KERKRADE (SE): Regular columnist for the Sunday Examiner and longtime advocate for the rights of children, indigenous people and the abused, Father Shay Cullen, was presented with the Martin Buber Plaque Award in recognition of his work at a ceremony in Kerkrade as part of the International Festival of Dialogue in the Netherlands on November 17.
 

VATICAN (SE): The international co-president of the worldwide Catholic peace organisation, Pax Christi, told Vatican Radio on November 13 that even the threat of using nuclear weapons against any state or people is immoral.
 
Marie Dennis, from the English branch of Pax Christi, said she hopes that the condemnation of all nuclear weapons by Pope Francis will have some impact on the serious and frightening exchange going on between Washington and Pyongyang.
 

VATICAN (SE) The world does not just need a brain drip, but the brain needs a good and complete wash, the governor of California in the United States of America (US), Jerry Brown, maintained at a gathering held in the Vatican on November 4.
 
He pointed to the need to slow the devastation being caused by climate change, stressing that society cannot simply rely only on science and technology, but must begin to accept the need for more transformational approaches.
 

HONG KONG (SE): To mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, the Commission of Episcopal Conferences in the European Union held a gathering in the Eternal City from October 27 to 29, the final day of which included an audience with Pope Francis.
 
Meeting under the theme of Rethinking Europe, the bishops chose the anniversary for their gathering because they believe that the treaty that was signed in 1957 marked the beginning of the integration process which finally lead to the formation of the European Union.

VATICAN (SE): The Church’s Book of Statistics published by the Vatican for 2015 shows that the global Catholic population has now grown to 1.284 billion, or 17.7 per cent of the total number of people in the world.
 
This represents a 12.5 million year on year increase compared with 2014. The statistics, published by Fides on October 22 to mark World Mission Day, show North and South America with the largest number of Catholics at 625 million, or 63.6 per cent of the 982 million population.
 

VIENNA (SE): The secretary of the Bishops’ Commission for the Pan-Amazon Region of Brazil, Austrian-born Bishop Erwin Kräutler, is making a strong push for a married priesthood and women deacons in his preparation for a 2019 Synod of Bishops called by Pope Francis to study the Pan-Amazon situation.
 

WASHINGTON (SE): Advocates for persecuted Christians and minorities in the Middle East received unexpected tidings straight from the mouth of the vice president of the United States of America (US), Mike Pence, on October 25.
 
Pence informed a Christian solidarity group that from now on all US aid going to the Middle East would be channelled through non-government agencies for the support of persecuted Christians.
 

HONG KONG (SE): The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was announced as the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace for 2017 by the Nobel Committee in Oslo on October 6.
 
What grew out of a small group of people in Melbourne, Australia, some 10 years ago, has now mushroomed into a coalition of non-government organisations in over 100 countries.
 

MANILA (UCAN): Caritas Philippines has launched an appeal for the restoration of the destroyed St. Mary’s Cathedral in Marawi, which was the first building to be attacked by the Maute Group when its militia took over the city on May 23 this year.
 
Father Edwin Gariguez, the secretary of Caritas in Manila, is placing a high importance on the restoration of the cathedral, as it is an important Catholic symbol in the predominately Muslim city on the southern island of Mindanao.
 

NEW DEHLI (UCAN): The Catholic Bishops Conference of India released its Guidelines to Deal with Sexual Harassment at the Workplace, the first such initiative, in New Delhi on September 14. The Council for Women of the bishops’ conference framed the guidelines.
 
Apart from Church institutions, all dioceses, parishes and religious congregations are to institute complaints committees to which a case of sexual harassment can be reported.