The government of Pakistan will accord a state funeral to Sister Ruth Katharina Martha Pfau, a German-born member of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary who devoted her life to eradicating leprosy in Pakistan. Sister Ruth, dubbed the Mother Teresa of Pakistan, died on 10 August in Karachi. She was 87.

“Sister Ruth was a model of total dedication. She inspired and mobilised all sections of society to join the fight against leprosy, irrespective of creed or ethnic identity,” Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi, president of Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, told Catholic News Service on 11 August. “We are happy that the government is according her a state funeral on 19 August,” the archbishop said, noting it would be at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Karachi.

Pope Francis will focus on trying to improve the troubles of about a million ethnic Muslim Rohingyas when he visits Myanmar, in the first ever papal visit to the country.

The visit is due to take place in the last week of November after the Pope was personally invited by President Htin Kyaw. News of his visit has leaked out of the Vatican but is not expected to be officially announced until next month.

The visit has already drawn the ire of hard-line Buddhist groups who have fanned sectarian violence and protest, especially against the Rohingya and other Muslims, over the past five years.

“No, no, don’t come,” “don’t visit if you come to Myanmar for Bengalis,” and “we oppose the visit if he used the word Rohingya,” several Buddhists posted on their Facebook pages.

Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam of Banmaw in Kachin State said a visit by Pope Francis to Myanmar is most likely, although he said he had not officially been informed.

“The Catholic bishops invited Pope Francis before the 500th anniversary of Catholicism in Myanmar in late 2014,” Bishop Gam told ucanews.com.

“Some improvements have occurred such as diplomatic relations between Myanmar and Vatican plus the appointment of an apostolic nuncio,” he said.

The Pope’s relatively last minute program change will see the leader of the world’s 1 billion Catholics cancel a planned trip to India after prevarication by that nation’s strongly pro-Hindu government. The proposed visit to Myanmar will precede the Pope visiting neighboring Bangladesh.

Senior Catholic sources told ucanews.com that Pope Francis will arrive in Myanmar on November 27 for four nights.

There are about 700,000 Catholics in Myanmar, served by 16 bishops, more than 700 priests and 2,200 religious.

More than 170,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia — many on risky boats — in the last five years according to the United Nations.

While Pope Francis will not visit Rakhine State, he will fly over it on the way to Bangladesh, church sources said, and probably use that time to make some sort of statement. It’s a tactic the Argentine pontiff, the first ever from outside Europe has used before.

Sister Mary Vu Thi Ngoc, head of the climate change group that was established in 2010, visits a farm in Huong Thuy District on July 20. (ucanews.com photo)

Seven years ago, Truong Thi Hat cultivated cassava on a 3,000 square-meter farm that yielded poor harvests due to drought, floods, and termites at Quang Tho village in central Vietnam. She also had to trade in second-hand clothes to earn extra money while her husband worked at construction sites.

Hat’s seven-member family lived in a 12-square-meter ramshackle house, was often short of food and owed six million dong (US$265) to a bank. “At that time we did not know what to do to improve our lives,” Hat said.

Then came a big change in fortunes. The family, in despe-ration, attended a workshop on selecting crops to cope better with climate change.

The workshop was conducted by the Catholic Group for Climate Change Prevention run by sisters in Hue city. Hat, a Buddhist, said nuns offered her 3 million dong to farm various vegetables and to raise poultry and pigs.

She was taught how to make natural fertilizers from dry leaves and straw as well as from manure of poultry and pigs. Now she daily sells carrots, cabbage, okra, cauliflower, green beans and other vegetables to shops in Hue City. She also raises 100 chickens and a dozen pigs.

Promotion of inter-religious dialogue in Indonesia’s multi-religious cultural context is a top priority, says an Indian nun working in the Bali Island of the South East Asian nation.

“It is Catholic Church’s calling that we make efforts to foster and strengthen the culture of inter-faith interaction on a daily basis with people of other religions with a spirit of openness, so that our world would be a better place to live in peace and harmony,” Sister Thomas Kadalikattil told Matters India.

Sister Kadalikattil, a native from Calicut in the southern Indian state of Kerala, is a member of the Order of St. Brigita, a Sweden-origin congregation. At present she is working in Denpasar diocese of Bali, the only Hindu majority island and the most important tourist destination in Indonesia. Bali is a part of the Minor Sunda Islands and is separated from the island of Java by the Bali Strait.

“We avail ourselves to maintain good rapport with people of other faiths as a joyful encounter of life. We have good cooperation with our Hindu and Muslim brothers around. We make it a point that our relation with them is a top priority,” Sister Kadalikattil said.

The Holy See has appointed an apostolic visitator to look into claims by Indonesian rebel priests that their bishop kept a mistress and misappropriated church funds.

Holy Cross Bishop Antonius Subianto Bunjamin of Bandung was assigned to investigate and will visit Ruteng Diocese on Flores Island next week.

Bishop Bunjamin, who is also general secretary of the Indo-nesian bishops’ conference, told ucanews.com on Aug. 8 that the Vatican had asked him to verify whether accusations against Bishop Hubertus Leteng of Ruteng that he misused money and had an alleged affair with a woman were true.

Bishop Bunjamin’s appoint-ment came soon after it was announced on social media that Catholics from Ruteng Diocese living in Jakarta would gather at the Apostolic Nunciature for a vigil calling for a speedy reso-lution to the row.

Bishop Bunjamin said the gathering would “worsen the situation.”

“The Vatican through Propa-ganda Fidei [the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples] has taken serious action,” he said.

Catholics in a northern diocese of Vietnam were shocked to see a fire destroying one of the oldest churches in the country.

In the early hours of Aug. 6, firefighters failed to put out the fire, which devastated the wooden interior and the tiled roof of the Trung Lao Church, leaving only the walls intact. Nobody was injured.

The church, designated as Mary Mother of God in Bui Chu Diocese, is based at Trung Dong Commune in Nam Dinh Province.