Manila, Philippines, Jun 27, 2018 / 11:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has expressed support for a proposal by the country’s drug enforcement agency that would require drug tests for students ages 10 and up.
“We see how great the problem is with drugs,” said Bishop Roberto Mallari of San Jose, chairman of the Filipino bishops’ Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education.
Bishop Mallari said June 23 that prepubescent and teenage children have a strong level of curiosity that may lead them to illegal drug use. He also mentioned that candies containing drugs have become more readily available.
Last week, Aaron Aquino, head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, proposed a policy on surprise drug inspections for students and teachers, after the reported arrest of several 10-year-olds using drugs.
However, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said the president does not support a mandatory drug test for grade school students, according to Gulf News.
“We concur with (Education) Secretary Leonor Briones that the Dangerous Drug Act limits possible drug testing to high school and not to grade school students,” he said, noting that “in the United States, what has been upheld as being constitutional is only random testing for high school.”
The proposal is part of the country’s ongoing crackdown on drugs, which was a major campaign pillar for President Rodrigo Duterte.
Since the president took office two years ago, official numbers suggest that more than 4,000 people have been killed during drug operations conducted by police, and 124,000 people have been arrested, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The country’s bishops have spoken out against the violent enforcement of the nation’s drug laws, as well as the extrajudicial killings at the hands of vigilantes. Last year, the bishops called for both a 33-day rosary campaign and a 40-day prayer campaign for peace.
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St. Paul’s Church, in Imphal, capital of Manipur state, after the church was set on fire in 2023. / Credit: Anto Akkara
Bangalore, India, Mar 28, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).
After Indian officials’ announcement that Easter Sunday would be a “working day” this year was met with widespread protests from Christians, the governor of the state of Manipur in northeast India issued a statement reestablishing the annual holiday.
The March 28 reversal by the Manipur government, which is led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came within 24 hours after Manipur Gov. Anusuiya Uikey canceled the Easter holiday.
“In partial modification of the government order … dated 27th March, 2024, the governor of Manipur is pleased to declare that only the 30th March 2024 [Saturday] will be working day for all government offices,” the order read.
The previous day the government had announced that “the governor of Manipur is pleased to declare 30th [Saturday] and 31st [Sunday] March 2024 as working days for all government offices.”
Christians account for nearly half of Manipur’s population of 3.7 million.
Archbishop Linus Neli, who heads the 100,000-strong Catholic Church in the state, told CNA that the Church had protested the cancellations of the Easter holiday to government officials.
“We are storming the competent authority, awaiting reply,” Neli said.
A half an hour later, the archbishop shared with CNA the government’s “revised order regarding [Easter] working day.”
Tribal dancers waiting their turn at the celebration following the installation Mass of the new archbishop of Imphal Archdiocese, Linus Neli. Credit: Anto Akkara
Prior to that, several Christian groups including those in Manipur had called for the cancellation of the order that stunned the Christians across the country.
“The decision to declare these sacred days as regular working days is not only insensitive but also disrespectful towards the religious sentiments of the significant portion of the population in Manipur,” lamented the Senapati District Catholic Union of Manipur in its condemnation of the governor’s order on the morning of March 28.
Of the 3.7 million Christians in Manipur state, 26% are ethnic Naga tribals, 16% are members of Kuki tribes, and more than 10% of the nearly 2 million Meiteis have also embraced the Christian faith in Manipur.
“By compelling government offices to operate on these holy days, the order not only disregards the religious rights of the Christian community but also fails to recognize the cultural diversity and religious pluralism that should be upheld and respected in democratic society,” the Senapati district Catholic forum pointed out.
“Height of insanity of the Manipur government,” a Christian pastor from Manipur who runs a theological college outside Manipur told CNA.
“What is happening is Manipur is nothing new,” John Dayal, an outspoken Catholic columnist and activist, told CNA.
“The BJP governments both at the national level and in several states had tried to insult and tinker with Christian holy days like Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter several times in the past,” Dayal pointed out.
“In 2002, I moved the Delhi High Court successfully against the bid to make Good Friday and Easter Sunday ‘working days’ against the Atal Behari Vajpayee [who was the BJP prime minister then],” said Dayal, a former member of the National Integration Council headed by the prime minister.
“This Manipur move is keeping with [Prime Minister] Modi’s consistent scheme to whittle away rights of Christianity and Islam in new ‘Bharat.’” (Bharat is the new name the Hindu nationalist BJP has proposed for India).
Since May 2023, Manipur has seen a protracted violent clash between the majority Meiteis, most of them Hindus, and the minority Kukis (all of them Christians) that has left more than 230 dead by the official conservative death toll. Over 50,000 Kuki Christians have been chased out from the Imphal valley along with over 10,000 Meiteis who were driven out from Kuki strongholds.
Amid the violence, over 600 churches have also been destroyed. The majority of them were Kuki, but 250 Meiti Christian churches were destroyed as well in what is seen as an attempt to stop Meiteis from embracing the Christian faith.
Meanwhile, in another piece of good news for the Christian community, Carmelite Sister Mercy, who had been arrested on a charge of “abetting the suicide” of a sixth-grade girl at the Carmel School in Ambikapur in central Chattisgarh state, was released on bail on March 28 by the trial court.
The girl student committed suicide at home after the nun had questioned her and two other girls for being together in the bathroom for a long period of time. After other students complained to the nun, she asked the girls to bring the parents to school the next day.
Following the suicide of the girl, Hindu nationalist organizations promptly organized a huge crowd to march to the school. Police were brought in and arrested the nun the next morning. Although the large crowd tried to storm the school on Feb. 8, police prevented an arson attack.
Yangon, Burma, Mar 14, 2021 / 09:50 am (CNA).- Charles Maung Cardinal Bo of Yangon on Sunday called for the expansion of a day of prayer for the Church in China, established by Benedict XVI, into an octave.
In 2007, Benedict designated May 24, the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, as a Worldwide Day of Prayer for the Church in China.
“On behalf of the Church throughout Asia, as President of the Federation of Asian Bishops [sic] Conferences, I would like to call on the faithful to extend that to a Week of Prayer for the Church in China and the peoples of China, from Sunday 23 May until Sunday 30 May,” Cardinal Bo wrote in a March 14 statement.
He said that “Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the peoples of China have faced increasing challenges, which impact us all. It is right that we should pray not only for the Church but for all persons in the People’s Republic of China.”
“We should ask Our Lady of Sheshan to protect all humanity and therefore the dignity of each and every person in China, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI’s prayer, ‘to believe, to hope, to love’,” he added.
In February 2020 China began enforcing administrative measures to control every aspect of religious activity within the country, mandating that all religions and believers in China comply with regulations issued by the Chinese Communist Party, which must be acknowledged as the higher authority.
In May the legislature of China approved a resolution to impose new “security laws” on its formerly autonomous region, Hong Kong— a move pro-democracy protestors and Catholics in the country feared would undermine Hong Kongers’ freedoms, including freedom of religion.
A bishop of the underground Church was arrested in June.
In July a technology publication reported that the Diocese of Hong Kong has been targeted by “spear-phishing” operations from the Chinese government.
The Hong Kong diocese intervened in August to cancel a Catholic pro-democracy ad campaign and prayer that was set to run in local papers.
The same month, Hong Kong entrepreneur and media executive Jimmy Lai was arrested on criminal charges stemming from his support for democracy on the island territory.
In September researchers at an Australian think tank found that re-education camps for Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region had expanded in the past year, despite government claims that most detainees had been released.
In October the Vatican and China renewed their provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops for another two years.
Last month, Bitter Winter reported that beginning May 1, China’s state-run Catholic Church and bishops’ conference will select, approve, and consecrated episcopal candidates, with no mention of the Vatican’s involvement in the process.
Cardinal Bo said that though much of the world, including Burma, faces its own challenges, “in a spirit of solidarity it is right to focus not only on our own challenges but to pray also for others.”
The cardinal said his proposal expresses love for the peoples of China, “my respect for their ancient civilization and extraordinary economic growth, and my hopes that as it continues to rise as a global power, it may become a force for good and a protector of the rights of the most vulnerable and marginalized of the world.”
“I am calling for prayer for each person in China that they may seek and realize the full measure of happiness that our Creator has given to them.”
“So I urge the faithful, throughout the world, to join me in prayer for the Church and the peoples of China, from 23-30 May, and especially to join with Pope Francis, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and the whole Church to ask, in the worlds [sic] of Benedict XVI, the ‘Mother of China and all Asia’ to support the faithful, that ‘they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world, and of the world to Jesus’, and ‘always be credible witness to this love, ever clinging to the rock of Peter’.”
Canberra, Australia, Feb 18, 2021 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- Australia‘s Catholic bishops marked the 200th anniversary of Catholic education in the country this week, calling for continued renewal of Catholic education in the country and the primacy of C… […]
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