The 13 little ones are all children of Vatican employees, and were accompanied by their parents, godparents, and relatives: thanks to them, the Sistine Chapel, the place where the papal election takes place, was transformed into a humble domestic church, a little parish.
In the homily, the pope rec

Most of the present day church is based on the principle of rights through the procedure of membership the criteria of which varies from church to church and draws the concept of "rights" from the constitutions or canons whatever are operative in respective churches. The so-called church thus taking

But on his first visit to the occupied West Bank, Bush said both Israel and the Palestinians had to make "tough choices" for peace to become a reality, reflecting deep divisions still dogging recently revived negotiations.
He also took aim at the Islamist movement Hamas, whose bloody takeover of th

Baghdad: January 7, 2008. (AsiaNews) – "They represent a clear message and are probably part of a coordinated plan" the attacks which took place today, the feast of the Epiphany, against numerous churches and Christian institutions in Iraq. The Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk. Loiuis Sako is convin

This was revealed in as story by Daniel Blake for the www.christiantoday.com website.
Blake said, "The influential council of Islamic clergy and ulema (scholars)
Hamid Karzai made the warning in a statement during a meeting with Karzai on Friday in which it also called for the reintroduction of

Shanghai (AsiaNews) –In a Christmas pastoral letter Msgr. Aloysius Jin Luxian officially opened celebrations for the 400th anniversary of Catholicism in Shanghai. He invites the faithful of the diocese to a spiritual renewal and asks them not to "let Benedict XVI down", who in his Letter to China

ISLAMABAD: January 4, 2008. (AFP) - A Scotland Yard team that arrived in Pakistan on Friday to help investigate the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto will fail to shed any light on the murder, her party said.
"This Scotland Yard team... what will it do here? It will work under the

Algerian MP Muhammad Hudeibi was quoted as saying this in the local el-Khabar newspaper.
"We want the government to cut down this type of activity because the expansion of evangelisation in Algeria has become an important problem and is not marginal as some think it is," said Hudeibi.
For some y

ISLAMABAD: January 3, 2008. (AFP) – Pakistani opposition parties demanded better security Thursday as the nation prepared for a lengthy campaign ahead of February 18 elections, a week after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The country`s main political parties confirmed they would resume the

by the level of escalating violence against the defenseless Christians in the state of Orissa, India since the Christmas day. FIACONA lately realized that the state government of Orissa, headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and supported by radical Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been in

Mumbai (AsiaNews) – An appeal "to learn to forgive each other" and an invitation to political leaders to "restore harmony" among communities, has come from one of the greatest victims of anti-Christian violence in the state of Orissa, the Australian Gladys Staines. Gladys, now in Australia, lost

NAIROBI: January 2, 2008. (Reuters) - A mob torched a Kenyan church on Tuesday, killing about 30 villagers cowering inside, as the death toll from ethnic riots triggered by President Mwai Kibaki`s disputed re-election approached 250.
Fire engulfed a church near Eldoret town where hundreds of Kikuy

CAIRO: January 2, 2008. Al-Azhar, highest seat of learning of Sunni Islam, today declared that any woman pregnant by rape must abort the baby immediately in order to maintain "social stability".
"A raped woman must terminate the pregnancy immediately upon learning of the pregnancy if a trusted doct

Qazi Mohammad Farooq, the chief election commissioner said that elections shall be fair and transparent but its not possible to hold on due date in prevailing circumstances.
The Pakistan Peoples Party and Muslim League (N) stressed to hold elections on January 8, but Muslim League (Q) wanted delay

NEW DELHI: December 31, 2007. (ANS) -- A national fact finding team of six led by Dr. John Dayal, Secretary General of All India Christian Council, Member of National Integration Council and President of All India Catholic Union, has reached Balliguda in Orissa to find out more about the violence th