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In 1985, Mary Anne Warren coined the term gendercide to refer to the ritual eradication of women and girls throughout the world. More recently, the heartbreaking film It’s a Girl documents the effects of this practice on the numbers of girls and women in China and India. It makes for difficult viewing, particularly when confronted with the Read more
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The state of religious freedom around the world is “increasingly dire”, according to the chairperson of a United States agency that monitors threats to this human right. The reasons include the rise of violent religious extremism and the actions and inactions of governments, according to Dr Katrina Lantos Swett of the US Commission for International Read more
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China’s government has declared it will maintain its one-child policy, but at the same time stripped power from the family planning agency that oversees the regime. “The way to interpret this is that the laws are still in effect, but the judges and the policemen have all been fired,” said Wang Feng, director of the Read more
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Hong Kong’s retired Cardinal Joseph Zen has accused Vatican officials of “a policy of appeasement and compromise” that allowed Communist China’s control of the Church there. Cardinal Zen said Pope Benedict XVI set appropriate policies, but “his work was wasted by others close to him, who did not follow his line”. “Saying ‘others’ I mean Read more
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The once-in-a-decade transition of power in China, at the recent congress of the Chinese Communist Party, bodes well for Christians, according to the president of a Hong Kong-based information resource. “There’s a lot going on,” says Brent Fulton. “But … if political reform is able to move ahead, it should bode well for the Church. Read more
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A think tank close to China’s leadership is recommending an end to the country’s one-child policy — for political and economic reasons rather than on human rights grounds. The China Development Research Foundation proposes allowing two children for every family in some provinces from this year and nationally by 2015, and dropping all birth limits Read more
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When Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress met with Fiji President Epeli Nailatikau in Fiji last Friday he said China believed that all countries, big or small, rich or poor, strong or weak, are equal members of the international community, and that international affairs should be handled by all Read more
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An international survey has recorded a dramatic decline in religious faith among the Irish over the past six years. Between 2005 and 2011, the proportion of Irish people declaring themselves to be religious dropped from 69 to 47 per cent — a percentage drop in religiosity exceeded only by the Vietnamese. Over the same period, Read more
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Pressure is mounting in China for a change in the “one-child” policy that has resulted in forced abortions and sterilisations, according to a New York Times report. Recent reports of local officials coercing women into late-term abortions have prompted an outcry among policy advisers and scholars who are trying to push central government officials to Read more
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Catholics in China are dismayed at the apparent house arrest of the newly-ordained Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin after he publicly cut ties with the government-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association. Local Church sources said Bishop Ma of Shanghai was taken away by several unidentified persons shortly after his ordination last Saturday and is now at a diocesan Read more
