Vietnam has chosen a new president after an anti-corruption drive and power struggle within its leadership. Vo Van Thuong takes over from Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who stepped down in January. With its long tradition of collective leadership, the party's senior figures since Ho Chi Minh have rarely had much of a profile outside the country.
Giorgia Meloni, leader of Italy’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party, is on course to become Italy’s first female prime minister after her party won a decisive victory in Sunday’s election. The Brothers won more than a quarter of the vote, up from just 4 per cent in 2018, and were well placed to lead a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s Nationalist League, and former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.
Ahead of the vote, Northern Ireland’s bishops lamented that for many people the hope of a new era of equality and prosperity promised by the Belfast Agreement had failed to materialise. In a reflection, the bishops noted that Northern Ireland has “some of the highest levels of social inequality on these islands”, including some of the highest levels of child poverty, fuel poverty and an increasing number of ‘working poor’.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols called for an immediate cessation of Russian attacks on Ukraine and prayed for its people.
In a statement today, the Archbishop of Westminster repeated appeals by the Pope and bishops across Europe for prayers for peace and emphasised the suffering of the Ukrainian people, praying “for their strength and perseverance under this onslaught”. He warned of the plight of refugees from the conflict and “the humanitarian crisis which will inevitably follow”.
In Iraq’s holiest city, a pontiff will meet a revered ayatollah and make history with a message of coexistence in a place plagued by bitter divisions. One is the chief pastor of the world-wide Catholic Church, the other a pre-eminent figure in Shiite Islam whose opinion holds powerful sway on the Iraqi street and beyond. Their encounter will resonate across Iraq, even crossing borders into neighboring, mainly Shiite Iran.
When drawing the roadmap for India's fight against coronavirus, Modi banked heavily on a lockdown — perhaps the only easily available method before him. But its effect on the masses — the daily wage workers, farmers and migrants — is turning out to be disastrous.
The aging men leading Timor-Leste continue to put politics over the needs of citizens, most of whom remain in poverty. Their mismanagement of the Catholic-majority country — one of only two in the Asia-Pacific region along with the Philippines — has led to the effective collapse of the government.
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We all know that Christians are the single most persecuted religious group, no? If we don’t, we should. But for the last two years, the Hungarian government – yep, under the controversial Viktor Orbán – has sought to remedy matters by devoting a specific part of its overseas aid budget – known as Hungary Helps – to help Christians.
At least two people were killed and damage to churches, school buildings and other structures was reported after a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck the southern Philippines on Oct. 29. The tremor came more than a week after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit the Mindanao region, killing seven people and injuring at least 60 others.
The social service departments of all 32 dioceses in Kerala worked together to mobilize some 200,000 volunteers to assist the flood-affected in the various phrase of rescue, relief and restoration interventions, said Father George Vettikattil of Kerala Social Service Forum. The forum, a coordinating body Catholic charity efforts in the state, helped 269,000 families, spending $45 million in flood rehabilitation projects.
Authorities now believe 183 passengers, including women, children and infants, were on board the boat, with people smugglers charging each adult US$5,000 and US$1,600 per child for a trip that would brave monsoons and storms in three oceans: the Indian, Southern and Pacific.
The bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday were intended to strike a devastating blow to the country’s million-strong Christian community. Suicide bombers detonated one set of bombs at churches in the cities of Colombo and Negombo on the western coast, home to many Sinhalese-speaking Catholics. Another was detonated in a Protestant church 200 miles away – in Batticaloa, a city on the Tamil-majority eastern side of the island.
Former Pakistan cricket star Imran Khan has pledged to help the weakest in society after declaring victory in what is being perceived as the country's most controversial general election.
Announcing the news on Facebook, the boy’s father, Tom Evans, wrote: “Our baby boy grew his wings tonight at 2:30am. We are heart broken. Thank you everyone for all your support.” Pope Francis, who met with Tom Evans last week, signalled his support for the Bambino Gesu to care for the toddler, also responded to the news today. "I am deeply moved by the death of little Alfie," he tweeted. "Today I pray especially for his parents as God the Father receives him in his tender embrace."
Among the key issues will be the government's reconciliation process, which has two primary components — constitutional reform that will ensure improved sharing of power between the ethnic majority and minorities, and transitional justice that will ensure accountability for rights violations in Sri Lanka's three-decade-long war.
My prediction for 2018? That this is the year when public opinion will swing decisively against Brexit. The polls are already suggesting it. There is nothing on the horizon likely to reverse it. And the Tories are blithely walking into a trap partly of their own devising, which they are nothing like clever enough to avoid.
Macron is proudly pro-European. He has taken the “risk” of a founding EU country of not just standing by its commitments to the EU, but proposing to strengthen them. Reform of the EU is needed. Macron is proposing to work with his European partners to strengthen and develop it.
Despite the war between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil dying down in 2009, embers of sectarian and religious conflict remain, according to rights activists and church officials.
A window into heaven... and hell: As another battered Iraqi town is liberated from the evil clutch of ISIS, Christians celebrate their first mass in two years while the Battle for Mosul enters its third week.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's all-conquering Bharatiyta Janata Party (BJP) was brushed aside in Delhi state elections on Tuesday with anti-corruption campaigner Arvind Kejriwal’s party winning by a landslide. This APP victory in its wake will bring greater security to religious minorities in general and Christians in particular.
