A Catholic priest has been shot dead near a Carmelite monastery in Bukidnon province in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao. The body of Father Rene Regalado, 42, was found near his car in Malaybalay City on Jan. 24. He had been shot in the head. Malaybalay Diocese said it had received reports that churchgoers had heard gunshots around 7.30 pm, adding it took at least an hour for police to arrive at the scene.

Civil and political groups in the Philippines have lent their weight in a growing row by condemning the government for breaking a 30-year-old agreement with the country’s top state university over allowing security forces onto its campuses.
The deal required police and the military to seek permission from administrators of the University of the Philippines (UP) if they wanted to enter its grounds.
The university, which has 32 campuses across the country, has become a hive of “clandestine recruitment” activity by communist rebels and needed saving, according to the Defence Department.
University bosses and students deny the claim, saying its an attempt to stifle freedom of expression at an institution well known for its criticism of President Rodrigo Duterte’s rule.
On Jan. 21, a Philippine labour coalition said protection from state forces should not only apply to places of learning.

“The merciless murder of Abida and Sajida is a tragedy that shows how the lives of religious minorities in Pakistan are held by a thread or is worthless. Rape, kidnappings, forced conversions and even murders of young Christian girls are worrying phenomena. The government must not deny this and has the duty to stop the violence against Christians.” This is what Nasir Saeed, Director of the NGO CLAAS (Centre for Legal Aid Assistance & Settlement) said in a note sent to Agenzia Fides, commenting on the case in recent days which has provoked outrage and the protest of the community of the faithful in Pakistan.
Two young Christian sisters, Abida, 26, and Sajida, 28, residing in the Christian neighbourhood of Makhan, near Lahore, were murdered last December after stubbor-nly refusing to convert to Islam. Police arrested two Muslims, Mumtaz Khan and Muhammad Naeem, suspected of killing the women. As Fides learned, Mushtaq Masih, Sajida’s husband, reported that the two sisters worked in a medicine factory and that they disappeared on Nov. 26, 2020. The family filed a formal complaint following their disappearance, reporting to the police his fears of kidnapping, as the two sisters had indicated that they had been often sexually harassed and had received from two work colleagues, Muhammad Naeem and Mumtaz Khan, the request, always rejected, to convert to Islam. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has pledged to ensure minorities are safe and happy in Pakistan. When we see cases of false accusations of blasphemy, kidnappings, forced conversions and murder of Christian girls, it must be emphasized that, in practice, this is not true and that the condition of Christians in society is getting worse” (PA). Nearly 1,000 girls from religious minorities who are forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan each year, largely to pave the way for marriages that are under the legal age and non-consensual.

The Bible is America’s best-selling book, annually outpacing the top 20 best sellers combined. Yet a single Chinese company has a near monopoly on Bible printing, meaning that any rupture in the supply chain—say, from U.S. or Chinese government poli-cies—would lead to a Bible shortage in America. This poses a serious threat both to American Christians’ fundamental religious liberty rights and to national security.
More than 20 million Protestant and Catholic Bibles are printed annually by America’s largest Bible publishing compa-nies. But few are aware that most of these Bibles are printed in China, by Amity Printing Company. (Bible publishers that don’t print in China include InterVarsity Press [IVP], St Ignatius Press, St Benedict Press, Cambridge University Press, R.L. Allan & Son, and Schuyler Bibles). Thanks to American publishing decisions, American Christians rely on a state that represses Christianity for their Bibles. While China intensifies religious persecution at home and is considered by U.S. Intelligence to be “the greatest threat to America today,” this Bible supply chain is increasingly precarious. Yet the Bible publishers have no plans to use alternative printing presses.
The supply chain was tested in 2019, when the Trump administration proposed broad trade tariffs to better balance U.S.-China trade relations. As the plan included tariffs against Bibles, America’s Bible publishers found themselves alongside Beijing vociferously lobbying Washington against the measure. Harper Collins Christian Publishing (HCCP), now the world’s largest Bible publisher (having acquired Zondervan and Thomas Nelson), uses Amity to print most of its Bibles, as does Tyndale House, America’s largest privately-owned Christian publisher. HCCP CEO Mark Schoen-wald denounced the proposed tariff before the U.S. Trade Commission last year. He called it a “Bible tax,” and argued that it would force his company to reduce sales and discontinue some Bible editions. The Trump administration quickly exempted Bibles from the China tariffs.
Christian ministry publishers lobbied as well, arguing that the tariffs would curb First Amendment rights. Stan Jantz, president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, declared that the tariffs would do “significant damage to Bible accessibility.” He stated before the Trade Commission that “some believe such a tariff would place a practical limitation on religious freedom.”

Bangladeshi religious minority groups have urged the government to introduce the reading of scriptures of all four major religions at the beginning of parliamentary sessions and state ceremonies.
Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHB-CUC), the country’s largest minority group, made the call during a virtual conference this week.
Parliamentary sessions and state programs in Muslim-majority Bangladesh now begin with a recitation from the Quran.
BHBCUC leaders say intro-ducing readings from the holy books of the four major religions would be a significant symbolic gesture to behold pluralism in Bangladesh on the eve of the country’s golden jubilee of independence from Pakistan this year.
Advocate Rana Dasgupta, a Supreme Court lawyer and BHBCUC secretary, said that such a move is important as it recognizes the equal dignity and rights of minorities.
“Our constitution has given equal rights for all religions but only a recitation from Quran is done in the parliament and in various state functions. We hope that by introducing the reading of all scriptures we can fill a void that the spirit of the constitution has enshrined,” Das told UCA News on Jan. 8.
Das said the group will hold a press conference and submit a memorandum to the parliament speaker to press the government over their demand. Holy Cross Father Liton H. Gomes, secretary of the Catholic bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission, support-ed the move.

The Diocese of Can Tho opened two supermarkets at the start of the month where the poor affected by the coronavirus pan-demic can get basic necessities for free. One is in Sông Ñc pari-sh, the other in Cái Tac parish.
Vietnam is one of the coun-tries that seems to have better managed the COVID-19 crisis. So far it has reported just over 1,500 cases, with 1,360 hospitalisations and 35 deaths. Despite this, many Vietnamese are facing hardships.
Volunteers run the two supermarkets, also known as “solidarity shops,” the most popular form of charity in Vietnam. The Diocese helps families in difficulty, orphans and people with disabilities.
The beneficiaries have a booklet where the products they receive each month are registered, mostly salt, sugar, rice, fish soup and cooking oil. In Cái Tac more than a hundred families get supplies from one supermarket; each booklet gives the right to get 100,000 dong (US$ 4.3) worth in goods per month.
Bishop Stêphanô Tri Bíu Thiên of Can Tho said that many Catholics face serious economic conditions, and this required some action. “After talking with local priests, we decided to help those who need it most,” the prelate explained, based on Pope Francis’s teachings about the “culture of care as a path to peace.”
–AsiaNews

“We appreciate the government’s renewed commitment to the protection of religious minorities in Pakistan, especially for the protection of those falsely accused and for the protection of innocent underage girls trapped in forced conversions and marriages. The initiative of the Government Office for Interreligious Harmony will certainly strengthen peace and harmony between people of different religions and help ensure that members of religious minorities do not to live in fear.”

Iraq’s Chamber of Deputies voted on a bill sanctioning Christmas as a “national holiday with an annual frequency” for all citizens. Welcoming the news as a source of great “joy and satisfaction” and confirmation of the importance of “the Christian presence” for the whole country, Chaldean patriarch, Card Louis Raphael Sako explains: “Parliament voted on our request to consider Christmas a holiday for all Iraqis.” And the motion “passed, to our great satisfaction.”
Interviewed by AsiaNews, Msgr Basilio Yaldo, auxiliary of Baghdad and general coordinator of the Iraqi Church Pope Francis’ imminent visit to Iraq, speaks of a “historic vote, because today Christmas is truly a celebration for all Iraqis. And this happens for the first time.”
In the past, he adds, “the government granted Christians a day off, now it applies to everyone and it will be for years to come. It is no longer a temporary measure to be renewed every year. This is a message of great value and great hope for Christians and for all of Iraq and is inevitably linked to the pontiff’s apostolic journey to our country in March. This is one of the first fruits we hope will bring many others in the future.”
On October 17, the Chaldean primate met the President of the Republic Barham Salih. In addition to the situation of Christians, Card Sako had forwarded the “official request” to the head of state to proclaim the birth of Jesus a “holiday for all.” The green light arrived recently is a further recognition for a community victim in recent decades of serious sectarian violence and targeted attacks that have triggered a massive exodus. A flight that reduced the original population of the early 2000s to a third.
“His Beatitude and Eminence – reads a note released by the patriarchate – thanks the President of the Iraqi Republic Barham Salih, for having adopted the request […] to make Christmas (December 25th) a national holiday every year. He also thanks Muhammad al-Halbousi and the parliamentarians for their favourable vote for the good of Christian citizens.” – AsiaNews

The U.S. State Department on Dec. 7 designated China a “country of particular concern” for its systematic, egregious, and ongoing violations of the religious freedom of its citizens.
The Chinese Communist Party has rightly been under scrutiny for its persecution of religious groups, including the internment of Uighurs in concentration camps in Xinjiang and the organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners, as well as for arrests and imprisonment of followers for reason of their practice, the destruction of church buildings and symbols, and the arrest or intimidation of Christians holding private Bible studies.
At a recent event on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s Third Committee session, the Jubilee Campaign—together with the Coordination of Associations and Individuals for Freedom of Conscience—brought the untold stories of Chinese children’s experiences of religious persecution.
The left is actively working to undermine the integrity of our elections. Read the plan to stop them now. The event exposed the fact that the Chinese Communist Party has utterly failed to uphold its treaty obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which China is a signatory.
While entire religious communities have been persecuted in China because of their religious and spiritual beliefs, children have suffered tenfold.
The government has separated children from their parents and has threatened to beat the children if the parents do not renounce their faith. Government authorities have even threatened parents of adopted children that they will forcibly take away those children, return them to their original families, or put them up for adoption again if the family does not give up its beliefs.
In addition, in keeping with the 2018 Revised Regulations on Religious Affairs in China, local authorities have interpreted the regulation to ban attendance for all children at churches and other houses of worship, as well as to prohibit children from attending any religious activities, such as religious summer camps, or religious instruction, such as Sunday school.

A court in central Vietnam has imposed a harsh prison sentence on an elderly poet and blogger for his posts critical of the communist government.
On Dec. 15, the People’s Court of Nghe An Province sentenced 68-year-old Tran Duc Thach to 12 years in prison for charges of “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s government” under Article 109 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code. He will also have to serve another three years’ probation after his sentence.
Vietnam News Agency reported that Thach, who was arrested in April, was accused of writing and posting articles distorting the country’s political, economic and social events, and smearing government leaders on Facebook from May 2019 to March 2020.
The state-run agency said the former soldier, who served with North Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War, was among five co-founders of the Brotherhood for Democracy, which is banned by the government. Many of its members have been jailed since its establishment in 2013.
It said his crimes were seen as being dangerous and aimed at fighting the one-party government.
Thach had been imprisoned for three years in 2009 for “conducting propaganda against the state” along with his two fellow dissidents Vu Van Hung and Pham Van Troi. However, he was among over 10,000 prisoners granted amnesty in 2011 to mark the country’s National Day.
His poetry describes life without freedom and justice, while his novels cover human rights abuses and the legal system in the Southeast Asian country.