Feature Story

Healing seminars and outreach activities organized by the Cebu-based lay charismatic community Oasis of Love have become part of the pastoral program for Filipino migrant workers in Hong Kong, according to the chaplain serving the community.

When Pope Paul VI stepped onto Asian soil in 1970, he was doing more than making a pastoral visit. He was signaling a shift in how the Catholic Church viewed its global mission.

On November 29, 1970, the final day of his Philippine visit, Paul VI traveled to Radio Veritas Asia.

Forty years after the 1986 People Power uprising, two Filipino women religious remember EDSA not simply as a political revolt but as a graced spiritual awakening, and ask whether the Church has failed to sustain that prophetic courage.

There is nothing particularly holy about lying on a cot for twenty minutes while someone draws blood from your arm.

As Class 10 board examinations begin across India, many Catholic schools continue a long-standing practice: taking students to churches and Marian shrines for special prayer services ahead of the tests.

In Sri Lanka, the oldest and most significant of these is the Maggona National Calvary Shrine, which marks 126 years of spiritual service this year.

The Archdiocese of Goa and Daman, in southwest India, hosted its annual Walking Pilgrimage to Sancoale, drawing thousands of faithful and turning the historic site into a vibrant gathering of devotion, prayer, and communal spirit.

Seeing the bloodshed, broken lives, and repeated failures of peace in many parts of the world, this Lenten season I felt a strong need to begin with myself. If the world is to change, I must first be willing to change.

On January 31, the Holy Cross Oriental Institute (HCOI) in Barishal marked 75 years of service to the Church in southern Bangladesh, evolving from a humble language school into a vibrant pastoral and spiritual formation center.

It has been 400 years since the dedication of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Lent arrives quietly—ashes on foreheads, habits interrupted, the world slowing down just enough to notice. My first Ash Wednesday as an adult, I was living in Chennai, riding the local train to college after an early service. I had forgotten about the smudge until I caught my reflection in the window. A man across from me was staring—not hostile, just aware. I almost wiped it off. I did not. I am still not entirely sure why. Maybe I wanted to be the kind of person who did not wipe it off.

For Filipino lay leader Ronilda Co, life has never been random. It has been guided by what she calls her “three inner compasses” — three Latin creeds that shaped her choices, her vocation, and ultimately her response to some of the most difficult humanitarian crises of our time.

Ash Wednesday arrives with an uncomfortable, visceral honesty. The mark on the forehead is not a badge of merit; it is a smudge of mortality, an invitation to “return to God.” It asks us to look beyond the superficial rituals of fasting and penance and instead examine the interior architecture of our souls—specifically, how we handle the weight of our influence and the quiet whispers of our conscience.

Lent is not merely a ritual season but a sacred opportunity for renewal and transformation. It invites us to step into the desert with Christ, seeking repentance, discipline, and deeper intimacy with God.

Ash Wednesday stands at the doorway of Lent. It marks the beginning of a penitential season and invites us to a deeper, more honest way of living the Gospel. As ashes are placed on our foreheads, the Church reminds us: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” These words are not meant to frighten us, but to ground us. They tell us that we are fragile, limited, and mortal, yet profoundly loved by God. Ash Wednesday strips us of illusions and gently brings us back to what truly matters.

There are films you watch… and there are films that watch you back. Seed of Hope is the latter.

The voice did not merely shout. It rolled across the small cemetery from one end to the other.

Christian Valentine’s Day begins with the divine Valentine, the Bible. Couples are reminded of God’s everlasting love:
“The Lord your God will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph 3:17).

Valentine’s Day arrives each year with predictable enthusiasm. Shops turn red, restaurants fill, and love is packaged into cards, flowers, and carefully planned moments. For a brief time, it feels as though love is everywhere. Then the day passes, the decorations disappear, and ordinary life resumes.