Asia

• 11 September 2014
  ASIA/IRAQ – Air raids hit areas adjacent to two churches in Mosul Mosul (Agenzia Fides) - Air raids carried out to attack the positions of the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS), who have settled in Mosul, have heavily damaged buildings adjacent to two churches in the eastern area of ...
• 10 September 2014
  ASIA/HOLY LAND – US Catholic Bishops make Holy Land pilgrimage to 'pray for peace' Jerusalem (Agenzia Fides) – On Thursday 11 September a group of 18 Catholic Bishops from the United States of America will begin a pilgrimage to visit the places where Jesus lived his earthly life with the specific in ...
• 10 September 2014
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - Severe floods, Caritas sends volunteers Lahore (Agenzia Fides) – With severe floods affecting the life of the people in the Pakistan provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Jammu and Kashmir, Caritas Pakistan has mobilised its volunteers to respond to the emergency. ...
• 10 September 2014
  ASIA/IRAQ - Syrian Catholic priest says: Christians will return to the Plain of Ninive only when and if Mosul is freed Erbil (Agenzia Fides) – With the uncertain prospects in the region of north Iraq the Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Yohanna Petros Moshe, and the faithful of his diocese have decided to try to return to Qaraqosh ...
• 10 September 2014
  ASIA/INDIA – Catholics in southern India: urgent instruction Christian families Hyderabad (Agenzia Fides) – “Challenges facing family life: a Catholic response”: this was the theme discussed recently in view of the Synod of Bishops for the Family due to be held in Rome in October. The Catholic ...
• 9 September 2014
  ASIA/IRAQ - A Christian MP in Iraq’s new government Baghdad (Agenzia Fides) – A Christian MP is among the Ministers in a new government of Iraq approved yesterday by Parliament with a majority of 177 out of 289. The new minister is Chaldean Christian Faris Yusef Jajo, f ...
• 9 September 2014
  ASIA/HOLY LAND – New equipe for missionary animation in the land of Jesus Jerusalem (Agenzia Fides) – Two intense days of prayer, reflection and listening to testimony, held 5 and 6 September, involved some forty participants in a “missionary animation” session convoked by Carmelite pri ...
• 9 September 2014
  ASIA/AFGHANISTAN - JRS: optimistic about release of Jesuit priest taken hostage in June Kabul (Agenzia Fides) – “Moderate optimism” has been voiced by the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) regarding the wellbeing and release of Fr. Alexis Prem Kumar, 47 year old Jesuit kidnapped in the area of Herat last ...
• 9 September 2014
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - Postponed until October 16 next hearing for the Asia Bibi appeal Lahore (Agenzia Fides) – In a hearing this morning lasting only a few minutes, the High Court of Lahore, Judge Anwar Ul Haq adjourned the Asia Bibi appeal, postponing it 16 October, Fides was informed by the lawyers of ...
• 8 September 2014
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - False accusations of blasphemy, later withdrawn, against 31 Christians in a Punjab village Faisalabad (Agenzia Fides) – A typical case of abuse of Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law, which would appear now to have been resolved thanks to intervention by the local police – a rare event – happened reportedly in th ...
• 8 September 2014
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - 9 September, date for next hearing in the trial of Asia Bibi Lahore (Agenzia Fides) – Tomorrow 9 September, has been set as the date for the next hearing in an appeal by Asia Bibi, a Pakistani woman facing a death sentence for blasphemy. Fides was informed by the High Court in L ...
• 6 September 2014
  ASIA/CHINA - Celebration of the sacraments and missionary mandate after Summer catechism courses Pechino (Agenzia Fides) – A group of 108 catechumens, mostly aged between 5 and 16 years but also a few in their sixties, members of the Xi Kai Cathedral parish in the diocese of Tian Jin, recently received the thre ...
• 6 September 2014
  ASIA/IRAN - Converts to Christianity still risk capital charges Teheran (Agenzia Fides) – Two Iranian Christians, members of the protestant Church of Iran community have been accused of “spreading corruption in the world”. Two other Christians, Iranian Pastor Matthias Haghnej ...
• 6 September 2014
  ASIA/PHILIPPINES - Silsilah Dialogue Centre advocates harmony in the Year of the Laity Zamboanga (Agenzia Fides) – Christians and Muslims must work together to promote a spirit of harmony especially in the difficult world of today faced with a new explosion of sectarian violence and radical Islamism in ...
• 5 September 2014
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - Two Christian women abducted, forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men Lahore (Agenzia Fides) – Recently light was shed on yet another case of women abducted from their families, forced to convert to Islam and to marry Muslim men: Fides was informed of the case by lawyer Sardar Mushtaq G ...