World Touch Archives - Page 59 of 71

Family and Mission

Pope To Beatify Parents Of Saint Thérèse

On World Mission Sunday, 2008, a very memorable event will unfold in Lisieux, France. Louis and Zélie Martin, parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the Church’s patroness of mission, will be beatified. Pope Benedict XVI recently recognized a miracle attributed to the Martins; it involves the healing of Italian Pietro Schiliro, who had a fatal lung malformation. Who were these unique parents?

James H. Kroeger, Maryknoll Missionary

China

Credit Crisis “Made In China”

Dark clouds are gathering over China’s economy as it feels the pinch from the US credit crisis and the slowdown in the world economy. The China Construction Bank, the country’s second largest bank but its top mortgage lender, expects its profits to slow down considerably for the rest of the year and in the second half and next year.

Asia News

Wealth Gap

Poverty And Globalization

The growing global gap between the world’s rich and poor requires a Gospel approach to combating poverty, Vatican Cardinal Renato Martino said at a Pan-African conference in Tanzania. Catholic News Service reports that, Cardinal Martino, during his trip to the country, also announced that the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace is preparing a document on “poverty in the age of globalization.”

Africa

First Missionary Institute Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary

The Apostles of Jesus, Africa’s first Religious Missionary Institute, is celebrating its 40th anniversary. It was founded in the late 1960s by two Comboni missionaries, Bishop Sisto Mazzoldi and Fr. Giovanni Marengoni, both deceased.

Development

Food, Fuel And Water Crises Converging

A specter is haunting the cities and villages of most developing nations, warns a senior official of the Washington-based International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group. “It’s the specter of a food, fuel and water crisis,” says Lars Thunell, executive vice president of the affiliated organization.

Thalif Deen

Vietnam

After 30 Years, Caritas Is Reborn

“A new phase begins for the Church of Vietnam,” said Msgr. Nguyen Chu Trinh, bishop of Xuan Loc and chairman of the Committee of Charitable and Social Activities of the Vietnam Bishops’ Council. His assessment of the government’s decision to allow the rebuilding of the Vietnam chapter of Caritas is quite positive. Forced to shut down in June 1976, Caritas Vietnam will be able to operate again, thanks to a decision announced to the Bishops’ Committee by Nguyen The Doanh, head of the Government Committee for Religious Affairs.

Nguyen Hung

Asia

Asian Poverty Line At $1.35 Per Day

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has adopted a new benchmark for poverty line that is more accurate and more relevant to the Asia-Pacific region. The new benchmark, called the Asian Poverty Line, has been fixed at an income of $1.35 per day, the Manila-based regional lender said in a press release while presenting its annual statistical publication – Key Indicators 2008. ADB estimated that according to the new evaluation system, there were probably 843 million people in Asia who lived under the poverty line in 2005.

Asia

Popular Wisdom Can Fight Food Crisis

Ever since the wheel was invented, perhaps nothing so boosted technology as the discovery of oil. The black gold minted the petrodollar, and helped topple the Soviets, ignite Gulf wars and restore Russia. But power still flows down umbilical pipelines! After burning 150 trillion barrels of oil since the world’s first oil-well was drilled 149 years ago, oil-guzzling industrial nations now panic they will need equal quantities just for the next 25 years. West Asia’s role in the equation compounds the panic. Thus, greed fires a green gold rush. The world’s irrigated land area tripled in the past 50 years, but grain demand for agro-fuels has doubled in three years, leaving less grain for food. With the World Bank saying grain price hikes may spread food riots to 33 nations, the U.N. secretary general called a food summit in Rome.

Hector Welgampola | Journalist

China

Global Trade Agreement Collapses

China and India rejected accusations that, with the United States, they are responsible for the collapse of talks in the World Trade Organization (WTO), failing to reach an agreement on more open import rules, lower domestic subsidies and import duties. “In the face of a world economic downturn, serious inflation and imminent financial risks, the failure will have a major impact on the fragile multilateral trading system,” said China’s Minister of Commerce Chen Deming.

Asia News

Malaysia

An Upcoming Vaccine

A type of malaria vaccine for humans is to be tested, following the success of trials undertaken with animals. There is currently no vaccine for the illness which kills between two and three million people every year. Oxford University scientists, part of an international team, reported, in the journal Nature Medicine, that its virus-based jab worked well in mice.

http://news.bbc.co.uk

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