At least 20 people were killed and dozens wounded on January 27 in two bomb blasts at a Catholic Cathedral in Jolo, an island in southern Philippines.

Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic militant group, and other armed fighters are active in the island.

Police said at least 77 people were wounded in Sunday’s incident.

The number of fatalities was revised after police said earlier that 27 people were killed.

The first bomb went off in or near the cathedral of Jolo, the capital of Sulu province, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack, security officials said.

The initial explosion scattered the wooden pews inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and blasted window glass panels, and the second bomb hurled human remains and debris across a town square fronting the church, witnesses said.

Pope Francis has denounced the bombing of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Jolo, Philippines. Two bombs blasted the cathedral during Sunday Mass, killing 22 people and wounding 111 more.

Entrusting the victims, who included five army soldiers, to Jesus and Mary, the Pope reiterated “my strongest condemnation for this episode of violence that once again strikes this Christian community.”

President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo condemned the “act of terrorism” and vowed that government forces will pursue the perpetrators of the attack.

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines will rise to the challenge and crush these godless criminals,” he said.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has restored the value and the civil effects of Christian marriage. The Court ordered the “National Database and Registration Authority” (NADRA) of Pakistan and the Punjab government to reactivate the official registration of marriages celebrated in churches by Christian citizens.

The decision was welcomed by Christians in Pakistan. “This marriage registration provision existed before 2013,” says to Fides Kashif Aslam, coordinator of the program of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP). And adds: “Local governments had suspended it, along with a package of other measures, but now the Supreme Court has restored it. The registration of Christian marriages will help to complete the data of marriages in Christian communities.”

The order of the Supreme Court is the result of the appeal presented by Pastor Shahid P. Meraj, dean of the Anglican Cathedral Church of the Resurrection in Lahore. “The lawsuit began in 2018, because the fact that marriages celebrated by Christians had no legal and civil value was considered serious,” Pastor Shahid Meraj told Fides.

Former governor of Jakarta, Chinese ethnic Christian Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, is free again after serving almost two years for blasphemy in the national police prison at Kelapa Dua, Depok regency (West Java) Waiting for him outside the prison walls this morning was his eldest son Nicholas Sean, while supporters and sympathizers welcomed the progressive politician’s invitation to keep a low profile.

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who in recent days has expressed a desire to no longer be called with the Chinese nickname that accompanied him throughout his political career, has received a reduced sentence of three months and 15 days. Commenting on his upcoming release, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo stated that “from now on, it will be up to him to reorganize his future life.” Widodo was a political ally of Purnama, his deputy during his tenure as governor of the capital that preceded the presidency of the Republic.

Maulana Muhammad Abdul Qadir Azad, who served the faithful as Grand Imam in the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore for about 30 years and died in January 2003, was considered “a great promoter of interreligious peace and harmony and above all of dialogue between Christians and Muslims. He was a great religious leader and a lover of peace. He was an ardent promoter of harmony between different Muslim communities and people of other religions”: says the Dominican, Fr James Channan, director of the “Peace Centre” in Lahore, preaching in the Badshahi Mosque, the “Royal Mosque” in Lahore.

On January 18, before the usual Friday Prayer, Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad, current Grand Imam of the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore and son of the late Abdul Qadir Azad, organized an interreligious conference to pay tribute to his father and invited Fr Channan to preach from the pulpit of the mosque, and addressed all the faithful Muslims present.

One in three Christians in Asia faces high levels of persecution after a “shocking increase” of religious-based threats and violence across the world, particularly in China and sub-Saharan Africa, a global advocacy group said.

Around half of China’s 100 million Christians encounters persecution, “the worst it’s been in more than a decade,” following “new laws seeking to control religious expression,” the Open Doors watchdog said.

Persecution worldwide increased for the sixth straight year, with a total of 245 million Christians — one out of nine worldwide — facing high levels in 2018, up from 215 million, or one in 12, the previous year.

“Worldwide, our data reveals that 13.9 per cent more Christians are experiencing high levels of persecution than last year. That’s 30 million more people,” Open Doors UK and Ireland CEO Henrietta Blyth said in a statement.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on January 29 upheld the acquittal of a Christian woman who spent years on death row after being convicted of blasphemy.

The apex court also dismissed a petition filed by Islamists who have called for her execution.

“On merit, this petition is dismissed,” Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa said in court, saying the petitioners, led by a village prayer leader, had failed to point out any mistake in the original judgement.

Asia Bibi, a farm worker, was convicted in 2010 of making derogatory remarks about Islam after neighbours working in the fields with her objected to her drinking water from their glass because she was not Muslim.

She has always maintained her innocence in a case that has polarized Pakistan.

The Supreme Court’s quash ing of her sentence last October led to violent protests by religious hardliners who support strong blasphemy laws, while more liberal sections of society urged her release.

Hardliners had petitioned to overturn this ruling.

Asia Bibi – also known as Asia Noreen – was unable to leave Pakistan while an appeal request was pending.

“She should now be free to reunite with her family and seek safety in a country of her choice,” Amnesty International said in a statement.