The little-known story of the murder of 33 Trappist monks by Chinese Communists in 1947: “The body of Christ which is the Church, like the human body, was first young, but at the end of the world it will have an appearance of decline.” — St. Augustine As I sat with Brother Marcel Zhang, OCSO Read more
The United Nations estimates that as many as 200 million girls are missing today, the majority from India and China. What are the cultural patterns and individual stories behind this shocking statistic? Evan Grae Davis, an American who has extensive experience in the developing world, has produced a documentary film that answers this question through Read more
In 1985, Mary Anne Warren coined the term gendercide to refer to the ritual eradication of women and girls throughout the world. More recently, the heartbreaking film It’s a Girl documents the effects of this practice on the numbers of girls and women in China and India. It makes for difficult viewing, particularly when confronted with the Read more
The state of religious freedom around the world is “increasingly dire”, according to the chairperson of a United States agency that monitors threats to this human right. The reasons include the rise of violent religious extremism and the actions and inactions of governments, according to Dr Katrina Lantos Swett of the US Commission for International Read more
China’s government has declared it will maintain its one-child policy, but at the same time stripped power from the family planning agency that oversees the regime. “The way to interpret this is that the laws are still in effect, but the judges and the policemen have all been fired,” said Wang Feng, director of the Read more
Hong Kong’s retired Cardinal Joseph Zen has accused Vatican officials of “a policy of appeasement and compromise” that allowed Communist China’s control of the Church there. Cardinal Zen said Pope Benedict XVI set appropriate policies, but “his work was wasted by others close to him, who did not follow his line”. “Saying ‘others’ I mean Read more
The once-in-a-decade transition of power in China, at the recent congress of the Chinese Communist Party, bodes well for Christians, according to the president of a Hong Kong-based information resource. “There’s a lot going on,” says Brent Fulton. “But … if political reform is able to move ahead, it should bode well for the Church. Read more
A think tank close to China’s leadership is recommending an end to the country’s one-child policy — for political and economic reasons rather than on human rights grounds. The China Development Research Foundation proposes allowing two children for every family in some provinces from this year and nationally by 2015, and dropping all birth limits Read more
When Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress met with Fiji President Epeli Nailatikau in Fiji last Friday he said China believed that all countries, big or small, rich or poor, strong or weak, are equal members of the international community, and that international affairs should be handled by all Read more
An international survey has recorded a dramatic decline in religious faith among the Irish over the past six years. Between 2005 and 2011, the proportion of Irish people declaring themselves to be religious dropped from 69 to 47 per cent — a percentage drop in religiosity exceeded only by the Vietnamese. Over the same period, Read more