Asia

• 6 October 2004
  ASIA/QATAR - Qatar will soon have its very first Christian churches. Happy local Catholics give warm welcome to Holy See representative on pastoral visit Doha (Fides Service) - “We are very happy. For years we have been waiting for this moment” local Catholics told Bishop Bernardo Gremoli, Vicar Apostolic for Arabia when he visited them recently and announced that wor ...
• 6 October 2004
  ASIA/CHINA - Chinese pilgrims to Lourdes share joyful pilgrimage memories strengthening faith, authentic Christian life style and desire to go on pilgrimage Beijing (Fides Service) - For a group of Chinese Catholics from the Immaculate Conception parish in Beijing last month’s pilgrimage to Lourdes will be a lasting memory. They had such a moving story to tell on their ret ...
• 5 October 2004
  ASIA/INDONESIA - With regard to Catholic school surrounded on Sunday by radical Muslim youths local Catholics say: “We ask local authorities the central government and the new president Yudhoyono to show tolerance and respect with regard to religious minorities” Jakarta (Fides Service) - There is concern among Catholics in Indonesia since a group of radical Muslim youths surrounded Sang Timur Catholic school at Ciledug, in Banten province on the Island of Java, 40 km west of th ...
• 5 October 2004
  ASIA/INDONESIA - “New President faces major challenge: isolate Islamic fundamentalism which thrives on violence, corruption and unemployment” - says Father Ignazio Ismartono, spokesman of the Indonesian Catholic Bishops’ Conference Jakarta (Fides Service) - “Corruption, violence, Muslim fundamentalism, unemployment, destruction of the environment are some of the problems facing the newly elected President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,” ...
• 4 October 2004
  ASIA/TAJIKISTAN Using the web to proclaim the Gospel in central Asia: Tajikistan Catholic Mission opens web site on Feast of Saint Therese of Lisieux Dushanbe (Fides Service) - To mark the 7th anniversary of the opening of the Catholic Missio sui iuris in Tajikistan (29 September 1997), on the feast day of Saint Therese of Lisieux, patron of the Missions, Superior of ...
• 4 October 2004
  ASIA/IRAQ - First day of school in Iraq, photos of Saddam removed from text books: eyewitness tells Fides Baghdad (Fides Service)- Catholic Iraqi priest Rev. Nizar Seeman told Fides about the first day at school in northern Iraq. It is 7.45 in the morning I am in front of the elementary school. I see boys and girls, many ar ...
• 4 October 2004
  ASIA/INDIA - Christian Hindu network to bring peace to travailed region of north eastern India the scene of violence and bomb blasts: Catholic Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil takes concrete action in Assam Guwahati (Fides Service) - The Catholic Archbishop of Guwahati in Assam state is fully committed to keeping peace and preventing any return of indiscriminate violence in north eastern India. Archbishop Thomas Menamparamp ...
• 1 October 2004
  ASIA/INDIA - Catholic Bishops of India open news-website www.theindiancatholic.com: everything you ever wanted to know about the history, service and mission of India’s Catholic community New Delhi (Fides Service) - The Media and Information Office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India CBCI announced the launching of a news-website on October 1, 2004 to provide information on the Catholic faith, ...
• 1 October 2004
  ASIA/TAIWAN - Bishop Padilla, Prefect of Prefecture Apostolic Ulaanbaator in Mongolia, shares his missionary experience Taipei (Fides Service) - Recently Catholics in Taiwan heard about missionary work in the mysterious and fascinating country of Mongolia when Bishop Padilla, formerly a missionary in Taiwan and today Prefect of Prefecture ...
• 1 October 2004
  ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - Missionary month of October looking towards North Korea and laity as chief agents in the Church’s mission Seoul (Agenzia Fides) - “Support for missionary activity, with prayer, sacrifice and material offerings is important because it helps sustain and nourish the whole Church” Bishop Joseph Kyeong Kap-ryong, President of ...
• 30 September 2004
  ASIA/IRAQ - Not only bombs and violence. Local Catholic priest tells another story Baghdad (Fides Service)- Father Nizar, who returned to Iraq a month ago, describes the local situation : “Life is difficult but we keep hoping that the future will be better. The first problem is lack of security, the ...
• 30 September 2004
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - Info: victims of blasphemy law Lahore (Fides Service) - There is a long gallery of victims who have suffered in recent years after being falsely accused of blasphemy. The law is often abused to punish an adversary or enemy, for political or economic r ...
• 30 September 2004
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - The Church in Pakistan calls on president Musharraf, today received in audience by the Pope, to abolish the blasphemy law, which is unjust and discriminates against minorities. Bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission denounces situation in ample document sent to Fides Lahore (Fides Service) - For some time now the Catholic Church in Pakistan has been asking the government to abolish the Blasphemy Law which is ‘unfair, evil and abused to discriminate against non Muslim minorities and ...
• 29 September 2004
  ASIA/IRAQ - These barbarians will not stop the birth of a new Iraq. Testimony from northern Iraq: “All the hostages must be released and the humanitarian organisations must come back to help Iraq and its people rise again” Baghdad (Fides Service)- “The good news that the hostages Simona Pari and Simona Torretta are free comes to join other positive facts in Iraq which are however overshadowed by facts of violence” Father Nizar Semaan, ...
• 29 September 2004
  ASIA/NEPAL - A small Catholic community in the Tibetan mountains celebrates and witnesses to the Gospel, offers services of social assistance and education in a situation of Maoist guerrilla warfare: interview with Pro-Prefect Apostolic Rev. Pius Perumana Kathmandu (Fides Service) - While the country is living a general strike and there are rumours that government-rebels negotiations are about to resume, the small Catholic community in Nepal carries on with its pastoral a ...