News

• 
  2 March 2016
  OCEANIA/FIJI ISLANDS - Columban missionaries care for children after schools collapsed in cyclone Suva (Agenzia Fides) – In the Fiji islands some 40 per cent of the population was affected by tropical cyclone Winston, which struck the archipelago on 20 February. Presently about 62,000 people are living in emergenc ...
• 
  2 March 2016
  AFRICA/DR CONGO - Still no date for Presidential elections: will this mean a presidential vacancy? Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - There may soon be a presidential vacancy in the Democratic Republic of Congo unless elections are held before the end of November. This is the scenario after Corneille Nangaa chairman of the ...
• 
  2 March 2016
  AFRICA/EGYPT - Coptic Ortodox Church: no one may produce a film about Patriarch Shenuda III without our permission Cairo (Agenzia Fides) – The Council of Coptic Orthodox lay congregations–influential body in the Coptic Orthodox Church, presided by the Patriarch himself – has cautioned producers of television series, films, and ...
• 
  2 March 2016
  AMERICA/VENEZUELA - Attacks on Salesian Technical Farming Schooi in Barinas Barinas (Agenzia Fides) – The Salesian community which runs a school in Barinas laments that about 15 hectares belonging to the institute are illegally occupied and recently a school truck was set on fire a few metres ...
• 
  2 March 2016
  ASIA/IRAQ - Petition for rights of displaced Christians amidst preparations for battle to take back Mosul Mosul (Agenzia Fides) – While US military sources confirm that the next objective in the fight against Islamic State jihadists (Daesh) will be to take back Mosul, a petition has been forwarded by Iraqi Chaldean Rae ...
• 
  2 March 2016
  AFRICA/NIGERIA - Police arrest suspected informer for Christmas 2011 attack on the church of St Teresa Abuja (Agenzia Fides)- The local police have arrested a person suspected of taking part in preparations for the Christmas 2011 attack on the church of Saint Teresa of Madalla, near Abuja, capital of Nigeria. The incident ...
• 
  2 March 2016
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - Nation marks fifth anniversary of the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti Islamabad (Agenzia Fides) – With special prayers in churches in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Khushpur and Sargodha and in many other places, Pakistan commemorated Shahbaz Bhatti on the 5th anniversary of his assas ...
• 1 March 2016
  OCEANIA/AUSTRALIA - Appointment of new National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, Rev. Brian Joseph Lucas Città del Vaticano (Agenzia Fides) – Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, on 1 November 2015, appointed as the new National Director of the Pontifical Mission Socie ...
• 
  1 March 2016
  AMERICA/UNITED STATES - America's Catholic Bishops: “encourage prophets of mercy” Tampa (Agenzia Fides) – According to a first report on a meeting of American continent’s Catholic Bishops held in Tampa, Florida (USA), 22 - 25 February (see Fides 23/02/2016), despite the complexity of issues f ...
• 
  1 March 2016
  AFRICA/UGANDA - Sacrificed minors good omens for political elections Mukono (Agenzia Fides) – Kyampisi Childcare Ministries (KCM) based in Uganda has reported at least six cases of mutilation and killing of children as sacrifices to obtain “good luck ” in recent elections held in t ...
• 
  1 March 2016
  ASIA/LEBANON - Newly launched TV news chanel declares “war on war” Beirut (Agenzia Fides) – In the heart of the Middle East region torn apart by bloody conflict, a new satellite TV channel of Information , proposing news “ from the Catholic point of view”, in order to “buil ...
• 
  1 March 2016
  AMERICA/ARGENTINA - Two hundred mayors unite to combat drug trafficking and defend persons most vulnerable Buenos Aires (Agenzia Fides) – More than 200 mayors from all over Argentina with various political positions, and supported by representatives and leaders of different religious groups, met yesterday to sign a paper o ...
• 
  1 March 2016
  ASIA/PHILIPPINES - Jesuit run East Asian Pastoral Institute marks 50 years of pastoral service in the spirit of Vatican II Manila (Agenzia Fides) – It has become a point of reference in Asia for primary and on-going pastoral formation in the spirit of Vatican II: for 50 years the East Asian Pastoral Institute EAPI based in Manila, has ir ...
• 
  1 March 2016
  AFRICA/EGYPT - Copt Organisation asks President al Sisi to grant an amnesty to Copt youths wrongly condemned for offending Islam Cairo (Agenzia Fides) – Karim Kamal, founder of the Union General of Copts for the Motherland, has asked the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al Sisi to intervene regarding the case of a group of Copt youths recently a ...
• 
  1 March 2016
  ASIA/PAKISTAN - Shahbaz Bhatti, diocese collects testimony for 'Martyrdom' Islamabad (Agenzia Fides) – At this time of year when Pakistan's Catholics mark the fifth anniversary of the death of Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic, MP for Minority Groups assassinated in Islamabad on 2 March 2011, the ...