Ecclesia in Asia

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.

The pope has approved the election of two new archbishops designated by the Sindo of the Patriarchate of Antioch of the Syrians: Fr. Jacques Mourad in 2015 in Syria was in the hands of jihadists for five months; in Iraq Fr. Qusay Mubarak Abdullah Hano was born and raised in the Nineveh Plain and was an exile among exiles in Erbil. The challenges of reconstruction.

Christmas in Ulan Bator, described by Card. Giorgio Marengo - chosen by Pope Francis in the last consistory. The prelate leads a Church that was born just 30 years ago in the steppe and counts a total of 1,400 faithful. "The coal scandal has exasperated people at an already difficult time. Christmas wish from Mongolia: to discover that this Child is born to take ever deeper roots among us as well."

35 year old Fr. Dominic Fung King-ho, will minister in St. Alfred parish. The new priest's homage to Cardinal Zen "who showed me how to love the least". The OMI have been present in the former British colony since 1966 where they are active in educational institutions and in serving the poor. Since 2001 they have also had some form of presence in mainland China.

The Soeurs de Notre Dame celebrated the first 50 years of their orphanage in Central Java province. “We are here and serve the most unfortunate children thanks to the generosity of so many people in this city,” says the Superior for Indonesia. God gave the nuns “the passion to love these unfortunate children and the patience to always listen to them."

Forced to flee Pakistan in 1986, for 15 years bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir Ali chose Catholicism last year. He tells AsiaNews, "The persecuted will renew our Churches. The Synod? We must be on guard against outside pressure groups and listen to yesterday's believers as well."

As politics once again leaves a power vacuum, the Lebanese people are gripped by an unprecedented economic crisis. The Maronite bishop of Batroun points the finger at politicians and corruption. Catholic schools, however, have seen an increase in enrollment. "When the time for change comes, we want to be ready," he tells AsiaNews.

Msgr. Peter Chung Soon-taick wants to bring World Youth Day to Asia: "It would be an extraordinary opportunity to revive youth ministry in a country struggling with a demographic winter and an education system dominated by competitiveness." An announcement that in these hours is intertwined with the dramatic news about the hundreds killed and injured in the stampede for the Hallowen festivities in the Itaewon district.

Next Sunday, the Church around the world celebrates the day that focuses on the proclamation of the Gospel to those who have not yet known Jesus. The director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in India offers his reflection on what missionary conversion means today amid the wounds of the Church’s scandals and the hostility of fundamentalists.