Father Giancarlo Bossi, the Italian missionary priest who was kidnapped in the Philippines June 10, was released July 19.

The PIME missionary was set free on Thursday evening on a roadside near Karumatan, a predominantly Muslim town in the southern Philippines. He reported that he has been treated well, and never felt that his life was in danger.

Seven weeks after Pope Benedict XVI praised Vatican civil servants for their work in “our little state, from the most visible to the most hidden,” the state unveiled its own Web site.

The site -www.vaticanstate.va-is linked to and works closely with the Vatican’s main Web site, www.vatican.va, but provides more information about the offices that  help run the state, as opposed to the church.

Catholics worldwide will celebrate the feast of St.Patrick two days earlier next year after the Vatican gave permission to move the feast day to avoid conflict with Holy Week.

Traditionally, St. Patrick and all things Irish are celebrated March 17. However, in 2008, March 17 falls on the Monday of Holy Week and according to the church law, the days of Holy Week and Easter rank above all others, so the solemnity must be moved to another date.

Now reaching more than 750,000 readers worldwide, Umbert the Unborn appears in more than 100 publications, including Catholic newspapers, church bulletins and pro-life newspapers.

Shock sentence in South Korea : a foetus of 42 weeks , weighing over five kilos, “is not a human being”. A priest, professor of medicine at the Korean Catholic University, speaks of a “social defeat”for his nation.

Read the complete article published in AsiaNews.

A 108-year-old sister is preparing to celebrate her 90th anniversary of religious life this month. Sr. Claude Feldner of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes will join 45 other sisters on July 15  as  as they celebrate their jubilee anniversaries at Holy Family Sacred Heart Church in Fond du Lac.

One month after the abduction of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi in the Philippines, his congregation is still waiting  for some communication , either from the Italian missionary himself or his abductors.  For the rest of the article, please go here.

A worldwide campaign was launched July 10th by an international organization to free a North Korean man awaiting public execution for being a Christian. Read the Catholic News Agency article here.