Pope Francis has met with Brazil’s indigenous chief Raoni, who is on a European tour to raise awareness about the dangers facing the Amazon. The pope’s meeting with one of the great leaders of the Kayapo people living in the Amazonian forest in Brazil, took place at the Vatican on May 27.

“Through this meeting, Pope Francis reaffirms his attention to the Amazonian peoples and environment and his commitment to the preservation of the common home,” the Holy See explained in a statement.

The Vatican also said that the meeting was part of the preparation of the next Synod of Bishops’ special assembly on Amazonia to be held next October in the Vatican.

The working document, which will serve as a basis for the debates of this assembly, is scheduled to be published in June, Cardinal Pedro Barreto of Huancayo (Peru) and member of the pre-synodal council, announced a few days ago.

A conference in Taiwan has been told that China’s communist government is increasingly using so-called ‘sharp power’ to stymie international scrutiny of its poor human rights record, including the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989.

At the same time, the Beijing regime has been tightening controls on its own people, warned academics, student leaders and rights’ campaigners.

The term ‘sharp power’ was coined in December 2017 in a report of the United States non-profit National Endowment for Democracy to describe censor-ship and other tactics used to weaken independent institutions.

Wikipedia defines sharp power as the use of manipulative diplomatic policies by one country to influence and under-mine the political system of a target nation.

The May 18-20 conference in Taiwan marking the 30th anniversary of the June 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre was organized by the Hong Kong-based New School for Democracy and the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.

More than 50 scholars, student leaders and witnesses of the Tiananmen Square protest, as well as representatives of overseas support groups and Hong Kong democratic parties, were present as speakers and discussants.

A Chinese charity called Huiling that supports people with mental disabilities paid tribute this month to Jean Vanier, the Canadian Catholic who inspired its creation, after he died in France on May 7 at the age of 90.

Huiling founder Meng Weinuo, a Chinese Catholic, said Vanier had recently been beset by health problems.

“He’d been in and out of hospital several times this year,” she said. “We knew it was just a matter of time before he returned to his heavenly home.”

The charity enjoys support from the Catholic Church. Meng set it up in the southern port city of Guangzhou in 1990 with Father Cagnin Fernando, a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME).

Huiling gained a reputation as the first NGO to serve mentally disabled people in China during the 1980s. It now has 20 service points nationwide.

Meng said she was inspired by L’Arche, an international private voluntary organization that works for the creation of growth of homes, programs, and support networks for people with intellectual disabilities.

Vanier, a Catholic who was born in Canada but later migrated to France, founded L’Arche in 1964. He was also a co-founder in 1971 of Faith and Light, a similar organization.

Meng got to meet Varnier in France in May 2013 when she and Father Fernando visited a L’Arche community there.

“Huiling has always admired L’Arche. We really want to be a sister organization with you,” she recalled telling the elderly Canadian.

Varnier welcomed the move but said he had stepped down from running the organization. He referred her to the head of L’Arche International.

Six months later, the two agencies signed a partnership deal. L’Arche agreed to provide training and spiritual support to Huiling.

A Kenyan activist gestures next to a banner with a collaged image of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto during a march against corruption in Nairobi on April 30.

Kenya’s bishops have launched a campaign to slay “the dragon of corruption” in the East African nation.

Archbishop Philip Anyolo, chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, said corruption has reached alarming levels and the only way to fight it is by starting from the grass roots.

“We have allowed the dragon of corruption to pull us down to the point where we have accepted it to be our way of life,” he said in a statement on behalf of the organization.

“We are also caught up in perennial, endless political bickering, maneuvers and utterings that slow our country in moving forward in a fresh direction that will bring meaningful development and national integration.

“We all know that corruption is a grave sin and therefore call upon our faithful and people of goodwill to externally commit freely and sincerely, appending their signatures where and when needed, for fighting corruption and corruption practices.”

Archbishop Anyolo said, Kenyan bishops will lead from the front by rejecting all forms of corrupt practices as he urged Kenyans to promote a culture of honesty.

“Kenyans seem to have lost their moral conscience of doing good. Why is it so difficult to resolve not to engage in bribes, either receiving or giving bribes? The war on corruption has to be won by each citizen, indeed each person; you and me,” he added.

A Catholic priest has been honoured by the Pakistan government for his “exemplary services” to promote interfaith harmony and peace in his own country and worldwide.

Father James Channan, a Dominican who has spent 50 years following the spirituality of St. Dominic, received an award at the Interfaith Conference 2019 in Lahore on May 17 that was attended by more than 300 people including Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Sikhs.

Noor-ul-HaqQadri, Pakistan’s federal minister for religious affairs and interfaith harmony, presented the award.

“Many people helped me to reach this place. I praise God, the Church, my community of Ibn-e-Mariam Vice Province of Pakistan, and all my friends,” said Father Channan.

“I especially thank my Muslim friends who always supported me and my work and keep on appreciating me to continue my mission to promote peace and harmony among the people of Pakistan.

“I am actively serving in this mission to build bridges between Christians and the people of other religions, especially with our Muslim brethren, but still I see there is an urgent need for interfaith dialogue.”

Father Channan said his work to promote peace and interfaith harmony brings him peace and mental satisfaction.

“I keep on thinking about ways to bring people of various faiths together, to help them to nurture and strengthen peace among them,” he said.

“Everybody is my neighbour, and being a follower of Jesus Christ I have to love everybody—it keeps me motivated and zealous. We always have to share this message that we are one human family, following different religions and faiths but living our faiths we have to promote love, unity and peace.”

Father Channan is the director of Lahore’s Peace Center, which was inaugurated by the late Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, then president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

“I work to provide facility to the people of various professions and age groups to come together for dialogue, which helps to remove discrimination, fundamentalism and extremism from our society,” he said.

Father Channan also serves as a regional coordinator of United Religions Initiative (URI) in Asia. URI is serving in 109 countries including Pakistan. “We have 63 active groups of religious leaders, lawyers, journalists, youth, women and children. Our Peace Center is always available for programs or events to promote peace, interfaith harmony, interreligious harmony and Christian-Muslim dialogue,” he said.

The ordination of Fr. Michal Los, FDP, a member of the Orionine Fathers, was far from typical ordination. Los was diagnosed with cancer a month ago, and is now in critical condition. On May 24, Los was ordained a priest in his Warsaw hospital bed.

Pope Francis granted a dispensation allowing him to be ordained both a deacon and a priest in the same Mass, and Los was ordained by Bishop Marek Solarczyk of the Diocese of Warsaw-Praga.

The day before his ordination, Los made perpetual vows in his religious community. Permission was granted to the director general of the congregation, Fr. Tarcisio Vieira, to whom Pope Francis sent a letter.

“The ceremony took place in an atmosphere of great and profound spirituality. After the initial prayer, the litany for the intercession of the saints followed for the life of Michal and for his congregation,” said Fr. Fornerod in a Facebook post about the event. The day after his ordination, Los celebrated his first Mass from his bed.