Bernardo Cervellera

Fr Serafino Morazzone and Sister Enrichetta Alfieri are also beatified. Card Tettamanzi holds them up as examples of the “greatness” of “Evangelical smallness”. All offerings made will go to rebuild the Moglin orphanage destroyed in last March’s earthquake.

The upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa give rise to hopes, but also to fears of an military or fundamentalist involution. The Churches of Tunisia and Egypt want to live alongside the entire population. The debate on the "secularism" of the institutions and religious freedom. A tired and "cowardly” West is in need of a new evangelization. The outcome of the Oasis Scientific Committee meeting.

In Riyadh the "jasmine revolution" has been largely "virtual", expressed by bloggers and petitions. But it was quickly stifled, accused of being a "sedition" against Allah and maneuver "Iranian". Some protesters have disappeared in police custody. The demand for a constitution "written by man," considered an insult to the Koran ("not written by human hands"). Western governments unconditional support for Saud has also played a role.

The scientific committee of the journal Oasis opened its annual meeting to discuss the present and future of the ‘Jasmine Revolutions’. Great new things are now possible, ranging from the battle against poverty and the struggle for human dignity to the rejection of Islamic radicalism. There are also worrisome signs with regard to fundamentalist groups and fears in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Europe. For Patriarch Scola, a new “economic reason” is necessary. Christian humanism must help the changes underway.

At the request of many Chinese believers, underground and official, the Vatican issues a statement to explain matters related to illicit ordinations and subsequent excommunication of bishops (ordaining and ordained). The guilty parties should make a public gesture of penance, abstain from the Eucharist, the sacraments and government of the diocese. All this is a "medicinal" cure to allow for reintegration into Catholic communion. The full text of the Declaration.

The Chinese government is preparing Episcopal ordinations without papal mandate. Priests, candidates and bishops are under pressure from the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. Whilst understanding their plight, the secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples calls on them to stand their ground and resist. Vatican appeals for the release of imprisoned Chinese bishops are met with government silence. The beatification of Card Gong Pinmei and other Chinese martyrs under Communism is under consideration.

A group of young Catholics, some recently baptised, would like to participate in the meeting with Benedict XVI and the youth of the universal Church, but lack the money for the trip. AsiaNews urges its readers and other WYD participants to contribute about 10,000 Euros.

Every year, the Sheshan shrine is transformed into a battlefield: police, checkpoints, cameras, metal detectors, to crush the pope's appeal for the unity of the Church in China, on the World day of prayer for Chinese Catholics. Labour camps,, arrests, bans fail to stop prayer, even in prisons. Attempts to divide the Church and our solidarity.

There will be freedom in China the day people can freely criticise the great helmsman. However, at present, studying with any objectivity Mao’s period, including the disasters of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, is currently impossible. The leadership is divided and quarrelling. Wen Jiabao wants political reforms whilst Bo Xilai is forcing students and workers to sing the glory of the party and Mao Zedong.

Support for the terrorist leader and al Qaeda was already at its lowest point in recent years, even in Pakistan. For many Muslims, Bin Laden is a “black mark” in the history of Islam. Young people in Cairo and Tunis had already distanced themselves from Jihad and terror, favouring instead democracy rather than an Islamic caliphate.

Some "enlightened" Catholics criticise the "hurry" for his beatification. But the personality of John Paul II testified that faith is not about rules, abstract dogmas or sociological moralisms, but a relationship with Jesus Christ that changes lives. His consecration to Mary without sentimentality; contemplation and missionary zeal to bring Christ to the world, surpassing clerical closure and materialistic suffocation, these are the pillars of his message. He was the pope who launched the mission in Asia for the Third Millennium. AsiaNews is indebted to the vision of this great pope and blessed.

Interview with Gregory III Laham, Melkite Patriarch of Damascus. Doubts about the identity of those leading the revolt. Even today, demonstrations and violence in many cities. Today is the 'Day of wrath "and for the first time an invitation to take to the streets comes from Muslim Brotherhood.