Sri Lanka is awaiting cabinet approval of a proposal to make Sunday school education compulsory for students aged 6-19 of all religions after the Christian Affairs Ministry sought feedback from Catholic priests about the idea earlier.

Father Piyal Janaka Fernando, institute director of the National Catechetical, Educational and Biblical Centre, forwarded their feedback to the government. Officials reportedly approached the priests based on their experience but plan to make Sunday lessons mandatory for Buddhists, Catholics, Hindus and students of other faiths, too. The issue was proposed in 2017 by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and chief Buddhist monks in the wake of a series of demonstrations against extra-curricular school-related teaching on Sundays.

Cardinal Ranjith even wrote to Sri Lanka’s president urging that tutorial classes be banned on Sundays from 6am to 2pm so they do not interfere with religious instruction.

Many private tutors work at weekends focusing on secular studies as this can result in a lucrative side income given the intensifying competition for the national school qualifying exams each year.

The Catholic Church has 1,155 Sunday schools, over 13,000 teachers and nearly 202,000 students in 12 dioceses across the country. A cabinet paper will be submitted at an as-yet-undecided date to the ministers in charge of all religions to implement a six-day study week with a focus on religious teaching on Sundays, said Buddhist Affairs Minister Gamini Jayawickrema Perera. He made the remarks while addressing a meeting in the North Western Provincial capital of Kurunegala on March 29. The move is aimed at installing more discipline in young people, he added. When Cardinal Ranjith called for the ban on tutorial classes, the argument he shared with other religious leaders was that these were detrimental to a child’s spiritual education as they preclude enrolment at Sunday school.

Four members of a Catholic family were killed in a militant attack in southern Pakistan a day after the minority community celebrated Easter.

Ucanews.com reported the deadly gun attack took place April 2 in Quetta, the capital of restive Balochistan province. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, in a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency. “Four Christian relatives were going to a nearby market on an auto-rickshaw when two unknown gunmen on a motorbike opened fire on them,” police officer Moazzam Jah Ansari told ucanews.com. “It was a targeted attack and an act of terrorism.” Police said the casings of 9 mm bullets were recovered from the crime scene.

Pervaiz Masih, Tariq Masih, Imran Masih and Firdous Bibi died in the attack, and a 10-year-old girl was injured. A neighbor, Aftab, told that Pervaiz, a rickshaw driver, was taking his relatives to an ice cream shop when they were targeted just outside their home. “Pervaiz Masih had been living in Quetta for 10 years. His relatives came from Lahore and Dubai for the first time to celebrate Easter with him on March 29,” Aftab said.

Pope Francis has sent a message of healing and reconci- liation to Koreans commemora- ting the 70th anniversary of the Jeju Uprising and subsequent massacres which resulted in the deaths of more than 10,000 civilians.

“[Pope Francis] hopes that this occasion will foster healing and reconciliation,” wrote Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, in a letter made public by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK). “Entrusting the beloved Korean people to the intercession of Mary, Queen of Peace, I assure all present of my prayers, that they may persevere in hope,” said the letter.

The April 3 uprising by communists on the southern island of Jeju occurred after the division of the Korean Peninsula. It erupted in 1948 and escalated with atrocities being committed, pre- dominantly by the security forces. It lasted from 1948-1954 and was part of Korea’s ideological division following liberation from Japanese colonial rule.

On Holy Saturday, China’s communist government, deep in talks with the Vatican on a deal to appoint bishops, issued a ban on internet sales of the Bible. Four days later, it issued its first white paper on religious freedom in 21 years, only a week after hauling Bishop Vincent Guo Xijin of Mindong away from his diocese for a few days during Holy Week.

A notice issued on Twitter like Chinese site Weibo banned online bookstores, such as Tabao and Dangdang, China’s equivalents of Amazon, from selling Bibles.

People searching for Bibles on these sites were greeted with the message: “Sorry! No products in this category available.”

One observer noted that there is a long-standing rule that the Bible cannot be sold publicly or on the internet in China but that oversight of this rule has been allowed to slide over the years.

“It can only be sold in churches that the government permits — it looks like the government has started to take the matter seriously,” the observer noted.

William Nee, a researcher for Amnesty International, told that the Chinese government should immediately reverse its ban on the sale of Bibles and ensure that all Christians and people of other religions can exercise their faith without government interference or intimidation.