Category: World

MISSIONARIES IN IVORY COAST – Africa is Still a Mission Land

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It was only in 1895 that the first missionaries from the African Mission Society (SMA) arrived in Ivory Coast. In other words, the Catholic Church, as an organized entity (let’s not forget the first attempts at evangelization carried out by priests who sailed on Portuguese caravels, from the 14th century onward) is relatively young there. Thus, Ivory Coast is still a “mission land,” with an entire hierarchy made up of bishops originating from that country’s diocesan clergy. But, as Bishop Marcelin Yao Kouadio of Daloa and president of the Episcopal Conference of Ivory Coast told the news agency Fides, “we are always open-armed and ready to welcome foreign missionaries from religious congregations (especially women) and institutes of apostolic life.”

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DIED IN THE NAME OF FAITH – Centenary of the Beatification of Korean Martyrs

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On Saturday July 5 marks the centenary of the Eucharistic liturgy celebrated on July 5, 1925, in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, during which the first Korean martyrs were proclaimed blessed. We are talking about 79 Catholics who suffered martyrdom, ‘in odium fidei’, in the name of their faith during the infamous persecutions of Gihae (1839) and Byeong-o (1846). Among them was the first Korean Catholic priest, Andrew Kim Taegon, who completed his academic training in Macau and later managed to enter Korea as a missionary. However, thirteen months after his ordination, he was put to the sword in 1846, at the age of 26. He is now recognized as the patron saint of the Korean clergy.

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PEACE FOR A BELOVED COUNTRY – Between War and Natural Disasters

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Since the beginning of the civil war in Myanmar in 2021, there have been an increasing number of areas where fighting has taken place, where civilians have been living for too long as displaced people, facing continuous and increasing difficulties whenever they flee from areas of intense conflict. As far as the Catholic community is concerned, the Sagaing region is undoubtedly the most affected, with frequent bombings and “widespread suffering among the civilian population,” as recalled by Peter Sein Hlaing Oo, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Mandalay, in the north-central part of the former Burma. For this reason, this local prelate, like other members of the local Church, view with optimism the words of Pope Leo XIV, who, during the Sunday Angelus prayer on June 15, recalled the ongoing fighting in Myanmar.

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A SAINT THE CHURCH NEEDS TODAY – Peter To Rot, the first Saint of Papua New Guinea

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By decision decreed by Pope Leo XIV during the celebration of his first Ordinary Public Consistory, the martyr Peter To Rot, a native of Papua New Guinea, will be canonized on October 19 of this year, precisely on the Sunday on which the 99th World Mission Day is celebrated. On that same morning, the Blesseds Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan, Vincenza Maria Poloni, María del Monte Carmelo Rendiles Martínez, Maria Troncatti, José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros and Bartolo Longo will be inscribed in the Book of Saints. A month and a half earlier, on September 7, the Italian Blesseds Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis were also canonized.

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INDO-PAKISTANI CONFLICT OVER KASHMIR – The Vatican Inspires Peace

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In the wake of the recent military crisis between Pakistan and India – which has once again rekindled the threat of a nuclear apocalypse – Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, a Sikh MP, has urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to work with international organizations to begin a process of “adequate recognition” to find a city that can be presented as “a symbolic place of peace for humanity”. Amritsar, the holy city of Sikhism, near the border between India and Pakistan and home to the famous Golden Temple, is an ideal candidate for this purpose and should therefore be declared a “war-free zone” and receive international protection, as is the case with the Vatican.

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VOICE FOR THE POOR, FIERCE ADVOCATE FOR JUSTICE – Macau Mourns the Death of Father Domingos Soares

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A Requiem Mass in memory of Father Domingos Soares was held on Thursday, May 22nd at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady. The well-beloved Timorese priest, who ministered in Macau for almost a decade, passed away on May, 16th, at the Guido Valadares National Hospital, in Díli, following a long-term illness. 

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ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PONTIFICAL MISSION SOCIETIES – The Apostolic Foundations of Missionary Cooperation

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Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle reminded the National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS), gathered in Rome for their annual General Assembly, that the experience witnessed by the first disciples of Jesus during the early Church continues to be the point of reference for all authentic missionary work and initiative.

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Habemus Papam! – Bishop’s Message

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Habemus Papam! We have a new Pope! What great news! This past week, we mourned as God called Pope Francis back to heaven, but now God has sent us another new Pope! He is the first Pope from the United States and the first Augustinian Pope. This joy is not merely of the heart or of having a new Pope within the structure of the Church; rather, it is a spiritual, even theological, joy. Every Pope is Christ’s vicar on earth—the Father of the Catholic Church, the Father of fathers, and the Servant of all servants.

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