The Catholic communities in Laos and Cambodia are facing significant challenges in training local clergy and reaching out to young people. With only 0.5% of the population in Laos and 0.1% in Cambodia being members of the Roman Catholic Church, the bishops are focusing on creating “prospects of hope” among those who are left behind in society. The lack of local clergy and language barriers are just a few of the challenges they face.
“The light that Jesus shows the disciples is an anticipation of Easter glory, and that must be the goal of our own journey, as we follow ‘him alone’. Lent leads to Easter: the ‘retreat’ is not an end in itself, but a means of preparing us to experience the Lord’s passion and cross with faith, hope and love, and thus to arrive at the resurrection”.
Listening to the word of God is not everything. One cannot spend one’s life in the church or in the oasis of spiritual retreats. It is necessary to go out to meet and serve the brothers and sisters, to help those who suffer, to be close to anyone in need of love.
The elevation of Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrão to the rank of cardinal, last August, was an uplifting moment for the Goan Catholic community, and viewed as a significant encouragement to tackle the challenges confronting the Indian Church.
Children are the fruit of the love not only of husband and wife but of the love of God who is one of the parties in the marriage. Each of the parties – husband, wife, God – has a contribution to make.
We are—all of us—sitting on a lot of unresolved rage. Thomas Aquinas defines the deadly sin of anger in his typically pithy manner as an irrational or excessive desire for revenge. Every one of us has been hurt by someone else, aggressed, unjustly harmed, insulted, perhaps to an extreme degree. And so, naturally enough, we harbor a desire to respond in kind.
The Institute of Science and Environment of the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) will take on the role of co-organizer of the annual Macau Green Week for the first time ever. The educational institution was invited by the local authorities to take over the coordination of the Green Week Carnival, an initiative that will take place on March 18 and 19, outside the Taipa Houses-Museum.
In this article, we will learn the importance of penance, repentance, and the practice of the three traditional Lenten penances: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Almsgiving is closely connected with forgiveness, and both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy are important. We must approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or confession, and to make firm resolutions to carry out the three penances during Lent. Let us also take up the Lenten devotion of The Way of the Cross and pray along with the community. Lent is a pilgrimage to Easter and a time for conversion and penance.
The Old Court building on Avenida da Praia Grande hosts, until March 17, the largest inter-religious event organized in Macau since the handover. With a particular focus on the cultural and religious heritage of the six religions that move the most followers in Macau, the exhibition “The Journey Over a Thousand Miles” brings together more than a hundred artefacts and sacred objects appurtenant to Buddhism, Catholicism, Taoism, Islam, the Baha’i faith and the Anglican communion.
The combined effort is the result of a long process of dialogue and deliberation that extended, well, for over a year. Benedict Keith Ip, curator of the exhibition, claims that the greatest challenge that he had to deal with was to ensure that religion was the essential focus of the event. The exhibition was inaugurated last Sunday and draws together 109 sacred artefacts, representing the culture and heritage of Macau’s six largest religions.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling on January 13, 2023, former Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and four other senior officials were found negligent for failing to take necessary preventive measures to stop the 2019 Easter Sunday terrorist attacks that shook the nation. The court ordered them to pay compensation of 100 million rupees (US$273,000) to the families of the victims who filed the case. The verdict was well received by the Sri Lankan population, especially among the Catholic community who were the most targeted by the attacks. The country’s Catholic Church further says it suspects a larger conspiracy and demands that the names of the instigators and the unstated objectives of the sinister plan be revealed.