Bernardo Cervellera

In his message for this most important of moments in the life of the Church, Benedict XVI warns against worshipping wealth, urging us to use it for global solidarity whose lack is strengthening groups like al-Qaeda. Giving oneself is the best and least noisy ways of giving onto others.

The coming of Jesus is stronger than our hoplessness. His life is stronger than the tragedies in our history. The Spirit is stronger than materialism. Our Christmas wishes for AsiaNews readers and the world.

Despite the UN vote in favour of a moratorium on capital punishment, Iran and China continue to kill prisoners. The right to life should be upheld for everyone, convicts as well as unborn children.

Pro-family policies are needed for universal peace in China as much as in Italy. The reference to God is not the cause of religious wars, but rather the basis for world coexistence.

With his new encyclical, Benedict XVI calls on Christians to overcome individualistic views of salvation, urging them instead to be ministers of hope for the world. He calls on atheists to have the courage to do their own self-criticism in light of failed social projects and the ambiguities of scientific progress.

Millions of visitors and many links with international media are the positive outcome for a small news agency, which has become an instrument of dialogue between East and West, on the frontiers of the dignity of every human being, loved by Jesus Christ.

Bishops and priests have disappeared, died in prison or tortured. Christians have been sent to camps and brutally beaten. The state is facing an army of 300 million people it treats as an enemy. In reality they are the only way to realise Hu Jintao’s dream, unless he wants the latter to be the Party’s last lie.

Few important changes are expected as corruption grows among party members. Hu Jintao’s slogans seem empty words. Repression of dissidents, religious figures and media appears to the only path to create a situation of “joy and harmony.”

A year from the Games Beijing and China are getting ready to host the event that will make them the centre of the world. But changes in China will be seen as real depending on how much attention will be paid to the poor, freedom and democracy.

The speech given by AsiaNews’ director at the rally “Against the exodus and persecution of Christians in the Middle East and for religious freedom in the world.”

Pope’s letter: for truth and love of the Church and China

Christians’ “salvation” requires peace in the Middle East