer vigil as Christian climate activists appear at Bath court
A prayer vigil is being planned outside Bath Magistrates Court today, when four people, including a retired vicar, are due to appear on charges of aggravated trespass, following a protest by Christian climate activists at Bath Abbey last year. A banner was hung from the tower saying “Don’t Crucify Creation”, to publicise a demand for the Church of England to take a stand against the “forces causing climate and ecological collapse”. The four people are: Rev Bill White, 71, a retired Church of England vicar from Macclesfield; Stephen Pritchard, 66, a former parish councillor from Radstock; Emma Ireland, 41, a mental health worker from Bristol; and Kate Chesterman, 60, a retired university worker from Canterbury. In a press release issued on Friday 2 January, Christian Climate Action said that during the prayer vigil, “Members of Christian Climate Action will pray for the Church of England to hear its message. They will pray in particular for the church to use its voice to speak out more clearly against the forces that are driving climate change.”
Ireland’s oldest man, Holocaust survivor Joe Velesky, has died aged 107
Ireland’s oldest man, Josef “Joe” Veselsky, a Holocaust survivor and wartime resistance fighter, who built a life in Ireland and became captain of its national table tennis team, has died aged 107. Born to a Jewish family in Czechoslovakia, he joined the anti-Nazi resistance and discovered in later life that his parents and older brother were murdered at Auschwitz. After the war, he captained the Czechoslovak national table tennis team but fled to Ireland in 1949 when the communist party regime seized power. He went on to captain Ireland’s national table tennis team and become life president of Table Tennis Ireland. He was awarded Slovakia’s highest state honour, the Order of the White Double Cross, and an honorary master’s degree by Trinity College Dublin, which described him as “a true gentleman… and an inspiration to all who were lucky enough to know him.” Jewish News article here
Pope officially closes the door on the Year or Jubilee
Pope Leo has closed the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica, the last of the Holy Doors opened for the Jubilee Year. The gesture marked the end of a year which has seen more than 33 million people journey to Rome on a pilgrimage seeking restoration, freedom, and forgiveness.
St Bride’s chalks the church door for Epiphany
The Rector of the journalists’ church, St Bride’s, Fleet Street, has chalked the door of the church with “20 + C + M + B + 26”, a ritual for Epiphany, the Christian festival commemorating the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus. It represents the year and the initials of the three Kings, Caspar, Melchior & Balthazar, also standing for the phrase “Christus mansionem benedicat” – “May Christ bless this house”. The crosses represent the cross of Jesus, indicating the protection of Christ on the building and those who enter. The ritual is thought to have originated in medieval Europe
