In a world often divided by global conflicts and tensions, Pakistan’s current situation is a distressing practical representation of the negative impact that wars have on international peace and harmony. This South Asian country, embroiled in global wars, has had its share of difficulties in maintaining stability and finding comfort in the face of hardship.
For the people of Pakistan, Christian prayers are a glimmer of hope and strength in the midst of chaos. Christian prayers are more than just words spoken in space; they are a channel to the supernatural and a way to ask for comfort, direction and help from an infinite being. Both individuals and communities can find the courage to persevere and overcome obstacles precisely through prayer.
Christian prayers provide comfort and firmness in times of turmoil. Believers believe that prayer can repair broken relationships, be a source of miracles and bring peace. Through prayer, they gain the strength to persevere in faith in the face of suffering.
Another significant habit with strong roots in Christianity is fasting. This is a renunciation of eating, or certain foods, for a specific period of time, often combined with prayer and meditation. Fasting is a spiritual activity that helps people get closer to God and strengthens their resolve in the current situation in Pakistan.

As the Catholic Church witnesses the constant emergence of new spiritual movements, devotional networks, and religious initiatives, their recognition and institutionalization are complex processes. The Church as a whole needs time to carefully discern their spiritual value, orthodoxy, and contribution to the body of Christ.
But these processes of growth and regulation, renewal and discernment, creativity and obedience keep the Church alive. Initiatives that may come from the Holy Spirit need to be recognized as such by other parts of the Body of Christ – including the head of the Church.
“Yet, this long discernment is not only happening between the Roman centre and some local communities. It is rarely limited to some localities only. It takes almost the whole Church – with numerous mediators and encounters – to truly recognize the vitality, renewal, and challenges that the Holy Spirit brings to us.
Singapore hosted the March 1-5 extraordinary International Congress of the Flame of Love. About 60 delegates came from all around the world to spend five days of retreat and work.
Over the past few years, the Flame of Love has rapidly grown across all continents. Taking many members by surprise, the new movement is now present in more than 50 countries – including Singapore, India, the Philippines, etc. With more people involved and national associations established, the Flame of Love needs to adapt its structures to let the Vatican discern an inter-national recognition.

Hong Kong is on the verge of enacting a new domestic security law which is even more repressive than the National Security Law imposed by Beijing in 2020 — and may well strike at the very heart of the Church’s conscience, with a potential assault on the confidentiality of the Sacrament of Penance.
One of the most dangerous, insidious, and outrageous aspects of the new security law is the proposal, made on March 7 by Hong Kong’s Secretary for Justice Lam Ting-kwok, regarding the crime of “failing to disclose the commission of treason by others.”
It means if a person knows that another person has committed “treason” but fails to disclose the knowledge to the authorities within a reasonable time, that person is guilty of a crime and could face 14 years in jail.
There is increasing concern that this poses an implicit threat to the Sacrament of Penance (or Reconciliation or “Confession”) in the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions – and Lam said nothing to reassure the Church to the contrary.
For Catholics, Confession is a spiritual act of pivotal importance. It is something we are encouraged to take up regularly, especially during the holy seasons of Lent and Advent.
Yet at the heart of Confession is its absolute confidentiality. The Church’s “Seal of Confession” is exactly that. What is confessed by a penitent, before a priest, in front of God stays solely between those three beings.
“Forcing a priest to reveal something said in Confession is an assault on the very integrity of the Church”
If a serious crime under law is confessed, a priest might advise a penitent to confess to the authorities — but he can never report it himself, and certainly should never be held criminally liable for having heard that confession.
I have never committed criminal acts (except under Hong Kong’s draconian laws, extraterritorially), but like all of us I sin, and while some of my flaws are already known to friends and colleagues, what I say in Confession I would not broadcast to the world.

The president of Pakistan’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference has welcomed a Supreme Court decision to reject a government report into the authorities’ response to attacks described by Church leaders as the “worst incident against Christians” in the nation’s history.
Bishop Samson Shukardin praised Pakistan’s highest court which threw out the government report on the attacks in Jaranwala where in a single day last August a mob torched more than 25 churches and up to 100 homes belonging to Christians.
Qazi Faez Isa, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, who headed the three-member bench of the Supreme Court, described the report, submitted by the Additional Advocate General of Punjab, as being worthy of “being thrown in the dustbin.”
The court alleged the report lacked relevant information, including details of arrests and court cases and that the investigation agencies lacked determination to bring the perpetrators to justice.
At a Supreme Court hearing about the report, a Punjab law officer stated that after 304 arrests only 22 cases had been registered, with just 18 charge sheets collected.
The court ordered that a fresh report be submitted within two weeks, warning the authorities they may face suspension if they fail to carry out their investigations thoroughly.
Bishop Shukardin, who heads the Diocese of Hyderabad, in Sindh Province, described the Supreme Court’s reaction to the government report on Jaranwala as “very positive for us as Christians.
“This is the first time the Government and especially the Supreme Court has taken this issue so seriously,” he told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN),
His comments come amid reports of widespread breakdown in trust between the police and the Christian community and others in Jaranwala and elsewhere.
Church leaders have described how people are disillusioned about delays in bringing perpetrators to justice and fears that police are not committed to protecting Christians and other minorities at risk of attack.

The Malaysian government has set 31 December as the dead-line for individual states to harmonise Sharia (Syariah, Islamic law) with the constitution to iron out the differences between Quranic rules and the country’s constitutional framework.
For many observers, the deadline is too short, but it has reignited a debate over the place of secular and Islamic law in a country deeply divided along ethnic and social lines.
On Sunday, Islamic Affairs Minister Mohd Na’im Mokhtar pledged to address the matter before the end of the year to ensure a more orderly relationship between the two forms of law.
He plans to do so in cooperation with Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor, who chairs the National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs.
A special committee headed by a former chief justice is also taking part in the process, which began last year, with the aim of assessing how to extend legislative powers in this sensitive area.
This is the more pressing since Malaysia’s Supreme Court invalidated 16 laws adopted by the north-western state of Kelantan, covering various offences punishable under Sharia, such as sodomy, sexual abuse, possession of false information, drug and alcohol addiction, as well as how courts should apply the laws.
According to the court, the state cannot make Islamic laws in areas that come under Malaysian federal law even though state legislatures can adapt it to reflect local religious views.
While the minister’s statement started a debate over the timing to achieve the goal, others note that such a topic raises questions about the very identity of the country.

The Archdiocese of Hanoi held the inauguration ceremony of its new major seminary named after St Joseph in Hoàng Nguyên parish, on February 26.
Built in just one year, the five-storey building covers a total area of 10,000 square metres and is home to some 40 seminarians who moved in after the start of the new year, another sign of the great vitality of the Vietnamese Church.
The inauguration Mass – held in the nearby parish – was attended by many faithful, some of whom followed the service in a large tensile structure set up outside the church.
In his address, Archbishop Giuse (Joseph) Vi Vãn Thiên of Hanoi explained that this new seminary will serve the dioceses of northern Vietnam, those where vocations to the priesthood are most numerous, and inspire anyone who wants to return to the source of their faith.
“May this place be truly a holy and exemplary training ground to prepare skilled harvesters to work in the Lord’s fields,” said Archbishop Vi, who thanked all the people who generously contributed to the construction.
In his homily, Bishop Giuse (Joseph) Ð× Quang Khang of B¯c Ninh, stressed the importance of the new seminary where future priests “will be followed by a team of educators with an approach to the faith that is not only academic, but also attentive to teaching the values necessary to face the challenges of today’s world.”

Junko Kusanagi found support in the form of the priests and laity at her local parish as she deepened her bonds with them.
Junko Kusanagi, 49, lives in Tokyo with her Catholic husband, 53, and nine-year-old son . She says that her husband’s illness led her to faith, and that it has been “the start of our real life as a family.”
Although she studied at a Catholic high school and university Junko says she had no experience of being led to faith at the time.
As time passed, and she was preparing to marry, her husband-to-be told her, “I’m a Catholic,” as was his entire family.
“If I hadn’t been exposed to Catholicism at all, I might have had a negative reaction, but having been exposed to Catholicism it was easy to accept,” she said.
At the age of 39, Junko had a son. When her husband told her, “I want to have the baby baptized,” she could not make up her mind. So she asked her husband’s sister, “What do you think of infant baptism?”
Her sister-in-law, who was baptized as an infant, said that from an early age, she always had a strong feeling that “God is always there.”
Hearing that, Junko thought, “In that case, okay,” and was ready to agree to her son’s baptism.
Her son is an only child, and Junko recalls that her husband was relieved and happy that, “even if we parents were to die early, it would be okay because God is with him.”

Leaders of five different religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism) from 15 different countries marked by wars and conflicts. Together gathered around a table to reflect on their task as men of faith in promoting peace this week in Tokyo as part of the Second Round Table for Peace.
The round table is convened by the organisation Religions for Peace together with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations promoted by the UN. Four days of discussion that saw the presence of significant witnesses including the Orthodox Metropolitan Emeritus of Chalcedon Emmnauel Adamakis, the Muslim Abdallah Bin Bayyah, the president of the Israeli association Rabbis for Human Rights Avi Dabush, and the Lutheran Bishop Emeritus of the Holy Land Mounib Yunan.
“We are deeply concerned about the unimaginable suffering that people are enduring in conflict zones around the world, including Haiti, the Middle East, Myanmar and Ukraine,” the religious leaders wrote in the final statement released at the end of the meeting.
“We recognise that the foundations of peace and security are threatened in every region of the world, while the most vulnerable – women, children and marginalised populations – are caught in the crossfire and suffer disproportionately from severe violence, displacement and other human rights violations.

Christians still in the crosshairs in Laos: some village leaders and inhabitants in the south of the country broke into a private home to prevent several families who had gathered inside from holding a celebration on 4th Feb., as part of Sunday services. This is what Radio Free Asia (Rfa) reports , relaunching the stories of some witnesses. The incident is just the latest in a series of attacks and lawsuits in the one-party communist state with a predominantly Buddhist population, despite a national law that protects religious freedom at least on paper. “The village authorities came here and demolished our house around 10.30 on Sunday morning,” a person present at the services in the house church of Kaleum Vangke village, in Xonboury district, Savannakhet province, told Rfa Lao. Speaking on condition of anonymity, like other sources consulted and eyewitnesses who fear retaliation, the Christian continues: “The authorities, including the village head, security guards and senior members of the village, suddenly attacked us and our place of worship destroyed.” The crowd of attackers burned Bibles and documents: “They destroyed our house-says the source-because they don’t want our Christian brothers and sisters to venerate God” and, despite the complaint, so far the authorities have not intervened.

Pakistan goes to the polls to-morrow for very delicate general elections. Today’s election eve was also marked by serious violence, with two attacks in which 28 people died and at least 40 others were injured in Pishin and Qila Saifullah, in the province of Baluchistan. While from prison, former Prime Minister Imran Khan had his followers spread a pre-recorded message inviting followers of his party to go and vote. In such a tense context, what do these elections represent for Pakistan’s Christians? AsiaNews asked Msgr. Samson Shukardin, bishop of the diocese of Hyderabad and president of the Episcopal Conference of Pakistan:
“Due to the way the electoral system works, even the parliamentarians who are supposed to represent minorities are chosen by the political parties and not by the community. Many voters, then, do not have access to the vote because they have not been registered, otherwise in some constituencies Christians would have a very high number of voters. We too must improve so that all the faithful are aware of their rights and duties as citizens. ”
“We need good candidates who can serve our community. Already today in at least 20 constituencies in the country Christian voters are a significant number and we could win general seats, but everything is left to the choice of each party.”