Macau

| MACAU

Only 53 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballot in the former Portuguese colony, despite shuttles carrying casino workers to vote at the urging of local government leader Sam Hou-fai. In July, 12 candidates were barred, and a former lawmaker arrested on "national security" grounds under legislation imposed by Beijing. Even among those who did vote, many returned a blank or spoilt ballot paper.


67-year-old Ho Iat Seng has announced that for health reasons he will not run again. On October 13, the 400 members of the Election Committee will choose a strictly patriotic successor. Meanwhile, the resumption of casinos has started to boost revenue again in the former Portuguese colony, since 1999 a Special Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, like Hong Kong. 

| 22/08/2024
| RED LANTERNS

The debate at the event promoted at the University of St Joseph on the occasion of the centenary of the Council of Shanghai. Leopold Leeb: In many Chinese there is interest in the newness of the Gospel and this is the precondition for any inculturation. The decisive role of the "sensum fidelium" of Chinese Catholic families in keeping the faith alive in the years of persecution.

| 29/06/2024
| CHINA-MACAO

A hundred scholars from “greater China" met at the University of Saint Joseph to share thoughts from an ecclesial perspective. Archbishop Savio Hon praised the encounter with the local culture, which owes a lot to the work of Card Celso Costantini a century ago. Prof Wang Meixiu expressed concerns over today's restrictions on the access of children and minors to places of worship. She wonders whether the “number of Catholics is decreasing”.

| 27/06/2024
| CHINA

About one hundred young people from Macau will participate in the world meeting with Pope Francis. The delegations of the diocesan youth pastoral ministries and of the Portuguese-speaking parishes at the sanctuary of the apparitions, deeply linked due to the history of the former Lusitanian colony that returned to China in 1999.

| 28/07/2023
| MACAO

Today's headlines: OSCE says Erdogan had 'unfair advantage' in presidential run-off; UN special rapporteur terms Rohingya in Bangladesh are 'the new Palestinians'; Beijing deploys hundreds of police to quell the protest of the Hui Muslims in Yunnan; Nepalese experts say climate change is behind the continuing deaths in the Himalayas; Birth rate  plummets in Russia down to 31% with second child.

| 31/05/2023
| ASIA TODAY

Today's headlines: al-Sistan appeals for suffering Afghans, women in particular; In Vietnam, Dong Thap authorities pronounce child who fell into 35-meter shaft dead, recovery attempts futile; Taliban claim double killing of senior Pakistani officials; in Ukraine, Russian Wagner war cemetery fills up quickly with new burials; Armenian airline opens new connections with Moscow. 

| 05/01/2023
| ASIA TODAY
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by Father Will Conquer*
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| ASIA
 
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| THE YEAR THAT IS ENDING
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”