Mission World
Faith needs reason, but also love, says expertItaly (ZENIT) - Without love, faith will fall short of its goal, and reason will lack a foundation, concluded a professor of Islamic sciences during an interreligious reflection on Benedict XVI's Regensburg address.
Wa'il Farouq, a professor of Islamic Sciences at the Coptic-Catholic Faculty of Sakini in Cairo, said this Wednesday during the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, organised in Rimini by the Communion and Liberation Movement.
The address was criticised by some Muslim circles for not shedding a favourable light on Islam or the prophet Mohammed.
Farouq said that he agrees with the Pontiff's reflections on fundamentalist religion and violence: "Nihilism and fundamentalism agree in their scorn for God and man: the former because it denies the truth, the latter because it wants to impose the truth."
"This is where violence is born," Farouq explained. "Violence that can be overcome by the commandment to love." "Reason," he claimed, "is a relation based on love: Without love, faith itself does not reach its goal."
Farouq then pointed out that Mohammed wrote, "You will not be brothers until you love each other."
Vocations bear World Youth Day imprint 10 years on
Hong Kong (UCAN) - Canossian Sr Noel Ting Chi-man regards the 1997 World Youth Day (WYD) celebration as pivotal to her decision later to become a nun.
Sr Ting shared what she experienced as her group visited a monastery in northern France 10 years ago. The nun, now in her early 30s, said her heart started pounding as the priest who headed the 250-strong Hong Kong delegation spoke of how God has a special vocation for each person.
Sr Ting was among several delegates to the 12th international WYD celebration, held Aug. 19-24, 1997, who later entered a Religious congregation or seminary.
Another of them, seminarian Joseph Liu Nga-lun, told UCA News the experience prompted him to reflect seriously on how God was calling him to the priesthood. Four years later, in 2001, he entered the diocese's Holy Spirit Seminary. Having completed his theology studies, he is serving in a parish and preparing to be ordained a deacon.
About 50 of the Hong Kong delegates to the 1997 event gathered 10 years to the day after it opened.
Decades of church radio service draws praise from Muslim listeners
Pakistan (UCAN) - Bilal Bhutta claims he owes his letter-writing skill to a decade of listening to the Urdu-language broadcast service of Radio Veritas Asia (RVA).
He told UCA News, "Although I couldn't write properly, I sent letters to Radio Veritas," on the occasion of their 20th anniversary which broadcasts in Pakistan's national language.
RVA, operated by the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, has its offices and shortwave transmitters outside Manila.
Speaking to UCA News, Bhutta, 27, said he learnt to write properly after listening to edited versions of his "jumbled and topsy-turvy letters" being read out on the radio.
The Muslim border guard at the Pakistan-India border checkpost in Wagah, 30kms east of Lahore, talked of his love for the Catholic radio service.
Bhutta said he had never missed an RVA programme in his 10 years of listening, even on his wedding night.
Bhutta is just one of the "addicts" of the Church-run Urdu radio service, which began on Aug. 14, 1987, mainly for listeners in Pakistan, India and the Middle East.
Teaching English with the Gospel
South Vietnam (ZENIT) - Filipino Claretian missionaries are teaching English to the Vietnamese, using digital recordings of the Gospel as their textbook.
The innovative approach, titled "The Daily Gospel 2007 in MP3 Discs," is sponsored by the Claretians with the help of the Sacred Heart Fathers and the Salesians who provide free use of their audio recordings of the sacred texts, AsiaNews reported.
Fr Angelito Ancla, one of the project promoters said, "Many Vietnamese are eager to study English but have major difficulty in pronunciation and listening." The audio tool helps to mitigate the difficulties.
Fr Ancla explained that the government has not shown hostility to the project, "We have also published with government permission the daily Gospel in book format for three years already."
