Catholic clergy and laypeople have been expelled from Myanmar’s northern Shan state by a China-backed ethnic minority army.
Religious Freedom
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Iraq diary: Drinking sweet tea in West Mosul
Sunni Muslims who have returned to the gray dusty ruin of West Mosul, Iraq, to start over, but most Christians are convinced that is impossible to ever return to live here.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Traces of ISIS might be disappearing but the Yazidi continue to suffer
Few Yazidi families have been able to escape from temporary shelters in Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan. Their home villages have not been swept for mines and booby traps left behind when ISIS was dislodged.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Despite China-Vatican agreement, many Chinese worry about religious freedom
The provisional agreement between the Vatican and Beijing gives no assurance the government will curb its recent crackdown on religious practice, which includes unprecedented control over Muslims and Buddhists.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
A new kindergarten breathes life into a devastated Iraq community
Qaraqosh’s wary residents who fled ISIS have returned to a city in near ruin, but there are signs of renewed life, including a kindergarten sponsored by the Jesuit Refugee Service.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
Discovering Mother Mary in northern Iraq after ISIS
Christians in northern Iraq try to rebuild their lives after the defeat of ISIS, but the terror of being driven from their homes is not easily forgotten.
Posted inFaith, News
Conference celebrates ‘partnership’ between Reagan, St. John Paul II
Reagan started weeping upon watching film footage of St. John Paul’s triumphant return to Poland in 1979.
Posted inFaith, Politics & Society
Source: China and the Vatican to sign historic agreement by end of September
A Vatican source confirmed that a high-level Holy See delegation will travel to the Chinese capital for the signing and that a date has already been fixed for this ground-breaking event.
Posted inEditorials, Faith
What a deal for Catholics in China could mean for Uighur Muslims
Pope Francis, in keeping with his predecessors, has sought every opportunity to improve relations with the Chinese government. With the news that a historic agreement is imminent, the Vatican faces a risk and an opportunity.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
The U.S. needs to remain engaged in Iraq to help religious minorities
U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry argues that as beleaguered religious minorities in Iraq hang on for their very survival, the survival of religious pluralism itself is also at stake.