Austria: awareness-raising campaign on faith”Faith gives support. What do you believe in?”: that’s the title of a new awareness-raising campaign presented in recent days in Linz by the Bishop of the diocese, the Most Rev. Ludwig Schwarz. The campaign is being run from All Saints to Advent and is aimed at addressing people in a targeted way on the theme of faith and bringing the Christian values to the attention of public opinion with 150 billboards distributed through the diocesan area, advertisements on local radio, inserts in the diocesan paper of Linz and features in parish magazines. The campaign forms a key moment of a process that has already lasted for over two years and is aimed at promoting understanding and reconciliation within the diocese, and resolving past disputes. It has taken the form of other similar initiatives before this one. The campaign “must make people understand that faith is not something detached, but something that really helps people in their everyday life and at the same time leaves its trace on public life. In an age of crisis and upheaval, people are more than ever seeking a support”, something to hold onto, explained Mgr. Schwarz to journalists during the presentation of the event. “The campaign intends – he said – to contribute, in this situation, to help turn people’s heart to God rather than to material things”. The head of the office for pastoral care in Linz, Wilhelm Vieböck, underlined the primary aim of the event: namely, to turn over a fresh leaf after the problems of the diocese, and re-focus attention “on the fundamental part of our faith”: this is an approach already rewarded by the success of the initiatives that preceded the new campaign. Interviewed by the Austrian Catholic press agency Kathpress, Vieböck further emphasized that the recent diocesan assembly in Vienna may “represent an example for the process of reconciliation in Linz”, which is being carefully monitored in its progress. Germany: spiritual exercises by internetSpiritual exercises by Internet: that’s the initiative being promoted by the Office for Female Pastoral Care of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) for the period from 1st to 28 November. “Images of God” is the slogan chosen for this year’s spiritual exercises that are specially geared to women and that comprise texts, images and exercises. The aim is to suggest points for reflection, chat and a forum to exchange experiences during the spiritual journey that the exercises entail. Spiritual exercises by Internet have been proposed in Germany since 2003 with specific themes chosen each year. The possibility of accessing the exercises online, characteristics such as anonymity and flexibility in time, have ensured that the initiative has met with growing success, especially among the young. The growth of enrolment in the exercises has also determined an increase in the number of persons who accompany the participants in the exercises: they are women volunteers, motivated and qualified, some of whom have been performing this service for several years. The theme chose this year, “images of God”, involves an analysis of the biblical passages in which God reveals himself to the human being and the inward search in his/her own life to reflect on the stamp that God leaves in each one of us. The ideas for reflection and meditation were chosen by Anja Moorkamp from Bochum and by Karolina Kammerl, diocesan delegate for female pastoral care in Regensburg. Romania: bell-ringing to save the cathedralSince 29 October, at the heart of the Romanian capital, the bells of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Joseph have been ringing “as a sign of protest against the failure to observe the laws in our country and to ask for divine justice”. The pealing of the cathedral bells is just one of the more recent acts of protest organized by the Roman-Catholic Church of Bucharest to save St. Joseph’s Cathedral, premier site of Catholic worship in the capital, now jeopardized by the construction of a gigantic office building only eight metres from its walls. In a communiqué, the archdiocese points out that “in the Catholic Church the bells are usually rung to call the faithful to mass” but also, in exceptional circumstances, may be rung “in the event of grave danger or real threats, whether natural or caused by the baleful intervention of man”. The protest began in a progressive manner: the bells of the cathedral rang continuously on Monday 26 October, from 1.00 pm to 6.00 pm; on Wednesday 28, from 4.00 to 8.00 pm; on Thursday 29, from 10.00 to 12.00 am and from 4.00 to 8.00 pm. Again on the 29 October, the bells of all 15 Catholic churches in the capital rang out in unison with those of the cathedral. In some parishes the parish priests ordered that the death knell be rung, because they said that “justice is dead in Romania”. The archdiocese is appealing to this extreme protest measure to obtain “a cessation of the construction work that represents a public peril”. The decision was taken following the failure of the construction company “Millennium Building” to heed the request sent by the local authorities last week to immediately interrupt the work, but – denounces the archdiocese – “not only has the work not been stopped, but it has actually been intensified”.
