Just over half a century ago a belligerent China and an ill-prepared India engaged in a border war. From the Indian perspective, the 1962 conflict revealed China’s treachery a year on from the euphoria of the visit of the Chinese premier at the time, Chou Enlai, and the apparent brotherly relations that were meant to follow.

HONG KONG (SE): Snuggled comfortably among the glittering pubs and restaurants of Soho, the Culture Club Gallery offers something of a quiet corner away from the blasting stereos and prying glare of television screens that invade conversation in the area.

“I imagined it as a place where people could display their talents and interests where they could be appreciated,” owner, Aruna Rana Ale, told the Sunday Examiner.

On Easter Sunday last year, a young woman completed a journey lasting almost three decades, as she lowered her head over the baptismal font to receive the waters of eternal life a world away from the holy of holies of godlessness into which she was born.

Simply known as Chitty among the people of her parish, as well as to her patients at the dental clinic where she practices in Albury, Australia, she has been reborn in the faith of her childhood memories.

HONG KONG (SE): “‘They kept the best wine until last.’ These words excited me when I heard them in a new context. They come from the story of the wedding feast at Cana and I realised that maybe a fresh taste could be inserted in my own marriage,” Kevin Lai Yuk-ching from the Diocesan Pastoral Commission for Marriage and Family, said.

At a meeting in the early 1990s, an informal discussion on domestic violence drew some alarm when I mentioned marital rape.

“What!?” exclaimed a couple of men, “there is no such thing as marital rape!” Even now, in the 21st century, I find that there are still men who share their view.

The Justice Verma Committee was set up in December last year by the Indian government in the wake of a brutal gang rape of a student in Delhi.

Pope Francis has given many homilies since he was elected on March 13 and has mentioned creation on numerous occasions.

HONG KONG (SE): “It seems their strategy is to win the hearts of the people by proving that they love their country more than the Communist Party does,” Martin Chung Chi-kei, a doctorate in philosophy candidate in European Studies at the University of Hong Kong, says of the group from Hong Kong that erected a Chinese flag on the disputed Diaoyu Islands, or Senkaku Islands as the Japanese call them, in August last year.

Father Gianni Criveller

As the conclave convened officially on March 12 to choose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI—and set the future direction for the Universal Catholic Church—I find myself hoping as never before that the cardinals choose wisely.

It is my hope that the next pope will guide the Church according to the principles on which Jesus founded it: to bring the good news of salvation to those who do not know about it.

HONG KONG (SE): “It takes two to tango,” a bit of proverbial wisdom tells us. Another sage jewel tossed around in casual conversation goes, “Behind every great man is a great woman.”

Scripture too chimes in with its own bit of wisdom from the Book of Proverbs, “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband does safely trust in her, so that he shall have no lack of gain” (Proverbs 10:31).