Filipino Jesuit Father Catalino Arevalo, whom many consider the “Father of Asian Theology,” died at the age of 97 on Jan. 18.
The Jesuit brought his own method into conversation with other theologians in the Philippines, recalls Vincentian Father Daniel Franklin Pilario, a theology pro-fessor in the Philippines. In the following tribute, Father Pilario provides excerpts from a 2004 article he wrote on the theology of Father Arevalo:
Theologians need to have a concrete grasp of the country’s main political and economic move-ments, so as to act on them in the spirit of the Gospel. This intrinsic connection of theology with time and historical circumstance can be discerned in Filipino Jesuit Father Catalino Arevalo’s theolo-gical method of “reading the signs of the times,” a term introduced by Vatican II.
Somewhere in his writings, Father Arevalo wrote: Ours is “a theology of bits and pieces gathered and scotch-taped together in hours of doing and suffering, in dialogue and confrontation, in reflec-tion and prayer, in emptiness, in confusion and paralysis — in all the times and seasons of Qoheleth, it would seem — in struggle, sometimes in anguish and despair, sometimes with the shedding of real blood and tears.”

The Lunar New Year, which began on Jan. 22, is traditionally a time for families to come together, share meals, visit relatives and take time off work. As people across China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and many other parts of Asia and the world celebrate the Year of the Rabbit, many will have traveled long distances to reunite with their families.
But as this festival gets underway, let us remember those who cannot be with their loved ones — in particular, those in prison for their political or religious beliefs. And let us especially think of one prominent Catholic, the 75-year-old Hong Kong entrepreneur, publisher and pro-democracy campaigner, Jimmy Lai, who is spending his third Lunar New Year behind bars.
In December 2020, Lai was jailed, awaiting trial on multiple charges. He was briefly released on bail and was able to spend Christmas that year with his family, albeit under a form of house arrest, but on Dec. 31, 2020, his bail was reversed and he has been in prison ever since.
Late last year, on Dec. 10 — which is Human Rights Day — Lai was sentenced to almost six years’ imprisonment, on totally trumped-up fraud charges. He has already served two other sentences, one of 13 months for lighting a candle and saying a prayer at a vigil to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and another of 14 months for participating in a peaceful protest in 2019.
“If convicted, Lai may end up spending the rest of his life in jail”
But even worse is to come. His biggest trial — under Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law — begins in September this year, having been postponed from last year due to a wrangle over his choice of defense counsel. His chosen lawyer, British barrister Tim Owen, KC, was rejected by the Hong Kong government and his work permit was temporarily suspended, even though Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal had approved him.
Beijing has now given Hong Kong’s chief executive carte blanche to determine not only who the judge is in a National Security Law trial, but also who the defendant’s legal representative will be.
If convicted, Lai may end up spending the rest of his life in jail.

The Japanese government’s policy of increasing financial subsidies for families to have a baby has a long history. It is of course an attempt to address the country’s extremely low birth rate and aging population.
Japan has really tried everything, from providing couples with subsidies for marriage before the age of 40 to encouraging couples to spend more time at home and offering cheaper day-care. In fact, government funds have been heavily spent in recent years to wage war against the hedonism of single individuals with the aim of bringing about a demographic shift.
This time the subsidies that were going to be handed out were about US$400 to match the average price for giving birth at a clinic. And guess what? All those clinics on hearing the news that an unexpected bonus was coming their way have raised their prices accordingly.
So what the government accomplished was to effectively increase future taxation for its citizens, while at the present claiming it was all done with a pure heart and good intentions.
“Traditional family structure and traditional gender roles are slowly but surely coming under attack”

The parliament of Pakistan moved this week to tighten its already far-reaching blasphemy laws, under which numerous Christians and other minorities have been prosecuted and subjected to mob violence, often for dubious charges of blasphemy against beliefs or figures associated with Islam.
Insulting the Prophet Muhammad is already, at least on paper, a capital offense in Pakistan. Under the newest legal changes, those convicted of insulting the Prophet Muhammad’s wives, companions, or close relatives will now face 10 years in prison, a sentence that can be extended to life, along with a fine of 1 million rupees, or roughly $4,500, reported the New York Times. It also makes the charge of blasphemy an offense for which bail is not possible.
Islam is the state religion of Pakistan, and blasphemy laws have been on the books in the country for more than a century, even before it became an independent nation. A notable escalation of the country’s blasphemy laws occurred in 1987 when the death sentence was made mandatory for some violations.
One of the most famous cases in recent years was that of Asia Bibi, a Catholic woman who spent nearly a decade on death row after being accused of disparaging Islam. Numerous world leaders called for her immediate release, including Popes Benedict XVI and Francis.

In the wake of rising attacks against places of worship, senior religious leaders of Myanmar have appealed for restraint citing international pacts that call for the protection of places of worship, places of learning, and places of healing.
In the latest attack, a church, bell tower and other buildings of Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral at Mandalay in Upper Myanmar were destroyed on January 15.
Government soldiers, an eyewitness revealed, also “desecrated” the place by “looting, drinking alcohol and smoking” inside.
The destroyed church is a historical and cultural heritage for the entire country, including Buddhists since 1894.
Also ,in the January 15 attack, a century-old convent of the Franciscan Sisters was set on fire by the military.
In addition, five out of 16 dioceses in the country — Loikaw, Pekhon, Hakha, Kalay and Mandalay — are affected by the ongoing conflicts between the army and ethnic rebel groups, some of whose members belong to various Christian denominations.
On January 21, in his message to the faithful published on the occasion of Chinese New Year, Archbishop of Yangon Cardinal Charles Maung Bo declared January as the “month of the ceasefire,” asking all parties – including the military – to “silence their weapons” and “believe in a peaceful solution.”
The cardinal, who is also the president of the Federation of Asia Bishops’ Conferences, emphasized the value of ‘dialogue’ in conflict resolution and called for the resumption of the Panlong peace process.
“Why are these sacred places attacked and destroyed?” ask archbishops of Yangon, Mandalay and Taunggyi in the open letter entitled “Peace is a pilgrimage, let us walk it together.”