HONG KONG (SE): A popular pope is one thing and Pope Francis enjoys a high popularity rating on a much wider front than members of his own flock, but he also has enemies, many of them powerful, articulate and with loud voices.
 

HONG KONG (SE): One thing about being a well-known person of influence, or what the Japanese would call having a wide face, is that there are always plenty of people around ready to give you advice, even though much of it may be conflicting.
 

HONG KONG (SE): Pope Francis has promulgated an apostolic letter which in part focusses on the manner of the translations of the liturgy, but it also implies a strengthening of the role of bishops’ conferences as decision-making bodies in their own areas.
 
Released in September as a motu proprio, which literally translates as on his own impulse, the document has legal effect and applies in all areas to which it is addressed.
 

ROME (SE): Pope Francis has put together two seemingly disconnected issues in the past weeks.
 
He has agreed to accredit the least approved of any ambassador the United States of America (US) has ever offered to the Holy See and chosen the Sicily-Rome American War Memorial Cemetery near Rome, a memorial to some 7,861 US military service personnel who died during World War II, as the site for his Mass for the Faithful Departed on All Souls Day.
 

VATICAN (SE): Speaking on World Mission Sunday at the Vatican, Pope Francis said that he is promoting October 2019 as an Extraordinary Missionary Month “to nourish the ardour of the evangelising activity of the Church ad gentes (to the nations).”
 
Mission Sunday, which is celebrated on the second last Sunday of October each year and this year fell on October 22, will become the centre-point of a whole month that will be focussed on the work of missionaries throughout the world.
 

HONG KONG (SE): The media office at the Holy See has released details of the much talked about visit by Pope Francis to the Union of Myanmar, which is scheduled to take place from November 30 to December 2, followed by three days in Bangladesh.
 

YANGON (UCAN): The upcoming visit of Pope Francis to the Union of Myanmar and Bangladesh has sparked fears and hopes in both countries.
 
In Yangon, the bishops of Myanmar fear that he will mention the injustices faced by the Rohingya people over attempts to drive them from the country, while leaders of the Islamic faith hope that he will, at least in his articulated prayer.