| PAKISTAN

The Heal Foundation Pakistan provided medical care to 175 patients yesterday at a local Catholic church. Five people were diagnosed with TB and will be followed until they are completely treated. For the local parish priest, Fr Tahir Rauf, it is “serving the people like the apostles”. Looking to the future, he promises, to “conduct a second phase soon.”


This was reported by the Egyptian minister speaking at the World Economic Forum in Riyadh. The government has raised transit taxes from 5% to 15%, From the Saudi capital Blinken accuses Iran, the main source of instability in the region. Hamas delegation in Cairo to study the truce, in the Strip people continue to die from Israeli raids. Women and children among the victims. 

| 29/04/2024
| MIDDLE EAST

The Supreme Court in New Delhi has given the green light 'exceptionally' to the termination of the pregnancy of a 14-year-old rape victim. Dr. Carvalho: 'The trauma and violence suffered by the girl is undeniable, but the fact remains that the most defenceless life is killed'. 

| 29/04/2024
| INDIA
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Moscow has reportedly taken the decision to replace him due to his increasingly precarious health, about which there is no clarity or documentation. In his place would be Apti Alaudinov, the commander of the bloody Akhmat battalion that co-fought in Syria and Ukraine. But many pretenders aspire to the succession in Grozny, not counting Kadyrov's twelve sons. 

 

| 29/04/2024
| RUSSIA

During the historic visit to the city on the lagoon, the pontiff met with 80 inmates at the Giudecca Women's Prison, “a harsh reality, but a place of moral and material rebirth.” At the Holy See's pavillion for the 2024 Biennale “With My Eyes”, Francis addressed the artists, stressing the “contribution of women”. He also said: “There is joy and suffering that come together in a unique form in women.”

| 28/04/2024
| VATICAN
by Alessandra De Poli

In the Indian state of West Bengal, two PIME Fathers and two Sisters of the Immaculate accompany a Christian tribal community that is very poor but proud of its roots.

| 28/04/2024
| ECCLESIA IN ASIA
by Stefano Caprio

Because of the war in Ukraine, the country is drifting into an era of denial and distancing from the "enemy", to assert spiritual, moral, political, and economic "orthodoxy". Today, new "global models" are being imposed, which are not easily digestible, not only in Russia or the East, but also in Europe and in English-speaking countries. The persona of the president now overlaps with that of the tsars of the past.

| 27/04/2024
| RUSSIAN WORLD
Editor's choices
 
While the country is getting ready to welcome Pope Francis in September, amendments have been proposed to assert the country’s Christian identity. For the Catholic Bishops' Conference, this is a “dangerous” step that “obscures ...
| 24/04/2024
| PAPUA NEW GUINEA
 
Not only Gaza and the war in Ukraine: the global arms race is also driven by Chinese pressure on Taiwan.. The 6.8% growth represents "the highest year-on-year growth since 2009". China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia among the world's top five with ...
| 22/04/2024
| ASIA - MIDDLE EAST
 
by Dario Salvi
Layan Nasir, a 23-year-old native of Birzeit, is the only Christian woman under "administrative detention". She was taken, blindfolded and handcuffed, overnight by a military patrol without an arrest warrant or charges against her. The Bethlehem ...
| 19/04/2024
| ISRAEL – PALESTINE
 
Chinese Human Rights Defenders released a report detailing the stories of children and young people victims of human rights violations, like He Fengmei's daughter, who was separated from her mother a month after her birth and kept in a psychiatric ...
| 16/04/2024
| CHINA
 
Currently in intensive care, the seven-year-old is the only person to be seriously wounded by Iran’s attack against Israel because her house and village were not covered by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system. Nothing is known of the fate of ...
| 15/04/2024
| ISRAEL – GAZA - IRAN
 
by Daniele Frison
The auxiliary bishop of Jerusalem and patriarchal vicar for Palestine looks at the protests in Amman. Diplomatic relations with Israel allow aid to be sent to Gaza. Some students from Gaza’s Holy Family Parish arrived in Amman thanks to the Patriarchate’s ...
| 12/04/2024
| JORDAN
 
The Holy See has officially announced the long journey to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore. Card Goh of Singapore hopes the pope will bring to his predominantly Chinese city, “renewed fervour to all Catholics [. . .], especially ...
| 12/04/2024
| VATICAN
 
by card. Anthony Poola *
The Archbishop of Hyderabad looks at the media reaction to the declaration released by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on human dignity. The media are “focused on gender theory, sex change, surrogacy etc., but” people who “struggle ...
| 11/04/2024
| INDIA
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”