Asia

Asian Youth Day is the coming together of Catholic youths from different Asian countries. This weeklong life experience enables young people to gather in formation programs and plan their future spiritual lives. At the same time, the gathering aims ...

There is less than a month to go until Pope Francis begins his visit to South Korea from August 13-18. Among the highlights of the visit are the Holy Father’s scheduled meeting with young people in the context of the 6th Asian Youth Day celebrations,...

The Korean church has launched the official website for Pope Francis’ upcoming Apostolic Journey. The Holy Father will visit South Korea from August 14 to 18 next ...

Selon Mgr Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, l’une des principales attentes des catholiques sud-coréens quant à la visite que le pape François effectuera à la mi-août en Corée du Sud concerne les relations intercoréennes. Selon lui, non seulement les catholiques mais l’ensemble de la population

A documentary on the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan (1922-2009) will open in theaters on August 7 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of his passing.

Local Catholic Church officials in Philippines eagerly look forward to a papal visit to the Philippines although there has not been any official announcement yet about the much-anticipated trip.

Pope Francis' announcement of a papal visit Sri Lanka next year has been received with delight. The pope made the announcement to media yesterday during a flight back to Rome after his Holy Land visit. He said that he also plans to go to the Philippines on...

Holot In the Negev desert there is a detention center with more than two thousand prisoners, mostly of Christian faith. We are talking about the center of Holot, where Eritreans and Sudanese who arrive in Israel, having escaped from their countries of...

A Vatican-sponsored conference on the family ended Friday in Manila with a call for Asian Catholics to fight abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage as "threats to the very existence of the family" ...

“Arise! Shine, for your light has come, the glory of the LORD has dawned upon you" (Is, 60:1): this is the motto for Pope Francis’ upcoming Apostolic Voyage to Korea (14 to 18 August 2014), the first Papal trip to the nation ...

Masses are being held at the funeral home where the body is on display. Mass was also celebrated at St Ignatius Cathedral, where the faithful placed a catafalque to honour the late underground bishop. Official and underground Catholics have come together to pay their respect to Mgr Fan.

The famine crisis in Thar, one of the poorest regions in Sindh, started in December last year. Young children and adults are dying due to lack of food and water. More than 120 children have died in the last three months

The Pope's visit to Korea "is a source of hope and strength for the youth of Asia" and an opportunity "for a decisive change of direction, so that the Korean people and Church - so often weighed down by materialism and torn by the division between North and South- may grow".

It’s official: Pope Francis is going to South Korea. A statement from the Press Office of the Holy See on Monday confirmed that the Holy Father will be traveling to the Republic of Korea from August 14th to August 18th...

Archbishop William Goh invites the faithful to pray the Liturgy of the Hours (even) in the office and at school. Prayer is the way to "encounter" God and proclaim "the joy of the Gospel." The prelate proposes meeting weekly for Bible study and an annual retreat for five days.

"Des millions de personnes qui vivent en Extrême Orient ou qui vivent dispersées dans différentes régions du monde – Chinois, Coréens et Vietnamiens, notamment – vont célébrer le nouvel an lunaire ces prochains jours. Je leur souhaite à tous une existence pleine de joie et d’espérance."

If you have ever been to Japan, chances are you’ve seen businessmen exchanging their cards in a social ritual involving bows and gestures of courtesy. The actions of both the giver and the receiver are an established custom reminiscent of a traditional Japanese tea...

Throughout history, monks have been linked to ink, penning beautiful calligraphy in books and illuminating manuscripts. The Benedictine monks at St. Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo, located in California’s high desert 90 minutes northeast of Los Angeles, have updated the ...

The Emergency Unit Coordinator points to gestures of solidarity by population. People affected by the earthquake of October offer aid and support to populations hit by Yolanda . Pope Francis closeness to people "made us proud to be Catholic". The cardinal of Manila calls for a day of fasting and prayer on November 16 .

It was 2004 when Father Michael Bauer left his post as chaplain in the sleepy rural town of Zuelpich, Germany, to accept a new task in Shanghai. Thanks to the commercial opportunities that abound in communist China, and the arrival of many businessmen from ...

On behalf of Archbishop Jose S. Palma, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), we are so grateful for the letter from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam (CBCV) conveying message of assurances of loseness in prayers for all the victims of ...

A new indoor playground at a Catholic school in earthquake-ravaged Fukushima is being hailed by local residents as a “beacon of hope for the region’s recovery.”

Pope Francis on Friday sent a video message in English to participants at the conclusion of a conference in the Philippines organized by the archdiocese of Manila. The three day Philippine Conference on the New Evangelization has been focused on

Catholic bishops in the Philippines are calling for prayers for those affected by Tuesday’s earthquake that killed scores of people and destroyed many buildings. The quake has also destroyed or severely damaged at least 7 historic churches including one of the country’s oldest churches in...

Today, we are amazed to see how Jesus is preposterously “accused” of driving out demons "by the power of Beelzebub, the chief of the demons" (Lk 11:15). It is difficult to imagine a better deed —to expel, to rid their souls of the Devil, the instigator of evil— and, at the same time...

John Paul II’s prophecy is still true: Asia is the continent to be evangelized in the third millennium. Exports, trade, tourists come and go from the Asian continent along with poverty, refugees, rumors of wars. The West tends to favor only the economic approach and profit, but...

In unprepared remarks at the end of a one-day trip to the city of Cagliari on the Italian island of Sardinia, the Pope said :"Today, in Pakistan, because of a wrong choice, a decisionof hatred, of war, there was an attack in which over 70 people died. This choice cannot...

A seminarian in northern China sends AsiaNews a reflection on the feast day, which falls on September 19: "It 's the right time to accept the invitation of Pope Francis and make our church a happy home. And to those who have the good fortune to spend the holidays with ...

Pope Francis’s response to a request for a symbolic mooncake donation to prisoners in Hong Kong has generated excitement and a flood of cash donations since it was published last week. Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong issued the request...

When Akiko and Fumiko, aged 28 and 23 respectively, arrived at the Trappistine convent of Our Lady of Imari, they were not initiates to the order, but they weren’t casual visitors either. They had set aside the following three months for ...