11/01/2011, 00.00
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Eight years of AsiaNews

by Bernardo Cervellera
From bonds of friendship and solidarity between the Church in China and the Universal Church, to the battle for religious freedom. The attempt to understand the real reasons for the Arab Spring and denunciation of Islamic persecution against Christians. Faith in Jesus the most precious gift for the Christians of East and West.
Rome (AsiaNews) - A Chinese priest friend of ours wrote to us to express his best wishes for the eight years of our website. "In all these years - he says - AsiaNews has had a prophetic role and has opened new paths in the communications and mission. You are at the forefront in this era of new evangelization. "

The Chinese priest is able to read news of AsiaNews.it almost daily, rendering the controls and filters with which the Beijing regime tries to silence the voice of the Church and the pope useless. Despite the fact that our website is blocked for most of the time, all the same, AsiaNews reports have succeeded in spreading throughout China, weaving a bond of friendship and solidarity between the Church in China and the Universal Church. Through help offered by AsiaNews readers for example, dozens of young Chinese people were able to attend World Youth Day.

This episode is the easiest and most beautiful way of thanking the Lord and all our readers for the support we receive in our efforts born of PIME (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions) eight years ago. In fact, on 1 November 2003 we started publications in Italian on the web, December 3 in English and Chinese. Of course we owe a lot to the traditional paper-based AsiaNews, started by Fr Piero Gheddo in 1986, when Asia was merely an exotic holiday destination for most of theWest.

For us it seems that AsiaNews, then and now, has a prophetic role to play in opening new paths. Not only in interest for Asia, but also on some qualifying issues. One of these is undoubtedly that of religious freedom. By now many media, politicians, Christian and secular organizations, are closely watching the violations of this law, which is the foundation for all others. And we were comforted when Benedict XVI chosen the theme of religious freedom for the World Day of Peace, in his address to the Curia, and not least on his pilgrimage to Assisi.

The Arab Spring was another qualifying theme this year. Far from indifference and contempt, but also from neo-colonialist attempts (see Libya), we sought to understand and share what drove so many young people in Tunis, Cairo and Damascus in search of a new dignity. And even if the fundamentalist involution appears increasingly likely, we - unlike many Western governments - continue to support the hopes of the young Arabs (and Iranians). Moreover, throughout this year, AsiaNews has always documented the Islamic persecution of Christians, but also some important signs among Muslim intellectuals in defence of human rights and the Christians.

The global economic crisis (which, among other things AsiaNews had already predicted more than three years ago) is among the qualifying themes of our commitment. Not content to follow the stock market index, we showed the human consequences of this crisis among the peasants of India, the workers of China, the labourers of the Middle East. But we have also presented their testimonies in withstanding the crisis with the obstinacy of those who want to live, and the love that the churches of Asia offer their society through schools, training for young people, hospitals, care of the abandoned.

The Chinese priest friend mentioned the "new evangelization". We are working on just that: recounting the risk and sacrifice to the point of gifting their lives of missionaries and faithful in Asia, we wish to reawaken Europe and the West which are silently sliding into apostasy. For Asian Christians faith in Jesus Christ is the most precious gift, and we want this to happen for Western Christians.

Thank you for your participation in this missionary adventure. Continue to support us with your help and your prayers.

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“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”