News

• 27 January 2011
  ASIA/BHUTAN - Indian missionaries and sisters “ready to bring the Gospel to Bhutan” Chennai (Agenzia Fides) – Much attention, curiosity and interest has been attracted within the missionary world, especially in India, regarding the news of the possible opening of the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan to the ...
• 27 January 2011
  AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - “The Church must make its voice heard in an increasingly materialistic society,” affirms the President of the SACBC Johannesburg (Agenzia Fides) - The Southern African Bishops lament the fact that the Church's voice is struggling to be heard in the general debate on issues such as sexual morality and the proper utilisation of wealth. ...
• 27 January 2011
  AFRICA/ZAMBIA - The inequitable distribution of national wealth helps to provoke ethnic tensions Lusaka (Agenzia Fides) - The increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) does not automatically translate into improved living conditions for the local people, says a note sent to Fides by the Jesuit Centre for Theological ...
• 27 January 2011
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - Human Rights Watch: Asia Bibi, symbol of persecuted Christians Islamabad (Agenzia Fides) – The widespread fanaticism, intolerance and violence paint a gloomy picture for the respect of human rights in Pakistan: according to the international organization “Human Rights Watch” ( ...
• 27 January 2011
  ASIA/CHINA - The Chinese Catholic Community prepares for New Year intensifying its witness of charity Shi Jia Zhuang (Agenzia Fides) – The mainland Chinese Catholic community continues to intensely live out its charity work in view of the upcoming Chinese New Year, the traditional celebration of the Chinese people, tha ...
• 27 January 2011
  AMERICA/VENEZUELA - “The Church's missionary work demands an ongoing conversion”: Bishop Moronta at the Symposium of Missiology Caracas (Agenzia Fides) – At the International Symposium of Missiology, held in Caracas (see Fides 19/1/2011; 26/1/2011), Bishop Mario del Valle Moronta Rodríguez of San Cristobal (Venezuela), devoted his opening addr ...
• 27 January 2011
  AMERICA/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - 500 years on from the creation of the first dioceses in the New World, Bishops recall that “the Catholic Church has been present throughout the country's history” Santo Domingo (Agenzia Fides) – The Dominican Episcopal Conference, through a pastoral letter, presented a summary of the evangelizing work of the Church throughout the history of the Dominican people. The reason is th ...
• 26 January 2011
  EUROPE/ITALY - Migrants, instruments in God's plan to spread the Gospel Rome (Agenzia Fides) – “We must not see migrants exclusively as receivers of evangelization, but as agents of it as well. Our Founder himself, from the beginning, saw migration of Catholics as a providential instrume ...
• 26 January 2011
  AFRICA/CAPO VERDE - Appointment of Bishop of Mindelo Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, on 25 January 2011, appointed as Bishop of the Diocese of Mindelo (Capo Verde), Father Ildo Augusto Dos Santos Lopes Fortes, “Fidei donum” priest, c ...
• 26 January 2011
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - Asia Bibi in isolation cell Lahore (Agenzia Fides) – Asia Bibi, the Christian woman condemned to death accused of blasphemy and imprisoned in Sheikhpura jail for over a year and a half has been moved into an isolation cell. This was reported to F ...
• 26 January 2011
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - Pakistani civil society thanks Italy for support in the anti-blasphemy campaign Lahore (Agenzia Fides) – The civil society of Pakistan “thanks and gives much importance” to the initiative by parliamentarians and Italian civil society for Asia Bibi and for the repeal of the blasphemy law. “We ...
• 26 January 2011
  AFRICA/EGYPT - “The journey towards democracy requires time. Cultural preparation is also needed,” Father Scattolin tells Fides Cairo (Agenzia Fides) - “The crisis involving all Arab Countries has various motives, among which economics weighs heavily, considering even just the unemployment which above all affects youth,” Fides was told by Fat ...
• 25 January 2011
  VATICAN - Holy Father's Message for World Mission Day 2011 Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20:21) is the theme for the Holy Father Benedict XVI's Message on the occasion of World Mission Day 2011, which will be celebrated on 23 ...
• 25 January 2011
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - 30 January: call by Episcopal conference for great prayer for peace in the Country Lahore (Agenzia Fides) – In view of the polarisation afflicting society, in view of the divisions that often result in violence, in view of the use of religion as an instrument by extremist Islamic movements, the Catho ...
• 25 January 2011
  ASIA/CHINA - The Congregation of St Teresa of the Infant Jesus celebrates its 80 year anniversary with a religious sister's perpetual profession Shi Jia Zhuang (Agenzia Fides) – At the start of the new year the mainland Chinese Catholic community continues to reap vocational fruits, with priestly ordinations and religious sisters' solemn vows, encouraging youth ...