“In light of the difficulties and challenges you face in the midst of the current situation in the Middle East, and in light of the bleak migration that threatens your future and the Christian presence [in the region] as a whole, we stand by you,” the Conference of the Catholic Patriarchs of the East wrote in a statement capping their Nov. 26-30 annual meeting in Baghdad.

The meeting ran under the theme “Youth is a sign of hope in the Middle East countries.”

“As we share the same present pain, we look forward to a bright future with your presence, and we assure you that we will work together to provide the foundations of your steadfastness and steadfastness in your land,” the patriarchs said, as reported by Catholic News Service.

The last official census in Iraq in 2003 put the Christian population there at between 1.2 million and 2.1 million but their numbers have since dwindled to about a quarter of a million, according to the American NGO Open Doors.

Cardinal Louis Sako, Patriarch of Chaldean Catholics, drew attention to the danger posed by groups like Islamic State (IS), which routinely target Iraqi Christians and other religious minorities for kidnappings and killings.

Filipino Catholics are not letting relentless attacks by President Rodrigo Duterte on the church and its leaders go unchallenged. An influential lay organization has called on Catholics “to stand up for God and defend our faith in Him … [and] renew our commitment to go and fill our churches.”

The Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas, the Council of the Laity, said “more than ever, [Catholics] are called upon to live a life worthy of our Christian vocation.”

Julieta Wasan, its president, called on Catholics to proclaim their faith “courageously” not only through words but especially “by the life that we live as faithful followers of Christ.”

The Catholic Theological Society of the Philippines, mean-while, has expressed its “solidarity” with Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, who has been a major target of Duterte’s vitriolic attacks. The president claimed the prelate stole money from church collections and even insinuated that the bishop may even be involved in illegal drugs, making him a target for extrajudicial killing, according to some observers.

About 100 Protestant Christians and seminary students were arrested in Chengdu (Sichuan) between 9 and 10 December. Some of the faithful, later released claimed they were “raped and abused” by the policemen who kept them in custody.

Among those arrested are Pastor Wang Yi and his wife Jiang Rong , taken away by the police; two others, Guo Hai and his wife, were dragged away from home, leaving their two children alone.

Many were arrested at the community headquarters; others were taken from their homes. The arrests continued even today, when Li Yingqiang, who had hidden himself in the first raid and warned the media, was also arrested.

The community has about 500 members and 300 sympathizers. It is not new to arrests and raids. Last June their headquarters was closed because the community had wanted to remember the people killed in the Tiananmen massacre with a memorial service. Some of his members were arrested two months ago because they were evangelizing in the street near the Chengdu station.

Thousands of impoverished ethnic minority women in Myanmar’s war-torn Kachin and Shan States have been forced into marriages in neighbouring China, say the authors of a new study published by Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

Thousands more disadvantaged women in the country’s mountainous northern most rural hinterland remain at risk of being trafficked across the border to marry local Chinese men against their will and bear children for them, the experts warn.

For the study, which is the most comprehensive research of its kind to date, experts from the American university teamed up with the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand, a rights group, to conduct surveys in 40 communities around three adjacent administrative areas: Kachin State and northern Shan State as well as Yunnan province in China.

All told, researchers say, about 7,500 ethnic minority women in economically disadvantaged communities have in recent years been lured by human traffickers into forced marriages in China on false promises. Three-quarters of the women were found to have borne children in these unions.

“These women are usually undocumented, members of minorities, poor and undereducated, and don’t know how to get legal redress [after being trafficked]. This is known to traffickers who exploit it,” says W. Courtland Robinson, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health who was the study’s lead author.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte renewed his attacks on Catholic leaders and urged Filipinos to stop going to church altogether.

The president, who earlier this year called God “stupid,” suggested in a Nov. 26 speech that people should instead build their own chapels where they can pray.

“You don’t have to go to Church to pay for these idiots,” said Duterte referring to bishops who have condemned the wave of drug-related killings in the country.

Duterte’s tirade against church leaders came days after he accused Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan of giving church donations to his family. He offered no supporting evidence for his accusation.

“You, David, you be quiet. You go on asking for contributions. …Where does the people’s money go?” the president said on November 22.

“You know, the truth is, I tell you, the offerings, the pineapple, avocado, bananas, where do they go? You want to know? I will show you. To his family,” Duterte said.

“The fool just keeps on asking — there is even a second collection,” he added.

In a statement, David, a vocal critic of drug-related killings in the Philippines, said “people who are sick sometimes do not know what they are talking about.”

Earlier this month, the bishop asked the public to pray for Duterte because he is a “very sick man.” He made the statement after the president called saints “fools” and “drunkards.”

David’s pronouncement seemed to anger the president. Duterte said on Nov. 26 that he thought that the bishop might be into drugs. “I’m telling you, David. I wonder why he goes around in the evening. I suspect that he might be into drugs,” he said.

Four Finnish citizens were arrested on Langkawi Island, a well-known tourist destination in Kedah State, for allegedly distributing pamphlets related to Christianity, local police reported. If convicted, they could get two to five years in prison.

On Langkawi, the largest island in the eponymous archipelago, Police Chief Mohamad Iqbal Ibrahim said that his officers arrested two men and two women after members of the public complained.

The Finns, aged between 27 and 60, were arrested at a hotel and the police seized their pens, notebooks and a bag. They are accused of breaking laws that ban disturbing religious harmony.

Religion is a very sensitive issue in Malaysia, where over 60% of the population is Muslim. Critics argue that, in recent years, religious conservatism has grown undermining the religious tolerance that once characterised Islam in the country.

According to official statistics, 9 percent of the Malaysian population is Christian, half of them Catholic. The government however does not differentiate the various Churches.

Card Charles Maung Bo will be the new president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) On 1st January 2019. The archbishop of Yangon (Myanmar) was elect- ed in Bangkok (Thailand), at a meeting of the FABC Central Committee.

The Myanmar cardinal replaces Card Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay (India), who will end his second term as FABC head on 31 December. Gracias was also FABC general secretary between January and December 2012.

A member of the Salesian Society of St John Bosco, Card Bo was born on 29 October 1948 in Monhla, a village in the Archdiocese of Mandalay.

After studying at the Nazareth Aspirantate in Anisakan, Pyin Oo Lwin, from 1962 to 1976, he made his temporary vows on 24 May 1970, followed by perpetual vows on 10 March 1976.

He was ordained as a Salesian priest in Lashio (Shan State) on 9 April 1976. He served as pastor in Loihkam (1976-1981) and Lashio (1981-1983). From 1983 to 1985, he taught in the seminary of Anisakan.

Chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar has said blasphemy accused Aasia Bibi ‘was trapped’ without any proofs and that sending her abroad for protection would be tantamount to failure of the state. The CJP, who is currently in London, expressed these views on November 22 while visiting the British Parliament where he was welcomed by British lawmakers of Pakistani origin – Afzal Khan and Faisal Rasheed.

According to a TV channel, the CJP said Aasia Bibi – who was absolved of blasphemy charges by the apex court on October 31 – should get full protection in Pakistan rather than abroad.

“Providing her security is responsibility of the government; it is responsibility of the state of Pakistan to protect life and property of every citizen. If Aasia Bibi is sent abroad or given asylum in any other country it will be failure of the government and the state,” he said.

The CJP, who headed the bench that set the Christian woman free, said every possible effort should be done to provide Bibi more and more protection in Pakistan. “If we set such an example, the chain will continue,” he added.

To a question about putting her name on the Exit Control List (ECL), he said it is not a suitable time to express his thoughts on this question as the case could be brought to his court. “I assure you, however, that our law has no such provision. The judiciary will not give any illegal judgement about it,” he added.

When asked as to why the Supreme Court did not take notice of the recent sit-ins and protest that erupted in the wake of its October 31 verdict in Aasia Bibi case, he said: “Just wait for a few days and you will get the answer to this question.”

Textbooks for high school  students in Saudi Arabia promote hatred against Jews, Christians, women, homosexual men and other Muslim sects despite repeated promises to return the country to a more moderate form of Islam, according to a report released.

The Anti-Defamation League highlighted that some text books include anti-Semitic stereotypes.

Among the goals of Zionism is a “global Jewish government to control the entire world,” one excerpt states.

Another example reads: “The hour will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, so that the Muslims kill them, until the Jew hides behind rock and tree, so the rock or the tree says: ‘Oh Muslim, oh servant of God, this Jew is behind me, so kill him.’”

A third passage suggests that “beating [women] is permitted when necessary.”

Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and for decades has exported a strict Wahhabi form of Sunni Islam that views Shiite Muslims as heretics.

Intolerance in the kingdom came under particular scrutiny after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when it emerged that 15 out of the 19 hijackers were Saudi.