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Category: World Touch
Biodiversity

The Nagoya Protocol

Within minutes of the Japanese Environment Minister, Ryu Matsumoto, ending the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP 10) at the UN Conference on Biodiversity (CBD), commentators were highlighting its successes and failures. What is at stake is the future of life on Earth. Numerous studies from scientists paint a grim and challenging picture. One such study is entitled The Evolution Lost report. It was prepared by a group of 100 leading zoologists and botanists and published on the eve of the Nagoya conference. It found that populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined worldwide by an average of 30% in the past forty years.

Fr. Seán McDonagh, SSC
Iraq

After the Massacre, the “Dilemma”

“Iraqi Christians are now terrified and in shock. They are faced with a terrible dilemma: emigrate and save the lives of their loved ones, or stay in the country and witness to the faith, risking death,” said Fr. Vincent Van Vossel, CSSR, Superior of the Redemptorists in Baghdad, after the massacre that took place October 31 in the Syrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation (pictured). A commando of terrorists stormed the church, crowded with the faithful during the Mass, taking those present hostage. Iraqi security forces made a raid to free them, but the militants reacted with a massacre that left 58 dead, including two priests, and about 70 wounded. The killers, nine armed men, claimed to belong to the Islamic state of Iraq, a Sunni-militant group that is allied with Al-Qaeda, Later on, the group announced that Christians and Shiites are their targets because both are “infidels.”

www.fides.org
Cuba

Catholic Seminary Opens After 50 Years

Cuban President Raul Castro (pictured) attended the opening of the “Seminario de San Carlos y San Ambrosio,” the first building of the Catholic Church in more than half a century. The official ceremony, presided by the Cardinal Archbishop of Havana, Jaime Ortega y Alamino; and the President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba (COCC), Archbishop Dionisio Garcia, was attended by some 300 guests, including many bishops of the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Italy, and the Bahamas. Among them was also the Apostolic Nuncio in Havana, Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu.

www.fides.org
Holysee

To Eradicate Poverty is an Obligation

We have the means to end worldwide poverty, says the Holy See delegate to the United Nations, but the question is whether we have the will to accomplish it. Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, permanent observer to the United Nations, underlined: “Whatever the form it takes, poverty is an insult to our common humanity – so many people around the world continue to suffer from it.”

www.zenit.org
Africa

Reversing the Resources Curse

“God forbid they find oil in our country.” This is the sentence written by an African journalist during the “Workshop: Media and Africa,” summing up the perception of the African people on the bad use of the material resources of the continent, which has transformed from blessing into curse, especially due to the serious environmental damage caused by mining activities.

www.fides.org
Nonviolence

Priest Gets Peace Award for Activism

The Rev. Fr. John Dear stood silent as he received the 2010 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award at St. Ambrose University, Davenport, USA, for his worldwide peace-activist efforts. The award, presented by Bishop Martin Amos of the Diocese of Davenport, admits Dear, a Jesuit priest, into a prestigious fellowship that ranges from Mother Teresa of Calcutta to President John F. Kennedy. Dear, who has contributed several times to World Mission, just said: “I certainly don’t fit into this community. I feel like a novice peacemaker.” The award was inspired by Pope John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical, Pacem in Terris, or Peace on Earth.

Mary Louise Speer
Oslo

Nobel Upsets Chinese Diplomacy

The announcement of the Norwegian Nobel Committee provided an upset ending for a week of public diplomacy by China in Europe. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had toured European capitals showering goodwill and lucrative investment deals for cash-strapped European economies. But if there was ever any speculation that the allure of China’s burgeoning market and its development model can make the West forego universal values such as freedom and democracy, it evaporated with the award given to one of China’s most courageous dissidents, Liu Xiaobo.

Antoaneta Becker
Vatican

New Saint Champions Women and the Youth

Blessed Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola (1845-1912), the Spanish founder of the congregation of the Daughters of Jesus, was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 17. She was an educator who never went to school; a teacher who never had the chance to be a student. Yet, because of her childlike faith, Blessed Candida Maria de Jesus made it possible for tens of thousands of women and children around the world to enjoy quality Christian education, especially in countries where opportunities are limited. Not only did she establish schools for higher learning, she also worked for the betterment of societies afflicted by many ills, such as poverty, ignorance, war and discrimination.

Angela Blardony Ureta
South Korea

Old Mobile Phones Provide Gold for Africa

A Catholic organization in Korea is raising funds for African children by collecting used mobile phones to recover valuable parts for sale. The Korean Catholic Solidarity for the Integrity of Creation, on Oct. 2, donated 44 million won (about US$40,000) to the Sisters of Christian Doctrine in Andong. It discovered that dilapidated cell phones, mostly discarded as waste, contain valuable parts that can be turned into money for supporting children in central Africa affected by civil war and environmental problems.

Stephen Hong

Christians are the “Most Persecuted”

Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world, European bishops have told a Brussels conference. A report issued this week by the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) said that at least three-quarters of all religious persecution was directed at Christians, the Catholic Herald reports. In the report, the bishops urged the European Union to apply more pressure to countries around the world that failed to protect the religious freedom of their citizens. They called on the EU’s foreign ministry, headed by the Labor peer Lady Ashton, to set up a “religion unit” to promote the cause of religious freedom more effectively.

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