News

• 4 March 2005
  ASIA/CHINA - Overseas Chinese communities share news of improvement of Pope’s health; official Church reports news about the Pope, Chinese Catholics all over the world pray for the Holy Father Rome (Fides Service) - The Pope’s suffering unites all Catholics in China, those of the official Church and those of the underground Church. The bulletin of the Official Church is giving regular reports on the Pope� ...
• 4 March 2005
  AMERICA/PERU - Quechuas in Peru : “We want the Holy Father to know at this time of suffering that he has the support of our humble prayers offered for his recovery” Lima (Fides Service) - Quechua speaking Catholics in Lima as individuals and as a community are praying intensely for the Pope since they first heard that he had been admitted to hospital Fr. Juan Serpa parish priest at ...
• 4 March 2005
  AFRICA/RWANDA - “Community prayer is an important means to promote reconciliation in Rwanda” says Pallottine Father Filipeck Rome (Fides Service)- “I have been in Rwanda since 1980 and was here at the tragic time of the genocide. The mission where I was working was attacked and it is a miracle that I was not killed” Pallottine Father Stani ...
• 4 March 2005
  EUROPE/ITALY - Inmates in Rome’s Regina Caeli prison pray for the Pope and in a letter to the Pontiff in hospital they “express their love for a man who opened their eyes to a horizon of light, hope, love, freedom and salvation in Jesus Christ” inspector general of Italian prison chaplains tells Fides Rome (Fides Service) - Mgr. Giorgio Caniato, inspector general of Prison Chaplains in Italy told Fides that “the prisoners are very fond of the Holy Father and they are very sorry that he is in hospital”. They pray f ...
• 3 March 2005
  VATICAN - “It is urgent that in parish communities and church associations and movements adequate formation be guaranteed so that the liturgy and the richness of its language may be better known and lived to the full” the Pope says in a message to the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments Vatican City (Fides Service) - From the Gemelli hospital Pope John Paul sent a message to African born Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, on the ...
• 3 March 2005
  AMERICA/NICARAGUA - Epidemic of dysentery in Nicaragua continues to spread: 33,655 cases in eight weeks Rome (Fides Service) - The Ecuadorian health ministry declared a “local health emergency” following a vertiginous 100 per cent rise in cases of dysentery. The epidemic is affecting the whole of central America in ge ...
• 3 March 2005
  EUROPE/ALBANIA - Disabled people and terminally ill patients at Missionaries of Charity Home in Tirana pray for Pope John Paul II Tirana (Fides Service) - The terminally ill, the suffering, the elderly at the Home for the Poor run by Missionaries of Charity in Tirana in Albania understand the Pope’s present situation in hospital and they are pra ...
• 3 March 2005
  ASIA/SRI LANKA - Orphans and abandoned children pray daily Rosary in spiritual communion with the Pope Colombo (Fides Service) - Young inmates at Nochchiyagam Home and Training Centre a home for children in need in the diocese of Anhuradhapura, run by the Salesian Fathers are offering their daily rosary for the Pope: a m ...
• 3 March 2005
  ASIA/CHINA - Old people, the sick and children pray for the Pope with the Sisters of St Joseph who ask Fides for latest news about the Pope Shi Jia Zhuang (Fides Service) - The Sisters of the congregation of St Joseph and the old people and children and sick people in their care, continue to pray for a speedy recovery for the Pope Superior General Sr Chiara ...
• 3 March 2005
  AFRICA/UGANDA - “Even here where the main preoccupation is how to stay alive and death is such a commonplace event that we are resigned to it, we find the strength to pray for the health of the Pope” a missionary in northern Uganda told Fides Kitgum (Fides Service)- “Even here where the main preoccupation is how to stay alive and death is such a commonplace event that we are resigned to it, we find the strength to pray for the health of the Holy Father” a ...
• 3 March 2005
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - In remote areas of Ituri where the din of fighting is still heard Catholics pray for the Pope Bunia (Fides Service)- “Now calm has returned but yesterday we heard the noise of a fierce battle, only a few kilometres away with UN fighter helicopters flying back and forth over the town ” said a local Church sour ...
• 3 March 2005
  AFRICA/SIERRA LEONE - “Since the Pope was admitted to hospital people all over the country are debating on the value of life and the role of the elderly” says a missionary in Sierra Leone, where in the 1960s children with polio were seen as “children of the devil” Freetown (Fides)- “The Pope’s stay in hospital is provoking reflection on the value of human life. This is particularly true in our youth groups because our children and young people are deeply saddened by the though ...
• 3 March 2005
  ASIA/INDONESIA - Young Christians and Muslims worked together to prepare for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Christians in the Moluccas Ambon (Fides Service) - The 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Christians in the Moluccas was not a motive of conflict, it was a time for encounter, friendship, collaboration, the Crisis Centre in the Catholic ...
• 3 March 2005
  ASIA/INDIA - “Shalom Television”: new Catholic TV channel in Kerala, southern India Cochin (Fides Service) - “Shalom Television” is the name of a new Catholic TV channel launched on 26 February in Kerala state in southern India. The programmes are in Malayalam and the TV is sponsored by the Syro-Ma ...
• 2 March 2005
  EUROPE/BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA - Fifth meeting of the Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences of South East Europe: common responsiblity for peace and the Gospel in this part of Europe Sarajevo (Agenzia Fides) - The Presidents of the Bishops' Conferences of South-East Europe (Albania; Bulgaria; Bosnia Herzegovina; Greece; the SS Cyril and Methodius Bishops' Conference of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedoni ...