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In today’s world, marked by loneliness and indifference, Christians must learn to offer “signs of hope,” “cultivating the great ideals that transform history” and the world. This calls for better awareness and to “show” Jesus and His message of love to the world. This is the underlying meaning of World Mission Sunday – which will be celebrated October 24 – explained by Benedict XVI in his message devoted to it.
More than 700 adults and children have been abducted in a largely unreported massive abduction campaign started by the Ugandan rebel, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), in Central African Republic (CAR) and the neighboring Bas Uele district of northern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), denounces Human Rights Watch (HRW). Nearly one-third of those abducted are children, many of whom are being forced to serve as soldiers or are being used for sex by the group’s fighters, the report says.
Archaeologists have found evidence supporting a traditional belief that St. Peter was jailed in Rome’s maximum security Mamertine Prison before he was crucified and buried on the hill where St. Peter’s Basilica was later built.
The Philippines will likely fail in meeting its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 in conflict-affected Mindanao, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns. And adds: “If it wants to achieve the MDGs without major disparities, then focus must be put on Mindanao where the indicators are far below many of the national averages,” Vanessa Tobin, UNICEF country representative, said in Manila.
Tourism, by “bringing us closer to creation in its variety and wealth, can be an occasion to promote and increase the religious experience.” The Catholic Church, in the year the United Nations dedicated to biodiversity, is urging everyone to pay closer attention to humankind’s responsibility towards nature, even when people seek rest and leisure.
Fr. Sebastiano D’Ambra, PIME, the founder of the Silsilah Dialogue Movement, was honored on July 22, 2010 by the Ateneo de Manila University with the Bukas Palad Award. The awarding ceremony was held at the Erwin Shaw Theater on the Loyola Heights campus of the university. Other awardees at this year’s ceremony were Monsignor José C. Bernardo, Jr., also for the Bukas Palad Award; Federico Aguilar Alcuaz for the Gawad Tanglaw ng Lahi; and Dr. Alfredo R. A. Bengzon for Lux-in-Domino Award.
The first Christian radio station from the Holy Land will soon be on air, with the aim of becoming a bridge between people of different faiths in that region. Father Raed Abu Sahlieh, a parish priest in a small Christian community of Palestine, expressed the hope that the radio station will be “a bridge between different churches and religions.”
The blasphemy law and Islamic extremism “are obscure evils of Pakistan’s society;” “they disrupt stability, harmony and legality,” Muhammad Aslam Khaki, a Muslim jurist and lawyer, commented the day after the murder of the Emmanuel brothers in Faisalabad. Totally committed to defending human rights in Pakistan and eradicating religious extremism, he is presently defending persons, some of them Christians, charged with breaking the blasphemy law. Although because of this he is subject to “pressure and threats,” the lawyer is determined in his commitment to promote legality.
Hundreds of children, victims of years of war in northern Uganda, are denied urgent assistance because of lack of funds and adequate medical service, according to the Northern Uganda Transitional Justice Working Group.
Hope, joy and optimism is growing in Mongolia’s small Catholic community, in particular, because of a brand new community formed by six newly-baptized women in Arvaiheer, main town of the southern Mongolian Uvurhangai region, thanks to the missionary endeavors of the community of Consolata Missionaries.
