This year is the 50th Anniversary of Family Fast Day - probably one of the best known events in the Catholic calendar and certainly the one which generates the most activity and the largest collections.

In general, our social teaching applies some well-established principles to key social, political and economic issues of the time. It therefore evolves in response to the different historical contexts in which it is written. We would not expect it to provide explicit endorsement for the labelling of certain goods by the Fairtrade Foundation.

We are delighted to report that the runners who ran the Great North Run in aid of our campaign for the people of Zimbabwe raised a staggering £10,000.

Catholic Today caught up with a number of runners just after they had run the 13.1 miles to capture their thoughts and feedback.

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.

Catholic Today is proud and honored that 25 runners have put themselves forward to run the Great North Run, the world’s largest half marathon (13.1 miles) in aid of our brothers and sisters suffering in Zimbabwe.

One of these runners is Yvonne McGregor MBE. Yvonne is an Olympic Cycle Champion taking a bronze in the 2000 Sydney Olympics aged 39 and establishing herself as Britain’s first ever women’s cycling medalist.

Catholic Today are teaming up with CAFOD once more to run the Great North Run to help raise the funds needed to support CAFOD’s vital work in Zimbabwe. In this special report we highlight the plight of the people living there and how every penny of money raised will literally change lives.