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Former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Czech President Vaclav Havel have appealed to Chinese authorities to set the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo free “without conditions” before the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Peace 2010. The appeal was published by Britain’s The Observer. Tutu and Havel are honorary co-chairmen of the association, Freedom Now, that represents Liu in international bodies.
A possible new war between North and South Sudan could cause damages around 100 billion dollars, revealed a report recently released by Frontier Economics (a consulting firm in economics) together with the ISS (Institute for Security Studies, a South African think tank that deals with security issues relating to Africa), by SID (Society for International Development) and by Aegis Trust campaigns for a sustainable peace in Sudan.
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.
“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.”
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.
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.”
“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.
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.
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.
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.
