News

• 16 December 2003
  ASIA/INDIA - RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS MEET TO DISCUSS WAYS AND MEANS OF PROMOTING ETHNIC PEACE IN NORTH EAST INDIA Guwahati (Fides Service) – Promote united efforts to stop ethnic violence in north east India, particularly in Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, where hundreds of victims have been reported in recent weeks. This was ...
• 16 December 2003
  AFRICA/ETHIOPIA - AFRICA STILL IN THE GRIP OF TRIBALISM: RIVAL ETHNIC GROUPS CLASH IN WESTERN ETHIOPIA. MISSIONARIES ASSIST REFUGEES Addis Ababa (Fides Service)- It is still very difficult to have a precise picture of what is happening in the Gambella region, about 400 km west of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for several days the scene of tribal ...
• 16 December 2003
  VATICAN - POPE JOHN PAUL II ISSUES MESSAGE FOR THE CHURCH’S 37TH WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR PEACE 1ST JANUARY 2004: “AN EVER TIMELY COMMITMENT: TEACHING PEACE” Vatican City (Fides Service) – “An Ever Timely Commitment: Teaching Peace” is the theme of Pope John Paul II’s Message for World Day of Prayer for Peace 2004 which was released on 16 December in the Vatican. Pres ...
• 15 December 2003
  ASIA/HOLY LAND - CHRISTMAS 2003: YOUNG MUSICIANS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD CARRY MESSAGE OF PEACE WITH CONCERTS IN JERUSALEM AND SCHOLARSHIPS FOR ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN MUSIC STUDENTS Jerusalem (Fides Service) – Peace in the Holy Land can be launched by youth: with this conviction, this Christmas 28 people aged between 16 and 26 from 21 different countries, “will stage a peaceful invasion of the H ...
• 15 December 2003
  AFRICA/CAPE VERDE - MINDELO NEW DIOCESE, FIRST BISHOP REV. GOMES FURTADO Vatican City (Fides Service) – The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has (14 November 2003) created the diocese of Mindelo in Cape Verde with territory taken from the diocese of Santiago de Cabo Verde, rendering it immed ...
• 15 December 2003
  VATICAN - THE POPE’S REFLECTIONS AT SUNDAY ANGELUS: “TO KNOW THAT GOD IS NOT DISTANT, BUT CLOSE, NOT INDIFFERENT, BUT COMPASSIONATE, NOT A STRANGER, BUT A MERCIFUL FATHER WHO FOLLOWS US LOVINGLY WITH RESPECT FOR OUR FREEDOM, IS A MOTIVE OF PROFOUND JOY WHICH THE ALTERNATING EVENTS OF EVERY DAY CANNOT AFFECT” Vatican City (Fides Service) – The Liturgy of the 3rd Sunday of Advent, also called Gaudete Sunday, contains a repeated and explicit call to joy, to rejoice, as St Paul recommends: " Rejoice in the Lord always. … Th ...
• 15 December 2003
  AMERICA/WHO - BY 2020 UNLESS TB GLOBAL EMERGENCY DISEASE IS CHECKED 36 MILLION WILL BE INFECTED: NEWLY PRODUCED CHANGING FORM OF BACTERIA EVEN MORE LETHAL Rome (Fides) – A study by the Berkeley University in California obtained a changing of the factor which generates TB by dis-activating a group of TB bacteria genes which is even more lethal. After only two weeks from t ...
• 15 December 2003
  VATICAN - INDIAN PRIESTS, SISTERS AND BROTHERS UNION HOLDS CHRISTMAS-CULTURAL-HOMECOMING-FEST-2003 Vatican City (Fides Service) – On 14 December, at the Pontifical Angelicum University in Rome, The Indian Priests, Sisters and Brothers Union IPSBU held a Christmas-Cultural-Homecoming-Fest-2003 event. The Union, fou ...
• 15 December 2003
  AMERICA/ARGENTINA - FIRST CONGRESS FOR ITALIAN MISSIONARIES: IN RURAL AREAS, IN GREAT CITIES, AMONG NATIVE PEOPLES, ITALIAN PRIESTS, RELIGIOUS AND LAY MISSIONARIES INSERTED IN ARGENTINEAN CULTURE ADOPT AUTHENTIC SPIRIT OF SERVICE Buenos Aires (Fides Service ) – The first Congress for Italian Missionaries in Argentina closed on 12 December with a Concelebration of Mass presided by Archbishop Eduardo Mirás of Rosario also President of the Argent ...
• 15 December 2003
  ASIA/SRI LANKA - HEALING WAR TRAUMA: MISSIONARIES WORK TO RESTORE HARMONY IN SOCIETY: CHURCH CONTINUES TO WORK TO PROTECT PEACE PROCESS Colombo (Fides Service) – “Healing War Trauma” is the theme of Seminar for Formation Staff organised by the Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate OMI in Sri Lanka from 14 to 21 December. About 20 participants, rel ...
• 15 December 2003
  ASIA/IRAQ - WITH REGARD TO WHO SHOULD JUDGE SADDAM HUSSEIN, “MOST OF US WERE VICTIMS OF HIS DICTATORSHIP, WE ALL APPLAUDED HIM WHEN HE WAS IN POWER” IRAQI PRIEST TOLD FIDES Rome (Fides Service) -“The news that Saddam Hussein had been captured was welcomed with great joy by the people of Iraq despite uncertainty about the future because we know that behind the repeated acts of terrorism in ...
• 15 December 2003
  AFRICA/LIBERIA - PAUSE IN UN DISARMAMENT PROGRAMME. BAD PLANNING CAUSES MALCONTENT AND SHOOTING: TOO MANY TROOPS WANTING TO TURN IN RIFLES IN EXCHANGE FOR MONEY AND EDUCATION Monrovia (Agenzia Fides)- “It was a false start” Father Mauro Armanino, SMA Provincial Superior in Monrovia, told Fides with regard to the pause in the Liberian disarmament process ordered by the United Nations after ...
• 12 December 2003
  ASIA/PHILIPPINES - THE ATROCITY OF THE DEATH PENALTY IS NO RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES LIKE KIDNAPPING: BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT IN THE CHURCH AFTER MORATORIUM ON DEATH PENALTY IS LIFTED Manila (Fides ) – There is bitter disappointment among Filipino Catholics since Gloria Arroyo Philippine President Gloria Arroyo lifted a moratorium on the death penalty, opening the way for executions to resume in Jan ...
• 12 December 2003
  THE POPE TELLS UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: “IT IS INDISPENSABLE FOR TODAY’S EUROPE TO SAFEGUARD ITS HERITAGE OF VALUES AND TO RECOGNISE THAT MAINLY CHRISTIANITY WAS THE FORCE WHICH PROMOTED, COMPOUNDED AND CONSOLIDATED THEM ” Vatican City (Fides Service) - "Fear not, I will help you" (Is 41,13). God’s promise echoed by the Prophet found full actuation in the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem. In Him God became one of us! This is why we need not f ...
• 12 December 2003
  MEETING-DEBATE: “FROM IRAQ TO TURKEY” – THE DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGE IN WAR TIME Rome (Fides Service) – On Monday 15 December 2003, at 5pm at the Sala Conferenze del Centro Astalli (Via degli Astalli 17, Roma) there will be a Meeting-Debate “From Iraq to Turkey – the Democratic Challenge in Wa ...