News

• 31 July 2003
  EUROPE/SPAIN - “MARY STARTS EVANGELISATION FORMALLY WITH HER YES”: REFLECTION ON “MARY STAR OF EVANGELISATION” BY BISHOP FRANCISCO PEREZ GONZALEZ, NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF PONTIFICAL MISSION SOCIETIES IN SPAIN Madrid (Fides Service) – “Is the Blessed Virgin Mary the Star of Evangelisation because she was with the Apostles in the Upper Room on the day of Pentecost? Was it only by chance that she was with them and therefore ...
• 31 July 2003
  ASIA/VIETNAM - BRIGHT FUTURE IN LOCAL CHURCHES IN MANY DIFFERENT COUNTRIES FOR OVERSEAS VIETNAMESE CATHOLICS CALLED TO “PREACH THE GOSPEL TO ALL CREATURES” Vatican City (Fides Service) – “An authentic Pentecost of the Vietnam community in the Diaspora”: this was how Mgr Joseph Dinh Duc Dao, director of the Office for the Co-ordination of Pastoral care for overseas Vie ...
• 31 July 2003
  ASIA/CAMBODIA - AFTER THE ELECTIONS THERE COULD BE A POLITICAL STALL AND PEOPLE FEAR MORE TENSION. CHURCH IS PRUDENT Phnom Penh (Fides Service) – “Cambodia is threatened with political stall, people are concerned: they fear the return of social disorder which followed 1998elections”. Salesian missionary Father Leo Ochoa, director ...
• 31 July 2003
  ASIA/IRAQ - “STOP THE BLOODSHED. THE IRAQI PEOPLE ARE TIRED OF WAR!” SAYS AN IRAQI PRIEST Rome (Fides Service) – “As the Christian community in Iraq we are deeply saddened by the loss of human lives, Iraqi and American” Father Nizar Semaan an Iraqi Catholic priest, tells Fides Service with regard to the ...
• 31 July 2003
  EUROPE/POLAND - EIGHT THOUSAND CATHOLIC SCOUTS AND GUIDES FROM 19 EUROPEAN NATIONS AT EUROJAM FOR THE FIRST TIME IN POLAND WHERE SCOUTING WAS BANNED UNTIL 1989 Zelazko (Fides Service) – More than 8,000 scouts and guides between 11 and 16 years of age are taking part in the 6th International Rally of Catholic Scouts from 1-12 August in Zelazko in Poland. This edition is specia ...
• 30 July 2003
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - DESPITE UNITY IN KINSHASA THE ITURI SITUATION IS STILL A PRIORITY IN VIEW OF LASTING PEACE Kinshasa (Fides Service) – “We are pleased that the new government has decided to send security forces to Ituri to re-establish law and order, on the condition that they are given the proper means for their mission a ...
• 30 July 2003
  EUROPE/ITALY - AT RIVA DEL GARDA AN APPOINTMENT TO UNDERSTAND HOW THE MAJOR MEANS OF MASS COMMUNICATIONS FACE THE QUESTION OF COOPERATION IN DEVELOPMENT AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY Rome (Fides Service) - From 24 to 29 August hundreds of people will gather at Riva del Garda (Italy) with important experts for the 14th Week of Education to Globalisation to reflect on the theme: “Information and Dev ...
• 30 July 2003
  ASIA/THAILAND - BUDDHIST, CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM HEALTH CARE WORKERS DISCUSS JOINT ACTION AND COOPERATION IN THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS Bangkok (Fides Service) – About 80 experts on HIV/AIDS, Buddhist monks, Christian priests and nuns, Muslim leaders and Protestant pastors took part in a meeting held at Nonthaburi University situated north of Bangkok t ...
• 30 July 2003
  ASIA/PHILIPPINES - CHURCH STANDS BY GOVERNMENT DURING CRISIS: FIRM CALL TO UPROOT CORRUPTION Manila (Fides Service) – The local Catholic Church was not a bystander in the crisis which hit the Philippines when 296 army soldiers staged a mutiny occupying a shopping centre in Manila and taking some 300 hostages o ...
• 30 July 2003
  ASIA/SRI LANKA - DESPITE ISOLATED ACTS OF VIOLENCE BY GROUPS OF UNCONTROLLED GUERRILLAS AND BRAKING OF CEASE-FIRE, HOPE FOR PEACE IS STILL ALIVE: ON THE HORIZON RESUMING OF TALKS BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND REBELS Colombo (Fides Service) – Marco Polo described it as the most beautiful island in the world, but in the last twenty years Sri Lanka, known as Ceylon under British colonial rule, has known nothing but civil war, cruel t ...
• 30 July 2003
  AFRICA/LIBERIA - “GENERATOR FUEL SUPPLIES RUNNING OUT, LAST FOOD AND MEDICINE ” ST JOSEPH’S CATHOLIC HOSPITAL SOS Monrovia (Fides Service) – “People are fleeing southwards as LURD (Liberian United for Reconciliation and Democracy) rebels advance a St John of God Hospitaller Brothers missionary doctor at St Joseph’s Catholic ho ...
• 30 July 2003
  PRESENTATION OF MONDO E MISSIONE SPECIAL ISSUE ON MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA To make known the figure and the work of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who will be beatified by Pope John Paul II on Mission Sunday 19 October 2003, Mondo e Missione monthly magazine published by the Pontifical Institute fo ...
• 29 July 2003
  AMERICA/UNITED STATES - TRADITIONS ARE WHAT DISTINGUISH EACH HUMAN SOCIETY FROM ALL THE OTHERS, THEY ARE ESSENCE WHICH ENRICHES THE HUMAN SPECIES: SAYS KOFI ANNAN IN A BOOK NOT TO BE MISSED “TRADITIONS, VALUES AND HUMANITARIAN ACTION” BY DR KEVIN CAHILL Rome (Fides Service) – How do religious, cultural ands social systems and the values they support shape humanitarian action? What are the bases of caring societies? Are there universal values for human wellbeing? And h ...
• 29 July 2003
  ASIA/INDONESIA - INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR MIGRATION ALLOWED TO MAKE FACT FINDING MISSION IN NORTHERN SUMATRA, ACCESS STILL DENIED TO OTHER NGOs AS FLOW OF DISPLACED PERSONS INCREASES Jakarta (Fides Service) – There is optimism among international NGOs since the Indonesian government allowed International Organisation for Migration to make a fact finding mission to the northern Sumatra province of A ...
• 29 July 2003
  AMERICA/PERU - IN THE YEAR OF THE ROSARY A MARIAN CONGRESS ON MARY, STAR OF NEW EVANGELISATION Lima (Fides Service) - “Mary Star of the New Evangelisation is the theme of a Marian Congress organised by the Life and Spirituality Institute at St Augustine’s College in San Isidro district of Lima, the capital of ...