Tag 'simon roughneen'

L to r: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila, shown venerating the cross in the Manila Cathedral on Good Friday 2016.

Philippines President, Church Leaders Continue to Clash Ahead of Midterms

NEWS ANALYSIS: Despite Duterte’s continuing foul-mouthed attacks on Catholicism, his preferred candidates are predicted to win senate seats.

SIMON ROUGHNEEN World April 29, 2019

Blood stains are seen on the wall and on a Jesus Christ statue at St. Sebastian's Church April 21 after a blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan authorities blame a militant group for coordinated Easter bombings that ripped through Sri Lankan churches and luxury hotels, killing and injuring hundreds of people. It was Sri Lanka's deadliest violence since a devastating civil war in the South Asian island nation ended a decade ago.

Sri Lanka’s Cardinal Condemns ‘Shocking’ Massacres of Local Catholics

‘We never expected these kind of attacks on our communities worshipping in our Church,’ Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith told the Register.

SIMON ROUGHNEEN World April 22, 2019

Catholic religious paintings and Bibles are displayed behind bars at an underground Catholic church in Jiexi county in south China's Guangdong province March 27. A group that monitors Christianity in China says the government is ratcheting up a crackdown on congregations in Beijing and several Chinese provinces, destroying crosses, burning Bibles and ordering followers to sign papers renouncing their faith. Churches have also been razed.

Chinese Authorities Raze Catholic Church Building, According to Video

News casts further doubt on the communist government’s willingness to be conciliatory toward the Church, in the wake of last year’s Vatican deal.

SIMON ROUGHNEEN World April 11, 2019

Rodrigo Duterte speaks at Manila’s Rizal Park on May 7, 2016.

Philippines’ Catholic Leaders Grapple With Duterte Presidency

The nation’s bishops have condemned the government-approved wave of extrajudicial executions of drug traffickers and addicts, which have killed more than 7,600 people in less than eight months.

SIMON ROUGHNEEN World February 15, 2017

Ma Ba Tha Buddhists protest the use of the word 'Rohingya' as a Rakhine donation ship from Malaysia arrives Feb. 9 in Yangon, Burma. The Rohingya aid ship, Nautical Aliya, landed at Thilawa port near Yangon while making its way to the Rohingya refugee camps in Myanmar and Bangladesh, bearing 2,300 tons of food, clothes and medical supplies for the Rohingyas in the two countries. Below, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar has spoken with Pope Francis on alleviating the suffering of this Muslim minority.

Who Will Speak Up for Myanmar’s Unwanted Rohingya People?

Pope Francis and Myanmar’s Cardinal Bo have again highlighted the plight of the Southeast Asian country’s oppressed Muslim minority.

SIMON ROUGHNEEN Vatican February 10, 2017

Police guard a church in Bangladesh, where the pastor received death threats from ISIS on March 24. Proponents of their ideology, which includes Islamic law, have made incursions into Malaysian society.

Proposal to Expand Sharia Alarms Malaysia’s Christians

Although President Obama praised nation last year as ‘a majority-Muslim country that represents tolerance and peace,’ there are signs of a growing Islamization in the Asian country’s politics.

SIMON ROUGHNEEN News June 27, 2016

In this March 30, 2007 file image taken from a closed-circuit television, Father Nguyen Van Ly is seated in a courtroom in Hue, Vietnam. The country released the Catholic priest, who is one of its most prominent dissidents, prison in a move widely seen as a good will gesture before U.S. President Barack Obama visited. The Archdiocese of Hue reported on its webpage that it welcomed the return Friday of 70-year-old Father Ly from prison. He has been serving an eight-year prison term since March 2007 after being convicted of spreading propaganda against the state.

Despite Catholic Priest’s Release, Questions Remain Over Vietnam’s Human-Rights Record

President Obama’s recent visit generated goodwill between the two former antagonists, but the communist nation still seems unwilling to allow basic rights.

SIMON ROUGHNEEN News May 26, 2016