Some 200 people were forced to flee their homes in Bangladesh after eight tribal Christians were killed on Maundy Thursday in a gun battle between two insurgent groups in a remote village in the restive Chittagong Hill Tracts.
They fled their homes fearing further violence in Khamtangpara, a village in Bandarban district where the attack took place on April 6, said Naiton Bawm, a leader of the ethnic Bawm people.
“Around 200 people fled the area. They now live in government-run schools. The government provides them with food. They can return home only when the situation becomes normal. We Bawm people live in fear,” Naiton told.
Police recovered eight bodies from the village on April 7, Abdul Mannan, the Ro-wangchhari sub-district police chief told.
All the dead were Christians – four Baptists and four Presbyterians, said Pastor Georgy Loncheu of the local Presbyterian Church.
“Our Good Friday and Easter were very painful. We Bawm people are worried. On Easter Sunday, we prayed for the souls of those who were killed. We prayed to God so we have the patience to overcome this shock,” Loncheu told.
Mannan said local people alerted police to the gunfight between insurgent tribal groups – the Kuki-Chin National Front and the United People’s Democratic Front. Two guns were also found near the bodies, Mannan said.
Loncheu said only one of the eight victims might have been a member of the Kuki-Chin National Front, but did not give details.
“Terrorists killed them and claimed they were insurgents,” he said.
The wife of one of the victims, Sankhum Bawm, who now lives with her daughters in a government school, told they were “afraid to return home” fearing further violence.
“Our daughters’ education will stop now because my husband was the only earning member in our family,” she said.

Mohammad Javad enters a fashionable shop in well-to-do north Tehran with his mother. For the first time ever he wants a necktie, long banned in Iran as a symbol of Western decadence. The 27-year-old dentist said he opted for this clothing accessory in hopes of looking his best during the first meeting with his future in-laws.
“In our society, wearing a tie is like wearing a mask before Covid-19 hit,” he said as the salesman adjusted his suit. “People would look at you differently because the negative view still remains.”
“I think a man looks chic with one. Unfortunately, we Iranians have imposed strange and unnecessary restrictions on ourselves. It’ll take time for that to change, but hopefully, it will.”
Dress rules have stoked strong passions in Iran, especially restrictions on women who have long been required to wear modest clothing and headscarves.
Iran was gripped by unrest, labelled “riots” by the authorities, after the Sept 16 death in custody of Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, 22, following her arrest for an alleged violation of the country’s strict dress code for women.

The disappointment on Daniel Massey’s face was an indicator of the lukewarm response from Pakistan’s minority Christians to the government’s first-ever digital population and housing census rolled out on March 1, with promises to be transparent and inclusive.
The massive undertaking aims to gather demographic data on every individual ahead of this year’s parliamentary elections. It is also expected to serve as an effective tool for planning measures for the socioeconomic development of the nation’s poor.
However, Christians don’t seem too enthused about participating in the latest self-enumeration campaign, says Massey.
The campaign is being conducted by the Center for Social Justice (CSJ), a Lahore-based research and advocacy group, amid concerns that Christians have been undercounted in the national census over the past two decades.
According to the 2017 national census, Pakistan had 2.6 million Christians who form just 1.27 percent of its 207 million people, mostly Muslims.

Christian concerns grow as Pakistan pushes digital census
The disappointment on Daniel Massey’s face was an indicator of the lukewarm response from Pakistan’s minority Christians to the government’s first-ever digital population and housing census rolled out on March 1, with promises to be transparent and inclusive.
The massive undertaking aims to gather demographic data on every individual ahead of this year’s parliamentary elections. It is also expected to serve as an effective tool for planning measures for the socioeconomic development of the nation’s poor.
However, Christians don’t seem too enthused about participating in the latest self-enumeration campaign, says Massey, who is part of an ongoing campaign creating awareness among the minority community on the need of joining the online census.
The campaign is being conducted by the Center for Social Justice (CSJ), a Lahore-based research and advocacy group, amid concerns that Christians have been undercounted in the national census over the past two decades.

After reading the Bible and observing Church activities for more than 20 years, Sarom de-cided to start his catechumenate
Little did Francios Sarum Koy know that becoming an art teacher for children and youths at a Catholic church 20 years ago would lead him to join the body of Christ on Easter Sunday this year.
The 67-year-old Cambodian recalls his inner journey of seeking the light of God through his artwork began in 2002 at the St. Mary of the Smile Church in Chamkar Teang, a village in southern Takeo province, about 80 kilometers from capital Phnom Penh.
Sarum, who specialized in classical art, was invited to teach art at the church on Saturdays and Sundays. This led to him working as a part time staff at the Catholic Art office of Phnom Penh Vicariate in Takeo pro-vince.
Although not a Catholic, du-ring these years Sarum authored many Catholic stories into drama and dance performances during feasts and festivals, especially local Christmas celebrations.
“It was difficult when I first started writing Catholic stories, because I come from a Hindu-Buddhist background,” he says.
But Sarum, said, the most important thing during this period was that be began reading the Khmer Catholic Bible to under-stand the basics of the stories.

Pope Francis addressed a delegation of the United Associ-ation of Humanistic Buddhism from Taiwan during their visit to the Vatican on an interreligious “educational pilgrimage.”
Pope Francis on March 16 stressed the importance of a culture of encounter, especially in a time marked by “a continued acceleration of changes affecting humanity and the planet.”
The Pope recognized the recent passing of Venerable Master Hsing Yun, the founding patriarch of Fo Guang Shan Monastery, a world-renowned figure in Humanistic Buddhism who was also a master of inter-religious hospitality.
The Pope went on to note that an educational pilgrimage to the sacred places of a religion, such as the one the delegation was undertaking, can also enrich one’s appreciation of the distin-ctiveness of its approach to the divine. He pointed to the master-pieces of religious art that surro-und visitors in the Vatican and throughout Rome, which reflect the conviction that, in Jesus Chri-st, God himself became a “pil-grim” in this world out of love for humanity.
Furthermore, he stressed the importance of religious believers creating oases of encounter, whi-ch contribute to an integral edu-cation of the human person, involving “head, hands, heart, and soul” and leading to the ex-perience of “the beauty and har-mony of what it is to be fully human.”

Less than 200,000 marriages were registered in South Korea in 2022, the lowest since 1970 when the country began recording demographic data, says the government.
The country recorded 191,690 marriages in 2022, down by 0.4 percent from 192,507 marriages in 2021, the Korea Herald reported on March 16 referring to data from the Korea Statistical Information Service.
The slump in marriages raises more concerns as the country reported in November 2021 that the population was 51.74 million, a drop of 0.2 percent or 91,000 persons from 2020.
In February, the government reported South Korea broke its own record of the lowest birth rates in the world. The total fertility rate, the average number of expected babies per South Korean woman during her reproductive age, dropped to 0.78 in 2022, down from 0.81 in 2021.
The capital city, Seoul, recorded the lowest rate with 0.59.
Lim Young-il, head of the Population Census Division at the agency pointed out that the population decline and the changes in South Koreans’ attitude towards marriage are the contributing factors to the low numbers.
“The number of marriages has decreased partly due to the constant decline of the population aged between 25 and 49,” Lim said adding that another reason was the “changing perception of marriage.”
The data showed that in 2022 the average age of first-time brides was 31.3 years up by 0.2 years and the age of grooms was 33.7 years up by 0.4 years in comparison to 2021.
Among the couples who married for the first time, 19.4% of partnerships were between an older female and a young male.
However, the marital partnerships between an older male and a young female had the major share of 64.4%, whereas 16.2% were of the same age.

Church leaders in Myanmar are up in arms against unregulated mining for rare earth elements — widely used in the production of high-tech devices like smartphones, computers, electric vehicles and solar cells — in the conflict-torn Southeast Asian nation’s Kachin state.
Mining for rare earth has increased sharply in northern mineral-rich Kachin state, bordering China’s Yunnan province, following the toppling of Myanmar’s civilian government by the military on Feb.1, 2021. “We are concerned about the effects of environmental degradation, the livelihoods of local communities and the wellbeing of animals due to the extraction of rare earth,” said Church leaders from Banmaw diocese in Kachin state, where unregulated rare earth mining is in full swing by Chinese firms and others. In a letter, signed by Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam and four other diocesan leaders, including the vicar general and the chancellor, on March 4, they said rare earth minerals are a gift from God so “we have the responsibility to protect them.”

Hong Kong’s Catholic bishop is scheduled to visit Beijing next month at the invitation of the archbishop based in the Chinese capital to promote exchanges and interactions between Catholics in the two regions of China, an official statement said.
Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan of Hong Kong accepted the invitation from Archbishop Joseph Li Shan of Beijing and will spend five days in Beijing from April 17, Hong Kong Diocese said in a March 9 statement.
Chow accepted the invitation “in the spirit of brotherhood in the Lord,” the statement said.
Chow, a Jesuit, said his visit “underscores the mission of the Diocese of Hong Kong to be a bridge Church and promote exchanges and interactions between the two sides.”
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha, vicar general Father Peter Choy, and the bishop’s assistant Wong Ka-Chun will accompany Chow during his visit to Beijing.
In addition to the meeting with Li, Chow and the team will also meet with other local bishops, clergy, and laity during this trip, said the statement published on the Hong Kong diocesan website, the Sunday Examiner.
The team will also visit the Beijing Major Seminary, the national seminary of the Catholic Church in China, and other relevant institutions concerning religious affairs.
Upon arriving in Beijing, the bishop will participate in the evening prayers and celebrate a thanksgiving mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Beijing.
The prelate’s travel will also include a visit to the tomb of Italian Jesuit missionary Father Matteo Ricci, who was recently declared venerable.
The team is also scheduled to visit organizations that promote cultural exchanges and hold gatherings with “Hong Kong friends working in Beijing,” the Sunday Examiner reported.
Critics of the deal say it is a “betrayal” of Catholics who remained loyal to the Vatican despite persecution.

Despite the criticism, Pope Francis said that he wants to continue “dialogue” with China despite the challenges.

Experts and Catholic groups in South Korea have called for more psychotherapy centres and counsellors and urged the Church to promote counselling as part of pastoral care amid a rise in suicide rates.
“[Pastoral] counselling should be added to sacramental pastoral care,” said Father Matthew Hong Sung-nam, director of the Catholic Psycho-Spiritual Counselling Centre of Seoul archdiocese.
He added that “the Church intervenes in people’s lives from birth to death and takes care of them. Similarly, pastoral centres of the Church should try to solve the problem.”
Pastoral counselling is a unique form of psychotherapy that uses spiritual resources as well as psychological understanding for healing and growth, according to the American Association of Pastoral Counselling. It is provided by certified pastoral counselors, who are not only mental health professionals but have also had in-depth religious and/or theological training.
“The demand for psychological support has increased remarkably”
According to a Covid-19 National Mental Health Survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in August last year, the number of those admitting having suicidal thoughts had increased nearly threefold from 4.6 percent in 2019 to 12.7 percent in June 2022.