CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Portugal: itineraries for LentFor the second year running, the Faith and Cooperation Foundation (FEC) has launched two itineraries of preparation for Easter, focused on the social and spiritual implications of the most important Christian festivity. The introduction of the two electronic itineraries, available free on the website of the Catholic foundation (www.fecongd.org), proposes "a faith allied to development, so that the two processes may be interwoven and mutually nourish each other, rather than be differentiated from each other". "Easter in fact means passover, passage, exactly like the word development, which denotes a passage from a condition of social inferiority to one of more human character", explains FEC in a statement explaining the project. While the "Via Sacra" (Stations of the Cross) itinerary traces with photographs and meditations the route followed by Jesus to Calvary, the second itinerary with the title "Here is the favourable time 8 steps in the process of development" offers various stages in the process of reflection and action, and correlates biblical quotations with the objectives established by the United Nations Organization for the improvement of the living conditions of the world’s poorest populations. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, and continuing for the following seven Sundays to Easter, it reflects in particular on the guidelines of the encyclical "Caritas in veritate". A dimension of development linked to a particular sector of society is in fact presented in each stage, and the whole itinerary is built up on the basis of eight keywords: "sharing, covenant, trust, justice, universality, dedication, coherence and transformation". The explanatory texts accompanying these keywords have been written by Catholic personalities in Portugal, Guinea-Bissau and Angola, beginning with some passages from the Lenten message of the Patriarch of Lisbon, Cardinal José Policarpo.Hungary: State recognises 18 other Churches The Hungarian Parliament expanded the number of officially recognized Churches from the initial 14 to 32 on 27 February. Related amendment to the law on the legal status of Churches, denominations and religious communities was approved by the deputies of the ruling majority, in the absence of opposition members of Parliament. According to the website www.politics.hu, among the approved Churches and religious communities there are 10 Christian denominations, 1 Hindu community, 2 Islamic communities and 5 Buddhist congregations. Applications of another 66 religious communities have been rejected. The new law came into force on 1 January 2012. The aim of the legislation is to stop expansion of associations that have benefited from public financial support under the mask of religious communities since the fall of the communist regime.Slovakia: biblical languages Summer School 2012A chance to improve one’s knowledge of Holy Scripture is offered to the participants of the Summer School of biblical languages 2012, organized by the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University in Ruzomberok, Slovakia. Two intensive monthly courses of Hebrew and biblical Greek language will be held in Kosice from August to December. "Knowledge of biblical languages opens the door to serious study and knowledge of the Bible, history and culture of the Middle East, and helps to intensify the dialogue with other Christian churches and the Jewish community", explains Robert Lapko, Pro-Rector of the Catholic University. Both courses will consist of 80 hours and be led by experts on biblical languages from Slovak and German universities. Study doesn’t require previous knowledge of the languages. After completion of the courses, students will be able to work individually with biblical texts in their original languages, with the help of a dictionary.Ukraine: Carpathian churches seek UNESCO world heritage statusPresidential adviser and head of the Department on Humanitarian and Sociopolitical Issues Hanna Herman reported that Ukraine proposed to UNESCO to include Carpathian churches in the World Heritage List. She noted that wooden architectural monuments have been ruined for years, mainly by reason of a non-professional restoration, and the project aims to secure their preservation. Ukrainian Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs, National Committee of Ukraine for UNESCO, along with the Ministry of Culture of Poland have prepared a special transborder nomination "Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Region of Ukraine and Poland" in order to include the most valuable monuments of wooden sacral architecture in the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites. Objects in the Transcarpathian, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv regions of Ukraine and in two voivodeships of Poland should be covered by the project. According to the Religious Information Service of Ukraine, the nomination was submitted to the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris in January 2012. Representative of the Ministry of Culture, Andrii Vinhranovskyi, expressed the hope that the nominations will be considered at the 36th session of UNESCO next summer.
