Germany: life is not a good to be importedWith a cross-party vote, on April 11 Germany’s Bundestag changed the “Stichtagsregelung” (regulating the dates for embryo stem cell imports). From now on, it will be possible to import embryo stem cells originated also after the 2002 expiry date and until May 1st 2007. The Catholic Church expressed unanimous criticism. “This decision is a sign that human life has become merchandise”, said the archbishop of Munich Reinhard Marx. On April 13. Msgr. Walter Mixa (Augsburg) defined this decision “a violation of basic human rights”. “When a human life is terminated for therapeutic purposes, we are closer to barbarity than we think”, he pointed out. Msgr. Mixa defined the vote in favour of the law’s modification by Research Minister Annette Schavan, Cdu Catholic member, as “unconceivable”. Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky vouched for a different promotion of research “in the direction of the protection of human life”. His Eminence said he deplores this decision, which he considers “unacceptable”. Cardinal Joachim Meisner (Cologne) expressed his “disconcertment” for the fact that a party which bears letter “C” for Christian, acts in such an “irresponsible manner before matters of human life”. Lastly, the President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (Zdk), Hans Joachim Meyer, expressed his “disappointment” for a decision whose risk “we had warned of”. Slovakia: in dialogue with Eastern EuropeA series of conferences were held at the Catholic University of Bratislava and in the major theological faculties in Slovakia. The initiative, carried out in the past few days, was organized by father Anton Tyrol, chairperson of Slovakia’s Biblical Association, who summoned to lecture father Frédéric Manns, from the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem, the institute which in the recent past formed six Slovakian professors of Holy Scripture. Some of the topics addressed during the lessons were “Towards a theology of the Holy Scripture”, “Rabbinical Theology and Patristics of the Word of God”, “Saint Paul and the first evangelization of the pagan world”. In reporting his experience to the Custody, Father Manns described Slovakia as a Country “which despite 40 years of persecution and atheist indoctrination was capable of keeping its Christian faith alive. This faith forced two bishops and a religious into martyrdom during Communist rule. The regime – recalled the Franciscan father – left deep traces throughout the Country’s economic system, and especially in the secular generation of politicians in the government. Today the prevailing Western model leads to consumerism whose consequences are well-known. Europe’s concern of ensuring the equality of cultures and religions tends to overshadow the importance of marriage and the family and aims at subverting the Christian roots of the Country. However, Church attendance rate along with the number of seminarists continues following a downward trend. Today, Central Europe’s Church can revive the best parts of its century-long Christian heritage so that Christian faithful may be a creative minority in present society”.England: marriage decrease, opportunity or threat”Catholics should view the dramatic drop in the number of marriages as an opportunity and not as a threat”, declared Msgr. John Hine, who heads the Office for the Family of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales. According to data recently published by the National Statistics Department, the number of marriages reached its lowest record since the first monitoring. Over three quarters of Catholic couples live together prior to marriage while marriages celebrated in Church dropped to less than half since 1991. “Many say that marriage today is going through a crisis. But if this crisis really exists perhaps we should consider it an opportunity given by God to rediscover the universal importance of a life-long commitment”, the bishop declared. Terry Prendergast, in charge of the Catholic organization “Marriage care”, which holds marriage preparation courses and offers counseling during crises, declared that this data reflects the situation he lives every day in his working environment. “The drop in the number of marriages doesn’t reflects a lack of morality”, he declared to the Catholic weekly “The Tablet”. “Often it’s a financial problem. Today taking a loan together has become a modern form of marriage”. In 2007 the number of marriages dropped by 4% compared to the previous year, amounting to 236,980 marriages.
