The bishop of Myanmar forced by the army to take refuge in the forest, the "disappeared" ministers in Beijing, the president of Vietnam who invited Pope Francis, Pita Limjaroenrat and the stifled change in Bangkok, the nuns next to the victims of the war in Gaza: the year that is drawing to a close through some symbolic characters chosen by AsiaNews.

What did 2023 represent for the peoples and Christian communities of Asia? Once again this year, AsiaNews has selected ten faces from the different areas of the continent to retrace some of the most significant stories we have told during the twelve months that are now drawing to a close.

CELSO BA SHWE, Bishop of Loikaw (Myanmar)

Ordained in June, Bishop Celso Ba Shwe of Loikaw was, in spite of himself, one of the protagonists of this new year of war in Myanmar, the third since the military coup d'état that removed the democratically elected government on 1 February 2021. The diocese of Loikaw, in fact, the capital of Kayah State, is now one of the places most affected by the civil conflict, but also one of the cities where the Christian presence in Myanmar is most deeply rooted. Tens of thousands of people have fled and the bishop himself took refuge "in the forest" in November, after the military took control of the cathedral to use it as its own military base. In Nattale, Bishop Ba Shwe wrote: 'Despite the suffering, the Church founded by Christ in Loikaw is alive and present. We know that the Good Shepherd cares for his flock, for which he gave his life'.

CHINA'S MISSING MINISTERS 

2023 in Beijing was the year of resounding new 'purges' in the palaces of power just a few months before the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress, which in October 2022 was supposed to give the image of unchallenged leadership to Xi Jinping. The axe of the 'anti-corruption campaign' has hit officials at every level, from the generals in charge of the missile system to the head of the religious affairs department. But the two most clamorous cases have concerned two leading politicians: since 25 June, the then Foreign Minister Qin Gang, former ambassador to Washington and considered a loyalist of the president, literally disappeared. Replaced in his role with the return of the expert Wang Yi, there is no longer any news of him and intelligence sources even speculate his death after the Russian secret services accused him of passing information to the United States. The same fate befell Defence Minister Li Shangfu in October, who has not appeared in public since 26 August and just yesterday was officially replaced. All this happened in the year of the increasingly evident difficulties of the Chinese economy, which led Beijing to even decide to stop releasing data on youth unemployment.

VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA (Russia)

Twenty-five years in prison on charges of 'treason' and activities as a 'foreign agent'. The sentence was imposed in April by the Moscow court on Vladimir Kara-Murza, a 42-year-old publicist and university lecturer, considered after Alexei Naval'nyj the second biggest opponent in Russia of Vladimir Putin, who is preparing to run undisturbed for a new presidential term in March 2024. Former president of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom in Russia, as a TV journalist he held regular broadcasts between 2019 and 2022. After criticising the invasion of Ukraine Kara-Murza has been in prison since 11 April 2022. From his cell, he managed to bring out a document entitled 'The Church and War', which is a harsh indictment of the Moscow Patriarchate, in which he defends priests who are being punished for their stance on the inadmissibility of the ongoing bloodshed in Ukraine.

PITA LIMJAROENRAT (Thailand)

A new face in Thai politics, Pita Limjaroenrat seemed destined to become premier after the May elections, in which his party, the progressive Move Forward Party, received the most votes, thanks mainly to the support of young people, who have long been calling for a reform of the law on lese majesty, used by the government to suppress dissent and the activities of opponents. The conservative, monarchist and pro-military elite, however, resisted the change and, after discrediting Pita by accusing him of several crimes, appointed Sretta Thavisin of the Shinawatra family's Pheu Thai party as Prime Minister, in an unprecedented alliance with yesterday's former enemies.

VO VAN THUONG (Vietnam) 

Elected in March, Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong is a symbol of the new course between Hanoi and the Holy See that should lead to official recognition and full relations, interrupted in 1975. The latest step came in mid-December, when the Head of State sent a letter to the Vatican containing an official invitation for Pope Francis to visit the country. Previously, the president and pontiff had met in Rome in July for the signing of the agreement that, after years of negotiations, paved the way for the presence of a permanent representative of the Holy See. In the joint communiqué there is a reference to being "good Catholics and good citizens", a key passage in a communist nation and one that remains an unresolved knot in relations with China. From this perspective, the work done by Hanoi and the Vatican represents an ideal path to follow. The government's announcement came on the sidelines of Vo Van Thuong's Christmas Eve visit to the archdiocese of Hue, the local Church where the shrine of Our Lady of La Vang is also located.

LICIPRIYA KANGUJAM (India)

In India, 2023 was marked by severe inter-ethnic violence in the north-eastern state of Manipur. Since the clashes broke out in May, almost 200 people have been killed, while about 50,000 have been internally displaced: the Kuki, with a Christian majority, who traditionally inhabit the hilly areas, have left their homes in the villages closer to the plains, in the same way as the Meitei, mostly Hindus, who occupy the Imphal Valley but have abandoned the Kuki-majority districts. It is a clash in which the ethnic-religious dimension is intertwined with the problem of a fair distribution and management of land in a very poor area. And it is in this context where peace and environmental justice are intertwined that the commitment in Manipur of Licypriya Kangujam, who at 12 years of age is one of the youngest activists in the global youth movement for the fight against climate change, fits in. In June, she was received in audience at the Vatican by Pope Francis. On that occasion, speaking about Manipur, she said that "children desperately hope for peace. We should live in peace and harmony, together'.

KALPONA AKTER (Bangladesh) 

An exploited worker in textile factories since childhood, Kalpona Akter has never stopped fighting for the rights of women working in Bangladesh's most important industry, which supplies clothes to the biggest international clothing brands. Founder of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, she demands fair wages and greater safety in the factories. Demands that in recent months have also been taken up by the opposition, represented by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, a political formation that for months has been calling on the ruling Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to set up a neutral government ahead of next year's elections. After the premier's refusal, clashes and strikes by workers and party supporters increased.

THE NUNS OF GAZA

The sisters of are the face and symbol of the Christian presence in a Strip bloodied by the war launched by Israel against Hamas in response to the terrorist attack on 7 October. The Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa's relgious sisters, have been present for 50 years and are one of three of the women's congregations present along with the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and those of Our Lady of the Rosary. They all chose to stay, despite the possibility of evacuation. Together with the vice-parish priest Fr. Youssuf Asad - the parish priest Fr. Gabriel Romanelli is stuck between Jerusalem and Bethlehem where he was when the conflict broke out and is not allowed to return - they take care of more than 700 people sheltered in the Holy Family, the only Catholic church in the Strip. Among them are about sixty disabled people or those with psycho-physical problems, for whom the nuns take care. Not even they have been spared by the conflict, since the house has been besieged by the army in a war operation and, the night before the killing of two Christian women shot by an Israeli sniper on 16 December, tanks had targeted the institute causing damage and injuring a nun's leg.

ANTUAN ILGIT (Turkey)

The first Jesuit - and the first bishop - of Turkish origin, born in Germany and converted from Islam: 51-year-old Bishop Antuan Ilgit, auxiliary of the Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia, is the vow of rebirth of the Turkish Church, which has long emphasised the importance of local vocations to support the path of evangelisation. The appointment by Pope Francis is also a sign of attention and closeness to a community hit by the earthquake on 6 February 2023, devastating the heart of local Christianity: Antioch, a ghost town after the earthquake. Just in the aftermath of the main quake, Bishop Ilgit had collected the Eucharist from the tabernacle in the rubble of Iskenderun Cathedral. Last summer, he met the pontiff together with a group of boys and girls from Anatolia for World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal. "Being hope for the earthquake victims, rebuilding cathedrals and houses, assisting refugees" were the urgencies of the mission, as he told AsiaNews on the day of his appointment, which he described as a sign of "the pope's trust in the young people of a Church that, until now, has been mostly foreign".

SAO ICHIKAWA (Japan)

At birth she was diagnosed with congenital myopathy, an incurable disease that affects the muscles. For this reason, Saō Ichikawa grew up in a wheelchair and has been using a machine to breathe since the age of 14. Starting from her personal experience at the age of 43, she published her first novel Hanchibakku (Hunchback): a humorous work that recounts disability and also highlights, and criticises, the privileges of able-bodied people. With this book, she won the Japanese Akutagawa literary prize this year: she is the first person with a disability to receive this prestigious award.

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