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HOW POPE FRANCIS APPLAUDS CEASEFIRE IN GAZA, WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY, MARY'S MEALS... (214 hits)


For Immediate Release From Vatican News!

(A Ten-Minute Read)



"The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins tomorrow!

The theme for this year, the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, is “Do you believe this?” (John 11:26)

“Today, in many parts of the world, under the inspiring grace of the Holy Spirit, many efforts are being made in prayer, word and action to attain that fullness of unity which Jesus Christ desires. The Sacred Council exhorts all the Catholic faithful to recognize the signs of the times and to take an active and intelligent part in the work of ecumenism.” (Second Vatican Council, Unitatis redintegratio, 4).

Follow us throughout the Week for each day's theme and prayer: https://www.facebook.com/vaticannews.


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News from the Orient - 17th January 2025

In this week's news from the Eastern Churches, produced in collaboration with L'Œuvre d'Orient: A ceasefire is announced in Gaza, Lebanon gets a new President and Prime Minister, and the Church of the Lord's Baptism in Jordan is consecrated.
In this week’s News from the Orient:

Truce in Gaza

A ceasefire agreement was reached on Wednesday between Hamas and Israel after 15 months of war. It provides for a ceasefire beginning on Sunday and the release of 33 hostages in exchange for almost 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem welcomed the announcement, expressing its hope that it put an end to what it called “immeasurable suffering”. The Patriarchate also called for the root causes of the conflict to be addressed and expressed its desire to see the return of pilgrims to the Holy Land.

New President and Prime Minister in Lebanon

Lebanon now has a President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, and a Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam. In accordance with the country’s sectarian system, the former is a Maronite Catholic and the latter a Sunni Muslim.

Joseph Aoun is a career soldier and was until now the head of the Lebanese army, while Nawaf Salam is a diplomat and former President of the International Court of Justice. After 2 years of executive power vacancy, the country is now hoping for political stability. The formation of a government is expected in the coming days.

Consecration Of The Church Tf the Baptism Of The Lord In Jordan

On the 10th January, the Church of the Baptism of the Lord was consecrated on the site of Al-Maghtas, the place where Jesus is said to have been baptised by Saint John the Baptist. The inauguration was the culmination of 15 years of work. The Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, accompanied by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and many of the faithful. Jordan, home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, currently has a Christian population of between 2% and 4% of its 11 million inhabitants.


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Nigeria: African Women Religious Graduate From Hilton-CIWA Theological Formation

The Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA) in Port Harcourt, this week, held a graduation ceremony for women religious from various English-speaking African countries.
Fr. Okhueleigbe Osemhantie and Sr Titilayo Aduloju, SSMA - Port Harcourt

The Hilton-CIWA Theological Formation for Women Religious, which combined virtual and in-person participation, began with Holy Mass presided over by Fr. Professor Luke Ijezie, Dean of the Theology Department at CIWA, who represented the Rector of the Institute.

According to Sr. Dr. Mary Jane Aririguzo, IHM, Coordinator of the Hilton-CIWA Theological Formation for Women Religious, the course has been a success. Its aim is to enhance the theological and spiritual formation of religious sisters in West Africa.

“The program is designed to run concurrently with the ordinary academic session of the Catholic Institute of West Africa. It is fully sponsored by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and is hosted by CIWA. The latter also provides the necessary human resources to support the programme.

A Transformative And Impactful Experience

Over the past two years, the programme has trained 157 women religious from Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, as well as religious women who reside in the USA and Italy -all seeking knowledge rooted in African contexts and experiences. This year, there were 66 religious graduates, Sr. Aririguzo explained.

Sr. Jane Frances Okeke, a secular religious who also serves as one of CIWA’s librarians, shared her thoughts: “My experience in liturgy, the social doctrine of the Church, and journalism was transformative,” she explained. For her part, Sr. Callista Tetteh, a lawyer by training, also added her perspective and said the she found the formation, “a most impactful experience.”

The ceremony highlighted the transformative power of education in equipping women religious to engage actively in theological, social, and cultural discourse matters, thereby shaping the Church and society in Africa and beyond.


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Mary's Meals: Serving Hope, One Bowl At A Time

Where hunger runs rampant, Mary's Meals is providing food to children in schools, involving communities in the process and providing sustainable change to children and their futures—one nourishing meal at a time. By Francesca Merlo

We live in a world of contrast. There is so much to celebrate, but with 148 million children under the age of five suffering from stunting due to malnutrition, there is also so much cause for concern.

In our world, despite this global hunger, a staggering 931 million tonnes of food are wasted each year.

Amidst this, organisations like Mary’s Meals bring hope to some of the most forgotten corners of the globe by, quite simply, feeding children.

Working And Working Well

“We feed children. That's the only thing we do,” says Paloma García Ovejero, International Media Manager at Mary’s Meals. "And we do it very well.”

It’s true. They do it extremely well. Mary’s Meals is present in 16 countries around the world, spanning Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

From feeding schoolchildren in Malawi and Liberia to reaching remote villages in South Sudan, Mary’s Meals is present where it is most needed. The organisation feeds almost 2.5 million children, but, as García Ovejero stresses, the need is greater and there is always another child, somewhere else, waiting to be fed.

“There are seventy million children around the world who are not able to eat or study,” she says, “so we have a lot to do, and we are in a hurry because they are hungry.”

No Excuse

García Ovejero prompts us to examine our conscience when she tells us that feeding a single child for an entire year only costs 22 euros. “That’s 10 cents a day," she emphasises.

So, there is enough money and there is enough food in the world. “Hunger can be tackled right now," she says.

Mary’s Meals is, in fact, tackling hunger by offering practical solutions to this global problem.

Nothing Is Possible Without The Help Of Local Communities

García Ovejero explains that by focusing on local food sources and volunteers, the organisation empowers communities to take charge of their own development.

“We help and then leave once the people are able to do things by themselves. But it is very important for us to keep the promise that once we arrive at a place, a school, a community, a country, we will feed the children until they don’t need us anymore," she says.

Read the full article HERE!: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2...


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African Communicators Hope Jubilee Will Help Restructure Media Strategies

Catholic communicators from Eastern Africa are preparing to attend the upcoming Jubilee of Communications in Rome, expressing their hopes of exploring communications strategies that harness advances in digital technology. By Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

As the first event for the year-long Jubilee of Hope targeting communicators across the world is fast approaching, dozens of media professionals are set to travel to Rome in their roles as directors of national offices from the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) region.

Following the decree Inter Mirifica in 1963, on media of social communications and the pastoral directive Communio et Progressio in 1971, AMECEA bishops organized a meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1973 to assess how to implement the decree.

“50 years down the line, it is time to rethink those strategies in the context where digital technologies have dominated the field of communication,” according to Fr. Andrew Kaufa, AMECEA’s coordinator for social communications.

Jubilee Visit To Strengthen AMECEA Communicators

The ordinary 2025 Jubilee, themed “Pilgrims of Hope,” provides an opportunity for various groups in the Church to increase their way of evangelization.

Speaking to Vatican News, Fr. Kaufa said the Jubilee offers the AMECEA conferences the opportunity to “raise awareness among the bishops and national coordinators of communication on the new trends and pastoral approaches required. At the same time, the fact that the conference will bring the bishops and national coordinators together is in itself a synodal approach to doing Church communication.”

According to the Fr. Kaufa, the Holy Year is grounded in journeying together, with the Church encouraging the faithful to approach the challenges of life with hope.

In the same vein, he said, “national communication coordinators are committed to ensuring that Catholic media apostolates engage with the people in the reflection of the theme to give people hope.”

African Communicators To Journey Together

The Jubilee for the World of Communications will bring together not only AMECEA communicators, as well as media professionals from around the world.

Fr. Kaufa recalled the golden jubilee of the Pan African Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS), an initiative of Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) that was celebrated in 2023.

Read the full article HERE!: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/...


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Holy Land Bishops Welcome Gaza Ceasefire

The Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land express their satisfaction over the Gaza ceasefire announced yesterday, but warn that it is only the first step in a “long process” By Joseph Tulloch

The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land has welcomed the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza, and expressed its hope that the truce will put a permanent end to the “immeasurable suffering” caused by 15 months of war.

In a press release, the Assembly – which is composed of all the Catholic bishops, eparchs and exarchs holding jurisdiction in Jerusalem, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Cyprus – did, however, stress that “the end of the war does not mean the end of the conflict”.

What is needed, the Catholic Ordinaries said, is a “long process” to address the “deep-rooted issues” at the heart of the conflict.

In this regard, their press release called on the international community to “develop a clear and just political vision for the post-war period”.

Pilgrims And The Holy Year

The Ordinaries also said that they “eagerly await the return of pilgrims to the Holy Places”.

Christian pilgrims usually flock all year round to holy sites in Palestine and Israel, but since the outbreak of war in October 2023 they have almost entirely disappeared – with disastrous economic consequences for local economies dependent on tourism.

Finally, the Ordinaries also referenced the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, whose theme is ‘Pilgrims of hope’.

At the beginning of a Jubilee Year “dedicated to hope that does not disappoint,” the Ordinaries wrote, they read the ceasefire as “a sign that reminds us of God's faithfulness.”

You can read the full statement from the Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land here.


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L.A. Blaze highlights Effect Of Land Use On Severity Of Wildfires

Amy Duchelle of the Food and Agriculture Organization stresses that climate change plays a role in the increase of wildfires, but it is not the sole factor. By Kielce Gussie

More than 10,000 buildings are estimated to have been destroyed or damaged in the four fires - Palisades, Eaton, Auto, Hurst - currently engulfing areas of the Los Angeles County. 25 people are confirmed dead, more than a dozen unaccounted for, and tens of thousands have had to evacuate.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) has declared the Eaton fire as the deadliest and most destructive in southern California’s history. The Palisades blaze is ranked second.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization Senior Forestry Officer and Team Leader on Forests and Climate, Amy Duchelle, told Vatican News how “strong winds, called the Santa Ana winds, were the key fire weather influence,” which led to “the fires that exceeded the limits of the firefighting capacity.”

Day 10: Containing the fires

Since the fires broke out on New Year’s Day, firefighters have continued to work to contain all the fires. The two larger fires – Palisade and Eaton – are 21% and 45% contained, respectively. Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been searching for the last three days to discover the source of the Palisades blaze.


Fires: More Intense And Frequent, But Not New

“Landscape fires have grown really rapidly in intensity, scale, and duration,” Duchelle argued, “and this is largely due to climate change and land use changes.” With changes in climate come more frequent heat waves and droughts, which leads to drier lands and forestry.

But Duchelle also stressed that while climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of wildfires, they are natural and “a traditional management tool and part of many ecosystems.”

She explained there is “a changing scenario that's making fire, much more intense.” Yet, climate change is not the only factor of wildfires. The way land is used and managed is also important. For example, urban infrastructures are edging more and more in nature and various ecosystems.

Read the full article and LISTEN: Amy Duchelle describes climate change's role in more frequent wildfires: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2...


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Posted By: agnes levine
Sunday, January 19th 2025 at 3:36PM
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