Catholic religious sisters conduct classes at a school they run outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Nov. 2, 2023. / Credit: Stephan Uttom RozarioDhaka, Bangladesh, Nov 12, 2025 / 18:31 pm (CNA).Several Catholic schools in Dhaka will close on Thursday amid fears of political violence as Bangladesh's International Crime Tribunal prepares to announce a verdict date for ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.On Nov. 13, the International Crime Tribunal will announce the date of the first verdict in the ongoing case of crimes against humanity against Hasina, who was ousted in August 2024. The political climate has become unstable, as the ousted Awami League called for a Dhaka blockade on social media Thursday.In July 2024, a student-led uprising toppled Hasina's government, and on Aug. 5, 2024, she fled to India. An interim government was subsequently formed under the leadership of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. According to a United Nations report, around 1,400 people died during the July p...
Catholic religious sisters conduct classes at a school they run outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Nov. 2, 2023. / Credit: Stephan Uttom Rozario
Dhaka, Bangladesh, Nov 12, 2025 / 18:31 pm (CNA).
Several Catholic schools in Dhaka will close on Thursday amid fears of political violence as Bangladesh's International Crime Tribunal prepares to announce a verdict date for ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
On Nov. 13, the International Crime Tribunal will announce the date of the first verdict in the ongoing case of crimes against humanity against Hasina, who was ousted in August 2024.
The political climate has become unstable, as the ousted Awami League called for a Dhaka blockade on social media Thursday.
In July 2024, a student-led uprising toppled Hasina's government, and on Aug. 5, 2024, she fled to India. An interim government was subsequently formed under the leadership of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. According to a United Nations report, around 1,400 people died during the July protests in 2024.
In the 11 days since the tribunal set a date for the announcement of the first verdict, at least 17 homemade bomb explosions have taken place in 15 locations, and nine vehicles have been set on fire, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sheikh Sajjat Ali.
"A group whose activities are banned and their associates are trying to carry out political activities from hiding, creating panic in the public," Ali said.
Although the Bangladesh Catholic Education Board has not decided to close formal educational institutions or transition to online classes, some educational institution authorities have decided to close their institutions or switch to online classes.
During the student-led July uprising last year, students painted various types of graffiti on walls in Dhaka. Credit: Stephan Uttom Rozario
Notre Dame University, the only Catholic Church-run university in Bangladesh, has announced that all examinations will be canceled on Thursday and that classes will be held online.
Notre Dame College, Bangladesh's most prestigious college, has not closed its classes but has suspended all examinations.
St. Joseph's International School will be closed on Thursday. A crude bomb explosion took place in front of the school on Nov. 8.
Some other educational institutions have also announced that classes will be closed or transitioned to online.
"We have not given any instructions on behalf of the Bangladesh Catholic Education Board Trust (BCEBT), but the authorities of the institutions have decided to close the educational institutions or take classes online, taking into account the safety of the students," said Jyoti F. Gomes, secretary of BCEBT.
"No one knows what will happen in the political situation of the country tomorrow, so the safety of the students comes first," Gomes told CNA.
According to the BCEBT, Christians operate one university, 18 colleges, 80 secondary schools, and nearly 1,000 primary and pre-primary schools, annually serving approximately 300,000 students, mostly Muslims, in the South Asian Muslim-majority nation.
St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. / Credit: Xosema (CC BY-SA 4.0)ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 12, 2025 / 14:54 pm (CNA).The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has declared that the alleged apparitions of Jesus in Dozulé, France, do not have an authentic divine origin and are therefore "not supernatural."The prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, confirmed the declaration based on the Norms for Discerning Alleged Supernatural Phenomena in a document released Nov. 12 and addressed to the bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, Jacques Habert.In 1972, Madeleine Aumont claimed that Jesus had appeared to her, asking the Church to build a giant "glorious cross" in Dozulé, next to a "shrine of reconciliation." Furthermore, the alleged visionary claimed that Jesus had announced his "imminent" return.In the document, the Vatican authority notes that the alleged apparitions in the Normandy town "have elicited spiritual interest" but also "not a few controversies and diffic...
Father Richard Thomas, SJ, ministered in the U.S.-Mexico border region. / Credit: Courtesy of Our Lady's Youth CenterBaltimore, Maryland, Nov 12, 2025 / 15:24 pm (CNA).The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted in favor of advancing the beatification and canonization cause of the late Jesuit Father Richard Thomas. Bishop Peter Baldacchino, who has served as bishop of Las Cruces in New Mexico since 2019, initiated the request for the Jesuit priest's beatification. Baldacchino spoke about Thomas and his ministry to the poor at the bishops' Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore."Jesus said, 'When you hold a lunch or dinner, do not invite your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, rather … invite the poor. Blessed indeed will you be, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous,'" Baldacchino said during his Nov. 11 presentation. Thomas "gave witness to those words of the Lord through a life dedicated to serve persons i...
Sister Mary Michael of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, PCPA, died Nov. 10, 2025, after roughly three-quarters of a century of religious life. She was 94. / Credit: Poor Clares of Perpetual AdorationCNA Staff, Nov 12, 2025 / 15:54 pm (CNA).Sister Mary Michael of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, PCPA, died on Nov. 10 after roughly three-quarters of a century of religious life. She was 94.Sister Mary Michael was the last of the original five nuns who, along with EWTN foundress Mother Angelica, began the Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, Alabama. (The monastery is now located in Hanceville; EWTN, the parent company of CNA, remains in Irondale.)Born Evelyn Shinosky on Feb. 25, 1931, to Joseph and Helen Shinosky, she entered Sancta Clara Monastery in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 15, 1951, and received the habit and her new name the following May.Sister Mary Michael made her first profession on May 1, 1954, and her solemn profession exactly six years later in 1960. Shortly after h...
Catholic religious sisters conduct classes at a school they run outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Nov. 2, 2023. / Credit: Stephan Uttom Rozario
