World

The BBC has become less anti-Catholic under a Muslim head of religious programming, according to former Conservative Minister Ann Widdecombe (left).

Miss Widdecombe said that since Aquil Ahmed was appointed two years ago the BBC’s religious coverage had “improved vastly”. Speaking to the Irish Catholic, she said: “He isn’t a Christian but he understands faith, he understands religion. Read more »

Restrictions on religious beliefs and practices rose between mid-2006 and mid-2009 in 23 of the world’s 198 countries (12%), decreased in 12 countries (6%) and remained essentially unchanged in 163 countries (82%), according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Because several countries with increasing restrictions on religion are very populous, however, the increases affected a much larger share of people than of states. Read more »

The Jesuits have sold the historic St Cuthbert Gospel – believed to be the oldest intact book produced in Europe – to the British Library for £9 million.

The British Province of the Society of Jesus agreed to sell the late seventh-century Anglo-Saxon manuscript to raise funds to restore a historic church and pay for educational work in London and Glasgow, Scotland. Read more »

Two years on from one of Pakistan’s worst outbreaks of anti-Christian violence Muslim leaders have publicly apologised to people who lost loved ones, homes and businesses.

Marking the second anniversary of the violence in the Punjab’s Gojra city where eight people died, two ‘Pirs’ (holy men) addressed the crowds asking for pardon on behalf of the extremist mobs who carried out the atrocity. Read more »

The Australian Navy on Sunday intercepted a boat of refugees headed for the country, and took them to Christmas Island.

The 54 refugees will be the first sent to Malaysia under a controversial deal signed last week. Read more »

The "digital age" generation flocking to Madrid for World Youth Day in a couple week's time will be made aware of one of the darker sides of digital culture: the flourishing business of Internet pornography. 

Thanks to an award-winning documentary created by Anteroom Pictures in New York City, the pornography industry will be exposed and analyzed before the young audience. Read more »

The tomb of Saint Philip, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ was discovered in Pamukkale (the ancient city of Hierapolis), in Turkey.

Vatican Insider reports that Italian archaeologists Francesco D’Andria who headed the team pointed out that the tomb has not yet been opened but that it will be sooner or later. The report further quotes D’Andria who said that the discovery is “of primary importance to archaeology and to the Christian world.” Read more »

The name, Kazimierz Swiatek, may not ring a bell to many. But Pope John Paul II described him as “the Way of the Cross of persecution, carrying the cross of prison, of unjust condemnation and of the labour camps with their burden of toil, cold and hunger”

Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek of Minsk-Mohilev, Belarus, died recently at the age of 96. He had led a memorable life filled with tribulations. Read more »

Petitions calling for action to protect Christians and other minorities in Pakistan have been handed in at 10 Downing Street.

The documents, bearing the names of more than 6,000 people, were presented at Number 10 by an ecumenical delegation that included Neville Kyrke-Smith, director of Aid to the Church in Need UK, the Catholic charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians. Read more »

The bride has willingly accepted to stay a prisoner for life. Today, Farah Hatim, the Catholic Pakistani girl kidnapped in May last year, forcibly converted to Islam and made to marry her Muslim kidnapper, presented herself before the local section of the Punjab High Court, in Bahawalpur.

The appeal had been presented by the APMA (All Pakistan Minorities Alliance) after a court of first instance had rejected the family’s request to meet the girl. Read more »