Asian

Pro-Beijing bishops seek ‘sinicization of Catholic seminaries’

Leaders of China’s state-run church say seminary formation, including textbooks used in seminaries, should be aligned with the government’s sinicization policy. Their concerns were expressed at the latest meeting of the Working Group on the progress of the compilation of “unified teaching materials” in Catholic seminaries in Pingliang city in Gansu province in eastern China. […]

Seoul after Manila: WYD returns to Asia in 2027

Thirty-two years after Manila, World Youth Day (WYD) will return to Asia. Seoul will in fact host the event in 2027, while Rome (Italy) will organise the jubilee of young people in August 2025. Pope Francis made the announcement this morning in Lisbon at the end of the final Mass of the great gathering that […]

Like the UAE, Saudi Arabia might cancel Friday holiday

Will Saudi Arabia make Friday a working day? A proposal to that effect has sparked heated debates and elicited strong opinions. It is also proof that things are changing in Islam’s birthplace, home to its two holiest cities, Makkah and Madinah. The Okaz newspaper recently published an op-ed titled “Friday is a working day”, breaking […]

Estela Padilla: ‘My Experience with Filipino Basic Ecclesial Communities at the Synod’

According to Estela Padilla, one of the ten non-bishop members from Asia for the forth-coming Synod of Bishops this October, it will be an occasion for the church’s authentic renewal. She has been a consultant to the Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and the Executive Secretary of […]

Lay people await participation in Pakistan Church

Mushtaq Asad was among the first five Pakistani lay people sent for a two-year study program in Rome in the early 1980s to ensure lay participation. That was two decades after the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), which stressed the role of lay people in the Church’s mission. Only two of those five returned home. And […]

Pakistan Claims 400,000 Social Media Accounts Spread Blasphemy

We know Pakistan punishes blasphemy with the death penalty, but how many blasphemers are there in Pakistan? From July 13, we have an answer, thanks to a report by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony. It claims that 400,000 social media accounts spread “extremely blasphemous material against the most revered figures, including Allah Almighty […]

Seven-year-old girl raped because she is Christian

In early July, Javeria, a seven-year-old girl, was raped in Chichawatni, a rural subdistrict (Tehsil), in Sahiwal district, in what is the latest and most chilling example of violence against women. This problem is widespread in Pakistan, with tens of thousands of cases each year, affecting mainly girls and women from ethnic and religious minorities, […]

Card Sako forced to leave Baghdad and move to Erbil

The highest authority of the Chaldean Church in Iraq, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, has been forced to leave the patriarchal see in Baghdad and move to a monastery in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, via Istanbul. This is a direct consequence of the “deliberate and humiliating campaign” against the Chaldean patriarch by the Babylon Brigades, a pro-Iranian […]

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

Goans oppose tourism project near 16th century basilica