by Nirmala Carvalho | INDIAN MANDALA

Tension remains high between Delhi and Islamabad after the attack in Kashmir that left 26 dead. Airspace closed, agreement on rivers revoked, Hindu nationalists press for armed retaliation. The vice-president of the Bishops' Conference: “May our efforts for peace continue.”


A source talked to AsiaNews about how Chinese Catholics are coping with Francis’s death. Remarks and pictures abound on local social media. “Amid the sorrow and mourning, the joy of announcing love prevailed,” as “a spontaneous explosion, not very cautious, but conscious that death and fear are not the last word.” An elderly lady and the Pope shared an “impossible dream”: she wanted to visit the Vatican, while he wanted to visit China.

| 24/04/2025
| RED LANTERNS

On a visit to the archbishop’s residence, the president bowed three times before the pope’s picture. A Taiwanese delegation will travel to Vatican City led by former Vice President Chen Chien-jen, a Catholic. Meanwhile, three days after the pontiff’s death, the Patriotic Association posts a statement on his death, calling for prayers.

| 24/04/2025
| TAIWAN – CHINA – VATICAN

The Philippines Church and its people pay homage to Pope Francis. Cardinal David remembers him as a pastor among the faithful who chose “the dusty roads to the peripheries." Cardinal Advincula remembers his 2015 visit as a "moment of grace". President Marcos declared three days of national mourning. In offering its condolences, Silsilah, the movement for Islamic-Christian dialogue in Mindanao, says that we must “build together a human fraternity as Pope Francis reminds us to do”.

| 24/04/2025
| PHILIPPINES – VATICAN
by Fady Noun

Civil and religious leaders have paid homage to the memory of the Argentinean pontiff. Under his leadership, the Church completed the efforts begun by predecessors to bring Islam and Christianity closer together in the face of escalating fundamentalism. From the banking crisis to the explosion at the port of Beirut, the pope's closeness in the face of the great tragedies in the country's recent history.

| 24/04/2025
| LEBANON - VATICAN
by Vladimir Rozanskij

The statements made by Vladimir Kara-Murza, one of the most influential members of the opposition to Putin in exile, on the large presence of non-Russian ethnic groups among Moscow's soldiers on the front line in Ukraine have sparked debate. Many have accused him of racism. But there are also those who recall the Caucasians fighting in the ranks of Kiev, bitterly observing that in this bloody conflict ‘everyone is looking for their enemies’.

| 24/04/2025
| RUSSIA

Today's news: Another Russian missile and drone attack on Kiev; Diplomatic escalation between India and Pakistan after killing of 26 tourists in Kashmir; New court case in South Korea against former President Moon; Over 200 injured, mostly minor, in yesterday's earthquake in Istanbul; Jordan bans Muslim Brotherhood.

| 24/04/2025
| ASIA TODAY
Editor's choices
 
A source talked to AsiaNews about how Chinese Catholics are coping with Francis’s death. Remarks and pictures abound on local social media. “Amid the sorrow and mourning, the joy of announcing love prevailed,” as “a spontaneous ...
| 24/04/2025
| RED LANTERNS
 
by sr. Mary Joseph *
From Calcutta, the superior of Mother Teresa's sisters remembers Pope Francis. ‘He made the Church refocus its attention on the marginalised’. Bergoglio wanted the Missionaries of Charity to open a new home in Bajo Flores, a slum ...
| 23/04/2025
| INDIA - VATICAN
 
by Gianni Criveller
Proclaiming the Gospel was his top priority: he reminded us that mission is about joy, that its territories are not defined by geography or people's religious affiliation. Through his life and teaching, he taught us that Jesus' missionaries ...
| 22/04/2025
| EDITORIAL
 
by Card Anthony Poola*
One of the great signs of the pontificate that ended this morning with the death of Pope Francis is his care for the peripheries of the world. The archbishop of Hyderabad, the first Dalit called to join the College of Cardinals in 2022, pays tribute ...
| 21/04/2025
| VATICAN - INDIA
 
by Gianni Criveller
From Myanmar to the Middle East, countless women, children and men in Asia, victims of pain and injustice, weep like Mary Magdalene who lost her Lord and friend. But with her, they believe that the Risen One changes the course of history and allows ...
| 19/04/2025
| EDITORIAL
 
by Andrew Law
The incident took place on 23 March in the Diocese of Lüliang, but the authorities tried to hush it up. The intervention of special forces attracted other Catholics from the nearby village of Xinli, home to an old Catholic community. An officer ...
| 16/04/2025
| CHINA
 
by Fady Noun
An appeal on the anniversary of a conflict that has a starting date, but still no end date. The Maronite Church is ready to form a committee of elders called upon to overcome ‘conflicts and amnesia’. A warning also present in the ...
| 16/04/2025
| LEBANON
 
by Gianni Criveller
The PIME missionary died just before his 100th birthday. He was a pioneer in establishing contact with Catholics in China after the Cultural Revolution and founder of the Holy Spirit Study Centre in Hong Kong, for decades the most documented ...
| 15/04/2025
| ITALY - CHINA
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”