Macau

by Benedict Keith Ip | MACAU – VATICAN

The pontiff's death has a special echo in the special autonomous region where Catholicism is deeply rooted. His call to be “a poor Church for the poor” prompted local Catholics to develop services for migrant workers and the elderly. The agreement with Beijing on episcopal appointments was “a step toward greater progress in evangelisation”.


A hundred scholars from “greater China" met at the University of Saint Joseph to share thoughts from an ecclesial perspective. Archbishop Savio Hon praised the encounter with the local culture, which owes a lot to the work of Card Celso Costantini a century ago. Prof Wang Meixiu expressed concerns over today's restrictions on the access of children and minors to places of worship. She wonders whether the “number of Catholics is decreasing”.

| 27/06/2024
| CHINA

About one hundred young people from Macau will participate in the world meeting with Pope Francis. The delegations of the diocesan youth pastoral ministries and of the Portuguese-speaking parishes at the sanctuary of the apparitions, deeply linked due to the history of the former Lusitanian colony that returned to China in 1999.

| 28/07/2023
| MACAO

Today's headlines: OSCE says Erdogan had 'unfair advantage' in presidential run-off; UN special rapporteur terms Rohingya in Bangladesh are 'the new Palestinians'; Beijing deploys hundreds of police to quell the protest of the Hui Muslims in Yunnan; Nepalese experts say climate change is behind the continuing deaths in the Himalayas; Birth rate  plummets in Russia down to 31% with second child.

| 31/05/2023
| ASIA TODAY

Today's headlines: al-Sistan appeals for suffering Afghans, women in particular; In Vietnam, Dong Thap authorities pronounce child who fell into 35-meter shaft dead, recovery attempts futile; Taliban claim double killing of senior Pakistani officials; in Ukraine, Russian Wagner war cemetery fills up quickly with new burials; Armenian airline opens new connections with Moscow. 

| 05/01/2023
| ASIA TODAY

Today's headlines: Pope says China-Vatican agreement on bishops not ideal, but hopes it will be renewed; Japan develops an app for smartphones that automatically deletes images of underage nudity; Vietnamese police have arrested the famous blogger and activist Nguyen Lan Thang; a "discount war" on oil looms between Tehran and Moscow; in Sri Lanka, cooking with wood returns.

 

| 06/07/2022
| ASIA TODAY

“We can hardly fail to see that these days, in addition to the pandemic, an ‘infodemic’ is spreading: a distortion of reality based on fear, which in our global society leads to an explosion of commentary on falsified if not invented news,” Francis said. “Fake news has to be refuted, but individual persons must always be respected, for they believe it often without full awareness or responsibility,” he added. “[T]ruth is never merely a concept having to do with judgment about things; no, that is only a part of what truth is. Truth regards life as a whole”.

| 28/01/2022
| VATICAN
Editor's choices
 
In a week of clashes between Druze, Bedouins and government forces, over a thousand civilians and combatants were killed, including Christian families and the Druze evangelical pastor Khalid Mezheri. The Latin Church and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate ...
| 22/07/2025
| GATEWAY TO THE EAST
 
by Nirmala Carvalho
In the state that includes Mumbai, the state government is targeting people who allegedly hide their conversion to Christianity to avoid losing benefits reserved for disadvantaged groups. The state legislature is expected to vet a new anti-conversion ...
| 19/07/2025
| INDIA
 
by Dario Salvi
An attack this morning hit the Church of the Holy Family, leaving at least six people seriously injured and causing damage to the building. Among those hit was the parish priest, Fr Romanelli. The Patriarchal Vicar for Israel and Palestine: “They ...
| 17/07/2025
| ISRAEL - PALESTINE
 
A new report accuses Chinese state-owned companies of supporting the Burmese junta's arms production for over a decade, particularly at the DI 21 military plant, where aerial bombs used against the population are manufactured. This ongoing support ...
| 17/07/2025
| RED LANTERNS
 
by Vladimir Rozanskij
Cotton remains one of the country's main exports, but earnings are steadily declining. The problem stems from the large increase in cotton production in other countries, such as the United States and India, where stocks are at historic highs. And ...
| 16/07/2025
| TAJIKISTAN
 
by Dario Salvi
The founder of the Religious Freedom Data Center views settler attacks as a “disturbing development”. Israeli ministers and police legitimising it is worrying. A Judeo-centric ideology has “taken root”, but minority rights are ...
| 10/07/2025
| ISRAEL – PALESTINE
 
In the Upper House elections scheduled for 20 July, the ultra-nationalist party founded by Kamiya Sohei is trailing just behind the Liberal Democrats in the polls, who are at risk of losing their majority. Anti-globalists, opposed to LGBTQ+ rights and ...
| 10/07/2025
| JAPAN
 
According to anonymous sources, the dissident who publicly challenged "dictator Xi Jinping" in October 2022 and inspired the "blank paper" protest against the zero-COVID policy has been tried and convicted. Human rights groups are calling on Beijing ...
| 09/07/2025
| CHINA
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”