Nearly a month after Cyclone Ditwah devastated Sri Lanka, over a million people still require urgent help, as inundations and prolonged rain continue to aggravate the situation. The cyclone struck the country’s eastern coast on 28 November, causing 643 deaths and 183 people missing.

As of today, the UN warns that about 1.8 million Sri Lankans are still dealing with the consequences of the disaster, with two-thirds of them in need of humanitarian assistance, including nearly half a million children. Local authorities and relief workers confirmed widespread destruction across all nine provinces, with significant disruption to public services and increased risks for the most vulnerable.

In addition, about 30 per cent of families are reportedly reducing their food intake as hunger looms. According to recent World Bank estimates, property damage could reach nearly $4.1 billion — around 4% of the country’s GDP. Yet, post-disaster recovery and needs are expected to be much higher.

As reported by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), serious shortcomings in child protection, education, and nutrition are becoming evident. There are also difficulties in using water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. Numerous children are still displaced in temporary shelters or are living with host families, where they lack adequate lighting, privacy and hygiene.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) calculates that nearly 300,000 people are currently unable to live in their own properties. Some of them are hosted by locals, while others are taking shelter in schools, places of worship and temporary dormitories. Humanitarian agencies stress that without sufficient financial backing and constant support, the road to recovery will be long.

The cows they raised were meant to be a lifeline, not a death sentence. For Johan Soren, 66, and his brother Philip Soren, 55, the sale of their two bulls and two calves—for a desperate price of 40,000 rupees — was the only way to fund the urgent medical care for Johan’s ailing wife.

But that small, necessary transaction turned into a nightmare on August 19. As the two Catholic tribal farmers walked their animals along Malipada Road, they were ambushed by a mob of nearly 16 men, who identified themselves as “Gau Rakshaks” (cow vigilantes). Their cries of protest that the animals were their own, legally sold to a trader were ignored. The mob allegedly beat the brothers, leaving them bleeding and barely conscious on the roadside.

“We told them we were selling our own cattle to save my wife’s life,” a relative recounted later. “They just laughed and said we were smugglers.” These days, the brothers lie in a hospital bed. Johan has been diagnosed with multiple fractured ribs, an injury that makes every breath a struggle. Philip’s hand is broken, shattering his ability to work their small plot of land. The fight for justice has been as brutal as the assault itself. Local police initially refused to register a formal complaint, allegedly questioning the victims’ legal right to their own cattle. It took the intervention of the Superintendent of Police on August 23 to finally force the registration of an FIR.

The World Apostolate of Fatima (WAF), a Public International Association of the Faithful of Pontifical Right, held a two-day Marian Congress on July 15–16 in Pilar, Goa, marking 70 years of the Apostolate’s mission in the region. The event, guided by the message of Fatima, gathered clergy, religious, and laity to renew their commitment to prayer, evangelisation, and synodal engagement.

More than 150 participants joined the overnight programme, with nearly 300 attending the Eucharistic celebration on the second day. The Congress featured spiritual reflections, catechesis, practical workshops, and communal prayer, all centred on deepening Marian devotion and strengthening parish life through lay involvement.
Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao, Archbishop of Goa and Daman, presided over the Midday Eucharistic Celebration on the second day. In his homily, he underscored the urgent call of Our Lady of Fatima to pray the Rosary daily for peace in the world, a message as relevant today as it was over a century ago. 

New research shows a widespread trend of people either leaving the religion they were raised in or completely dropping religion, with Christianity taking a particularly big hit. At least one-fifth of all adults in many countries around the world are no longer a part of the religion they were raised in, a new report from Pew Research Center shows. Christianity and Buddhism have seen the highest rates of disaffiliation, the survey results show.
This trend varies substantially among countries. Half of people in South Korea, for example, are no longer the religion they were raised in, whereas in Poland, for example, that’s only the case for 5% of people. In parts of Europe, the difference between the number of people who have left Christianity – whether or not they adopted another religious tradition – compared to those who have joined Christianity’s numbers is stark. Pew said that Christianity was the religion in most countries that had the highest ratios of people who are leaving the religion compared to those joining. In Italy, for example, 28.4 people have left the religion for every person who has joined.
People are also leaving religion altogether. In 21 of the 36 countries Pew looked at, more people have joined the group of people considered religiously unaffiliated than left that group. In Italy, for example, 28.7 people became religiously unaffiliated for every one person who left that category. In the U.S., that ratio was 5.9 to 1. Hungary was an outlier. For every one person who became religiously unaffiliated, 1.9 people left that category, Pew’s research showed.
Pew said that the trends it found didn’t differ or didn’t differ much among age, education level or gender for most of the countries it surveyed. And the biggest trend among age groups in most instances is people moving from affiliating with one religion to disaffiliating with religion overall, which has been more of a trend among younger people, Pew said.
“These age patterns might be signs of secularization, indicating that countries like Spain, Canada, Italy and the U.S. are gradually becoming less religious,” Pew said in its report. But age differences in religious affiliation it found could also be “from people becoming more religious as they grow older.”
Only a few countries are seeing more people join Christianity than drop it, including the Philippines, Ghana, Hungary, Sri Lanka and Singapore, the study showed. In looking at net losses for Christianity, Spain stands out among 27 countries analyzed: Pew said the country has seen the highest net losses of Christians — in proportion to its population. 
The survey found, however, that more broadly, most adults who grew up Christian still affiliate with that tradition. The number of people considered religiously unaffiliated has grown on a net basis but when people who were raised unaffiliated leave that group, they’re largely switching to Christianity, according to Pew.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Kafanchan has confirmed the tragic killing of Fr. Sylvester Okechukwu, who was abducted from his residence on the night of 4 March 2025. Fr. Sylvester Okechukwu was abducted from his residence at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Tachira, located in the Kaura Local Government Area, on the evening of 4 March. He was later found murdered in the early hours of Ash Wednesday on 5 March.
“It is with deep sorrow and heavy hearts that we announce the tragic death of our beloved priest, Rev. Fr. Sylvester Okechukwu, who was ordained on 11 February 2021,” Fr. Shanet said. He added, “The untimely and brutal loss has left us heartbroken and devastated. Fr. Sylvester was a dedicated servant of God who worked selflessly in the vineyard of the Lord, spreading the message of peace, love, and hope. He was always available and accessible to his parishioners. His untimely death has left an indelible void within our diocesan family, and we share in the pain of his passing with his family, friends, and all those who knew and loved him,” the Chancellor said. The motive behind the killing is unknown. The Kaduna State Police Command said that they have launched a search for the perpetrators.

Catholic Church faces tremendous challenges posed by hardening of borders across the world coupled with suspicion, exclusion, politics and fear which could be overcome only with love, said Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization. “Even within the same parish and the diocese, the Christian universal love is forgotten,” Tagle said. The Philippine cardinal made the remarks during an address to about 200 delegates at the biennial Meeting of the International Societies of Apostolic Life (MISAL) in the western Indian state of Goa on Dec. 2. The Dec. 2-6 event is hosted by the Society of Pillar, an indigenous missionary religious society founded by Father Benito Martins in 1887. Delegates from 22 religious congregations from across the world joined the gathering, themed “Journeying Together: Encountering Frontiers.” Tagle said conflict within the Church is a cause of concern nowadays.
The gathering coincides with the 18th Exposition of the Sacred Relics of St. Francis Xavier at Old Goa, the Patron of the Missions. In his keynote speech, Tagle said Christian love goes beyond all frontiers to witness Jesus through their mission. He emphasized the importance of understanding “frontiers” in the context of walking together for evangelization and offered a threefold explanation of the term. “A frontier is a border between two territories, encompassing civil, historical, cultural, and ethnic dimen-sions,” he said, adding that understanding these borders aids in describing local churches and facilitates inculturation. He pointed to Jesus’ example of moving across territories to foster appreciation and to disentangle Christianity from being identified with one culture. Highlighting the need for attentive-ness to frontiers, Tagle stressed the import-ance of redefining cultural elements for better understanding. “While respecting the first frontiers of borders, we fail to give testimony to the universal frontiers of Christian love,” he remarked.

Church leaders have warned the government against diluting India’s affirmative action policy that gives job and education quotas to the country’s marginalized people following a top court order on Aug. 1. They have backed a day-long nationwide protest on Aug. 21 by former untouchables (Dalits) and tribal people under the aegis of the National Confe-deration of Dalit and Adivasi (tribal) Organizations (NACDA-OR) against a Supreme Court order that asked the government to identify a “creamy layer,” or wealthy group, benefiting from the affirmation action that India initiated after independence from Britain in 1947. A few of them have indeed been educated and secured government jobs. But if their success stories are removed, there would be no one left to raise concerns, said Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak, chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) Office for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Other Backward Castes (OBCs). We agree with NACDAOR’s demand for a new law to keep the reservation quota intact following the court order, added Bishop Nayak. Grouped under Hinduism, Dalits in India are categorized as Scheduled Castes (SCs) and tribal people as Scheduled Tribes (STs) by the constitution. The former untou-chables are eligible for a 15% quota, and indigenous people are eligible for 7.5% of government jobs and places in educational institutions and legislative bodies, including the Lok Sabha (India’s lower house). “Calling for creat-ing a creamy layer is not in tune with the spirit and principles of the constitution,” the prelate told on Aug. 21.  After all, “there is no provision for a creamy layer in their reservation quota,” asserted Bishop Nayak while supporting the Bharat Bandh (all-India protest) against the court order.
A constitutional bench of seven judges issued the order on August 1, allowing sub-classi-fication within the castes and tribes.
“The state must evolve a policy to identify the creamy layer among the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and exclude them from the fold of affirmative action,” the judges told the government in the order. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes comprise about 16.6 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people. Under the Hindu caste system, they are treated as inferior and, hence, destined to toil for the other three upper castes in the hierarchy.  Though they do not follow Hindu rituals and customs, Britain grouped them under Hinduism when it conducted a census in the Indian subcontinent during its colonial occupation. Christians in India number nearly 25 million and 60 percent of them are from marginalized groups and ethnic communities. However, they have been excluded from the affirmative action policy despite repeated demands and court cases.
There are many pro-Hindu groups and right-wing intellectuals in the country who oppose the seven-decade-old affirmative action. “This seems to be a ploy against reservation,” Bishop Nayak warned. Father Nicholas Barla, who recently resigned as secretary of the CBCI Office of Scheduled Tribes, termed the Supreme Court order inappropriate. Barla told UCA News on Aug. 21 that there is no strong base for a creamy layer as the government has failed to implement the reservation policy in letter and spirit. “Let the government come out with the data to show how effectively it has implemented the reservation policy,” the priest demanded. The nationwide protest, supported by nearly 21 Dalit and ethnic organizations, was peaceful and normal life was largely unaffected. However, it evoked a mixed response in Bihar, Rajasthan and Jharkhand. Transport services were partly hit in Odisha, four northern Indian states known for their strong tribal communities and Dalits. Political parties like the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Left have supported the protest. The federal government, led by Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said it was against creating a creamy layer in the reservations quota.

Indonesian Christians are celebrating a new diocese in the country. On 21st June, in fact, Pope Francis erected Labuan Bajo, in the Catholic-majority area of Flores Island, in the province of East NUsa Tenggara (Ntt), and appointed as its first bishop the Reverend Maksimus Regus, of the Ruteng clergy, until now rector of the local Catholic University of St. Paul. Hundreds of faithful and dozens of priests attended the announcement made by Bishop Siprianus Hormat, Bishop of Ruteng, in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Labuan Bajo, in an atmosphere of joy that involved the entire community.
The new diocese of Labuan Bajo covers an area that is now a popular tourist destination, but until a few years ago, it was still a remote area in the westernmost sector of the Indonesian archipelago that was predominantly mountainous.

Thousands of people from across Italy braved the summer heat to join the national Demonstration for Life in Rome on the afternoon of June 22. “Let’s Choose Life” was the motto of the annual procession, which began at 2 pm in Rome’s Piazza della Repubblica, close to the city’s main Termini train station. The slow march continued almost one mile down the Via Nazionale before reaching the area of the ancient Imperial Forum, where a rally with speeches and musical performances was held.
“There is no compromise on human life!” Pope Francis said in a message sent to organizers ahead of the march. He thanked participants for their “commitment and public witness in defence of human life from conception to natural death” and urged them to “go forward with courage despite every adversity.” “The stakes, namely the absolute dignity of human life, the gift of God the Creator, are too high to be the object of compromise or mediation,” Francis wrote. The pope also invited families to bear witness to “the beauty of life and of the family that welcomes it” in order to build “a society that rejects the culture of waste at every stage of existence: from the most fragile unborn child to the suffering elderly, passing through the victims of trafficking, slavery, and every war.”

Some 50,000 children hailing from several countries around the globe gathered in Rome’s Olympic Stadium on May 25 to meet Pope Francis and reflect with him on their importance in the world’s future, as part of the first ever World Children’s Day (WCD). Peace was the main theme of the event.
The Pope addressed the young lively audience with a brief introductory speech in which he called for responses from the children. He opened his address by noting that in children “everything speaks of life and the future”, and by reaffirming that the Church, “as a mother”, welcomes them and accompanies them “with tenderness and hope.
He explained that he was inspired to convene the World Children’s Day by the meeting he held with children in the Vatican on November 7 on the theme “Let’s Learn from Boys and Girls.” “I realized that our conversation had to continue and extend to more children and young people,” he said.
The Pope then engaged in a series of questions with the children, starting from the many wars raging in several parts of the world. “Are you sad about the wars?”, “Is war a nice thing?”; “Is peace beautiful?” he asked, inviting the young audience to pray for children who suffer from wars, cannot go to school, are hungry, or neglected.