Sylvester and his family had no time to think before fleeing their home amid non-stop aerial bombardment and artillery shelling in the civil war-hit eastern Myanmar.
The 65-year-old quickly packed some clothes and important documents like the national registration card and left Loikaw along with his wife, son, and 91-year-old mother in a car on Nov. 14.
“We realized we can no long-er stay safe, especially due to our concern for my elderly mother,” Sylvester, who goes by a single name, told on Nov. 22.
Sylvester’s family is among an estimated 40,000 people, mostly Christians, who are said to have fled Loikaw, a town of some 51,349 residents as per the 2014 census.
Ever since the junta took power in February 2021, armed resistance has been developing against it. The junta targets Christian churches and villages, reportedly suspecting them to be hiding grounds of resistance forces.
The shelling since then destroyed several churches in eastern Kayah state (formerly Karenni) and the recent offensive also da-maged the Christ King Cathedral in Loikaw.
The latest exodus began as fighting intensified between ru-ling junta forces and armed rebel groups, including the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, over the control of Loikaw, the capital of Kayah state.
Loikaw, which serves as a nerve centre of the junta administration in the region.
became a war zone as the junta retaliated with indiscriminate air strikes and artillery shelling to keep the rebel forces, which included Christians, at bay.

A Catholic pastoral centre attached to the cathedral in Loikaw, where internally displaced people have sought refuge for months as part of the ongoing civil war, has been attacked and occupied by the Burmese army. This was reported by Bishop Celso Ba Shwe of Loikaw, the capital of Kayah State in eastern Myanmar. Even holy sites, the bishop said, were not spared from military operations, at a time when the military junta was struggling to wage war on the ground. “The Burmese army tried to take the Christ the King Cathedral complex three times,” he reports. “As a local bishop, I, together with the priests, tried to convince the military generals of the importance of the religious sites and asked them to leave the place to spare, where displaced people are also welcomed. However, on the night of November 26, the military deliberately fired artillery shells at the community centre several times, hitting the roof of the pastoral centre’s chapel. The ceiling was destroyed by artillery shells. For security reasons, “in consultation with the priests, we decided to leave the Pastoral Centre. Shortly before our departure on November 27 , 50 soldiers came and occupied the building to use it as a base and shelter.” About 300,000 people live in Kayah State, Myanmar’s smallest state, which is predominantly mountainous and inhabited primarily by the Karenni ethnic group. The Diocese of Loikaw is located here with around 93,000 Catholic believers. The Bishop’s describes the situation in the area as dramatic: “The Burmese army has used heavy weapons, combat aircraft, armoured vehicles and mobile defence systems. As a result, people in both the cities and the countryside are fleeing in different directions. Some fled to the northern part of the state or to areas of Shan State. Among the refugees were old and sick people, people with disabilities, women and some young people who, until a few days ago, were housed in the community centre in Loikaw, where around 80 have already been housed in the past few months, including 10 priests and 16 religious

The Hong Kong government has harshly rejected a petition with which ten Catholic bishops from all continents this week had asked the government of the special administrative region of Hong Kong to release the well-known pro-activist democracy – and Catholic – Jimmy Lai, who at 75 has been in prison for over 1000 days.
Lai was arrested in August 2020 thanks to the controversial “national security law”, which drastically limits freedom of speech in an attempt to suppress the pro-democracy movement. Among the harshest sanctions provided by law there is also life imprisonment for what the government considers sedi-tion, terrorism, but also damage to public transport vehicles.
The petition of the 10 Catholic bishops – Card. Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York (United States), Card. Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, Major Archbishop of Trivandrum (India) and others asked “the government of the special administrative region of Hong Kong to immediately and unconditionally release Jimmy Lai, prosecuted.
The Hong Kong government has harshly rejected a petition.

Malaysia’s new cardinal, Sebastian Francis of Penang, has said the upcoming Synod of Bishops on Synodality ought to be an open process in which all issues are discussed without fear, and warned against using labels that cause division. Speaking to Crux, Francis said of the synod, “as long as we don’t get into la-bels, and we don’t get into trying to divide,” things will be fine.
“We are not looking for easy, simple solutions to whatever issues might be out there in the Church, but we are looking for a way of being Church itself…a Church that is open to welcome anyone, everyone, and deal with all the issues without feeling threatened by any issues,” he said.
It is the culmination of a multi-year process that began with a broad consultation and the dio-cesan level in October 2021 and continued with discussion at the continental stage, and it marks the first of two universal gather-ings based in Rome to conclude the process. The final discussion will take place next year, in October 2024, following a year of reflection and discussion on the results of this year’s meeting.
In his conversation with Crux, Francis discussed the October synod as well as the Church in Malaysia, Pope Francis’s atten-tion to the continent, the upcom-ing World Youth Day in Seoul, and a potential papal visit to India next year.
“I’d just like to tell him that I affirm the three things he men-tioned to me in (his) letter: That universality is not unifor-mity, and uniformity is a tempta-tion, it’s a weakness and may even be a sin; and telling us what he would want from us, from me, is both the enculturation of faith of the universal Church and the evangelization of cultures. I am one with him, one with the Holy Spirit who has inspired him to remind us of these essentials. For the rest, well, come what may.”

In the heart of Asia, where diversity thrives and traditions abound, the intersection of faith and family is a place where love and understanding must find a way to coexist peacefully.
Interfaith marriages are on the rise. In Singapore, one in three marriages is an interfaith union. Whether we approve of it or not, many individuals choose to embark on interfaith relation-ships.
Therefore, it becomes essen-tial to explore ways to support these couples in overcoming the challenges they may encounter.
Some issues faced by inter-faith families can be very practi-cal and finding support can be challenging.
Consider the case of Mary, a Catholic who married a Hindu man. He died many years ago but she was well accepted and taken care of by her husband’s family. But when Mary died the Hindu family was at a loss about what to do for her funeral rites.
Muslim woman Fadhilah and Catholic man Ronald have been married for many years. How-ever, their union faces resistance from her Muslim family, who hesitate to visit their home due to the presence of alcohol, which conflicts with their Islamic be-liefs.
The Centre for Interfaith Understanding (CIFU), an inter-faith organization in Singapore works to find ways to help inter-faith families in their daily stru-ggles. The organization is curre-ntly collecting stories from inter-faith couples, documenting their trials, triumphs, and the unique tapestry of love that they create.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has begun a hunger strike in her Iranian prison in protest at limits on medical care for her and other inmates, as well as the obligation for wo-men to wear the hijab in the Islamic republic, her family said on Monday.
Veteran rights activist Moha-mmadi, 51, currently held in Te-hran’s Evin prison, was awarded the Nobel prize in October “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran.”
“Narges Mohammadi, today, through a message from Evin Prison, has informed her family that she started a hunger strike several hours ago. We are con-cerned about Narges Mohamma-di’s physical condition and heal-th,” her family said in a state-ment.
Mohammadi is refusing under any circumstances to wear a hijab, the head covering that has been obligatory for women in public spaces since shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
Prison authorities in response have refused to transfer Moha-mmadi, who suffers from heart and lung conditions, to a hospital outside Evin for treatment.
The family said in the state-ment that she was in “urgent” need of medical treatment outside prison.
“Narges went on a hunger strike today in protesting two things: The Islamic Republic’s policy of delaying and neglecting medical care for sick inmates… (and) the policy of ‘mandatory hijab’ for Iranian women,” the statement said.

China passed a “Patriotic Education Law,” further consolidating the Chinese Communist Party’s control over education, including religious education, state-controlled media outlet Xinhua announced last month.
The new law, which was passed during a session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, would require churches and religious groups to adapt their educational activities to promote the party’s official ideology.
“The state is to guide and support religious groups, religious institutes, and religious activity sites in carrying out patriotic edu-cation activities, enhancing religious profe-ssionals’ and believers’ identification with the great motherland, the Chinese people, Chinese culture, the Chinese Communist Party, and socialism with Chinese characte-ristics,” the new law reads.
The law goes on to say that “all levels and types of school shall have patriotic edu-cation permeate the entire course of school education” and that even “the parents or other guardians of minors shall include love of the motherland in family education.”
Patriotic education has been an imperative of the CCP since the Maoist Revolution to inculcate the party’s official ideology. It has been reimagined during periods of social upheaval, namely during the Cultural Revolution and in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Xi Jinping has put his twist on patriotic education, underpinning it with the ideological doctrine of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese people.” This mantra is in part centred on the revival of Chinese culture, but it is also predicated on “upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China and socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

“If you’re a bird, you’d rather die singing than living a silent life,” is a Chinese saying and starts off The Hong Konger: Jimmy Lai’s extraordinary struggle for freedom, a documentary produced in 2022 by the Acton Institute whose premiere in Italy was held yesterday afternoon at the Institut Français Centre Saint-Louis in Rome.
The film tells the story of the 75-year-old Hong Kong businessman and activist, jailed for more than a thousand days because of the pro-democracy ideas he spread through the Apple Daily, the widely read independent newspaper he founded, forced to shut down by the authorities in 2021, following the promulgation of the mainland’s national security law.
Under the influence of his wife Teresa, he converted to Catholicism in 1997 and was baptised by Card Joseph Zen. During his life, he has put the fight for freedom ahead of everything else.

Danial Masih, 46, is a tailor in the city of Faisalabad, Punjab. The father of three daughters and two sons, he has nine relatives who depend on him.
Danial had a dream, making school uniforms for local Christian and public schools. However, for a long time, this project was out of his reach because he did not have the necessary financial means.
In the meantime, orders came in from more than a dozen schools in his area, a testament to his tailoring skills and the quality of his work.
Schools relied on him to make uniforms that were not only beautiful but also durable and comfortable for students. But without money to buy the material, he could fulfil all these orders.
That’s when Danial heard about the Good Samaritan Resource Center (GSRC), an organisation committed to helping people who don’t have the means to start their own business. After hearing his story, true to its mission to help people achieve their aspirations, the GSRC decided to help Danial make his dream come true by providing him with the materials and fabric he needed to meet his orders.
A GSRC representative, Rehan Farooq, helped Danial develop his business, from selecting the right materials to buying the fabric needed to make the uniforms.
Isaac Bazal, Nayyer Sarfraz and Kiran Eric, Pakistanis who emigrated to the United States, have supported more than 60 families in Pakistan through their centre.
“I truly believe that the staff of the organisation is working for the poor by the will of Jesus,” Danial told AsiaNews. ”As far as I know, they have never refused support to people in need and have supported them just like the Good Samaritan in the Gospel.

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 the judgment a break from the usual “norm” of Pakistan’s judicial system.
“This landmark judgment breaks from the norm, where trial courts often refuse bail, burdening accused individuals with lengthy legal battles that can extend all the way to the Supreme Court,”
He also praised the “courageous decision” of Additional Sessions Court judge, Mian Shahid Javed, for deciding the case “based on merit.”
Judge Javed granted bail to Kiran Bibi and Shaukat on Oct. 18 citing a lack of evidence of “willful damage or defilement of the original text of the Holy Quran” under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
Violations of Section 295-B can result in severe penalties, including life imprisonment, for those found guilty of deliberately defiling, damaging, desecrating, or using a copy of the Holy Quran or its extracts in a derogatory manner or for unlawful purposes.
“The court observed several gaps in the detailed report”
The couple was accused of “defiling… [the] a copy of the Holy Quran,” as per the case filed by Muhammad Tamoor who claimed to have witnessed pages flying off the couple’s house on Sept. 8.