Torrential rains that have been continuing unabated for days yesterday resulted in deaths and missing persons. Extensive destruction, schools closed. Rainfall of up to 150 mm is expected, with the Disaster Management Centre urging people in the valleys to move to higher ground. The anger of the inhabitants of Maikkulama in Chilaw: ‘Floods two or three times a year. No one pays attention to our situation’.
Work on the mega-project has resumed after a 10-year stalemate. A delegation from Beijing visited the country in recent days. A facility competing with the route planned by the Emirates and Turkey. The unresolved knot of maritime disputes with Iraq. At the weekend the Emir signed the appointment of Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah as Crown Prince.
During his visit to Tashkent Putin called Uzbekistan ‘the largest country in Central Asia’, despite Kazakhstan being six times larger. And in Astana there are those who cry provocation. In the background is the ‘cooling’ of relations with Moscow in a strategic area for trade routes between China and Europe.
A community in Jiangxi wanted images of the Irish priests who served it between the 1920s and 1950s to appear on the stained glass windows in the renovation of its parish restored after long being a kindergarten. Including a martyr killed by Communist militias, whose grave is still a place revered by local Catholics.
Fresh Angelus appeal to rulers, for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel and Myanmar. Dramatic humanitarian crisis in Sudan also recalled. On the Solemnity of Corpus Christi: Christians called to be "Eucharistic," to "make their lives a gift for others."
The event was held at the end of last month in the Indonesian capital. The participants were taught how to use the material of photos and stories collected to reach a wider audience with the Gospel.
