News

• 30 May 2005
  AFRICA/ZIMBABWE - While in Zimbabwe the grip of hunger is ever tighter, the government invests in modern technology to close communications frontiers. The opposition calls for solidarity denouncing vexation and violence against the poor. Neighbour countries increasingly affected by food crisis Harare (Fides Service)- “Make war on poverty rather than on the poor” said representatives of the Christian Churches in Zimbabwe in an appeal in which they joined the opposition and civil society in calling on the go ...
• 30 May 2005
  ASIA/INDONESIA - UNICEF starts building 200 new schools for 40,000 children in tsunami affected areas Banda Aceh (Fides Service) - UNICEF in collaboration with the International Organisation for Migration IOM has started a programme to put in place 200 new temporary primary schools in areas around Aceh most seriously af ...
• 30 May 2005
  ASIA/INDIA - RSS (Hindu fundamentalism): 300,000 training schools, 10 million members, 100 million supporters. One of 39 centres of terror listed by Terrorism Research Centre in Virginia USA New Delhi (Fides Service) - Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS (National Volunteers Corps) is a movement notorious for anti Christian and anti Muslim violence in India. A fundamentalist Hindu organisation which promotes wit ...
• 28 May 2005
  AFRICA/NIGER - Many more than 4 million lives at stake. Drought and locusts bring on serious food shortage. Niamey diocese calls for help and solidarity Niamey (Fides Service)- “The situation is more desperate that anyone could imagine and it threatens to become a catastrophe before the world realise what is happening” Fides Mgr Laurent Lompo from Niamey diocese in N ...
• 28 May 2005
  VATICAN - The Pope receives Burundian Bishops on ad Limina visit: “announce the Gospel and heal memory and hearts, foster solidarity among all Burundians and ban all spirit of revenge and resentment, encourage forgiveness and reconciliation”. Vatican City (Fides Service) - This morning the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI received in audience a group of Bishops of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Burundi on the occasion of their five-yearly ad limina visit ...
• 28 May 2005
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - “For 45 years and the last 15 in particular the people of Congo have suffered because of civil war and serious disorder. We call for violence to stop from which ever side it comes” says President of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Congo Kinshasa (Fides Service)- “We call on those responsible to stop all violence” said Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kisangani President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Democratic Congo, calling on the ...
• 28 May 2005
  ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - New Korean translation of the Bible Seoul (Fides Service) - The imminent circulation of a new Korean translation of the Bible in early June, a campaign on bio-ethical matters on the occasion of the Day for Life (29 May) and the opening of the diocesan stag ...
• 28 May 2005
  AMERICA/PARAGUAY - Chamber of Deputies rejects national plan which goes against life and the family; success for Ecumenical Demonstration which called on legislators to reflect before approving laws contrary to life Asuncion (Fides Service) - With 57 votes out of 66, Paraguay’s Chamber of Deputies rejected a proposed “National programme for the prevention of punishable crimes against sexual autonomy and minors and assistance to ...
• 28 May 2005
  EUROPE/GERMANY - “Under-construction, help us build a world of greater justice!”: for the first time World Youth Day preparation includes social programmes of solidarity “to build a civilisation of love and justice” Cologne (Fides Service) - During the “Days of encounter in German dioceses” 11 to 15 August in preparation for the Catholic Church’s 20th World Youth Day organised this year in Cologne Germany, the young participa ...
• 28 May 2005
  AMERICA/COLOMBIA - “Nothing and no one can authorise the death of a human person, and certainly not when the person is helpless and unprotected”: says President of Catholic Bishops’ Conference with regard to the inapplicability of an article of law which penalises abortion Bogota (Fides Service) - “The situation in this country with regard to crimes against life is most concerning. We are grieved and concerned for criminal actions which happen day after day: homicide, violent deaths, as ...
• 28 May 2005
  ASIA/INDONESIA - Bomb blasts in Sulawesi, tension in the Moluccas: Christians fear possible return of generalised violence Ambon (Fides Service) - There is growing concern among Christians in eastern Indonesia after recent bomb blasts and killings in Sulawesi and the Moluccas where people fear the return of civil war. A prospect which local ...
• 27 May 2005
  ASIA/CHINA - Disabled artistes from China win Roman hearts and get a special blessing from the Pope Rome (Fides Service) - Disabled musicians and dancers from China who had a great success with a performance in Rome on May 23 received a special mention and blessing from Pope Benedict XVI during the weekly Wednesday aud ...
• 27 May 2005
  VATICAN - “The Corpus Christi procession responds symbolically to the command of the Risen Lord: I am going before you to Galilee. Go out to the ends of the earth, carry the Gospel to the world.” The Pope says during Mass celebrated in front of the Cathedral of Rome Vatican City (Fides Service) - “The procession on Holy Thursday accompanies Jesus in his solitude towards the "via crucis". The procession on Corpus Christi, instead responds symbolically to the command of the Risen Lo ...
• 27 May 2005
  VATICAN - “Each year infectious diseases are responsible for the death of 17 million persons of whom 90 percent live in developing countries: Holy See delegation addresses 58th World Health Assembly Geneva (Fides Service) - “Unfortunately, illnesses, especially infectious ones, are ever more virulent in the poorest countries that, precisely because they are poor, do not have the resources to obtain medicine that, ...
• 27 May 2005
  EUROPE/SPAIN - To deny a child the right to have a mother and a father of different sexes is to violate an inalienable human right: Dr Belén Vendrell offers contribution to Fides Castellón (Fides Service) - “There are many types of injustice in this life but one of the most painful is the injustice which legitimates on behalf of society a proposal which violates the inalienable rights of the h ...