Asia

• 1 September 2003
  ASIA/VIETNAM – DUC IN ALTUM: FIRST MEETING OF BISHOPS’ COMMISSION FOR RELIGIOUS LIFE FOCUSES ON THEOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL FORMATION Bui Chu (Fides Service ) – “The Church demands of Religious high quality spirituality and formation” Bishop Joseph Hoang Van Tiem, of Bui Chu, told Fides Service with regard to the first meeting of the Vietnamese C ...
• 1 August 2003
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - SIGNALS OF DIALOGUE BETWEEN RELIGIONS ARE CONFIRMED BUT NOT IN PUNJAB WHERE MUSLIM FUNDAMENTALISM GROWS: CHRISTIANS DENIED FOOD AND WORK CONCERN THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY Lahore (Fides Service) – While in the world signals of co-existence between religions are multiplied and Christian/Muslim relations are strengthened along the lines of peace and dialogue, in some areas of Pakistan grou ...
• 1 August 2003
  ASIA/CHINA - ON SHOW IN SHANGHAI PRECIOUS HERITAGE OF ITALIAN JESUIT MISSIONARY MATTEO RICCI Shanghai (Fides Service) – While the Italian town of Macerata, birthplace of Matteo Ricci, Jesuit missionary to China in the 16th century is honouring its famous citizen with an exhibition, (see Fides 23/7/2003), Shang ...
• 31 July 2003
  ASIA/VIETNAM - BRIGHT FUTURE IN LOCAL CHURCHES IN MANY DIFFERENT COUNTRIES FOR OVERSEAS VIETNAMESE CATHOLICS CALLED TO “PREACH THE GOSPEL TO ALL CREATURES” Vatican City (Fides Service) – “An authentic Pentecost of the Vietnam community in the Diaspora”: this was how Mgr Joseph Dinh Duc Dao, director of the Office for the Co-ordination of Pastoral care for overseas Vie ...
• 31 July 2003
  ASIA/CAMBODIA - AFTER THE ELECTIONS THERE COULD BE A POLITICAL STALL AND PEOPLE FEAR MORE TENSION. CHURCH IS PRUDENT Phnom Penh (Fides Service) – “Cambodia is threatened with political stall, people are concerned: they fear the return of social disorder which followed 1998elections”. Salesian missionary Father Leo Ochoa, director ...
• 31 July 2003
  ASIA/IRAQ - “STOP THE BLOODSHED. THE IRAQI PEOPLE ARE TIRED OF WAR!” SAYS AN IRAQI PRIEST Rome (Fides Service) – “As the Christian community in Iraq we are deeply saddened by the loss of human lives, Iraqi and American” Father Nizar Semaan an Iraqi Catholic priest, tells Fides Service with regard to the ...
• 30 July 2003
  ASIA/THAILAND - BUDDHIST, CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM HEALTH CARE WORKERS DISCUSS JOINT ACTION AND COOPERATION IN THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS Bangkok (Fides Service) – About 80 experts on HIV/AIDS, Buddhist monks, Christian priests and nuns, Muslim leaders and Protestant pastors took part in a meeting held at Nonthaburi University situated north of Bangkok t ...
• 30 July 2003
  ASIA/PHILIPPINES - CHURCH STANDS BY GOVERNMENT DURING CRISIS: FIRM CALL TO UPROOT CORRUPTION Manila (Fides Service) – The local Catholic Church was not a bystander in the crisis which hit the Philippines when 296 army soldiers staged a mutiny occupying a shopping centre in Manila and taking some 300 hostages o ...
• 30 July 2003
  ASIA/SRI LANKA - DESPITE ISOLATED ACTS OF VIOLENCE BY GROUPS OF UNCONTROLLED GUERRILLAS AND BRAKING OF CEASE-FIRE, HOPE FOR PEACE IS STILL ALIVE: ON THE HORIZON RESUMING OF TALKS BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND REBELS Colombo (Fides Service) – Marco Polo described it as the most beautiful island in the world, but in the last twenty years Sri Lanka, known as Ceylon under British colonial rule, has known nothing but civil war, cruel t ...
• 29 July 2003
  ASIA/INDONESIA - INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR MIGRATION ALLOWED TO MAKE FACT FINDING MISSION IN NORTHERN SUMATRA, ACCESS STILL DENIED TO OTHER NGOs AS FLOW OF DISPLACED PERSONS INCREASES Jakarta (Fides Service) – There is optimism among international NGOs since the Indonesian government allowed International Organisation for Migration to make a fact finding mission to the northern Sumatra province of A ...
• 29 July 2003
  ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL TO NON BELIEVERS AND RE-AWAKEN GRACE OF BAPTISM AMONG CATHOLICS; LAY MEMBERS OF BASIC CHURCH COMMUNITIES MAKE COMMITMENT Seoul (Fides Service) – Sadang-dong parish in Seoul has launched a mission to re-evangelise the capital. The decision was reached at meeting in mid-July attended by more than 1,000 Catholics mostly lay people. The Miss ...
• 28 July 2003
  ASIA/HONG KONG - AUXILIARY BISHOP JOHN TONG HON APPOINTED CONSULTOR OF CONGREGATION FOR EVANGELISATION OF PEOPLES: RECOGNITION FOR HOLY SPIRIT STUDY CENTRE Hong Kong (Fides Service) – Bishop John Tong Hon auxiliary of the diocese of Hong Kong has been appointed Consultor of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples for a five year term. With regard to his appoin ...
• 28 July 2003
  ASIA/VIETNAM - NEW MISSIONS AMONG THE POOR IN N. VIETNAM TO MARK 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF SISTERS LOVERS OF THE CROSS LOCAL CONGREGATION Hanoi (Fides Service) – For 75 years the Sisters Lovers of the Cross, a local Vietnamese congregation of women religious, have served the poor, the excluded, lepers, terminally ill patients in central Vietnam in rural ...
• 25 July 2003
  ASIA/IRAQ - THERE IS NO WAR BETWEEN RELIGIONS IN IRAQ, SAYS ARCHBISHOP ISHAQ RECTOR OF THE PONTIFICAL BABEL UNIVERSITY IN BAGHDAD Rome (Fides Service) - “I am confident about the future of the Church in Iraq” says Chaldean Archbishop Ishaq Jacques, emeritus of Arbil of the Chaldeans, presently rector of Babel Pontifical University in Baghdad. ...
• 25 July 2003
  ASIA/VIETNAM - UNITED TO LIVE THE GOSPEL AND PROCLAIM IT TO OTHERS: FIRST MEETING OF NEW MILLENNIUM FOR VIETNAM’S OVERSEAS CATHOLICS Rome (Fides Service) – With traditional Vietnamese song and dance and colourful festivities, the first meeting of the new millennium for overseas Vietnamese Catholics opened on 24 July at the Pontifical Urban Universit ...