HONG KONG (SE): “In this Holy Week, the Christian community (in Egypt) is experiencing the passion of Jesus Christ with a mixture of fear and sadness,” Father Rafic Greiche, the spokesperson for the Church in the country, said after two bombs, one in Tanta and one in Alexandria exploded in churches on Palm Sunday, April 9, leaving dozens dead and more injured, Catholics are now looking to the visit of Pope Francis to give them hope.

MEXICO CITY (SE): An editorial published in Desde la Fe, the online newspaper of the Mexico City archdiocese, argues that assisting the United States of America (US) to build a border wall or fence, as proposed by the president, Donald Trump, would be immoral.

Desde la Fe calls the wall “a serious affront to dignity.” It then adds that it would be an immoral act for any Mexican to assist with or be part of building the wall.

HONG KONG (SE): “Not being married, I don’t have children of my own, but my four sisters have given me 17 nieces and nephews and there are now 48 in the next generation,” the former auxiliary of Canberra and Goulburn, Bishop Pat Power, told a rally outside parliament house in Canberra on March 28, as the United Nations (UN) was sitting down in New York to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons.

ROME (SE): Children account for one half of all refugees in the world today, an appeal from Caritas calling for proper protection to be accorded to them says.

BUENOS AIRES (SE): An angry mob descended on the cathedral in Tucman, Argentina, on International Women’s Day, March 8, in what was described as a blatant attack on the image of the person of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The group staged a mock abortion on a woman dressed as the Blessed Virgin in the street outside the cathedral, using look-alike blood and baby parts coming from under the woman’s dress, local media reported.

SELANGOR (AsiaNews): “We cannot sell our magazines in public,” a Pakistani journalist told the Asia Journalists Roundtable in Selangor in Malaysia on March 10. Indeed, “We cannot pin our name to stories of persecution.”

The Asia Journalists’ Roundtable was sponsored by the Centre of the Council of Churches of Malaysia and organised by SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication, to highlight the problems that minority group media face.

CASABLANCA (SE): The High Religious Committee, which is in charge of issuing fatwas (Islamic rulings) in Morocco, released a book in 2012 which articulates its position that apostasy should be punished by death.

Drawing on a widespread jurisprudence tradition, the 2012 book argues that a Muslim who changes his or her religion should be punished with death.

VATICAN (SE): A foundation member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Marie Collins, tendered her resignation effective from March 1.

Collins is a survivor of clerical sexual abuse and has long been a voice championing the right of survivors to speak out and be listened to. An educationalist, she worked with the archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland, in the setting up of its Child Protection Services.