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Category: World Touch
Sudan

The First Catholic University in the South

St. Mary’s University, the first Catholic university in South Sudan, was inaugurated in the capital city of Juba last April. The ceremony was attended by the Security and Religious Affairs Minister, Maria Kiden Kimbo, of the South Sudan Government. St. Mary’s is the second private university in the capital of South Sudan. Minister Kimbo praised the opening of the new university, which will offer an education to future social workers, a profession that is extremely important in a country with nearly 50,000 handicapped persons.

www.fides.org
Italy

Cardinal Donates Savings to Start Bank for Poor

Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe (see photo) is responding to the world economic crisis with more than exhortations; he is donating a year’s stipend and part of his personal savings to initiate a diocesan bank that will offer micro-credits to the poor. The Naples archbishop explained his plan in a pastoral letter titled “Where Can We Buy Bread?” The letter takes its title from the question posed to Jesus by the disciples before the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. He said the initiative aims to respond to the needs of “unemployed young people, and also of all those who have lost or will lose their jobs.”

www.zenit.org
Philippines

Four Million Child Slaves

In the Philippines, children are victims of prostitution rings, sex slaves for hire and are forced to work in high seas or open fields for up to 15 hours a day. They till the land, labor in the mines or scrub floors as domestic workers, on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and work for at least 15 hours a day. Child labor is a curse that touches the lives of about four million children.

Santosh Digal
Tibet

Dalai Lama Foresees Successor

The Dalai Lama said, in a CNN interview broadcast last May, that his reincarnation would be found in the “free world” rather than in Chinese-occupied Tibet. The 73-year-old spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists also accused China’s communist government of “cultural genocide” in its assault on Tibet’s way of life but stressed that the future looks brighter for his people as China itself modernizes.

www.afp.com
Sri Lanka

Another “Tsunami” for Tamil Civilians

“The Tamil civilians affected by the violent conflict underway are experiencing a second tsunami,” this is the advisory being sent out by Fr. Ajith Perera, a priest from Trincolmalee who has been at Tamil refugee camps, helping people with material and spiritual support.

www.fides.org
Holysee

Crisis Hits Littlest Ones Hardest

The financial crisis has bigger effects than the developed world has to face, says Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, pointing to an expected rise in infant mortality in poor countries this year. The Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N. offices in Geneva reflected on the causes and effects of the financial crisis while addressing the 10th special session of the Human Rights Council.

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Vatican

Recovering Paradise by Caring for Nature

Vatican officials are urging tourists to use ethics and intelligence and engage in pastimes that respect man and creation, as the planet faces the challenge of climate change. In a letter sent to participants in a congress on international tourism, Cardinal Renato Martino and Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Travelers, said that everyone is responsible for climate change.

www.zenit.org
Hawaii

“Lepers’ Apostle” to be Declared a Saint

The miraculous healing of a Hawaiian woman with cancer is leading to the canonization of a priest known for his ministry with lepers relegated to a sequestered community. Belgian Father Damien de Veuster (1840-1889) is known as “the apostle to the lepers,” for his ministry on the island of Molokai. Pope John Paul II beatified Father Damien in 1995.

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Asia

Health and Education are the Paths to Progress

The fight against poverty and underdevelopment, in Asia and in other parts of the world, is not only overcome through a growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but in an increase in access to health and education. This is what the international association “Social Watch” is showing in its new annual report entitled “Rights is the Answer.” Social Watch has developed a new method for measuring the social and economic conditions of the world population: the Basic Capabilities Index (BCI), for analyzing the state of healthcare and level of basic education in 176 countries.

www.fides.org
Interreligious Dialogue

Muslims and Catholics Join to Promote Peace

Muslims and Catholics have much in common when it comes to beliefs about peace, participants decided at an interreligious meeting: Both faiths consider that peace should permeate all aspects of life. This was a conclusion from the Joint Committee for Dialogue of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Cairo-based Permanent Committee of al-Azhar for Dialogue Among the Monotheistic Religions. The group had their annual meeting last February.

www.zenit.org
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