Pope plans historic visit to Sweden in October It has just been announced that Pope Francis will visit Sweden to participate in events on the 31st of October for the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The full programme of the trip has not been finalised but according to Vatican spokesman, Jesuit...
HOLY LAND – “A toxic mix of religious extremism and nationalism” Many Christians in Israel are scared. They feel threatened by Jewish extremists in word and deed. The arson attack carried out by Jewish extremists in June of last year on the Benedictine monastery of Tabgha made international news. “What comes next?” Auxiliary Bishop Shomali...
CUBA – Government gives back expropriated Havana chapel that had been turned into a shop After more than fifty years, the government of Cuba returned a former chapel dedicated to St Therese of the Child Jesus in the parish of Nuevitas to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Camagüey. The chapel had been used for various...
SRI LANKA – Christians prevented from burying their dead Buddhism extremism combined with increasing nationalism has led to an surge in Christian persecution. A leading human rights lawyer, whose name cannot be disclosed for security reasons, said there have been 120 known cases of persecution since the middle of 2015, in addition to many other...
TANZANIA – Another Catholic Church burnt down Yet another Catholic church has been burnt down in Tanzania, the third in the last four months. In the latest arson attack unidentified perpetrators burned a Catholic church in the village of Nyarwele, located in the north-western region of Kagera, bordering Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. The church...
NORTH KOREA – Secret Services suspected of involvement in murder of Christian pastor The murder of Han Chung-ryeol, a Chinese Protestant pastor who was active on the border between China and North Korea, casts suspicion on Pyongyang’s secret services. The mutilated body of Han, 49, was found in Changbai a few hundred meters from the...
EGYPT – “The ice has been broken” The meeting between Pope and Grand Imam received very positively in Egypt Following the meeting between Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of the Sunni al-Azhar University, Ahmed al-Tayeb, last week at the Vatican, hopes have soared in Egypt that this will bring Christians and Muslims closer together....
ARMENIA – Sunday school programme for children in Artik In June this year Pope Francis will travel to Armenia. The Armenians are justly proud of the fact that Christianity was declared as the state religion in their country in the 4th century, making it the oldest Christian nation in the world. Almost 95% of the...
PAKISTAN – Christian couple face death sentence for “blasphemy by text” Pakistani Christians spouses Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar who have four children are facing death. They were charged with blasphemy for allegedly sending text messages (SMS) that were considered blasphemous and were sentenced to death on 4 April 2014. The team of lawyers “Farrukh...
The treasure of faith: the Dominican Sisters and Christian refugees in Kurdistan Refugees among refugees, the Dominican Sisters are an example to us all. In Erbil, where they live now, these sisters seek to dry the tears of those who, like them, have lost everything but faith. This is the only treasure that jihadists...
