Rebel priests in Indonesia’s Ruteng Diocese have appealed to the Vatican to intervene and resolve a bitter dispute with their bishop, whom they accuse of misappro-priating more than US$100,000 in church funds.

Representatives of the priests, accompa-nied by a bishops’ conference official met Archbishop Antonio Guido Filipazzi, the outgoing apostolic nuncio in Indonesia on June 16 to call on the Vatican to help them achieve their demand that Bishop Hubertus Leteng heed their calls for a complete overhaul of how the diocese is run.

The move comes after dozens of priests in the diocese on Catholic-majority Flores Island quit their posts in protest against their bishop.

Father Alfonsius Segar, one of the priests who met the nuncio, told ucanews.com that Archbishop Filipazzi has promised to help resolve the dispute.

“He will immediately take this issue up with the Vatican,” Father Segar said.

Father Segar also said the nuncio will send someone to the diocese to appraise the situation. “We are looking forward to a swift Vatican decision on this,” Father Segar said.

A source close to Antonius Agus Sriyono, Indonesia’s Ambassador at the Vatican told ucanews.com that the Indonesian government was also raising the Ruteng dispute with the Vatican.

On June 12, 69 priests in Ruteng Diocese declared open revolt by quitting their posts as episcopal vicars and parish priests, and demanded Bishop Leteng completely change how the diocese is run.

Last year, Bishop Leteng was accused of secretly borrowing US$94,000 from the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference in Jakarta and US$30,000 from the diocese but failed to provide an accountability report. Accusing their bishop of embezzling funds and having an affair, 69 of the 167 priests in the Diocese of Ruteng, Indonesia, have resigned from their diocesan and parish posts.

The Vatican expressed “grave concern” today for a Chinese bishop who it says was “forcibly removed” from his office several weeks ago and whose whereabouts are unknown. The matter is the latest episode in a wider, decades old dispute between the Vatican and China’s communist authorities over papal authority to appoint bishops.

Shao was appointed by the Pope in September and posted to Wenzhou, an eastern city which has a large Christian community. A Vatican-affiliated missionary news service said Shao’s disappearance is believed to be part of an attempt to per-suade him to join the Communist-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association church. Chinese authorities don’t recog-nise Shao’s appointment by the Vatican. China has an estimated 12 million Catholics, many of whom worship in non-state sanctioned congre-gations that often overlap with the government-sanctioned church.

Buddhist, Christian and Muslim clergy are calling for the release of suspected Tamil separatists held for years under Sri Lanka’s controversial anti-terrorism laws.

The prisoners are believed to have been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act issued during Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war. The law gives the mili-tary sweeping powers to detain and arrest people deemed to be threats to national security.

Venerable Bellanwila Wima-larathana Thero said that there are 81 suspected Tamil rebels who have been detained for 22 years under the terrorism law. They were arrested on suspicion of having links with the Tamil Tiger rebel group during the war or soon after it ended in 2009. “Still the charges against them are not established,” he said at the Congress of Reli-gions at Maha Bodhi Society on June 21 in Colombo.

“If the state needs to rehabilitate them, please do it and release them,” said the Buddhist monk. Anglican Father Noel Fernando said the suspects were not yet indicted in a court of law. “It is a hu-manitarian issue and the state should take steps to produce them in courts,” he said.

Police have looked the other way as groups of youths have terrorized a Catholic community in northeast Vietnam.

Ucanews.com reported that, throughout June, gangs of youths — wearing red T-shirts with yellow stars and waving national flags — have attacked Catholics and their property in Song Ngoc Parish in Quynh Luu District of Nghe An province.

“We see that the attacks have been carried out in an orchestra-ted manner, and the police know well what is occurring, but are ignoring what is going on,” said 11 priests in a June 13 petition given to the Vietnamese govern-ment. The priests accused the government of “aiding and abetting those who intentionally violate laws, cause hatred and divide Catholics from others.”

The attacks have occurred at night, and at least two Catholics have been seriously injured, sources told ucanews.com.

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Two Chinese nuns have been on a hunger strike since June 12 because they say they have not been properly com-pensated for the disbanding of their religious congregation.

They are sisters Gao Wanjuan and Jiao Jialin of Our Lady of Good Counsel in southeast Jiangxi province who launched their hunger strike outside the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) in Beijing. They claimed that they failed to get help from various government departments since their congregation was disbanded in October 2014. The nuns accuse Bishop John Baptist Li Suguang of Jiangxi(Nanchang) — who disbanded their congregation — for not providing adequate compensation.

“We are determined to die for justice in the hunger strike,” Sister Jiao told ucanews.com.

Following the congregation’s disbandment, Bishop Li allowed its 23 nuns to decide their own future. In a 2014 statement, the bishop said the nuns could join “other religious congregations, live a secular life or negotiate with parish priests to serve in the diocese [as laywomen].”

Whatever the nuns decide to do with their lives is a personal matter and has nothing to do with the diocese, said the statement.

Bishop Li said there were numerous reasons for the congregation’s disbandment, among them continuous arguments among the nuns after the diocese assigned a nun from Beijing as their acting superior. The bishop’s decision was “cruel” as the nuns’ ages ranged from 32 to over 50, have been in the congregation for 12 to 17 years and they would be stigmatized by Catholics if they returned home, she said.

A mosque in Al Mushrif, a district in the capital Abu Dhabi, has been renamed as ‘Mariam, Umm Eisa’ — Arabic for ‘Mary, the mother of Jesus.’ The change on June 14 was ordered by Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces, to “consolidate bonds of humanity between followers of different religions.” Shaikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of State for Tolerance, thanked Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed for his “wise directives in carrying out this initiative that set a shining example, and a beautiful image of the tolerance and coexistence enjoyed by the UAE,” according to a statement carried by WAM.

Muslim community leaders in the Philippines have expressed their support for the beleagured Christian community in Marawi. The crisis there has entered its another weeks since 23 May when Maute terrorists occupied the city, torched the cathedral, burning down schools, and forcing the civilian population to flee. They kidnapped about 200 people, including Fr Teresito (Chito) Suganob and 15 parishioners.

With the proclamation of martial law and the massive intervention of the Philippine army to free the city, the terrorists are now confined in a small area and hide themselves in some underground tunnels.

In the last few hours, the army captured Cayamora Maute in Davao, father of the two brothers Abdullah and Omar Maute, founders of the terrorist group.

Although Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has officially said that “there will be no negotiations with the terrorists,” Fides reports that the arrest of Cayamora Maute could be useful for informal negotiations aimed at the release of hostages who are now being used as human shields.

The Bishop of Marawi, Edwin de la Pena said: “Fighting still continues in Marawi and we fear for the hostages. We have no news about their condition: They were kidnapped, they may need food, water and medicines, and they are surely exhausted. We pray for them.”

The Bishop said he was appalled at the release of a video on social media, showing young armed militants desecrating statues and sacred images and destroying the cathedral.

“It is an immoral act of blasphemy. Terrorists want to instill hatred in Christians and provoke a reaction. Our reaction will only be prayer, brotherhood and interreligious solidarity that many Muslim friends have shown us recently. They have also been helping and defending the Christians of Marawi, “ he said. “Our spirit is the evangelical spirit of love for the enemy,” Bishop Edwin said.

Several Muslim leaders have expressed their grave concern. Alim Abdulmuhmin Mujahid, vice president of the Ulama Council in Basilan condemned the profanation of the cathedral saying it was “non-Islamic.”

The Governor of the autonomous Region of Mindanao, Mujiv Hataman has invited all Muslims in Mindanao to “condemn the action of terrorists linked to the Islamic State” and asked Muslims and Christians “not to fall in Maute’s trap” that want to trigger social and religious conflict.

Mashal Khan, a student who was lynched for blasphemy, never uttered an offensive word towards the prophet, this according to the official joint report by Pakistani police and intelligence agencies.

The Supreme Court had ordered the probe to shed light on one of the most violent episodes in the history of modern Pakistan.

The report notes that the death of Mardan University student was the result of a plot orchestrated by faculty members and student rivals who wanted to punish him for daring to complain about widespread corruption.

Relieved by the conclusions, Mashal’s father, Muhammad Iqbal, said that the findings had vindicated his son. “This proves my son was not a blasphemer,” he said. On 13 April (Maundy Thursday), the 23-year-old student was stripped, beaten, and killed. After he died, a mob desecrated his body with kicks, punches and sticks. The killing was instigated by members of Khan’s own Pakhtun Students Federation, who felt threatened by his growing prominence as a critic of rising fees and alleged corruption at the university, as well as by the institution’s staff.

“Unfortunately, blasphemy charges have been used all too frequently to settle even smaller scores, [but] So great is the emotional wave around a blasphemy case that it often results in riots, making an honest inquiry next to impossible,” says an editorial in The Dawn, Pakistan’s largest English language daily newspaper.

A Pakistani Christian sewer-age cleaner has died after three doctors refused to treat him until his sludge-covered body had been washed. The physicians said their Ramadan fast would be invalid (“makruh”) because he was “un-clean” and belonged to a low caste. The word for low caste, “chuhra,” especially derogatory, is reserved for sanitary workers and often used in Pakistan synonymously for “Christian.” Irfan Masih died on June 1, in Umar Kot Civil Hospital, Sindh, 300 kilometers from Karachi. Umar Kot has about 75 Christian families; almost all of them work as sanitary workers, a job that many Muslims refuse to do.

Writer Ethan Casey notes: “Most Pakistani Christians today still do the same work as their untouchable ancestors: sweeping the streets and doing other menial jobs formerly deemed ritually or literally unclean by higher-caste.” Unmarried 35-year-old Irfan Masih, who lived with his family, reached his workplace at about 7 a.m. on June 1. Two Christian sanitary workers – Shaukat Masih and Yaqoob Masih – were ordered by their seniors, with Irfan, to unblock sewerage lines. They were not provided with any protective gear, his brother Parvaiz told World Watch Monitor.

Vietnamese bishops have told high ranking communist officials, they are critical of a new religion law that is to take effect next year while also finding fault with the government’s belligerence toward religions. In a formal statement, the bishops criticized the Law on Belief and Religion because it “continues to strengthen asking-and-granting mechanism.” The bishops’ statement said the law replaces words “asking permission” and “giving permission” with “registering, informing, proposing,” which still request “religions to inform government authorities about their activities that authorities may or may not approve.”

“This mechanism shows that religious freedom is really not considered a human right but a grace that needs permission (from the government),” said the statement signed by Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh, head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam and Bishop Peter Nguyen Van Kham, its secretary general. “It is the mechanism itself to legalize the government’s intervention in religions’ internal issues and its tight control over religious activities,” they said. The Catholic Church serves 7 million Catholics in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government currently recognizes 39 religious organizations from 13 religions, with 24 million followers.