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According to the Amnesty International 2011 report, human rights in China are being trampled at every level. With its growing economic power and world influence, the Republic is even silencing its critics in countries around the planet.
The Church in China is “sick” and it is “heading for disaster,” if it lets itself to continue being manipulated by the government, warned Salesian Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, in an interview at the end of April. The bishop emeritus of Hong Kong blamed key Vatican officials, especially from the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and their desire to “compromise at any cost,” thus, creating confusion and undermining Pope Benedict XVI’s intentions for the Catholic Church in China. He believes that such misguided policies have emboldened Beijing authorities to increase their grip on the Church.
If India’s powerful central government that rules over the destinies of 1.2 billion people quails before Anna Hazare, a slight 74-year-old man, it is because he is armed with a weapon that has rarely failed in this country – extreme renunciation through a fast-unto-death. His battle: fighting the omnipresent corruption.
Corruption has increased over the last three years, say six out of 10 people around the world. And one in four people reports paying bribes last year, according to the findings of the 2010 Global Corruption Barometer, a Transparency International survey. These are indeed bad news: corruption undermines confidence, democracy and is a source of social turmoil; and it affects mainly the poorest.
The Comboni Missionaries have just celebrated the 20th anniversary of their arrival in China.
There are only a dozen of them working in Macau and in the disputed territory of Taiwan, from where they reach out to the Mainland. In the words of their General Superior, they are like a little bit of yeast which ferments the dough – to help people grow and be witnesses of the beauty of having a Christian life. Even if they are few and working in an immense and populous country whose people are very proud of their own traditions.
Based on the lastest papal encyclical and in the proposals of great Catholic thinkers, John Medaille defends an alternative economic system that avoids the errors of both capitalism and socialism. He says: “We have abandoned justice on a global scale, which has led to chronically unbalanced trade. When trade is chronically unbalanced, it is not really “a trade” at all. Rather, it is a system by which foreign producers finance our consumption of their goods, a system that impoverishes both parties.” That’s why he chooses this third way, called distributism, a really free market based on people’s choices and communitarian bonds.
The financial and economic crisis that has been sweeping the world since 2007 led the Pope to call for a “profound reform” of the system. Its “financialization,” caused by speculation and greed, is a blow to human dignity by harming more and more people. To put it in numbers: for the first time in history, a billion people are malnourished.
Water shortage represents a tremendous responsibility for the women of Sri Lanka, where many have to walk for kilometers several times a day to answer the needs of their households. On the other hand, the pollution and contamination of the still available water sources put their health and their families’ at risk.
The mysterious and controversial Shroud of Turin that, according to tradition, preserves the death mask of the Crucified Jesus, and the less-known but perhaps more dramatic Veronica’s Veil that, to some, shows the Face of the Resurrected Christ, inspire the faithful and even the Pope. Whatever is the truth about these images, the underlying fact is that they bring us back to the Face of the Lord. He Himself told us to find It on the face of those near us – the least of His brethren. This is the face we should seek.
An expert warned: “A few decades ago, the wildlife of the Philippines was notable for its abundance; now, it is notable for its variety; if present trend of destruction continues, Philippine wildlife will be notable for its absence.” The loss of the country’s rich ecosystems will affect all, but particularly the poorest. As the Asian Development Bank states: “It is the poor, with limited assets and greater dependence on common property resources, who suffer most when biodiversity is lost.”
