This morning Leo XIV received at the Apostolic Palace a group of Russian Catholics in Rome for their Jubilee pilgrimage. He invited them to light “the fire of Christian love" and warm the “most hardened hearts” in a world brutalised by war. With charity and hope, a "new world" can be built from the “ruins”. The icon of the Salus Populi Romani is "the sign of the Holy Year”.
After scaling NEOM and other infrastructure, Saudi authorities plan to develop Islam's holy city. The King Salman Gate project was unveiled this week, covering 12 million square metres and provide 300,000 jobs over 10 years. Commercial, cultural, and residential spaces are also planned. But there are also critics.
The South Korean government has banned travel to some Cambodian provinces following the killing of a young South Korean abducted and forced to work in an online scam centre. A South Korean delegation has asked Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet to repatriate its citizens still held in the compounds, while the US and the UK have imposed sanctions on Chen Zhi's Prince group, accused of links to criminal networks, which, despite Phnom Penh's statements, continue to thrive in Cambodia.
The northern Indian state has arbitrarily denied land rights granted under the Forest Rights Act of 2006. The legal process has reached a stalemate, but the case of the village of Kajaria has reignited the debate over the slow implementation of the regulations and the broken promises to indigenous peoples, for whom forests are not only a source of subsistence but also the basis of their identity.
Seven out of every 100 couples on the island are related by blood. The figure drops to 4% among Sinhalese and Muslims, but reaches almost 25% among Tamils. Among the most sensitive diseases is thalassaemia, present in 50% of children born to blood relatives among the Tamils. The defence of the land and ancestral traditions fuel marriages within the family.
During the canonisations on 19 October, Pope Leo XIV will proclaim the first saint of this Oceanic country: a lay catechist, husband and father, who died a martyr for defending Christian marriage. Vice-postulator Fr Ravaioli reflects on the relevance of this figure today: ‘He fought against corruption. He tells us what it really means to proclaim oneself a Christian.’
