Before a gathering of religious leaders in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, a Catholic bishop from Nigeria gave an account of how his country had become a “cauldron of violence” at the hands of Islamist extremists.
Addressing the G20 Religion Forum in Bali on Nov. 3 in advance of the Group of 20’s meeting later this month, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah testified to the violence committed against both Christians and Muslims caught in intra-sectarian warfare.
“Every day, news of abductions, armed robberies, kidnappings for ransom, murders, and assassinations of our innocent citizens persists. Our sacred spaces have become killing grounds,” the bishop said. “Hundreds of worshippers have been murdered in mosques and churches across the country.
According to a report by the nongovernmental organization Open Doors, 4,650 Christians were killed in Nigeria in 2021— that’s more than the number killed in all of the other countries in the world combined.
The G20 Religion Forum was hosted by Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama political party, which, according to its press release, represents 120 million “moderate” Muslims, or about 40% of the country’s 231 million Muslims.
The conference was convened to “prevent the weaponization of identity” and “curtail the spread of communal hatred,” according to its stated goals.
Kukah, the bishop of the Diocese of Sokoto in the northwest region of Nigeria, where Muslims are in the majority, commended the group for “taking the historic step to address these issues directly,” he said.
In his address, he shared details of some of the recent acts of violence committed by Muslim extremists in his diocese, including the kidnappings of fellow priests and the case of Deborah Samuel, a Christian student who on May 13 was accused of blasphemy and brutally murdered by a mob of Muslim students.
Kukah explained that Muslim elites see secular laws as a threat to Islam and, therefore, disregard them. Nigeria’s constitution includes protections of the freedom of religion and prohibits federal or state governments from adopting any religion as a state religion.

Oct. 23 marks the 80th anniversary of diplomatic re-lations between the Holy See and the Republic of China, which exists today in Taiwan.
As surprising as it may seem to many, in Via della Conciliazione 4 in Rome there is the embassy of the Republic of China. Its red flag with a white sun amid a blue rectangle flutters from the balcony.
There is, therefore, a Chinese ambassador to the Holy See, Matthew S. M. Lee, and he comes from Taiwan.
The Embassy of the Re-public of China represents the island of Taiwan. Yet the Va-tican’s diplomatic recognition of China, which began in 1942, does not concern either the People’s Republic of China (which came into existence in 1949) nor, strictly speaking, is it an agreement with Taiwan. Taiwan as such does not exist as an independent legal entity. What we are commenting on here is precisely the relationship between the Holy See and the Republic of China, based in Taiwan.

Myanmar was added on October 21 to a global financial blacklist while Russia was sidelined by the international money-laundering watchdog FATF. The move by the Financial Action Task Force puts Myanmar alongside North Korea and Iran as outcasts of the global financial system.
Citing a “continued lack of progress” and the fact the majority of the actions Myanmar had promised to take had not been completed more than a year after a deadline, the FATF put the country on the so-called blacklist.
Other nations are required to apply enhanced measures to screen transactions with countries on the blacklist to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.
Those measures can act as an impediment to trade and investment.
The Paris-based FATF also further cut back Russia’s role in the organization due to its invasion of Ukraine.

Born in Longview, Wash., on Oct. 31, 1939, he was abandoned by his father, a house painter and farmer, whom his mother repeatedly took to court in fruitless attempts to gain child support.
“He wasn’t abusive; he just left us, and it hurts so badly,” he said. “That’s the essence of it all: I wanted to become a priest to help other kids so they wouldn’t suffer and hurt like I did.”
While still a boy, he left home to join Roman Catholic Redemptorist seminaries in Oakland, Calif., and in Oconomowoc, Wis.
After ordination, he recalled the thrill of preaching his first sermon in a tiny wooden church in South Dakota that had been built by his Irish relatives and seated just 40 people.
“That’s a very important moment for a priest,” he said, pointing to a small framed black-and-white photograph of the church hanging on a wall above his dining table.
When he arrived in Thailand in 1967, on his assigned mission by the Redemptorists, he was first dispatched to the far northeastern part of the country and to Laos. Returning to Bangkok in 1971, after war came to Laos, he was reassigned to Klong Toey, almost as far out of sight as if he had been in the distant highlands.
“The priest there was drunk,” he said, “and I replaced him there, as a drunk and a priest.”
In Klong Toey, he met a Catholic nun, Sister Maria Chantavarodom, now 92, who led him through the narrow lanes and joined him in founding the tiny school in a former pigsty.

Catholic bishops in Asia are working on a pastoral plan for the Church in Asia, taking into consideration the emerging so-cial, economic, religious and po-litical realities on a continent whe-re Christians are a minority.
“What exactly is the reality? How should the Church respond? What priority should we have in the next few years? What should the churches in Asia do? We are in the process of identifying and trying to open ourselves to under-stand these priorities and to see what is the way forward. We want to commit ourselves, the bishops of Asia, to work for a better Asia,” said Cardinal Os-wald Gracias.
“We will present a message to the peoples of Asia and also begin the elements of a final docu-ment which will be like a guide document, a pastoral plan for the Church of Asia,” said the Indian cardinal.
He was among three Asian cardinals, including the president of the Federation of Asian Bi-shops’ Conference (FABC) gene-ral conference, who addressed the press on Oct 24 to help sum up the last 12 days of their meet-ing. Some 20 Cardinals, 120 Bi-shops, 37 priests, eight nuns, and 41 laypeople from 29 coun-tries are taking part in that confe-rence.

A Redemptorist priest who works to console old soldiers in southern Vietnam has been ba-nned from flying to the United States for social safety.
On Oct. 24, Redemptorist Father Joseph Truong Hoang Vu was stopped by public security officers at Tan Son Nhat Inter-national Airport in Ho Chi Minh City while he was due to take a flight to Manila, the Philippines, and then to the US.
In a report issued by the airport’s public security unit, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Doan Van Dac said the 45-year-old priest was not allowed to leave the country for “reasons of social order and safety specified in Article 36 of the 2019 Immigra-tion Law.” The article presents those whose leaving for foreign countries is considered to affect national defence and security by government authorities.
Father Vu, who serves at Can Gio parish in the city, was asked to contact the Public Security Department in Ho Chi Minh City to deal with his complaints.
However, the priest, who was accompanied by two other Re-demptorists, reportedly returned home without filing a complaint about the ban.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ordered a government probe into the Unifi-cation Church on October 17, after the assa-ssination of former premier Shinzo Abe re-newed scrutiny of the sect.
The church has been in the spotlight because the man accused of killing Abe was reportedly motivated by resentment against the group, which has been accused of pre-ssuring adherents to make hefty donations and blamed for child neglect among mem-bers.
Officially known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the organi-zation was founded in Korea by Sun Myung Moon and its members are sometimes called “Moonies.”
The church has denied wrongdoing, but a parade of former members have gone public with criticism of its practices, and revelations about its links with top politicians have help-ed tank Kishida’s approval ratings.
Kishida told parliament on Monday that there were “many victims” of the church and its related groups who had found them-selves in poverty or facing family breakdown.
“Efforts to help them are still insuffi-cient,” he said, so “the government will ex-ercise its right to probe the church, based on the Religious Corporations Act.”
The government also wants to implement other measures, such as strengthening “ini-tiatives to prevent child abuse and help the offspring of religious followers with their education and employment,” Kishida said.

The colourful posters advertising the annual Marian pilgrimage are plastered across Tera village in Pakistan, but they come with an unusual prohibition.
“Photographing or videotaping on mobile phones is prohibited. We are all obliged to respect the holy venue. The incoming guests for pilgrimage are requested to observe the SOPs [standard operating procedures],” state notices said.
The prohibition on mobile phones aims to keep people away from distractions. It also wants to avoid photos of young women being recklessly circulated on social media in the Muslim-majority country where young Catholic women are frequently kidnapped, and forcefully converted to marry Muslims.
The coronation of a Marian statue by young girls is the main attraction of Marian fests, such as the one on October 1 at Saint Mother Teresa Church Tera village in Punjab province.
Hundreds of parishes across Pakistan hold such coronations during October, the month dedicated to Mary and the rosary in the Church calendar.
Preteen Catholics, dressed as brides, walk gracefully towards the grotto or stage holding a gold or silver crown and place it on the Marian statue amid applause and cheers.
These girls, referred to as queens, are usually chosen from a rosary group or Sunday school through a lucky draw. Two children, dressed as angels, help them in holding the crown tray.
Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan dioceses of Punjab province, home to more than 2 million Christians, have set an age limit for these queens following the arrival of the internet and mobile phones in the 1990s.
“The annual practice is aimed at keeping the crowd at bay from the young girls”
Conservative churchgoers label the phone as a smoking gun in the hands of young men in the Islamic Republic where parents keep young people on a tight leash.
As popular dating apps such as Tinder are banned in Pakistan, young people use social media for such purposes.
According to Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad, the restrictions vary in different dioceses. There is no such barrier in the southern region where there are fewer Christians.

A multimillion-dollar graft scandal involving high-ranking leaders in conflict-torn Papua has drawn a public backlash and further impoverished people traumatized by decades of violence.
Indonesia’s anti-graft agency confirmed last month a corruption scandal involving Papua’s top man — Governor Lukas Enembe. He allegedly embezzled around US$36 million of state funds aimed to advance people’s welfare. He allegedly spent the money on casinos overseas and his businesses. If the money had been used appropriately, hundreds of new schools and health facilities could have been built.
The governor claimed the accusations against him are politically motivated.
However, indigenous communities, anti-graft groups and the Church believe that corruption in Papua is rife. They have called on the governor to surrender and follow the legal process accordingly.
But he has refused to do so. The police haven’t arrested him, as his residence is heavily guard-ed by supporters and relatives, fearing it could trigger a clash.
“Twenty years since autonomy status was granted, Papua remains the poorest region in Indonesia.”

Murong Xuecun was one of the brightest stars of China’s literary scene, his novels offering searing critiques of contemporary social issues that few other writers dared to imitate.
But after a decade of diminishing freedom of speech under President Xi Jinping, he could not publish in his own country and was eventually forced into exile. His fate mirrors that of many liberal Chinese intellectuals who tried to shine a light on the system and then fled abroad, were im-prisoned or fell silent.
The 48-year-old writer, whose real name is Hao Qun, left China in August last year after writing “Deadly Quiet City”, a non-fiction account of the 2020 Wuhan coronavirus lockdown released in March.
His Australian publisher believed he would “definitely get arrested” after the book’s release, Murong told AFP from his home in Melbourne.
“They urged me to leave immediately.”
Fearing imminent arrest, Murong sent each page as he wrote it to a friend overseas using encryption software, before deleting it from his computer.
“I told my friend: ‘No matter what happens to me, this book must be published.’”