Tag: Catholics

Bangladesh: Catholic priest missing as Pope Francis arrives

November 30, 2017 Bangladesh Bangladesh, Catholics, Dhaka, Education, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Pope Francis, Religious freedom

Pope Francis hold hands with President of Bangladesh Abdul Hamid (L) upon arriving at the Presidential palace in Dhaka on 30 November 2017. (Photo: VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)

Pope Francis has arrived in Bangladesh, where a Catholic priest disappeared three days ago, highlighting the pressure Christians and other minority groups are under in the mainly Muslim country. Father Walter William Rozario, who is also the headmaster of a high school, went missing in northern Natore district on 27 . . . Read More

Myanmar’s Christians hope Pope Francis will speak for them

November 27, 2017 Myanmar Bangladesh, Baptists, Cardinal Bo, Catholics, Kachin, Ma Ba Tha, Myanmar, Nay Pyi Taw, Pope Francis, Southeast Asia, Yangon

Pope Francis is greeted by a child upon arrival in Yangon, Myanmar, on 27 November. (Photo: Getty Images)

Pope Francis landed in Myanmar today (27 November) to start his six-day visit to Southeast Asia, raising the hopes of Christians there that he will address the issues they face in the majority-Buddhist nation. Among those welcoming the Pontiff in Yangon were more than 7,000 ethnic Kachin from the conflict-torn state . . . Read More

Vietnam’s religion policy and practice – contradictions continue

November 23, 2017 Vietnam Binh Phuoc, Catholics, Central Highlands, Communism, Evangelical Church of Vietnam, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Protestants, Religion Law, Religious freedom, Vietnam

Optimists are hard to find ahead of Vietnam’s impending introduction of its new Law on Belief and Religion, scheduled to come into effect on 1 January, 2018. Vietnam’s Catholic and Evangelical leaders, as well as Buddhists and Caodaists, say the main benefit of the law, two years in the making, . . . Read More

Iraq: Basra Christians living in ‘deep fear and mistrust’

November 21, 2017 Iraq Armenians, Basra, Catholics, Chaldeans, Iraq, Islamic extremism

The remaining Christians in the southern Iraqi city of Basra are living in a climate of “deep fear and mistrust” of the Muslim majority, despite recent attempts to promote inter-religious harmony, according to Al-Monitor. In September, for instance, an Armenian organisation helped to erect a statue of the Virgin Mary, . . . Read More

Bangladesh: 12 militants charged with Catholic’s murder

November 17, 2017 Bangladesh Bangladesh, Catholics, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Jamaat-ul-Mujahedin Bangladesh

Street in the capital Dhaka, February 2016. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Police in Bangladesh’s northern Natore district have charged 12 militants with the murder of a Catholic shopkeeper in June last year. The charges followed a reported confession by a militant leader in custody, who is said to have admitted that members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, an organisation affiliated to the Islamic . . . Read More

‘Mutual respect’ needed to combat radicalisation in Indonesia

November 10, 2017 Indonesia Catholics, Indonesia, Islamic extremism, Religious freedom, Sumatra

Altar of the Stasi Kinali Catholic Church, West-Sumatra, Indonesia, which was attacked in May 2014. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Religious leaders should be more involved in creating an inclusive and pluralistic Indonesia and “leave the ‘comfort zone’” of their community, Catholic bishops were told at a conference this week. What the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation needs from its religious leaders now “is greater commitment to get involved more . . . Read More

Eritrean Christians told to remove crosses as schools forced to go public

November 3, 2017 Eritrea Abune Antonios, Asmara, Catholics, Education, Eritrea, Pentecostals, Religious freedom

People running in the streets of Asmara while gun shots can be heard.

Eritrea’s security forces shot at protesters, using live ammunition, in the capital Asmara on Tuesday (31 October) during a protest against the government’s plans to turn all schools public. This would mean forbidding students from wearing religious items such as Christian crosses or Muslim headscarves. A local source told World . . . Read More

Behind Nigeria persecution ‘lies prejudice, weak leadership, corruption, historic grievance’

October 13, 2017 Nigeria Boko Haram, Catholics, Islamic extremism, Nigeria, Sharia

Support for the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram is a reaction to Western-backed corruption, colonial-era intervention and weak Nigerian leadership, a Catholic archbishop has said. Archbishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto in north-western Nigeria told World Watch Monitor that sympathy for the extremist group in northern Nigeria’s majority-Muslim states was fuelled . . . Read More

Belarus archbishop: ‘Give Catholic Church its rights’

October 12, 2017 Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus, Catholics, Eastern Europe, Jehovah's Witnesses, Russia, Soviet Union

Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Minsk-Mohilev © Aid to the Church in Need

A Catholic archbishop in Belarus has asked the government to make it easier for foreign priests to work in the country and to return ownership of church buildings to the Catholic Church. Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, whose diocese encompasses the capital, Minsk, told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need . . . Read More

Fears of a security breakdown as Mali’s Catholic churches attacked

October 4, 2017 Mali Catholics, Islamic extremism, Kidnapping, Mali

Catholics in Mali have suffered a fresh wave of attacks at the hands of gunmen believed to be jihadists, amid a “dramatic” deterioration in security in the centre of the country. Several churches were attacked last month, according to the news agency AFP. In Dobara, 500 miles (800km) north of . . . Read More

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