“Least we forget!” is a phrase invoked to honour the heroism of men and women from every nation on earth who have perished while bearing arms in the name of their homeland and to fix a record of their deeds firmly in the collective memory.

It is used at funerals of deceased soldiers and at national memorials, but without the question, “Lest we forget what?” it can be as much a washing of reason from the collective memory as a way of informing it.

Every year on May 24 the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians. It was also declared “a day of prayer for the Church in China” by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI in his 2007 letter to China’s Catholics. 

This day (May 8) marks the 50th World Communications Day, which is being marked under the theme Communication and Marcy: A Fruitful Encounter.

According to UBS’s Prices and Earnings Study Report, Hong Kong has the longest working hours out of 71 cities worldwide, with the average employee working up to 2,606 hours per year. 

Pope Francis has produced a basic pastoral document in his reflection on the two-part Synod on Marriage and Family Life that took place during 2014 and 2015.

It is not one that belabours doctrine or particularly addresses the problems of broken or dysfunctional families, but contents itself with a description of family life within the context of love.

The most contentious criteria in the Just War Theory listed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.” But it also begins to question the possibility of its own condition ever being applicable today when it says, “The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.”

As in past years at the Easter Vigil celebration, some thousands of adults are set to receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist.

Their official welcome from the diocese begins during Lent as they join their godparents and catechists in a final preparation programme and are welcomed during Sunday Masses.

The Catholic Church began its presence in Hong Kong in the mid-19th century with caring for the needs of the poor as one of its major aims. During those early days it addressed the many social problems in the territory, particularly since the colonial government did not have any comprehensive social welfare or educational policies.

This reflected an age-old understanding of the mission of the Church to care for the whole person, both the spiritual and the physical.

While a fireworks celebration was scheduled for the evening of the second day of the Lunar New Year on February 9, the real fireworks exploded some 24 hours earlier on the volatile streets of Mong Kok.

The no-holds-barred slug out between police and a local mob continued until the shadows lifted on a new day, leaving perplexed cleaners removing debris and an even more perplexed government groping for explanations.

The Eucharistic Congress in Cebu in The Philippines was only the fourth to be held in Asia since the first one took place in 1881 in Lille, France.

That was a small event, only intended to involve locals. But as the years rolled by, congresses gathered momentum and in 1893 became truly international with the holding of the first one outside Europe in Jerusalem.