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Protest in India draws 50,000 Catholics over liturgy dispute, Kariyil resignation

More than 50,000 Indian Syro-Malabar Catholics attended a protest in the southwestern city of Kochi on Sunday, demonstrating against changes that would have priests face east during parts of local Syro-Malabar Eucharistic liturgies, and opposing the recent resignation of Archbishop Antony Kariyil. Protest Aug. 7 outside Kaloor Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium. The nearly two-hour protest at […]

Misery and disease conquer Afghanistan

The heaving wards of a ramshackle clinic in southern Afghanistan are just one sign of the catastrophic humanitarian crisis that has gripped the war-ravaged country since the Taliban returned to power a year ago. Last month, the Musa Qala District Hospital in Helmand province was forced to shut its doors to all except those suffering […]

Covid, poverty force secret burials in North Korea

Extreme poverty intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic is forcing people in remote areas of communist North Korea to bury dead loved ones secretly in unmarked graves in forests at night to avoid high funeral costs, reports say. North Korea recorded “zero” new infections over the previous 24 hours and the death toll remained at 74, the […]

Singapore should ban picking genetically best embryos

Genetic testing has recently attracted much interest in Singapore, with the Ministry of Health (MOH) issuing a public warning on the risks of consumer genetic testing, as well as announcing subsidies on IVF (in vitro fertilization) embryo genetic testing for some patients at risk of transmitting heritable genetic defects to their offspring. In May 2021, the ministry […]

Quo vadis? Pope revitalizes ancient theologian’s rules as a timely guide

When Pope Francis gave his first full-length interview after his election in 2013, he was asked about the importance of the church providing solid points of reference in a rapidly changing world. The new Pope pulled out his thumb-worn breviary and read out a Latin quote from a fifth-century French monk. Highlighting the words of […]

No one’s responsible for killing 16,000 Nepalese people

It still remains a Himalayan task for Nepal to achieve the transitional justice and reconciliation process to restore the social order that was ruptured because of mass atrocities during the protracted civil war from 1996 to 2006. Sixteen years after the civil war left about 16,000 dead and 15,000 reported missing, repairing society after massive […]

Young Sudanese woman to be stoned to death

A court in Sudan has sentenced a 20-year-old woman to be stoned to death for alleged adultery. The judgment comes as violence toward girls and women soars in the wake of last year’s military coup. Civil society and human rights groups in Sudan and beyond have called for the abolition of the obligatory sentence of […]

Nondenominational Churches Are Adding Millions of Members. Where Are They Coming From?

Over the last decade Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and every other Protestant family has declined except for those who say they are nondenominational. The 2020 US Religion Census, due out later this year, tallied 4,000 more nondenominational churches than in 2010, and nondenominational church attendance rose by 6.5 million during that time. At the same […]