Between 2000 and 2020, the region recorded an urban population growth rate of around 2.3% per year - one of the highest globally. By 2050, more than half of the Pacific's population will live in urban areas.

Giorgio Licini, a PIME missionary, accompanied the pontiff on last year's trip to a distant frontier mission. “Francis’s lesson was to look inside ourselves before pointing the finger at atheists, the media or technological civilisation,” because “A pilgrim does not have a programme, but a goal.”

After a public consultation that ended on 4 April, the government is preparing to approve the new mining law that replaces the 1992 regulations. The risks of offshore mining and the call for a permanent moratorium. The church organisation also calls for specific regulations to prevent the ‘manipulation’ of remote and poorly educated communities. The controversial issue of land ownership.

Pope Francis has approved his canonisation, together with that of Archbishop Ignatius Maloyan, killed in the Armenian genocide. A lay catechist, To Rot was killed in 1945 for defending marriage against the Japanese who, in order to ingratiate themselves with local tribes, promoted polygamy.

The parliament of Papua New Guinea has approved an amendment that identifies the nation as an ‘independent Christian state’. Fr Giorgio Licini (Caritas Papua New Guinea): it risks being an empty statement, without resolving the real challenges facing the country.

The 7.3-magnitude earthquake, which hit yesterday, caused heavy damage, especially in the capital. Several aftershocks were recorded overnight. Rescuers are racing against time to save survivors trapped in collapsed buildings. Two Chinese nationals are among the dead. The Pacific island nation has close relations with China.