The life of the Filipino villages and parishes is built around the “Fiesta”, a yearly celebration of the Patron Saint which includes the preparations, the solemn Mass, the procession with the images of the Saint, the cooking, and the hospitality. Every town in the Philippines, no matter how big or small, holds a fiesta. Traditionally,…
Read moreThe Azerbaijan art of weaving is unique: it is an ancient tradition, a mystical and pedagogical language and a sign of Azeri identity that has now become the Heritage of Humanity. In Lahij, on the mountains of Azerbaijan, four generations come together around the loom on which carpets are woven. The woman doing the weaving…
Read moreSome Franciscan Sisters have succeeded in combining tradition and innovation. The ‘Assisi Garments’ project is not only a brand name but a way of life that respects people and the environment. It was in 1994 that some Franciscan Sisters present in India, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, decided to launch an activity to…
Read moreRight in the middle of Eurasia, in that mass of land known as ‘The Heart of the World’, we find Kazakhstan, impervious, legendary, and fascinating – the land of fiery bloody sunsets that bewitched the passage of many merchants en route to China by way of the silk road. Its natural beauty, together with its…
Read more
Kazakhstan achieved independence in December 1991 at a time when the dissolution of the USSR was inevitable. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the Soviet leader of Kazakhstan since 1989 and President in 1990, was reconfirmed in 1991 following the independence of the country. Nazarbayev, in taking on the leadership of the new state, was obliged to face all…
Read moreBesides lithium, another mineral occupies a central role for its use in high technology. China controls 70% of this mineral. In pursuit of the electric machines market. Computers, tablets, smartphones, and high-tech instruments, together with the principle of electrical energy transition, of the transformation of cities into ‘smart cities’, and the spread of electrical vehicles,…
Read moreThe modernisation of the state forms part of the ‘Kazakhstan 2030 Plan’ launched by Nazarbayev in 1997 with the aim of transforming and developing the country, and now continued by his successor. The plan is based upon wise economic options, the strategy of which is not limited simply to the exploitation of the enormous energy…
Read moreFor Kazakhstan, the year 2019 may be remembered as a time of political change. President Nursultan Nazarbayev, having led the country for almost three decades, resigned as President, though retaining ample powers in accordance with a law passed in 2018 granting him the status of ‘Father of the Nation’, a law which guaranteed him judiciary…
Read moreIn the Bay of Manila, north of the Philippine capital, it is already possible to see what awaits the inhabitants of the coastal regions of the world: entire areas being swallowed up by the sea. Perhaps hardest hit is Sitio Pariahan in the province of Bulakan – once a flourishing village but now accessible…
Read more
With a population that is 70% ethnically Malayan, Brunei has been under the influence of a much more rigid version of Islam as compared with bordering Malaysia and neighbouring Indonesia. The situation leaves little room for religious freedom for other faiths, especially Christianity, of whatever origin, be it Chinese, tribal or immigrant. The problem is…
Read moreFar from the reflectors of global strategies and tensions, the small South-East Asian island country seems to be suspended in a reality of wellbeing and peace. But it is really living through profound contradictions and in danger of drifting into fundamentalism as has happened in other nations of southern and South-East Asia provoked, if not…
Read more
Fifty years in India alongside the lepers. Curing their wounds but also rejoicing with each one for new found life. This is the story of Sister Bertilla Capra, 82, an Italian Consolata Missionary. It was in June 1970 that she arrived in Andhra Pradesh, her first appointment. “Before leaving – she recounts – I went…
Read more
For more than twenty-five years, Sr. Nelly Leòn Correa from Chile has accompanied inmates in and outside the prison and created the "Mujer, Levántate" (Woman,…
Read more
It was a scorching dawn. Scattered across the vast grassy savannah beyond the rocky mountains, the villages seemed to bleach under the thick blanket of clay…
Read more
As the 2024 European elections approach, COMECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union) has released the ‘Catholic Toolkit for Young Europeans’. This comprehensive toolkit…
Read more
