Browse past isues
Help the mission
Support the mission
Get in touch
A young Iranian convert to Christianity shares his conversion story. He has been granted asylum in France after fleeing what he describes as credible threats to his life. In Iran, leaving Islam can be treated as a capital offense, and converts often face intimidation and violence.
Amid repression and secrecy in modern Iran, one man’s quiet search for truth became a courageous journey of faith. From underground house churches to the isolation of prison, his story reveals the cost and power of Christian faith.
The Assyrian-Chaldean Catholics, loyal to the Bishop of Rome, are one of the oldest Christian communities in Iran. Martyrdom and glory are part of their history.
In the Islamic Republic, the number of people converting to Christianity is significant, despite persecution by a system of “religious apartheid.” The Catholic minority (Assyrian-Chaldeans, Armenians, and those of the Latin rite) continues to “maintain a presence”. In the midst of a new war, they are praying for democracy, freedom, and peace.
In a keynote reflection delivered by Caritas Philippines President, Bishop Gerardo A. Alminaza at the University of Santo Tomas, Bishop Gerry challenged the Church to confront injustices, to refuse indifference, and to truly walk with the poor moving beyond charity toward justice.
To be a Christian is more than to merely claim such with one’s words. It requires action and the lived experience of loving one’s neighbor. To do so is to live out the greatest commandment and to love God in concrete and practical ways.
Taking up Pope Francis’ desire “that all Christians come to appreciate the close connection between Christ’s love and His summons to care for the poor,” Pope Leo XIV issued his first Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi te, as a call to Christ’s disciples “to recognize him in the poor and the suffering.”
The peculiar mix of communism and capitalism in China may be contributing to a growing interest in Christianity by a people starved of spiritual food, but the outlook for religious freedom remains bleak.
Asia is composed of very different social, political, ethnic and religious realities, and is without doubt the most religiously diverse of the continents. However, the vast majority of its countries have serious issues with religious freedom.
The vast majority of countries listed in the Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Religious Freedom in the World Report saw their situation worsen over the past two years, and problems are increasing even in the democracies of the developed world.
