Pressure is mounting in China for a change in the “one-child” policy that has resulted in forced abortions and sterilisations, according to a New York Times report. Recent reports of local officials coercing women into late-term abortions have prompted an outcry among policy advisers and scholars who are trying to push central government officials to Read more
Catholics in China are dismayed at the apparent house arrest of the newly-ordained Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin after he publicly cut ties with the government-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association. Local Church sources said Bishop Ma of Shanghai was taken away by several unidentified persons shortly after his ordination last Saturday and is now at a diocesan Read more
A pregnant woman who was dragged to a hospital by authorities and forced to have an abortion has enraged Chinese and sparked an online flurry of debate over whether it is time to end China’s draconian one-child family planning policy. “Our country is the inventor of family planning committees, how couldn’t we have accumulated enough Read more
The Catholic Church is like Fiat-Chrysler. Slumping in Italy and Europe, it is coming back strong in the United States and has its most promising market in the rest of the world. With a clue about who the future pope will be. The nation that has the largest number of Catholics today is Brazil, with Read more
As the diplomatic crisis unfolded between the United States and China over the fate of blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng , hard questions about Chinese politics, society and culture surfaced, and the West embarked on its familiar cycle of attempted comprehension on the one hand, and obstinate mystification on the other. One figure in the history Read more
The Vatican is complaining that some bishops in China have “usurped” the Catholic Church’s authority and are confusing the faithful. The Vatican warned Thursday that bishops who were consecrated without the pope’s blessing yet work among the faithful as if they were legitimate are only making their legal status worse. The admonition came in a Read more
More than 22,104 people were baptised in China on Easter Sunday, Fides news agency reports. The statistics were collected by the Study Centre of Faith in the Chinese province of He Bei. The newly-baptised Catholics, 75 per cent of whom are adults, belong to 101 dioceses. In He Bei itself 4,410 people were baptised on Read more
Bishop Joseph Chen Gong’ao was ordained today as the bishop of Nanchong diocese and made a pledge to strengthen formation and promote new evangelization. The 47-year-old prelate, the first Chinese bishop to be ordained this year, was approved by the pope and is recognized by the Chinese government. He told ucanews.com that his priority is Read more
It is a phenomenon not often spoken about; but the Arabic peninsula, homeland of Islam, pullulates with Christians. For most of them the next few days will be a rare and limited moment of visibility, after which they return to living a very discreet life of faith. It is almost a subterranean community in Saudi Read more
China plans to abolish the transplanting of organs from executed prisoners within five years; instead, it will try to spur more citizens to donate, a top health official said.
After refusing to acknowledge the practice for a long time, Chinese authorities admitted it last Sunday, insisting however that only prisoners who volunteered their organs were involved, Xinhua reported today, citing Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu.
The decision does not stem from any humanitarian considerations, but from the fact that the practice is very risky.
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