Kuwait

by Dario Salvi | BAHREIN - GULF

Bishop Berardi recounts Holy Week among Catholics in the Gulf, a ‘unique’ reality due to the multitude of rituals and languages. Expatriates in Saudi Arabia use the internet and television to follow the celebrations. Prayers for peace in the Holy Land, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. The meaning of the mission, which is ‘first and foremost personal conversion’.


Today's news: For the World Bank, war freezes Myanmar's economic growth. In Kuwait massacre of migrants in the burning of a building. Drought alarm in several provinces of China. Nobel laureate Yunus investigated for embezzlement with 13 others. In Tajikistan, the wearing of the hijab is officially banned.

| 13/06/2024
| ASIA TODAY

Work on the mega-project has resumed after a 10-year stalemate. A delegation from Beijing visited the country in recent days. A facility competing with the route planned by the Emirates and Turkey. The unresolved knot of maritime disputes with Iraq. At the weekend the Emir signed the appointment of Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah as Crown Prince. 

| 03/06/2024
| KUWAIT - CHINA
by Dario Salvi

Bishop Aldo Berardi, head of the vicariate that includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, comments on Pope Francis' decision to grant the Syro-Malabar Church jurisdiction over Indian migrants. "This is not a secondary element, it concerns areas that go beyond rituals" and will have to be defined. The problem of places of worship, relations with the State and interlocution with the Muslim world. "Too many voices" can create "confusion".

| 16/05/2024
| GULF - VATICAN - INDIA

The 83-year-old Meshal al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah has given the green light to the new executive. He suspended the assembly (only two precedents in 1976 and 1986) and parts of the Constitution. Behind the decision is the clash between the leadership and the 'pro-Islamist' opposition. Analysts and activists fear an authoritarian drift, priority to the issues of 'national development and stability'. 

| 15/05/2024
| KUWAIT

Receiving in audience a delegation led by the new Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil, the pontiff publicly expressed his assent to a request made for years by the Churches of the East, especially for their faithful in the Persian Gulf. A new harsh warning on the divisions around the liturgy in Kerala: "Discussing celebratory details while disrespecting unity is incompatible with the Christian faith.

| 13/05/2024
| VATICAN - INDIA

In his (first) inauguration speech, Sheikh Meshal attacks the institutions that have failed to bring about 'change or correction' in the course of the nation. He also targets decisions that 'do not meet' standards of 'fairness and justice'. The country still relies on crude oil revenues and has no plans for a post-oil era. The prospect of public spending cuts.

| 22/12/2023
| KUWAIT
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“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”