Twice a day Hong Kong’s virtually de-serted airport fills with the sound of tearful goodbyes as residents fearful for their future under China’s increa-singly authoritarian rule start a new life over-seas, mostly in Britain.
London flights tend to leave in the afternoon and late evening, and for a few hours it briefly feels like the pandemic no longer exists as the airport comes to life.
Check-in desks fill up with crowds of passengers wheeling as much luggage as their tickets will permit.
Accompanied by the loved ones they leave behind, the scenes are emotionally charged and shadowed by a palpable pall of sorrow.
One family has brought along their favourite rice cooker, another a taste of home in the form of local shrimp noodles.
Some take a moment to pray, others pose for a final group photo or share gifts. An elderly lady hands her depart-ing grandchildren tradi-tional good luck red envelopes containing money.
Most of those leaving pause for a final hug before passing through the departure gates, the sound of sobbing continuing long after they have disappeared from view.
Clutching his British National Overseas (BNO) passport, 43-year-old media worker Hanson said he began making plans to leave when he saw footage of police beating democracy supporters in a subway train during protests two years ago.
Then came a new national security law which China imposed on Hong Kong to snuff out dissent.
“It will be a big change for me, quitting my job and starting anew in a foreign place,” he told AFP. “I will miss Hong Kong a lot, but the situa-tion has deteriorated too fast, so I have to go.”

A South Korean priest-run charity is raising funds to provide tents and essential supplies to 300 refugees in Kayah state, a Catholic stronghold in eastern Myanmar. Korea Hope Founda-tion, a charity based in capital Seoul, has Father Choi Ki-sik as chairman of its board. The priest in Seoul Archdiocese has appeal-ed: “Let’s work together for a world where justice and peace flourish. Please join us.”
Father Choi said the refugees from Kayah were forced to flee their homes to avoid death. They are battling cold, hunger and poor sanitation during a long rainy season supply tents, sleeping bags, coats, raincoats, flu and malaria prevention medicines and hygiene products to the refugees, the Catholic Times of Korea reports. The foundation held an emergency support cam-paign in April and May to support the Myanmar Democratization Movement, raising 55 million won (nearly US$47,000) that helped in covering transporta-tion, communication costs and food and medicines for activists and 2,640 refugee families.

Japanese Archbishop Tarci-sio Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo has been appointed as the new Se-cretary General of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.
Archbishop Kikuchi replaced Bishop Stephen Lee Bun-Sang of Macau, who resigned from the post this month.
The FABC announced the archbishops’ appointment in a letter sent to its member episcopal conferences on Thursday, July 22. As secretary general, among his duties is to direct activities of FABC’s central secretariat, exe-cute its resolutions and instru-ctions, and coordinate the work of the federation’s offices.
Born in Miyako, Iwate Pre-fecture in 1958, he was ordained a priest for the Society of the Divine Word on March 15, 1986.
He was sent to Ghana’s Korofidua diocese following his ordination, becoming the first Japanese priest to go to Africa as a missionary.
In 1999, he was elected provincial superior of the SVD missionaries in Japan.

Pope Francis appointed Fr Linku Lenard Gomes, 39, as Secretary to the Apostolic Nun-ciature in Panama on 1 July.
The clergyman received the decision with a mixture of emo-tion and amazement. “Although I am not the most eligible, God chose me for his work. I will surely use my talents to perform my service in the best possible way.”
A native of the Diocese of Rajshahi, Fr Linku is the first priest from Bangladesh to join the Vatican diplomatic corps. He is scheduled to take up his post on 1 August. The priest is grate-ful to Bishop Gervas Rozario of Rajshahi for “encouraging me to pursue higher studies in Canon Law. I shall never stop thanking him.”
Fr Linku was born on 17 November 1981 in Natore, Borni parish, Diocese of Rajshahi, in a deeply devout Catholic family of six sons and two daughters.
He became a priest on 27 December 2013 and is one of 50 priests and nuns from Bangladesh to be engaged in missionary work abroad, a sign of an increasingly missionary vocation of the local Church.

Five members of a Hong Kong union behind a series of children’s books about sheep trying to hold back wolves from their village have been arrested for sedition, police announced on July 22.
The arrests by the new national security police unit, which is spearheading a sweeping crackdown on dissent, are the latest action against pro-demo-cracy activists since huge and often violent protests convulsed the city two years ago.

Police have arrested three people in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province for attacking a Protestant church.
The attackers threw stones at the church belonging to the Congregation of Christ Church in the provincial capital Samarinda on July 8, smashing its windows, according to police. The three were arrested soon after the early-morning attack after police examined the church’s CCTV footage.
Samarinda’s police chief, Inspector Creato Sonitehe Gulo, told reporters that the attackers were vendors based in front of the church.
They were angry at not being able to tap into the church’s electricity supply to light their stalls after it was shut off when the church closed recently due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The attack was not motivated by religion or race, Gulo said.
Nevertheless, Reverend Gomar Gultom, chairman of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, condemned the attack.
“We are really concerned about such a violent act against a place of worship, particularly during this pandemic. We all want a peaceful life in this difficult situation,” he told on July 9.
The Protestant pastor called on the church’s members not to retaliate.
Reverend Analita Migang, chairwoman of the East Kalimantan chapter of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, said the church’s pastor intends to meet with the disgruntled vendors to iron out the problems.

The new wave of Covid-19 in Vietnam is putting a strain on the poor. How-ever, it is also an opportunity for many to discover the vitality of Catholic realities as in the parish of Hòa Hung, in the archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City, which is not at all discouraged in these difficult times.
In 1946, the Catholic community in Hòa Hung numbered just 46, but today it has grown to about 9,000. In the compound there is rice and bread distribution for the poor, a drinking water station, a hostel for female students, a support group for those who live by collecting rubbish. Father Joseph Ph¡m Bá Lãm, parish priest, explains that the rice distribution has been active for seven years now and is supported by monthly offerings from benefactors.
“It continues to operate even today with the pandemic,” he explains, “while members of the Catholic Association visit the poorest families”. As for the drinking water station, Father Lãm says it was set up three years ago and provides clean water every day to all the residents of the neighbourhood, Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
The Pastoral Council creates the conditions for all the faithful of the parish to participate in the activities. The groups of elderly people,” says Peter Nguyen, one of the leaders, “have been working together with the Dominicans. The group of Catholic mothers is involved in charitable activities. The Eucharistic Youth Movement has also set up aid missions for people living in remote areas in the mountains: before leaving, a project is prepared with the Catholic Association of the parish, which is then checked on return”. The parish has also asked the local authorities for a list of poor families living in the neighbourhood, and on the basis of this information is supporting them all with rice and essential goods.

A court in Hanoi has jailed a dissident writer who used to work for a state-run radio station for satirizing government leaders.
On July 9, the People’s Court of Hanoi City sentenced Pham Chi Thanh to five-and-a-half years in jail for “making, hoard-ing, disseminating and spreading information and documents against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” under the Penal Code’s Article 117.
Thanh, who used to work as an editor at the state-controlled radio station Voice of Vietnam until he was sacked for writing articles criticizing China in 2007, will serve five years’ probation after finishing his jail term. He was also fined 18 million dong (US$782) for selling his book The thien hanh dao hay dai nghich bat dao (Holder of the mandate of heaven or great immoral traitor).
The 69-year-old dissident writer, who was arrested in May 2020, was accused of distributing 220 copies of his book to readers in Vietnam and abroad. His self-published book includes his posts that allegedly “distorted information and vilified the people’s government that caused social concern.”

A Lutheran bishop in Pakistan has opposed an act that mandates a federal ministry to sell the properties of religious minorities.
Under the Protection of Communal Properties of Minorities Act, 2020, a “ministry concerned” is mandated to issue a no-objection certificate for the sale / purchase / transfer / gifts of minority properties on the re-commendation of the National Commission for Minorities.
The National Assembly’s standing committee on religious affairs and interfaith harmony has approved the bill.
“We reject this ordinance. It only paves the way for selling these properties. It is a conspiracy against Christians. We shall challenge it in court,” said Bishop Jimmy Mathew of Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The bishop, who also spear-heads the Save the Church Property Movement, was addressing a July 6 press conference at the National Press Club Islamabad.
The act has sent shivers of unease through the Church of Pakistan, which has been engaged in court cases to reclaim land from rival factions. The disputed Protestant properties include schools, shops, church compounds and missionary and educational organizations.

Yousaf Adnan remembers retiring as principal of a Pakistani high school in 2011 due to a shortage of funds.
“After serving for two decades in the Catholic school, my salary was only 5,700 rupees [US$36]. The teachers used to get half of that amount. The ceiling fans were as old as our careers,” Adnan, 56, told.
“Summers were especially tough for the students amid frequent power cuts. There was no generator. Our parish priest had lost interest in the building.”
St Paul High School was located in Hajvery Town, a Christian neighbourhood of Faisalabad Diocese with more than 400 families. Students, most of them from poor families, paid 150-300 rupees in monthly fees.
The school officially closed in 2014. One of the remaining teachers is now running the facility on a self-help basis with only 60 children.
“It is one of the 63 schools that closed in Faisalabad Diocese in recent years. Most of them were primary schools [up to grade 5],” said Adnan, who now runs an organization for minority rights.