World Touch Archives - Page 64 of 71

Vatican

Number of Catholics Worldwide Increases

The number of Catholics in the world is increasing – albeit not much: they were 1.31 billion in 2006, an increase of 1.4% compared to the 1.15 billion in 2005. And there is a continuation of the trend that, since 2000, has seen an increase in the number of priests, both diocesan and religious, who went from 406,411 in 2005 to 407,262 in 2006, an overall change of 0.21%. These are some of the figures contained in the Annuario Pontificio for 2008 presented by the Pope.

Asia News

Lent

Charity Means Giving Oneself

In his message for Lent, Benedict XVI writes that it is foreign to the Gospel perspective to do good deeds expecting a personal return, perhaps in terms of public image. The entire Gospel is summed up in the commandment of charity, and according to the example of Jesus, what gives value to all almsgiving is love, which inspires different forms of giving, according to the opportunities and conditions of each one.

Asia News

Philippines

A New Missiology Institute

The Society of the Divine Word’s Philippines Central Province (SVD PHC) began its two-year celebration of 100 years of missionary presence in the Philippines at Quezon City, highlighting mssion challenges today. The Order is planning the creation of a missiology institute as part of the centennial project.

UCA News

Science-Religion Dialogue Can Humanize Globalization

Science and religion together play a crucial role in humanizing and neutralizing the ill effects of globalization, two Indian Jesuit scholars contend. Religious values can give a human face to globalization by making people all over the world see themselves as members of a single society linked by global trade, technology and new socio-cultural concepts, they maintain. Fr. Job Kozhamthadam, president of Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth (Light of Knowledge University), a pontifical seminary, and Fr. Kuruvilla Pandikattu, associate director of Indian Institute of Science and Religion (IISR), presented their views at a recent seminar.

UCA News

Davos

Gore Predicts Worsening Climate Change

Climate change is taking place even faster than the worst predictions made by the UN’s panel, Al Gore said at the enlarged World Economic Forum meeting that once more took place at Davos (Switzerland). The former US vice-president and winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize warned that there were forecasts that the North Pole ice cap could disappear during summer months within five years.

David Charter

World

UN Calls Water Top Priority

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world to put the looming crisis over water shortages at the top of the global agenda this year and take action to prevent conflicts over scarce supplies. He reminded business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum that the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan was touched off by drought – and he said shortages of water contribute to poverty and social hardship in Somalia, Chad, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Colombia and Kazakhstan.

U.S.A.

Neglected Crisis Leaves 5.4 Million Dead

Conflict and humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo have taken the lives of an estimated 5.4 million people since 1998 and continue to leave as many as 45,000 dead every month, according to a major mortality survey released by the International Rescue Committee.

U.S.A.

Make Poor No. 1 Priority

The U.S. bishops asked President George Bush and Congress to make the needs of the poor their number one priority as they were debating and passing an economic stimulus package. The bishops said this in a letter addressed to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that urged bipartisan cooperation to “find effective ways to protect the poorest families and low wage workers from financial hardship during this economic downturn.”

www.zenit.org

Vatican

Church’s Aid Agencies Seen As Exemplary

The Church’s charitable organizations are models to imitate, in the sense that their low operating costs mean nearly all donated monies go directly to the needy, said Cardinal Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the agency that coordinates and promotes the world’s Catholic institutions of assistance and volunteering.

www.zenit.org

Pakistan

Bhutto’s Murder Rekindles Ethnic Suspicions

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, leader of the powerful Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and twice prime minister, has pushed to the brink a country already known for regionalism and ethnic suspicion. Bhutto was widely acknowledged as the only leader who enjoyed popularity in the four ethnically distinct provinces of the country, Punjab, Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) besides her own Sindh.

Irfan Ahmed

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