January 15 this year marks 100 years since Etty Hillesum, who was killed in Auschwitz on 30 November 1943, was born in the Netherlands

HONG KONG (SE): “She looked at me strangely and said, ‘You don’t understand me’. Then she said, ‘I want to share the destiny of my people’,” Klaas Smelik relates in describing the resignation to fate of Etty Hillesum.

Her resignation is somewhat explained in the last lines of her dairy where she expresses her readiness to offer herself to the Holocaust.

HONG KONG (SE): Undoubtedly the biggest event of 2013 in the Church was Pope Benedict XVI becoming the first pope in recent times to resign from the job. This was followed by the election of the first pope from the Americas, Argentinean, Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio.

Cardinal Bergoglio chose the name which today is in the top echelon of mega Internet stars: Francis.

Early in the year we learned that Pope Benedict XVI wished to step down from the papacy.

This was quite a surprise because even though we knew about his failing health, we had never heard of a pope in recent times finding the freedom to resign.

He officially stepped down at the end of February. 

Liu Yunxiao may have visited more churches in China than anyone and there’s little doubt no one has seen more of them in his home province of Shaanxi.

A stocky man with silvery hair, 65-year-old Liu has spent the past 30 years documenting Catholicism in this central province, often in mind-numbing detail.

In his self-published book on his home diocese of Zhouzhi, Liu notes the priest’s house in Fujiazhuang village has a modest kitchen of 5.4 square metres.

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.