Communist authorities in territory covered by the Anhui Diocese removed crosses from the top of two church buildings, sources told ucanews.com April 27. The sources said they fear more such actions.

Authorities removed the cross of Our Lady of the Rosary Church April 18, said a man ucanews.com identified only as “John, a source in the diocese.”

He said the parish was registered with the government, but had no priests or nuns to lead its religious activities. Lay parishioners managed parish religious programs.

Five days before the incident, John told ucanews.com, parish leaders approached local authorities about repairing the building, but officials said the plan was to remove the crosses of both Catholic and Protestant churches in the area.

On April 16, a local government official asked parishioners for the keys to the church. “They wanted to enter the church and remove the cross,” John said.

The local official told the parishioners that officials were acting on the “directions from superiors.” However, no documents were produced to prove the claim.

The parishioners reported the developments to Bishop Liu Xinhong of Anhui. He directed them to go to the local office of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and ask for details, but local officials of the association denied having information on the matter.

In another incident in Anhui Diocese April 19, a cross was removed from a church in Suzhou City around 4 a.m., said a parishioner identified only as Paul. The cross was originally scheduled to be removed in the afternoon.

Catholic churches in South Korea have resumed community prayers, maintaining strict precautions of social distancing as they gathered for worship after a gap of two months.

With Cheongju and Jeonju dioceses resuming public services on April 28, at least 12 of the 16 dioceses in the country have resumed public worship, which was stopped around Ash Wednesday on Feb. 26 as a way to check the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Religious activities resumed as social and economic life gathered steam after authorities lifted restrictions on public meetings on April 26 following a drop in virus infections.

Seoul Archdiocese was among the first to resume Masses on April 23 and conducted Sun-day Mass on April 26, but it insisted on registration of worshipers to restrict their numbers.

Church and civil authorities have asked people to wear masks and keep social distancing norms within churches as a precaution.

“I’m very happy to celebrate Mass with you beloved people after missing Masses for two months, including Easter Mass,” said Auxiliary Bishop Benedict Son Heesong, the vicar general of Seoul. “We cannot sing hymns [for fear of spreading the virus through droplets] and we have to restrict numbers.”

President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar has joined the call of the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres and Pope Francis, for a global cease-fire to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement released in Yangon on 22 April 2020 Cardinal Bo addressed the situation in his own country, Myanmar, and called for an end to hostilities worldwide.

“Without cessation of fighting everywhere,” he says, “the suffering of many will be prolonged the world over and healing delayed indefinitely.”

“The whole planet is in crisis. Every initiative now taken by our leaders will shape our nation and our world for years to come. The pandemic’s consequences are catastrophic for public health and for social and economic life,” the cardinal warned.

Making a passionate appeal to the nation’s leaders the cardinal said, “If we truly wish Myanmar to emerge a united, peaceful, prosperous people, now is the time for speedy, aggressive, respectful decision. Now is the time for wise, coherent, future oriented action. This is no time to escalate conflict.”

“I am convinced that continued military operations, precisely when the whole nation is suffering a crisis, will have catastrophic consequences for our nation,” the cardinal mourned.

The cardinal who is also archbishop of Yangon exhorted Myanmar leaders, “Now is the time for decisions that will build Myanmar as a united, peaceful, prosperous nation and member of the family of nations. Conflict makes Myanmar especially vulnerable.”

For nearly a decade now, Sumon Gomes has seen how his family’s peaceful coexistence with paternal uncles and cousins has come to an end over a land dispute.

Gomes, 35, is a Catholic father and private jobholder in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka. He hails from Nawabganj, about 40 kilometers from Dhaka, where his grandfather owned 20 bighas (6.66 acres) of ancestral land.

Trouble brewed between his father and three uncles as they sought to divide the land after their father’s death.

“My father wanted an equal share of land for each brother, but he found one of my uncles was occupying more land than he was entitled to. When he objected, my uncle filed a case against him. It soured our relationship,” Gomes told UCA News.

While the court case is ongoing, Gomes’ family has stopped talking to his uncle’s family.

“I feel sad when I see joint families living happily and peacefully, but our relationship has worsened over a land dispute. I am not sure we will ever have a better relationship,” he lamented.

Catholic couple Mintu N. Rozario and Ruby T. Rozario migrated to Libya in 2008 as expatriate workers. They are now based in Tajura near Libyan capital Tripoli with their four children.

Mintu is employed at the International Committee of the Red Cross and Ruby is a staff nurse in a hospital.

A US government watchdog has recommended the State Department designate Pakistan as a “country of particular concern” for engaging in systematic, on-going and egregious violations of religious freedom.

After documenting developments during 2019, the commission pinpointed 14 countries. These include nine that the State Department designated as of particular concern in December 2019 — Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan — as well as India, Nigeria, Russia, Syria and Vietnam.

“In 2019, religious freedom conditions across Pakistan continued to trend negatively,” it said, noting there were some high-profile acquittals including that of Asia Bibi, a Catholic woman who spent eight years on death row after being wrongly accused of blasphemy.

“The systematic enforcement of blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws, and authorities’ failure to address forced conversions of religious minorities — including Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs — to Islam, severely restricted freedom of religion or belief.” The USCIRF sad it is aware of nearly 80 individuals who remain imprisoned for blasphemy in Pakistan, with at least half facing a life sentence or death.

A mob also attacked a Christian community in Punjab after a mosque claimed over its loudspeaker that the community had insulted Islam. In another incident, nearly 200 Christian families in Karachi were forced to flee their homes due to mob attacks after false blasphemy accusations against four Christian women, according to the report.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is facing a barrage of criticism after urging Christians to stay at home and maintain social distancing during Easter.

“Wishing all our Christian citizens a happy Easter. Please stay safe and keep your families safe during the Covid-19 pandemic by praying and celebrating at home; and by observing the national safety protocols,” said the PM in his Easter message.

While some praised the prime minister for wishing the country’s minority community well, others were quick to point out Khan’s silence on Muslim worshipers defying the coronavirus lockdown.

Several video clips have emerged in recent days showing angry mobs beating and chasing male and female police officers during Friday congregations.

The Khan administration is particularly accused of a slow response to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus which has killed more than 114,000 people globally.

According to experts, the federal government wasted a lot of precious time in declaring a ban on daily mosque prayers and Friday congregations.

As a result, more than 700 members of a prominent Muslim missionary group who congregated in Lahore from March 10-12 have tested positive, according to government data. The group is being blamed by some for the local transmission of the virus.

On the other hand, Catholics and other minority groups shut down churches even before the national lockdown was declared.

The coronavirus pandemic is changing just about everything.

That is clearest in the people who sicken, those who die, those whose lives are upended, those whose livelihood has disappeared. These are some of the direct effects of the disease.

There are many other effects not directly related to the illness that are manifesting themselves in the context of the pandemic. One major one is the proliferation of anti-scientific “theories” of the “truth” behind the scourge.

So, some people convinced that spread of the virus is aided, if not caused, by telecommunications equipment have burned internet transmission towers in the UK. An archbishop in Sri Lanka without presenting any evidence has advanced the “theory” that the virus was created by researchers.

Conspiracy theorists are working overtime to find any unreason at all that in their minds refutes what research and expertise have repeatedly demonstrated.

Other trends that had already been moving through societies at various speeds have accelerated while those societies are preoccupied. Racist and anti-democratic movements in societies and governments have advanced their objectives in Europe, the United States and elsewhere.

The Catholic Church, too, is undergoing a great change under pressure from the present situation. Some of that change was already underway but may now accelerate. It remains to be seen where it leads.

For decades, the decline in the number of priests has been obvious to us all. The answer until now has been for leaders in the Vatican, where there is a surplus of priests but a shortage of laity, to call for more prayer and sacrifice.

Sri Lankan Catholics have forgiven the 2019 Easter suicide attackers who brought terror to the island nation a year ago, said the cardinal of Colombo.

“Not only did Catholics die, but the bombs killed Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims,” said Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith as he celebrated Easter Mass April 12.

“It is human nature to hurt people through anger, but we have given up that human nature and chosen the life of the resurrection of the Lord. Resurrection is the complete rejection of selfishness,” the cardinal said. His remarks were reported by ucanews.com.

“We have taught them that lesson, not hating anyone in any way. This is what civilization means and that is the Resurrection.”

Nine suicide bombers affiliated with a local Islamist extremist group blasted three churches and three luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, killing at least 279 people, including 37 foreign nationals, and injuring about 500. They carried out coordinated bomb attacks at St Sebastian Church in Negombo, St Anthony Shrine in Colombo and the evangelical Zion Church in Batticaloa.

St Sebastian Church and St Anthony Shrine were consecrated and reopened to the public, but Zion Church is still being renovated by the military.

After the bombings, the general public and religious leaders blamed politicians and government officials for failing to prevent the attacks.

Rights groups have asked communist Vietnam to release all prisoners of conscience as a way to save them from the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

On April 4, Vietnam-based Human Rights Defenders said the pandemic is spreading across Vietnam and the number of infections may surge if the government fails to apply proper measures or demand all citizens strictly obey preventive measures.

The group, which works to systematically report and document serious human rights violations in the country, said prisoners of conscience and people being held at prison camps and temporary detention centres are most vulnerable to Covid-19 infection.