World

Your Excellency: We wish to share with you our deep concerns following the violent confrontation by Egyptian law enforcement agents against Coptic Christians that took place in Cairo on October 9, 2011.

There are accounts by witnesses, testimonies from hospitals, and video recordings of peaceful demonstrators being shot by soldiers or run over by armoured military personnel carriers driving at speed. Read more »

Australia's government abandoned a refugee-swap deal with Malaysia on Thursday and said it would now process asylum seekers on Australian soil, in a major policy back flip that heads off an embarrassing defeat in parliament.

A day after she celebrated passing landmark carbon tax laws through parliament's lower house, Prime Minister Julia Gillard was forced to dump the Malaysian plan because she did not have the numbers to change migration laws to allow the refugee swap. Read more »

In the face of the events of recent days in Cairo, sure in the knowledge of belonging to the same communion in Christ who died and rose, as European Bishops we wish to restate our closeness to all Citizens in Egypt, and especially to our brothers in the Coptic Christian community, affected in these days by the murderous violence against peace, harmony between religions, freedom and human dignity. Read more »

The author of an exhaustive study on the Virgin Mary's 1917 appearances in Portugal says her words are being fulfilled by the rise of aggressive secularism and loss of religious freedom in the West.

“Mary, as I see it, pointed out at Fatima that these things were going to happen,” said Fr. Andrew Apostoli, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal and the author of “Fatima For Today” (Ignatius Press, $19.95), in an interview one day before the 94th anniversary of the last apparition in the Portuguese city. Read more »

"Yes" to justice and legality, "no" to death penalty, even for Mumtaz Qadri, who killed the governor of Punjab Salman Taseer and has become for radical Islamic groups, "the hero of blasphemy".

This is what is asked on behalf of the Christians in Pakistan, reported to Fides by various sources in Pakistan, and have started a public debate, in newspapers and websites, to underline the fact "of being against Qadri’s death penalty". Read more »

There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.

This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime.

In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan's new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country. Read more »

Archaeologists say they've discovered the ruins of what is believed to be Peru's oldest Roman Catholic church.

The church outside the northern coastal city of Piura was built in 1534 but its mud walls deteriorated over time as Spanish conquistadors abandoned the area, said archaeologist Cesar Astuhuaman of Piura University. Read more »

A school dedicated to inter-religious dialogue where, among other things, respect and tolerance are taught. The institute is run entirely by a community of nuns.

The school (founded in 1880) is located in Bizerte, northwest of Tunis, and every year it welcomes 870 primary school students. Read more »

A desire for divorce is the cause of much of the tension between Muslims and Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt, according to a newly published article in the Catholic Near East Welfare Association’s ONE Magazine.

Because Islam is tolerant of divorce and Coptic Orthodoxy by and large is not, many Coptic women have converted to Islam to leave their marriages. The magazine reports: Read more »

A British judge ruled against the withdrawal of food and water from a brain-damaged woman.

The case brought by the family of the 52 year old woman identified as ‘M’ sought a declaration that M lacks capacity to make decisions as to future medical treatment.

The family further applied for a declaration that the doctors may lawfully discontinue and withhold all life-sustaining treatment including artificial nutrition and hydration. Read more »