Asia's oldest cardinal yesterday celebrated the anniversary of his episcopal ordination at the Baan Phu Wan pastoral centre on 3 June 1973. At the age of 94, he looks back at his life and service to the Church in the Thai capital in a long interview. He is hopeful about the country’s future. “While we may profess different religions, let us recognise ourselves as brothers and sisters in the same society.”
On Pentecost Sunday a reflection posted on the Missions Etrangeres de Paris website by Fr. Claude Louis Tisserand, who has been a missionary among Taiwan's aboriginal communities for more than 45 years. The dilemma between local cultures to be preserved and the need of parents and the Church itself to educate them to speak and profess their faith in Mandarin, the language of the cities.
Father Fabio Favata is a PIME missionary and trained psychologist, whose doctoral thesis focuses on how seminaries in mainland China train candidates to the priesthood. Despite declining vocations and major difficulties, building a future is still possible.
Elected by the General Assembly of the confederation of charitable bodies of the Catholic Churches worldwide. His first words, "On the front lines to welcome, accompany, serve and defend the poor and vulnerable." Bangladeshi layman Benedict Alo D'Rozario confirmed as president of Caritas Asia.
Drug production and consumption are the hidden facets of the crisis tearing Myanmar apart. A rehab centre in the capital of Kachin State highlights the cooperation between the local diocese and the Irish missionaries of St Columba. The stories of those who overcame their addiction are a source of hope.
Archbishop Joseph Vu Van Thien presided over the rite for some young men on their way to the priesthood on the eve of today's World Vocations Day. Last Sunday, the Hanoi Catholic Church itself had celebrated its Youth Day by returning to gather 5,000 young people for the first time since Covid.
Scalabrini Migration Center in Manila undertakes research on parents and children divided by migration in the Philippines and Indonesia. The goal is to offer material for reflection to the authorities, civil society groups and Church bodies pastorally involved in an area that affects millions of children.
While in Rome a group of experts prepares the Instrumentum Laboris of the Synod from the continental syntheses, in India the parish of Uttan held the gathering of its network of communities, an experience that dates back to the 1980s in the archdiocese of Mumbai. Fr. Godfrey Malu: "Listening to everyone is our style."
Archbishop from 1968 to 1998, a "friend of the poor and the marginalized," he was a key figure in the growth of the Korean Church and the defense of human rights. With him to the altars were also the first Bishop Bruguiere and Fr. Bang, who by starting the first local religious congregations gave a strong impetus to inculturation.
In the Jesuit magazine, "La Civiltà Cattolica," Fr. Federico Lombardi retraces a little-known aspect of the early Jesuits' mission in China: the baptisms and hidden apostolate of women in a society where social control over them was tight. And of one of them - Candida, granddaughter of Xu Guangqi - he recounts her apostolate and reputation for holiness.
From Korea to Kazakhstan, from the victims of Typhoon Yolanda to the Rohingya, from Mother Teresa to Matteo Ricci, Pope Francis has paid constant attention to Asia over the past ten years. On the tenth anniversary of his election we present ten excerpts from addresses, homilies and interviews in which the pontiff speaks directly to the peoples of the continent.
Updated data from the Church's Statistical Yearbook published by the Vatican. Asian Catholics grew by 0.99% in the last year. More than 175,000 Asian nuns, now close to 30 percent of the total in the world. The decline in seminarians continues
For 13 years a lay Franciscan, together with some other young people and adults, has been goes around with a cart in the big city’s poorest areas to bring the light of faith. “When I was a child, I was like them, broken family, experienced being a drug addict, but God changed me through the help of a catechist," he said. They carry with them a Marian image that they have called Our Lady of the Peripheries.
An exhibition in India on the Croatian Jesuit who died in 1988 after living for 50 years among the poor in West Bengal and whose cause for beatification is underway. Figure associated with Mother Teresa for his commitment to the least, the little ones and widows.
The Federation of Catholic Bishops' Conferences of Oceania (FCBCO) this week held its assembly in Fiji, which was also the continental stage of reflection towards the Synod. Communities that deal daily with the threats of climate change call for ecological conversion as an urgent missionary priority, not only for local Churches, but also for the whole Church.
The challenges facing India today but also concrete steps to accompany in faith, in the message released by the Conference of Latin Rite Bishops at the end of their Plenary Assembly held in Bangalore. "Based on the common faith of all Christians, let us avoid all fundamentalism and tell together the story of love, justice and human fraternity."
On the 150th anniversary of the birth of the patron saint of missions, an exhibition in Paris tells the story of a “woman intellectual, seeker of meaning” with a section dedicated to her relations with the missionaries of the MÉP and the spread of her spirituality in Asia.
He fled Pyongyang to South Korea at the time of the war and encountered Christianity as an old man through his daughter. At age 90, he began inking verses on traditional Korean paper and has made 700 posters of this artistic expression. He speaks to the local Catholic weekly magazine of his story of feeling God's word in his fingers.
The apostolic administrator of Harbin speaks to the faithful. Physical health is serving others for God’s love. The epidemic makes us recognise what truth, goodness and beauty really are. After this trial, a religious wave will inevitably follow, and those who truly fear God will be the most blessed.
The pope has approved the election of two new archbishops designated by the Sindo of the Patriarchate of Antioch of the Syrians: Fr. Jacques Mourad in 2015 in Syria was in the hands of jihadists for five months; in Iraq Fr. Qusay Mubarak Abdullah Hano was born and raised in the Nineveh Plain and was an exile among exiles in Erbil. The challenges of reconstruction.
Christmas in Ulan Bator, described by Card. Giorgio Marengo - chosen by Pope Francis in the last consistory. The prelate leads a Church that was born just 30 years ago in the steppe and counts a total of 1,400 faithful. "The coal scandal has exasperated people at an already difficult time. Christmas wish from Mongolia: to discover that this Child is born to take ever deeper roots among us as well."
35 year old Fr. Dominic Fung King-ho, will minister in St. Alfred parish. The new priest's homage to Cardinal Zen "who showed me how to love the least". The OMI have been present in the former British colony since 1966 where they are active in educational institutions and in serving the poor. Since 2001 they have also had some form of presence in mainland China.
The Soeurs de Notre Dame celebrated the first 50 years of their orphanage in Central Java province. “We are here and serve the most unfortunate children thanks to the generosity of so many people in this city,” says the Superior for Indonesia. God gave the nuns “the passion to love these unfortunate children and the patience to always listen to them."
Forced to flee Pakistan in 1986, for 15 years bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir Ali chose Catholicism last year. He tells AsiaNews, "The persecuted will renew our Churches. The Synod? We must be on guard against outside pressure groups and listen to yesterday's believers as well."
As politics once again leaves a power vacuum, the Lebanese people are gripped by an unprecedented economic crisis. The Maronite bishop of Batroun points the finger at politicians and corruption. Catholic schools, however, have seen an increase in enrollment. "When the time for change comes, we want to be ready," he tells AsiaNews.
The network brings together various experiences in order to raise awareness that the two continents face the same environmental challenges together. Its message to the COP27 that opens today in Sharm el Sheik is to heed “small local communities” since “negotiations between governments” have failed.
Msgr. Peter Chung Soon-taick wants to bring World Youth Day to Asia: "It would be an extraordinary opportunity to revive youth ministry in a country struggling with a demographic winter and an education system dominated by competitiveness." An announcement that in these hours is intertwined with the dramatic news about the hundreds killed and injured in the stampede for the Hallowen festivities in the Itaewon district.
Next Sunday, the Church around the world celebrates the day that focuses on the proclamation of the Gospel to those who have not yet known Jesus. The director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in India offers his reflection on what missionary conversion means today amid the wounds of the Church’s scandals and the hostility of fundamentalists.
After the opening day at the meeting promoted in Bangkok by the Federation of Bishops' Conferences, the Church of each country presents the joys and challenges of its experience. Card. Gracias: "The experience of Latin America with the Aparecida document a model for renewing and revitalising our pastoral experience".
Located in a district that covers Bangkok’s port, Klong Toey is home to 100,000 people, many of them internal migrants. Here, the Sisters recently began providing meals to people further impoverished by the pandemic. With their school “only a few blocks away from the biggest slum,” the Sisters heeded Pope Francis’s call to “serve the poor at the borders of our society”.
