UCA news

Two Filipino priests among activists facing terror funding charges

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(UCAnews. Ronald O. Reyes).

Advocacy groups have urged the Philippine government to drop “terror” charges against 27 activists, including two Catholic priests, who are accused of financing a communist rebel group in Negros island.

The accused are charged with funding a front of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Negros Oriental, where a decades-long communist insurgency has endured.

All the accused are affiliated with the Community Empowerment Resource Network based in Cebu City in the central Philippines. They have been charged with violating the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012.

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Vatican envoy attends presidential inauguration in Taiwan

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(UCA News. Reporter).

Vatican envoy Archbishop Charles Brown attended the inauguration ceremony of Taiwan’s new president Lai Ching-te on May 20, reports say.

Taiwan News reported on May 20 that Brown, the apostolic nuncio to the Philippines, will visit Taiwan from May 19 to 21.

Lai, 64, a member of the ruling nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was elected 8th president of Taiwan on Jan. 13.

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Vietnam-Vatican working group hold first meeting

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(Carol Glatz. OSV News)

The Vatican-Vietnam joint working group held its first meeting since last year’s important agreement allowing for a papal representative to reside in Vietnam and the establishment of an office there to support Vietnam’s estimated 6.5 million Catholics.

The meeting, held in Hanoi May 17, was co-chaired by Le Thi Thu Hang, Vietnam’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, and Msgr. Miroslaw Wachowski, the Vatican’s undersecretary for relations with states, who also headed the Vatican delegation, the Vatican said in a written communique the same day.

It said, “The meeting is the first to take place following the conclusion, on the 27th of July 2023, of the agreement between Vietnam and the Holy See,” which came after years of negotiations, and allows for a resident papal representative.

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Indian Christians seek end to police checks on churches

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(UCAnews. Bijay Kumar Minj).

A Christian forum in India’s northeastern Assam state has appealed to the district authorities to stop a police survey of churches, which has caused panic among community members.

The United Christian Forum (UCF), in its May 14 memorandum, objected to the “unprecedented random collection of data of churches and their adherents” by police over the past week in Diphu, the headquarters of Karbi Anglong district in Assam state.

The memorandum addressed to District Commissioner Madhumita Bhagawati alleged that uniformed policemen were “barging” into church premises “without prior intimation and official instruction.”

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S. Korea to create ministry to tackle low birth rates

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(UCAnews).

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has said that he wants to create a new ministry to address the country’s low birthrate — the world’s lowest, with the country facing a looming demographic crisis.

“I ask the parliament’s cooperation to revise government organization to set up the Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counter Planning,” he said in a live address to the nation on May 9.

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Priests attacked at Catholic mission in east India

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

The gun-wielding thieves also threatened and looted women teachers at nearby staff quarters of mission school

(UCA news reporter).

Priests at a Catholic mission in eastern India were brutally attacked by a gang of thieves who also entered the nearby staff quarters and threatened and looted women teachers at gunpoint.

The incident occurred on April 10 at Bagdehi mission station, which houses St. Arnold Primary School run by the Society of Divine Word (SVD), in Odisha state’s Jharsuguda district.

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Indonesian Catholic church hosts Muslims’ Eid prayer

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The courtyard of Kayutangan Sacred Heart parish church in Malang was filled with hundreds of Muslims on April 10

(UCAnews).

A century-old Catholic church in Indonesia allowed Muslims to conduct the Eid prayers on its premises on April 10, saying such moves could help build brotherhood in the Muslim-majority nation.Hundreds of Muslims prayed in the courtyard of Kayutangan Sacred Heart parish church in Malang, East Java province, as the nearby Grand Jami Mosque could not accommodate the festival prayer gathering.

Catholic nuns, seminarians, and lay people helped Muslims organize the prayer program and greeted them later.

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Last Myanmar military base in Myawaddy falls to rebels

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Reinforcements dispatched by junta to save Battalion 275 are ‘too little too late’

(Luke Hunt UCAnews).

The last Myanmar military hold-out in Myawaddy, Battalion 275, has fallen to anti-regime forces after a fierce five-day battle forced surviving soldiers to flee across the border into Thailand, before a deployment of about 400 reinforcements could arrive.

Reports said Battalion 275 capitulated after relentless attacks on the base — on Myawaddy’s western flank and about 14km from the Thai border — by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the People’s Defence Force (PDF).

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Indian bishop urges Catholics to vote for secular govt

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore said the upcoming general election is ‘very important and a historic one’

(Bijay Kumar Minj UCAnews).

An archbishop in the southern Indian state of Karnataka has urged Catholics to vote for a secular government in the country’s upcoming general election.

“Choose a leader who is secular, non-communal, believes in the constitution, and is less corrupt,” Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore (now Bengaluru) said on April 7.

He explained that by secular he meant one who respects all people without any discrimination, and non-communal meant one who accepts all religions.

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Activists call a halt to human trafficking on Indonesia’s Catholic island

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A 40-year-old trafficked from Sikka Regency to work at a palm oil company in East Kalimantan province died recently

( UCA News ).

Christian activists have demanded the Indonesian government take strict action against human traffickers on the Catholic-majority island of Flores after the recent death of a worker due to starvation in East Kalimantan province.

Yodimus Moan Kaka, 40, a resident of Sikka Regency died on March 28. His wife, Maria Herlina Mbani, reported to police on April 5 that he was recruited with 70 others in Sikka by Yuvinus Solo, a politician.

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