A report prepared by ACT NOW and Jubilee Australia brings the issue of deforestation back to the forefront. The focus is on issues related to the application and implementation of logging licenses, which are exploited for different purposes. It is necessary to ensure better control of the timber industry and develop local employment and income.

Care for creation and overcoming divisions were the themes at the centre of the Argentine pontiff's last apostolic journey in September last year. Already by name the successor draws the Church's attention to the “new things” and the challenges of the present. The sacredness of life and the mission to build bridges in society.

Between 2000 and 2020, the region recorded an urban population growth rate of around 2.3% per year - one of the highest globally. By 2050, more than half of the Pacific's population will live in urban areas.

Giorgio Licini, a PIME missionary, accompanied the pontiff on last year's trip to a distant frontier mission. “Francis’s lesson was to look inside ourselves before pointing the finger at atheists, the media or technological civilisation,” because “A pilgrim does not have a programme, but a goal.”

After a public consultation that ended on 4 April, the government is preparing to approve the new mining law that replaces the 1992 regulations. The risks of offshore mining and the call for a permanent moratorium. The church organisation also calls for specific regulations to prevent the ‘manipulation’ of remote and poorly educated communities. The controversial issue of land ownership.

Pope Francis has approved his canonisation, together with that of Archbishop Ignatius Maloyan, killed in the Armenian genocide. A lay catechist, To Rot was killed in 1945 for defending marriage against the Japanese who, in order to ingratiate themselves with local tribes, promoted polygamy.