Elena Dini

Accompanied by the Apostolic Vicar of Vientiane, Bishop Adoun Hongsaphong, a Buddhist delegation met with Pope Leo XIV yesterday following the general audience, before proceeding to visit the Community of Sant'Egidio. The last such visit took place in 1973, when Laos’s supreme patriarch met with Pope Paul VI.

The Cardinal Apostolic Vicar of Ulan Bator shared the experience of his small Church, which “whispers the Gospel” into the hearts of the other peoples of the steppe. The Centre for the Study of Mongolian Culture has opened in the cathedral. “Pope Francis’s visit fostered a sense of goodwill from which we continue to benefit.”

In the wake of the meeting in Rome that brought together the heads of the bishops’ conferences ten years on from *Amoris Laetitia*, Archbishop Vira Arpondratana speaks of the challenges facing the younger generations in Asia. “Religious practice is on the decline across all faiths: material prosperity is driving people away from God. Forming the laity is our top priority.”

Bishop Ri Iong-Hoon, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, spoke to AsiaNews from Rome, where he is taking part in a gathering convened by Pope Leo XIV, about the challenges facing families in his country. In his view, “the Church should not simply tell young people to marry and have children. We must first listen to their hopes, fears,” while the family and children should be seen “as a subject of evangelization.”

On display at the Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum, the carpets were presented to Pope Leo XIV by the government of Azerbaijan. A documentary titled Harmony, featuring three women from the three faiths, was also produced. For Azerbaijani Ambassador Mukhtarov, diversity creates richness, like interwoven threads.

Each summer the French Dominican friar and official at the Dicastery for Christian Unity completes a new stage of an uninterrupted pilgrimage on foot that has now taken him from Rome all the way to Antioch. He reflects on the pilgrimage as a synthesis of life, the hospitality received in monasteries and mosques, and the encounters along the way. “Patriarch Bartholomew told me: ‘Go all the way to Jerusalem’.”

Many of the victims of the Himalayan catastrophe are Hindu. Professor Chinmay Pandya spoke to AsiaNews about the relief efforts of Gayatri Pariwar, a social organisation that brings together 150 million Hindus. For him, “Relief work therefore becomes a bridge between inner awakening and social responsibility.”