A day after he agreed to stop attacking the Catholic Church Philippine president Duterte is at it again. He appears to have taken offence at Australian missionary nun Patricia Fox. She has joined an investigation into alleged human rights abuses in Mindanao. Duterte attacked critics who “come here under the cloak of whatever religion and Read more
Catholic activists have accused Indonesia of unlawfully killing 95 people in Papua since 2010. A separatist conflict has simmered in Papua since it became part of Indonesia after a disputed UN referendum in 1969. An Amnesty International report found at least 95 deaths in 69 incidents. It says these happened between January 2010 and February Read more
On Sunday, thirty-six refugees exiled to Nauru by Australia flew to the USA to be resettled. They are Afghan, Pakistani, Rohingyan and Sri Lankan. The group did not include refugees from Iran or Somalia or any of the Muslim majority countries banned from the US, which account for about half of all refugees on Papua New Read more
The General Secretary of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (EFKS), says the demand that Church ministers pay tax is part of a colonial mindset that the government seems to have revived. Reverend Vavatau Taufao says taxing church ministers is just the first step. “If this colonial mindset is allowed to continue, when will it Read more
New Zealanders and people from Pacific Island nations were among representatives from all over the world attending the International Conference “Saving our Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth” at the Vatican July 5-6 to commemorate Pope Francis’s encyclical on the Care of Creation. The conference was attended by faith leaders, youth activists, Read more
His Holiness Pope Francis on Tuesday appointed a new bishop for the Auki Diocese in the Solomon Islands. Bishop-elect Peter Houhou is currently the vicar general of the Archdiocese of Honiara and administrator of Holy Cross Cathedral. He will be the 3rd Bishop of Auki and he will the first Solomons-born bishop to lead this Read more
A video showing a priest in his clerical cassock staging a protest at a police detention centre has gone viral. On June 19, Father Joseph Nguyễn Duy Tân, pastor of Thọ Hòa parish in Đồng Nai province, came to the police detention centre of Biên Hòa, 30km North of Sàigòn, to demand the immediate release Read more
Solomon Islands has launched its first poverty map. It has found nearly 13% of the population is poor. Most of the poor live rurally. It’s the first time officials have been able to measure poverty in the Islands at a village level. As a result, the survey found that the poor number 78,500. That compares Read more
The Philippine president Duterte has promised to mend fences with the Catholic Church. The president shocked many in Asia’s largest Catholic country last week by describing God as “stupid.” The next day, he said that he was not talking about his God and was instead insulting the God of his critics. “Mine has a lot Read more
This week a bill was rushed through the Samoan parliament exempting monetary gifts (alofa) received by ministers during funerals, weddings and other traditional occasions from the new taxes. The Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (CCCS) General Secretary, Vavatau Taufao, said the changed section should never have been a part of the law. Taufao said the Prime Read more