Abigail McMillan, CAFOD’s Diocesan Manager for the Birmingham Archdiocese recently visited the Rusitu Mission Hospital on the eastern border of Zimbabwe and reports for Catholic Today on her visit. Her moving feature brings us in direct contact with the challenges, sufferings and trials of the Zimbabean people but also their amazing faith, hope and gratitude.

Words of Cardinal Hume that express how ‘holiness involves friendship with God’. They challenge those who attend the annual Celebrate Easter Conference to take what is for many a ‘mountain top’ experience, back to parishes to help this exploration of ‘closer friendship with God’, and seek Jesus as their ‘weekday friend’. Overworked clergy may often struggle to find the time for energy-consuming evangelisation initiatives, despite the Church’s oft-expressed mission to move these forward. This was recently illustrated when it was found how few dipped into the free CASE/CaFE collaborative ‘Alive in Christ’ DVD series, sent freely to all parishes. How can Celebrate help parishes?