In 2024, almost 300,000 children are threatened by severe acute malnutrition in six drought-affected countries in Southern Africa, reported the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, in a July 25 statement.

Increasing food insecurity and malnutrition, challenges in accessing safe water and sanitation, as well as risks to disease outbreaks such as cholera, UNICEF deplores, are “a serious threat.”

7.4 Million in child food poverty

“Thousands of children are on the brink of being irreversibly impacted in their health and growth,” it decries, “because of the climate-related crisis and this warning should not go unheard by the international community.”

In Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, UNICEF highlights, 7.4 million children are living in child food poverty, of which over 2 million are surviving on extremely poor diets that include at most two food groups… Read more »

L-omelija tal-Arċisqof Charles Jude Scicluna

Ma nafx jekk tiftakrux, li fil-bidu ta’ din is-sena, kont għidtilkom li hi sena speċjali ddedikata lill-Evanġelista San Mark, li hu l-iqsar Evanġelju; u għalhekk, b’mod speċjali fil-perjodu tas-sajf, se nibdew nisimgħu wkoll siltiet mir-raba’ evanġelju, mill-Evanġelju ta’ San Ġwann. U nibdew illum, proprju, billi nitilqu ftit l-Evanġelju ta’ San Mark, li qed jitħabbar fil-Ħdud ta’ Matul is-Sena; u nibdew nisimgħu siltiet sbieħ mill-Evanġelju ta’ San Ġwann, kapitlu 6… Read more »

Photo: Francesco Pio Attard

Id-delegati tas-Sorijiet Franġiskani tal-Qalb ta’ Ġesù, miġbura f’Cave, l-Italja, għas-26 Kapitlu Ġenerali tagħhom bejn it-8 u s-27 ta’ Lulju, għadhom kemm ħatru lil Swor Ġużeppina Zammit bħala s-Superjura Ġenerali l-ġdida, u flimkien magħha l-Kunsill Ġenerali.

Il-Madre Ġenerali l-ġdida hija minn Ħal Safi, u qed tieħu post oħtha, Swor Vitaliana, fit-tmun ta’ din il-kongregazzjoni reliġjuża, li barra l-għadd ta’ kunventi u skejjel f’pajjiżna, illum hi mxerrda ma’ bosta rkejjen oħra tad-dinja, fost l-oħrajn fl-Afrika, fl-Amerika u fl-Awstralja… Read more »

Ahead of the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, Athletica Vaticana encourages the athletes in fraternal friendship and reiterates Pope Francis’ appeal for an Olympic Truce.

“The Olympics and Paralympics can be strategies for peace and antidotes to war games.”

That was the message conveyed by Athletica Vaticana, the Holy See’s official sports association, in an open letter sent to the athletes participating in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris… Read more »

A new report issued by the UN’s Children’s Fund, UNICEF, reveals that nearly 400 children were killed in 2021, alone, across Europe and Central Asia, as drastically-increasing temperatures threaten the lives of the youngest and most vulnerable.

An estimated 377 children were killed in 2021 by rising temperatures across Europe and Central Asia.

This was the disturbing finding revealed today, 24 July, by UNICEF in a new analysis of data from 23 countries… Read more »

Cardinal Parolin and President Zelensky 
Photo: Vatican News

The institutional meetings held in recent days by Cardinal Pietro Parolin with Ukrainian leaders culminated on Tuesday morning in Kyiv with the meeting between the Cardinal Secretary of State and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Following the meeting, in a post on X, the Secretariat of State announced that the Cardinal reaffirmed “the Pope’s solidarity and the commitment to finding a just and lasting peace for war-torn Ukraine.”

Zelensky had already received a papal envoy in June last year… Read more »