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Indonesia to relax building rules for worship Places

The Indonesian government has decided to ease rules for building houses of worship, including churches, by initiating changes to a 17-year-old decree, considered a major barrier to such plans. Religion Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas told law-makers on June 5 that the Joint Ministerial Decree of 2006 will be revised, doing away with the need […]

Chinese Christians jailed for printing religious materials

A court in China’s Shandong province handed down jail terms to a pastor and a co-worker of an independent house church for alleged “illegal business operations.” Pastor Qin Sifeng and co-worker Su Minjun of Beijing Lampstand Church were sentenced to five and a half years, and three and half years respectively, ChinaAid reported on June […]

Corpus Christi procession in Valencia, Spain, continues to catechize

Year after year, the feast of Corpus Christi brings whole neighborhoods to the streets in Spain, with some enterprising families chaining lawn chairs to prominent viewing spots days in advance. This year was no different, with the procession lasting for hours and civic and religious leaders, as well as representatives of various religious groups, taking […]

Asian Church voices concern over shrinking democratic spaces

A weeklong conference of Asian Church leaders has ex-pressed concern over shrinking democratic spaces in several countries in the region. The June 5-10 conference at Marian Pilgrim Centre Bai Dau in the Vang Tau City of Vietnam regretted that the rulers in those countries have become totalitarian, violating their citizens’ basic rights and instilling fear […]

Conditions harden for Belarus Catholics

A Catholic parish priest accused of “offending state authorities” in Belarus said he understood the hardships facing prisoners of conscience after just four days in jail. “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone – not a single hour in such a place,” said Father Andrej Kulik, rector of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish […]

New discoveries of genocide victims Rwanda’s ‘sad reality,’ priest says

More than 1,000 corpses will be buried at the Mibilizi genocide memorial site in Rwanda on June 3. The bodies of 1,238 victims of the 1994 mass killings recently were exhumed from church-owned land, and according to a Catholic priest and diocesan official in Rwanda, the discovery of the cache of remains means the route […]

Nicaragua dictatorship confiscates assets of political prisoners it deported to U.S.

A Nicaraguan court on June 9 announced the “freezing and forfeiture” of all real estate and of all shares of commercial companies belonging to the 222 political prisoners who were deported to the U.S. in February. The ruling by Criminal Chamber 1 of the Court of Appeals based in Managua, dated May 19, points out […]

Religious tensions in Japan as Muslim population grows

Japan’s religious landscape is undergoing a transformative shift, which is all the more evident by looking at the growing number of mosques that have emerged in the country over the past two decades. The change can be attributed to a lesser degree to increasing intermarriage between Muslims and Japanese citizens (many Japanese converted to Islam […]