CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Comece: which opportunities for the young? "Contemporary youths are called to face various challenges: the economic and financial crisis, surging unemployment, the rapid change in lifestyle" and even "population ageing". What are the feasible "political and practical solutions"? "Along with concrete educational and youth policies, it is necessary to identify appropriate measures in order to respond to the needs and desires of the young generation". The issue will be addressed during the meeting promoted by COMECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community) scheduled to take place in Brussels on September 4. MEPs Patrizia Toia and Thomas Mann will deliver the welcoming addresses of the meeting held in the seat of the European Parliament, followed by keynote speech by Msgr. Juan José Omella, bishop of Calahorra and La Calzada-Logroño, on "The situation of young people in the job market and social implications: the situation in Spain" with reflections delivered in an ensuing round table with experts from European countries. Marijana Schechtner (Austrian Catholic Youth) will lecture on "Re-thinking education, which approach?", followed by a panel discussion. Msgr. Patrick Daly, COMECE General Secretary, will deliver the conclusions. The conference is jointly organized by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Juventutis Network and Don Bosco International. Further information and registration is available at www.comece.eu. Germany, Renovabis meeting. Solidarity to Eastern Europe On August 28 (ongoing until Aug. 30) the 17th international Renovabis Congress opened in Freising. The Renovabis foundation was established in Germany in 1993 in the framework of the German Bishops’ Conference, with the support of German Catholics’ Central Committee (ZDK), whose main task is "Germany’s Catholic solidarity to Central and East European populations". Renovabis provides support to former communist countries in their action of social and pastoral renewal. The congress addresses the transformations that occurred in Eastern Europe in the light of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989). The terms "solidarity" and "freedom", which Renovabis refers to, are the object of the debates, also as relates to Christians’ quest for future solutions. Panel speeches will be delivered, inter alia, by the archbishop of Munich and Freising Cardinal Reinhard Marx, and by ZDK General Secretary Stefan Vesper. Since 1993 Renovabis has provided support to people in 29 countries with the adoption of 19thousand projects, with total investments amounting to 560 million euro. "Self-aid" funds finance local churches’ charity and social projects, as well as projects in the field of education, culture and the media. Europe-US, the Black Madonna and the defence of life After covering almost 70thousand kilometres in 24 European countries, on August 24 the replica of the icon of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa began its journey to the United States. The members of Human Life International, the promoters of the initiative, welcomed the icon on the island of Saint Clement in Maryland. The pilgrimage of the image of the Madonna, "From the ocean to the ocean in the defence of life" began on January 28 2012, when the copy of the icon worshipped in the shrine of Jasna Gora received the solemn blessing. The icon travelled from Vladivostok, in far eastern Russia, to Western Europe. It reached Portugal in April 2013. Past July the icon was brought back to Poland from where it left, headed towards the "new world". The icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa will visit the United States and Canada by November 2014, after which it will travel through Mexico and Latin America. The promoters of the initiative, marking the ancient Christian tradition of bringing an icon in prayer along the front lines, today wish to bring the Icon "on the front lines of the battle for life". "Human life from the moment of birth to natural death is a gift of God. It is not a property or something that can be manipulated, fruit of a decision on its beginning and its end", pointed out the archbishop of Czestochowa Monsignor Waclaw Depo, welcoming the initiative.
