CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Poland: international conference on the family The family “is the basis nucleus of every social community, and thus also of a strong Europe”; “we must support measures aimed at strengthening and protecting the family which is a richness of each and every State, people, region, and of Europe as a whole”, said the dean of the Catholic University of Krakow Msgr. Wladyslaw Zuziak, announcing the 13th International Bishops’ Conference on the contribution of the Catholic Church to the European integration of Tomaszowice, near Krakow, held September 13-14. The prelate also remarked: “The negative impacts of ongoing social and political transformations in Europe fall upon the family”. Recalling the encyclical Lumen Fidei, he underlined that conjugal love is “the sign and presence of the love of God for mankind”. Among participants in the conference figure Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, Apostolic Nuncio in Warsaw Msgr. Celestino Migliore, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, as well as professor Marguerite Peeters, member of the Institute for Intercultural dialogue in Brussels. Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family is among the panel speakers. The meeting is organized by the Pontifical University John Paul II in Krakow, in cooperation with COMECE, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Robert Schuman Foundation – Luxembourg. Nordic Bishops’ Conference Seven representatives of the five Scandinavian member countries of the Nordic Bishops’ Conference will gather in Tromso, in the north of Norway, from September 13 to 18, for their autumn meeting. Sister Anna Mirijam Kaschner, general secretary of the Bishops’ Conference highlighted for SIR Europe the main items on the tight agenda of the meeting: the bishops will carry out a reflection on Benedict XVI’s motu proprio “Ecclesiae intima natura” on the service of charity. They will also plan the “creation of a theological Nordic Countries network”. The bishops will discuss, inter alia, the preparations of a set of events scheduled for the near future, such as “the meeting with Lutheran bishops responsible in September 2014”, “the meeting between the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and the European Bishops’ Conference, scheduled for October 13-17 2014 in Budapest”; the Catholic Conference for the Family in 2015 in Copenhagen. Fr Timothy LeHane (Pontifical Missionary Works) will give participants an overview of the situation in Nordic Countries. The bishops of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland meet twice a year. Portugal: Observatory on social questions The Portuguese Bishops’ Conference (CEP) has decided to promote the creation of an Observatory to learn “more about the social issues of the population, and to try to respond in the most appropriate way”. The coordinator of the area of Social Economy of the University of Oporto, Américo Mendes, announced that the project will develop an information system in order to “carry out a detailed, updated survey of the social situation in the Country’s regions, and of the services available from Catholic organizations”. “An inventory of social action groups” will be thus created that will include the identification, localization and creation of local bodies, remunerated and volunteer workers, offices and equipment, impact, users, goods and services, economic and financial resources. The Professor explained that the initiative of the Catholic Church is aimed at “promoting concrete actions such as the identification of urgent social issues, along with a mapping of the population’s future needs”. Finally, through the Internet or other communication channel, the Observatory will make available all the information collected so far. “The website is designed to become a database for all those working in this field. In fact, the main goal of the initiative is to identify and improve the social action of various Catholic organizations”, concluded Américo Mendes.
