(ANS - Vatican City) - Pope Francis has added his voice to the many calls from around the world asking for the release of Fr Tom Uzhunnalil.  On 4 March last the Indian Salesian missionary was kidnapped in Aden in Yemen during a terrorist attack on the community of the Missionaries of Charity. The Pope raised his prayer for Fr Tom and all victims of kidnapping in war zones immediately after the recitation of the "Regina Coeli" yesterday, Sunday 10 April 2016.

(ANS - Rome) - The first ever seminar to promote the causes of beatification and canonization of the Salesian Family concluded on Sunday 10 April. Symbolically, the final act, was the chanting of the litany of the saints and blessed of the Salesian Family.

(ANS - Vatican City) - On 7 April 2016, during the special Congress of Theologians -Consultors to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, a positive opinion was given on the martyrdom of the Servant of God Titus Zeman. He was a Slovak Salesian priest born in Vajnory on 4 January 1915, and died there as a martyr on 8 January 1969.