US has ‘deep concerns’ about

UN official’s trip to China

BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. government expressed deep concerns to the U.N. about a reported trip by the U.N. counterterrorism chief to the restive Xinjiang region in China’s far west.

Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, in a phone call Friday with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, called the visit “highly inappropriate in view of the unprecedented repression campaign underway in Xinjiang against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims.”

The Chinese foreign ministry confirmed that Vladimir Ivanovich Voronkov, the undersecretary-general of the U.N. counterterrorism office, is in China at the country’s invitation, but didn’t provide any details.

“More specific information will be released in time,” ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a daily briefing.

China has faced international criticism over internment camps in Xinjiang that hold an estimated 1 million members of the Uighur and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.

Chinese officials describe the camps as vocational training centers and say they are necessary to curb religious extremism.

Sullivan told Guterres that “Beijing continues to paint its repressive campaign against Uighurs and other Muslims as legitimate counterterrorism efforts when it is not,” and that Voronkov’s trip puts the U.N.’s reputation and credibility at risk.

Pope Francis accepts resignation

of Chilean auxiliary bishop

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the auxiliary bishop of the Chilean capital city just 24 days after he appointed him to the post, church officials said Friday.

Bishop Carlos Eugenio Irarrázabal had become embroiled in controversy after he recently said there were no women at the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples so “we have to respect that.” He also said that perhaps women “like to be in the back room.”

The Santiago Archdiocese said in a statement that the pope’s decision came after talking with Irarrázabal, who joins the more than 30 Chilean bishops who presented their resignations in 2018 after a report ordered by Francis revealed a culture of abuse and cover-ups for decades in Chile’s church.

In a statement issued by the archdiocese later Friday, Irarrázabal said he wanted to “reiterate my apologies to those have been affected by my comments.”

He will remain in charge of a parish in Santiago where in 2011 he replaced Fernando Karadima, Chile’s most infamous pedophile priest.