HEALTH - Scientists, policy makers, community leaders and people living with the HIV virus are halfway through the International AIDS conference taking place this week in Melbourne, Australia. As the number of new infections and AIDS related deaths drops and more people receive life-saving anti-retroviral drugs, participants are looking particularly at how to close the gap...

REFLECTION - At the end of June I was asked to speak in Washington, DC at a Coptic Solidarity conference. I receive similar invitations quite often these days, because while I am a dreadfully inadequate spokesman for their cause, I do speak of the suffering of Arab Christians whenever I can. Islam’s war on Christianity, in fact, is the subject of my forthcoming book...

EDUCATION - Vatican City.  ‘Educate Today and Tomorrow: A Passion that Renews Us’, is the title of the working document published on April 7 by the Congregation for Catholic Education in preparation for the World Congress on Education that will be held in Rome on November 18-21, 2015.  The 50th  anniversary of the Council Declaration on Christian Education...

REFLECTION - Several reports published in the past weeks provide useful information on the situation of the Catholic Church in Poland. During the recent European Congress on Vocations in Warsaw, the European Vocation Centre (EVS) presented recent findings on the formation of candidates to the priesthood and religious in the Old Continent. Moreover...

MESSAGES - The General Chapter of the Dominican Sisters of Charity of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin meeting in Tours, France, who are present in 36 countries, including Iraq since 1873, declares being extremely upset about the tragic situation of Christians in Iraq. We totally agree with the declaration of “very deep concern” of the Secretary General of the United Nations...

CONSECRATED LIFE - The Western Region of the CRI had its Annual General assembly from 6-8, July 2014 at Sarvodaya, Goregoan, Mumbai. The 51 participants included Major Superiors and executives of the local units. The theme for the AGM was, ‘Psycho-Sexual Integration & Celibacy’. The resource person was Fr. Joe Mannath SDB. The assembly...

HEALTH - Vatican Radio has learnt that the African Jesuit Aids Network (AJAN) is working on a book that will offer a comprehensive theology about AIDS from an African perspective. The book is set to be published next year in 2015 and will be titled, Current Christian perspectives on HIV and AIDS in Africa: theological reflection, public health crises and social transformation.

REFLECTION - “Allowing women to take up the role of bishop is going to change the church,” was the crisp conclusion of the current Dean of Salisbury Cathedral, The Very Revd. June Osborne after the vote which finally paved the way for women to be consecrated to the Episcopate of the Church of England. The Dean went on to add that “I think its going to change our society...

NEWS 2014 - Pope Francis has appointed new consultors to the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, including the Italian archbishop who serves as secretary of the Congregation for Catholic education, as well as several religious representing Rome's pontifical universities...