News

• 30 January 2004
  EUROPE/SCOTLAND – THIS SUNDAY EVERY PARISH IN SCOTLAND WILL DISTRIBUTE LEAFLETS ON MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY AS PART OF YEAR OF THE FAMILY 2004 CALLED BY CATHOLIC BISHOPS Glasgow (Fides Service) – The Catholic Bishops of Scotland issued comprehensive statement on Marriage and the Family on Wednesday 28 January 2004. Quarter of a million (250,000) leaflets containing the text of a compr ...
• 30 January 2004
  EUROPE/ITALY - “CHRIST HOPE OF EUROPE”: 2ND EUROPEAN DAY FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: PRAYER VIGIL SATELLITE LINKS WITH CAPITALS OF 10 FUTURE EU MEMBERS Rome (Fides Service) – The 2nd Day for European University Students, organised jointly by the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, the Commission of the European Bishops’ Conferences and the Vicariate of Rome, ...
• 30 January 2004
  AMERICA/HONDURAS – REVEREND GUY PLANTE APPOINTED NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF PONTIFICAL MISSION SOCIETIES Vatican City (Fides Service) – Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, has appointed 24 January 2004, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Honduras, ...
• 30 January 2004
  PAPAL MESSAGE ON LIFE AND BIRTH: “WHEN WE SPEAK OF ‘NATURAL’ REGULATION, WE REFER NOT ONLY TO BIOLOGICAL RHYTHM, RATHER WE RESPOND TO THE TRUTH OF THE HUMAN PERSON AS A WHOLE, SPIRIT, PSYCHE AND BODY, A WHOLE WHICH CAN NEVER BE REDUCED TO A MERE UNIT OF BIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS”. Vatican City (Fides Service) – “Today we see the consolidation of a mentality which on the one hand appears almost to fear the responsibility of procreation and on the other desires to dominate life and manipulate i ...
• 30 January 2004
  ASIA/MYANMAR – LITTLE FLOCK IN MYANMAR THANKS RADIO VERITAS FOR 'AIRING' THE GOSPEL TO CATHOLICS IN BURMA'S REMOTE MOUNTAIN DISTRICTS Rangoon (Fides Service) – It is the radio which carries the “Good News” to Burmese Christians in remote mountainous regions of Myanmar. For some years now Radio Veritas Asia in Manila has broadcast in Burmese, Kare ...
• 30 January 2004
  AFRICA/SOMALIA - PEACE AGREEMENT FOR SOMALIA: TRANSITION GOVERNMENT, PARLIAMENT MEMBERS APPOINTED BY LOCAL CHIEFS NEW FEDERAL CONSTITUTION Mogadishu (Fides Service) - A agreement for peace in Somalia was signed yesterday 29 January in the Kenyan capital Nairobi by 42 representatives of different factions. The agreement stipulates the formation of a new tran ...
• 30 January 2004
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - SCOTLAND’S CARDINAL ENCOURAGES CONGO WHERE CIVIL WAR KILLED 3 MILLION PEOPLE AND PRAISES LOCAL CHURCH FOR WORK IN EDUCATION AND ITS OWN CATHOLIC RADIO “A GOOD MEANS OF EVANGELISATION FOUND NEITHER IN SCOTLAND, ENGLAND NOR IRELAND” Bukavu (Fides Service )- Cardinal Keith Michael Patrick O’ Brian, Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh, was very impressed with the work of the local Church in Bukavu which he had the opportunity to see during a r ...
• 30 January 2004
  ASIA/INDIA - 4,5 MILLION WITH AIDS IN INDIA DESERVE OUR LOVE AND MERCY SAYS CARDINAL VITHAYATHIL HEAD OF SYRO-MALABAR CATHOLIC CHURCH Kochi (Fides Service) – People with AIDS are our brothers and sisters: we must accept them and care for them with love, respect and mercy, said Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, Archbishop Major of Ernakulam-Angamaly in a ...
• 30 January 2004
  EUROPE/ITALY - ETHICS AND HEALTH: TWO DEMANDS, TWO DUTIES, TWO COMPONENTS OF EVERY HUMAN PERSON Rome (Fides) – Recently Aris-Sanità magazine issued by the Associazione Religiosa delle Istituzioni Socio-Sanitarie comprising Church-run health-care institutes in Italy published a study on Ethics and Health by profe ...
• 29 January 2004
  VATICAN - THE POPE’S MESSAGE FOR LENT 2004: “WHOEVER RECEIVES ONE SUCH CHILD IN MY NAME RECEIVES ME (MT 18,5): “TO BECOME” ONE OF THE LEAST AND “TO RECEIVE” THE LITTLE ONES Vatican City (Fides Service) – “ Jesus had a particular love for children because of “their simplicity, their joy of life, their spontaneity, and their faith filled with wonder”. For this reason he wishes the com ...
• 29 January 2004
  EUROPE/SPAIN - 400 MILLION CHILD SLAVES: EXHIBITION UNMASKS SLAVERY “THESE ARE NOT CHILD WORKERS THEY ARE CHILD SLAVES” Madrid (Fides Service) – “The different faces of slavery: these are not child workers they are child slaves ” is the title of an exhibition which opened on 26 January at the Alfonso X el Sabio House of Culture prom ...
• 29 January 2004
  AMERICA/MEXICO - LATIN-AMERICAN BISHOPS’ CONFERENCES START PREPARATION FOR 5TH CELAM CONFERENCE AND COMMEMORATE POPE JOHN PAUL II’S FIRST VISIT TO MEXICO IN 1979 Puebla (Fides Service ) – To mark the 25 years of pontificate of Pope John Paul II, the Holy Father’s first visit to Mexico in January 1979 and the 3rd General Conference of the Council of Latin American Bishops’ ...
• 29 January 2004
  EUROPE/ITALY - MARIANNHILL MISSIONARIES MOURN DEATH OF GENERAL SUPERIOR FATHER DIETER GAHLEN Roma (Agenzia Fides) - German born Father Dieter Gahlen, Superior General of the Mariannhil Missionaries CMM died at the age of 56 on 24 January, in hospital in Rome where he had been in care since January 3. The funeral ...
• 29 January 2004
  AFRICA/SIERRA LEONE - CHILD SOLDIERS IN SIERRA LEONE: DEEPLY TRAUMATISED BUT NO HATRED IN THEIR HEARTS, SAYS MISSIONARY Freetown (Fides Service) -“Now that the process of disarming child soldiers has been completed there is the difficult stage of reinsertion in normal life” Father Giuseppe Berton, Xaverian missionary in Sierra Leone t ...
• 29 January 2004
  AFRICA – EDUCATION IS A RIGHT, BUT IN AFRICA THERE ARE CLASSES WITH 100 PUPILS AND NO BLACKBOARD Kinshasa (Fides Service ) – When the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa achieved independence they all gave absolute priority to education as a means not only to avoid but also to eradicate poverty. Every country has the ...