CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Germany: appeal to asylum-seekers On October 23 in a joint statement German Churches launched an appeal to sensitivity towards asylum-seekers as a response to the proposals of the federal interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, on the increasing number of asylum-seekers from Serbia and Macedonia. Karl Jüsten, director of the Commission of German Bishops, and Bernhard Felmberg, representing the Council of the German Evangelical Church, underlined that "in Germany every asylum-seeker has the right to an objective and in-depth exam of his request", a right "which cannot be questioned also in case of increasing numbers of asylum-seekers. This is true also in the case of asylum-seekers from Countries like Serbia and Macedonia" which, they remember, "in the past have always been considered refugees". Church representatives referred of Roma populations present in the two Balkan countries: "We are worried that many Roma have no access to the job market, education, health structures and drinking water", Jüsten said. The German Church exhorted the EU and Germany not to ignore this "serious problem", pointing out that the effort made at European level "hasn’t brought to considerable improvements in the living conditions of Roma people in their countries of residence". "Our efforts should be aimed at obtaining human conditions", Jüsten pointed out. Church representatives rejected the idea of the cut in public benefits to asylum-seekers during the processing of their papers. Felmberg and Jüsten rejected the Federal minister’s request to the Länder to grant services but not economic aid to asylum-seekers. The latter, is "less bureaucratic and more convenient, in terms of expenses". The authors of the statement underlined that these "restrictive measures involve all asylum-seekers", regardless "of whether they fled from Countries at war or conflicting situations such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan". These people, Felmberg e Jüsten said, "are the majority of all asylum-seekers". Czech Republic: volunteers and prison chaplains Catholic chaplains and volunteers working in 36 prisons in Czech Republic met on 18-20 October at the Spiritual Center in Vranov u Brna under the patronage of bishop Josef Kajnek, responsible for the coordination of prison pastoral care within the Bishops’ Conference. According to the Press Office, this national event provided a space for "spiritual renewal, lectures on specific aspects of pastoral care in prisons and detention centers, and mutual exchange of experiences". Experts on theology and psychology introduced topics concerning faith, education and culture; conditions and relations in prisons; or question of personal disorders in this specific environment. According to the organisers, the pastoral care provided by the clergy in prisons and detention institutions is received very well by the convicts as well as by the employees, because "along with hope flowing from the word of God it brings also a human dimension and love concretely manifested in the service of neighbour".Ukraine: 20th anniversary of the Church history institute"Greek Catholic Churches in the conditions of the totalitarian regimes in the Central-eastern Europe in the second half of the 20th century: status and prospects" was the title of a two-day conference held on 19-20 October at the premises of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, at the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Institute of Church History. It was attended by more than one hundred participants, including experts from Poland, Russia, Slovakia and from various parts of Ukraine. According to Fr. Andrii Mykhailenko, director of the Institute, its main mission is to create a "mosaic of the history of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) which will include histories of individual people, martyrs and confessors of faith". He pointed to the fact that the Institute is of the same age as the independence of the country and stressed the "emergence of the UGCC from the underground" and the fruits of its activity, which also include an archive of over 2,000 audio interviews, 5,000 photos, 5,000 documents and approximately 700 museum exhibits.
