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(Vatican Radio) Catholic organisations working on HIV and AIDS began a meeting in Durban on Friday, ahead of the 21st International AIDS Conference, due to open in the same South African city next Monday.The meeting, organised by Caritas Internationalis and the Catholic HIV & AIDS Network, in conjunction with local Southern African partners, brings together many Catholic groups playing a major part in providing diagnosis, care and prevention programmes for people living with the HIV virus.The papal nuncio to South Africa, Archbishop Peter Wells, and the Archbishop of Durban, Cardinal Wilfred Napier were among those welcoming participants to the opening session of the three day pre-conference.Another key speaker at the meeting is Msgr. Robert Vitillo, Caritas Internationalis special advisor on HIV and health. He talked to Philippa Hitchen about the goals of the encounter and the progress that faith based organisations have achieved since the first global AIDS conference was hel...
The head of Sri Lanka’s Catholic bishops has appealed to the nation’s leaders to help those who have lost their homes and livelihood because of an explosion and fire that erupted at an army base in Salawa, near the capital city a month ago. "Residents in the area forced to flee only with the clothes on their backs as a result of the tragedy are still in a state of shock and suffering," Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo said in a press statement. A soldier was killed and thousands of people were evacuated due to the fire and explosions that raged June 5-6. While completely destroying the army camp and its munitions stockpiles, the tragedy, also destroyed hundreds of nearby homes and businesses. The cardinal says that people are now living in makeshift tents."They have lost everything they toiled for over a lifetime, their homes, their commercial ventures and everything that belonged to them which have been reduced to r...
A court in Bangladesh's northern Dinajpur district accepted on Friday a police charge sheet against seven suspected Islamic militants for shooting an Italian Catholic priest last year. All those charged are from the banned local militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh, said investigating officer Bazlur Rashid of Dinajpur police. "The court has accepted a charge sheet against seven militants and ordered the release of three whose involvement in the case was not proved. We have already arrested four of the suspected militants and we continue our efforts to nab the three others," Rashid told Ucanews.Assailants on Nov. 18 shot 64-year-old Father Piero Parolari of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) while he was riding a bicycle on his way to the church-run St. Vincent Hospital in Dinajpur. Father Parolari, a medical doctor, worked in the town for about 30 years, mostly in the hospital. He also helped at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Ch...
(VATICAN RADIO) Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law on July 7th a package of so-called anti-terrorism measures. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom strongly condemns these measures and says that, under the guise of confronting terrorism, they would grant authorities sweeping powers to curtail civil liberties, including setting broad restrictions on religious practices that would make it very difficult for religious groups to operate.Chair of the U.S. Commission, Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, said: “Neither these measures nor the currently existing anti-extremism law meet international human rights and religious freedom standards.” To find out more about this new legislation, I spoke with Andrew Boyd, spokesman for Release International, which serves persecuted Christians around the world.Listen: “It is essentially an anti-terrorist catch-all, which some people are calling a ‘Big Brother&rsqu...
(Vatican Radio) Vanessa Greco, an American resident in the French city of Nice, had a narrow escape when she and her family decided not to attend the city’s fireworks display marking France’s National Holiday because one of her young children fell sick at the last moment. Greco, a former journalist at Vatican Radio now living in Nice with her two children aged 4 and 5, described the somber mood and shock following Thursday’s attack which saw a driver plough his truck at high speed through packed crowds that had gathered along the city’s famous Promenade des Anglais boulevard. She spoke to Susy Hodges about how she first learnt the news and her personal reaction to this tragedy.Listen to the interview with Vanessa Greco, a resident of Nice: Greco described how a friend who had gone to the fireworks display phoned her up to check where she was and how she could hear the sound of people screaming in the background during their conversation. Sh...
Bogotá, Colombia, Jul 15, 2016 / 06:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Colombian news outlet has reported convulsions and other strange behaviors in 22 local teenagers who allegedly played “Charlie Charlie,” a simplified version of Ouija that became popular a year ago.The game consists of a pair of pencils or pens, a piece of paper and the invocation of a demonic spirit named “Charlie” who answers “yes” or “no” to questions put to him.Several days ago, almost two dozen young people between 12 and 15 years-old from the same school started to convulse and behave strangely. They were taken to the health center in the town of Nóvita in Colombia, not far from the Pacific coast and Panama border.Caracol News reported that the girls may have been “possessed” due to playing the game.One of the affected youths, whose identity has been withheld, told the outlet: “you can end up dying from those games because you know this is some...
IMAGE: CNS/ReutersBy Junno Arocho EstevesVATICANCITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis condemned the attack on Bastille Day Celebrations inFrance, calling it an act of "blind violence."Thepope expressed his "deep sorrow" and "spiritual closeness"with the French people in amessage toBishop Andre Marceau of Nice, signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. Pope Francis entrusted thevictims and their families to God's mercy."Thepope expresses his sympathy to those injured and to all those who havecontributed to rescue efforts, asking the Lord to sustain each one in this trial,"the cardinal wrote. He said Pope Francis imparted his blessing on grieving familieswhile invoking "God's gift of peace and harmony" upon the people ofFrance.France declaredthree days of mourning and extended its state of emergency after the July 14 attackalong Nice's seaside promenade; more than 80 people were killed and thedeath toll was mounting. The three days of mourning were to begin July 16. In Pari...
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -- Police in Calgary say they've found a body believed to be that of a 5-year-old girl reported missing this week after her mother was found dead, and a suspect has been charged with murder in both deaths....
A woman sleeps in her car, waiting to receive free dental care at a clinic in rural Virginia. Another peers though a fence at the Mexican border to see the grandmother she left behind 18 years before, when she was brought to the United States as a toddler....
NEW YORK (AP) -- A New York City woman infected her male partner with Zika virus through sex, the first time female-to-male transmission of the germ has been documented....
