Archbishop Joseph Vu Van Thien of Hanoi made the appeal to about 1,000 Catholics who gathered in Ha Nam province in northern Vietnam last Friday to pay tribute to 117 martyrs who were canonized 35 years ago. The event was held at the Martyrs Pilgrimage Center in So Kien parish, which houses relics of martyrs from 10 northern dioceses.
Catholics attend the feast of Vietnamese Martyrs at the Martyrs Pilgrimage Center in So Kien Parish in Ha Nam province on Nov. 24. (Photo: Archdiocese of Hanoi)
Pope John Paul II canonized the 117 Martyrs including 96 native Catholics and 21 foreign missionaries in Rome on June 19, 1988. Saint Agnes Le Thi Thanh, mother of six children, was among the 96 native Vietnamese who were canonized.
The martyrs were among the estimated 130,000-300,000 Christians killed for their faith during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
Rights groups have called on Philippine lawmakers to support pending resolutions in Congress that urge President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to cooperate with the International Criminal Court to probe killings linked to former president Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug war.
The investigation by the court’s prosecutor also includes Duterte’s time as mayor of Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao.
Philippine police gathered over the body of a suspect killed during an anti-drug operation at an informal settlers’ area near a port in Manila in November 2016. (Photo: AFP / UCAN files)
New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the lawmaker to support the House resolution to bring justice for the thousands of victims of the ‘war on drugs’ and the ‘Davao Death Squad’ and assist the ICC investigation into alleged crimes against humanity.
The Philippines withdrew from the ICC’s Rome statute in March 2019, which effectively bars the international court from having any jurisdiction over the country. However, the ICC investigators said that since the crimes were committed when the country was still a member, the court can exercise its jurisdiction and prosecute Duterte.
Environmental groups have criticized the South Korean government for not implementing a ban on the use of disposable products, including plastic.
The government had set a one-year grace period in November last year before fully implementing the ban to reduce the use of disposable plastic products and protect the environment from pollution.
Staff in a restaurant in South Korea show paper straws they provide their customers. (Photo: GS25 via hankooki.com)
The Ministry of Environment had announced that it would impose fines of up to 10 million won (US$7,706) against violators. However, the grace period expired last Friday, just after the ministry backtracked and decided not to implement an enforced ban.
In 2016, Korea’s plastic waste emissions per capita ranked third in the world with each person producing 88 kilograms of plastic waste per year. Activists have been calling for a ban on production and sales of plastic products in line with actions in the West such as the European Union and Canada.
Three dissident lawyers from Hong Kong and mainland China, in prison for their human rights and democracy activism that drew the ire of the state, have won a top European human rights award.
The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe honored Hong Kong barrister Chow Hang-tung, and Chinese rights attorneys Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi with human rights awards last Friday. Chow has been imprisoned since September 2021. She was one of four vice-chairs of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement of China.
Chinese civil rights lawyers Xu Zhiyong (left) and Ding Jiaxi (right) are seen in this file photo. Hong Kong barrister Chow Hang-tung, along with Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, all imprisoned, have won human rights awards from the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe. (Photo: Yaxue Cao, via Twitter/HKFP)
The alliance was the main organizer of the annual vigils marking the Tiananmen Massacre of 1989. The government banned the vigil in 2020 amid a heavy government crackdown on the pro-democracy movement.
Lawyers Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were jailed in April for attending a 2019 gathering of dissidents in the southeastern city of Xiamen. They founded the New Citizens’ Movement in 2010 to campaign for constitutional reforms and a more transparent system of government.
A new survey by Pew Research Center finds Asians who are not affiliated with a religion tend to support legalizing same-sex marriage.
Close to half of Asians or a median of 49 percent of adults in 12 Asian countries favor legalizing gay and lesbian marriage, says the survey report released on Monday.
A pride parade in the Indian national capital New Delhi in 2018. Surveys by Pew Research Center found people in Asian nations differ in their views on the legalization of same-sex marriage. (Photo: Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images)
However, 43 percent oppose legalizing same-sex marriage. In the six countries, where enough religiously unaffiliated individuals were surveyed, half or more of the religiously unaffiliated supported legal same-sex marriage.
Japan has the highest percentage of people who favor legal same-sex marriage with about 68 percent supporting it.
In Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia about 92 and 82 percent respectively oppose gay marriage.
In Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka, about 69 percent opposed it.
The survey found Muslims and Christians are often, but not always, among those who oppose same-sex marriage.
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