Dossier articles from the past 3 months
The 13 May 2019 elections in the Philippines have been correctly seen most of all as a referendum on the Duterte presidency, half way through his mandate. In this regard it was a confirmation, and not only because the opinion polls that accompanied the long-drawn-out results showed that around had 80% preferred the president. The…
Read moreThe tension between the presidency and the ecclesial hierarchy has considerably affected baptised Filipinos. The general elections that brought Rodolfo Duterte to power on 30 June 2016, and this was the choice of the majority of Catholics, have not been substantially rejected by them; on the other hand, the contemporaneous adherence to presidential policies and…
Read moreBut who is Rodrigo Duterte? A person with a judgemental mentality, partly due to his previous profession as a prosecutor, 74 years old and with a deserved reputation as a womaniser, despite being married with four children. For 24 years – 1998 to 2016 – Rodrigo Duterte, with firmness and almost without interruption, was mayor…
Read moreWith a Catholic population of over 80% of its 100 million inhabitants, the Philippines has a special character. With an identity that is due equally to ancient colonisation from Spain and more recent colonisation by the United States, it is, from the usual Asian viewpoint, an outpost of Westernisation in the Orient. The archipelago, in…
Read moreInterregional migration, or the movement of people between geographic sub regions, is also a key feature of migration patterns on the continent. In 2017, Eastern and Western Africa were the regions from which most African migrants originated. Middle Africa recorded a strong increase with regard to international migrant stock, as the absolute number doubled, with…
Read moreAfrican bishops are aware that, when there is a massive movement of people, the countries that receive these displaced people may feel threatened. All too often the belief is that newcomers compete for scarce resources and this brings immigrants and refugees to be driven away, resented, or despised. The African bishops pointed out that ordinarily,…
Read moreGlobally, in 2017, there were around 258 million international migrants, approximately 3.4% of the world population. Only 35% was from the south to the north of the world. The same trend was encountered in Africa: more than half (19,359,848 about 53.4%) of Africa’s international migrants in 2017 have remained on the continent, while 16,906,580 (46.5%)…
Read moreAfrican migration patterns do not happen in a vacuum. Rather, they are situated within major trends on the global stage that have also affected the continent, namely climate change and environmental degradation and conflict. Environmental changes or disasters have also been associated with permanent migration. There have been attempts to relocate populations from areas that…
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If it is true that the Christian Europe of the Middle Ages was shaped by monasticism, more so it can be said of the Ethiopian Christianity. Ethiopia converted to Christianity around the year 330 through the work of two Syrian young brothers who were taken prisoners in the Red Sea and brought to the court…
Read moreFrom its very foundation, Debre Libanos grew in prestige and power until it surpassed all the other monasteries, thanks in the first place to the personality of its founder, Tekle Haimanot, but also to the permanent support of political power. It is still today at the head of the monastic life in Ethiopia. The data…
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Among the many Ethiopian monasteries Debre Damo deserves to be mentioned first. Not because it is the largest or the most important, but because it concentrates in itself certain original characteristics that do not occur in others. In the first place, its antiquity. Founded by Aregawi, one of the ‘Nine Saints’, at the beginning of…
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If we mention the monastery of Hayk (or Hayq) among the three chosen for this dossier, it is certainly not because of the importance it has nowadays, but because of the one it had in the past, especially during the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, and because of its connection and that of its founder, Iyasus…
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“We want to create a federation of international journalistic organisations that collaborate in this effort, starting from the global South,” says Filipino journalist and 2022…
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Once upon a time, there was a leopard. He had a huge walnut tree that was full of nuts. Stingy as he was, however, he forbade…
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Three young Comboni missionaries from three continents share their vocation stories and missionary experiences. Fr Victor Cunanan Parungao from the Philippines reflects on 15 years of…
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