News from Home, World and the Vatican

Agenzia Fides reports that the Association of Indonesian Muslim Students (Himpunan Mahasiswa Islam, HMI) has invited Pope Benedict XVI to Indonesia to an International Conference on Dialogue and Peace to be held in Bali October 2012.

President of the HMI, Noer Fajrieansyah led a delegation to the Vatican to extend the invitation to Pope Benedict. The delegation was met by Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Read more »

Prime Minister Najib Razak, while attempting to portray Malaysia as a moderate voice in the Muslim, is doing just the opposite in his attempts to woo Malay support, according to a leaked US embassy cable.

Commenting on Najib's administration's handling of the 'Allah' and other religious issues, the embassy conveyed scepticism as to how far the PM would go to show that Malaysia was indeed tolerant of religious freedom. Read more »

A Catholic church was attacked and devastated by vandals wearing masks in the diocese of Quilon, in South Kerala (Southern India).

This is what His Exc. Mgr. Stanley Roman (left), Bishop of Quilon tells Fides, who is "concerned that, as Christians, we are exposed to the growth of different religious extremism, especially that of Hindu but also Muslim background". Read more »

Amanda Schulten (left) of Marengo,Illinois,  a small town near the Wisconsin line, is a devout Catholic and refused to end her pregnancy.

She has named the unborn girls Faith and Hope and is tracking her pregnancy in a blog, amanda-faithhopelove.blogspot.com. On the main page is the poignant poem she penned, “I Love You.” Read more »

The President of the German Conference of Bishops, Robert Zollitsch (left) is convinced that in the near future, the Catholic Church will reform its position toward believers who divorce and remarry. “It’s a question of mercy - shortly we will be discussing it intensely,” said Zollitsch in an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit.

“I don’t think that the goal of celibacy is the solution for the worldwide Church, but I think that we will take steps forward on the question of divorced and remarried persons – and I think we will do it while I am still alive,” continued the seventy-three year old Archbishop of Freiburg. Read more »

This article was extracted from the website of Malaysia Today.

Summary

1. (SBU) In their primitive jungle camps and at a medical clinic they established in Kuala Lumpur, Burmese Chin refugees recently described to us their harassment by police and their perceptions of UNHCR indifference regarding their plight. Read more »

We have just celebrated the 54th anniversary of Merdeka, and in a few days’ time we will celebrate the 48th anniversary of the formation of Malaysia.

Both events serve to remind us of the time we assumed responsibility for our own future and destiny. We became a sovereign country, and took our rightful place amongst the family of nations. Read more »