Yet another attempt at forced conversion has occurred in Pa-kistan against a 13-year-old Chri-stian boy, forced to ingest a toxic substance after refusing to em-brace Islam.
The episode occurred in the city of Lahore on April 13: Saim had left home to go get a haircut, but was stopped by a Muslim se-curity guard who noticed that the boy had a cross around his neck. The guard, named Qadar Khan, snatched the necklace and forced Saim to recite an Islamic prayer, but the boy refused, saying he was Christian. The man then forced Saim to ingest a toxic substance in an attempt to poison him.
It was the young man’s parents who found their son’s body unconscious after several hours that Saim was missing from home. The father, Liyaqat Randhava, went to the police but said he had received unfair treatment.
The officers registered the complaint only after several in-sistences and a copy of the docu-ment was not released to Saim’s family, he said. Furthermore, se-veral parts of the story were not included in the complaint.
(also called first information report or FIR).
Joseph Johnson, president of Voice for Justice, expressed deep concern about the growing incidents of forced religious conversions in Pakistan and condemned what happened to Saim, adding that the police were showing extreme negligence in the case. “By failing to include crucial details in the FIR, the police subjected Saim and his family to further abuse,” Johnson said, calling for government intervention in an investigation.

More than 30 church workers from various bishops’ conferences in Asia on April 15 ended a three-day workshop on building climate-resilient communities.
The workshop, organized by the Office of Human Development – Climate Change Desk (OHD-CCD) of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), was hosted by Caritas Philippines in Tagaytay City, the Philippines. Participants engaged in thorough discussions on prevailing climate trends and the sustainability issues facing the region. They also shared best practices and action plans in battling the impacts of the climate crisis.
Bishop Allwyn D’Silva of Bombay, chairperson of the OHD-CCD, said the Catholic Church must get “more involved” in various environmental concerns because “Asia is a home to many of the countries that are vulner-able to climate change.” The prelate challenged churches in Asia to “build up a network” of advocates and “like-minded act-ors” to spearhead climate actions, all dedicated to fostering climate-resilient communities.
During the workshop, Dr. Benedict Alo D’Rozario, president of Caritas Asia, discussed how the Catholic Church’s social action and humanitarian arms are trying to collectively defend and empower communities against the impacts of the ecological crisis.

Pope Francis will undertake a long trip to Asia and Oceania at the end of the summer. The director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, issued an official statement to that effect, indicating dates and locations.
“Accepting the invitation of the respective Heads of State and Church Authorities,” reads the press release signed by the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, “Pope Francis will undertake an Apostolic Journey to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore from 2 to 13 September. He will visit Jakarta from 3 to 6 September, Port Moresby and Vanimo from 6 to 9 September, Dili from 9 to 11 September and Singapore from 11 to 13 September.”
As is customary, the detailed schedule of each stop will be published in due course. Despite the pope’s recent health issues, this long and demanding 12-day journey confirms once again Pope Francis’s great consideration for Asia.
The pontiff had been scheduled to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste in 2020, but was forced to cancel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, Singapore was added. Like Mongolia last year, the great crossroads of Southeast Asia is another privileged place to speak and reach out to the Chinese and the Sinic world, given that three quarters of the city-state’s population is ethnic Chinese.
Vietnam is not on the pope’s travel list this time. Improving relations in the recent past between Hanoi and the Holy See and the great desire of Vietnamese Catholics to welcome the pontiff’s visit had raised hopes. For Pope Francis, the planned journey was already very challenging. The sudden departure of President Võ Vãn Thýßng, who had issued an official invitation to Pope Francis in December, probably weighed heavily on the decision not to include Vietnam this time. Nevertheless, as the recent visit to Vietnam by Vatican Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher shows, the door for a papal visit appears to be still open and the trip is probably only postponed.
The Catholic Church in the countries the pontiff will visit issued statements confirming the papal trip in September. The Archdiocese of Singapore has already launched a website dedicated to the event. “It has been 38 years since we had a visit from the Vicar of Christ to Singapore, when Pope St John Paul II honoured us with a visit on 20 November 1986,” writes Archbishop William Goh in a statement. “It is my hope that this visit of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, will bring renewed fervour to all Catholics in Singapore, uniting them in faith and mission, especially in these most challenging of times,” added the prelate, who was elevated to the cardinalship by Pope Francis himself. Along with official state engagements, the archdiocese expects that the highlight of Pope Francis’s stop in the Southeast Asian city-state will be a major Eucharistic celebration, likely on 12 September.
In Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, the Bishops’ Conference made the official announcement today in a press conference attended by Card Virgilio do Carmo da Silva and the Apostolic Nuncio, Rev Mgr Marco Sprizzi. Francis’s arrival will be a very important moment for the country (one of two Asian countries with a Catholic majority; the other one is the Philippines) which obtained its independence only in 2002, after much bloodshed and suffering. John Paul II had already made a stop in Dili in 1989, when Timor-Leste was still a province of Indonesia, but was demanding its independence. The Archbishop of Dili expressed the joy of the local Church for the September date, hoping the Timorese can “participate and be together with the Holy Father, who comes mainly to meet them and strengthen Timor-Leste’s Church in the faith and love of Christ.” “Let us prepare ourselves with an intense prayer to welcome the Holy Father,” added the secretary of the Timor-Leste Bishops’ Conference, Fr Carlos Miguel Pereira, “so that his visit will be the moment in which we reinvigorate our participation in building our ecclesial and civil community, in living our faith, and purifying our culture.”

The Vatican’s top envoy has arrived on a six-day visit to Vietnam, aiming at further fostering full diplomatic ties with the communist country.
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for relations with states and inter-national organizations, was welcomed by Archbishop Marek Zalewski, resident ponti-fical representative to Vietnam, at Noi Bai International Airport on April 9.
Gallagher met his Vietnamese counterpart, Bui Thanh Son, upon arrival and affirmed that the Vatican and Vietnam have a good relationship. He hoped that “the bilateral relationship would continue to achieve important milestones” in the future. Son agreed and said that the Vatican envoy’s visit would further strengthen ties between both sides. Son proposed continuing high-level exchange activities and stated that the government would create conditions for Zalewski to fulfill his mission in the country. He appreciated the positive progress of their relations in recent years, especially the agreement on the working regulations of the pontifical resident representative and his office in Vietnam.
The deal was signed in July 2023, during former president Vo Van Thuong’s visit to the Holy See. Thuong also extended an invitation to Pope Francis to visit his country. Gallagher is the most senior official to visit the Southeast Asian country since diplomatic relations were broken off in 1975 when the northern communist forces took control of US-backed South Vietnam and expelled the apostolic delegate from the former capital, Saigon. Relations have improved since both sides started regular talks in the late 1990s.
Last December, the Vatican appointed Archbishop Zalewski as its first pontifical resident representative to Vietnam, while other communist nations in Asia – China, Laos and North Korea – have no relations with the Vatican.
Vietnam is home to about seven million Catholics out of a total population of 100 million, making it one of the largest communities in Asia.
“We pray for the Holy See and the government to reach full diplomatic relations soon so that we can live out our faith and have religious activities without any restrictions,” Francis Tran Thanh said. Thanh, a lay leader from Quang Tri province, said that “religious freedom is not an asking-and-granting mechanism run by the government, but a basic human right that all people must respect.” He said local people have had religious activities restricted for nearly half a century.
A great number of Church-run facilities were confiscated, Catholics were banned from partaking in public healthcare and education, and communities in remote areas were limited to holding services, building churches, and doing evangelization. Thanh said local people long for a papal visit, which they believed would strengthen their faith in a fast-changing society.

On the cusp of sunset, the sound of rumbling trains in the distance faded as they came to a standstill at Cantonment Railway Station in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi on April 9. A group of volunteers rushed to hand out large jugs of ice-cold Rooh Afza, a fruity drink made of squash, and platters of aromatic biriyani to hundreds of Muslims as muezzins in nearby mosques announced through their sound systems it was time to break their Ramadan fast for the day.
From April 1-9, this was a regular scene when a group of young Hindus from the Mahesh-wari community started arranging iftar (the fast-breaking meal) for Muslims during the Islamic holy month which ends with Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the two major annual Islamic festivals.
“We were in a hurry to break the fast as we had missed our train and had no idea who had arranged it,” Ataullah Rehmat, who ate at the iftar event with his wife and child, told. “But we were really happy to see that the Ma-heshwari group organized it. Such acts help build better under-standing between people of the two faiths.”
The Maheshwaris hail from the desert region of Tharparkar in Sindh province and are known for their community mobilization initiatives. The organizers of the iftar drive, the Maheshwari Pre-mier League, started their initia-tives by organizing cricket tourna-ments in Sindh a few years ago and later conducted educational and healthcare campaigns. Bhe-vish Kumar, one of the organizers of the event, said the idea behind the drive was to promote interfaith harmony.
“We initiated it [the iftar drive] with a clear mindset to promote interfaith harmony,” Kumar told on April 9. “Once such a message starts becoming a trend then we can see an inclusive and plural Pakistan.”

Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo of Jakarta called Pope Francis’ Se-ptember visit “an opportunity for Indonesian Catholics to explore and practice his humanitarian messages.”
“Indeed, the physical presence of Pope Francis is very important and very happy [occasion] for us,” Suharyo said in a video that the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference released on April 8, six months ahead of the visit.
The 73-year-old Church leader wanted Catholics to pay attention to Francis’ messages and thoughts as they prepare to celebrate his physical presence in the country. Papal messages “should also concern us, and we intend to study those messages,” he added. Suharyo said the last two critical papal messages in the Indonesian context were on human respon-sibility to protect the environment in his encyclical Laudato si and about the importance of maintai-ning brotherhood in Fratelli tutti. Suharyo described them as bri-lliant ideas “not in the sense of being great, but very important for the history of mankind in our time.”
The cardinal further hoped that the physical presence of the pope would encourage Indonesian Catholics to study his teachings and try to find ways to implement them.
The video showed Suharyo speaking with Bishop Antonius Subianto Bunjamin of Bandung, president of the bishops’ confe-rence. Subianto said the confe-rence deliberately announced the pope’s visit on Annunciation Day because it was good news for In-donesia.
He said Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Indonesia from Sept. 3 to 6, as communicated by Msgr Piero Pioppo, the apostolic nuncio to Indonesia, in a note to the country’s minister of foreign affairs on March 5. “Of course, the certainty of Pope Francis’ arrival to Indo-nesia is still waiting for an official announcement from the govern-ment and the Vatican,” Subianto said.

Kuala Lumpur is mourning the death of Sr. Enda Ryan, Fran-ciscan Missionary of Mary (FMM) who passed away on April 7 at the age of 95. She is originally from Ireland and since 1966 she had become a citizen of Malaysia, a country in which she has provided tireless service for women’s education for decades, she is leaving a great void among people, of every ethnicity and religion, who they got to know each other.
Sr. Enda leaves the Assunta primary and secondary schools she founded, as well as the Ave Maria Welfare clinic, which later be-came a hospital. But above all she remains the example of her faith, as well as her commitment and care for unity among students, regardless of their beliefs or ethnic origins.
There are numerous testi-monies released by those who knew her passionate ministry: proof of what was sown in 31 years of mission by the educator, religious and director, born Eileen Philomena Ryan, on 30 December 1928 in Galbally, in the county of Limerick in Ireland.
She joined the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (an institute founded by Helene de Chappotin) in 1947 and arrived in the then Malaya in 1954, following the request of Sir Michael Hogan – the then President of the Court of Justice of Malaysia – to establish schools for girls whose education had been interrupted during the communist insurgency in the country. Sr. Enda Ryan had just received her Bachelor of Arts and Higher Diploma in Education.
“The maternal love that shone through her always touched everyone. Her grit, her enthusiasm and her zeal for life inspired us to live our lives to the fullest,” writes on the alumni portal of Assumption School Vimalathevi Perumal, a former student.
“All of us, her students, owe this unique, great icon immeasurable gratitude for having trained us to be good and responsible citizens of this nation,” she added. Another student, Regina Morris, told that Sr. Enda was nicknamed “the singing nun” because she never hid her love for singing.
“Make me an instrument. The singing sister” is the title of her 2013 biography edited by Nesamalar Chitravelu. The missionary composed the school hymn; whose lyrics embody her values. Despite her Irish origins, she sang Malay folk songs, such as “Rasa Sayang,” with the same gusto as “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.” “She was tireless in her mission to spread truth and charity, which is the school motto imprinted in our hearts (Ad Veritatem Per Caritatem, ed.) – added Morris -. She was a teacher, a principal and a mother to all of us.”

The official portrait of Servant of God Niña Ruíz-Abad was presented April 7 during the opening of the dio-cesan phase of her cause for cano-nization at St.William Cathedral in the town of Laoag located in the Ilocos Norte region of the Philippines. If canonized, the young Filipina, who died in 1993 at age 13, could become one of the youngest saints in history.
The proceedings, including the Mass celebrated by Renato Mayugba, the bishop of Laoag, were posted on Facebook. The ceremony began with a procession of members of the Diocese of Laoag followed by the reading of Ruíz-Abad’s biography and the pre-sentation of documents to the bishop, who approved them as legitimate.
Next, the documents were handed over to the officials of the diocesan tribunal, appointed by the local bishop, who will receive the testimonies of the people who knew the servant of God. This tribunal does not issue any ruling because it is reserved to the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
The documents also included testimonies of alleged miracles that may have occurred through the intercession of Ruíz-Abad before the opening of the canonization process. In one case, a student at Holy Spirit Academy in the city of Laoag had been seriously sick and said she was miraculously cured after praying to the Filipina teenager.
During the ceremony, Ruíz-Abad’s first relic was also unveiled, which consisted of a reliquary with a small piece of cloth that came from her clothing. Ruíz-Abad, who died in August 1993, had a great impact through her devotion to God and her acts of charity despite suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an incurable heart disease that was diagnosed with when she was 10 years old.
Thirty years after her death, in July 2023, the formal request to open an investigation into the life of the Filipina teenager was approved by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). The CBCP previously noted that Ruiz-Abad could serve as a “good model of piety and fortitude” for today’s youth.

With a solemn Eucharistic celebration, the Archdiocese of Lahore closed the diocesan phase of the process for the recognition of the martyrdom of Akash Bashir. The young Pakistani man died at the age of 20 trying to protect worshippers outside Youhanabad’s St John Church during an Islamist attack nine years ago against the Catholic church and a nearby Protestant church, which resulted in a massacre with scores of dead and wounded.
Bashir is the first Pakistani Catholic to be accepted as a Servant of God towards the honour of the altars. His Christian life, marked by service to others in the youth group organised by the Salesians in Lahore, has been examined in the past two years by the diocesan tribunal for the causes of saints, which established in 38 sessions that his act of great courage on 15 March 2015 is the fruit of a life wholly spent bearing heroic witness to Christian virtues.
In his homily, Archbishop Shaw expressly thanked the parents of the Servant of God for the Christian education passed onto Akash. “We pray for this grace for all parents to raise peaceful youth strong in their faith,” the prelate said. “His humility, simple life and determination are a source of bravery and courage for us all. We know that it is difficult to lead a Christian life in our environment. Akash has set a powerful example for young people. He will remain alive in our lives and church,” he added.

Nine Chinese Christians be-longing to a Protestant house church have remained in police detention following their arrest ten days ago for allegedly carrying out activities in the name of “an illegal social organization.”
Christians from the Fuyang Maizhong Reformed Church in Fuyang city in northwestern China’s Anhui province were arrested on March 10 during a Sunday gathering, a report from China Aid said on March 21. Plainclothes police officers and officials from the local religious affairs bureau carried out the raid and detained total of 18 Christians, including two children. Eight of them were placed under 13-day administrative detention and the church’s Elder Chang Shun was slapped with a 15-day detention.
Fuyang Maizhong Reformed Church and its members have been targeted several times since 2018 for refusing to join the state-sanctioned Three-Self Church, which oversees Protestant chur-ches in China. Raids became fre-quent after the leader of the Chur-ch signed a “Joint Statement by Pastors: A Declaration for the Sake of the Christian Faith” by Pastor Wang Yi of the Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church in 2018. The document condemned the persecution of Christians in China and openly refused to obey the government’s order asking all Protestant Churches to join the Three-Self Church.
Officially atheist China’s con-stitution allows freedom of reli-gion or belief. It legally recogni-zes five organized religions – Bu-ddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholi-cism and Protestantism. All reli-gious groups are required to regi-ster with the government and shou-ld obtain prior permission for acti-vities as per the rules. The Chine-se Community Party is accused by rights groups as one of the world’s worst violators of religi-ous freedom due to the persecu-tion of both recognized and unre-cognized religious groups. China has intensified its crackdown on religious groups and activities since Xi Jinping became president in 2013.