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Category: World Touch
World Touch

Vatican Recognizes First Asian Society of Priests

Canonical recognition was given to the Mission Society of the Philippines (MSP), the first society of priests founded in Asia, now present in 13 countries. Asianews reported that the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Ivan Dias, signed the pontifical decree. MSP was created in 1965 by the Filipino bishops, on the fourth centennial of the nation’s evangelization. Their goal was “to express in the concrete our gratitude to God for the gift of our faith,” sharing it with “the peoples in Asia and the rest of the world.”

www.zenit.org
World Touch

An Anti-conversion Law Presented in Parliament

The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka is closely following the legal process of the new anti-conversion law that has been presented in recent days to the country’s Parliament. It is a strong measure being taken by the political parties of Buddhist influence, which will now be up for debate. The law, based on the model already approved in several states of India, would “impede the conversion of a person from one religion to the other, if carried out with the use of force, trickery, or fraudulent measures.”

www.fides.org
World Touch

Miners Under Fire Over Rice Shortage

Citing food security and environmental concerns, Philippine bishops have called for a country-wide moratorium on mining as another part-Australian owned mine project in Mindanao comes under fire over fears of damage to agriculture. A moratorium on mining is needed if the country is to avoid a rice shortage in the long term, foreign environment experts have found after a study done in six mining sites across the country, echoing the sentiment raised by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

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World Touch

Mining Methods Threaten Local Communities

Catholic development network, CIDSE, has slammed current methods of extracting natural resources in Latin America as leading to loss of livelihood, violent conflict, persistent human rights violations and environmental degradation. “Local communities living in areas rich in natural resources are threatened. We demand that their basic social and environmental rights are respected,” CIDSE’s representative at the World Social Forum in Belém, Brazil, Geneviève-Camille Tournon, said. “This includes the right to be consulted and to refuse a project in cases where the social and environmental costs are too high.”

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World Touch

Crisis for the Rich, Opportunity for the Rest

During the 2009 World Social Forum that took place in Belém, Brazil, Catholic activist Chico Whitaker told a forum on liberation and theology that the global economic crisis was also an opportunity “to build another world.” Said the Brazilian co-founder of this global event: “At this forum, it is clear that it is really possible to have another world, and not just possible, but urgent and necessary.”

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World Touch

Detained Children Suffer Abuse and Torture

A report launched by PREDA Social Development Foundation uncovers the horrific conditions in Philippine children’s detention centers, police cells where youths and minors are suffering abuse and even torture. The children, guilty of no crime other than homelessness and begging or sniffing industrial glue, are even detained for weeks in some holding cells of the government social services. This well-documented report is based on sound research and the eyewitness testimony of Filipino social workers, paralegal officers and international human rights researchers and lawyers and the testimony of child victims of human rights abuses. The text is supported by graphic photographs from inside the jails covering decades of abuse and the hand-drawn pictures of the children themselves. The full report is available on www.preda.org and the ITV/CNN video, that first revealed the horror of children in prison to the world, is on Youtube.

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Bahrain

King Donates Land to Build a Church

Bahrain will donate a plot of land to build a new Catholic church in the country. The decision by King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa comes in response to a request Pope Benedict XVI made to the Gulf State when its new ambassador presented its credentials last December. “Everyone is aware today that because of the rising number of Catholics, it would be desirable for them to have more places of worship,” the Pope said during the audience with Naser Muhamed Youssef Al-Belooshi, first representative of the Arab Kingdom to the Vatican.

Asia News
World Touch

Acid Attacks Continue Despite New Laws

Acid attacks against women and girls are continuing despite legal campaigns to halt their spread. Over 2,600 cases have been reported since 1999, according to the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) of Bangladesh. Almost all the attacks have been on women or girls. Many of the victims are under 18, says ASF, which has been working to eliminate acid violence for almost a decade.

www.irin.org
World Touch

Malnutrition is One of the Causes of Illiteracy

On a worldwide level, the disparity in access to education is extremely large; the gap between the rich and poor nations is growing, especially in the area of education. The economic crisis taking place has consequences not only on the food crisis and the financial market, but it has also a serious impact on the formation of the youth of developing countries. Large investments and efficient policies are needed in order to rescue the millions of children in the world who suffer illiteracy and lack of schooling.

www.fides.org
World Touch

The 21st Century Land Grab

“History may be repeating itself. Until the mid-20th century, many European countries grew rich on the resources of their colonies. Now, countries including China, Kuwait and Sweden are snapping up vast tracts of agricultural land in poorer nations, especially in Africa, to grow biofuels and food for themselves.” The warning sounded in an article published in the New Scientist. Signed by Debora Mackenzie, it goes on: “The land grabs have sparked accusations of neocolonialism and fears that the practice could worsen poverty.”

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