Asian

Pope addresses Humanistic Buddhists on interreligious encounter, education

Pope Francis addressed a delegation of the United Associ-ation of Humanistic Buddhism from Taiwan during their visit to the Vatican on an interreligious “educational pilgrimage.” Pope Francis on March 16 stressed the importance of a culture of encounter, especially in a time marked by “a continued acceleration of changes affecting humanity and the planet.” The […]

Marriage hits record low amid S. Korea’s population decline

Less than 200,000 marriages were registered in South Korea in 2022, the lowest since 1970 when the country began recording demographic data, says the government. The country recorded 191,690 marriages in 2022, down by 0.4 percent from 192,507 marriages in 2021, the Korea Herald reported on March 16 referring to data from the Korea Statistical […]

Myanmar Church speaks out against rare earth mining

Church leaders in Myanmar are up in arms against unregulated mining for rare earth elements — widely used in the production of high-tech devices like smartphones, computers, electric vehicles and solar cells — in the conflict-torn Southeast Asian nation’s Kachin state. Mining for rare earth has increased sharply in northern mineral-rich Kachin state, bordering China’s […]

HK bishop to visit Beijing seeking exchanges, interaction

Hong Kong’s Catholic bishop is scheduled to visit Beijing next month at the invitation of the archbishop based in the Chinese capital to promote exchanges and interactions between Catholics in the two regions of China, an official statement said. Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan of Hong Kong accepted the invitation from Archbishop Joseph Li Shan of […]

Korean Catholics seek more counselling to curb suicides

Experts and Catholic groups in South Korea have called for more psychotherapy centres and counsellors and urged the Church to promote counselling as part of pastoral care amid a rise in suicide rates. “[Pastoral] counselling should be added to sacramental pastoral care,” said Father Matthew Hong Sung-nam, director of the Catholic Psycho-Spiritual Counselling Centre of […]

Catholicism ‘most trusted religion’ in South Korea

The Catholic Church in South Korea is the most trusted religious group on the peninsula, according to a recent survey. Among those surveyed, 21.4 % of respondents revealed that they had more trust in Catholicism in comparison to other religions in the country. The “2023 Korean Church Social Trust Survey” was conducted by G&Com Research […]

Ecclesial assembly showed great promise for Asian churches

The Second Vatican Council’s document Lumen Gentium (light of the nations) clearly taught that the Church consists of all the baptized, not just the clergy. The return to this conciliar concept surely is a powerful antidote to the recent discoveries of clerical domination and abuse in almost all spheres of ecclesial life. In fact, the unprecedented […]

Indonesian minister against closing church under harsh fiat

Indonesia’s minister of religious affairs has joined Church groups in condemning the disruption of Christian worship in Lampung province on Sumatra Island by citing a controversial government decree. A local mob on Feb. 19 forcibly stopped congregational worship at the David Tabernacle Christian Church in Rajabasa saying the place of worship did not meet the criteria prescribed under […]

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Pope: Red Cross’ humanitarian work shows that fraternity is possible

New Vatican document lists ‘grave violations’ of human dignity