Asian

Rare bail is granted to Pakistani Christian blasphemy duo

A rights group has hailed a Pakistani court’s granting of bail to a Christian couple accused of blasphemy for allegedly defiling the Quran and called for changes to the Muslim-majority nation’s blasphemy laws. In a press statement on Oct. 19, Nasir Saeed, director of the UK-based Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) called […]

Gaza, Mother Teresa’s nuns under bombardment: ‘Where will these people go?

“In our convent we also felt the effects of the explosion at the al Ahli hospital, we are close to the affected area. The people we host are afraid that it could happen to us too,” recount the Missionaries of Charity, the nuns of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, present in Gaza for 50 years. They share their plight with AsiaNews through […]

Pakistani Senate body seeks end of ‘unjust’ blasphemy cases

A parliamentary body in Pakistan has sought clarifications on cases under the country’s blasphemy laws in its attempts to end ‘unjust’ detentions and to develop standard procedures to address the suffering of religious minorities. A total of 179 Pakistani citizens are currently in detention, awaiting trial for blasphemy, according to the Standing Committee on Human Rights of […]

What name for Jesus in the Indonesian language?

The Indonesian government will no longer use, in Bahasa, Indonesia’s national language, the term “Isa Al-Masih,” a word of Arabic origin, to refer to Jesus Christ and Christian holidays. An end will thus be put to the decades-long practice of using the term routinely used by believers of the Islamic religion, who draw from the […]

Two Asians speak at the Synod, giving voice to basic communities and those who are silent

Asia’s sufferings but also its gifts echoed yesterday at the Synod Assembly in the Vatican through the words of Vanessa Cheng, a lay woman from Hong Kong and a member of the Focolare movement, and Fr Clarence Devadass, a priest from Malaysia, during the public session that opened the days dedicated to the examination of […]

Lawyers, civil society support judge who fled Sri Lanka

Lawyers have decided to boycott court proceedings as protesters took to the streets in support of a judge who fled Sri Lanka after an order on a disputed religious site. Rallies have been taking place in Northern and Eastern provinces almost all days this week, demanding independence of the judiciary after district judge T Saravanarajah […]

Killed and kidnapped in a war not their own: dozens of Thais and Nepalese among Hamas victims

Victims of a conflict that is not theirs. There are also many Asian families among those mourning the dead of the Hamas incursion into the kibbutzim around Gaza or anxious about the kidnapping of loved ones. It is no coincidence: the agricultural settlements of southern Israel are one of the areas where the work of […]

13 Card Francis: inculturation and universality, the challenges for the Church in Malaysia

Bishop Sebastian Fran-cis of Penang (Malaysia) is among the 21 new cardi-nals created by the pontiff on 30 September during a ceremony held in St Peter’s Square. Speaking to AsiaNews, he said, “Pope Francis told me to concentrate and focus my mission on the inculturation of the faith” in his country, promoting the path of evange-lisation in the […]

Eviction-facing Indian Catholics to fight Muslim charity’s claims

Goans oppose tourism project near 16th century basilica