Singapore

Nine people per 100,000 are homeless in the city-state, the crossroad of Southeast Asia, a small number that jars, however, with the country’s widespread well-being and prosperity. The challenge is to go from temporary housing to structural solutions that reduce stigma and ghettoisation. Religious and non-religious organisations, including Catholic Welfare Services, are committed to solving the issue.

The arrest dates back to August: made public by the Internal Security Department (ISD), which confirmed two years' imprisonment. The plan was to attack with scissors and a kitchen knife in the crowded area near the Tampines West Community Club. It is the fourth foiled attack since 2020.

Tech giants plan to invest heavily in South East Asia, boosting regional economies, from Singapore to Malaysia. Demand is expected to grow by about 20 per cent per year for the next five to seven years. Microsoft has already pledged over two billion dollars in Malaysia for cloud infrastructure and AI.

Official data for the first half of 2024 confirm the upward trend, with further strong growth by 2030, fuelled mostly by migrants filling the local labour market, up by 5 per cent over the previous year. This is fuelling a debate in society, and not only over resource and infrastructure planning.

In the general audience held today in St Peter's Square, Francis retraced the stages of the apostolic journey that in recent days has taken him to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. "I met living communities that grow by attraction. It gladdened my heart to be able to spend some time with the missionaries and catechists of today’.

In his visit to the Southeast Asian city-state, Pope Francis spoke of the urgency of not leaving anyone in the shadow of its great skyscrapers. This commitment is best exemplified by Pro Bono SG, a group of legal professionals who provide free legal counsel and representation to those who cannot afford them. In doing so, they are overcoming some strong biases in a society that extols rigour.

The pope departed for Rome from the metropolis in Southeast Asia, the fourth stop on his long journey through Asia and Oceania. "Religions are different languages on the path to God. If you dialogue as young people, you will also dialogue as adults, as citizens, as politicians. Take risks, do not be afraid’. To the elderly and the sick: ‘Your prayer is very important before God’.

In the celebration at the National Stadium in front of tens of thousands of faithful, Francis referred to the city’s “great and bold architecture” to urge the faithful to look at the true source of life and beauty. He added that the “most profitable investment in God’s eyes,” is “all of us, for we are beloved children of the same Father”. The pope also referred to Saint Francis Xavier, who lived for a long time in Malacca Peninsula, stressing the primacy of the proclamation of the Gospel to the peoples of Asia.

In his address to the authorities in Southeast Asia's commercial and financial crossroads, Francis extolled the model of peace and cooperation between different peoples that the city-state embodies. But he also called for a ‘fair wage’ for migrants and attention to family and human relations in the metropolis of the digital world. The model of a ‘multilateralism based on shared rules’ in today's conflict-torn world.

A French missionary with the MÉP, Fr Bruno Saint Girons, served as a priest for 15 years in the Southeast Asian metropolis that is currently welcoming the Pope. He told AsiaNews about the daily life of his communities, confiding that he would like this great city to learn from Francis to listen to everyone, not to judge.

While the whole country still has in its eyes the more than 600,000 people at yesterday's Mass, this morning - in his last appointment in East Timor - Francis met with young people, inviting them to ‘make noise’ to build the future without letting themselves be overcome by individualism. Then the departure for Singapore where the pontiff arrived in the early afternoon.

The city-state that awaits the arrival of Pope Francis has for the first time launched a retraining plan for low and middle-level professional workers, who are most exposed today to the hardships created by the economic upheavals linked to international crises. From April 2025, subsidies of 6,000 Singapore dollars for six months, accompanied by training activities.