''AsiaNews'' is an official press agency of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions The Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions or PIME ( la, Pontificium Institutum pro Missionibus Exteris; it, Pontificio Istituto Missioni Estere) is a society of secular priests and lay people who dedicate their lives to missionary activities ...

(PIME). The

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of AsiaNews is

Father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

Bernardo Cervellera, a PIME

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

who also heads Agenzia Fides, the official news agency of the Vatican. Prominent British Bangladeshi journalist and human rights activist William Gomes worked for Asia news.

Description

News from AsiaNewsonline.com is republished by the Catholic press agencies MISNA and Zenit. Originally available in the

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 8 ...

, the website has since expanded into English and Chinese in 2003 to enhance the "missionary aspect of our news agency". AsiaNews's intended audience is Chinese university students, who it believes are "curi usabout Christianity" and may save China from being "a soulless market or... dictatorship". It describes its presence as "urgent" because of what it calls the "empowerment" of

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

in Chinese schools and the "persecution" of Christians in China. AsiaNews describes itself as "a great accomplishment in

evangelization In Christianity, evangelism (or witnessing) is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists, whether they are ...

, which is the work of God" and as "bolster ngthe oman CatholicChurch's mission in China". The AsiaNews has professional

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

s from Bangladesh, India, Gulf, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vatican, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Russia, among other countries.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
Christian missions in China Asian news websites Catholic Church in China Vatican City websites