During this Year of Faith, Local Churches around the world are striving to make the most of catechesis in the work of evangelization. In view of this, Sunday catechism classes for children in Pakistan have taken on an online dimension. The Archdiocese of Karachi recently launched a new web site (http://cssmk.org), which offers visual and… Read more »
News flashes
Freedom of the Press Index 2013-02-01
Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit organization, has published its annual Freedom of the Press Report on 179 countries throughout the world. Democratic nations hold the first places with regard to press freedom, with the northern European countries of Norway, the Netherlands and Finland topping the list, while countries with dictatorships (notably North Korea, Turkmenistan and… Read more »
Worldwide Recitation of the Rosary via the Web
A Moment with Mary: the holy rosary prayed live from St. Peter’s Square. This new initiative has been made possible thanks to the traditional instruments of social communication and the new social networks. The rosary, which is recited Monday-Friday, from 4:00-4:30 p.m. (Rome time), uses the social networks, TV channels and the Internet to connect… Read more »
World Happiness at the Festival of the Sciences
“Happiness can be measured,” says John Helliwell, co-author of the first-ever “World Happiness Report”–a document measuring this state of soul in 150 countries throughout the world. The fruit of 30 years of research, the report reveals that happiness varies according to cultures and individuals. According to its findings, the world’s happiest people live in northern… Read more »
First Catholic Monastery Inaugurated in Georgia
Two significant events recently took place in the Republic of Georgia (an ex-member of the Soviet Union): the consecration of the Church of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, set on a hilltop outside the town of Akhaltsikhe, and the inauguration of a nearby Benedictine monastery. The latter, the country’s first Catholic monastery, was founded… Read more »
The European Union Donates
Part of Its Nobel Peace Prize Money to UNICEF
UNICEF is one of the 5 humanitarian organizations that receive financial support from the UE for various programs. This year, the European Union is adding to its annual donation of €930,000, 2 million euros deriving from its 2012 Nobel Peace Prize money to fund 4 projects under its Children of Peace Initiative. The program will… Read more »
Half the World’s Food Winds Up in the Trash
Half of the food produced in the world (about 2 billion tons) winds up in the trash, even though a large part of it is still edible. This troubling information emerged in a report by Great Britain’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers. According to the report, one of the causes of this waste is the failure… Read more »
World Giving Index Reports a Drop in Donations to Charity in 2012
According to the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), the World Giving Index–the largest study of charitable behavior across the globe–registered a 2% drop in financial donations to charity in 2007-2012, a fact in part influenced by the current world economic crisis. The Index is based on an average of three measures of giving behavior: the percentage… Read more »
Benedict XVI on Twitter
The Pope sent out his first twitter message at the end of his general audience on Wednesday, 12 December 2012. To underscore the universality of the gesture, he was flanked by 5 children representing the world’s continents.Immediately after blessing the crowd the Pope pressed a tablet screen and sent out the message: “Dear friends, I… Read more »
Fides News Agency Celebrates 85 Years of Service to the Missionary World
To make missionary work known to everyone via the press and to incite collaboration with the missions through vocations, spiritual solidarity and economic means: this is the purpose Fides New Agency, established by the Pontifical Office for the Propagation of the Faith in 1927. Fides is an important center of information concerning the Church’s missionaries… Read more »