{"id":11811,"date":"2026-04-25T19:50:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T19:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/25\/israeli-polish-foreign-ministers-spar-on-x-about-destroyed-jesus-statue-ewtn-news\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T19:50:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T19:50:49","slug":"israeli-polish-foreign-ministers-spar-on-x-about-destroyed-jesus-statue-ewtn-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/25\/israeli-polish-foreign-ministers-spar-on-x-about-destroyed-jesus-statue-ewtn-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli, Polish foreign ministers spar on X about destroyed Jesus statue – EWTN News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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EWTN News is a service of Eternal Word Television Network, Inc. Irondale, Alabama. All rights reserved. EIN: 27-4581132
Copyright \u00a9 2026. All rights reserved.
EWTN News is a service of Eternal Word Television Network, Inc. Irondale, Alabama. All rights reserved. EIN: 27-4581132
Israel and Poland\u2019s foreign ministers argue on X, a mosaic of Jesus by a survivor of Nazism will be saved, South Korea\u2019s Catholic population grows, and more in this week\u2019s world news roundup.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar and his Polish counterpart, Rados\u0142aw Sikorski, sparred on X over an incident involving an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier who was caught on video destroying a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon.
The online confrontation began after Sikorski responded<\/a> to Sa\u2019ar\u2019s post<\/a> apologizing for the destruction of the statue, which he called \u201cgrave and disgraceful.\u201d Sikorski wrote that the IDF soldier \u201cshould be punished\u201d and that \u201cIDF soldiers themselves admit to war crimes. They killed not only civilian Palestinians but even their own hostages.\u201d
Sa\u2019ar condemned the response<\/a>, describing the IDF as \u201ca professional and ethical army\u201d adding: \u201cOne should be cautious about making irresponsible statements that can ultimately lead to dangerous consequences.\u201d
South Korea\u2019s Catholic population has surpassed 6 million people for the first time, according to statistics released by the Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference of Korea.
The numbers released on Tuesday indicated that while the total population of Catholics in the country did not change from the previous year at 11.4%, the total number of Catholics rose by 9,178 from the year prior to 6,006,832, according to a Seoul Economic Daily Report Thursday<\/a>.
A mosaic of Jesus created by a refugee of Nazi persecution will be preserved, along with the historic Catholic church it is housed in, according to The Tablet<\/a>.
The mural depicting Jesus on the cross created by Jewish Hungarian emigre artist George Mayer-Marton in 1955 will remain at Holy Rosary Church in Manchester, England, after the Oldham Mural & Cultural Heritage Trust launched a plan to turn the church into an arts and culture center.
A report on the April 17 protest in Damascus, Syria, says a peaceful civic demonstration calling for better living conditions, anti-corruption measures, justice, and accountability was met by intimidation, incitement, and multiple violations, ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, reported Sunday<\/a>.
The \u201cJustice for All\u201d report said five people were injured, journalists were targeted in attacks, and a car attempted to drive into the protest, where between 900 and 1,200 Syrians staged a sit-in in Yusuf al-Azma Square.
The report also noted verbal threats against the protesters, who remained peaceful and carried only the Syrian flag, while some opponents used inflammatory slogans, filmed demonstrators, and challenged them over their political history. It urged independent investigations, prosecution of those responsible for incitement and abuse, stronger protections for journalists, and better safeguards for the right to peaceful assembly.
Father Natalino Belingheri, the last surviving member of the first group of Italian missionaries assigned to Indonesia\u2019s North Kalimantan province, has died.
\u201cThousands\u201d of Indigenous Dayak in North Kalimantan attended Belingheri\u2019s funeral, according to a Licas News report on Monday<\/a>.
Belingheri, who was known locally by his Dayak name, \u201cWan Abung,\u201d died April 10. He had been serving in remote areas across the northern province of Indonesia since 1977 and played a significant part in the establishment of the Diocese of Tanjung Selor in 2001, according to the report.
Ales Bialiatski, a Catholic and Nobel laureate<\/a>, is calling on Church leaders to intervene on behalf of political prisoners in Belarus in the wake of recent crackdowns on religious freedom.
\u201cWestern Church leaders and Vatican diplomats should be helping more against current restrictions,\u201d Bialiatski told OSV News Thursday<\/a>.
Bialiatski\u2019s remarks come after the March 16 arrest of Father Anatoly Parakhnevich, a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev, by KGB agents and the closure of his church.
Bialiatski has been detained multiple times, including in 2021 amid government crackdowns on nationwide protests following President Alexander Lukashenko<\/a>\u2019s contested election. \u201cI know from my own experience how good it is to be free, with time to recover and rebuild oneself \u2014 and if I get to meet the pope, I\u02bcll inform him of our Church\u02bcs needs,\u201d Bialiatski said.
A funeral for four teenaged boys, including two seminarians, in Thailand drew hundreds of attendees, according to a report<\/a> from Licas News on Monday.
\u201cWith their character and faith, they were the hope of their families and of the Thabom community, who longed to see them become priests,\u201d said Father Nicholas Sarawut Sahaikaen, rector of the Prince of Peace Seminary in Udon Thani, in his eulogy for the two seminarians. He noted that one of the boys had also applied to seminary but was unable to attend due to family circumstances.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sign up for the EWTN News Email and Stay Connected\u00a9 2026 EWTN News | All rights reserved.Follow usCopyright \u00a9 2026. All rights reserved.EWTN News is a service of Eternal Word Television Network, Inc. Irondale, Alabama. All rights reserved. EIN: 27-4581132Copyright \u00a9 2026. All rights reserved.EWTN News is a service of Eternal Word Television Network, Inc. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}