Asia
With 9 new electors, Pope Francis remakes the college of cardinals
By Thomas Reese — October 25, 2020
(RNS) Over seven years, Pope Francis has gradually remade the college of cardinals, making it less European and more African and Asian.
Native artisans fight to survive in ‘the town of the Nativities’
By Irving Cabrera Torres — December 20, 2018
AMOZOC, Mexico (RNS) — For 100 years, this central Mexican town has made Nativity sets and other religious figures by hand. Now foreign competition has put its future in doubt.
Francis cardinals make up almost half of electors of next pope
By Thomas Reese — May 22, 2018
(RNS) — Pope Francis continues to remake the College of Cardinals so that almost half of the men who will choose his successor have been chosen by him.
The Good Swastika
By Joshua Hammerman — January 26, 2018
(RNS) — Making peace with the swastika does not mean making peace with Nazis past and present, nor with their hateful ideology – nor with their corrupted version of that symbol.
Top Indonesia court overturns discriminatory religious law
By Jerome Socolovsky — November 8, 2017
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia has for decades recognized only Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism as religions, but millions practice animism and other local faiths.
Two tearful faces that make me pray for peace with North Korea
By Richard Mouw — October 20, 2017
(RNS) — I despise Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader. But I offer up my prayers for peace regularly — prayers that are associated with the tears on two faces I saw while visiting a church in a village 10 hours north of Pyongyang.
‘Gay moment’ stays put as Malaysia to release ‘Beauty and the Beast’ without cuts
By Reuters — March 21, 2017
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuters) Walt Disney blockbuster 'Beauty and the Beast' will be released in Malaysia this month without any cuts, the company said on Tuesday, after censors had earlier asked for the removal of a 'gay moment' in the movie.
Attacker at Indonesian church injures priest
By Jerome Socolovsky — August 28, 2016
MEDAN, Indonesia -- Indonesian police are investigating a suspected terror attack by a knife-wielding assailant on a priest during Mass at a Catholic church in northern Sumatra.
Pakistani clerics declare ‘honor killing’ against Islam
By RNS staff — June 13, 2016
LAHORE, Pakistan - Hundreds of Pakistanis, the vast majority women and girls, are murdered every year by relatives after being accused of damaging a family's honor.
Pope Francis heads East, pointing to a new future for his Western church
By David Gibson — August 8, 2014
(RNS) Upcoming trips to Asia highlight Pope Francis’ push to globalize and reform a Catholic Church that is still very much centered on what happens in Rome.
Asian-Americans troubled by stereotypes from white evangelicals
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey — October 10, 2013
(RNS) It's the second dust-up in as many months involving Asian-Americans and megachurch pastor Rick Warren, who received backlash for posting a Facebook photo depicting the Red Guard during China’s Cultural Revolution.
COMMENTARY: The hidden immigration impact on American churches
By Wesley Granberg-Michaelson — September 23, 2013
(RNS) While millennials are walking out the front door of U.S. congregations, immigrant Christian communities are appearing right around the corner, and sometimes knocking at the back door. And they may hold the key to vitality for American Christianity.
Catholic population surges across the Global South
By Alessandro Speciale — May 13, 2013
VATICAN CITY (RNS) While the number of Catholic priests in the Americas and in Europe is declining compared to the overall Catholic population, those losses were offset by increasing ranks of permanent deacons.
GUEST COMMENTARY: Why the next pope should come from the Global South
By Wesley Granberg-Michaelson — February 18, 2013
(RNS) A non-European pope, drawn from the Global South that's shaping the future face of the church, would be a prophetic spiritual gift to the whole Christian community, and beyond.
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