Ecclesia in Asia

Asia's oldest cardinal yesterday celebrated the anniversary of his episcopal ordination at the Baan Phu Wan pastoral centre on 3 June 1973. At the age of 94, he looks back at his life and service to the Church in the Thai capital in a long interview. He is hopeful about the country’s future. “While we may profess different religions, let us recognise ourselves as brothers and sisters in the same society.”

On Pentecost Sunday a reflection posted on the Missions Etrangeres de Paris website by Fr. Claude Louis Tisserand, who has been a missionary among Taiwan's aboriginal communities for more than 45 years. The dilemma between local cultures to be preserved and the need of parents and the Church itself to educate them to speak and profess their faith in Mandarin, the language of the cities.

Father Fabio Favata is a PIME missionary and trained psychologist, whose doctoral thesis focuses on how seminaries in mainland China train candidates to the priesthood. Despite declining vocations and major difficulties, building a future is still possible.

Elected by the General Assembly of the confederation of charitable bodies of the Catholic Churches worldwide. His first words, "On the front lines to welcome, accompany, serve and defend the poor and vulnerable." Bangladeshi layman Benedict Alo D'Rozario confirmed as president of Caritas Asia.

Drug production and consumption are the hidden facets of the crisis tearing Myanmar apart. A rehab centre in the capital of Kachin State highlights the cooperation between the local diocese and the Irish missionaries of St Columba. The stories of those who overcame their addiction are a source of hope.

Archbishop Joseph Vu Van Thien presided over the rite for some young men on their way to the priesthood on the eve of today's World Vocations Day. Last Sunday, the Hanoi Catholic Church itself had celebrated its Youth Day by returning to gather 5,000 young people for the first time since Covid.

Archbishop from 1968 to 1998, a "friend of the poor and the marginalized," he was a key figure in the growth of the Korean Church and the defense of human rights. With him to the altars were also the first Bishop Bruguiere and Fr. Bang, who by starting the first local religious congregations gave a strong impetus to inculturation.

In the Jesuit magazine, "La Civiltà Cattolica," Fr. Federico Lombardi retraces a little-known aspect of the early Jesuits' mission in China: the baptisms and hidden apostolate of women in a society where social control over them was tight. And of one of them - Candida, granddaughter of Xu Guangqi - he recounts her apostolate and reputation for holiness.

For 13 years a lay Franciscan, together with some other young people and adults, has been goes around with a cart in the big city’s poorest areas to bring the light of faith. “When I was a child, I was like them, broken family, experienced being a drug addict, but God changed me through the help of a catechist," he said. They carry with them a Marian image that they have called Our Lady of the Peripheries.

The Federation of Catholic Bishops' Conferences of Oceania (FCBCO) this week held its assembly in Fiji, which was also the continental stage of reflection towards the Synod. Communities that deal daily with the threats of climate change call for ecological conversion as an urgent missionary priority, not only for local Churches, but also for the whole Church.

On the 150th anniversary of the birth of the patron saint of missions, an exhibition in Paris tells the story of a “woman intellectual, seeker of meaning” with a section dedicated to her relations with the missionaries of the MÉP and the spread of her spirituality in Asia.

He fled Pyongyang to South Korea at the time of the war and encountered Christianity as an old man through his daughter. At age 90, he began inking verses on traditional Korean paper and has made 700 posters of this artistic expression. He speaks to the local Catholic weekly magazine of his story of feeling God's word in his fingers.