Education Minister Mr. Nattapol Teepsuwan, as Head of the CONNEXT ED’s government sector working team, granted honorary plaque to Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL (CPF) for collaboration in the project. Mr. Prasit Boondoungprasert, CPF’s Chief Executive Officer, was the company’s representative at the event at Centara Grand at Central Plaza Ladprao, Bangkok.
The CONNEXT ED Project is a public-private collaboration that has been on-going for 3 consecutive years in an effort to drive Thailand towards sustainable educational development in the country by raising the standard of education. Currently, 33 private firms has participated the project, serve as school sponsors, providing strategic counseling and budgeting through School partners. The project will achieve through knowledge sharing and strategic planning between school partners and school administrations. CPF is providing support to 295 schools in Nakhon Ratchasima, Buriram and Chaiyaphum.
Pope Francis shakes hands with representatives of Protestant churchs at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok on Nov. 22, 2019.
Top: Pope Francis shakes hands with representatives of Protestant churches at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok on Nov. 22, 2019.
BANGKOK — Members of the Protestant faith in Thailand said on Friday they agreed with Pope Francis’ call for interfaith cooperation, saying they have no sectarian grudge against their Catholic brethrens.
Protestants, who took up about half of Christian population in the kingdom, have no problem co-existing with the Catholics, according to those interviewed for this story. They spoke moments after attending an audience with the Pope at Chulalongkorn University, where the Catholic spiritual leader urged all sects and religions to find common grounds.
“Catholics and Protestants have absolutely no problems with each other in Thailand at all … This is very hard to find in other countries,” Manoch Jangmook, Chairman of the Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand, said in an interview. “We are all the same family, the Pope said himself.”
“Pastors and bishops go to each others’ events all the time. We also meet up to eat our meals together,” Manoch added.
Thongchai Pradabchananurat, the founder of New Vision Baptist Church in Bangkok, was visibly excited to shake hands with the Pope, despite their theological differences.
“I feel so honored to receive the Pope. It’s creating unity between many religions, whether Christian, Buddhist, Islam, Hindu, Sikh, and everyone else,” said Thongchai, who represented the Thai Baptists at the meeting. “What a wonderful speech! The way he spoke gave worth to others, from the poor, disabled, and other disenfranchised.”
Presbyterian pastor Prasartpong Pansuay of Second Church Samyan said that Thai Protestants and Catholic clergy even sometimes hold events together, such a joint prayer on Jan. 26 at his church.
Representatives of Protestant churchs at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok on Nov. 22, 2019.
“We might be different in terms of rituals and administration, but there’s no conflict or deep-seated differences, politically or otherwise,” Prasartpong said.
Christians in Thailand number around one percent, with Catholics and Protestants having roughly equal numbers of around 350,000 adherents.
Apart from the Catholic Church, The Thai government recognized five other Christian denominations: Baptist, Evangelical, Presbyterian, and Seventh-day Adventist churches.
Only representatives of those five Protestant sects were allowed to meet with the Pope on Friday; Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, both of which have presence in Bangkok, are not recognized by the government, and therefore absent from Friday’s meeting.
A Christian and a Sikh shake hands at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok on Nov. 22, 2019.
Sawang Tono, a Baptist reverend of the Thai Calvary Church, 48, said he agreed with the government’s sanctioning of certain faiths, as it would help prevent “cults” from taking root in the kingdom.
“We check in with each other so that we can prevent not-so-good things from entering the country,” Sawang said.
In a speech given onstage, the Pope stressed the importance of moving beyond religious boundaries to tackle problems the environment.
“Long gone are the days when an insular mode of thought could determine an approach to time and space and appear to offer a valid way of resolving conflicts,” Pope Francis said. “Religions, like universities, have much to offer, without having to renounce their specific character and special gifts.”
Manoch Jangmook shows a souvenir he received from Pope Francis at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok on Nov. 24, 2019.
Among the audience at the auditorium was 26-year-old Nakoonkanya Charoensilp, who converted to Christianity in her teens.
Nakoonkanya – who said she often found herself to be only Protestant in a room full of Buddhist or irreligious Thais – said she would take to heart the part in Pope Francis’ speech about peace between people of different faiths, especially since her peers are turning increasingly secular.
“Protestants are encouraged to share their faith. And I really love to share mine and listen from others. So I think I have no problem at all about my friends being Buddhists and atheists,” Nakoonkanya said. “They can disagree with me and express their opinion if the disagreement is explained in a nice manner, I am always happy to discuss the differences.”
Though she admitted that some people outright ridiculed her beliefs, Nakoonkanya said that kind of mockery doesn’t come from her close friends.
Nakoonkanya Charoensilp at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok on Nov. 22, 2019.
“Sometimes I just want to share my faith because it is a part of who I am. It is what I’m interested in, not because I want to convert someone,” she said. “[But] people being more open to criticize or make fun of anything religious in general makes it harder to have just a casual conversation about faith.”
Panus Choocheepwattana, 19, said he has been attending Sunday Bible school since he was young. Panus said he was excited to learn about Catholicism straight from the source: the Bishop of Rome himself.
“Today, I had a chance to learn and understand more about Catholics from his speech that expressed the application of the Bible through his vision as a Catholic leader,” Panus said.
Like Nakoonkanya, he often fields questions from his Buddhist or non-religious friends, and he still hopes for more respectful conversation.
Pope Francis departed Thailand on Saturday, heading off to Japan for the next leg of his Asian tour.
A group of young Catholics wait to welcome Pope Francis at the Assumption Cathedral on Nov. 22, 2019.
BANGKOK — Young Thai Catholics said Friday they saw no conflict between their national identity and their adopted “foreign” faith, as Pope Francis wrapped up his visit to Thailand with a youth mass.
Three Catholic schools in downtown Bangkok were closed for the Pope’s mass with the young at the Assumption Cathedral. The site was crammed with thousands of young Catholics, who cheered “Viva il Papa” while plucking out their phones in a hope to have a selfie with him.
“I was not that excited at first, but when the Pope passed by, I got goosebumps because I was so excited,” Sitthisan Janphasuk, 13, an eighth grader from an all-boys Catholic school Saint Gabriel’s College said.
Interfaith harmony was one of Pope Francis’ key messages to the minority Catholics in Thailand. In his homily at St. Peter’s Parish in Nakhon Pathom, he said he had learned “with some pain, that for many people, Christianity is a foreign faith.”
But for students like Sitthisan, he said he does not feel any problems growing up as a Catholic despite the fact that only 20 of his 400 classmates share the same faith as him.
“It was a bit strange for me during my childhood, but once I grew up, no one ever treated me differently for being a Christian,” Sitthisan said.
At his Catholic school, as with other Catholic schools, only Catholic students are offered catechism lessons, whereas Buddhism is taught in regular classes as part of the national curriculum.
Ravinun Seeda, 16, a Catholic tenth grader at Mater Dei School who attended Friday’s mass as part of a Catholic youth program, said her Buddhist peers do not see her as an outsider.
“My friends asked me why the Pope’s visit is such a big deal,” Ravinun said. “I believe more non-Christians will pay greater attention to the Chirstian community and our celebrations other than Christmas after his visit.”
Inside the cathedral, Pope Francis led his second mass of his trip in a service aimed at about 7,000 Thai Catholic children. He made his appeal for the youngsters to hold on the cultures inherited by their ancestors.
“You need to be deeply rooted in the faith of your ancestors,” he said. “They had to endure many trials and much suffering in their lives. Yet along the way, they discovered that the secret to a happy heart is the security we find when we are anchored, rooted in Jesus.”
Pope Francis departed on Saturday morning for Japan.
He is not the first pontiff to visit the Assumption Cathedral, one of the country’s oldest churches which serves as the principal church of the Archdiocese of Bangkok. Pope John Paul II also held a mass there during his apostolic journey to Thailand in 1984.
This image is widely shared on social media to ridicule Future Forward Party's perceived failure to hold any resistance outside the internet.
BANGKOK — Dissolution of Future Forward Party or jailing of its leader may not elicit any protest from its supporters at all, veteran activists said Friday.
Future Forward has yet to announce any protest two days have elapsed since party chairman Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit was stripped from his MP status by a court in a case that many of his supporters said was highly politicized. Those who have organized street protests in the past say the situation is simply not equipped for a large scale resistance.
Pro-democracy activist Nuttaa “Bow” Mahattana said the days of the massive and protracted political protests are over. Speaking on the phone, Nuttaa said she doesn’t expect any major street protests even if Thanathorn is jailed or the party disbanded.
“The culture of fear has been created over the past five years under the military junta,” Nuttaa said. “Political protest has been painted as a crime and this led to a culture which detest political assembly.”
Ekachai Hongkangwan, another high-profile activist, agrees with Nutta’s assessment. Unlike Redshirts, who had ample experience of camping out for weeks in Bangkok, supporters of Future Forward Party are mostly the younger generations who do not like to go rough on the streets, Ekachai said.
Predicting a 99 percent likelihood of the party being disbanded, Ekachai said Future Forward supporters are more accustomed to “joining staged events” in enclosed venues than taking to the streets.
Fates of Thanathorn and his party were subjects of much speculation after a court ruling found the 40-year-old politician guilty of breaching election laws and removing him from his MP seat. Some supporters fear the verdict might be followed by further repercussions, including party dissolution or imprisonment of Thanathorn himself.
Future Forward leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit in front of the Constitutional Court on Nov. 20, 2019.
Thanathorn struck a belligerent tone in his Thursday post on Instagram, saying that will continue to fight even if he ends up in prison.
“Even if my persistence to speak the truth like this means I have to end my life in prison, I will be proud,” Thanathorn wrote.
The possibility of a confrontation between the establishment and Future Forward Party, which counts at least 6 million votes in the latest election, raises concern that the cycle of street protests and violence may return to Thailand.
But activists interviewed for this story say such a scenario is unlikely. Nuttaa predicted that supporters of Future Forward won’t take to the streets even if their party is disbanded.
“It will be treated as just another news item,” Nuttaa, who led a series of small protests against the junta rule, said in an interview.
Street protests in recent years have been relatively small.
Future Forward Party spokeswoman Pannika Wanich could not be reached for comment as of publication time.
Student activist Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal said many young people, the core supporters of the party, may have no experience joining political protests. He said it also depends on Future Forward level of willingness to offer a resistance.
“Has Future Forward Party prepared the matter?” Netiwit said. “Have they held any training, coordinated with political activists outside the party for taking to the streets?”
The party’s refusal to call for a protest against Wednesday’s verdict was also met with frustration from some party supporters, who said it’s time to express their dissent beyond the echo chamber of social media.
“People of the new generation keep getting insulted that they are only good at generating hashtags and complaining,” activist Tanawat Wongchai wrote in a thread that has been shared at least 1,300 times. “If we are to hold a brief, ‘creative’ rally, without causing any trouble … are we ready for that?”
Longtime pro-democracy activist Sombat Boonngam-anong said the new generation can still learn to take to the streets, given proper environment.
“Having the party disbanded is definitely a condition that can lead to protests. As to whether there will be a demonstration or not, it depends on leadership. Who will ignite the protests?” Sombat said
He noted that the Future Forward Party has been careful in not making a threat to take its supporters to the streets.
“This has always been their stance. But when parliamentary politics failed. What will they do?” Sombat said.
BANGKOK — Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha wasn’t the only Thai premier in recent history to have held an audience with Pope Francis – Yingluck Shinawatra did so six years ago as well.
Then-PM Yingluck met the Pope at the Vatican City on Sep. 13, 2013, when the pair discussed freedom of religions and roles of Catholics in Thailand, among other topics. Yingluck’s trip was the first visit to the Holy See by a Thai government leader in over 50 years.
It was also in this meeting that Yingluck formally invited Pope Francis to visit Thailand, though no dates were set at the time.
During her discussion with the Pope, the Thai premier said the Catholic Church “influenced the world and humanity.” The Pope then praised Thailand for its commitment to freedom of worship.
Yingluck was later stripped of her premiership by a court order in May 2014 amid anti-government street protests. The military staged a coup against the remnants of her government on May 22 that year.
Image: Vatican MediaImage: Vatican MediaImage: Vatican Media
A Chinese man holds a national flag at St. Peter's Parish in Nakhon Pathom province on Nov 22, 2019.
NAKHON PATHOM — Thousands of Chinese waited under the scorching sun outside St. Peter’s Parish on Friday in hopes to get a glimpse of Pope Francis.
With little hope that the Pope would be visiting China anytime soon – thanks to the infamously strained relationship between Beijing and the Vatican City – many Chinese Catholics flew to Thailand in large tour groups just for the occasion. Many were middle-aged or older.
“Actually we want Papa to come to China as well, but it’s hard to invite him to China,” a Chinese expat named Anna, from Sichuan province, said. “We really want Papa to have a chance to come to China. That’s all of our Chinese Christians’ wish.”
Although she said she could give “many examples” when describing specific hardships of Christians in China, she said she did not want to blame the government.
A group of Chinese nationals pose for photos at St. Peter’s Parish in Nakhon Pathom province on Nov 22, 2019.
“Please pray for China. I think God loves China, that’s why we have this special experience in China,” Anna, who works as a Chinese teacher in Thailand, said. “Please pray for us.”
Catholics in China are estimated to range between 10 million and 12 million. Catholicism is one of the “state-sanctioned” religions, though the authorities reserve the right to name bishops and key priests to head the church there – a point of contention between China and the Holy See, who do not maintain any formal diplomatic ties.
About 2,000 of those Chinese Catholics came to the parish. Scores of them were initially stranded outside as security officials refused their entry. Many of them did not make it on time, while some did not have a pass to get in.
After repeatedly demanding entry and waving their Chinese flags, police eventually allowed Chinese nationals and other foreign Catholics to pass through the security gate so they can get up close to Pope Francis when he passes by in his car.
A group of Chinese nationals pose for photos at St. Peter’s Parish in Nakhon Pathom province on Nov 22, 2019.
Some groups sang Chinese hymns.
Inside the church, Pope Francis met with clergymen and nuns. He urged them to communicate the faith with Thais in the overwhelmingly Buddhist country, after having read “with some pain” that Christianity is “a religion for foreigners.”
“This should spur us to find ways to talk about the faith in dialect, like a mother who sing lullabies to her child,” he said. “With the same intimacy, let us give faith a Thai face and flesh, which involves much more than making translations.”
The church is at the center of a relatively large Catholic community outside Bangkok. The site is dedicated to Catholic priest Boonkerd Kitbamrung, Thai martyr who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000.
Boonkerd was accused of espionage for France during Thailand’s invasion of French-held Indochina in 1940. He was sent to prison, where he died of tuberculosis in 1944.
BANGKOK — Their Majesties the King and Queen welcomed Pope Francis at palace in Bangkok on Thursday evening.
The Pope was received at Amphorn Sathan Residential Hall in Dusit area, where he held a private audience with King Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida, according to a statement issued by the palace.
The two parties also exchanged gifts with each other before Pope Francis departed to conduct a mass at the National Stadium, the palace said.
Mass conducted by Pope Francis in Bangkok on Nov. 22, 2019.
BANGKOK (AP) — Pope Francis is tending to the needs of the small Catholic flock in Thailand, meeting with priests, nuns and bishops from across Asia to encourage them to spread the faith as their missionary predecessors did.
Francis on Friday heads first to a sanctuary dedicated to Thailand’s first martyred priest to meet with Thai clergy and religious sisters, followed by the Asian bishops conference and members of his own Jesuit order.
In the afternoon, he attends an interfaith encounter, where he’s expected to highlight areas where Catholics can cooperate with Buddhists, Muslims and members of other Christian denominations.
Francis wraps up the day with a Mass dedicated to young people at Bangkok’s Cathedral of the Assumption.
Francis leaves Saturday for Japan for the second and final leg of his trip.
Zhou Guanghong shows the lab-grown meat at the Nanjing Agricultural University in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, Nov. 21, 2019. (Photo provided to Xinhua)
NANJING, Nov. 22 — Chinese scientists have produced 5 grams of meat cultured from animal muscle stem cells, according to a university in east China’s Jiangsu Province.
The Nanjing Agricultural University announced Thursday that the team led by Zhou Guanghong harvested the meat after cultivating pig muscle stem cells for 20 days.
It is the first meat developed from muscle stem cells in China, according to the China Association of Agricultural Science Societies, which conducted an evaluation of the technology.
Current manmade meat mainly refers to plant-based meat that is made by extracting plant proteins from soybeans, peas, wheat and other vegetables and grains with a similar taste to that of meat fibers.
Cultured meat, however, is produced by painlessly harvesting animal cells and nurturing them to create muscle tissue.
The photo taken on Nov. 21, 2019 shows the texture and color of the lab-grown meat developed in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province. (Photo provided to Xinhua)
According to Zhou, the cultured meat they developed has similar texture and color to ordinary minced pork, but safety evaluations and large-scale production technology are required before it hits the market.
Plant-based meat has already come onto the market. Impossible Foods Inc., an American company that develops plant-based substitutes for meat products, made its debut on the Chinese mainland at the second China International Import Expo earlier this month in Shanghai to seek opportunities in China.
A Chinese team in Beijing also introduced plant-based meat into the market in September by selling mock meat-stuffed mooncakes.
Pope Francis greets Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta in Rome in a file photo released by Vatican Media.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The spokesman for an Argentine bishop close to Pope Francis who has been accused of sex abuse criticized Argentine prosecutors for requesting an arrest order, saying the release of information in the case hurt his image and his presumption of innocence.
Spokesman Javier Belda denied that Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta was in “rebellion” for not responding to calls or messages, as Argentine prosecutor María Soledad Filtrín asserted this week. Belda said Zanchetta had cooperated with judicial authorities throughout the case.
Zanchetta has been formally accused of “aggravated continuous sexual abuse” of two seminarians, charges that carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The alleged abuse began in 2016 in Oran, about 1,600 kilometers northwest of Buenos Aires. He has denied the charges.
The Zanchetta case is particularly grave for Francis, given the pope was aware of allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior by his onetime protege in 2015, two years before Zanchetta resigned. Francis allowed him to step down in 2017 for “health reasons,” but then named him to a senior Vatican administration position a few months later.
The Vatican insists the first accusation of actual sex abuse was only lodged in late 2018. But the Associated Press and the newspaper Tribune of Salta have reported that documents and testimony from diocesan officials raised credible allegations of inappropriate sexual misconduct well before then.
Zanchetta is also facing a canonical trial. The allegations do not involve minors.
On Wednesday, prosecutors in Argentina said an order for Zanchetta’s capture had been requested because the bishop did not answer repeated phone calls or emails to be notified of the legal process against him.
In Thursday’s letter to the press, the bishop’s spokesman said the request came from prosecutors and was not a judge’s order, that no notification was received at this home in Argentina and that he only received an email which did not ask for him to confirm its receipt or any other diligence.
He did not say where Zanchetta was, or whether he would respond. The Vatican didn’t respond to requests for comment about whether Zanchetta was on Vatican territory, and if so, whether it would compel him to return to Argentina.
Belda said the bishop wants to clarify everything in the case and will continue cooperating with authorities.
Francis acknowledged in a TV interview earlier this year that he asked Zanchetta about the initial accusation, involving nude selfies on the bishop’s cellphone. The pope said he gave Zanchetta the benefit of the doubt after he claimed his phone had been hacked.
