News

• 26 May 2004
  AFRICA/MALI - 70% of children infected by waters of Niger River and risk long term damage to vital organs. More than 250 million people in the world have Bilharziosis Rome (Fides Service) - In developing countries dirty water causes 240 times as many deaths and diseases than in developed countries. In Mali 70% of the children have Bilharziosis, a disease caused by water infested with ...
• 26 May 2004
  OCEANIA/SOLOMON ISLANDS “The media and the family - A risk and a richness ”: forum for media and pastoral operators in Solomon Islands reflects on Pope John Paul II’s message for the Church’s World Communications Day marked this year on 23 May. Honiara (Fides Service) - Pastoral and media operators gathered with priests, laity, families and religious to take part in a forum to reflect on Pope John Paul II’s message for this years Day of Social Communications ...
• 26 May 2004
  ASIA/TAIWAN - In rich societies the custom to exclude the aged must be overcome: commitment of Church in Taipei Taipei (Fides Service) - Taipei is rightly proud of its Catholic Home for the Aged opened by the Jesuit fathers. Twenty years ago Jesuits gave the home to the archdiocese handing it to the then Archbishop Matteo Kia. Tod ...
• 26 May 2004
  ASIA/CHINA - Highlight of celebrations for Marian month of May in China: Feast of “Mary Help of Christians” at Dong Lu shrine Dong Lu (Fides Service) - On May 24 feast of Our Lady help of Christians the Marian Shrine in Dong Lu, Hebei province was overflowing with pilgrims from many parts of China and overseas. As elsewhere in the world the fea ...
• 26 May 2004
  AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - The unknown plight of Great Lakes refugees in South Africa: an Italian Scalabrini missionary reports to Fides Cape Town (Fides Service) - Cape Town has at 35,000 refugees from central African countries mainly from Democratic Congo, Rwanda, Burundi. “We have no exact figures because in the case of families the police assign one ...
• 26 May 2004
  AFRICA/MALAWI - Opposition calls for repeat of 20 May elections. Protests and violence. Catholic media are threatened Lilongwe (Fides Service)- Protests and denouncement of electoral fraud continue in Malawi after Bingu wa Mutharika the leader of the party in power was declared the winner of presidential elections on May 20, (see Fides ...
• 26 May 2004
  ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - Korean fidei donum priests will be sent on mission to the United States to care for overseas Catholics Seoul (Fides Service) - The respective Commissions for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples of the Korean Bishops’ Conference and the American Bishops’ Conference have agreed on the status and life of Kore ...
• 26 May 2004
  ASIA/INDIA - Chain suicides among farmers in Southern India ruined by poor harvests and heavy bank debts: Caritas comes to aid of stricken families Hyderabad (Fides Service) - Caritas and other Catholic humanitarian agencies are striving to help impoverished farmers in the southern Indian state of Andrha Pradesh stricken by bad harvests and who have resorted to comm ...
• 26 May 2004
  AFRICA/UGANDA - North Uganda: “The world’s most serious humanitarian emergency” says AVSI delegate for Africa Rome (Fides Service)- “The situation in northern Uganda is the most serious humanitarian emergency in the whole world at this moment ” said Giampaolo Silvestri, head of AVSI (Associazione Volontari per il Servizio In ...
• 25 May 2004
  EUROPE/ITALY - The Pope who acted to save Jews. Vatican Secret Archives reveal the whole truth about Pius XII. Book by Matteo Luigi Napolitano and Andrea Tornielli. Fides Service met one of the authors Rome (Fides Service) - “The Pope who saved Jews” is the title of a book on Pope Pius XII based on hitherto hidden facts preserved the Holy See’s Secret Archives will be presented on May 31 at 4pm at LUMSA Catholic ...
• 25 May 2004
  ASIA/CHINA - A wedding is not a show of family wealth, it is the celebration of a Sacrament Han Dan (Fides Service) - Also in modern day China Christian weddings are ever more costly and luxurious a sort of competition among families to see who has the most wealth. To stop this tendency, mistaken and not Wu An ...
• 25 May 2004
  ASIA/TAIWAN - Strengthen the spirit of faith, hope and charity in every parish: local communities set to work Taipei (Fides Service) - Parishes all over Taiwan have welcomed the call from Cardinal Paul Shan, President of the Regional Chinese Bishops’ Conference, to build parish communities where people live authentic faith, ho ...
• 25 May 2004
  ASIA/INDIA - Indian Social Institute now NGO accredited with the United Nations New Delhi (Fides Service) - Catholics in India are delighted that the Indian Social Institute (ISI), prestigious institute for research in social studies run by Jesuit Fathers in Delhi, has obtained the status of Non Gov ...
• 25 May 2004
  Scouts and Guides and rights of children and adolescents: listening to produce change. AGESCI Seminar at Bracciano 5 June Rome (Fides Service) - AGESCI (Association of Italian Catholic Guides and Scouts) has organised for June 5 at Bracciano (Rome) a Seminar on the question of the rights of children and adolescents for members of the Associ ...
• 25 May 2004
  ASIA/EAST TIMOR - East Timor’s president makes symbolic act of forgiveness towards pro-Indonesia militia guilty of being involved in massacres following referendum on independence Dili (Fides Service) - An act of clemency to promote national reconciliation: this was the intention of East Timor’s President Xanana Gusmao when he reduced a sentence issued by a Special Panel for Serious Crimes to th ...