The News You May Have Missed: November 2024

Terrorizing Francis

Seven people were arrested in Indonesia after authorities uncovered a plot to attack Pope Francis during his apostolic visit to the country (The Standard, Sept. 7). The nation’s anti-terrorism squad Detachment-88, or Densus 88, apprehended seven Islamic militants “who made threats in the form of propaganda or terror threats via social media in response to the Pope’s arrival,” said Col. Aswin Siregar. “There was also a threat to set fire to the locations” Francis was to visit. Searches conducted at the home of one militant yielded bows and arrows, a drone, and Islamic State material. Some of those arrested had pledged allegiance to ISIS, Siregar added. The militants were angry about the Pope’s visit to Jakarta’s Istiqlal mosque, where he met Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar to sign a joint declaration calling for tolerance and an end to climate change. Indonesia’s fight against terrorism has lasted decades and is marked by high-profile attacks, including the 2002 Bali bombing and the 2009 attacks on Jakarta hotels.

Ersatz Exorcists

A self-professed Catholic bishop, who was ordained to the priesthood by the excommunicated Zambian archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, has been denounced by the dioceses of Fatima, Portugal, and Rome as a fraud (CruxNow.com, Sept. 16). Salvatore Micalef has organized liturgies that involved healings and exorcisms, as well as “Healing and Liberation” retreats, in various parts of the world, including the famed Marian sanctuary of Fatima and the city of Rome. Micalef claims to have been elevated to the bishopric by two Americans, William Manseau and Peter Paul Brennan, both of whom were part of the Married Priests Now movement founded by Milingo, and neither of whom is recognized by the Vatican. Milingo rose to prominence in Italy in the 1980s and 1990s for his work as a healer and exorcist — and for a popular music CD he released in 1995 titled Gubudu. He was suspended in 2006 after he married in a ceremony presided over by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church. Milingo later ordained four bishops without the pope’s authorization, resulting in excommunication, and was laicized in 2009.

Ceremony of the Horseman

Since the fire that devastated Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019, archaeologists have unearthed thousands of artifacts. In 2022 they discovered a lead sarcophagus under the transept crossing that is now believed to be that of Joachim du Bellay, the famous French poet who died in 1560. This hypothesis is based on an autopsy that revealed the individual in the sarcophagus suffered from bone tuberculosis and chronic meningitis, which was rare at the time, and spent a lot of time riding horses. Du Bellay “matches all the criteria of the portrait: he is an accomplished horseman, suffers from both conditions mentioned in some of his poems, like in ‘The Complaint of the Despairing,’ where he describes ‘this storm that blurs (his) mind,’ and his family belonged to the royal court and the pope’s close entourage,” said Eric Crubézy, professor of biological anthropology at Toulouse III University. Du Bellay was believed to have been buried in the cathedral beside his uncle at the request of his family, but his grave was never found. Since the fire, more than 100 tombs have been identified at Notre-Dame, and 80 excavated (Fox News, Sept. 20).