News

• 25 November 2003
  ASIA/HONG KONG - DEMOCRATIC PARTY WINS ELECTIONS: LOCAL CHURCH ENCOURAGES CATHOLICS TO “PRESERVE DEMOCRACY AND PUT INTO PRACTICE THE CHURCH’S SOCIAL TEACHING”. Hong Kong (Fides Service) – Catholic observers in Kong Kong describe the triumph of the Democratic Party in November 23 elections as a history making event. Local church sources tell Fides that another page has been wr ...
• 25 November 2003
  EUROPE/ITALY - CANCER SECOND CAUSE OF DEATH IN ITALY AND EUROPE Rome (Fides Service) – According to a EUROCARE report to be released on 26 November at ISS the Italian Higher Institute for Health-Care during a Conference on the theme “Recent Tendencies Cancer Survival in Italy and ...
• 24 November 2003
  EUROPE/AFRICA - MEETING OF FRENCH/AFRICAN TWIN DIOCESES ORGANISED BY PONTIFICAL MISSION SOCIETIES TO GROW IN THE UNIVERSAL DIMENSION OF FAITH Lyons (Fides Service)- A two day meeting of “twin” dioceses has been organised by the Pontifical Mission Societies in France, 22-23 November in Lyons, France. Some 85 participants have gather representing French dioc ...
• 24 November 2003
  VATICAN - THE POPE SAYS AT THE ANGELUS: “LOOKING AT CHRIST ‘PANTOCRATOR’, AS THEEASTERN LITURGY SAYS, HIGHLIGHTS THE MISSION OF BELIEVERS CALLED IN A VARIETY OF MINISTRIES AND CHARISMA TO COOPERATE IN THE BUILDING UP OF HIS KINGDOM” Vatican City (Fides Service) – As usual on Sunday 23 November Pope John Paul II came to his study window to pray the midday Angelus with people gathered in St Peter’s Square, who were several thousand. “Today, the ...
• 24 November 2003
  AMERICA/GUATEMALA - TOWARDS 2ND AMERICAN MISSION CONGRESS CAM 2: MAJOR SUPERIORS OF AMERICAN MISSION INSTITUTES REFLECT ON THE PROGRESS BETWEEN CAM 1 AND CAM 2 Guatemala City (Fides Service) – On 22 and 23 November in Guatemala City there was a meeting of Superior Majors of America (SOMIVA). Father Antonio Camacho Muñoz, of the communications office of the Missionaries of G ...
• 24 November 2003
  AMERICA/CANADA - BISHOP FRANÇOIS LAPIERRE OF SAINT-HYACINTHE: “MISSION HELPS US TO LOOK FURTHER TO SEE IN DAILY LIFE THE TRAGEDIES AND HOPES OF THE WORLD WE LIVE IN. MISSION IS A CALL NOT ONLY TO GO OUT OF OUR COUNTRY BUT TO GO OUT OF OURSELVES” Saint-Hyacinthe (Fides Service) – At the Second American Mission Congress in Guatemala City (25-30 November), the Church in Canada is represented by 150 delegates, many of them young people. “There is amazing interes ...
• 24 November 2003
  AMERICA/GUATEMALA - TWO MILLION CHILDREN SLAUGHTERED, 1 MILLION ORPHANS, 12 MILLION MINORS HOMELESS, 200 ADULTS ASSASSINATED, 1 MILLION REFUGEES, 100,000 WIDOWS, 400 VILLAGES DISAPPEARED: SCHOOL FOR PEACE FOR 3,000 WAR CHILDREN Rome (Fides Service) – This is the balance in the past decade after 36 years of civil war. Children see their parents murdered, children subject to torture and sexual abuse. Children who still today have serious psych ...
• 24 November 2003
  AMERICA/GUATEMALA – 2ND AMERICAN MISSION CONGRESS OPENS TOMORROW: FIRST MAJOR MISSIONARY EVENT OF THIRD MILLENNIUM Guatemala City (Fides Service) – Tomorrow 25 November, the 2nd American Mission Congress CAM 2, will be officially inaugurated in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Pope John Paul II has sent as his Special Envoy, Cardinal Cre ...
• 24 November 2003
  AFRICA/ZIMBABWE – CHURCH ORGANISATIONS PROTEST ARREST OF 100 TRADE UNION LEADERS Harare (Fides Service)- Ever more concerning the situation in Zimbabwe since a serious political - social and economic crisis exploded at the beginning of 2000 when Robert Mugabe launched an accelerated agricultural re ...
• 24 November 2003
  VATICAN - THE POPE APPOINTS NEW CARDINAL MEMBERS OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE EVANGELISATION OF PEOPLES Vatican City (Fides Service ) – Pope John Paul II has appointed Members of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples the following Cardinals created on 21 October 2003: Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino (Presid ...
• 24 November 2003
  ASIA/CHINA – DESPITE GOVERNMENT MEASURES CHINA REGISTERS CONCERNING INCREASE IN CASES OF SUICIDE Beijing (Fides Service) – China has launched a national plan to address the serious problem of suicide. The government has ordered a study to find ways to prevent depression. Last year Beijing opened an Assistance Cent ...
• 24 November 2003
  AFRICA/IVORY COAST - DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS TO SOLVE CRISIS CONTINUE. PRESIDENT GBAGBO IN GABON, MALI AND BURKINA FASO Abidjan (Fides Service)- “The fact that President Laurent Gbagbo and French Foreign minister Laurent de Villepin, met is positive in itself ” a local Church sources told Fides with regard to a meeting of the Presiden ...
• 24 November 2003
  AFRICA/BURUNDI - BURUNDI OPTS FOR PEACE: REBELS RECEIVE GOVERNMENT POSTS, GROWING HOPES FOR END OF WAR DESPITE CONTINUING SPORADIC VIOLENCE Bujumbura (Fides Service)- “I think that after years of disappointment and false starts this time Burundi has taken the path for peace” a priest in Bururi in Burundi told Fides after the government signed a peace agr ...
• 24 November 2003
  ASIA/TURKEY - REGARDLESS OF TENSION AND FEAR FRANCISCAN FRIARS OPEN INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY FOR MISSION OF ECUMENICAL AND INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE Istanbul (Fides Service) – On November 29 with a solemn Mass at the church of Santa Maria Draperis in Istanbul a new International Fraternity will be opened by the Order of Friars Minor in the presence of Minister Gene ...
• 24 November 2003
  ASIA/INDIA - WAVE OF VIOLENCE IN NORTH EAST INDIA LEAVES THOUSANDS HOMELESS AND DOES NOT SPARE THE CHURCH, ARCHBISHOP OF SHILLONG TELLS FIDES Shillong (Fides Service) – “Thousands are homeless, thousands of students are without lessons. Innocent people die. May God forgive those who commit such evil. The violence does not even spare religious ministers or ...