A Russian online platform is currently broadcasting a series of documentaries entitled ‘The Living Word’, dedicated to great figures of Orthodoxy who were killed in the years following the Bolshevik Revolution. These figures remind us that one can give one’s life for ideals that unite religious faith, evangelical charity and love for one’s homeland – not to destroy the enemy, but to build a new world.
The Pope presided over the traditional Good Friday service, personally carrying the crucifix through all 14 stations. At the end, he recited only the words of a prayer by St Francis, the 800th anniversary of whose death falls this year. The former Custos of the Holy Land, Father Patton, recalled in his meditations that “even those who start a war will have to answer for it before God”.
Christians are taking part in Holy Week rites torn between traditional fervour and the burden of an explosive and unpredictable regional context, feeling occupied from within by Hezbollah and bearing the already considerable human cost of the war with Israel. Churches are packed for Good Friday in areas spared from the bombardment. Divisions among Christian leaders weigh heavily.
About 174 million voters will cast their ballot in the coming weeks in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Pondicherry. The results will be announced together on 4 May. These elections are crucial for the national balance of power, as these areas tend to be less favourable to Modi’s ruling party. In Kerala Mamata Banerjee is seeking a fourth term, reaching out to secure the Christian vote.
In the Philippines, more than six million people joined the Alay Lakad, the nighttime pilgrimage in Antipolo, while in Quezon province, a group of farmers interrelated the stories of the Passion with their own struggle to defend their lands. In Arunachal Pradesh, young people are celebrating the Easter Triduum by praying for religious harmony in India. The World Council of Churches in South Korea called for conversion and shared a prayer dedicated to the painful division between North and South.
The thousands of people employed on large ships, mostly Filipinos, Indians, and Indonesians, are unable to disembark or be repatriated, while those who were set to leave have suddenly been left without work. Psychological pressure and uncertainty are growing among crews. While the human cost is ignored, business remains the priority, this according to Scalabrinian missionary Father Paulo Prigol who spoke to AsiaNews.
