PAKISTAN – Christians shocked and worried after latest terrorist bombings Terrorist attacks have resumed with a vengeance after two years of reduced violence following a military operation initiated in June 2014. Islamic State and groups allied to it claimed responsibility for six horrific suicide bomb attacks last week which killed nearly 100 people. The latest...
SUDAN – Missionary sentenced to 20 years in prison A court in Khartoum, capital of Sudan has sentenced Petr Jasek, a Czech humanitarian worker and missionary, to 20 years in prison. The court found him guilty of crimes including espionage and inciting hatred. Jasek was originally facing the death penalty but his life was...
INDIA – Christian convert killed for refusing to renounce Christ Pope Francis himself recently declared that there are now more martyrs than in the first centuries. One of them is the Indian Christian Bartu Urawan, who preferred to endure torture that led to his death rather than renounce his faith. This is the latest episode...
UN to set up new unit for prosecutions of war crimes in Syria UN officials have announced that a new unit is being set up by the United Nations in Geneva to prepare prosecutions of war crimes committed in Syria. This is the first major policy announcement under UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who will soon name...
MIDDLE EAST – Christians divided over ‘safe zones’ for refugees Christian humanitarian and aid groups are divided over whether the policy of creating Safe Zones for refugees in the Middle East will work. “Safe Zones” would be areas set up in the war-torn countries for civilians displaced by the conflict to live in security...
Pope Francis speaks out for rights of indigenous people Pope Francis met with representatives of indigenous peoples who were in Rome for the Third Indigenous Peoples’ Forum. The Forum was organised by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, which is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its foundation this year. The aim of the forum...
SOUTH SUDAN Famine declared – Pope and UN appeal for emergency aid Years of civil war, a refugee crisis and a collapsing economy have taken their toll on South Sudan, which only gained its independence in 2011. Since early 2017, parts of South Sudan have been experiencing a famine following several years of instability in...
MALI – Nun in Mali kidnapped by alleged jihadists The Colombian Foreign Ministry confirmed from the San Carlos Palace in Bogotá that Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez, a religious Sister from Colombia, was abducted by armed men while serving in Mali. Although all four of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate who live in the house...
BRAZIL – 28 seminarians being trained to combat the challenge of proliferating sects Brazil still holds onto its place as the most populous Catholic nation on earth, yet the percentage of Catholics in the country continues to fall. Today only around 72% of the more than 190 million Brazilians still declare themselves Catholics, though...
BULGARIA – Franciscan Sisters’ apostolate with children and lonely elderly Bulgaria is now a member of the European Union, but despite this, around a fifth of the 7.1 million or so inhabitants of this Southeast European nation still live in poverty. In fact one in 10 people are even defined as living in „extreme...
