VATICAN - Agenzia Fides launches its 8th language: new on-line version in Arabic, dedicated to the Pope's Teachings

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – Just days before the celebration of the feast of Saint Francis Xavier, Patron of the Missions (December 3), also Agenzia Fides' 81st birthday, its website (www.fides.org) will now feature a new language: Arabic. The new section will join the other 7 languages already featured on the site, i.e. Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Chinese. The Arabic portion will feature the words of the Holy Father and the most important news pieces pertaining to the various entities of the Roman Curia.
Agenzia Fides, of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, began in 1927 as the first Missionary Agency of the Church, and among the first three Agencies in the world, at the service of missionary information and activity. It began publishing on the feast of Saint Francis Xavier, in 1927. The first editions in English, French, and Polish (which lasted a brief time), were followed by Italian (1929), Spanish (1930), and German (1939). More recent additions were Chinese (1998) and Portuguese (2002), and now Arabic. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 24/11/2008)