CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Austria: ecumenical meeting on death as tabooDeath as taboo: that’s the theme of this year’s Ökumenische Sommerakademie, the ecumenical summer school in Linz, which this year will be held in the abbey of Kremsmünster in Austria from 11 to 13 July. This is reported by the Austrian Catholic press agency Kathpress. The summer school is being jointly organized by the private University of Catholic Theology at Linz, the Ecumenical Council of the Churches in Austria (Örkö), the Evangelical educational organization Evangelisches Bildungswerk Oberösterreich, the diocesan weekly Linzer Kirchenzeitung, the Abbey of Kremsmünster, the religious broadcasting department of Austrian Radio & Television ORF and the Land of Upper Austria. During the meeting, doctors, lawyers, philosophers and theologians will discuss the most hotly debated questions relating to the end of life and its progressive reduction to a taboo in modern society. The end of life will in part be tackled by the presentation of antithetical positions, as planned for the inaugural session of the Sommerakademie: a debate between the Hamburg philosopher of law Reinhard Merkel, favourable to an attitude of openness to euthanasia, and the Viennese moral theologian Sigrid Müller, an opponent of assisted death. At the end of the meeting, the Catholic Bishop of Innsbruck Manfred Scheuer, the Lutheran Bishop Michael Bünker and the Orthodox Metropolitan of Nuremberg Romul Joanta Serafin will express their respective positions on the issue.Germany: initiatives for Pro-Life Week"Involved for life": this is the slogan chosen for the Pro-Life Week, an ecumenical initiative that will take place all over Germany from 21st to 28th April. The news was given on 10th April by the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), explaining that the event will officially open in Freising on 21st April, with an ecumenical celebration officiated by Cardinal Reinhard Marx and by Evangelical Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm. The press release from DBK states that the slogan "aims at highlighting what makes our society cohesive, and how important social cohabitation is". Christians, the document goes on, "work hard for a successful life, no matter if one is German or a foreigner, a child or an old man", and "even when it is about an unborn life. A successful life, Christians are sure about this, does not depend on one’s being healthy or sick or disabled". Pro-Life Week is an initiative that has been promoted for over 20 years by the DBK and the German Evangelical Church to protect the value and dignity of life, and is celebrated in spring every year. This year, special attention will be paid to inter-generational solidarity.Slovakia: Day for the "unjustly persecuted"Expression of solidarity with all the inhabitants of Slovakia who were persecuted because of their faith during the Communist regime and with Christians who are being persecuted worldwide today is the aim of the prayer meeting organized by the Forum of Christian Institutions (FKI) for 13 April in Bratislava. Presided over by the Archbishop of Bratislava, Mgr. Stanislav Zvolensky, the ecumenical event in St. Martin’s Cathedral will help commemorate of the Day of the unjustly persecuted. "With prayer and solidarity, we would like to thank all those persecuted for their religious belief, for the witness they bore during the difficult times of totalitarianism. We are also aware of the fact that Christians are the most persecuted group of people in the contemporary world", says Frantisek Neupauer, president of the FKI. "We want to let them know that they are not alone on their path of faith. Their courage to confess it in those places where even making the sign of the cross means risking one’s life, will be an inspiration also for our clear and definite attitude", concludes Neupauer, inviting all parishes in Slovakia to join the meeting spiritually on Friday evening. For further info: www.fki.sk.
