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Harassment at Easter

HANOI (UCAN): Plainclothes officials in northwest Vietnam broke into the home of a Catholic family and attempted to take a priest into custody as he was preparing to celebrate Easter Mass.
 
More than 20 men and women, who identified themselves as local officials, barged into the house where around 100 people had gathered for Mass in the town of Muong Khuong, Lao Cai province.
 
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There are signs of life amidst suffering pope tells Rome and the world

ROME (SE): “Today, throughout the world, the Church echoes once more the astonishing message of the first disciples, ‘Jesus is risen! He is truly risen, as he said!’” Pope Francis proclaimed in introducing his traditional To the City of Rome and the World (Urbi et Orbi) greeting of Easter Sunday on April 16.
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Immersion in Easter

THERE ARE MANY messages contained in the rich Easter liturgies, but undoubtedly their seeds are to be found in the preparatory period of Holy Week in the stories of Lazarus being raised from the dead and the cure of the man born blind.







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Lofty and less philosophical incentives for baptism

HONG KONG (UCAN): Around 3,200 adults were baptised in Hong Kong parishes on Easter Night, March 26, a few hundred less than in the previous two years.

Middle-aged Paul Lo said, “I think the seed of faith was sown in my mind a long time ago when I studied in a Salesian primary school.”
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Easter permits for Jerusalem given out freely in Gaza

GAZA (SE): For the first time, the Church made a mass application to the Israeli authorities for Catholics to cross from Gaza to take part in the Easter ceremonies in Jerusalem.

The Orthodox Churches have been doing it in the past, but report that not everyone who applies is successful.
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An Easter without fuss in China

BEIJING (AsiaNews): On Easter night, March 26, more than 100 adults were baptised in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Beijing.

In presenting themselves to Bishop Joseph Li Shan, they wrapped their shoulders in white robes and, accompanied by their godparents, professed their adherence to faith in Jesus Christ.
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Bishop highlights China and marriage in celebration of priesthood

HONG KONG (SE): It is at the Chrism Mass, which this year was celebrated on the morning of Holy Thursday, March 24, at Immaculate Conception Cathedral that the priestly identity of Christ in the local Church as a diocesan community made up of bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons and lay people, is explicitly acknowledged.
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No Easter Sunday without Good Friday

 

It is Christ dying and rising! Salvation comes indeed in the death and resurrection of Christ. This is an ongoing reality of Christ. This is the heart of remembering Jesus every year during the Lenten season and over the Easter celebrations.







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Easter pastoral letter from our bishop

 

 Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, 

The public of Hong Kong, in general, might take the Easter celebrations as just another long weekend, an ideal time for a restful vacation. For us Catholics, this is the most joyful event in the year. 
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