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A pressing Lenten intention could be the plight of persecuted Christians. Catholic and Protestant monitoring agencies report that 2025 has been the worst year for persecution.
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.
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 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.
One of the most important events in the modern history of the Catholic Church is the closing of the Second Vatican Council–popularly known as the Vatican II. In this worldwide ecumenical council, Bishops urged the Church not to show any bias in protecting the lives and dignity of human beings.
The Supreme Court needs to establish a special children’s court that would deal with child abuse cases with haste. The children involved in these cases have bravely come forward at great risk and filed complaints against their rapists and traffickers.
Raised by farmer parents, Dr. Lourdes Sarmiento recalls the hardships of pursuing education before. In her village, she was the first to become a doctor. Now, she serves as a volunteer physician, offering her services as a thanksgiving for the grace she has received.
Amid checkpoints and surveillance cameras, the Comboni sisters run “Threads of Peace,” a grassroots initiative teaching embroidery, soap‑making, and hope to Bedouin women whose lives have been shattered by walls and displacement. The nuns’ presence acts as a bridge in a divided Holy Land.
When Pope Francis visited the Philippines in 2015, he declared that people must say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality, warning that “such an economy kills” (Evangelii Gaudium, 53). His message was not abstract theology but a direct indictment of Philippine reality.
Captured and spent a year in prison, died in poor health, and executed by guillotine are sufferings that the three “Francis” experienced in their respective eras. Francis of Assisi, Francis Xavier, and Franz Jägerstätter, grasped the hands of fate and left marks of wisdom and hope.
