Ecclesia in Asia

After the opening day at the meeting promoted in Bangkok by the Federation of Bishops' Conferences, the Church of each country presents the joys and challenges of its experience. Card. Gracias: "The experience of Latin America with the Aparecida document a model for renewing and revitalising our pastoral experience".

Located in a district that covers Bangkok’s port, Klong Toey is home to 100,000 people, many of them internal migrants. Here, the Sisters recently began providing meals to people further impoverished by the pandemic. With their school “only a few blocks away from the biggest slum,” the Sisters heeded Pope Francis’s call to “serve the poor at the borders of our society”.

His remains transferred to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. He was the pastor of the Synod of the local Church and the Bridge to Mainland China .

In the last 15 years , the number of foreigners in the country has grown fourfold. The bishop of Incheon released a message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which is marked today by the Churches of the whole world. “Our hearts and actions are what God wants us to do in order to further build a great future in which no one is left out,” the prelate writes.

In Dinajpur, Bangladesh, the anniversary celebration of her arrival at the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration monastery. Originally from Kerala, she built and guided the community of cloistered nuns. "I pray for world peace and the welfare of all."

The superior of the Missionaries of Charity describes how sisters around the world will mark the 25th anniversary of the foundress' death on Sept. 5. Tomorrow on Park Street in Kolkata, a new center for street children will begin operations. "Pray that we will carry on Mother Teresa's legacy: to do freely all the good we can for the love of God and our brothers and sisters."

After the listening process involving the individual Churches, the General Secretariat will draw up a synthesis from Rome by the end of October on which a continental consultation will take place. A number of Asian theologians will also be on the commission charged with drafting it. By the end of March 2023 a synodal meeting of the Churches in Asia will be held in which not only bishops but also priests, laity and religious will take part.

On Aug. 22 the inaugural session of the Bishops' Conferences of Asia at the shrine of Blessed Nichola Kitbamrung. 250 bishops, priests, religious and laity will participate in the meeting-which will have its focus Oct. 12-30. Adjunct Secretary Msgr. Allwyn D'Silva: "We will reflect on how to proclaim the Gospel to Asia today and what contribution our communities can make to the universal Church."

The Catholic community in Raishahi has not forgotten the PIME missionary who was shot to death by bandits on 14 August 1972 at a time when he was helping war refugees returning from India. His legacy includes the St Joseph’s School and College he had founded in Bonpara together with Fr Verdelli, which today has more than 2,000 students.

South Korea is debating the closure of large residential facilities that still house 25,000 patients. Parents fear their children might lose the care and assistance they need. For Archbishop Peter Chung Soon-taick, all “situations are not all the same”. The most appropriate solutions should be provided for each.

After the execution of Tomohiro Kato, coincidentally with that of Myanmar dissidents, the Justice and Peace Council of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan warns that, “The violence of the death penalty can never build a peaceful society. It is a barbarity that goes against the times and creates new violence.”

From July 26 to 28 the Indian Church gathers in Bengaluru to draft the synthesis that will be sent to Rome after diocesan reflections on the synodal journey. Conversion, new social challenges and the struggle to really listen to the laity and youth: some voices from the path taken so far.