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Pope Francis has named 15 cardinal-electors “from 14 nations of every continent, showing the inseparable link between the Church of Rome and the particular Churches present in the world.” Their names were announced by Pope Francis after praying the Angelus with a crowd in St Peter’s Square and he formally inducted them into the College of Cardinals on February 14.
Residents of Islampur, a remote village in the northern Bangladeshi district of Naogaon, were stunned one night last summer when the darkness was suddenly illuminated by electric lights coming from a village home. Why the surprise? The community has no connection to the country’s power grid. The owner of the house, Rafiqul Islam, is one of around 15M Bangladeshis whose homes are now powered by solar home systems, or SHS, under a government scheme to provide clean power to communities with no access to grid electricity.
Murder is never the answer, and terrorism is the most cowardly of acts. But physical violence will continue as a reaction to real or imagined emotional violence. Is it an expression of power to ridicule another’s religious belief? It is always the powerless who suffer the consequences. Only the deranged bring bullets to the discussion. We need to stop hating each other.
During Pope Francis’ five-day apostolic voyage to the Philippines, Filipinos could not get enough of the Holy Father, who was enthusiastically received wherever he went. The Vatican and international media were overwhelmed by the Filipino people’s reception of the Vicar of Christ. This was because the Holy Father, even for a short while, brought joy, hope, and warmth to many who were reeling and living in a literal and figurative “storm.”
How many Catholics are there in China is a difficult question to answer. When the Communists assumed power, it was estimated that there were between five and six million Catholics in the country. Today, it is estimated that this number has doubled, thus, there are now twelve million Catholics in China. Despite persecution, the Catholic faith is passed on from parents
to children. And, more recently, a wave of interest in Christianity brought in new believers, especially among the youth. That is why members of the unregistered Church and the foreign missionaries, who dare to work in China today, have to reinvent their mission: from protagonists to discrete collaborators.
By deciding to devote themselves to the evangelization of Asia, the Comboni Missionaries have also chosen to be present in China, given the importance of the country and the plight of the Church there.
The following is a conversation with Fr. Paolo Consonni, a Comboni missionary, who relates his missionary experiences in Taiwan. He considers it his first missionary love and instantly felt part of this society.
Nowadays, St Joseph is almost invisible, even if he embodies all the traits required to inspire and maintain a vocation, and the values that are so much needed in our societies and personal lives. Not by chance, he was the favorite saint of St. Daniel Comboni, Africa’s great missionary. Rarely mentioned in the Gospels, his silence conveys a powerful message
