News

• 3 June 2004
  ASIA/AFGHANISTAN - The courageous witness of five doctors urges us not to sell off the values of democracy, peace and development. Vatican City (Fides Agency) - The five doctors belonging to Médecins Sans Frontières were killed in an ambush in north-western Afghanistan. Their mission was to bring medical relief to people in danger, to the sick, th ...
• 3 June 2004
  ASIA/CHINA - The Catholic Church exhorts the families to promote religious vocations Shaan Xi (Fides Agency) - The Catholic community of San Yuan, in the province of Shaan Xi, has always focused much of its attention on religious vocations. In the area, many families have offered several of their childre ...
• 3 June 2004
  ASIA/HONG KONG - The parish of St Joseph of FanLing celebrates its fiftieth anniversary at the presence of the Bishop, H.E. Monsignor Joseph Zen Hong Kong (Fides Agency) - On May 1st, the day of St Joseph, the parish of St Joseph of FanLing in Hong Kong celebrated its 50th anniversary remembering its history and especially its first parish priest, the well known ...
• 3 June 2004
  AFRICA/SUDAN - In the past three months 5% of the children under five years old have died, most of them simply because of hunger, diarrhoea and malaria: it is the Darfur emergency. There are huge necessities, caused by the violence, hunger and by the people’s vulnerability to very simple diseases Rome (Fides Agency) - According to a recent survey, the people in Darfur (western Sudan) live under the threat of famine. Rates of mortality and malnutrition are dangerously high, and the alimentary situation is worsenin ...
• 2 June 2004
  VATICAN - The Pope’s catechesis at the general audience: “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfil the scripture: ‘He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.” (Jn 13,18). Vatican City (Fides Agency) - continuing on his cycle of catecheses on the Liturgy of the Vespers, the Holy Father John Paul II commented on Psalm 40, The Prayer of a Sick Person, during the today’s general audience (R ...
• 2 June 2004
  VATICAN - His Excellency Monsignor Michel Gagnon, Bishop of Laghouat, unexpectedly passed away. Vatican City (Fides Agency) - The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples has learnt with grief of the death of His Excellency Monsignor Michel Gagnon, Bishop of Laghouat, a diocese in the south of Algeria. The bi ...
• 2 June 2004
  AFRICA/DR CONGO - Bukavu: Fighting has broken out once again and Radio Maria has been hit. The situation is becoming increasingly serious in Eastern Congo. Bukavu (Fides Agency) - Fighting has broken out once again in Bukavu, a city in northern Kivu region, in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC), which has now been a prey to the fighting between the army loya ...
• 2 June 2004
  AFRICA/UGANDA - New rules for Nile water management are the focus of a meeting in Uganda. Kampala (Fides Agency) - The legal framework regulating the Nile basin is the focus of a meeting starting yesterday in Entebbe, in Uganda. The meeting gathers together the representatives of the ten countries overlooking ...
• 2 June 2004
  ASIA/IRAQ - The new Iraqi government is “a decisive step towards free and democratic Iraq” said Fr Nizar Semaan, Iraqi priest Baghdad (Fides Agency) - “A very important step for the creation of a free and independent Iraq, fully re-inserted into the international community”: this is how Fr Nizar Semaan, a Syrian priest from Mosul, welcomed ...
• 2 June 2004
  ASIA/HONG KONG - The executive secretary of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences Laypeople Committee visits Hong Kong and stresses the importance of promoting women in society today Hong Kong (Fides Agency) - The Executive Secretary of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) Laypeople Committee, Mrs V. Saldhana, paid visit to Hong Kong and stressed the importance of the promotion of wo ...
• 2 June 2004
  ASIA/THAILAND - Young Buddhists and Christians united in interreligious and intercultural dialogue Bangkok (Fides Agency) - “The bonds joining us together are stronger than the barriers which divide us”: it is what young Buddhists and Christians said at a recent five day seminar organised in Bangkok by the Institu ...
• 2 June 2004
  ASIA/CINA - The Catholic Church in China helps poor children to continue their studies Zun Yi (Fides Agency) - The local Church in the province of Gui Zhou, the poorest area in Continental China, always focused much of its attention on child education. The catholic community has built schools, offering the ...
• 2 June 2004
  ASIA - For Asian Bishops interreligious dialogue represents their hope to build harmony throughout the whole continent Bangkok (Fides Agency) - Interreligious dialogue is an effective way of bringing reconciliation and building peace throughout the Asian continent: the Bishops of Asia believe this is true and they are working to increase ...
• 2 June 2004
  ASIA PHILIPPINES - “In the Philippines we need a government of national unity to bring peace to the country and resolve economic problems” is the opinion of a Fides Agency missionary Manila (Fides Agency) - “In the Philippines we need a government of national unity to bring peace to the country and resolve the problems affecting economy, politics and society as a whole. There is a high rate in unem ...
• 2 June 2004
  ANNOUNCEMENTS - Acli and Focsiv join the wake of prayer on June 3rd organised by the Community of Sant’Egidio in Rome. Rome (Fides Agency) - “The anniversary of June 4th is part of our DNA - explain Acli president, Luigi Bobba, and Focsiv director, Sergio Marelli - because that day, sixty years ago, was a milestone along the path of ou ...