＜NIGERIA KADUNA CAR BOMB DEATH TOLL RISES TO 36＞
Reuters, KADUNA, Nigeria | Mon Apr 9, 2012
A car bomb near a church in Nigeria’s northern town of Kaduna on Easter Sunday killed at least 36 people and left 13 critically wounded hospital staff and a Red Cross official said on Monday. The following day after the car bomb near a church in northern Kaduna, suspected members of Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram have killed four people and a large undetonated bomb was found in Kano on Monday, authorities said.
＜SYRIA – Christians being targeted by armed Islamist gangs＞
Agenzia Fides, DAMASCUS, Syria | Fri Mar 30, 2012
Armed Islamist gangs, that pollute the Syrian Liberation Army, have targeted some believers in the ongoing conflict. Over 10 thousand Christians have fled from the town of Kusayr, on the border with Lebanon, following pressure from Sunni Islamist groups, a local priest told Fides. Christians who do not want to join the popular uprising are increasingly marginalized and then “considered enemies” of the revolution. Last week a representative of the Syrian Catholic community asked the Syrian army of liberation to save a historic and cultural heritage (historic buildings and places of worship).
＜Number of Priests Worldwide Continues Steady Increase＞
Zenit.org, VATICAN CITY | Mon Mar 12, 2012
Benedict XVI’s secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, presented the Holy Father with the 2012 edition of the pontifical yearbook. The statistical information, which refers to the year 2010, reveals that the number of Catholics in the world moved from 1,181 million in 2009 to 1,196 million in 2010, an increase of fifteen million faithful, corresponding to a growth of 1.3 percent. While the number of bishops went from 5,065 to 5,104, a growth of 0.77%, the numbers of priests in 2010 stood at 412,236, composed of 277,009 diocesan priests and 135,227 regular priests;whereas in 2009 they numbered 410,593 (275,542 diocesan and 135,051 regular).
＜Report: Christians are half of world’s migrants＞
ENI news, NEW YORK | Thu Mar 8, 2012
Christians comprise half (49%) of the world’s 214 million migrants, those who have moved from their country of birth and are now living permanently in a different country, a new study by the Pew Research Center’s “Forum on Religion & Public Life” has reported on March 8.
＜Caritas Calls Governments to Aid Migrant Women＞
Zenit.org, ROME, Italy | Wed MAR 7, 2012
More women than ever before are migrating alone in search of a better life. In a report published for International Women’s Day, Caritas says governments and social services dealing with migration need to address migrant women’s needs.
＜Christians urged to wear cross after moves to ‘sideline’ faith＞
The Telegraph, LONDON, U. K. | Sat Apr 6, 2012
Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the Scottish Roman Catholic leader are calling on Christians to wear the cross to show pride in their faith in the face of attempts to “sideline” Christianity in public life. Shirley Chaplin, a nurse forced out of her job for refusing to take off a cross in 2010, joined them in calling for Christians to “stand up” for their beliefs. David Cameron spoke last week of a Christian “fight back” reasserting the place of religion after a series of cases handing victory to secular campaigners. In recent years Christians have been prevented from wearing crosses to work, praying for medical patients. It emerged last month that Government lawyers will use those cases to argue that Christians do not have the “right” to wear a cross because it is not viewed as an essential component on Christianity.
Arun De Souza S.J.(Jesuit Scholastic)
Murayama Hyoe S.J.(Jesuit Scholastic)
