News

• 21 December 2004
  AMERICA/PERU - “This Christmas let us live solidarity and sow hope in our country” : Christmas wish of the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference Lima (Fides Service) - Bishop Hugo Garaycoa Hawkins of Tacna and Moquegua, President of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference, together with Bishop Juan José Larrañeta Olleta, OP, Bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Pu ...
• 21 December 2004
  ASIA/SRI LANKA - attack on church isolated episode: Catholic community hopes for a peaceful Christmas free of tension social or religious Colombo (Fides Service) - The recent destruction of St Michael’s Catholic church in the archdiocese of Colombo was an isolated episode which raised concern among the local Catholics although would not seem to be a fore ...
• 21 December 2004
  ASIA/TURKEY - Nativity Scene popular with Muslim children too: on Christmas Day, a working day, young and old flock to the Catholic church in Antioch to see the Babe in the Manger Antioch (Fides Service) - “Christmas is at the door. In Antioch, southern Turkey it comes in silence, without decorations on streets or in shop windows, without the rush of last minute of shopping for presents, but wit ...
• 21 December 2004
  AFRICA/SUDAN - Darfur: break down in negotiations. Caritas Internationalis worker sends dramatic testimony on life in refugee camps in this region: “situation is “schizophrenic”:” Khartoum (Fides Service)- There has been another break down in negotiations for peace in Darfur: the last session is today 21 December in Abuja, capital of Nigeria. African Union mediator, Nigerian President Olesegun Oba ...
• 20 December 2004
  VATICAN - The Pope’s reflection at the Angelus prayer: “May Mary help us to live Christmas as an opportunity to savour the joy of giving ourselves to others, the needy in particular” Vatican City (Fides Service) - “The festivity of Christmas, perhaps the most loved by popular tradition, is rich in symbols connected with different cultures. The most important is certainly the Nativity Scene as I sai ...
• 20 December 2004
  EUROPE/ITALY - A journalist “investigates” the birth of Jesus: who was that Child in the manger? Rome (Fides Service) - “Inchiesta su Gesù Bambino” (Investigation on the Child Jesus) is the title of a book in Italian by Andrea Tornielli on sale since 16 December. The first edition sold out in two days and a sec ...
• 20 December 2004
  AFRICA/CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - The Pope creates new Diocese of Alindao and appoints first Bishop Vatican City (Fides Service) -The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, on 18 December 2004, created the diocese of Alindao (Central African Republic), with territory taken from the diocese of Bangassou, making it suffragan o ...
• 20 December 2004
  EUROPE/GERMANY “Children have a voice”: 47th ‘Star Singer’ Solidarity Campaign organised by German branch of Pontifical Society for Holy Childhood, Thailand symbol country this year Aachen (Fides Service) - Once again this year, during the first week of the new year around the Feast of the Epiphany children all over Germany will go from house to house to sing Christmas carols and collect money for c ...
• 20 December 2004
  AFRICA/UGANDA - Car ambush in Paronga northern Uganda, Parish priest injured, government worker and wife of catechist killed: “Blood at Christmas again this year” a missionary told Fides Gulu (Fides Service)- “Blood at Christmas again this year” a missionary in northern Uganda told Fides from northern Uganda where a parish priest was injured during a car ambush this morning 20 December and two other ...
• 20 December 2004
  AMERICA/MEXICO - “Let us make room for Jesus so that Christmas is not a shiny empty glass ball, but a message of hope for better times for the poor” says Bishop Arizmendi Esquivel San Cristobal De Las Casas (Fides Service) - In his Christmas Message “Jesus hope of new life”, Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel of San Cristobal De Las Casas, Chiapas (Mexico) underlined the great value of Christma ...
• 20 December 2004
  AFRICA/EGYPT - Increasing Islamic fundamentalist anti-Christian pressure. “No Christmas Mass if anti-Christian violence does not stop Cairo (Fides Service)- An unusual Christmas. This is how a Fides source in Cairo describes the Christmas about to be lived by Christians in Egypt where anti-Christian pressure from Islamic fundamentalism increases with e ...
• 20 December 2004
  ASIA/SYRIA - Christmas in Syria: a feast for young people, Christian charity, ecumenism Damascus (Fides Service) - On the occasion of Christmas 2004, Fides asked for a contribution with regard to celebrations in Syria from His Beatitude Gregorios III Laham, Greek Melchite Patriarch of Antioch and the East ...
• 20 December 2004
  ASIA/INDONESIA - Threatened attacks on Churches at Christmas: double security measures in the Moluccas Islands Jakarta (Fides Service) - On Christmas day and all though the Christmas season the Indonesian army will guarantee special protection for all churches in Ambon, capital city in the Moluccas Islands. There is in fact growi ...
• 20 December 2004
  OCEANIA/AUSTRALIA - Australia’s Christians protest ‘Christ is being left out of Christmas’: pro Nativity youth campaign through Melbourne 21 December Melbourne (Fides Service) - Melbourne’s Catholic Youth Ministry CYM is organising a street protest 21 December to highlight the perceived reality that ‘Christ’ has been left out of ‘Christmas’, and reject cons ...
• 20 December 2004
  VATICAN - Official presentation of the Good Samaritan Foundation to support needy persons suffering from AIDS entrusted to the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Workers Vatican City (Fides Service) - In July Cardinal Lozano Barragan, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Workers share with Fides an important programme to “identify the most urgent needs an ...