News in Missions

Catholicism in 21st Century China

Catholicism in 21st Century China

by: You Guo Jiang, SJ in Missions,

This was exactly Pope Francis’s message to China. In his first, historic interview on 28 January 2016 with Francesco Sisci for Asia Times, the Pope said: “[China] is a land blessed with many things. And the Catholic Church, one of whose duties is to respect all civilizations, before this civilization, I would say, has the duty to respect it with a capital “R”. The Church has great potential to receive culture”

China and the Catholic Church

China and the Catholic Church

by: You Guo Jiang, SJ and Michael Kelly, SJ in Missions,

 Fr Michael Kelly in conversation with Fr You Guo Jiang, SJ a teacher at Boston College who researches and writes on education, global engagement, student development, spirituality and Christianity in China. This includes biographical articles on prominent Chinese Christians such as Ma Xiangbo, founder of Fudan University, Shanghai and the famous jurist, Wu Ching Hsiung who helped draft China’s first constitution.

Francis Xavier, a Missionary Beyond the Borders

Francis Xavier, a Missionary Beyond the Borders

by: Nuno da Silva Gonçalves, SJ - La Civiltà Cattolica in Missions,

 In a homily delivered in Manila on November 29, 1970, Saint Paul VI stated: “I would never have come from Rome to this far-distant land unless I had been most firmly convinced of two fundamental things: first, of Christ; and second, of your salvation.” He added: “The more distant the goal, the more difficult my mission, the more pressing is the love that urges me to it.” Saint Francis Xavier could have said the same words. For him, too, the motives were Christ and the salvation of the people.

The Church and the Chinese Government: An interview with Fr. Joseph Shih

The Church and the Chinese Government: An interview with Fr. Joseph Shih

by: Antonio Spadaro, SJ - La Civiltà Cattolica in Missions,

Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, advised him to go to Latin America too for the same kind of study. And so he got to know Brazil and Argentina. In Rome he taught at the Gregorian University for 35 years and worked at Vatican Radio for 25 years in the Chinese section. “There was Fr. Michael Chu,” he continues, “who would come and celebrate the Sunday Mass that we would transmit for China.

'Either an Evangelizing Church or a Worldly Church’

'Either an Evangelizing Church or a Worldly Church’

by: Ildefonso Camacho, SJ - La Civiltà Cattolica in Missions,

 In his speech to the General Congregation of Cardinals prior to the 2013 conclave, the then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio said, “When the Church does not go out of herself to evangelize, she becomes self-referential and then sick. […] When the Church is self-referential, without realizing it, she believes she has her own light. She ceases to be the mysterium lunae and this gives rise to the most serious evil of spiritual worldliness.

World Mission Day: Church "Going forth"

World Mission Day: Church "Going forth"

by: Fr. Joseph Santiago CMF in Missions,

 Today vast numbers of people still do not know Jesus Christ. For this reason, the mission ad gentes continues to be most urgent. All the members of the Church are called to participate in this mission, for the Church is missionary by her very nature: she was born “to go forth”.

Church in China is growing and flourishing - Interview with Dr. Anthony E. Clark

Church in China is growing and flourishing - Interview with Dr. Anthony E. Clark

by: Michel Chambon - UCANews in Missions,

Antony Clark is a professor of Chinese history at Whitworth University in Washington. In 2020, he published China's Catholics in an Era of Transformation, which features a collection of short essays on China's modern Catholic Church, combined with reports on his encounters with contemporary Chinese Catholics. The essays were mostly written in China while he was traveling by train or staying in villages and large cities near the Catholic communities.

Vietnamese priests keep in step with foreign missioners

Vietnamese priests keep in step with foreign missioners

by: UCA News reporter in Missions,

Local priests like Father Lien manage the Catholic parishes and mission station in all 27 dioceses of Vietnam, where Spanish and Portuguese missionaries brought the faith in the 16th century. The Catholic mission suffered because of a dearth of priests and infrastructure in some 10 dioceses in northern Vietnam, where communism forced Christians to flee during the Vietnam War (1954-75). However, native priests are now enthusiastically engaged in missions, particularly in the north.

Vietnamese priests keep in step with foreign missioners

Vietnamese priests keep in step with foreign missioners

by: UCA News reporter in Missions,

In the northern hills of Vietnam, Father Joseph Nguyen Tien Lien starts his day at 4am and finishes at midnight. The 42-year-old was assigned to Mai Lien Parish in 2017, a year after he became a priest. He came to the hilly Mai Son district of Son La province as the first priest of the newly established parish, which comes under Hung Hoa DioceseEvangelizing ethnic villagers “is my top priority. I want to bring God’s love to them so that they can enjoy divine mercy,” he says.

Evangelization according to Saint Paul

Evangelization according to Saint Paul

by: Marc Rastoin, SJ - La Civiltà Cattolica in Missions,

Paul “the little one” became Paul “the great apostle,” the apostle par excellence. With all his intelligence, he announced Christ by means of powerful paradoxes: the Christ who, from being rich, became poor. Paul imitated him, setting aside all his human riches, family origins, education, money, to make himself a humble servant of all. He wanted to live what he preached. From being a Pharisee expert in the Scriptures, from being a Roman citizen and inhabitant of Tarsus, from being a proud Jew, he became a pagan with the pagans, a slave with the slaves.

Catholic mission agencies appeal for help for the suffering

Catholic mission agencies appeal for help for the suffering

by: Ellen Teague , Sarah Mac Donald - The Tablet in Missions,

The global Church will come together this Sunday to support mission around the world. Missio, which supports a global network of charities serving the Church in more than 120 countries, is appealing for parishes and schools to help communities living in poverty, violence and oppression. 

Persecution against Indian Christians

Persecution against Indian Christians

by: Sebastian Milbank - The Tablet in Missions,

More evidence has emerged of a relentless campaign of persecution against Indian Christians after a video was released showing a Christian woman being forced to burn an image of Jesus by a mob of Hindu extremists. In the video the men accuse the woman of being like a prostitute, claiming she was bribed to become a Christian. They tell her: “You should worship our gods and goddesses.”

Archbishop of Paris closes experimental, "Vatican II" parish

Archbishop of Paris closes experimental, "Vatican II" parish

by: Christophe Henning-La Croix International in Missions,

Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris has announced that he's closing what has long been recognized as the French capital's most progressive Catholic community, ostensibly because of its members' refusal to accept recent priests that have been assigned there.

Selfless catechists lead Church's pastoral mission in Bangladesh

Selfless catechists lead Church's pastoral mission in Bangladesh

by: Stephan Uttom, Natore - UCAN in Missions,

Shilpi Das’ life has been divided into two segments for more than 10 years now. The 33-year-old Catholic mother of two from a village under Queen of Fatima Church in Bangladesh's Thakurgaon district looks after her family with her husband. She is also a catechist who travels to remote villages near the Indian border.

Francis in Iraq - entering the labyrinth

Francis in Iraq - entering the labyrinth

by: Patrick Cockburn - The Tablet in Missions,

With the Pope preparing to visit the war-torn country, a veteran Middle East correspondent looks at the prospects of a return to security in a nation haunted by its blood-soaked past. I have always admired Iraqis for the way they have struggled to survive – though many of them failed to do so ­successfully – over 40 years of violence and fear.

Mission in Secularized Japan

Mission in Secularized Japan

by: Shun'ichi Takayanagi, SJ - La Civiltà Cattolica in Missions,

Analyzing the Japanese words used to indicate the concept of “mission” may help to better facilitate understanding of what mission should be, the perception of which has become even more acute over the last 50 years. In fact, every definition entails a model or a paradigm of how to carry out a missionary activity.

Francis Xavier, a Missionary Beyond the Borders

Francis Xavier, a Missionary Beyond the Borders

by: Nuno da Silva Gonçalves, SJ - La Civiltà Cattolica in Missions,

For Saint Francis Xavier the motives were Christ and the salvation of the people. Thus he was not afraid to consider the most distant and difficult goal as the most urgent. With this enthusiasm he proclaimed the Gospel in India, in Malacca (Malaysia), in the Moluccas (Indonesia) and in Japan. Only death stopped him when he tried to enter China, his last great missionary dream.

Justus Takayama Ukon: The Great Japanese Missionary of the Sixteenth Century

Justus Takayama Ukon: The Great Japanese Missionary of the Sixteenth Century

by: Toni Witwer, SJ - La Civiltà Cattolica in Missions,

Four hundred years have passed since the death of Justus Takayama Ukon, remembered and revered in Japan not only as a martyr, but also as a great witness to the Christian faith, which he practiced in connection with the mission of the Society of Jesus. He was the greatest Japanese missionary of the sixteenth century because of how he lived the Christian faith with the tenacity, rigor and loyalty that were typical of the Japanese people, promoting the inculturation of Christianity through the witness of his life, which eventually led to his dying while in exile.