For the celebration of the 46th World Day of Peace on 1 January 2013, the Holy Father Benedict XVI has chosen the theme, Blessed are the peacemakers. The news bulletin released by the Vatican Press Office says that the annual Message of the Pope, in the complexity of the present time, wants to encourage everyone… Read more »
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem warmly welcomed UNESCO’s decision on 29 June 2012 to add the Church of the Nativity, located in Bethlehem, to its list of World Heritage Sites. The site also includes the pilgrimage route to Bethlehem. Prior to this recognition, the city of Bethlehem itself was already listed as a UNESCO World… Read more »
The Third International Catholic Cinema Festival, an initiative sponsored by the Vatican’s Pontifical Councils for Culture and the Promotion of the New Evangelization, was held in Rome, Italy from 2-5 July 2012. For the first time, the itinerary of the Festival will be reinforced with an International Congress on the theme, The Cinema and the… Read more »
With the publication of the document, Pastoral Guidelines for the Promotion of Vocations to the Priestly Ministry, the Congregation for Catholic Education has concluded its 7-year reflection on the centrality of the priestly ministry within the Catholic Church. The new document is meant to relaunch pastoral efforts in this regard. The text is subdivided into… Read more »
Entitled Thirty Pieces of Silver, the first-ever 3D film on Jesus, currently under production in India, is scheduled to be released for Easter 2013 in 5,000 movie theaters throughout the world. Filming will start in July 2012 and the completed movie will be dubbed in nine languages, including Malayalam and English. The film’s director, producers… Read more »
About 130 Christian women participated in a congress held in Lahore, during which they analyzed various problems in Pakistani society and proposed initiatives to help resolve them. They took advantage of this event to once more courageously affirm that the women of the country should be allowed to play a more active role in society,… Read more »
Increased commerce between the countries of Africa is the key to the continent’s development: this is the message that the bankers and economists want to broadcast to the world at the conclusion of their meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. MISNA reports that according to the estimates of the African Union, intracontinental commerce amounts to 10-13% of… Read more »
Fides News Agency reports that 22,104 catechumens were baptized on Easter Sunday in China. The data was collected by the Study Center of Faith, located in the country’s Hebei province. The newly-baptized, 75% of whom are adults, belong to 101 dioceses. Sr. Li Guo Shuang of the Study Center says: “Some dioceses and communities were… Read more »
Arab women’s rights activists are asking their national leaders to rewrite the Constitutions of their nations and to include women on the teams to do this job. These are the primary requests that emerged during their meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, from 16-17 May 2012. More than 50 women from Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, Morocco,… Read more »
Africa Day–a celebration of African unity and of the continent’s cultural and economic potential–is the annual commemoration on 25 May of the 1963 founding of the Organization of African Unity (today known as the African Union). Made up of 54 States, the Union tackles problems like poverty, natural catastrophes, extreme meteorological conditions and wars. The… Read more »
