Francis celebrated Vespers and the missionary vigil. “But how does one set about being a missionary? By living as witnesses: bearing witness by our lives that we have come to know Jesus. Witness is the key word: a word with the same root as the word “martyr”. The martyrs are the primary witnesses of faith: not by their words but by their lives. They know that faith is not propaganda or proselytism: it is a respectful gift of one’s life.”
Francis issues a video message to launch the extraordinary missionary month October 2019. "Reaching the peripheries – the human, cultural, and religious settings still foreign to the Gospel: this is what we call the “missio ad gentes".
The first summit between government and opposition representatives to draft a new Charter is scheduled for 30 October in Geneva. It will only succeed if it guarantees "progress" towards ending the conflict. The agreement on the committee members was “the first concrete political agreement” between the parties.
Wattala parish falls within the Archdiocese of Colombo. Youth perform a play centred on ‘Safe Migration’. The country hosts some 1,700 refugees, mostly Muslims.
The Council of Europe picks the Uyghur scholar this year. He is the first Chinese citizen to receive the award. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 despite working to reduce ethnic tensions in China.
Today is the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. A US-based think tank releases the latest poll results on attitudes in 32 countries over China. The communist regime gets a negative assessment from most of its neighbours in the Asia-Pacific region.