Missionaries of the World

Pope Francis said Wednesday that children are a joy-filled gift for the Church and the world, and cautioned against an overcast society that lacks life because it has rejected and run out of children. “Children give life, joy and hope. They also give worries and sometimes problems, but this is better than a society that is sad and cray because it has run out of children. Or doesn't want children,” the Pope told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his March 18 general audience.

Following bomb attacks on two churches in Lahore, Pakistan, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, General Secretary of World Council of Churches (WCC) has condemned the violence against people and communities on the basis of their religious identity and has called upon the Pakistani Government to act swiftly in bringing the perpetrators to justice. The suicide bombers attacked two churches on March 15, 2015. At least 15 people were killed and more than 70 injured.

A pair of suicide bombers attacked two churches in the Eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Sunday as worshippers prayed inside the Churches. At least 15 people, including two police officers who were protecting the churches were also killed in the explosions and over 80 others injured. A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Ahsanullah Ahsan, claimed responsibility for the assault in a statement emailed to reporters, and warned, "There will be more of such attacks."

To express solidarity with churches and people in Israel and Palestine, the leadership of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee has undertaken a visit to Israel and Palestine from March 07 to 12, 2015. The delegation with Dr Agnes Abuom, Moderator of the WCC Central Committee, Metropolitan Dr Gennadios of Sassima and Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, Vice-Moderators of the Central Committee and Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC General Secretary, highlighted the WCC's focus on supporting peace initiatives in the troubled region, underlining the on-going presence and witness of the churches’ engagements.

In an incident, which was sent shock waves across the Country, a nun of a convent school was gang-raped by a group of miscreants in the in the early hours of Saturday. Some miscreants entered the Convent of Jesus and Mary at Ranaghat in Nadia district, West Bengal, India and looted as many as Rs.12 lakhs after tied up the security guard and then went on rampage inside the convent. During that time, she, who is the sister superior of the convent, tried to resist them and was allegedly gang-raped by them.

The second annual Voices of Faith storytelling event takes place in Vatican on Sunday March 08, 2015, as women from ten countries and four continents gather in the Casina Pio IV to celebrate International Women’s Day. The initiative was launched last year by Catholic philanthropist Chantal Goetz “to enhance the dignity, participation and leadership of women and girls through persistent and good storytelling."

Following the Angelus on Sunday at Vatican, Pope Francis had a special greeting for “all the women throughout the world who are seeking, every day, to build a more human and welcoming society.” On March 08, 2015, celebrated around the world as International Women’s Day, is an occasion, the prelate said, “to repeat the importance of women, and the necessity of their presence in life.”

The World Council of Churches mourns the loss of Prof. Dr Ninan Koshy who passed away unexpectedly in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India on March 04, 2015, shortly after his 81st birthday. “He has left an indelible mark on the WCC and the wider ecumenical movement with his incisive analyses of global issues and his theological insights on the churches’ responsibility to witness for truth, justice and peace in a deeply troubled world,” said the WCC General Secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in an official tribute to Koshy issued from the WCC on March 06, 2015. “The WCC and the world-wide ecumenical movement to which Dr Koshy devoted so much of his life mourns his passing,” Tveit added.

British Archaeologist - Dr Ken Dark has identified what he believes could have been the house where Jesus was raised. He said that the humble first century home in Nazareth, Northern Israel, could have been where Mary and Joseph brought up the son of God. The Reading University archaeologist said that an ancient text described precisely how it was located between two tombs and below a church. Clerics from the Crusader period and the Byzantine era also put the ruins in the cellar of their churches, suggesting that it was of great significance and needed to be protected.