about us

UCAN Philippines is a daily news service with the latest news about or of interest to the Church in the Philippines.

The digest of news, views and multimedia products reflects the life of the Church in the country and developments in the wider Church that impact the life of the Church in the Philippines. It reveals the way Filipino and other Catholics live out their faith, and provides channels for feedback and dialogue on religious, moral, political, socio-economic and other issues confronting the Church in the world.

UCAN Philippines is a service of UCA News, a news and information service that reports about the Catholic Church and subjects of interest to the Church in Asia. Through a daily service, UCA News covers lay activities, social work, protests, conflicts and stories on the faith lives of the millions of Catholics in Asia.

UCAN has close to 200 commissioned or freelance writers and reporters and over 50 full time staff and either offices or informal bureaux in up to 20 Asian countries. Its reporting region is coextensive with the reach of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences and includes all nations in the countries commonly designated as making up Central, East, Southeast and South Asia.

It was launched in Hong Kong in 1979 as a Catholic news service in response to increasing demands for the exchange of information within the Church of Asia. Its editorial headquarters are in Bangkok and it is administered from Hong Kong. It is governed by an active Board and managed by a chief executive based in Bangkok.

The Board is chaired by Chainarong Monthienvichienchai and membership is drawn from India, Pakistan, Japan, Indonesia and Hong Kong. It meets regularly to set policy and oversee the management of UCAN’s Executive Director, Father Michael Kelly SJ.

Its website www.ucanews.com provides part of the material for UCAN Philippines. Sister websites, include UCAN China, UCAN India, UCAN Indonesia, UCAN Korea.