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Bishops decry law enforcement agencies’ apathy, silence in Manipur

A top team of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India that visited the conflict-ridden areas of Manipur has criticized the prolonged silence and apathy of the law enforcement agencies in containing violence in the northeastern Indian state. “It is our earnest appeal that the governance system should uphold the secular fabric of our country, reinforce […]

Indian Prime Minister Modi Finally Comments on Manipur Violence, Church Says It Is ‘Too Late’

With India and observers elsewhere in the world stunned by a viral video of the naked parading and public rape of two Christian women in simmering Manipur state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had little option but to break his widely deplored silence on the bloodshed there. “The video showing atrocity against women in Manipur is […]

Estela Padilla: ‘My Experience with Filipino Basic Ecclesial Communities at the Synod’

According to Estela Padilla, one of the ten non-bishop members from Asia for the forth-coming Synod of Bishops this October, it will be an occasion for the church’s authentic renewal. She has been a consultant to the Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and the Executive Secretary of […]

Lay people await participation in Pakistan Church

Mushtaq Asad was among the first five Pakistani lay people sent for a two-year study program in Rome in the early 1980s to ensure lay participation. That was two decades after the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), which stressed the role of lay people in the Church’s mission. Only two of those five returned home. And […]

Pakistan Claims 400,000 Social Media Accounts Spread Blasphemy

We know Pakistan punishes blasphemy with the death penalty, but how many blasphemers are there in Pakistan? From July 13, we have an answer, thanks to a report by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony. It claims that 400,000 social media accounts spread “extremely blasphemous material against the most revered figures, including Allah Almighty […]

Seven-year-old girl raped because she is Christian

In early July, Javeria, a seven-year-old girl, was raped in Chichawatni, a rural subdistrict (Tehsil), in Sahiwal district, in what is the latest and most chilling example of violence against women. This problem is widespread in Pakistan, with tens of thousands of cases each year, affecting mainly girls and women from ethnic and religious minorities, […]

Card Sako forced to leave Baghdad and move to Erbil

The highest authority of the Chaldean Church in Iraq, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, has been forced to leave the patriarchal see in Baghdad and move to a monastery in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, via Istanbul. This is a direct consequence of the “deliberate and humiliating campaign” against the Chaldean patriarch by the Babylon Brigades, a pro-Iranian […]

Lebanese saint who unites Christians and Muslims

St. Charbel Makhlouf is known in Lebanon for the miraculous healings of those who visit his tomb to seek his intercession — both Christians and Muslims. “St. Charbel has no geographic or confessional limits. Nothing is impossible for [his intercession] and when people ask [for something], he answers,” Father Louis Matar, coordinator of the Shrine […]