A US air raid against a detention centre last Sunday killed at least 68 people from Africa. Since mid-March, US and UK planes hit at least a thousand targets. Advocacy groups report at least 400 civilians killed. Pope Francis is among the few voices who spoke out against the tragedy of migrants in the region.
n Tajikistan, construction has just been completed on a special hangar for the luxurious presidential aircraft that Emomali Rakhmon purchased from Mexico, which could no longer afford the maintenance costs. This is the latest example of a widespread trend among heads of state throughout the region.
A 50-year-old Piedmontese, pastor of a community of just 1,400 Catholics in an immense land where the Gospel was proclaimed only 30 years ago, brings to the conclave the breath of the most extreme missionary frontiers of the Catholic Church. He is the face of a community in dialogue with Buddhist believers, with a strong educational and social vitality, in a country nestled (not only geographically) between China and Russia.
As a young priest, the Verbite was a missionary in rural Ghana. Archbishop of Tokyo since 2017, he was elected president of Caritas Internationalis by the assembly of delegates two years ago. At 66, he leads a Church that is coming to terms with the loneliness and contradictions of the great metropolises, stressing the dignity of every human life. During the synod a few months ago, he said, “even Europe today is becoming a periphery.”
Sources told AsiaNews that local priests were summoned yesterday to ratify the choice of Fr Wu Jianlin, vicar general. Another election was held in the Diocese of Xinxiang, in Henan, whose underground bishop has been arrested several times. During the sede vacante period, Beijing is reiterating the autonomy of the Church in China to test Francis’s successor over the agreement.
The 74-year-old bishop of Penang was born into an ethnic Indian family. He trained at the historic College of Martyrs whose legacy he feels. He leads a vibrant and multicultural Church with indigenous and migrant communities from different backgrounds. At the synod, he pointed to the horizon of a Church that truly “walks with the people”.
