Asia – Pacific

Patna, India, Oct 16, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- In most religious orders’ novitiate year, prospective sisters study and pray. Sister Crescencia Sun, however, had another habit to acquire: killing venomous snakes.

In rural Bihar, about 4,500 people die of venomous snake bites each year. When the Sisters of Our Lady of Missions arrived in the Indian state in the 1990s to educate young girls, the sisters realized that God was calling them to another mission – a medical snakebite clinic.

“Initially, we didn’t have in mind to open the snakebite clinic, but because the people, so many of them suffered from snakebites and … many people were dying, we trained our sisters to learn this because they are nurses already,” Sister Crescencia Sun told CNA.

During the hot summer, the sisters treat 40-50 patients per day at their snakebite clinic, saving the lives of thousands of snakebite victims each year.

“In this place, many people are bitten by snakes … such as cobra, vipers, russell vipers, and krait to name a few,” Sr. Sun shared at the “Women on the Frontlines” symposium in Rome Oct. 16.

The symposium – hosted by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See – highlighted religious sisters’ work in some of the most dangerous parts of the world.

“Women religious are among the most effective and vital partners we have on the frontlines in fragile communities around the world,” Callista Gingrich, US ambassador to the Holy See, said at the symposium.

“Women religious are often the last beacons of hope for millions of people who otherwise would not have a voice. They serve the displaced and the desperate, frequently at the risk of personal harm, in places where governments have failed and humanitarian organizations struggle to operate,” Gingrich said.

Sister Sun told CNA that, at first, she found the work at the snakebite clinic to be very emotionally draining.

“The first three months that I stayed there, I saw very many people dying of snake bites. I was very sad, and I said: ‘Maybe this is not the mission for me,’” Sun shared.

“But, you know, when you see the people keep coming, then you get the courage, and I prayed to God everyday ‘Lord, if this is what you want me to do, you are the one to give me the courage and the strength,’” she said.

Apart from treatment, the sisters work in preventative education, explaining to people in the surrounding villages the danger and how to protect themselves from the snakes.

“Hindus worship snakes, so they do not kill them, even when they become victims of snakebites. So during summer, we work 24/7 day and night,” she said.

Because of poverty, many of the patients they see live in huts made of bamboo and grass with a type of mud floor that can attract venomous creatures, particularly in the summer and rainy seasons.

“We have many stories of people telling us that when they get up in the morning, they just put their foot down from their bed and that is where they were bitten by a snake,” Sun said.

To keep themselves safe, the sisters have also trained dogs to detect the presence of snakes.

“I was very much afraid of snakes. But, being in Bangalore for my novitiate, training to become a religious, in that area we also have plenty of snakes and cobras. That is where I learned how to deal and even have killed a number of snakes, so when I came here, that was a kind of preparation for me,” she said.

In 2018, the Congregation of the Sisters of the Our Lady of the Missions treated more than 6,000 snakebite patients at their snakebite clinic in Kanti, Bihar.

“I believe that God uses us religious as instruments and miracles take place because God heals,” Sister Sun said.

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Manila, Philippines, Oct 12, 2019 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Amid a United Nations investigation into a brutal “war on drugs” by Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, a Catholic bishop is calling for the country’s Department of Health (DOH) t… […]

New Delhi, India, Oct 11, 2019 / 10:13 am (CNA).- On the International Day of the Girl Child, a legal advocacy group in India is drawing attention to the problem of sex-selective abortion and calling for efforts to end the practice.

“In our country, 7,000 babies are aborted every day for one reason: they are girls instead of boys,” said Tehmina Arora, director of ADF India.

“India’s skewed sex ratio shows that, as a nation, we have failed girls. They are either aborted or, once born, subject to various forms of violence.”

Arora called for greater awareness of the devastation caused by sex-selective abortion, and a commitment to fight against it, on the International Day of the Girl Child.

The day, which has been observed on Oct. 11 since 2012, “aims to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face, while promoting girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights,” according to the United Nations.

“We need to uphold the equal rights, voices and influence of girls in our families, communities and nations,” said UN Secretary General António Guterres in a statement marking the day. “Girls can be powerful agents of change, and nothing should keep them from participating fully in all areas of life.”

Part of this effort to promote the rights of girls is protecting their right to life, ADF International insisted.

The group noted that the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery cautioned in a recent report that an imbalance in numbers of men and women has led to women being trafficked and forced into marriage and surrogacy.

In India alone, more than 63 million girls have been aborted in the past decade, simply because they were not boys, ADF International said.

“Not only in India, but in many countries, sex-selective abortion has become a growing threat to girls’ lives,” the group warned. “Millions of girls worldwide have not been born due to this practice.”

Through its #VanishingGirls campaign, ADF India draws attention to the problem of sex-selective abortion in the country and pushes for the full implementation of a 1994 India law banning the practice.

The campaign, begun in 2016, has also held events celebrating girls and promoting nutrition, safety, and education for girls.

“Every child is precious. Both girls and boys have an equal right to life and liberty,” Arora said.

“Our nation cannot afford to lose its little girls to discrimination and neglect,” she continued. “India’s future is interlinked with the lives of the girls and women of the country. Whoever believes that girls share the same rights as boys cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening in India today.”

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Washington D.C., Oct 10, 2019 / 04:30 pm (CNA).- A Chinese human rights activist and former political prisoner has called for renewed focus on the country’s practices of mass detention, religious oppression, and reports of organ harvesting. … […]

Canberra, Australia, Oct 8, 2019 / 12:49 pm (CNA).- The Catholic bishops of Australia are among those who have called for changes to a contentious religious discrimination bill, saying that while it shows promise, it does not do enough to safeguard rel… […]

Macau, China, Oct 4, 2019 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- A diocese in southern China expressed disappointment Wednesday regarding a patriotic light-show that had been projected on the remains of a famous Catholic church.

For three consecutive nights beginning Sept. 29, the Macau Government Tourism Office projected government principles and symbols onto the Ruins of St. Paul’s, located at Freguesia de Santo António on the western side of the Macau peninsula.

The event was named the “Glorious Splendor in Celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China.” It projected pro-government statements, including Macau’s integration into China 20 years ago, and Chinese symbols, such as the country’s flag.

The Diocese of Macau expressed disappointment in the light show in an Oct. 2 statement. The display was projected onto the church’s southern facade – the last standing piece of the church – but did not represent the church’s history. The ruins are also known as “the facade of the Church of the Mother of God.”

The wall had been carved in the 1600s by exiled Japanese Christians. It features images such as the Blessed Mother standing victoriously over a seven-headed dragon. Jesuit Carlo Spinola, an Italian missionary, is believed to have designed the facade, which includes styles of both Eastern and Western culture.

In an Oct. 2 statement, Father Cyril Jerome Law, the diocese’s chancellor, said the remains are an important symbol of the Church despite the property currently being under government control. He said the light show should complement the church’s historical origin.

“[The] faithful of the Diocese have expressed strong views over the matter,” he said.

“The show in question evoked reactions of discontent from quite a number of faithful of different nationalities, since it is deemed that the use of the historical monuments ought to correspond to its intended character,” he added.

In response to the chancellor’s statement, a Macau official said many people were happy with the light show. Alexis Tam Chon Weng, secretary for social affairs and culture, told Macau News that since its beginning, the program has not received any push back.

“I don’t think there was any problem with the contents of the mapping show,” Tam said. “There have never been any problems since the Macau Light Festival started five years ago.”

Both parties have expressed the need for more communication between the diocese and the government. Tam said he would strengthen dialogue with the Church in Macau. He expressed the need for mutual “tolerance” and understanding, Macau News reported.

Law agreed that there must be more opportunities for dialogue. He said, if the light show continues, it should represent the historical monument’s religious significance.

“The Diocese is willing to engage in dialogue and to exchange ideas with relevant agencies, in the common endeavour to preserve and promote the precious historical monuments of Macau,” he said, according to Wednesday’s statement.

“As the façade of St Paul’s represents the profound and long-standing Catholic heritage in Macau, the Diocese wishes to propose that, should there be other ‘mapping shows’ to be held in the future, their contents would do well to be related to the religious context of the said monument.”

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Palmerston North, New Zealand, Oct 4, 2019 / 03:10 pm (CNA).- The Vatican announced Friday that Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a bishop in New Zealand, following an investigation into a complaint of “unacceptable behaviour of a sexual nature” made by a young woman.

Bishop Charles Drennan, 59, was the subject of an investigation by Cardinal John Dew of Wellington. Drennan had led the Diocese of Palmerston North since 2012.

Under Vos estis lux mundi, recent guidelines for investigations into misconduct claims against bishops which Pope Francis announced in May, metropolitan archbishops are placed in charge of investigations into suffragan bishops. Cardinal Dew is Archbishop of Wellington, to whom the rest of New Zealand’s diocesan bishops are suffragan.

Dew said Oct. 4 that upon receiving the young woman’s complaint, the New Zealand Church’s independent investigation body, the National Office of Professional Standards (NOPS), contracted an “independent, licenced investigator” to investigate under Dew’s oversight. The woman requested that details of the complaint remain private, Dew said.

In its Oct. 4 bulletin announcing episcopal resignations and appointments, the Vatican did not specify the reason for Drennan’s resignation.

Bishop Drennan stood aside from his duties during the investigation and both he and the complainant participated in the investigation. Dew said the Church has been in ongoing contact with the woman and is committed to continuing to support her.

“The Catholic Church has no tolerance for any inappropriate behaviour by any of its members. I encourage anyone who experiences such behaviour to bring it to the attention of the Church, police or any organisation with which they feel comfortable,” Dew said Oct. 4.

The Associated Press reports that Drennan was a member of the New Zealand church team of priests and sisters selected to respond to the country’s Royal Commission inquiry into sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults in state and faith-based care between 1950-1999. He was also secretary of the New Zealand bishop’s conference.

Drennan was also chosen by the nation’s bishops as a delegate from New Zealand to the Vatican’s 2015 Synod on the Family, and he also attended the Synod on the New Evangelization in 2012.

He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Christchurch in 1996, and was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Palmerston North in 2011, succeeding as ordinary the following year.

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Sydney, Australia, Oct 3, 2019 / 11:00 am (CNA).- A Catholic bishop in Australia has dismissed media reports that Church leaders are considering a radical overhaul of priestly formation.

Last week, reports appeared in several national newspapers sugge… […]

Yangon, Burma, Oct 3, 2019 / 12:01 am (CNA).- Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon has decried Burma’s ongoing violence, and encouraged religious leaders to raise their voices in defense of the vulnerable.

“Not a single day passes without the heart wrenching news of innocent civilians being displaced or killed or maimed by the ongoing conflict in Lashio, other Northern regions and Rakhine State,” Cardinal Bo said Oct. 1.

“[I was] pained by the silence of religious leaders,” he added.

Beginning in late 2016 the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group who have mostly occupied Burma’s Rakhine state, faced a sharp increase in state-sponsored violence in their homeland. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced, and the military has been accused of conducting numerous human violations such as rape and murder.

Despite widespread use of the word Rohingya in the international community, the term is controversial within Burma. The Burmese government refuses to use the term, and considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They have been denied citizenship and numerous other rights since a controversial law was enacted in 1982.

Burma is also known as Myanmar, a name which the U.S. government and many democracy activists oppose, because they say it was illegally imposed on the country by its military dictatorship.

According to UCA News, on the day of the cardinal’s statement, five civilians were injured during an artillery attack in Rakhine. A Buddhist monk, novice, teacher, and two students were harmed.

Bo criticized the government asking, “where is the mercy?” He said the military forces are not concerned with the people’s safety nor have these groups shied away from heavy weapons, like arial bombs. He also said many citizens lack basic necessities.

“I had served as the priest and bishop in this area for almost 20 years. Most of these people are extremely poor and innocent people,” he said. “Striving for basic needs is their daily unending struggle. No group had done any economic development for these people.”

“A ferocious conflict rages in around them, forcing them to flee. With pain and sorrow, I have been witness to their tears, their blood and their brokenness,” he added.

Bo expressed disappointment with the lack of response from the Buddhist and Christian communities. He said that in Burma the Buddist population has 500,000 monks and 70,000 nuns, and the Christian community has over 1000 pastors and 2000 Catholic nuns.

“Some silence can be criminal. The war pursued is unjust and unholy. Our prayers and rituals are nullified by the blood and tears of innocent people,” the cardinal said.

“Myanmar people are peace-loving and follow the guidelines of their religious leaders. There is a huge potential for peace through religious leaders. Kindly raise your voice against this mutilating war,” he said. “Kindly speak out. Peace is possible, Peace is the only way.”

Since 2018, conflicts between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army have displaced 33,000 people in Rakhine and Chin states, UCA News reported.

At a United Nations forum in New York in July, Cardinal Bo emphasized the important role of religious leaders in Burma. He urged world leaders to recognize the positive influence of religion and its members.

“The nation has been wounded by festering wars,” Cardinal Bo said, according to UCA News. “For the nearly six decades of its existence, the country has been at war, brother against brother. So much blood and tears have been shed.”

“[The role of religious leaders] in maintaining peace through imparting values like compassion is an extraordinary contribution to the peace of Myanmar,” he added. “Religious people impart great values in society.”

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Canberra, Australia, Oct 1, 2019 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- Freedom for Faith, a Christian legal think tank, expressed concerns last week over unintended consequences of the Australian government’s religious discrimination bill, urging that it be re-drafted before it is passed.

“Freedom for Faith welcomes the considerable efforts that the Government has made to consult on the drafting of this Bill. Many features of it are very good, including general provisions for protection of people of faith from discrimination in Commonwealth law; but Freedom for Faith also has significant concerns about certain provisions which have consequences that are probably unintended,” the group said in its Sept. 25 submission in consultation on the bill.

The most prominent concerns of the think tank, which says it “exists to see religious freedom protected and promoted in Australia”, relate to staffing policies in faith-based institutions; use of property inconsistent with a religious purpose or religious beliefs; and enrolment of students in faith-based educational institutions.

The religious discrimination bill is intended make it unlawful to discriminate against people on the ground of their religious belief or activity; establish a religious freedom commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission; and amend existing laws regarding religious freedom, including marriage and charities law, and objects clauses in anti-discrimination law.

The coalition government wants to make religious belief and activity a protected class, like race or sex. It also hopes to ensure that groups rejecting same-sex marriage are not stripped of their charitable status.

In its current version, the bill would not protect religious statements that are “malicious, would harass, vilify or incite hatred or violence against a person or group or which advocate for the commission of a serious criminal offence”.

Freedom for Faith maintains that as it is written, the bill could “suggest a very limited scope for religious organisations to retain their ethos and identity, and conversely an expansive scope for suppression of free speech. It is difficult to reconcile these Notes, at various points, with government policy as expressed by the Prime Minister and Attorney-General.”

Freedom for Faith said that “the overwhelming concern of faith-based organisations across the country with whom we have spoken is about the effect of the Bill on their religious mission, with particular reference to their staffing policies.”

Prime minister Scott Morrison has promised the bill will not take religious freedom backward, but the think tank stated that “the difficulty is that this Bill does, in relation to staffing of faith-based organisations … If the issues are not resolved, this may lead us to conclude that the Bill is better not being enacted. That said, we have every confidence that the Attorney-General will be able to sort the drafting problems out.”

Freedom for Faith said it is important that faith-based groups be able to appoint adherents of their religion, as their programs are part of their mission and ministry.

“This Bill, in its present form, will make it very difficult indeed for faith-based organisations to preserve their identity and ethos, although the Explanatory Notes to s.10 say that it is the Government’s intention to support the rights of faith-based organisations to retain their culture and ethos in their staffing policies,” the legal group wrote.

It warned that the bill supports “the view that only faith-based organisations with a policy of requiring all staff and volunteers to be adherents to the faith will be protected,” while many such organizations in fact only prefer that that staff be adherents, or that there be a “critical mass” of adherents so as to preserve its character as a religious ministry.

“Even if a Catholic school or other charity did have a policy of only employing Catholic staff, it would only be lawful if this could reasonably be regarded as in accordance with the doctrines, tenets, beliefs and teachings of Catholicism,” the think tank warned, as an example.

“That may be a difficult test to satisfy in the eyes of a court,” it continued. “The court may find it hard to see how the Catholic school’s preference in terms of employment may reasonably be regarded as being in accordance with the doctrines, tenets, beliefs or teachings of the religion. The school, however, may take the view that it is a necessary implication of their doctrines that they want to maintain a Catholic ethos by having a ‘critical mass’ of believing staff. Whether or not this policy does flow from religious doctrines – it is really about the purpose of having a Catholic school – it would be best if the legislation made it clear that such a policy was not unlawful.”

Another problem in the bill identified by Freedom for Faith is that its definition of a “religious body” excludes hospitals, aged care providers, publishing houses, and youth campsites run by religious groups.

As written, the bill would “prevent Christian publishers and Christian youth campsites advertising for Christian staff. This would be a bizarre and profoundly damaging outcome of laws ostensibly designed to bolster religious freedom,” the legal group noted.

Freedom for Faith urged that the bill “make a positive statement … that it is lawful for a religious body, a faith-based educational institution or a charity established for religious purposes, to appoint, or prefer to appoint, staff who practise the religion with which the organisation is associated.”

It said this is preferable to the bill creating exemptions so as “to get away from the language of having a ‘right to discriminate’”; because “there is a lot of opposition from the left of politics to any exemptions under anti-discrimination laws,” and there would be campaigns for repeal; and because, since the government has asked the Australian Law Reform Commission to report on how to balance competing claims of religious freedom rights and LGBT rights, “it does not make much sense to create new exemptions in legislation at the same time as two organisations that report to the Attorney are busily working to reduce or eliminate them.”

The second main objection of Freedom for Faith is that the bill could make some religious groups “act contrary to their beliefs if they were never permitted to rely on good faith religious objections to the use of their premises.” For example, a Catholic hospital could be made to provide euthanasia on its premises.

Thirdly, the legal think tank said the bill’s current form “may not allow schools to preference students of a particular faith. So for example, Catholic schools may not be allowed to give preference for admission” to the Catholic children.

Freedom for Faith suggested a number of other, minor improvements to the bill, and provided a suggested draft for a new section on employment.

Similarly, the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, which has reportedly worked closely in the past with the local Catholic diocese, has said the religious discrimination bill is so flawed that it cannot be supported in its current form.

Some conservative members of parliament have asked instead for a religious freedom bill. Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, of the Liberal Party, voiced concerns July 9 that the bill does not go far enough, saying it “would be defensive in nature and limited to protecting against acts and practices by others which are discriminatory on the grounds of religion.”

She said that “quiet Australians now expect the Coalition to legislate to protect their religious freedom.”

Australia has seen debate over religious freedom in recent years with respect to the seal of the confessional, hiring decisions, and same-sex marriage.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney noted last year that “we cannot take the freedom to hold and practice our beliefs for granted, even here in Australia,” and that “powerful interests now seek to marginalize religious believers and beliefs, especially Christian ones, and exclude them from public life. They would end funding to faith-based schools, hospitals and welfare agencies, strip us of charitable status and protections.”

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