…of all kinds:

AsiaNews reports on a Vatican delegation heading to Vietnam:

Now the Vatican delegation headed for Hanoi aims for the concrete launch of a process towards diplomatic ties, even if not their immediate realization, and also for the appointment of bishops. The delegation will visit some local Catholic projects.

The normalization of diplomatic ties and the opening of more space for religious freedom – the Vatican admits “significant steps ahead” have been made with a recent Vietnamese law in this regard – are anxiously expected by Catholics of the country. They are held to be the outcome of local situations, which anyhow will be discussed, like what is going on in Son La, in the extreme north-west of the country, on the border with Laos. In this remote province, Communist party officials ban public masses and prayer meetings and put all manner of obstacles in the way of Catholics, who are subject to a systematic defamation campaign. Such episodes have prompted Vietnamese Catholics to voice fears that the attitude of openness of the government of Hanoi about diplomatic ties with the Holy See is motivated above all by the desire to see growth in foreign investment, as well as a plan to instigate differences between Catholics and followers of other religions and a bid to create division between Catholics themselves.

Sandro Magister on the Pope’s upcoming letter to Chinese Catholics, put in context of past and present. It’s an informative and important article to read if you’re interested in the situation of the Chuch in China, which you should be, I’ll be bossy enough to suggest. Magister summarizes a couple of recent articles, on in the journal 30 Days (not the issue currently online, it seems) on some past history and another by the director of AsiaNews, on the present:

Given this situation, the leaders of the Chinese government would like to reduce the power of the Patriotic Association. According to sources cited by “Asia News,” the foreign ministry is thought to be favorable even toward full diplomatic relations with the Vatican. Since the death of pope Wojtyla, Beijing’s diplomacy has focused on conciliatory messages for the Holy See: condolences for the death of John Paul II, an invitation for the sisters of Mother Teresa to open a house in China… All these gestures are opposed by the Patriotic Association, which is blocking the arrival of the sisters, having clandestine priests arrested, promoting campaigns in the press, and above all organizing illegitimate episcopal ordinations.

The most zealous leader of the Patriotic Association that controls the official Catholic Church is Anthony Liu Bainian, known as “the lay pope of China.” In order to carry out the most recent illegitimate ordinations, last November, he did not hesitate to use violence, trickery, and lies, even against the candidates themselves. Naturally – Fr. Cervellera observes – "his favorite targets are the clandestine Churches, which don’t obey his orders, and cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, bishop of Hong Kong, the standard-bearer for the freedom of the Church in China."

Speaking of 30 Days, another fascinating read from there is a series of articles on the success of Catholic schools in Jordan:

If in Christian schools the effective co-existence of Christians and Muslims follows paths tried and tested in centuries of shared life, in the daily life of the kingdom such experiences are beginning to look more and more like happy islands, hangovers from a past to be mourned. It is quite clear – there is no need to even say it – that here, in the last few decades, someone has been progressively poisoning the wells of relative tolerance that were watering a more than millenarian co-existence. Nothing is as it was. The old habits of acquaintance that regulated relations between Christian and Muslim tribes on the West Bank are fading. When pupils from the Christian schools go on to university they get besieged in intimidating fashion by university teachers and zealous fellow students, inured in their own certainties, who feel called upon to indoctrinate the «poor fools», children of the Jordanian people who still believe that Jesus is the Son of God. The Islamist movements, the invasive religious militancy engaged in public life, is becoming for many of them an asphyxiating spiritual mobbing.

The Catholic schools are managing to carry on their inward and little publicised mission: that of making the first steps in the social life of many Christian children easy, serene, free of trauma. Without building bunkers

In the face of this development the Catholic schools are managing to carry on their inward and little publicised mission: that of making the first steps in the social life of many Christian children easy, serene, free of trauma. Without building bunkers, in a open atmosphere, enabling them to grow alongside their Muslim contemporaries. Allowing them to enjoy, without even noticing, the fruits of the everyday gratuitousness that Christian charity lights up in the ordinary field of the usual occupations. Before the difficulties and the testing time arrive.

From Zenit:

A priest of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq laments that the faithful are "losing hope" in the war-torn nation.

Father Philip Najim, procurator to the Holy See for the patriarch of Babylon, commenting to ZENIT on the situation of Catholics in Iraq, said that the "only armament we have to create peace is our prayer."

Father Najim said that, in addition to traditional Lenten sacrifices, Iraqi Catholics need to witness the peace of Christ in their behavior and attitudes by drawing strength from God.

The priest described daily life in Iraq as a kind of genocide. The daily plague of kidnappings, deaths, bombings, fear and instability, coupled with the cumulative effects of the U.N.-imposed trade embargo that lasted 12 years, have all but demolished a culture that has roots deep in pre-Christian history.

He added that he hopes that Christians in Iraq will find new strength by turning to God anew this Lent: "When we find ourselves in very complicated situations, we often recognize the limits of our humanity and can find strength again in God, our Creator."

Father Najim said that Christians in Iraq date back to the first century. The Chaldean Church has its own patriarch, who is seated in Baghdad, and retains its own theological, liturgical and canonical traditions, while maintaining full communion with Rome.

In Baghdad before the war, 35 parishes were flourishing. Now, many of the churches have been destroyed, and priests are limited to celebrating the liturgy only on Sundays, he said.

And then, on a slightly different topic, but still "east," John Allen on the not-so surprising reactions of Mt. Athos monks to the Pope Benedict-Patriarch Bartholomew meeting.