TESTIMONIES
Every day, thousands of messages are sent to ZENIT.
Among them, there are many testimonies which show how our readers appreciate ZENIT.
Here, we offer you a few examples. You can select testimonies according to country using the menu on the right.
You can send your testimony using this link: testimonies.
From: Lebanon
Date: 2007--
[Translation from the original French]
Good day,
I would like to receive the Arabic version of ZENIT. My name is Marie Fares and I am Lebanese. I am a catechist and a formator in the active method of catechesis. I am also a psychologist.
Before, in order to spread ZENIT and pray with the universal Church, along the lines of the course I give, I translated some of your news for the students who don't know French.
I will try, according to my possibilities, to help economically; I don't yet know when or how. But I can assure you of my prayers because I firmly believe that union with the Church is union with Christ.
May God conserve you in his grace and give you strength for great success.
Thanking you beforehand.
From: Italy
Date: 2005-03-03
[Text translated from Italian original]
Once again I want to thank Zenit for the incredible speed and accuracy with which it works, and for the service it renders the Word worldwide.
Father Raniero Cantalamessa
(Papal Household Preacher)
From: United States of America
Date: 2007-05-27
[Original text: Spanish]
ZENIT is a great gift for the Church in these times of "cyberspace." Those of us who are dedicated to the field of mass communication strengthen our apostolates thanks to the professionalism of your excellent service.
My blessings and greetings to the whole ZENIT team.
Rev. Father Alberto R. Cutié
President and General Director
Pax Catholic Communications (Radio Paz / Peace) - Miami - USA
From: Poland
Date: 2007-03-
I would like to thank you very much for your valuable service. I have subscribed to the daily dispatches two years and since this moment I changed my point of view. Now, indeed I can see the Church from the perspective of the Vatican -- as the Church in the world.
Your service is truly apostolic -- not only in terms of reaching the regions of the world which have not yet heard about Jesus Christ, but also in terms of re-evangelization and strengthening the faith on our European continent.
Poland is still a Catholic country and I firmly believe that with services like yours we will be able to see the broader perspective, and get the most of it to witness the love of our God to others.
Every time you start your fundraising campaign, it reminds me about my responsibility for the Church in the world. I gladly contribute to your campaign so the word of God may reign in the hearts of all people.
God bless,
Greg
Krakow, Poland
From: Russia (Russian Federation)
Date: 2007-03-
Dear ZENIT,
Greetings from Kemerovo!
Every day, as soon as ZENIT news arrives, I read it eagerly and I’m very grateful to all involved for the work you do and the important news and documents you publish.
Yours in Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Anthony Branagan C.Ss.R.
Kemerovo, Russia
From: Italy
Date: 2007-04-29
[Original text: Spanish]
With its rapidly-available information and with its sense of striving for perfection, openness and respect, the ZENIT news agency has shown itself to be, over the 10 years of its existence, a great instrument of effective communion among Christians of the whole world, and many other people who follow with interest the events of the Catholic Church. In this anniversary, I unite myself spiritually to the joy of those who, with their professionalism, and with their love for the Church and the Roman Pontiff, make this agency a reality.
Monsignor Javier Echevarría
Prelate of Opus Dei
From: Egypt
Date: 2006-12-
[Translation from the original French]
Esteemed ZENIT team:
May the peace and grace of Our Lord be with you always and with your dear readers. He who has the honor of writing this message is Monsignor Youhannes Zakaria, bishop of the Diocese of Luqsor-Tebe, High Egypt, of the Catholic Copts.
I punctually receive your daily and weekly service in Italian, which helps me very much to carry out my mission and be informed and up to date on the Catholic world. I thank you with all my heart for your dear service and I always remember you in my prayers.
I have learned that now, you will have another service in Arabic and I ask you to subscribe me to this service.
I always remember you in my prayers and recall all of your dear collaborators, and I ask that you pray for me and for my diocese.
Yours in Christ,
+ Youhannes Zakaria, Bishop of the Catholic Copts of Luqsor, Egypt
From: Lebanon
Date: 2006-11-
[Translation from the original Italian]
Dear Director,
I am very interested and I want to have a subscription arrive to my email.
I am a catechist. I returned from Italy in 1995, after four years of studies in missionary theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome.
I give religion classes full time in two Catholic schools in Beirut […] and I have always been your reader, but many times I need the pontifical documents in Arabic for my students and colleagues.
Trusting in your positive response,
Cordial greetings,
Sessine Akoury
From: Syrian Arab Republic
Date: 2006-11-
[Translation from the original Italian]
Very dear ZENIT team,
We are so happy about ZENIT's Arabic edition and we want to receive it each day.
We are a small community of Italian Trappist nuns working here in Syria for almost two years.
Right now we live in Alep; we are learning Arabic and preparing ourselves little by little to found a new convent.
That's why we are so very interested in your proposal.
From: Israel
Date: 2006-12-29
[Translation from the original Italian]
Dear Sir or Madam:
I am a Salesian missionary in the Middle East. I congratulate you on the announcement that you will publish ZENIT in Arabic. It will be a great service to all Christians, especially Catholics, in the region. I would like to receive it, if possible.
Thank you for your service. I will pray for you in the Grotto of the Birth of Jesus, in Bethlehem, where I am now.
With gratitude,
Piergiogio Gianazza
From: Syrian Arab Republic
Date: 2006-12-
[Translation from the original Italian]
Monsignor Giuseppe Nazzaro, OFM
Vicar Apostolic for Alep
Alep, Syria
I would like to receive ZENIT in Arabic. Thank you for the service you offer to the Church and to all those who look for just and wholesome information.
+ Giuseppe Nazzaro
From: Lebanon
Date: 2006-11-
[Translation from the original French]
Dear sirs:
The regional office of Caritas MONA for the Middle East, based in Lebanon, would be interested in receiving ZENIT's news service in Arabic.
This would enable us to follow the life of the Church from Arabic regions and communicate to our member organizations the information that could be of interest to them.
Thank you for your attention, and we send our best wishes during this Advent season.
Rosette Héchaimé, Caritas MONA , Regional Secretary
From: Italy
Date: 2006-11-
[Translation from the original Italian]
Very many congratulations on the edition in Arabic. You all are wonderful!! You will undoubtedly fill a gap in the Christian part of the Arabic-speaking world. I remember that, when I was in Sudan, there was nothing similar to help us with catechesis. You are wonderful!
Rolando Dal Cason
From: Lebanon
Date: 2006-11-
[Translation from the original French]
Dear ZENIT:
I am Brother Roger Kouyoumdji, from the Order of the Friars Minor Conventual, on missions in Lebanon.
Thank you so very much for your work of communicating the Good News and recent news from the Church.
This new initiative that you are about to promote is a great opportunity for the Arab world. It could be a bridge between Rome and the East, and with Islam of the east.
United in prayer,
Brother Roger
From: Poland
Date: 2007-03-
Dear Madams and Sirs,
I am writing to express my deep appreciation for ZENIT and its excellent service for the Church and its members. ZENIT keeps me updated on the current events the in Roman Catholic Church offering quality, reliable and relevant information.
Your daily news which encompass also news from the Vatican, homilies and speeches from the Holy Father and other cardinals from within the Holy See help me better understand teaching and current challenges of the Church and the response given by the magisterium.
It is also a good way to stay in touch and in the communion with the Roman Catholic Church and its universal (catholic) message to all people.
Thank you once more for your ministry.
Piotr Bednarski
Warsaw, Poland
From: United Kingdom
Date: 2007-03-
Dear ZENIT,
It would be churlish of me not to thank you for the wonderful work you are doing. I profit greatly from the information service you provide. The position I am in, at my age, would not allow me to receive this information if I had to pay for it. But I do make use of it in my pastoral work, acknowledging where I got it from, and often providing your web site for people to receive your service directly.
ZENIT is certainly in my prayers so that it may continue to be helped from Above.
Best wishes
Monsignor Richard Stork
From: Philippines
Date: 2007-03-
Dear ZENIT,
A local Carmelite contemplative community referred a ZENIT subscription to me. I accepted the referral and now use the subscription for my free Catholic lists on the Net.
Every time I see news items that encourage us lay faithful to be more loyal to the Church and to foster a spirituality of prayer, I get inspired and forward these to my lists. Through ZENIT, I am able to keep very informed of what the Church sees as important in our faith in these present times.
I am happy with my ZENIT subscription and truly believe in their mission.
Dennis Emmanuel V. Cabrera
Pasig City, Philippines
From: United Kingdom
Date: 2007-03-
Dear ZENIT,
Thank you for all the news from the Vatican and the Holy Father. It has strengthened my contribution to our parish's pastoral council ... because I can quote and be certain that I am following the Pope's wishes.
It keeps unity among us all as Catholics to have this wonderful news from around the world.
Thank you and know that we remember ZENIT In our prayers.
Maggie Lovegrove
Bournemouth, United Kingdom
From: United States of America
Date: 2007-03-
Deacon John M. Edgerton
Dear Friends at ZENIT,
I have come to depend on ZENIT for the most up-to-date information coming from the Vatican, specifically our Holy Father. I think it is the best Catholic news service online.
It is thorough, prints important documents of the Church in their entirely as they happen, such as the first encyclical letter of Benedict XVI, "Deus Est Caritas," as well as a lot of other information pertinent to the Church as it is happening, not only in Rome but also in other parts of the Church in the world.
As a minister, I find it an invaluable service. I recommend it to fellow clergy and all lay persons since we share the one and same mission of Christ in the Church.
In His Service,
Deacon John M. Edgerton
St. Ignatius Catholic Church
Tarpon Springs, Florida, United States
From: Brazil
Date: 2007-03-17
[translated from original Portuguese]
Hello to the marvelous ZENIT team. Above all, I want to thank you for the immense good you do with ZENIT.
I am a religious. The information I receive each day has helped me very much in my mission, since I share it with many people with whom I work.
I have no way of helping you financially; all that I have are prayers so that this blessed work continues bearing fruit in many hearts.
With an affectionate embrace and my prayers,
Sister Aparecida Isolete Benato, CP
From: Benin
Date: 2007-01-19
[translated from original French]
Thank you! I love you!
I am so happy and pleased to be able to read ZENIT.
Thank you for the many articles that we receive from you each day. This allows me to be closer to all my Christian brothers and sisters and to pray with the entire Church. I do not have enough to be able to financially sustain your work, but I am convinced that my poor and humble prayer will be of great service to you. I admire you for the daily information that arrives to me without interruption. May God bless you! My best wishes!
Sister Reine Allagbe
Oblate catechist, Little Servants of the Poor, Cotonou, Benin
From: Philippines
Date: 2007-03-
[original English]
To the Management and Staff of ZENIT,
Thank you very much for this great spiritual service you are doing. Perhaps you don't realize how much and how deeply you are touching hearts and souls, and giving substance and info to speakers, facilitators, priests, religious, catechists, and others, so that they can be connected with the Church and what's going on in the spiritual world today.
Thank you once again and more power in the Lord. What we cannot give you in material things, we give you in prayer.
God bless,
Arnold and Letty Itao
Philippines/Thailand
From: Venezuela
Date: 2007-04-
[translated from original Spanish]
Dear ones in Christ,
I do want my name to appear; you know my e-mail. Recently, someone recommended that I subscribe to ZENIT and I thank you for the timeliness of your service and the many articles about the Church, and above all, Rome. May God bless your efforts. I know that you are arriving to many places where they have no way of informing themselves, other than ZENIT.
Even though I am in Venezuela, I am in a mission country, on the border, among dangers, in a society behind in many ways, humanly and religiously … The government does not permit foreign money. One cannot acquire dollars in the banks ... My unconditional support and my prayers are all the collaboration I can offer you. Thank you and may God bless you.
From: France
Date: 2007-03-29
[translated from original French]
I am sorry that I cannot help you economically, given that we ourselves ask money for the great work that we are accomplishing here to give a better welcome to the ever more numerous pilgrims in Lisieux. Nevertheless, I want to thank you and to encourage you in this beautiful work of evangelization, for the information that you distribute. Again, thank you and be assured of our prayers that you find the donations and the interested persons that will help you in this work of evangelization.
Sister Dominique, Prioress of the Carmel of Lisieux, France
From: Mozambique
Date: 2007-06-04
[original English]
To ZENIT,
I am a Tanzanian Catholic priest who was ordained a priest on Dec. 16, 1966, in the Basilica of St. Peter. We were 58 Urbanian College deacons.
For me Mondays are no longer Blue Mondays because of ZENIT News from Rome.
I THANK YOU WHOLE HEARTEDLY for I spend Monday mornings reading the different theological reflections of the theologian Ratzinger given to the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square from his study room.
Keep on informing us and making us aware of Church development and current teaching of the Church and interesting current affairs.
I am really sorry for not being able to give any financial contribution to ZENIT during the recent campaign, since my financial resources are meager and I in fact need financial help.
May the almighty God bless your apostolate.
Father Canute Mlowe
Mozambique
From: Madagascar
Date: 2007-05-07
[translated from original French]
I thank you with all my heart for what you do and I offer my words of encouragement.
I offer you my daily prayer and the joy of reading your pertinent and objective information.
Sister Maria Teresa, missionary in Madagascar
From: Argentina
Date: 2007-04-
[translated from original Spanish]
Very good day: I write you from San Luis, Argentina, in the first place, to congratulate you and then to tell you that I pray for you every day so that you can continue this marvelous work of apostolate. For me, knowing each day about the official news of the Holy See and all of the universal Church inspires me more than you could possibly imagine.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this valuable Work and I pray that Our Sorrowful Mother covers you with blessings.
Paula Bilbao
From: New Zealand
Date: 2007-03-
[Message original English]
Dear ZENIT Staff,
Congratulations on reaching your 10th Birthday! I do not remember exactly just when we started receiving ZENIT news, but it must be 7 or so years ago, and I want to say how much we appreciate it. Living here in New Zealand is a long, long way from Rome, so it is really wonderful to get the news so quickly.
As we are an enclosed Carmelite monastery, we do not have great funds of cash to send, but we can and do, offer you our prayers in thanksgiving for all the work put into ZENIT, and ask our dear Lord to bless each one abundantly and we wish a long life to ZENIT and our grateful thanks for e-mailing it to us.
God bless you all.
Sister Mary of the Angels (on behalf of mother and all the sisters)
Discalced Carmelite Nuns
Christchurch, New Zealand
From: Chad
Date: 2007-05-27
[translated from original French]
Dear friends in charge of ZENIT,
With great joy, I have discovered this year the tremendous richness that we have in the Catholic Church, in that which deals with this information agency called ZENIT.
I am very aware of the laudable mission that ZENIT offers, as well as the effort implied in maintaining it so as to bring information about the Church and the world to all those who want it, to contribute to promoting evangelization through mass media. This service responds well to the needs and realities of our times. My wish is that it continues. Nevertheless, my situation makes it impossible to financially support ZENIT because I am a student, depending on others for the costs of my education.
My prayers accompany you.
Your sister,
Céline Noubaita, a religious from Chad
From: Canada
Date: 2007-06-02
[translated from original French]
I truly would like to give a donation, to be able to help your work, but I'm only 14 years old, a simple Canadian without money. But, in place of money, I can pray for you and of course I will. You can count on it! I hope this work continues forever and ever.
Yours in Jesus,
Kateri, 14-year-old Canadian
From: Italy
Date: 2007-03-
[translated from original Italian]
For me, ZENIT is a blessing but I cannot contribute a monetary donation because I work with elderly people in a mission. Many thanks and I will always remember ZENIT in my prayers, leaving you in the heart of Jesus.
Sister Graça
From: Viet Nam
Date: 2007--
[translated from original French]
I am a Vietnam religious. I live in Saigon, Vietnam. I think that ZENIT is a good "electronic" newspaper that gives me news of the Catholic Church in the entire world, especially the news of Rome and the Pope. You well know that we don't receive much news from reading Vietnamese newspapers.
Forgive me that I cannot help you, aside from with my prayers. These are words from the bottom of my heart. We have so much to do in the field of evangelization.
May God bless you, and don't forget to pray for us Vietnamese Catholics.
Thanks again, united in prayer,
A Vietnamese religious
From: Colombia
Date: 2007-04-
[translated from original Spanish]
Very esteemed brothers and sisters of ZENIT. For now, I can only offer you the prayer that God continues to bless this arduous task of maintaining the world informed about the life and happenings of our Church. I have benefited from ZENIT and I have enriched communities and even a few coworkers with the informative articles, which at the same time form and give a sense of Church. May the risen Lord give you his Spirit to strengthen you in your pastoral work, which is a great support to evangelization.
Your brother,
Abelardo Mojica Páez Pbro
From: India
Date: 2007-04-20
Dear Director of ZENIT,
I wish to, first of all, express my appreciation for your perseverance and objective dissemination of information about happenings all over the world, in particular the events related to the Church and the Vatican. I have been using some of the relevant news and information in my circulars and diocesan newsletters. I have also been appreciating your transparency in fund collection for the organization.
So far I have not been able to contribute to this cause financially, except through my good wishes and prayers. I wish that the good work you do may continue and, be sure, that God will bless your efforts with just sufficient financial support to go ahead with this missionary apostolate.
Wishing you well,
Yours fraternally,
Bishop Leo Cornelio
Diocese of Khandwa, India
From: Brazil
Date: 2007-03-
[translated from original Portuguese]
[...] I am very sorry that I cannot contribute to the distribution of ZENIT, because I am a religious, but to make up for that, I pray for those people that can make a donation -- so that they do so on behalf of those who can't. I can only say that for me, ZENIT is a very important means to stay in harmony with the Church, with the Pope, with the news of the world. Newspapers and magazines rarely talk of the Vatican, of the Holy Father, of what he's said in his audiences, the donations that he makes when there is a catastrophe in some country, as now happens frequently.
We have real and true news, of what really happens from day to day in the Catholic world of Rome. I hope that ZENIT would become part of the life of many people who really desire to be in harmony with the Catholic Church and only desire the good of souls.
[...] we receive L'Osservatore Romano, but messages arrive many days after the event has happened. With ZENIT, we know what happens each day [...] thus I hope that people who love God, like you who sacrifice so that news can be sent to so many countries, manage with these donations to increase the service and send it to many other countries that would like to receive news the day it happens, with the certainty that it is true. Many thanks and I wish you the best as you continue fighting and looking for donations to achieve that which you want, so that all countries can receive this important work of ZENIT.
Many thanks,
Tadae Yamamoto
From: Rwanda
Date: 2007--
Thank you for introducing us to this team, mentioning the work of each one. My support will not be a monetary donation, but rather having you as the intention for Mass tomorrow (Monday, April 30, 2007). May God bless you, may he bless the work of each one of you. Infinite thanks for the news that you send and that helps me tremendously in my spiritual growth. I am a Rwandan Christian, married and the father of six. Thank you.
Dr. François Ngabonziza, M.D. and national director of the Charismatic Renewal in Rwanda
From: India
Date: 2007-03-
[Message from INDIA; original English]
Dear ZENIT Editor,
Yes, I am happy to respond to your invitation. I have been a regular reader of ZENIT news releases for the past 10 years and more. ZENIT has been a reliable friend that opened a door to the wider Catholic World. ZENIT has been faithful in carrying out its responsibility to its readers by regularly featuring what is good, truthful and useful. The features were reliable guides to the thinking of the universal Church and its response to the world at large.
When I was editing the Wavelength, the in-house publication of media professionals, a few times, I carried ZENIT features for our readers. I have also made use of the contents for my talks, homilies and reflections. I am one of those who appreciate very much your efforts to bring such features freely to people in the frontiers of the Church like us, missionaries who are not always able to subscribe to such features but who make use of it very regularly.
Therefore, I have been doing what is possible within my means, prayer. I remember ZENIT and its staff every now and then; and ask the Lord to bless them abundantly so that they continue this service with more dedication.
Wishing you success in your endeavor to continue to this service.
I remain, in the union of prayers,
Father Clarence Srambical
Society of the Divine Word
Indore, India
From: Burkina Faso
Date: 2007--
For some months now, I have been benefiting from your services that you offer freely -- which I only discovered this year. I just make ends meet, given that I'm retired, so I continue going deeper in my doctrinal studies, maintaining myself informed with the news of the Church and the world that ZENIT offers me.
...
For this first year, I offer you only my prayers in a spirit of gratitude for this Work and for all those who sustain it financially.
May the risen Lord bless you!
Bishop Emeritus Zephyrin Toe,
Burkina Faso
From: Mexico
Date: 2007-04-
[Message from MEXICO; translated from original Spanish]
Dear ZENIT team:
Unfortunately, it is impossible for me to make a financial contribution to your important work. The only thing I can offer is to continue praying for you. Many thanks for keeping us so well informed.
Ana Maria Ortega de Lenk
From: United States of America
Date: 2007-04-19
Dear ZENIT,
You want a blurb for ZENIT? Well, that's about the easiest thing in the world. Without ZENIT, even those who try to be well-informed would know but a small part of what we know from ZENIT about the worlds within worlds of Catholicism today. In a word, ZENIT is essential, and I pray your fund-raising effort great success."
As ever,
(The Rev.) Richard John Neuhaus
Founder and editor of "First Things"
From: Brazil
Date: 2007-05-04
[Original text: Portuguese]
I receive and regularly read the e-mails from ZENIT, which bring up-to-date information about the Church in Brazil and in the world. I hope that this effort is ever more valued and that technology can be ever more at the service of evangelization.
D. Dimas Lara Barbosa,
Secretary-general of the Brazilian bishops' conference
and Auxiliary Bishop of Rio de Janeiro
From: Egypt
Date: 2007-01-15
[Translated from the original French]
Dearest ZENIT: I am a stay-at-home mom and I am happy to read your news. I am delighted at your work. I ask God to always encourage you in doing good in our world that is in danger, where hate dominates.
You put Love and Hope in the hearts of human beings, from every language and education. Carry on with your apostolate! God will reward you. And we bless you for the good that you carry out.
Lucienne -- Egyptian Copt
From: Mexico
Date: 2007-03-
[Translated from the original Spanish]
I don't have words enough to thank those who work in the ZENIT news agency for the service that they offer to those interested in themes related to the Catholic Church.
For me personally, the articles on the Holy Father's activities and on bioethics and related disciplines, keep me up to date and help me to know about and form thorough judgments on these themes.
The world needs, today more than ever, more news agencies like this one. The means of communication constantly present us with news that either involves nothing more than wars, drug trafficking and political problems, or deals with themes that have no solid foundation to help form healthy criteria.
Dr. Oscar J. Martínez González
Director
Department of Bioethics
Anáhuac University
From: Philippines
Date: 2007-03-
[Translated from the original French]
ZENIT news helps me a lot in my missionary work of promoting awareness that we belong to a universal Church. In Asia, like in Africa and Europe, like in America and Oceania, we belong to one Church. That's why we have an exchange of ideas here with some Asian colleagues about the upcoming synod in Africa. And this is thanks to ZENIT. I am indebted to everyone who makes this apostolate possible.
Honoré Kabundi, missionary of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
African sent to Japan; currently in the Philippines
From: Argentina
Date: 2007-03-27
[Translated from the original Spanish]
Hi, my name is Carolina and I am a history and theology teacher.
I receive ZENIT every day and also the weekly service. I always find articles and pieces of news that are very interesting. I print the articles and share them with my students. Not only are they useful for me to stay informed about everything that happens in the Church and the world, they help me to prepare my classes.
I use them to help my students reflect about reality, with the aim that the Gospel is not just one more point of view, but a reference point par excellence. A challenge, but not an impossibility. Many thanks!
Carolina,
Santa Fe, Argentina
From: United Kingdom
Date: 2007-04-02
Dear ZENIT,
A friend offered me a subscription last Christmas and I now look forward to each new mailing. As a Catholic wife, mother and catechist, I find your articles are so well-researched and readable.
The mailings are a much needed, trustworthy source of dependably orthodox information about the faith. The mailing service provides me with the information and emotional and spiritual support that I need to fulfill my vocation. I wish I had subscribed years ago,
Thank you and may God bless your work,
Warmest wishes,
Karen Rodgers,
Cambridge, United Kingdom
From: Spain
Date: 2007-03-27
[Translated from the original Spanish]
Dear ones in Christ,
I work in a blackboard business. I am a laborer and the work and hours are difficult and exhausting.
I have a very high concept of ZENIT: I am a person consecrated to God and I like hearing the news of the Church.
With much gratitude for your service, I send an affectionate greeting.
From: Kenya
Date: 2007-03-
Dear Director,
To you and all the staff at ZENIT, many greetings and best wishes from Nairobi, Kenya, with the assurance of our prayers.
I have just read that on May 1, 2007, ZENIT will celebrate 10 years of truly wonderful noble service. My best wishes to you all and the brains behind this truly informative news service. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ZENIT!
I'm a catholic Priest belonging to the Missionary Congregation of the Apostles of Jesus Founded by two Comboni Missionaries in North East of Uganda (East Africa) in 1967. Right now I teach dogmatic theology in our Major Seminary of Theology in Nairobi, Kenya.
I used to borrow a copy of ZENIT for myself and the Seminarians until last year when a friend of mine subscribed me.
I want to renew that subscription by celebrating the number of Masses you will ask and assign me to celebrate for your intentions and that of your benefactors if this can also work.
ZENIT has always brought very inspiring articles which not only enrich our faith as Catholics but also give information on what is happening in the church and around the church. This spiritual nourishment and broadening information is what I and the seminarians don't want to lose.
God bless,
Father Callisto Locheng
Apostles of Jesus Missionaries
Nairobi, Kenya
From: Taiwan
Date: 2007-03-
Dear ZENIT,
Thanks to a Salesian Missionary from Italy, presently in Jerusalem, I became a free subscriber of ZENIT.
I am a retired priest, almost aged 76. I joined the Salesian Society of Don Bosco in 1949, and was ordained a priest in 1960. At present I am assigned to Tainan, where the Salesians run a large technical school with 1,760 students, and two parishes, one in the city, and one in the rural area.
In 2003, I had a light stroke and consequently in some way forced to lay down every post of administration. But as far as possible I still try to offer some little services both in the school and in the parishes.
I celebrate the Holy Masses and preach on Sundays, both in Chinese and in English for migrant workers, and also offered catechism classes to the catechumens. I am happy that at my age I can use computer to a sufficient efficiency, though I am not very capable.
Every morning, after the breakfast, I open Internet and have a quick look at some Web pages, such as Vatian, EWTN, SDB.org, sdb.org.hk, Taiwan's Regional Bishops' Conference, and recently also ZENIT.
I read what is informative, load down and print what could be shared with my colleague-priests in the community -- we are now in 6 -- I willingly read and meditate on the words of the Pope and of the bishops. I am very happy and thank God to see that bishops round the world take clear and strong stands in social and medical matters, to protect the life, the weak and the voiceless. Sometimes I use these materials and quotations in my sermons, just read out in English or making my own translation into Chinese.
What I do in the mornings, I repeat in the evenings, before I go to bed. So I think that I am in close touch with the world and the Catholic Church round the world, rejoicing with and for happy events, offering my prayer for people who suffer because of natural calamities or human factors, for example because of war or violence.
So dear leaders and staff of ZENIT, I am grateful for your service and pray to God that you may continue your good service for the benefit of many people. With best wishes to all.
Yours sincerely,
Fr. Father John Baptist Zen
Salesians of St. John Bosco
Tainan, Taiwan
From: Portugal
Date: 2007-03-
[translated from the Portuguese original]
Thank you very much, ZENIT directors, for keeping us up to date with the life of the Church: from the Vatican to the four corners of the world.
When I was in Africa, as a missionary, and after knowing you, you were my contact for knowing about the life of the Church and of the world, with its joys and sufferings. There information was practically inexistent, and when it was possible to have a telephone line, it opened up the world to me and I could know what the world did and said.
Now, in Europe, everything is known very quickly, but your organization drinks and lives religion more with greater dimension. Thank you. Don't ever tire out.
Fray Mário Jorge, ofm
From: Mexico
Date: 2007-03-
Dear Zenit:
I would be very grateful to subscribe to your info arabic notes. I am a catechist in Mexico, and more and more encounter Maronites and other Arabic-speaking Catholics. I myself know Arabic.
In Christ,
Juan Pops McBride
From: Colombia
Date: 2007-03-21
[translated from the Spanish original]
I write you all from Santa Marta, Colombia.
It is really impossible, considering my economic condition, to make a monetary donation, but I would like all the readers know that if it were possible, I would do it with great pleasure. Since a priest that heard my confession after 40 years of not going to Church told me about ZENIT, I have progressed a lot, and this is impossible to pay back.
Be sure of my prayers for the continuation of ZENIT and that many people of great heart, and with the capicity of donating, do it so that all may enjoy this Web site that is so important.
I do not wish that my name or mail appear in the note.
Thank you
From: Italy
Date: 2007-03-
[translated from the Italian original]
I consider the news service to be an inexhaustible font of quality information, capable of touching the soul and of raising ones spirit.
I always read the service with pleasure, when I can, with the certainty of it having an affect on my daily actions.
It is for all this that I would also like, within my means, to give an economic contribution.
With a Fraternal Greeting,
Nicolò Cannistrà
From: Mexico
Date: 2007-04-03
[translated from the Spanish original]
Dearly beloved brothers in Christ:
I am a contemplative religious, for the greater part of my life I have been daily in the presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Sacrament, I have very clear that my vocation is in the Church and for the Church.
Since I have received information from ZENIT, I put before the heart of God the events of the world in a more conscious way. We do not have economic resources, we practically receive everything from charity, but we do strive to be responsible in spiritually contribution everything we possibly can to humanity, thanks to the prayer and the treasure that we have.
Humbly I offer you my contribution of putting all the intentions of your organization so that it continues doing the good that it does for thousands of people. It is one way to build the Kingdom of God.
Thank you very much!!!
In Christ: Sister Celina Guadalupe Cázares Munguía
Religious of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
From: Argentina
Date: 2007-03-27
[translated from the Spanish original]
Hello, May God Bless You!!!!!!!!!!!
My name is Marta, and I am from Tucumán, Argentina. I am married and I have three sons.
For 12 years I have received your service on a daily basis. How much I wait for it!
I am so thankful for it. I feel all of you are so close to me, that I always thank God for the generosity of all those that make this possible.
You allow us inside our beloved Church, surprising us always with its greatness, openness, vigor and painstaking knowledge of the true situation of the "man always loved by God," in his time and space.
You demonstrate for us that all is fruit of humble, patient, perseverant and brave surrender of those that direct us on this path, supporting us in the Holy Spirit. You teach us that nothing is improvised.
So thank you, to all of you.
I pray always so that you maintain this work of divine Providence, that touches all hearts, so that we respond to him with this love that can do all.
Thank you seventy times seven.
May God bless you and may the Virgin, Our Lady carry you in her hand, to her son.
PS.
My committed help, coming from the heart, will be my prayer, so that this continues. I cannot contribute in another way. But I believe in the infinite power of prayer. You already have my prayers. Continue in your labor.
Marta
From: Seychelles
Date: 2007-01-09
[Translated from the original French]
Dear friends from the ZENIT team,
I have the honor and the joy of extending to you a very lively word of thanks for this great information service -- that reports almost in real time -- and offers us news of the life of the Church and the mission of the Pope. Many thanks!
Father Vincenzo Sirizzotti, Capuchin missionary in the Islands of Seychelles
From: Lebanon
Date: 2007-03-
[Translation from the original French]
Thank you for existing and spreading the news of the universal Church. I am a missionary. I began to appreciate ZENIT when I was on missions and, now back in France, after some 30 years of missionary work, I continue to appreciate it … because the mission continues and you help me. Thank you.
Father Pierre-Marie
From: Belgium
Date: 2007-03-
Dear ZENIT,
You invite us to help you with donations. Unfortunately, as an ancient missionary in Congo (for more than 40 years), I receive only a survival pension here in Belgium, which in reality, is not sufficient to survive. That is the reason why I cannot help you financially.
But you also ask for our testimonies. Here I have one. I have been teaching English for a few weeks to a French-speaking Congolese bishop, in whose diocese English becomes more and more important. That is why he wanted -- at the age of 65 -- to brush up his English.
We have used several interesting texts from ZENIT to do this. And the bishop was very pleased with this. This proves the value of the work of ZENIT, a reason to thank you very much for your work.
I do not mention his name, because I could not now ask his permission to do so.
Yours thankfully in Christ,
Gaston De Neve
Salesians of St. John Bosco
From: France
Date: 2007-03-20
[Translation from the original French]
Thank you for existing and spreading the news of the universal Church. I am a missionary. I began to appreciate ZENIT when I was on missions and, now back in France, after some 30 years of missionary work, I continue to appreciate it … because the mission continues and you help me. Thank you.
Father Pierre-Marie
From: Kenya
Date: 2007-03-
Dear ZENIT,
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
I am happy to share my testimony with other subscribers of this media organization that truly links us to the Church.
I am the news editor of Radio Waumini, a Catholic radio station in Nairobi, Kenya.
Currently, I am studying at the Catholic University in Milan, Italy.
Radio Waumini, a project of the Kenya episcopal conference, was launched on July 6, 2003, at Mji wa Furaha, Kasarani, Nairobi.
Prior to the launch of the station -- the only one of its kind in Kenya -- there was often no mention of the Church's activities and in particular the news of the Holy Father by our local radio stations. We were in darkness about the role of the Church outside Kenya.
As the head of the department, I decided to incorporate the events of the Vatican, and in particular the Holy Father's messages, into our news. This, I thought would bring more light to our listeners, irrespective of their faith.
Therefore in all our news bulletins every day, we must carry a specific Church story. ZENIT is our main source of the Church stories. This makes a big difference between our news and the news from other local stations, including other faith-based stations.
Our listeners, who include the Catholic faithful and non-Catholic faithful, have since been well informed of the major events of the church from Vatican to the local level.
This in return has enhanced the faith of many listeners on the role of the Catholic Church in our society. Bravo ZENIT!
I am very grateful to the management of ZENIT and pray that God touches each one of us to contribute generously to their mission of evangelizing through this medium.
Again, a big thank you to the ZENIT team and may the Almighty God bless you as you strive to play your effective role of a Good Shepherd.
Maurice Otsieno.
News Editor, Radio Waumini
From: India
Date: 2006-04-10
Respected Zenit
Be assured of my whole hearted support in prayer and any monetary possible way which at the moment is restricted as I am in Kolkata on mission as itinerant presbyter of the Diocese of Karwar.
Bosco Ribeiro
From: United States of America
Date: 2006-04-16
Zenit officers,
Your recent e-mail noted that we could offer testimonials regarding the wonderful service that you provide us. I would like to add mine to the many that you no doubt receive from around the world.
In particular, as editor of an in-house journal for my religious order, I deeply appreciate receiving and passing on news and commentary from your frequent communications. I select passages that I believe will interest my co-religious, especially as “fillers” between various articles in the journal. Moreover, I have recommended your service to several others, including the official communications officer of my province.
As I say, it is a wonderful service for news, but it is also especially useful for insightful commentary.
Thank you,
Brother Brendan Kneale, FSC
From: Zambia
Date: 2006-04-04
Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for the daily news from the Vatican. 'SPEAK OUT' is a magazine for youth. In Zambia, the youth has no money and so we are a sort of 'charitable magazine'. We are always begging for funds to be able to carry on printing and helping the young to read a good, Christian paper. Because of this reason, we are not able to send you financial support but I am offering up my prayer that you may continue with your good work.
I am often printing out articles and distribute them to the people around - also our Bishop who is extremely busy as he is in charge of two dioceses. I pin up your articles in our Convent for the 28 Sisters to read your messages.
May the Lord bless your work
Sr. Constantia Treppe OP
Managing Editor
From: Nigeria
Date: 2006-04-11
Dear friends of Zenit,
You deserve support. Your agency is getting across the world the news about Catholics everywhere, timely and promptly. I was proud to see the suffering of Nigerian Christians by the hand of lawless fundamentalists and fanatics, being immediately reported including details of the martyred priest in Maiduguri.
I find the documents, interviews and homilies that you put into the daily dispatches very helpful. For example I am often able to get ideas for my homilies on Sundays, for the preacher of the Pontifical House.
Gold and Silver I do not have, but I am certain you will receive God's abundant blessings in your work of evangelisation of the media, bring Christ's light to the world. May God bless you indeed!
Fr. James Chapuli
Censor Librorum
Archdiocese of Lagos.
From: Fiji
Date: 2006-04-04
Greetings from the Pacific Regional Seminary here in Suva, Fiji!
We have been so fortunate in receiving Zenit free of charge for the past 2 years and I just want to thank you and to let you know how much our seminarians and other users of the library appreciate these newsletters. Not only have they keep us up-to-date with news from Rome, but we are able to print out sections which may be relevant to what is being taught here at the seminary.
We would really love to contribute in some way toward Zenit, but at the moment we are unable to send you any monetary donations due to budget constraints. I would like to assure you though that Zenit and all the hardworking staff over there are in my prayers. Each time I recieve an issue in my email I say a prayer for Zenit!
We would be really grateful if you could keep us on your mailing list to receive Zenit via email.
Thank you and all the staff of Zenit for all your hard work in distributing this very important newsletter to people and organizations
all over the world. You are great Evangelizers!
Many Blessings
Mrs Ethel Morris
Senior Library Supervisor
Pacific Regional Seminary
Private Mail Bag
Suva, FIJI
From: India
Date: 2006-04-
Dear Friend,
I have always looked forward to Zenit news for the past few years. I keep up-to date with all church matters over the world. Thank you for providing me with a subscription.
I have also appreciated the Document section and the Liturgical clarifications. Both have a colour of their own and are unique for us who cannot afford to buy the books or have the time to read them. Thank you for this service.
Be assured of my prayers for the benefactors and for your beautiful ministry.
Archbishop Henry D'Souza
Emeritus of Calcutta.
From: India
Date: 2006-04-04
Dear Karna,
I ask your prayer for the young girls and children we are helping to grow with dignity and with a living faith... We are not able to assist you financially, but we always thank our Heavenly Father for your excellent and timely reporting about our Holy Father's words and actions, a wonderful supplement to the OR.
We pray for the entire Zenit team, and know that your example in healthy, upright journalism has its fruit in today's disoriented communications media! We wish you a blessed Easter, after a most meaningful encounter with Christ Crucified!
In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, always, Sr. Rose, Idente Missionary of Christ Crucified
From: France
Date: 2006--
[text translated, original in French]
Your messages are much appreciated. Some go directly to the community’s notice board as there are not many of us who can surf the net. We are a community of 24 retirees from Africa, average age 77. As several of us still engage in ministry (catechesis, preaching, different chaplaincies), Zenit helps us to stay in touch with the Mother House (the Holy Father, the Vatican, etc.) and of not going too far astray from the line given by the Holy Spirit. Do not be afraid to quote non-French authors, exegetes and theologians. I missionized for 37 years in Tanzania, a “former British territory.” We, French, need to open ourselves to other cultures and traditions so as to benefit more from the wealth of the universal Church as well as to discover the richness of other Churches or religions.
Raphael Rogeau, M. Afr. (p.b.)
From: France
Date: 2006--
[text translated, original in French]
What joy to have seen the faces of those who work every day to make known on earth the voice of the Church and the voices of those who witness the Gospel by their words and above all by their lives. What joy also to know that they do it for God, which does not exempt us from thinking that they also have to live and support their families or communities. Their testimony is for us as another Pentecost on the world, given that with the Internet they cross all borders. Our age knows inhuman acts, a return to barbarism, but also admirable deeds and actions, truly evangelical, which plunge us in thanksgiving and make us truly believe that Love will have the last word, whether or not we know, for the moment, what is happening. Noise does not nurture the good; the good is not noisy. Your waves are not sonorous. Their objective is not propaganda, ideological combat, but Truth and Love among all men as Christ asked of his disciples, to Peter first, and to his successors. Thank you for making yourselves the voice of the Church, there where she is present and has need of our prayer (of intercession or thanksgiving).
Germanie Fauconnier
Apostolic Community of St. Francis Xavier
From: France
Date: 2006--
[text translated, original in French]
A big thank you for Zenit’s creation and continued existence!
Although in France, but living in a Retreat House with a few of my aged Sisters, after an “apostolic” life, I can live here -- despite its being a secular environment --, the rhythm of the Church in the world. The grace is that, in this House, held previously by some women religious, there is a chapel, the Eucharist every day at 11 o’clock and therefore always the Real Presence.
Materially, I am still unable to make a donation to Zenit, but I very much hope that I shall be able to do so one day. I pray for all the Zenit staff and I shall do so every day and in eternity (I’m 85). Thank you for praying for us also who still have work to do here for the discreet evangelization of those who are in need. With all of you, authors and readers, we live with amazement this Easter Time, and reread with joy the texts of the Acts of the Apostles and of the evangelists, the deeds of the early Church and those of the Church of today, thanks to you. It is a permanent miracle allied to an everyday martyr. You make us live in constant communion. May God help us to help you!
Germanie Fauconnier
Apostolic Community of St. Francis Xavier
From: Madagascar
Date: 2006--
[text translated, original in French]
A million thanks for your beautiful mission. It is a joy for me to be able to read Zenit when I return from my work in the bush where there is neither electricity nor telephon. It opens me to the universal Church and gives me the means to be up-to-date on the recent documents of Rome.
Unfortunately, it is impossible for me to give a donation, yet I would love to continue to receive Zenit. I can only pray for the benefactors and wish Zenit a long life.
Sister Emerentienne RAMORAVELO
From: Rwanda
Date: 2006-05-17
[text translated, original in French]
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My sincere and cordial greetings.
I am Rwandan, living in the capital, Kigali. As my occupation, I work for an energy enterprise during the day and in the evening I attend the University’s Faculty of Economic Sciences.
Nevertheless, I am very happy to receive Zenit every day, in the sense that the reading of its articles gives me veritable spiritual comfort, in the midst of this very broken world, without love. The texts help me in the affirmation of my spiritual life as a lay Catholic Christian, and I am proud to be informed on our dear Church more than so many other Christians. Nevertheless, my means being very limited and moreover being unable to even satisfy my needs, my great regret is not to be able to support financially this magnificent work that you do, but I promise to keep you in my daily prayers and assure you of my most friendly collaboration.
United in prayer.
UWUMUREMYI Faustin
Kigali-Rwanda
From: Mozambique
Date: 2006--
[text translated, original in French]
Zenit is for me, in the deep of this Mozambican bush, a unique, most simple and accessible source of information through my “small Internet” connection. I will not cease to pray so that the donations may contribute to its existence as a press living charity with those who do not have many resources to pay for expensive “newspapers.”
Father Damien cssp
From: United States of America
Date: 2006--
[text translated, original in French]
For several years, I benefited from the donation of “others” to be able to be informed on news of the Vatican and of the world seen from Rome. Today I am happy to be able to contribute modestly to your collection for this year. I appreciate enormously the brief and concise quality of the news. May the Light of the Church shine everywhere on earth and may Zenit in itself be one of those luminous rays that enlightens consciences and hearts.
Blessings, Peace and Joy to you and to all the team,
Claude
From: Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Date: 2006--
[text translated, original in French]
Dear Zenit,
My name is Anne Marie Itindi and I am a Canossian religious who has just returned to the country; it will soon be two years ago, after a brief sojourn in Verona, Italy. I am in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and it was my fellow Sister Maria Antonietta Marcon, missionary in Tanzania, who put me in contact with Zenit. I thank the Lord for having the possibility of connection to the Internet in this remote corner of the world and to be able to be informed on what happens in my beloved Church. Much of the news is the object of my prayer so that the Church of Christ can always remain rooted in the truth that the Apostles and Fathers of the Church taught us. As for the rest, I promise you my prayers so that all those who work for Zenit will allow themselves be transformed by the experience of a new life with the Lord.
My very sincere thanks.
Sister Anne Marie Itindi, fdcc/ RDC-Ariwara
From: Egypt
Date: 2006--
[text translated, original in French]
Here is my response. I am in Egypt and it is impossible for me to send support in “money.” I shall do so this summer, if I am able to go to Europe. As for prayers, be assured of mine as it is thanks to Zenit that I have news of the Church, of Catholics and of what happens in the world of spirituality. I am, as you know, in the world of Islam …
Blanche
From: Canada
Date: 2006--
[text translated, original in French]
I was subscribed to Zenit on two occasions. The first time, on my return to the Catholic faith five years ago, by my cousin Huguette Le Blanc, national Directress of the OPM in Montreal (Quebec, Canada). Having had to leave home for over a month and having unsubscribed myself so as not to accumulate your news in vain, it was my brother Leonard Audet, former Doyen of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Montreal, later Superior General of the CSV in Rome for 12 years, who subscribed me, to my greatest joy. Why such joy? Because that new subscription coincided with the publication, first within the Church, of the Encyclical “God Is Love.” I must admit that during the thirty years that I was estranged from the Catholic Church, I continued to meditate on a text of Augustine commenting on the First Letter of John: “Ama et fac quod vis.” I did my Licentiate in Theology on that text. Later I called myself an agnostic, but I regularly reread the Letter of John as well as his Gospel, primarily chapter 8 and following, where he talks about the unconditional love of God for us, as well as the love/friendship of Jesus for his disciples.
I consider Benedict XVI’s text as the best and the most fundamental that has been produced in the Catholic Church in the 2000 years of its existence. And I weigh my words carefully. Above all, the most fundamental! I no longer felt myself in the Church precisely because I had the feeling that its Hierarchy had abandoned for centuries this fundamental emphasis both of the Gospels as well as of the Letters of John and Paul: God’s first love of us, as well as his liberating action as explained so well in the Letter to the Romans in the fifth chapter. Benedict XVI is hence for me the happiest surprise of my life of rediscovered faith. I never wished to emphasize the Church’s lacuna, having preferred to be estranged. And behold that, after my return to the faith, I came across a foundational text: “Deus Caritas Est.” God be praised in his faithful servant Benedict!
As for my monetary capacities, I admit that at present they are at their lowest. I had to take early retirement ten years ago. Since then, I have not ceased to do voluntary work, both by writing, on spirituality among other things, as well as by free and sometimes monetary psychological aid all around me. I am not worried, telling myself what our brother Ernest repeated to his thirteen children every time there was a difficulty: “Divine Providence will provide.” And Providence provided, every one having learned also to do all that was possible so as not to leave all the burden to Heaven! As you emphasize the free aspect of Zenit, I consider myself one of those poor to whom the good word comes thanks to donations from those more fortunate than I am. Again, thank you for communicating to us the thought of great spiritual souls like Benedict XVI and Father Cantalamessa. We also have spiritual greats in Quebec. Among others, Father Yves Girard whose mystical boldness contributed to my return to the faith, as well as the Quebec poet, Fernand Ouellette, who also spoke so well of little Therese of the Child Jesus.
I conclude by wishing a long life to Zenit and, above all, to the divine work in each of the six and a half billion humans more than half of whom at present face humanly insurmountable difficulties. May they, finally, in ever greater numbers, allow divine Love, so well incarnated in Jesus, to act in them.
Jean Pierre Audet
From: France
Date: 2006--
[text translated, original in French]
With this message, I would like to contribute my small testimony and thank Zenit for the immense possibility and joy that you give me to be able to participate in the life of the Church by reading your messages every day.
As, stricken by a heavy handicap, it is impossible for me physically to turn the pages of a book or newspaper, the news you send me daily, therefore, in the messages and the recommendations of our most Holy Father Benedict XVI are essential for me.
Several dear friends of mine gave me this subscription to Zenit, thus enabling me to know the excellent quality of your articles. I hope with all my heart to be able to continue sharing with you what means so much to me.
I remain at your entire disposition,
With all my esteem,
Christine Marthouret
From: Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Date: 2006--
After a tour to visit my fellow missionaries, which took me to the center and north of the Congo, it is with great joy that I found the information on Zenit.
I would like to offer a testimony here. Up to now Zenit has enabled me to live, though at a distance, the events of the Church, to know the important texts that are promulgated and that help to express the faith today. Through Zenit, I am truly inscribed in the universality of the Church, in communion with what a given local Church is experiencing. It nourishes my prayer and action. From the point of view of research, Zenit also furnishes me with a certain number of gifts that are greatly appreciated. I use them for my recollections, retreats and above all my homilies.
This news service gives me therefore much in terms of information. It nourishes my faith which I share with others and keeps me linked to the center of catholicity and the Pope who is the first to be at the service of this catholicity.
Long live Zenit and may it be at the service of the proclamation of the Risen One in today’s world.
From Brazzaville,
A priest, Regional Superior of a Missionary Congregation in the Congo
From: United States of America
Date: 2006-04-11
Dear sirs and madames,
Zenit has helped to complete my Catholocism. Your daily dispatches which include news from the Vatican as well as sermons from the Holy Father and other cardinals from within the pontifical household have brought me in communion with the one,Holy,Catholic and Apostolic Church which truly teaches as the Body of Christ.
I speak of your services as often as I can. Thank you for your ministry and with your daily assistance I continue to be...
Your brother in Christ,
David T. Garrison
Stony Point N.Y.
From: Zimbabwe
Date: 2006-04-03
Thank you most sincerely for keeping me on your mailing list. I read most of what you send each day and I believe that your communication mission is very important, especially for countries like our own where you help people to read about wider issues and try to establish a balanced perspective.
Our Catholic Church and our own faith make a huge difference, and it is possible to find some sort of peace amid the storms and trials of life. Many people in Africa live in deeply troubled countries, where most of the problems are caused by the rulers and those who control them. This is definitely the way God wants it to be and I live in constant hope that, with God's help, people will see the way to lift our continent from its impoverishment.
May God bless you and reward you spiritually,
John L. Sullivan
From: Kenya
Date: 2006-05-08
Dear Zenit
Jambo from Kenya. I would like to thank you for sending the interesting news of the church concerning the church and the world everyday. I am very grateful. I found it very helpful to know what is happening in the church. Moreover I found it helpful in my Theological studies here at Tangaza College of The Catholic University of Eastern Africa Kenya.
As for the donation, I am sorry I am not able to send something. As a seminarian I have limited resources.
Thanks a lot.
Yours in Christ, Yosef Giday M. Afr. Kenya
From: Canada
Date: 2006-04-03
Thank God for Zenit news! Your wonderful, timely and up to date news service provides us with an inside look at the Vatican and news relating to the Catholic Church. The mainstream media is not providing Catholics that truly believe and practice their faith equal or proper air time in the broadcast media, or in the editorial pages of many newspapers and magazines. If anything, the mainstream media portrays a very negative and biased opinion towards Catholics and their viewpoints. Thanks to Zenit news we get a truthful alternative to the mainstream media, especially in Canada and throughout North America. I pray that Zenit news keeps portraying the light of Christ's Church to a world that really needs that Catholic Church more than any time in its history.
God Bless Zenit news!
Frank Ruffolo
From: Fiji
Date: 2006-04-04
Greetings from the Pacific Regional Seminary here in Suva, Fiji!
We have been so fortunate in receiving Zenit free of charge for the past 2 years and I just want to thank you and to let you know how much our seminarians and other users of the library appreciate these newsletters. Not only have they keep us up-to-date with news from Rome, but we are able to print out sections which may be relevent to what is being taught here at the seminary.
We would really love to contribute in some way toward Zenit, but at the moment we are unable to send you any monetary donations due to budget constraints. I would like to assure you though that Zenit and all the hardworking staff over there are in my prayers. Each time I recieve an issue in my email I say a prayer for Zenit!
We would be really grateful if you could keep us on your mailing list to receive Zenit via email.
Thank you and all the staff of Zenit for all your hard work in distributing this very important newsletter to people and organizations
all over the world. You are great Evangelizers!
Many Blessings
Mrs Ethel Morris
From: Mexico
Date: 2006-04-04
Esteemed Gentlemen of Zenit
We are very grateful to receive all the information on the Church that you furnish us.
We are a contemplative community and thanks to your news we feel more than ever members of this Church for whom we offer our lives day by day.
We cannot send you a donation, but count on our prayers that you may have friendly hands WHICH will help you financially and enable you to continue to give this valuable service.
Attentively,
Discalced Carmelites of Saint Joseph and Saint Teresa
Puebla, Mexico
From: United States of America
Date: 2006-04-03
I have been reading the Zenit Newsletters for about a year, and as a result have always been well informed about what is happening at the Vatican and the wider Church in general. Working as a DRE (Director of Religious Education) in a parish, Zenit has been an very valuable tool for me - a tool which comes right to my computer's mail inbox.
Thank you Zenit.
Doris Meyer, DRE
Lorain, OH
From: United Kingdom
Date: 2006-04-05
I have been a regular subscriber of ZENIT since November 2000. It has been tremendous help to me in understanding and keeping my faith in a rapidly changing culture that encourages one to form God in his own image to justify his own ends. Zenit has been helpful in directing me to relevant sites to get further information, reducing the need to search the net.
R P Coelho,
From: Brazil
Date: 2006--
[Original text in Portuguese]
YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WE ADMIRE AND HOW USEFUL THE MESSAGES ARE THAT WE RECEIVE DAILY THROUGH “ZENIT.”
WE ARE DIRECTLY INFORMED ON NEWS OF THE CHURCH, THE WORLD, THE CNBB, ETC. THIS HELPS US TO FEEL WITH THE CHURCH!
CONTACT WITH THE WORD OF GOD WHICH YOU RICHLY OFFER US WITH WONDERFUL COMMENTARIES, ESPECIALLY OF FATHER CANTALAMESSA AND OTHERS, IS HAVING A VERY BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE ON OUR SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. FOR ALL THIS, WE WISH TO GIVE YOU OUR TESTIMONY AND THANK YOU FROM OUR HEART. GOODNESS KNOWS TO HOW MANY PEOPLE WE HAVE RECOMMENDED “ZENIT” WHO HAVE ALSO BECOME SUBSCRIBERS AND ADMIRERS.
IN OUR PRAYERS, WE IMPLORE GOD THAT YOU FIND GENEROUS HEARTS THAT CAN AND WANT TO HELP YOU.
WE EMBRACE YOU IN FRIENDSHIP AND SEND OUR BEST WISHES FOR A HOLY EASTER,
JOSE ANTONIO AND RELATIVES ON BEHALF OF OUR MOTHER THERESA MARIA AND OF THE CARMELITE SISTERS OF TREMEMBE,
YOUR GRATEFUL FRIEND,
IRMA MARIA LUIZA OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS, OCD.
From: Mexico
Date: 2006-03-22
[Original text in Spanish]
My heartfelt gratitude for the timely information I receive on the great events of the Church in the world. May God bless you work and all the good you do. We pray for you.
Congregation of the Incarnate Word and of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Fraternally,
Sister Livier Loera Joya
Superior General
From: United States of America
Date: 2006-04-03
Dear ZENIT,
Your news service is an invaluable part of my parish life. For the years I have subscribed to ZENIT, the service has enabled me to get up-to-the-minute Catholic news, Vatican and papal documents, and spiritual enrichment IMMEDIATELY to my parishioners -- and without a charge!
Now many, many people from the parish subscribe directly, as well as friends all over the globe, and the articles in ZENIT are frequently the catalyst for some excellent discussions regarding our faith.
There's nothing as quick, reliable and doctrinally solid as ZENIT that I have found. Keep up the good work. Your valuable work has a place in my prayers!
Father Timothy Alkire
St. Boniface Church
Lafayette, Indiana
From: Hong Kong
Date: 2006--
[Original text in Italian]
Dear ZENIT,
I receive your news which not only is very interesting but also well done and you offer news in real time, which is no mean feat.
I have been in China with my husband, in Hong Kong, for 12 years and we are part of the family mission. I have recommended ZENIT also to all our Chinese brothers, and now all those who have a computer receive it.
For us, to receive ZENIT is fundamental and indispensable to be up-to-date on all that occurs at the world level in the Church. A special praise for your services that address in vitro fertilization, the problem of homosexuality, de facto couples, and so many other issues that you address with extreme accuracy (Interviews with experts, etc.).
I hope you will be able to continue to send ZENIT to us even though unfortunately our finances do not allow us to support you financially. We can pray for all your collaborators, hoping that this will suffice.
To lose you would be very sad because you are the only reliable voice that comes to us. May God bless you for your commitment and dedication.
I greet you affectionately and thank you for your irreplaceable work.
Lucilla De Simoni Francavilla
From: Argentina
Date: 2006-04-03
[Original text in Spanish]
Dear Sirs:
Thanks to ZENIT's service, one can really, in the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola, "feel with the Church," and form our minds and hearts and have the teachings and examples of the Holy Father and the universal Church resonate.
Thank you very much!
Yesterday you enabled us to be close to the Great Pope John Paul II; today, we enjoy the wisdom of Benedict XVI. Both are really an enormous and marvelous grace that we, Catholics of the third millennium, have.
A financial contribution is not within my possibilities, but to all of you go my gratitude and prayer. You really do merit the generous material support of those who can afford it, and you are right to appeal for it assiduously in such a good and edifying manner.
May God and Most Holy Mary help you to always keep the style and charism you have shown to date, and enable you to enlarge and enrich it by furthering the service of the Church.
Perhaps, at times, St. Maximilian Kolbe dreamed of such things. Perhaps you and others who follow in his footsteps, collaborate to what should be the rapid, vertiginous re-evangelization of the whole world, until He returns.
Success in everything and much fruitfulness!
In Mary of Lujan,
Father Gaspar J. Farre, IVE
San Rafael, Argentina
From: India
Date: 2005-05-10
With gratitude and admiration I look at you, O Zenit, every day to be informed and inspired by the truth you spread with accuracy and
commitment. I have been receiving great things from you; but, alas! what have I given you back ! Last year I sent your message to more than hundred friends for free subscription. But only one responded!.
Financially I'm unable to help you. So I offer your noble cause to the Providence and lift my heart up to heavens for your sake. Every day I wait eagerly to hear from you. God bless you! Your are Great O Zenit !
Anoop Dev
Vinayalaya
From: Kenya
Date: 2006-04-11
Dear ZENIT,
Please understand that you mean a lot to me and to my friends who often read the printouts I make for them.
We want to you to continue existing, for you are truly helping many Catholics to appreciate their faith and to know what is going on around the world.
We pray for you but at the moment we are not in a position to assist you financially. Regardless, do not please stop coming to us. God bless ZENIT for ever.
Bernadette Mwaniki
From: Croatia
Date: 2006-04-03
Dear ZENIT! I'm sending You testimony in croatian language, because
there are many readers of ZENIT in Croatia. I spoke to some of them, and
even our professors on Theology university in Zagreb sometimes are
giving us some news that they have read on ZENIT.
I'm Your subscriber for few months and I read the news that you are
sending. Thank You, and God bless You!
fr. Kristijan Kuhar, TOR
From: Brazil
Date: 2006-05-26
[Original text in Portuguese]
Hello Friends,
My name is Marlene Mandarino and I live in Rio de Janeiro. I have been receiving ZENIT since the beginning of last year and I wish to say that it has contributed much as a source, not only of information, but also of reflection for my life and pastoral work.
I work primarily in the formation of young people, and what I receive from ZENIT gives me much more foundation and certainty to feel with the Church and to speak as Church.
Even if I wished to, it would be impossible to single out any part of the work you do: the Pope's word, the interviews, the international news, etc. -- all form a whole that informs and forms us as persons and Christians.
There is, moreover, another reason why I want to thank the Lord very much for each one of you and for the work you do. I cannot see, and I use a computer thanks to software that speaks all that is written on the screen. In other words, even what is written in newspapers on the Church, comes to me much more easily through your dedicated work.
Sadly I will not be able to cooperate financially, but count on my prayers, not only for the success of this year's campaign, but also for the perseverance of each one of you throughout the world in the fulfilment of this mission that does so much good to so many people.
May God bless you and continue to guide you so that you will not fail in your faith and in the living of the mission that He entrusts to you every instant.
With much affection,
Your Sister in Christ,
Marlene Mandarino
From: New Zealand
Date: 2005-06-11
I have already e-mailed a testimonial to you, to tell you of the great inspiration I receive in reading all the articles daily. There are a few members of my friends (suffering from illness) to whom I forward on these articles. Thank you again for the wonderful articles and all the information received daily, I am unfortunately at the moment not able to forward a donation, but I PRAY for all your intentions and for the continuance of your services to all your readers. I love, particularly, all the articles on the EUCHARIST (especially at this time of the year of the Eucharist), and these articles are read out at our prayer meetings.
Thank you and God Bless you all.
Daphne
Christchurch, New Zealand
From: United States of America
Date: 2006-04-21
Dear ZENIT:
I am a nun, contemplative Good Shepherd Sister, and do not have any money, but I promise to pray for you every day. I appreciate your service very much, since I am 96 years old and do not go out anymore.
May God bless you for the good that you do for the Church.
Very respectfully, Sister Cecelia
From: Viet Nam
Date: 2006-05-29
[Original text in French]
Dear Friends,
My name is Joseph Vu Van Thien, bishop of Hai Phong, Vietnam. For years I have been a daily reader of your edition. In a country where there is only one document officially authorized by the state, ZENIT's news is really necessary and useful.
Thanks to ZENIT, we can live communion with the universal Church, thus sharing the wonders God has done for his People. With ZENIT, Rome is very close to us because the news and teaching of the magisterium comes swiftly to us.
Thank you! Thank you to our dear benefactors who enable us to receive daily, and for free, this precious news.
I wish you, as well as all our dear readers, a happy feast of Pentecost. May the Holy Spirit fill us with his graces.
From: Pakistan
Date: 2006-04-04
Dear Carmen Lago,
Every time while reading your messages regarding supporting ZENIT, I feel a little guilty for not being in a position to assist ZENIT financially.
But I assure you of my prayers that God may send you a lot of Providence to meet ZENIT's budget and to go ahead in the work of evangelization.
I wish to thank you and your colleagues for providing us this great service because ZENIT is the only source that we have, to know the news about Pope and the whole Church, especially for us who live in Muslim countries far from the news of the Christian world.
May God bless you and your work.
In prayers,
Mariam Rani
From: Austria
Date: 2006-04-03
[Original text in German]
Your e-mails mean a lot to me, since by reading your news I came to know the Catholic Church much better.
For many years I have been a member of a charismatic religious group.
When I fell ill with cancer of the lung four years ago, losing 60% of [its capacity], my brothers and sisters joined in prayers for my recovery and my condition stabilized, to the great surprise of my doctors. I can feel the healing power of my Father [...] and I feel the love of Jesus.
With greetings of my heart,
L. Albrecht
From: India
Date: 2006-04-05
Dear Respected Editor,
I'm so much indebted to ZENIT for my personal growth in the up-to-date knowledge of the testimony of the Church all over the world, especially in the defense and promotion of human dignity and rights well founded on Gospel values.
One of the many reasons why I rely on ZENIT is its faithfulness to the objective truth. It makes me feel and be more and more convinced of the truth, greatness and uniqueness of my own faith and life as a priest.
May God bless all the endeavors of ZENIT in its evangelizing mission and bless the families of those associated with ZENIT.
With so much appreciation and continued prayers,
Father Joy Puthenveettil
From: Switzerland
Date: 2006-04-29
[Original text in German]
There is much talk of our Catholic Church in the media today. And it is not always easy to distinguish between the truth and invention. ZENIT is of great help in this dilemma.
With the publication of numerous addresses and homilies of the Holy Father, it is possible to be informed in a short time on the authentic text and to read his words in the "original tone."
Moreover, you refer and comment on the important events in the universal Church. In this way, ZENIT offers an indispensable aid for the union to be reinforced between the local Churches worldwide and the universal Church with Rome at its center.
Kurt Koch
Bishop of Basel
From: Italy
Date: 2006-04-03
[Original text in Italian]
Dear ZENIT,
For some months you have come to my home and I have received you and welcomed you as a dear friend.
You have given me joy when I see you in my inbox. This service has been only for a personal end. I am 71. Since 2000 I have had a vertebral collapse, so that I can no longer travel or make use of means of transport. But I have the good fortune of this old and frail computer that helps me do things, be it at the level of community liturgy or some creative hobby.
I was a professional nurse, but for 45 years I never had any salary and now I only have a minimal pension. I have many other problems, such as hepatitis C and two ruptured discs, but it is better not to list them (which would be too long).
On my part, dear ZENIT, I wish you a prosperous and long life. I shall miss you if you do not arrive anymore.
I pray that other people will have the sensitivity to contribute to you so that you can continue to do good with your presence and content. To break one's loneliness is a very great consolation.
With very best wishes,
Sister Elena Cotza
From: Austria
Date: 2006-04-27
[text translated,original in French]
I have observed with joy ZENIT's development since the beginning. Its effort in times of relativism to become a service for the truth surely reinforces not only me. How many boosts through homilies and articles I have already received from ZENIT; how many lacuna of knowledge have been filled thanks to its informative articles!
May God reward you all!
Fr. Leo Maasburg,
National Director of the Pontifical Institute of Mission Works
(Missio Austria)
From: Switzerland
Date: 2006--
[text translated,original in French]
Hello,
I sent you a gift but I happily send you a testimony.
Being a student of theology at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) to become a pastor and having many Catholic friends, I have appreciated receiving your newsletters since the beginning of the year.
In fact, they enable me to know the Catholic Church better, to be more abreast of present-day problems and also of problems that the other media say little or nothing about. At a more personal level, I think that the more we know the more we will be able to come closer, because as you have already guessed, I support ecumenism.
Another advantage for me from your letters is that they make me reflect differently on certain problems especially the interviews (the original ...)
Moreover, your letters give me spiritual nourishment, for example through Benedict XVI's messages.
I thank you, therefore, for all the work you do.
May God keep you and best wishes,
Laurent Lasserre
From: France
Date: 2006--
[text translated,original in French]
One day, one of my friends sent me, as a gift, a subscription to Zenit. I was a bit surprised, because I thought that with "Prions en Eglise" and my daily Mass, I had no more to learn. What is more, the stories of the Vatican ... are for priests! Of what interest would they be to me?
I was mistaken. As I went along reading Zenit, I became increasingly interested. A new world unfolded before me and I learned above all that there were so many things to learn about the person of Christ, about the Church, its body and members, their lives and their sacrifices.
The Spirit is moving within me. New ideas have begun to arise in my spirit, even on subjects as material as politics, strategy, the Middle East question, the problems of my native country, Lebanon. Without question, quotations from the Bible and the Gospels began to appear in my political writings.
And that's not all. I began myself to make gifts of Zenit to my friends and my children, gifts that could help them also in their lives and in difficult moments, because it is at those times that one feels the need of God.
Roger AKL, Lebanese military, author of "Cri d'un Chretien d'Orient", under the pseudonym Jeremie Jonas, published by Sigest, Alfortville, France, 2004
From: Colombia
Date: 2006-02-06
[text translated, original in Spanish]
Dear ZENIT Friends:
I am Monsignor Hector Gutierrez Pabon. Since August 6, 2004, by designation of His Holiness John Paul II, I am the first Bishop of the Diocese of Engativa, Bogota, Colombia. His Holiness John Paul divided the Archdiocese of Bogota into an archdiocese and three suffragan dioceses. Mine is one of those.
A certain percentage of the population (1,500,000 inhabitants) are Catholics, though not all are practicing.
We have 57 parishes and 86 priests, including religious and diocesan.
I tell you the above so that you know the extent of the exposure of the EXTRAORDINARY SERVICE OF INFORMATION AND EDUCATION that ZENIT provides us.
I am a journalist and every day I am on a private T.V. station in the city and every Sunday on RCN television. Both operate at the national level. I also have a radio program in my diocese every Wednesday for one hour. We have excellent coverage.
I tell you all this to comment on how much GOOD ZENIT does. The news I read in your reports I transmit to the whole community through radio and television, and to my priests in the meetings of the presbytery.
That is why, once again, I express my sincere gratitude to the directors and journalists of such a prestigious News Agency.
Thank you for everything and may the Lord Jesus and the Most Holy Virgin Mary bless you and your benefactors.
God keep you all.
Monsignor Hector Gutierrez Pabon
Bishop of Engativa, Colombia
From: Cameroon
Date: 2006--
[text translated,original in French]
Good day, Gentlemen,
I write to you from Cameroon where I am a missionary. I have had the joy to read Zenit for some months.
A friend gave you my address and now I can read the news from Rome every week. I am happy about this possibility; it is very useful for me also to communicate the news to my confreres and to the faithful. Thank you for your magnificent service. Unfortunately I cannot help you financially, both because here in the mission the possibilities are always limited as well as the fact we have no account opened in a bank to send you our contribution. I apologize for this, but I am confident that you will continue to enrich us with your news and articles.
Your work is fantastic. All the best.
Fr. Antonio, missionary in Cameroon
From: Haiti
Date: 2006--
[text translated, original in French]
In Haiti, in a poor neighbourhood on the periphery of Port-au-Prince, I exercise my ministry from a popular chapel (on the first floor) and a kindergarten (on the ground floor), which receives, with the help of godparents, some one hundred children, between 3 and 6 years old, whose education and canteen is assured every day of the school year. I depend completely on the solidarity of benefactors who share with the mission. This is why I cannot help Zenit financially, but I am very happy to benefit from the essential documents of the Church that you produce daily. My heartfelt thanks. I am sure that the same benefactors who support my activity here will also be able to support Zenit's, and that I will thus be able to continue to receive your messages for a long time. I appreciate your dedication enormously, your regularity and the beautiful presentation you provide to transmit faithfully to us the teaching of the Church.
Fraternally,
Father Maurice
From: Algeria
Date: 2006--
[text translated,original in French]
Dear Friends of Zenit Agency,
Here we are entering Holy Week and after the procession of Palms, symbolic in my small community of the Algerian Sahara, we undertake this path with Jesus toward his ultimate passage.
In my heart the desire is born to contact you to thank you for this news service of the Church and the entire world. In particular, I appreciate all that spiritual contribution that nourishes me in this mission where we are the only 4 Christians in this locality of Ain Sefra. The news, the reports on the activities of the Church and the Pope, enables me to live in communion of heart in the common mission that the Risen One has entrusted to us.
Lent ends with the silent meditation on the Passion and, as today, the anointing at Bethany: the magnificent openness to the gift of life that inspires our apostolic activity in the midst of this Muslim people that welcomes us and with whom we journey together to the end of the road. It is certainly a mystery, but undertaken together on the path of man for whom Christ offers himself in his Passion, we can be sure that the Kingdom of God germinates in the silence of a gratuitous presence, as is each newborn life.
It is in this spirit that I would like to thank you for your noble work of information as "makers of communion" and express my traditional good wishes for Easter.
Danuta fmm
From: Poland
Date: 2006-04-28
Dear ZENIT publishers,
For three years I have been receiving your news service. As a missionary in Poland I cannot express how invaluable your service is to me and my faith. Translations into Polish of the Church's news is generally very delayed, and I confess it is difficult for me to read even when it is.
I believe your service is an answer to the Church's appeal to bring the Gospel into the market place. Here, living and working at the edge of Auschwitz concentration camp, one can feel a bit isolated but through ZENIT I feel connected to the life of the Church throughout the world. Thank you so very very much.
My institute's main house in Italy makes a donation for all of us throughout the world, receiving ZENIT in five languages.
A Fr. Kolbe Missionary of the Immaculata
From: Germany
Date: 2006-04-28
[text translated, original in German]
The world has become smaller and we must react ever more rapidly to events, actions, facts and words. To have an idea of what is really happening in the world, it helps to glance at ZENIT's pages, which are informative and always current. With ZENIT one can look to Rome to be informed on events firsthand. If you are looking for trustworthy news, you find it in ZENIT.
Dr. Gerhard Ludwig Müller
Bishop of Regensburg
From: Zambia
Date: 2006-04-05
To ZENIT, Rome:
Thank you so very much for the regular e-mails from Rome.
I am helped by the materials your send in my work for social justice
Through research, education and advocacy with our team here at the Jesuit Center for theological Reflection (JCTR).
The regular updates of statements, documents, events, coming from the Vatican that orient us to the fullness of evangelization in the work of justice all provide a good foundation for our efforts.
The Church's social teaching is central to our work. Zambia is a poor country in many ways, but rich in the faith and with a Church that genuinely promotes political, economic and social justice for all the people.
Blessings for your continued good efforts!
Peter Henriot, S.J.
Director of Jesuit Center for Theological Reflection
From: Israel
Date: 2006-04-06
[text translated,original in Spanish]
I am a "new Catholic." It was not a question of joining a sect or some organization but of a situation: In June it will be six years since I returned to the Church, after decades of "militant agnosticism."
Virtually since that time, I have received ZENIT, which has served me as a means not only of information but also of formation.
Thanks to this publication I now have the firm conviction, which I did not have before, that the embryo is a person from the very moment of conception. Thanks to this conviction, I have been able to transmit the same to others.
Many thanks to you all.
Diego Ma. S. Bustamante
Ministerial Adviser
Spanish Embassy in Israel
From: Italy
Date: 2006-03-
[text tranlasted, original in Italian]
Dear Madam,
I have just finished, as I do every morning, the reading of ZENIT. ZENIT was an intelligent, providential initiative, which has been able to read the signs of the times. ZENIT is a precious instrument not only for Catholics but for anyone who wishes to have serious, serene and well-documented information on the events regarding the Church or of interest to the Church: the Holy See's activity, the Pope's teaching, the family, bioethics, morality, society and the international life.
Today, I would not know what to do but for an aid like ZENIT and I recommend it, especially in the ambit of my work, to all who do not yet know it.
I am profoundly grateful for the work you also carry out, together with so many others, to render "the world seen from Rome" ever more interesting and complete.
With my very best wishes,
Cardinal Giovanni Cheli
From: United States of America
Date: 2006-04-03
Daily, I read the ZENIT on the internet and almost as often do I use it, enlarged, abbreviated, etc., (always acknowledging my source) together with my bulletin display.
Then, I send ZENIT articles to many countries, depending on the info from Rome and the worldwide Church. We are a missionary congregation, the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing. I have friends in Rome, Germany, the 4 African Priories, China, Korea, Bulgaria, and I send news to religious members of other congregations, such as the Alexian Brothers, as well as friends, former students, family in Germany, and even here, within our Priory of Norfolk, Nebraska, to alert some sisters from overseas, to events in their home country, like Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines.
I get your News for several years now, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your excellent reporting. I was 7 times in Rome, last, just a year ago, two days after our dear Pope John Paul II had gone "to the Father."
Some time ago, I had asked for permission to receive ZENIT, even tough I am not able to send a monetary contribution. My contribution is prayer, to lift you all up so that you continue to be on fire.
Another way I try to help is by telling many e-mailers about you and sending info about you. (Christmas Eve 2004, I spent 2 hours mailing ZENIT. I know I won't make any bonus award, but that is not the purpose.)
I want to greet all the ZENIT-FAMILY out there!
Respectfully and gratefully,
Sister Marita Schweiger, OSB
Norfolk, Nebraska
From: Kazakhstan
Date: 2006-04-
[Text translated from German original]
Ladies and Gentlemen,
For almost 6 weeks I have been enjoying your weekly ZENIT-Report. For me it is a great help to receive firsthand information that I can use in my sermons and catechism.
I live in Ust-Kamenogorsk (northeast Kazakhstan) working together with a fellow padre and three sisters. Eleven years ago we established the first Catholic parish in a once "closed" city, now among the most polluted areas in the country and close to the Nuclear Testing Site in Soviet times.
In any case, your appeal for a donation of 50 euros is not asking too much … compared to other newspapers … We got Die Tagespost free in the past.
Now we are live solely on the donations we receive; and what is left of it for private use we pay for our own detoxication medicine.
My humble request: Could you continue to make us happy each week by providing competent information as you have done in the past?
In our Karaganda Diocese we will celebrate Mass for ZENIT in Holy Week on the 10th, 11th, and 12th of April.
May God bless you
Padre Pater Stefan Lippert
From: Malawi
Date: 2006-04-13
Dear Zenit!, I do believe that you face high expenditures! I would like to contribute, but being in Africa is difficult to send you money. I can apply some Mass. Is this way possible for you?
I'll be happy to know it.
Blessings and Happy Easter!!!
Father Joseph Buffoni
Comboni Missionary
From: Peru
Date: 2006-04-04
[Text translated from Spanish original]
I arrived as a missionary in Abancay, in the heart of the Peruvian Andes, in 1973. During these years, I have scarcely been a missionary, because from the beginning, the bishop asked me to start a seminary and to attend to priestly and religious vocations. In the first years what I missed most was being in touch with civilization and being able to be up-to-date on what was happening in the Church and the world.
Since Zenit arrived and I was subscribed to its service, I had the sensation of being so informed, in a positive sense, as when I was in Rome studying for my doctorate. My gratitude because, in addition to knowing what the Holy Father and the Curia say and do, it also helps me a lot to discover practical things and details in the subjects that I teach: anthropology, ethics and moral theology.
Every year in the diocese, we have a week of continuing formation for the clergy, and it is very easy for me to do a resume of the most important documents of the magisterium, which were published during the year, using Zenit. Also, I often print some of the most important news so that the priests who come to the Priestly Residence, of which I am director, and who do not have access to the Internet in their parishes, can read them.
I have not been able to send any donations over these years. I have prayed for you and have thanked God for you.
May God bless you,
Miguel Angel Dominguez
From: Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Date: 2006--
[Text translated from French original]
To you, my Brothers and Sisters of Zenit!
I am truly distressed that I cannot contribute anything financially to support Zenit. At the same time, I would be even more distressed if I no longer received the news. It is a subscription that was given to me as a Christmas gift in 2005. And since then, I have not ceased to thank the Lord for the wealth of the articles of your service, informing us above all on life in the Vatican as well as the activities of Pope Benedict XVI.
I live in Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the "martyr provinces." We have known several wars which have cost the lives of numerous people and of entire families. In such a context, we have no newspaper or review to read here. Since I have Zenit, I love to read and share the news of the Church and of our new Pope with people who do not have access to the Internet.
I can offer my prayers for the work you do; it is a real mission of evangelization. Thank you very much!
A subscriber from the D.R.C.
From: India
Date: 2006-03-28
[Text translated from Spanish original]
Esteemed "Zenit"
I am most grateful for your free subscription to Zenit. I shall try to send you a donation as soon as I can.
I am a missionary and I have no income. I am happy in these distant lands of Umarpada -- in the south of the state of Gujarat, with these local tribes whose health and schooling needs we look after -- receiving the news of our universal Catholic Church. My birthplace is Navarre, near Javier [Spain]. Christ conquered me in my youth to come, as he did, to India, where I have been very happy for 50 years.
When I am able, I shall not fail to send a donation. A benefactor of the missions will help me do so. Again I say, thank you. May God recompense you.
Love and prayers from
Sister Felisa Garbala Erice
Carmelite Missionary
From: Eritrea
Date: 2006-04-03
[Text translated from Spanish original]
My heartfelt gratitude for the news sent to me weekly. I have also received the fund-raising campaign appeal, which I understand and hope you will get a generous response so that those of us who cannot send a substantial donation will be able to receive the news.
I am a missionary in Eritrea and the truth is that we have many financial difficulties because of the situation the country and its people are going through. I hope you will understand and I thank you in advance for your kindness and hope it won't be too difficult to send the news.
May God bless you; count on my prayers for your valuable work.
With profound gratitude,
Sister Gladys
From: Kenya
Date: 2006-03-21
KENYA 21-03-2006----- From KENYA -------------------------------------------
I am a formator, in charge a major seminary. ZENIT helps me to know the news all over the world [and] to analyze it with a Christian savor and critical mind. It helps me to understand the mission of the Church through the media. ...
Thanks a lot.
Francis Maranata
From: Faroe Islands
Date: 2006-04-03
hello! i have been officially serving the catholic church here in the philippines since 1996 when i finished theology. this has been the love of my life. and i know serving the local church here is serving in a mysterious way the universal church, the worldwide catholic church. one important way for me to be updated regarding the issues and crises confronting the chuirch IS THE SERVICE DONE BY ZENIT. more importantly, because of THE SERVICE DONE BY ZENIT i am always informed of the church's work for the poor, her humility in reconciling with other religions, her love for the underprivileged. in short, because of what ZENIT is doing i am always reminded that God is at work in the church.
thank you zenit!
From: Bangladesh
Date: 2006-04-03
I am an Oblate missionary in Bangladesh and not being in touch with all the newest books in the world on all current topics, I have always looked forward to ZENIT because it helps me to feel and think with the Church.
More than ever before I think contemplation will be stressed in the future, and ZENIT provides me with all the topics I need for my daily thinking and meditation. I do hope ZENIT will touch more hearts and continue to touch mine.
Father Angelo Martyn, O.M.I.
From: Mexico
Date: 2006-04-14
[Text translated from Spanish original]
AMIGOS DE ZENIT:
First I want to wish you a very happy Easter, and, at the same time, express my profound gratitude for the good you do with your news. I am a religious of the Mexican Congregation of Sisters of the Divine Shepherd, and I work as a missionary in the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, in upper Chiapas, a mountainous region with poor soil for planting corn which is the staple crop of our Indian brothers of this region.
I cannot help ZENIT financially but its news is of much value, and thanks to others' support we receive it and that is why I am grateful.
Yours faithfully,
Josefina Artega Castañeda
From: Tanzania
Date: 2005-06-08
Dear ZENIT Crew,
Your work is such a blessing for us here in southeastern Tanzania. I was introduced to ZENIT a few months ago, and am I ever grateful! It is just fantastic to keep so up-to-date on all the news you send out.
A good number of missionaries receive my print-outs of your Catholic news, and they also join in with my thanks to you and prayers for God to continue to give you courage to keep up this work.
Your clear and easy-to-use setup, and the layout of each article, are a joy to manipulate, even for beginner Internet users like me.
Wishing you all blessings and success in all your endeavors...
Sincerely yours,
Sister Andrea Polt, O.S.B.
From: Uganda
Date: 2006-04-01
Dear Zenith
Truly you are doing a great service to the likes of me who work here in the middle of Africa in a village. This is a novitiate for the local candidates to the religious life. The only way to have news about Vatican and our Church is this Angel Gabriel called "Zenith". May God bless your
work.
It is unfortunate that we are not able to help you financially. But we pray that the good Lord may be generous to you through various readers of Zenith.
We remain ever grateful to you.
Novice Master and the novices Capuchin Noviciate
Mirembe Uganda
From: United States of America
Date: 2006-03-23
DEAR ZENIT, THE FEELING OF BEING IN TOUCH WITH THE CHURCH, TO KNOW THE POPE'S THINKING, TO READ THE "TAKES" ON MANY SUBJECTS BY GREAT MINDS, TO SHARE IN THE BEAUTIFUL HOMILIES OF FR. RAMIERO CANTELAMESA, HAS GIVEN ME HOPE AND STRENGTHENED MY FAITH. WE IN THE PEWS SEE THE LACKS, BUT NOT WHAT THE CHURCH IS DOING..AND THAT IS MUCH... TO REMEDY IT. I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BUOY OTHERS HOPES, ALLAY FEARS, INFORM MANY, USE AS SEED FOR THOSE WHO ARE INDIFFERENT OR EVEN HOSTILE TO CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH, SHARE WITH A NEW-CONCEPT-IN TEACHING SCRIPTURE CLASS, ALL BECAUSE I WAS "FILLED" WITH THE GOOD NEWS FROM ZENIT. THANK YOU SO MUCH. ENCLOSED IS A SMALL DONATION FOR SO GREAT A GOOD.
CAROL DIXON KLEIN
From: Kenya
Date: 2006-03-21
I am a formator, in charge a major seminary. Zenit helps me to know the news all over the world, analyse them with the christian savour and critical mind. It helps me to understand the mission of the Church though the media.
I give the test of searching for the truth at the light of Zenith (and connected to world by faith and hope).
Tanks a lot
Francis Maranata
Kenya
From: Canada
Date: 2006-04-11
I would like to share with you the reason why I am in this particular media and why I am recommending it to many people.
I am a Missionary for the Migrants and I worked 30 years in the northern part of Canada. I felt happy to read every kind of media that came in my hands and I developed a way to look at the world in the way that these news distributors were giving it to me. For years I accepted what the newspapers and magazines were saying as the real critics of the events of the world and I didn't realize that I made myself thinking like the world that was offering me that vision. Naturally I didn't question the origin of those information and I took it for granted that it had to be the real formation we need today to be in contact with people. Sometimes discussing with my parishioners I was bringing the mentality that was just what the worldly media fed me for the whole week or month. One day Fr. Gino Dalpiaz, a confrere of mine, offered me the subscription of Zenit. More for the fact that it came from a friend, than for the value I gave to the information I started reading it daily. Now I realize how far I had gone following the other press. I started being more spiritual, because every day I read something about the Pope, theology, liturgy or event of the church, then I started being informed about what the pope was saying on Sunday and on the encyclicals etc. and I realized that for many years I could have received a real formation and I didn't know about it because I didn't read Zenit. Now reading it for years daily, I became very spiritual, I study issues that are proposed as responses to the politics or situations of our society, I like to read more about theology and everything connected with the church to the point that I can say that I have taken a passion for the church, because I see that I am guided by those who are giving me information that I can trust and that I can take with full confidence and therefore make them my ideas and thought to propose to others. I realized that I have much better preparation in my communication with the parishioners and I speak in some way with more authority, because I am informed by a secure source. I discovered my priesthood much deeper, especially following what the pope is telling the world through his discourses or commentaries, and I must say that I love my priesthood very much. Not only this, but my parishioners are telling me that they like my conversation, that is very spiritual and well founded in a good Christian vision even about the event of the world. They see me very confident in everything I transmit to them. I could back up my teaching and many conferences with news and insight that I find in Zenit, because I have the confidence of what is presented there. I love this program and thank all those who are presenting it to us as a daily interpretation of fact and events of our society, of theological and liturgical insights, of news and curiosity that can really form our view of the world we belong to.
I would recommend that every priest could be introduced to it, so to have a means that is so coherent with everything we are supposed to know and live.
Greetings to all the readers and a sincere thank you to all those who work for Zenit.
God bless you.
Rev. Carlo Titotto
Missionary for the Migrants
From: Israel
Date: 2005-05-03
[Text translated from Spanish original]
I have read several messages of people in different parts of the world who express their appreciation and gratitude to ZENIT
Some who receive it are especially grateful for it being a free service, because, as they say, they are unable to afford a subscription. This has moved me me.
I began to receive the publication two or three years ago, working as Consul General in Stuttgart. Now as ministerial adviser in Israel, I appreciate your daily information even more. I have succeeded in getting several people to subscribe.
I can afford a subscription. I wonder, however, if my contribution is inadequate, considering the quality of the information and the great many people who benefit from it.
With my most sincere gratitude,
Diego S. Bustamante
Ministerial Adviser of the Spanish Embassy in Israel
From: Venezuela
Date: 2005-02-04
[Text translated from Spanish original]
Salvation and peace in the Lord,
ZENIT news service keeps me fully informed on events of the Church in the world, and so enables me to live the meaning of catholicity, the communion of saints fully experienced thanks to information technology.
God bless you,
Bishop-elect Freddy Fuenmayor of Los Teques, Venezuela
From: Spain
Date: 2005-03-16
[Text translated from Spanish original]
March 16, 2005
I want to thank Zenit, namely, the whole team that makes the operation possible.
For me, ZENIT is an example of dissemination of the truth rooted in faith and tolerance, with real dedication and intelligence. It is a wide vision, which enables Christians to feel supported in their daily life by a multitude of brethren in the faith who work to be witnesses of Christ and to transmit his message to the world.
We should all subscribe to ZENIT, and thus help to spread news that is objective and unknown by the vast majority, including believers, news that unites us in hope.
All our family receives and reads ZENIT; we then have discussions and also send some specific news items to friends. ZENIT helps me, widow of Narciso Yepes, who spent his life trying to foster peace and love around the world with his guitar, to continue living in my daily solitude, the solidarity of all those of us who try to follow Christ with the unique and courageous example set by our Holy Father John Paul II. ZENIT enables one to be closer to the Pope's joyful suffering which takes us through the cross to the Resurrection.
May the Holy Spirit guide you always, ZENIT friends, and unite us all ever more every day wherever we are, in building the Kingdom; in the certainty that we are all loved children of the same Father. And as we are already on the threshold of Holy Week, I cry out to the world: "Alleluia, Christ has risen!"
Marysia Szumlakowska de Yepes
From: United States of America
Date: 2005-04-14
Dear ZENIT,
ZENIT is an invaluable resource for me as a graduate student in theology. I often get information "hot off the Church presses" which is not so available elsewhere.
The immediacy with which issues of interest to all believers are published is also highly prized. In addition, ZENIT keeps me informed about the Church all over the world -- indeed, I learn more about world politics and suffering from ZENIT than from CNN, etc, who simply skip over many foreign affairs.
Thank you for all that you do. I will send a donation of $10 soon.
Sarah Swaykus
From: Austria
Date: 2005-05-02
Dear ZENIT,
Thank you for enabling us to experiencing more deeply the worldwide communion inspiring our Roman Catholic Church.
Franz A. Schelling
From: United Kingdom
Date: 2005-04-14
Dear ZENIT,
I have already made a donation of what I could afford, and I certainly remember ZENIT and it's operatives in my prayers. My parish priest sent me a gift subscription during your promotion this year, and I sent one thereafter to my brother-in-law who also appreciates it. As I am retired, and a full time care-giver to my wife, I do not get out as much as I would like, nor to Mass and other celebrations as often as I would like, but I find that ZENIT keeps me in touch, not only with the Church news of this country, but also, more importantly, with the Vatican and the world. Many thanks.
I hope the fund raising is sufficient to launch the Russian edition, which would, I am sure, have been very close to the heart and mind of our John Paul the Great.
Yours sincerely,
C.M. Rudd.
From: India
Date: 2005-05-04
Dear ZENIT,
I am a convert from the Zoroastrian faith to the Catholic Church, approximately 35 years ago.
Over the years I have been following ZENIT daily. ZENIT is to the intellect what the Eucharist is to the soul. If I do not read ZENIT I feel that the day has gone by not well utilized.
The reporting exceeds international standards of journalism.
Authentic to the core, brief and yet very informative.
Thank you for forming morally sound doctrinal opinion for your readers, who in turn become lay evangelists to the world.
Nadirshaw K. Dhondy
Adv. Supreme Court
From: Spain
Date: 2004-06-23
[Text translated from Spanish original]
"To ZENIT, for its success in taking advantage in an excellent way of the contribution of information technology, especially Internet, putting it at the service of social communication, especially religious information, thus making the life and thought of the Church reach numerous means of communication and hundreds of thousands of people worldwide."
The Spanish bishops' conference, on the occasion of the awarding of the 2004 BRAVO! prize for new technologies (June 23, 2004).
From: Zimbabwe
Date: 2005-05-04
Dear ZENIT,
I am most grateful to you for your continued supply of up-to-date and selectable information about matters of concern in our Catholic world. Living in a media-isolated environment like ours, there is very little Church news available. Instead, we are bombarded with skewed reporting in the official press, and when the Church is reported on, it is sometimes done with great viciousness by people for whose conversion and insight we often pray.
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
(At present, speaking out, even like this, can result in official reprisals or covert activity designed to break people's commitment to the country they love, and to which they are far more loyal than those who use hate-speech and fear to control a docile and good-natured population.)
From: Ghana
Date: 2005-04-29
Dear ZENIT,
Every time I read your appeal for donations, it hurts me deeply that I am in no position to help out financially with the fantastic work you people at ZENIT have done and continue to do for my continuous connection with Rome and my Church.
Much as I would have loved to help out, I just cannot because of my circumstances here in a foreign land. How I wish I could give you all the details without letting the cat out of the bag!!
Be that as it may, I felt compelled to write to let you know that in the place of financial assistance I pray everyday for the following:
1. That my fellow Catholics with the means will be generous enough to continue supporting you financially.
2. That you survive for as long as the good Lord has decreed.
3. That my own circumstances change for the better soon enough for me to assist in the work you are doing.
It may interest you to know why I am so sad that I cannot contribute to your well-being.
I am an orphan from a very impoverished home in the Upper West Region of Ghana.
I was the first to go to school, and the first convert to Catholicism in the family. I went to Catholic schools all the way up to a Catholic high school/minor seminary, and was helped financially by the then archbishop of my archdiocese to go through high school, but could not go on to be a priest (I would have been ordained in 1978) because my uncles (guardians), who were non-Christian, would not allow me to do so.
Till today, I often wonder why I did not fight them hard enough to allow me. Through my example, though, my elder brother and sister, their children and mine, are all hard-core Catholics.
I am so proud to be a Catholic, that I will stop at nothing to help the Church grow from strength to strength. I pray that my prayers for you and your work are answered.
In the same vein, I invite you to pray for a speedy improvement of my situation, so I can live up to my cherished dream of doing something concrete for my one and only Church.
Yours in Christ,
Larry Sokuu
From: Nigeria
Date: 2005-05-02
Dear ZENIT,
Special thanks to ZENIT for this wonderful work of evangelization through the media.
I am a Catholic nun and a medical doctor working in one of the Catholic hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria. Due to my busy schedule, I often miss early morning international daily news, but since I got connected to ZENIT, I have been able to keep abreast with recent Church news, and news around the world.
I have also gotten some of my friends connected to ZENIT.
May the Lord continue to bless this wonderful apostolate!
Sister Josephine Ngama, Handmaid of the Holy Child Jesus
From: Singapore
Date: 2005-04-29
Dear ZENIT,
My day is not complete without news from ZENIT ... so grateful ... my friends also benefit and are very thankful ... thanks for all the coverage and articles on the 2 Popes ... many of your news items were sent all over the world to friends and relatives who said that it made a difference to their lives ... and also for all the other news over the years ... gives us a trusted source on moral and contentious issues whose commentaries have helped us form our intellects … thanks once again ... and with all my prayers...
Trisha Azcona Tan
Singapore
From: India
Date: 2005-05-04
Dear ZENIT,
My name is Father Joseph Aymanathil, Salesian of Don Bosco, and I am the editor of a magazine called Streams. This is a publication of our charismatic renewal service, Calcutta. I read ZENIT daily, and save up in my computer the articles that I need for my publication. I have been publishing in Streams a featured series about the terrible crime of abortion, and I have found ZENIT very useful for this. I have quoted ZENIT extensively for various articles, especially on different Papal teachings, and my readers are very happy to get such good informative articles on what pertains to faith and morals.
Thank you,
Father Joseph Aymanathil, Salesian of Don Bosco
From: India
Date: 2005-05-06
Dear ZENIT,
I have been a regular subscriber of your esteemed on-line news service for the past six years. I have been regularly receiving your news about the Catholic Church wherever I am. A lot of the information that I need regarding the Catholic Church, I receive from you. It has contributed much to my academic and pastoral life, and I have seen how fast ZENIT is progressing. I am sure that it will scale new heights in the future.
At this point my only suggestion is to network with the resources all over the world to bring a holistic, integrated face to the ZENIT. From an Indian point of view, I can say that you have rich resources of news, resources, personnel, and new ventures in ministry and evangelization.
Gilbert Choondal, Salesian of Don Bosco
Cliff - Center for Lay Involvement and Faith Formation
From: Yemen
Date: 2005-05-06
Dear ZENIT,
I am a Catholic priest working in a terribly Isalmic country where in 1994, they tried to kill me twice. A Gun was put at my head, but Mary was there to protect me, and I have continued here for the past 15 years with a small Catholic community of about 40 to 50 Catholics to whom I minister.
My income is hardly about $2-$3 a week and, the bishop supports the church.
I take down several articles by making prints of them, all very informative, and give them to the people to read, and even to some Muslim government officials, especially when the articles touch on Iraq or Lebanon.
Certain statements of the Holy Father touching on moral points are also printed out and given out.
May God bless you for this wonderful service. I wish I could send you a good donation. But I shall pray that ZENIT may always remain a leaven in the communications media world. May God bless all those who work in this organization, and may he also send you the financial aid needed to carry on with this most commendable apostolate!
I only wish that I had some funds which I could send you; but I shall pray that many good people who read ZENIT may come forward with help for such a wonderful cause. May God bless you with many generous helpers!
I leave you with a deep sense of gratitude to all who work for ZENIT, and with a special prayer for each and every one associated with ZENIT.
Father Matthew Uzhunnalil, Salesian of Don Bosco
P.S The other day I gave to the governor here, a very good man and a Muslim, the remarks of Iranian Khatami, which I printed out from ZENIT. The governor liked it.
From: Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Date: 2004-04-14
Dear ZENIT,
It is my joy to share my experience with ZENIT. If the Gospel and other religious matters reach a number of people within a short time, it is through the press, and more so through ZENIT. Since I started receiving ZENIT, I have come to the knowledge of many things varying from spiritual matters to other realities around the world.
Each day becomes a day of discovery and enrichment about my faith. It helps me to know what is going on in Rome where the Vicar of Christ, the Pope, stays and what is going on in the Catholic Church in general.
I feel that within a second many people are touched spiritually by what ZENIT does. Thanks for the good service you offer to the faithful. Thanks for the late Pope who encouraged evangelization through the media. Thanks for updating us on everyday events in our mother Church.
As a religious, I feel nourished daily, and I am nourished by ZENIT. I share it with other faithful whom I encounter in my daily life, as well as where I do my pastoral work during the weekends. Bravo and continue with this wonderful service.
I encourage well-wishers to help in donating something to ZENIT financially so as to continue giving us this wonderful service.
Yours,
Evans Mochama
Student of the Consolata Missionaries
Kenya (currently living in the Democratic Republic of Congo)
From: Philippines
Date: 2004--
Dear Sir,
I am writing to you from the Philippines with some news that will make you happy!
In late June or early July of 2003, Zenit published an interesting article entitled: "Day of the Unborn" Taking on a Life of it's Own; Coincides with the Feast of the Annunciation.
I was so inspired by the facts and information in this article that I wrote to the President of the Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and requested that she consider doing the same in this country.
I mentioned to her that as we are the only Catholic nation in Asia, it was important that we make a clear stand for the dignity of Life and the protection of the unborn who are unable to protect themselves.
To help her understand that this is an international effort being carried out on the part of many Catholic countries, especially those of South America, I attached a copy of your article for her perusal.
It is with GREAT JOY that I am able to inform you that on March 25 2004, President Macapagal Arroyo signed Proclamation No. 586 which states, among others, that March 25, and every year thereafter, is declared as the the "Day of the Unborn" in the Philippines.
Thank you for your efforts in reporting the daily happenings within the Church which help ordinary Catholics like me, all over the world, to make a difference.
May God continue to bless you all!
Sincerely.....
[and, from the message she sent to us authorizing the publication of her testimonial]
...... As the proclamation of the "Day of the Unborn" in the Philippines was truly a fruit of the work of Zenit, it would give me great pleasure to have you pass it on to your readers.
I hereby give Zenit authorization to publish my testimonial including my name and pray that in so doing it will inspire others to read and support your important work!
God bless.
Diana Espino
Manila, Philippines
From: Ghana
Date: 2003-05-05
Dear Zenit agency,
Thanks for your beautiful service. I am a Catholic priest working in a savannah area, the Northern part of Ghana, a town called Bolgatanga. When I want to know about the life of the Church, I go to the communication center of the town. It takes me 5 min. to get on the net, another 2 min. to open every one of my e/mail and it's a bit expensive, but it's the only way we can do it in Northern GHANA. At least here, we can get electricity and phone. Our other parish, Fumbisi, at 100 km in the bush, has none of these luxuries are available.
So, you will understand that I find it difficult to support you as I should. You are the only way to get in touch with recent documents form the Vatican, and this is very precious, particularly here, 800 km from the capital city, Accra. So, thanks again for this wonderful service, and may God give you very generous donators so that you may carry out this precious service of yours.
May God bless you, Fr Patrice
From: India
Date: 2004-05-16
I look forward to reading ZENIT each morning. It is my gateway to the news of the Universal Church.
Roy da Silva
Bangalore - India
From: Canada
Date: 2004-05-16
Zenit is helping me with the challenge from Jesus, my Savior and Lord,
to be "salt of the earth" and "light of the world" (Matthew 5: 13-16)
Salt creates thirst, seasons, preserves and must be "out there" to be
used; light illuminates and dispels the darkness.
By bringing news from all parts of the globe to my attention, Zenit is
helping me develop the confidence to follow the Lord's command to preserve
Christian values and effect change in our Canadian secular society.
I want the Canada my children and grandchildren inherit to be a country
that has a solid foundation and structure built of Christian principles.
Zenit helps me see the moral direction our world is taking, and motivates
me to do my part to influence the culture for Christ.
Sincerely,
Diane Ikonen
FYI .... I am a Canadian Baptist... attend All Nations Church in
Sudbury, ON ... but am open to the truth of Jesus from all denominations.
From: United States of America
Date: 2004-05-17
Dear Carmen Lago,
Greetings! I congratulate and thank you all for the great work that you are doing in daily dispatch of ZENIT News.
ZENIT means so much to me. It keeps me abreast with the Teachings of the Church and very important news from the Vatican and all over the world. I cannot do without ZENIT! Infact, I long for it more than I long for food!
May God bless you all! You are always in my prayers!
Sincerely,
Michael Ajewole
From: France
Date: 2004-05-03
Dear whoever is in charge,
First I greet you with Easter greetings. I am happy that I am connected to the Zenit News. I am a seminarian in a religious congregation now learning French before I start my theology. I knew of Zenit about 7 months ago and since then I am happy that I am connected to church matters. It is benefitting my faith as well as to what I am aspiring to become-missionary priest. The reality of what Zenit covers about the church I feel has helped me and will continue to help me in my journey of faith as a missionary. There are very interesting topics I always find in the Zenit News which answers most questions I encounter in daily life.
So for me Zenit is a very helpful organization to all Christians of the Catholic faith and even Protestants who may read the news. In my small way I promise my daily prayers to the organization and continue to feed us with this interesting news. You are preaching to millions of people daily by your work...
I have no problem if you use my name or if you use my testimony in any way. I am Evans Mochama Mogwanchi imc. I am a Consolata missionary in Congo learning French before I start my theology in October. I continue to thank Zenit Organization for its evangelizing work to millions of people daily. Bravo and keep it up.
Evans Mochama Mogwanchi imc
From: Australia
Date: 2004-05-04
From: Rofe Family
To Zenit editorial staff
Your timely and concise service is of great assistance to those of the catholic family distanced from the reality and truth of the Catholic faith by error and incorrect reporting by secular media. The local "catholic" media is selective and often biased in its reporting particularly about teaching from the Vatican.
As a mother of a large family who seeks to bring truth to my children your service is invaluable and a constant reminder of our universal, catholic faith.
I am also indebted to you for providing many valuable sources of reference material for my future studies in bioethics.
May God continue to bless your work.
From: Ecuador
Date: 2003-05-18
[Text translated from Spanish original]
Dear Friends at ZENIT:
I take advantage of this opportunity to thank you for the news service you provide regularly. The good you do is incomparable, making it possible for many people to be kept abreast of the news at the international level.
I am a missionary in Ecuador. I live in the east of the country, in a place called Sevilla Don Bosco, where jungle still abounds, but my community, the missionary priests, and other people who work here, are up-to-date with all the news you send us, and you have no idea how much you nourish us spiritually. Sadly, we cannot support you financially. Thank you and our infinite prayers.
Sister Bertha
From: United States of America
Date: 2004-05-12
To whom it may concern:
I teach Theology full-time at Immaculata University and encourage
my students to sign up for Zenit.org. I have used several of the articles
in various classes I teach and the articles are a source of discussion.
I deeply appreciate having Zenit so readily available and it encompasses
so many varied topics. Thank You so much.
Fr. Gregory J. Hickey
Immaculata University
From: Mexico
Date: 2004-05-03
[Text translated from Spanish original]
The testimony that I wish to share with ZENIT is that it has helped us as an
Educational Community at all levels in this city of Guadalajara, Jalisco,
Mexico. We select and copy appropriate messages for parents, teachers, and
nuns, and on occasion multiply them for the common good.
The value of the information is its freshness and reliability, which enables
us to communicate it widely.
We are sincerely grateful to ZENIT. We are a poor Congregation and Zenit
is a media within our reach able to bring us near the Truth and Good,
which we wish to share with our needy brothers.
Thank you and congratulations on ZENIT's contribution to present-day
evangelization.
Yours sincerely,
Sister Josefina Martinez Garcia
Handmaid of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Poor
From: Indonesia
Date: 2004-05-03
As a young Catholic from Indonesia, ZENIT has become an inspiration and encouragement in my daily life. It's also interesting to know what is going in the Catholic movement all around the world. Our local community may have a different "problem" compared to others, but it is still fascinating to share a glance of sympathy and "prayer" for all of the people with a good will.
Aryon
From: Philippines
Date: 2003-06-15
Dear friends at Zenit,
I am a totally blind person from Bacolod City, Philippines and I receive a daily subscription from Zenit. I am reading the text through my computer with special software installed to make it talking. With this it is no longer impossible for a blind person like me to have access to the publication of what I consider as important part in my daily life as a CATHOLIC. I really appreciate receiving a day-to-day update of news from Vatican, especially the activities of our Pope John Paul II. I believe that through your daily despatch, my faith is enhanced.
Long live ZENIT!
Thank you very much!
yours in Christ,
Melchor Tumbos
From: Nigeria
Date: 2003-06-16
Dear Zenit,
I have been reading your news items for more than two years and you can´t believe the extent you have gone to enlighten me and all the people in this part of the world on the activities of the Church and other happenings in the world.
As a pastoral worker in a Diocese that is partly rural, this news helps those who do not have access to other forms of communication to know what the Church says and does at every given time. It is a pity that we cannot support you financially but we are praying for you and all those who make it possible for us to read the news.
May God bless you in your work.
Chidoo Adamu Ezeribe
Minna Diocese
Nigeria
From: Australia
Date: 2003-05-13
As I opened my emails the other day, I thought "I don't have time to
read ZENIT today". Fortunately, I checked the headings before I deleted
it and found an article of importance to our work with family life. It
gave links to a resource that had escaped the attention of the Bishops
Conference in this country. I was able to bring it to their attention.
It was worth subscribing for a year just for that one link.
Ron Pirola.
From: United States of America
Date: 2003-05-24
At Princeton University's Aquinas Institute, the Catholic Campus Ministry, we have a weekly colloquium on Human Rights, Pope John Paul II, and the Church at the United Nations. ZENIT is of inestimable value for the students and for me as convener. We engage critically very complex issues of conscience formation, evangelization and globalization. Most of all, ZENIT reflects the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, i.e. prayerful and thoughtful fidelity to the Holy See. Thank you.
Fr. Ed Ondrako, OFMConv.
From: Russia (Russian Federation)
Date: 2002--
[Text translated from French original]
Dear Friends,
For the last few days, we have not received Zenit's news.
We, the small Catholic communities of Russia, miss them very much. We are in Russia, in Astrakhan, where the priest was poisoned last year.
Thank you for your services.
(A devoted ZENIT reader)
From: Israel
Date: 2003-06-19
[Text translated from Spanish original]
Dear ZENIT Friends,
The Lord give you his peace!
I thank you for the cordiality and efficiency of your services. For some years, we received them thanks to the generosity of a Mexican friend. Then several difficulties arose which impeded my reading your dispatches. As Peter said: "I have no gold or silver," but I give you the most precious thing "I have" -- my prayers, and the Holy Mass each day, in this blessed shrine of Betfagi, where Jesus began his Paschal Mystery on Palm Sunday. You already can count on my "daily quota," for each and every one of you who provide this wonderful service of evangelization to the People of God.
United in prayer, with Mary, Jesus' Mother and our own.
With all good wishes and may Christ bless you.
Friar Ricardo Bustos, OFM
From: Nigeria
Date: 2003-06-15
Greetings in the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son And Spirit. On the occassion of this holy Solemenity, I wish to extend my sincere and heart felt appreciation to all the women and work that offer their service and life to the publication of the Zenit news which keeps us abreast of the happenings in the Catholic world.
To say the least, it has helped enrich me on the the global state of Catholicism. Very importantly, it also has helped me keep abreast of all papal teachings on salient issues. I am truly grateful for this valuable service. May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, continue to enrich you all with his Holy Spirit.
May the Good Lord who has started this good work through you, continue to sustained it and bring it to fruition. Remain blessed.
Rev. Fr. Emeka Nwosuh, OP.
St. Thomas Aquinas Priory,
Ibadan. Nigeria.
From: Liechtenstein
Date: 2003-05-22
Dear friends,
I think that Zenit offers one of the best selections of information about the Pope, the Church, and the world today and I am very grateful for the services Zenith provides, and keep praying for the preservation and expansion of these wonderful services. In a world in which journalism and news-services are so frequently serving the forces of evil and the powers of darkness, a news-service so fully in the service of truth and of Jesus Christ more than deserves to be supported.
In Christ,
Prof. Josef Seifert, Rector
International Academy of Philosophy in the Principality of Liechtenstein
From: United Kingdom
Date: 2003-05-19
Zenit is absolutely essential in my work. As the editor of Briefing, the official journal of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, I rely very heavily on Zenit for keeping me up to date. Because it comes direct to my computer every day, I can be sure of hearing all the most recent news. On average I use 3 stories direct from Zenit every issue. I quite often use interviews and analyses as inspiration for other pieces and I use your translations of Vatican documents. Zenit is broad, interesting and easy to use. Thank God for it.
Best wishes, Primavera Quantrill, Special Projects Officer, Catholic
Communications Service, London
From: Brazil
Date: 2004--
Zenit.org:
I'm a citizen of the USA, and a Redemptorist missionary priest in Brazil
since 1960, mostly in an area over a thousand miles up the Amazon river.
News of the outside world has always been slow in arriving here, but
now with internet and Zenit.org. I kinda feel that I have an idea of what
is going on "out in the real world."
Tks
Fr. Vince Aggeler CSsR
From: Nepal
Date: 2003-05-28
Dear Carmen,
I have been enjoying the services of Zenit free of charge for the past two years and look eagerly forward every morning to what it so faithfully offers to its subscribers and readers. I am deeply grateful for its services and pray that Zenit is able to continue its most praiseworthy efforts. Not having a credit card and not permitted to send money outside the country, I should all the same like to offer one Mass for the intention of the person who would wish to make a small contribution to Zenit on my behalf.
With good wishes and assurance of prayers,
A. Sharma, SJ
From: Turkey
Date: 2001-07-26
Most dear Eddy Fifer,
Greetings from Istanbul Turkey,
I wish to endorse what the Missionaries and communities alike told you
about ZENIT's great usefulness in their work of evangelisation. I am a missionary myself. Zenit News besides bring me fresh news every morning fills the gap of loneliness which persons like myself tent to feel when they are away from their country and especially who are living in a Muslim world.
May the Lord bless your efforts and provides you with all the spiritual and material recourses which ZENIT need to continue its mission. I do not have any silver, gold or cash to contribute, nevertheless I join the list of those who promised prayers in lieu of donations. Please count on my prayers.
Thank you for the service ZENIT is rendering. Keep it up for the Glory of God.
With prayerful best wishes,
Fr Thomas Calleja OFMConv.
Istanbul Turkey
From: Israel
Date: 2003-05-22
Yes, the Zenit News are extremely precious for all
those who can read them and I wish to thank you for
this service. I live in Israel, where there are many
believing Christians, many of them somewhat
'underground' Christians, and many suffering a hard
experience. What we need most of all is the prayer of
all our brothers and sisters over the world. Thank you
for your service. Miriam Nothmann
From: Colombia
Date: 2003-05-11
[Text translated from Spanish original]
Hello. I read the e-mail on donations with a great desire to help and much interest, but I belong to the group of those who cannot make a monetary contribution due to my financial situation. I am a factory worker and have three children. I assure, together with my wife, to keep this means of evangelization in our prayers.
Many thanks for your important work.
Fabian Mejia -- Focolare Movement -- Medellin -- Colombia
From: Uganda
Date: 2003-05-10
Dear Zenit,
I write to you to thank you very much for the news which you sent me for all the past year; I'm living in Uganda and I'm in charge of the formation of some Servite young friars, and of corse your news are very much well- comed, because they keep me in touch with the reality of the Church.
Here I am dearing to ask you to grant me information for the next year, and praying for you that God would recompense you generousely.
Again many thanks
Fr. Giuseppe M. Xotta
From: Philippines
Date: 2004-05-18
Dear Zenit friends,
Peace be with you!
Since a Filipino nun-friend based in Rome subscribed me to Zenit, I have
been up-to-date with Church and religious news. I enjoy reading the latest
and copying some of them for my bulletin board for the priests to read
and for my regular Sunday noontime Program: The Voice of the Shepherd
aired over our Diocesan A.M.Radio Station, DYKA.
I will ask my friend if she can make a donation to you in my name. Rest
assured, however, of my prayers and remembrance at my masses for your
continuing existence and service to the world-at-large.
God bless you all in Zenit.
Sincerely yours,
Bishop Romulo T. De La Cruz
Bishop
Diocese of San Jose de Antique
Philippines
From: Netherlands
Date: 2002--
Dear Editor,
May I compliment you with your very interesting, relevant and broad communication of news, speeches, and documentation.
Not only as a Catholic, but also as member of the Netherlands Senate I make gratefully use of your informations (f.e. the complaint of the Holy Father of the very scant recognition of the Churches and religious communities in the debate about the future of Europe.)
Your quotations of the Guardian about military expenditures of Tanzania have incited me to put questions in parliament (see annex, unfortunately in dutch but of course with reference to your agency.)
I wish you all the best in your very important and indispensable work,
Jos J.A.M. van Gennip
Chairman Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Netherlands Senate
From: Nepal
Date: 2002--
Dear Good People @ Zenit.org:
Peace & Joy of the Risen Lord!
First of all, I, on behalf of the Christian Workers Movement Nepal would like to extend my sincere thanks and gratitude for making us so well informed about our Mother Church's activities world wide. Every morning you bring so much of joy to me and to our organization that I can't imagine a day without Zenith. The news that we get from you have become the life line of our relationship to the Catholics all over the world. Our country, Nepal which is small and underdeveloped, finds hope through your prayerful news, views and reflections of contextual issues, especially from the regular message from our beloved Papa, John Paul II. I as the president of the Movement regularly share the articles from Zenith with our members and
to hundreds of friends all over the world.
Our prayer during this blessed season of Easter for you is: May the Risen Lord, guide you all the people involved in spreading the Good News through the electronic media, and may He enlightened your hearts and minds so that you could reach people like us across the World.
God bless you all and your sacred work for His Kingdom.
With prayerful wishes,
Josh B Niraula
President
Christian Worker's Movement
Nepal
From: Philippines
Date: 2003-06-15
Dear Zenit Staff Members:
God bless you! You've been doing a marvelous work of love and
evangelization. It's a veritable apostolic work of spreading sound
doctrine, drowning the evil of ignorance, confusion and malice around us.
I've encouraged a number of friends to subscribe to Zenit. I think it
should be a natural part of any Catholic's daily menu of news and
doctrine about our holy, Catholic Church.
May I suggest that you add a section for prayer intentions and requests.
Wishing you all the best!
Zen Udani, Ph.D.
Trustee, Character Building Foundation, Inc.
San Juan, M.M., Philippines
From: Nigeria
Date: 2003-05-06
I was subscribe to zenit.org by a priest friend who studies in Rome. Ever since I have been kept abreast with happening in the Church's world.
I share my knowledge with people authoritatively and a Secretary to my Order I am able to follow the Church's development more closely. I thank zenit for what they are doing and I shall always remember them at Masses daily.
I am not able to help you financially at this time because of exchange hurdles but I hope to do that in future, when in Europe.
God bless you.
Fr. William Elias OSA,
Nigeria.
From: Pakistan
Date: 2003-05-19
This is to express my heartfelt gratitude for your wonderful service of providing up-to-date information about the activities of the Holy Father and other developments in the Church at large and the Vatican. I have benefited from it.
I would like to make a contribution but have no facility of either
credit card or sending money abroad. I like to say 5 Masses for your
intention and this way make my contribution through prayer. I hope this is acceptable to you.
With my best wishes to all of you at Zenit.
Yours in the Risen Lord.
Fr.Rahmat Muchael Hakim
Parish Priest.
From: Philippines
Date: 2003-05-01
[Text translated from Spanish original]
May 1, 2003
Labor Day
Montalban, Rizal
Philippines Islands
To the Manager of ZENIT:
Most importantly, I want to thank all of you for the support you have given me over the past year. I have copied and used many articles that you faithfully send me week after week. The faithful of our little parish, whom God has given me to serve, also express their gratitude to you all. May the God of life bless you and give you all that is necessary so that this very good work of yours of promoting the Kingdom of Justice, Peace, and Life, will continue.
Once again, thank you!
With fraternal greetings,
Rev. Father Teofilo M. Lopez, Jr., MJ
Parish Priest
Cuasi-parroquia de San Rafael
Montalban, Rizal
Philippine Islands
From: Canada
Date: 2003-06-15
I have been receiving ZENIT News for a short time only yet I have come
to be sure to check the headlines each day. I am involved in various
apostolates and keeping up to date with the current events of our Church is so important to me. It is reassuring to know that in ZENIT we, as Catholics around the world, have a reliable source of information on what's happening in the Church. May God continue to bless the good work you are doing in His Name. (Donation forthcoming!) In Him,
Carmen Marcoux
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada)
From: Spain
Date: 2003-05-02
[Text translated from Spanish original]
Dear Brothers:
After several years of receiving your Bulletin, it is high time that I state how vital it seems to me for any Catholic who wishes to be informed about what is happening in the world and in the Church from a Catholic point of view, and hearing what John Paul II says to us as well as what is happening in the Vatican. Personally, it has been useful to me on more than one occasion to be able to quote his words, or a news item (indicating ZENIT, as the source), at a time when I needed it, in the things that I write. It is a magnificent undertaking and I hope that the Spirit will continue to anoint it and disseminate it throughout the world.
Fernando Poyatos
(I am sending my annual donation separately)
From: Canada
Date: 2003-04-25
Zenit provides an excellent service to the world and to Catholics who are not being told what the Holy Mother Church is telling the world.
Catholic media is at a low and evangelization of cradle Catholics and those who have become complacent about the history and the richness of the faith can learn much from Zenit.
I will certainly pass on the word and make a contribution within the next few days.
Converted to Catholicism 44 years ago and have witness many changes that are not good.
Herm Wills
Mt Uniacke, NS
Canada
From: United States of America
Date: 2003-05-27
I am one of your individual readers who is in financial hardship. I am a member of a secular order who has been employed in a parish, but I recently lost my job due to serious economic difficulties in the parish itself. So, I am now unemployed.
But, when I read your message today, I paused to pray sincerely and fervently not only for your organization, so that you may meet your financial goals, but also for the person or persons who will make up for my inability to give, that God may reward them more than a hundredfold.
Deborrah Thurston, OCDS
website administrator
From: Cameroon
Date: 2003-05-13
Zenit News,
I am very happy with your news service. It is one of
the greatest works of apostolate in our times. It is
educational, doctrinal, and informative.
It has helped me immensely to keep in touch with what
is happening in our Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic
Church, and in fact all about religious and moral
issues.
You are doing a wonderful work and I am sure that Our
Mother Mary will help you in this apostolate.
I pray for you daily, but I do not have a credit card
with which I can use to make a contribution.
This is a problem with many people in Africa. Is it
possible for you to find a way by which we can make
our contributions because we do not have accounts in
foreign currencies.
I you can open an account in various countries into
which contributions can be paid in local currencies,
this will help.
My God bless your wonderful work.
Albert S. Ngwana
From: Trinidad And Tobago
Date: 2003--
A donation is being sent to you from the main office of my Community (Living Water Community) and with it go the prayers of all of us who share in the 'Good News' that you bring. I look forward each day as I open my email, to receive the day's edition of ZENIT; to hear the teaching of our Holy Father and to keep abreast on World and Church events seen through the eyes of truth. Thank you most profoundly for your ministry to the Word.
Lilias Milne
From: Argentina
Date: 2003-04-30
[Text translated from Spanish original]
Dear Sirs:
Today, as I opened ZENIT's dispatch, I was praying that the Agency and its staff would be in good working order, so that it can continue to report what the Pope says and give news of the life of the Church worldwide. Many thanks for filling this void! My list would be endless if I were to tell you what every edition of ZENIT enables me to do for the Church and the Pope. First of all, to pray and deny myself for both ... then to make known IMMEDIATELY what the Pope says and the needs of the Church all over the world ...
I am trying to send you some money, although I don't know how I will do it (you are aware of the economic and moral crisis of Argentina), but if I am able to find some, you may be sure I shall make this support concrete.
Deeply grateful for everything,
With my best regards,
Paulina Lo Celso - Journalist
From: Philippines
Date: 2001-07-19
Just meaning to tell you how much I appreciate your
service to the Church. I am a poor religious and have
nothing but prayers to offer, but I want you to know
that I appreciate your work for our people. Thank you.
Abulad Romualdo
From: United States of America
Date: 1998--
Dear Sirs,
Again I want to thank you the marvelous information you make available through the Internet. It is so much more than I could ever hope for otherwise. It would be such a marvelous blessing for me to be able to continue on your email list. May the Lord continue to bless and keep you. May He make is face shine upon you and sustain you in your tremendous work load and keep you in His peace. May He grant us the grace to rejoice with one another in eternity for only in eternity will we be able to understand the magnitude of your service and the benefits received by those who have the fortune click on the Zenit News Agency site.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Johanna M. Block
From: India
Date: 2003-06-29
This is a small parish on the outskirts of the Diocese of Poona. With
the ZENIT weekly round up we have been able to bring the news of the Catholic
world to the people here in a very short time. They are able to keep
abreast with the events and the teachings of the Church. Thanks to the
ZENIT weekly round up we are able to nourish the minds and hearts of the
community freely and without reservation.
Roque Green
From: Ireland
Date: 2001-03-21
Dear Carmen,
Thanks for your speedy acknowledgement of my donation. I just want to let you know how much I appreciate the work you are all doing at Zenit.
Your information service is excellent. It is wonderful to receive such up to date news & so easily at my PC. Your articles are informative, interesting & well written.
May the Lord bless you all and allow you continue your valuable work for many years to come.
Lorcan Mc Garry.
From: United States of America
Date: 2001--
Hello ZENIT Readers,
Just to consider perspectives:
A one year $50 contribution equals almost $0.14 daily.
A one year $75 contribution equals almost $0.21 daily.
A one year $100 contribution equals about $0.28 daily, which may not even be enough for a cup of coffee.
Where then a secular a secular newspaper costs about $274 a year at $0.75 a day, your basic price for a cup of coffee without ZENIT's good Catholic news.
Blessings,
Len, a ZENIT Reader.
From: Cote d'Ivoire
Date: 2003-04-13
[Text translated from French original]
I am very happy with the success of this campaign, despite the fact I was unable to contribute.
The Ivory Coast, where I live, is at war and, although the media no longer says much about it, the war continues with its devastating ravages.
I am a French Catholic missionary priest.
I am grateful to all who pray for those who suffer.
Thank you for your news which I receive regularly... at least ... when we are not cut off.
May God bless you.
Have a Blessed Holy Week and a Happy Easter.
Rene DESPEYROUX
From: Ireland
Date: 2003-05-27
I wish to send you a further donation of $100 but cannot access page when clicking on “credit card”. Could you give me your postal address and I will send the amount to you. I have already contributed $100 from my home e-mail, which hopefully has reached you.
The work you are doing cannot be valued. The world would be a poorer place without Zenit.
Warm regards,
Brian M. McMahon
From: Zambia
Date: 2003-05-14
Dear Zenit-staff,
For more than one year I have been a subscriber to and a reader of your information bulletin.
I am a missionary-priest-pastor in a big city-Parish in Lusaka Zambia. I live a rather busy life and reading has not been my first priority in these last years because of the pressure of pastoral work. However, your bulletin gives me every day (very early: I unload at 0600 and read before going to Church) enough food for thought, be it merely information on church matters, or some sermon of reading, or some background information. Especially the Saturday information-articles I find most interesting. They take me away from the daily pastoral, liturgical and administrative tasks in order to make me "sentire cum Eclesia".
As for a contribution: I would not know how to send even a small gift to your desk. I never have had a credit card (missionary money-tools in my tradition do not include credit cards, rather letters like yours). I could suggest that for people like me you find some Zenith-fanatics in each country, a sort of Zenith-national-office who in turn sends the small contributions together as a lump sum to your office. But that may be too cumbersome.
However, when I go on home leave, I promise to send you my contribution from my home country.
Wishing you Gods blessing in your work to communicate the truth.
fr, wim wouters m.afr.
From: Malta
Date: 2003-06-19
Dear Zenit,
Ever since I remember subscribing to Zenit.org, while studying in Rome, I have been enriched with the source of information that I receive each day through your news agency. There were times when I could not read the mail due to travelling but the very moment I get into an Internet Café I would get all and read even though days might have passed. Now that I have been ordained just over a year and teach in a catholic school, it still helps me keep up-to-date with what is happening in the Catholic Church. The students like end enjoy the material which I can produce though you and many have even decided to subscribe. It is true that through the internet many wrong can be achieved but a lot of good can too. This is the modern age and thank God for the many sites who constantly work hard to "PREACH and EVANGELISE" using this modern technology. I once again Thank You and please convey my greatest gratitude to all the staff who maintain the ZENIT.ORG I promise you my prayers as you too are benefactors for my knowledge in Christian Doctrine.
Rev. Fr. Charles Michael Grech ofm
Franciscan Friars
St. Mary of the Angles Church
Xambekk Street
Bahar ic-Caghaq - NXR 08 - MALTA
From: Romania
Date: 2003--
[Text translated from German original]
Dear Jesus Colina!
It was great that you wrote to all of us, telling us about what you live of and what your work is like! Unfortunally, I cannot finance you, but I am very happy with your work and very thankful. I hope that you will continue to send me your news!
With all the thankfulness of the Risen Lord I wish you and your collegues the Lord’s blessing upon your life and work, many a grace and health.
Szakács Endre, roman catholic parish priest from Armenierstadt/Gherla (Romania).
From: Canada
Date: 2002--
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your work. I don't understand how 135,000 subscribers cannot donate $2 a year to cover your annual budget of $270,000. I really don't understand it. They could deny themselves something. $2 a year! If not, you will have to find 13,500 subscribers who will give $20 a year. What you do is extraordinary! It is a daily communion with Christ and his Church!
Long live ZENIT! Happy Easter to all!
Yours sincerely,
Michel Wartelle,
President-Founder
"La Passarelle du Quebec" Foundation
KIRKLAND, Quebec
Canada
N.B. "La Passarelle du Quebec" Foundation is a charitable organization
recognized by the Canadian government, which cares for children with severe disabilities, often abandoned in hospitals.
From: Philippines
Date: 2003-05-12
Dear Ms. Lago,
I am a teacher of Ethics and values of the Catholic Faith. I would like to let you know that I have been quoting, downloading, and disseminating many useful publications you have been sending us subscribers and have used your materials in my lectures to my students and participants. I have also endorsed to many of them to subscribe to your publications since they are truly helpful. I am very grateful to your excellent service and pray that you keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Pete Dimaculangan
From: Argentina
Date: 2003-05-09
[Text translated from Spanish original]
Dear Friends:
It is very difficult for me to contribute; I am poor and I don't have a credit card. I am an Argentine. As you know, the economic situation here is very hard.
...
...
I am sorry I cannot send anything! I pray that those who receive ZENIT news will be generous, so that it can continue.
I embrace you. Tere
(Teresa B. Gonzalez)
From: Australia
Date: 2003-05-28
I would like to say thank you for this service, though I am a student and can't contribute financially, I would like to say that Zenit is always in my prayers and that you can count on it! I am very grateful for the service, it keeps me in touch with the rest of the catholic world and really shows me that its not only myself in the world in need, there are many others who are more in need then I. Thank you once again. God Bless
K Chen, Australia
From: United States of America
Date: 2002-04-16
I would be a shriveling mess!!!! But I plead with you to not loose sight of the benefits you bring to the thousands who read you daily, specially those with out the means to include you in their stretched out salaries. Please dont cut us off.
James E. Taneyhill
From: United States of America
Date: 1998--
Dear Friends
Your service is great !!!
I am the Chaplain at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC and was wondering if on an occasional basis we could duplicate your articles in our student Campus Ministry Bulletin we make about 200 copies a week.... This permission would another was we could involve our students in the life of the Church... I look forward to hearing from you. Peace
Fr. Bob Schlageter
From: Kenya
Date: 2003-06-15
ZENIT makes me feel ROMAN despite being far and keeps my mind in Rome
despite my body being in Kenya. My spiritual growth owes much more to the
articles in ZENIT. It is an opportunity to listen to the Pope via the
homilies and meditations. The fact that I can keep in touch with
what is happening to and around the Catholic church keeps the candle of
faith burning.
Bernhards Ogutu Ragama
From: Australia
Date: 2003-04-25
My name is Michael Gallacher. I come from Melbourne, Australia but am currently travelling the country with NET (National Evangelistaion Teams). I am very grateful for the service you provide, but I'm sorry that I can't contribute financially. I receive only a small stipend that allows me enough to buy the basics. I thank you again for your service and will continue to pray for you.
Sincerely in Christ,
Michael
From: Egypt
Date: 2003-05-11
Dear friends,
I am very happy receiving your news every day and I like to contribute, but being a missionary here in Egypt, I can do through my confreres either in Rome or in USA .
Do you mind to give me the details of the account where to send our contribution? Thanks you. And may God bless you and your work.
Fr.Giuseppe-Zeno Picotti mccj
Cordi Jesu Church
47, Ramsis St.
11111 Cairo - Egypt
From: Uganda
Date: 2002-04-22
Dear friends at Zenit,
Greetings from the "African bush" in Uganda.
I have two questions:
1. How can one give a donation to Zenit by cash or cheque? I am assuming
that you are based in Rome? Can someone bring it to your offices there? If
so, what is the address? Or are you based in another place? I am sorry we
do not have access to the internet in our "African bush".
2. Once in a while, you publish documents from the Pope or the Vatican
Congregations. What permission do I need to seek, if I would like to print
out the document, photocopy it and distribute it to the priests of our
diocese?
Thanks for the all the good work you are doing. My Archbishop and I are
kept well-informed about many things through this wonderful newrelease. And
so are many friends of mine worldwide, to whom I have introduced it.
With kindest regards,
Fr. Deogratias Ekisa
Pastoral Assistant to Archbishop James Odongo
Chancellor
Archdiocese of Tororo
From: United Kingdom
Date: 2001-05-12
Thank you for responding so quickly to my cry for help and restoring me to the list and sending me the missing despatches. I find the service very illuminating and encouraging, and so do my colleagues here too. You can see Christ's saving power working through his church, and other channels, all over the world and effectively too! May Zenit flourish mightily, and your particular fundraising effort at work at this moment. Many thanks,
Augustine Measures OSB
From: Malaysia
Date: 2003-05-22
Dear Editorial Members
Zenit was a gift subscription from our parish priest when we began the parish newsletter and till today I cherish every copy that I received, putting it in a folder for reference, both present and future.
It is a wonderful tool for us when we put together our own parish newsletter, and has enabled our parishioners to be more aware of what the Church is doing all over the world and more especially, what our Holy Father is saying to us.
Thank you for work well done and should you require contributing writers for regional information, please feel free to contact me.
God bless
Debbie C Mitchell,
Penang, Malaysia
From: Tanzania
Date: 1998--
Dear ZENIT,
We are very grateful for the e-mail you sent us regarding furnishing us with news from Rome. Indeed we highly commend this effort and look forward to receiving various information which we hope will be of much interest and use to us. We shall, with acknowledgement, print some of the relevant information to our people here in Tanzania.
With best regards, Emil Hagamu
From: United States of America
Date: 2003-05-12
Zenit's news service is the best way for Catholics to keep in touch with our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II's activities and messages, and also to obtain current information about Vatican changes and other important matters that concern members of the clergy and faithful throughout the world.
I am personally indebted to Zenit for the exposure given to my books on Pope Pius XII. Recently released are my memoirs which contain a long chapter on the controversy regarding Pius XII and the Holocaust: "La mia vita. Incontro con i papi e i letterati del '900," (Milano, Edizioni Ancora, 2003, p.159).
Gratefully,
Sr. Margherita Marchione, Ph.D.
From: Canada
Date: 1998--
Your daily news from Rome is marvellous and I appreciate it very much, thank you. I have passed others on to you where I think it would be useful to either them or to you. I hope that is ok. God Bless your good work,
Sincerely,
Treasa van Ommen Kloeke
From: Monaco
Date: 2003-05-28
Please give me time and I will send in my
contribution.
I appreciated so much the news I receive through your
agency. As a student I find it difficult to response
at once, but hope to send mine in the near future. May
God continue to bless your efforts.
From: United States of America
Date: 1998--
Just to let you know how much I appreciate your service! I find your information very up to date and informative about what is happening in Rome. Thanks.
Georgia Keightley
From: Jamaica
Date: 2002-04-20
Dear Carmen,
I have been using your service for some time now and enlisting others in Jamaica to take advantage of your invaluable service. I do not have
credit cards etc but I have been given some dollars and although there are many needs here, I would like to send it to you.
Would you please send me the address of Zenit so I can mail it.
Thank you, Sister Bernadette Hughes, C.P.
From: France
Date: 2002--
[Text translated from French original]
Good morning!
You may be sure that I would respond positively to your request if
my means allowed it. However, recently I was struck by a serious illness,
which in a few months has transformed me completely from the active
woman I was (I am a teacher) into a handicapped person, unable to make
the least physical effort. Because of this, my income has diminished
considerably, leaving me in a very precarious financial situation,
and depriving me of the ability to donate and of all that is superfluous.
Internet is my only luxury. I appreciate ZENIT's news.
If I did not receive it, I would really miss it.
With all good wishes,
Jocelyne-Marie V.
From: United States of America
Date: 2003-05-12
This is not news but i couldn't see any way to get this to you. I am disabled and on Social Security: $649 a month. I am researching a devotional book for the Holy Souls in Purgatory-it will never get published because it's of no interest to anyone but me and a friend. And anyway, if i made any money I'd lose my health insurance. I want to thank Zenit and all the people who sent donations and subscriptions because without you and them I would not be able to research my book, and just having that project makes life easier for me. You'd be surprised how many articles and documents have quotations or ideas I can use that aren't really about purgatory. Like i said this is just a home hobby for me, to make the long days less depressing and all of you have given a wonderful gift to the poor. Thank you, Katheryn Hughes, M.A.
From: United States of America
Date: 2001-01-03
We truly appreciate your service. Until we started to hear from you we
really did not realize what an active evangelist our Pope is. . . meeting visitors and spreading The Good News almost on a daily basis!!!
As the result of receiving church-related news every day we feel more
committed to study the Bible and the Church's teachings more earnestly and practice Christ's ways more vigorously. . . at least to emulate a small portion of what our octogenarian Pope is accomplishing!
Our Pope was breathtaking when he was young, but now with his age and his frailness he is awesomely inspiring. We, too, will try to meet our old age and physical difficulties with the dignity and passion, and will rely on the staff of cross as he shows us how to.
Thank you, again, and may all of your staff members be blessed beyond
imagination!
Yoko & Richard Clark
From: Brazil
Date: 2002-04-14
Dear friends of Zenit - Deutsch,
We are the publishers of the chinese page indicated on your news:
"Erste Webseite katholischen Inhalts auf Chinesisch" 2002-04-09:
We want to express our gratitude for your generous news. Our counter has skyrocketed and we have sent about 5000 mails talking about Zenit
Deutsch and its news.
Sincerely
Jean Lauand & Sylvio Horta
Editors
From: Haiti
Date: 2002--
Thanks to the subscription to ZENIT, the seminarians are exposed to events in the life of Mother Church and the world. In the Refectory, they read addresses by His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, and by priests and
ecclesiastics. They also read about important moral and theological issues.
We do not have the possibility of supporting ZENIT materially, but we pray for the whole team and encourage ZENIT to "go into the deep."
Your Brother,
Reverend Father Jean-Farda Tanisma
Minor Seminary of Jeremie
From: Argentina
Date: 2002-04-18
[Text translated from Spanish original]
Dear Editorial Team,
I am an Argentine religious who is working in the city of San Juan of this nation. I read your pages with great interest, which not only help me to be informed, but keep me united to the entire Church in all her joys, hopes, and tribulations of all kinds, which you report to us in such a responsible way, a trait that characterizes you, for which I am very grateful.
Sadly, you are well aware of the extremely critical situation the country is experiencing. Our community shelters 50 needy children and this week we have not been able to give them meat or bread, as we are not receiving the
In Christ, dead and risen for our salvation. Sister Martha Navarros
From: United States of America
Date: 2001-03-12
Blessings! We are sending a donation of $20.00 on this date of March 12, 2001.
It is sooooooooo coooooooooool to be getting news right from the vatican!!
God bless our Church, and our Pope, and your work!
In Christ, Rod and Theresa Huether
From: Kenya
Date: 2002-04-19
Dear Carmen Lago,
I am one of your readers - in Africa, Kenya and I sincerely appreciate the
good work you're doing at Zenit. I will give you what I have, and what I
have is this, that The Lord Almighty bless you abundantly at Zenit for
your good work and that you may never lack in your endeavors to spread the
light which comes when the mind is informed. When the mind is informed then
the right choices are made.
I sincerely pray for you.
God bless
Martin Mbithi
From: United States of America
Date: 2001-12-12
Thank you for permission to distribute your articles to friends and
families.
I am currently on disability, but will be able to send you a donation after the first of the year. Please keep up the good work. You are a major source of information on what Our Holy Father says and in this time, it is so very important. I will keep you all in my prayers and spread the word to those even without computers, who benefit from your articles, to send donations to you.
GOD BLESS and thank you,
Kathy Chadwick
From: Angola
Date: 2002-04-20
[Text translated from Spanish original]
Beginning Monday, April 22, I will offer 30 Masses as my contribution to the wonderful ZENIT service.
With best wishes,
Fr. Jose Ramon Uria, sdb
From: Mexico
Date: 2002--
[Text translated from Spanish original]
Praised be Jesus Christ!
My dears,
May the love of the risen Christ be always in your hearts.
Before going further, let me introduce myself. I am Blanca Ofelia Carballido Villanueva. I am a Discalced Carmelite with perpetual vows and I wish to tell you that I cannot send a donation, as we depend entirely on Divine Providence, so this is not possible. ZENIT is our means to know the needs of the world and to pray for them. However, if you cannot send us your service, don't worry, God will provide.
I would like to tell you that we pray to God for all of you, so that you will continue in this work that the Lord has entrusted to you, that it will give abundant fruit, and that you will find generous people who can help you.
Thank you very much for your generosity. Before bidding you good-bye, I wish to thank you for all that you do. May God reward you.
From: Nigeria
Date: 2002--
Now you have solved my problem. I have an e-mail alright but it is through a local server. I do not go to the web site because it costs a lot. Even though I don't have much I have been wandering how to send my widow's mite just to ensure I have contributed something towards the continuation of ZENIT.
I learn a lot from it. I teach in one of our local universties here in Nigeria but salaries come so irregularly that life tends to be uncomfortable. For that reason I don't often buyor access some of the materials I need. But a friend of mine hooked my address on to ZENIT and I began to receive your mails. I have since been more current with news from all over the world. I have made collected a lot of material for a chapter I am writing on "Clonning"; I have made useful references to materials on women and work when I was recently called upon to present a paper on "Women in the Professional World" recently at a symposium. Many of the messages and prayers at Angelus of the Holy father have been sources of my apostolate as I inform my friends of the very latest from Rome and you need to see the excitement on their faces.
They always look forward to me for more news since they don't have computers yet. I am certainly more informed than I used to be since ZENIT happened to me.
So you see you deserve more than I can give but for the unfortunate state of affairs in the attitude to workers salalries over here.
But now that I know I can send a cheque, I am sending an e-mail to someone in London to send you a cheque for 20 Euro while I take care of some of his expenses back home here in Nigeria.
Congratulations on the good work you are doing. More grease to your elbows.
Dr. Regina Eya
Enugu State University, Nigeria.
From: United States of America
Date: 2002-02-28
Dear Marta,
Zenit fills a niche/need that serves many of us. I shall surely help as I can, as He wills, through the Blessed Mother's guidance and material help.
Please consider me as one of you - in our kindred spirits.
The Zenit team will be in our prayers,
Be blessed and thank you,
(a Reader who preferred to be anonymous)
From: Fiji
Date: 2002--
Christian greetings from Suva, here in Fiji.
I just wanted you to know that I feel very happy, and fortunate as
well, to be recieving all this catholic news and straight off the
press so to speak. I look forward to them very eagerly and I
usually forward them on to other catholics whom I know in the
area. Catholics need to know what is happening around the world
today and these news items besides giving us a true account of
what is happening, also gives us hope and strength and courage
and renews our faith and makes us feel proud to be catholic. I
know that most catholics would feel the same way as I do,
especially during these times when the American catholic faith is
being tried and tested in so many ways. I personally feel that after
this "dark night" of faith testing, the church will become the more
stronger for it and will grow and increase rapidly - especially in
America, after being refined in the fire.
At the moment I cannot contribute money wise, but you can be
sure that you are in my daily prayers.
Thank you very much and God bless you and the great work you
are doing.
Ethel Morris
From: Indonesia
Date: 2002--
Beloved Zenit staff,
I am from Jakarta, Indonesia. I have been reading Zenit news for about one and a half year now. It is an incredibly helpful for me, an Indonesian Catholic, to be always updated about news related to Catholic faith, and most especially on the Catholic doctrine and activities of our most beloved Pope John Paul II. Many of Indonesian Catholics are unaware about the Catholic doctrine and Church's teachings. They hardly know about Papal letters or encyclicals, unless the local bishops published them. Some of my friends are benefited from your news. I often quoted your news during regular doctrine class I facilitate with some young Indonesian professionals in Jakarta. I and my wife owe part of our spiritual formation to Zenit, as we oftentimes used Pope's Angelus or Regina Coeli meditation as our daily spiritual readings and personal recollection. Because of this we wanted to be part of your contributors and had participated in your donation campaign by making a small contributon
Warmest regards,
Stefan and Chari Handoyo
Jakarta, Indonesia
