Moscow (AsiaNews) - Last week, the new Catholic monthly of the archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow was launched, "The Catholic Messenger - Sviet Yevangelia" (the light of the Gospel, in the photo).  The name itself demonstrates the desire to "continue" the previous diocesan weekly, "Sviet Yevangelia".  This weekly, created in the 1990's, stopped publishing last December.

The edition of the new monthly has been completely overhauled, as have the format, the contents, and the publishing schedule.  The new director is a Dominican friar, Fr Alexander Khmelnitsky.

In the first edition, together with stories on Russian Catholics abroad, ecclesiastical documents, and the homilies of the new archbishop of Moscow, Paolo Pezzi, there is also a message of welcome from Archbishop Pezzi to the readers.  "The main task of every Christian is to witness Christ by one's life, faith and hope bestowed on him by virtue of baptism... The media take part in this witnessing of the grace of our faith".  After remembering the deceased Italian missionary Fr  Bernardo Antonini, who founded "Sviet Evangelia" in 1994, the bishop announces that "the communication service of our Catholic community will start functioning in full gear when a website of the archdiocese will shortly be launched".