Catholic and Buddhist leaders in northern Thailand have been engaging in dialogue seeking to strengthen unity and harmony among followers of both faiths for the common good.
Interfaith dialogue is an integral part of the Catholic Church’s pastoral plan, said Archbishop Anthony Weradet Chaiseri of Tharae and Nonseng Arch-diocese that covers the four northern provinces of Kalasin, Mukdahan, Nakhon Phanom and Sakon Nakhon. Dialogue with Buddhists is vital for Christians in a nation shaped by the strong cultural and religious legacies of Buddhism, he said.
Archbishop Chaiseri made the observations after recently meeting with Sutham Suthammo, a promi-nent Buddhist monk and abbot of the Forest Monastery in Kesetsrikhun in Nong Phai.
“The Church wants to promote and strengthen relations with the representatives of the local Buddhist community,” Archbishop Chaiseri told the Vatican’s Fides news agency.
“A stronger collaboration with the Buddhist community can help us work together for the common good, peace, harmony and development.”  Buddhists make up about 95% of Thailand’s more than 69 million people. Christians are a small minority accounting for about 1%.

A Catholic archdiocese in South Korea will hold a musical contest with an aim to revitalize church music and to provide the faithful with an opportunity to reflect and practice pastoral priorities of the Church.
The Archdiocese of Daegu, which covers the third largest metropolitan area after capital Seoul and Busan, is launching the Creative Artist Contest that focuses on a 10-year pastoral plan recently adopted by the arch-diocese.
The pastoral plan announced by Archbishop Thaddeus Hwanki Cho is based on the theme “Community living the joy of the Gospel together.”
Any faithful can participate in the contest and all have been asked to submit traditional church music and music on Catholic life with core values of the pastoral plan such as the Word of God, fellowship, liturgy, love of neighbours and missions.
In cases of church music, both single-voice and mixed choral songs with three or more voices that can be used in liturgy are acceptable, while music on Catholic life should be in single-voice form that anyone can sing easily.
The deadline for submissions is Sept. 30 and results of the contest screening will be announced in December. The prizes will be conferred during a grand ceremony next January.
A total of 20 million won (US$17,600) will be awarded to winners — 3 million won for the first prize, 2 million won for second, and 1 million won for others.

Catholics in Indonesia’s Ruteng Diocese are mourning the death of a Dutch-born nun who spent more than half of her life doing family pastoral work in their diocese.
Sister Robertilde Wihelmina van Der Meer from the Congregation of Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS) died on June 18 at 87 and was buried at the congregation’s cemetery in Ruteng on June 21.
News of her death prompted many Catholics, including the district government, to express their condolences on social media for the friendly nun.
Sister Natalia Maria Naki, director of SSpS-run St. Raphael Hospital in Cancar, 15 kilometers west of Ruteng, who had lived with Sister Robertilde since 2012, said the nun showed “total devotion to the people she served.”

Cardinal Jose Advincula was installed as the new archbishop of Manila in a ceremony at the Philippine capital’s historic cathedral on June 24.
The 69-year-old cardinal from Capiz became the 33rd archbishop of the country’s largest diocese, succeeding Cardinal Luis Tagle, now prefect of the Congregation of the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome.
The installation was attended by the papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, along with another former Manila arch-bishop, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, and apostolic administrator Bishop Broderick Pabillo.
Several other bishops were also present as were a limited number of priests and civic officials in a ceremony that was scaled down to avoid the spread of Covid-19.
Cardinal Advincula, who is the sixth Filipino to hold the office, promised to fulfill his new mission by listening and knowing his sheep — Manila’s poor and marginalized.

Pope Francis has appealed for aid for thousands of displaced people who are facing starvation in Myanmar after fleeing from their homes as fighting escalates in the beleaguered country.
During his Sunday Angelus on June 20, the pope joined bishops in Myanmar who have appealed for humanitarian corridors to allow safe passage for those fleeing.
He said Myanmar bishops last week launched an appeal “calling to the attention of the entire world, the heart-wrenching experience of thousands of persons in that country who are displaced and are dying of hunger.”
Echoing the bishops, the pope pleaded for respecting religious sites as places of sanctuary. “Churches, pagodas, monasteries, mosques, temples, just as schools and hospitals, are respected as neutral places of refuge.”