The late-Carlo Maria Cardinal Martini made Jerusalem his life’s place of the heart: I found in him a model and an inspiration in the unforgettable six months, which I wish had been never-ending, that I spent in the Holy City from February to August 2013.

And from Cardinal Martini I now borrow some thoughts to describe how I lived through that period.

VATICAN (AsiaNews): A symposium held at the Aula Magna of the Pontifical Urbaniana University on October 9 and 10 heard that the future good of Asia can be guaranteed if religious freedom and the commitment of Christians in society is affirmed.

The opinion was also expressed that despite suffering from persecution and marginalisation, Christians are even now able to be signs of humanity full of hope for their continent and the world.

HONG KONG (SE): In the early 19th century, Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice, a successful business entrepreneur in Ireland, dreamed of setting up an educational system for poor children.

His dream materialised in the foundation of the Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers’ Schools, which today can be found operating in almost every country in the world.

How often have you found yourself or others talking about something, someone, a crisis, a disappointment or a bad experience; of being left behind? The experience might still arouse positive or negative feelings in you. 

Nowadays, we read and hear about children being left behind! This usually refers to the fact that many families in China have to find employment in the big cities and cannot bring their children with them.

 Asians represent one-seventh of all Christian believers and that number is growing quickly. Naturally, those people want to understand the Asian contexts and origins of their faith, so scholars are seeking to accommodate them.

Among the theologians of Christianity in Asia, we find such great Catholic figures as Jesuits, Father Aloysius Pieris and Father Peter Phan, as well as Protestants like the Japanese Kosuke Koyama.

 HONG KONG (SE): “I took part in a retreat directed by Father Laurence Freeman, the current director of the World Community of Christian Meditation in Hong Kong,” Louis Tong told the Sunday Examiner after attending a three-day gathering from September 16 to 18 at the Harbour Plaza Hotel.

 by Logos

Since 2003, the year I began my journey to follow my priestly vocation, I have not had the opportunity to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with my parents.

This festival of the full-moon is one of the traditional Chinese celebrations that call for families to come together for a reunion, as well as eat together in thanksgiving for what they have received.

MINNEAPOLIS (SE): Can an overweight literary scribbler like British journalist and apologist Gilbert Keith (G.K.) Chesterton, often characterised with a pen in one hand and walking cane in the other while perennially chewing on a cigar, become a canonised saint in the Catholic Church?

While it remains to be seen, at least Dale Ahlquist, the president of the American Chesterton Society thinks it would be a great inspiration to many people.

HONG KONG (SE): During the summer of this year, Brother Samuel Chow and Brother Luis Lorenzo, from the Legionaries of Christ, had the joy and the blessing of accompanying young people from Hong Kong to World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

At a reflection day held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on August 17 they recalled the many jam-packed days of touring, sightseeing and praying in churches both in South America and in Rome during a stopover on the way.

Twenty-five years ago, hundreds of thousands of people in the Union of Myanmar from all walks of life and from all corners of the country rose up to demand an end to a quarter of a century of military rule that had closed the country off from the rest of the world and impoverished a once prosperous nation.

Their pleas for freedom were met with a hail of gunfire from the military and an estimated 3,000 people lost their lives.