Undaunted by the danger posed by extremists in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao, Franciscan missionaries hold Masses and other church activities in the mountains of Basilan province, home of the bandit Abu Sayyaf group.

Franciscan Father Elton Viagedor, pastor of San Roque parish in the town of Lantawan, said they want to show that the church is “centrifugal” in its missionary approach, that it can be “flexible in spreading the mission.”

“We hold Masses either in the streets or in backyards to show that the church should not wait for people to come to the parish chapel,” the priest told ucanews.com.

He said it is the Franciscan congregation’s “simple way of responding to the present day challenge of going out of the comforts of the parish or the convents to be with those on the peripheries.”

“It is on the peripheries that we are transformed,” said Father Viagedor.

“As Franciscans, I believe that we should be willing to go to the margins, even if they are considered risky and difficult,” said the priest.

“Such daring is not driven by arrogance but by the simple fact that we are dependent on God’s grace and by the desire to encounter the people on the peripheries,” added Father Viagedor.

The priest said the Masses he celebrates in the streets are not meant to attract Muslims to convert to Christianity, noting that people in the province maintain a healthy inter-religious and inter-cultural relationship.

The conflict displaced about 400,000 people.

Sinicization “is a trap,” a way to “intimidate the Catholic Church;” it has the purpose of “distorting the creed of all religious communities” in China. These are the thoughts of two Chinese Catholics, Peter of Hebei, and Paul of Shaanxi referring to the program wanted by Xi Jinping to assimilate religions to Chinese culture and society, a program that provides for submission to the Communist Party and verification of assimilation by the Patriotic Association (PA), the Party’s long arm over religious communities. The PA and the Council of Bishops have already prepared a five-year plan for the implementation of sinicization. By the end of August, every diocese in China will have to present its plan at a diocesan level.

There is no precise definition of the term “sinicization.” The interpretation depends exclusively on the Party. Hence, sinicization means only the absolute and total obedience to the Party’s wishes.

And since the Party is atheist, this campaign aims to distort the beliefs of all religious communities. These, in assimilating themselves to the will of the Party, will lose their values and become less credible, so the Party can eliminate all its rivals.

It is obvious that the Council of Chinese bishops and the Patriotic Association will have to follow the political line of the Party: this explains the five-year plan that was recently published.

Qianwang Catholic Church in China’s Shandong province has become the third church in Jinan Diocese to be demolished by local authorities this year.

Liangwang Catholic Church was bulldozed on July 17 following the demolition of Shilihe Catholic Church, but a Catholic source told ucanews. com that the latter church would be rebuilt in another place.

More than 170 officials demolished Qianwang Church in Huashan town of Jinan city’s Licheng district on Aug. 13, according to a source.

He said authorities “had no explanation or solution and then forcibly demolished it.” A Marian statue and a statue of Jesus were destroyed, while the church’s alms box disappeared.

The source accused officials of ignoring the law, regulations on religious beliefs and the basic demands of the faithful. Such a barbaric demolition of the church had seriously hurt the trust of the faithful in the local authority, he said.

The enactment of new legislation criminalizing religious conversion in Nepal has sparked a heightened sense of fear and insecurity among Christian minorities.

The Civil and Criminal Codes, which came into effect on Aug. 17 to replace the General Code that was in place for 165 years, comprise a set of laws guiding civil and legal proceedings including restrictions on religious conversion, in the Hindu-majority nation. One new law states that anybody who encourages or is involved in religious conversion using any means will be booked under a criminal offense and will face a jail term of five years and a fine of 50,000 Nepalese rupees (US$445). Any foreigner found guilty of encouraging or promoting religious conversions will be deported within a week.

Christian leaders believe the move is targeted at Christians, who have been accused of forceful proselytizing of Nepalis, particularly those from vulnerable and lower castes. They fear the law will be used as a tool to harass and persecute Christian minorities for practicing their religion.

“The Christian community is alarmed about this new law. This is like a saw that is always hanging on top of us and can be used any time against us,” said Father Silas Bogati, vicar general of the Apostolic Vicariate of Nepal.

It is a basic fundamental right of an individual to accept or practice any religion or any belief, he said. “With the new law implemented, we feel that our freedom of religion has been hampered and it looks like we will not be able to even practice our own religion in a fair manner,” Father Bogati added. The Federation of National Christian Nepal, believes the move is a regressive step that hurts the sentiments of Christian minorities who had earlier welcomed Nepal’s decision to adopt secularism.

The law goes against the principles of secularism, democracy and human rights and aims to restrict the freedom of religion of more than three million Christians who are associated with nearly 12,000 churches in Nepal, said federation chairman C.B. Gahatraj.