Asia

• 19 December 2003
  ASIA/NEPAL - REVIEWING 2003: AMIDST SITUATION OF VIOLENCE, GRIEVING, POVERTY, LOCAL CHURCH CONTINUES SERVE PEOPLE OF THIS LAND SHARING THEIR JOYS AND SORROWS: NEW YOUTH CENTRE OPENS ON 2 JANUARY IN KATHMANDU Kathmandu (Fides Service) – The year 2003 was one of difficulty marked by violence. Many families suffered losses of loved ones. The little Church in Nepal, (6.000 souls amidst a population of 23 million), stood by to ...
• 19 December 2003
  ASIA/SRI LANKA - BOOST COMMUNICATION IN AND AMONG ASIAN FAMILIES FOR MUTUAL ENRICHMENT AND EVANGELISATION SAYS COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION OF ASIAN BISHOPS’ CONFERENCES Colombo (Fides Service) – How to boost communication in families and among families of different nationalities in Asia was the theme of a recent Meeting in Negombo (Sri Lanka), organised by the Commission for Social C ...
• 19 December 2003
  ASIA/TURKEY –CLOSER THAN EVER IN SOLIDARITY AND DIALOGUE WITH COMMUNITIES OF OTHER RELIGIONS, TURKEY’S CHRISTIANS PREPARE FOR CHRISTMAS Istanbul (Fides Service ) – “This Christmas we Turkish Christians feel a deeper sense of solidarity and closeness with Jewish and Muslim communities: this is undoubtedly because of the recent tragic attacks in Istanb ...
• 18 December 2003
  ASIA/MONGOLIA - ON CHRISTMAS DAY, NOT A HOLIDAY IN MONGOLIA, TINY CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY WILL CELEBRATE THE SAVIOUR'S BIRTH: PARTIES AND PRESENTS FOR STREET CHILDREN RESCUED FROM CITY SEWERS BY MISSIONARY PRIEST Ulaan Baator (Fides Service) – “It will be a Christmas of joy and hope in Mongolia, where the Church was established only eleven years ago” said Bishop Wenceslaw Padilla, Prefect Apostolic of Ulaan Baatar, told Fid ...
• 18 December 2003
  ASIA/INDIA - CHRISTMAS 2003 MESSAGE OF “UNITY IN DIVERSITY”: GOA CHRISTMAS CONCERT OF SONGS IN SIX LANGUAGES FOR AN INTERRELIGIOUS AUDIENCE Goa (Fides Service ) – This year in Goa the Christmas Concert will be polyphonic and multilingual. “We want to express unity in diversity, to show that the message of Christ is addressed to all men and women of all l ...
• 18 December 2003
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - CHRISTMAS IN PAKISTAN: HOPE OR FEAR? DESPITE GROWING FEAR OF TERRORISM AFTER PRESIDENT NARROWLY ESCAPES BOMB BLAST PAKISTANI CHRISTIANS READY TO CELEBRATE WITH HOPE Rawalpindi (Fides Service) – In Pakistan Christians will live Christmas with top security measures but with firm hope Bishop Anthony Lobo of Islamabad-Rawalpindi told Fides days after the 14 December bomb blast against ...
• 17 December 2003
  ASIA/IRAQ - IRAQI CHRISTIANS APPEAL TO PEOPLE OF MOSUL: “A MINORITY OF EXTREMISTS MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO DESTROY MOSUL’S TRADITIONAL IMAGE OF RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE AND PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE ” Baghdad (Fides Service) –The Christian community in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul is subject to increasing pressure by Muslim extremists. Local sources told Fides that one night last week a group of at least 10 arme ...
• 17 December 2003
  ASIA/JAPAN - CHURCH IN JAPAN FOR MISSION AD GENTES: FIVE LAY MISSIONARIES SET OUT FOR RUSSIA, CAMBODIA, EAST TIMOR AND PALAU Tokyo (Fides Service ) – The Church in Japan is ever more committed to mission ad gentes: recently five lay missionaries aged between 26 and 62 set out for mission in Russia, Cambodia, East Timor and Palau. After a sev ...
• 17 December 2003
  ASIA/INDIA - “THE CHURCH MUST COMMUNICATE THE GOOD NEWS, AT ALL TIMES AND WITH ALL MEANS ”, ARCHBISHOP BASELIOS, PRESIDENT OF THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE OF INDIA TOLD MEETING OF CATHOLIC COUNCIL New Delhi (Fides Service) – The Church has to engage in social communications at all times and by all means because her very existence has relevance only if she is a proclaiming and an evangelising Church” said the ...
• 16 December 2003
  ASIA/PHILIPPINES – FOR CHRISTMAS GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNIST GUERRILLA IN SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES CALL A TRUCE Davao (Fides Service) – Peace talks between the Philippines government and rebel groups fighting for secession in the southern Islands have not yet started but for Christmas there will at least be a truce for the marty ...
• 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 ...
• 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
  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 ...
• 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 ...