When Indonesia seized Timor Leste in late 1975, it heralded its invasion with promises and platitudes to win the hearts of local people. "We are here to free you from Portuguese colonialism and liberate you from the communist regime," the invaders asserted. "We've come to help develop your country so that ...

Christian women are doubly marginalized in Pakistan, because they are women and because they belong to a religious minority, says Sister Zakai Jamal. One aspect of this marginalization is the violence and discrimination that Christian women face, given the intolerant attitude to openness and modern values that is part of the ...

The recent Seventh Plenary Assembly of the Catholic Biblical Federation (CBF) decided to support biblical pastoral ministry in Asia with a special focus on China for the next six years. Other priorities the CBF affirmed at the June 24-July 3 meeting in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, included animation of Basic Ecclesial ...

A priest of a northern parish hit hard by recent flooding says a priest should not only provide pastoral care to parishioners but also be ready to live and die for them, especially when they are in danger. Father Michael Tran Van Thin, pastor of Nhan Nghia parish, says he followed ...

I was disappointed to hear about our missing five. Of the 33 young Catholics who went from Myanmar to the World Youth Day (WYD) in Sydney, those five have failed to come back. I feel sorry for Father Robert Bya Reh, Myanmar's Catholic youth director. After the July 15-20 event, he spent ...