MASAKA: Bishop Giuseppe Franzelli, mccj, national chairman of the Uganda Social Communications Commission, has encouraged the faithful in the media fraternity, to take Christ to people at the grassroots. “Everyone needs Christ, not only the ones who can afford newspapers or televisions,” said the bishop during this year’s Social Communication’s annual workshop, in Masaka Diocese.

To evangelize effectively, however,Franzelli, who is in charge of Lira Diocese, exhorted that the communicators themselves needed first to know Christ well. “Unless you have a good personal relationship with Him, you cannot be effective in communicating Him to others,” he advised.

Bishops Concerned about Guinea, Mauritania
DAKAR: The Bishops of Senegal, Mauritania, Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, have launched an appeal to the governments and ‘active forces’ of these nations, asking that they respect the common good of the institutions and human life.

The appeal was contained in the final message issued at the close of their second ordinary session of the 2008/09 Pastoral Year of their Inter-territorial Bishops’ Conference. It was held from June 2 to 5 in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

During the sessions, the Bishops examined the situation in their respective countries and particularly expressed dismay on the political crisis in Guinea Bissau and Mauritania. Guinea Bissau President ‘Nino’ Vieira, was assassinated in March, by a group of soldiers who accused him of the murder of his chief of staff.

Charismatic Renewal Suspended
NAIROBI: John Cardinal Njue (pictured) has suspended activities of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement in Nairobi, over concerns of extreme noise and disorderly late-night meetings. He also ordered an investigation into the matter, according to the
director of communications, Fr Martin Wanyoike.

“There were night meetings, which the cardinal felt, needed leadership.” Wanyoike, as an example, said some of the faithful are blamed for leaving spouses at home, when they attend the meetings, an action that has put strain on families. He revealed fear that the movement’s worship had become more Pentecostal. The contention is that the traditional liturgy was being abandoned.

Pope Calls for Efforts to End Absolute Hunger
VATICAN: Benedict XVI has called on the international community to take advantage of the recent UN meeting [June 24-26, in New York] to ensure that the “absolutely unacceptable” reality of world hunger is overcome.

“I pray for the spirit of wisdom and human solidarity for the participants in this conference and for those, who are responsible for the ‘res publica’ and the fate of the planet so that the current crisis is transformed into an opportunity to focus greater attention on the dignity of every human person and to promote an equal distribution of decisional power and resources, with particular attention to the number of those living in poverty, which, unfortunately, is always growing.”

The United Nations called the three-day summit to consider what it referred to as “the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression.”

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