News

• 11 December 2003
  EUROPE/ITALY - FOCOLARE MOVEMENT CONCLUDES 60TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS AND DECIDES TO OPEN SPIRITUALITY AND STUDY CENTRE IN JERUSALEM WHERE JESUS PRAYED FOR THE UNITY OF CHRISTIANS Rome (Fides Service) – Over 1,500 members of the Focolare Movement from all over Europe with representatives from communities on all five of the world’s continents gathered with their foundress Chiara Lubich and the ...
• 11 December 2003
  ASIA/INDIA – NOW THERE IS A CEASE FIRE CATHOLICS HOPE TO RETURN TO KASHMIR Jammu (Fides Service) – After the cease fire signed on 25 November Catholics who fled Kashmir hope soon to return to their homes. Hundreds of Catholic families left Kashmir in 1989-90 when terrorism entered the valley ...
• 11 December 2003
  EUROPE/ITALY - 121 MILLION CHILDREN, LITTLE GIRLS IN PARTICULAR, DENIED RIGHT TO EDUCATION: UNICEF ‘STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN REPORT 2004’ FOCUSES ON EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT Rome (Fides Service) - 121 million of the world’s children do not go to school: 56 million boys and 65 million girls are denied the right to education. 83% of the little girls who do not attend school live in Sub-Sahar ...
• 11 December 2003
  EUROPE/SWITZERLAND – WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION STUDY ON CLIMATE CHANGE, ITS EFFECTS ON HEALTH AND MEASURES TO TAKE Geneva (Fides Service) – The World Health Organisation (OMS) with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), with the support of United States Environmental Protectio ...
• 11 December 2003
  AMERICA/ARGENTINA - “ARGENTINA DURING THE CRISIS AND POST CRISIS: CHALLENGES FOR THE CHURCH”: ONE OF THE THEMES OF A MEETING FOR ITALIAN MISSIONARIES IN ARGENTINA PROMOTED BY THE RESPECTIVE BISHOPS’ CONFERENCES Buenos Aires (Fides Service) – The Bishops’ Conferences of Italy CEI and Argentina have organised a meeting for Italian missionaries working in Argentina being held at the Centro Mariapolis in Buenos Aires, from 9 to ...
• 11 December 2003
  AMERICA/CHILE - “CHRISTMAS ON THE STREETS 2003”: UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND FAMILIES PREPARE FOR TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS EVE SOLIDARITY NIGHT TO SHARE CHRISTMAS MESSAGE OF JOY AND HOPE WITH BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN NEED Santiago (Fides Service) –"Where is the One who is born?”(cfr Mt 2,2) is the slogan of the traditional ‘Christmas on the Streets’ initiative organised by the office for university Pastoral in the Archdiocese of S ...
• 11 December 2003
  FRIDAY 12 DECEMBER CONVENTION ON “PROBLEMS OF IMMIGRATION, MULTICULTURALISM, INTEGRATION” PROMOTED BY S. EGIDIO COMMUNITY AND PIETRO NENNI FOUNDATION Rome (Fides Service ) – The Pietro Nenni Foundation and the S. Egidio Community have promoted a convention on “The problems of immigration, multiculturalism, integration”. The meeting will take place on Friday 12 ...
• 11 December 2003
  AFRICA/CAMEROON - “THE PLACE OF THE LAITY IN THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH” PASTORAL LETTER TO CATHOLICS IN NKONGSAMBA DIOCESE Yaounde (Fides Service)- The participation of the laity in the triple function of the Church (sanctifying, doctrinal and pastoral) is the main theme of a Pastoral Letter “The place of the faithful in the mission of the ...
• 11 December 2003
  EUROPE/SPAIN – SPANISH MISSIONARIES RECEIVE CHRISTMAS LETTER FROM CARDINAL ROUCO: “CONTINUE TO SPREAD THE AROMA OF CHRIST WITH your WORDS AND WITH your SILENT WITNESS OF UNCONDITIONED SELF GIVING Madrid (Fides Service ) – “The Season of Advent which we are living brings already the unmistakable aroma of Christmas” Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela Archbishop of Madrid affirms at the beginning of a Christm ...
• 10 December 2003
  VATICAN - PASTORAL CARE OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM IS A SPECIAL FORM OF EVANGELISATION: FINAL DOCUMENT AFTER 5TH WORLD CONGRESS ON- PASTORAL CARE FOR MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES Vatican City (Fides Service) – “The Church cannot remain indifferent in the wake of the present plight of migrants and refugees. She wants to share their joys and grief, there where they are, and be with them in thei ...
• 10 December 2003
  OCEANIA/ FIJI ISLANDS - INSTITUTES EXPERIMENT WITH SHARED FORMATION: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A RELIGIOUS IN THE PACIFIC TODAY? Suva (Fides Service) – Last weekend in Suva Religious men and women of various congregations and institutes started a formation programme in preparation for their perpetual vows: the programme is first of its kind orga ...
• 10 December 2003
  AFRICA/KENYA - FIRST AFRICAN GATHERING OF DON BOSCO FORMER PUPILS: AN IMPORTANT STEP Nairobi (Fides/Ans) – The first ever African gathering of former Don Bosco pupils opened on 29 November at the YES Don Bosco Centre in Nairobi and closed on 4 December. With Alex Dockers, Vice President of the World Fe ...
• 10 December 2003
  AFRICA/RD CONGO - WOMEN FIRST VICTIMS OF WAR AND FIRST AGENTS OF PEACE: THE ACTIVITY OF A CATHOLIC CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND SUPPORT FOR PEACE INITIATIVES IN LUBUMBASHI SOUTHERN CONGO Kinshasa (Fides Service) - Women and children are always the first victims of war, exposed to all sort of violence from all sides. Among the wars where women are seriously affected, the conflict in the Democratic Republi ...
• 10 December 2003
  AMERICA/PARAGUAY - NIVACLE PEOPLE PROUD OF SISTER CLARA: FIRST RELIGIOUS AMONG THE LOCAL INDIAN PEOPLE Asuncion (Fides Service) - Since 1925 the Oblate Missionaries of Immaculate Mary (OMI) have worked among the Nivacle Indian peoples in the Chaco region of Paraguay and since the 1940s also with the Guarani peoples in the ...
• 10 December 2003
  VATICAN - THE POPE’S TEACHING AT GENERAL AUDIENCE: “THE LORD IS NEVER INDIFFERENT TO HUMAN VICISSITUDES INDEED HE INTERVENES TO DEMOLISH ARROGANT AND OPPRESSIVE EMPIRES, HE LOWERS THE PROUD WHO CHALLENGE HIM, HE JUDGES THOSE WHO PERPETRATE EVIL” Vatican City (Fides Service ) – On Wednesday 10 December the Pope addressed thousands of visitors gathered in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican for his usual general audience. He focussed his teaching on the Canticle fro ...