Singapore

| SINGAPORE

Leader of the local Church from 2001 to 2013, he is being remembered for his spirituality and interfaith dialogue. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong called him a “devoted shepherd and steadfast pillar of the Catholic community”. For the imam of the Ba'alwie Mosque, he was “a keen supporter of such inter-faith discourse”. Tomorrow a requiem Mass will be held at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, followed by cremation.


Tech giants plan to invest heavily in South East Asia, boosting regional economies, from Singapore to Malaysia. Demand is expected to grow by about 20 per cent per year for the next five to seven years. Microsoft has already pledged over two billion dollars in Malaysia for cloud infrastructure and AI.

 

| 14/10/2024
| SINGAPORE – MALAYSIA
by Steve Suwannarat

Official data for the first half of 2024 confirm the upward trend, with further strong growth by 2030, fuelled mostly by migrants filling the local labour market, up by 5 per cent over the previous year. This is fuelling a debate in society, and not only over resource and infrastructure planning.

 

| 25/09/2024
| SINGAPORE

In the general audience held today in St Peter's Square, Francis retraced the stages of the apostolic journey that in recent days has taken him to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. "I met living communities that grow by attraction. It gladdened my heart to be able to spend some time with the missionaries and catechists of today’.

| 18/09/2024
| VATICAN
by Steve Suwannarat

In his visit to the Southeast Asian city-state, Pope Francis spoke of the urgency of not leaving anyone in the shadow of its great skyscrapers. This commitment is best exemplified by Pro Bono SG, a group of legal professionals who provide free legal counsel and representation to those who cannot afford them. In doing so, they are overcoming some strong biases in a society that extols rigour.

 

| 17/09/2024
| SINGAPORE

The pope departed for Rome from the metropolis in Southeast Asia, the fourth stop on his long journey through Asia and Oceania. "Religions are different languages on the path to God. If you dialogue as young people, you will also dialogue as adults, as citizens, as politicians. Take risks, do not be afraid’. To the elderly and the sick: ‘Your prayer is very important before God’.

| 13/09/2024
| SINGAPORE

In the celebration at the National Stadium in front of tens of thousands of faithful, Francis referred to the city’s “great and bold architecture” to urge the faithful to look at the true source of life and beauty. He added that the “most profitable investment in God’s eyes,” is “all of us, for we are beloved children of the same Father”. The pope also referred to Saint Francis Xavier, who lived for a long time in Malacca Peninsula, stressing the primacy of the proclamation of the Gospel to the peoples of Asia.

| 12/09/2024
| SINGAPORE
Editor's choices
 
by Gianni Criveller
Editor-in-chief Fr Gianni Criveller's wish to AsiaNews readers on the feast that opens this year's Jubilee. "We are close to the Christian communities of Asia who live this time as an occasion for evangelisation. Even in a world marked ...
| 24/12/2024
| ASIANEWS
 
by Dario Salvi
The provincial of the Franciscans custodians of the Holy Sites speaks with AsiaNews about the festivities once again without pilgrims, whose return is ‘linked to the end of the conflict’. The focus is on events in neighbouring ...
| 24/12/2024
| GATEWAY TO THE EAST
 
by Joseph Masilamany
As Christmas approaches, the community in the multicultural coastal city is dusting off its traditions, starting with its endangered creole language. Catholicism began to spread in Malaysia from Malacca City. For Sabine Ferrao, the play’s producer, ...
| 23/12/2024
| MALAYSIA
 
The Chinese president is on a three-day visit to the former Portuguese colony 25 years after its return to Chinese sovereignty, providing him with an opportunity to send messages to Hong Kong as well, and stress the potential of the Greater Bay Area. ...
| 20/12/2024
| CHINA – MACAU
 
by Shafique Khokhar
In Kahna Nau, a suburb of Lahore, the joint intervention of the Franciscans, the imam and the police prevented the act of a deranged man who burned pages of the Koran and the Bible from causing new riots. Meanwhile, in Faisalabad, a Sufi group organised ...
| 16/12/2024
| PAKISTAN
 
by Dario Salvi
From Istanbul, the director of the Dominican Study Institute spoke to AsiaNews with a mixture of "exaltation" and "surprise” at the fall of the Assad regime. Turkey has denied rumours that it was directly involved in the regime’s overthrow, ...
| 11/12/2024
| TURKEY – SYRIA
 
In his address at the ceremony in Oslo, 92-year-old Terumi Tanaka warned: “[T]here are 4,000 nuclear warheads, ready to be launched immediately.” This means that, “Any one of you could become either a victim or a perpetrator, at any ...
| 10/12/2024
| JAPAN
 
After six months, the township of Maungdaw has fallen to the AA, while fighting continues in the south of the state. The ethnic Buddhist militia seems set to establish its own state and many fear that it might take revenge against Rohingya after some ...
| 10/12/2024
| MYANMAR
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”