CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Ukraine: protecting the rights of religious organizations The Committee for Realization of Rights of Religious Organizations of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (CRRRO), headed by Deputy Prime Minister Raisa Bogatyriova, held its first session under the present Government on 22 October. The agenda of the meeting included questions regarding the newly passed alterations to the Law of Ukraine on Freedom of Worship and Religious Organizations and the Law of Ukraine on Unified State Demographic Register. The decision of the committee confirmed the position of the members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations who have recently called on Ukraine’s president to veto the mentioned laws. According to the Institute for Religious Freedom, the Committee instructed the Ministry of Internal Affairs to elaborate jointly with the Ministry of Culture the system of simplification of the procedure of obtaining permissions to stay in Ukraine by foreign religious ministers coming to Ukraine on invitations of religious organizations. Participants in the session also considered the question of granting religious organizations the right to found private educational institutions.Portugal: loving your fellow neighbour and Christian faith In the pastoral letter, titled "The Pilgrimage of Faith", issued on the occasion of the opening of the Year of Faith on the part of the Church of Lisbon, the cardinal-patriarch underlined that "the care for the neighbour is a peculiar sign of Christian faith", and invited Catholic faithful to respond to this need with determination. "In the concrete circumstances of the present times, fraternal charity should act as a strong feature of our pilgrimage of faith", said Msgr. José Policarpo. Indeed, the document presents "love for our fellow other as the journey towards the love of God", and pointed out that this belief should become crucial in the presentation of Church message: "the life of those with whom we relate can depend on the need to dare of our witness". The president of the Portuguese Bishops’ conference invited the faithful "to take very seriously the commandments, with the courage of practising them every day, as there isn’t a living faith without charity". The pastoral letter underlines that the attitude of many Christians is far too much oriented towards all that is mundane, ephemeral and transitory, while "there exists an eternal happiness that God offers to human beings, if it is the result of their yearning and their decision, in the practice of their free will". The document thus calls for "a transformation of life" that entails "an everyday struggle". "Salvation doesn’t come because God is good and forgets our sins – concluded Msgr. Policarpo -: we must accept the conversion of our life and the purification of our freedom, that God accomplishes gradually within us in the journey of faith".Austria: the plenary of the Bishops’ Conference in Brussels It will be the first time in Brussels for the Austrian Bishops Conference’s assembly. It was disclosed yesterday by the Austrian Catholic news agency Kathpress. The plenary meeting of the Austrian Bishops, due to take place from 5th to 8th November, will be an opportunity to give a tangible sign in support of Europe, and, to do this, lots of meetings and talks with the delegates of the EU institutions have been organised, as reported to Kathpress by the Secretary General of the Bishops Conference, Peter Schipka; the bishops will meet the EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn and several other high-rank executives from the EU Commission. The public events of the plenary meeting include the unveiling of an exhibition on Hildegard Burjan, an Austrian woman beatified last January. The plenary meeting of the Austrian Bishops Conference, led by card. Christoph Schönborn, will be hosted by Comece. In addition to European matters and news about church and society, the agenda includes the Year of Faith, proclaimed by Benedict XVI; a pilgrimage to the Belgian Marian sanctuary of Scheurpenheuvel will take place on 8th November to mark the end of the plenary meeting.
