Reporting on the missions of God’s people in the
press, in order to foster missionary cooperation through the vocations,
spiritual communion and material means: this was the goal which led the
Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith to found Fides news agency at the Assembly of its Supreme Council in April 1927.
Fides started work that same year, just after the feast of St. Francis Xavier, Patron of Missions, who was one of the main protagonists in missionary information.
Website content was initially available in English, French and Polish (the latter only for a short period of time) with the Italian, Spanish and German versions following not long after, in 1929, 1930 and 1932 respectively.
The rise of the Internet, which replaced printed paper, led to the addition of a Chinese section (1998), a Portuguese section (2002) and an Arabic section (2008).
In his “report after the discussion” the Relator General of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelisation, Cardinal Donald William Wuerl, stated: “Many fathers spoke of the importance of the means of social communications, particularly new electronic media, as the Church attempts to carry out her ministry of proclaiming the Good News.”
The focus given to this point reaffirms Fides’ commitment to the mission Ad Gentes and the New Evangelisation in the third millennium.