READ

Browse past isues

DONATE

Help the mission

SHOP

Support the mission

CONTACT

Get in touch

Menu
Login

Category: World Touch
World

Food is the Ultimate Security Need

It is a graphic demonstration of the sickening, symbiotic relationship between hunger and conflict and highlights food supply problems from Somalia to India to Spain. A new map of food security risk around the world is, in some ways, depressingly familiar. Sub-Saharan Africa leaps out as the place where the most people fear for their next meal, while the rich world has more to fear from obesity. But there’s plenty of salutary reminders and fascinating detail, like India’s food problems and the vulnerability of Spain.

Damian Carrington
Jordan

A Catholic University Opens its Doors

It opens its doors right in the middle of the Arab spring. And this is not a mere coincidence. For the past few weeks at Madaba – a Jordanian city 35 kilometers from Amman – registrations are open in a new Catholic University of the Middle East, strongly desired by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem whose jurisdiction includes the Catholics of Jordan. It was Benedict XVI himself, during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in May 2009, who laid the cornerstone of this new university. In these two years, it has been called “American University of Madaba,” in the name of a partnership with the University of New Hampshire which has strongly committed itself to supporting the initiative. But it remains a university that is fully recognized by Jordan, whose High Council for Education in 2005 assigned to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem the license to open its own university. This project has now become a reality: this month the courses of the first academic year will begin in the already completed wing of a large campus that, once totally finished, will accommodate up to 8,000 students.

Giorgio Bernardelli
India

Church Supports Anti-corruption Movement

The present crisis in the country is a call for the Church to introspect and repent, said Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore (photo at right). In a pastoral letter, Archbishop Moras, who is also the president of the Karnataka Regional Catholic Bishops’ Council, urged people to join hands to dialogue and work towards making India and the Church free of corruption.

George Anthony
World Touch

Day of Reflection and Prayer for Peace and Justice

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the historic meeting that took place in Assisi (Italy) on 27 October 1986 (see picture), a day of reflection, dialogue and prayer for peace and justice in the world will take place this month. Pope Benedict XVI invited fellow Christians from different denominations, representatives of the world’s religious traditions and, in some sense, all men and women of goodwill, to join once again a pilgrimage to the home of Saint Francis.

-
World

12 Million People Still Stateless

Fifty years after the adoption of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 12 million people remain without citizenship, most of them living in Asia, according to the UN refugee agency.

Irin News
Philippines

Muslim-Christian Dialogue in a Mosque in Manila

One of the fruits of extensive work on dialogue, carried out by Christians and Muslims, and motivated by goodwill, is the Muslim-Christian Center near the Great Mosque of Quiapo in Manila, one of the commercial districts of the capital. It was opened during the holy month of Ramadan 2011. Called the Golden Mosque, because of its towering golden dome, it is the main center of Islamic activities in Manila and is a benchmark for all Muslim Filipinos coming from the south, where there is a substantial minority of 6 million Muslims. Quiapo is also the district where the famous Church of the Black Nazarene (due to its black statue of Jesus) is situated, and the destination of pilgrimages from all over the country. The initiative to establish a center for dialogue became successful, thanks to the efforts of Fr. Clemente Ignacio, parish priest of Quiapo, the Catholic missionaries and other Muslim leaders who have made the Quiapo area a place of dialogue and cooperation between Muslims and Christians.

www.fides.org
South America

The “Irresponsible Debtors” in the North

Default, insolvency, fiscal irresponsibility, debt crisis and similar terms form part of the vocabulary used to describe countries in the developing South in the 1980s and 1990s. A decade later, the world seems to have turned upside down. The “irresponsible debtors” are now in the industrialized North, and the countries of South America, victims of the “lost decade” of the 1980s and the subsequent financial crises, are now working hard to protect themselves against contagion from the crisis in the United States and Europe. A meeting of economy ministers in Lima (Peru) and another scheduled for Buenos Aires (Argentina), where the ministers will be joined by central bank presidents, are being held to discuss the coordination of policies among the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to deal with the knock-on effects of the crisis still lingering in the developed world.

Mario Osava
Sri Lanka

Over 600 War Children Still Missing

More than two years after Sri Lanka’s decades-long conflict officially ended, the whereabouts of 630 children are unknown, according to a government database. Most went missing during the final phase of the war that ended on 18 May 2009, when government forces declared victory over the now defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who had been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983. According to reports cited by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 64% of those missing were recruited by the LTTE while 30% were last seen behind government lines.

Irin News
World Touch

Catechists Reach Where Priests Can’t Go

Myanmar’s catechists, who number around 2,000, are playing a vital role in the Church’s work by ministering in remote areas that priests cannot easily reach. Performing baptisms, leading funerals and preparing couples for matrimony are their main pastoral duties.

www.ucanews.com
Africa

Famine to Spread Across Southern Somalia

The food crisis in the Horn of Africa (in the East coast of the continent) is likely to continue for most of 2011 and famine is expected to spread to the whole of southern Somalia. “The current food security emergency across the region is expected to persist at least for the coming months,” the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a new regional overview.

Irin News
Load More

Cart/₱0.00
Shopping Cart