Category: World

The worst is over, but the emergency continues. Floods and landslides have swept away entire villages. Many people are homeless. Rescue teams are trying to reach the displaced: for some it is possible, for others not, because the areas remain isolated. This is the scenario still prevailing in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, after the passage of the devastating Cyclone Senyar. In the region, Tropical Cyclone Senyar brought torrential rains, floods and landslides, leaving countless dead and missing, 1.5 million people affected and more than 570,000 displaced.

In a spirit of joy and expectation, the Asian Missionary Congress, entitled Great Pilgrimage of Hope 2025, began on November 27 – initiating a Synodal Journey that brings together cardinals, bishops, clergy, religious and lay leaders from all over Asia – and lasted until the 30th.

In a moving message addressed to the bishops, priests, religious men and women, and lay people gathered in Puebla de los Ángeles for the XVII National Missionary Congress of Mexico (Congreso Nacional Misionero, XVII CONAMI), Pope Leo XIV recalled that the true missionary shares “the faith as one shares bread.” Christ himself attracts him and calls him to “put his hand in the dough of history,” so that faith, like leaven, may act “in the history and culture of the people, transforming them from within.”

After Sunday Mass on October 26th, Father Ambrose Kimutai, parish priest of the church in Ndaraweta, Bomet County, in the Western Rift Valley, once again drew attention to the exploitation suffered by small tea producers, whose wealth inevitably ends up in the hands of corrupt officials. With this appeal, Father Ambrose is giving voice to the “small tea producers of Bomet, Kericho, and Nandi counties.” They are the ones who produce the enormous quantities of tea from which Kenya reaps huge profits through its export, which, in theory, allows it to pay the salaries of civil servants, teachers, and other employees. However, “and unfortunately,” the very system created by the government is destroying small farmers, imposing structures that exploit them and prevent them from obtaining sufficient income. Father Ambrose refers to the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), a state agency founded in 1964 with the intention of helping local farmers improve their production and which buys a large portion of the tea grown in the Rift Valley region.

The Catholic community of Hon Tre village dates back to the 1960s, when several families of believers settled on Hai Tac, “Pirate Island,” to achieve a more dignified life there. Later, at the initiative of these local parishioners led by Father Michael Le Tan Cong, a church, a school, and a medical center were built there. Located 28 kilometers from the mainland, at the southernmost point of the country, the only way to reach Hai Tac is by speedboat, a one-hour trip.

In an interview with the Fides news agency, Father Agustinus Purnama, a 70-year-old Indonesian priest and Superior General of the Missionaries of the Holy Family (MSF) in the province of Java, considers legitimate the expectations of young Indonesians, who are leading the current wave of rebellion spreading across different regions of the archipelago. They demand transparency, work, development, good politics, and a future. “The problem is that they are being exploited for other purposes”, concludes Father Purnama, who is nearing the end of his six-year term as Superior (2019-2025).

On the occasion of the World Missionary Jubilee, Italian Father Claudio Corti, a missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in Thailand, spoke to the Fides news agency. He expressed his astonishment at the number of people who have recently converted to Catholicism and requested baptism. In this predominantly Buddhist country, where Christians are clearly in the minority, it is not uncommon to hear about Jesus Christ… Whether because one attended a Christian school, or met a Catholic coworker or friend, or because one was impressed by the imposing churches during a trip abroad, “especially in Europe.” And when one of these people approaches Father Corti – who has lived in Thailand since 1999 – asking if he can convert them to Christianity and baptize them, the prelate notes that “they take their faith very seriously.” The decision to convert to Catholicism radically changes one’s life. For example, “the experience of forgiveness, which one receives from God and offers to one’s enemy, is an extraordinary moment. And from that moment on, this person begins to live not only for themselves, but for their fellow human beings.”