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After the conclusion of the second Archdiocesan Synod of Gulu (North Uganda), the Bishop of Lira, Giuseppe Franzelli, noted: “We recall that 100 years ago, in 1911, the first Comboni missionaries arrived here. And thanks to this, there exists a Church that walks together.”
The central African nation of Congo has been called the worst place on earth to be a woman. A new study released by the American Journal of Public Health shows it’s even worse than previously thought: 1,152 women are raped every day, a rate equal to 48 per hour. That rate is 26 times more than the previous estimate of 16,000 rapes reported in one year by the United Nations.
A recent study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated global food loss and wastage at 1.3 billion tons a year, which it calls a “major squandering of resources.” The amount of food wasted is shared almost equally between industrialized and developing countries. But while developing country losses are largely the result of pests, diseases, poor storage and inadequate transport for agricultural produce, in richer countries, perfectly edible food is rejected by retailers or thrown away as household waste.
The independence of southern Sudan, on July 9, is approaching and there is a growing concern for the fate of Christians in northern Sudan. As underlined by Fr. Asfaha Yohannes Weldeghiorghis, Ethiopian Comboni missionary, pastor of Nyala, capital of south Darfur in an interview for Sudan Catholic Radio (SCR), Christians in the North are mostly of southern origin and the support of the Churches of the South are expected. The missionary added that, since the faithful of the two countries have deep human, spiritual and family ties, they have to remain united, just like the Church of the North and South Sudan must remain united after independence, to offer mutual support. Fr. Asfaha also claimed that the Church of the North does not have the same rights of worship as for Muslims, and fears the worst after the independence of South Sudan.
Catholics are looking for guidance and a larger voice from the Vatican on ethical principles for the world of finance and the environment, according to participants at a Vatican meeting on social justice in a globalized world. Some 200 people involved in social justice issues for the Church gathered for an international conference sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The meeting celebrated the 50th anniversary of Blessed Pope John XXIII’s social encyclical, “Mater et Magistra.”
A report released by the International Labor Organization (ILO) for the Fourth Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) that took place in Istanbul, Turkey in early May expressed a strong critique of the snail’s pace of development. The report, entitled “Growth, Employment and Decent Work in the Least Developed Countries,” solidified widespread fears that the “graduation” rate of LDCs was abysmally low, with only three countries out of 51 – the Maldives, Botswana and Cape Verde – moving out of the category since it was created by the United Nations in 1970.
At least 249 women were killed in 2010 for their dowry, this according to the Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights (BSEHR). Whether out of anger or for vengeance, husbands often beat their wives or set them on fire with kerosene, sometimes with the complicity of their families. In some cases, women are strangled and then hanged to simulate a suicide. The figures are incomplete though because many cases are not reported. In fact, if in 2007, there were 145 recorded cases, dropping to 114 in 2008 and 109 in 2009, the numbers last year showed a marked reversal. At the same time, the BSEHR also reported that, last year, at least 122 women were tortured.
A survey found that the majority of Americans believe that capitalism is not compatible with Christian values. The survey, conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service, found that 44% of Americans expressed the belief that the two are at odds, while 36% asserted that capitalism is consistent with Christian values.
The annual number of stillbirths in the whole world is twice the number of people who die from diseases associated with HIV. According to the weekly science magazine, The Lancet, about 2.64 million fetuses die after the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy, mainly in low and middle-income countries. The main causes are birth complications, maternal infections during pregnancy, disorders such as hypertension and diabetes, fetal growth restriction and congenital anomalies. According to experts, more attention to prenatal care would be sufficient to deal with this social plague.
The Christians in India are on the frontline in the war against corruption, which is involving large sectors of Indian civil society. At institutional and federal levels, the bishops are actively involved in the current national debate to approve a specific anti-corruption law called the “Lokpal Bill.”
