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March 2018

Archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City mourned
 (Saturday, 24 March 2018 )

HO CHI MINH CITY (UCAN): Archbishop Paul Bui Van Doc of Ho Chi Minh City died of a stroke on March 6 in Rome while he and 32 other Vietnamese bishops were on their ad limina visit to the Vatican. He was 73-years-old.
 
Church sources said the archbishop suffered the stroke as he was celebrating Mass at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside The Wall.
 
His body was sent back to the Archbishop’s House in Ho Chi Minh City on March 15 and moved to Notre Dame...

Clampdown after Catholic hospital attacked in Madhya Pradesh
(Saturday, 24 March 2018 )

BHOPAL (UCAN): On March 15, three days after suspected Hindu activists demolished the boundary wall of the 44-year-old Pushpa Mission Hospital in Ujjain town in Madhya Pradesh province, in central India, the local authority issued a prohibitory order to check tension and further activities in the disputed area.
 
“The administration suo moto (on it’s own cognizance) issued a prohibitory order in the disputed area so that no activity can be carried out...

Duterte tries to duck from International Criminal Court
 (Saturday, 24 March 2018 )

MANILA (Agencies): Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo of Manila, said that the commitment of the Philippines to human rights in the international community cannot just be set aside by the president alone, CBCPNews reported on March 15.
 
Commenting on the move by the Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, to withdraw the country from the International Criminal Court (ICC), the bishop said, “This shows that there is basis for the investigation on him. They are afraid of...

Notice Board
 (Saturday, 24 March 2018 )

 
Indonesian beheaded in Saudi Arabia
Jakarta (UCAN): Muhammad Zaini Misrin, from Madura, East Java, Indonesia, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia despite several direct pleas from the president, Joko Widodo to show mercy.
 
The 53-year-old migrant worker, who was working as a driver, was found guilty of murdering his employer in 2005 and was executed on March 18 according to overseas workers advocacy group Migrant Care.
 
The...

The pain of abuse is always with us
 (Saturday, 24 March 2018 )

Child abuse in all its cruel and insidious forms is the scourge of our society. It always has been and always will be unless more good people stop plugging their ears, turning away and denying that we are surrounded by pain-filled victims and survivors. 
 
Hundreds of thousands of secret suffering children and adults who have been sexually abused, raped and exploited live with the shame and pain, but have been too scared to ever talk about it. They...

Pakistan’s bishops meet with pope
 (Saturday, 24 March 2018 )

VATICAN CITY (CNS): Archbishop Joseph Arshad of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, recounted that sitting in a small circle in the papal library with four other bishops from Pakistan and Pope Francis felt like having a family discussion.
 
The archbishop, president of the Pakistan Bishops’ Conference, along with with Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi; Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad; Archbishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore; and Bishop Benny Mario Travas of Multan, met with the...

An expert lens shoots empowerment
 (Saturday, 24 March 2018 )

Joan Pabona has been a migrant domestic worker in Hong Kong for more than four years. She hails from Sudipen in La Union province, the Philippines, and recently won second place in the National Geographic Wheelock Youth Photo Competition 2017.
 
This is one more feather in her cap of awards she has received in the field of photography.
 
Her most recent prize-winning entry was in the category of People and Happenings in Hong...

Famed director makes film about Pope Francis
 (Saturday, 24 March 2018 )

VATICAN (CNS): After two years working on the documentary, Pope Francis: A Man of His Word, the award winning German filmmaker, Wim Wenders, said he is most struck by the pope’s courage.
 
“Meeting him eye to eye, and then also seeing and hearing him every day in the editing room, not only in our own interviews, but also his many talks all over the world to refugees, prisoners, politicians, scientists, children, rich or poor or regular people made me...

Fifth Week of Lent
 (Saturday, 17 March 2018 )

MARCH 18 – FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT. 
Mass of the Sunday, Creed, preface for the fifth Sunday of Lent (purple). 
Readings: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33.
 
MARCH 19 – ST. JOSEPH. 
Mass of the Solemnity, Gloria, Creed, preface of St. Joseph (white). 
Readings: 2 Samuel 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16; Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a.
 
MARCH 20 – TUESDAY...

Fifth Sunday of Lent: It is not easy to get along with God
 (Saturday, 17 March 2018 )

Some Greeks were among the pilgrims who came to Jerusalem for the Passover. They had learned from their fathers to worship idols. As soon as they discovered the God of Israel, they embraced the Jewish religion. Their spiritual restlessness is revealed by the need they felt to see Jesus. 
 
This was not a trivial curiosity, a little frivolous desire to meet the star of the moment, to know him whom everyone was looking for because he had resuscitated...