As the Special Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops meets, a broad overview emerges of a continent where Catholics sometimes suffer for want of religious freedom and persecution but where the faith is growing and vocations are up.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – An image of Catholicism in Asia is emerging from the 11th Special Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, that of a Church living “amid this world's persecutions and God's consolations,” confronted with situations in which religious freedom is lacking, persecuted at times, but also one in which both faith and vocations are growing, this according to a news release from the Vatican today.

Focusing on the Church’s situation in the continent and on the implementation of the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia, the meeting “made it possible to create a broad overview of ecclesial life in Asia, and of the living conditions in civil society, which in many ways are favorable to Church activity. Nonetheless various areas of concern were identified [. . .] deriving from wars, the arms race, ethnic strife, violence, terrorism, repression and the various limits placed on freedom of conscience.”

“The primary victims of persecutions are minorities, among them Christian minorities who are often forced to abandon their countries of origin, suffering violence also at the hands of fundamentalist groups. The lack of religious liberty takes various forms: limits to communication among bishops and between them and the Holy Father, Bishop of Rome, the impossibility of creating Episcopal conferences, difficulties in obtaining visas for pastoral card workers, limits on the building of places of workshop, and impediments to [religious] presence in public life.”

In a sense the meeting reiterates the conclusions reached by the Asia Mission Congress held in October 2006 which found that, out of 52 Asian countries, at least 32 of them limit one way or another Christians’ mission. Muslim countries (from the Mideast to Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia) almost always set up obstacles for those who want to convert and prevent or limit church construction. India and Sri Lanka are increasingly opting for anti-conversion laws. In Central Asia, except for Kazakhstan, religious freedom is limited. In Communist states (China, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea) the authorities are making it hard to set up bishops’ conference or simply ban them. They also stop local Catholics from having relations with the Pope, or go as far as persecuting the Church. Israel makes entry visas hard to obtain.

“The fraternal welcome shown to Christians who have fled in fear of their lives; the increase in the number of Catholics in regions where they have, up to now, been scarce; the faithfulness even unto the giving of life, as in the case of the four priests killed in Asia in 2006,” are all consolations. Significantly, vocations to the priesthood and to consecrated life are up “so that now Asians themselves have become missionaries to other particular Churches in Asia and on other continents.”

For its part, "the Church remains open to dialogue with the great religions of Asia, making a notable contribution to tolerance and civil harmony, to reinforcing the rule of law and the process of the democratization of society.”

The Church also exercises an important influence "through her social activities in schools and hospitals, and in favor of human promotion” beyond Christian communities, who are none the less the seed of a new society founded on the principles of pace, justice, liberty and charity.

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