News

• 26 June 2003
  AMERICA/COLOMBIA - FORMATION AT A DISTANCE FOR 11.500 CATECHISTS: SIXTH NATIONAL CONGRESS FOR CATECHISTS WILL FOCUS ON NEW EVANGELISATION AND CHRISTIAN INITIATION IN PRESENT DAY CONTEXT Bogota (Agenzia Fides) – From 27 to 30 June, Villavicencio in Colombia will host the sixth national congress for catechists. Catechists from 54 dioceses will attend the Congress organised by the General Direction of th ...
• 26 June 2003
  ASIA/INDIA - FUNDAMENTALISM HAS NO FUTURE IN INDIA ARCHBISHOP TELESPHORE TOPPO PRESIDENT OF LATIN RITE BISHOPS IN INDIA Vatican City (Fides Service) – “Religious fanaticism has no future in India. I am optimistic: India is a great nation with millenary tradition of tolerance. Fanaticism hides questions of political, social and economi ...
• 25 June 2003
  VATICAN - EVANGELISING ON LINE WITH ART AND CULTURE: VATICAN MUSEUMS INAUGURATES WEB PAGE Vatican City (Fides Service) – To harness the enormous potential offered by information technology today to make more widely known one of the world’s most prestigious art patrimonies the Vatican Museums has opened it ...
• 25 June 2003
  EUROPE/ITALY - FIRST LITURGICAL FEAST OF SAINT JOSEMARIA ESCRIVA WILL BE MARKED WITH SOLEMNITY ALL OVER THE WORLD AND A NEW WEB PAGE OFFERS INFORMATION ON THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE “SAINT OF EVERY DAY LIFE” Rome (Fides Service) – Nine months after the canonisation of the Founder of Opus Dei, presided by Pope John Paul II on October 6 last year, 2002, the feast day of the new Saint June 26, the day he died in Rome in 1975, ...
• 25 June 2003
  AFRICA/LIBERIA - MONROVIA UNDER CANON FIRE, CHURCH DOES WHAT IT CAN TO HELP CIVILIAN WAR VICTIMS, HUMANITARIAN ORGANISATIONS WITHDRAWING WORKERS Monrovia (Fides Service) – Fighting has resumed in Monrovia the capital of Liberia, between the army loyal to president Charles Taylor and LURD rebels (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy). “At the mome ...
• 25 June 2003
  AFRICA/TANZANIA - RELIGIOUS MEN AND WOMEN AND EVANGELISATION IN TANZANIA: INCULTURATION OF THE FAITH, MISSIONARY ANIMATION, USE OF MEDIA Dar es Salaam (Fides Service) – A local Church ever more committed to missionary activity and the inculturation of the faith also using the media. This picture emerges from an annual report sent to Fides Service by the ...
• 25 June 2003
  ASIA/IRAQ - IN POST WAR IRAQ CARITAS AND UNHCR HELP ASSIST PEOPLE EXHAUSTED BY YEARS OF WAR AND SANCTIONS Baghdad (Fides Service) – Caritas is increasing efforts to provide assistance to the people of Iraq, exhausted by years of war and sanctions. One of the new programmes is an assistance project for 285 Palestinian refug ...
• 25 June 2003
  ASIA/INDIA - JESUITS IN AFGHANISTAN TO REBUILD SCHOOL SYSTEM AND WORK FOR EDUCATION OF YOUTH New Delhi (Fides Service) – The Jesuit Fathers hope soon to work in Afghanistan. The war ravaged country is undergoing a long process of consolidating political institutions, economic reconstruction, social harmonisati ...
• 25 June 2003
  AMERICA/BRAZIL - 18TH MIGRANTS WEEK FOCUSES ON THE ELDERLY: MILLIONS OF MEN LEAVE HOME TO ESCAPE POVERTY Brasilia (Fides Service) – On the occasion of World Migrant Day 2003 (which Brazil marks on 22 June), in harmony with the annual Fraternity Campaign which this year adopted the theme “Fraternity and the Elderly”, t ...
• 24 June 2003
  EUROPE/ITALY - RELIGIOUS FORMATION AT A DISTANCE: ON LINE INFORMATION ON NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS, SECTS MODERN SPIRITUAL TENDENCIES Rome (Fides Service) – Successful the first project of formation at a distance on the “Fenomeno religioso in Italia” organised by the Centro Consulenza on line on sects religions and spirituality SRS in collaborati ...
• 24 June 2003
  AFRICA/LIBERIA - HOPES FOR PEACE VANISH: SHELLING IN MONROVIA AS PRESIDENT TAYLOR PREPARES FOR DECISIVE BATTLE Monrovia (Fides Service) – The pounding of heavy shelling awoke the capital Monrovia at 530am local time this morning 24 June, local Fides Service sources report, asking to remain unnamed for security reasons. For days ...
• 24 June 2003
  ASIA/TAJIKISTAN - CATHOLIC MISSION OPENS FEEDING CENTRE FOR 60 CHILDREN, CATHOLICS AND MUSLIMS, AT DUSHANBE Dushanbe (Fides Service) – The Catholic Mission of Tajikistan has opened a feeding centre for needy children to serve at least 60 little ones. The centre was inaugurated on 18 June by the Apostolic Nuncio for Central A ...
• 24 June 2003
  MISSIONARY PRAYER INTENTION “That all those in Africa who are sick - the victims of AIDS and other serious diseases - may experience the consolation and love of God thanks to the services of the doctors and those who lovingly take care of them”. Comment on Missionary Intention of Pope John Paul II for July 2003 by Rev. Sister Nirmala Joshi, Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity Vatican City (Fides Service) - The missionary intention of our Holy Fath ...
• 24 June 2003
  ASIA/IRAQ - IRAQ SWINGS FROM EMERGENCY TO NORMALITY: IN THE NORTH SCHOOL PUPILS PREPARE FOR EXAMS, IN THE CENTRE CLASHES AND ATTACKS CONTINUE Baghdad (Fides Service) – “Despite the lack of security in most of Iraq people are trying to return to normal day to day living ” says Father Nizar Semaan of Ninive diocese. “At Karakoush, a Christian town of 25, ...
• 24 June 2003
  ASIA/HONG KONG - SARS NIGHTMARE OVER: “ SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMEN, POLITICIANS, FILM STARS FADE AWAY, POPULAR HEROES NOW EIGHT DOCTORS WHO DIED TO SAVE OTHERS” MISSIONARY TELLS FIDES SERVICE Hong Kong (Fides Service) – SARS was a shock for Hong Kong. But it changed people’s view of life and the city took a turn for the better” says Father Gianni Criveller, PIME mission in Hong Kong hours after the spec ...